Zhang Hongyi spoke through clenched teeth, “Welp. That was our top inhib. Great!” He turned his head to look at his Jungler who sat a few seats over and asked, “Tell me! What do we do now?”

“We defend bot,” Yu Ping said before Team Beijing’s Jungler could. He looked at his screen and grimaced. They got our top inhibitor. Super minions are going to spawn, so we can’t defend our Inner Tower. We’ll have to try and keep our base… He took a deep, long breath and ordered, “We’re too weak to defend our Inner Tower. Let’s try our best to defend our base. We’re going down fighting!”

Team Beijing’s Jungler looked at Yu Ping and smiled. He nodded and added, “What Yu Ping says. These are the Finals! Fuck giving up! Never surrender! And all that stuff. You know… Anyway, let’s just try and have a bit more fun playing this game while it lasts.”

Yu Ping snorted and shook his head. He said over the team’s voice chat, “Fun. Right.” He then looked over the edge of his screen at the crowd in the stadium and added, “We’re not going to keep playing for the fun of it. There’s nothing fun about this. But there are people sitting out there PAID to watch these Finals. For them… We gotta put on a show for them! Or as much of one as we can manage.”

The other four from Team Beijing all looked over their screens at the audience who were for the most part up on their feet, cheering. They knew Yu Ping was right. But it was difficult to keep playing and give the audience something to watch when they knew deep down that the series was already lost. When they knew that it was a single player was demolishing them. Instagibbing them, even.

FourEyesChan sat at the caster's desk and leaned towards his microphone. He said, “Team Beijing has no answer for Team Shanghai’s Midlaner! But it doesn’t look like they’re giving up quite yet! They’re sitting in their base, but they’re very clearly not giving up!”

Cherry was the co-caster. She sat next to FourEyesChan and followed up by saying, “We all know the rule of thumb: A game isn’t lost until two inhibitors have fallen. In 99 percent of games, that’s the point of no return.”

“Cherry here is right!” FourEyesChan said. He smiled and continued, “Team Shanghai might have the Yasuo-Lee combo. They might have Lissandra and Leona for insane crowd control. Heck, they even got Kalista who despite not having done anything worth mentioning is getting pretty damn strong!” He scrunched his eyebrows and mumbled, “I’m not sure what point I was trying to prove…”

Cherry giggled a bit uncomfortably and replied, “Me neither…”

“A MIRACLE!” Fan Yuan shouted at the speaker nearest him. He sat right below the stage, grounding his teeth in frustration and anger. His team was losing and was worse, far worse, was that Chu Fang sat next to him. Stupid Chu Fang with his stupid grin! I want to smash that grin into the ground! Make him regret… Fucking dipshit Chu Fang! Asshole supreme! He breathed in, hoping the fresh air would calm his nerves, and then turned his attention towards Team Beijing’s side of the stage. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and mumbled, “Come on, guys! Yeah it might take a miracle, and then another, and maybe one more. And then Team Shanghai also has to screw up a couple of times… in a row. But it’s not over! Our Nexus still stands! We can still win this! We can still get back into this series and win! I can still beat Chu Fang and show that dipshit that I’m the best!”

“How you enjoying the series, Fan Yuan?” Chu Fang shouted from a couple of seats over.

Fan Yuan felt his eyelids twitch and his nostrils flare. It took him every bit of self constraint to keep his eyes on Team Beijing’s soundproof booth. I will not entertain him. I won’t let him see me like this. I won’t! He flexed his stomach and chest and forced the muscles in his face into a smile. It looked fake and uncomfortable, but it was the best he could manage. He turned his head to look at Chu Fang and replied, “Your team is doing well, Chu Fang. Congratulations on finding such a talented bunch.” His stomach contracted and he swallowed down the sour taste of bile. I won’t give him the satisfaction. I WON’T!

✹

Team Shanghai gathered in the bot lane at Zeng Rui’s order and waited for a minion wave. When the Blue minions marched towards Team Beijing’s inner tower, they followed along. They found the inner tower undefended and between Lin Feng’s Yasuo and Tang Bingyao’s Kalista took it down in a couple of seconds. The five from Team Shanghai then pressed on towards Team Beijing’s inhibitor tower. This was where they found all five members from Team Beijing hiding behind their tower.

Lin Feng glanced at Zeng Rui and asked, “What do we do now? Fight!?”

Zeng Rui nodded slowly. He observed how Team Beijing was defending and said over the team’s voice chat, “See how Gragas keeps going top to clear the Super minions?” When his teammates replied affirmative, he continued, “Alright. So, when he gets back, they all huddle around their tower. And we’ve got Zhang Hao on Lissandra and me on Leona. Here’s what we’re doing…”

Zhang Hao’s Lissandra ran into the fog of war right on the edge of Team Beijing’s base. Team Beijing tried to place a ward there, but it was destroyed by Team Shanghai. Zhang Hao waited for Gragas to return to the bot lane and help his team defend against Team Shanghai. This was his cue. He cast Glacial Path! A claw of ice tore through the ground and towards Team Beijing’s Inhibitor Tower! Team Beijing didn’t see it until it suddenly appeared right beneath them. It was already too late by then as Lissandra blinked towards the claw and cast her ultimate on herself! Spires of ice shot up from the ground and locked her up in a Frozen Tomb, slowing the Champions from Team Beijing!

This engagement that Zhang Hao just pulled off had two goals. The first was to apply the slow effect and the second was to serve as a distraction. Because while Team Beijing was trying to react to Lissandra’s Frozen Tomb, Zeng Rui had his Leona call down a Solar Flare! Slowed and distracted, Team Beijing failed to respond to it. All five of them were caught in the blast radius and stunned.

An Xin was up next. She had her Lee Sin punch out a pressurized blast of air that connected with Janna! She followed up with Resonating Strike, dashing at Janna, and then placed a ward behind Janna and hopped towards it with Safeguard! Standing behind all five Champions from Team Beijing who were huddled so closely together, she positioned for the perfect angle and then activated Dragon’s Rage! Lee Sin hit Janna with a roundhouse kick that sent her flying into the four other members from Team Beijing, knocking them all up into the air!

Next up was Lin Feng. Yasuo’s ultimate skill was only available on airborne Champions. But the more important aspect for this particular fight was that when there were multiple Champions knocked up in a small area, his ultimate skill gained an area of effect element. Lin Feng cast Last Breath! Yasuo blinked towards the five Champions from Team Beijing and suspended them in midair! He followed up with a flurry of strikes before raising his katana high up above his head and hacking down with the power of the wind!

The entire time, Tang Bingyao’s Kalista was hurling spirit spears at the Champions from Team Beijing. She’d bought an item that turned all of her auto attacks into attacks that hit all nearby enemies, which meant that all Champions from Team Beijing had a large number of spears sticking from their bodies. When they came back down to the ground, she pulled those spears out with Rend! Two Champions died right away, and three more followed shortly after when Lin Feng hit them with a single Steel Tempest!

《Aced!》

FourEyesChan adjusted his glasses and said into his microphone, “Oof. Oof.”

Cherry looked at him and raised her eyebrows. She then grabbed her microphone and shouted, “TEAM SHANGHAI! WOOOOOOOO! IT’S A 5-0 ACE! THEY ACED TEAM BEIJING INSIDE THEIR BASE! WOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“HOLY MOLY CAMERONI!”

“WOOOOOOOO!”

“THAT WAS CRAAAAAAZY!”

“THAT’S GAME! GG! TEAM SHANGHAI CHAMPIONS!”

“MY GAWD! THAT WAS AMAZING!”

“FIVE MAN ULTIES INTO FIVE MAN ULTIES! DAYUM!”

“SIIIIICK!”

Qiu Yijie chuckled and said, “I feel like a broken record here, but that’s game. It’s over now. Just a few more seconds. They can finish this before Team Beijing even respawns!”

Sun Ruinian breathed out through his mouth and replied, “Not just this game. It’s been like this all tournament. Sure, it sometimes looked close. But was it really? I don’t think so. It was never close. Whenever Lin Feng plays… And I mean actually plays and not just goof around… Well, yeah. You guys get it.”

“We certainly do!” Zou Cheng exclaimed in excitement. He pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “WIN FENG IS THE BEST!”

Qiu Yijie nodded. He then turned his head to look at Team Beijing’s soundproof booth and added, “Gotta give it to them, though. They kept fighting till the end.”