“LEGENDS NEVER DIE!” I hear as the roar of the crowd follows suit with the rise in volume. I’m sitting backstage, as calm as ever. This is my fourth World Championship finals and to be honest, I’m not in the least bit nervous at this point. There comes a moment in your career where you replace nervousness with confidence, which is not to be mistaken for cockiness, but assuredness.
“I’ll win this regardless of the circumstances,” I murmur as I’m reminded that everyone had placed more faith into Samsung Galaxy this time around.
Don’t bet against SKT…no. Don’t bet against me.
Looking over, Peanut is sitting there fidgeting with his SKT T1 jacket zipper and I can tell he’s a bit nervous, but there’s no sense in paying it much mind, he’ll calm down once the match starts, he’s been on this stage before too.
We walk onto the main stage as the song ends, along with our opponents, Samsung Galaxy. Everyone stands in their place and I notice once again that Peanut fidgets with his jacket, this time rolling up his sleeves but quickly deciding to roll them back down. Huni is staring over at the enemy team, his eyes showing signs of malice. I’ve always been hyper-attentive to small details, but it’s a strength that I use to my advantage. Once again, they’ll calm down come match time.
“Faker!” I snap back to reality as my name is announced, the fans erupting before my name is even spoken. I gaze over the crowd in nostalgia at the bright faces looking up towards me and try to place on my best smile which barely betrays my inner feeling of impatience. Ironically, I’ve always had trouble faking emotions.
These ceremonies have always bored me; I just want to play the game and get this over with. My goal here is to win and nothing more. After that, I can get my satisfaction and continue with the inevitable All-Stars event. The World Championship is always my biggest hurdle, but at least it’s a comfortable environment.
We pace towards our booths and settle in before the looming battle.
Kkoma barks orders at me with the utmost authority. “Remember, scale up. Bang and Wolf should be able to take advantage of the bot lane matchup and Huni should be fine in the top lane. All you have to do is wait for Peanut to put pressure on your lane early since Crown is taking teleport to make up for the lane deficit, but you should be fine afterwards. If you get kills early, that’s fine, we can snowball and adjust, but otherwise, let bot lane dictate the pace of the game. Just remember to watch out for the Zac gank angles.”
Game 1 starts before I can even comprehend the blur of moments in-between. Looking over to my teammates, they stay stoic, staring at their computer screens. I hope they were able to listen and play towards our win conditions.
Come 15:00, we have lost bot tower, Rift Herald, and they have the push on us for mid pressure. We’re slowly losing our grip on this game and nothing is going according to plan. It’s fine, we’ll come back once I’m able to scale, we just need to turtle like usual and get past our initial bad item disadvantage. If I didn’t have to buy this damn QSS, maybe I would be in a better spot, but it’s just the nature of the matchup against Malzahar with the threat of a Zac gank follow-up.
We‘re deciding to contest baron. Samsung is choking out our vision.
Peanut is going in for the smite steal, he gets it. Excellent.
This is the pivotal moment. I need to go in NOW! Flash-ult into pit.
Shit!
They called my move. Cuvee is coming to pincer us. My team is coming to my ‘rescue’. Great, the fight is lost. My team should have left us to die and we could have used baron efficiently afterwards.
I’m already starting to think ahead to Game 2.
Game 2 starts with something completely unorthodox and I already know what Kkoma is thinking.
“Lock in Yasuo,” Kkoma commands.
“We have the good counter matchup against Gnar. Play towards the top side and help out Huni if you see an opening so we can snowball our Yasuo pick,” Kkoma says to me with a hardened face.
I already know this is the case. This match we can get a good advantage if I’m able to help across the map with my global and I’m sure that if I can get a lane push, this game should be simple.
“Huni, come to blue. Stack your Q on scuttle crab. I’m ulting mid and we catch Crown clearing mid wave. He doesn’t have flash. Peanut, be there if we need you,” I explain to them around the 8:15 minute mark. I always make my big plays far in advanced.
“He’s dead,” I say before I even ult myself and Huni on top of Crown.
We get on top of Crown but it doesn’t go according to plan. Huni doesn’t wait for Malzahar’s passive to expire before using his flow, as Malzahar’s shield gives him resistance to cc for 0.25 seconds after it’s broken. Peanut comes in to help us out and we get the kill.
A small setback since we can’t use Peanut’s ult for another gank in mid immediately. I wish Huni had played it better.
Peanut shouts with elation, “YES! Good job hyung!”
“Ok. Now go farm top wave,” I reply.
Around 18:40, Huni tells us that he’s going for red buff.
Huni is on the verge of laughter. “I’m getting red and then we can make a tp play bot lane. They don’t have tp.”
“Come kill J4, J4J4J4!” Peanut is about to burst with excitement.
I explain to them the game plan. “Go for Malzahar. Huni, tp to their red when Malz circles.”
I ult down to cut off J4 but I see the enemy bot lane coming up to help him. We should abandon the play. Peanut doesn’t have his ultimate or flash up.
My words fall on deaf ears.
Bang flashes onto J4. We lose the fight and I sit there with a blank stare at my screen.
“Guys, I didn’t have a great ward to tp to. We need to setup a proper tp ward if we’re going in for a play like that,” Huni tells us. He’s right.
This isn’t anything to worry about.
“Xayah is getting big,” Bang remarks at 21:30 after we get wiped next to the dragon pit.
I’m irritated at this point and a little angry. “We can’t bunch up like that if we don’t have flashes available. J4 is going to do that to us every time. They had one win condition for that fight since Malzahar wasn’t even close to contribute and you guys played right into their hands.”
I’m going to win game 3.
Game 3 is going according to plan but all I’m able to focus on is our throw at baron.
“We can still come back. We have to get around this tanky frontline or else nothing is going to get accomplished,” I said.
I step over to help Blank as he gets caught out near our wolf camp.
Blank dies.
I walk back to the mid lane. Q the minion wave to stop their mid pu — enemy team wraps around and blocks it. They jump onto me with flashes.
I die.
FUCK FUCK FUCK!
“You guys NEED to hold this push! I did something stupid, I’m sorry, I don’t…I don’t know what I was thinking” I tell my teammates.
I can’t believe it’s coming to this point. I might actually lose. What if I do lose?
No. I refuse.
We barely hold off their push with Bang playing his heart out; I love this guy. We’ve stuck through thick-and-thin and I know he’ll be damned if it all ends here. He’s always had that clutch factor and I can see his pure concentration in this moment.
I yell to my teammates, “let’s get Elder and close this damn game out! This shit has gone on too long.”
Their mid tier 2 goes down. Wolf uses his ult onto Malzahar but misses and hits the Sejuani instead. Damnit, we needed that!
…Ok, let’s try and siege the inhibitor turret.
It’s not working.
Elder expires during our push.
“Alright, they have no wards for baron, let’s try to bait it,” Wolf chimes in.
Reset and recall. Baron hasn’t spawned just yet and we have waves to clear.
It all rests on this play. All of us know this. This is my territory now.
For the first time, I feel the sweat on my palms. It’s so damn hot in these booths; they need to turn down the heat.
Ok, we’ve choked out vision near baron pit.
Bang is next to me clearing the minion wave, but our frontline is split. We need to back up befo — VARUS HIT ME WITH HIS ULT!
My hp goes down to 0.
It’s all over…
I’ve fought so hard up till this point. Everything I’ve done has been to get to this moment, to prove that I still have what it takes to be at the top. My team has gone through so much pain with me this season and yet the floor crumbles beneath our feet at the last second. How does a story of hard work end like this?
The crowd erupts in cheers for my enemy, with fireworks going off in an explosion of celebration and I can only imagine the smiles on Samsung’s faces. The sounds all begin to drown out from the thump of my heartbeat pounding in my eardrums; my tears soaking upon the sleeve of my jacket as if to wash my pain away. The air feels like it’s suffocating me, dirty and tinged with the reminder of my mistakes. This is what they mean when they talk about the ‘taste of defeat’.
Yes, The Unkillable Demon King has been defeated.
Yes, the better team has won.
These wounds are not fatal and although I suffer a loss today, I’ll prove to the world once again why I am the undisputed best player in the world. Whether I have to play 18 hours a day, whether I have to solo carry, I will win.
“I am not dead, not even close. I’m called The Unkillable Demon King for a reason. I’ll be back. Long live the king.”
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