Sinah woke, as usual, to the dulcet tones of a bell. Granted, not a real bell (unless the one on his iPhone counted as a "real bell"), but a bell nonetheless.
As the alarm momentarily stopped a cycled a second time, Sinah swiped the screen on his phone and brought it to the home screen, stopping the disturbance. He threw the blanket off of his body and immediately regretted this decision. It was colder than hell.
Sinah forced himself out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes from the black dresser opposite his bed. He stumbled out of his room, still half asleep, and walked over into the bathroom next to him.
Hot water was just what he needed. Not only did it wake his brain up completely, but it saved him from the 9th circle of hell that was his freezing apartment. Not that he didn't expect this of course. It was the beginning of December in Chicago, this was nothing new. As a matter of fact, it started getting cold as soon as August hit.
He jumped out of the shower, shivering again as the cold air made contact with his skin and quickly dried and covered himself with clothing. He brushed his teeth and goofily smiled at himself in the mirror before exiting the bathroom and walking back into his room.
He wasn't able to enjoy his morning for long though. He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket and checked the caller ID.
Mom
He hesitated. Nothing good would come out of him picking up the phone and having another argument. At the same time, he'd ghosted her calls and texts for way too long, and he felt a bit guilty about it at this point. He answered.
"Hello?"
"Sinah! You actually picked up, I'm surprised."
"Hey mom. Sorry about everything, I've been a little busy."
She laughed dryly. "Well, I thought it might be like this. I'm glad you picked up now though."
"Yeah."
"So, how's everything going? Enjoying life out there in the open?"
Sinah could hear the hints of sarcasm behind her voice. He took a deep breath. He was already starting to regret this call.
"Yep, everything's going great."
"Do you have a job yet?" Her words sounded cold.
"I've been freelancing and making money from donations. I've got it covered."
There was a small silence.
"I mean a real job," she said.
"This is a real job. I don't know what else you want from me, I'm making money," Sinah said irritatedly.
"I mean a real physical job. You should have never quit that one at the McDonald's. You didn't even last a week."
"Why should I waste my time doing something I hate when I can make money doing something I love? Just because it's not a physical 9 to 5 doesn't mean it's not hard." said Sinah, anger nearly overcoming his voice.
"All I'm saying is nothing in life is free."
"I'm paying rent here, I know it's not free."
"Now when you end up having to sell drugs for him or something terrible, don't come crying to me," she said.
"You're straight up overreacting," Sinah was struggling to keep his voice level, "I've known him for years and he's my best friend."
"Are you enrolled in school?"
Sinah was silent for a moment. "No, I'm not."
"And what's keeping you from doing that?"
"I don't want to go. Maybe next year, but I'm doing fine with self teaching programming, I even have a schedule and stuff set out for myself."
His mother scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure you know everything."
"I don't know everything," he said through gritted teeth, "that's why I'm using different resources to learn."
"What about your grandfather? You gonna see him anytime soon?"
Sinah's stomach fell. "Yeah, I've just been busy lately."
"He had another stroke, if you were worried at all."
Sinah was deeply regretting the call now. "I am worried of course, I've just been really busy with everything. I'll go see him when I have the time."
His mother let out a small laugh. "When will that be? At the funeral?"
"Look, I gotta go. Thanks for calling."
"Yeah, give your grandmother a call too."
"When I make the time, I will."
His mother sighed. "Yeah, I'm sure. I love you."
"Love you too, bye."
Sinah ended the call. That brought on a very large damper to his mood. He wasn't ready for his day to start out like this. All he wanted was a nice, relaxing morning, but apparently he couldn't get that.
Fortunately for him, he had a solution. It was time for him to lose himself in league again. Nothing else would matter once he got into a little bit, and before he knew it, he would be lost in the gameplay, stats, and replays of every game he played. He loved it.
Sinah logged onto his computer, opening Firefox as soon as the icon showed on his taskbar. He navigated to the freelancing website and checked out the latest job he'd taken. He still had a week to make the website the company needed, and he estimated he could tack on the finishing changes and test the site within a day or two. He closed out the website and clicked a bookmark at the top of the page.
Twitch loaded instantly and he ignored the Smash tournament that was happening on the front page, looking on his side bar at who was live. Doublelift and Zven were live, but no Imaqtpie. Sinah smiled, loaded up OBS, and slipped on his headset. He had nothing against Imaqtpie, but it was impossible to get viewers while that guy was live.
He checked his OBS settings and opened up League, logging into his account. His friend requests were maxed out, but he knew they'd just fill up again if he cleared them out.
Sinah sighed and closed his eyes. Everything this morning, what his mother said, it brought back up every mistake he'd made. But he didn't care. Right now, he was going to take a hit of his drug and leave his thoughts behind.
He clicked 'Start Streaming' and logged into reddit while he waited for his chat to fill up.
He scrolled through the League of Legends reddit community, chuckling at some of the titles and skimming some of the more interesting posts. Most of the content on the subreddit was related to the preseason and upcoming Academy League to replace the Challenger Series at the moment. Rumors of players being traded, new teams popping up, and the occasional "insane" play coming out from a streamer.
Sinah looked back at Twitch and saw a myriad of "LUL"s in his chat. He had about 400 viewers, which he thought was good for an early monday morning.
He laughed and grinned into the webcam as the chat went wild with "LUL IGNORED"
"What's going guys? I was reading reddit, my bad."
He scoured for questions in the chat, ignoring the ones of a 'troll' nature.
"I know, I'm missing the classic chai tea today. I'm lazy as hell and it's way too cold."
"Hell yeah, you know I love the surprise streams." He beamed into the camera.
"Uhh, the stream will probably all day, maybe we'll duo with Mason when he gets home."
"What rank am I? Just hit rank 5 dog, but I might have to play on a smurf. Queue times are harsh."
"Specs and stuff are in the FAQ below."
Sinah clicked play on his League client, then started up a ranked queue.
"Yeah, I guess I'll try for a game on this account but getting an early morning game in challenger is pretty hard."
He sat down and talked with his chat a bit more before finally getting a prompt that a game was found.
"Quick queue. These bastards are sniping me," he said as he clicked the 'Accept' button.
Grig1: Keep graves open
hailo: Lemme top take mid
Gliscor: yes
"Well, I got mid. Least I didn't have to threaten him," He smirked. "It's a joke by the way, I am a model summoner and follow the summoner's code to the T."
He saw the enemy lock in Orianna.
"Orianna is complete garbage into Taliyah. Should be an easy lane." Sinah said, locking in Taliyah.
The game was loading in and he opened Spotify, clicking play on his daily mix.
"Good ole Alex Wiley boys. Gonna be a good day, I can tell."
The two teams loaded in, Sinah making a standard Doran's ring and 2 potion start.
[00:10] [All] neoloo (Orianna): god damn it why are you in my lane again
[00:12] [All] Gliscor (Taliyah): luck of the draw
[00:10] [All] neoloo (Orianna): You are gonna die a horrible death in game
Sinah laughed. "We got neo's smurf again! I feel like I'm queue sniping him without even trying"
He moved his character into the area of the red buff, trying to ward off any invaders. Then, he made his way back to mid.
"So we should be able to straight outpush her from level 2 and we can just set up kills, or run down bot and snowball the fuck out of Draven. I'm probably gonna opt for the second option."
[1:50] Grig1 (Graves): mid first
Sinah was playing aggressively and weaving in auto attacks whenever he could onto Orianna, who was matching her autos as frequently as possible. His goal was to try to drive Orianna into Graves and they could burst her down before she had the chance to flash or heal.
The play almost worked, but Orianna preemptively flashed the Unraveled Earth that would have allowed Graves to get the slow in from red buff and his Smoke Screen.
"That was actually a really good flash," Sinah laughed. "I still think he misplayed by taking heal, he should know I run ignite on this champ."
[8:50] Synicide (Thresh): no bot summs
"It's our time to shine boys."
The wave was pushed in before Orianna had any time to react, and the Weaver's Wall came even quicker, trapping the enemy Karma and Jhin in the onslaught of Taliyah's full combo.
[9:01] Gliscor (Taliyah) has drawn first blood!
[9:04] Gliscor (Taliyah) has slain Tintin for a double kill!
"Put that on my set on my set I recollect…" Sinah sang along with the music as he reaped the rewards of his roam.
[14:06] Gliscor (Taliyah) is godlike!
[15:05] The enemy agreed to a surrender with 5 votes for and 0 against
[15:07] [All] Gliscor (Taliyah): ggwp
[15:08] [All] neoloo (Orianna): gg
[15:08] [All] saynT (Kha'zix): :/
"Well, uh. That was kind of a fast one." Sinah flashed a grin at the camera. "Oh well. Early morning special I guess."
He started up another queue and fell into game after game. It wasn't till he realized that halfway into the day, he had 2,000 viewers, which was nearly 1000 more than he usually got.
"What the hell?" Sinah mused out loud. He looked at his Twitch panel and realized that he was actually being hosted by Dyrus at the moment. He had added the ex-pro after a couple games in a row getting paired with him on a smurf, but they didn't have any real conversation. Sinah wasn't really one to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so he swallowed his excitement and rubbed his hands through his hair.
"I just noticed now, but Dyrus has been hosting me for awhile now, I think. Thank you so much Dyrus, and welcome to everyone new in the chat!"
Sinah watched the stream of "PogChamps" and "Poggers" in the chat as he rubbed his hands together and grinned evilly.
"Time to sell out boys!"
The chat flooded yet again with "OMEGALUL" and "LUL".
Sinah felt more energetic than ever as he streamed to nearly twice his fanbase and still had a great time interacting with the chat. He played wins, losses, and straight troll games that had him laughing his ass off even when the viewer count dipped back down to 900. He still managed to try to take in information and learn everything he possibly could from each game while having fun with the chat. Of course, there were some unredeemable Nunu related picks that really couldn't be justified, but he knew it was all fun.
Sinah was just about to bid the stream goodbye and call it a day, when the door opened, and a shivering Mason walked in the door. Sinah leaned out his door and yelled,
"Get your ass on League! One quick game!"
Mason groaned and headed towards his room. Sinah opened discord and hopped into a locked channel for him and his friend.
"Wiley is killin' em, Wiley is killin' em, killin' em, damn!" Sinah rapped along with the song he was listening to and nodded his head.
His viewers, which had risen to 1,285, were flooding the chat with "sourPLS".
"Invite me bro." Mason's voice came through his headset after a small beep indicating he had joined the channel.
Sinah clicked on 'Momoto' and send out an invite. Mason joined the lobby and Sinah started the queue.
"How was work my boy?"
Mason sighed. "Can't wait till Cassandra comes back. Not fun."
"When's she comin' back? She's not sick, right?"
"Nah, just took off. Didn't tell me why."
"Assert your dominance. Don't let these IRL egirls tell you what to do," Sinah said, smirking.
His chat filled up with "monkaS".
"Just kidding boys! Respect egirls!"
"This is why your stream likes me better, and mine likes me better. Isn't that right?" Mason asked with a smug voice.
Mason, who had started streaming, had his chat fill up with hundreds of "3"'s in the chat, and even some in Sinah's.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep your charm over there." Sinah shook his head.
The queue popped, and both men hit accept.
Nugeek: Holy stacked team?
flex till deth: lift u adc
Momoto: lol
"Oh shit, we got Doublelift." Sinah said.
"Bet the enemy jungle isn't gonna even touch top lane."
Nugeek: Ap mid i'm panth
"Well no shit, why would I play an AD mid?" Sinah laughed and threw up a hand.
He hovered over Nunu, then locked in Ryze.
Sinah read over his chat while he was waiting for the rest of the picks.
"Ok, anyone who's saying Ryze is bad is actually just braindead, sorry. Ryze is extremely hard to play efficiently compared to something like Zoe or Vlad who can really just have the same, if not more impact in solo queue. But there are a ton of Korean mid laners with 60% win rates on ryze, and I myself have a 58% win rate. Like, he's really not a bad champion. He just has more of a place in team oriented play," Sinah directed his answer towards a couple people who were "criticizing" his Ryze pick.
"Trust him, he's challenger." Mason said sarcastically.
Sinah scoffed. "Just pisses me off when people undervalue the champ because he's difficult. If you can pull off the combos and harrass timing correctly, he's really annoying."
"Hey, you don't have to convince me. I've seen your Ryze."
"Hell yeah you have!"
The teams loaded in.
[00:03] Momoto (Xin Zhao): Invade
[00:04] Momoto (Xin Zhao) is on the way
[00:05] flex till deth (Thresh): got it boss
"Hopefully the thresh has enough brains for a hook." Mason said.
"Toxic?" Sinah questioned Mason's insult.
"Just wishful thinking, ya know?"
[00:35] Doublelift (Varus) has drawn first blood!
"Should make the game easy." Mason said.
[07:22] Bambiiiiii (Jayce) is on a killing spree!
"This Pantheon is really bumming me out." Sinah admitted with a sigh.
"No shit. Let's ulti bot, we can get tier 2?"
"Yep, coming up now. Taliyah can clear fast enough to match me so we gotta hurry." Sinah said.
[07:29] Gliscor (Ryze) is on the way
[07:30] Momoto (Xin Zhao) is on the way
[07:31] flex till deth (Thresh): ez no flash
"Watch out, Jayce tping." Sinah was glued to the screen.
[07:35] Doublelift (Varus) has slain Synicide (Soraka) for a double kill!
[07:35] Doublelift (Varus) is on a killing spree!
[07:35] Nugeek (Pantheon) signals to be careful
"Taliyah coming, just turn on Jayce, all she has is tear and components." Sinah called.
"I have ulti so I should live here if he gets on me." Mason clicked away.
[07:40] Gliscor (Ryze) has shut down Bambiiiiii (Jayce) and claimed their bounty! (Gold: 600G)
"Dive? I've got her empower rooted!"
[07:43] Momoto (Xin Zhao) is on a killing spree!
"Good shit, see how easy life is when you have a stacked team?" Sinah channeled his back after they had taken the tower and took advantage of the deep wards they could get.
The game ended up being a complete sweep from that point, and the collective viewers of the two were spamming "PogChamp" in the chat and "LOL" the entire time. Sinah decided to end the stream there, since he'd been at it the whole day and he was getting a bit burned out.
"Alright guys, this was super fun, but I'm gonna call it a day. Make sure you guys check out my Twitter, I'll be posting everything about streams on there, and follow me on Twitch to get direct notifications when I go live. Love you boys! Peace."
He stopped the stream and shut his monitor off. He didn't sleep well that night.