Chapter One: Dreaming of the Future
There it was—the glorious, perfect airplane. The sun shone brilliantly off of the glistening metal, the windows were as clean as could be. The airplane that would take me to Los Angeles, California. The ticket to my future and fame.
I turned back and waved to my family, who were staring at me with a mixture of disappointment and pride in their eyes. Pride because I was successful at such a young age—I was only eighteen—but disappointment because out of everything else to choose from in the world of careers, I just had to choose gaming. But gaming was the only thing that I truly enjoyed and was actually talented at; when I was playing a match in League, the entire world around me would melt away, and I would feel like I was actually in the game myself. In one game, I would be LeBlanc, cloning myself to mess with the enemy and darting in and out to deal tons of damage. On another hand, in another game, I would be Thresh, reaching out and hooking other champions in so that my team could destroy them, as well as planting lanterns so that my allies could click themselves to safety.
I took a deep breath and started on the ramp from the airport leading to the plane, clutching my carry-on suitcase tightly. Thoughts started cycling through my head at rapid speed, further increasing my anxiety. What if I play badly during scrims? What if my team doesn't like me? What if the plane crashes?
Besides, I've spent years on this quest—the quest to the League of Legends Championship Series.
And now I've reached the end.
I'm playing for a team in the LCS.
My alarm clock rings, effectively snapping me out of my dream and back to reality. I groan and reluctantly roll out of bed, my eye catching the posters plastered on my bedroom walls.
I groggily brush my teeth, wash my face, and change out of my pajamas, dressing up for the day in a classy button-down shirt and blazer, a black skirt, and white Converse. On my way out I notice out of my peripheral vision that one of my posters is slightly askew, and I immediately stop in my tracks and take the time to straighten the poster.
The poster is a picture of Lustboy wearing his TSM jacket, along with a TSM logo in the bottom right. I smile to myself as I readjust its position, and then I stop and take a look at the many other posters in my room, all League of Legends related.
That wall's just TSM merchandise...that's Faker's poster...oh, and Huni from Fanatic, I think to myself. Then there's that Firecracker Jinx skin...Heartseeker Varus...and that epic Order of the Lotus Irelia skin.
My room's a geek's paradise.
Oh wait, correction: a geek's and fangirl's paradise.
I run out of my room, my jet-black hair flowing behind me, and arrive at the small but cozy kitchen. My mother's already awake, cooking breakfast and also preparing lunch ahead of time.
"Zao an," she greets me in Mandarin, setting a steaming bowl of sweet soy milk and Chinese donuts on the table. "Eat up."
I pick up a hot Chinese donut and attempt to dunk it in soy milk but fail miserably as the piece of fried dough nearly burns my fingers. I drop it like a hot coal and silently curse under my breath, shaking my hand in the air to try to alleviate some of the pain.
My mother clucks like a hen. "Idiot," she chastises, shaking her head slowly, as if saying, How did I breed this child?
A pair of chopsticks is placed in front of me, along with a plate. "You're welcome," my mother says before walking back to prepare lunch.
This time I successfully use the chopsticks and scarf down my breakfast, along with most of the soy milk. I sit back in my chair with a content sigh as my mother watches on.
"Stop eating so fast," she scolds. Then she breaks out in a smile and kisses my forehead, bringing me my backpack. "Why is this so heavy?" she complains.
I take the bag and head to the garage, opening the garage door and my car. Before I start the engine my mom shouts something.
"Hey!" she yells, catching my attention as I'm shutting my car door. "Have a good day at school," she adds, smiling. I smile back and wave, and then I'm off on my way to school.
I park in one of the empty lots and head towards the entrance of Keystone Senior High, where I'm immediately greeted by Micah, Jay, Kayla, and Lance.
"Yo, did you see the newest /All Chat video?" Jay says.
"I was gifted by my brother; he gave me Popstar Ahri," Micah says bitterly.
"At least you were gifted," Lance mutters.
"Star Guardian Lux!" Kayla exclaims happily.
I laugh and calm them down. "Everyone, shut up. Yes, Jay, I did see the video. Micah, Popstar Ahri isn't that bad—"
"Yes, it is!" Micah insists.
"Lance, I'm sorry, and Kayla, have you seen Lilypichu's stream with Star Guardian Lux?" I continue as if I hadn't been interrupted.
"Yeah, she's actually the best," Kayla responds with admiration. "Her boyfriend's the owner of CLG, HotShotGG."
"CLG!" Micah cries. "They'll win the LCS Summer Split!"
Jay and I scoff. "Ew. TSM!" we shout.
"TSM? More like FreeSM," Micah retorts.
"CLG? More like FreeLG," I mock.
"CLG!"
"TSM!"
"CLG!"
"TSM!"
"...SKT1?" Lance offers timidly.
"Faker senpai!" Kayla adds.
"Nineteen years old, yet he's already the best mid player," I say dreamily.
"Well, Huni did 1v2 him and he won, so," Micah points out.
I'm about to get into another argument with him until Jay clears his throat. "Guys, five minutes until we have to get to clubs," he says.
"We're all in the same club, man," Kayla answers.
"The League of Legends scrub club," Lance adds, chuckling.
"Yeah, but I'm the only scrub on the team!" I exclaim. "I'm not even level thirty yet!"
"Cybele, it's okay," Jay reassures me. "You know that we'll wait for you so that we can make a ranked team together."
I hang my head. "I don't know," I mutter. "I'm level twenty-seven, and you guys are level thirty already. I feel like I'm bringing y'all down."
Jay opens his mouth, but before he can speak, Micah hurriedly taps us all on the shoulder. "We have two minutes to get to our club; let's go already."
"Kayla, ward that bush; their jungler's MIA," I say in my headset as I ping.
"On it." Akali, Kayla's champion, scurries over to the bush.
We're in the middle of a scrimmage, fighting against an equally good team also in our club. Our team setup was me and Micah in the bottom lane with a Thresh and Blitzcrank combo, Lance in the middle lane as Yasuo, Kayla in the top lane as Akali, and Jay using Amumu in the jungle. The enemy's team was comprised of Braum and Tristana in the bottom lane, Ahri in the middle lane, Wukong in the top lane, and a Shyvana in the jungle.
"Cy, can you see if you can pull Trist or Braum in?" Micah asks.
"I'll see." I rush up past their minion wave and aim my Rocket Grab, or my Q. I manage to pull Tristana in, and Thresh dashes over to auto-attack. She ends up using her W, or Rocket Jump, and flees to safety, but we do enough serious damage to her that she's forced to recall.
"Nice, nice. Okay, here's the plan: I'll place a lantern, and when I do that, you pull someone in. Immediately after making contact with someone, right-click my lantern. That way we'll be able to drag the enemy farther, and it'll be harder for the champion to escape," Micah orders.
Swiftyspear is on a killing spree! flashes on my screen, and I congratulate Lance. "Nice, Lance."
"No big deal," he responds. "I counter Ahri, anyway."
"Lance, watch out," Kayla warns. "Shyvana MIA. She just tried to gank my lane—didn't kill me, but she came close. She'll probably be coming for you."
"Okay, Cy, ready?" Tristana is back behind Braum, as they try and get the CS. I quickly press the Tab button and see that she has an Infinity Edge and two health pots.
"Ready."
Micah runs a little closer to the two enemy champions and lays his lantern. I immediately use my Q and manage to have it come in contact with Tristana again. I spam my right-click button on Micah's lantern and manage to pull in Tristana close to Thresh.
I use my E and knock-up Tristana, giving Micah the opportunity to auto-attack and completely wreck her health. Tristana tries to W away, but at that exact moment, Micah presses his Q and hooks Tristana, dragging himself with her. He finally uses his E and delivers the finishing blow.
"Where's the Braum?" I ask.
"There." Sure enough, Braum's character icon shows up on the mini-map. He's near his turret.
"I think I can pull him in," I say.
"We might not be able to kill him, though," Micah warns. "He's a bit tanky."
"Micah, check my build," I respond.
Micah laughs. "Straight Ability Power?"
"You know it."
"Wait! Don't do it!" Lance says frantically into his mic. "They're all here at mid—Ahri, Wukong, and Shyvana. I think Braum might be coming too." An "assist me" ping shows up on the map.
"Coming over," all four of us say in unison. Synergy, I think, amused.
What follows is a stream of chaos.
Jay comes in first and waits just a few seconds for everyone to catch up. When we're all there, Jay ults perfectly, stunning all four of the remaining players. I pull the Ahri in and knock her up, and there went most of her health. Lance rushes in, gets the kill, and then quickly finds another target. Micah starts dealing most of the damage, taking Shyvana down to half health. Jay throws his Bandage Toss onto Braum and presses his W and E, slowly draining Braum's health. Micah then comes in and attacks Braum, but Braum flashes out.
"Hold up," Jay says. Jay then runs up and smites Braum, slowing him. Micah is then fast enough to catch up to him, and he gets the kill.
Lance then targets Wukong, dealing tons of damage. Wukong manages to get away with little health, but not without being ignited first. Sure enough, another kill goes to Lance.
I manage to hook and ult Shyvana as Kayla rushes in, and she throws her kama and marks Shyvana. She then proceeds to auto-attack Shyvana, detonating the mark, and the kill goes to her.
Ace! appears on the screen as we all start to push the middle lane. "Good teamwork," I comment. "Let's push."
We're able to take the inhibitor and its turret before Tristana re-spawns, but she doesn't dare to challenge us. We then start on the base turrets, with Tristana desperately trying to poke, but to no avail. We're simply too powerful and tanky.
We take down both base turrets and the Nexus before the enemies' death timers finish. I type "GGWP" in the All Chat and the victory screen pops up, which I exit out of.
I take off my headset and rise out of my chair, stretching. I head towards our enemy team to the right of us and shake their hands, acknowledging that it was a good game.
"Hey, Cybele, you're level twenty-eight!" Kayla points out, gesturing towards my screen.
I look at my screen and smile. "One step closer to ranked."
Hey guys! Thanks for checking out my League of Legends fanfiction! Please note that I have not played all of the champions in the story, so I don't exactly know what all of their mechanics are. If anything's inaccurate, please tell me kindly in a review. On that note, please review or comment if you liked it, what you think I could improve on, etc. I'll see you in the next chapter!
~thatasiantoknow