An analysis from afar

by Whavey

We had it all, we thought... It was shortly after my promotion when my feelings popped up. It was her that made me feel reborn, warm, safe and most of all, alive. In a period where homophobia was a thing, I wanted her more than I wanted anything. But was the team going to suffer too? (repost from my Wattpad story An Analysis From Afar, account name also Whavey)

4. Chapter 2

Quinn

There we sat, talking about all the games. Sjokz and Deficio really tried pulling me into the conversation. And as the show went on, I started to open up more. "And then to the Darkness My Friend game against Roccat. Lizzy, who taught your team how to be respectful disrespectful?" Sjokz asks and I smirk. "It is a matter of saying a girl isn't a good jungle because she is a girl. Airwaks made a mistake there and I think he paid for it. Viewers at home, don't underestimate girls. They are dangerous supports already, and now we march for the rest of the rift." I say staring in the camera. Krepo laughs pretty hard and I start to laugh too. "Also Krepo lost his mind." Deficio says and I look at him. "Maybe you should calm him?" I say with huge, innocent eyes and also Sjokz and Deficio now completely loses it. "You are worse that Kobe, Phreak and Rivington together." Krepo hiccups and I smile. Sjokz gets herself together and shakes her head. "Phreak, I am sending this one to you to make her a little more normal." She says and I look sheepishly at her. "That isn't Nasussary." I say, pretending to be shocked and Deficio and Krepo start tickling me. "Never mind Phreak, we are keeping her." Sjokz says and I smile. "But seriously, talk us through the games." She says and I smile. "Our first game was all guessing. We didn't knew what to expect, except a hard jungle. That is why we warded their blue, knowing we took a risk there, but doing it anyways. When I ran to their Blue, I didn't notice it was already gone, that the spear hit and killed Airwaks, I mean it was unbelievable. I backed and ignored the screams. I said GG because of first blood when I realised it was me who drew it." I say and they all smile.

About 20 minutes later we are wrapped up. I give them all a hug, Sjokz a little more awkward than Deficio and Krepo, but she returns it. My heart speeds up as I walk down. Sjokz walks with me. "Where is your team?" She asks and I smile. "Home already. Our home is not even 5 minutes walking from here." I say and she looks at me. "Seriously? That is pretty relaxed to be honest with you." She tells me and I smile. I give a flirtatious wink to a passing Rekkles before moving along. "Are you the one to have one night stands?" Sjokz suddenly asks and I shake my head. "To be very honest with you, I am still a little lonely virgin." I tell her and she smiles. "Ah that kind, the best kind of flirts. The one that doesn't even get your hopes up." She says and I nod. "Sjokz, I forgot my bag." I suddenly say and she smiles. "It is Eefje Lizzy, and you didn't forget it, it is still in your team room and we are near that." She says, dragging me along with her. I smile as she hands me my backpack with my mousepad and water bottle. "I will see you later." She says and I smile, leaving.

The next morning I am up at 4am. I know, I slept less than 4 hours, but I adore getting up early and spending time hurdling. I walk to the kitchen in my sports clothes and grab an apple, when Oliver comes down. "Where are you going?" He asks and I smile. "To the hurdling club, 10 minutes away." I say, taking a bite from the apple. He nods and looks at my stuff. "Never thought you were the girl to sport a lot." He suddenly says and I smile. "I usually do it two times a week. Monday and Friday. Normally no one is up, but you got up early today too." I say and he nods. "Heading out for an early training." He says and I smile. I fill my bottle with water and bid my goodbye to him, before walking to the hurdling club. The truth is that I often practise with the Olympic team. They are always here around 5am and start training. Their trainer saw me struggle when I did it for the first time in weeks, and at this point I could outrun some of them. My legs were pretty long and I had a good feeling of when I had to jump and how to land. I gave on of the girls a high-five when suddenly their coach walks up to me. "Are you this girl?" She asks me, showing an article on the eSports page of the newspaper. "Yes, that is me." I say as I see my photo. The trainer looks at me. "You game and sport?" She asks me in shock and I nod. "You play better when you sport and live healthy. I try to hurdle at least twice a week and I go to the gym once a week." I say and she nods in approval. "You are quick learner. We need girls like you, who understand, live healthy and perform better." She tells me with a bright smile. I thank her before heading to the cooldown section.

Around 7am I walk in. Oliver hands me a protein shake and I drink it. "Damn this is good." I say and he smiles. "You look good. How was training?" He asks and I smile. "Kind of decent. Do you have Berliner Morgen-Zeitung?" I suddenly ask and Oliver throws it to me. I get to their eSports page and smirk. "Oliver look, we are in a German newspaper." I say with a broad smile when Sabine walks down. "What is this excitement all about at 7 in the morning?" She asks and I point to the newspaper. "We made it to the German news." I say with a broad smile and head to my room to grab clean clothes before heading for the shower. When I return, I see Sabine posting it on our twitter and Facebook. "It is sooo weird. We played one day and we hit the news." She says and I nod. "And they want my pretty face. Be honest Sabine, we all know you are jealous." I say and she shows me her tongue.

That afternoon we head to the LCS stadium again, for the opening game against G2. We are in our room talking through our strategies. "First game is okay to lose, I want us to tie at least." Sabine explains and I nod. "I need an Olaf or Nautilus or Trundle." Joe says and I nod. "If we could do the triple tank in the first game? That is the red side game." I say and they nod, all except Erik. "How do you want to execute that?" He asks and I smile. "Easy. We lock them in. If they have someone with dashes, I take Poppy jungle. If Joe is against something like an Vladimir or Pantheon, we give him Nautilus. But I prefer you on Nautilus, because Joe can pick what he wants then." I say and they nod. "And me?" Ezra asks and I smile. "I think it is time to show Perkz that he is not the only midlaner in town. Pick Lissandra first game." I say and he nods.

As soon as we are settled on stage and we are in the pick and ban phase, I look at what they ban. It is a Vladimir. "So far Trundle top. Prioritize Trundle and Nautilus. Poppy can be picked later." I say and they nod. Joe bans away Ryze, to be followed by an Orianna ban by Expect. "Who next?" Joe asks and I smile, turning to Sabine. "Shall we take away Azir?" I ask her and she hums in approval. Erik manages to catch Perkz sigh in frustration. "I think he wanted that one." He says as Expect bans away Kalista. "Ban away Caitlyn." I say and Joe looks at me. "Are you mad?" He says and I shake my head. "Zven is a beast on Caitlyn. We need that champion to go away." I say and Ezra tunes in. "She is right, we don't want him fed on Caitlyn." He says and Joe bans Caitlyn away too. Erik suddenly snickers. "We messed up what they wanted, Zven is panicking." He giggles and we smile. They lock in LeBlanc first and I smile. "Nautilus and Trundle?" I say, locking in Erik's Nautilus. Joe locks in Trundle and I see the surprise on the caster's faces. G2 locks in Ezreal and Gragas. "Who now?" I hear Ezra ask and Sabine tunes in. "Get Lulu Ezra. Forget the plan with Lissandra, LeBlanc is super weak against Lulu and you are awesome on her." Sabine says and I nod. "She is right Ezra." I tell him and he nods, locking it in. Aidan smiles. "Let's leave Poppy open as last pick, and let me Pick my ADC." He says and we hum in approval. He locks in Jinx. "Rules are made to be broken, like my kit." He smiles and I laugh. G2 last picks are Morgana and Elise. "That is a Gragas top, let me Trundle." Joe says and I nod. "Lock in Poppy Erik." I say and he nods. Erik and I trade Nautilus and Poppy and I get the right masteries and runes with my Noxus Poppy skin.

The game starts pretty rough for both teams. We catch them invading in my jungle and try to zone them out. Ezra does manage to pick up first blood against Perkz, but they get Joe in return. "Early camp on mid." He says and I nod. I get to level 4 first, and then head to Ezra. "I am coming for your ass LeBlanc." I say. Perkz doesn't see me and as soon as he 'pushed' back Ezra, I come in and hit him with my E in the tower. He dies. "That was dirty." Erik says with a broad smile. I laugh. "Since when does it matter to you?" I ask and he nods. "True." He says and I run to bot, to punish Zven and Mithy for overextending. "Poppy is getting fed. I am gonna back and then make a run for Dragon." I say and Ezra smiles. "We need that HP regen dragon for the tanks yeah." He says. I kill Zven and Mithy another time and head to dragon, followed by Aidan and Erik. Ezra kills Perkz before helping.

After that, the game went fast. They camped Joe so at one point, we all headed top and created a nice teamfight, which we won with a trade 2 for 5. I was shut down together and Erik died too, but we managed to get the tier 1 and 2 towers from top. G2 was coming back mid game, but when I caught Perkz at my blue, I killed him and Zven who was near too. That was for them a loss, because they couldn't come back. We ended at 45 minutes after they defended their base for 15 minutes and stole a baron from us. We shook their hands as a GG for the first game before heading backstage. Sabine and Oliver radiated. "They didn't see that coming. We need to leave them. It is time." She says and I look at her. "What do you mean Sabine?" I ask and she smiles. "It is time to show what 5 social misfits that headed straight from solo queue can do. "I am allowed Rek'sai top?" Joe asks hyped and Sabine nods. "I need either Zilean or Thresh in game too. Lizzy, we want you on Shyvana, since that is a comfort pick for you. Ezra, bring out your Ziggs." She tells us and I nod. "For bot I suggest we let it open until we are on stage. If we prior pick the ADC, then the Mid and Top, and final the jungle and support, they are confused what we want." I say and they nod. "Also run double TP instead of ignite. My preference is on Ezra, Erik running ignite." She tells us and we nod. I quickly grab something to drink and then we head back to the stage.

Game 2 is confusing, and we play it very messy. Everything is a mess, we didn't play to our full potential and the only reason we manage to win is because I camped Perkz, making him useless in teamfights. I give the guys a hand and Zven pulls me in a quick hug. We walk past the public, giving them a high-five before heading backstage. As soon as we are in the team room, except Ezra who is interviewed at the moment, we all sit down. "I fucked up pretty badly." I say and they turn to me. "You didn't. No one played to their full potential. Erik hit barely any hooks, Ezra's farm was trash, I didn't view the map actively and Aidan also messed up botlane. No one is to blame really." He says as we get ready for our second fanmeeting this week. Suddenly G2 is at our door. "Very well played." They say and we shrug. "Mere luck. That second game, we messed it up so hard." I hear Joe say and I nod. "Nonsense, every time Lizzy showed up in lane, we almost instantly wanted to flash away. The only reason that it was this close was because we made like 2 good shotcalls. You guys are gonna go far." Perkz says and I smile. "Who are you against next week?" He suddenly asks and I think. "Unicorns and Vitality." I say and they nod. "Good luck then, we face Vitality too and Fnatic." Zven tells me. We say our goodbyes and take Ezra's stuff to the fanmeeting area, and he joins in right before we enter. We stand in front of the screen and see the people. At least more than we had yesterday. I turn my mind off and start signing the stuff put in my hands by our fans.