Disclaimer: League of Legends belongs to Riot

If there was one thing that I regretted the most… it was getting comfortable. It sounds cliché, but it's true. I was content with how my life was and I wasn't ready for the impending change.

I knew things would be different, but there was some part of me that hoped things would stay the same, so I ignored it. So when things actually started to change, it took me by utter surprise.

First of all, Hurtle decided that he was going to grind ranked games. He was aiming for the first spot in Challenger.

I don't blame him for it. I knew he was trying hard to be like his father, WildTurtle, the solo queue god. Back in the day, WildTurtle consistently claimed the number one spot.

Despite the grind, Hurtle didn't neglect me completely. However, the only times that he did play with me was when Adept and his friends invited us. Hurtle claimed that it was good practice for him to play in a full team. Personally I'm not sure how helpful it was because our team communication was split up. The trio did their own thing since they knew Hurtle and I could handle our lane. I guess there was some comfort in that. At least they trusted us to some extent.

Then there was the newfound friendship with the trio of Adept, Cyan and Hades. Besides Hurtle, I don't think I've consistently played with others before. I even started to play less Twisted Treeline because of our five-man queues. It felt nice to know other players. It meant that I didn't have to queue up by myself all the time.

Most of the time Adept and Cyan would be duoing together. This left me with Hades since Hurtle was off queuing by himself. Plus, he didn't seem to mind when I asked him if he wanted to play some normal games with me. I figured he would be trying to get to Challenger like everyone else, but he seemed content at Diamond I.

"Do you want to try playing some ranked games?" Hades asked me one day out of the blue.

We just lost a game. Hades was the only one who won his lane, but he wasn't able to carry the rest of us. I'll admit, I fed pretty hard this time around. It was kind of embarrassing.

"Uhm, we could try it," I answered. I only played ranked games to stop myself from decaying and that was only once every couple of weeks.

"We don't have to if you don't want to," he assured me.

"No it's fine, maybe I can get out of platinum one day," I joked.

He invited me and we queued up. I felt a little nervous about it.

"Just imagine us playing normal draft with randoms," Hades advised. I smiled. There was a distinct difference between him and Hurtle. If I was playing with Hurtle right now, he would just tell me to kick ass.

"I'll try that, thanks." I always felt more pressure when I played ranked games. It was an unpleasant feeling. I just couldn't understand how there were some people who only played ranked.

We entered champion select and I called for support while Hades offered to fill. He ended up being my AD carry.

"Any preference for your support?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Anything works, I trust your judgment." I rolled my eyes, that didn't help me. I decided to lock in Leona. She was my favorite champion to play. It felt really satisfying to go all-in and land all of my skills. I could play her in any role (at least in normals where people were less likely to rage at me).

"Hold on, I'm going to ward river," I informed Hades.

I placed a ward in front of dragon and a ward over the wall in front of their tri-bush.

"Alright," Hades responded.

If there was one thing I noticed about Hades, it was that he didn't talk much in game. He usually gave me short answers or little bits of information. There were even times where he would ping me instead of just telling me over our call. It was almost like he had a word limit for each game. But I'm sure it was just his way of concentrating on the game.

"Lee Sin is on his way," I said, watching the mini map from the corner of my eye.

The enemy Lee Sin placed a ward in the river bush from the other side and jumped to it. I waited a moment and didn't see him leaving. I assumed that he scanned it and saw that there wasn't a ward in the bush.

I pinged the bush and our jungler made his way down to counter-gank.

"Any wards?" our Rengar asked.

"Just in the river," I messaged back.

"Are we going to bait it?" I asked Hades.

"Yeah, our Gangplank still has his ult." With his confirmation I moved forward to proc my Targon's Brace on a melee minion. At that moment, Lee Sin shot his 'Sonic Wave' and dashed towards me with the second active.

I immediately used my 'Eclipse' to make myself tankier before he casted his 'Tempest/Cripple' combo to slow me down. Nami flashed forward to cast her 'Aqua Prison' on me, but I flashed backwards to dodge it.

During the small skirmish, Rengar activated his ultimate and was running towards us. Before the '!' appeared above their heads, Nami sent her 'Tidal Wave' at Hades. He quickly dodged it with his 'Valkyrie'. The enemy Lucian dashed forward, clumping himself with Nami. I used that opportunity to land my 'Solar Flare' on them. Then I ignited Lucian to reduce any healing.

Lee Sin used his 'Safe Guard' to dash over to Lucian, granting him a small shield.

Rengar pounced on the stunned Lucian and landed his 'Empowered Bola Strike' to keep him rooted longer. With Lucian still in place, Hades landed his 'Phosphorus Bomb' on them before chunking them with his 'Gatling Gun' and auto attacks. Nami tried her best to heal Lucian and exhausted Corki to reduce the damage.

I sent my 'Zenith Blade' through Lee Sin and stunned the Lucian that was next to him before Lee Sin could use his 'Dragon's Rage' to kick me into Rengar.

It was a nice kick, but Hades still managed to finish off Lucian by sniping him with a 'Missile Barrage' while Lucian flashed away. Rengar finished off the flash-less Nami, but Lee Sin managed to escape.

"Good job." I hit 'B' and my champion started her recall animation. The counter-gank went really well for us. I felt like I redeemed myself from the previous game.

"Nice bait," Hades pushed the wave before he also decided to recall. I just smiled.

We eventually won that game. The other team made a bad baron call and we managed to ace them in the pit.

"Getting closer!" I finally reached 88 LP. I could probably get into my promos if we won another game.

"Nice."

I was feeling more confident playing ranked. I waited for him to re-invite me, but that never came. I heard him typing on the other side.

"They want to join the call," Hades finally spoke up and added the other three.

"Hey everyone," I greeted once they joined, "What's up?"

This probably meant that we were going to play some games together. However, I secretly wanted to play another ranked game. I was pumped up from the last game. Hades was a pretty good AD carry.

"We're going to make a team!" Adept announced to us.

"What?" I was confused. Were we not already a team?

"Hurtle and I were talking," Adept started.

I rose an eyebrow, 'Since when did they talk outside of a game?'

"And we decided that since already play together, we should just make a ranked team."

"Hey! I was part of this idea too," Cyan complained, feeling discredited.

"Does it matter who thought of the idea?" Hurtle interjected, "We all know what's more important: coming up with a team name."

Hades just stayed quiet. He was probably fine with the idea, but I didn't know how to respond.

"It's just like playing draft with all five of us," Hades messaged me.

He probably knew I was hesitating. I told him a while ago that I didn't want to play this game competitively.

"Sounds cool," I finally said.

"Told you she would agree!" Adept said triumphantly.

"Don't worry, we'll carry you guys," Hurtle declared as he was messaging me.

"You sure?" he asked me.

"Yeah, it's okay. It's only for fun anyways." He didn't respond after that.

"Oh please, we all know who'll be doing the real carrying," Cyan retorted.

"Yeah, our amazing support," Hurtle praised. I covered my face in embarrassment even though no one could see me. "And me of course – I thought we just went over this."

"As if! Adept and I are going to be the ones kicking ass!"

"Like how you messed up your kick on Caitlyn last night…"

"That was only once! She flashed before I could do it!"

"Guys, go get a room," Adept interrupted. He was trying to stop them, but I think that only fueled them more.

"Ew. I rather drop to Plat," Cyan said disgusted. I was a little offended by the comment but I didn't say anything. To be honest, I don't think Cyan really liked me. I'm not sure why since we barely knew each other. The only time I've ever interacted with her was when we were with everyone else. Maybe it's because she argues with Hurtle a lot?

"There's nothing wrong with being Platinum," Hades spoke up. I bit my lip, it seemed like everyone was standing up for me. First Hurtle and then Hades. I felt extremely grateful.

"I was just kidding Hades," Cyan defended herself. "Anyways about our team name," she changed the subject quickly.

"You guys seem close," Hurtle teased me. I'm sure he was quick to notice that Hades stood up for me. After all, Hurtle was always the one defending me ever since we were young.

"Well, my best friend ditched me to grind LP," I joked, sounding hurt.

"So now you're having an affair?!" he mocked. I missed these conversations with him.

"You're the one who cheated on me with Solo Queue!"

"The first spot was seducing me. I-I was weak!"

"Hmph. Excuses." I had a huge grin on my face.

"Forgive me!" he pleaded. I could hear him typing loudly on the other side. Those mechanical keyboards were loud.

"I'll buy you lunch tomorrow," he offered.

"You can't buy my forgiveness!" I put my hand over my mouth as if to cover my shock, but he couldn't see me anyways.

"And I'll throw in that cheesecake you like."

That was a tempting offer. I pretended to think about it for a moment.

"Deal." I could have dragged on our conversation and teased him some more, but I didn't want to give up the cheesecake. It was one of my weaknesses and he knew that. Whenever I was having a bad day, Hurtle would buy me cheesecake – none of that carton of ice cream stuff.

"Let's do it!" Adept suddenly said. I completely forgot that we were still in chat with everyone.

"Let's do what?" I asked. I wasn't sure what was going on. All I knew was that they were deciding our team name.

"We're naming our team Taegukgi," Cyan answered.

"I was kidding guys…" Hades muttered, but it was too late. Adept sent us invites to the team.

"What does that mean?" I asked Hades. I figured that he was the one who came up with it.

"It's the name of the South Korean flag… and a Korean BBQ place in the States… I didn't think they would actually use it." I had a mental sweat drop.

"Hungry?" I teased.

"Starved," he answered truthfully.

"Alright team! Time to get through our placements!" Adept said.

And so it begins.

11/12/14