*-* I'm alive! It's also very cold in Sweden :( so I guess that means I should have a lot of time to write the next chapter, eh?
[Sunday, 9 October 2039]
"Are you guys excited?" Aphromoo asked everyone.
"So stoked!" Hurtle answered excitedly and I nodded in agreement. This was my first time going to the World Finals.
"It's not like we've been attending Worlds since Season 1 or anything…" Uncle Xpecial muttered sarcastically.
"If I remember correctly… Curse didn't make it to Worlds in Season 4," Doublelift grinned cheekily. Uncle Xpecial had participated in the first three World Championships with Team Solo Mid, but didn't make it to Worlds with his new team in Season 4.
"In fact—I'm positive that you guys got… fourth in LCS," Doublelift continued. The look on Aphromoo's face said 'Oh no you didn't!' After TSM, Uncle Xpecial joined Curse. Curse was known for always placing fourth. They were "cursed" with that position.
"At least we didn't almost get relegated," Uncle Xpecial shot back. During that same season, CLG was a top team. However, once the season ended, they had dropped to the bottom 3 when Curse knocked them out of the running for Worlds that year. This meant that CLG had to win against a challenger team in order to keep their spot in the LCS.
"The keyword being: almost," Doublelift argued. I rolled my eyes. "And at least I got to go to Worlds!"
"Oh yeah. You've been on the analyst desk so many times that I forgot you were a player," Uncle Xpecial said casually. Doublelift face-palmed. 'Doublelift brought this upon himself,' I giggled quietly.
"Here are our seats!" Aphromoo announced, interrupting the small argument. Uncle Turtle led the way as we funneled into the row. It was really crowded in the stadium. According to Riot, the event was sold out – as usual.
I took my seat next to Hurtle and Uncle Xpecial.
"Man, this brings back memories," Doublelift said, leaning back on his seat.
"Really?" Uncle Turtle said, sounding a little surprised. "Oh. I guess it's because you were always part of the audience," he smirked. 'And of course the arguing starts again,' I sighed. Hurtle on the other hand looked very amused. He loved it when our parents trash-talked each other.
"Hey!" Doublelift straightened his posture, "We could have easily made it to Worlds!" he protested.
"You're right. CLG always had potential," Uncle Xpecial chimed in. Aphromoo just laughed as the former couple continued to make jabs at Doublelift even though they were technically about him too. Doublelift was a really easy target.
"Back me up here!" Doublelift whined, pouting at Aphromoo who rolled his eyes at his partner's childish antics.
"Alright guys, give him a break," Aphromoo said with a wide grin on his face. He was clearly enjoying it. "The Opening Ceremony should be starting soon."
"Who's performing this year?" Hurtle asked.
"Some K-POP group," Uncle Xpecial shrugged, "If only Taylor Swift performed…" he added quietly, but I heard him clearly since I was sitting right next to him.
"YES!" I agreed immediately. A few years ago, Uncle Xpecial showed me a bunch of his old Taylor Swift CDs and I quickly fell in love.
"What?" Hurtle asked confused, "Since when were you into K-POP?" he questioned.
"Not that. Uncle Xpecial was just mentioning Taylor Sw—" I began to explain, but was interrupted by a loud groan.
"I'll never forgive you for poisoning her mind," Doublelift complained. He wasn't too happy with me blasting her music day and night. For days he would complain, saying that I was going through puberty and he didn't know how to deal with a teenage girl. I rose an eyebrow as I recalled that, 'How exactly did they manage to raise a girl?' Before I could find the answer, my thoughts were interrupted.
"I have no clue what you're talking about," Uncle Xpecial said innocently, but he had a visible smirk on his face. I'm sure Uncle Xpecial heard about these complaints from Hurtle.
"One day you'll understand us," I told Doublelift, giving him a pitiful look.
"It's a girl thing, don't worry Uncle Lift Lift," Hurtle grinned, earning a glare from his father. "Kidding pops," he added.
"I think we accidentally swapped kids," Doublelift muttered.
"Really dad? I'm two months older," I pointed out the flaw in his logic.
"Well… I guess Jasper could always become my son-in—" Doublelift began.
"Don't finish that sentence," I warned him.
"That's not a bad idea," Uncle Xpecial said, making me facepalm.
"That's like incest!" Hurtle complained. 'At least someone is on my side,' I thought.
"Yeah. I like you and all, but I don't think you'd make the best husband for Aph," Aphromoo joked. I giggled, we all knew how childish Hurtle could get.
"Hey! I'd make a great husband!" Hurtle defended himself.
"See Aph! Even Jasper agrees," Doublelift smirked. Hurtle covered his face and shook his head. I could hear him murmuring to himself.
"Ohh baited," Uncle Turtle laughed from the far end.
"Can we not," I sighed, covering my ears with my hands.
"Oh hey, we're like the three wise monkeys," Doublelift said covering his mouth.
"Clearly not if you're still talking," I pointed out as I removed my hands from the side of my head.
"Nothing could stop Lift Lift from talking," Uncle Xpecial smirked. Doublelift opened his mouth to retort, but was immediately cut off by Aphromoo.
"Shut up, it's about to start," Aphromoo ordered as the lights started to dim.
"I stand corrected," Uncle Xpecial muttered. No one spoke after that. We all turned our attention to the stage.
The stage started to fill with smoke. Different colored lights tried to shine through and the particles looked like fairy dust. The crowd started to cheer excitedly as silhouettes appeared. I rose an eyebrow, the first silhouette definitely looked like Ahri. The nine tails made it quite obvious. The other silhouettes were harder to identify, but one of them carried a spear while another had very long pigtails.
When the smoke cleared up we could see five girls standing on stage. They were all cosplaying as different League of Legends champions. The Popstar Ahri greeted the crowd while the other girls waved. I rose an eyebrow when I saw the Popstar Sona cosplay. Sona couldn't talk, let alone sing.
'Get it right people,' I thought, but the crowd didn't seem to mind. The girls started to perform, singing and dancing. 'I still would have preferred Taylor.'
"I can't believe he really named himself TheOddSon," Doublelift muttered as the teams entered champion select. "Why didn't you name yourself after me, Aph?" Doublelift questioned me. I rolled my eyes.
"It's because she likes me better," Aphromoo grinned.
'Well… that was technically true at the time…' I looked away, not wanting to contribute to the conversation. This went unnoticed by my parents who continued to argue.
This year's finals was between last year's champions, China's 'Raging Dragons' and North America's 'Team Solo Mid'. Anyone who played League of Legends knew about Team Solo Mid. They were one of the original teams back in Season 1 and they've been prominent since then. The current jungler was actually the son of one of their previous junglers, TheOddOne – hence the name. Hurtle's parents were both on the team at one point in their career. In fact, that was how they met.
Once the champions were loaded, 'T-S-M' chants could be heard from all around the stadium. I found myself chanting along with everyone else. Hurtle was standing and waving the sign I helped him make this morning. He knew some of the TSM members personally, thanks to Uncle Turtle.
I watched as the camera moved over to TheOddSon. He was playing Jax jungle this game. He had just cleared his blue buff before he made his way towards the top lane for a level 2 gank. The enemy Rumble had pushed the lane against their Dr. Mundo.
In the brush closest to the enemy Rumble's tower, a teleport animation started on the trinket ward that Dr. Mundo placed earlier. It was a teleport coming from their level 3 Annie. Jax came in from the river and Rumble started to retreat. Jax used his 'Counter Strike' and used his 'Leap Strike' onto a ward to get closer to Rumble. Rumble immediately flashed, but was stunned by the Annie that had teleported. This gave time for Jax to stack the stun.
The crowd was cheering when 'First Blood' was announced. Annie started to recall back to base. The castors started to describe the replay and I zoned them out. Hurtle and I were pretty skeptical about the double teleport composition, but we were proven wrong almost immediately.
"Better take notes, Aph," Hurtle grinned. I rolled my eyes.
"Please, if anything, Adept should be the one taking notes," I smirked, "but sure, I'll play Annie support with teleport and leave you at level 3," I nodded enthusiastically like it was a great idea.
"… I'll text Adept to take notes," Hurtle ignored my comment.
The first game ended in Team Solo Mid's favor. After that 'First Blood', they managed to snowball the rest of the game. They were now in the second game, and the Raging Dragons showed no signs of giving up.
Twenty-three minutes into the game, the Raging Dragons managed to sneak an early Baron while TSM was busy doing dragon. They had 2 'Blade of the Ruined Kings' and a jungle Nunu on their team which made taking Baron easy.
Raging Dragon's mid laner had gone to dragon to try to distract them, but when Team Solo Mid secured their second Dragon buff, Raging Dragons secured their baron buff.
Team Solo Mid began to chase after the enemy Ahri only to be met with the baron'd up Raging Dragons in the middle lane. This led to an epic team fight where only the supports managed to make it out alive.
"Scumbag supports," Hurtle muttered, "At least you'd protect me, right Aph?"
"That's a lot of dead bodies," I commented as the screen showed the aftermath of the fight, ignoring his question.
"Yorick would have a field day," Hurtle responded. There was a moment of silence between us. "Wait! You ignor—"
"No I didn't," I quickly cut him off.
"Yeah you di—"
"You're imagining things."
"No I'm no—"
"Shh! They're fighting!" I pointed at the screen. He crossed his arms and gave me a pout.
'Stupid,' I rolled my eyes.
'Why are you so mean to me?' Hurtle had a sad expression on his face.
'Because you're cute,' I smiled.
'Hey! I'm not cu—' he looked appalled.
'Shut up and watch the game,' I glared at him.
"Why are you guys making faces at each other?" Uncle Xpecial whispered to me.
"Because he wouldn't shut up," I explained. Uncle Xpecial just looked at me confused.
The game was pretty even until Team Solo Mid's AD Carry got caught out. I could hear both of the former supports muttering something under their breaths.
"Hey! It was still worth!" Doublelift complained. That only confirmed what I thought they were muttering about. "I got the red buff!"
After killing the AD Carry, Raging Dragons managed to claim game two for themselves.
Despite the lost, the 'TSM' chants still continued throughout the stadium.
"Don't worry, TSM is still going to win," Uncle Turtle affirmed.
"I don't know… Raging Dragons are starting to adapt," Doublelift responded. Those two didn't forget about their bet.
"I think TSM has a good chance," I said.
"See even Aph agrees," Uncle Turtle grinned, giving me a high-five over both of my parents and Hurtle. I had to reach pretty far since he was sitting at the other end.
"I swear you guys have corrupted my daughter," Doublelift groaned, covering his face with his hands.
"I have the best influences," I smiled, earning a one-arm hug from Uncle Xpecial.
"Yeah Lift Lift, why can't you be more like your daughter?" Uncle Xpecial asked. Doublelift looked like he was going to say something, but kept his mouth shut because Aphromoo was glaring at him.
"Yeah daddy, why can't you be more like me? Then maybe you'd be good at the game," I giggled. Doublelift's jaw dropped and Hurtle's parents snickered at my comment. He looked like he really wanted to reply, but Aphromoo was still glaring at him.
"But—" Doublelift started to complain, but Aphromoo tilted his head slightly, signaling that there was no 'But's' in this conversation.
"She got the trash talking from you," Aphromoo said, finally looking away from Doublelift.
Team Solo Mid pulled out an interesting composition for the third game. They had a Brand support and a Thresh AD carry. After a few levels of only CSing, their bot lane engaged. Thresh landed his 'Death Sentence' onto the enemy Jinx.
The enemy Nami quickly used her 'Ebb and Flow' to heal her AD Carry. At the same time, Brand used his 'Pillar of Flame' on the hooked Jinx, putting his passive on her. Thresh used his 'Death Leap' to fly towards Jinx who flashed before he could 'Flay' her. Jinx dropped her 'Flame Chompers!' right between Thresh and Brand while Nami managed to land her 'Aqua Prison' onto Thresh.
It was a good disengage by Nami, but then Brand flashed forward, over the 'Flame Chompers!' and landed his 'Sear' on Jinx which stunned her. Brand casted his 'Conflagration' onto Jinx and Thresh managed to finish her off with his 'Flay' passive.
"Can we do that?" Hurtle asked, giving me puppy dog eyes.
"There's a reason why I'm the one who plays Thresh," I said simply, raising an eyebrow.
"I can land my skill shots!" Hurtle defended himself.
"I'll let you play Brand bot," I compromised.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Hurtle asked me.
"Sadly I always seem to know what you're thinking," I sighed. "We can do it for smaller tournaments." Hurtle had a huge grin on his face.
The game was really interesting to watch after the play in the bottom lane. Thresh managed to get a decent amount of items. His 'Flay' passive hurt a lot especially combined with all the Crit he was stacking.
Team Solo Mid won when Thresh managed to bring Jinx down to 1/10 of her health during an engage.
The score was now 2-1 in favor of Team Solo Mid.
"I'm not worried! Raging Dragons still has time to make a comeback," Doublelift declared as the teams were in champion select.
"Good luck winning those two games," Uncle Turtle smirked. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to wash my jersey before I give it to you," he added.
"I BELIEVE!" Doublelift exclaimed.
"You mean you BAYlieve," Uncle Turtle corrected him.
"I'm pretty sure I didn't mean that," Doublelift frowned.
"Baylieve?" I questioned curiously.
"TSM used to be located in the Bay Area," Uncle Xpecial explained. "We had T-shirts and everything." My mouth formed a small 'o' shape. 'Yeah, that's a stupid motto.'
The castors were predicting which champions would be chosen for each team. After that Brand and Thresh combination, they didn't seem to know who to expect.
Unfortunately, the teams decided to go with standard picks. It was probably because this fourth game would decide whether or not there would be a fifth.
"TSM is looking for team fights," I muttered as they locked in the Malphite and Orianna combination.
"But Raging Dragons want to split," Hurtle pointed out. They already had Jax and Zed locked in.
"Yeah, I'm not sure if TSM are going to get the fights they want," I sighed.
"They can get good fights at objectives."
"But they'd have to commit or else Jax can seriously punish them if they dance around too long."
"Then what do you think they should do?" Uncle Xpecial asked us. He was listening to our conversation.
"I think they should gank top early and then pressure mid lane," I answered.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because if they shut down Jax early, he'll be easier for Malphite to manage. If Orianna and Caitlyn can negate Zed's ultimate with a QSS or Zhonya's then he'll have to resort to split-pushing. RD's only wave clear is Corki, but I think TSM would be willing to dive with that Alistar support. They don't even need Malphite for the wombo combo," I explained.
"If Malphite stacks armor then he can stop either one of the split-pushers with his teleport," Hurtle added. "He has okay wave clear as long as the wave isn't huge and he could stop Jax from teleporting to help Zed or something with his ultimate."
"You guys are learning," Uncle Xpecial grinned. I looked towards my left and I could see that the other adults were also smiling. They were staring at the screen intently, pretending not to pay attention to our conversation, but it was pretty obvious. There was no way they were so happy to see the teams position themselves around the river.
The game ended. It played out exactly how we thought it would, so it wasn't a big surprise for us.
"We'll be here one day," Hurtle said as we were surrounded by loud cheering. "Not on this stage, but on the Worlds stage."
"Yeah," I agreed, "You, me, Adept, Hades and Cyan…" I muttered, looking at the crowd around us. I never considered Worlds to be my dream, but after being around all of these passionate fans… I wondered how it would feel like to be playing in front of all of them. I felt my heart beat accelerating. The thought of it made me nervous.
I didn't have time to imagine the scene since my thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.
"HA! I TOLD YOU," Uncle Turtle boasted. He had jumped out of his seat and was pointing at Doublelift. This caused several of the people around us to stare at Uncle Turtle. Doublelift covered his face and groaned.
"Whyyyy," he complained in a voice that said the world was ending.
"It's okay, dad," I giggled, "I'm sure you'll look great in pink." Doublelift glared at me.
"GREAT IDEA APH! I have 'TheRainMan Pink' somewhere in my closet," Uncle Turtle grinned.
"Thanks a lot, Aph," Doublelift muttered.
"Just being helpful," I gave him a big smile. He sighed in response. Doublelift opened his mouth to say something, but I couldn't hear him over the 'TSM' chants.
"We're going to need a catchy team name," Hurtle leaned over and whispered in my ear.
"We're like Korean wannabes," I groaned, covering my face. Hades and Adept were both half-Korean, but that wasn't the point.
"New team name or riot?" Hurtle laughed.
I just gave Hurtle a look that said, 'Why not both?'
Hurtle smirked. Adept was going to get an earful once we got back to Germany.
01/20/2015