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)

3. Chapter 1

Lizzy

A week later, we had the house. Tom, Ezra's father, drove to Berlin as soon as he heard we bought a house. We decided that Erik, Aidan and Ezra share the loft (there are three rooms there and a bathroom), Joe would sleep on the second floor and I would sleep on the first floor. We posted out a request for a coach and manager. To our surprise, Oliver 'IzpAH' Steer reacted to our manager position and a good friend of mine, Sabine, reacted to the coach position. We decided to let more people apply before we chose anyone, but Oliver was high on the list.

Two weeks later, we were settled in our new home. We made half of the living room a scrim room and the other half was for dinner and meetings. Everyone painted their own rooms in the colours they likes. Ezra's room was blue and green and white, Erik chose for white and black, Aidan and Joe both went with one wall red and purple squares and the rest white and I went ham. Three walls were bright red, one wall was a deep purple and there was red carpet on the floor. The ceiling was black. Everyone had a bed, clothing cabinet, bed side table and a desk with chair. We decided to hire indeed Oliver and Sabine and they moved in too. It was fun and we really enjoyed having fun in the house. Sabine and Oliver noticed how much we knew each other and knew how we could rely on each other. That is why Sabine came up with a monster draft. "It isn't for the first game but for the ones against per example Fnatic or G2. They are stronger than we are but their bot is their weakness and Perkz relies too much on Kikis to do anything. If we manage to sneak away Nautilus for Joe and Hecarim for Lizzy, we only need a secure bot lane and an aggressive pick for Ezra. I would suggest an Orianna or Lissandra." Sabine told us weeks ago. At that moment we didn't knew what our first week was going to be. Our first game was against Roccat but our second was against G2.

It's the first day of the Summer split and everyone is super excited. We spend the last two weeks practising and training and the one day we were off a week, we spend it on training. Yesterday they dragged me out of the gaming house because Riot wanted to do a 'preview' with one member per team. I actually didn't want to but Sabine and Oliver dragged me to the studios to record it. We are at this moment backstage and watch the clip. Then I come on.

"I really think we have it in us to get to the best 5. We might not have a perfect split because we have no LCS experience but our team is so strong, that we know what others want to do before they even said it." The me on screen says and they all smirk at me. "Well said Lizzy, let's show them where we belong." Oliver says from behind me and I turn to him with a bright smile. "Thanks." I mutter when Ezra walks in suddenly. "Oh my gosh, sorry I saw your clip in the hallway but I walked past xPeke and Febiven and they wished me good luck and hoped I got to play the champion I wanted and they told me that I was good and I can't breathe." He says very rapid and I grin. "Yeah Gilius did the same when we beat him in the promotion tournament." I say and we all sit down talking about how weird it is here. Suddenly a knock is heard on the door and we turn to it. There stands the complete Roccat group. "Sorry that we are interrupting but we just wanted to say Good Luck today. We won't make it easy." Says Airwaks and we smirk. "I will make your jungle miserable." I challenge him and he laughs. "I know I am not supposed to say it, but you are a girl. We will crush your jungle." He says and I smirk. As they leave I turn to Sabine. "I need Nida and a leash." I tell her and she sees what I am gonna do. "Wards around their blue and steal it?" She asks and I nod.

Around 6:50pm, a girl comes to pick us up. As we arrive and get our keyboard and mouse and we are checked, I see Sjokz on the screen. My heart starts to beat rapidly as I see her and Erik notices that my eyes are glued on her. "You got it Lizzy, you are a tad whipped." He whispers teasingly and I sigh. We are directed to the stage and we plug in our equipment. As I log in to our TeamSpeak, I hear the guys talk. "Lizzy, we are going to run Lucian and Thresh botlane if they let us." Erik informs us and I turn to Joe. "What is our focus on?" I ask and Sabine answers me. "You and mid. Bot is going more laid back, top is probably gonna go Maokai and we want you to pick a champion that is compatible with Ezra. I turn to Ezra and he nods. "It's time for them." He answers me. Everyone looks at us. "Ezra and I had this aggressive passive comp. Ezra would go something mana-less like Katarina and I would go Poppy or Xin Zhao. What we had was engage and something to cc them." I say and I hear Sabine holding in her laughter. "We need you to play Nidalee, but her traps can give you the cc we need." Sabine tells us and I nod. "And Ezra, stay away from Ziggs and Orianna. These are the key champions, like Lizzy has her Shyvana and Xin. The rest, try to get as much CC as possible. Jhin and Thresh botlane I prefer instead of the Lucian-Thresh botlane." She tells us and Aidan hums in agreement. "And Joe, just go something you feel safe with. I think Darius is something we could use. We will keep it last pick together with thresh, depending on what their first picks are." She tells us and I nod

Then we are in the pick and ban phase. We all start to laugh as their first ban is Shyvana. "I think they saw me play it in the challenger promotion tournament." I hiccup and another laughter erupts. Joe quickly bans away Ekko. The follow up ban is from them is Ziggs. "Yepp, they watched it." Erik hiccups and I smile broadly. I turn to Joe. "Ban away Caitlyn. Steeelback loves her." I tell him and he nods, banning her away. Their last ban is Trundle. "That's an all-round ban. I think the last ban should be around their Midlaner." I say and they nod. "I will ban Viktor. Then we can instalock Ezra's Azir." Joe tells us and we all nod. They lock in Sivir and I look at Aidan. "Lucian prior pick or are we gonna wait?" I ask and he turns to Joe. "Prior pick Nidalee." Suddenly Sabine says with the last 5 seconds going in. I lock her in and I notice that Airwaks facepalms himself. "Nida was in their comp." Erik says and I laugh. They lock in Lee Sin and Twisted Fate. "R.I.P." Ezra says and I nod. "Lock in the ADC and Support. We have to keep them in the dark with Darius." Joe says and I nod. Thresh and Lucian are locked in and all eyes are on the toplane now. As they lock in Poppy and Nami, I turn to Joe. "You counter Poppy, I say do it." And he nods, instalocking Darius and selecting Dunkmaster Darius. I turn to them. "Everyone has a skin?" I ask and everyone hums. Sabine tells us about how she expects us to play safe. As soon as we are in game, we throw deepwards in their jungle. "Lee Sin spotted at the blue." I suddenly hear Ezra say. I run there and throw my spear. What I didn't notice was that the blue was already gone and that Lee was recalling with barely HP left. My spear killed him and I got an easy first blood. I laugh secretly as Erik screams "REKT SON." We all laugh and go on. I decide to camp bot since they swapped lanes. As Sivir goes a bit too deep, I throw my spear at her and jump, getting Aidan a kill and myself their Nami. I pretend to purr in the microphone and the guys laugh.

23 minutes in the game, and I managed to steal two dragons, made an amazing Baron call and we now have our eyes on their nexus. I throw a spear at Airwaks who is passing by as I see the last nexus tower going down. We all have our focus on the nexus and ignore the players. It's a mistake. They kill us all and try to push back, but don't notice that bot is completely open and the minions backdoor. We all throw off our headsets and hug. "We won!" Erik screams and I smile, pulling him in a hug. We walk to Roccat to shake hands and Airwaks looks at me. "You are a girl but play better than many man." He says with a small smile and an ashamed look. I pull him in a hug. "I might be a girl but never underestimate the spears." I whisper in his ear. He smiles and I walk to the others, past the public giving them a high-five and back to the PC.

Game 2 starts not too much after and I smile. I laugh as they ban away Nidalee and Darius. Joe got a penta and since then they always ignored him or 1v5'ed him. They also ban Ryze and Ezra groans. As we ban away Yasuo, Lissandra and Lucian, the fight for the picks begin. We manage to get Irelia, Nautilus, Orianna and Kog'maw. The only thing we had to do with the last pick is get me a jungler. I think and suddenly it pops up. "Give me Amumu." I say and they look at me. "They got a Draven and a Graves." I hear Ezra say. "But they also have Thresh and Swain. Give me Amumu." I say and Erik locks it in. People begin chanting and vaguely I hear Krepo say about 'Surprising pick' and 'does is describe her feelings?'. I put my middle finger in his direction and the audience laughs. The last Roccat lock in is Ekko. "It is Ekko jungle I think." Joe says, and as soon as we are in loading screen I notice he is right. "Okay play safe all." I say.

What happened this game, should've been censored. I hit all my bandage tosses and managed to camp the hell out of their Graves. Instead of giving him a steady lane, I made myself a wanted target. In fact, when I popped my head in lane on half HP, I would be chased down. Roccat fell for 90% of the baits and around 30 minutes they made a desperate Baron call. We pretended we weren't near, but I was in the tribush near there. When the baron had 2k HP left, I bandage tossed my way in, smited and died. But the rest had Baron buff and we were heading for their base. Suddenly I realised how scumbag we played. "Guys have mercy and don't toy around. Finish them." I told them and they hummed. In a minute we had their nexus down and stood up, hugging each other and celebrating our first victory. We gave the Roccat players a hand when a Riot member signalled me to come. "Do you want to be on the post-game lobby?" He asks and I nod. "Totally fine with me." I say and he takes me backstage after I unplugged my gear and told my team. He walks me to the studio where they are watching the Vitality vs UoL and the man introduces me. "Guys, I brought "FeedMe" with me." He says. I see her head turn and my heartbeat picks up. "Hi, I am Eefje." She says and taps on the couch that I have to join her. I sit down and watch how Vitality just destroys the Unicorns. We get a signal that they have to move to the analyst desk. Eefje pulls her dress straight and walks back, her hips swaying. Every man looks at her and I look to. As they are seated and I joined them, we place on our headsets and wait to begin.