League of Leagues.


    Professional gamer Park Sun-Hyung, known in the gaming world as a pro from the game League of Leagues or simply League, was livestreaming and engaging in a bit of what was colloquially known as ‘smurfing,’ or using a secondary ount to stomp on less experienced yers.


    "Alright, since this isn’t exactly fair, I’ll start with a penalty. I’ll go without wards and give them one free kill to start."


    <em>- LOL, still a smurfing stomp.</em>


    <em>- This guy, hahaha.</em>


    <em>- Honestly, if he doesn’t handicap himself, he’s just crushing the dreamers.</em>


    <em>- Dreamers? In this low rank? It’s all washed-up yers here.</em>


    Ignoring the snarkyments from the chat, Sun-Hyung raised his voice. "Guys, ready?"


    "Yeah, ready. Let’s go easy on them. I’ll go with an entertaining pick," said one of his teammates, queuing up.A five versus five party queue. The match was quickly set up.


    "Oh, we’re in! What’s this? Heins n? What a funny name. Alright, taking votes. What champion should I go with?"


    <em>- Brum.</em>


    <em>- Legit. Brum.</em>


    "Brum, <em>huh…</em> That champion’s so unyed it’s practically dead. But hey, it all depends on who’s ying, right?"


    <em>- Look at that confidence.</em>


    <em>- Honestly, with a pro yer smurfing in low ranks, every champion is overpowered.</em>


    "Smurfing isn’t the greatest content, so I’ll keep it to a couple of matches. Let’s just breeze through and then surrender."


    With that, Sun-Hyung picked the champion Brum, as his viewers suggested.


    Then the game began.


    "<em>Woah, </em>they’re not even checking the invade. <em>Ah,</em> these low ranks…”


    <em>- Easy push for a kill, let’s go!</em>


    "If you don’t follow me andmit, there’s no way I’ll help youter! Let’s go!” Sun-Hyung and his teammates confidently initiated a rush. They were going after a lone, tiny middlene character wandering cluelessly in the jungle.


    "If you waltz into our jungle like this, there’s no way out. Unless it''s a bot, there’s no way they’ll dodge this slow..." he said, moving in for the kill.


    Just then—


    <em>"Huh?"</em>


    Right as he dove in, the small middlene character darted away, narrowly avoiding his nearly wless attack.


    "<em>Oh,</em> pretty decent reflexes? Still..."


    First Blood!


    Sun-Hyung chuckled as he took the opponent down in an instant.


    "Since I promised to give them a kill, I’ll go down once thening phase starts."


    With that, thening phase started.


    Chatments flooded in, iming that the opponent was probably already shaken mentally and him giving them a kill wasn’t much of a handicap—in reality, Sun-Hyung just wanted to end the game quickly as it really wasn’t the type of content he enjoyed doing.  ?


    Knocking down the waves of NPC minions and collecting gold, Sun-Hyung felt something strange about his opponent’s movements.


    "What’s going on here? They’re moving a bit... unusual."


    Something about the way they yed felt off from the usual patterns, but then again, he reminded himself that he was ying against low-rankers. He knew that, as a pro, he’d never get bested by them.


    "Alright, let’s pretend to make a mistake and die on purpose."


    [An ally has been in!]


    With the notification, his champion copsed and the screen turned gray.


    "Okay, let’s y with no vision wards and end this fast."


    <em>- Just win already.</em>


    <em>- He’s teaching them a tough lesson.</em>


    Laughing at thements, Sun-Hyung got back into the game.


    Then, suddenly—


    "<em>Huh?</em> What the—?"


    One of his teammates let out a surprised yell.


    <em>"Damn!"</em>


    Startled, Sun-Hyung nced over. "What’s up?"


    "Shit… What was that reaction speed? I almost died there..."


    His teammate said, visibly shaken. Seeing his topne teammate, Si-Woo—considered a genius in his role—get so flustered was rare.


    [An enemy has been in!]


    It seemed his teammate managed to turn it around and secure the kill, but his reaction spoke volumes.


    "<em>Whoa...</em> That was some crazy reflex."


    "Are they good?"


    "I don’t know. Honestly, I can tell they’re a total rookie, missing almost every minion, but their reactions and split-second decisions are startling.”


    "Die! Die!!" someone shouted from the bottomne, fully immersed in the game.


    And then—


    "Wait, what?! Why are you there?!"


    With his scream—


    [An ally has been in.]


    [Enemy double kill!]


    The stream chat exploded in confusion.


    <em>- ????</em>


    <em>- ???? Did a double kill just happen in the bottomne? In this low rank?</em>


    <em>- What’s going on?</em>


    "<em>Whoa... </em>What’s with their AD carry?”


    "Dude, quit messing around."


    "Are you kidding me? The jungler’s not even supposed to be here yet!"


    "Hey, we’re in low rank, remember? You can’t y by the usual logic here. It’s the wild west here; only people who know the meta stick to it. These guys don’t know it, so they’re ying in unpredictable ways."


    "Screw this… This is pissing me off. Time to go try-hard.”


    The match resumed. It was one-sided at first, even with the handicap. Despite giving away a kill, the gap between a pro and a low-rank yer wasn’t something easily ovee. In fact, they could normally give away two to three kills and still beat the opponent easily. But the opponent themselves managing to get two kills off of them was certainly a shock.


    "Alright, no more fooling around."


    At that moment, the AD carry in the bottomne of his team seemed to snap and started ying with a new level of intensity.


    <em>- Yeah, that’s more like it.</em>


    <em>- He’s a pro getting killed in low ranks? So bad OMEGALUL.</em>


    <em>- Totally humiliating, right?</em>


    The teasingments kept rolling in, but Park Sun-Hyung kept feeling that something was off. Even without using wards, the opponent’s ystyle seemed too precise and calcted to be just a beginner. It was as if their reflexes were maxed out, but their knowledge of the game wasgging behind.


    "<em>Huh?</em> Wait, what happened? Where’d my jungle creeps go?"


    Suddenly, someone in the jungle shouted incredulously.


    <em>- What’s going on?</em>


    <em>- Come on, you’re messing around too much.</em>


    "Damn, did I underestimate them just because we’re ying in low rank?"


    <em>- Their movements are strangely on point for scrubs.</em>


    <em>- For reals. They just seemed like they’re not used to ying; when they’re locked in, they don’t hesitate at all.</em>


    <em>- Maybe they’re smurfing, too?</em>N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "These guys are definitely smurfs. A total newbie wouldn’t have this level of reaction time. Their split-second decisions would make even Diamond yers smash their keyboards."


    <em>- KEKW, watching pros face off against smurfs in a five versus five is the best.</em>


    The game didn’tst much longer. Sun-Hyung and his teammates, frustrated by their opponents with their unexpected ys, ramped up and ughtered them to end the match.


    “<em>Oh…</em> I forgot to surrender.”


    <em>- OMEGALUL.</em>


    "It’s fine. No need to go easy on smurfs."


    - True, honestly. It’s fair game at that point.


    As the game ended, Sun-Hyung turned the game off, masking his irritation as best he could. "Alright, that’s it for today’s stream. That was unexpectedly fun. Hope this doesn’t mess up my focus with the uing tournament."


    <em>- Who do you think will win the tournament?</em>


    "Who else? We’re in it to win it. Gotta y like we mean it."


    <em>- True that.</em>


    <em>- For real, lol.</em>


    Sun-Hyung turned off the stream and looked over at his teammates gathered in the living room, all with puzzled expressions.


    "Hey, what’s up with you guys?"


    "Dude, who were those guys?"


    "<em>Huh?</em> Judging by how they were ying on their smurf ounts, they probably got up to Challenger and started ying with their smurfs. Their ounts were only created four days ago."


    "Yeah, but…" murmured topner Si-Woo, narrowing his eyes, "ying against them was… unsettling."


    "Unsettling? You felt unsettled?"


    "Hey, I’m human, too. It’s just… how do I put this…?"


    "It felt like we were being experimented on."


    "Yes! That’s it! They didn’t seem to care about winning or losing; it was like they were testing something out. Their movements were still rough at times, but the whole match was eerie—unsettling, even.”


    "It’s probably nothing. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone y quite like that in Challenger."


    "Yeah…"


    "But, seriously, were those guys really just smurfs?"


    "No one can spook a pro that badly after just four days, no matter how talented they are."


    The truth was, none of them knew the real answer.


    * * *


    A week had passed.


    <em>Crunch.</em>


    Someone bit into a snack.


    "Gank iing."


    In response to his voice, Rinne appeared from the jungle in an instant. The enemy panicked, identally shing in confusion.


    <em>Crunch!</em>


    The opponent''s cries echoed as the gank swiftly closed in.


    <em>- Damn you smurfing bastards!</em>


    <em>- Does it make you feel good doing that in a ranked game?</em>


    "<em>Hahaha!</em> Clear the way!"


    The top and midnes were basically open highways, and the enemy’s bottomne was getting mercilessly crushed.


    Regardless of the enemy lineup, the topne bulldozed forward and the midne swept across the map dismantling everything in its path, while the jungle dismantled the opponent''s mentality with movements that didn’t allow room for even a single second to respond. Meanwhile, the AD carry at the bottomne was crushing the enemy, not letting even the support yer survive.


    Starting from the lowest ranks, they had quickly climbed to the shiny Grandmaster rank. Watching them in action, Al Hajat couldn’t believe his eyes. It was only natural for the opponents to be tougher with each tier, making it more difficult to climb the ranks.


    But the people in front of him had somehow forgotten how to stop themselves. They sped forward without slowing down, spending only a few games in each tier before plowing through like a bulldozer. Looking at them made Al Hajat marvel at how they were the same people who had been screaming towardputer yers a week ago.


    "Alright, go in,” Davey said.


    "Yes,” Aeria responded.


    She dove in at the perfect moment, locking down the opponentpletely.


    <em>- Screw this, not ying anymore! Damn hackers!</em>


    <em>- I’m reporting all of you.</em>


    As the opponents finally lost their heads, the game ended.


    "<em>Ahh, </em>that was satisfying."


    "No kidding," Illyna and Perserk agreed, bothpletely different from before.


    Illyna, who used to do hunt-and-peck typing, now had unnervingly quick reflexes and muscle memory, as though she was aputer herself.


    "Is everyone having fun?” Al Hajat asked.


    "It’s pretty fun,” Perserque said.


    "It’s nice to see you enjoying yourselves. But honestly, I’m impressed. I didn’t think your skill would grow so quickly."


    "Once I got the hang of it, it was easier than I thought,” Illyna said.


    Al Hajat gave a wry smile at thatment.


    "Considering how so many yers are stuck at walls they can’t ovee, you’re quite amazing."


    "Now that we’ve gotten enough enjoyment, it’s time to stop,” Davey said.


    "Yes, stopping when it’s fun is best. Though I still have a goal left to achieve,” Al Hajat said.


    "And what’s that?"


    "Since I’vee this far, I might as well make it into the Challenger rankings."


    It was no surprise as he was indeed in the rankings of Alf Online. Eyeing hispetitive spirit, Davey couldn’t resist teasing him.


    "I wonder if this will make you want to go pro?” he asked.


    Of course, Davey knew it was unlikely.


    "<em>Haha, </em>not quite. But… pro gamer, huh… there’s a bit of a connection there. Actually, it ties in with you, too.”


    "Wait, what?"


    Davey blinked in surprise at his words.<blockquote>


    ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook''s Thoughts


    <strong>Editorb’s Thoughts</strong>


    Being a Twitch viewer who asionally watches people y League of Legends and a yer myself, I went ahead and localized the terms used in the chapter to fit more with the English streamer scene. OMEGALUL and KEKW are both emotes used tough at either the streamer or the enemy, simr to lol or lmao. With fancy new emotes, simply typing “lol” isn’t asmon/cool anymore. Here’s a LoL emote of Braum that’s basically KEKW.</blockquote>