Chapter 62 - Sad Truth
The rules for the match adopted the official 1v1 rules.
The side that gets first blood or reaches 100 CS first wins.
Only one recall is allowed, and the bushes above and below mid lane are the boundaries.
Crossing them results in defeat.
Summoner spells, runes, and items are free!
A heavy tension hangs in the air.
I gave Soldier ‘Teemo’ to complete the story, but in fact, Teemo wasn’t an easy champion in a 1v1 setting.
Moreover, Teemo in the hands of Soldier, a former pro gamer with a World Series championship, not just an ordinary Challenger level player?
Of course, being an off-meta champion, his proficiency would be much lower, but I couldn’t let my guard down.
In that sense, I picked the best champion I could handle against Teemo.
Annie!
She was a champion with good memories, having picked her in the last round to win against Mia in our previous 1v1 match.
-Teemo vs Annie? Is this right? Shouldn’t you just pick Malphite? Why choose Annie?
-The Malphite vs Teemo matchup where they just exchange Q skills only works in lower tiers. In higher tiers, when Malphite uses Q, Teemo trades with auto+Q and has lane push priority, so Teemo always wins 1v1.
-Yeah; I know that too. But League of Legends isn’t a 1v1 game. Since Malphite is so good at responding to ganks and much more impactful in teamfights, you always pick Malphite when you see Teemo.
The viewers’ analyses were mostly correct.
Generally, Malphite is known as a counter to Teemo, but that’s actually true in lower tiers. In higher ranks, in a 1v1 situation without jungle intervention, Teemo often wins.
The usual scenario where Malphite wins is by poking with Q to reduce energy, then looking for a kill opportunity after learning the ultimate at level 6. But in higher tiers, Teemo often trades auto+Q, causing Malphite to lose energy, and even if Malphite tries to go for a one-shot with his ultimate, Teemo usually dodges with flash.
To prepare for a potential one-shot, Teemo often mixes in Ruby Crystal to increase total health… Lastly, if Teemo chooses Riftmaker as the mythic item, he gains vampiric ability, quickly recovering full health even after trading, making it impossible to find kill opportunities.
In that sense, considering the physical difference between Soldier and me, there’s no answer with Malphite.
Then which champion should I pick?
I knew the answer.
Annie!
Annie, who crushes Teemo from the skill mechanics, could be called Teemo’s true counter.
Teemo and Annie trade damage.
Teemo can hit with auto+Q, and Annie can hit with Q+W+auto.
The Electrocute damage is a bonus!
What does this mean… It’s a miraculous damage trade possible thanks to Annie’s passive that ‘stuns’ the target when using the 4th skill.
The Annie vs Teemo dynamic is simple.
If Annie prepares her passive and doesn’t use skills, that’s the end.
Then Teemo can’t do anything.
Since their Q skill ranges are almost the same, the moment Teemo tries to poke, Annie’s Q skill also flies.
Then Teemo falls into a stunned state and has to helplessly take Annie’s W skill and auto attack.
The Electrocute rune activating after taking three attacks in a short time is a bonus.
Even if Teemo manages to land just a Q… or tries harder and lands an auto attack too, the opponent returns three hits plus bonus damage from the rune.
After level 6, an incredibly powerful ultimate is added, and the moment Teemo gets stunned, Annie can one-shot with ignite.
Sometimes people might naively think, “Just trade when Annie uses her skills elsewhere to farm CS comfortably and her passive is down!”
But this is a 1v1 match without jungle intervention, and even if Annie just moves forward with her stun passive stacked, Teemo has no choice but to back off.
It’s a unique dynamic between champions that you can’t feel the unfairness of without playing it yourself.
Amidst the expectations of uncertain viewers, the game started, and the result came out more blandly than expected.
“… Is this me? I might be stronger than I thought.”
-ㅋ Look at her talking after picking Annie against Teemo.
-Hani’s personality is chilling. Is this how you take revenge because you lost 2 games in a row to Teemo yesterday?
-It’s my first time seeing Teemo vs Annie lane, but it’s a complete hard counter. How can Teemo win this? ㅋ
“……”
Soldier was silent.
But it was clearly me who got first blood.
After trading damage twice, Soldier realized he would die like this and tried to play cautiously, but the result was the same.
The moment I hit level 6, I went for an all-in with Flash+Q, and unlike Malphite’s ultimate, Annie’s targeted Q skill accurately hit Teemo!
Following up with W+R+Electrocute+Ignite+auto attack, the annoying poison dart badger was roasted.
“Soldier-nim? I think I won?”
“Yes, that’s right. Congratulations.”
The viewers’ chats were gradually becoming subdued at Soldier’s reaction, still not showing any particular emotion.
This was troublesome.
I even used 300 points to upgrade my abilities for today’s broadcast, and it ends like this?
No way!
I steel my resolve and initiate aggro.
A powerful provocation towards a World Series champion member!
“Soldier-nim, don’t feel too bad.”
“Pardon?”
“Your opponent is me, after all.”
“… Ha!”
-Crazy girl! Crazy girl! Crazy girl!
-ㅋ She’s using “Your opponent is me” on Soldier?
-Is Hani a god! Is Hani a god! Is Hani a god!
The chat window exploded.
[Reasons why Hani’s YouTube will inevitably blow up (+263)]
[Hani vs Soldier World Series level match, who’s the winner? (+247)]
[Hani♡Soldier coin, We Got Married fans get on board ㄱㄱ (+232)]
[I’m reporting Hani’s personality for giving Teemo and picking Annie. (+203)]
[The moment Soldier streamer gets involved with a woman for the first time since debut! (+188)]
The effect of ‘Your opponent is me’ was greater than expected.
Although I used the difference in champion matchups, the symbolism of beating Soldier 1v1 was even bigger than expected, and thanks to that, the YouTube video uploaded late that afternoon was a huge hit.
Not only the views but also the number of subscribers increased considerably, already approaching 45,000.
Even more encouraging fact!
Soldier, who fell for the ‘Your opponent is me’ joke, initiated a ‘One more game!’, but even in the second match, Teemo couldn’t overcome Annie’s wall.
As expected, Annie is the pinnacle of Teemo destruction!
When the result came out like that, Soldier, who wasn’t that kind of person to begin with, ended up unable to even make excuses and became the sacrificial lamb for my next content.
It was a 1v1 educational content targeting top lane champions.
Although Soldier didn’t do any YouTube activities at all, his fame as a World Series champion was so great that fans had been quite thirsty for content.
Thanks to that, related news spread quickly.
With rumors that people could see Soldier in recent activity videos rather than official match broadcast videos from the past, my subscriber count has been steeply rising since early this morning.
This was really unexpected luck.
I’m starting to think it might not be difficult to achieve 100,000 YouTube subscribers by Mia’s birthday, which I was wondering about.
“For that reason, I’ll pass on exercise today.”
“No, how am I supposed to know when you omit everything before and just say ‘for that reason’?”
“If you’re curious about the reason, make sure to watch all my YouTube videos!”
As they say, make hay while the sun shines – I canceled all other schedules.
For the time being, I’m all-in on content with the ‘sacrificial lamb’.
As pre-arranged, I’ll conduct the 1v1 educational broadcast with Soldier at 5 PM today.
The viewer count broke the record for two consecutive days.
Yesterday it hit 1500, but today it exceeded 1700.
I remember the shower of water balloons that poured like a waterfall the moment I beat Soldier in yesterday’s broadcast.
Naturally, my heart becomes generous and my service spirit is full.
So I tried adding an honorific.
“Soldier oppa. Please take good care of me for today’s lesson.”
“… Y-Yes?”
Oh my?
This reaction is a bit…
I’ve discovered an unexpected weakness.
As League of Legends became popular, I became interested and over time, I became a fan of several pro players.
Of course, there were preferences among them.
Faker, undisputedly known as the world’s best mid laner, Wonder, who was called the god of the jungle though now retired… and the third was Soldier, the ruler of top lane.
To be honest, although I was a fan, I wasn’t an enthusiastic fan who knew these players’ small habits or hobbies.
I just liked their game performance and flashy plays, and admired the effort and passion that brought them to the top.
That’s why Soldier’s appearance, with whom I ended up broadcasting together by chance, came as quite a surprise to me.
To express it in a cheaper word, should I say it ‘breaks the image’?
28 years old.
And looking at his gameplay during his prime, he always held firmly in top lane, never crumbling, showing a solid appearance.
So I imagined he would be like that in real life too.
A big, taciturn man of few words.
But reality was quite different.
“Uh, well, um…”
“Oppa?”
“Y-Yes?”
Soldier wasn’t a 28-year-old taciturn man.
I cried, and all the viewers watching the broadcast cried.
He was a 28-year-old lifelong single.