Rise

At the constant pestering of Lin Feng, Tang Bingyao finally agreed to duo queue with him. She picked two Diamond accounts she was boosting and gave one to Lin Feng. Like this, she could get two orders out of the way at once.

Even though Tang Bingyao was occasionally a bit naive, she wasn’t stupid. Boosting a Diamond account was fairly difficult. After witnessing Lin Feng’s skills yesterday, she quickly realized he would be of great help to get the harder orders out of the way. As for the easier orders with Gold and Platinum accounts, she could easily complete them with her ad-carry Draven.

Seeing the list of several dozen accounts along with their passwords on her phone, Lin Feng inched closer, his eyes wide with surprise. “Wow! Tang Tang, you’re really something!”

Tang Bingyao knitted her brows. She didn’t like it when people addressed her so intimately. However, seeing that Lin Feng paid no heed to her discomfort, she could only pretend like she didn’t hear.

“Do you need money badly? Is that why you’re taking on so many elo boosting jobs?” Lin Feng asked, full of interest.

Tang Bingyao shook her head. “I don’t really need money.”

“Eh? Then why are you elo boosting so many accounts?” Lin Feng asked.

“Because I enjoy the feeling of making money,” Tang Bingyao explained.

Some people liked eating tasty food, others liked playing video games, and there were some that enjoyed travelling. Everyone had their own interests. Lin Feng assumed there were many more people like Tang Bingyao who liked the feeling of making money. So, he accepted her answer without a second thought. Entering the username and password Tang Bingyao provided him, he said, “Let’s start!”

✹

Before long, the two entered champion select. Tang Bingyao was first pick, Lin Feng second. She banned three champions[1], then called ad-carry and moved her mouse to lock in Draven.

“Wait wait wait!” Lin Feng cried out.

“What?” Tang Bingyao stared at Lin Feng.

“I told you. It gets boring always playing Draven. Play another ad-carry today!” Lin Feng brightly smiled.

“I don’t find it boring,” Tang Bingyao objected.

“But like this, it’ll be difficult for you to improve. Switch up the champions you play. I promise you’ll improve really quickly. Then, you’ll be good enough to boost people to Master and Challenger!”

Tang Bingyao pondered for a moment before nodding. At Lin Feng’s suggestion, she locked in Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance. She then turned to Lin Feng and asked, “What role are you playing?”

“Support!” Lin Feng pounded his chest.

“Won’t it be harder to win if we both go the same lane?” Tang Bingyao asked.

“It’s fine! I’m pretty good at support too!”

✹

After everyone had locked in their champion, they went into the loading screen. On the top half of the screen was the blue team with top Irelia, mid Veigar, jungle Elise, ad-carry Kalista, and support Annie. That was right, Lin Feng had picked support Annie! On the bottom half of the screen was the red team with top Darius, mid Orianna, jungle Lee Sin, ad-carry Tristana, and support Janna.

Kalista was the newest ad-carry champion. She quickly gained traction in the pro scene mainly because of her third skill—Rend. The important part of this skill was its synergy with her basic attack, which involved her throwing spears. These spears would remain lodged in whatever champion or monster she was attacking, and the spear stacks continued to build indefinitely. Then, when the moment was right, Rend could be utilized with E and rip the target apart with damage scaling to the number of spear stacks. The sheer amount of damage from this skill along with the timing made her invaluable. It was a phenomenal combo for everything from pushing lane to stopping the opposing team from getting Dragon or Baron.

Lin Feng picked Annie, a little girl boasting powerful magic damage. In the early game, she mostly relied on her strong long-range poke. Then, when she reached Level 6, her full skill combo became available, unlocking frightening damage and crowd control. Not to mention, Annie and Kalista paired very well together. They could combine their ultimates to execute a devastating combo.

“Time to crush the enemy bot lane!” Lin Feng declared.

“I haven’t really played Kalista much,” Tang Bingyao said. She was clearly out of her comfort zone.

“No worries. Kalista is pretty simple. Just requires a little skill with the mouse. She’s perfect for you. All you have to do is go in when I tell you to.”

✹

At around two minutes, Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao killed the two golems in the stretch of jungle adjacent to their bot lane before arriving at the outer tower. This was a little trick you could pull in bot lane. After gaining the experience from killing the golem camp, you could reach Level 2 before the enemy bot lane and seize priority over the lane. Not to mention Lin Feng was really good at juggling the aggro of the golem camp, minimizing the number of attacks the golems dealt. He and Tang Bingyao barely lost any health while killing the golem camp.

When the two reached bot lane, Lin Feng saw the enemy ad-carry and support were already in lane. Both Tristana and Janna’s health bars were full. “They didn’t do golems. We’ll have the Level 2 advantage,” he said.

“Mhm,” Tang Bingyao acknowledged. She started killing the minions.

Kalista’s passive, Martial Poise, allowed her to make a short dash in a targeted direction in the middle of her auto-attacks. This increased her maneuverability and flexibility. A short dash followed by an auto, this certainly took a while to get used to and required good control with the mouse. However, that was exactly why Lin Feng believed Tang Bingyao was particularly suited for this champion.

Tang Bingyao ended up missing the first two minions in the first wave and accidentally dashed toward the enemy, which resulted in her eating a couple of autos. Her face flushed red with embarrassment.

Lin Feng didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he even comforted her, “Don’t worry. You’ll quickly get the hang of her. We have higher damage than them early game. No need to be afraid.”

Tang Bingyao nodded, her eyes flashing with determination. Disappointed with her own play, she became even more driven to master this champion. Even if she was new to this champion, she could still play it well!

Before long, Tang Bingyao started getting used to Kalista’s gimmick. Her movements became more and more natural. Not to mention, the same playstyle she became accustomed to with Draven started slowly revealing itself in her Kalista gameplay. What was that? Aggression! When she found the opportunity, she directly threw out a spear with her Q, piercing through a low-health minion and hitting the Janna. Then, she hopped forward and auto-attacked Janna twice, hopping back on the second auto-attack. Then with another hop, she easily dodged Janna’s Howling Gale.

“Nice!” Lin Feng praised. At the same time, he didn’t slack off with his Annie either. He took advantage of his superior attack range to continuously poke the enemy. From time to time, he would add a Q to his auto attack poke on Tristana, taking small chunks of her health.

As the last few minions of the first wave were killed, Annie was about to level up. Lin Feng stared at his experience bar, his eyes lighting up. “Alright, get ready to go in!”

“En!” Tang Bingyao acknowledged. She had her Kallista last hit a minion, flicking her mouse forward. She hopped toward Janna, a brilliant light enveloping her as she reached Level 2.

“Go!” Lin Feng cried out as he flashed forward, his champion also having reached Level 2.

Annie materialized in front of Janna, wreathed in a ring of swirling smoke; an indicator that her next skill would stun the target for a short duration.

Lin Feng pressed down on his W-key—Incinerate!

A cone of scorching hot flames swept forth and stunned Janna. Then, he followed up with Disintegrate and Ignite, a rotation that melted the Janna’s health! It was a beautiful play! An instant engage at Level 2!

1. In Season 5, first pick in ranked games could ban three champions. Since then, this rule has changed.