All hope was not lost! High School 13 could still beat Shanghai International! Those were the words that An Xin told the esports team. She’d watched them play. Analyzed their individual and team skills. And she’d also looked into Shanghai International. If they came up with a real strategy for this next matchup, including a well thought out draft, when to make in-game rotations, which spots on the map to focus vision on, and so on, they could win. They had a real shot at making it to the Finals! An Xin needed to sit down and work it all out, but she felt strongly that it was possible.
“I’ll have it ready tomorrow,” An Xin promised. “I’ll watch a few of Shanghai International’s games from earlier in the tournament and work out the best way for us to beat them. It shouldn’t be too difficult. We can start practicing with the game plan tomorrow.”
Her declaration was met with a stunned silence. The members of the esports team had all watched Lin Feng torture himself searching for the answer. On top of that, they knew Shanghai International. They’d played against them before and watched them play in this tournament. Beating them was impossible, this was fact. Until An Xin came along. She said that they could beat them with so much confidence that they had no choice but to believe her! Ouyang was the first to buy in and start cheering, and then Liu Yue joined in. Before long, all of them were cheering and laughing and thanking An Xin for showing up just when they needed her the most.
Liu Yue was awestruck by An Xin, “Amazing… You’re amazing. How can you come up with an entire game plan in a single day? That’s insane! So cool!”
An Xin chuckled and said, “Well, I could make it better if I had more time, but the game is scheduled for this weekend. We need to come up with something fast and test it out. See if it works. That way, even if it doesn’t, we’ll still have time to adapt and pivot. Come up with a backup plan.”
“See, guys? I told you An Xin is a great coach! With her here, we don’t have to worry about a thing. Just play ‘em like she calls ‘em, and we win!” Lin Feng laughed.
“Lin Feng! Stop! This won’t be a perfect plan. I’m going to do my best, but you guys are the ones that’ll have to make it work,” An Xin said. Then she looked at Lin Feng and gave him a coy smirk. “But I think I already have Plan B in mind. Just in case.” Then she winked at him.
✹
With two games down and the team still revved up for a third, Ouyang stood up from his seat and BroSnapped at An Xin. “Hey babygurl! How about you play a game? I want to see your moooovveeess! You know that I know that what I really want to see is how a Diamond Jungler pushes it on everyone else!”
This suggestion was a good one that everyone approved. The way Ouyang phrased it, not so much. After a few strong glares and some facepalms, the rest of the esports team also joined in on asking An Xin to play a game with them. They all wanted to see her play. She’d talked so much, but she hadn’t actually shown them any real skill yet. All they knew was what she said. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe her. They absolutely did believe her, especially with Lin Feng vouching for her! But they were curious to see a good female Jungler. Those were very rare. Most girls played Support, and if they played another role, it was Midlaner or ad-carry. As for those who did play in the jungle, they were generally kind of terrible at it. This was just how it was. Players and analysts alike came with all kinds of reasons as to why this was. Some claimed that a lane was just a lane and they could focus on that, whereas the Jungle tied the whole map together. It required quick thinking and perfect decision making. Many believed girls weren’t good at those snap judgement calls. Others called this ridiculous and said there was another very logical reason. There just weren’t enough girls who played the game. Either way, regardless of what the real explanation was, the fact of the matter remained that there were very few good female Junglers.
Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. He knew this bit of information. He’d even done some research into the matter, “Most girls are pretty terrible Junglers,” he said.
Lin Feng waved his hand and smiled. “Don’t worry about that! Bunbun isn’t a normal girl!”
Wei Dong and Chen Ze already took a step back when Lin Feng opened his mouth. They remembered the last few times that he did. Ouyang and the others leaned back half a second later. Just in time to create some distance from Lin Feng and An Xin. An Xin who’d tilted her head, a smile that looked incredibly creepy spreading wider and wider on her face. “Hmm? Did I just hear you say something weird again?”
Liu Yue nudged Ouyang, covering his mouth with one hand and reaching the other out towards Ouyang, and whispered, “Look at these goosebumps. She scary.”
Ouyang nodded, though he never actually looked at Liu Yue or his arm. His eyes were on Lin Feng. Admiration, that was what he felt. Undisguised admiration. He mumbled to no one in particular, “I have to give it to him, he’s got some massive cajones. No clue how he managed to live this long with her. But damn, she fire when she gets mad. Holy shit, how can someone be that hot? I’m feeling it.”
An Xin suddenly turned towards Ouyang and looked him in the eyes. He shrunk back, terrified she’d heard what he just said. But it seemed like she hadn’t as she only said, “Sounds good. I’ll play!” Then she turned back towards Lin Feng and said, “You’re going to play Mid.”
Lin Feng smiled and said, “Sure! We haven’t played together in forever!”
The esports team queued up for another ranked game. They quickly found an opponent and went into Champion Select. A few bans and a couple of Champion lock ins later, they moved into the loading screen, ready to play their next game. This was the game where An Xin could show off her skills, or fail spectacularly! Either way, they were all eager to watch her play.
Blue Team Line-up:Chen Ze (Top): RumbleAn Xin (Jungle): Lee SinLin Feng (Mid): YasuoTang Bingyao (AD-carry): JinxWei Dong (Support): Alistar
Lee Sin was a mechanic heavy Jungler. An Xin had nothing to hide behind. Regardless of their opponents, everyone would be able to tell how good she was at the end of this game. But it didn’t take that long. An Xin wouldn’t let that happen. She took the game in her own hands almost from the start. She cleared her Red Buff Camp in the bottom left jungle, then pathed all the way to the top right jungle where Red Team’s Red Buff Camp was. When she got there, the Evelynn was taking her Red Buff, unaware of the looming danger. Her health was low, and dropping lower. An Xin waited, patiently, then pressed her Q key. Her Lee Sin sent out a Sonic Wave that struck the Evelynn. Then he dashed towards her and killed her.
《First Blood!》
“WOOT WOOT!” Liu Yue cheered. “You’re awesome Bunbun!”
Ouyang shouted at almost the same time, “That was great! Did you guys see that? Woooo!”
Ren Rou smiled and said, “Go go, Bunbun! You’re the best!”
Yang Fan adjusted his glasses, smiling, and said, “Great play. The Evelynn never even saw it coming. Now she’s far behind and Bunbun should have an easy game.”
An Xin clapped in her hands, laughing. “Yep! This is a good start to the game. Now to keep it going!”
An Xin was far more direct with her idea of keeping it going than the others had expected. Instead of recalling and spending the Gold she’d gotten for the kill on Evelynn, she stayed in the brush next to the Red Buff Camp. There she waited for the Evelynn to respawn and make her way back to the Red Buff Camp. That was exactly what the Evelynn did. And when she found her Red Buff still alive, she attacked it, forgetting to check the brush right next to her. An Xin happily abused this, waiting for the Evelynn’s health to drop and then using her one-level advantage to kill her again.
《You have slain an enemy!》
Liu Yue laughed, loudly so, and said, “Damn, she cheesed that hard—WaitWaitWait! I meant that that was amazing! Great play!”
“Yeah yeah, it looks great and all. It’s just…” Ouyang rubbed his chin, watching An Xin’s every move. Something felt off, but he wasn’t sure what. “Why does it feel like deja vu? Did we play before, Bunbun? No, I wouldn’t forget you.”
Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and said, “It probably feels familiar because that’s the exact same move Lin Feng likes to pull.”
Lin Feng moved his mouse, clicking constantly, while his other hand glided over his keyboard. All the while, he was also listening to the others and even interjecting, “Yeah! She taught me how to do that move! Most of my Jungle pathing I learned from her!” Then he pressed on his W key–Wind Wall! His Yasuo swept a wall of wind up in front of him, blocking Ahri’s Charm. Her health was low, so he dashed through a minion to close the gap and then dashed through her, hitting her with his Sweeping Blade. He followed up with a straight attack of his blade–Steel Tempest–and an Ignite. The Ahri flashed away. She tried to get to safety. But her health was already too low. The last tick of Ignite took away the last of her health.
《You have slain an enemy!》
“Not bad,” An Xin commented on Lin Feng’s kill.
Lin Feng winked at her and said, “Thanks. I’m really good at Yasuo too!”
An Xin curled her hair behind her ear and smirked. “Oh, is that so? Alright, let’s have a competition. Whoever gets more kills wins.”
Everyone expected Lin Feng to start picking up kills. He was really good and they’d seen him be even better on more than a few occasions. But they didn’t know what to expect from An Xin. They were only hoping to get a show. And that was exactly what they got. An Xin was taking this friendly competition very seriously and started hunting the Evelynn in the Red Team’s Jungle. At five minutes, she found her at the Krugs in the top side of the Jungle. From there it was a quick and easy kill. She was just too far ahead and the Evelynn wasn’t getting any experience to catch back up.
《Killing Spree!》
An Xin pathed to mid lane and helped Lin Feng pick up a kill on the Ahri, who’d just returned to lane, before heading straight back into the Red Team’s Jungle. That was where she lived this game. She walked through the bottom side Jungle, from the Blue Buff Camp to the Wolves. There, she found the Evelynn at low health trying to get some experience. An Xin killed the Evelynn and then also the Wolves for some extra experience.
《Rampage!》
Be it the spectators or the people playing the game themselves, they all just kind of watched in shock. There was nothing special about An Xin’s Lee Sin mechanics. She didn’t pull off any fancy moves. All she did was predict exactly where the Evelynn would be and kill her. This happened over and over again. From the start of the game to now, the Evelynn had only managed to clear a single Jungle Camp unmolested. That was the very first, the Blue Buff Camp. From that point onwards, the game went downhill for her. Every single time she entered her Jungle, Lee Sin would already be there and waiting for her. He’d kill her and send her back to the fountain. It felt as if the Lee Sin could see through the fog of war and locate the Evelynn wherever she was.
Ouyang and Liu Yue stared at An Xin. They were Junglers themselves and knew just how difficult it was to predict an opposing Jungler’s pathing. But An Xin was doing just that, perfectly. She knew exactly where the Evelynn would go. Ouyang and Liu Yue watched on, both awestruck and shocked as they quickly realized that An Xin was a better Jungler than both of them put together. If they had to play against her, she would slaughter them. They wouldn’t even know what hit them. Her Jungling style relied entirely on predicting what the opposing champions would do next.
“Holy shit. Her Lee Sin is amazing…” Liu Yue muttered.
Lin Feng looked away from his screen and towards Liu Yue. “Eh, she’s alright. But she lacks the mechanics. What good is a Lee that can’t even R-Flash?”
“HMM?” An Xin turned her head towards Lin Feng, her lips curving into that dangerous smile again. That smile that made everyone around her want to run away. There was a fire in her eyes when she smiled that smile. Something changed in her demeanor. It was almost palpable. She asked, “What did you say? Say that again.”
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