LPL History

Chapter 85 Busan at Four in the Morning Moon, Nidalee Ryze Tests Her Strength

In 2012, the young Lee Sang-hyeok still had a youthful face, and his eyes occasionally flashed with a hint of confusion about the future.

Born in a poor suburb and raised by his father, Lee Sang-hyeok developed an introverted and quiet personality.

And under his father's influence, he grew up happily in the arcade.

In 2011, with the release of League of Legends in South Korea, Lee Sang-hyeok instantly became a fan.

In order not to interfere with his studies during the day, Lee Sang-hyeok could only stay up late every night to play games.

His grandmother would sit beside him, playing with him until four in the morning every day.

Kobe Bryant once saw Los Angeles at 4 a.m.

Sang-hyeok and his grandmother, on the other hand, had seen Seoul at four in the morning.

So it turns out that if you want to succeed, whether you stay up late or get up early, you should develop the habit of watching the sunrise at four in the morning.

Generally speaking, if you can develop this habit and persevere, you will eventually succeed, as long as you don't die suddenly.

Lee Sang-hyeok quickly demonstrated his amazing talent in League of Legends.

He occasionally does live streams in hopes of earning some money to supplement his family's income.

However, in many cases, the revenue from live streaming is not even as high as the electricity bill.

Fortunately, there was a guy in the live stream who said he knew people from professional esports teams and asked him if he had any thoughts about playing professionally.

They also invited Lee Sang-hyeok to Busan to watch the OGN finals.

Prior to this, Lee Sang-hyeok hadn't paid much attention to professional leagues.

After all, the game had only been released for a short time, and most players were still immersed in the fun of exploring the game.

But for Lee Sang-hyeok, although he had never watched a professional match, just hearing those four words made him excited.

So he agreed without hesitation and came to Busan.

"Nineteen consecutive wins! Come on, Sang-hyeok! We're just one step away from 1.5 million!!"

Amid Choi Jun-wook's cheers, Lee Sang-hyeok was now surrounded by onlookers.

The internet cafe staff member spoke up:

"The next player has a rank of 1,800!"

Upon hearing the staff member's words, Choi Jun-wook waved excitedly.

"Yes! 1800 points, that's no problem for you at all!"

A murmur arose from the crowd.

"Wow, I'm so lucky! My opponent in the last round only has 1,800 points."

"Looks like this kid is going to take the money. Even the player with 2,200 points just now was no match for him."

Lee Sang-hyeok ignored the people's comments and simply lowered his head and closed his eyes to calm himself down.

The two computers used in the competition were placed face to face.

Zhou Li stood in front of his seat and saw someone opposite him pretending to be an expert with their head down. He smiled and sat down.

The man next to him, dressed in a suit that seemed completely out of place in the internet cafe environment, was boasting to the onlookers.

"My junior is quite remarkable. He's only seventeen, and his future is limitless. Once he goes pro, you'll probably only see him on TV!"

In South Korea, although seventeen years old is considered a minor, internet cafes in South Korea allow minors to enter during designated hours on weekends.

Zhou Li smiled when he heard Cui Junxu's words, which drew the other party's dissatisfaction.

"Hey, what are you laughing at? Are you doubting what I said? You're only 1800 points, kid. This might be your only chance to face a professional player, so cherish it, understand?"

Seeing the other party's provocation, Zhou Li smiled and said:

"Does playing in an internet cafe tournament make you a professional gamer? You're seventeen, why aren't you studying? What are you doing playing games?"

Choi Jun-wook stared at Zhou Li with wide eyes.

In his opinion, the young man in front of him looked to be about the same age as Lee Sang-hyeok.

"What are you talking about, kid? Just because you don't have the ability doesn't mean others can. Besides, you're not that old, are you? You're sitting right here, aren't you?"

Strawberry and Ruofeng cannot understand Korean.

If they understood, they would have already rushed up and started fighting with Choi Jun-wook.

The two former sworn brothers have now become Zhou Li's left and right protectors.

Even though they couldn't understand what was going on, they could still tell from the other person's tone that something was wrong.

"What the hell is that Korean bastard chattering about?"

Ruofeng asked.

"I don't understand, but it feels like they're provoking our Brother Zhou."

Strawberry answer.

"It's all my fault! Zhou Ge had to step in and sort this out. Yu Jingxi! Why are you such a useless person!"

Ruofeng clenched his fist.

Zhou Li, too lazy to continue the verbal sparring with Cui Junxu, simply said:

"There will never be a shortage of geniuses in this world, but genius is just the threshold for becoming a professional player."

He entered the room, found the leopard woman, and locked the door.

On the other side, Lee Sang-hyeok locked up the wandering mage.

Upon seeing Zhou Li's selection of personnel, the onlookers began to discuss it animatedly.

"What were you thinking, playing Nidalee mid?"

"Isn't Nidalee played top lane?"

"It was just nerfed in the last patch, so top lane is no longer viable."

"How can Nidalee beat Ryze? You can win just by last-hitting minions, right?"

Nidalee has gradually become a less popular champion in the current version, but a few versions ago, she was very popular in the top lane. Because her Q in cougar form deals physical damage, Nidalee was often built as a hybrid tank/bruiser.

With core items like Trinity Force and Guinsoo's Rageblade, you can relentlessly chase down and devour enemies.

However, Nidalee's cougar form's dual resistances were later removed, and she gradually fell out of favor in the top lane.

However, the designers significantly increased the damage of Nidalee's Q skill.

Because of the recent attribute adjustments, mid-lane AP Nidalee hasn't become popular yet.

On the other hand, let's look at Lee Sang-hyeok's side.

The wandering mage is still the infamous magic machine gun.

Once the ultimate skill is activated in the later stages, he transforms into a lightning mage, becoming both tanky and dealing high damage. All three skills, Q, W, and E, are headshots, allowing him to stand still and endlessly loop his skills.

As a 450-gold champion, Ryze has deceived countless newbies, making people think that such a cheap champion is a trash champion.

However, the players who can participate in or watch this kind of competition are naturally not new players who have just come into contact with the League, and they naturally know how terrifying Ryze is.

Amid the doubts of the onlookers, Zhou Li controlled the Leopard Girl to come online.

Upon seeing Ryze standing in front of the tower, he immediately unleashed his Q skill, the spear.

If it were someone else, without minions, they might choose to retreat and not give Nidalee a chance to poke.

But Lee Sang-hyeok has been confident since he was a child.

Instead of retreating, he stepped forward to demonstrate his footwork.

Lee Sang-hyeok controlled Ryze and dodged Nidalee's Q with a slight twist, then prepared to press forward and fight Nidalee.

Facing Ryze's advance, Nidalee, whose skills were on cooldown, did not retreat but directly began to auto-attack Ryze.

However, Ryze has multiple Q skills, so Nidalee clearly can't out-trade Ryze.

"Does this kid really have 1800 points? I know I should retreat when I run out of skills."

Some people started complaining.

Then the leopard woman fired another spear.

Lee Sang-hyeok's eyelids twitched.

"Snapped!"

Nidalee's Q skill was extremely tricky, and his confident positioning did not help him twist the spear.

However, the two sides were already quite close at this point, and Nidalee's Q skill damage wasn't very high, so this exchange of blows was just a draw.

Lee Sang-hyeok still didn't choose to retreat and continued to attack the Nidalee.

Moreover, his positioning was extremely arrogant, and he was still pushing forward, already standing parallel to Nidalee. This was clearly because he was worried that the opponent would escape and had already made a position to kill her.

Although both sides were pulling at each other, they were pulling sideways, and neither of them was willing to back down.

"Snapped."

Nidalee unleashed another Q, hitting Lee Sang-hyeok once again.

Lee Sang-hyeok was slightly taken aback.

"Snapped."

"Oh……"

When Lee Sang-hyeok, who had been silent until now, subconsciously uttered a sound of confusion after being hit by Nidalee's third Q skill.

And it's obvious that he can no longer beat Nidalee.

Lee Sang-hyeok controlled Ryze and started to run away, with Nidalee in hot pursuit.

Seeing the spears shooting at him from behind again, Lee Sang-hyeok's eyelids twitched violently.

He tried to dodge it by moving around, but found that the angle of that Q was just too tricky!
At this point, Nidalee's Q skill was still quite powerful. Although Lee Sang-hyeok was already dodging, he wasn't sure if he could dodge it.

If I get hit by that Q again, the opponent might come up and use Flash + auto-attack + Ignite to kill me.

The rules for SOLO are: one kill, one tower, and one hundred CS (creep score) and the game is about to end.

"boom!"

Lee Sang-hyeok immediately used Flash.

This drew gasps of surprise from the onlookers.

Zhou Li saw the opponent use Flash and felt a little regretful.

If that Q hit, I could get a solo kill at level one. Right now, it's clear I can't catch up to them.

He couldn't help but exclaim:
"Oh, kid, not bad positioning. You actually dodged two of my Q skills."

Zhou Li was genuinely praising his opponent, after all, his own Healing Power was at a perfect level of proficiency.

But to Lee Sang-hyeok and the onlookers, these words were interpreted as blatant mockery.

This is especially true for Lee Sang-hyeok, who has always been confident.

Nidalee's Q skill deals high damage, but it is primarily a poke skill.

What is a poke skill? It's high damage but low hit rate.

Especially when there is a view of the area, logically speaking, there is no reason to eat Q in front of people like that.

However, in this wave, Nidalee used five Qs, and Lee Sang-hyeok only managed to dodge one Q thanks to his positioning!

Choi Jun-wook also realized that something was wrong.

"Oh, what's going on? Why am I constantly consuming skills?"

He had watched Lee Sang-hyeok achieve a nineteen-game winning streak in the internet cafe; his skillful movement had previously made Choi Jun-wook's scalp tingle.

Lee Sang-hyeok remained silent for a long time, his hand gripping the mouse tightening slightly.

"The opponent is a master."

(End of this chapter)