[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return – Chapter 410

“Hey. Lately, the top lane’s been a bit fun.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, why?”

Seo Yeon-woo shook her head.

“No, nothing.”

“Oh, it’s time to pick. Let’s do well.”

“Sure.”

I smiled at Seo Yeon-woo.

“I won’t go easy on you.”

“…Neither will I.”

I was a little concerned about Seo Yeon-woo’s expression, but now was the time to focus on the game.

I returned to my seat and put on my headset.

Even though there were computers in the private room, it was only proper to wear headsets in the practice room while gaming.

Well… Sometimes, like with Kim Jae-min, he would blast music and turn up the sound, but it was only a brief 30 minutes until Kim Ji-hoon arrived, so no one really minded.

It felt like we could allow that much freedom.

‘So…’

I shifted my gaze to the screen where the ban/pick was in progress.

First, the bans were as follows:

─────────────

[Allies / Enemies]

Zayan / Aatrox

K’Sante / Blitzcrank

Kai’Sa / Nidalee

Rek’Sai / Renekton

Aatrox / Yuumi

─────────────

The bans themselves were quite ordinary, common in solo queue, and no surprises there.

So ordinary it felt almost off.

Out of conscience, I didn’t check what pick number Seo Yeon-woo was at.

With the current ability to change pick orders, it didn’t really matter, and I thought it would be inconsiderate to the opponents.

No matter how much of a solo queue it was, when everyone’s lives were riding on the rank points, we’d be in a cold, competitive world.

Even if they were on the same team, I had no intention of giving them slack.

‘Let’s see…’

Our team was the blue side.

In other words, we had the first pick.

‘Uh-oh.’

The reason I thought that was quite simple.

Typically, the blue side’s strength comes from the first pick, while the red side’s strength derives from the last pick.

So usually, when a meta comes with plenty of OP champions, the blue side is at an advantage in securing one or two OP picks that become available post-ban.

However, that didn’t have much to do with the top lane.

In the top lane, it’s always better to get the last pick.

Sure, over the long history of Legends of League, there have been absurd OP champions that can break through counter picks, but right now, there aren’t many champions that can show such overwhelming performance with first pick.

Above all, the recently rising top champion Aatrox was already banned.

Though there are often cases in team games where champions like K’Sante or Sion are first-picked, that’s purely a team game.

As mentioned earlier, in solo queue, the last pick in top lane is reality.

Due to the nature of the top lane, if a counter, near-matching champion comes out, one could suffer throughout the game.

‘There’s no choice then.’

In solo queue, when the top laner ends up with the first pick, they typically have three categories of choices.

The first is picking a strong, solid pick like Renekton or Nyar that has almost no counter matchups in lane.

The second is enduring in lane and picking to fit the team’s overall composition.

The last third is to just pick something the player is highly skilled at and wants to play, regardless of the lane matchups or composition.

For reference, top laners tend to fall into the third category surprisingly often.

Seo Yeon-woo, too, in her days as a 3 Min Top School Honorary Member, naturally fell into that third category.

‘I’m not thinking that way.’

I wasn’t even a top laner to begin with, nor was I planning to pick blindly.

The champions available to a first-pick top laner are quite limited.

What you’d call a comfort pick.

Mostly, these are preferred picks when junglers get matched with the team.

My pick order was third.

Since it was obvious I’d be first pick, I didn’t feel the need to swap with the fifth pick. I intended to pick right here.

[ Rakan ]

Our first pick was Rakan.

Not the best option for a first pick, but given that Rakan’s tier wasn’t bad recently and he’s always been a joker pick, it wasn’t necessarily a bad choice.

[ Zeri ]

[ Ruler ]

As a result, the opponents locked in Zeri-Ruler for the bottom lane duo, completing their bot lane all at once.

With Rakan coming out and champions like Kai’Sa, Zayan, and Yuumi banned, it seemed they thought a bot lane duo with survivability was about all they could get.

Zeri and Ruler, as everyone knows, have tremendous survival capabilities.

At this point, while Rakan could easily become a supporting piece for a swift combo, the second pick, our mid laner, seemed to have no intention of conceding that.

[ Galion ]

The Rakan-Galion combination.

To be honest, neither champion is particularly high-tier these days, nor can they be easily said to be solid picks, yet their synergy is distinctly apparent.

‘Look at that…’

Watching our first and second picks made me reconsider my own pick.

As I mentioned before, a top laner with a first pick generally has about three choices.

Originally, I was set on going for a safe pick, but if there’s this much synergy in the composition, I was open to considering another option.

‘If only we have Rakan-Galion, we might just get rolled by Zeri and Ruler, but… what if we add one more thing?’

If the team was going for a dive comp, there’s no other way around it; it’s only right to align with that concept, regardless of how it turns out.

[ Kamal ]

So the champion I decided to pull out for my top first pick card was none other than Kamal.

I knew as well.

What it meant to first pick Kamal, a notably weak champion in lane.

It could be seen as crossing the line by Seo Yeon-woo and all other top laners, or they could think of me as a one-trick with Kamal.

But Seo Yeon-woo already knew it was me.

I didn’t know what kind of feelings Seo Yeon-woo was experiencing right now, but at least I thought picking Kamal wasn’t a bad idea.

It’s kind of surprising, but when I viewed it objectively, my Kamal skill level was not too shabby.

Although it was quite a while back, there was a time when Kamal regularly appeared as a first-tier jungler.

During the recent top calls for a three-minute surrender, the jungle was advocating for a two-level surrender.

It was the worst meta, and I had been a Prisoner during that time, so Kamal wasn’t exactly my preferred type of champion.

He had such great potential, and in those moments, sense and physical capability were crucial for that champion.

‘But now, I can do it.’

The ban/pick went on.

The champions of both the enemy and allies were picked in order, and finally, it was the red team’s 5th pick turn.

Despite the Kamal first pick, the top champion had yet to reveal itself.

Regardless of whether it was a consideration that Kamal might go to another lane, such worries were unwarranted.

[ Jax ]

Finally, the enemy’s last pick was Jax.

Jax had been consistently known as a counter to Kamal since the OP era when he was newly released, and given that Renekton was banned, he could be the best choice in this situation.

Despite there being plenty of alternative champions available to counter the relatively weak Kamal in the lane, choosing Jax specifically indicated one thing.

‘A true showdown.’

While it was true that Jax would be labeled a counter pick against Kamal, that didn’t mean there was no room for Kamal to respond.

In fact, depending on how it played out, Kamal could create advantageous situations.

‘If it’s coming to this… this should be fun.’

I stole a glance to the side, where Seo Yeon-woo seemed to show no signs of loosening her tension, focused intently on the ban/pick screen.

By the careful way she selected each rune, I could tell how much effort she was putting into this game.

In any case, the ban/pick went as follows:

─────────────

[Allies / Enemies]

Top: Kamal / Jax

Jungle: Rakan / Maokai

Mid: Galion / Tristana

Bot: Ezreal / Zeri

Support: Rill / Ruler

─────────────

If one were to just look at the ban/pick itself, it would make sense that our team composition was countered by the enemy’s.

The enemy composition was filled with plenty of tools to negate dives and had considerable survivability.

However, that didn’t mean our team composition was without its advantages.

The Rakan-Galion global ultimates could bring about variables.

That would be the key to this game, and what was most essential was the control of the side lanes.

In other words, this might just be a rare chance for a top lane to carry in this game.

‘Let’s do it.’

Kamal and Jax.

Time for that true showdown.