The Rize I had met so far wasn’t the type to lie.
Of course, I hadn’t known her for a long time, so I couldn’t be entirely sure.
It was just how I felt.
Anyway…

“I don’t think she’s lying.”

From my judgment, it seemed that Rize wasn’t lying.

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: Yeah, I don’t think she’s lying.]
[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: She’s not really the type to lie.]
[Gang Hoo-min: Whether it’s a lie or not, let’s have a good match! <<< Why does this piss me off so much?]
[It’s normal to be pissed off, honestly.]
[Is it really not a lie?]
[Rize’s sniping, what’s the gain in sniping, haha.]
[It’s fun, have a drink.]
[If it’s fun, I guess sniping makes sense.]
[Should I snipe or not?]
[But doing it just for fun is a bit ambiguous.]

But there was one thing that caught my attention.
The enemy jungler was playing Mundo.
I’d never heard of anyone in the upper ranks playing jungle Mundo.
It strongly felt like Rize was forcing Mundo into the jungle just to counterpick.

“Who the heck plays jungle Mundo these days?”

I said this half-jokingly as I checked the enemy jungler’s match history.
And then, I saw the champion pool for the enemy jungler.

“…Is this for real?”

To my surprise, there was indeed someone playing jungle Mundo.
They had played about twenty games this season.
I was honestly shocked.
Who even plays jungle Mundo seriously?
It’s not even a good champion.

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: I really didn’t know this…]
[Now that I think about it, I have heard of someone in the upper ranks doing this lol]
[But what exactly is the advantage of jungle Mundo?]
[Gang Hoo-min: Honestly, there’s no advantage.]
[Gang Hoo-min: It’d be better to play any other champion with CC.]
[I thought they picked this for a counter, but it’s clear they’ve been playing it for a while. That’s surprising, haha.]

But what could I do?
The situation was already set.
All I could do was give my best effort in this situation.

“As long as I don’t die in the lane, I’ll be fine.”

The match-up wasn’t great, so I just had to play carefully and focus on farming.
If I could do that, even though winning seemed impossible, I’d think about it later.
Right now, the goal was to survive.

“I’ll buy items focused on surviving.”

I bought items that increase health regeneration when taking damage, and started the laning phase.
Since Akali’s poke was quite strong early on, this type of item was really effective.
I also equipped runes that boosted health regeneration when taking damage.
With this setup, I felt like I could survive early on.

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: But too much...]
[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: This is just like playing against a Raze lol]
[Ugh, I’d rather lose than win like this.]
[Why are they not countering?]
[Fact) If they counter, Dama is the only one who’ll burn.]
[You need a good match-up to compete lol]

It seemed like the viewers were trying to argue, but I quickly ignored them and focused on the laning phase.
I concentrated on keeping my health at an appropriate level.

“...This laning phase is really tough.”

This is why it’s best to pick something safe as a first pick.
Why did I choose to play like this and suffer?
I thought this while I kept getting poked during the laning phase.
I had no chance of winning if the enemy jungler came to gank, so I had no choice but to take the damage.
How much time had passed?

“Phew.”

Finally, I felt like I could breathe a little easier.
I had bought Hermes Shoes to reduce magic damage, and it felt like it was working.
I thought, "This is good," while continuing to play.

[Triple Kill!]

A cheerful sound came from the bottom lane.
The bottom lane achieved a triple kill.
From the top lane’s perspective, this was great news.

“This is it. This is what a team is for.”

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: Haha]
[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: It looks like the team luck is making up for it this time.]
[Rize, even if you grow strong, what will you do, haha.]
[Gang Hoo-min: Rize, pull yourself together, please.]
[Gang Hoo-min: Don’t just farm the top lane, come down and make an impact.]
[If you leave top lane, Gwen will farm forever, how can you make an impact?]
[In fact, when you lose the laning phase, Akali becomes annoying~]
[Hwanhee: Yeah, yeah, this is what a game is.]

I was genuinely happy.
Even though I wasn’t doing much, the game felt easy.
All the frustrating ranked games while trying to reach Challenger flashed through my mind.

‘I can’t afford to die here.’

I decided that it was best not to die.
There was no reason to mess up the good momentum we had, especially with how things were going.

With that thought in mind, as I played cautiously, a ping went off in the top lane.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The pings warning about danger in the top lane increased.
Looking at the minimap, I noticed that the enemy team wasn’t visible.

‘...Are they about to dive?’

It seemed like they were preparing for a dive.
Since the bottom lane had already collapsed, they probably planned to push the top lane.
Our jungler was busy taking Dragon, so I couldn’t ask for help.
It was a situation where I had to handle it all by myself.

“I guess I have to take the dive.”

Normally, it would be best to wait under the second tower, but I felt like I could survive if I played it carefully.

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: Shouldn’t we just leave here for free?]
[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: Do we really need to dive?]
[Gang Hoo-min: Yeah, let’s take the dive.]
[But if we mess this dive up, the game could turn upside down.]
[It’s a risky move.]
[But since I’ve already got Hermes, it should be fine, right?]
[Is it okay with the enemy mid coming?]

The viewers were worried.
But I was confident.
I knew I could handle the dive.

“I’ll win.”

With that declaration, I began to take the dive.
The first one was Mundo.
While Mundo tanked the tower, the others would try to catch me.
That’s why my movements were extremely important.

“I’ll move to the left, use my ultimate.”

Using the ultimate was crucial.
The slow would make diving much harder.
With that in mind, I moved slowly and dealt damage to the enemy.

[Enemy slain!]

[Double Kill!]

“Phew.”

I managed to take down two.

[🗡️ Jeon Ji-Jong Neung Han Cthulhu: Ahh]
[This is it, haha]
[Great]
[Great is god]
[Why is it a god though?]
[It really is god-like...]
[Criticizing Dama’s dive, haha]
[Gang Hoo-min: Damn, you really suck at dives, just surrender.]
[The wicked feedback, haha.]

The fact that the enemy didn’t have any CC capable of limiting my movements made the dive much easier to handle.
But I still acted like it was a tough situation.

“I really hate diving.”

Anyway, after handling that dive, the game was pretty much decided.
Even though Rize was playing well, there was no way she could turn the game around from this situation.
Just as I was thinking that—

[Double Kill!]

I heard the announcement that we got a double kill.
But it was the enemy.
Even worse, it was Rize.

“Wait, what? Why are we losing when we’re in such a good position?”

This wasn’t supposed to happen.
It didn’t make sense.
With that thought, I lightly typed in the chat.

[Allies][LondonIsDangerous][Gwen]: Everyone, stay strong!
[Allies][LondonIsDangerous][Gwen]: Let’s give it our all!

I tried to encourage the team and focus on the game.

[Victory!]

“...What?”

The victory screen popped up.
I was stunned.
How could we win so suddenly?
We hadn’t destroyed their Nexus yet, so it meant they surrendered.
Something felt off, and just as I was thinking about it—

[Rize -> Me: No, Dama-nim]
[Rize -> Me: My team surrendered, so it was forced.]
[Rize -> Me: It’s a shame…]

Rize came into my stream to complain.
It seemed like all the other members of the enemy team pressed surrender, except for Rize.
But something didn’t add up.

“But there was a person sniping me on the enemy team.”

That person surely couldn’t be the one who suggested surrendering.
As I pondered this, I got a message from Rize.

[Rize -> Me: That person]
[Rize -> Me: They joked about surrendering, and then everyone followed.]

Rize explained the situation, and I thought—

‘...Am I an idiot?’

Maybe I had misjudged, but I didn’t think my viewers were smart enough for something like that.
I felt ridiculous and quickly checked my points.

[Grandmaster 803LP]

803 points.
It wasn’t Challenger yet, but after the reset, it would be.
With less than 30 minutes until the reset—

“…So this is how it works.”

It was quite a different promotion match than I had expected.