"Ah, she's picking a girly champion just because she's a girl."
That was Woohyung's entire impression of Noel, the opposing team's top laner, visible only in the ban-pick window.
Of course, even though his team won championships every year and he was universally acknowledged as the world's best top solo laner, his opponent was still a professional gamer.
He certainly wasn't looking down on her.
He was just grumbling because the pick itself was annoying.
The Kennen versus Vladimir matchup wasn't one where upsets typically occurred.
Vladimir had an easier time maintaining lane presence with his blood-sucking ability.
But since Kennen's skills had slightly longer range, neither could prevent the other from farming, making it an unpleasant matchup.
Moreover, from Kennen's perspective, even if you barely gained an advantage in trading damage, Vladimir would stubbornly heal himself back up.
It was inevitably frustrating to deal with.
"What's this? Are you whining because you got counter-picked?"
"Wow, top gap already. Change your nickname from Odin to Thor."
"Thor is too good for him. Change it to Fat Pikachu."
But his teammates didn't take his side at all.
That's just how friendship between men works.
Unless someone was seriously injured, minor misfortunes were just fodder for teasing.
Besides, being at a slight disadvantage in one lane wasn't a big deal.
Overall, their team composition was practically a counter to the enemy's.
And his teammates trusted Woohyung.
Even if the opponent had a counter pick, as long as Woohyung didn't give up kills, SKY team would have a much better late game.
"It does seem like they prepared well and deliberately pulled out Vladimir. But even if we go even, we're in a much better position. We won the rock-paper-scissors of poke-engage-disengage compositions."
Only Joker, Sanghyun, offered calm reassurance to Woohyung.
Though his words might seem obvious and generic, there's a difference between thinking something yourself and hearing it from someone else.
As he said, there's been a compositional rock-paper-scissors in League of Champions since its early days.
Poke compositions that fire small skills from a distance are weak against engage compositions that collapse formations.
Engage compositions that work hard to break through are weak against disengage compositions that counter with threatening area control.
No matter how threatening your crowd control is, getting poked from afar makes the game frustrating.
Although you can use bans to cut key cards from certain compositions or overcome disadvantages through items, vision control, and individual skill, a good composition always gives you a chance for comeback no matter how far behind.
Conversely, having the compositional advantage makes things much more comfortable.
Even going even is advantageous, and the pressure is on the opponent, making them more likely to make mistakes.
Moreover, SKY team had always beaten HLG.
Though they occasionally dropped a game or two, and sometimes lost sets during the off-season, they had always won in major tournaments like this.
All team members had outstanding individual skills.
And thanks to Joker's insistence, everyone maintained physical fitness.
They were confident they wouldn't lose in a best-of series.
It wasn't about looking down on their opponents.
They simply had confidence in their own abilities.
Besides, except for Truerock and CryingSSD, everyone else was so skinny you'd wonder if they ever exercised.
Even in esports, which doesn't require much physical strength, lacking basic stamina leads to diminished concentration as matches drag on.
That gave them additional confidence.
Especially Noel, whose frame was so delicate it seemed she might struggle just sitting in her chair.
This wasn't meant to disparage her—it was just objective analysis that had been circulating beforehand.
While there was a slight twinge of guilt about having to defeat such a seemingly fragile girl, the world of professional gaming is ruthless.
Once you step into this arena, gender, appearance, or disability can't be excuses.
Both sides must use everything at their disposal to pursue victory.
So the moment the game started, the appearances of the opposing players faded away.
Only the champion portraits remained as the enemies the players faced in this battlefield of warriors.
"Should we invade level 1?"
"We're super strong. Let's go."
"Let's go top. Time for an initiation ceremony."
So it didn't matter what anyone looked like outside the game.
The only thing that mattered was that the opponent was a rookie, which they would exploit for victory.
But the other side wasn't a professional for nothing.
She dodged Brown's carefully aimed skill shot with precise movement.
"Ashe, auto! Can't reach?"
"Ah, the edge touched but the range isn't enough."
"Damn. Her movement is on point."
She slipped away with a deft twist, moving just outside the basic attack range of the marksman.
Unless Ashe or Montblanc could dive in with Blink to apply a slow that could lead to a bind, they couldn't risk such an adventure when no champions besides Vladimir were visible.
"At least we got vision of their jungle, so that's good."
"Bot duo, back and check our jungle a bit on your way to lane."
So they were satisfied with gaining vision to predict the enemy jungler's early movements.
The SKY team moved to their respective lanes and began performing their roles.
But Woohyung was annoyed.
Unlike mid lane, where players aggressively targeted each other's lives from the start with every movement, basic attack, and skill, Noel was just carefully measuring the distance between them, dodging his lightning shurikens while looking for opportunities to heal.
It wasn't that Woohyung didn't remember Noel from solo queue.
The Challenger tier didn't have that many players, and Noel's playstyle could fairly be described as insane.
Once in range, she would briefly assess the situation and dive in if she saw even a slight opening.
But was it because she was playing Vladimir?
Or was it because this was a tournament game?
Her playstyle had completely changed.
Of course, Noel had always been a tightrope walker.
She was a prime example of what people called a "successful headbutting dinosaur."
That's why the public viewed her as a berserker who relied only on mechanics and aggression.
But the tightrope walking she was showing now—
Maintaining distance down to the frame and pixel level.
Even though Vladimir players typically want to trade one more hit despite taking damage because they can heal it back, she was only accepting losses she could precisely recover from.
Woohyung was getting serious.
He was clearly the one applying pressure, but it felt like she was just letting him do it.
This feeling was confirmed around 7:30.
They both had their ultimates now. If this were the Noel he met in solo queue, she would be looking to exchange ultimates and decide the winner.
But despite having her ultimate, she hadn't initiated any meaningful trades by level 7.
So he pressed Tab to check the score.
The minion count wasn't that different.
Of course, he was pushing the lane, so he was ahead by six, but she would catch up once she cleared the current wave.
What is this?
Is she playing like this because she thinks going even is advantageous for her?
Of course, among the nine players currently in the game, if his team provided crowd control, Vladimir could glide through the battlefield collecting kills while drawing and dodging aggro.
But no matter how experienced and disciplined Woohyung was, he couldn't help but feel irritated by this kind of movement.
How arrogant and presumptuous!
It seemed like she was treating her teammates as meat shields and looking down on the opposing team.
Odin, being a top laner at heart, organized the situation to deal with his surging emotions.
It was true that using his ultimate now wouldn't result in a kill.
The allied jungler was continuously supporting mid lane, which was necessary so the unleashed Montblanc could exert influence across the rift.
Should he wait until they came top?
No, that wouldn't justify his position as a top laner recruited to SKY team with a million-dollar salary.
He needed to create any variables he could.
Unfortunately, despite the jungler's investment in mid lane, HLG's mid laner, Truerock, survived with exquisite skill usage.
Worse, their own jungler died in the disaster, making Woohyung even more desperate.
Trying to recover, Ashe fired her ultimate from bot lane.
The Crystal Arrow missed everyone in mid lane and continued flying upward.
But Woohyung saw an opportunity.
If he could bait Vladimir to move backward slightly, Vladimir would retreat against the wall and wouldn't be able to dodge the Crystal Arrow coming from beyond his vision.
His decision was quick, and Woohyung's action was immediate.
He used Lightning Rush to dash forward, throwing a lightning shuriken and shuriken at close range where they couldn't be dodged.