Love is War

Chapter 23

I did not expect this, I really did not expect this, it’s my turn and I will just suddenly learn that there are many people rooting for me in this stadium. There are even others that is quick enough to put up a banner with my IGN on it. I did not expect that this store intends to put this event on big screens.

Yes, I’m the top player in this bracket competition, Anonymous, but why? It’s giving me the anxiety and I think that I can’t focus on my game, the second place in the battle royale is in my bracket this 2nd round and he is the one that will play before me.

But my anxiety is building up because he will win the match soon, it’s a one-sided game for YouCan’tSeeMe in a duel in an RPG (Role Playing Game) game. I can tell that he is a seasoned veteran player with his skills and moves. He looks so confident, and I envy him for that, it’s a good thing that I chose a place away from the crowd.

I am thankful for the fight earlier that warfreak101 gave me during the rig selection phase, because if I won that fight with her, I think I might not be winning the card in this competition. Good for me and her, I need to say my thanks to her later when I have the card later.

“Poor Juris,” I paid attention to the announcers when the match ended. Even a little bit YouCan’tSeeMe’s health bar was not reduced by his enemies. “Better luck next time!” he added and the player leaves the stadium with a depressing expression, though I understand that because that’s what I will do when I lose in this competition.

“Better luck next time,” his partner added. “That’s what is life sometime, you need to depend on your luck, unless you can make miracle happen,” he added with a quote by himself.

“Moving on, the most anticipated match,” the other one shifted the topic of the discussion and the crowd’s adoration to me became louder and louder. Some even raised the banner with my IGN on it. That’s why I put Anonymous in this competition, because I don’t want anyone knowing my real IGN and not even bother me in my gaming sessions at home.

I am very thankful that I faked my first name not the last name, superstition beliefs. Although it’s enough for me to hide my identity because people who has Yoshida in their last names are abundant.

“With the top 5 fighting him, this will be a good fight at least,” he said. “Battling in another strategy focused game, a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game, widespread on the whole world known for its competitive community, League of Mythics,” he announced and I am confident with this game.

We opened the game and we logged in into our own account not a dummy account since when they briefed us about the match, we are allowed to use our accounts in this game if we have one, or use a dummy account if we don’t have one. It’s because that we can pick our main heroes and maximize our own game style.

The match making will be a draft pick, and the most logical thing that I can think is to use a dummy account with my main heroes on it. It is to minimize the information that he will gather in the learning phase where we will stalk each other’s account. My dummy accounts are limited to heroes that I don’t play so the heroes that I will use will not be banned. Besides there are no such rules that will limit us from using any accounts, as long as we can play it, we are good to go.

Good for me, I have a smurf account with no rank but with 600 games played all heroes unlocked, this is to make sure that my strategy is a sure hit and there are no backlashes for me later.

“League of Mythics Cal,” I heard the announcer while the game client is loading. “Truly a game where players can showcase their thinking abilities and will amaze us how they will use the skillsets of their heroes,” he said.

“Yes, you are right, and this game has a large community that’s why I think that this round will not be a one-sided match like what happened earlier,” he replied. “Look, his enemy Mitsuha, looks so confident as he is gathering as much information from Anonymous,” he said and I was startled when I am reminded that I need to gather any information.

I don’t ever underestimate any enemies and if he is not wise enough to use a dummy account like what I did, the jokes on him since I will clearly have the upper hand in this match. I searched the profile that the employee had given me and I typed his username “Superior Living Being” and mine was “Shinee”, oh, I see I can’t tell if this is a dummy account or not but I think he intends to scare me with his rank.

In his profile his rank in this season with his account, “Grand Master” is gloriously displayed on his profile interface this is the 2nd top rank before “Challenger” where the greatest of the greatest are fighting. He looks so confident because he might think that I am a newbie.

Sad for him, I am a challenger player in my main account and I have a fast internet connection to connect on Korean Server where professional players are matched against me.

“Both players took a different route, as anonymous maybe decided to use a dummy account to hide information about his game style and skill level, truly an anonymous player indeed, but who knows, this game is full of surprised,” the other one said.

“On the other side Mitsuha decided to use an account with such high ranked account, and by looking at his profile interface in Anonymous’s screen we can see that he really likes bruiser class heroes,” he said. “He is impressing us already in this learning phase, I have my hopes up, that this game will be a very good match for us to witness.

“ANONYMOUS!” the crowd shouted. “ANONYMOUS!” they shouted again. “ANONYMOUS!” they are cheering for me and I think I don’t know how to breathe anymore.

“TIMES UP!” the announcer shouted and I gasped for air immediately when my mind is back in the game. We are both invited in a custom lobby and we entered the lobby immediately. “MATCH START!” he shouted and now we are taken to the banning phase immediately.

He is the first one to ban, and I think that he is getting cocky as he banned random champion, messing with my mind huh.

“That’s a bold move for Mitsuha, let’s see how will Anonymous will respond to his taunt,” but I will not take the bait as I sticked banning his main champion, Flora, a swords woman that is pure skill champion. Also, it has a high healing and high comeback chances. “But Anonymous is not fazed with it as he is logically thinking in the match,” oh, I just noticed that the map is only just one lane with no bushes so any information leaked to us is as not crucial to the Howling Void Map with no bushes, this one is also Howling Void but without any bushes, and the 5v5 map Challenger’s Rift.

Mitsuha banned yet another random support healing champion to taunt me and each of us have 3 chances to ban any champion and I will not waste it just to taunt my enemy and I will use my 3 chances to ban his top 3 main champions.

I banned Amphibious, a crocodile champ also with a lot of healing and comeback potential and with this alone I can tell his game style and I will not risk any chances for him to comeback in any later matches, and the last one was Daryl, a bruiser champ with great damage and great sustain, and as you guessed it also a lot of healing, banning this will have a significant effect to his mental state that his taunt did not get into me. Also, he will have the expression that I am a newbie, just a little chance and this will ruin his mood.

It can be annoying if your enemy does not give any care about you and I know the feeling very well. Not actually an enemy but my sparring partner. Geez! I have sparring sessions tomorrow. I guess I have to enjoy this game very quick.

After the banning phase it is finally time to choose our heroes and I picked an assassin class and his skill sets revolves on his shadows and in my main account I have 2 million mastery points in this hero and the same hero that brought me to challenger elo. Jedi the master of shadows.

I am the first one picking and my enemy has the chances to counter pick my champ but I overcame that obstacle long time ago. As expected, a counter pick champ, Oogre, an alien hero that has strong laning phase and strong poke, also lot of healing too, especially his ultimate skill where he transforms into his alien form with wings and his skill vamp and life steal is enhanced significantly, but items can counter that healing ability.

Also, my hero has outplay potentials and strong dueling and burst especially in the mid game and late game.

“What a match up!” I heard the announcer behind me.

“Both strong heroes and both of them are also based in pure skills by the player itself,” now I fixed my runic page for my champ since this is one of the aspects that amplify the potential of our heroes and I picked the thunder lord’s wrath as my second passive, and I can tell that he will pick the vampiric aura as his second passive that will amplify his life steal.

This will not be an easy match for me, but I have reasons to not lose in this match.