Author's Note: so like... i started this before preseason and just finished it. whoops nothing happened like it should have. or like it did in this freaking story. acorn is still on lgd gdi. someone stop him. anyways, I really like faker. if that wasn't obvious af before. also yeah, I'm a scrub in this freaking preseason rip me. title from fearless by taylor swift (because for some reason faker likes her).

2015 World Championship

Faker grinned widely as he hefted the Worlds trophy in both hands, holding it up for the screaming crowd to see. It felt familiar in his hands, warm, like an old friend reaching out to him for a hug. He could hear his name being chanted over and over by the European crowd.

He was back in his rightful place. His throne was now his again.

No longer did it belong the soft-spoken Korean, PawN, who, along with his team, had not even made it out of the quarter finals. It did not belong to Nagne or Febiven or xPeke or even kurO. It once again belonged to SK Telecom, and to him.

To Faker. To the Unkillable Demon King. To the best mid laner in the world.

To the best League of Legends player in the world.

change

With a new season came a new patch, and with a new patch came change.

Change came in more form than one.

Change came in the form of the game, where new champions were added, and SKT got their new skins in celebration of their reclaimed title as the best team in the world. MaRin got Renekton, Bang got Kalista, bengi got Elise, Wolf got Alistar, and Easyhoon got Azir. Upon the question of the Demon King’s skin, Faker was given the choice to have a skin for LeBlanc or have Riot pick another champion that he’d played during the World Championship.

He didn’t want to think about his loss to EDG at MSI ever again. He chose the latter. LeBlanc was still his highest rated champion, with only one loss in competitive play, but no longer was he undefeated on the illusion mage.

Riot asked no questions, they just agreed quietly and got to work. They later told him that his skin for the batch would be a skin for Ryze. He accepted it, as he had played Ryze in more matches than he’d played any other champion. He had an excuse to use Ryze even more now.

Change came in the form of new teams in Korea and roster swaps on the teams that already existed. The most notable was the return of some former Korean pros, including Acorn, who rejoined Samsung, replacing CuVee, and dade, who joined SBENU, boosting their poor roster to passable.

Najin’s roster got cut in half, and the players who were cut joined a new team, who were backed by the owner of Invictus, led by Poohmandu, who returned from China for health reasons, leaving Najin with a barely full roster. People swapped around, finding new teams to fit into, but throughout it all, SKT managed to stay solid.

None of them wanted to leave the team they’d found success on. They were all content where they had settled, content with their trophy-lined walls.

Change also came in the form of a new staff member, a general manager brought on by their coach, kkOma, to help him ensure that the boys were staying happy and healthy. Their new staff was young, with bright, caramel brown hair and eyes that were more alive than anyone else’s in the house.

Her name was Yerin.

Pre-Season 6

None of the changes were good enough to stop the SK Telecom hype train.

The team with two world championship titles under their belts continued to steamroll the competition, leaving devastation in their wakes. Faker, working to become even better, proceeded to spam LeBlanc in competitive play, in hopes of making everyone forget about his loss on her.

In the pre-season alone, he managed to carry his team against Koo, then picked up three pentakills with LeBlanc, one against Najin, one against Samsung, and one against Invictus Korea.

Once again, fans were in awe of his seeming dominance. Every time the in game sound of one of his opponent’s health bar hitting zero reached his ears, he couldn’t help but grin. He’d once again become the Unkillable Demon King. Teams once again banned LeBlanc away from him out of pure fear of the mage falling into his hands.

That was fine with him. He had more up his sleeve than just LeBlanc. He brought out champion after champion, even playing some off-meta picks like Gragas mid or full AP Tahm Kench.

People once again whispered his name in terror, looking up to him as he sat upon his throne.

He was once again the king.

The pre-season was a bloodbath, with Faker slaughtering his opponents. Anyone who tried to lane against him would fall to him within minutes.

The online community could no longer say that he was underperforming.

break

Even Faker must have weaknesses, people claimed. There must be something that the teams can do to shut him down.

In game, he proved them all wrong. He continued to reign supreme over the rest of the competition, leaving his opponents broken.

However, out of game, he hid himself in his room. His white walls stared back at him as he massaged his injured wrist, the one that had been paining him since a few weeks into the pre-season. He’d gotten a bit too aggressive on Ahri while playing against Coco just the day before, and the pain had flared up again.

After the first week, he’d secretly wrapped it underneath his jacket, trying his best not to have to move it as much. But his hand twitched at bad times. He made a few misclicks here and there, just because he couldn’t control his hand and the way it moved. His fingers just clicked the mouse at random points in time, and it seemed like people had noticed.

He developed a way to keep his hand off the mouse, just so he could hide his wrist injury. He didn’t want the rest of the team to know.

Injuries like his, when found out, ended careers of prominent pros. He remembered during the 2015 Spring Split, when Piccaboo was forced to sit out of the last weeks, plus the finals, due to a wrist injury. He remembered Hai, who he’d met and played against multiple times, being forced to retire because his injury persisted so far. He remembered that many players were benched due to injuries until they were better, and how that could take weeks, if not months.

Some people never recovered.

Faker couldn’t afford to stop. He just couldn’t. This was his life, and he could not afford to give that up just yet.

As he massaged his wrist, he heard a knock on his door. He jumped, looking up. Yerin peeked in, her hair falling into her face. She bit her lip and asked him if he was going to practice or if Easyhoon could sub in for a scrim.

Faker pushed himself to his feet, ignoring his wrist screaming at him. He moved towards the door, preparing himself to fight his opponent and fight his injury. Something soft touched his hand. Yerin grasped at his hand, the one that had an injured wrist. She bit her lip again, hesitating, before softly saying, “Don’t push yourself, Faker. We’re here if you need us.”

Without looking at her, he pulled away.

Spring Split 2016

The lights of the stage were bright, shining down into Faker’s eyes.

The bandages around his wrist made him feel uncomfortable. He wasn’t ready to push himself so far, but he had to. Easyhoon was going to play for the next games, but for the opening game of the split, everyone wanted to see Fa