League of Legends Glossary

• AD (Attack Damage) Carry – Also abbreviated to ADC, this player in League of Legends is tasked with being the team's primary physical damage dealer. To help accomplish this, he or she almost invariably picks a marksman so he or she can attack more safely. Most commonly, this is one of the two players responsible for the bottom lane.
• Jungler – This player in League of Legends is responsible for the jungle (the areas between the lanes) where neutral monsters and objectives reside. His or her responsibilities include protecting teammates and applying pressure to opponents while keeping eyes on the enemy jungler. A jungler's champion pool can be varied and can include assassins, fighters, mages, tanks and even marksmen.
• Support – As this name suggests, this player in League of Legends typically does not aim to deal damage but instead help the team with vision and engaging and disengaging  from fights. Despite the fact that they deal often negligible damage, their abilities can often win fights, because if they land, they can provide the openings that their teammates need to take out their opponents.
• Boot camp – In the League of Legends context, this refers to a team traveling abroad to a more challenging environment for a period of time in order to practice. Many teams hold boot camps in Korea, especially before Worlds, because it offers both the best opponents in ranked play and there is a low ping (meaning low lag.)

Season 4 (2014) League of Legends World Championship
Group Stage Week 1 – Groups A & B
National Taiwan University Sports Center, Taipei, Taiwan
September 18th – 21st

We indeed kept the memes at bay, finishing first in the NA LCS regular season and booking a trip to PAX Prime in Seattle for the playoffs. There, we beat Counter Logic Gaming in the semifinals (CLG would get our third and final Worlds spot with a win over Team Curse in the 3rd place match), which booked our Worlds spot - and then defeated Team SoloMid for a third straight time to complete an NA LCS three-peat and secure a top seed at Worlds. Our eyes immediately turned to Worlds, though, knowing we had to be a spearhead for the North American and Western assault on the summit, and our comments showed it.

We had a day back at the team house to get our things ready for boot camp in Korea, and as we got back to Los Angeles, packed and then headed to the airport, we did indeed start messaging Girls' Generation again to see if we could indeed meet again. However, by the time we were boarding our 13-hour flight to Seoul, we were aware that something was very wrong over there. While everyone was happy to hear from us again, just about every member was either busy, trying to gather themselves or both - and there was serious noise about whether Jessica could be out.

By the time we arrived at Fraser Place in Central Seoul and made our base there, we - especially Aurora and I - were unable to extricate ourselves from the situation. The first night that we streamed, while we were in between placements, the two of us would often turn off our headsets and discuss what we had heard and continued to hear from the Soshis about what was going on over there without the fans watching on Twitch overhearing us.

Later that night, Hai was on the phone with Taeyeon out of view of our stream face cameras. It was a good thing Aurora and I, who were duoing, were still in queue, which meant we could focus our attention on what was happening.

"Okay, so segue into fashion, looking to launch Blanc and Eclaire...possibly wanting to date..." Hai said, summarizing what we had been hearing. "I understand better now...We actually had a similar situation earlier this year after I came back from..."

He stopped, and Aurora and I both started. Sneaky had taken off his headset, come over and asked if he could talk to Taeyeon.

Aurora and I looked at each other. Sneaky was a notorious memer...was the idea of him talking to Taeyeon at a time like this crazy or so crazy that it was a good idea? Both Aurora and I canceled out of queue, took off our headsets and came over as Hai told Taeyeon that Sneaky wanted to talk to her and handed him the phone.

"Hello?" Sneaky asked.

"Hello, Sneaky!" Taeyeon said, sincere but obviously running low on energy. "I'm sorry we're like this as you're arriving - I was hoping we'd be in better shape to welcome you to Korea better."

"It's okay." Sneaky said, his voice letting her and us know he understood the gravity of the situation. "Look, Taeyeon noona. I know I'm the last person you expect to hear this from...maybe the last person you want to hear this from. But I know how you feel. Would you be willing to hear me out?"

"Yes, I would." She replied.

"Great. Now, before we go on, I need to let you know...I'm very liable to cuss, especially when I'm trying to make a point at a time like this." He said.

"I understand." She answered.

Hai, Aurora and I all grinned - we knew it wouldn't be Sneaky if he toned it down completely.

"You know how we met Carlo and Aurora, right?" Sneaky asked. "Or at least how they first really got into the team - because Hai and Lemon were injured."

"Yes, I do remember, just before All-Stars." Taeyeon answered.

"When we got back after the tournament, Hai wasn't able to - well, still hasn't been, actually - able to practice as much as he wanted because his wrists have been giving him trouble. He wanted to keep playing but also started looking at a role in the business side of our team sometime since his playing days looked numbered - he basically is our co-founder, after all. We wondered if it'd be the best idea to keep him on or try to build using our All-Star lineup, but we deliberated and decided after some scrims and queues we did to go with what you saw in the summer - keeping Hai mid and moving Carlo top. Obviously, the results speak for themselves. Maybe he's not the best mechanically at this point, but there are things about him that make him very tough to replace, even if at times, his famous shotcalling can border on riding our a**es all game - well, Meteos's and mine, anyway."

Hai was nodding. Aurora and I both wore even darker looks for a second as we remembered those days. We wanted to play, but we hated that our All-Star success had created that problem of who to play and where.

"I hear you. And I'm not happy about how this has been going..." Taeyeon said, and we could start to hear her crying. "Sica was once the one I was closest to, so there have been times where I have wondered how and why this happened or why we're even discussing this! But...I just want to protect Girls' Generation."

"I know. And I believe you, because I want to protect Cloud 9 too." Sneaky said consolingly, before finishing urgingly, "But you say she was once your best friend or one of your best - well, remember that! Remember that's your fam! I can't say I'm as vested in you guys as, say, Aurora and Carlo, but I do know this. My guess is the eight of you have at least some say in what happens and all I can say is you better be f**king careful about what you vote for. I know there are times where you can't stand somebody you work with or wonder if you'd be better off without them, but even then...you might not know what you've got until it's gone. You can take what I'm saying or leave it, but you've got our support and our top laner worried...f**k, you might say even I'm a little worried, so there's no way I can't say this."

"No, I'll keep it in mind. I promise. Thanks a lot for telling me that, Sneaky. And thanks for hearing me out too, Hai...maybe all I needed was a chance to vent to someone not in our company." Taeyeon responded. "Please don't let us hold you up just because we're like this - I know it's your first night of boot camp and there's precious little time before Worlds starts."

"We're on it." Hai said. "Talk to you soon, all right?"

"Yeah, talk to you soon." Sneaky agreed. Aurora and I stayed silent because we didn't want Taeyeon to feel overwhelmed, but we nodded.

"Okay, I'm looking forward to it. Until next time." Taeyeon said.

"Oh, my God..." Aurora breathed as we heard the hangup.

"You all right, Sneaky?" Hai asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine." Sneaky replied. "I might need a shower after all of that, but I'm seriously glad I went through it." He managed a laugh, and so did we.

"Hey, I didn't know you were supporting them too." Aurora said, now smiling slightly again.

"It's a bit hard not to since they were kind to us at KCON and since there is a song or two of theirs I definitely don't mind." Sneaky responded, managing a grin himself. "Not to mention you, Aurora and Balls playing their music a lot while I've also been playing it myself from donation requests...they've grown on me, basically."

"You know what I'm thinking?" Hai asked.

"What's that?" Aurora questioned.

"There's no way we lose to any of these guys in our group after that." Hai replied determinedly.

"Feels that way. Let's go get back to work and make sure we make that a reality." I said, nodding.

After our next placement game, Aurora and I checked our phones to find that Jessica was downstairs and offering to take the two of us out to grab some Korean street food to snack on while we continued our prep. We told Sneaky we'd take a break to meet someone who would help us get something to eat but didn't yet tell who it was. Thirty minutes later, we were back with a batch of bags containing a variety of street food, including ddeokbokki, sundae gopchang, odeng, baby gimbap, egg bread and sweet potato sticks.

"Mmm...that's actually good!" Sneaky said, once he had tried the ddeokbokki and sweet potato sticks. "Who was the person who took you guys around to get this stuff picked up?"

"Jessica actually took us out and showed us some good places." Aurora answered.

"Really? I'll seriously have to thank her." Sneaky said.

"We all need to, man." I said. "She said she also did it to make sure we got to have some local food early and that we weren't relying on fast food." I looked at him pointedly as I finished - I'd felt he'd started relying on burgers slightly too much. Sneaky just nodded as if to say he understood.

"Who paid for it?" Hai asked, as he brought a plate with some sundae and odeng back to his station.

"She did." I said sheepishly, even though I'd known there was no sense arguing with her when she had said she would. "Said it was a gift welcoming us to Korea and a present for winning NA LCS again."

"Oh, man, that's too awesome." Meteos said. "That's super kind of her."

We all nodded - and would have said something too if we didn't all have something in our mouths, savoring the food before our next games.

The following week after a successful boot camp, we made the relatively short trip to Taipei for the opening week of Worlds. This particular year, the group stage was being split over two countries and two weeks, with Groups A and B playing the first week in Taiwan and Groups C and D playing the second week in Singapore. As was tradition, it would be a double round robin with each team playing every group stage opponent twice - once on blue side and once on red side, which also affected drafts.

We'd been drawn into Group B and had the fortune of facing no Korean teams right off the bat, although we did have to go against a Taiwanese team playing at home in AHQ, the previous year's Worlds runner-up in Star Horn Royal Club (who had two Korean players on their team, including legendary jungler InSec, who had won the IEM World Championship in Katowice in March with KT Rolster Bullets) and a longtime European rival in Fnatic, who still had two members of their team that had won the inaugural World Championship in xPeke and Cyanide. This is how the Group B rosters looked as we had been going over them:

We didn't miss a beat, though. After beating AHQ on the first day out of four group stage days in Taipei, we beat Fnatic and Royal on Day 2 to take sole possession of first place in the group. Following our huge Day 2, Aurora messaged Jessica:

Dear Sica unnie,

Thanks a lot! I have to confess..our two opponents today made me think about you a bit. Fnatic's mid-laner, xPeke, wants to start his own team someday and Royal's jungler, InSec, left the KT Bullets after they won the IEM World Championship this past March for a better-paying deal. If you think that it's time to spread your wings...I'd be sad to see the Girls' Generation I grew up with lose somebody, but I'd understand too. You've more than earned our loyalty. I apologize if I sound a little nuts...but I wanted to say that before anything else happens.

-Aurora

Aurora didn't have to wait too long for a reply. She showed it to me when it arrived, and it read,

Dear Aurora,

Thanks a lot for the kind words! Your loyalty means a lot to me - I'll keep trying hard no matter what so I can be worthy of being someone you look up to and follow. I'm glad to report the rest of the group came to a consensus and submitted a recommendation that I not be forced to leave. It's out of our hands now and up to the people upstairs at SM, but I can't say how happy I am.

On that note, no matter what, make sure you keep winning. Watching the action - especially Cloud 9 - has been one of the things that has gotten me through these times.

-Sica

"Whew, that's a huge relief." I said. "Not out of the woods yet, but at least she avoids the worst-case scenario - being kicked by the others."

"No kidding." Aurora said. She went off to show the others, and while she was doing so, my iPhone went off with a text message alert. I looked down and drew a sharp breath.

Dear Carlo,

Don't worry about us too much. You and your teammates are special and have the chance to do something that no one in your region has done before. Not everyone, whether it's in music, E-Sports or whatever, gets that chance. We took it and it got us to where we are today. I know you're kind people who care about what happens to those around you, but I don't want you to miss this shot because of us.

-Fany

I was unable to keep a smile off my face, and I wrote my reply as resolve replaced fear before Aurora saw my expression as I was finishing and sending it.

"Oh, who's texting you?" She asked.

"Fany noona. Get a load of this." I replied. As she leaned closer, I showed her the message and my reply, which read,

Dear Fany noona,

Thanks a lot. Hearing what we heard from you guys both means a lot and takes a lot off of our minds. We'll absolutely do our best - we do strive to be professional afer all - but at the end of the day, we're your friends and we're human, so we can only help it so much. But I will say this - we absolutely fully intend to blast this group stage and get back to Korea as a front-runner. Hope we can talk again then.

-Carlo

I didn't show anyone the reply I got from her until sometime later, but it read,

Dear Carlo,

Thank you very much! Of course we can! I should have some time available when you get back. Now make sure you keep your eyes on the prize!

-Fany

Later that night, we were unwinding with some 1v1s. Hai was playing Kennen against Sneaky's Draven when Meteos snuck behind Sneaky and covered his eyes,

"Oh, f**k you! No!" Sneaky yelled, although he was smiling. Hai, laughing the most of any of us at what was going on, had taken the opportunity to go in with Lightning Rush and get the kill.

"Hey, don't be mad at me, be mad at Sooyoung. It was her idea." Meteos said earnestly, holding up his phone.

"Really?" Sneaky asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, check this out." Meteos said.

The round was over, so we all came over to see what she had sent:

Dear Meteos (or should that be Memeos?),

I wanted to remind you since I know the pressure is on and all of you are sparing a thought for us...Keep everyone loose. I know myself some humor at a time like this hardly ever hurt anyone and I expect you and Sneaky do too. Keep up the great work!

-Sooyoung

"Oh, nice!" Sneaky said, high-fiving him along with the rest of us. "She's right, of course, but I just have one question...I get why she messaged you, but why the f**k didn't she text me too?"

"I dunno. Maybe she wants you to step your game or your meme game up?" Meteos asked with a grin.

We beat Royal and AHQ one more time each on Day 3 to get to 5-0, leaving our second game against Fnatic on the last day of Groups A & B. Fnatic had also qualified after going 4-1 while Royal had only managed a 1-4 mark, meaning we an Fnatic had already secured our quarterfinal spots. There was still a lot to play for, though - if Fnatic won, they would force a tiebreaker and would have the chance to overtake us, which was a big deal because the winner of Group B would play the runner-up from Group A as opposed to the Group A winner.

On the night before that last day of group play in Taipei, Aurora called us over and showed us the latest message she had received from a Soshi, which further loosened us up:

Dear Aurora,

Don't worry. Play loose. I got my wish. You'll be hearing about it on the news. I'll explain everything when you get back to Korea.

-Sica

It was a good thing we were able to take that off our minds because we had to deal with a big undexpected problem much closer to home the next day. Hai's text to Taeyeon told the story:

Dear Taeyeon noona,

Meteos and I had something funny at breakfast this morning...we're being looked at by EMTs right now for food poisoning. We should be fine for our quarterfinal, but it wouldn't be the best idea if we tried to play today, so Balls and Lemon are in. Is there a chance they could get messages too so they don't feel left out?

-Hai

It didn't take ten minutes before Hai got a response:

Dear Hai,

That's awful! But I'm glad to hear it doesn't sound too bad. Thanks for letting me know - I have an idea of who they'd want to hear from. Knowing the members I'll talk to, they'd be all too happy to wish them well.

-Taeyeon

The remaining five of us didn't know just yet, though - we were getting ready backstage back at the National Taiwan University Sports Center. With less than 30 minutes to go until we took the stage, Lemon's phone went off with a text message alert. He opened it and smiled before turning his phone so we could read it:

Dear Lemon,

Go get 'em today! I know you're ready, though. Hyoyeon and I both wanted to ask if you're going to bring the Death Note back onstage today. Maybe you can't brute force Fnatic as much without Meteos and Hai, but you can certainly outsmart them, and I certainly believe in all of you. C9 Fighting!

-Yuri

"That's cool!" Aurora said. "And I see you've got that covered." She finished, indicating the trademark blue and white C9 notebook containing our drafting strategies.

"Made doubly sure that I had it when I knew I was in today." LemonNation replied proudly.

"Nice! So that must mean Balls' message isn't that far off..." Sneaky said.

He was pretty much right - only it wasn't a text. Balls's phone rang less than a minute later.

"Hello?" He asked. "Oh, hi, how are you?" After a pause, he said, "Yeah, and I'm still ready, don't worry. You know I wouldn't want to make you sad, just like we wouldn't want to let down any of you girls..."

We heard a bit of a female voice that sounded like it had the cute knob turned up to 11, and Aurora and I quickly came closer wondering if we could find out who it belonged to. It didn't take us long to figure it out.

"Oh, no." Aurora managed to say before she dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"Uh-oh, vintage Sunny aegyo?" I asked with a grin.

"You know it!" Aurora replied, before adding, "I can see why she decided to call him instead of texting him!" I nodded avidly through my own laughs.

"Yo, put that on speaker!" Meteos yelled.

"Hang on, can I put this on speaker? The team is asking if they can hear it too." Balls asked.

The answer was obviously yes, because after a moment, Balls took the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker phone.

Not two seconds passed before Sunny's voice came over the speaker in her patented aegyo tone, saying, "Yoboseyo, yoboseyo! Sunny here, wishing everyone good luck today in their last game! C9 Fighting!"

"Dude, she's gonna kill us!" Sneaky said.

Aurora just managed to stop giggling enough to say, "An aegyo pentakill...Hey, this is Sunny we're talking about here. She's perfectly capable of it!"

"I'll be watching tonight with any members who aren't busy...I'm expecting a victory and a good show! I'll be thinking about you all day!"

By now, we were all either slack-jawed, laughing or doubled over with mirth - or some combination of those, as Balls managed to say, "Oh, Sunny noona...I've been thinking about you a lot too!"

"Okay, stop, stop, stop!" LemonNation yelled, picking up the phone.

"Awww...why, Lemon?" Sunny asked, almost whining (although we knew she was still just trying to wind us up.) "Do you hate me?"

"No, Sunny noona, it's not that!" LemonNation replied. "It's that if you keep going, they're going to find us either passed out or in puddles because you're so good at this!" His voice was just assertive enough, and he was smiling throughout.

"Oh, mianhe. I'll ease off now..." Sunny said, sounding more normal. "I do want to ask you one thing, though. You've got your notebook ready, right?"

"He's got it in his hand, actually. He double-checked when he found out he was playing today." Balls answered.

"That's great! Okay, I'll hang up so you all can get locked in!" She said.

"Bye! Thanks a lot, Sunny!" We replied, with Balls being the most enthusiastic.

"Oh, God have mercy." I said, laughing as we saw the hang up.

"That was so good, though." Aurora said.

"What was that term you and Carlo used?" Meteos asked her.. "Aeg..."

"Aegyo." Aurora said. "It's basically OTT cute. Many K-Pop idols can pull it off and are often expected to, but Sunny's is legendary. And that was all on audio - we weren't even seeing her face."

"It's probably a good thing, because I probably wouldn't have been able to take it." Meteos said. Aurora and I both had that smile that said, you have no idea how right you are about that.

"Same." Sneaky said with a grin, visualizing the same thing.

"Okay, guys, we've got our big shots in the arm, now let's put them to good use!" I said, clapping my hands and fist-bumping the others as we got set to go on stage.

Less than an hour later, the dust had settled and we were celebrating completing a perfect group stage after another win. With the close of Groups A and B, we had booked a quarterfinal against defending champion SK Telecom T1 K, who had finished second in Group A, while Fnatic was set to face Oh My God.

"Hey, good game...We messed up that draft so bad." YellowStar was telling us as we went off. They'd allowed Balls and Lemon to have comfort picks in Rumble and Thresh, while Aurora made an impact on Elise (and relished getting to carry a bit) while I'd turned in a strong performance of my own with something of an on-hit Lux.

"Hey, you still made us work for it." Sneaky said. "You guys should be able to give OMG a run for their money."

"Thanks. SKT should have their hands full with you guys too." Soaz responded, shaking our hands again, as he added, "I don't know what's come over you, but you're all still playing like you've got something to prove - if anything, you've been getting even stronger. If nothing else, we can attest to that since you've beaten us twice and used every player available."

"We've worked hard, but honestly, we've been real lucky too, and here's why. We're constantly reminded of who we want to play for besides ourselves and each other." Aurora said. We all nodded, including Meteos and Hai, who had finished being checked out and who had arrived in time for the last ten minutes of the game and joined us onstage to celebrate.

"Speaking of that..." xPeke said, "I couldn't help but overhear backstage. It looks like you have quite the fan back in Korea. I think I heard her on the TV when we were over there - is she...?"

"Peke, don't you say a word to anyone else before we or she does, or I'll ask for a remake just so I can kick your again." Aurora said half-sternly and half-lightheartedly. He got the message, nodding and smiling to indicate he wouldn't tell.

That night, we got packed and prepared to fly back to Korea knowing we had two weeks to prepare for SKT, which was good because we were dealing with not just the defending champions but also more news - and not just the piece of news Jessica had promised to explain to us.

Group B Results

Group Stage Results (1st/2nd Advance to Quarterfinals)

Quarterfinal Matchups

Author's Notes
Hope you enjoyed this second chapter! Pleasantly surprised how big it got... Quarterfinals will be included next. Same rules apply - reviews are always welcome, but I do ask for no flaming just because you're not a fan.