Tangent | Soukoku; AU [✔]

32 ➳ off-meta // h.x

how do i put this? there's this terminology commonly used within the gaming community called 'meta', wherein it's like what's currently working the most within the game; basically what's trending in the current patch of the game and the one's making the greater impact. all if not most of pro teams will study these meta for an entire season before the big event, just so they have the easy way out of the tournament.

but i don't roll that way.

they can ban all "egirl champions" for all i care. i did not climb all the way to the minority of the players just so i can enslave myself into playing the meta. that's no fun for me. besides, knowing that this world i got myself into has one of the highest rates of sexism lingering around, whether i am a meta slave or not, they will have the same negative opinions about me anyway.

so why not just go off-meta and just roll with what i feel like doing?

i cannot hear everything while i'm wearing headphones, but i do know that the crowd gasped in surprise when they saw what i picked to play -- nope, not a support character, but another carry. port mafia is pretty much playing a team of all-carries.

"well i don't know what you're trying to pull off, hayakawa," our jungler, akutagawa, said in disdain. of course, i already anticipated this reaction from my own teammates as well. "but it better fucking work, or else."

with much confidence that i can muster, i proudly replied. "oh, it will work."

and i do mean it when i say it. i am fairly convinced that my judgments are just and i am sure that there's another reason why i went for this. we all just have to wait.

the game finally loaded and we controlled our characters to their respective positions. the first thing i said in our team voice was "they will all come for me, come follow up here."

my teammates did not resist and listened, navigating their characters to my current location. i commanded akutagawa to engage into the darkness - despite his slight hint of annoyance from being told what to do - and did as he should. five enemy characters appeared in our sights and luckily we were fast enough to respond to it.

i heard the crowd shout in shock and awe, followed by the voice of our mid-laner kajii.

"damn, good call there girly!" was all he said. i said my thanks and we all went back to our positions.

that was a good start for us, meaning that my off-meta pick was working. or so i thought.

as the game progresses further, i noticed chuuya was getting more and more difficult to support. his character would die at the most uncalled times, eventually making him lag behind from the good start that we had set earlier. the longer the game goes on, the more he doesn't start listening to me nor the rest of the team.

if this is what the brunette meant that chuuya was 'toxic', then i'm still not very convinced. most players in this adc role were like that. i'm just unfazed at this point.

which is why i picked a carry to 'support' the other carry. i can see through the enemy's actions that they're struggling to execute a workaround through me and chuuya's duo. while i'm not going to let myself be bullied that way, the enemy became aware of this and instead exploited chuuya's mistakes.

i tried my best to hold off sighing as that wasn't going to help my team's morale in anyway. i thought of another way to get the game in our favor again, which included ignoring chuuya off the game like he's not there.

my apologies. i... i just had to; for the sake of everyone's pride as a team.

the plan was executed beautifully by the others, and with that, we got the game back and eventually won. for the first time in history of japan's minor pgs, port mafia was now on board.

i may have to give myself a pat on the back. and maybe chuuya too.