"J-L-N-C! J-L-N-C!"
"Howl, Cyanide Wolves! Howl! Ahwoo!"
{"This is Gino Morin, reporting live here in the Louise Gaming Arena where the final match of this year's Autumn Play-off is held."} Gino Morin introduced
{"And here I am, once again, your guest commentator, Gael Darrow."} Gael Darrow introduced himself
{"What do you think of this season's play-off finals?"} Gino Morin asked, turning his head to his seatmate, Gael Darrow
{"This season's play-off's finals definitely would not be anything that lacks the core of gaming itself. Both teams have displayed great skills in the past games."} Gael Darrow said
{"Now, let us welcome, our teams."} Gino Morin said
{"Let's welcome, JLNC!"}
After that announcement, JLNC's members headed out from backstage to the stage where they were greeted by the loud cheering of fans. The lights flickered yellow and white, as they walked to their side.
{"Give it your best howl, we have Cyanide Wolves!"}
The team's fans began imitating the sound of a wolf's howl and the whole arena was filled with the sound of howling along with the circling blue, green, and white spotlights that represent the Cyanide Wolves team's uniform.
When the banning part began, the first shinigami to be banned came from Cyanide Wolves; Fiore. JLNC banned Maesta, Cyanide Wolves Captain Veganca's best pick, Chikara, and Evocatrice. In response to banning their captain's best shinigami, they banned Foschia, as if to taunt their opponent, and banned Intrepidus.
"Your favorite's banned again." El teased Key who wasn't surprised
"I've long accepted I can no longer play Foschia, El." Key chuckled as she replied
The choosing segment began and Rasheed chose the shinigami first, he chose Sournoise for Quant, as per Bright's direction. Cyanide Wolves chose Luxy for Atorlder, their mid-laner, then, chose Clypeus as support after El chose Luccicare. Key chose Pylae, Scancell chose Vis, Quant took Fidens for their captain, and Empirst chose Chasseur. Dancent took Blitz under their coach's order for their captain, and Opal chose Fortiz.
{"For Cyanide Wolves, we have Chasseur as off-laner, Blitz as Forward, Vis as top-laner, Luxy as mid-laner, and Clypeus as Support. And for JLNC, we have Pylae as off-laner, Fidens as Forward, Fortiz as their top-laner, Luccicare as mid-laner, and Sournoise as support."} Gael Darrow summarized the shinigami line-up of both teams for the match
Both teams began to roam around the map when the game began, Key's Pylae showed up in the top lane and developed her shinigami by beating the minions in the top lane, just like her usual routine. Even after the Neon Flare managed to trap and contain her with this usual tactic, Key still likes this tactic of hers so for now she'll be using it, for now, that is.
"You don't mind sharing the top lane, do you?" Key asked Opal jokingly
"No problem," Opal replied
Key and Opal's respective shinigami had just leveled up to level five in the top lane when Empirst used his Ausu's Stagno to immobilize them. Opal was busy dealing with a minion that has reached the vicinity of their attack tower and didn't notice the stunning skill that Empirst's level five shinigami had used, hence, his Fortiz was stunned.
Key decided to use Pylae's Rapire against the opposing top-laner's shinigami to deal damage on behalf of her immobilized teammate, the opposing top-laner is a level lower than the three of them so she preyed on him. She moved aggressively to avoid the stunning attacks from Ausu as she continued to deal damage to the two opponent's shinigami, but due to that, Opal's Fortiz received some damage from Scancell's level four Vis.
{"Kashmiri is holding out well in the two against one situation in the top lane. Meanwhile, the other shinigamis in the middle lane and bottom lane are still developing."} Gino Morin narrated
She considered asking Quant to apply a shield to all of them but in that match, his shinigami does not have such skill so she did her best to keep the battle balanced by dealing damage to the two until the immobilization timer runs out.
When the 15-second immobilization finally wore off, Fortiz, who lost nearly half of his blood from the damages he received while immobile, dealt enough damage to take close to half of their opponents' blood. Key used her Rapire once again and stole Vis's blood, replenishing some of hers and enhancing the damage her attack dealt on their opponents.
Red smoke exploded in the middle of the stage as the red phrase 'FIRST BLOOD' graced the screen upon Key's double-kill.
{"Gino, who do you think is the first blood, Vis or Ausu?"} Gael Darrow asked
{"Well, Gael, I am not sure. As all of our viewers had seen, Kashmiri's Pylae managed to deal damage on both opposing off-laner and top-laner until they only have half of their blood left. Opal's Fortiz assisted her in lowering it down to a little until she enhance the Rapire attack and finished them both off."} Gino Morin answered
{"Look, our players in the middle and bottom lane had also begun clashing. JLNC El's Luxy against Cyanide Wolves Atorlder's Luccicare, JLNC Captain Rasheed's Fidens against Cyanide Wolves Captain Veganca's Blitz, and JLNC Support Quant's Sournoise against Cyanide Wolves Support Dancent's Clypeus."} Gael Darrow said
El's Luxy and Atorlder Luccicare clashed in the middle of the map. Both of them are now in level four so both shinigamis have high health and attack damage. As the two mid-lane shinigamis clashed and dealt damage to each other, Key headed to the bottom lane where Fidens and Sournoise are dealing against Blitz and Clypeus, she used their clash to her advantage and began preying on the opponent's minions, leveling up while they deal and receive damage.
After leveling up twice, she launched an attack that hit and drained Clypeus's blood and pushed the opponent's captain into their tower's defense circle, giving the two inhabitants of the bottom lane from their side the advantage.
She headed up from the bottom lane and saw that El, who is now level six, has dominated the middle lane, Key then decided to head back up to the top lane through the bushes. She pushed Scancell and Empirst's shinigami, who are currently containing and farming on Opal, into their top-lane tower's defense circle with her Rapire.
Pylae's sudden arrival gave Fortiz a chance against Vis and Chasseur, and they managed to defeat Chasseur after a few attacks from both of them. Key's shinigami is positioned just outside the defense circle so if Vis tries to step out, Key would deal damage to him.
"Opal, I'll take over, refill your blood," Key told Opal as she started dealing damages to the remaining shinigami, Vis
"Okay," Opal, whose Fortiz is on low health, brought his shinigami back to base to refill blood
"Finish off the towers, let's meet in the Hydra's Lair." Rasheed ordered
"Yes, Captain," they answered
The opponent's top lane tower is already destroyed so Key headed down to the jungle, she headed to take out the manticore first. Usually, she would clear her own jungle first but she decided to clear the opponent's jungle first for a change, this was because she suddenly felt that her tactics are getting quite bland. Although Key's life usually does revolve in a monotonous and repetitive way, doing that in this one as well doesn't exactly sit well with her.
Rasheed and Quant faced off with the newly resurrected Cyber Paw's forward and support, engaging in a battle where both sides possess almost the same amount of strength and deal almost equal damage. An attack coming from the bushes pushed the battle line to the Cyanide Wolves' disadvantage, it turned the balanced match in their favor, and they finished off the two opposing bottom-lane shinigami and the opponent's bottom-lane tower.
At first, everyone thought it was Kashmiri, given that it's her signature habit, but everyone was shocked because what happened next, El's Luccicare appeared in the bottom lane.
{"That was unexpected!"} Gino Morin expressed the thought that everyone had thought and felt
{"It seems that all the JLNC members learned something from each other."} Gino commented and Gael Darrow nodded
{"Yeah, it wasn't just the newcomer who learned from the original pro-players of JLNC, they learned some things from her as well."} Gael Darrow agreed
{"Oh, although she really is a newcomer, with her skills, it feels like a big scam to refer to her like that."} Gino said and Gael Darrow chuckled
"Key, your kitsune's going to die." Opal told Key whose shinigami is dealing with the minions
"On my way," Key said
Meanwhile, across the stage, Cyanide Wolves' off-laner and top-laner are waiting for JLNC's off-laner to fall into their trap. They deliberately decided to prey on the kitsune to lure her there, if they manage to finish the kitsune the moment Kashmiri arrives, she will be behind them in terms of level and gold.
"Dancent, help us here." Empirst called out to their support
"Captain," Dancent turned to Veganca
"Go ahead," Veganca said as his Blitz continued to pace forward in the bottom lane
Dancent's Clypeus made his way through the bushes to JLNC's jungle where Empirst is openly attacking the kitsune while Scancell is hiding in the bushes to ambush the opponent as soon as she comes. Just as he arrived, Kashmiri's Pylae attacked Empirst's Chasseur and they decided to go against her.
"Oh, I see," Key said her smile turning to a small frown