Time flew by quickly as Augusto lost himself in the grind to number 1 ranked. After experiencing the practicing arena, Augusto quickly began practicing meta picks which were easy to master. He permanently sealed showy picks such as The Morrigan and Janus and dedicating himself to playing and practicing picks such as Thoth, Anhur, Sol and Hel. By playing and practicing these supportive and mechanically intensive gods that could carry but also support his teammates, Augusto's winning rate directly took off.
Using his mechanical ability, he continuously outplayed his opponents and gained leads, then swiftly began using these leads to put pressure across the map, roaming throughout the jungle alongside his jungler and killing enemies swiftly, getting further and further ahead to snowball the game.
4/1/12
8/0/9
3/2/15
Augusto directly began flying higher and higher in ranked, but as he won more and more, games got harder and harder.
- TWO WEEKS LATER
Augusto sat in front of his monitor, the grey death screen shining into his eyes as his team's titan shattered and a gigantic -DEFEAT- plastered itself on his screen. Augusto sighed and got up, moving towards the mini-fridge in his room and grabbing a bottle of X-Fuel, a energy drink designed for gamers. As time moved on, Augusto had made it to rank #21 on the leaderboards, but he had also started winning less and less and games were becoming closer and closer. The reason was simple, the entire top 50 rankings were basically entirely composed of top professional players. Only 3 players, including himself, were not professional players and were in the top 50. The other two being Korean Academy players.
It's not that Augusto hadn't improved either, using the practice centre and constantly grinding ranked, Augusto's attributes looked like this:
Augusto Zais Attributes ( Out of 100 ):
Mechanical Skill: 100
Consciousness: 82
Laning and Suppression ability: 67
Farming Ability: 67
Team-Fight Ability: 70
Calculation Ability: 94
Reaction Time: 72
Adaptability: 56
Concentration: 66
Version Understanding Ability: 69
His personal attributes had reached around the peak of an Academy player and was on the cusp of being a bottom tier SCS player in terms of attributes, but there was no way he could reach rank #1 by himself in the time frame without drastic improvement.
Augusto sat at his desk and queued up another ranked game, waiting 10 minutes before got into the picks and bans screen, unbeknownst to him, this game would be life changing.
" You're in Cherish's game!"
"Cherish Queue? Rexa finally graduated."
Augusto looked at his stream chat. Due to him constantly appearing in higher level Champions Queue games, some of which were populated by other popular streamers, and streaming consistently over the last Two Weeks, he had grown a fanbase of around 1,000 concurrent viewers and around 10,000 followers.
Cherish was one of the most popular streamers in the entirety of North American League of Legends. He was a Canadian born Support who was once a staple of the league, but as time went on and he grew older, Cherish eventually retired, becoming a streamer and part-time analyst. Now Cherish was currently the owner of an Esports team, ClockWork Vendetta Esports or CVE for short.He had formed the team as he wanted to scout players who were playing in the SCS play-in tournament and had his eyes on many up and coming talents in North American Smite, observing if they were suitable for the ClockWork Vendetta roster. Never did Cherish or Augusto know, this moment would change both of their lives. This was currently Cherish's game to get promoted to #28 on the rankings, and was thus very important.
Picks and Bans passed quickly and team compositions were decided:
Augusto Team ( Blue ) Composition: Solo Laner Artio, Jungle Serquet, Mid Laner Anhur, Support Ymir, ADC Freya.
Enemy Team ( Red ) Composition: Solo Laner Cthulhu, Jungle Fenrir, Mid Laner Merlin, Support Cabrakan and ADC Cupid.
It is Augusto who controlled Anhur, who is a Hunter Class God. Usually, the Mage Class God's ( who deal magic damage ) in Smite are put in mid, but since Augusto's ADC took Freya, an Mage ADC that deals magical damage, Augusto played Anhur to balance out the damage types. Hunters Class Gods also provide more map pressure when played in mid compared to Mages.
Damage Types -
Hunter - Physical Damage
Guardian - Magical Damage
Mage - Magical Damage
Assassin - Physical Damage
Warrior - Physical Damage
In just 27 minutes, Augusto's Anhur had hit full build with Death's Temper + Devourer's Gauntlet + The Ferocious Executioner + Qin's Sais + Odyddeus' Bow + SilverBranch Bow! Fully Six Item slotted at level 20 and a luxurious slashline of 5/1/6. It all started early in the game where Augusto's jungler, Serquet, completing a great gank where he obtained first-blood, which allowed Augusto to snowball his lead. Still, the game was far from over.
Cherish wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead as he moved his character, Ymir , forward, searching for an enemy god to wall off and use Sundering Blast on in order to allow his teammates to quickly kill them.
[ Sundering Blast Relic: Fire a bolt that travels 70 units, stopping on the first Enemy God hit and splashing in a 20 unit radius, dealing 15% of their Current Health as True Damage and reducing any active shields by 75%. Targets hit take 7.5% increased damage for 5s, stacking 2 times. This relic has 2 charges.
Cooldown - 110s. ]
At this time, to kill to kill ratio was 15-20, for Cherish's team and the Enemy team respectively. Cherish and the other 3 members alongside him were grouped in the jungle looking for a pick, while Augusto on Anhur was in mid killing Fire Minions, which spawn as a result of his team's mid lane Phoenix being destroyed.
Cherish moved forward, placing a Sentry Ward in front of him and quickly had his ADC Freya clear the enemy ward which was revealed away. As the team walked up more and more, Augusto's voice rang out in the discord call, " That's the last fire wave, I'll clear one more and group up with you all to defend fire, just don't get picked."
Unfortunately, Augusto's voice rang out a second too late. The Enemy Support, Cabrakan, blinked forward and past Cherish. Without missing a beat, the enemy Cabrakan using their ultimate, Tectonic Shift, which instantly created walls, blocking Augusto's teammates escape path and quickly followed up by using his First Ability - Seismic Crush and Second Ability - Refraction Shield, stunning Cherish and Augusto's ADC, Freya.
At 30 minutes, Freya was well developed albeit not as well developed as Augusto's Anhur. With a build of ArchMages Gem + Hastened Ring + Ring of Hecate + Demonic Grip + Telkhines Ring. Freya was still missing her 6th item. This was very important since her build currently had 0% Penetration and as such, her 6th item needed to be completed sooner rather than later to aid her in killing the enemy tanks. Unfortunately, that may never happen.
After being stunned with no beads available, the enemy Fenrir leapt over the wall and casted their Ultimate, Ragnarok and picked up the Freya, dragging her towards his team. Without any way to defend herself, the Freya was dragged to the enemy team and instantly killed, turning it into a 4 vs 5 without Cherish's team's ADC.
"FUCK, WHY ARE YOU SO FAR UP!" Cherish cursed into his microphone furiously and slammed his desk at the turn of events. He couldn't understand what Freya was doing so far forward, with no beads to help her as well. The enemy team quickly rushed and began attacking the Fire Giant, and with a Merlin and a Cupid, the Fire Giant's HP grew lower and lower. Cherish hurried ahead, avoiding the enemy Cthulhu whom couldn't stop him and placed a ward into the Fire Giant pit, seeing the HP at 60% and dropping.
[ I'm so Sorry! ] The Freya, who was an Academy player, swiftly apologized. He had heard about Cherish's team recruitment and wanted to show off his skills to the Support player, who knew he would basically throw the game?
Simultaneously, Augusto was in mid clearing the last remaining fire wave, and seeing this turn of events analyzed the situation quickly before giving orders to his team, who were happy to listen to him, as he was the strongest member on the team in terms of potential to carry.
"No ults on enemy support and jungle. Plus they're taking damage to fire giant, don't give this up and just run in and fight them, I'll be there soon, if we give this we lose the game." Augusto quickly said after a short analysis, decisively abandoning the remaining 2 minions in the Fire Wave and rushing to Fire Giant.
At this time, the five enemies pulling the fire giant were slowly losing HP. At 30 mins and onward, the Fire Giant becomes enhanced, dealing more damage to players but also giving a much more impressive buff called the Fire Giant's Rage if one manages to kill it.
[ Fire Giants Rage: This buff grants +100 magical power, +65 physical power and Regen 4% of your health and 2% of your mana every 5 seconds for the buff duration. Your damage versus Towers and Phoenixes is increased by 30% and you ignore 75% of backdoor protections. ]
Cherish rushed forward, ignoring the enemy support and moving onto the enemies Mid Lane Merlin and ADC Cupid. Cherish then used his third ability, Frost Breath, which dealt damage and also stunned the Merlin and Cupid for 2.25 seconds. Instantly, the Merlin and Cupid used their beads, cleansing them of all of the effects of the Stun and turned onto the Ymir, pouring their DPS onto him and quickly dropping Cherish's HP.
At this time, the Cherish's Jungler Serquet and Solo Laner Artio both blinked onto the enemy jungler, Fenrir, dumping their DPS into him and dropping him down to 20% HP, forcing his beads as well.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst, with the enemy solo laner, Cthulhu, using his ultimate, Descent Into Madness, he quickly grew out of control and began dealing out alot of damage, knocking Cherish up and killing him.
Cherish, who had died, held his head in his hands and said, " Sign, this game is gone! The Cthulhu is unkillable and they're all still alive." Unbeknownst to him, this would become one of the first legendary moments of a King Of Esports.
Cherish began spectating Augusto who had just arrived on the scene. Instantly, Augusto dropped his First Ability, Shifting Sands, which erects an obelisk from the ground, blocking all player movement. The surrounding sands Slow enemies and increase the damage of Anhur's Basic Attacks against targets in the sands.
Augusto then used his Second Ability, Impale, which instantly knocked the enemy Merlin back into the pillar like obelisk, stunning him. Augusto didn't waste any time, dishing out basic attacks and instantly killing the Merlin.
"QUICKLY GET OUT, CTHULHU IS TOO STRONG!" Cherish quickly shouted and pinged the map consecutively, hoping the team could take the kill and leave, potentially not losing the game. However, Augusto didn't follow the orders, knowing that giving up this Enhanced Fire Giant would spell the end of the game, and so Augusto quickly called out.
" Serquet, Fenrir and Cupid are next to each-other, sell the Artio's life and double taunt them and ult the Cupid, my ult is up." Augusto quickly spoke into his microphone, disregarding Cherish's statement. Hearing this, Cherish's chat went wild.
" Cherish vs The World haha!"
" Another promotion game, another loss!"
"Freya negative IQ, still walks up. Anhur delusional, still thinks he can win."
Barrages of messages rang throughout the chat constantly, as Cherish sighed, thinking Anhur was stupid and had no chance. However, he was about to be proven wrong, very very wrong. The Fire Giant was getting lower and lower, to below 10% HP, and the enemy team began to panic.
The Jungler, Serquet, decisively sold the Artio's life, letting her die and moved towards the Cupid and Fenrir, using her second ability to taunt both of them together and then using her ult onto the Cupid.
Augusto, wasting no time, used Anhur's Ultimate ability, Desert Fury, which makes Anhur immune to Crowd Control ( CC ) and makes Anhur throw EIGHT ( 8 ) deadly spears forward, which pass through everything ( walls and enemies included ) and damage enemies.
Augusto's Anhur ultimate smashed into Fenrir and Cupid. Fenrir, who was only 20% HP, died instantly without chance to react and the Cupid with no beads was killed quickly as well.
Now only the enemy support and solo laner were alive, but with Fire Giant very low HP, it was time to clutch it up. Augusto used his Third Ability, disperse, making him leap into the air, dodging the enemy Cthulhu's dash. Augusto then used his Second Ability, Impale, knocking the Cabrakan back and into a wall, stunning him and killing him.
Then Augusto turned and auto attacked the Fire Giant, dealing the last 5% of damage and killing the Enhanced Fire Giant, gaining the Fire Giant's Rage Buff. Augusto then turned to the Serquet, who had just taunted the Cthulhu who dashed and had finished using his ultimate and Augusto followed up with Auto attacks, killing him.
"PENTA-KILL!" The voice of the in-game announcer rang out and Cherish's jaw alongside his Twitch Chat's jaws, were dropped in disbelief.
"HAHA YESS, WE CAN WIN!" Cherish screamed, watching his 10/1/6 Anhur base. Then, the game was snowballed. With Augusto feeling himself and being so fed, Augusto's team performed a 3-2 split in Duo lane and mid lane and when the clock finally struck 34:23, killed the Titan, winning the game.
Augusto leaned back in his chair and yawned, watching his chat implode with new viewers from Cherish as he finished the game on another Penta-Kill, making him 15/1/6. Augusto quickly added Cherish, who sent him a friend request and the two began duo queuing.