Opening Author's Notes
Oh, wow. So much happened since the last time I posted – Cloud 9 being in first place alone with FlyQuest (AKA C9 White) being just one game behind them so far, Seohyun being on fire solo and even Red Velvet's Rookie. I had to think about it but decided to split this next update into two parts because it got bigger than I was expecting and I don't want to run the risk of it being too big with just a single chapter. Hope you guys enjoy!

Glossary (for those new to League)
Syndra – A champion in League of Legends. A ranged control mage, her distinguishing characteristics include being able to throw minions using one of her abilities, Force of Will, and having the ability to conjure Dark Spheres that she can throw with Force of Will, launch to stun with Scatter The Weak or bombard a single champion with for high damage using her ultimate, Unleashed Power. Her Classic (default) skin takes her dance emote from Girls' Generation's Hoot.

Rift Scuttler – Also called a Scuttle Crab, this is a crablike jungle monster in League of Legends that does not attack. One patrols the north side of the river near Baron Nashor while the other patrols the south side near the Dragon. Defeating one creates a Speed Shrine for the slayer's team outside the closest epic monster's pit (whether that be Baron or Dragon) that grants vision and boosts the speed of any allied champions in its area of effect for 75 seconds.

KDA – The abbreviation for Kills / Deaths / Assists, both an individual MOBA player's score in a game (or series) and a measure of their overall performance. This can also be distilled into a single number by adding the kills and assists and dividing by the number of deaths (or 1 if the player has conceded no kills.)

2015 League of Legends Championship Series
North America – Summer Split Finals
Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
August 22nd – 23rd

Cloud 9 (#1 Seed)
Top - Carlo (Phillip Carlo Santos, USA)
Jungle - Hai (Hai Du Lam, USA)
Mid - Jensen (Nicolaj Jensen, Denmark)
AD Carry - Sneaky (Zach Scuderi, USA)
Support - Aurora (Caroline Aurora Lea, Canada)
Substitute - Balls (An Van Le, USA)
Coach / Manager - Jessica (Jessica Jung / Jung Sooyeon, USA)

Counter Logic Gaming (#3 Seed)
Top - Darshan (Darshan Upadhyaha, USA)
Jungle - Xmithie (Jake Puchero, Philippines)
Mid - Pobelter (Eugene Park, USA)
AD Carry - Doublelift (Peter Peng / Peng Yi-Liang, USA)
Support - Aphromoo (Zaqueri Black, USA)
Substitute - Huhi (Choi Jaehyun, South Korea)
Coach - Ziks (Tony Gray, USA)

In the early Monday morning hours in Seoul, Krystal was at the SM headquarters in Chungdamdeong and in one of the lounges on the lower floors watching as the broadcast of the NA LCS Summer Finals began.

She was just watching the broadcast change all the way over from the EU LCS finals when she saw a man coming in carrying a messenger bag. Seeing who she was, her eyes lit up and she smiled as she greeted him. "Morning, Baekhyun oppa! Glad you made it! It's just starting."

The EXO maknae and a bottom lane specialist like Heechul had been one of the first to take up Krystal on her offer of watching the finals at headquarters. He smiled and waved at her before he replied, "Morning, Krystal! Some of the boys told me they want to come here to watch the series – I'm just the first one here. I kept watching the European finals at the dorm and then started coming here once it was over."

Because Origen vs. Fnatic had gone to a full five games, the start time for the North American finals had been pushed back two hours to 5 PM Eastern / 2 PM Pacific in America, which translated to 7 AM the following day in Korea.

Baekhyun took a seat close to Krystal and then added, "It may be thousands of miles away, but I can feel the excitement all the way from here." His eyes were on the early images from Madison Square Garden, including the sight of a sold-out crowd of almost 19,000 people.

"Same here!" Krystal agreed.

"Quick question before we I know they've re-instituted Championship Points in North America this year, but could you refresh me on how the situation looks going into the finals?" He asked.

"No problem!" She replied. "Carlo actually wrote that up for the team and for Girls' Generation, and Jessica then sent it to me."

Baekhyun passed over the laptop he had with him, and Krystal pulled up the standings and qualification situation that Jessica had sent after I'd put it together for the team. This was how the North American race to Worlds looked based on summer playoff results and Championship Points (which had been re-instituted in 2015) so far:

Current NA LCS Championship Points

1st - Cloud 9 – 180*
2nd - Team Liquid – 120
3rd - Team SoloMid – 110
4th - Counter Logic Gaming – 100*
5th - Team Impulse – 70
6th - Gravity Gaming – 20

* denotes Summer Split finalists – The winner automatically qualifies for Worlds as the top North American seed and the top remaining scorer qualifies as the second seed
Out of Worlds contention – Team Dignitas, Team 8, Enemy E-Sports and Team Dragon Knights
Qualified for Worlds – Cloud 9
Locked into Regional Finals – Team SoloMid, Team Impulse and Gravity Gaming

If C9 wins – C9 qualifies 1st, TL qualifies 2nd and CLG plays in Regional Finals
If CLG wins – CLG qualifies 1st, C9 qualifies 2nd and TL plays in Regional Finals

"That means that CLG's got even more reason to upset them...if they can." Baekhyun said, nodding in comprehension.

"That's a mighty big 'if', Baekhyunie." Krystal responded, a glint in her eyes that carried an echo of ours in situations like those. "Cloud 9 may be qualified already for Worlds, but they want another championship and that top seed. Also, you might have guessed this, but Jessica says they now know it's up to them to cap off a great weekend after two great days at KCON."

"That it is!" Baekhyun replied with a nod and smile of his own.

"Oh, President Lee!" Krystal said, noticing someone coming up from behind.

"Oh! Good morning, sir!" Baekhyun said, as he and Krystal both got up and stood at attention. "You didn't come to watch, did you?"

The namesake, president and founder of SM Entertainment, Lee Sooman – Sunny's uncle – had arrived in his shirtsleeves. He told them, "Annyeong haseyo! Actually, I have come to watch – I've been bitten by the Cloud 9 bug that's been going around since last year after what they did with Girls' Generation, so I really hope they win again today!" He then added, "I also have the feeling that something's going to happen over there that will give us a lot to think about."

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Madison Square Garden had been excited for the third-place game between TSM and TL, but for the final between C9 and CLG, they ratcheted the hype up another notch still. Not only did they know that all seventeen of us would be there, but Eric Nam had offered to be the onstage MC during the finals – a proposal Riot had accepted – and KCON USA was also welcomed as a sponsor for the finals. As if that wasn't enough, the three other groups that had performed at KCON New York / New Jersey – AOA, Teen Top and VIXX – were all electing to attend the finals. All said, we felt that after we had brought League of Legends and the LCS to KCON the previous year and this year, KCON was coming to the LCS for the North American finals.

Owing to various circumstances – including being swept by Team Liquid in the spring quarterfinals – Counter Logic Gaming was returning only two of the players who had reached the quarterfinals of Worlds the previous year and pushed Samsung White to five games. However, they were their biggest names: Doublelift and Aphromoo, who had long since garnered the nickname "Rush Hour" in reference to the Jackie Chan / Chris Tucker duo from the film series. They were introduced first and got a great reception from the fans, with very audible chants of "CLG! CLG! CLG!"

Eric then announced, "And now their opponents. They became the kings of North America in their very first split two years ago, and last year, they went one step further when they shocked everyone at All-Stars and then Worlds. Some call them legends, some call them phenomenons...but everyone knows them as Cloud 9!"

The lights were turned back down slightly and nine people appeared at one of the entrances – two columns of four on either side of a single woman. They were backlit, so people could only see silhouettes for the most part, but they appeared to be the nine Cloud 9 members in an H-shape – Jessica in the center in her Popstar Ahri adaption with her hat off and held at her side, with the other eight of us to either side of her wearing our jerseys and dress uniform shirts as we had at KCON (for example, Sneaky and Jensen were still wearing their short-sleeve versions unbuttoned to reveal their jerseys.)

Soon, two other columns of four appeared on either side – the other eight Soshis – and stopped alongside us. People could see that they appeared to be back in their Genie naval uniforms, and as they digested that, each Girls' Generation member apart from Jessica took off her hat and put it on the head of the C9 player or coach next to her.

When Taeyeon placed her hat on Hai's head at the front, he reached up and pressed it down onto his head lightly. The spotlight overhead illuminated us, and it became apparent that at the same time, Hyoyeon had given her hat to Aurora, while Yuri gave hers to LemonNation, Sunny gave hers to Balls, Seohyun gave hers to Jensen, Sooyoung gave hers to Meteos, Tiffany gave hers to me and Yoona gave hers to Sneaky. In many ways, we looked as if we'd come from great performances at KCON in Newark to Manhattan to take the NA LCS Finals as an encore.

"It's your time today. Are you ready?" Taeyeon asked Hai.

"Oh yeah." Hai responded with a smile that she returned. He then turned to us and said, "Time to get this place lit, right, fam?"

"Yeah!" We told him enthusiastically.

"That's what I'm talking about. Let's get 'em!" Hai said.

Right as he did, the instrumental for Genie hit, but that wasn't the only reason they were getting louder still. We had started to walk single file near the front row with Jessica in the lead, slapping hands with fans along the way. Already, the chant of "Cloud 9! Cloud 9! Cloud 9!" was starting up, and the ease with which it was surpassing the chant for CLG in terms of volume was almost frightening.

The stage was set up on a raised platform in the center, with the two banks of stations facing each other on either side of what normally would be the center circle. When we reached our side, the other Soshis peeled off along with Meteos, Balls and Lemon and took their seats in the front row at our end of the arena. Meanwhile, Jessica led Hai, Sneaky, Aurora, me and Jensen (in that order) as we ascended the stage, turned as we reached our stations and faced them and the whole side of the arena behind them. We could see that that also included Heechul, AOA, VIXX, Teen Top and the whole C9 SONE section that had been at KCON as us starters also took our hats off and held them at our sides.

Eric was staying impartial but one could tell he liked seeing how much the crowd was reacting to us compared to CLG, and it showed on his face and in his voice as he started to introduce us.

"Starting in the mid lane, a man who's made the most of a second chance as a pro. It's Cloud 9's Great Dane, their Re-Incarnati0n, Jensen!"

As the crowd roared for him, Jensen had a broad smile on his face, looking as if he was fully embracing the moment. As he saw Seohyun get out of her seat and cheer, he looked at her and applauded.

"Starting in the top lane, an All-Star MVP and a pentakill hero from the Worlds Final deciding game. He's North Carolina-bred, New York-born – it's Cloud 9's Visionary, Carlo!"

I couldn't help but cheer the fans as they cheered me. I then applauded and pointed at Tiffany as I saw her get up and shout, thinking, No way I'm not giving it all I've got tonight!

"Starting at support – you've seen her dance and sing by now and she's also the NA LCS assist leader during the past two splits. It's Cloud 9's Graceful Force, Aurora!"

Aurora beamed, bowed and waved at the fans. She saw Jessica lean forward to peek at her, and she did the same to return her smile and say, "I'm ready!" She then smiled at Hyoyeon when she saw she'd gotten up.

"Starting at AD Carry – he's the only player at his position in North America besides Doublelift with a double-digit KDA and he's ready for a showdown. It's Cloud 9's Meme Master, Sneaky!"

Sneaky got the biggest cheer yet – a fact that had him laughing and smiling. He turned slightly red when he saw Yoona get out of her seat and cheer him on, but he met her eyes and saluted her.

"And starting in the jungle, the MVP of last year's Worlds who's back from retirement to lead the charge for another championship. He's now their Chief Gaming Officer as well as their captain, but he hasn't lost his touch. It's Cloud 9's Master Shotcaller, Hai!"

The cheer for Hai was as loud as the one for Sneaky, and it was also marked by quite a few girls screaming – including Taeyeon, who was taking her turn to stand up and cheer. Hai smiled even more at that, and blew a kiss towards her on the spur of the moment, resulting in more screams.

"And introducing their manager and coach today. She's an idol who has won just about every accolade in K-Pop and now she wants to help lead this team to another NA LCS championship in front of their teammates and fans. It's Girls' Generation and Cloud 9's Ice Princess, Jessica!"

The loudest cheer of them all during intros was saved for Jessica, and she later told us she was blown away at the idea of that when she was still very much new to E-Sports and didn't have the reputation we had there. Everyone in the section in front of us was on their feet as Jessica blushed but smiled sincerely and waved at them.

"One more time for Cloud 9!" Eric told the crowd, who needed no further encouragement and let us hear it again before he said, "All right, guys, shake hands and let's make this a fair and fun series."

The six of us met CLG in the center near where the NA LCS trophy stood perched on a pedestal and shook hands with them before we went back to our stations.

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"Oh, here we go!" Krystal said, rubbing her hands. She, Baekhyun and even President Lee had been heartily applauding us as we'd come out and been introduced, with the two idols also audibly cheering.

"Look at Sica noona – she means business!" Baekhyun remarked, his eyes wide. "I mean, they all do, but imagine being CLG and facing across from that!"

Krystal and President Lee both nodded. They could see what he meant as the cameras were showing that Jessica had also donned an official LCS headset (RIG, created by Plantronics) so she could talk to us before and during the draft, seeing that 2015 was the first year where coaches were allowed to be onstage and communicate with teams during picks and bans. She was patrolling behind us while holding a mechanical pencil and LemonNation's notebook, while all five of us starters had hung the hats we had received from the corners of our monitors.

Early in Game 1, Jensen was playing Viktor while Hai was playing Kha'Zix up against Pobelter's LeBlanc and Xmithie's Elise. Both Pobelter and Xmithie tried to chase Hai back into his own jungle but didn't see how close Jensen was.

"I'm all right. Chase, chase! They're both low and Pob has no Flash or Distortion!" Hai was shouting.

"I got 'em!" Jensen shouted in response as he came in from the middle lane.

Meanwhile, back at SM headquarters, the group of idols who had come to the lounge to watch the finals was growing as the EXO members who had also wanted to watch – Xiumin and Chen – had arrived, along with Wendy and another Red Velvet member in Seulgi. To further have fun with the match, Krystal, Baekhyun and Xiumin were acting as if they were casting the game.

"Oh, they're dropping pretty low – this could be big if Cloud 9 can turn this!" Krystal said. Jensen's coming down – can he get there in time?"

"He's got Flash and ultimate, so I think he can, Krys!" Xiumin replied.

"There it is – Ahhh, he gets all of it! Double kill for Jensen!" Baekhyun shouted.

"Oh, what a play!" Krystal whooped.

"Wow! I know it's his first time as part of a Girls' Generation / Cloud 9 team-up, but that was no rookie play!" Xiumin said, his excitement matching theirs.

"I agree, Xiumin. Look at that – Flash in, Death Ray on both Pobelter and Xmithie and then Chaos Storm on both of them, all one after the other, and kills both of them in two ticks." Baekhyun narrated as the replay came up. "I know it can look easy just watching, but I can promise you it isn't."

Author's Note – This is taken from C9's first game against CLG in the 2016 Summer Split – the same game that spawned "Yo, Jensen, body these fools" – but with a few changes, including Hai playing support while Rush was the jungler when it actually happened.

https://youtu.be/nuDxzHfgMoU

"Yeah, Jensen!" Seohyun was cheering, as she had jumped out of her seat and cupped her hands around her mouth when that happened. "That's the style!"

"Whoo!" Lemon cheered, and he explained to her, "That might not even be the last time Pob gets blasted either in this game, Seohyun noona. I've seen what Jensen can do as Viktor against LeBlanc when he gets ahead."

As we won that first game comfortably, it was pleasantly startling to see how much Jensen was continuing to respond to the stage. He was beckoning the crowd to make more noise before he got out of his seat, and he had a big smile on his face when he heard and saw them respond. After we also took Game 2, after Jessica gave him the okay to do so, he was also the first one back out and sitting in his seat soaking in the atmosphere before the time came to put his headset back on.

As the draft for Game 3 began with us playing on the blue side, we first-picked Shyvana for Hai before CLG went for signature champions for both Doublelift and Aphromoo in Vayne and Alistar respectively. The moment we saw those and excitement ran through the crowd (and rightfully so even if it was them since they're famous for work playing those champions), Jessica perked up and was walking excitedly back and forth behind us.

"Oh, they want to go!" Jessica said. "What do you guys think – Classic Duet time?"

She was primarily talking to Sneaky and Aurora because this gave us the chance to counterpick their bottom lane. We had discussed scenarios for if Doublelift and Aphromoo got signature picks in the bottom lane, and among them was a pairing we called Classic Duet because it had been a Cloud 9 signature in their debut split in Summer 2013. Sneaky would take Ashe and LemonNation would take Zyra, which allowed for a bot lane where not one but both members had hard CC.

"Yeah, do it now so we don't give away anything else and give them a chance to counterpick." Aurora replied.

Sneaky quickly agreed, saying with a smile, "Cue the Pogchamps, guys!"

Riv: Oh, my...is this the answer? Ashe and Zyra, which they became famous for in Season 3?

Phreak: Oh, yes it is! It may be 2-0, but this crowd is still really into it and you have to like how heated these picks and bans have become. This is Cloud 9 saying, "We see your signature dual lane pick and we raise you our own!"

"Let's see who's coming...all right, that's Viktor and Olaf. I'm pretty sure Xmithie is not going to try and channel Reignover at 2-0 down, so I think that's Olaf top to go with Viktor mid." Jessica said as CLG made their next two picks, both thinking out loud and looking over Lemon's notes. "I think that actually leaves the door open for us going for Medley too if Carlo and Jensen want it."

Medley was our name for pairing Ahri for the top lane with Syndra in the mid lane, which meant we'd picked both champions with Girls' Generation dances (so in a sense, a medley of Hoot and a choice of songs.) We had discussed it and planned around it but hadn't done it yet in competitive play or even scrims up to that point.

"Oh, I can definitely play Ahri against Olaf, so Medley is a go if Jensen wants it." I replied with a big smile, before looking down and asking him, "What do you think, Nicolaj?"

"F**k yeah, let's go." Jensen replied with a smile in my direction. "I can take Pobelter's Viktor with Syndra."

"Oh, snap, here we go!" Aurora said as she, Sneaky and Hai all whooped at Jensen's and my enthusiasm.

"All right!" Jessica cheered. She came up behind each of us in turn to wish us good luck and give us high-fives and quick shoulder rubs as we locked in Ahri and Syndra and left CLG to make the last pick. When she got to Jensen, she rubbed his left shoulder, gave him a high-five on his right hand and told him, "Pøj Poj!" – loosely translated from Danish, "Good luck!" or "Break a leg!"

"Fighting!" Jensen echoed, smiling at hearing that as he stretched out his fists to either side to bump them with Hai and Sneaky before he put his hands back on his keyboard and mouse. "Okay, lads and ladies, let's bring this home!"

"Yeah, let's do it!" Hai said, with the rest of us quickly following as he bumped fists with me and Sneaky bumped fists with Aurora.

"Um, just thought of one question, Sica noona. Run Devil Run, Genie or Kissing You?" I asked.

"I think we hit 'em with Kissing You." Jessica replied with a smile. "We've got plenty of Genie so far – let's diversify that playlist even more."

We all grinned at that answer. One of the cool rewards that World Championship-winning teams get is  having Riot design team skins for champions they've played. The Cloud 9  skins had gone to Ahri, Soraka, Draven, Zac and Twisted Fate (Zed already had an SK Telecom T1 skin from 2013 thanks to Faker), and Ahri's  was a decided Girls' Generation tribute too since it featured Ahri  wearing blue heels, a white top and a blue skirt much like they had worn  during the finale performance. As an added Kissing You reference, her splash art, dance emote and recall animation all had her holding a lollipop.

Jatt: Whoa, look at that!

Riv: Look at that indeed – Ahri and Syndra, and the crowd is getting even louder! So it looks like the return of Carlo's top-lane Ahri and then Jensen playing his first competitive game on Syndra. You can see Girls' Generation and the idols alongside them – they know what that means. We're going to get Hoot for sure in this team comp and we'll have either Genie or Run Devil Run, maybe even Kissing You. We'll see what they pick – it looks to be explosive either way.

Jatt: So Hai gets Shyvana while Carlo takes Ahri into the top lane again, Jensen gets Syndra and Sneaky and Aurora get C9's classic Season 3 hard CC bot lane duo. This is not only playing to the crowd a lot, but it's also definitely a way of Cloud 9 daring Doublelift to beat them by himself – they all are squishier, especially at the start, but every one of them has hard CC. QSS is going to be essential for Doublelift, and so will be Mikael's Crucible for Aphromoo. And let's not forget that Carlo can build Iceborn Gauntlet on Ahri and become a splitpush threat that way, so even if CLG win a teamfight, it may not matter if he's taking towers elsewhere.

Riv: We also see Xmithie take Rek'Sai with CLG's final pick and that certainly makes a lot of sense to be able to make cross-map plays, clear quickly and provide some frontline presence.

Phreak: Look at Meteos and now LemonNation coming front and center too –  it looks like they're in charge of breaking down their strategy and team  comp to Girls' Generation and the other idols gathered there!