Opening Author's Notes
Hope everyone's doing great! I didn't think this chapter would come together this quickly, but once I had a graphic brainwave and managed to churn out a lot via Canva, Simitator and ESportsWikis, it just made my energy snowball. (Yes, I did put together the graphics in this chapter with the exception, of course, of the YouTube videos and one GIF.) Shout-out to Kurai_Sen for giving me a challenge requiring me to use an animal that I incorporated into the opening scene of the chapter and for submitting a heck of an idea for a graphic involving the SM team for Europe, which is announced and named here for the first time.

Glossary (for those new to League)
CloudTemplar – Lee Hyunwoo, a League caster for OGN who was a jungler for Azubu and CJ Entus Frost during his playing career. In 2012, he was on the Azubu Frost team that included MadLife, Shy and RapidStar and finished second at Worlds to the Taipei Assassins.

DoA – Erik Lonnquist, a Minnesota native who was famously the OGN Champions (later the LCK) English play-by-play caster. He has also casted StarCraft II (where he began his career) and Hearthstone. He is married to a Korean and currently casts Overwatch for OGN.

Dodge – In League, a game is canceled if a player disconnects during champion select or fails to pick a champion in the allotted time. Players have been known to do it deliberately (which is called dodging) if they are up against a certain champion or believe/know that they are up against a certain player. To dissuade this, League automatically deducts LP (League Points, used for ranking) when it occurs during ranked games.

PC Bang – The Korean term for an Internet café. Considered to be higher-quality than most typical net cafés, PC Bangs also predictably attract players even more so than other net cafés worldwide do.

The next day, we made the short trip to SM headquarters to meet up with Heechul, F(x), EXO and Red Velvet and shoot a big trailer with them. Once we were done, we split up for the time being – we would be back there late at night and broadcasting as well. A bunch of us who didn't have schedules, especially among the C9 contingent since we wanted to make sure jet lag was a minimal issue, went back home in order to have naps until the evening.

Sunny, Balls and LemonNation didn't have this problem and had gone to Seaworld 63 at the 63 Building on Yeouido (Yeoui Island), the large island in the Han River that houses Seoul's financial district. (Author's Note – Seaworld 63 was renovated and reopened in 2016 as Aquaplanet 63.)

"How has she been doing?" Sunny asked.

They were in a staff-only area after they'd helped one of the California sea lions who was part of one of the aquarium's shows. She was currently happily playing with the aforementioned sea lion while one of the sea lion keepers accompanied them.

"She's better, thanks, Sunny-ssi. We were just worried something had gone wrong when she got to the edge of the pool but had trouble getting out." The keeper said.

"She's really friendly too." Sunny added. "I know California sea lions generally are, but my feeling that she's even friendlier than that."

"She sure is. I think she's even smarter than the average sea lion because she responds to aegyo from some visitors." The keeper responded cheerfully.

"I'm glad we could help. Because as you were saying, the other keepers had their hands full elsewhere and even though she's not an adult, she's an awful lot for one person to lift already." Lemon said.

"Even for me, admittedly. Sure, I could help a lot, but I would have struggled if I was the only one trying to lift her." Balls added.

"Yeah, even the females can weigh up to 220 pounds as adults and can be up to 6 feet long. So this one is still a handful even though she's only half that size." The keeper informed, before he added, "Although you were still a huge help. You look like you lift a lot!"

"Yeah, I do work out quite a bit." Balls replied honestly.

"Hang on, are you C9 Balls?" The keeper asked. "I was thinking you looked familiar!"

"Yes, I am. We just arrived for boot camp yesterday evening." Balls replied, shaking his hand as Lemon also nodded.

"So you're LemonNation, then, right?" The keeper asked further, his eyes growing wider as he turned to Lemon.

"Yes." Lemon replied, also smiling and shaking his hand.

"Wow, glad to meet you guys too!" The keeper exclaimed. "I'll be going to a PC Bang tonight with some friends who are even more into League and they'll love hearing about this."

"Are you going to be there at midnight?" Balls asked.

"Yeah – it's my day off tomorrow, so I'll be able to stay up, and they say they'll be able to stay too." He replied. "What's going on?"

"There's going to be an announcement tonight. Keep an eye on SNS (Author's Note – the Korean term for social media) and on Twitch." Sunny replied.

"Okay, I'll let them know and keep an eye out!" The keeper said excitedly.

Author's Note – Riot put the spotlight a bit on Balls' strength and workout habits in his Player Spotlight, Wrecking Balls.

https://youtu.be/bXC76RU_5K8

Meanwhile, back at the Cloud 9 dorm, Jessica was waking up from her nap, and unusually, she wasn't the last to wake up. She smoothed out her chemise, put on her slippers and quietly checked my room only to find that I wasn't in there. She was briefly worried, wondering where I'd chosen to sleep, before she saw the TV was still on, saw the cushioned sofa in the living room and beamed.

Tiffany and I were fast asleep, lying down side by side in each other's arms. The sheet had come off enough for Jessica to see that I was nestling my head in the crook of Tiffany's neck and that I was wearing short-sleeve Philippine pajamas while Tiffany was also wearing a chemise. As she later found out from us, Tiffany had come to the dorm a bit after I had with the idea for us to nap together so we both could sleep better.

Jessica's smile stayed on her face as she gently pulled Tiffany's and my sheet up so that we were a bit warmer.

She then started brewing coffee for the three of us, and she had just finished putting mocha creamer in mine when Tiffany stirred. She opened her eyes, saw that I was still in her arms and smiled before she pecked me on the forehead to gently wake me up. As I came around and we sat up, Jessica was putting out Tiffany's and my mugs with a smile on her face and a light fluttering in her eyes.

"You two really look like you slept well." She told us as we came over to the kitchen counter.

"We definitely did, Jessi." Tiffany replied as we returned the smile. "Oh, thanks for coffee!"

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Jessi noona!" I said as I took a sip of mine. "I'm guessing you slept well too."

"I did – and seeing you two was a great wake-up call." Jessica replied. "Are we ready to wake up the world?"

"Yes, we are!" We replied brightly.

We got dressed in fairly nondescript clothes since we would be changing again when we got back to SM headquarters. It was already 9 PM, but our night was just getting started.

------------

At midnight in Seoul, which meant it was 8 AM in Los Angeles, 11 AM in New York and 5 PM in Berlin, SM released the trailer, which opened with Heechul, F(x), Red Velvet and EXO in a meeting room with a whiteboard and a TV showing promos for the 2015 Worlds. Everyone was made up, but none of us were busting out the best clothes or outfits just yet.

Heechul, Suho, Irene and Victoria were at the front addressing the others.

"Our next trip to Europe! This is something we've been waiting five years to do." Victoria said with a smile the others shared.

"Five cities in five countries in a month and a half." Irene said. "That's a heck of a European comeback stage."

"It's not going to be a piece of cake because the way we're doing it this time, we'll be up against the best in the world..." Suho said.

"And we're definitely going to have to be ready to fight." Heechul finished.

"But the company believes not only that this is the moment but that we have what it takes to make it count." Victoria said, making everyone nod.

"And we're not going in by ourselves." Heechul proclaimed.

At this point, La Cha Ta came on as Girls' Generation and Cloud 9 entered. Taeyeon and Hai came to the front while the rest of us found places and Heechul, Irene, Suho and Victoria gave them the floor.

"Thank you guys. Annyeong haseyo! Everyone feeling good?" Taeyeon asked.

"Yeah!" We all told them.

"Nice!" Hai said, and he indicated Taeyeon and himself. "Just a few things we'd like to say as we get locked in for this thing."

We nodded and were visibly listening intently.

"We're all talented, but we're not going to win this just because we're the most skilled." Hai stated.

We all nodded.

"We all have star power and charisma and we're dead set on doing our best for our fans, but we won't win just because we're the most popular either." Taeyeon added.

Another shared nod.

"It's going to be all of that...and especially because no one's going to work harder than we will..." Hai continued.

"Or fight harder for each other than we will." Taeyeon said. "It's going to be a big task – maybe the biggest project in SM history. But if there's one thing we've learned to do, especially last year, it's making the impossible a reality and giving our fans a reason to dream and cheer."

"It might be tricky and it might even be dangerous." Hai said, before he added, "But I know this much – we all got this far by being hunters and go-getters and we're damn sure not stopping just because of who we're up against. And we've also been picked not just because we're good separately but because we push each other to new heights."

"We're ready to fight this battle together and we know you guys are too!" Taeyeon finished.

"Yeah!" We cheered, the loudest we'd been yet.

"Nice!" Hai said. "The road starts here. Let's get suited up."

At this point, fittingly, Genie hit.

Girls' Generation was shown donning their Genie naval uniforms (with the hats off) while Jessica was finishing putting on her Cloud 9 Generation Popstar Ahri costume (also with the hat off.) She then went to check on the others and passed by Heechul putting on an outfit of his from some Mr. Simple performances and then by F(x) donning their outfits from La Cha Ta. Next, she passed by Red Velvet donning the red dresses they wore in the video for Dumb Dumb (as a further teaser) and then by EXO putting on their jackets, untucked shirts and pants from We Are One performances.

She then arrived at the rest of Cloud 9 as we donned our Blanc dress uniform shirts (though still unbuttoned to show our jerseys in Sneaky's, Meteos' and Jensen's cases, with Aurora's being the sleeveless one with dark detached sleeves that she'd worn onstage at KCON), which now had the G2A replaced by the stylized SM on it. What was also notable was that each of us had a new badge in the shape of a pink star either pinned on or, in our case, added opposite the C9 logo on both our jerseys and our dress uniform shirts. Every single person was visibly excited, and to add to things, Hai had a voiceover narration during this sequence:

When you try to do something that hasn't been done in five years – and in some ways, something nobody has even thought of doing – you don't call on just anyone.

There is a name for those who are beyond ordinary...even beyond extraordinary.

For the best, the brightest, the boldest and the bravest. For people and groups who are strong on their own but bring out the best in each other when they come together.

We call them All-Stars. And we are assembling a team worthy of the name.

At this point, the chorus hit and the music changed from instrumental to the full version.

[SNSD] Geuraeyo nan neol saranghae eonjena mideo
Kkumdo yeoljjeongdo da jugo shipeo
[Yoona] Nan geudae soweoneul irweo jugo shipeun (Shipeun)
Haengune yeoshin

[SNSD] Soweoneul malhaebwa
[Jessica / Tiffany] I'm Genie for you, boy
[Jessica] (Come on)
[SNSD] Soweoneul malhaebwa
[Yuri / Sooyoung] I'm Genie for your wish
[SNSD] Soweoneul malhaebwa
[Jessica / Tiffany] I'm Genie for your dream
[SNSD] Naegeman malhaebwa
[Yuri / Sooyoung] I'm Genie for your world

English
[SNSD] Yes, I love you, you can always believe in me
Dreams, passions, I want to give them all to you
[Yoona] I'm a goddess of fortune
That wants to make your wishes come true

[SNSD] Tell me your wish
[Jessica / Tiffany] I'm Genie for you, boy (Come on)
[SNSD] Tell me your wish
[Yuri / Sooyoung] I'm Genie for your wish
[SNSD] Tell me your wish
[Jessica / Tiffany] I'm Genie for your dream
[SNSD] Tell it only to me
[Yuri / Sooyoung] I'm Genie for your world

As this chorus was playing, screen then showed each of our teams, plus Heechul by himself along with Jessica being with both Girls' Generation and Cloud 9.

SM Entertainment Presents
The SM Town x League of Legends All-Star Tour – Europe 2015

The SM All-Stars
Girls' Generation, F(x), Red Velvet, EXO, Super Junior's Heechul
and welcoming LoL World Champions Cloud 9

The star that each of us was wearing as a clip-on or patched-on badge was also shown in detail since it was the star that was the centerpiece of the SM All-Star logo:

The latter part of the chorus also included a brief shot of each of us with a Soshi (except in the case of Jessica, who had Heechul), a member of F(x) or Red Velvet and a member of EXO – for example, Jessica had Heechul, Krystal and Xiumin while Hai had Taeyeon, Seulgi and Baekhyun with him. There was more to it than just accompaniment – those would be teammates we would be playing with in intra-squad showmatches for charity at certain points. This was the full list:

(Author's Note – Do you have a favorite quartet out of these nine?)

Jessica – Heechul, Krystal, Xiumin
Hai – Taeyeon, Seulgi, Baekhyun
Aurora – Hyoyeon, Wendy, Chen
Carlo – Tiffany, Joy, Sehun
Sneaky – Yoona, Victoria, Lay
Jensen – Seohyun, Yeri, Kai
Meteos – Sooyoung, Luna, DO
Balls – Sunny, Amber, Chanyeol
LemonNation – Yuri, Irene, Suho

We also had a recorded and printed message that we shared in posting as well that went,

Do you think you have what it takes to #MakeTheTeam ? If you do, tell us why and you could win a trip to Europe to watch the All-Stars!

The tour schedule was also published:
(Author's Note – I switched around things a bit from the actual Worlds 2015 venues, even though Paris did host the group stage and Berlin hosted the final.)

LoL World Championship Group Stage: Paris, September 30th – October 10th
(Venue: Le Zénith, Parc de la Villette, Paris, France)

LoL World Championship Quarterfinals: Copenhagen, October 14th – 17th
(Venue: Bella Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark)

LoL World Championship Semifinals: London, October 23rd – 24th
(Venue: O2 Arena, Greenwich Peninsula, London, England, United Kingdom)

LoL World Championship Final: Berlin, October 31st
(Venue: Olympiastadion, Charlottenberg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany)

SM Town Madrid: November 4th
(Venue: Barclaycard Arena / Palacio de los Deportes, Plaza de Goya, Madrid, Spain)

SM Town Paris: November 8th
(Venue: Le Zénith, Parc de la Villette, Paris, France)

SM Town London: November 12th
(Venue: O2 Arena, Greenwich Peninsula, London, England, United Kingdom)

Aside from being informative and conveying the scope of the project, it was also a signal of intent. Both Cloud 9 and the SM All-Stars as a whole intended not only to be at Worlds or even go all the way but to win it all again.

We were also starting our first streams of this boot camp just minutes after the trailer aired, and as we did so, we also saw that someone had put up an ESportsWikis page for the team. This was our team infobox, including sponsors that the whole team shared (not taking into account individual or single group sponsorships.)

The accompanying overview read,

The SM All-Stars are a multinational team of K-Pop idols and pro gamers assembled by Korean entertainment company and agency SM Entertainment ahead of the 2015 Season World Championship in Europe, coinciding with the tournament and a rising interest in K-Pop on the continent. The team is popularly considered to be an expansion of the successful partnership between Girls' Generation (SNSD) and Cloud 9 that began before the 2014 Worlds. On August 31st, the team was announced along with SM sponsoring C9, and it was revealed that SNSD and C9 would be joined by Super Junior's Heechul, F(x), Red Velvet and EXO. SM Town concerts were also announced in Madrid, Paris and London following Worlds – the first such concerts since 2010.

Our roster then followed:

Taeyeon had sent some photos from the shoot to Kurai as well, and Kurai had also come up with another cool graphic that Taeyeon shared on Instagram. It featured Girls' Generation and Cloud 9 shoulder to shoulder at the front with Jessica in the center, clearly having fun and smiling at each other and the camera, while Heechul, Red Velvet, F(x) and EXO were in a V shape behind us. It was captioned/labeled, When Two Families Become One: The SM Town x League of Legends All-Star Tour.

Twitter was also lit up with excited reactions, including a bunch from us:

Author's Note – As before, even though these are fictional tweets and Jessica's and Krystal's accounts are fictional as well, Hai's, Sneaky's, DoA's, Jack's, N0thing's and Mango's accounts are all real accounts.

Reaction came in as well from our other divisions, including those for Counter Strike and Super Smash Bros.

Author's Note – Shout-out to Jaycee_Tan for knowing a bit about the C9 CS:GO team! She sent me a picture of N0thing in one of her comments on an earlier chapter.

By the time the trailer had aired, we had changed back into those same outfits and Taeyeon, Victoria, Suho and Irene were taking Hai, Aurora, Balls, Meteos, LemonNation, Jack and me on a tour of the building before we also started our streams and gave Sneaky and Jensen a break.

Hai was handling the live stream of this since he'd done some vlogging before, and it was definitely a blast to get to go behind the scenes and see just what was in the building since we hadn't fully had the chance earlier. Every so often, we stopped and the leaders took time to bring up some questions that had come in so we could answer them.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that we were in Korea with higher quality opponents and lower ping, though, there was a familiar problem as we had been playing our placements – dodgers.

Sneaky and Jensen had been playing their placements as a duo before they went live with our first streams of the boot camp, but as they went live, they had been getting dodged for an hour straight, and so as they went live, they were trying to actually get into another game.

Heechul and Baekhyun, being AD Carry players themselves, watched over Sneaky's shoulder hoping to pick up tips while Yoona and Yeri watched Jensen. They were in a fully furnished practice room that SM had set up, including views of the Seoul skyline, wall-mounted TVs to watch VODs and whatnot, and twelve stations (two banks of six facing each other) with BenQ monitors with cameras attached and Logitech G keyboards and mice.

"Okay, no dodge, no dodge!" Sneaky was saying, even going so far as to clasp his hands like he was praying as he finished, "Please, no dodgerino..." It was to no avail, though, as the screen went back to the client home page with the notice that a player had disconnected.

"Oh, my f**king God!" Sneaky yelled before he remarked, "C9 plays League of Legends Korean lobby..."

"It's the Brand. They're seeing that pick and getting real scared when they so much as think it's Jensen." Heechul said. "They saw that one game earlier and the word's getting around fast."

Sure enough, when Jensen switched to Yasuo and Sneaky picked Mordekaiser (considered to be a power pick for the Worlds patch at AD despite not being a marksman) the next time the queue popped and took them into champion select, there was no dodge. However, there was another shock in store when the enemy player names, champions and Summoner Spells were shown on the loading screen.

"Holy s**t...Oh, my God! Ghost / TP?" Sneaky exclaimed, putting his hand to his mouth.

Heechul was already laughing along with Jensen as he remarked, "And that's on Malzahar, not Hecarim!"

Sneaky's eyes were continuing to widen as he continued to size up the enemy team and their Summoner Spells as the players loaded into the game. He was saying, "The Disco Nunu? Oh, my God, the Disco Teemo! What the f**k? Oh, my God...Holy s**t!"

"That's like the team I get matched with when I'm playing promos. It feels so good knowing they're on the other side this time...this is going to be too funny!" Baekhyun crowed, also laughing.

"What do you boys mean by 'Disco Nunu' and 'Disco Teemo'?" Yoona asked, puzzled but still chuckling and smiling. She could know and sense enough that something was hilariously wrong with their opponents, but she still wanted to know what was going on.

"Long story short, this team's trolling. What it means when a League player does Disco is that he or she picks a couple of useless Summoner Spells – generally Clairvoyance and Clarity like these two – picks a red trinket since that's a bit of a disco ball and then either spams their dance emote in the open or just runs at the other team without actually trying to kill them." Heechul explained.

"Oh, they're throwing?" Yeri asked, stunned but laughing.

"It sure looks like it!" Yoona replied, also laughing. "But let's see what they do."

"Or type in chat." Jensen said with a grin. "Keep your eyes on that."

Sure enough, the very first message in chat from the enemy team made everyone crack up.

"The second the game starts, 'Mid open'!" Sneaky managed to say through his laughter. "What the f**k?"

"That's the fastest one I've seen too!" Baekhyun said, almost doubled over.

"Yeah, same here!" Heechul agreed.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Yoona asked.

"People will say 'mid open' if they feel they can't win because you're penalized for being AFK and not doing anything for too long and you can't surrender before 20 minutes. Basically, it's a way of saying, 'We can't beat you guys – just make it quick and go straight to our base and take out the Nexus.'" Jensen explained with a laugh.

"And the funny thing is, for everything that is good about Korean solo queue, that's one of the downsides. Because more people are playing at PC Bangs and are paying per hour of PC time, they don't want to waste time on games they feel they can't win, so I see it more often here." Heechul pointed out.

"What the f**k? 'My Benz bus is gone'?" Sneaky was continuing to laugh as he read something one of their opponents had typed in the in-game chat. "What the f**k?"

"That's Korean slang for a carry. He knows he's not going to get carried both because he doesn't have his buddy and because he sees you and Jensen." Heechul explained.

"Okay. Thanks, Heechul hyung." Sneaky said. Heechul clapped his shoulder in response as Sneaky went into lane.

To start off, Sneaky was holding the bottom lane solo while the four others all grouped in the mid lane just in case the enemy team was serious about what they were doing, and as it turns out, they hilariously were. With barely 35 seconds on the game clock, the enemy Shaco was running straight down the lane into the four of them and using his Flash and Deceive for seemingly no other reason than to do his best impression of a matador in front of four bulls...and it wasn't succeeding.

"What the f**k!? Holy s**t! This is some memetastic s**t..." Sneaky said in bemused disbelief.

Just after he finished that, Jensen's Yasuo was credited with First Blood, and Sneaky was laughing and exclaiming, "What the f**k!?" as Yoona, Yeri and especially Heechul and Baekhyun were also laughing.

Less than a minute later, the enemy Teemo had gifted over another kill after he too had run straight down the mid lane. This time, he'd had run into Sneaky as well after Sneaky had roamed the middle lane.

"What the f**k...? What did I sign up for?" Sneaky asked with a bemused grin. "'Hey, boys...'"

"'Hey, guys, let's go boot camp...'" Jensen continued, chuckling.

"Yeah, 'Let's...let's boot camp for some epic solo queue...'" Sneaky managed to continue through his own chuckling.

"'Practice for Worlds...' Woo-hoo!" Jensen finished with a smile as Yoona, Yeri, Baekhyun and Heechul were all still laughing and holding their sides at what they were seeing.

"Holy s**t!" Sneaky finished.

Author's Note – This actually happened in a streamed placement that Sneaky and Jensen played at the start of their 2015 boot camp:

https://youtu.be/-2_LCaLRNVc

We then remembered that the SM All-Star appearance on the True LoL Show – our first Korean variety appearance or interview following the announcement – was airing and tuned in in the middle of the broadcast. CloudTemplar, DoA and Chobra – the Korean-American former OGN translator, visiting Korea during time off from ESL and volunteering as another co-host – were interviewing Jessica, Hai, Krystal, Heechul, Baekhyun and Seulgi, all of whom were wearing the outfits they were wearing at the end of the trailer.

DoA: What is your craziest story from playing League?

Baekhyun: Honestly, it was the last time I was on a League stream or show before this. I was streaming on V Live and having not just one of those games but a bunch where I was just trying not to tilt. Then some fans figured out my account name and I had to change it.

(Author's Note – this actually happened in 2016.)

Hai: Ssasengs (Stalker fans)...FeelsBadMan.

Seulgi: I don't have too many even though I've been interested in the game for a while. Although one experience I have was watching the NA LCS final here and seeing how amazing Cloud 9 was. Krystal, Baekhyun and Xiumin were especially getting into it and acting like they were casting.

Krystal: We really were. And it definitely made it even more fun. Baekhyun oppa definitely has some play-by-play skills. Maybe not to DoA oppa's level yet...

DoA: That's okay! I do bet that was cool to listen to! So if we're going that route, who's your MonteCristo?

Baekhyun: Xiumin – at least he was during those finals. He did sound very comfortable doing the analysis while Krystal and I did the play-by-play.

Will "Chobra" Cho (ESL): Nice! Anyone else?

Krystal: I was talking to Jensen earlier today about this – Jessi unnie was having dinner with me back in May when I was visiting LA and brought Aurora and Carlo along. She was also getting their input about whether or not to sign Jensen since they had just tried him out.

CloudTemplar: Oh, jinja? I'm going to put you on the spot – if it had been up to you, would you have taken him?

Krystal: Honestly, no, because Aurora and Carlo were filling me in on his full profile, including what he did that got him banned in the first place. So I did think he was talented but I personally didn't know if he was worth the risk. But that said, I made it my business when I met him earlier today to let him know I was so happy that I was wrong.

Hai: I was there to see that and I can tell you Jensen understood why she'd been slow to trust him, so no hard feelings.

CloudTemplar: I'm glad that worked out! Anyone else?

Heechul: Mine was actually going to be that showmatch you and I did against SKT with KkOma, Sweet (WarCraft III world champion and coach of Jin Air Green Wings) and Kang Byungryul (coach of Incredible Miracle, now Longzhu).

CloudTemplar: Oh, say no more! Just play the tape – it says more than we ever could!

https://youtu.be/CB_yC5kA8Vo

DoA: I remember laughing so much at that when I saw the footage – I just wish I could have been there in person!

Chobra: Same here! Okay, does anyone have something else? Jessica?

Jessica: Yes. Actually, before the Worlds semis last year, Cloud 9 actually took an afternoon out of their schedule to give us a League tutorial so that we knew just what we were watching. One of the things we did to practice right then and there was some 2v2 in Tandem Mode, and one game had Aurora and me on Ashe plus Tiffany and Carlo on Ahri against Yoona and Sneaky on Varus and Sooyoung and Meteos on Karma. We won with two kills almost back to back.

Hai: Let it be said that Jess noona picked up CC chaining very fast from watching us.

CloudTemplar: Wow, fascinating! Okay, that leaves you, Hai.

Hai: I'm going to bring up one that isn't from competitive play so that I bring up something that not everyone knows about.

DoA: Okay, sounds good.

Hai: This came when the team was at All-Stars and I was still at the team house because I was recovering from surgery after my collapsed lung. Some friends then paid me a visit.

Jessica: Oh, I know this story. This is a good one!

Hai: Four girls who are friends of mine – Linnie Nguyen, Jenny Vu, Alathea Snow and Lemon's girlfriend Galextresia – came over to visit and cheer me up. They then did my makeup on stream.

Seulgi: Really?!

Jessica: It's true! And he did look pretty when they were done with him! Cue the GIF, please!

Seulgi: Ahh, daebak!

Krystal: Wow, Jessi unnie, you weren't kidding when he said he looked pretty!

Jessica: That's not all. They gave him a wig and some lipstick after that and he looked even prettier.

Heechul: And people say I can pass for a woman easily! Look at this kid!

Baekhyun: I'm clapping for those girls too. That's some talent!

CloudTemplar: I'm going to give the next question – and this is mainly for Jessica, but the rest of you can also give input. I think this might be a bit tricky, though, so I want to give you the commercial break to think about it.

Jessica: Okay. Thanks for the warning – what is it?

CloudTemplar: I remember seeing a photo of Cloud 9 onstage at KCON New York / New Jersey and I couldn't help but notice that your League contingent is now nine strong just like SNSD. Have you thought about how each of your C9 teammates compares to your fellow SNSD members?

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Closing Author's Notes
Really hope you liked this! A mini-cliffhanger, but nothing too serious. I know Jessica's answer (and the answers of the others) will be cool, but I wanted to call it here before this chapter gets too long and to give you guys a chance to sound off. How do you think Jessica and the others will answer that? And what comparisons would you draw?