He walked straight up and started the first cast of Broken Wings, auto-attacking the Captain, then followed with the second cast and another auto-attack. The Captain was beaten so badly he didn’t even dare to fight back, and in an instant, a third of his HP was gone. Lee Sin couldn’t stand watching anymore and thought he’d let the Captain poke a bit first, but what kind of poke was this? He just walked out of the bush and used Safeguard on the Captain, then Tempest/Cripple to slow Riven, but Riven wasn’t fazed at all. With the third cast of Broken Wings, she knocked up both the Captain and Lee Sin, then chained it with Valor and Ki Burst, canceling the animation lag and following up with more auto-attacks. By the time the combo was over, the Captain was already low...

At this moment, Twisted Fate’s teleport had just started to channel. The Captain and Lee Sin both flashed to escape, but Riven followed up with Flash + Valor and two auto-attacks to finish them off. So aggressive?? Lee Sin was so scared he ran straight toward Twisted Fate’s teleport point, but Ethan Carter didn’t chase and instead hid in the top lane bush.

Lee Sin and the newly arrived Twisted Fate walked toward the bush, just about to ward it, when Riven suddenly dashed out with the first cast of Broken Wings, scaring Lee Sin into immediately casting Sonic Wave, while Twisted Fate’s Gold Card flew at Riven!

Valor! Not only did it block the Gold Card’s damage, but it also dodged Lee Sin’s Q!

Not good! Lee Sin was scared out of his wits and tried to run, but was chased down and slashed to death by Riven, who had just recovered from the stun.

“You can go back now, first time.”

“Okay!” Alice Green obediently agreed and happily returned to mid lane to farm.

The Captain looked utterly defeated...

Chapter 14: Riven is a Belief

Everyone has probably felt this while playing: the enemy top laner’s teleport always lands like they’re invincible, while your own top laner either has TP on cooldown and is split-pushing, or even if they come down, they’re useless...

Actually, in most solo queue games, top lane is the safest place. If both players are of similar skill and you don’t pick a champion that’s hard-countered, it’s really hard to die as long as you don’t get greedy.

Most deaths happen when... the enemy baits you a little and you go all in, thinking, “Damn, I’m the best! I’m going to chase you down!” Then the enemy jungler shows up. It’s not that they’re lucky—it’s that they saw their jungler’s movement and played accordingly. In their eyes, you’re just adorably dumb.

Right now, the most dominant top laners in lane are champions like Quinn, Demacia’s Wings. Many people feel, “Damn, this is awesome, I’m crushing my opponent!” Auto-attack, E, auto-attack to trigger Thunderlord’s, and you chunk a third of their HP right at the start. How can anyone play against that?

But if the enemy jungler is camping nearby and you still play like that, as soon as you use E, you get ganked and die. If the enemy jungler is good, even if you flash, it’s useless—you’ll still die.

But watch how the pros play—it’s different. Aside from waveclearing, they’re very careful with every skill. I once played a Diamond game against Nautilus. Just auto-attacking to poke was enough to make him uncomfortable—maybe he wasn’t that skilled. After 21 minutes, Quinn had 172 CS, Nautilus only 59 and just a Sunfire Cape. He was freezing the wave, saving his skills, and when the enemy jungler came, he killed the jungler. How could you not win like that? Nautilus was already useless, so why wouldn’t I win? But some people just have to use their core skills and end up dying for nothing...

...

At 8 minutes, Ethan Carter recalled to base for new items, then found an opportunity to teleport behind the enemy bot lane—Ezreal and Malphite. With such a fed Riven, and with Ethan Carter piloting her, the moment he landed, the damage was like their father had arrived—he instantly got a double kill and secured a dragon!

The training room at Magic City No.1 High School erupted in chaos. Bot lane blamed top lane, top lane blamed jungle, jungle blamed top lane. Only Alice Green kept farming cutely, learning from Ethan Carter’s Yasuo last game and even started farming the jungle, not even using her ult... The jungler could only hold his tongue because Alice Green was the goddess of the team...

Even the viewers on the streaming platform could tell that No.1 High School was starting to fall apart.

“Turns out Riven can be this OP if you know how to play her...”

“It’s not Riven that’s OP, it’s the player...”

“Riven is a belief.”

“I liked Riven even before the fast Q-A combo was a thing. I always felt she had a unique agility compared to other champions. Now I’ve finally witnessed her rise! God, please accept my crown!”

“I’m broke, no crown, but here are some flowers!”

The coach of Magic City No.1 High School looked livid. This was the most humiliating day of his coaching career. With 24 million viewers worldwide watching the stream, his team was getting stomped like this. The other four players on the enemy team were average, but one player had single-handedly crushed their jungle, bot, and top lanes.

At this point, Ethan Carter was already everywhere—sometimes harassing Lee Sin in the jungle and even picking up a kill, sometimes returning to top to farm and push, sometimes going mid to steal Lux’s wave and cannon minion...

17 minutes.

“What the hell is this lunatic trying to do!” Henry Thompson was at his breaking point. He had clearly set up vision, but Riven just bounced in from the dragon pit with three Qs!

“Enough talk, let’s teamfight. We can’t count on you and Twisted Fate to help the lanes anymore. If this keeps up, Riven will crush you both. Riven isn’t that strong in teamfights—hurry up and set up vision around dragon and force a fight!” The coach steadied himself and gave instructions after thinking it through.

...