The screen’s glow was the only light in Jax’s room, casting a rhythmic blue flicker against the empty energy drink cans littering his desk. On the monitor, the words hung like a sentence. He was hard-stuck Silver IV, and his sanity was fraying.
He logged out of ShadowReaper99 and went back to his original account. It was Silver IV, messy, and frustrating—but it was his. He realized that if he wanted to be a Gold player, he had to actually be a Gold player.
Jax logged in. The icon was beautiful—a shimmering golden crest. He felt a surge of unearned prestige. He queued up for a Ranked Solo/Duo game, ready to finally play with "people who knew what they were doing."
He closed the client, grabbed a glass of water, and started looking up warding guides instead of credit card forms.
By the time the Nexus exploded at twenty minutes, Jax felt sick. He looked at the post-game lobby, where the insults continued to fly. He realized the "Gold" experience wasn't a paradise; it was just a higher-velocity version of the same frustration, only now, he was the one ruining the game for everyone else.
"It’s not me," he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "It’s the teammates. Every game, a feeding Yasuo. Every game, a jungler with no smite."