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He lost.
1:3
Looking at the numbers was really painful.
As usually.
Rowl slowly walked out of his Ranked machine room. How many times had he been out in his first match? He snorted dully and self-destructively. Well, now he was going to spend another four months trying to fix his mental, and then drown in self-hatred again after the next Playoffs. Well, if this feeling didn't destroy him now.
How many times had he tried to convince himself that he could do it, while his beautiful 3:0 - 100% winrate - against Silver only supported his opinion? How many conversations had there been about "this is our bracket, Hax's gonna get first, Mongey - second and I'll be third". Of course, he didn't expect that he could beat Lowkey, but now he couldn't even try to. He had let everyone down. Hax, Mongey, Pulsar, Drip, Beef. Everyone who believed in him, everyone who helped him. He had let them down.
He's an absolute failure.
He couldn't do anything right.
He was out in the first round. What a shame! Especially after he chose Silverr as his opponent himself. Why did he do that? Just why?
When will he be able to do anything right? When?!
— Rowl! - loud voice pulled him out of subspace. Hax was standing right in front of him, making him wonder how hadn't he heard him. - Are you okay?
— It's chill, - Rowl shrugged. Everything inside him was screaming at him not to lie, but then again, he didn't want to disappoint Hax any more. He'd already done enough.
— That's definitely not true, if even your lies aren't believable anymore, - Hax crossed his arms over his chest.
— A group hug? - suggested Mongey, whom Rowl hadn't seen until he spoke. Hax smiled brightly, looking back at Rowl, who sighed, spreading his arms. Both younger boys sprinted forward, hugging him and fighting for his attention, as usually. Finally, Hax somehow won, wrapping his arms tightly around Rowl. The familiar coolness of the snowman's body and offended grunt of Mongey, who was pushed away from the hug, brought a faint smile to his face. The abyss of disappointment that had been in his eyes since the last match was slowly getting erased by the familiar feeling of warmth, brought by this two mores.
Mongey's warmth enveloped him on one side, and Hax's coldness on the other. And Rowl allowed himself to break. He hugged his friends tightly, tears slowly flowing from his eyes.
And when Hax tried to talk him out of it, Mongey, being much worse in comforting, continued to act as silent emotional support, after he finally managed to push Hax away.
— You played incredibly, Rowl. That's what matters. Not winning, - Hax smiled encouragingly.
— Absolutely! On every seed you were either back to back or you were ahead! Like- Fulham didn't even have anything to analyse, you're just on a different level!
— And every seed being down to just stronghold nav is absolutely disgusting! - Hax exclaimed. - Moreover, such fucked up nav! One sh was destroyed because of ravine, another cause of mines, then one more - cause of mineshaft! There were like no spikes anywhere, literally, the whole nav was based fully on luck!
— Yeah, exactly! And if we know something about you, then it's your beef with luck, since this bullshit isn't doing it's work at all! - Rowl slightly chuckled at this. Well, that's valid.
— I'm actually gonna talk to Oliver after this, - Hax frowned. - They are pre-checking every seed, it's not that fucking hard to find a few with normal strongholds. Seeds aren't supposed to come down to the stronghold nav rng, it doesn't prove shit. It's not skill-based at all. We can let one seed like this slide, but fucking four? Too much, don't you think? We're playing playoffs, not fucking the maze runner simulator!
— Actually, I suggest we start a petition to rerun the entire match, - Mongey said with a grin on his face.
— Дякую, - quietly whispered Rowl in Hax's hair. For a second, both boys were confused, before wide smile appeared on Hax's face.
— Emotional crash-switch to Ukrainian, I got it, - Hax chuckled.
— So what do we say to petition?
Rowl laughed. Genuinely, loudly, and uncontrollably. God, he loved his friends so much.
— That’s not necessary, - he patted Mongey on the back. - But I appreciate the offer. Now let’s go, we have few games to watch, - he smiled at them, the light in his eyes was shining again. Was it going to stay like that for long though?
His nonexistent luck might never be enough to help him win the playoffs, but somehow it was enough to get such wonderful friends. Did he use his lifetime limit for them? Probably, yeah.
And in fact, he valued them much more than any trophy on his profile he could get.