Chapter Text
The day after he went viral, Jayce, for once in what felt like a billion years, was ecstatic.
Realistically, he hadn’t expected streaming to work out. YouTube or Twitch was a career for very few people, and as more desperate and curious people like him tried to get a foot in that small door, there were more than a few big failure stories. Jayce Talis, or JC_Hammer on Twitch.tv, was not going to be one of them.
Anyone else may have considered it a dumb or small development, but when Jayce figured out his niche, he felt like he’d been hit in the head by a sequence of lighting bolts. It was so obvious. His name was Jayce, he had an engineering masters, he was a hobbyist blacksmith, and he looked exactly like Jayce from League of Legends (Except for the blue eyes, but buying contacts was an easy fix), a character who he just so happened to play at a professional level. He literally just needed to act like a video game character, and he was set.
Previously, he’d avoided roleplaying as Jayce From League (which is how he had to refer to the character all the time, since he didn’t even have a last name to differentiate himself from the human man named Jayce) since game Jayce was kinda a raging asshole, and also kinda dumb, but now he literally had numbers in his face telling him to do so.
let me out of emerald @pazuzu_soccer_0419
bro got possessed by jayce and demoted immediately
[A clip of Jayce playing a ranked match in League, getting distracted by a set piece on the map that looked vaguely like a hammer, and immediately ambushed by two enemies, losing the match and going down from Challengers rank to Grandmaster. The clip ends with Jayce screaming very suddenly and biting his headset’s microphone.]
327 replies | 7.8k retweets | 59.8k likesi am the jokermobile @ineedahobbygetmeoffthissite
Replying to @pazuzu_soccer_0419
I’m actually subbed to this guy on Twitch. His name is Jayce. He claims it’s his real, actual, legal, birth name. He also says he’s a professional engineer and trained blacksmith. Apparently, his account was created the day after League of Legends was released.
Either Riot based a character on this guy, or he’s the most dedicated larper to ever exist. At this point, I can’t tell the difference.
108 replies | 988 retweets | 12.9k likes“toxic yuri” what about the taxpayers @hatsunemikusaccountant
Replying to @ineedahobbygetmeoffthissite
is he gay as hell too
234 replies | 1.2k retweets | 9.3k likesi am the jokermobile @ineedahobbygetmeoffthissite
Replying to @hatsunemikusaccountant
yea
[A clip of Jayce’s reaction to a skin released for Jayce From League’s foil character, Viktor, where the character is on fire. Jayce sees the skin and exclaims “Wow, he’s hot!”]
52 replies | 611 retweets | 18.7k likes
Sure, being called gay on Twitter wasn’t his ideal breakout role, but he’d gotten a few hundred followers on Twitch overnight after that post had gotten traction. There was no way he could fumble this. With just one glance through the replies to that post, he could tell what the people wanted: A hot guy that looked like Jayce From League to be bad at games for their entertainment. And, immediately after the aforementioned being bad at games, to ragequit or react in other similarly funny and in-character ways.
If fitting into that box could make him successful, make him money, keep him out of a job at Lockheed Martin or Kiramman Rifles (as much as he loves Cait, he doesn’t want weapons of death to be his job), he would break as many ribs as necessary.
Really, worst case scenario, he would just have to make an alt account for his professional playing.
—
The day hammerboy_0419 participated in his first tournament, Jayce, as was a common occurrence after becoming a Twitch partner and mostly-full-time streamer, was frustrated.
Jayce understood that this account was very new to the competitive scene, and people were often suspicious or wary of brand new players competing at such a high competency level, but this was just ridiculous. Trying to get him kicked out of the tournament (and the random discord server the correspondence was held in) was clearly just an overreaction to him winning a match, not even remotely related to his moves.
Despite that, he was now stuck in the world’s most annoying discord argument.
they_see_me_rolling
Is hacking suddenly allowed in competitive? Did I miss some memo where we’re now allowed to cheat and not get kicked?
hammerboy_0419
it literally wasn’t hacking
i just animation skipped my ult. you could’ve done that too dumbass
they_see_me_rolling
Mods, he’s verbally assaulting me now
Why is this barbarian still in the tournament and the server?
puzzlemaster_h
@hammerboy_0419 Antagonistic profanity is against the rules. This is your first warning.
Salo, we are still reviewing the footage you sent in. There will be a delay of five minutes so we can watch it in full, but since Hammerboy had no recording or evidence on his end and is now acting improperly, the verdict will likely be in your favour.
hammerboy_0419
are you kidding me
Jayce slumped back in his gaming chair with a sigh. He had literally just started competitive on this account, after basically months of grinding to get it up to professional ranking and get all the right equipment on it, and now this. Word spread fast in competitive, and Salo was a notorious gossip, so if this went poorly he may have to create a whole new account. All because he found a new feature in the game, and tried to take advantage of it.
Should he even be trying to play competitive? He was more or less happy with the streaming career, and if he had to abandon two accounts to play in unofficial tourneys, maybe fate was telling him to give up. Not everyone was meant for pro, it’s not like he had a team, or he could even get a team without blowing his whole “totally-bad-at-games-himbo” persona, so chances were slim in the first place.
Jayce wasn’t even playing because he wanted some big success as a pro player, he could do perfectly fine without a skin in the game honouring him (especially not one that costs $500), he just needed a bit more stress relief after entertaining thousands of strangers at a time became his job.
But maybe, it just wasn’t meant to be in this way.
hexherald
Actually, animation cancelling isn’t against the rules.
The bylaws say that you cannot animation cancel for the teleport spell, and that Kassadin players cannot animation cancel their ultimates, but no such rule exists for Jayce’s ultimate.
they_see_me_rolling
Seriously? Isn’t that a major oversight?
hexherald
Not really. We didn’t know it was possible to cancel Jayce’s ultimate animation, but if hammerboy plans on pioneering, who are we to stop him?
puzzlemaster_h
After checking the bylaws, hexherald is correct.
Since cancelling Jayce’s ult doesn’t allow any teleportation, it’s fully allowed within the current rules. Hammerboy may move on to the next section of the tourney.
hammerboy_0419
yippee
they_see_me_rolling
This is insane, but sure. Why not. Pro is a joke anyway.
Since Jayce had just recently soundproofed his apartment walls, he didn’t hold back from announcing “Hell yes! Suck it, Salo!” to his empty bedroom walls. His crystal collection probably agreed. With a goofy grin on his face, he decided to send his thanks to the right and just mod that saved his case.
[This is the very beginning of your legendary conversation with hexherald!]
hammerboy_0419
hey, thanks for helping out with the whole animation cancelling thing!
fully thought i was gonna be banned there lol
hexherald
No worries.
I always respect anyone who’s willing to push the boundaries of the game, and coming up with a new way to animation cancel is serious dedication.
hammerboy_0419
what can i say, i love jayce
hexherald
Machine Herald, is that you?
hammerboy_0419
omg fellow vikjayce shipper???
hexherald
Of course.
It’s practically impossible to read Viktor’s character bio and NOT want him back with his ex.
hammerboy_0419
REALLLLLLL
they should get un-divorced and settle down in a nice cottage on the countryside with amarantine blitzcrank and naph as their adopted kids
hexherald
Ideally, that cottage would be on the countryside of somewhere with no extradition laws, because there’s no way Viktor is giving up the evolution.
hammerboy_0419
yeah they probably still fight about it, even after the re-marriage
btw, what’s your name? feels weird not even knowing the name of my saviour
hexherald
It’s V.
hammerboy_0419
short and sweet!
you can call me J, then
—
Jayce didn’t end up winning that tournament, but he made a new friend. To him, that was better.