"Okay, so Thresh is actually PERFECT for you," Gigi said, her energy levels at maximum as she leaned toward Calli's monitor. "He's edgy, he's got chains, he's literally a soul-collecting reaper—it's like they made him FOR you!"
Calli stared at the champion select screen with deep suspicion. "He looks complicated."
"He's NOT! Well—okay, he is, but that's what makes him FUN!" Gigi was practically vibrating in her seat. "So your Q is a hook—"
"A hook."
"YES! You throw it, you hook people, they DIE! Well, your ADC kills them but YOU get the assist!"
"Riveting," Calli deadpanned, but she was already hovering over the champion portrait. The dark, spectral aesthetic was... admittedly kind of cool. Not that she'd say that out loud.
"And your W is a LANTERN that you throw to save people—or engage—and your E is a sweep that—okay wait, don't worry about that yet. Just focus on HOOKING PEOPLE."
"This is a nightmare," Calli muttered, locking in Thresh.
Five minutes into the game:
"GIGI I MISSED!"
"That's okay! That's okay! Hooks are hard!"
"I MISSED AGAIN!"
"You're learning! Throw another one!"
"I'M OUT OF MANA!"
"Then... don't throw hooks for a sec—WAIT NO CALLI DON'T FACECHECK THAT BUSH—"
An ally has been slain.
"I hate this game."
"You're doing great, bestie!"
Fifteen minutes in:
"Okay okay, so you see their ADC right there?" Gigi pointed at the screen excitedly.
"Yeah..."
"Throw the hook. Trust. Just throw it."
Calli clicked her Q ability, the chain shooting out and—
THUNK.
It connected.
"OH SHIT!" Calli leaned forward. "I HIT IT!"
"NOW PRESS Q AGAIN TO FLY TO THEM!"
Calli did. Thresh flew forward, chains rattling, and suddenly she was in the middle of the enemy team doing... something that resulted in their ADC dying.
"WE GOT THE KILL! CALLI YOU GOT THE ASSIST!"
"I—" Calli blinked at the screen. "That was actually kind of sick."
"RIGHT?! SEE?! THRESH IS AMAZING!"
"Don't get excited, I still hate this," Calli said, but there was the tiniest hint of a smile on her face as she threw another hook.
She missed.
"Okay, I REALLY hate this."
Thirty minutes in, they were losing:
"Gigi, their mid laner has killed me FOUR TIMES."
"That's just League, bestie! It builds character!"
"I have plenty of character!"
"Throw another hook!"
"I'M DEAD AGAIN!"
Victory Screen - somehow, impossibly, they won:
"WE DID IT!" Gigi threw her hands up in celebration.
Calli stared at the screen showing her 2/8/15 scoreline. "I died eight times."
"But look at those ASSISTS! FIFTEEN! You were HOOKING people left and right at the end there!"
"I..." Calli paused, then very quietly admitted, "Okay, that last hook into the lantern combo was pretty cool."
"I KNEW IT! YOU LIKED IT!"
"I didn't say that—"
"You SECRETLY LIKED IT! ADMIT IT!"
"I'm not admitting anything," Calli crossed her arms, but her eyes drifted back to Thresh's champion portrait on the victory screen. The chains, the lantern, the whole grim reaper aesthetic... "...He IS pretty edgy though."
"CALLED IT!"
They were back in the lobby, Gigi practically bouncing in her chair. "Okay so NOW we need to talk about the OTHER champions you'd love—"
"Gigi, no—"
"—because if you like Thresh, you'll LOVE Pyke! He's literally an underwater assassin with a giant hook and he EXECUTES people and they explode in gold—"
"That does sound pretty cool," Calli said before she could stop herself.
"RIGHT?! And then there's Nautilus who's this giant anchor guy—you know what, forget support—you should try JUNGLE. There's Kayn who literally has a scythe and transforms into either an edgy assassin or an EDGIER bruiser—"
"There are TRANSFORMATIONS?!"
Gigi's eyes lit up like she'd just hooked the biggest fish in the ocean. "Oh bestie, we have SO MUCH to discuss. Did you know there's a champion who's literally death herself? Her name is Kindred—"
"WAIT, there's a LITERAL DEATH CHAMPION and you had me play SUPPORT?!"
"I had to ease you in! But NOW—" Gigi pulled up the champion roster, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "—now I can show you EVERYONE. Okay so there's Aatrox who's a fallen god with a giant sword, and Viego who's a ruined king, and Mordekaiser who literally has a death realm—"
"A death realm?"
"HIS ULT SENDS PEOPLE TO THE SHADOW REALM AND YOU 1V1 THEM!"
Calli's eyes widened. "That's actually metal as hell."
"I KNOW RIGHT?! And speaking of metal, there's Pentakill skins—it's literally a metal band IN the game—"
"Wait, seriously?"
"They have ALBUMS, Calli! ACTUAL ALBUMS ON SPOTIFY!"
"...Okay that's legitimately cool."
Gigi was in full nerd mode now, gesturing wildly. "And the LORE—oh my god the lore! So Thresh? The guy you just played? He's from the Shadow Isles which was this kingdom that tried to bring back a dead queen and it went horribly wrong and now it's full of undead—"
"That's actually a solid backstory."
"—and Thresh specifically torments souls for fun, he's like PURE EVIL, and there's this whole thing with Lucian and Senna where Thresh trapped Senna's soul in his lantern for YEARS—"
From across the gaming room, Kiara called out: "Gigi's doing the League lore dump! Someone time how long this goes!"
"BAU BAU! Taking bets!" the twins chimed in.
"I AM EDUCATING HER!" Gigi protested, then immediately turned back to Calli. "Anyway, so there are like 165 champions and they all have interconnected stories and there's regions like Demacia and Noxus and they're at war and there's magic politics and—"
Calli was actually leaning in now, despite herself. "Wait, which region is Thresh from?"
Gigi's face broke into the biggest grin. "Oh no. Oh NO. You're interested."
"I didn't say that—"
"You're HOOKED!" Gigi cackled at her own pun. "GET IT? HOOKED? LIKE THRESH?!"
"I'm leaving."
"NO WAIT I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU ABOUT THE VOID YET—"
But Calli was already smiling despite herself, still looking at Thresh's character model on the screen.
She'd never admit it.
But that hook combo really had been pretty sick.