(Reminder: To read the translator's notes, hover your cursor over the words underlined with dots.)\n
Chapter 7\n
Elegant Game
Esports Club, also known as EG, owns a strong and experienced LoL
team that has entered the World Championship five times, thrice
claiming the championship and twice knocked out during the
semi-finals.\nIn the current
line-up, besides the King of Mid Lane, Gu Zixing (Game ID: Siler) who
is feared by his opponents in the World Championship, both the
jungler Qi Chen (Game ID: Deep) and support Yao Le (Game ID:
Listener) are also main pillars of the team. Together, they have made
outstanding achievements in the Championship for the club.\nGu Zixing and Qi
Chen were both part of the line-up for the three Championship titles,
while Yao Le was previously the renowned mid laner of TR, a team that
is equally matched with EG. But for unknown reasons, he gave up his
role at TR and willingly took up the role of support and vice-captain
at EG two years ago during the summer split, aiding EG in clinching
the Championship titles.\nMany have
speculated that Yao Le was completely thrashed by Siler in the mid
lane, which is why he stooped to take up the support position in EG.
This made it seem as though he would rather be scrubbing the floors
on a deluxe cruise than the captain of a (sinking) sail boat, but it
was a story that many people believed.\nAfterwards, Yao
Le was under criticism by the media and TR fans for a very long time.
Fortunately, he is one with great mental fortitude and did not let
these rumours affect his performance. In fact, it drove him to become
an even better player, bringing EG an overwhelming victory in all
three lanes over TR during a regular season game.\nBut a hero does
not wallow in his past glories. EG started going downhill in the past
few matches with the mid laner Gu Zixing making multiple outrageous
mistakes in games.\nThis was a red
alert for EG as they prepare for the World Championship.\nGu Zixing wears
his jacket and slowly walks to the meeting room with Qi Chen. Gu
Zixing walks in front, with Qi Chen frowning behind him.\n“Zixing.”\n“Hm?”\n“What’s wrong
today?”\n“What do you
mean?”\n“Everything was
all right during practice. Why the slip up during the match?”\nGu Zixing turns
around, looks at Qi Chen and says, “Why is it normal for other pro
players to make mistakes on stage, but not me?”\n“Well,
because…” you’re Gu Zixing. Qi Chen wanted to blurt that
out but decided against it after giving it some thought.\nQi Chen knows
that Gu Zixing may look calm on the outside and can even casually
play a ranked game after losing a match, but he is actually more
upset and stressed out than anyone else when they lose.\nEG has not been
performing and have fallen from first place to second in the league.
Gu Zixing has even lost some weight due to all the pressure. But he
has kept mum about it and has been silently shouldering the immense
pressure from the club, the public and the fans. Gu Zixing might not
have even said a single word about the game, if not for the close
friendship between him and Qi Chen.\nBecause he is Gu
Zixing, he cannot make any mistakes.\nAnd everyone
seems to believe this ridiculous statement.\n“Also,” Qi
Chen changes the topic, “When you speak to the manager about
that... don’t get too agitated if they do not approve it.”\n“I won’t.”
Gu Zixing continues walking and says, “Someone else will be the
agitated one.”\nBoth of them walk
into the meeting room and see Manager Ren, Coach Chen, three other
team members and two substitute players watching the replay of
today’s match. The coach, with a poker face, stares at Gu Zixing
and Qi Chen entering the room.\nThe screen is
replaying the third team fight of this afternoon’s match, the
particular one that brought the team to a complete defeat.\nIn the video,
Siler was playing Orianna where he moved away to dodge a skill from
the enemy’s ADC. But the enemy’s top laner appeared from behind
and stunned Orianna. Yao Le, the allied support who was playing
Janna, wanted to give Orianna a shield but was blocked by a wall
created by .\nEG Siler on the
red side, slain.\nThe high damage
dealing champion, Orianna, died carelessly as the first kill in this
team fight. Losing a carry prompted EG to retreat and defend the
turret, but the enemy’s jungler managed to catch EG’s ADC Tang
Xuan.\n“Double
Kill!”\nIt was too late
for the allied support, Janna, to move up and save the ADC. But the
champion took a step towards the ADC in a state of panic, which gave
the enemy support, Rakan, a chance to knock her up. As both of EG’s
carries have already been erased from the fight, the enemy’s ADC
Caitlyn did not hesitate to flash in and kill Janna with a snipe.\nEG’s top laner
and jungler, with the more mobile champions, disappeared from the
enemy’s vision and did not turn back.\nThis team fight
ended with 0:3, costing EG the advantage that they should have gotten
in the early game.\nCoach Chen is
boiling with rage, while the manager pulls a long face.\nCoach Chen’s
name is Chen Shuo. Though a coach, he is only at his early thirties
and was a pro player himself before retiring to be a full-time coach.
He is extremely experienced in the field but known for being
short-tempered.\nSilence shrouds
the meeting room as Coach Chen rewinds the video to the start of the
team fight. Gritting his teeth tightly, he taps hard at Orianna on
the screen with his finger, before forcing out a sentence, “What
kind of shitty positioning is this!”\nBefore Gu Zixing
could answer, Yao Le takes over the conversation.\n“It was my
mistake, the team fight happened too fast, I wasn’t looking at the
carry’s position.”\n“Don’t be too
eager to take the rap!” Coach Chen slaps the desk angrily and
violently points at a few locations in the jungle. “Look, look,
look! See for yourselves! Not only were there no wards in the enemy’s
jungle, your own jungle is pitch-dark! Look at how the enemy team was
doing their vision work!”\nCoach Chen
switches the perspective of the replay swiftly as he speaks, which
displays the enemy’s view. It shows that a few critical locations
of the jungle are “brightly-lit” with wards.\n“Tell me, how
can a blind win a fight against another with normal vision! How do
you expect to have an edge in the late game when you lose all your
jungle camps in the early game!” Coach Chen turns around and looks
at Qi Chen. “And you!”\n“Yes sir.” Qi
Chen lowers his head, displaying total submission.\n“Remind the
support to ward the jungle if he doesn’t!” Coach Chen points at
the screen and continues, “Count for yourself, how many of your
jungle camps have been stolen!”\n“Yes sir, I’ll
be sure to make a count,” Qi Chen nods quickly. “But Yao Le is
the vice-captain, while I…”\n“Vice-captain,
big deal? Vice-captains don’t have to place wards?! Does it mean
the captain can just AFK in the base?!” Coach Chen shifts to look
at Gu Zixing and shouts, “Huh?”\nTeam captain Gu
Zixing, who is falling asleep, jerks up straight immediately when
Coach Chen yells. He hurriedly waves his hand, “No no, of course
not.”\n“But I’d
rather you’ve gone AFK than pull this shit!”\nQi Chen finds it
hard to contain his laughter.\n“What the hell
are you laughing at? Have you finished counting how many jungle camps
you have lost?” The Coach stares at Qi Chen and says, “One
hundred push-ups for losing one jungle creep, two hundred for one
dragon!” He pauses and adds, “Five hundred push-ups for one
!”\n“But they stole two Barons…...\n                                                             \nQiao Yanzhou is
sitting in front of his computer, feeling a little unsettled seeing
that the name of “ThoseStolenBlueBuffs” darkens.\nHe’s unsure
why, but he has a very strong feeling about this.\nMaybe this ID
will never turn green again…\nAlthough Qiao
Yanzhou did not ask about his identity, eventually he is certain that
person must be quite respectable in the Esports field, even if he is
not Siler.\nQiao Yanzhou gets
up and pours water into a bowl of instant noodles before continuing
to queue for another ranked game.\nLooking at the
time, Qiao Yanzhou thinks he might stream another three to four hours
so that he can reduce the number of streaming hours in the
next few days.\nLet’s try
playing in the mid lane next. Qiao Yanzhou rubs his hands,
feeling good about himself after winning two games.\nAfter 60 seconds,
the system finds a match and grants his wish to be the mid laner.\nQiao Yanzhou
hovers his cursor over Orianna yet locks in Annie, the dark child.\nAs the game loads
up, Qiao Yanzhou gobbles two mouthsful of noodles before he enters
the game.\n“Welcome to
the Summoners’ Rift!”\n❖❖❖\nAuthor’s notes:\nDragon: There are
different types of dragons (or drake), including Infernal Drake,
Mountain Drake, Cloud Drake, Ocean Drake and Elder Drake. One type of
dragon will spawn at different times throughout the game. Killing
different types of dragons gives different boost to the team, which I
will be explaining in the story.\nBaron: A.K.A
Baron Nashor. It is extremely difficult to kill but gives very
powerful boosts to the team that slays it. A Baron can usually
conclude the game, which is why team fights break out at the Baron’s
pit as they contest for it. However, the player loses the Baron buff