League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see is the deciding round in the last match-up of the LPL Pre-Seasonal Qualifiers!

“The two teams in this clash are the fearsome and renowned Team ‘Fudan’, against the dark horse in this pre-season, Team ‘Skycrown’! This will be a best three out of five, and the current score is two wins for either side! Will the final opening to get into the LPL go to Fudan after all, or will it be snatched up by Skycrown? Let’s all watch and see!”

Team Skycrown was gaining more and more support from the crowd with each passing moment. People were easily impressed by skill. Anyone who wasn’t already completely devoted to Team Fudan found themselves rooting for a team like Skycrown, with extraordinary players in every role.

Although the cheering for Team Skycrown was still scattered and indistinct, it could nevertheless be heard across the arena. To the players on Team Skycrown, any amount of fans was worth being thankful for.

Before the Pre-Seasonal Qualifiers began, Team Galaxy had even made fun of them for being a ‘trash team’. The disdain and contempt they’d received had been heart-breaking . ¹

The hardest thing to bear is when what you’re the proudest of is disparaged and spat on.

In one month’s time—just one month—they’d surpassed Team Galaxy’s score!

And if they could win this one too, they’d be the new darlings of the LOL competitive scene in the LPL, and the name of Team Skycrown would spread!

***

“This is the last game,” Yu Luocheng said to his team. “Do your best out there. There are already many who are aware that Team Wings is on the rise again. They’ll be watching us play with ridicule in their eyes. For our own sakes, we have to win this one!”

The five players nodded solemnly. “For our own sakes!”

So it was for anyone who walked the path of professional gaming: Not for anyone else, they were only here because of their own burning love for the game. Regardless of what anyone else thought of them, it was a passion which could never be extinguished or wiped out!

That’s why they were doing this, for no one’s sake but their own!

They hadn’t had much chance to receive a proper education. They’d left home at a young age, making their own way in the world. A handful of words alone wouldn’t be enough to fully describe the difficulties they’d seen.

Without any professional skills or certifications, nor any claim to a place among the intellectual elite, they were fated to a life of nameless mediocrity. It was a dreadful thought, that this might be all they’d ever be.

It was no miracle that they’d still been able to get the group back together. They were young men with no academic or affluent background, and had just been wandering aimlessly through the world.

Lin Dong was just some inconsequential tester, Da Luo had been exploited and then discarded by a woman, Zhou Yan had been working his fingers to the bone at a thankless job, and Xiao Bei was a school drop-out doing odd jobs in a city far from home.

It could be said with certainty that no matter how many years they kept slaving away like this, no matter how long they drifted alone through the crowds, as long as they still held the faintest desire to make a splash, and reach out for destiny, there was only one path for any of them to take!

It was a feeling like falling into darkness, ice-cold and agonizing, utterly wretched… all they could do was crawl, and keep on crawling, just like all the other meandering castaways around them.

Some made it out to stand in the sunlight; but bottom-feeders like them would only find themselves at a dead end, or perhaps they’d keep sliding ever deeper into the darkness.

Everybody was trying to become somebody, to rise above the masses. Some people really did manage it, but Xiao Bei, Lin Dong, Da Luo, Zhou Yan, and Wu Sen weren’t those people. There was only one fate awaiting people like them.

When they bashed their skulls against solid stone, gazing tearfully at the end of the road, they’d look back and see that one precious mote of light, so close yet so far.

This faint, flickering light was none other than that thing which they loved the most, and refused to ever surrender.

And that was gaming!

As long as they still had the will to fight, as long as they still desired something more in life, they would always be ready to wipe off the blood and the tears.

It was that, or be cast down forever, always crawling along with their noses in the dirt, the scum at the bottom of the sea of society.

Wouldn’t you rather have their eyes on your backs, as you race ahead of the horde to find your own spot of sunshine. Who cares if people laugh that you’re headed the wrong way, that you’re making a fool of yourself?

Just hold onto the faith that when you’re bathing in the light, they’ll have nothing left to say!

Lin Dong, Xiao Bei, Zhou Yan, Wu Sen, and Da Luo were within sight of the sunshine now. They just had to make it over this next row of jagged, razor-sharp crags.

Past here, there was someplace warm waiting for them. From there, they’d be able to climb even higher still—towards even brighter lights!

It had never been good enough for them, living in that cold, dark hole. They refused to rot there.

This was an opportunity to break free.

For their own sakes, they had to win!

***

Stepping into the blinding lights of the arena, the five men of Team Skycrown looked simply pathetic compared to the fresh-faced Fudan University boys.

Team Fudan was just fighting for a bit more glory. Team Skycrown was fighting for their very lives!

***

“Players, to your seats. All preparations have been completed. We are now ready to see the birth of a new star in the LPL! I can hardly wait!”

In the arena, there were thousands of spectators watching.

On the internet, there were nearly ten thousand more paying attention to this match, waiting to see who would win:

Would it be Skycrown, or Fudan?

In an hour’s time, the pantheon of the LPL would be inscribed with the name of a new team:

So was it going to be Skycrown or Fudan?

***

For some reason, the five players of Team Skycrown could feel their hands trembling.

It wasn’t their first time on a big stage like this, and they didn’t lack fighting spirit… but with so much on the line, it was hard not to feel a certain sense of anxiety!

Of course, the real reason behind their tension was the mood of no turning back, no surrender!

“Xiao Bei. Xiao Bei.” Wu Sen nudged him a little.

Xiao Bei gave a start, realizing that it was already his turn to select a Champion.

“Will you be playing Vayne again, this game?”

Xiao Bei had an impressive winning rate with Vayne. Whenever he brought her into a high-level game, victory would be more or less in the bag.

At this final, crucial juncture, Wu Sen hoped Xiao Bei would fall back on his best Champion of all.

Xiao Bei eyed the enemy team’s composition with some consternation: Jayce, Lee Sin, Orianna… It could be tricky to position Vayne well, against this.

Xiao Bei shook his head. “I won’t be able to do much in the late game, as Vayne.”

Wu Sen nodded.

Thung! The portrait of ‘Tristana, the Yordle Gunner’ appeared!

“Tristana!”

“Team Skycrown’s Xiao Bei has chosen Tristana, of all champions! Isn’t she Team Fudan captain Lin Siyong’s favorite? Doesn’t he realize that a player would be most familiar with his best champion’s weaknesses?” Qi Qiao stared in shock at Xiao Bei’s choice.

Team Fudan’s fans were all agog as well.

“What, are you trying to teach Lin Siyong something about Tristana?” a man exclaimed in a heavy north-eastern accent.

“Tristana!” Beside him, his girlfriend rolled her eyes as well.

Playing Tristana… against the country’s pre-eminent Tristana player?

This startling move by Xiao Bei was raising quite a commotion. How much gall did it take to select his opponent’s own best champion to go into the tie-breaker game?

Making a choice like this, he was either going to teach someone a lesson, or he was about to get schooled himself.

***

“You sure about this?” Lin Dong inquired.

“Yes, this is the best move.” Xiao Bei nodded.

If Vayne wasn’t able to get ahead by the late game, she’d be all but useless. Xiao Bei wanted something more dependable for this all-important game, especially considering how the enemy team would be able to greatly inhibit Vayne’s damage-dealing potential.

Lin Dong nodded, and didn’t say any more.

Everyone on Team Skycrown knew that Xiao Bei was highly proficient with all the ADC champions, and could get results using even the least common choices.

They hadn’t Banned away Tristana, partly because they didn’t place much priority on keeping Lin Siyong from using her, but also because Xiao Bei used her often and well, with an extremely high winning rate. Why ban one of their own ADC player’s best champions?

If Xiao Bei had no problem playing Tristana against one of her most well-known users, they might as well believe that Xiao Bei would be able to play her better than Lin Siyong himself!

They just needed to accommodate Tristana a little through their own champion selections.

***

“It seems this match is full of highlights: Xiao Bei from Team Skycrown and his surprising choice of Tristana—perhaps he doesn’t understand whom he’ll be playing her against? If he does, then this goes way beyond mere bravado. I can’t wait to see what sort of surprises Xiao Bei has in store for us with his Tristana!

“Team Fudan’s Top has chosen ‘Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow’. I have some information to share with everyone: Fudan University’s Top player, Zheng Xihe, plays in China using the ID ‘Beer’. Those of you playing in the highest tiers of Ranked games in the Bilgewater server should be plenty familiar with this ID—after all, he’s one of the top five players in Bilgewater… and Jayce is his best champion.

“According to statistics, he has a winning rate of 80% on Jayce, meaning that champion should always be banned when playing against him in any serious games. Throughout the college championship and the pre-seasonal tournament, Beer has never used Jayce even once so far—but this doesn’t mean he’s run out of tricks on that champion—he’s been saving his best for the most important games of all!”

To be one of the top five players in the Bilgewater server, that was something really amazing in League of Legends.

If not for Qi Qiao announcing this particular tidbit, the audience might not have realized that besides Lin Siyong—who was good enough to give first-class pro players a run for their money—there was also someone this noteworthy on Team Fudan.

But, then again…

If Team Fudan’s Top player ‘Beer’ was such a remarkable player, what did that say of Team Skycrown’s ‘Lone Gull’, who’d been winning his lane against him four games in a row?

Perhaps it was the players of Team Skycrown that no one fully understood!