League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Jian Feng volunteered to accompany Xiao Bei back home which made everyone feel slightly relieved. They were worried that Xiao Bei wouldn’t be able to resolve things on his own, he really was too naive.

The next morning, Xiao Bei and Jian Feng boarded a train headed for the border of Gansu. The train would only pass by certain cities, and the village that Xiao Bei originated from was quite far off. It would take about half a day to get there on foot, and the entire round trip would probably take about five to six days.

“Luocheng, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that this would happen. I’ll settle this problem with my identity as soon as possible,” said Xiao Bei, his voice dripping with guilt and shame.

“It’s alright,” said Yu Luocheng, ruffling the younger boy’s hair.

“But this isn’t all that bad…”

“What?”

“You get to make an appearance on stage. I’m only sad that I can’t see it happen…” said Xiao Bei, chuckling a little.

“You idiot, you better hurry up and get back here soon. Find out where this little rascal came from, at most I’ll help you tank one or two games in the meantime,” replied Yu Luocheng.

Team Skycrown still belonged to the five of them, and Yu Luocheng hoped to see the same five reaching the peak of E-sports.

Deep down, Yu Luocheng was well aware that while he could step in as a substitute for Xiao Bei, it might be impossible to be on his level. The rest of the team was used to playing together, so their chemistry and teamwork was better without him.

But this situation left him with no choice but to make an appearance.

When he initially said that he would step in if necessary, he meant it as a joke, or at most just as motivation for Team Skycrown. He didn’t expect that something like this would happen to Xiao Bei.

And now, somehow or other, he was suddenly expected to take the stage. He didn’t even have a chance to get all pretentious about it.

Aih, f*ck that.

He might as well use this chance to vent his dissatisfaction on the recent happenings.

F*cking hell, when he was playing against the world’s top players, the guys that were now acting all big in front of him had still been playing games like Tetris and Super Mario!

As they watched the train disappear from their sight, Yu Luocheng spoke to the remaining members of Team Skycrown.

“There’s some bad news. Although Ai Ke has helped us cover up this issue for now and isn’t going to directly punish us, all our points from the games Xiao Bei played are now void. In other words, we now have zero points and are at the bottom of the rankings.”

“F*ck!” Da Luo cursed loudly.

Zero points!

On average, each team had already played two games and had a minimum of three points. Team Skycrown was initially not in a bad place with six points, but now this!

“It’s hard to fault them for this. We should be celebrating the fact that they didn’t directly kick us out of the LPL,” Zhou Yan reasoned.

“Yeah, and it’s not all bad. Don’t we have a piece of good news to share too?” said Lin Dong, a smile slowly creeping onto his face.

Zhou Yan, Lin Dong, Da Luo’s eyes immediately brightened as they turned to look at Yu Luocheng.

The fact that this asshole Yu Luocheng was going to make his appearance was indeed good news!

To be honest, if they didn’t know Xiao Bei well enough, they would have thought that he did this on purpose to let Yu Luocheng play. No matter whether it was a coincidence or not, Yu Luocheng making an appearance had Team Skycrown that much more excited for the rest of the LPL!

Yu Luocheng shook his head, saying, “Don’t be too happy yet, you guys and Xiao Bei have built up your teamwork all this while. There are even a few gameplays that will only work with Xiao Bei. I’m not that familiar with your coordination anymore. Worst case scenario, I might even disrupt your rhythm.”

Xiao Bei’s personal strength wasn’t too far off from his own, but when you consider the fact that Xiao Bei had better synergy with the team, there was no doubt that his win rate was higher than Yu Luocheng.

With Yu Luocheng playing, they would have the advantage of having an unknown variable. Their weakness however was just as deadly, putting them in the same situation as Team Stardust.

Yu Luocheng himself had not synergized with the team, and the others would definitely play according to their own play style. If he were to clash with them at any point, the result wouldn’t be pretty.

The same thing happened when he played with Shanghai University at the national university competitions. After entering the semi-finals, their opponents started targeting Yu Luocheng who was carrying the team. That was what brought their winning streak to an end.

“Me playing a few games wouldn’t be an issue, because they don’t really understand us yet, and they don’t know what kind of tactics we have. But with every game I play, they will start to see our glaring weakness — me. Our losing rate will greatly increase then, and when that happens we may not even be able to beat Team Stardust. You guys better pray that Xiao Bei gets back early, or we’ll really be eliminated soon,” said Yu Luocheng, his face serious and solemn.

A team’s synergy greatly impacts their overall strength index. Yu Luocheng was not arrogant enough to think that he was strong enough to keep leading Team Skycrown to victory. Not unless he had two or three months to properly synergize with the team…

“Sh*t, I almost forgot. The next match we have is against one of the top four—Team Revelation!” Da Luo groaned, slapping his head with his hand.

Everyone knew that there was a big gap in strength between the top four teams and the bottom four teams. It’s said that Team Meteor and Team Stardust didn’t get even a single point when they went against the top four teams, instead facing a landslide loss of 3 to 0.

“Look, it’s those analysts again. Hurry up and watch!” exclaimed Li Meiqi, shoving her handphone in front of the five of them.

“It’s Team Revelation’s analyst.”

In the video, Chesnut, Team Revelation’s analyst, and Bai Feng were being interviewed at the same time.

The interview was about the commotion that happened right before the opening ceremony. On the screen, an angry Zhou Yan was seen grabbing onto the photographer’s collar and asking him to apologize to Xiao Bei.

Soon after, Bai Feng appeared and apologized to both Zhou Yan and the photographer in a polite manner. His actions had attracted the praise of many fans, stating that with his good manners, Bai Feng was indeed a prince among the LOL professional players.

As it turns out, Bai Feng truly was from a good family background and he played E-sports professionally purely because he liked it.

After the report, Chestnut and Bai Feng’s interview began. Looking calm, the two of them were about to analyze the situation that had taken place.

“According to that photographer, Team Skycrown’s strength is not as good as yours. What are your thoughts on this matter?” asked the interviewer.

Bai Feng humbly replied, “Team Skycrown is an old opponent of ours and although we are familiar with them in some aspects, we can only truly know the difference in our strength once we have played against each other. It’s not appropriate to make assumptions so early.”

***

“To be honest, I don’t like Bai Feng very much. I think he’s very hypocritical! Luocheng, you’re going against him in lane this time, I believe you’ll be able to wreck him with no problem!” said Li Meiqi.

Their opponent was Team Revelation, and the strongest player on the team would undoubtedly be their ADC — Bai Feng!

It wasn’t that Team Skycrown didn’t believe in Xiao Bei’s capabilities. His rank was clearly higher than Bai Feng’s, and he was no doubt qualified to be called the King of ADC.

However, Xiao Bei didn’t have enough experience in big competitions. Even with his astounding progress, he would most likely suffer when facing Bai Feng who had vast experience as a professional player.

Yu Luocheng would be different as his playstyle was smooth and flexible. If he were to be singled out or targeted, he would still be able to make it by consistently farming without coming out from under turret.

When things were so intense to the point that he wouldn’t dare to leave turret, he would still be able to get ahead by farming!

The most important thing to consider was mental stress.

Bai Feng was the strongest ADC in the country, Xiao Bei would have definitely felt pressured when facing him, and subsequently struggled to show his full potential.

Again, Yu Luocheng wouldn’t have this problem. Didn’t you see how he almost brought down Blood Eagle during his solo?!

While others were climbing to the top with the world’s best players, Bai Feng was somewhere at the bottom, still struggling to beat little kids!

Li Meiqi knew that Bai Feng’s popularity had recently reached insane heights in the E-sports circle, and that made her excited to watch the showdown between Bai Feng and Yu Luocheng!

What if…what if our Fighting Hawk could defeat Bai Feng?

Then this pre-match interview would come back to haunt them!

Moreover, Bai Feng’s status as a top ADC would also be shaken—what a huge wave this would make on the Internet!

Li Meiqi just couldn’t wait!

With Team Skycrown receiving so much criticism and ridicule this time, they really needed something unpredictable like Yu Luocheng to break all the ridiculous public perceptions and assumptions about them. With a victory, they would raise eyebrows as they proved the capability of Team Skycrown!

***

“Brother, which rock did you climb under and die? I haven’t seen you at university for days!” Yu Yu’s voice came through the phone, with arrogance in her voice as usual.

This stupid girl, acting so meek and polite in front of others. She acted like a devil in front of Yu Luocheng, speaking with a commanding tone as if she was controlling a favorite toy of hers.

“I’ve been busy, I can’t talk right now,” replied Yu Luocheng.

“You’re lying. Even your counselors have called home, saying you often skip classes and don’t return to the dorms at night,” retorted Yu Yu.

“Okay, okay. I really need to do something now, help me explain to Mom and Dad.”

“You can explain to them yourself.”

Du du du.

Just as Yu Luocheng was going to respond, Yu Yu had already hung up in a huff. Yu Luocheng didn’t mind, she was ten thousands of miles away after all. At most he would just be scolded a bit, not much harm done.

Yu Luocheng would be playing one or two matches and the rest will be left to Xiao Bei. Playing one or two games would be no reason for his family to notice.

***

Team Skycrown’s third match was at 8PM.

Needless to say, Team Revelation’s popularity was super high. Even before the match started, there were already tens of thousands of people tuning in.

Yu Luocheng wasn’t an idiot to think that they had all come for them. He knew that it was probably due to Bai Feng.

As the game started, this popularity would continue to rise.

“Welcome to the LPL battlefield! My name is Miracle and I will be your commentator for today.”

“I’m Qi Qiao.”

“Qi Qiao, I recall that you were also the commentator for the match on the day that Team Skycrown qualified for the LPL. Naturally, you would have a better understanding of them. Do you think that they also bear the curse?” said Miracle.

Miracle was also an official commentator who was good at guiding topics. You wouldn’t have to worry about being bored even during intermission.

“Curse? Don’t use these kinds of terms that the audience won’t understand.” Qi Qiao laughed and proceeded to explain.

“It’s like this, according to our statistics, three teams from the bottom four teams have already played against the top four teams. Team Stardust vs Team Sky, Team Meteor vs Team 71, and Team Dusk vs Team Daemons. In these three matches, the bottom four teams have yet to succeed in gaining any points. I remember at the last LPL, although the top four teams were strong, there wasn’t ever a situation where the bottom four teams couldn’t even gain a single point…”

“Rumours of this so-called curse have been spreading in the forums, so if Team Skycrown who is playing against Team Revelation also lose today, then they would also be victims of the curse. Alright, we shouldn’t be stereotyping. We should sincerely wish that Team Skycrown can break this cycle, yes that’s right, if Team Skycrown’s bottom lane doesn’t get wrecked that is…” said Miracle ominously.