League of Legends: League of Unknowns

At the Gentle Dawn Hotel, the five players of Team Daemons gathered in a small meeting room on the fifth floor.

Although they were now staying at the hotel accommodations provided by event staff, standing by to play in the tournament itself, Team Daemons nevertheless kept up their training routine. They would have another match the following afternoon, against their old nemesis Team Sky.

Team Sky represented their most serious rival, because Blood Eagle’s skill as a Jungler was no laughing matter. If he found an opening early on in a game, it would be difficult to get back in control.

Furthermore, seeing the last two games they’d played, it seemed that Team Sky had improved greatly—especially Zhao Tinghua, the Blood Eagle, whose ability to dominate the jungles was a truly alarming matter for Team Daemons.

“Belial, you’ve been sifting through their videos. Any thoughts?” Coach Huang Kang began.

“Our main problem is Blood Eagle. Heaven knows what sort of training he’s been doing to become this powerful. That Flash at the fourth minute was superhuman stuff, and it resulted in a Double Kill off of Team 71. Then the invasion at the seventeenth minute… his senses have become even sharper. Despite having no wards in the area, he somehow knew that the enemy Mid hadn’t gone home straight away, but was instead farming creeps in the jungle.”

Belial was a small guy with black-framed spectacles. He appeared to be little more than a boy, but the truth was that he’d been famous among gaming circles since he was twelve-years-old. When he got into competitive gaming, he continued to make a name for himself, and so Pandemonium Entertainment had signed him on.

“Judging from those couple of games,” Coach Huang said, “Blood Eagle doesn’t just gank the Mid and Top lanes, but also the Bottom lane as well—in fact, he’s been more successful there than in the other lanes.”

Nowadays, most professional Junglers were of the opinion that going down to the Bottom lane was more often than not a waste of their valuable time.

Pro Support players always made sure to keep the Bottom lane warded, so that no matter which direction a Jungler came from, odds were low of getting a successful gank.

Even if you managed to find an avenue of attack, using three champions to try and catch two was an iffy proposition, especially because the ADCs usually still had their Summoner Spells available.

Looking at it from a larger perspective, even if your gank worked and an enemy champion was killed, you’d soon find the enemy Mid and Jungler arriving on the scene. Then, because you’d chased the enemy too far, you’d get killed in return, and they’d take the Dragon next.

As such, during professional tournaments, Junglers typically paid less attention to the Bottom lane. They preferred to try their luck on the more promising Top and Middle lanes, or to just keep farming.

With the start of the new competitive season, ganking the Bottom lane had become much more plausible because Support players were no longer tripping with wards, what with having to spend their money on equipment as well. The sixty-second wards from a Trinket were a far cry from proper wards.

It seemed like Blood Eagle had carried out a comprehensive examination of warding practices in the Bottom lane. Several times, he’d arrived at the Bottom lane just as the enemy ward expired, enabling him to catch his prey off-guard.

And so the Bottom lane, which ought to have been the most difficult lane for any Jungler to gank, didn’t seem like that much of a reach for Blood Eagle: Out of seven gank attempts, two had been made in the Bottom lane, and both times had met with success.

“Asmodai, Mephistopheles, the both of you will have to watch out. Assume he’ll be going for our Bottom lane too,” Coach Huang solemnly cautioned.

Both players nodded.

“Asmodai, is it still troubling you?” Hades asked, looking at him.

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” Asmodai nodded.

“Alright, if you say so.”

***

The most anticipated match-up in the LPL was, without a doubt, Team Sky vs. Team Daemons. This was because they were universally regarded as the two best ‘League of Legends’ teams in the nation, and the previous year they had both gone on to represent China in the ‘League Worlds’ official international tournament.

According to the schedule, those two teams would have a clash later that evening at seven. The players on both teams were already present in the arena.

There were clearly many more spectators here to see this match, compared to previous ones. The excitement rumbled continuously within the hall, even though the game had yet to actually begin. Evidently, each team had managed to win the hearts of a great many LOL enthusiasts!

The Team Daemons players all wore a green-and-black uniform. When they stepped onto the stage, a storm of cheering erupted, and quite a few people were holding up signs with the players’ names.

As for Team Sky, Zhao Tinghua commanded an unimaginable fan following. Someone had even hand-drawn an enormous picture of an eagle, with a portrait of Tinghua where its head should be. To have such dedicated fans was truly something to be proud of.

Team Sky had retained their white-and-blue uniforms, and they brushed past Team Daemons with a mild air of hostility.

In truth there existed little real enmity between professional players. They saw each other regularly at big tournaments, not to mention everyday Ranked play as well. It was common for players from different teams to be regular duo partners.

Of course, their private lives were a private matter—there would obviously be no compassion during a serious game. Back then, the original Team Wings had been on friendly terms with Team Daemons too. However, when they’d fought each other at the highest level of competition, and only one team could make it out alive, it had been all-out violence with no remorse!

Both teams had been arch-rivals for some time, now. All the players were well-acquainted with one another. However, following that scuffle between Guan Langjie and Asmodai, things had been tense between the two teams.

Back then, they’d at least exchange greetings on sight. Now, they just breezed past each other, and didn’t say anything more than was absolutely necessary.

Of course, their quarrel was nothing compared to the bad blood between Team Sky and Team Skycrown.

“Asmodai, don’t let that fool rile you up.” Mephistopheles patted him on the shoulder.

Asmodai nodded, sat down in front of his computer, and began configuring the settings.

***

“Captain, where are you? The match is about to begin!” Lin Dong barked into his handphone, at a Yu Luocheng who was still nowhere in sight.

“You guys watch it first. I’ll look at a recording later.”

“No way! You’re not coming to watch such a big game in person?” Then Lin Dong hung up, wondering what Luocheng could be doing. Of all people, he should be the one who’d take the most interest in the Sky vs. Daemons game.

“If you’re wondering about the captain, I saw some girl absconding with him earlier,” Wu Sen informed him.

“Yang Qianqian?” Lin Dong asked.

“Don’t think so. Hair was tied up. Face looked sorta familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Pure-looking girl.”

“Huh. Found another woman, maybe?” Da Luo cocked an eyebrow.

“Surely not…”

“Who knows.”

***

In the public park outside the Gentle Dawn Hotel, Luocheng rested upon a stone bench and viewed the city lights, not far in the distance.

There was a girl standing beside him, her hair tied up so that it fell like willow fronds across her back, a fetching sight to see.

“How did you find this place?” Luocheng asked in bewilderment.

“I asked one of my friends on the swim team. He told me all the LPL players would be staying here,” Yu Yu answered.

“And so you came here. Do you have a competition going on in Shanghai?”

Yu Yu shook her head. Whenever she had some time off, it had become a habit for her to visit Shanghai University, even though Luocheng was no longer there. She liked to soak up the leisurely mood of university life. Sadly, whenever there was an upcoming competition, she’d have to run around the place, training constantly.

“Hand over your phone,” Yu Yu said, looking at the phone in Luocheng’s hands.

“What for?” Luocheng didn’t comply.

“What did you change your number for? You didn’t even tell me about it, nor anyone back home.” Yu Yu glared at him.

“You’re all a nuisance to me,” Luocheng declared impassively.

If he didn’t see it, didn’t hear it, then it couldn’t bother him. That was Luocheng’s way of life, these days.

From now on, he would no longer bow to the outmoded views of his family. Even so, Luocheng had feelings, too. Between their castigation, censure, and coaxing, he worried that it would stress him out emotionally, and leave him unable to focus on the game. That was why he’d decided to cut all contact with them completely.

“You…” Yu Yu’s chest was heaving with anxiety. She didn’t know what demon had possessed Luocheng, to the point that he’d abandon his own family for the sake of such utter nonsense!

“By the way, is Swimming a part of the Asian Indoor Games?” Luocheng inquired.

“Of course it is. Do you want to watch me compete?” she snapped in reply, unsure of why he was bringing this up.

“Not particularly.”

“How have you become even more despicable?”

Luocheng rubbed his nose. Him, despicable? And here he was just thinking about how Yu Yu was being more disagreeable than ever. A full-grown adult like her, and still so old-fashioned, echoing their parents’ stubbornly backwards world-view!

The Asian Indoor Games… If he could take part in that, too…

It wasn’t that Luocheng wanted to sever ties with his family forever. While he was making his way down this path that he’d sincerely chosen, all he wanted was to not have to put up with his family members’ ire and ridicule. He feared that this would eventually cause him to resent them.

Now, as he ascended towards ever greater heights of glory, what he wanted was to let those couple of television-addled fossils know that gaming was an international sporting event, and that he, Yu Luocheng, was not just wasting his time on idle pursuits—he was competing against the champions of other nations, fighting desperately for victory!

The Asian Indoor Games… Now that he knew Yu Yu would be there as well, he only wanted to participate in the event even more!

The only thing was, he didn’t know how to convince the General Administration of Sports to let him take part.

Luocheng decided he’d need to have a chat with those Team Beijing people. He definitely couldn’t miss this opportunity, and not just for his own sake—for Da Luo, Zhou Yan, Wu Sen, and Lin Dong, it was also a matter of monumental significance!