League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Seeing that your team has performed absurdly well in the past two games, I think that coach Huang Kang must have done a lot of research on you since you were also one of their old rivals. The politics in the professional gaming world really is scary…” Aijing said.

“Miss Aijing, using scary to describe us isn’t really that fitting, is it?” Lin Dong cut her off.

“Stop playing around. The only reason you were able to take down Team Revelation as well as Team Beijing was because you did throughout research on them. For example, Team Revelation is only great at late-game, which is why you pressured them and stopped them from going into the late-game. Team Beijing’s Number One is not great at pressuring or fighting an uphill battle, and that was why you pressured him specifically. To take down a team, you have to focus on their core and then destroy them from the core. This tactic would only work when it is done by players like you who have been in the competitive scene for a long time. The new players only want to show off their skills.” Aijing continued.

Using “crazy” to describe Team Skycrown was actually an understatement, Aijing would not be bluffed by the fact that they had only joined the LPL just recently.

Aijing continued with a straight face, “If I was a member of Team Daemons, under insufficient confidence to pressure you in the early-game, I would choose to drag things out. We would fight a war of attrition and steadily farm until the teamfight to drag out the game. The cooperativeness of the five members in Team Daemons is much smoother than all of you, and if you tried to fight them that way, you would definitely lose.”

These words from Aijing reminded Luocheng that fighting a dragged-out battle with Team Daemons would not be a wise decision as team fighting was Team Daemons’ strength.

If they were to get ACED in the late-game, the game would immediately be over!

“Since all of you excel in gaining the advantage in the early-game and snowballing, I would recommend doing just that. Do not drag it out till the late-game as you would definitely lose when it comes to that. To make it simple, you have to obtain a lead in over 6,000 gold before the thirty-minute mark. If the game drags on longer than that, the advantage in gold will become more and more irrelevant, because if they start to farm, Hades would be able to deal with all of you by himself.” Aijing said.

Aijing’s analysis was spot on, at least she was on the same wavelength as Luocheng. Before the thirty-minute mark, they would have a chance to beat Team Daemons, but once it passed that time, they would start to lose the advantage and the chances of winning would be slim to none. The things that Team Daemons could do as a team would not be possible for most other teams. This was not just simple cooperation and instinct, it was something learnt from being in countless battles!

“Aijing, is there anything else?” Luocheng asked earnestly.

A hint of uncertainty flashed over Aijing’s face. She really did not want to tell them this, but after thinking that since Team 71 had been hopelessly pitted up against Team Daemons, she bit her lip and braced herself. She decided to give Luocheng a hand since Luocheng had helped her out a lot in the past.

“This… I’m not too sure but after analyzing all of the players in Team Daemons, Asmodai has not been doing so well. On average, his gold income has always been lower than the enemy ADC, and also, in teamfights, he did not do enough damage. Compared to his stats last year, it was a big difference.” Aijing explained.

“What you’re saying is that Asmodai has lost his touch. We could use this to find a way to break through their advantage.” Lin Dong caught on very quickly.

Aijing nodded in affirmation.

“Okay, we’ll keep that in mind.” Luocheng said.

Asmodai…

As he recalled how he once wanted to step down and leave the competitive gaming circle, losing the chance to compete with Team Daemons’ professional players anymore, he got even more fired up at the thought of fighting against the best team in the country.

He still remembered clearly that when he was in his senior year, he had faced Asmodai by chance. He recalled the way the latter had aggressively played Ezreal, leaving a deep mark in Luocheng’s memory.

Following that, when he played competitively and used Caitlyn, the way that he had controlled her was fantastic. The perfect movement and also the way he had gotten the upper hand, Luocheng could remember it clearly like it was just yesterday.

In that game, he had been with him in the bottom lane. True professionals would not need many words to play almost perfectly in synchronization with each other. Luocheng had really enjoyed that game, but what he loved even more was playing against strong players!

Last year, Luocheng had looked forward to meeting them in the LPL. It had been a shame that the unfortunate incident had happened. Now, after a hellish training, Team Skycrown finally had the chance to go against them. This sort of enemy that was worth fearing and respecting would be one of the best opponents one could have!

“Good, let’s get ready to go against our old enemy!” Luocheng saw that everyone was ready and his face lit up.

Long ago, there were both standing at the top of the world, fighting for first place.

This time, it would be the first time they fought against each other in LOL. All of the members were excited like Luocheng, they had finally found the feeling they had had when forming their team in the beginning!

***

There were more than two hours till the competition started and the area outside the venue was already crowded.

Those people were definitely here to watch the two teams compete against each other, so it was safe to say that there were many people who were just sticking around because they could not get a ticket.

It was a shame that there were no standing tickets for professional competitions. If there were, the sale of the tickets would have long exceeded those for concerts!

Now, the number of teenagers who followed idols were getting lower and lower, and the power of LOL was much stronger than any idol’s charm would ever be. The members in Team Daemons would get recognized by fans even in the subway or public transport. The many older people who did not know what was happening merely thought that the members of Team Daemons were maybe from a drama or something…

What did that person say… League of Legends? I saw that trailer, but why is that person not in it?

The members of Team Daemons really were famous, and without bodyguards, it would be hard for them to even enter the venue.

Of course the bodyguards would not be happy. The competition organizers could have prepared a special entrance for the participants, so why did you need to walk this way and create a disturbance!?

Alright, so the competition organizers may have been slightly playful. They wanted to know if the superstars could make a huge crowd, and that would definitely give them a big sense of achievement!

You could almost picture the competition organizers standing at the glass window and thinking to themselves as they looked at the players supporters.

‘Look, the crowd that the professional players made are much bigger than the ones made from stars of movies directed by those movie directors. If one day, we made a LOL movie series, that would immediately top the box office charts! Why don’t all of you from the movie industry just move aside for us?’

Since it was all about the views, what was the current amount of views for the LPL?

It was an extremely big event, even bigger than the Chinese Basketball Association or even the Evergrande Group. Not many people could achieve that.

“Evergrande? What Evergrande?”

“There is a competition today, didn’t you know?’

“This I definitely know for sure, it’s the LPL championship!”

“…”