Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Three days later, as expected, Team Galaxy was beaten by Team Beijing and eliminated.
Team Skycrown had won four consecutive matches, they didn’t need to play the fifth and were directly qualified for the preseason!
Team Skycrown’s road was considered smooth, their absolute strength made them not fear the third tier professional teams.
However, Luocheng was aware that the true problem would lie in the preseason matches. The teams there would have been formed much longer than Team Skycrown, their tactics, coordination, and experience would also be more than Team Skycrown’s. To triumph over those teams would not an easy feat.
Luocheng didn’t give Team Skycrown too much leisure time either, once they had won the match, he took them back to training immediately.
In this remaining month, he needed to maintain their consistent combat practice, they didn’t have any room to slack or neglect their training.
***
The e-sports club was very cooperative with Team Skycrown, thinking back on the conditions of their accommodation, they would always allow them to use the club room when it was time for their combat practice. This was to ensure that no accidents would happen during their actual practice.
“I need to take my exams soon so I won’t have time to look after you. Make sure you guys practice properly, don’t slack.” Luocheng urged.
Team Skycrown had once been a professional team, if they couldn’t even endure this repetitive training, they weren’t worthy of being professional players.
Luocheng wasn’t around for the next few matches, he needed to sit for his exams and couldn’t be with Team Skycrown. Even during training, they were on their own.
Fortunately, during the absence of Luocheng during this time, Team Skycrown’s performance was very good in all of the matches and they were getting closer and closer to the gates of LPL.
***
“A wild card has appeared in the Media War, and I’m afraid that Team Beijing who is very promising might also be eliminated at the end.”
“Are you talking about Team Skycrown?”
“That’s right, I’ve heard that Team Skycrown entered the preseason with a 100% win rate!” A fat student eating meat buns said.
“Their first match in the preseason will be against Team Beijing, but sadly, it won’t be broadcasted, otherwise, I’d want to watch it.” The guy holding a book said.
“What competition are you talking about? What is Team Skycrown and Team Beijing?” The girl at their side asked.
“Preseason.”
“What is preseason?”
“…”
Both the guys had to explain the general system of the game—League of Legends to this girl. There were a lot of people who played the game, but there were not many who truly understood the professional system. There was too little attention on it.
Of course, if you were to compare it to last time when no one would even ask about it, now, you could often hear talks like this on the road as you walked, and that would indicate that the game was fairly popular already.
Luocheng was being pulled along by Yu Yu, an expression of torture on his face as they headed toward the library.
Now, everyone in the university knew that Yu Yu had a boyfriend, and it was a guy who was outstanding in League of Legends.
Luocheng was at a loss for words, he had a girlfriend alright, but it definitely wasn’t a thing like Yu Yu.
When Yu Yu finished her training, she would always come to the university, and when there was nobody to play with her, she would come and find Luocheng.
Everytime Yu Yu made an appearance, Luocheng didn’t dare to enter the e-sports club room where Team Skycrown would most likely be. He was worried that this girl would expose his secret to his parents, saying that he wasn’t concentrating on his studies but playing e-sports.
Also, Yu Yu didn’t like Luocheng playing e-sports from the bottom of her heart. The last time he had gone to eat with the club members without her, she had wanted to complain to their father. Luocheng had basically thrown away his pride to convince her not to.
This sister was too hard to please, she didn’t even allow him to talk to Qianqian over the phone. What the hell, who the heck was his girlfriend now?
Once they had eaten their meal, Luocheng made excuses to take his leave.
He hadn’t been to Team Skycrown’s place for a few days and tomorrow was their important game, which was the first game of the preseason. It was important, and the team they were facing was a veteran team—Team Beijing.
Team Beijing had enjoyed their reputation for a long time, and Team Skycrown had only started rising in fame recently. Due to his examinations this round, he hadn’t had any time to collect information about Team Beijing.
Going against a strong team but not watching any videos of their matches, this was not a wise move.
It was unfortunate, but Luocheng had not seen a single match by Team Beijing, and he didn’t have any counter for Team Skycrown to use.
***
Luocheng had the key to the door in Team Skycrown’s accommodation, and after passing through the darkened corridors, walking around a smelly garbage dump, he took out the key and was about to open the door.
“Zhou Yan, do you have any ideas?” Lin Dong’s voice came through the thin closed door, his voice slightly muffled.
The computers were placed in the living room near the beds, and coming to talk at the door would basically mean that they didn’t want to be overheard. Luocheng was about to open the door, but upon hearing Lin Dong’s voice, he stopped.
“When you first formed the team, didn’t you have the intention to be completely independent?” Zhou Yan said.
“Yeah, when we were in Sky Club, it was basically working for them, all we could ever get was the prize money. We helped them so much, and what did they do for us? They didn’t give us anything, instead, they took everything we had. That’s why I’m afraid of exploitation and management of a club.” Lin Dong replied.
“Then doesn’t that confirm it? Let’s not bother about the deal with Thunder Club.” Zhou Yan said.
Luocheng was puzzled, Thunder Club looked to be a recently formed club. They were a games, entertainment, and media company. It was said that they were quite influential and strong, and it was attracting a lot of strong professional players.
Did that mean that Thunder Club had set their sights on Team Skycrown?
It wasn’t all that weird since Team Skycrown was a beautiful wild card in this year’s preseason. Although other players may not know of their existence just yet, the industry should already be paying attention to them.
Let’s not talk about how the members of Team Skycrown used to be well known, just Wu Sen, who was a first tier professional player was already enough to indicate the team’s strength, and having clubs that were willing to buy them out was not a wonder at all.
Only, Lin Dong would most probably not agree.
What Sky Club did to them would forever leave a bitter scar that could never be healed, and they would probably never have a good impression of clubs anymore.
“I fear that if we don’t manage to enter LPL, the preseason competition doesn’t have any rewards.” Lin Dong said quietly.
Zhou Yan’s face fell as he also said quietly, “Actually, we have also thought of that already. Sigh, eating plain rice or noodles every day isn’t going to solve this…”
Luocheng was about to open the door but halted at Zhou Yan’s words.
He retreated a few steps, looking back at the dumpster that he had passed just now. It was full of cheap bread and spices packages.
And not just any bread, but the cheapest one you could get, one yuan for one!
He recalled that when everyone had started staying together and playing Dota, they were also very poor. They had stayed in a shabby house, and every day, they ate instant noodles to survive just to be able to get the rewards from the Dota competitions.
After Sky Club had bought them in, their accommodation and meal problems were solved, but that was only because they performed well in the competitions…
Luocheng hadn’t expected that after so many years, they would have to return to the starting point again, living in a shabby house and eating instant noodles to survive.
It had been three years, more than three years of giving up their youth in exchange for painfully fighting for the glory of e-sports, stepping up to the peak of e-sports. Yet, in the end, they had still fallen and started from zero with such a pitiful way of living…
The more he thought about it, the more bitter he felt.
There weren’t much rewards in the preseason, he hoped that they could get a sponsor who was not overbearing and that was able to see the potential of Team Skycrown, investing in them to ease their financial burden…
But if there wasn’t one…
What if they couldn’t get into LPL?
Team Skycrown who was unwilling to sign any contracts would not have any source of income, and their living circumstances would suffer even more after this.
They had to make it into the LPL.
Luocheng silently prayed for Team Skycrown. They weren’t the same as him, they didn’t have anywhere else to go. For the sake of e-sports, they had given everything. LOL had reignited their passion and hopes, they couldn’t afford to stray from the road of being a professional!
***
Dong dong dong!
Footsteps sounded from below and Luocheng turned around to see a small shadow. Luocheng looked at Xiao Bei who looked as though he had something on his mind, not even noticing Luocheng standing there.
“Oh, Luocheng, you’re here!” Xiao Bei said when he finally noticed, his face turning into a smile hurriedly.
Xiao Bei’s smile was straightforward, innocent like a child. This made Luocheng think back to the time when he first joined e-sports, he was also as passionate as Xiao Bei…
“What’s wrong?” Luocheng asked.
“Oh, nothing. I just went to my uncle’s place to take some stuff.” Xiao Bei said.
“Then what’s wrong with your face?” Luocheng asked.
“Nothing, nothing. He lied to me, so I threw some things at him…” Xiao Bei said, stuttering slightly.
“You have no more money?” Luocheng asked.
“Uh, I still have some. Luocheng, don’t worry about it. Once we get into LPL, there’ll be sponsors, then we’ll have the money.” Xiao Bei said, optimistic.
“What if you can’t get in?” Luocheng asked quietly.
Xiao Bei looked startled at that, the thought had never even crossed his mind.
“If we can’t get in, then we’ll have to pick up more training and earn some money to survive. Wait till next year’s competition, we’ll just try again. There’s bound to be a way.” Xiao Bei said.
Xiao Bei was so optimistic that Luocheng didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
“Oh right, Luocheng…” Xiao Bei’s face changed slightly, there seemed to be something he wanted to say to Luocheng.
“What is it?”
“Oh, oh…it’s nothing.” Xiao Bei wanted to say something, but he didn’t know how to say it, so he changed the topic instead, “I just wanted to ask you, do you really not want to play professionally? Everyone knows that you’re the strongest, if you were there…everyone has been in the real professional scene before, and they’re great plus full of experience. I’m afraid that I’m just holding them back…”
Luocheng shook his head.
Luocheng was well aware of Xiao Bei’s talent, he was a genius, an absolute e-sports genius. When he and Asmodai had teamed up against Xiao Bei and Wu Sen, they had only managed to end it in a draw.
You had to understand that Asmodai had already been in the scene even longer than Luocheng, and for Xiao Bei to hold his own and be on par with Asmodai’s ADC, it was a testament to how strong Xiao Bei was.
His Vayne was probably a little less rigorous than Shallow Dreams’, but calling him the number one Vayne in the country was definitely not an exaggeration!
Luocheng believed that not long after, his ADC would definitely shine in the professional scene!
What he lacked was confidence, and because of his blind worship toward Luocheng, he always felt that his ADC was lacking.
In fact, Luocheng was aware that in a real competition, Xiao Bei’s ADC was stronger than him. He had not gone through the trainings and he was far less stable and powerful as compared to Xiao Bei.
Really, looking at Xiao Bei, Luocheng recalled his sixteen-year-old self, endless enthusiasm, determination, and hard work.
Xiao Bei should be luckier than him, he had stepped foot into the world of e-sports at the right time. He just needed some time to settle down, have some courage, and he would be brilliant…
He would take Luocheng’s regret and step up onto the peak of the mountain! Luocheng was sure that Xiao Bei could do it!
