Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A little bit of suffering, a tinge of fatigue… none of it mattered.
Team Skycrown was well aware that they wouldn’t have even made it into the LPL without Yu Luocheng. Even if he would never be able to return to the arena again, they still hoped that they could at least help him overcome this obstacle.
They needed to give their all in this match against Team Sky!
***
In the resting area, Xu Pingyang was smoking a cigarette as usual, crossing his legs as he looked at the big screen.
There were two iPhones on the table and the one on top suddenly rang, vibrating non-stop. Xu Pingyang looked at the screen and his face brightened immediately when he realized it was a sponsor calling. He hurriedly answered the call.
“Mr. Wang! How are you, how are you? Oh, regarding the problem of the low win-rate recently. Our Blood Eagle has gone overseas for special training, he’ll be back sometime in the next few days…
“Yes, yes, don’t worry, we won’t lose this round. Even without Blood Eagle, we’re still a strong team. Team Skycrown is just a new team with barely any experience in big competitions.”
Xu Pingyang’s face was all smiles, looking like he was talking to his own grandfather. He always looked like this when dealing with sponsors, especially when such a big sponsor like Samsung was waving hundreds of thousands in his face. Who cared about keeping your pride? Pride can’t earn you that amount of money!
“Please be assured that by sponsoring our Team Sky, there will be many more opportunities for promotion in the world arena. Your branding is already very well-known, but you still have many strong competitors.
“You must know that the number of live broadcast viewers for the S International League has already surpassed the NBA by at least ten times. You won’t go wrong by betting on our Team Sky,” boasted Xu Pingyang.
He already had many meetings and discussions with the manager of Samsung, but they had yet to close the deal. But Xu Pingyang could tell that Mr. Wang really wanted to sponsor them.
Samsung’s sponsorship involved such a huge sum of money, so forget about buttering them up, Xu Pingyang would be willing to even lick Mr. Wang’s shoe, as long as it got the deal signed!
His own villa, the latest Audi model, and even a fancy bed complete with a girl who was great in bed lying in it, he needed money to get all these things…
As long as Samsung’s sponsorship deal went through, he could have it all!
So of course, Team Sky really couldn’t afford to lose this match. If they lost and got kicked out of the top two, they wouldn’t be able to make it to neither Worlds nor the S International League. If that happened, Samsung definitely wouldn’t sponsor them!
The reason Xu Pingyang came in person this time was because he needed to pay close attention to this very important match.
His gut feeling told him that Team Skycrown was very strong. He had seen their talents with his own eyes when they dominated the country as Team Wings.
Their members were all world-class e-sports players, and even though they had formed their LPL team a bit late, Xu Pingyang was well aware of their formidable abilities. They had especially displayed their outstanding strength during the match against Team Revelation.
If Blood Eagle was around, Xu Pingyang wouldn’t be worried at all. It was obvious that these two teams had a big gap between them. The problem was that Blood Eagle was still training overseas, and that was the reason why Xu Pingyang was very concerned right now.
“Damn it, if it wasn’t for that shitty, disobedient Blood Eagle, it would be so easy to destroy you!” said Xu Pingyang angrily.
“Boss, I heard that Yu Luocheng’s father is in the hospital and needs to undergo some major surgery or something,” said Mr. Ou, Sky Club’s driver.
Mr Ou. had been with Sky Club for a very long time. Team Wings used to call him Uncle Ou as he was the one responsible for their daily lives. Now that Mr. Ou was a driver, he also took care of some trivial matters in Team Sky.
He was still in touch with Lin Dong, so Mr. Ou knew that Yu Luocheng was dealing with some family problems now, and probably urgently needed money.
“That’s good. As long as he doesn’t turn up here, we’ll have no problem winning this game,” said Xu Pingyang.
The only person Xu Pingyang feared was Yu Luocheng. He was practically unstoppable, if he were to appear, the match’s outcome would be impossible to predict.
“Boss, what I meant was… shouldn’t you give them the prize money? The problems between you and them have already dragged on for so long… no matter what, they were the ones who helped bring up Sky Club’s name.
“Now, you shouldn’t care so much about this small sum. If you give it to Luocheng, he could let his father see the doctor and get better,” said Uncle Ou in a low voice.
Xu Pingyang had taken prize money worth almost a hundred thousand from Yu Luocheng. Uncle Ou was really concerned about him right now, and was trying to see if he could get Xu Pingyang to return the money that rightfully belonged to Yu Luocheng.
“Ou, is there something wrong with your brain? Did I force him to leave back then? It was him who wanted to leave and violated the contract, so of course the prize money wasn’t given to him. The agreement was written in black and white. Why are you making it sound like I conned him?
“Everything was in accordance with the terms. If he was still working hard for my club, I wouldn’t mind giving him some money to take care of his sick father. But the problem is, he’s not, so forget it. And he even purposely formed this blasted Team Skycrown to go against me!” ranted Xu Pingyang.
Listening to Xu Pingyang’s words, Uncle Ou’s desire to persuade him disappeared. It was obvious that Xu Pingyang intended to pocket the money, asking him to take it out was impossible.
Thinking of Lin Dong and the rest who said they would defeat Team Sky in order to give Yu Luocheng the money to treat his father, Uncle Ou hoped with all his heart that Lin Dong, Zhou Yan, Da Luo and Xiao Bei would really be able to beat Team Sky.
***
“Players from both teams have taken their places. Once they adjust their hardware, we’ll be able to see the game on the screen soon.”
“Don’t know how many votes Team Skycrown and Team Sky will get this time. Who do you think will win, Xi Ling?” said Hei Hei.
“I think it’ll be Team Sky,” Xi Ling paused, musing over the situation before continuing, “Even though Blood Eagle is not around so the team is missing their core, the other members of Team Sky are still strong. They shouldn’t have any reason to lose to Team Skycrown.”
“Team Skycrown has shocked many, but since you feel that Team Sky will win, then… I also feel that Team Sky will win,” said Hei Hei, making the entire arena laugh at the change in his tone.
They had expected Hei Hei to be opposite of Xi Ling and support Team Skycrown.
Nowadays, commentators would talk about which teams they felt would win before the game started. This was to better stimulate an exciting atmosphere in the arena. Needless to say, as this match was against Team Sky, the support for Team Skycrown was low.
***
Entering the banning phase.
Team Sky had done their homework, and the first champion to be banned was the one that had contributed a lot in the match against Team Revelation—Gragas.
In the match against Team Revelation, Lin Dong’s Gragas was still unpolished. However, in the following match against Team Dusk, Lin Dong’s Gragas was like an explosive on the field, thoroughly scattering their opponents and destroying all their preparation with just one ulti.
Team Skycrown had done even more homework than Team Sky.
Their whole reason for even entering the LPL in the first place was to defeat Team Sky. They had watched every single one of Team Sky’s matches to carefully study their tactics and play style.
It was difficult to admit, but with Blood Eagle carrying the team and pacing the game, it was hard to win. Each game they watched brought them a sense of helplessness.
But Blood Eagle wasn’t here, which gave Team Skycrown more confidence. They believed that with their coordination and strategy, it was entirely possible to win!
Team Skycrown had initially planned to ban the few champions that Zhao Tinghua excelled at using, but since he wasn’t here, they chose to instead focus more on Team Sky’s Mid and ADC.
Xie Yi, Team Sky’s Mid, had an individual ability index of only 7 points, but his overall score came up to as high as 23 points!
Xie Yi and Zhao Tinghua had amazed everyone with countless demonstrations of plays that displayed their wonderful cooperation. Team Sky was strong because the two of them carried the entire team.
Adding on the fact that the overall points for the other members of the team were not low, that was why they could sit firmly on the first and second placings!
Vulcan, Team Sky’s Top, had an overall score of 21.5 points and was considered to be one of the top tier players in the LPL. Apart from Team 71’s Forgetful Laughter and Team Daemons’ Charon who could pressure him in his farm and lane, no other Top could compete with him.
This was because this guy had never farmed peacefully in lane before, and he would immediately launch assaults against his opponents, killing both himself and them!
In addition to having a strong Top, Team Sky’s bottom lane combo was also an undefeated team in the LPL.
Their ADC—Guan Langjie—had an overall score of 22 points. His laning phase was weak, but he knew how to find advantages in team fights, and was known as creeper.
It was impossible to touch his ADC in any team fight! Even if he can’t damage you, he won’t give you a chance to kill him!
In a team fight, the life and death of the ADC was extremely important. He was the key in whether you would be able to take Baron or Dragon, and the one who would make a difference in how fast you can defend or push a turret.
With Team Sky having an aggressive Jungler like Blood Eagle, there were many times when they couldn’t properly protect the ADC. Guan Lanjie’s play style of being such a creep was exactly what their team needed!
Team Sky’s Support was mediocre, with an overall score of 19 points.
In reality, the bottom lane combo didn’t really need to have someone who had high strength, it simply required the sync and cooperation of the two players.
It was obvious that Team Sky’s Support, Leng Qi, was exactly what Guang Langjie needed for his creeping ADC playstyle! Their combination even caused problems for the aggressive pushing Asmodai and flexible Bai Feng.
As for Birch, Team Sky’s Jungler substitute, his strength was unclear and it was said that he had only recently been recruited into Team Sky. If it wasn’t for Blood Eagle being so in the spotlight, he would probably be a very strong Jungler star in the LPL too.
If Xu Pingyang was allowing him to play in Blood Eagle’s place, then Birch was definitely not some noob who had never played in the professional league before!
