League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Yu Luocheng did not reject his soon-to-be brother-in-law’s courteous offer. Yang Ying was the first hurdle he needed to get through if he wanted to win Yang Qianqian’s heart.

‘Luckily my team lost to his during the Grand Final. If we had proceeded to win the game after I demolished them with my Lux, my brother-in-law might feel embarrassed and hold a grudge.’

Would you believe it if you were told that losing the finals was actually Yu Luocheng’s investment in the future?

***

Yu Luocheng was sent to the train station by his parents, Yu Jing and Li Yun.

Yang Ying arrived after Yu Luocheng had boarded the train and he walked up and sat on the seat right next to Yu Luocheng.

Yu Luocheng took a deep breath and gave Yang Ying a dazzling smile that he had practised numerous times in the mirror.

His future happiness was largely dependent on this man’s hand, and Yu Luocheng would try anything, anything at all, to convince Yang Ying that he was definitely an ideal brother-in-law candidate.

Just as Yu Luocheng was about to start the conservation with a polite greeting, Yang Ying tapped his shoulder cheerfully and spoke first with a wide grin on his face, “I finally get to meet you. Damn! Luckily Yang Qianqian told me that you were also going to Shanghai University, otherwise I would not be able to purchase the tickets last minute and miss meeting you!”

Yu Luocheng was a little startled as Yang Ying seemed to be friendlier than he thought.

“Let me tell you. You made a wise choice by choosing Shanghai University. I am the president of the E-Sports Club and you will be immediately promoted to be our core member once you are in. With me guiding you into the tougher competitions, I think we will be able to achieve greater heights together,” Yang Ying said excitedly.

“Actually, I only play the game casually…” Yu Luocheng hurriedly explained.

“Stop acting. Stop it! Don’t think I am not able to tell the difference.” Yang Ying glared at him and said, “Based on your Lux’s performance in the Grand Final alone, you are already besting most of the top players in our university. If Team Scarlet had another player close to your level, or if you were playing a core position instead of a support, our team would not have stood a chance in that game.”

“I am not as good as you think, it just so happened that I play rather well in the support position,” Yu Luocheng said humbly.

“Laowu and I almost pissed ourselves when we saw how a support almost toppled the match,” Yang Ying responded.

After that, Yang Ying excitedly briefed him through the history of the E-Sports Club, talking extensively about the establishment and recent achievements of the club under his leadership. He even shared the club’s future plan with Yu Luocheng and mentioned some of the professional tournaments that he wished to participate in. Yu Luocheng did not once see his mouth zipped throughout their journey to the university.

His intention was immensely clear—to entice Yu Luocheng into joining his E-Sports Club. Whenever Yu Luocheng showed the slightest sign of hesitation, Yang Ying would offer him the expensive snacks that he had initially brought for his roommate.

Yu Luocheng was speechless. Not long ago, he was still nervously plotting on how to impress his future brother-in-law, but the outcome had turned out to be way better than his expectations.

“It’s obvious that your skills are on par with some of the professional players. After the Coca Cola Cup ends, we could try to qualify for next year’s LPL. That’s where all the national professional teams gather at and even if we are unable to make a name for ourselves in the competition, to be able to participate in itself is already an honor!” Yang Ying said enthusiastically.

“To be frank, I refuse to join any professional tournament.” Yu Luocheng shook his head.

“It’s not that I am asking you to turn professional, we are just joining the professional tournament as public players,” Yang Ying continued to persuade him.

LPL is the acronym of LoL Professional League.

(Author’s note: LPL is the most prestigious competition in China. This is a fact that those who play LoL in China must recognize. For clarification, this story would try to retain most of the actual system adopted by LoL competition, such as LPL, S1, S2, S3, and other professional terms, though sometimes the rule and narratives might be altered in line with the story development. To have a clearer picture of the league rules and system, readers are encouraged to keep track of the actual LPL. Indeed, my main goal is to present a story about LoL E-Sport. Nevertheless, I am not going to deviate too far from the real-life LoL framework. After all, many LoL players are still unaware of the development of E-competitions in this country. I am going to slowly inject more details as the story progresses so that E-sport enthusiasts can understand more about the gaming environment in this country.)

This top-tier competition is organized by Tencent and it was worth multi-millions yuan. It was one of the most prestigious LoL professional tournaments in the country, second only to international competitions.

Even competitions like the national cyber café League which were sponsored by conglomerates like Coca-Cola was a rank or two lower than LPL.

As a fan of the game, not recognizing the LPL or S International League was akin to a basketball fan never having heard of the NBA.

Yu Luocheng clearly knew what Yang Ying meant when he brought up LPL. That was the arena that only the most elite players of the game could enter. LoL teams that could qualify for LPL were some of the best in the country, a newly formed team like Team Scarlet was no way near such level of fierce competition.

A true professional team was often backed by a well-known E-Sports club. They would have access to a reliable sponsorship, permanent coach, manager, spokesperson, media coverage, and so forth.

For instance, Team Daemon which Yu Luocheng was familiar with was backed by the DF Club. They covered several competitive video games such as Counter Strike, Starcraft, Warcraft III, and more. The trophies and honors that they attained in this area came continuously, and only teams with such backing could stand firm and compete at the highest level. After all, the grand prize of the LPL was as lucrative as 500,000 yuan!

The number of pro players aiming for the crown was beyond count!

“LPL… I think it’s a little far-fetched for me.” Yu Luocheng shook his head once again, determinedly.

He really was just a casual player and he intended to be just that for the foreseeable future. At best, he was only willing to participate in second-tier competitions such as the Cyber Café League. Serious competitions like the LPL was definitely out of the question. On one hand, he had promised not to go back into the professional scene, and on the other hand, LPL was simply too competitive. Only a selected few were qualified for such a distinguished tournament.

Yang Ying could already be considered as a very skillful player. However, from the way he spoke, it was obvious that even he was yet to reach the national standard to join the LPL.

“I will join your club and I’m fine with any competitions held at university level as well. However, LPL is way beyond my league and I am not signing up for that,” Yu Luocheng told him bluntly.

“Sigh, I am just saying.” Yang Ying himself recognized that it was extremely tough to qualify for the LPL. “Speaking of which, the Coca Cola Cup does provide an alternative route to join the LPL.”

“Stop kidding. To qualify, you need to be at the top 3.”

Do you know how many LoL players and cyber cafés across the whole China there were? Yu Luocheng’s Team Scarlet had lost as early as the city final of the competition. This was enough to demonstrate just how tough it might get at the province level, let alone the next stage—The National League, where the entire nation’s best pub players would be brought together to decide the top 3 teams. These were the teams that would be given a direct invite to the LPL.

That’s how prominent the LPL was.

‘So it’s not something we should daydream about,’ Yu Luocheng thought in silence.