League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“There’s a special privilege for getting first place, can you guess what it is?” Yu Yu asked.

“How would I know—are they recruiting you into the national team?” Yu Luocheng retorted.

‘Admitting her into the national team would be a little over the top,’ Yu Luocheng thought.

“The coach said I have a lot of potential, but that’s not what the privilege is… Nevermind, you’ll see,” Yu Yu replied.

“Alright. It’s almost 1, don’t you need to sleep? Don’t stay up too late,” Yu Luocheng said.

Yu Luocheng actually heard the sound of incoming messages and it was obviously Yang Qianqian who was texting him, so he didn’t have much desire to continue a conversation with his sister.

“No way, the competition is over and I don’t have practice as much anymore,” Yu Yu replied. “Talk with me a little more.”

“I have things to do.”

“What things?”

“…”

Yu Yu continued chatting about random things and more than half an hour flew by with her endless chatter. Yu Luocheng finally managed to get her off the phone and he hurriedly opened his text messages. Yang Qianqian had only sent a message to say goodnight and nothing else, so Yu Luocheng rushed to reply the same to her. Yang Qianqian had been making his heart beat faster these past few days, and he felt like taking a train straight to Hangzhou to see her.

***

“Hey, did you know that the National Cyber Cafe competition is going to be held in Shanghai?” Qiu Jingtai asked, walking over to Yu Luocheng. “Should we go?”

“Really, I didn’t know!” Jiang Jiu’s eyes lit up at the information.

Jiang Jiu had participated before in a cybercafe competition near his place and had even placed first. He was very interested in it but there were limited competitions in his area. After the provisional matches, he could only continue learning from the GTV website and reports.

“Yu Luocheng, are you going? We can also explore Shanghai.” Qiu Jingtai turned toward him.

“Sure.” Yu Luocheng nodded.

There were still a few days left for club training and the freshmen were free to move around as they pleased. Taking time to watch the finals seemed like a good plan and he wondered if Yang Qianqian would go too.

***

The final match of the National Cyber Cafe competition was to be held in the Shanghai Electronic Exhibition Hall. The Coca Cola Company did not spare any expenses for this competition, as it could be seen in the fact that they had even booked such an expensive exhibition hall that charged by the minutes.

Needless to say, the cybercafe competition organized by GTV this time was really successful. From individual cyber cafes to cyber cafe chains, and to cyber cafe competitions in major cities, followed by outstanding provincial matches, and now, national cyber cafe competitions. It was as though the whole summer break was burning with LoL.

Yu Luocheng paid less attention to these in the later part, but it didn’t mean that these high reward competitions had cooled down. On the contrary, following the continuous elimination and fights, the teams that were selected now had made a name among all the LoL players. Even the game’s homepage had made announcements on the teams.

On the second day of Yu Luocheng’s enrollment, the match between Liaoning and Shandong had officially ended. Team Liaoning would go up against Team Shanghai in the semifinals on the 7th of September.

Team Shanghai and Team Liaoning were both strong teams, and some information had leaked, stating that they were all professional players. The prize of twenty million yuan had fired up many professional teams, and it would seem that many LPL professional players would appear in this National Cyber Cafe competition.

Of course, there were still a few restrictions in the cyber cafe competition. The well known professional players were obviously not taking part and even if they did, they were to be split into different teams.

***

Yu Luocheng and Jiang Jiu were woken up early in the morning by Qiu Jingtai. This guy wasn’t that great in LoL but he was good at this type of thing and it seemed like there was nothing he didn’t know.

“The semi-finals are in the afternoon, let’s hurry up and go. We have a long ride ahead of us.” Qiu Jingtai explained.

“I’m not going, I have something to do,” Yu Luocheng replied.

“You’re not going? Are you serious!” Qiu Jingtai exclaimed.

***

Walking out of the campus with Qiu Jingtai and Jiang Jiu, the boys took a train to town. Yu Luocheng checked the route toward the address that Lin Dong had given him and he was surprised to find that it was the same destination as the exhibition hall.

“Damn it, didn’t you say you had something to do?” Qiu Jingtai glared slightly at Yu Luocheng as they reached the stage for the semifinals.

“I’m meeting an old friend, I didn’t expect him to be living around this area either,” Yu Luocheng replied calmly. “Just as well, it looks like I won’t need to miss the match. Why don’t you guys head in first, I’ll look for him.”

“Alright.” Qiu Jingtai and Jiang Jiu went ahead as agreed.

***

In the backstage area of the exhibition hall, a series of intricate cables were buried under the table and it looked messy. A young man wearing a black shirt was in the middle of the cables, and he looked to be familiar with it, changing the plugs swiftly as he went along.

“Is this fine, Lin Dong? Isn’t it a bit dangerous?” A man that looked to be in his thirties asked, his voice laced with concern.

“Don’t worry, Manager He,” Lin Dong said confidently. “All of these are fine-tuned by myself, it definitely won’t be discovered. Just need to make sure that guy doesn’t show up!”

“I…I’ll leave it to you then.” Manager He said, even though doubt was written all over his face.

Lin Dong checked the wires again, clapping his hands in satisfaction after confirming that there were no issues. As he did, he felt the vibration in his pocket, signaling there was an incoming call, and he picked it up.

“I’ve reached, where are you?” A lazy voice came through. “Isn’t this the exhibition hall where the semi-finals of the cyber cafe competition is being held? Don’t tell me you’re actually a participant?”

“My technique has deteriorated badly. Xiao Bei’s doing good though, he’s pushing through to get first place.” Lin Dong laughed. “You’re here at a good time, let me show you my masterpiece.”

“You’re messing with those things again, don’t kid with me.” The voice replied. “Just give me the information that I asked before regarding QQ.”

“Alright, alright.” Lin Dong gave in. “Just go to the seventh floor of the exhibition hall, there’s an office there. Xiao Bei and a few others are already there. I’ll be there soon, I’m just wrapping some things up.”

Lin Dong hung up once the call was done. The man in his thirties looked at Lin Dong—his expression obviously unhappy.

“This is a secret matter, why are you calling an outsider, who was he anyway?”

“Oh, he was originally our team’s captain,” Lin Dong replied.

Manager He faltered at that information. He was a businessman in the E-Sports scene, and he had been in the scene for a good few years. It was only natural that he knew Lin Dong’s predecessor, who was a member of the well known DotA team, Team Wings—Hawk!

“The original captain of your Team Wings?” The amazement on his face was unmistakable as he exclaimed. “It’s…it’s really the Fighting Hawk that trounced all the top teams in the country and managed to enter the British International Competition?”

Being in the scene of E-Sports in the past few years, who didn’t know the ID Fighting Hawk?

Manager He couldn’t forget that it was Hawk who had led Team Wings to defeat the strongest team—Team Daemon, in that thrilling DotA match! That match was truly an eye-opener for all foreign players on how DotA was really played.

Lin Dong noted the expression on the man’s face and could only laugh lightly at it.

“Yeah, that’s him.”

The age of E-Sports changed quickly and at a fast pace—a player who was rising and great could be forgotten in just a few months what with all the other uprising players. Lin Dong couldn’t help but sigh, knowing that in the past two years, the only player that had left such a deep impression on everyone could only be him.