League of Legends: League of Unknowns

In the Shanghai Galaxy Network Club, a guy wearing cotton slippers smoking a cigarette was sitting on a large computer sofa chair, turning off the voice chat in a huff.

“What the hell!” The spiky-haired guy cursed.

“Lu Lian, what’s wrong?” A young man wearing headphones who was sitting beside him asked.

“Nothing, just that I came across a team called Skycrown that wanted to have combat practice with us. After searching a bit, f*ck, they’re just a newly formed team with nothing to their name, isn’t that just f*cking wasting our time?”

“Don’t bother about them, whatever their names are, Skycrown, XX, OO or whatever shit, there are many teams like them out there. They’re not worth concerning yourself over.” The youth said.

“True. Are the members from Team Shadow Wind here already?”

“Soon, we’ll play our best. Team Shadow Wind is good, and they will have no problems getting into the finals.”

***

There was an uncomfortable silence in the club room after that incident. Since Xiao Jia had placed the call on loudspeaker, majority of the people in the room had heard the conversation.

Trash team?

The words uttered by that guy were heavy and harsh, and it pierced their hearts. The members of Team Skycrown were unsure of what to say for a while. Just when you thought that society nowadays was harmonious and courteous, who knew there were still so many assholes out there!

“That…I’m sorry you guys, I didn’t expect that Lu Lian was this type of person. This was my fault, I’ll find some other team to have combat practice with you.” Xiao Jia said, his voice full of guilt as he looked at the ashen faces of Team Skycrown’s members.

“It’s not your fault,” Luocheng said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, what he said was true anyway. Right now, we are worthless and a trash team.” Zhou Yan said quietly.

“Nonsense, you guys are really great! Without you guys, our SHU team wouldn’t even dream of stepping into the top four teams. Team Galaxy is the trash team, being so high and mighty just because they are the champions for the National Internet Club League!” Li Meiqi exclaimed.

“Yeah, they’re the trash team. We don’t need to play against them.” The members of the E-sports Club were all protective of Team Skycrown as they knew how strong they really were after all.

“We’ll try to find some other team then, otherwise we’ll just have to play rank games.” Luocheng said.

“Luocheng…” Xiao Bei had never expected to be met with such pure discrimination, and he felt a little uncomfortable. The words said by the other party just now was really hurtful.

Luocheng smiled and patted Xiao Bei on the shoulder.

“Rest assured, after this competition, a lot of people will be scrambling for a combat practice with us. Second-tier and even first-tier teams will come looking for us, and your title of the strongest ADC will also be known to everyone!”

“Yeah!”

Xiao Bei had always believed in Luocheng’s words, so he nodded his head in agreement.

“It’ll be soon, this month we’ll still be some trash team to other people. After this month, we’ll be the strongest team!” Da Luo said determinedly.

“You don’t even have to say it, it will happen!” Wu Sen said, laughing.

“I’m familiar with Aijing, do you want me to give her a call to see if Team 71’s second team can spare time for a match with us today?” Lin Dong asked.

Team 71’s second team had gone missing in action for a while after the incident previously, and was now resurfacing after everything had calmed down. The members of the second team had all been replaced, and their strength was stronger than before. It would seem that they were currently the best team that Team Skycrown could ask for in a combat practice at the moment.

“I contacted Feilong and he said they can have a match with us tomorrow.” Xiao Jia said, walking back to them after his phone call.

“With Zhejiang University’s first team?” Jian Feng asked.

“No, Feilong will bring Team Revelation’s second team, which is the official team he’s in.” Xiao Jia replied.

Everyone knew the strength of Ceng Feilong, it was seen in the fact that he alone could carry the powerful Zhejiang University team by himself.

And Feilong was not the captain of Team Revelation’s second team, he was just one of the members. From this, you could ascertain that the team was definitely a second-tier or above, and being able to have a combat practice with them would help a lot for Team Skycrown!

As soon as Xiao Jia’s call was ended, Lin Dong smirked as he looked at Luocheng.

“Boss, it seems that female analyst—Zheng Aijing is interested in you.”

“Who’s that?” Luocheng asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.

“Shit, you actually forgot her? When you were ghost-playing in the internet league semi-finals, she was the one standing behind you watching. She’s the tactical analyst of Team 71, and only the few teams in the top four would have official analysts in their team. For others, having a coach is already considered good.” Lin Dong said.

“Haha, at least we have a coach then, and it’s even a world-class champion coach!” Wu Sen laughed.

“Also, Aijing was hesitant at first and said she would try. Once I said that our Team Skycrown coach was you, she immediately agreed. Really, our boss is just too irresistible.” Lin Dong said further.

“Ah geez, just hurry up and train. If you lose the elimination matches, you can just forget about it all, get yourselves drunk and get lost.” Luocheng said instead.

Since they had managed to arrange a combat practice with Team 71, naturally they would be going all out.

***

After all the members were present, Aijing was quick to connect the call with Lin Dong.

“Use the tournament server, there won’t be any lag issues that way,” Aijing said.

“Uh…we don’t have the client for it.” Yang Ying said apologetically.

“Tournament servers are essential to professional players for practice and competitions. You’d better think of a way to apply for one.”

Lin Dong nodded his head. “We’ll find a way.”

The tournament server had all the champions unlocked, as well as high amounts of IP and RP. If you played competitions on the normal domestic server, you could probably do it. The real professional matches however, were played on tournament servers. This was so there would be no issues with account names or graphic problems…

Team Skycrown really didn’t have anything right now, and it was just a pitiful sight. Fortunately, Aijing was reasonable, and allowed them to log in directly to a custom game room that they had created.

***

71 Club was located in Shanghai Pudong New District. It was a very large factory building renovated into a residential base for them. In the training room, all of the members were sitting in their computer chairs, and you could hear the clicks of the keyboard as they keyed in their account username and password to log in.

“Aijing, who are we playing against? They can’t even get tournament servers. Playing in the Ionia server would definitely lag, and there isn’t any OB option.” The captain of Team 71’s second team—Hai Ming said.

“Yeah, are they any good?” Another member—Huang Jiulong asked.

“I’m not sure either, they’re just newly formed,” Aijing replied.

“What the hell, you’re kidding right, Aijing? Getting a team that’s newly formed to play against us, it’s better if they just go and play ranked games to train.”

“Individually, their members are strong. Play properly, if you lose, then that means an additional two hours of practice tonight.” Aijing said.

“How is it possible for us to lose. If we win, you’ll spend two hours chatting with us then?” Hai Ming said jokingly as he laughed.

“Is that so, wait until you can reach the first team’s base within twenty minutes, then we’ll talk.” Aijing responded with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Alright…” The members of the second team didn’t have any more to say to that.

Those crazy first team members rarely practiced with them because the gap between their strengths were just too big. Of course, even though they couldn’t beat the first team, they could still beat up this team who had no name.

“Team Skycrown? Who has heard of them?”

“Nope.”

“Never…”

“I’ve heard of Lenovo, which is the team sponsored by them…”

“Then Skycrown would probably be a joint venture between Skydance Media and Crown Regency Hotels? Haha!”

“Hahaha…” The members of the team laughed.

Aijing didn’t laugh, but just stared at the members coolly. “Just play properly, I’m going over to the first team to see their match against the Korean team.”

“Speaking of which, we’re playing two matches against them, right?”

“Yes.”

“So if we beat them within an hour for those two games, we are free to play anything else during the next hour?” Jiulong asked, smiling.

“Alright.”

“Aw yeah, that’s great.”

“Alright, let’s beat them in twenty minutes!”

“Remember to record the match,” Aijing instructed as she left.

***

Aijing left the second team’s training room, heading toward the first team’s training room.

Team 71 was playing against the Korean’s top team this afternoon, both sides would be reserved and trying to test the waters against each other.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see Team Skycrown’s strength, but understanding the strength and tactics of the Korean team was more important at the moment. There were limited opportunities to play against Korean players, and she needed to analyse their plays and tactics with the limited games they had.

Stepping into the room, the five members of Team 71 were sitting rigidly in their seats. Looks like they were treating this combat practice seriously like an actual competition match.

The temperament of Team 71’s first and second team were completely different, they were serious and rigorous. No matter what type of opponent they were up against, they would never underestimate them nor laugh about them like the second team was doing. This was the attitude a top team needed after all.

“Aijing, take a look at this. Their chosen lineup is a bit strange.” Team 71’s middle laner—Tang Xiang said.

Aijing walked over and glanced at the screen, her brows furrowing slightly.

“They might be doing it on purpose, not wanting to expose their strength and tactics so early.” Aijing mused.

“What should we do then, should we also deal with them casually, hiding our real strength?”

“Choose a regular line up, don’t use your core champions,” Aijing said.

“Alright.”

Even if the other party was intentionally hiding their real strength in this combat practice, Aijing still needed to analyze it carefully. She was hoping that she could get some information hidden beneath the layers in this match.

Sadly, it seemed like the other side also had a good analyst. In champion selection, coordination and tactics were all hidden, and Aijing couldn’t see through any of it.

“The Korean analysts have always been good, that’s why they have always managed to claim first and second place.” Aijing muttered to herself.

The combat practice between the first team and the Korean team ended quickly, and even if they had won, it didn’t mean anything in terms of strength.

Two games, one win each, and it was over in less than an hour.

Aijing shook her head in frustration, not getting what she wanted. She would have to go over the recordings and study it. As she walked back to the room, she suddenly remembered that the second team was playing against Team Skycrown, and she could vaguely hear angry shouts and other noises from their training room.

Aijing was surprised, and instead, headed toward the second team’s training room.