League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“If you are strong, to my country, you will know you are a joker!” (Translator’s Note: This is literally what it says in the raw.)

The arrogant voice with a heavy British accent lingered in his ears. Every time it appeared in his dreams, Yu Luocheng felt like the voice was coming from the skies. What he sees right after that is a pair of seemingly humble eyes that were actually filled with arrogance.

“If you’re so strong, come and fight me in my country, then you will realize that you are nothing but a jumping clown!”

***

A fluent American accent was heard throughout the stadium, filled with enthusiasm as if a king was performing a knighting ceremony. “Beautiful, our Fighting Hawk has once again demonstrated he’s at the peak of world DOTA in terms of strength. I don’t think that there’s anyone from any country who can go against him.”

He grinned widely as he continued to sing Flying Hawk’s praises.

“Who would have thought that someone so invincible is from China, a country that doesn’t have much talent in E-sports! This eastern country is truly a place of surprises, let’s give it up for this amazing player!”

“I think it’s a bit premature to be calling him the strongest player, he hasn’t played against the strongest team yet: Team God,” said a famous Canadian commentator.

***

“My god, what just happened? The two teams who were about to compete in the final stage of WCG, at the same time…”

“I see. It’s hard to believe that both teams actually made that decision. Could this be the so-called battle to the death?”

***

“World champion? We don’t care for such a thing at all, you can have it if you want it.”

“If you’re so strong, then come and fight me in my country and you will realize that you’re just a joke.”

“Oh, so you’re not as spineless as the contestants from other countries said. I admire your courage to abandon the championship. I welcome you to come to England to participate in a real world E-sports competition. Here, I will thoroughly destroy all the arrogant E-sports players, this will be all of your graves!”

***

Yu Luocheng’s mind was swimming with visions. He was unsure whether they were real or fake, the memories of the past were overlapping with the present. Apollo’s white face, sharp nose, and sharp smile were still the same, and you could still feel an ominous aura emanating from him.

He claimed to be a god in the field of E-sports, but he had the sinister smile of a devil who never gave anyone a chance to survive, not even any of the top E-sports players!

This guy was actually a devil who trampled on the dignity of others and shattered their dreams!

***

“This is very exciting, Hades managed to take down Apollo by using Kassadin! With Mejai’s, Kassadin has made three consecutive kills, instantly making him a terrifying killer to the ADC and Mid. Does this mean that they could make a comeback?”

“Oh, how unfortunate. No matter how strong Hades has gotten, he’s still unable to change the outcome of this game. The match has been decided.”

“As expected from teams who are part of the world’s top eight. You can tell that both sides were holding back, but even then you can still see how strong these teams are. This match definitely showed that they deserve to be part of the top eight teams in the world!”

“And of course, let’s give our very own Team Daemons a round of applause for bringing us such a wonderful, world-class showdown!”

Cheers and cries resounded through the hall. The local E-sports players and enthusiasts didn’t hold much of a grudge towards European E-sports players. Even though their local team lost, the performance of the European team was highly impressive and deserved to be commended.

Of course, if it was a Korean team that had been invited instead, and had Team Daemons lost to them, the response would have been even louder, but for a completely different reason.

Why? It was simple. The locals had been building up resentment towards the Korean E-sports scene for years. At the last S International League, the high-profile Team Sky was defeated by the Koreans with a score of 3-0 and it was game over for them. Plus, those assholes were just so arrogant, with their unbearable domineering attitudes…

***

“Luocheng… Luocheng…” Xiao Bei nudged Yu Luocheng’s side.

Yu Luocheng’s bewildered eyes gradually refocused, like he was waking up from a dream.

As he regained his senses, he realized that the match was over and he had been staring blankly at the screen. The only thing he remembered seeing was Hades playing with the momentum of 1v5, the rest of the details were hazy and chaotic in his mind.

Damn it! It happened a long time ago and yet it felt like it was only yesterday.

“Luocheng, what’s wrong?” asked Xiao Bei.

“It’s nothing, just a memory from the past,” said Yu Luocheng, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

Xiao Bei glanced at Apollo who was still wearing that sharp smile and said, “Don’t worry Luocheng, rest assured that I will defeat him one day. Although I know that he’s strong, and even Hades was unable to change the outcome of the match…”

“Having confidence is a good thing,” said Yu Luocheng as he chuckled lightly.

“Not only him, I will beat all of them one by one, as long as they appear in the field of LOL,” said Xiao Bei solemnly.

Yu Luocheng laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

“Just concentrate on your LPL matches first, as long as you don’t get eliminated while at the bottom, that’ll be good enough.”

“Of course not, I’ve gained a new understanding on ADC just a few days ago,” said Xiao Bei, grinning.

“Oh really? Then I’ll be looking forward to your performance in the match against Team Stardust,” replied Yu Luocheng.

“Then you better watch closely, Luocheng!”

***

“Up next will be our first match in the LPL, with our new entry Team Skycrown against our veteran Team Stardust!” exclaimed Bao Jun, the commentator.

With his pleasant and masculine voice, it is said that many female players have drifted off into a deep sleep while listening to his commentaries.

Standing there on the commentators’ stage, dressed in a well-fitted suit and a confident yet serious smile on his handsome face, it seemed like the whole arena was under his control.

His wit would transform the smallest of incidents into a cute joke, and his excellent word choice and story-telling skills would make a normal match magically unfold as though it were an extraordinary fantasy.

A lot of other commentators have been involved in countless controversies, and many of them carried prejudice of some form or other. The only one who was able to remain completely neutral was Bao Jun, and he really deserved to be called the best of his kind!

Besides being the host of the event, he was also a match commentator. He would be the commentator for the first match of the LPL and would analyze it for the audience.

Besides the top four strongest teams in the LPL who were highly popular and had a lot of fans, it has to be admitted that the remaining four teams were not even half as good as them.

On the Internet, the view rates for the matches of the top four teams would always be ten times higher than that of the matches of the remaining four teams.

This time was no exception. More than half of the audience were only interested in watching the match between Team Daemons and Team FAN during the opening ceremony.

Now that their showdown was over, there were already people starting to leave. The online viewer rate was also gradually declining. However, once they saw that Bao Jun was the commentator, a large number of people remained in their seats.

This was the charm of the host!

But Team Skycrown didn’t care about how many people were watching, how many audience members were leaving, or even who the commentator was.

All they needed to do was to win this competition!

***

Entering the stage!

Introduction, exchange handshake.

Players take their seats, adjust their computers!

The applause and cheers were not as loud as the previous two teams, and the enthusiasm wasn’t as high either. It was clear that the supporters for Team Skycrown and Team Stardust were not that crazy.

As expected, the strong would get more respect and more applause.

The audience didn’t know that to enter the LPL was to stand out from thousands of other teams.

They couldn’t see the suffering teams went through to enter the LPL. They only saw them standing at the top of mountains, only to be taken down by teams that were standing on higher mountains.

People would only ever remember the ones who came in first, while second place would always be forgotten.

In the world of E-sports, there was only continuous victory and breakthroughs gained by surpassing others. It was a difficult path, but it suited the members of Team Skycrown just fine!

Did you look down on Team Skycrown, thinking that they were just an insignificant speck in your eyes, no different than those trivial internet cafe players?

Alright then, have a taste of what it will be like when you see these trivial beings trample on your LPL stars!

***

With his hands on the keyboard and mouse, Xiao Bei was no longer as nervous as he was before. His hands were steady, his moves were calculated, and you couldn’t see any errors in his positioning. There was not even the tiniest hint of a mistake in his movements and attacks.

When Wu Sen was surrounded and killed by three champions after taking first blood, Xiao Bei didn’t lose his head and continued to maintain a safe distance while farming, consume and dragging out the time for them to push the turret.

“My bad, I didn’t place the wards properly,” said Wu Sen quietly to Xiao Bei, the guilt clear in his voice.

“It’s alright,” replied Xiao Bei.

Wu Sen was quiet as he stared at his greyed out screen, looking a bit restless. Xiao Bei glanced at him from the corner of his eye, asking, “Wu Sen, what’s wrong?”

“I shouldn’t be concealing it, should I?” Wu Sen mused, as he dragged his screen to Xiao Bei’s champion who was still farming calmly.

Even though the bottom lane was consistently being targeted, Xiao Bei’s farm was still in the lead by ten. Wu Sen couldn’t help but lament how fast Xiao Bei’s strength had grown.

Xiao Bei’s strength was something that had caught the attention of many people. He was strong to the point that he could compete against Asmodai, Bai Feng, and several others.

What he lacked was confidence and experience in bigger competitions. Wu Sen felt that the improvement in Xiao Bei’s skills was due to the calmness that he projected, and that made him feel slightly ashamed.

“The fact that I resigned from Team Stardust,” continued Wu Sen.

“Because you weren’t compatible with them?” asked Xiao Bei, slightly confused.

“I should have retired. Maybe it was due to age, but my strength deteriorated during that time, and it was affecting the team. Putting it plainly, I was a hindrance.” Wu Sen explained after shaking his head.

“How can that be…” Xiao Bei stuttered, slightly stunned.

Seeing that Zhou Yan’s Jungler had come to cover for him, he recalled under the turret.

“The coach gave me some face, requesting that I voluntarily withdraw from the team. Not long after leaving the team, Lin Dong came to find me and asked me to join Team Skycrown,” muttered Wu Sen, the sadness lingering in his eyes.

“When I first joined, it was because I just couldn’t let go of E-sports. I still want to play, I really want to play… I just didn’t expect that we would be able to get into the LPL in such a short time…”

“Wu Sen, we can talk about this slowly later on. Let’s focus on the match first,” said Lin Dong, his voice heavy.

“Wu Sen, your Support is good. I’m stating a fact. You taught me a lot of experience that I couldn’t have learnt from just ranking. Don’t talk about yourself like that,” said Xiao Bei.

Wu Sen shook his head, his expression losing the melancholy look he had just an instant ago as he laughed instead.

“Don’t worry, I’m not about to get sentimental over this like some girl. I just wanted to tell you guys, damn, if we win this match, I’ll wash your underwear for a month. You will understand the horrible feeling of being eliminated by the team, and you will understand how great it feels to be on the other side, torturing them until they are half dead!”

Hearing Wu Sen’s words, the other four couldn’t help but let out a bark of laughter.

Team Stardust only relied on individuals who were able to contribute to the team, but Team Skycrown relied on the team as a whole. There was no such thing as being a hindrance, only cooperation and bonding as a team!