League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The crowd roared as they walked into the arena.

After their winning streak against both Team Revelation and Team Dusk, Team Skycrown’s popularity had only increased day after day. Though they were now facing the famous Team Sky, there were still some people in the crowd holding Team Skycrown banners.

It was the students from the Shanghai University e-sports club who first started supporting Team Skycrown, and students from Fudan University also unconsciously followed their lead.

Since Team Sky was playing, the scale of this match was much bigger.

Besides the audience already seated in the hall, there were many standing spectators crowding the aisles. Some of them even had colourful paint on their face, while others were wearing Teemo’s hat, and many were clearly showing their passion for Demacia.

A reporter spotted a very pretty girl, so he got the photographer to hurry up and follow him. He held up a microphone to ask her a question.

“Hey miss, where are you from?”

“I’m from Hangzhou,” replied the pretty girl softly, slightly shy.

“Ah, Hangzhou is really a place that has produced beautiful women since ancient times. So which team did you come to support?” asked the reporter.

“Team Skycrown…”

“Ohh, it seems that Team Skycrown is really popular now, they already have so many beautiful fans!”

“Everybody, you’re looking at our LPL arena at this moment. The competition will start shortly, in about half an hour. One team is the top club’s Team Sky. Whereas the other team is Team Skycrown, who has recently emerged. Who will win?”

“Now I will hand it over to our commentator for the match!”

“Hello everyone, my name is Hei Hei and I’m here with Xi Ling. We’ll be explaining this exciting game to everyone today.”

“Good day everyone, I’m Xi Ling!”

Hei Hei was a famous official LOL commentator who had a style that was slightly similar to Miracle. The difference was that Hei Hei is more sadistic on the inside, but was also able to remain neutral. Unlike Miracle, whose explanation could turn around at any moment.

Meanwhile, Xi Ling was a beautiful commentator who the majority of players were familiar with. Just with her simple introduction earlier, the entire arena had erupted into cheers and wolf whistles. It seemed that she had many fans within the crowd. From time to time, you could also hear some people calling her teacher.

Somehow, the term ‘teacher’ had a different sort of feeling tied to it, one of endearment. Her ‘students’ also hoped to be able to call her big sister one day, just like they did with Chang, another popular star that everyone knew.

Both Xi Ling and Chang had great reputations in their respective industries, and the former was actually one of the most brutal players within the country!

Plus she was absolutely beautiful, which helped her videos easily get over a million viewers each. Even a professional commentator like JX could only lament the influence of a beautiful girl.

The presence of both commentators added to the atmosphere of excitement in the arena, and even the half hour wait didn’t seem too long.

“Our players are about to enter the stage. Everyone, let’s hear it for the team you’re supporting!” exclaimed Xi Ling.

The cheers started suddenly when Team Sky entered, the volume only increasing with every second that went by, and you could also hear some cheers for Team Skycrown.

The popularity of Team Sky who had previously made it to Worlds could not be compared to Team Skycrown who had only recently been recognized after winning a few matches. You could tell from the cheers that about eighty percent of the crowd were fans and supporters of Team Sky.

What a pity that Blood Eagle was not around. If he was here, the crowd’s cheers would definitely be more explosive!

“Hei Hei, I remember that Team Sky’s captain challenged Team Skycrown during the pre-season. It seems like there’s something going on with these two teams,” said Xi Ling.

“Well, I heard that three members of Team Skycrown used to play for Team Sky. They should be old teammates,” replied Hei Hei.

He didn’t know much about the situation either, he’s just heard some random bits of info from people who had been in the e-sports circle much longer than him.

***

Both teams had entered the stage, and Team Skycrown had no leader. Previously, Yu Luocheng had been the one who took that spot, but he wasn’t present this time, so the five of them marched up on stage without him.

Meanwhile, Team Sky’s leader was actually Xu Pingyang himself!

As an e-sports player himself, he would act as a coach for other e-sports games from time to time. But it was rare for him to make a personal appearance like this.

What was his objective for being here this time?

“Long time no see,” he said.

Bald and thin, Xu Pingyang looked quite the sight in his ill-fitting suit. It was like a thin dog wearing human skin! As a result of his long-term smoking habit, the teeth that showed when he smiled were disgustingly yellow.

When Zhou Yan, Lin Dong and Da Luo saw his face, they had to endure the desire to immediately punch his brains out and scatter his yellow teeth on the ground.

They had never met anyone as disgusting and low as him!

The five members of Team Sky were dressed in a blue e-sports uniform with their logo on it. They followed Xu Pingyang as he led them past Team Skycrown to the middle of the stage.

The five of them didn’t say a word, but they didn’t bother to hide their arrogance and pride either.

In order to promote good sportsmanship, Xi Xi, who was in charge of all the teams, would always tell the team who would be walking out second to shake the hands of the other team when they walked past. They would also be instructed to give their opponents another friendly handshake once the match was over.

As Team Skycrown’s stage was on the other side, further from the entrance, they would enter after Team Sky.

Team Sky walked in first and they stood in line facing the crowd. As Team Skycrown walked past them, Xi Xi’s reminder to shake their hands was still ringing in their ears,

But Lin Dong who was walking at the front of the group had no intention of shaking hands with Team Sky at all.

Shaking the hands of scum like them would be disgusting!

Lin Dong was the first to just walk past Team Sky, and Da Luo and Zhou Yan followed suit, abiding by the unspoken rule to ignore that bunch of idiots from Team Sky.

Shake hands? Hmph!

If Zhou Yan were to actually go through with it, his rough hands would probably crush all the bones in their hands. Especially when it came to that dog Xu Pingyang!

***

Before the match even started, the audience had already started muttering after they witnessed such an unfriendly scene. The sounds of scolding echoed through the crowd.

“What the hell, Team Skycrown is so pissy. Do they think winning a game or two makes them so great?”

“Team Skycrown doesn’t even want to shake hands with their opponents, so uncivilized.”

“Walao! Damn, what kind of attitude is that? When Team Sky crushes them, they also won’t shake their hands. What the hell?”

“When Team Sky was fighting their way in LOL, who knows where Team Skycrown was? Probably just playing with mud in some park, not amounting to anything.”

Team Sky had a lot of cruel fans, since they had specific people to maintain and boost their popularity. Whenever something threatened Team Sky’s reputation, their fans would use their sharp words to cut down whoever opposed their beloved team.

***

After taking their seats, Xi Xi came over to them, slightly angry as he said, “What the hell man, didn’t I remind you guys to shake their hands? Look at the atmosphere now, the audience is criticizing you.”

“Xi Xi, not shaking hands with them is already the limit of our tolerance. If I take their hands, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have stopped myself from hitting them,” said Da Luo, a hint of steel in his voice.

They didn’t care about any of the criticism being thrown at them!

So what if Team Sky had many fans like that? They had already smeared Team Skycrown’s reputation on the Internet anyway.

After they win this match, then those idiots will have to shut their mouths!

Xi Xi knew that Team Skycrown had bad blood with Team Sky, and looking at their angry faces, he could only shake his head helplessly. He hoped that the competition would continue peacefully, they couldn’t afford to have any abusive or brawling scenes.

“No matter what your grievances are, just play peacefully, can you do that?” asked Xi Xi.

“As much as possible,” said Zhou Yan, in a chilly tone.

At first, Team Skycrown thought that they could play peacefully, but once they saw Xu Yangping’s arrogant look, their hearts erupted like a volcano!

Besides their issues with Xu Yangping, their boss was also currently in the hospital taking care of his father that needed a liver transplant…

If it wasn’t for Xu Yangping, Yu Luocheng could have returned home with a hundred thousand yuan as well as the trophy issued by the World E-sports Association.

There was a big difference between returning home with nothing and returning home with a hundred thousand yuan and a prestigious trophy recognized by the whole county. What would Yu Luocheng’s family have thought of him had he returned in a blaze of glory?

Maybe these things were not what his family craved for, but they could have served as proof that Yu Luocheng had not wasted those two years. That it wasn’t an obsession, and that he was really working very hard to do something amazing!

But all the things that Yu Luocheng had fought so hard for had been taken away by Xu Pingyang! Also, with Yu Luocheng’s father in the hospital, they must really really need this money. Dreaming about getting the money back from Xu Pingyang was impossible.

That’s why the only thing Team Skycrown could do now was to win this match, taking at least fourth place. This way they would have a total of a hundred and fifty thousand yuan in prize money.

Yesterday, Lin Dong, Zhou Yan, Da Luo, Wu Sen, and Xiao Bei had reached an agreement. They would only take the official team subsidy, and give the rest of the prize money from the LPL to Yu Luocheng.

A liver transplant would definitely require hundreds of thousands, and everyone knew Yu Luocheng’s family may not be able to fork out that amount of money.

If…

If they could use the prize money of the game to help Yu Luocheng’s father recover, they may be able to ease the relationship between the father and son to a certain extent. Hopefully his father would also gradually change that stubbornness due to their hard work… and let Yu Luocheng return to the arena.

During this half a year, it was Yu Luocheng who sacrificed a lot for them, all five of them had seen it with their own eyes.

The reason none of them had gone to visit Yu Luocheng and his father in the hospital, was not because they didn’t regard him as a brother, but because they needed to practice hard in order to win and obtain the prize money!

In their opinion, this prize money was the best gift they could give when they visited the father of their most respected captain!