League of Legends: League of Unknowns

If someone were to ask, which LOL team is the strongest?

Those who have watched the LPL competition would answer “Team Daemons!” without any hesitation. Their popularity has always been sky-high, especially when it came to a match against the equally popular Team 71!

The atmosphere at the competition venue today was definitely bursting with excitement. The thunderous shouts and cheers shook the entire arena. This was the most number of people to ever make up an audience since the start of the LPL!

“Congratulations to Team Daemons for obtaining victory! Although Team 71 pressured Hades’ farm in the early game, they were ultimately unable to stop his progress later on. Thank you to both teams for bringing us such a wonderful match!” exclaimed the commentator—Bao Jun—in his unique tone.

Such a highly-anticipated match would of course require commentary from a veteran commentator. Bao Jun’s voice echoed through the arena, bringing a special sense of enjoyment to the crowd.

An exciting competition, two of the strongest teams, a professional yet entertaining commentator…

“Let’s remember this battle, as up next on this stage are two teams who will be dueling in their fifth and final match. That’s right, it’s none other than the match between Team Skycrown and Team Sky! Please give them the same warm welcome you gave Team Daemons and Team 71 as they make their way onto the stage!”

Bao Jun’s clear voice rang out, effortlessly capturing everyone’s attention. No one knew what kind of magic his voice had. Most commentators had to shout into the microphone to excite the audience, and that wasn’t always an effective method.

But Bao Jun’s simple words were enough to have the entire arena erupting into applause!

***

Xu Pingyang glared at each member of Team Sky. “Get up there! If you lose this time, I’ll skin you alive!”

Dressed in their Sky Club uniforms, Vulanca, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Birch could only look at their boss with lingering fear. They glanced over at the man in a suit who was sitting in the waiting room with them.

Nodding, the five of them walked towards the stage, their anxious faces immediately morphing into confident smiles when they heard the applause.

Xu Pingyang slowly turned around. The fierce, cold look on his face changed to one that was warm and humble in less than a second. With a smile firmly in place, he walked over to the man in a suit.

“Mr Wang, I didn’t expect you to come to the arena in person…”

“I’ve played this game and know how big of an influence it has. I stand by what I said before. If you can qualify for Worlds, I will immediately sign the deal and get it stamped. If you don’t, I will approach the manager of the team that does qualify for Worlds instead,” said the man as he took out a stack of documents from his briefcase.

Xu Pingyang’s eyes sparkled with desire upon the sight of that coveted agreement. To him, it was as valuable as gold.

He had rejected countless sponsors and lost quite a bit of money, all for the sake of attracting Samsung to exclusively sponsor their club. As long as they got this sponsorship…

A grand villa, a luxury car, a hot mistress… as long as Mr. Wang signed the agreement, Xu Pingyang would get everything he ever wanted!

Bao Jun suddenly said, “Eh? Team Skycrown only has four members up on stage?”

Hearing the announcement, Xu Pingyang hurriedly looked for himself, and sure enough, there were only four members of Team Skycrown present.

He rejoiced at the sight of them lacking one person, looks like this round is in the bag!

Those damn organizers. Since they had already revoked Team Skycrown’s right to compete in the LPL, they should have just marked them as absent and given the four points to Team Sky. Then, qualifying for the World Championship wouldn’t be a problem for them anymore.

But the organizers had said Team Skycrown not having any winning points was their own problem. If Team Sky lost this fifth round, it would still be counted as a loss, and they would only gain two points!

Fortunately, they were now down one team member. If Xiao Bei wasn’t playing, how would Team Skycrown defeat Team Sky?

The sponsorship was definitely a done deal!

***

Team Skycrown’s appearance with only four members sparked a lot of discussion. The fact that they were banned from future competitions had not been officially announced to the public yet, but there were rumors about it floating around.

“Only four players? You might as well just surrender already. Why waste time?”

“They’ve already been banned. It’s meaningless even if they win. If it were me, I wouldn’t even bother to show up. You still have to pay for your train fare here and back, you know.”

“Ugh, there’s seriously no point watching. I only came to watch Team Daemons’ match anyway.”

Zhou Yan, Da Luo, Lin Dong, and Wu Sen stood on the stage. There were more people than usual in the stands today, because Team Daemons had played against Team 71 earlier. Many LOL fans were even willing to stand throughout their whole match.

The four of them stood there, facing the abuse and doubts from the crowd without uttering a single word.

There should have been someone else standing next to Wu Sen—a naive yet passionate sixteen-year-old child with an intense love for e-sports…

No one in the arena noticed that all four members of Team Skycrown had tightly tied a strip of while cloth around their arms. They remained silent with their heads slightly bent. Though they didn’t say a word, their eyes were firm, and did not waver in the slightest.

“Maybe something has happened, but either way, let us invite our players to enter the stage and be seated,” said Bao Jun.

The five members of Team Sky held their heads high as they walked with their unique gaits. They headed to their seats with ease, sitting down and chatting amongst themselves. They were completely relaxed, without a single trace of fear or panic.

The four members of Team Skycrown were the complete opposite, walking to their seats in a stiff and slightly more mechanical manner.

However, once they took their seats, they immediately sat upright and simultaneously untied the white cloth from their arms, instead tying it around their foreheads!

The pale white headbands gave off a heavy feeling when people looked at it.

E-sports players usually wore uniforms with their team logo on it or sometimes they wore matching accessories, but no one had ever seen a team who wore white headbands during a competition.

Team Skycrown was giving off a feeling of inexplicable coldness and eeriness!

“Team Skycrown, are you sure you will be competing with just four people today? If your fifth member doesn’t turn up in the next five minutes, you won’t be able to add anyone into your lineup mid game,” said Bao Jun.

Team Skycrown was really acting weirdly today, puzzling everyone present. They were even lacking a player right now. Didn’t they have a substitute?

***

Backstage, the dressed-in-all-black Hades was frowning as he observed Team Skycrown. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Something must have happened,” said Asmodai.

Spotting the two students who were always with Team Skycrown out of the corner of his eye, Charon turned to them, asking, “Where’s your ADC?”

Li Meiqi and Jian Feng remained silent.

Confused, Charon was just about to ask again when Hades tapped his shoulder repeatedly, signaling for him to pay attention to the white cloth Team Skycrown was wearing.

Charon froze, his face pale and his eyes widening in astonishment.

“Team Skycrown, if you don’t have a substitute, then the match will begin soon. Once it enters the loading screen, you can’t swap out or add in any players,” said Xi Xi as he walked up next to Li Meiqi.

Li Meiqi and Jian Feng still said nothing.

Xi Xi asked again, his voice seeping with impatience, “Hey, do you have a sub or not? Even if you don’t, you still need to let me know.”

“They do,” said a voice from behind Xi Xi.

Xi Xi didn’t bother turning around and looked down at his clipboard to write. “Then, hurry it up! What’s the sub’s ID? I need to send it up.”

“F-Hawk!”

Xi Xi nodded his head, writing it down as he headed to the second floor in a hurry.

Xi Xi didn’t realize the significance of the ID, but the members of Team Daemons who were just about to leave the backstage area, all froze in place. Including Huang Kang, their coach, all six of them turned their heads, their eyes fixed on the youth who had just given his ID.

F-Hawk!

This ID was definitely familiar to all these professional e-sports players.

As long as this ID was displayed internationally, even world-class players would tremble at the mere sight of it!

Those who were arrogant or full of themselves, those who used all kinds of colourful and unique names to prove that they were strong or unmatched in the field of e-sports… they would all feel ridiculous and insignificant when they placed their ID together with this one!

The world of e-sports was one that was rapidly changing, perhaps it even changes too fast.

This ID was considered as part of the previous generation and was slowly being forgotten. But to Team Daemons, this ID would always be the one who sat on the e-sports throne. It was not so easy to erase it from one’s memory.

To hear that name once again, from the mouth of the person it belonged to. To see the king who had been silent for so many years, suddenly standing right in front of them filled with determination.

The images of the past unwillingly burst forth in their minds!

How they met during the group stages of the competition, competing at the peak of the Chinese division, watching the team with wings fly higher and higher, until they reached the very top that all the strong teams could only dream of…

Even now, when they were known as the strongest LOL team within the country, Team Daemons was still afraid that they would always be chasing the shadow of that mighty team!

“Fighting Hawk!”

Wearing a black and green shirt, his body was straight and rigid.

Hades silently stood up, his deep black eyes focused on Yu Luocheng who had suddenly appeared backstage.

Hades was said to be the number one LOL player, but when everyone wanted to crown him as such, he would always shake his head. If he couldn’t even surpass this youth standing in front of him, how could he claim the title of number one?

Hearing Yu Luocheng state his international ID, Hades felt like his whole body was burning with excitement.

He was finally here!

For Hades, an e-sports world without Fighting Hawk was really meaningless and not at all fun…

Finally, they could compete once again!

***

There were many workers and other teams backstage, and even Team 71 was looking over in their direction.

All of them were equally confused.

Team Daemons had always ignored all the other local teams and players, why were they looking at that player with undisguised awe and admiration?

Who was this person?