League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Sometimes, people needed a little push, a small motivation.

‘It would be a sin to not grab the gift that was dropped from the sky.’

After being stuck in a lousy house for so long, Team Skycrown finally felt as though they had been revived in heaven when they moved into their new place.

The rotten smell had been replaced by a refreshing scent that filled the living room. It must be coming from the unknown bonsai placed on the balcony.

They had believed that they would lead a good life one day, and much to their surprise, this day arrived unexpectedly fast.

Luocheng had the exact amount of money needed—5000 yuan, all gained from teaching Xu Ben the art of Support, and he used up every cent to settle their first month of rental.

Boxes of various sizes were being moved into the house. In the past, Da Luo and Wu Sen would throw their stuff all over the place as they were just not the organized and hygienic type. But upon moving their belongings into the new home, the two of them purposely cleaned everything and arranged all their items tidily, even taking a shower immediately after that because they didn’t want to dirty the place with their sweat.

The five of them had assumed an entirely different existence in just a day’s time.

After they had cleaned up the whole place and chosen their rooms, the five of them lay on the sofa comfortably.

Their satisfaction greatly exceeded their tiredness. They looked at each other, then at the clean living room, and cheered almost simultaneously, “This place is f*cking chilled!”

***

As they didn’t have many belongings, most of the baggage were just clothes and daily consumables.

As for the mattresses and blankets, they reckoned it would be best to buy new ones since they were moving into a better place. They would visit the hypermarket tonight and find a place to celebrate along the way.

Their new residence was situated in a strategic location. The hypermarket was just one block away from them and on the other side of the road was a busy street, full of bustling restaurants. The colorful signboards throughout the roads brought up the liveliness of the residence.

But soon enough, they faced their first problem.

The minimum spending on food per person in this area was at least 20 yuan, which meant the five of them would need to spend at least 100 yuan for one meal.

Excluding breakfast, two meals a day meant that they needed to spend a minimum of 200 yuan. Add that up to one month and it would be equivalent to 6000 yuan. This wasn’t even including snacks, alcohol, and supper!

A better location equals a higher expenditure, and the five of them could only smile bitterly. The change in their environment increased not only their rent, but also, the degree of other expenditures as well.

The basic rental cost them 5000 yuan and this could easily hit 6000 yuan after taking internet, electric, water, and management fees, into consideration.

If basic meals were going to cost them another 6000 yuan, they needed to fork out more than 12,000 yuan per month!

They could, of course, make enough money if the five of them picked up part-time jobs. Their current income was reliant only on the sponsorships gathered by Li Meiqi and Jian Feng. That was not going to be a lot before they made a name for themselves in the LOL world.

Another alternative was to earn prize money through different competitions.

In the Hangzhou tournament, the champion would be given 10,000 yuan. Moreover, Birdie café had promised them 30,000 yuan as a reward if they won the provincial championship as well as five high-spec desktops if they managed to secure the district championship.

It was troublesome to move their antiques all the way into the new house, so Lin Dong decisively threw the five old desktops away. They now looked forward to claiming the new machines from Birdie café’s owner after they were done with the Champions War competition.

“We need extra income urgently, otherwise, we will not live past next month,” Lin Dong said.

“I agree, but how do we get more money? Perhaps I should start accepting boosting requests again?” Da Luo suggested.

Luocheng shook his head. He wouldn’t let them. First of all, account boosting would not improve their skill level, and secondly, such actions were against LOL’s rule.

“Lin Dong, check whether there are any high-class cyber cafés around this area,” Luocheng requested.

An E-sports team was highly dependent on a cyber café. This was especially true for the likes of Team Skycrown, which did not receive any backing from any game clubs or organizations.

Cyber cafés, to a certain extent, had become the gathering place of true E-sports enthusiasts nowadays. The mobile phone has replaced a lot of cyber café customers as these people no longer needed the service for chatting, internet browsing, or binge-watching. Moreover, the generalization of electronics had most of the families equipping their homes with personal computers and high-speed internet. Cyber cafés had definitely lost their past glamour in this modern era.

The only way out for cyber cafés was to now rely on video games, particularly competitive E-sports.

Rich kids like Xu Ben and K definitely had their own set-up at home. And yet, why did they still go through all the trouble to visit a cyber café? The reason was simple—peers. The temptation to be able to be present physically with a band of brothers while showcasing one’s skills in front of people with similar interests was irresistible to competitive players. Such a venue provided them equal opportunity to look for allies or challengers.

Competitive E-sports might be this dusking industry’s final straw, and this was exactly what the owner of Birdie café was attempting to do—To make use of the LOL theme to attract die-hard fans of this game.

Thus, Luocheng was confident that such a café existed around this Jingan residence too. High-end cyber cafés that emphasized competitive E-sports would need people like them to boost their reputation. By doing so, the café would then garner more attention, hence, creating a competitive atmosphere that true LOL players were keen to take part in.

It was no fun playing alone at home. Don’t you wish to amaze the bystanders by how you dominate your opponents? Or, imagine the inner joy when the guy or girl sitting next to you invited you admirably to join his or her party after watching your outrageous performance. Wasn’t that the best feeling in the world!?

***

“Tomorrow, Meiqi and Jian Feng will be here. You guys find a cheap café and continue to push rank. I will go and check out this area with them to see whether we can find a café to support us,” Luocheng said.

“We are going to play team ranking right? Who will fill your role if you’re gone?” Lin Dong questioned.

The upcoming LPL pre-season qualifiers selected one of its participants from the Server War competition. In other words, the team that topped the server team-ranking would be given a seat in the qualifier.

Team Skycrown had seldom played team rank previously as their opponents were usually too squishy and the waiting time was simply too long. However, it was rumored that more teams had started to queue for team rank recently, especially in server 1. A lot of first and second-tier professional teams had emerged frequently in this server. If that was the case, then team rank would become a far more interesting hunting ground for Team Skycrown.

“Team rank games usually peak at around 8 – 10 pm. I will try to get back in time, but if I can’t, I will ask someone to fill in for me,” Luocheng replied.

“Someone? Who?” Lin Dong asked.

“Don’t tell me it’s Shallow Dream?” Da Luo followed up Lin Dong’s question.

“That’s right. I have persuaded her to join our team. She is not going to show herself and of course, will not join us in any competitions, but she is willing to play with us routinely in a team or personal rank game. If we want to play on the US or Korean server, she doesn’t mind giving us a hand too. Her favorite time frame is also around 8-10 pm,” Luocheng explained.

After Luocheng mentioned Shallow Dream, Lin Dong laughed bitterly and lamented, “Who is this Shallow Dream in actuality? She is insanely good, simply unreal!”

“D*mn! I seriously don’t wish to be her opponent during a ranked game. It would usually be more of a loss than a win,” Da Luo couldn’t help but grumble too.

Lin Dong and Da Luo had both reached the Challenger Rank, and sometimes, they would bump into Shallow Dream in the opponent’s team.

Lin Dong had been tortured numerous times by her to the point that he had developed a trauma from just seeing that name.

As for Da Luo, his main objective as a solo-top was always prioritizing on Shallow Dream, but no matter how many times he tried, Shallow Dream could always escape his pursuit and could even counter-kill him.

Shallow Dream’s current rank should have surpassed Xiao Bei and become the top ADC in the national server. She was probably aiming for the highest rank in this country now.

She would have marched right into the top 10 if she had played a bit more.

On the other hand, Luocheng’s rank was relatively questionable. Until now he still hadn’t reached the Challenger tier. Xu Ben might have asked for a refund if he knew that his master was ranked lower than him.

Well, it wasn’t as though he didn’t have the capability, it was just that this guy was obsessed with different erratic playstyles.

Garen as a Support, Ahri as an ADC, Thresh as the Jungler, Vayne solo-top, and many more…

Some of these seemingly ridiculous champion selections did deliver unexpected chemistry at times, but most of the time, he was just throwing games.

Most players in the national server had learned about Luocheng’s ID as he had changed his ID to “Trolling No.1” after the LPL.

Whenever a player saw this ID in a ranked game, he or she would immediately feel a chill down their spine.

A complacent player would simply type “Hehe” when being drawn into the same team as Luocheng, while the more ill-tempered players would directly curse:

“F*ck! It’s this guy again!”

“Troll, I dare you to play seriously!”

“F*ck my life! It’s Trolling No.1, again!”

“Could someone please dodge the queue? I can’t–I’m in promos for Diamond 1, please help me, I’ll even pay you in QQ Coins!”

Honestly speaking, Trolling No.1 was more like Public Enemy No.1 in the Diamond 1 rank now. A lot of players wished to see him fail and free-fall to Diamond 5 with such silly playstyles. Unbelievably, this guy stood firm in Diamond 1 despite all the trolling he had done. His persistence in Diamond 1 was a torment to those who had been jeopardized by him here before.

***

Teaming up with Shallow Dream was no doubt a pleasant experience.

They had all witnessed her prowess first-hand before, and she was the type of player that they wished would never be their enemy.

At the same time, they were curious about the true identity of Shallow Dream. If she were to emerge in the professional arena,whether on-screen or in the LPL, they could bet that she would stir a hype as great as Luocheng.

On multiple occasions, Lin Dong had actually been tempted to trace Shallow Dream’s ID and reveal the person behind it. However, he eventually gave up on the idea as a person’s choice to remain anonymous should be respected.