League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Time flew by quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was September. China’s representatives Team 71 and Team Daemons were to participate in the S International League.

Preliminary rounds had already been underway for some time, and the crowd favorites, Team 71, still had a total score of zero victories, causing the LOL enthusiasts in the country to scrunch up their brows in worry.

On the bright side, Team Daemons were doing okay with 2 victories and 1 loss, prevailing over Team Bones from Europe and the famous Team Pst from America.

Team Daemons’ outstanding performance naturally got themselves a cult following back in China, with many fans tuning in to watch their matches deep into the night. Since the competition was held in America, the time difference was a solid 12 hours.

When you suddenly find men wandering the streets on their way to school or work with large eyebags and dark circles adorning their faces, don’t assume that they’ve reached that stage with their lady friend, no, no. And when their phone screens continue to light up their faces into the darkest hours of night, don’t assume that the World Cup has come. These were the effects of the LOL World tournament!

Girls should take note as well, it was best to prepare something healthy to help keep the body strong during this time, and then quietly go to bed. Don’t disturb the fiery passion these men have, they were staying up late to witness our country’s glory!

In September and October, while you were drowsy at work, recounting how the god-like Jungler had stolen the Baron from America, be careful of your boss, and students had better be on guard against your teachers.

Of course, if you noticed the same dark circles around your boss’s eyes, or caught the teacher yawning through class, give them a nod of approval. They were working hard to support our country after all!

***

Other than playing a few matches set manually to hard mode, Team Skycrown had been keeping up closely with the heart-pounding competition too.

For whatever reason, if all competitions were against foreign countries, it didn’t matter if you were fans of Team 71, Team Daemons, Team Revelations, Team Sky, or any other team, because everyone would be glued to their computers, day in and day out, all to see their country’s representatives’ matches.

Demacia Cafe was open through the night during the S League season, and if there were any Team 71 or Team Daemons’ matches being streamed on the big screen in the lobby, people would gather to watch in awe unblinkingly so they didn’t miss a single second of the action.

“D*mn, why is Korea’s Team Vic backing out of the Group Stage? That VVV or whatever is so full of himself, Team Daemons’ Asmodai better wreck him in game!” Fei slammed his fist on the table, his voice full of anger.

“I’m not sure either, I heard a couple of teams from some other countries could go straight into the top 8 after ranking first in the qualifying rounds, and then the second and third place would go to the Group Stage, having to battle their way up,” The manager, Xiao Duo Duo said.

As soon as the S International League began, a lot of enemies at the club would call it a truce for the duration, sometimes linking shoulders to cheer for First Blood!

“The team that took first place in the qualifying rounds from our country couldn’t go straight to the top 8 bracket because there hasn’t been a China Team who has entered the top 8 before,” Jian Feng gave a much-needed clarification.

Since he had taken up the role as a team manager, Jian Feng has done his fair share of research on the esports scene, answering most questions people had regarding the administrative part of esports. He garnered quite a lot of attention during the competition season, as whenever there was a notable game going live, guests at the club would flock to him for explanations and play-by-play analysis.

To be able to get straight into the top 8, that was a point of frustration for China too.

Our country had two spots reserved for us. To pick our representatives, the first and second place winners of the LPL Spring Competition and LPL Summer Competition, a total of 4 teams, were pitted against each other in a S Qualifying Competition to determine the first and second places of our country.

In other zones like Korea, Europe, North America, Canada, Sweden, and even Taiwan, the team that won first place during their S Qualifying competitions would be able to advance directly to the quarter finals of the S International League!

The second and third placed teams would then enter the Group Stage, having to contend against each other and with the other first place teams if they were able to make it to the quarter finals.

During this year’s LPL, Team Daemons had won first place in both the Spring Competition and the Summer Competition, and yet, they weren’t granted direct access into the top 8 bracket. The reasoning behind this was because no China teams had ever been able to enter the top 8 during the S Worlds Championship, and so, the eight predetermined teams of the top 8 were all taken by stronger teams from other countries.

Other countries had this sort of privilege and yet we don’t, this frustrated a lot of the League community in the country.

But there wasn’t any other choice, if a team from China was able to fight their way to the top, shoving other teams out of the top 8, only then would the S International League reserve a spot in the spotlight for us.

“Only the top 2 teams of the Group Competitions will be able to face the top 8, I don’t know if Team Daemons will be able to make a name for themselves this year. I’m getting nervous just thinking about it,” K said.

K had originally come from Shanghai, just that he was studying over in Hangzhou.

He had purposely flown back from Shanghai to watch the match with the gang at Demacia Cafe.

K didn’t watch much of the LPL, but as long as there was a China team in S Worlds, he would definitely be in front of a screen.

“D*mn, these foreign teams are so good, especially that team for Korea, it feels as though they’re just breezing through the Group Stage matches,” Feng Da exclaimed.

The third-place team from Korea was Team Xi, and they had defeated Team Daemons yesterday, winning by a wide margin, causing a lot of unrest within the country.

During the all-star competition, Korea had beat Team Daemons so hard into the ground that everyone who witnessed the competition suddenly weren’t feeling so good. They had thought that they could finally make themselves known to the world during the S League, but they kept crashing headfirst into roadblocks, one after another!

If they had to fight this hard to beat Korea’s third-place Team Xi, then they wouldn’t stand a single chance at beating the arrogant VVV’s Team Vic!

“Why do those Korean b*stards have 3 teams anyways!” Fei pointed out in distress.

In the S International League, Korea had 3 teams. China only had two measly spots, why did the tiny Korea get three!?

“What are you going to do about it? Their skills at esports far exceed our own, and the WCG International esports Competition’s main organizer was them. If we’re being frank, they were the founders of the esports industry as a whole, if they didn’t have the rights to 3 spots, which other country would?” Bing Bing explained.

“Even Taiwan got their own two representatives!” Jian Feng added on.

“F*ck, as if Taiwan wasn’t a part of our country?” The already upset Feng Da was fuming.

“Um, just be happy that we weren’t considered to be from the same zone, otherwise, China may very well have been represented by the two teams from Taiwan in the S International League. The teams from Taiwan aren’t pushovers by any means, and if my predictions are correct, the only teams that could realistically put up a fight against Korea are Taipei’s Team TPB and Team TPG,” Jian Feng said quietly.

“Hey, could you not look down on our skills like that? Either way, Taiwan should still be a part of China, shouldn’t it?” K asked.

“This isn’t me looking down on ourselves, if China was really counted as the same zone as Taiwan when it comes to esports, both representatives would most likely come from Taiwan. Taiwan doesn’t consider itself as part of our country anyway, so they would probably just be representing the Taiwan area. This would be a disaster for our country since from the perspectives of those foreigners, it would look like China can’t even send out a single team,” Lin Dong elaborated.

“Oh, then maybe let’s not count ourselves as the same zone,” Xiao Duo Duo said.

This was the raw truth, for if they were combined into a single zone, mainland teams wouldn’t necessarily be able to beat the two aces from Taipei. If they let Taiwan be the only representation of China in Worlds, they would be the laughing stock of the century.

On the other hand, if they were treated as different areas, it would lead foreigners to think that Taiwan and mainland China were two separate countries.

This already happened often in global events, and the two areas were being treated as two countries instead of one in the same and it led to countless altercations between them.

“S Worlds competitions are divided according to areas, not necessarily countries. Taiwan’s esports culture has become their own separate entity, and they’re quite a bit more advanced than us after all. S Worlds handles things more strictly and carefully, taking into consideration the tension between our mainland China and Taiwan. The same can’t be said for the International E-sports Federation, however,” Bing Bing said.

“What’s up with the International E-sports Federation?” The others perked up, looking intently at Bing Bing.

“If I remember correctly, the federation listed participants with countries as their units a few years back, but they listed the Taiwan esports Association there as well.” Bing Bing continued.

“What the f*ck!” The surrounding crowd broke out into a riot.

“I don’t think they’ve changed it yet, there’s not a lot of news coverage on the subject, and you can’t find much of it online either,” Bing Bing said.

“This international federation thing is such bullsh*t, Taiwan counts as a province at most, how could they add it into the list of countries!?”

“They essentially had our blessing, too. Our country hasn’t established a formal esports federation, and yet, Taiwan has. Plus, the International E-sports Federation was founded by Korea, so to put it simply, we’re at the mercy of those Koreans and they refuse to change it. What are you going to do about it?” Bing Bing said.

“I can’t believe such a thing exists!”

“I know, right? This is an injustice to our country’s esports!”

“Why don’t we rebel! If they want to play like this, we’ll boycott any and all Korea-made games!”

The crowd was very vocal about their feelings of upset at the situation.

If it weren’t for Bing Bing exposing this information, nobody would’ve known that their country was treated so unfairly in the esports industry. They were being completely looked down upon!

Luocheng spared a glance at the bespectacled Bing Bing, shocked that he knew so much.

Locals knew the bare minimum, if at all, about the International E-sports Federation, and the situation which Bing Bing just explained had already been happening since Luocheng had still been a big name in the DOTA scene. Seniors players like Li Tuchuan and those who had come before him had already made countless complaints to the associated organisations, but they didn’t even have an esports federation yet, and so, their efforts were completely wasted.

“‘They wasted their time, they rejected any applications for change with ‘You are a country that can’t even assemble your own esports federation, what right do you have to object to the finding of another country’s federation and right to join the International Association?’”

“‘Also, even if we made you a single zone and gave you one additional spot, mainland China would still be left without a representative.’”