At this point, continuing to ignore the forum would mean falling behind the times. Once the storm of criticism starts, she wouldn’t even know how she died… Considering this, Tong Yao opened the forum as soon as she returned to her room that night.
The homepage was flooded with posts cursing her and Old Cat for not retreating fast enough in the last match, which led to China Telecom getting reverse-swept. There was no need to read those—each one was lively enough… Tong Yao scrolled down expressionlessly and soon found the post she was looking for—
[Topic] [Everyone’s blaming the Mid Laner, Top Laner, and Jungler, but is China Telecom’s ADC really untouchable?]
OP:
Are you all blind or just wasting electricity watching the matches? Chessman stans are a joke. Every time they lose, they shift blame onto the other teammates, then turn around and brag: Our Cheng Ge never gets criticized because zero mistakes equals dominance.
Makes me sick.
The Ban & Pick in today’s first match was absolute garbage. Banning Jhin just to let the enemy first-pick Sivir—no idea what that was about. But when the enemy took Sivir, they countered with Ashe against Sivir, then left the last pick slot for a champion that gets countered by Sivir. Hilarious.
Confidence?
Arrogance?
Then they got stomped.
The entire game, Ashe looked like a complete idiot whenever Sivir was around! Wasn’t Kalista working just fine? Weren’t you all bragging about how China Telecom could win even against the meta? The weird comp they dared to pick in the second match didn’t exactly show respect for the meta either… Oh, right—speaking of that, I heard the winning comp in the second match was copied straight from their scrims against a Korean team :)
Hahaha, but no matter how much I say, someone like Lu Sicheng would never admit he has flaws. Oh, it’s just one Group Stage match, it doesn’t even affect China Telecom’s ranking—
But mark my words, small things lead to big ones. Today it’s reckless Ban & Pick, tomorrow it’s match-fixing, illegal gambling—what are rules even for? Do they matter? The person you’re defending will eventually become the biggest tumor.
Keep blindly defending China Telecom, you brainless fans. With this level of arrogance and zero improvement, they’ll cap at quarterfinals again this year. Just wait for S6 to turn into an LCK autumn playoff with three Korean teams in the finals. Feel free to dig up this post and slap me then—I genuinely hope you can.
……
Tong Yao: “……”
The post was made at 5 PM that afternoon.
The OP’s tone was urgent, and they barely cursed—but their criticism was laser-focused on Lu Sicheng. The earlier points were somewhat reasonable, though the later ones were a bit exaggerated… Normally, Tong Yao would patiently read posts like this—at least they were more substantial than the usual mindless rants.
The replies underneath were all over the place—
[Wow, now even Chessman isn’t spared. Impressive. You guys have lost it.]
[Honestly, OP said what I’ve been thinking. I mentioned in another thread that Chessman also messed up this match, and his stans chased me down two blocks.]
[Logical and well-reasoned. Rational blame distribution. Chessman definitely had issues this match—it’s a five-player game. Always pinning it on the Mid and Top Laners is pointless—they just made the last mistake in the last match.] ["Ahhh what the hell, the only game they won was by copying the Korean team's strategy qaq"]
["The Mid Laner is trash relying on gender to get attention, the Top Laner is useless in team fights, the Jungler only knows how to farm and can't lead the tempo, the adc Team Tyrant is so arrogant with his messed-up Ban & Pick—666666666, such a detailed blame list, OP are you that dead fatty support?"]
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tong Yao couldn't help but burst out laughing when she saw Little Fatty inexplicably getting dragged into this... At this moment, Tong Yao recalled Greedy Wolf's expression when he was standing upstairs earlier, combined with the OP's overly embellished and foolish tone, plus the fact that their Scrims content with the Korean team was supposed to be confidential—outsiders shouldn't know they used the same lineup as their second match in those Scrims. Considering all this, she naturally concluded that the poster was Greedy Wolf.
This impatient brat really needs to be taught a lesson.
Tong Yao suppressed her amusement, slightly furrowed her brows, and scrolled further down the post. Then, her attention was caught by a user with the ID 【Salty Egg Superdog】—
【Salty Egg Superdog: Aside from that one time Lu Sicheng used Tong Yao's streaming computer to check the Scrims data chart, China Telecom's Scrims content with the Korean team has always been confidential. I don't know where OP got the intel on China Telecom's Ban & Pick strategy, but since you've brought up such core information, you better be prepared to be thoroughly investigated.
Also, let me remind you, there's nothing wrong with using what you learn in Scrims during the Group Stage—otherwise, what do you think Scrims are for, killing time? Stop treating Koreans like they're some kind of gods. If it were really some unbeatable strategy, China Telecom wouldn't have pulled it out in the Group Stage even if they learned it.
Lastly, Lu Sicheng's Ban & Pick in this match was indeed problematic, but the issue isn't that Sivir counters Ashe—Ashe can still fight Sivir in the late game as long as the team has other hard CC to bait out Sivir's E, turning her into a sitting duck. The real problem with Lu Sicheng is: the team lacked other hard CC options, yet he still stubbornly picked Ashe.
Yes, it was arrogance.
But not the kind you're talking about.
His mistake was ignoring his team's composition and being overly confident. His teammates didn't stop him either, so they share half the blame—you can say I'm whitewashing Lu Sicheng, though the thought makes me want to puke, but don't forget this is a team game."】
Oh.
Tong Yao propped her chin on one hand resting on her thigh while holding her phone with the other, narrowing her eyes slightly: This Superdog guy seems to actually know his stuff...
Tong Yao scrolled through the post some more and noticed that in his replies to others, Superdog consistently demonstrated a rational understanding of the game, unlike the mindless haters. He acknowledged that Lu Sicheng was indeed wrong, but from a lofty perspective, he made it clear: "If you don't even know where he went wrong, then shut up."
Look at this.
Greedy Wolf.
Even a random netizen appears wiser than you.
Tong Yao shifted her sitting position, logged into her alt Forum account, enthusiastically supported Superdog and declared herself his new fan, then promptly joined the flame war—
Just as she was happily immersed in the Forum drama, she suddenly heard a furious roar from downstairs—"Fuck your mother! Whoever said that post was made by someone from our team, come out here! I was nice enough to go live and explain things to you, so stop stirring up trouble! I already told you the first match was mine and Old K's fault, it had nothing to do with anyone else. What the fuck are you still babbling about?! What's wrong with picking Ashe that game? So what if we picked her?!—Fine, even if that Ashe pick wasn't optimal, when I came back from eating, our captain even apologized to us for being stubborn with the pick. Fuck your mother, have you ever seen the US President tweet? Have you ever seen the China Telecom Team captain apologize?!!!!"
Tong Yao: "……………………………………"
Her hand trembled in shock, dropping her phone to the floor.
Tong Yao slipped on her slippers and stepped out of her room, leaning over the railing to look down. Sure enough, she saw Old Cat sitting cross-legged in front of his computer, cursing up a storm: Normally, swearing wasn't allowed during streams, with the occasional expletive slipping in as an intensifier being acceptable. But for Old Cat to be swearing this wildly meant he was basically saying goodbye to his paycheck.
He must have been really furious.
Old K walked out of the kitchen with a carton of milk, passing by Old Cat and covering his mouth—Old Cat struggled wildly, and the two of them started arguing downstairs...
"Why are you even bothering to explain to them?"
"They keep insisting that since the post knew about the Scrims details, it must have been someone from our team. They're saying our team is harmonious on the surface but divided at heart, saying—"
"No surprise there. You were giving me the stink eye this morning when we left."
"Fuck your mother! Is this really the time for that?"
"Why do you even care what they say..."
"But the Scrims details were supposed to be confidential. Even if we don't know how it got out, I know it wasn't one of us. If they keep saying this, won't it create distrust among the teammates... Stirring up trouble within the team is the most shameless, despicable thing!"
"Are you stupid? During Ban & Pick, we were loudly discussing the Scrims with the Korean Operator Team. Do you know how many staff members are backstage where the audience can't hear?"
"..."
Tong Yao leaned on the railing, listening to the argument between the top and jungle duo until their voices gradually faded... Old K's point about the backstage staff during matches had struck a chord with her. It reminded her that the details about the Korean Operator Team Scrims weren't actually known only to their internal team members...
So that meant—
Just as Tong Yao was racking her brain, she suddenly felt a silent gaze lingering on her face. She froze slightly and looked up, meeting the eyes of a young man standing on the third-floor hallway: He was holding a towel and a toothbrush cup, his hair slightly damp as if he had just showered, standing there expressionlessly, watching her.
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao straightened up slightly.
Greedy Wolf stared at her for a moment before abruptly blurting out, seemingly out of nowhere: "I'm not that bored."
Then he turned and walked away.
Tong Yao scratched her head, went back to her room to pick up her phone, and opened OB.GG Website—This site allows you to check everyone's ranked match records on the Korean server. She entered Greedy Wolf's ID and found a 50-minute-long ranked match that started at 4:45 PM in his string of victories. In that match, Greedy Wolf achieved 32 kills, 2 deaths, 10 assists, and a Penta Kill, carrying the entire game.
Meanwhile, the OP of that Forum post had been actively replying to every rebuttal from 5 PM until just now—someone playing a high-tier ranked match and pulling off such an impressive performance definitely wouldn’t have time to stir up trouble on the Forum… Even accounting for the two death timers, early-game respawns only take a few seconds, and late-game respawns are about a minute at most. Combined, that still wouldn’t be enough time for Greedy Wolf to type out the original post.
In other words, that post really wasn’t made by Greedy Wolf.
Just as he said, he wasn’t that bored?
[ZGDX、Smiling: Oh no, I thought the post insulting you was made by Greedy Wolf qaq Wrongly accused him.]
[Tie the Red String: What’s his ID? That brat’s Forum ID is something like ‘Salted Egg Dog,’ ridiculously childish and easy to recognize.]
[ZGDX、Smiling: ……………… Super Dog is him!!! Ah, that’s just great. Not only did I wrongly accuse him, but I wrongly accused a good person.]
[Tie the Red String: ?? So you wrongly accused him, what’s the big deal? You wanna marry him to atone? What time is it? Put your phone down and go to sleep.]
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