The second match was about to begin. As the players returned to their seats, put on their headsets, and started a new round of Ban & Pick, the question of whether their words would make it into the next "Tournament Quotes" segment seemed entirely trivial—of course, they would. The only dilemma facing the China Telecom Team now was: should they turn the next "Tournament Quotes" into their very own exclusive feature?
Tong Yao thought it was necessary.
For example, right now.
The CK Team immediately banned Lu Sicheng’s incredibly annoying Sivir from the previous match. Ming Shen asked, "They banned Sivir this round. Cheng Ge, what do you want to play instead?"
Lu Sicheng parted his lips, about to say "anything is fine," when suddenly the person sitting next to him interjected, "Play Draven."
Lu Sicheng turned to glance at her, thinking, Draven? Out of all the AD Champions in Summoner's Rift, you had to pick the one I can’t play? Who are you trying to mock here?
...But before he could ask Tong Yao if she was looking for trouble, she had already adjusted her posture, her expression calm and cool as she said, "If not Draven, then what? Ezreal? Kalista? Lucian? Twitch? Big Mouth? Varus?... Liars don’t deserve to play these Champions."
Lu Sicheng hummed. "How did I lie?"
Tong Yao: "You said you quit smoking."
Lu Sicheng sighed. "I didn’t smoke just now."
Tong Yao rolled her eyes. "Lu Sicheng, is your men’s cologne air freshener-scented? Might as well say you picked up the smell from someone smoking in the next stall. Why do you have to add so much unnecessary drama, you drama queen?"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
While Lu Sicheng was left speechless and endured the scolding, the rest of the team, including Ming Shen, burst into laughter. Old Cat, still laughing, hands trembling, kindly locked in Ezreal for their captain, finalizing the AD pick—throughout the entire process, Lu Sicheng had no chance to voice his preferences or suggestions, only to endure the lecture... If Xiao Rui had been present, he would’ve eagerly documented this historic moment that once again reinforced the fact that the Team Tyrant was now a thing of the past.
The Ban & Pick phase continued. As everyone enthusiastically discussed which position to pick next, Lu Sicheng suddenly spoke up, "The sound guy in the back, don’t include this segment in the Tournament Quotes."
Tong Yao blinked. "Why?"
To protect his image? Lu Sicheng had smoked before, and this little habit didn’t stop him from being the heartthrob in everyone’s eyes.
As Tong Yao pondered, Lu Sicheng glanced at her and said, "Afraid the new Team Tyrant will get more hate mail."
His tone was half-serious, half-joking. Tong Yao felt she should be angry, but upon closer thought, she found it strangely considerate—though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the consideration lay. The warmth in her chest surged so fiercely, inexplicable and unstoppable, that she could only cough dryly and force a smile. "How thoughtful."
Lu Sicheng nodded solemnly. "Of course."
Tong Yao: "..."
While the two carries were busy chatting, Ming Shen had already directed Old K to help Old Cat pick Rumble, urgently signaling Lu Sicheng to stop flirting and focus on the game. But just then, the opposing team unexpectedly locked in Irelia!The entire venue erupted in an uproar—if Yasuo was considered a Despicable Hero, then Blades of the Will was at least a Dead-Dad Hero. Like Yasuo, this Champion was often picked in Ranked Games, with plenty of noobs playing it, but it was almost never seen in professional matches. So, Hao Yun Lai’s pick was genuinely shocking—
“Isn’t CK’s Hao Yun Lai known for tank Champions? Why’s he pulling out an Irelia to scare the babies?” Little Fatty looked utterly bewildered.
“Lu Yue can also pull out a Twisted Fate,” Lu Sicheng calmly reminded them.
The team fell silent, then everyone wore the same expression of sudden realization.
Ming Shen, leaning against Lu Sicheng’s chair with a folder in hand, was laughing so hard he could barely stand—though Lu Yue usually clung to Ming Shen like a shadow out of some guilty conscience, poor Lu Yue never seemed to win Ming Shen’s favor. At the very least, the usually gentle and composed Ming Shen always laughed particularly hard whenever Lu Yue was the butt of jokes…
Thinking about it, Tong Yao couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Lu Yue.
Amid the laughter and teasing, the Ban & Pick phase finally concluded. China Telecom was caught off guard by CK Team’s Irelia pick, and as the game officially began, Tong Yao had a vague feeling that this Irelia was going to cause trouble.
—And as it turned out, a woman’s intuition was always accurate.
—Especially when it came to bad things.
Because Blades of the Will had such a low pick rate, neither Scrims nor data analysis sessions had prepared them much for this Champion. When it was actually picked, everyone had to think hard about its skills and mechanics before realizing: this Champion was truly an unexpected counter to the current meta Champion, Rumble.
CK Team had come prepared. Now, after losing the first small round, they were playing for real.
With that in mind, as the game started, Tong Yao couldn’t help but say, “Old K, keep an eye on top lane this game. I have a feeling Hao Yun Lai didn’t pick Irelia randomly—top lane might be in trouble.”
Old K agreed.
Sure enough, within the first seven or eight minutes, the first gank was directed at top lane—only for Hao Yun Lai, who was supposedly a tank specialist, to pull off a Blooming Masterpiece. Old Cat, thinking it was an easy 2v1 against a squishy Irelia, held onto Rumble’s ultimate with confidence, dove under the tower, but failed to retreat in time and got traded by Irelia!
CK Team secured First Blood!
The situation was already looking grim. Irelia then pinned down Old K’s Rek’Sai, preventing him from burrowing away… Meanwhile, Tong Yao frantically pinged the map and warned that Xiao Hua was missing. Old K knew full well that if Xiao Hua wasn’t here, he was definitely heading top—but the bouncing Irelia stubbornly delayed the frantic Old K until Xiao Hua appeared, flanking him from behind. Xiao Hua secured the second kill of the game.
Xiao Hua’s Lissandra already countered Tong Yao’s Kassadin, and now Lissandra had an extra kill to snowball…
And so, with this collapse, both mid and top lanes were doomed.The game version determined that unless the AD carry was overwhelmingly strong to the point of being able to dominate the opponent, if the mid and top lanes collapsed early, the game was pretty much lost—Lu Sicheng was still laning normally at this point, with some advantages, and he was indeed overwhelmingly strong. However, Hu Die and Lao Wang's bot lane duo had, after all, won the Spring Split championship. Even if Lu Sicheng couldn't gain an advantage, they wouldn't let him snowball and carry the game.
...For a while, the entire match was dominated by the snowballing Irelia.
Around the twenty-five-minute mark, the gold difference between the two teams was nearly eight thousand. Tong Yao felt the game was pretty much over—considering whether Lu Sicheng's hand could endure a full best-of-five, she even thought about giving up this game and focusing on the next one.
It was no big deal. This wasn’t some hot-blooded manga; not every game was worth investing time and effort into for a desperate reverse sweep. Fortunately, she wasn’t the only one who thought this way. The game ended early at just over thirty minutes. The moment their Team headquarters was destroyed, Tong Yao took off her headphones and glanced at the red light on the screen behind her, symbolizing defeat...
The score was now tied at one-to-one.
CK was indeed not some pushover team that could be easily manipulated.
Yet, surprisingly, Tong Yao felt calm, not as uneasy as when they had lost to YQCB. Generally, special and unexpected strategies like this were hard for a team to prepare many of. CK’s Irelia pick was indeed brilliant and unexpected, but next game, they could just ban it or not pick Rumble—nothing to fear.
They could still win.
Tong Yao took a deep breath, reflecting on how setbacks had tempered her into someone with nerves of steel, when suddenly, she heard Lu Sicheng beside her say in a particularly aggrieved tone, “I just told Yang Shen that there’s no way we’d lose this best-of-five.”
“……………………”
It seemed her nerves and her AD carry’s had somehow reached a state of energy conservation. Hers were now unshakable, while someone else’s had shrunk to the size of a needle’s point.
Tong Yao looked up at the man beside her, who was practically pouting and stomping his feet: “I’d like to remind you that it’s only one-to-one, and we haven’t lost yet. But what’s this about ‘telling Yang Shen’? When did you even see Jian Yang?”
Lu Sicheng thought for a moment, ignoring the countless fans behind them, casually took Tong Yao’s hand, and walked toward the backstage area, calmly replying, “During the break earlier. In the bathroom.”
Tong Yao: “...”
She couldn’t understand how a damn bathroom had become the holy ground for all sorts of significant events. She tugged at the hem of Lu Sicheng’s shirt: “From now on, no random bathroom trips. You have to report to me and get approval first.”
Lu Sicheng: “Oh.”
Lu Sicheng: “Report.”
Tong Yao: “What?”
Lu Sicheng: “I need to pee.”
Tong Yao: “...”
Lu Sicheng: “Haoyun Lai’s Irelia pissed me off so much my bladder hurts.”
Tong Yao: “...”
By now, they had returned to ZGDX’s player lounge. Lu Sicheng turned to Old Cat: “During Scrims, you kept saying Rumble was unstoppable once fed. Unstoppable my ass. There’s still Irelia. Look at Haoyun Lai’s Irelia—why can’t you play Irelia?”Old Cat put down the water cup that could potentially be used as a weapon and looked at Tong Yao with a headache. "Why don't you just send him to the bathroom?"
Amidst Old Cat's innocent but overwhelming resentment, Tong Yao waved her hand, ready to shoo away this guy who was scowling and claiming that his bladder hurt from being outplayed by an Irelia—before he left, she dragged him to a corner and frisked him, pulling out several cigarettes he had hidden beforehand... Lu Sicheng leaned against the corner, watching leisurely as the person in front of him frisked him like a cop. Just as Tong Yao frowned, considering whether to make him take off his shoes for inspection, he lowered his head, staring at the little girl who was frowning thoughtfully while holding a few cigarettes. Suddenly, the corners of his lips curled up, his usual stern expression vanishing as he leaned in close to her ear and asked, "Done searching? There's a bigger cigarette in my pants—want to feel for it?"
Tong Yao: "………………………………"
Five seconds later.
Everyone stared blankly as their captain walked out with light, cheerful steps, while their Mid Laner stood rooted to the spot, her face bright red, glaring at the man's retreating figure. Their ears still rang with her explosive roar—so loud that even the neighboring break room probably heard her scream "You pervert!"—
No one understood how, even though Tong Yao was the one doing the frisking and Lu Sicheng had his hands raised without moving a muscle, he could still manage to be a shameless flirt.
A few seconds of silence.
Little Fatty stared in the direction Lu Sicheng had left and suddenly sighed in relief. "I didn’t even dare to speak loudly earlier. Whenever we lost a match before, the captain would always have that stern face. Anyone who talked too much would be dragged out and executed on the spot for not reflecting properly."
"Well, you don’t have to worry about that now," Tong Yao pointed at the half-open break room door. "He’s in such a good mood—like the one million fake match fee from CK Team just hit his bank account."
Little Fatty: "..."
Tong Yao: "..."
Little Fatty studied Tong Yao’s face for a moment. Seeing the flush from her earlier earth-shaking "pervert" outburst hadn’t faded yet, he seemed to understand about seventy to eighty percent of the situation and couldn’t help but sigh. "You’ve had it rough."
Tong Yao didn’t even pretend to be polite. She nodded and said, "Yeah, I think so too."
Everyone: "..."
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