[Subject] [Holy crap, just saw Cheng Ge and the new ZGDX Team Mid Laner girl duo queueing on OB (Online Broadcast system)!]
1st Floor
「OP」:
Yesterday I peeked at our ZGDX Team’s Little Fatty’s ranked match history and found that, as usual, he was on a losing streak. Out of curiosity, I checked who his poor teammates were and noticed he had duo queued many times with someone whose ID was “Smiling.” Hahahaha, no need to say who that is, right?!
And our Little Fatty was still sticking to his signature style—pulling out his infamous Korean server Orianna Support, Lux Support, Zac Support, Yasuo Support, and more, skillfully leading the newbie in reverse rank-up, diving straight to Diamond II!
—By the way, do you guys think this counts as school bullying? You know, an old-timer taking advantage of a newbie…
So today, probably to make up for his support’s terrifying behavior, our Cheng Ge stepped up!
ZGDX Team’s Mid and Bot Lane are duo queueing hahahahahahaha! Right now!
(Posted 2016-5-2 17:30)
(Various spectator masses enthusiastically joining the discussion, skipped)…
503rd Floor
「OP」:
OP is back. Below is a recap of the highlights from ZGDX Team’s first-ever Mid-Bot duo queue—
First game: Cheng Ge’s jungler stole Smiling’s Blue Buff.
Second game: Smiling stole Cheng Ge’s Red Buff.
Third game: Smiling pulled out a 0/7/3 Yasuo.
There was no fourth game.
Because the party disbanded.
I can almost picture the moment the party dissolved. Hope they didn’t come to blows.
PS: Being a fan of this team is so hard. Other than Old Cat and Old K, who always duo queue lovingly, you’ll never see any other teammates harmoniously duo queueing… So Old Cat and Old K, you two must stay in love forever (T＿T)
(Posted 2016-5-2 20:12)
……
“……”
Tong Yao narrowed her eyes, fingers swiftly scrolling the mouse wheel as she read the following comments with great amusement—"Feel bad for the newbie girl," "Feel bad for Cheng Ge’s salary after tomorrow’s ranked match review," "Feel bad for poor Little Fatty being ditched," and "Feel bad for myself for stanning this Melon Skin team." By the end, she almost didn’t recognize the words "feel bad" anymore.
“Cheng Ge, your fan’s roommate wants to see ZGDX Team’s Bot Lane duo queue before she dies,” she read aloud from a Forum reply while scrolling.
Little Fatty: “My salary also wants to see this before it dies.”
The man sitting next to Tong Yao completely ignored his support’s pitiful whining. He lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced at her. “Do I have to be responsible for my fans’ roommates too?”
“A top-tier idol cares for all living beings.”
“I’m just an old man addicted to the internet.”
“……”
“Shorty.”
“What?”
“You posted on Weibo again.”
“You’re playing a game and still care if I post on Weibo?”
“Tell your fans to stop @ing me, and I won’t care.”
“That’s beyond my control.”
Tong Yao closed the webpage, stood up, and stretched. She was hungry.Just as she was about to call for takeout, the team manager Xiao Rui shuffled down slowly in slippers, stopping in front of Little Fatty and giving him a light kick with his foot. However, his words were directed at Lu Sicheng: "Babes, don’t you think it’s time to schedule some scrims?"
—Scrims, referring to prearranged practice matches between two teams, conducted exactly like official games… Scrims play a crucial role in a professional player’s career. Teams use them to test newly mastered Champions, experiment with new strategies, or build synergy with new teammates, among other things…
Hearing the word "scrims," Tong Yao instinctively straightened up and looked at Xiao Rui. Lu Sicheng, however, merely responded with an "Oh" and continued playing his game without even glancing at Xiao Rui.
Little Fatty swatted Xiao Rui’s foot away: "Rui Ge, the Spring Split just ended. It’s the off-season—what scrims are you talking about? Our team dragged on until now at the headquarters because of the finals. Other teams finished their Playoffs almost half a month ago—you think they haven’t gone home yet?"
"Most teams weren’t satisfied with their Playoffs performance, so no vacation for them," Xiao Rui shrugged. "Look how driven they are. Meanwhile, you guys lost the Spring Split finals but still walk around grinning like you’re happier than CK, the actual champions..."
Little Fatty: "Come on, I saw Yang Shen and his team laughing their heads off."
Xiao Rui: "Of course they’re happy—they’re going to the Mid-Season Invitational. This year’s MSI is in Shanghai, right on home turf."
The Mid-Season Invitational is a major international tournament held after each region’s Spring Split, featuring the champions from Korea (LCK), Mainland China (LPL), Taiwan (LMS), Europe (LCS EU), North America (LCS NA), and the Wild Card regions (teams from outside these five major regions)—
This year marks the second edition of MSI, and it’s being held in Shanghai.
In 2015, the inaugural MSI was won by an LPL team. After that victory, the domestic atmosphere was overwhelmingly optimistic, with people exclaiming, "Holy shit, our LPL is really strong!" and "The World Championship trophy is basically ours in a few months!"... However, months later, the three LPL teams representing the region at the S Series World Championship suffered a crushing defeat—two were eliminated in the Group Stage, and the third only made it to the quarterfinals, marking the worst international performance in LPL history...
After this humiliating slap in the face, public opinion shifted drastically. Views on the Mid-Season Invitational became polarized—some considered it the second most prestigious tournament after the S Series (*World Championship), while others insisted...
—This is just a goddamn scrimmage with fans for entertainment!
—Other regions treat it as a casual event, otherwise how could our clown fiesta of a region ever win?!
—Trash LPL! Trash MSI!Due to the poor performance in last year's World Championship, up until now, people have remained pessimistic about the strength of our region. Even for this year's Mid-Season Invitational, optimism is still hard to come by...
Take Little Fatty at this very moment, for example.
Little Fatty: "Seriously, what's there to be happy about after getting stomped into the ground on our home turf?"
Xiao Rui pointed at Little Fatty's nose: "Shut up."
Xiao Rui then turned to Lu Sicheng and asked, "Cheng Ge, about the scrims—you good with that?"
At this moment, Lu Sicheng's champion Kalista was hopping around destroying the enemy Nexus. The red glow reflected in his eyes, yet his face remained calm. He merely gave a faint "Mmm" and clicked the mouse with a crisp sound when the victory confirmation button popped up—
Then he began reviewing the match stats.
He didn’t even lift his head the entire time.
Tong Yao found it a bit strange: Even if he was unhappy about being dragged into scrims during vacation, this reaction seemed off.
She rubbed the tip of her nose and curiously glanced at her teammates, who also didn’t dare say much and were sneakily observing Lu Sicheng's expression. At this point, Old Cat, who hadn’t spoken at all until now, swiveled his chair around: "Why the sudden urge for scrims? The Summer Split is still far off. Usually, we don’t resume training until after the Mid-Season Tournament."
"I spent 800k on a new toy," Xiao Rui patted Tong Yao’s shoulder, "Can’t I get excited and find a chance to play with it?"
Tong Yao: "..."
Xiao Rui: "Gotta see if it’s a donkey or a horse, right?"
Before Xiao Rui could finish, Lu Sicheng suddenly stood up from his seat.
Everyone seemed startled by his movement, and even Xiao Rui instinctively shut his mouth—
Yet Lu Sicheng’s expression remained perfectly natural. He patted his pants pocket, then magically pulled out a cigarette from under the coin-storing lucky cat figurine on the table. He glanced at Xiao Rui: "I’m going for a smoke."
Xiao Rui’s face visibly twitched.
"Five days from now, we’ve got scrims scheduled with some noob team," Lu Sicheng waved his hand. "I set it up. Forgot to tell you."
"Oh, that’s pretty proactive. Wait, no—" Xiao Rui paused. "Why schedule with a relegation team?"
"Pope joined them." Lu Sicheng placed the unlit cigarette between his lips, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Gonna meet him."
"What?"
"Not repeating it."
"What did you say?" Xiao Rui’s expression looked like he’d been stomped by an elephant and then pissed on. "Pope? That Pope? Last year’s S Series Finals champion team, MVP of the year, Pope... Huh?"
Lu Sicheng gave a faint "Mmm": "YQCB will probably announce it tomorrow."
With that, he lazily nodded at Xiao Rui and walked out for his smoke.
Tong Yao looked up at Xiao Rui, who was so stunned he even forgot about docking wages, and suddenly remembered what Lu Sicheng had mentioned when they were buying slippers—about YQCB’s current AD, Xiao Nuan, retiring soon.
Then the elevator incident had derailed the conversation.
So it seemed what he’d wanted to tell her back then was this—Xiao Nuan’s position being taken over by Pope... And as for Pope, Li Junhe, coming to China to play professionally, it appeared Lu Sicheng had known about it all along....The question is, why does Lu Sicheng know so much about Pope?
“Cheng Ge and that Pope, ah,” Tong Yao hesitated, “do they have some history?”
Old Cat had a strange expression: “Holy shit, you actually don’t know?”
Old K: “Holy shit, you actually don’t know.”
Xiao Rui clutched his chest: “Holy shit, I love how you don’t ask about things you don’t know. Just now, when Cheng Ge gave me that look, I almost thought my heart was going to stop.”
Their exaggerated reactions made Tong Yao even more baffled: “What? What’s going on?”
At this point, Little Fatty sighed and explained: “When our Cheng Ge first started his professional career, he was a substitute for a top Korean team—Pope’s substitute, to be exact. Their playstyle, approach, and even champion pools were practically identical… Back then, people both domestically and internationally called him Pope’s shadow, and some even said he was copying Pope… Ugh, you know how Cheng Ge is—prideful as hell. He’s probably been pissed about that for a long time—”
“...”
Tong Yao let out an “Oh” and nodded, glancing in the direction Lu Sicheng had left. Finally, she understood what was off about this guy—
So this was the bittersweet story of a substitute trying his hardest to surpass the starter and prove his worth!
...Tsk tsk.
“Alright, alright,” Tong Yao stood up, raising her hands high, “For the sake of our Cheng Ge’s pride, let’s give it our all in the scrims three days from now!”
Old Cat looked terrified, glancing at the door as if a tiger might pounce in and eat him any second: “………Keep your voice down.”
Old K waved his hand dismissively: “The newborn calf fears no tiger. The last person who dared to mention Pope in the team headquarters and tried to encourage Cheng Ge is now playing in the City League (*a professional league tier below the secondary league LSPL).”
Little Fatty shuddered, making a disgusted face.
Xiao Rui: “You think you’re in some inspirational J-drama? Sit down, sit down! I’ll go ask the manager of that noob team what’s going on. Damn, they actually bought Li Junhe (*Pope’s real name). Looks like these noobs don’t want to stay quiet noobs in the Summer Split. Ugh, ugh, headache.”
After everyone’s collective lament, they scattered to their own tasks.
Tong Yao didn’t start another game. Instead, she bent down and took Da Bing from Little Fatty’s arms, then slowly made her way to the sofa in the team headquarters’ lounge with the cat in her arms. Kneeling on the sofa, she pressed her face against the window glass, straining to see the man standing outside from an awkward angle. He was frowning slightly, leaning against the doorframe with a cigarette in his mouth, typing on his phone with one hand—
Tong Yao pushed the window open.
“Hey.”
The man looked up.
“We’ll win the scrims three days from now.” Tong Yao raised Da Bing’s paw and waved it in the man’s direction. “Watch me carry you. Just relax and get carried to victory in the bot lane.”
Lu Sicheng froze for a moment, staring at the shorty hugging the cat and sticking her butt out as she leaned out the window. After a long pause, he curled his lips and let out a low chuckle: “Are you an idiot?”
“Hehehe.”
The person leaning out the window, hugging the cat, grinned like a sunflower.
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