As he watched two unfamiliar-looking players co on stage wearing TTC’s team uniform, Jian Rong montarily forgot to drink the canned coffee that he had just opened. Question marks swept wildly across the barrage to the point that Jian Rong’s computer even lagged for a few seconds.
Never mind the audience, even the two TTC substitute players who just took the stage—especially the one replacing Road—seed to look a little perplexed.
All three comntators wore awkward and puzzled smiles as they exchanged looks with each other.
“TTC… must have so tactic in mind, right?” Comntator A stiffly tossed out a new topic.
After receiving his colleague’s signal, another person quickly nodded. “They definitely must have practiced so new ultimate maneuver. But if I’m not rembering incorrectly, this should be the first ti TTC’s substitute jungler has ever gone on stage?”
“That’s right. This jungler is also very powerful, and he’s a player excellent at engaging in team fights.”
The ga hadn’t officially started yet, and Jian Rong didn’t want to listen to the comntators’ cringey conversation, so he muted the official broadcast. He asked, “When did TTC get a substitute jungler?”
Actually, this already wasn’t the first ti TTC’s substitute jungler had been brought up as a subject of conversation.
As early as the competition enrollnt period, fans had discovered that there was an unfamiliar face at the very bottom of TTC’s roster. Rumor had it that he was a jungler who ca straight from the youth training team. Because of that incident, TTC’s official Weibo had been blown up by the fans before—to be more exact, it had been blown up by Road’s fans before.
After all, TTC possessed the ace jungler Road. Ever since Road joined the team, TTC’s substitute roster had never once arranged for a jungler.
[This sub seems to have been here since the sumr season.]
[If the mid sub had gone up last match, maybe TTC would have had a higher chance of winning.]
[This substitute jungler is finally here, after sitting on the bench for an entire season. If he didn’t show up soon I was gonna assu that TTC just grabbed him to make up for team numbers.]
[Just what kind of ultimate maneuver does TTC have, curious.]
Jian Rong lifted an eyebrow and didn’t say anything.
Even if TTC really did have so mysterious trick up their sleeve, there was still no reason for them not to use Road and instead make a substitute who had never gone on stage before cooperate with the team.
His phone rang briefly, and Jian Rong unmuted the official broadcast before he openly picked up his phone and slacked off.
[Shiliu1: Big bro, how the hell do you have the guts to say whatever you want?]
Shiliu was one of Jian Rong’s few close friends, and he was also a male strear on StarTV. He played LoL before, but now he had changed lanes and was ssing around in the PUBG channel.
[R-ong2: What about it?]
[Shiliu: You actually implied that Kan is matchfixing in front of millions of people?? Are you not afraid of his fans going after you?]
[R-ong: I’m not even afraid of the man himself, why would I be scared of his fans?]
Shiliu originally wanted to reply with a “you’re so aweso,” but then he rembered that his friend seed to have always been this aweso.
[Shiliu: You should just restrain yourself a little bit, I really am afraid that one day these LPL players are gonna band together and hire a contract killer to go after you.]
[R-ong: I didn’t roast Kan, I was praising him just then.]
[Shiliu: …… wdym?]
[R-ong: Before, though he was still trash, at least he was at Diamond-rank level. But his plays today, there’s no way to pull those off unless he had a blood clot in his brain for ten years. If I say he’s matchfixing, aren’t I just secretly praising him by saying he should be much stronger than the way he was performing?]
“…” Shiliu put away his phone with a wooden expression. Forget it, he wasn’t going to argue with a troll over what was right and wrong.
Jian Rong’s thought process was correct. TTC hadn’t prepared any “ultimate maneuvers,” at least not for this match.
Five minutes in, TTC’s jungler was solo killed while strolling in the jungle.
Twelve minutes in, TTC’s jungler went to the mid lane to gank, but ended up being counterganked, and the enemy got a double kill.
With the pillar of the team and two starting players off the stage, the other three starters were also clearly unsettled. Adding on the fact that they couldn’t cooperate very well as a team, when the first big team fight erupted at twenty minutes, TTC’s entire team wiped.
Jian Rong glanced at the gap in economy between the two teams and knew that there was no way TTC would be able to make a coback this ga, so he didn’t feel like wasting his breath explaining anymore. He opened the barrage helper in the livestream room, wanting to have so “friendly interactions” with the water friends3.
[TTC is so fucking trash.]
[Why isn’t the strear flaming anyone?]
[I finally know why this jungler sub never played a single ti last season. Is TTC crazy, putting him on stage at semifinals to disgust people? Road played so well during the last few gas, why switch out?]
[Forget it, Road is also a noob, all TTC players are noobs. How well has Road even played these past few years, he should just hurry up and retire.]
Jian Rong moved his finger and blocked the last person who was cursing. The person swiftly opened a side account and rolled back in, stronger than ever.
[I just fla a tiny bit and you block and kick ? Aren’t you also badmouthing players all the ti, why don’t you block yourself?]
“If you put in a bad mood, I’ll block you. If you don’t like that, then hold it in.” Jian Rong was too lazy to explain more. There was no logic needed for confrontations between haters; all one needed to do was piss off the other side first.
He leaned back in the chair and chose a comfortable position before continuing. “The substitute jungler is useless, but since the deciding ga for the semifinals is his first ti ever playing, it’s still excusable for him to not play very well, right? You can tell that he probably practices very little with the starters in private. And also, it’s not like the rest of the team is playing all that well either. Just think of it as watching a Diamond ranked ga.
“Though the substitute mid laner is alright. He’s barely a tiny bit more useful than Kan was in the previous four gas… of course he’s still not as strong as , don’t ask that kind of nonsense.”
Thirty-two minutes in, the deciding ga that everyone was anticipating finally neared its end.
In that ga, TTC was almost completely crushed.
At the end of the match, HT forced their way to TTC’s Nexus4, and took nearly thirty seconds to brutally destroy it.
At that mont, TTC’s break room was dead silent.
The competition staff mbers were affected by the atmosphere and didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly. They dedicated themselves to their jobs and fild while carrying their caras, giving quite a few close-ups to Road, who was sitting on the sofa.
Road watched the screen calmly, his right hand propped casually on the sofa’s armrest. He wore his team jacket loosely, the sleeve engulfing his entire palm.
Kan sat in the very corner. He chewed on his bottom lip repeatedly before he finally couldn’t bear it any longer after seeing his teammates be destroyed by the enemy. He looked at Lu Boyuan and said, “Captain, I even said that I could play this round.”
It was as if Lu Boyuan couldn’t hear what he was saying; he didn’t even spare a single glance his way.
Kan, “Even though I didn’t play very well before, but…”
“Enough.” The coach interrupted him with a dark face. “Don’t say anything else.”
A few minutes later, TTC’s team mbers returned to the break room. Their heads were lowered and they looked at the ground. It was like an invisible rope was wrapped around each of their necks, stifling them so they couldn’t speak or express any other emotions.
It wasn’t that they had never lost a competition before, but this ti they had lost too completely, too shafully. Even the older team mbers who had experience playing in a few World Championships couldn’t help but feel their eyes redden.
The coach breathed in deeply a few tis and comforted them simply a little before walking out to the balcony and calling the team bus. The fans were stirred up right now, so he had to tell the competition managent to arrange for a few more security guards to maintain order.
In this stagnant silence, Lu Boyuan finally moved.
He picked up the baseball cap next to him and nonchalantly put it on. The brim of the hat was pressed a little low, and he said, “Ti to go back.”
The team mbers stood up after he said that and began to walk stiffly out.
TTC’s substitute jungler was a seventeen year old boy who had been scooped out from the trainees by managent the mont he reached the age he was officially allowed to participate in competitions. He walked at the very back of the crowd, looking dazed, his right hand tightly gripping the shoulder strap of his equipnt bag as he pressed his lips together hard.
He was still quite so distance away from the back exit, but he could already hear the noise from the fans waiting outside the arena. For a brief mont, he suddenly felt as if all the indistinct chatter was peppered with his ID and so jeering, mocking words. He even fantasized that he had already walked outside and was smashed over the head by TTC LED signs until he started bleeding.
Just when he almost couldn’t take it anymore and stopped walking, soone patted him firmly on the shoulder twice.
“You’ve worked hard,” Lu Boyuan said. “Practice more after we get back.”
It was as if an opening had been created by those two pats, and tears instantly gushed out. He first nodded heavily before he covered his face with his sleeves and couldn’t help but sob.
TTC’s bus drove straight back to the base.
After disembarking, the coach warned the other team mbers over and over to uninstall Tieba and Weibo5 before he went into a eting room with Road.
“I’ve already contacted soone from the LPL. They’re on their way to the base right now.” The coach poured a cup of boiled water and placed it in front of Lu Boyuan. He was silent for a few seconds before he asked, “What if the situation really is like what you’re thinking?”
Lu Boyuan said, “Deal with it according to the rules.”
The coach frowned. As soone who had always handled things efficiently, he currently looked hesitant. “Kan, he… he’s been with TTC for seven years, even longer than you or .”
Lu Boyuan made an “en” noise. “So?”
“Understood.” The coach looked at the untouched paper cup on the table, and his brows wrinkled even more. He asked, “How’s your condition? I’ve rushed the doctor, he’ll be here soon. Tsk… I knew I should’ve made him co to the stadium with us.”
Lu Boyuan extended his arm and exposed his right hand out of the sleeve. “It’s much better now.”
The coach glanced over. “It’s been so long, but it’s still trembling??”
Lu Boyuan said, “The two gas in the middle took too long.”
“Don’t ss with , you could practice for over ten hours a day before, but now you’re telling that a fifty-minute ga is too long? You definitely secretly practiced more!” The coach felt his heart hurt. “Don’t practice these next few days, don’t even open the ga, do you hear ??”
Lu Boyuan was well aware of the situation. He really had exceeded the doctor’s set practice ti, and by quite a bit as well.
Since there were no upcoming competitions for the ti being anyway, Lu Boyuan nodded. “Got it. Have there been any developnts in finding a mid laner?”
“You’re already like this, can you worry a little bit less.” After the coach finished lecturing, he still answered honestly, “There has. The team recently selected a few mid laners from among the trainees, national rankings, and players whose contracts are about to expire. We still have to inspect and filter through them one by one before we can reach a conclusion.”
Lu Boyuan, “Give a copy of the list too.”
“Of course I’ll give a copy to you.” The coach thought of sothing and couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose. “But there are so things I have to say first. We’re looking for a teammate, not a wife. Don’t be so picky, you have to give them so room to grow… all those people you rejected last ti have been snatched up by other teams by now, it really hurts …”
Lu Boyuan gave a noise of assent with a cold expression. Inside, he thought, if it were as easy to find a teammate as it was to find a wife, then they wouldn’t have to waste so much ti doing so.
Shiliu 石榴 literally ans pogranate, but I’m assuming that’s not his friend’s actual na? Probably just his online alias, so I’m just gonna go with Shiliu rather than Pogranate ^Jian Rong’s user ID is 艹耳, but Cao-Er looks kind of dumb, so I just split up the letters in “Rong,” as his ID is technically just the character for Rong split up ^Water friends/水友: a way to address fans or netizens in general, depending on context. If anyone has a better English equivalent please let know! ^Destroying the enemy’s Nexus is the only way to win the ga in LoL. It’s translated as fountain in Chinese, and I’m honestly not sure if they’re the sa thing? But since fountain seems like it could also refer to sothing else (spawn point?), which isn’t the sa thing as the Nexus, I’m just gonna use Nexus when I think they’re referring to the Nexus and not fountain ^Baidu Tieba and Weibo are both social dia sites in China; there’s a lot of discussion forums on Tieba and microblogs on Weibo (kind of like Twitter) ^
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