Everyone on Shenyang University’s team was more than aware of Lin Feng’s skill with Assassin-type midlane champions. Lin Feng wasn’t just good at playing Assassin-type midlane champions. He wasn’t just a strong player on them. He wasn’t just dominating, unstoppable and legendary. Nope. He was something else entirely—He was a force of nature!

But Lin Feng had a few good reasons for going the Control Mage route in the series against Shenyang University. First and foremost among those reasons was that Shenyang’s Midlaner wasn’t anywhere near good enough to make Lin Feng really try. He didn’t need to play his best or even his second best Champions. But rather than goofing around on his favourite Champions, Lin Feng decided to practice with Champions he didn’t regularly play. There were two goals this served. First off, he wouldn’t reveal just how good he was at his favourite Champions to the other competing teams. And secondly, it deepened his Champion pool for his Korean account. He only had a few more days left to climb the final spots and to ensure he won every game he played, he had to be able to pick the optimal Champion for every situation.

Shenyang University didn’t have the luxury of holding back. They had their backs pushed against the wall, loaded guns aimed at them. And the entire situation was their fault, because they weren’t playing near the level they knew they could. It just took them two full games to realize that. Between the second and the third game, they took a small break and walked away from the stage to reset their mental. They walked around the stadium and watched the fans, listened to the cheers and reminded themselves why they were here, what they were here for. To win!

When Shenyang University returned to their computers, they were ready. Reinvigorated. They recognized that with Lin Feng playing Control Mage-type Champions, the late game was nearly impossible to win. That just meant that they had to win it early. So they chose Champions that excelled at the laning phase. They also recognized that the midlane wasn’t a lane they could ever win, and that Team Shanghai’s top lane was their weakest link. So they used the top lane to kickstart their other lanes.

Zhang Hao didn’t see it come. He was just feeling comfortable enough in the series to pick Ryze, a late game Champion. But Ryze had no escape mechanics and a very small health pool during the laning phase. In the first 5 minutes of the game, he was killed three times. Two of those deaths were to Shenyang’s Toplaner who was playing Fiora. And a fed Fiora was dangerous.

Shenyang University made full use of their Fiora. They helped her pull further and further ahead and by the 14th minute, the 4,000 gold advantage they enjoyed was almost entirely on her. She ran around the map and through Team Shanghai’s Jungle. She killed Tang Bingyao, Zeng Rui and An Xin. She went in one versus four and dove towers whenever she felt like it. The only times she grew cautious, the only times she retreated, was when Lin Feng’s Lulu came close to her. That was the one fight she didn’t want to pick.

It took Shenyang University until the 30th minute to get the confidence they needed to take on Lin Feng’s Lulu. They were laying siege on the inhibitor tower in midlane, with a boost from the Baron Buff, when Tang Bingyao made a slight positional error. Fiora noticed and Lunged. She dove the tower and took Tang Bingyao’s Jinx out with a flurry of attacks, spawning a Healing Field. Shenyang University made full use of that to take out the rest of Team Shanghai, Lin Feng’s Lulu included. From there it was an easy win. They took down the inhibitor tower, inhibitor, nexus towers and finally the nexus. The Blue energy within broke free and morphed into the victory emblem for them.

VICTORY

“WOOOOOO!”“WE’VE GOT A REAL GAME ON OUR HANDS NOW!”

“FRIGGIN FINALLY! WAS ABOUT DAMN TIME!”

“SHENYANG FOR THE WIIIIIN!”

“MASSIVE PLAYS BY FIORA!”

Sun Ruinian sat in the player seating area with his teammates from Zhejiang University. He clicked his tongue and said, “Shenyang’s good. This is what I remember them like. When they get going, they’re just so good at coordination and map-wide plays. It’s really killer.”

Zou Cheng sighed in disappointment and said, “Why is Lin Feng playing Support mids? He went Lulu for fucks sake! What did he expect would happen? He doesn’t do any damage! He just flutters around all useless and his team is nothing without him! They need him to carry! Yeah, yeah, it’s a team game. I know. I know. Really, I do! But what did they expect? They’ve got a tanky Jungler with Sejuani and then they put their worst two players on Ryze and Jinx. It’s like they wanted to lose this game!”

“Maybe,” Sun Ruinian replied. He looked at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth and added, “One thing’s for certain though. If Lin Feng played LeBlanc or Fizz, this game would’ve been over.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Zou Cheng exclaimed.

Zhang Hongyi sat a couple of rows away from Zhejiang University. He glanced at them and then back at the large LCD screen above the stage. He chuckled and said, “What a bunch of idiots. Talking like Team Shanghai’s got this in the bag. I don’t see it. How can they possibly win with Zeng ‘SucksAlot’ Rui? Scrubs!”

Yu Ping shook his head and breathed out loudly. Zhang Hongyi needs to stop worrying so much about that Support. We’ve got our work cut out for us if we need to play Team Shanghai. Their Midlaner… Those guys from Zhejiang are most likely right. If he plays LeBlanc or Fizz, this series is over.

✹

Lin Feng ruffled his hair and said over the team’s voice chat, “Alright, that was enough fun for one day. Let’s just end it here.” He turned his head to look at An Xin and continued, “BunBun, camp the shit out of top. Get HaoBro to Legendary! I’ll do the same in mid and ZengZeng will help Tang Tang do the same in bot! We’ll go triple Legendary and smack some asses!”

Zhang Hao grimaced and replied, “I’m really so—”

“Uh, no you’re not,” An Xin interrupted. She glared at Lin Feng and continued, “It’s DimFeng’s fault that you fell so far behind. He was just messing around and pinging way too late whenever Shenyang’s Midlaner went to gank top. But he’s right about one thing. We need to win this next one. Let’s play our best.”

“Mhm!” Tang Bingyao agreed, nodding vigorously.

✹

In the fourth game of the series between Team Shanghai and Shenyang University, Team Shanghai played the Red team. That meant that they had the last pick in Champion Select. Lin Feng waited to see Shenyang’s University’s line up, grinned, and locked in Fizz. He clenched his fist and mumbled, “It’s time to rock ‘n roll!”

Everyone across the globe who knew him, knew what was coming next. Su Xue was jumping up and down in her chair, both relieved and excited. Her viewers were losing it, spamming her chat to show their adoration for Lin Feng. Even Yu Ping, who’d only watched Lin Feng play and had never even come across him in solo queue, shifted in his chair. He knew he was in for a good show.

At 4 minutes: Lin Feng’s Fizz picked up first blood on Shenyang’s Twisted Fate.

At 6 minutes: Lin Feng’s Fizz hit Level 6 before Shenyang’s Twisted Fate did. He used this advantage to jump on Twisted Fate and kill him, all the while watching the movements from Shenyang’s Lee Sin who was running into the lane. Lin Feng timed his cooldowns perfectly and ran around the lane with such precision that Lee Sin couldn’t hit a single kill. And then Lin Feng picked up the double kill.

At 8 minutes: Lin Feng tagged along with An Xin on a trip to the top lane, where they towerdove Shenyang’s Rumble. He picked up the kill. It was his fourth of the game.

At 10 minutes: Lin Feng’s Fizz swam through the river to the bot lane, where Shenyang’s Lee Sin tried to gank Tang Bingyao and Zeng Rui. He helped to turn the gank around, picking up two kills and an assist, bringing his score to an impressive 6/0/1.

At 18 minutes: Lin Feng’s Fizz picked up his second solo kill on Shenyang’s Twisted Fate in as many minutes. It was his eighth kill of the game and the voice announcer broadcasted this by calling him Legendary!

“Dude… Da fuck? What’s this game?”

“I don’t know… That Fizz… Holy mother of my father who bangs my brother, he’s so good!”

“Feels like I’m watching a game of solo queue… There’s no teamwork or anything, just a hard carry by Fizz.”

“Pretty sure he doesn’t even need his teammates. Haven’t seen a stomp this bad in months!”

“My fucking god! Shenyang has fallen far. They’re getting solo’d by a fucking high schooler! They’re losing all face!”

“They’re already toothless, might as well be skinless…”

TheBrawnster shook his head, incredulous, and muttered, “Yo, yo, yo! TheBrawnster here to tell you that Shenyang sucks massive dongs! I guess… Jesus, what a game. What happened to them? They looked so good in Game 3 and then… Well, this. Whatever this is.”

“I know right!” PufPuf shrieked. “It’s like they gave up!”

Chu Fang chuckled. He could hear the gasps and murmurs from the audience behind him and he could see the pure shock in the people around him. What they were witnessing wasn’t a university level Midlaner outclassing another university level Midlaner. What they were witnessing was a stomp so hard that it felt like Lin Feng was Rake and Shenyang’s Midlaner a 600 Bronze nobody. Chu Fang grinned and mumbled, “You’re not yet where you were. But it’s good to see you try, because you’re still really damned good when you try. More than good enough to beat any team here, anyway.”

20 minutes after the game started, Lin Feng decided it was time to end Shenyang University’s suffering. He’d destroyed their hopes and dreams 15 minutes earlier, but now their Nexus collapsed too. The energy within broke free and morphed into the victory emblem. He grinned and looked over the rim of his monitor at the fans—his fans—who were on their feet and cheering. “For me,” he mumbled.

“Yo, Yo, Yo! TheBrawnster here with another great episode of the Winter Collegiate Cup!” TheBrawnster shouted into his microphone. He winked at PufPuf sitting next to him at the caster desk before continuing, “We’ve got ourselves two non-Beijing teams here, but you know they’re trying! Team Shanghai’s tryin’ a bit better here right now and Shenyang is just kinda falling behind.”

“But that’s not all!” PufPuf chimed in with her high pitched voice. She turned to face TheBrawnster and analysed, “Team Shanghai has got the late team power comp! Maokai and Thresh bring utility and tankiness, Orianna brings one of the most powerful crowd control skills in the entire game with her ultimate and then… Do I even need to mention Tristana?” She briefly paused for dramatic effect, and then yelled, “Tristana the hypercarry! When she gets to late game, there’s no stopping her!”

“OhOhOH!” TheBrawnster shouted into his microphone. “10 minutes in and it’s looking like Team Shanghai is about to make a play in mid! Let’s focus on the big ass screen above the stage and watch this play out.”

An Xin’s Lee Sin ran down the river towards the mid lane. The brush there was warded, revealing her location to Shenyang’s Ziggs. “Lin Feng!” she said over the team’s voice chat, while her Lee Sin ran into the lane and fired a Sonic Wave at Ziggs.

Lin Feng grinned and cast Command: Protect! Orianna sent her Ball to Lee Sin and placed a shield on him. It continued following Lee Sin as he dashed at Ziggs with Resonating Strike. This opened the next play in Lin Feng’s playbook. He watched his screen carefully for the activation of Ziggs’ Explosive Satchel, with which Ziggs could jump away to safety. When Lin Feng spotted the start of the animation, he cast Command: Shockwave! A powerful shockwave of electromagnetic energy exploded out of the Ball! It washed over Ziggs and pulled him out of his dash and towards the epicenter!

“Watch me! Watch me!” Lin Feng exclaimed over the team’s voice chat, laughing. He theatrically lifted his finger and then pushed down on the W key to cast Command: Dissonance! That was just the right amount of damage needed to finish the Ziggs. But before his Orianna cast the skill, An Xin’s Lee Sin hit Ziggs with a roundhouse kick and sent him flying straight into the afterlife.

“Woops,” An Xin said, smiling.

“BunBun! You stole my kill! That was a killsteal!” Lin Feng complained. He pursed his lips and glared at An Xin, then continued grumbling, “Why would you do that? I had the kill. That kill wasn’t even worth anything to you—”

An Xin glanced at Lin Feng and winked. She said, “Alright, that’s enough out of you. We still need to win this. Bit more focus, bit less trolling.” She then pinged on the Dragon pit and added, “Time to rotate and take Dragon. Bot team, push that wave in and let’s go.”

TheBrawnster nodded, impressed. He raised his microphone to his lips and said, “Ye know? Ye know? I hate to say this. You guys know me, you know I know us Beijing peepz are the best! But. Its gotta be said… Team Shanghai is playing a pretty mean game here. Get a kill and then Dragon and suddenly BOOM they’re 3k gold ahead!”

✹

The advantage Team Shanghai had over Shenyang University was mostly concentrated in the mid lane and Jungle. Lin Feng was on the fast track to becoming an absolute monster and An Xin’s Lee Sin was right behind him. Shenyang University responded to this by putting all their focus on the mid lane, making sure Lin Feng couldn’t pull any further ahead in terms of kills. He was allowed to farm and that was it. But they couldn’t put that same kind of pressure on An Xin. She slipped right outside the ward coverage from Shenyang University, farming Jungle camps and looking for opportunities to gank.

At 14 minutes, An Xin spotted an opening in the bot lane. She snuck into Red team’s bottom side jungle near the mid lane and said over the team’s voice chat, “Get ready. I’m coming for a gank bot.”

Team Shanghai had destroyed Shenyang University’s outer tower in the bot lane a couple of minutes earlier. Shenyang’s Jinx was currently farming minions somewhere between the ruins of her outer tower and her inner tower, while Shenyang’s Janna floated into her Jungle to drop down a couple of wards and get some more vision.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Zou Cheng cried out from the player seating area. He was jumping on his chair and said to Sun Ruinian next to him, “Look at the Lee Sin roam! It’s perfect! A perfect roam! It’s gonna be another kill! This game is over for Shenyang!”

An Xin’s Lee Sin arrived at the Gromp Camp. Directly behind it was a wall of trees and boulders and behind that was the bot lane where Shenyang’s Jinx was farming minions. An Xin rolled her shoulders once and breathed slowly. She gripped her mouse a bit harder and then her fingers started gliding across her keyboard.

Lee Sin placed a ward across the wall and hopped towards it with Safeguard! He followed up with a Sonic Wave! It was a straight line skillshot. In front of him stood a minion and behind that minion was Jinx. So he smote the minion with Smite and watched the discordant wave of sound slam into Jinx! A silver sigil appeared above her, unlocking Resonating Strike! Lee Sin activated this second part of his Q skill and dashed at Jinx! And finally he activated Dragon’s Rage and flashed behind her, roundhouse kicking her towards Zeng Rui’s Thresh who was already lining up the Death Sentence!

“Oh my god!” PufPuf shrieked into her microphone.

“Oh my fuckin’ god!” TheBrawnster added. He shook his head, incredulous. “Wow!”

PufPuf nodded and said, “This is a pretty common skill in solo queue. But to do it on the big stage? Wow!”

TheBrawnster nodded with wide open eyes and muttered, “The balls on that girl. Damn. She’s making mine feel small!”

Tang Bingyao’s Tristana Rocket Jumped on top of Shenyang’s Jinx as a fire blazed from the muzzle of her cannon. She started Rapid Firing cannonballs, tearing through Jinx’s health bar. Zeng Rui didn’t even have the time to Flay, nor did Jinx have the time to Flash before Tang Bingyao’s Tristana loaded a massive shell in her cannon and fired her Buster Shot!

《You have slain an enemy!》

Most of the people in the audience were locals. They’d applauded for Team Shanghai before, but their feeling of superiority had stopped them from cheering. That all changed now. It started with a few but soon everyone was up on their feet, throwing their arms in the air and cheering for Team Shanghai at the top of their lungs.

“WOOOOOOO!”

“THAT LEE! OMG!”

“SHE’S SOOOOOO GOOD!”

“KIIIIIIIL!”

“IT’S THE DRAGON’S RAAAAAGE!”

“MVP MATERIAL RIGHT THERE! WOOOOO!”

Zeng Rui breathed out loudly in a short burst. He turned his head to look at An Xin and said, “BunBun, what’s gotten into you? You’re on point!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and chimed in, “Mhm! That was really nice twice now!”

An Xin glanced at Zeng Rui and winked. She replied, “Thanks. Come, let’s take their Blue, it’s about to spawn. We’ll back to the fountain after that.” She then turned her head to look at Lin Feng and asked, “What about you? Got mid yet?”

“Uh-huh!” Lin Feng replied, grinning. While An Xin ganked bot, he’d kept the pressure up in mid. Shenyang’s Ziggs was refusing to fight him, which allowed him to focus his full attention on farming minions and attacking the outer tower. That outer tower was now almost destroyed. It needed just a few more hits and with no one defending it, that wouldn’t take longer than it took An Xin to kill the Blue Sentinel.

An Xin showcased a very high level of control over the game. This didn’t go unnoticed by the many people in the audience. They were all League fanatics and they could all see a great play when it presented itself. Their pretentious attitudes slipped up a bit. They forgot for a brief moment that they were superior and viewed An Xin as their equal.

“That Lee Sin is carrying so hard! I bet she could do what Atlas couldn’t!”

“I thought that Midlaner was their starplayer. He’s the one who beat Goalie, right?”

“Yeah he did. But, man, didn’t you watch that series? Go back and watch it, it was great! Anyway, that girl—the Jungler—she played mid in the third game and she smashed it!”

“Fuck yeah! Her Morgana ults were killing!”

“She’s such a good player! It’s crazy! I wish my girlfriend could play like that!”

“Maybe if you start jerking with both hands your ‘girlfriend’ can be!”

“Don’t get distracted! Stop getting distracted! Focus on this girl… The Lee! She’s a damn goddess!”

“She should become the official League Goddess!”

“Petition Riot and if they say no WE RIOT!”

✹

It was the 17th minute of the game. Team Shanghai had pulled ahead in every facet of the game and Shenyang University’s team was desperate. The Dragon spawned and that gave them an opportunity to get something back. So they ran towards it as a team, dropping wards down left and right, and hoped Team Shanghai wasn’t waiting for them there.

Team Shanghai wasn’t. Shenyang University got into the Dragon pit and engaged the Dragon. For a couple of seconds, it looked like they might even get the Dragon. But then they spotted Lee Sin walking over a ward and a blue light descended behind them, signaling the use of Maokai’s Teleport. They knew they couldn’t take the fight, even with Team Shanghai out of position. The Dragon had too much health remaining too. So they made the call to retreat, running back the way they came as quickly as they could.

“Stop them!” Zeng Rui shouted over the team’s voice chat.

“I’m trying!” Zhang Hao replied, pressing on his F key hoping that would make him Teleport faster.

There was a rare moment of panic in Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth. Zeng Rui saw a chance to end the game, but it was slipping from his control. And he dragged everyone down into his pit of worry. Until An Xin’s voice sounded over the team’s voice chat. She sounded like an angel descended from the Heavens. A goddess, even. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

An Xin’s Lee Sin arrived at the Jungle entrance through which Shenyang University was trying to escape and fired a Sonic Wave into the fog of war. It hit Gragas. “I’m going in. Follow up on me, Lin Feng,” An Xin said as she pushed down on the Q key to activate Resonating Strike.

Lin Feng grinned and replied, “Got it! You can count on me!” His Orianna was only a few steps behind An Xin’s Lee Sin. And after years of playing together, he knew exactly what she was going to do. All he had to do was make sure that his Orianna’s Ball was in the right place to hit the Command: Shockwave.

TheBrawnster grabbed his microphone from its stand and shouted into it, “TEAM SHANGHAI IS GOING FOR THE WOMBO COMBO!”

An Xin’s Lee Sin dashed at Gragas, placed a ward down behind him, hopped towards it with Safeguard and finally turned around with a roundhouse kick! Dragon’s Rage! The kick packed so much power that it lifted Gragas off his feet and sent him barreling into his teammates, knocking them up one by one!

Four players from Shenyang University were knocked up, briefly immobilized. An Xin had done her part. The next bit was up to Lin Feng. His Orianna’s Ball hovered above the ground in the middle of the four players from Shenyang University. A powerful shockwave of electromagnetic energy swept out! It washed over the four Champions and pulled them towards the epicenter! She followed up with Command: Dissonance! A second pulse of energy swept out! And for a final bout of damage Orianna cast Command: Attack!

《You have slain an enemy!》

《Double kill!》

Shenyang’s Jinx and Ziggs were dead right away, while Gragas and Darius lost most of their health. Janna was the only one still at full health, having Flashed away earlier to dodge Lee Sin’s Dragon’s Rage. But she was across a wall in the Blue Buff Camp, too far away from the fight to be of any help. The players from Team Shanghai weren’t. One by one they arrived and jumped in. Zhang Hao’s Maokai was the first in and the first out, blasted away by Gragas’ Explosive Cask. But that left Tang Bingyao’s Tristana free to jump in and fire away!

《You have slain an enemy!》

《Double kill!》

“That’s it! That’s gotta be it!” TheBrawnster shouted into his microphone. “Team Shanghai with the four kills and somehow, through all of that, Lee Sin survived! She’s the real MVP of this game!”

“Yiiiiii!” PufPuf shrieked, cheering. She turned her head to look at TheBrawnster and said, “Sexy Dragon’s Rage, sexy Ori ult and sexy Trist damage! Team Shanghai is the sexiest team of the Winter Collegiate Cup! Oh, and it’s game.”

✹

The game was over, but Team Shanghai still had to finish it out. They did that with Zeng Rui’s trademarked methodicalness. Slow and steady. They farmed minions, took down towers and played around Baron Nashor. It was only with a lead big enough where Lin Feng could practically 1 versus 5 that Zeng Rui made the call to push for Shenyang University’s Nexus. There was no contest by Shenyang University. No real one, anyway. They were simply too far behind. Their Champions fell like weeds to a weedwacker and their Nexus exploded shortly after.

VICTORY!

In Shenyang University’s soundproof booth, the team’s Midlaner shook his head and mumbled, “What a dick move. They could’ve ended it at 20 minutes but they just wouldn’t…”

Shenyang University’s Jungler shrugged and replied, “We’ve seen them do this before. Don’t mind them. Don’t let it get to your head. We need to focus on the next game. Let’s punish them for dicking around with us like this.”

“Yeah! Fuck them!” Shenyang University’s ad-carry exclaimed. He continued through gritted teeth, “Fucking low blow to draw a game out like that!”

✹

The second game was a near repeat of the first. In fact, a viewer could rewatch the first game and join any conversation about the second game. The biggest difference was that Lin Feng played Orianna, who was really just another control type mage, rather than Morgana. Everything else was the same, from getting the early lead to drawing it out to nearly 30 minutes before finally finishing the game in spectacular fashion.

This course of events didn’t go unnoticed by Fan Yuan who was the Beijing Esports Association’s vice-president. He stared at the large LCD screen with a gloomy expression and said to his team, “I expected so much better from Shenyang… They came in third last year for fucks sake! Can they really not even take a single game? How disappointing. They’re basically giving Team Shanghai a free pass to the semifinals…”

Zhang Hongyi nodded and added, “How sad.”

“Uh, guys?” Yu Ping said, turning his head to look at his teammates. He waited to get their attention and then pointed at the large LCD screen and asked, “Why’s that Midlaner playing a Control Mage all of a sudden? He only played assassins back in Guangzhou… What’s he trying to pull?”

Lin Feng’s Orianna cast Command: Dissonance! A burst of energy pulsed out from her Ball and slammed into Shenyang’s Ziggs! It dealt a ton of damage, but more importantly also applied a slow. Lin Feng followed the attack up with an Ignite on the Ziggs, its flames ticking away life as it blazed!

Zigg’s health dropped from 50% to below 20, causing Shenyang University’s Midlaner’s screen to flash red. Shenyang’s Midlaner felt his muscles tense up. He knew Orianna still had her ultimate and he knew it would kill his Ziggs. So he Flashed. His Ziggs disappeared with a mottled flash of light, and as he did Orianna’s Ball started moving too. What the… Shenyang’s Midlaner stared at his screen, dumbstruck. Orianna’s Ball moved to the precise location his mouse was hovering over.

Lin Feng activated Orianna’s ultimate skill–Command: Shockwave! A powerful shockwave of electromagnetic energy swept out! It washed over Ziggs and pulled him towards the epicenter! That was where the damage registered. It was far more than what little Ziggs had left. His body collapsed to the floor. Dead.

《First Blood!》

“Wow! That… Wow!”

“Holy cow! Did he just…?”

“These Shanghai folks are Cray cray in the head head!”

There wasn’t time to celebrate, action was still ongoing! Lin Feng’s Orianna was stuck on the Red team’s side of the lane, with Gragas blocking his path of retreat. But before Gragas could even begin to make life difficult for Lin Feng, An Xin’s Lee Sin arrived. She placed a ward down in the middle of the lane and hopped towards it, then fired a discordant wave of energy at Gragas—Sonic Wave!

Shenyang’s Jungler gritted his teeth. His Gragas was quickly losing health. He still had two abilities off cooldown, but neither was going to claim a kill before he’d die himself to the combined damage from Orianna and Lee Sin. Making him feel worse were the voices of his teammates telling him to back off, to give up on this gank. They reminded him he’d failed and that he was outplayed by Lin Feng. “Okay, okay!” he replied over the team’s voice chat, annoyed. “Look! See? I’m backing! I won’t give Ori a double kill and double buffs. Jeesh!”

PufPuf scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and said into her microphone, “What? Why isn’t Lee Sin using Resonating Strike on Gragas? They can get the double here! Get the double! Why aren’t you going in for the double!?”

“Now this. This I can believe,” TheBrawnster said into his microphone. “I’ve seen the highlights from the East China Regionals and this is exactly the type of play you’d expect from this Jungler. She looks good, good, and then she reminds you why she isn’t all that in the end. Don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty damn decent. Definitely good enough for this type of game. But when she has to play a real opponent, like a Beijing team… Man, she’s gonna have it rough.”

✹

A minute went by in which not much happened. Shenyang University started playing more defensively, with their laners playing in reach of their outer towers and their Jungler farming his camps, in response to the losing first blood. Team Shanghai tried to break Shenyang University’s defensive formation, prowling for opportunities. And it was in the 8th minute of the game that An Xin found one.

TheBrawnster scratched his neck and said into his microphone, “Uh? Lee is ganking bot I guess? Yo, what’s she seein’ there? The minion wave is pushed way up towards Shenyang’s side of the lane. She’ll need a crazy good Thresh hook if she wants to get anything there. I’d bet she’d get more from just farming camps like the Gragas is doing.”

An Xin pinged on Shenyang’s Jinx and said over the team’s voice chat, “Flay Janna. Let’s see what we can get there.”

“On it,” Zeng Rui replied. He pushed through the Blue and Red minions towards Janna, ignoring the damage from Jinx’s semi-automatic machine guns. He followed up by whipping his chain and scythe backwards with Flay, knocking Janna up and towards him!

Zeng Rui’s movements sent a clear message that An Xin’s Lee Sin was coming for a gank. Shenyang University’s Botlaners didn’t want to be in the lane when that happened. Jinx flashed towards her outer tower and arrived within its range, while Janna cast Howling Gale! A small storm started brewing at the base of her staff and quickly gained in power before it erupted into a tornado! It carved a path through the map, knocking Thresh and Tristana up into the air! She then turned around and floated towards her outer tower!

PufPuf clutched the microphone tightly in her hand and shrieked, “SO NICE! A crucial Janna Q to stop the gank! Lee’s is Leeseless now! Haha!”

An Xin’s Lee Sin rushed out from the river brush and fired a Sonic Wave at Janna! Resonating Strike unlocked, allowing her to dash at Janna. But An Xin waited for a brief moment, smiling. Put down your Chompers! Throw them down!

Shenyang’s Jinx did exactly what An Xin wanted her to do, she threw down Jinx’s Flame Chompers in front of Janna. If An Xin tried to dash through them, she’d get caught by them. Her Lee Sin would get stunned and from there it wouldn’t take Shenyang University much effort to kill her. But An Xin knew all of this. She smiled brighter as she placed down a ward next to the Flame Chompers, hopped to it with Safeguard and then activated Resonating Strike. Her Lee Sin dashed at Janna who was now near Jinx! She then flashed past Jinx and activated Dragon’s Rage! Lee Sin struck Jinx with a roundhouse kick, kicking her off her feet and sending her flying through Janna and towards Zeng Rui’s Thresh!

Zeng Rui’s mouth fell open. “Wow!” he exclaimed, watching Jinx flying straight at him. “Oh, right,” he added, his pinky finger pushing on the Q key. His Thresh swung his scythe ‘round and ‘round, charging it up, before hurling it at Jinx and catching her mid air! Zeng Rui followed up with Ignite, summoning the unquenchable flames to drain away Jinx’s health!

“Tang Tang!” An Xin said shortly over the team’s voice chat.

Tang Bingyao nodded and replied, “Mhm!” She had her Tristana activate Rapid Fire, the muzzle of her cannon erupting into flames to boost her attack speed, and Rocket Jumped on top of Jinx! She then started firing away. Cannonball after cannonball slammed into Jinx and knocked the health right out of her!

《You have slain an enemy!》

TheBrawnster stared at his screen with wide open eyes. It wasn’t until Janna had Flashed away and the trio from Team Shanghai started attacking the outer tower that he finally grabbed his microphone and said, “Wow. Just… Wow! I was wrong. That simple. I ain’t no prophet and this sure as hell proved that. What a play, my fuckin’ god! Those Lee mechanics? Dash-Q’ing like that? Shite! That was pretty damn sick. And yo, what’s even sicker is how it all looked like one fluid motion! She never even really reached the ward! She was already flying at Janna before the hop finished!”

“Like she curved her dash or something! Like in that movie with the curving bullets, right? Right?” PufPuf interjected, excited. She leaned closer towards the screen and continued, “That girl can play! She makes me wanna main Jungle!”

The audience got up on their feet for the first time this series and applauded Team Shanghai’s play in the bot lane, half-heartedly. They were still convinced that Beijing was superior to Shanghai in every sense of the word, but they also had to admit that An Xin’s Lee Sin was second best after them.

Sun Ruinian looked over his shoulder at the audience’s response and grinned, bitter. He then turned his attention to the various teams in the player seating area watching the large LCD screen. They were all staring, different versions of shock on their faces. He nodded, grimacing, and said, “There’s something about that team. I don’t know what it is; Shi Hang probably does. But there’s something about them… Every time we play them and every time we watch them play, they’re better. Better, better, better… Every single time. I don’t see how we’re supposed to beat them. Let’s just hope we don’t have to go up against them, I guess…”

The two shoutcasters for the Team Shanghai versus Shenyang University match sat on a raised platform next to the stage. They had a great view into the soundproof booths of both teams, but they were really only staring at Team Shanghai. More specifically, they were looking at Tang Bingyao and An Xin.

“Can’t believe it. Just can’t,” said the male caster into his microphone. “I’ve seen the East China Regionals highlights. I’ve watched the main event in Guangzhou. I know Team Shanghai has girls on their team. And I know they’re a good team. But… They’ve got girls on their team, yo.”

The female caster giggled and said, “Maybe if I’d tried a bit harder at becoming better at League, I’d be sitting there now!”

“Got that right, PufPuf,” the male caster replied, laughing. He then focused on the large LCD screen above the stage and continued, “But let’s focus on the game. Both teams banned some Champions… Looks like Shenyang is trying to ban all of Team Shanghai’s Midlaner’s Champions… Both teams picked pretty normal Champs… Really nothing special.”

PufPuf scratched her eyebrow and said, “Team Shanghai’s Midlaner playing a control mage is pretty off. We usually see him on an assassin. And then their Jungler got Lee again. She seems to really like her Lee. What do you think, TheBrawnster?”

TheBrawnster snorted and replied, “Half the time the opponent loves it when she picks Lee too.” He briefly paused, grinning as the audience responded to his quip with loud laughter. Everyone has seen the highlights of her failures. It’s a hit on Baidu! He then continued, “I don’t get it though. Why does she keep insisting on picking Lee? What’s so special about him? What’s he bringing that she can’t get from another Champ, preferably one she’s actually good at!?”

“Wish I knew. Wish I knew…” PufPuf replied with a sigh. “But it’s crazy they got this far while that Lee just keeps failing.”

“Well, worst case…” TheBrawnster started. He then paused, waiting for the response from the audience before adding, “Worst case we get to see a really hot girl failing spectacularly at a Champion. That ain’t too bad, am I right? I am, yeah!”

A second wave of laughter rolled through the audience. Most of the people in the stadium were Beijing natives, and they were proud of that fact. It wasn’t to the extent of arrogance, but they did feel a certain superiority over the rest of China. And when someone tried to challenge them on that, they would argue that Shanghai might be the so-called esports capital of the world and that Guangzhou might be massive in the esports world, but that the Chinese Esports Association still chose to locate its headquarters in Beijing. Because Beijing was the best. But Team Shanghai couldn’t hear this argument, and so the audience couldn’t explain this to them. That left them with only one other course of action and that was to make fun of Team Shanghai.

“We’ve got two teams in the quarters! What do they have?”

“Fudan, Zhejiang and them so that’s…”

“Fudan and Zhejiang don’t count. They suck and will be out this round 100%!”

“They’re just like the other Shanghai teams, all just relying on luck! They ain’t got no skill!”

“Lel! How can ye be good with two grils on the team? SCRUUUUBS!”

“Time to watch some tits jiggle!”“JIGGLE THEM TITS FOR US!”

“We ain’t gonna get a good game with two shitty teams, so give us some entertainment!”

✹

Collegiate Cup Quarterfinals

Team Shanghai (Blue) vs. Shenyang University (Red)

Top: Maokai vs. Darius

Jungle: Lee Sin vs. Gragas

Mid: Orianna vs. Ziggs

Ad-Carry: Tristana vs. Jinx

Support: Thresh vs. Janna

《Welcome to Summoner’s Rift!》

The first game in this best of five series started. The casters were hyping everyone up and the audience was responding to them with loud cheers and screams. But the game didn’t get off to a hot, fiery start. There were no big early invades or flashy engagements. Both teams played it safe. They placed defensive wards along the river to protect themselves from an invade and then waited behind the protection of their defensive structures.

Minions spawned and marched down the lanes. They clashed against their counterparts halfway towards the opponent’s base. And the Champions from Team Shanghai and Shenyang University walked up to get the last hits on the minions. There was a silence that felt oppressing. Like the calm before a storm. The audience stared at the minimap, waited for the Junglers to make their first move.

That first move happened in the 4th minute of the game. Shenyang University’s Gragas had cleared his Blue Buff Camp, followed by the Red Buff Camp and now snuck into the brush right below the top lane. He waited for a couple of seconds, allowing Zhang Hao’s Maokai to push forward a bit more, and then he Body Slammed into the lane! 

Zhang Hao’s Maokai looked completely out of position. Shenyang University’s Darius pulled Maokai towards him with Apprehend and together with Gragas started attacking him. But An Xin’s Lee Sin arrived for a countergank. She dashed in with a Sonic Wave into Resonating Strike and then slammed her fist down on the ground to Cripple Darius and Gragas!

“Oh shit! Look at that!” TheBrawnster shouted into his microphone. “Lee with the counter! They’re getting Darius low fas— Flash! Darius had to Flash away!”

“And it’s not over!” PufPuf shrieked. She pulled her microphone a bit closer and continued, “Gragas is still on Maokai! Look at that healthbar! It’s dropping, dropping, dro— FLASH! ANOTHER FLASH! This time it’s Maokai! It’s a Flash for a Flash!”

“Pfooh!” TheBrawnster said. He shook his head and added, “What a fight! What a treat! More of that, please! No kills but plenty of action!”

The action stayed with that one gank to the disappointment of the audience. Lin Feng’s Orianna in the mid lane had a battle for the highest creep score with Shenyang’s Ziggs, neither side showing much interest in each other. And down in bot lane there was a back and forth with no real winner. Tristana and Thresh were weaker in the early game, but held the defensive edge which was enough to keep the lane even.

“YAWN! Action please! ACTION!”

“Why did I get up for this? 5 minutes in and still no kills! Fucking shit players!”

“We need a Beijing team to show them how a real team plays!”

“U-Tech’s game earlier was far more exciting! Why can’t we have another series like that?”

“Pfffff… BORING!”

“So sleepy… Someone get me some coffee. A cold venti.”

The players from Team Beijing sat in the player seating area right below the stage, watching the game. They weren’t trying to convince whoever would listen of their superiority; they were watching the game with their full attention. This to the great relief of their manager. He looked at them rather than at the game and smiled. It took me some time, but fortunately they see it now. Team Shanghai is a real opponent. We need to prepare for the eventuality that we have to play against them. And then we can show that we’re superior!

Zhang Hongyi glared at the large LCD screen. His hatred for Zeng Rui tried to consume him, but he didn’t let it get that far. Instead, he used it to fuel himself. He forced it to help him focus as he watched every minute movement and prepared himself for the possibility of playing against Team Shanghai. Fucking Zeng Rui and his stupid ass team! I’ll kick you all down to where you belong! Screw you especially, Zeng “Stupid” Rui!

Next to hatred sat the competitive spirit. Yu Ping breathed slowly and watched the game through narrowed eyes. From time to time he glanced down at Team Shanghai’s soundproof booth, observing Lin Feng. His stomach leaped. He picked Flash and Ignite. You only pick Flash and Ignite when you want to make the plays. He’s going to make the plays on… Orianna. She’s a control mage. How is he going to force a play?

✹

Lin Feng briefly closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, they were focused. The game was 6 minutes in and he was one minion from hitting Level 6. He glanced at the creep score and saw he was 10 ahead. More importantly, he’d also used Orianna’s Ball to deal a bit of damage to Ziggs whenever possible. He’s down to half, we’re both hitting 6 in the next few minions and he isn’t backing… They’re gonna be ganking. Just Gragas. The others are in their lanes. I can take that! He grinned as he placed his index finger over the D key and lightly pushed down, patient.

TheBrawnster grabbed his microphone and said, “Ziggs is in real danger now! Ori is hitting— Has hit Level 6! She just needs to ult him and then throw the Ignite down and it’s a solo kill! Just think of how embarrassing that’d be!”

“WaitWaitWait!” PufPuf shrieked, pointing at the minimap. “Look! Gragas is coming! Ziggs is just staying there to bait Ori! They’re gonna gank and kill her! Shenyang University with the perfect bait!”

Shenyang University’s Gragas snuck into the brush right above the mid lane. He ran to the side closest to the Blue Team’s outer tower and then pinged on Lin Feng’s Orianna. Ziggs ran forward and he did too. He ran out from the brush, covering a short distance before activating Body Slam! Gragas threw himself forward! A mottled flash of light fell over him and carried him and his momentum towards Lin Feng’s Orianna!

“E-FLASH! E-FLASH!” TheBrawnster shouted.

Lin Feng breathed out, grinning. He watched it play out precisely as he’d expected. The gank came. Ziggs ran forward, away from Red Team’s tower, and threw a Hexplosive minefield at him while Gragas tried to immobilize him with a Body Slam. And now we Flash. He pressed down on his keyboard. A veil of light fell over his Orianna and whisked her away right when she would’ve been hit by the combination of spells. The briefest moment of silence followed. Tension. Waiting to see where she was going. Then she was dropped back on the map. Right on top of Ziggs.

The casters, streamviewers and people in the audience couldn’t believe their eyes. They were all waiting to see where Lin Feng was going to escape too. But he wasn’t retreating; he was pressing forward. Ever onwards. Most people didn’t know how to react, but Su Xue did. All the way back in Shanghai, she was streaming the game and casting it for her viewers. She clenched her fist and made Lin Feng’s trademark victory pose before shouting, “HOLY SHIT! HE’S PULLING A WIN FENG! HE’S PULLING A WIN FENG!”

Chu Fang shook his head and said, “Fuck me.”

Lin Feng looked up from his laptop and asked, “Hmm?”

“This game. The one you’re playing,” Chu Fang explained, nodding at the laptop. “You’re carrying hard in Korean Challenger and then you get matched with… whatever that ad-carry is.”

Lin Feng shrugged and replied, “Can’t win them all. Two wins and a loss isn’t half bad. Just a shame that I’ll lose so much LP from one loss. That’s going to take another game to make up for…”

Chu Fang watched Lin Feng. How he sat up straight in his chair, his shoulders engaged and his hands moving smoothly. How he licked his lip a bit early in the laning phase and how he scrunched his eyebrows when this last game moved to the teamfight stage. How his breathing remained calm and even, even when his teammates screwed up and lost him the game. This is the staple of Maple. He’s all fun and games until it gets serious. The first two games he was still laughing, but this last one… This was Maple, even if he did lose. He can do it. He’ll make the top 5! And when he does… Life’s gonna be good! He grinned and glanced at his watch. His eyes then grew wide. “Shit!” he exclaimed. “Lin Feng, end the game. It’s over anyway. We need to go! It’s almost 5!”

“Oh?” Lin Feng replied, looking up at Chu Fang again.

“I’ll call BunBun and the others,” Chu Fang said, pulling out his phone and stabbing his finger at the touchscreen. He glanced at Lin Feng and added, “Just surrender and put your laptop away. We’re leaving in 30 seconds!”

✹

The Beijing Esports Association had made an attempt to replicate the grand scene from Guangzhou. But they didn’t have the location. The Chaoyang Sports Centre that they eventually went with was similar in size to the Tianhe Stadium, but it lacked in capacity and aesthetics. But to the players from Team Shanghai, it was still a stunning sight. The soundproof booths in which they were going to play were of the highest quality, with top of the line computers and gaming chairs.

“So cool!” Zhang Hao exclaimed.

“I know right!?” Lin Feng chimed in. He looked around and continued, “Look at all those people running around just so we can play our game! They’re all working for us basically!”

An Xin glanced at Lin Feng and narrowed her eyes, her lips curving up. She asked, “Working for us? Are you going to ask them to bring you foo—”

“Great idea!” Lin Feng replied, grinning.

“Idiot,” An Xin said. She then turned her head to look at Chu Fang and asked, “Everyone here is working for the Beijing Esports Association?”

Chu Fang nodded and explained, “Correct. The Collegiate Cup, like the Shanghai 16 School Tournament, is a tournament organized by the Chinese Esports Association. The Guangzhou branch took care of the phase in Guangzhou and Beijing is now in charge for the final stage of the tournament here. And we were responsible for the East China Regionals. It’s always like this.”

“OhOhOh!” Zhang Hao interjected, putting his hand up. He waited for everyone to look at him and then continued, “I heard— read that the Beijing Esports Association is also giving the trophee! Their boss is, I mean! He’s like the biggest big shot in the Chinese Esports Association people are saying on the interwebs! He’s going to come and give us the trophy when we win!”

Lin Feng stopped, his feet locked to the ground and his eyes growing round and wide. Tang Bingyao bumped into him from behind, but he didn’t notice it. He slowly turned his head to look at Zhang Hao and opened his mouth, the words on the tip of his tongue, when Tang Bingyao groaned and asked, “Why did you stop?”

“Eh, oh…” Lin Feng scratched the back of his head, laughing awkwardly. He looked around at his teammates and pursed his lips together. I’ll just not say it! That’s the easier way! BunBun also likes to keep secrets, and if she does, I should too! He grinned in his usual cheerful way and said, “My leg felt a little numb, so I tried to shake it out by standing still! Sorry! Big woops!”

“Hmm?” Tang Bingyao mumbled, raising an eyebrow in confusion. He’s only ever like this when… She chewed on her lips and tilted her head. He isn’t hiding something again, is he? Mnh-mnh! He wouldn’t! …Would he? She narrowed her eyes and searched Lin Feng’s demeanor for an explanation, but the moment was gone. He was his normal self again. I’ll have to keep an eye on this… Mhm!

Chu Fang sighed loudly and lectured, “Dammit, Lin Feng! I told you to take a nap! But you sat in that uncomfortable chair all afternoon playing League! It’s no surprise your leg is numb! Is your back hurting too? Do we need to hire a chiropractor to crack your back?”

“N-no-No-Nooo,” Lin Feng replied, shaking his head. “No cracking my back! I still need to play League!”

“You’ll go to bed early and sleep it off then?” Chu Fang continued.

Lin Feng nodded confidently and patted his chest. He replied, “Scout’s honour!”

An Xin watched it all play out quietly from the sidelines. She shook her head and mumbled almost imperceptibly, “Idiot.” She then took a long, deep breath. They don’t know what’s bothering you. But I’m not them. You’re not hiding it from me, Lin Feng. I know how you feel. How you really feel.

✹

The Beijing Esports Association hadn’t prepared the draw for the quarterfinals yet. So after registering, Team Shanghai left the venue and wandered through the streets of Beijing. They eventually stopped in front of what looked like a back alley. Lin Feng pointed inside and told them there was a really good restaurant just hiding around the corner. He got a couple of worried looks, but everyone followed him. What they found was a patio with a half dozen tables and some of the best food they’d eaten to date.

With full stomachs, Team Shanghai left the small restaurant and went in search of an internet cafe to practice. Zhang Hao asked if they were going to scrim against Zhejiang University again, but Zeng Rui explained that since the odds were high they had to play Zhejiang University, it was better not to practice against them. An Xin chimed in that they had to keep a couple of aces up their sleeves.

Team Shanghai found an internet cafe with a free private room and started their practice. They logged into their League accounts and then turned to An Xin, waiting for her speech. She gave a couple of ideas she wanted to try out, followed by some personal tips. They then started their first game of the night, during which Zeng Rui took the reins and told the team how he wanted them to play. A second game followed soon after. And it was during this second game that Chu Fang received the message they’d all been waiting for.

Chu Fang showed his phone to the others and said, “Look! We know who we gotta play against!”

“Already?” Lin Feng asked, turning his head away from the game he was playing. He continued, “That was quick! Who are we playing? WhoWhoWho?”

“Not the worst draw…” Chu Fang mumbled. He took a deep breath and then said, “Our opponents are the runners-up from the previous edition—”

“Shenyang University,” Zeng Rui interrupted.

Chu Fang nodded and said, “It’s not too bad, really. They’re strong no doubt, but at the same time they’re no Team Beijing or U-Tech Beijing. This is pretty much the best average scenario for us.”

“What are you guys bitching about?” Lin Feng asked, confused. He looked at the pensive expressions of Chu Fang and Zeng Rui and then said, “Who cares about some second rate team? We’re playing for the championship title. If we start worrying about this shitty team, then why are we even here!? I say we stop worrying and start stomping!”

An Xin giggled behind her hand and said a moment later, “Lin Feng is right, you know? We stomped Team Guangzhou and Shenyang University is only a bit worse than them. So we should just stomp them too!”

“Of course we’re going to stomp them,” Zeng Rui said. He took a deep, long breath and massaged his temples before adding, “But we need to practice and be prepared to stomp them. Just saying it won’t make it happen. So how about we stop chatting and start focusing on the game we’re playing right now!? They’re in our base because we’ve been sitting in the fountain!”

✹

It was the 28th day of the year. A Thursday. Su Xue woke up to her alarm buzzing. She opened her eyes, drowsy and looked at the time. 8 A.M. Why did I… Why am I getting up at 8? Oh! Right! SHIT! She jumped from her bed and ran to the bathroom, rambling, “Brush my teeth under shower. A bit of soap. Some quick makeup. Nothing fancy. Quick bite to eat. Just a sandwich. ShitShitShit! Where’s my phone? Did the game start yet? Did it start. Shower first. First a shower, Su Xue.”

Su Xue had her toothbrush in her mouth and the shower was heating up. She threw her pyjamas on the floor and took one step into the shower cabine when she paused. Do I…? Yeah I do. She got out again and hurried through the apartment to get her phone. On the way back to the bathroom, she searched for a stream of the Winter Collegiate Cup and finally confirmed Lin Feng wasn’t playing yet. U-Tech Beijing was playing against Wuhan University, and they were 2-1 up.

Soap and toothpaste washed down the drain as Su Xue jumped out of the shower cabine. She grabbed a towel and, still wet, ran through the apartment to her bedroom to search for her clothes. Loud cheers sounded behind her and she knew U-Tech Beijing had just won their series. Lin Feng was up next. She still had to have breakfast, get dressed, open her stream… “Shit! I’m never going to make it!” she complained. She then chewed on her lips, hesitating briefly, before running back to the bathroom to grab her phone and order some chicken cutlet. Lin Feng lives on this stuff, so it can’t be too bad, right?

Su Xue finally sat down behind her computer, dressed and with a chicken cutlet, steam twisting and twirling up. She turned her stream on and announced on her various social media she was live. Viewers started streaming in, from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands. When there were more than 40,000 with her, she clenched her fists and shouted, “GO LIN FENG! TO THE FINALS! WOOOOOOO!”

「AYYYYY LIL BRO FOR THE CARRY!」

「SHOW US THE WIN FENG LIN FENG!!!!」

「sooooo excited! I never get up before noon, but TODAY I DID!!!!」

「this gonna be liiiiiiiit!!」

「POGGERS」

「gunna be a 3-0  stomp. Who wanna bet me? I do $10k on WIIIIIIIN FENG AND THE GANG!!!」

“Shut up, shut up! It’s starting!” Su Xue said to the camera.

Lin Feng, Shi Hang, and Tian Tian got to the NetCow Cafe. Lin Feng led them inside and to the private room reserved by Team Shanghai. He banged on the door a couple of times before opening it and barging in, “Hey guys! Look who I brought back here!” 

Lin Feng walked in first as the rest of Team Shanghai stopped what they were doing and looked at the door. Shi Hang followed Lin Feng in. The team looked mildly surprised, but they already knew Shi Hang from the East China Regionals. Shi Hang casually waved at them in greeting and then moved further into the room. Then Tian Tian squeezed into the room and looked at the rest of Team Shanghai nervously. He put up his hand, a bit awkward, and said, “H-hey.”

Zhang Hao’s eyes grew round and wide. He stared at Tian Tian and stammered, “Go-God-Goo-Goddd-Go—”

“Hey Fatty,” An Xin said, smiling. She got up from her chair and threw her arms around him, pulling him close for a hug. She continued, “Long time no see. How’ve you been?”

“B-bunBun!” Fatty replied as An Xin hugged him. The pressure and reassurance of the hug released some of the tension in his body and a little of his anxiety. “It has been forever since we last saw each other! I’m good! H-how are you?”

“She’s good too!” Lin Feng interrupted. He then looked at the others in the room. At Zhang Hao still stammering in shock, at Zeng Rui slowly shaking his head and mumbling something incomprehensible and at Tang Bingyao who was looking back at him with her head slightly tilted. He grinned and said, “Guys, meet Fatty! He was my Toplaner way back in Season 1! We played at Worlds together! Oh! We watched him play at Worlds with KG a couple of months ago! He looks just the same in real life as he does on camera, don’t you think!?”

Zeng Rui looked up at Lin Feng and scrunched his eyebrows. Fatty? Did he just call God Roundy… Of course he did. Thundering dumbass. He shook his head and chuckled at the strangeness of it all before turning to look at Tian Tian and saying, “It’s an honour to meet you, Tian Tian. I still remember that Hecarim five man ult you pulled off at Worlds. That was… That was immense.”

“T-thanks!” Tian Tian replied, smiling meekly. “Oh, but you can call me Fatty. You’re Lin Feng’s friend and Lin Feng’s friend is my friend!”

Tang Bingyao nodded in understanding and said, “Hi Fatty! It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Zhang Hao heard a ringing in his ears, deaf to the conversation going on around him. He stared at Tian Tian, his throat dry and his heart slamming into his ribcage. T-t-that’s God Roundy! GOD ROUNDY! GOD ROUNDY IS IN THIS ROOM! HE SAID HI TO ME! I’M IN THE SAME ROOM AS GOD ROUNDY!

An Xin looked over her shoulder at Zhang Hao and said, “Hey, Zhang Hao, you still with us? I think Fatty might be here to help you out a bit.” She turned her head to look at Lin Feng and asked, “Right?”

“Yep!” Lin Feng replied. He put a hand on Tian Tian’s shoulder and explained, “So listen… Fatty over here doesn’t have to practice with his team tonight. Which gave me a brilliant idea! I brought him over here so he could coach HaoBro for a bit. Throw out some tips and pearls of wisdom. With a little bit of training from Fatty, HaoBro’s going to get so much stronger! Our team is going to level up, and it’s going to be easy when we’re up against Team Beijing!”

Zhang Hao pointed at himself and stammered, “M-m-me? He came here… to help me? God Roundy is here… for me?”

Tian Tian nodded and said, “Y-yeah. I heard you could use some help.”

Zhang Hao started smiling, brighter and brighter. He asked again, “Me?” And when Tian Tian nodded again, he started laughing. He got up from his gaming chair, ignoring his trembling legs as he walked up to Tian Tian and shook his hand. He continued, “Thanks… Thank you! Thank you! I’d love that! I can’t even believe this is happening! I’m getting a personal coaching session from God Roundy! Oh my god! You’re God Roundy! God Roundy! You don’t know this but I’ve watched all your videos! You’re the reason I started playing top lane! The way you play it’s just… Oh my god! I can’t believe you’re really here! To help me!”

Shi Hang nudged Lin Feng, winked and said, “Think you might have some competition there.” Before Lin Feng could argue with him about that, he added, “Anyway, what about me? Fatty’s here for HaoBro, who am I here for?”

“Oh, you?” Lin Feng asked, rubbing his chin in careful consideration. He then grinned and said, “You can’t really help me, but… What about bot? You used to ad-carry! Help Tang Tang and ZengZeng out while they play in bot lane! They can learn a ton from you!”

Shi Hang clicked his tongue and complained, “Man, I’m a mid main now. Didn’t you hear that I quit playing ad-carry ages ago?”

“Oh, I remember,” Lin Feng replied, laughing. “I’d never forget the games that made that happen!”

“Hey!” Shi Hang exclaimed. “Rude!” He then chuckled and added, “Yeah, I won’t be much help teaching you how to play mid. I’ll see if I can help Tang Tang and the Support out in bot.”

“Zeng Rui,” Zeng Rui introduced himself, sticking out his hand. “Thanks for helping us.”

✹

The private room at the NetCow Cafe had five computers placed against the wall. Team Shanghai took place behind their computers, just like they would in a tournament game. Zhang Hao sat to the far right, next to him sat An Xin, then Lin Feng and finally Tang Bingyao and Zeng Rui. Tian Tian got a chair and sat down behind Zhang Hao, while Shi Hang pulled up a chair between Tang Bingyao and Zeng Rui. When everyone was in position, Lin Feng pumped his fist into the air and shouted, “IT’S TIME TO D-D-D-DUEL!”

Team Shanghai got into their first game. Lin Feng and An Xin played their usual game, strong and confident. Then there were Tang Bingyao and Zeng Rui. Shi Hang was pointing things out to them, giving tips and sharing everything he knew about the bot lane. It gave them a massive boost of self confidence while also increasing both their personal skill levels and their bot lane synergy. And finally there was Zhang Hao. He was a nervous wreck. His body was tense and his gameplay was disastrous.

“I-I’m sorry, God Roundy!” Zhang Hao apologised. He shook his head and continued, “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not usually this bad! Well, I’m not good either. I’m not saying I’m good like you are! I’m just… I’m usually not this bad! I can play decently! I even got to Master on the Ionia server! But it’s really hard and, and…” His breathing turned into hyperventilating and his vision started spinning.

Tian Tian looked at Zhang Hao and noticed how stressed he was. The nerves were eating away at HaoBro. Tian Tian knew exactly how it felt. Because he had to fight through that same gnawing anxiety all the time. He then glanced at Lin Feng and felt a calmness wash over him when he breathed out. I was freaking out at Worlds, and then Lin Feng called. He told me everything would be alright, and it really was! Just hearing his voice… Hearing someone say they believe in me… He breathed in and said on the exhale, “I-it’s okay. You’re more like me than you think. I also stress a lot. L-Lin Feng knows. Back at Worlds, I almost missed a game because I was stressing so much. Just try and calm down…” He glanced at Lin Feng before adding, “A-and I believe in you, HaoBro!”

Zhang Hao’s hands stopped moving. He turned his head around and looked at Tian Tian, searching for something and finding it in a nod from Tian Tian. I never thought pros get nervous… They always play so well! But if even he gets nervous… He said he almost missed a game! His vision stopped spinning and he got a hold of his breathing again, though they still came in short and fast bursts. He finally said, “Thanks. I needed to hear that.”

The game was almost over by the time Zhang Hao found his confidence. But he carried that newfound confidence over into the next game. He started playing at the level he knew he could play at, and then began improving, putting to practice every bit of information Tian Tian gave him. And by the time Team Shanghai got into their third game, he even started asking Tian Tian questions, actively looking for the help he was being offered.

✹

The impromptu coaching session came to an end at 10 P.M. Tian Tian and Shi Hang both had early training sessions the next morning, so they wanted to sleep at reasonable hours. Zhang Hao thanked Tian Tian a thousand times over until Lin Feng closed the door to the private room behind him, leaving with the two active professional players. 

Zhang Hao turned to look at his other teammates and said, “Can you guys believe that? I just got coaching from God Roundy!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and added, “Mhm! And we from AyDeeCee!”

Outside the NetCow Cafe, Lin Feng waved Tian Tian goodnight as he drove off in a cab. Shi Hang walked up from behind him, having just bought a new pack of cigarettes. He lit one up and said to Lin Feng, “Man, you really know how to find them. That Tang Tang girl really is something. Her reflexes and mechanics are really good, even for LPL standards!”

“I know right!?” Lin Feng exclaimed, grinning. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it the first time either!”

Shi Hang nodded and said, “At this speed, it won’t be long til you make it to the LPL.”

“Yeah, but that’s for later. I’ve got a couple of things I need to do first,” Lin Feng replied. He glanced at Shi Hang and continued, “I need to win the Collegiate Cup, cause I don’t wanna poop on your legacy… Heh! And then I also need to climb to the top of the Korean Challenger ladder… before the start of Season 6.”

“The top of the Korean Challenger ladder? What?” Shi Hang blurted in surprise. “By the start of Season 6? Hasn’t Season 6 already more-or-less started? The ladder hasn’t been reset yet, but the season rewards have been given out already. Why would you still care about your rank?”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and explained, “I don’t really care about end of the season rewards. It’s just that I promised One that I’d climb to the top of the Korean Challenger ladder. I want to keep that promise, but I’ve only got like a week left and I also need to practice for the Win—”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on!” Shi Hang interrupted. He grabbed Lin Feng by his shoulder and stared straight at him. He then asked, “One? The One?”

“Yeah?” Lin Feng said, confused.

“You’re climbing the Korean ladder for One?” Shi Hang asked. He felt his heart rate going up and butterflies swimming around in his stomach. One! The most legendary player ever! Shit, I wish I was so close to him… The things I could learn from him. If I can be half the player he was one day… He shook his head, stunned.

Lin Feng shrugged, wryly, and said, “One gave me a Korean Challenger account and told me to climb. He told me to get into the Top 5. I was going to show him I could make it to the Top 3! But I just don’t have enough time! With my exams and the Winter Collegiate Cup… It’s just really hard to find time for everything!”

Shi Hang breathed in long and deep. He then sighed loudly and said, “Top 5? Jesus. That’s a you and One kinda thing. Only you two can make those crazy things happen.” He briefly paused, shaking his head repeatedly, before asking, “Where are you at now?”

“Not even in the Top 30… Still a few places off,” Lin Feng replied. “It’s those stupid exams! Without the—”

“Top 30?” Shi Hang interrupted, gasping. He jabbed his forehead with his finger and said, “You’re nuts. Both of you are! Top 30 is insane enough already and you’re still not satisfied! You two are both monsters! Still… You’re right. It’s going to be really hard to hit the Top 5 before the ladder resets. You basically need to stomp OGN pros every game.”

Lin Feng nodded, prowling, and replied, “Yeah. That.”

Shi Hang noticed the drop in Lin Feng’s demeanor, from his usual smile disappearing from his face to his shoulders slumping by his side. He hurriedly said, “But I’m sure you can do it! One wouldn’t give you an impossible task. I’m sure he believes in you, and if anyone can do it, it’s definitely you.”

Lin Feng nodded and replied, “I know!” His shoulders rose up again and his usual grin appeared back on his face. He pumped his fist in the air and proclaimed, “I’ma win the Collegiate Cup and get to the Top 5 on the Korean Ladder! Just watch me!” He then scrunched his eyebrows and asked, “I watched a bit from the LPL the other day, with Team Rapids playing… Why weren’t you playing?”

Shi Hang shrugged and explained, “I’m still new to the team. We’re still working on meshing me in with the others. Don’t worry. I’ll get my shot and I’ll make sure I won’t need a second shot. I’ll claim the starting position in no time. Actually, with a bit of luck, I might already get to play in our next game against KG.”

Lin Feng laughed and replied, “I’d love to see that!”

“I bet,” Shi Hang said. “You better be cheering for me though. I’ll make sure to put on a show!”

✹

Team Shanghai met up with Chu Fang the next day at Pudong Airport. They got a flight to Beijing at 9 A.M. and safely landed two hours later. Lin Feng pulled a brand new list of restaurants from his pocket and showed it to everyone, explaining which restaurants they had to check out and which one he wanted to start with right away. They went there for an early lunch, much to Lin Feng’s delight. After which they walked to the hotel, where they checked in and retreated to their rooms. 

“Be back here at 5 P.M.” Chu Fang reminded everyone as he saw the doors to the different rooms close. He then shook his head and mumbled, “Kids these days really should work on a healthier sleeping schedule. Talking about…” He turned his head around and looked into the room he was sharing with Lin Feng. Lin Feng was sitting behind a desk with his laptop open. Chu Fang squinted his eyes and asked, “Are you in Champion Select already? When… Why… Are you not tired?”

“No time,” Lin Feng replied.

Chu Fang walked over and looked at the screen. He asked, “Playing on the Korean server again?”

Lin Feng nodded and explained, “Yes. I’m so close but there’s no time left! I need to play every second that I can!”

Chu Fang shook his head and said, “I still can’t believe it… Top 5 Korean Challenger. Only One would ask something so absurd. Anyway, what rank are you at now?”

“34,” Lin Feng replied.

“34?” Chu Fang muttered, shocked. His eyes grew round and wind and he covered his mouth with his hands. What the hell! He was like Top 100 back in Guangzhou! How did he get so high up!? He had exams! How did he even find the time to play at all! Shit… Shit! He might actually do it! He might actually reach the Top 5! He’d be the first Chinese player to ever do that. He’d be right up there with Rake… Oh my god, I can already imagine the waves that’s gonna cause! Every team is going to try and figure out who he is, and when they do… He chuckled. Everyone will know, soon enough.

Su Xue stretched out in her chair and yawned loudly. She could hear Lin Feng running around the apartment looking for his things and getting ready. And just when it looked like he had everything, he double checked his bag and thought of something he’d forgotten. Another round of running followed, until he stood with his bag in front of her and said, “I’m out! See ya!”

“Face mask?” Su Xue asked.

Lin Feng halted. He bit on his lips and tapped his chin, then slapped himself in the face and put his bag down again. “Woops!” he said before running to his bedroom again and getting his facemask. When he got back, he looked at Su Xue and said, “I’m out! See ya for real this time!”

“Keys?” Su Xue asked.

Lin Feng’s eyes grew round and wide. “Uhhh,” he stammered, scratching the back of his head. “Guess I can’t forget those… heh, heh.” He felt around in his pockets, then ran back to his bedroom and threw it upside down in search of his keys.

“Lin Feng?” Su Xue loudly said through the apartment. She waited for his head to pop around the door, then pointed at the fruit bowl on the table and said, “I think you threw them in there a while back.”

“Of course! That’s where I left them! I completely forgot!” Lin Feng exclaimed. He grabbed his keys and before turning to look at Su Xue. He grinned and said, “Thanks! I’m out for reals this time! See ya!” And then he sprinted for the front door.

Su Xue smiled and replied, “Have fun. See you tonight—” She could hear the front door slam shut. Guess he’s gone. Heh! She looked at the dishes on the table before turning towards her bedroom. Nap a bit more and then clean, or clean and then nap? I’ma hate myself when I have to clean after waking up. But I’m so tired… Why do I always have to go so over the top with food? I spent 3 hours this morning cooking for the kid and he was done in 3 minutes! She chuckled and gathered the bowls and chopsticks. Love to see how excited he gets though. Clean and then nap and then another long night of streaming! Yush!

✹

Team Shanghai had to prepare for the next round of the Winter Collegiate Cup. That meant that during practice there was no goofing around with the new Graves. Everyone played in their normal roles on the Champions they needed to practice for the different strategies and team comps An Xin and Zeng Rui had come up with. And after every game, the two of them would sit the rest down and go over every aspect of the game, both big and small, and point out what went well and what they still had to work on. It was a long day of hard work.

The sun was gone by the time Team Shanghai finished. They’d played a total of 9 games, each followed by lengthy discussions about what worked and what didn’t work. Lin Feng listened for a good while, even contributed a bit here and there, but eventually he felt they were overthinking things. He believed that intuition and trust weren’t something you could plan; they were skills that had to be honed through practice. So when Zeng Rui went on another tangent about how Tang Bingyao could trust him following one of three set paths when he pinged on the right side of the bottom lane, he put his hand up and asked, “Do you know who we’re playing against yet, ZengZeng?”

“Uh, what? I… What?” Zeng Rui said, his train of thoughts collapsing.

“The Winter Collegiate Cup,” Lin Feng said. “Who are we playing next?”

Zeng Rui looked at Lin Feng and narrowed his eyes. He said, “I was just explaining to Tang Tang—”

“You can’t plan for everything! Just trust her! She’s got this!” Lin Feng interrupted. He then turned to look at Tang Bingyao and said, “Right?”

Tang Bingyao nodded slowly and replied, “Mhm… I think. Yeah.”

Zeng Rui took a long, deep breath and massaged his temples. We need to be ready and, and… He turned to look at An Xin, who was smiling that knowing smile at him. I went on for too long, didn’t I? He glanced at the clock on his computer and saw that it was already well past 6 P.M. Oh. Time really did fly. Maybe we should break… He took another deep breath and then said, “The next round is the quarterfinals. Eight teams are remaining. There is us. And then there’s Team Beijing, the Beijing University of Science and Technology, Shenyang University of Engineering, Fudan University and Zhejiang University. They made up the top 4 in the last Collegiate Cup. The other two teams are Wuhan University and China University of Political Science and Law.

“Now the teams we really need to watch out for… First of all there is Team Beijing. We saw them play in Guangzhou and they were really strong. That Yu Ping who got the quadra on the Riven— No, Lin Feng, I don’t care if you got a penta. He got a quadra and his team is strong. We’re going to take them seriously. Anyway, where was I? Right! We also need to watch out for U-Tech Beijing and Shenyang University. The others aren’t weak teams either, but these three are looking to be our biggest competition,” Zeng Rui concluded.

Tang Bingyao nodded and asked, “How strong do you think they are? Like A-? If I play well…”

Zeng Rui shook his head and replied, “No. I’m expecting them to have hit grade A. That means that their ad-carries are going to be really good, as will their Toplaners and every other player on their teams.” He briefly paused and looked at his four teammates before continuing, “It’s going to be difficult, guys. We can’t get complacent. We need to train as long and as hard as we can and hope that that is enough to get the advantage over these guys.”

“Zeng Rui is right,” An Xin said. She smiled and continued, “We really need to work hard to be ready for the next round. But we’ve already played a lot today. How about a break for dinner? We can order some takeout and just chill a bit, then practice some more when we’re done eating.”

“Chicken cutlet! Ain’t I right, Lin Feng!?” Zhang Hao suggested, laughing.

Lin Feng grinned, but then scratched the back of his head and said, “Uh, yeah… It’s just… I’ve already got plans tonight. And… well, since its getting kinda late, I really need to start heading over there!”

An Xin raised her eyebrows and looked at Lin Feng, who was throwing his things into his bag, hurried. He always looks excited when there’s food on the menu and now he’s refusing food and still looks excited!  He’s going to get food. But with whom? And where? Hmm… I’ll figure it out later. She sighed and said, “That’s okay. The rest of us can still eat together and then practice some more.”

✹

Shi Hang had spent every minute of every hour he wasn’t practicing with his new team spamming Lin Feng’s phone, asking Lin Feng to please go out to dinner with him. That was how Lin Feng experienced it, anyway. But Lin Feng had good reasons to turn Shi Hang down. “I can’t! I’ve got exams and I can’t screw them up!” “BunBun will get really mad with me if I don’t study with her and Tang Tang!” “They’re forcing me to sit in between them and then they both grab my arms!” “It’s like I’m in shackles here!”

When the exams for High School 13 had ended, Lin Feng no longer had any excuse to refuse. But he also really didn’t want to have dinner with Shi Hang alone. He just couldn’t understand the appeal of two people eating together. No matter how he looked at it, it always looked boring. A man and a woman, or two men or two women… The combination didn’t matter; all that mattered was that when he saw them sitting together at their table, staring deep into each other’s eyes, they always looked so bored! He wasn’t going to let that happen between him and Shi Hang, so he invited Tian Tian to come as well.

Tian Tian was more than happy to tag along, mostly for the food but also to see two of his old friends again. He was already waiting at the restaurant with Shi Hang when Lin Feng appeared around the corner. A smile blossomed on his face. His heart skipped a beat. “LIN FENG!” he hollered, waving.

“FATTY!” Lin Feng shouted back.

The two old friends, best friends, ran at each other. Fatty’s layers of fat jiggled up and down with every step until he embraced Lin Feng in a big bearhug. He said through heavy breaths, “LIN FENG! I… I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!”

“Missed you too, bud!” Lin Feng replied, laughing. He’d chatted a bit with Tian Tian over the last couple of weeks. But due to his exams and Tian Tian’s busy schedule, it wasn’t much more than a “Hi” here and a “How are you” there.

Shi Hang chuckled and said, “Now kiss!”

“No way! We ain’t gay!” Lin Feng exclaimed, grinning. He let go of Tian Tian and looked past him at Shi Hang. He asked, “I heard you’re back on Team Rapids. What’s it like to play for your old team again? Happy to see all your friends from back then again?”

Shi Hang raised his shoulders and replied, “Not really seeing much of them, to be honest. Most of them quit. There’s only like two guys left in upper management, but I never really knew them. My team is all new.”

“So you get to make new friends!” Lin Feng cheered.

Tian Tian nodded and added, “Lin Feng is right! Y-you need to make friends. Knowing each other well and trusting each other is what really makes a team!”

Shi Hang rolled his eyes and replied, “Yeah, yeah. I get it. That’s enough out of you two. I invited you guys to talk about the good old times, not to nag me about my new teammates!”

The trio walked into the restaurant and started by ordering dessert. Tian Tian argued that it was healthy to start a meal with icecream and Lin Feng was more than happy to follow with that belief. They spent the next couple of minutes chatting about the old times, but then the topic shifted to current events. The new LPL season had started together with the release of the Season 6 patch. Shi Hang and Tian Tian had even played their first match against each other and they would go at each other again a couple of days later.

Tian Tian poked the icecream with his chopsticks and said, “Team Rapids is a lot stronger this season. T-they’re not at KG’s level yet, but they’re good. Once Shi Hang gets settled in, I-I can see them making it all the way to the top 4! Think of that! B-both of us at Worlds this year!”

Shi Hang waved his hand and replied, “It’s still far too early to tell! I’m just trying to fit in with the team right now. We’ll have to see how that pans out before we start thinking about qualifying for Worlds.” He briefly paused, his lips curling up and his eyes starting to shine, and then added, “But I’ll try and become the best Midlaner in China again! And qualifying for Worlds would be really cool!”

Lin Feng snorted and said, “Until I get back. Then you’re back to second best!”

“You worry about getting back first!” Shi Hang replied, laughing and winking at Lin Feng.

“Yeah!” Tian Tian chimed in. He turned his head to look at Lin Feng and asked, “When are you coming back? I’m still waiting. I guess you first have to win your tournament, right? How far are you now? Quarterfinals yet? Or still Round of 16?”

Lin Feng grinned and replied, “Quarterfinals! We did really well in the Round of 16 and stomped Team Guangzhou! You should’ve seen it! I got two pentas! Now we’re just a few matches away from winning the tournament!”

Shi Hang clicked his tongue and said, “What are you bragging about? You’re the one, the only, you’re mister legendary himself! What? You wanna tell me Maple is proud of winning some damn uni tournament? Come on, dude, you’re better than that. I’d worry more about not winning. I mean, you’re Maple. If you lose, just think about the stain on my legacy! Me losing to some random nobody in a uni tournament!”

Tian Tian snorted in laughter, the beer in his mouth fighting its way up his nose and out. He yelped in pain and grabbed his nose, then started laughing again. Tears appeared in his eyes as he pointed at Lin Feng and then at Shi Hang. He said, “S-stain on Shi Hang’s legacy! Lin Feng poops on Shi Ha— Haha!”

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, but then started grinning again. He rubbed his chin, acting like he was thinking long and hard, and finally said, “I think we might have some trouble, yeah. It’s like… We don’t have the most balanced team and Team Beijing does. Tang Tang in bot is still getting better and better, but she isn’t up there yet, you know? And then we’ve got our Toplaner, HaoBro. He’s a great dude but he’s just not the most talented player ever. I think he’s going to have a really hard time against Team Beijing’s Toplaner. And then it’s going to come down to me to pick up the slack in bot and top while I also have to win mid— Wait.” He turned his head to look at Tian Tian and asked, “Are you busy later tonight?”

“SUUUUU XUUUEEEEE! I forgot my keys again!” Lin Feng shouted, rapping his fist against the hard wood of the front door.

Su Xue glanced over her shoulder and then shook her head. Again? How does he keep doing it… It almost feels on purpose… She took a long, deep breath and then looked at her camera. “Hey guys…” she started, glancing at the chat. Oh, they already know. Guess they can hear him too. “Yep. That’s Lin Feng,” she said. She then got up from her gaming chair and walked towards the front door.

“SUUUUU XUUUEEEEE! Open the door please!” Lin Feng yelled at the door, ignoring the neighbour looking through the window a couple doors over and shaking her head.

I should just let him wait. Yep. Gonna make him wait. Su Xue smiled as she skipped into the kitchen and started playing with her favourite cleaver. It’s so nice and sharp and it always gets him out of be—

“SUUUUU XUUEE—”

“YES YES! I’M COMING! OH MY GOD CAN YOU SHUT UP FOR ONCE!?” Su Xue exclaimed. She pulled the front door open and grabbed Lin Feng by his shirt, then dragged him inside. She shut the door behind him and then turned her head to look at him through narrowed eyes. She slowly said, “Everyone could hear you! They’re going to complain to Chu Yishu, and you know who she’s going to complain to? Me!” She jabbed a finger on her chest and continued, “Me! She’s going to call me up, again, and ask me if I’m locking you out! Is that what you want!?”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and said, “Uh, sorry. Sorry. I just kinda thought you liked opening the door for me…”

“No. No I don’t,” Su Xue replied, shaking her head. “What made you think I like to be interrupted mid stream? You…” She gritted her teeth and shook her head. Nope. Not gonna let him get to me. I’ll get to him! She smiled and said, “Come, we’re going to my room. The viewers are asking for you. They want to see you Jungle Graves all night long! And I know you’ve got holidays, so don’t even think about going to bed!”

“I wasn’t planning to sleep anyway!” Lin Feng replied, laughing. He brushed past Su Xue and said over his shoulder, “And I’ve been itching to play the new Graves too! They wouldn’t let me at the internet cafe earlier…”

“How mean of them,” Su Xue replied, smiling. She watched Lin Feng stride towards her room and clenched her fist. Good. With him… Yeah. She closed her eyes and took another long, deep breath. With him here, it’ll definitely be a success!

Hundreds of thousands of people had tuned in to the Winter Collegiate Cup and watched the games with Su Xue casting. And then, when all those viewers opened the chat to say how good she was, there were tens of thousands of people spamming her streamlink. This resulted in Su Xue’s stream seeing a big spike in viewer numbers, shooting past the 100,000 mark and going up even higher. Su Xue wanted to leave a good impression on all these new viewers. She could try and do that with her own skill, but she knew she wasn’t the best player; Lin Feng was the best. With his skill and her commentary, all these new viewers would fall in love with her stream and stick around, she was sure of it!

Su Xue walked back into her bedroom. Lin Feng was already sitting in her gaming chair, chatting with the viewers. She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, then leaned over him to read the stream chat.

「LLIILLLL BROOOOOOOOO」

「Long time no see bud! MISSED YA!」

「TEAM SHANGHAI MIDLANER! HE BEAT GOALIE AND NOW HE GONNA JUNGLE GRAVES!!!!」

「he’s our young master the emperor and xuexue’s his maid! GET HIM SOME WATER MAID!」

「lil bro, you sure jungle Graves is gonna be cool? I seen a bunch of them…………………..」

「THEY SUCK! NEW GRAVES SUCKS! BRING BACK OLD GRAVES! RIOTRIOTRIOT」

“They’re right, you know?” Su Xue said to Lin Feng, pointing at the chat. “We’ve seen a couple of Jungle Graves’ already and they all sucked… hard. Like, really hard. I don’t think we’ve seen a single Jungle Graves that looked even a little decent…”

Lin Feng grinned and patted his own back. He said, “Don’tcha worry! This is just some low elo games! I can play Veigar Jungle or… or Yorick ad-carry and still win!”

Su Xue giggled and replied, “Yorick doesn’t even have ranged attacks. He just… he just hits people with his shovel…”

“Exactly!” Lin Feng exclaimed. He grinned and continued, “That’s how easy it’ll be! I’ll hit them with my shov— shotgun and send them back down to plat!”

✹

Lin Feng played Jungle Graves exactly like An Xin played Jungle Lee Sin. He took the Red Buff and then went straight into his opponent’s Jungle. There he waited for their Jungle Evelynn to show herself at her Red Buff Camp and then he waited a bit more. He watched Evelynn lose health auto attacking the Red Brambleback. When her health fell below half, he fired an auto attack followed by the explosive shell from End of the Line! He continued with a second auto attack, then dashed for a quick reload of one shell with Quickdraw! One final auto attack secured the kill.

《First Blood!》

The next 20 minutes were similar to this first exchange in the sense that Lin Feng’s Graves ran around the map and shot Champions like they were minions. He picked up kills and made the new Graves look like the most overpowered Champion to have ever set foot on the Rift. His final score was a staggering 17-1-3.

Su Xue sat next to Lin Feng quietly, having long forgotten she was there to commentate. Her jaw hung wide open and when the victory screen showed she muttered, “My god… I-I didn’t know… Is he really that strong?”

Lin Feng grinned and replied, “Yep! He’s awesome! You saw his high damage, right? Like how I kept blowing them up? It was so easy! And then, you saw how I wasn’t even buying much damage but also armour and magic resist? Yeah, see, when you buy that, he can even be like a semi-tank! A TANK THAT DOES A TON OF DAMAGE! He’s so cool! So, so cool!”

「NEW GRAVES OP AS FUCCCKKKKKKKK」

「nerf incoming」

「what did riot think releasing such an op champion…. you see how he just rekt the enemy? MAD」

「sick… SO SICK! Kappa」

「Tell the maid to get you some water!!!」

「YoYoYoYo, FENGBRO! WIN FENG! PLAY HIM IN ADCARRY! GO ADC ON THAT GRAVES!!!」

「I WANNA SEE ADC!!!!! SHOW US ADC GRAVES!」

「adcarry graves op as fuck tooooooo????」

Su Xue sighed loudly with false exasperation and complained, “Two days! I’ve been back for two days and I’m the maid again. AGAIN! You little shits keep demoting me to maid whenever Lin Feng is around! Can’t you guys just, for once, support me? Maybe I wanna play too!”

「know ye place stupid maid!!!」

「I THINK LIL BRO”S GLASS IS EMPTY! WHERE HIS LEMON WATER!?!?!??!!?!」

「Y U NO ORDER HIM CHICKEN CUTLET YET!??!?!?!??!」

「the delivery guy must feel lonely… she hasnt ordered from him in weeks…」

✹

The next two games Lin Feng played Graves in the ad-carry role. He pointed out to Su Xue what the strengths of the new Graves in the bot lane were and how to play around the reload time after every two auto attacks. He showed her how to retreat while also dealing damage with a Quickdraw dash and how to abuse the terrain to fire a quick End of the Line. Bit by bit, Su Xue took over the analysis from Lin Feng, pointing out which plays he was going to make before he even made them. She started smiling and leaned closer to the screen, excited. And by the end of the game, she was EveningSnowfall, the caster that many of the new viewers came to see.

Lin Feng glanced at Su Xue and grinned. “Alright!” he said to the camera. “That’s three wins in a row now. I think it’s about time I chill for a game.” He then turned his head to look at Su Xue and asked, “Hey, how about you give it a go? Try the new Graves in bot!”

Su Xue looked at Lin Feng, unsure, and asked, “Really? I don’t think…”

“It’ll be fine!” Lin Feng replied. He grinned and added, “I’ll Support you! It’ll be fun!”

Su Xue nodded, faster and faster until she’d convinced herself she wouldn’t make a complete fool out of herself on Graves. “Okay! Let’s do it!” she replied. She then turned to look at the camera and continued, “You guys will get to see how good I really am as an ad-carry now that I don’t have some random Support!”

Lin Feng got up from the gaming chair and ran to his bedroom to grab his laptop. Su Xue watched him go and then spent the next couple of minutes chatting with her viewers, hyping them up for the game to come while Lin Feng set himself up next to her. And then they played. Lin Feng played the Support-style that Su Xue had grown so comfortable with. He was always there when she needed him to and he always made the plays she didn’t even know she wanted him to make. The last of her nerves slipped away and by the tenth minute of the game, she sat on the edge of her gaming chair furiously clicking on her mouse and shouting orders.

“WardWardWard! WARD!”

“Aaaaah! They’re diving me! SAVE ME! SAVE ME!”

“Don’t kill steal! Give me, GIMME! NICE!”

“Hahaha! Too easy! We’re so good together!”

“Oh yeah! Just like that! I like it just like that!”

“Sweet! Awesome! Perfect! VICTORY!”

✹

Su Xue ended the stream at 4 A.M. When the camera was off, she leaned back in her gaming chair and yawned and stretched and closed her eyes for a bit. She could hear Lin Feng unplugging his laptop cables and gathering his things. Guess he’s going to forget to brush his teeth again, and… She asked with a sigh, “Hey, Lin Feng?” She turned her head and opened her eyes to look at him, then continued, “No sleeping until you’ve brushed your teeth, washed your face and… And I think that’s it. Oh! And put on your pyjamas!”

“Uh-huh! Uh-huh!” Lin Feng replied, nodding. “I’ll do it right after putting my laptop—”

“Nope!” Su Xue interrupted. She stood up, grabbed him by the arm and continued, “You’re just going to fall asleep when you see your bed. Put your laptop down. Come. We’re going to brush our teeth first.” She then pulled Lin Feng down the hallway to the bathroom and complained, “You’d be a slobbering mess without me, you know that right? You would be locked out of the house, forget to shower, smell like shit and sleep on the street in the rain… So you would shower, I guess…”

“I’m not that bad!” Lin Feng exclaimed. “So what if I sometimes forget to brush my teeth? It happens! It’s like 4 A.M. and I’m tired! When I see my bed, it’s just… it’s just so easy to lay down for a few minutes. And then I open my eyes and it’s suddenly the next day!”

Su Xue smiled and pushed the door to the bathroom open. She waited for Lin Feng to enter and then followed behind him. “Oh, that has me thinking,” she said. “Before you left for Guangzhou, you always finished the night on the Korean server… How’s that going? You still playing on there?”

Lin Feng rinsed his toothbrush and put some toothpaste on it. He then glanced at Su Xue and asked, “What? Sorry, wasn’t listening…”

“The Korean server. Are you still playing on there?” Su Xue asked for a second time.

“Oh! Yeah! Yeah, it’s going,” Lin Feng replied.

Su Xue scrunched her eyebrows and asked, “Wait… Like, really? I thought you were too busy with the exams and everything. Where did you find the time to play on the Korean server? When!? Why didn’t you tell me!? We could’ve streamed a couple of those games! How far are you already? Are you still climbing?”

Lin Feng nodded and said with his mouth full of toothpaste, “Hmm! Doin’ good. Rank 34.”

“34? Thirty. Four!? Really!?” Su Xue exclaimed, shocked. Her eyes grew wide and she continued, “That’s almost top 30! You’re already almost in the top 30? That’s so fast!”

Lin Feng rinsed his mouth, gurgling, and spat the toothpaste out before turning to Su Xue and saying, “Yeah, it’s okay I guess. I would’ve liked to be a bit further. There isn’t much time left and this is basically the hard part where I’ve got to play really well.” He briefly paused before adding, “But I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.” He didn’t wait for a response from Su Xue and left the bathroom, heading for his bedroom. Heading for bed.

✹

Golden rays of sun shone through Lin Feng’s bedroom window and the smell of food came in from the door. Lin Feng opened his eyes and stretched out long. He glanced at his alarm clock and saw that it was already well past noon. He grinned and mumbled, “No more exams. I can finally sleep in. This is the life!” He pushed the blankets off and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He then got dressed and walked into the dining room, where Su Xue was already waiting for him with a fully prepared lunch.

Su Xue looked up from her magazine at Lin Feng and smiled. She said, “Morning, sleepyhead. Here, have some lunch.” She watched him dig in and only then sit down and giggled. When he refilled his plate for a third time, she asked, “So what’s on the schedule today? Are you meeting up with Tang Tang and BunBun?”

Lin Feng nodded and replied, “Yeah! We’re flying to Beijing tomorrow already for the next round and Zeng Rui wants us to get as much training in before then as possible. So we’re going to get some games in and train.” What Lin Feng didn’t tell Su Xue was that he was also going out to dinner tonight. With an old friend. 

Note by Sietse: This Chapter is the promise Devshard made to ReapingHunter. For a further explanation, scroll down to the Translator Thought. Or go to the comment section on Chapter 376 and read up on that.

January 25th-26th was judgement day for all the students from High School 13!

The exams had arrived!

A cloud of gloom appeared to hang over the entire school, bearing on the students so hard that it was difficult to breathe.

Exam proctors walked into the examination rooms carrying huge, massive stacks of papers in their hands and expressionless looks on their faces. 

A moment later, the bell signalling the start of the exam rang, which was quickly followed by the sound of students scribbling down on their papers with their pens.

After morning exams were over, there was a brief intermission before the students walked back into the examination rooms for their afternoon exams.

This pattern repeated itself the next day.

The tension that filled the examination rooms was more intense than a crucial Baron at 50 minutes into a game of League of Legends.

Even during the rest period between exams, all the students had tense expressions on their faces. They were in no mood to chat with their friends, except to double and triple check whether their answers to particularly difficult questions were correct. And then their worry focused on the next exam.

This intense examination period continued on until late in the evening on the second day.

The two days of exams were finally over. 

The sun was already setting over the horizon when the students from High School 13 left school grounds. All of them breathed a shared sigh of relief as smiles started surfacing on their faces.

“Finally, it’s over!”

“Holy crap, that was hell! I never want to do that again!” 

“Hahaha! Freedom! FREEDOM!”

“Now we can sit back and relax!”

“It’s winter vacation! Winter vacation is here!”

The sound of cheering students gradually filled the school grounds.

After walking out of the exam room, Lin Feng happened to see An Xin and Tang Bingyao walking out. He waved and smiled at them and said, “BunBun, Tang Tang! Let’s head to the internet cafe and play some games of League!”

✹

Tonight, all the internet cafes near High School 13 were destined to be packed with all the students that just finished their exams.

Ouyang had already gone out of his way to book a 12-person room at the NetCow Cafe in advance. All of Team Shanghai’s friends and former teammates, which included members from High School 13’s team and Shanghai High School’s, gathered together for a large meet-up.

Ouyang struck a pose and shouted in the middle of the private room and declared, “No one talks about exams tonight! We’re gonna play till we pass out! Sleeping is for losers!”

In the next second, Ouyang was smacked in the back of the head by Ren Rou. She said, “Get your foot off the seat! People have to sit there! Why aren’t you cleaning it up!?” 

Ren Rou then turned to everyone else and said with a bright smile, “But shitty Ouyang is right for once. Let’s all enjoy ourselves tonight!”

She was immediately met by cheers of approval from the dozen-plus people in the room.

The 12-person room had 12 computers in total. Lin Feng still found the gathering to be too small for his tastes, but people could take turns ranking together. Besides, chatting and spectating from the sidelines was also pretty entertaining.

After all, it was winter vacation!

With exams no longer looming over them, anything and everything was acceptable!

Liu Yue inched over to Lin Feng’s side and asked with a face brimming with excitement, “Hey, is it really true that you got two pentakills against Team Guangzhou!? Isn’t Goalie supposed to be some kind of pro level Midlaner? But you stomped him? Like he was some kind of noob!?”

After hearing about Lin Feng’s exploits during the Collegiate Cup Round of 16, Liu Yue’s worship of Lin Feng grew even deeper. The only reason it didn’t reach levels of fanaticism was that he was a Jungle main. All evening, he kept asking Lin Feng for advice about how to play Graves in the Jungle.

Chen Ze and Wei Dong were also there. After chatting for a while, Wei Dong asked Lin Feng, “Hey, when’s your next match happening? It’s probably soon, right?”

“Yup! We’ll be flying to Beijing on the 28th. They’ll be doing the draws on that day, then the quarterfinals officially start the next day,” Lin Feng replied with a smile.

Chen Ze couldn’t help but look at Lin Feng enviously. He said, “I still can’t believe you’re in the quarterfinals now. It’s a shame it’s in Beijing, or we would’ve definitely come to cheer for you guys.”

Ouyang inched over to Lin Feng’s side and exclaimed, “Chen Ze is right!” He briefly paused before nudging Lin Feng and asking, “Hey, the Shanghai Esports Association is paying for everything, right? Do you think you could help us get some plane tickets to Beijing too?”

Lin Feng scratched his head and replied, “Oh, sure… I’ll ask!”

Not far away, An Xin rolled her eyes. She turned to Tang Bingyao and Ren Rou and said, “Tang Tang, Rou Rou, let’s ditch these idiots and play a match together!”

Lin Feng’s ears perked up and he immediately shouted. “Hey! I want to join too! Wait for me!”

“Join my ass! Focus on winning the current game we’re playing right now!” Zeng Rui shouted.

Zhang Hao had an anxious expression on his face. “Dude, you just spent a whole teamfight sitting in the fountain. Without your mid lane, we almost ended up losing the fight.”

Lin Feng snapped back to his senses. “Oh right! Hahaha! I almost forgot I was in a game because I was so busy chatting! Don’t worry! I’m coming to carry you guys!”

✹

After playing League till 2 AM in the morning, everyone finally called it a night and left for home.

As usual, Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao walked home together.

The warm glow of the street lamps scattered over the sidewalk. It was also fairly chilly tonight. However, Tang Bingyao was skipping happily along the pavement as she chatted with Lin Feng about the latest changes that came with the arrival of Season 6.

“I think you can still keep playing Graves ad-carry!”

“Eh? No way. He’s definitely gonna be played in the Jungle from now on!” 

“Mhm. But what I’m saying is that he can still be played in bot!”

“Sure he can, but it’s too much of a waste. If you don’t believe me, let’s make a bet. Once Season 6 officially starts, Graves is definitely going to be played in the Jungle!” 

“Mhm! Okay, it’s a bet! But what are we betting?”

“Ten chicken cutlets!”

“Ten?” Tang Bingyao’s expression instantly froze, as she unconsciously reached out to protect her purse. After hesitating for a moment, she stuck out three fingers and said, “Ten is too much. How about three chicken cutlets?”

Lin Feng rubbed his chin. “Three, huh? Let’s go in the middle and say five!”

Tang Bingyao thought for a moment, then firmly nodded her head and said, “Alright, five!”

Lin Feng’s expression immediately brightened after his successful negotiations. He smiled and replied, “You’re going to lose for sure!”

Tang Bingyao looked up at the Shanghai nightscape and cheerfully smiled. She said, “We don’t know that for sure!” The bet itself didn’t actually matter. She was just happy that  she would get to share a meal together with the person she liked. In her mind, she’d already won.

The engines on the airplane rumbled to life. The flight attendants walked down the aisles reminding people to stow their tray tables and put their seats into the upright position. The cabin filled with noise as the airplane got ready to take off. But An Xin heard none of that. None of the noise could penetrate the peaceful atmosphere that had settled over the back row, where she sat with Lin Feng. With the Ashe plushie on her lap. As she looked at it, her heart beat fast and slow at the same time with light trembles of joy. 

Lin Feng waited a couple of seconds for An Xin to say something. But she remained silent, and he mistook that for confusion. He picked it up off her lap and waved it in her face, oblivious to everything else in his excitement. “Look! It’s the Ashe you wanted! Remember? You said you wanted it! It’s the exact same one. I helped you get it!”

An Xin’s face flickered with a complicated expression. “You went all the way there just to get me this Ashe plushie? So early in the morning?” she asked quietly and softly. So softly that the question was barely audible over the hum of the engines.

“Yeah! That’s why I set my alarm for 5:30 AM! I really lucked out! My phone had just enough power for the alarm. It died right after I left the hotel. And then I got even more lucky and got the Ashe doll. It only cost me ¥20!” 

An Xin stared at the big grin on Lin Feng’s face and the Ashe. She bit her lips to keep herself from smiling. “You’re an idiot. I didn’t want it that much. Why’d you have to go out of your way to get it?” She wanted to yell at Lin Feng for being foolish, but her heart just wasn’t in it. And her rebuke wasn’t even the slightest bit harsh. 

“I made a promise! I gave you my word that I would help you get it! A real man always keeps his promise!” Lin Feng exclaimed.

An Xin smiled at Lin Feng’s declaration. He’d said the same thing earlier, back at the hotel. An Xin’s heart fluttered and warmed that he had cared enough to remember his promise to her and had gotten her the Ashe plushie. 

“Here, take it!” Lin Feng stuffed the Ashe in An Xin’s arms. “I told you I’d get it and I got it! Hahahaha! I’m really good at claw machines too!” He smiled brightly. 

An Xin accepted the Ashe plush and hugged it tightly. She buried her face in it, to hide her blush as she softly whispered, “Thanks.” She kept hugging the soft plushie, but it was clear that she wanted to hug Lin Feng and couldn’t at the moment. So she hugged the Ashe as tightly as she wanted to hug Lin Feng.

An Xin slightly bit her lips as she quietly muttered the word, “Idiot.”

✹

The Collegiate Cup’s Round of 16 had yet to end, but all of Team Shanghai’s members had returned home. In a truly shocking twist, their plane had taken off and landed with no issues. There were no prophetic visions, An Xin was not stuck in a time loop where she was forced to solve issue after issue to find the best timeline, and there were no motherfucking snakes on that motherfucking plane. It was just an ordinary ride on an airplane, followed by the usual hustle and bustle of disembarking from the plane. 

Now that they were back home, Team Shanghai would spend the next couple of weeks buried in textbooks as they prepared for their upcoming exams. Even Lin Feng, who’d been complaining the most earlier, had no option but to study. He simply didn’t have enough time to do anything else. After returning to school, he didn’t even have the time to chill with Ouyang, Yang Fang, and the others so he could tell them what happened in Guangzhou. And neither did they. Everyone in High School 13 was busy studying and tense about these upcoming exams. And so, Lin Feng returned to school and dove head first into studying. 

An uneasy and thick tension had descended over the hallways of High School 13. There was no happy chatter or jokes. There was only one thing on everyone’s mind and one topic worth not talking about. That was the exams. There were a few hushed whispers in the halls, but that was about it.

“I’ve only got a week left to live! My parents are going to kill me after these exams!”

“Samsies! We gotta ace them! There is no other option!” 

“If we don’t crush these exams, we’ll get crushed instead!” 

Everyone was nervous. Well, almost everyone. Lin Feng retained his cheerful obliviousness and optimism. “I’m gonna ace this exam! If this were a webnovel, I’d be the protagonist! And there’s no way I’m going to fail because the hero always triumphs! You’ll all see! I’m really good at exams too!” He boldly declared, fighting back against the unseen but palpable tension in the air. And then he buried himself in his textbook.

Even as he studied, Lin Feng knew in the back of his mind that he was the protagonist. This is my story, and I’m not going to be stopped here! These exams aren’t an obstacle, they’re a stepping stone! And I’m not going to be defeated by a step! I’m going to face this exam head-on and sweep through it like I do with everything else! No mere exam will stop my rise!

This delusional level of self-confidence that Lin Feng had wasn’t entirely unwarranted. While he believed that his confidence came from his own patented Trynadamere problem solving method and Nasus study methodology, and that he was protected by protagonist plot armor, none of those things contributed much. The real ace up Lin Feng’s sleeve was that he had An Xin and Tang Bingyao to help him out.

An Xin and Tang Bingyao were excellent students. They were just as good at school as they were at League of Legends. In fact, Tang Bingyao was well-known for being one of the smartest girls at school and a bookworm. An Xin was equally intelligent, and could coach someone through studying just as well as she could coach them in League. And she’d gotten Lin Feng through exams before.

Since he had both of these girls supervising and helping him through studying, Lin Feng didn’t have to worry too much about getting through his exams. Neither did Ouyang, who also had the advantage of Tang Bingyao and An Xin simply because he was Lin Feng’s deskmate and remained in close proximity. And speaking of Ouyang, he’d occasionally try to get Lin Feng to talk about what happened in Guangzhou. Whenever he could get away with it because both the girls were distracted or away. Even though Ouyang was focused on the upcoming exam, the story of how Team Shanghai defeated Team Guangzhou 3-0 was too legendary to ignore. Not just for Ouyang. Everyone in Lin Feng’s class wanted to know what happened. It was a welcome study break, and everyone leaned in to listen as Lin Feng recounted what happened to Ouyang. 

✹

“Haha! That’s so awesome! You riggity-riggity-rekt them!” Ouyang exclaimed when Lin Feng finished his story. “You made those douchenozzles your bitch! That’s exactly what Team Guangzhou deserved! Did you throw in a ‘I, your father, have schooled you’? Because what’s the point in spanking them like that if they don’t call you Daddy after?”

Ren Rou smacked Ouyang in the back of the head. But a soft one. She secretly approved of it all. “Yeah. That Seo is a raging jackass. He hurt our Tang Tang! Unforgivable!”

Ouyang rubbed the back of his head where Ren Rou whacked him. But he was too excited by the story to focus on it for long. He asked Lin Feng, “Bro! You played Riven, right? How’d it go! Tell us all about that! Did you really get a pentakill at the end?”

“Yeah! I hard-carried that game with my Riven and got a penta! It was great! Ask BunBun! She’ll tell you how great I did that game.” Lin Feng said. He turned to An Xin and said, “BunBun, I hard-carried with Riven and got a penta, right? Tell them!”

An Xin didn’t even bother looking up from her book as she casually replied, “Oh, is that what happened? Sorry, I don’t remember.”

And speaking of An Xin, neither she nor Lin Feng brought up the Ashe plushie after they got back toi Shanghai. It was a private moment between them, and their secret alone. As far as everyone else was concerned, nothing had changed between them. An Xin interacted with Lin Feng exactly as she did before. She continued to make fun of Lin Feng every chance she got, and smacked him down whenever he did something stupid. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the incident with the Ashe doll never happened. But for An Xin, it was a treasured moment.

Since An Xin had completely ignored him, Lin Feng turned to Tang Bingyao. “Tang Tang! Tang Tang! Help me out here! Tell them I got a penta, and that I’m not lying.!” 

Tang Bingyao was completely focused on studying. Only after Lin Feng pestered her a few more times did she raise her head and nodded. “Mhm? Who’s lying?”

Ren Rou rolled her eyes. “Everyone is busy studying! Stop bothering Tang Tang and An Xin! You guys need to stop gossiping like old ladies and focus on your studying too!” Then she walked back to her desk and got back into her books.

Lin Feng’s cheerful smile faded and he looked gloomy. “But I really am telling the truth…”

“Broheim! I believe you, bro,” Ouyang said, and smacked Lin Feng on the back. Then he inched closer and continued, “So… since we’re best bros and I believe you about your pentakill and all that… how about being a bro back and letting me copy your answers for the English practice exam?”

“Huh? There was an English practice exam?” Lin Feng asked.

Ouyang looked at Lin Feng in surprise. “What? Did you really not know? We’re supposed to hand in our answers tonight!” 

“I forgot!? I think!? Did I even know about the English practice exam? Oh no!” Lin Feng cried out. Then he immediately started working on it.

Sitting at the neighbouring desk, An Xin raised her head and smiled. Well, at least some things never change. Lin Feng is still an idiot. But every once in a while, a very thoughtful and sweet idiot. My idiot… An Xin continued to smile that secret smile as she went back to studying. 

✹

Su Xue flew back to Shanghai from Guangzhou two days after Team Shanghai left. But the night before she left, Zong Yao, the executive from Huya TV, invited her to a dinner with a few other well-known streamers and shoutcasters who were from Guangzhou. That had been a big night for Su Xue. It was her foot in the door. She was now officially a part of the shoutcaster circles. 

Once Su Xue got back to Shanghai, she started streaming again. And told her viewers all about her experience as a shoutcaster and the dinner. “Guys! The dinner went so well! Mr. Zong Yao introduced me to everyone and told them how much all the viewers liked my shoutcasting! It didn’t hurt that all the other streamers and shoutcasters saw the matches I was commenting on and how great I was. They were all so friendly! You guys wait and see, I might become a really famous professional shoutcaster one day!” Su Xue declared to her streamer.

It goes without saying that her viewers were happy for her. But they were even more happy to have an opportunity to roast her and bring her back down to earth. 

「Oh deer! Is she getting big-headed or did they feed her too much?」

「Snofell gettin fat? 」

「Dreans are em-t calories! she must be eating her feelings again!」

「xuexue! You’re already really famous with us! You don’t need more that me, bb!」

「she’s bronze at league, but a Challenger at pipe dreams」

「Maid-chan dreaming of seducing domineering CEO and becoming Misteress!」

「tsk tsk, I almost believed her」

After returning from Guangzhou, Su Xue resumed her regular streaming schedule, which included a daily session of roasting by her viewers. Truthfully, though, all of them were happy to see her face on stream again, and they were glad that her journey as a shoutcaster was going smoothly. 

The fact that Su Xue’s viewers had spammed the Collegiate Cup livestream’s chat with phrases like, “SNOWFALL ARMY”, ‘The maid is surprisingly good at casting too!,” and “Su Xue is a streamer too! You can check her out here!” was proof enough of their support.

Su Xue was also aware of this. So, she didn’t get mad when she saw her chat roasting her. “I see you guys really missed me when I was gone for the past few days, huh?” 

「u were gone?!?!?」

「Masters don’t notice when the maid is gone!」

「I missed you like a hiker misses a wet sock!」

「We wanted to watch lil bro win! But you showed up there too!」

「we missed lil bro more!」

「yeah! Get lil bro to stream his ranked games some more!」

「maid, stop hogging all the liemight!」

Su Xue finally had enough and rolled her eyes. She said, “Hey, your ‘lil bro’ is busy right now. He’s a high school senior, you know? He has exams to worry about!”

✹

Speaking of which, Lin Feng was completely swamped with homework these past few days, so much so that he had no time for anything else. Not even a free meal. Once Lin Feng got back to Shanghai, Shi Hang, the newly recruited Midlaner of Team Rapids, had called him up to invite him out to dinner. 

“Sorry, can’t make it! I have homework!”

“What?” Shi Hang asked, surprised. He refused a free meal!? Lin Feng. Turning down a free dinner? OH! OH! “Hahaha! Right, you have exams, don’t yah? I thought ya were sick for a second there. Can’t see you turning down food otherwise. But no wonder. Or maybe this is a miracle. We should put the news up everywhere. Dark Horse League Talent Lin Feng turns down food to study! Easy 25 million view video! Hahahahahaaha! It’s tough, being a highschooler. Ain’t it, son? ”

Lin Feng ignored Shi Hang’s taunts and hung up, but Shi Hang quickly called him back.

“Hey wait, real talk for a moment. S6 is about to start soon. I’m still trying to get used to the new meta. Want to play some duo queue with me?”

Lin Feng nodded. “Sure, just do my homework and take my exams for me!”

“…” Shi Hang rolled his eyes and hung up this time. High schoolers these days, ain’t no reasoning with them. 

Lin Feng thought about what Shi Hang had said after the call. Despite being busy with studying and homework, Lin Feng had kept an eye on what was going on with the new season. The meta was going to change with Season 6. Apart from the release of another marksman and the previously teased Aurelion Sol, Lin Feng had also read about several old champions getting a rework.

The one that caught his attention the most was Graves. The Outlaw was getting a huge change.

✹

Graves was a grumpy looking man puffing on a big cigar and firing 9mm bullets from his shotgun. This suboptimal combination resulted in him not being nearly played as often as Riot Games wanted to see, so they decided to change him up. The first of two major changes was his ammo. The 9mm bullets were replaced with shotgun shells, and since his shotgun was a double-barrel, he could load two shells at a time. What he lost in firing consistency to this change, he gained in power. His auto attacks did more damage and now had a spray effect and knockback effect. Beyond his auto attacks, his Buckshot skill also needed a change. The suboptimal version saw him fire three bullets in a cone from a double-barrel shotgun, which wasn’t very effective. That was why Buckshot was replaced with End of the Line. Graves could fire two shells from his double-barrel shotgun that morphed together into an explosive shell and would fire straight ahead! After two seconds or when the shell struck terrain, like a tree or a tower, it would explode.

The changes to this champion were interesting enough that An Xin relented and let Lin Feng sidetrack her into a conversation about it instead of studying. “He’s not going to be a viable ad-carry anymore, Lin Feng. You can’t play Graves as an ad-carry when he can’t auto attack consistently. This rework doesn’t make much sense to me. Unless…”

Lin Feng jumped in before An Xin finished her thought, “Its about skill, BunBun! If you’ve got skill, I think he’s very playable as an ad-carry.” 

An Xin shot him a look. “Not everyone is Maple, dingus. Balance changes and reworks are supposed to make champions more playable for everyone across all tiers! Not just the best players!” 

“Fine, fine. You win. He’s not an ad-carry. I’ll play him in mid! The changes make him way more fun!” 

“I don’t know about that…” An Xin read through the changes to the champion again and calculated how much damage the new Graves could do and how much damage he could take. “Yeah, I don’t know if he’s good for mid lane. But… he looks like he’d be great as a Jungle champion. Early game damage that scales better than Lee Sin!” 

✹

The rest of Team Shanghai had kept up with the new patch notes as well. When they all met up at the internet cafe to blow off some steam and get a little practice in, all of them started talking about the changes to Graves.

“Do you guys think this is a buff or a nerf for Graves?” Zhang Hao asked. He was unsure about how to interpret the changes listed in the new patch notes.

Lin Feng jumped in immediately. He’d been talking about this with BunBun for a day now. “I think it’s a buff, but it looks like you won’t be able to play him as an Ad-Carry anymore.”

Tang Bingyao tilted her head, perplexed. “Mhm? Not an Ad-Carry anymore?” She’d played a few games with the new Graves recently, and noticed how much more difficult it was to play with Graves. And how awkward it was to wait for Graves to reload after firing two shots.

An Xin laughed. “Very astute, Lin Feng! Did you figure that out all on your own? You’re not just telling them what I said yesterday? But he is right, guys. The new Graves is looking like a Jungler.” 

“We can test it out ourselves,” Zeng Rui suggested. He had his own opinions about the changes for Season 6. Especially the massive buff to ad-carry champions. If Season 5 was the League of Top Lane, Season 6 was shaping up to be the era of Ad-Carry dominance.

“The bot lane is going to be even more important now,” Zeng Rui remarked. For a support main like him, this was both good and bad news. The good news didn’t need to be elaborated, but the bad was because it meant the bot lane was going to become even more chaotic.

Lin Feng laughed and patted Tang Bingyao’s shoulder. “So Tang Tang has to try even harder. She’s going to be our carry in the future!’

Tang Bingyao nodded firmly. She’d understood what was happening after reading the patch notes, and she’d also experienced how much stronger champions like Corki and Ashe were on the new patch.

“It’s a shame that the Collegiate Cup is going to continue with the Season 5 patch. We won’t get to play with the new changes,” Lin Feng said with a sigh. Then his smile perked right back up. “It’s fine! Once we win the Collegiate Cup, we’ll get to play the new patch in other tournaments!” 

An Xin rolled her eyes. ‘Idiot. How about we focus on the Collegiate Cup first before thinking about other tournaments?”

“No need! We’ll win for sure! I’m the protagonist, remember? I can’t lose!”

An Xin narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Oh, is that so? You can’t lose? Why does the hero need to sit around studying then? I’m guessing that you’re all prepared for the exams, right? Maybe because you already took them in a previous timeline and then went back to the past to set things right? What’s this webnovel called again? Rebirth of the Maple Who Rose to Fail His Exams?”

Lin Feng’s expression immediately changed and he grumbled. “Hey, BunBun! Don’t bring that up!”