Chapter 16

Subject: What the hell, I just saw Cheng Ge and the new ZGDX Mid girl playing

duo on OB (an online viewing system)!

OP:

Yesterday, I checked the ranking of our ZGDX Little Fatty and as expected, he

was losing hard as usual. Out of curiosity, I also checked who were his teammates

and found that Little Fatty was playing duo for several matches with someone with

the ID "smiling." Hahahahaha, you all know who that is!

Our Little Fatty was playing with his usual style, using all kinds of champions as

Support and successfully leading his new teammate in a dive to Diamond 2!

-- --Do you all think this counts as campus bullying, the old bullying the new...

And today, our Cheng Ge stands up, probably to make up for the bullying of his own team!

ZGDX Mid and Bot are playing duo, hahahahahahahahahaha! Right at this moment!

(posted 2016-5-2 17:30)

(lots of comments followed)...

503rd post

OP:

I'm back. Let me recount the highlights of our ZGDX first Mid and Bot duo-- --

In the first match, Cheng Ge, playing Jungler, robbed Smiling's blue.

In the second match, Smiling robbed Cheng Ge's red.

In the third match, Smiling played 0/7/3 Yasuo.

There was no fourth match.

Because the duo parted ways.

I can almost imagine the moment they had their breakup. I hope they didn't

start a fight.

PS: It's so difficult to be a fan for this team. Except for Old Cat and Old K who

would play duo nicely, you can never see any other members playing

peacefully…...thus, Old Cat and Old K, you two have to be nice to each other(T__T)

(posted 2016-5-2 20:12)

...

"..."

Tong Yao quickly moved the mouse and read all the posts with great interest,

"feel sorry for the new girl," "feel sorry for Cheng Ge who would be getting a

salary deduction tomorrow," "feel sorry for the unpopular Little Fatty," and "feel

sorry for myself for being the fan of such a silly team."-- --towards the end, she

couldn't even recognize the words "feel sorry."

"Cheng Ge, the roommate of one of your fans wants to see the bot of ZGDX playing

duo before she dies." She kept moving her mouse while read each post aloud.

Little Fatty: "I'd love to see that before my salary disappears."

The man sitting next to Tong Yao ignored his Support but glanced at Tong Yao,

"Am I supposed to be responsible for my fan's roommate?"

"A good idol always cares for everyone in the world."

"I'm just an internet addicted old man."

"..."

"Shorty."

"What?"

"You posted on Weibo again?"

"You just played your game, it has nothing to do with you."

"It'll have nothing to do with me if you tell your fans not to tag me."

"That has nothing to do with me."

Tong Yao closed the web page and stood up to stretch, she was hungry.

As she was about to call for food delivery, the manager, Xiao Rui, slowly walked

down from the second floor. He walked before Little Fatty and kicked him as he

spoke to Lu Sicheng, "Kids, don't you all think it's about time for us to arrange

some skirmishes?"

-- --A skirmish, as in two teams arranged to play a match, following all the rules

of a regular match…...Skirmishes are very important in a professional's career.

They can test new champions, practice new strategy, or even get to know new

teammates during the skirmish...

When Tong Yao heard 'skirmish', she reflectively straightened up to look at

Xiao Rui. Lu Sicheng, on the other hand, simply replied, "oh," then continued

with his game without even raised his eyes to look at Xiao Rui.

Little Fatty pushed Xiao Rui's foot away, "Rui Ge, the Spring Tournament just ended.

Who plays skirmishes during the off season? We're still here because we played the

finals, all the other teams have finished their after-season games more than half of

month ago. They've all gone home now?"

"Most of the teams aren't happy with the result of their after season games, so no

more vacations." Xiao Rui shrugged. "See how hard they are trying. Then look at

yourselves. You're still happily going about your lives after losing the championship

in the Spring Tournament. Not even annoyed by CK..."

Little Fatty: "Yang God and them are all so happy, they are grinning from ear to ear."

Xiao Rui: "They can go play MSI, sure they're happy. This year, the MSI will be

here in Shanghai, right in front of our home."

MSI is a mid-sized international competition held after the Spring Tournament,

attended by the Spring Tournament champions from each of the six regions:

Korea (LCK), China (LPL), Taiwan (LMS), Europe (LCS, EU), and North America

(LCS, NA), along with wild card teams (formed by teams from areas other than the

above 5 regions)-- --

This year was the second MSI, held in Shanghai.

Last year, the champion of the 2015 MSI was the team from LPL. After they won

the championship, everyone felt that LPL teams were so strong that they would win

in the worldwide finals a few months later as well…...However, a few months later,

the three teams from LPL all performed badly at the S worldwide finals, two teams

were eliminated in the group matches, the other didn't even qualify for the final eight.

It was the worst record that LPL had ever experienced…..

After the defeat, the opinion of MSI had changed. Some still thought it was an

important tournament, only next to the world finals. Yet, some others insisted that...

-- --It was only a tournament for the purpose of entertainment!

-- --The other regions weren't taking it too seriously, otherwise, how could LPL win

the championship? !

-- --Garbage LPL! Garbage MSI!

With the bad experience from last year, most people still didn't have much confidence

in this region's teams. No one was optimistic for the result of this year's MSI...

Little Fatty was exactly one of those people.

Little Fatty: "What is there to be happy with when you'll get punched into the dirt right

in front of your own home?"

Xiao Rui pointed at Little Fatty's nose, "Don't you talk."

Xiao Rui then turned to ask Lu Sicheng, "Cheng Ge, you don't have any problem with

a skirmish, right?"

When Xiao Rui asked, Lu Sicheng was busy moving his champion, Kalista,

to destroy the enemy's Nexus. The red glow of the nexus reflected in his eyes,

but his face was very peaceful. He simply replied with an "en." He clicked

"continue" from the victory screen-- --

Then he started to check the stats of the match.

He didn't even raise his head the whole time.

Tong Yao felt his reaction to be quite odd. He wouldn't react this way if he

was unhappy about playing skirmishes during his vacation.

She turned to look at her other teammates, none of whom seemed willing to

speak but were sneakily checking Lu Sicheng's expression-- --Then Old Cat

turned his chair around, "Why do you suddenly want us to play a skirmish?

It's still early for the Summer season. Usually, we won't start training until after

the midseason tournament."

"We paid 800,000RMB for a new toy." Xiao Rui patted Tong Yao's shoulder,

"And you won't let me find a chance to show her off?"

Tong Yao, "..."

Xiao Rui: "We won't know whether she's a horse or a mule until we try her in a game!"

Before he finished, Lu Sicheng abruptly stood up.

Everyone was shocked by his sudden move, even Xiao Rui closed his mouth-- --

Lu Sicheng acted quite calmly. He patted his pants pockets, then he pulled

out a cigarette like a magic trick from underneath the Fortune Cat on the

desk. He glanced at Xiao Rui, "I'm going for a smoke."

Xiao Rui's face twitched visibly.

"I already arranged to have a skirmish with YQCB five days from now." Lu

Sicheng waved his hand, "I just forgot to tell you."

"Oh, isn't that a positive attitude? Hey, wait." Xiao Rui stopped suddenly,

"Why that relegation team?"

"Pope just joined the team." Lu Sicheng stuck the unlit cigarette into his

mouth with eyes squinted, "Just to meet him."

"What?"

"Not going to repeat myself."

"What did you say?" Xiao Rui was so confused, "Pope, which Pope? That

Pope whose team won the S tournament final championship and who won

the yearly MVP…...hah?"

Lu Sicheng replied, "En. YQCB should officially announce it tomorrow."

He then raised his chin towards Xiao Rui and walked out the house to have his cigarette.

Tong Yao looked at the shocked Xiao Rui who had even forgotten to mention

a salary deduction, then she recalled that Lu Sicheng had mentioned that the

current AD, Xiao Nuan, of YQCB was going to retire-- --

The topic was interrupted when Lu Sicheng discovered that she was the person in the elevator.

It looked like he was trying to tell her that Pope would be the one to replace

Xiao Nuan…...It seemed that Lu Sicheng knew it all along that "Pope", Li Junhe,

was coming to China to play professionally.

.......The problem was why did Lu Sicheng know so much about Pope?

"Cheng Ge and that Pope, urr." Tong Yao hesitated, "Is there some history between them?"

Old Cat was amazed, "Wow, you don't know about it?"

Old K: "Wow, you don't know about it."

Xiao Rui's hand was on his chest, "I like the way you didn't ask any improper

questions just now. Boy, my heart almost stopped when Cheng Ge gave me that look."

Tong Yao was even more confused by their exaggerated responses, "What? What happened?"

Little Fatty sighed, then explained, "When our Cheng Ge first started playing

professionally, he played as substitute for a top team in Korea. He was Pope's

substitute. Their playing style and champion pool were almost identical…...At the

time, everyone said that he was Pope's shadow, some even said that he was

copying Pope…..Well, you know Cheng Ge, he's such a proud person, probably

hasn't been happy because of that for a long time-- --"

"..."

Tong Yao nodded and looked at the direction where Lu Sicheng had gone. She

finally understood his abnormal behavior-- --

So it was the sad story of a substitute trying to prove himself to an official player!

…...Tsk, tsk.

"Alright then." Tong Yao stood up with arms raised all the way up, "For the pride

of our Cheng Ge, let's go for it five days later!"

Old Cat fearfully looked at the door as if a tiger was going to rush in to eat

him, "...Not so loud."

Old K waved his hand, "Young people are fearless. Last time the one who

dared to mention Pope at the base to encourage Cheng Ge has gone to play

the City League now. (It's a lower level professional league even lower than

the second level league, LSPL)

Little Fatty shivered.

Xiao Rui: "Everyone sit down, sit down! Let me go ask the manager of YQCB

to find out what's going on. They bought Li Junhe. Looks like YQCB doesn't

want to be a quiet team at the Summer season. Aiyo, aiyo, what a headache."

Everyone then went back to their own business.

Tong Yao didn't start a new game. She picked up Dabing from Little Fatty's lap

and walked to the couch in the living room. She knelt on the couch so she could

peek out from the window. The man standing outside the door was leaning

against the door with cigarette in his mouth while typing on his cell phone with one hand-- --

Tong Yao pushed the window open.

"Hey."

The man raised his head.

"We'll win the skirmish." Tong Yao pulled up Dabing's claw and waved it towards

the man, "I'll carry you. You can just lie down there at bot to win."

Lu Sicheng, surprised by the sudden statement, stared at the shorty who was

leaning on the window. After a while, he grinned, "Are you retarded?"

The one leaning on the window giggled like a sunflower.