The Exile

"Please stay, our staff has to tabulate your names and scores. That's because there will be a professional caster during the finals who will give a basic introduction of each contestant," the young caster walked over and said. 

"Oh, okay." The group nodded. Chen Mu guessed it was for the jokes. After all, the audience would not make much sense out of the tournament, ELO points would give them a better understanding. This person has 2000 points, that one has 2200. To most players who were of 1200 to 1500 ELO points, the display would be quite strong. 

"Hey, this username doesn't have a rank?" One of the staff asked. 

"Yeah, I just reached Level 30, I haven't played any ranked games," Chen Mu said. 

"So what should I write down?" The staff member was dumbfounded. Someone who had never played ranked games before managed to become the champion. The value of the tournament was for sure too low, perhaps none of the participants even knew how to play.

"Just write Level 30 then." Chen Mu felt that he would have to play his ranked provisional matches soon. If not, he would not know which rank he belonged to. 

"Okay then. Level 30, has never played ranked…" The staff member made a special note to prevent himself from being accused of not doing his job properly. 

Right after, the group left. Chen Mu was questioned by Zhuo Xiaobai on the way. How did you get kills so easily, were the opponents that bad? 

Chen Mu confirmed as much, the opponents did not know how to play around minion aggro. Their decision making was too direct shallow, always flashing only when they were about to die, so they died. 

Zhuo Xiaobai nodded without stopping, putting his focus in remembering Chen Mu's explanations of the various skills. His enthusiasm was not lower than when Chen Mu was in class. 

"If you put as much effort in class, you could at the very least double your performance," Chen Mu said. 

"I'd like that too. Tell me how to get 140 in Maths. Are those questions even for humans? Why is this line parallel to that line, what has it got to do with me?" Zhuo Xiaobai rolled his eyes. Those maths questions he had faced seemed completely pointless. 

"Hm… how to get 140 in the exams, just don't do 2 multiple choice questions and you'll get there," Chen Mu said. 

"..." Zhuo Xiaobai wanted to punch him. He took a deep breath to calm himself; they really did not operate on the same channel.

"Forget it, there's a generation gap between us. I'm just going to go watch my championship finals." Zhuo Xiaobai sat on the bus and pulled out his phone. He began to search for videos of the world championship. 

"Who won?" Chen Mu asked as he sat down. 

"I bet 100,000 it's Korea!" Zhuo Xiaobai said. 

"Are you that confident?" Chen Mu was curious. Did Zhuo Xiaobai not hate Korea the most, why did he suddenly support Korea so much?" 

"It's guaranteed because in the grand finals, both teams were from Koreans." Lu Ren saw through Zhuo Xiaobai. 

"Do the Koreans have an extra hand, why are they so strong?" Chen Mu said. 

"E-sports is one of their country's main industries. Starcraft is basically a game for Koreans, while Warcraft is still okay with a few decent Huaxia teams. As for first person shooters like CSGO, the Europeans and Americans are better. Huaxia has always dominated Crossfire championships. Each country has its own strengths," Lu Ren said as he polished his glasses. 

"How about Dungeon Fighter?" Chen Mu had not played the game in a long time but remembered playing the fighting game briefly. 

"It's being fought over between Chinese and Koreans, the Koreans have more champions," Lu Ren said. 

"You know a lot," Chen Mu said. 

"I like to read gaming news when I'm bored. There's a lot of news concerning E-sports, the more you see, the more you know," Lu Ren said. He was clearly happy to have been able to demonstrate his strength. 

Chen Mu fell silent. If the semifinals had been dominated by 3 Korean teams, did it not mean that at least half of the top 20 contestants in the world were Korean? Would he be able to find teammates to compete with them? 

He shook his head and cleared his mind of those questions of the far future. He should just focus on the tournament in front of him and how he would get the 20000 bucks. It was a large amount of money, in the future, he could drink 2 glasses of soy milk without worry. 

He got home early, and before his training began, he hurriedly did a few National College Entrance Exams mock papers. The book was the first for end of term exams, and it had been given to him by Ms. Liang. Chen Mu would not have bought an enrichment book that was not necessary so willingly. 

When the time came, the system notification rang, "Tonight's training is to begin. The champion to be mastered is Riven, the Exiled Blade. The first stage combo, speed of light Q, auto attack. The requirement is to Q three times with auto attacks weaved in between under 1.7 seconds. Tutorials are already available online, you may look them up yourself." 

When Chen Mu heard this, he hurriedly opened his web browser and made a few searches. There really were tutorials that had been uploaded by a teen from North America. Riven fans across the globe were learning from him. 

Chen Mu watched it once. The idea was to use one's right click to cancel Riven's animation backswing. The Q would then cancel the auto attack animation in turn. Hence, the 3 second combo could be turned into a 1.7 second one. It was a very creative use of animation cancel. 

Chen Mu tried it out once, and after 10 minutes, he met the system's requirements. 

To Chen Mu, the combo was very simple. It was actually a clear thought, after understanding the mechanics, simply doing it methodically would do. 

"Second stage, double Q four times in a row. Please time the CD properly and use four Qs with auto attacks weaved in between." 

…

"Stage 3…" 

"Stage 4…" 

Chen Mu had underestimated the system. Riven had many mechanical combos. Ravenous Hydra could even be integrated into them, and Riven could combo with Storm's1 ultimate. There were dozens of different ways to deal damage. 

Riven's Q had a unique cooldown mechanic. After using the first stage of Riven's Q, it would go into cooldown. Hence, there were many different ways to count it. 

The champion seemed viable for one to play for many years without them growing tired of it. It had many permutations and was difficult to master. 

Chen Mu knew that a night's training was far from enough for him to master the champion. That was because the champion had a lot of areas worth developing.

Furthermore, she was very very strong! 

There was a 2.5 second shield from her E which only had a 3.6 second CD at max cooldown reduction. That meant there was only a 1.1 second gap for her to be punished, it was a big problem! 

The Q and auto attack animation cancel combo required 1.7 seconds. On the other hand, the shield lasted for 2.5 seconds each time it was cast. Was it not a chance to be killed by someone who was low? 

Chen Mu practiced for over 2 hours. At the moment, he had practiced over 10 champions' unique mechanics. However, Chen Mu basically not been able to use them in the tournament. As for the moment, his opponents… did not warrant them? 

He was able to win purely by farming and using his skills properly. Chen Mu looked forward to playing ranked games. Ao Wen and Ao Xuan's mechanical skills showed that people above 2300 ELO points were much more capable. He hurriedly played two more matchmade games to improve his matchmaking time. He was close to hitting 8 minutes. He believed that in a week or so, he would reach the half an hour queue time desired by the system. 

He hoped that the finals the upcoming week would go as smoothly as the previous one he had just played. The 20000 Bucks was definitely going to be Chen Mu's!