Chapter Six

It was now Sunday and Yufei woke the boys up at the crack of dawn. He leaded them outside in the front of the base, as they followed still half asleep and dragging their feet.

"Lao Yufei, it's six in the morning. Why are we doing out here so early. And it's freezing." Daoming complained as he rubbed his hands together to get warm.

"You boys are going to start off the morning with a little run to wake you up, and also you guys need to be kept in shape." Yufei remarked.

When they heard this they started to wine and mumble amongst each other.

Yufei then looked down the the road and said, "Alright, I want you guys to run down to the barrier at the bottom of the hill and back up within 15 minutes. No one is to come back in this base without running that road. I already asked the security at the bottom to tell me who all reached the barrier. Another thing is you are to get back here 'together' as a team. No one should be left behind. If you come back and one of you is missing, I'll let you run the stretch again. When you get back take a shower and meet me in the tactics room."

Everyone moaned again, at hearing this Yufei chuckled.

"But it's freezing." Sile cried.

"Well then start running so you can get warm and start sweating. The faster you run the quicker you can get back into the base." Yufei teased as he headed back inside.

Before closing the door behind him he warned, "Oh, one more thing, if you don't want to feel the cold air, don't walk, run, remember it's only 15 minutes."

He waved them goodbye and they watched him in disbelief. "Why isn't he running?" Si Cong wailed.

"Let's just get this over with." Suchang sighed placing his hand on Si Cong's shoulder and nudged him.

The all followed behind Suchang down the hill and around the curve all the way to the barrier. When they arrived at the barrier, they greeted the guard that was in the security booth and fell onto the ground, panting and breathing very loudly.

"Where's Sile?" Fenhua then asked.

Suchang then turned behind him to see if Sile was indeed not with them. When he turned his head back to the road ahead of him, he saw Sile struggling to continue running.

Suchang got up from the ground and ran towards Sile. When he arrived he stopped at Sile and helped him to the barrier.

Fenhua then looked at the watch on his hand and said, "We only have six minutes left."

Daoming then got up off the ground and shared, "Guys we can make it, we just got to think smart. Lao Yufei said that we can't return to the base without running this road to reach the barrier and that we all should arrive back at the base in fifteen minutes together. He never said anything about running the same road back."

"What does that have to do with thinking smart?" Xu Ke then muttered.

Daoming illuminated, "Think hard about it, not only today but back to when we had the practice match with OpTic Gaming. We would have lost the fight if Si Cong hadn't what?"

"If I hadn't sneaked out of the team fight and ran around it." Si Cong remembered.

"Exactly! Now how to we beat this, well instead of going around the curve because that takes up all the time, we're going through the trees and straight across it." Daoming instructed.

Everyone then applauded Daoming for his smart thinking. They then ran towards the trees and cut through them.

Yufei was standing outside the front of the base looking at his watch, waiting anxiously for the boys to arrive. "Only 30 seconds left." He whispered.

At that exact moment Suchang popped out from through the trees across the road from the base and the rest of the boys behind him. When seeing them Yufei smiled, "I was wondering when you guys would figure it out."

The timer on his watch then went off and as he silenced it he said, "Look at that all of you are here and just in time. Mission accomplished boys."

They boys began to cheer and clap thanking Daoming.

"Okay now get inside and take a shower, breakfast is almost ready." Yufei ordered them and they all continued laughing and talking amongst each other heading into the base.

Yufei delayed a while as he looked up to the sky and inhaled deeply, He then went inside at the kitchen and opened the journal he had that night. He flipped to the first page that started off with the words, 'Steps to being winners'. He took the pen that was laying on the counter and added a second checkmark next to the words, 'Team building morning run challenge'.

Yufei smiled as he recalled when the first checkmark was placed there. Thinking back to that time made him proud of these guys because him and his team did this challenge every morning for two weeks before they could figure out what the challenge really wanted to teach them.

He closed the book as he heard the boys coming down the stairs one by one.

"Smells so good." Yang Yang exclaimed walking into the kitchen. Yufei handed each one of them who came down into the kitchen a plate that held, cheese, and ham omelet, sausages and grilled cheese. They then all got a class of orange juice to top it all off.

Yufei also took his place around the table and ate with them. He started to flip through some papers on the clip board he had reading and using his pen to highlight certain words.

"What are you doing." Suchang asked looking at Yufei.

Without taking his eyes off the paper Yufei answered, "You'll find out in a while."

When they finished eating Si Cong washed the dishes and after chilling for a while, Yufei came and told them to follow him to the tactics room.

When they arrived in the room, Yufei placed the flash-drive in the T.V. while each of the took a seat around the table, four on one side, other three boys on the other, Yufei then sat being in the front of the row parallel to Suchang.

He the used the remote and turned on the T.V. then scrolled to and opened the folder labeled Legends. He clicked the first video and the video opened and started to play. After a few minutes the boys started to realize that it was the game they just recently played.

When the game came to a certain spot he paused it and asked, "Who can tell me where everything started to go wrong here?"

No one answered and just turned to each other to see who would answer Yufei. "Anyone?" Yufei asked looking at all of them who was looking around with clueless expressions.

Seeing that no one knew the direct answer Yufei then reworded, "Okay, tell me where you think everything started to go wrong."

Si Cong then answered, "When it started to look like we were going to lose, we began to play carelessly."

Yufei then snapped, "Right that is correct, but elaborate, how did you play carelessly?"

Si Cong then continued, "Well, we broke up the teamwork and started to play offence more aggressively without thinking smartly and focused less on defense. Because of that we gave the other team so many openings, which they took advantage of and gained an upper hand on us."

Yufei applauded Si Cong for his answer for he was right on spot.

"That's right Si Cong; Those last sentences is a rule every gamer knows, professional or not. That is the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy enemy himself. If I didn't step in and hinted Si Cong, you all would have lost. Also I want you boys to remember two important words Si Cong just used; teamwork and smart thinking."

Yufei then stood up out of his seat and faced them asking, "What did you all learn from that run this morning?"

"Team work and smart thinking." they all chorused.

Yufei then started pacing in front of them and remarked, "Right, but also you learned that there was more than one way to go about to things. If you see that a plan isn't going to work use another. Do not continue with that plan. And this goes to everyone of you, because of only one person chooses to move to a different plan the teamwork breaks up and you're all left with confusion. This is where communication and synchronization also comes in."

The boys attentively listened as Yufei explained. Next Yufei stated, "Now, about defense and offence. Everyone thinks that if you're good at one you don't need to be that good at the other, but I personally thing that logic is wrong. And it's been proven wrong in every singe game. Suchang, explain why that logic is wrong."

"It's wrong because both defense and offence are important." Suchang cleared his throat and sat up in his chair.

"How are they important?" Yufei asked leaning towards him.

"Their important because their both a prime skill in any sports field." Suchang added.

Yufei then started to elaborate on what Suchang said and the more he explained to them, and clarified where they made their mistakes, the boys slowly began to realize what they have been doing wrong all along.

The meeting went on for a few hours as Yufei walked them through at least five of the latest games they had played.

It was around midday when they all started to walk out of the tactics room. Some of them were stretching will the rest were talking to each other more about what they had learned and the simple mistakes they realize they made.

"What do you guys want to eat?" Yufei asked pulling out his phone from his pocket, so he can order the food.

"Pizza?" Sile asked looking at the rest of the boys who all mildly nodded.

Yufei placed in the order and they waited for the delivery. When the pizza arrived the boys quickly dug in and sat in the living room and watched a drama titled 'The King's Avatar'.

During the period of time when watching the drama one by one the boys fell asleep in the living room. When everyone was asleep except Yufei and Suchang, Yufei got up and collected the pizza boxes while Suchang shut off the T.V. and covered all the boys with a blanket.

After throwing the boxes in the trash at the back of the base, Yufei came back inside and sat around the dining table and started going through some papers Xin Yi sent him. Suchang then walked up to him and sat in the chair opposite of him.

He then looked at Yufei contemplating whether or not he should ask the question he wanted to ask.

"Spit it out." Yufei then said, feeling that Suchang wanted to say something.

"Nothing." Suchang squeaked.

Yufei placed the paper down out of his hand and on the table. He sat back in the chair and crossed his arms turning his head to Suchang.

Suchang looked at Yufei and sighed, "Well...I wanted to ask; do you really think we can do it?"

"Do what?" Yufei asked.

"Go to the championships." Suchang clarified.

Without giving it much thought Yufei answered in a swift, like he was already prepared for one of the boys to ask him this question. "Before asking me this question you should ask yourself; Do you trust your teammates enough? Do you believe that with them you can go to the championships?"

Suchang looked at Yufei with a puzzled expression, for he haven't thought about this.

"You guys going to the championships isn't based on what I think, but on you boys alone. If you think you can do it then you can. Afterall, you need to see it before you can be it."

Yufei smiled and picked up the paper off the table and continued to read it, leaving Suchang to think hard about what Yufei just told him.

That week had passed rather quickly than the boys had anticipated. Throughout that week instead of doing practical training, Yufei had them all study tactics and strategy. They also went through the matches of every other team in China that would be participating in the league this year, studying how they play and the tricks they pull. Lastly they did a lot of activities in and outside the base which included teamwork and allowed them to think smartly.

It was now Saturday and Yufei gave the boys this day to relax and reflect on what they had learned the past week. Although the boys didn't wake up until after noon that day they still went over what they remembered.

"I can't believe we missed that part where Alliance's top laner and ADC cornered Dominators mid-solo into their mid-solo's champion, Brand, pyroclasm ability." Sile exclaimed, as they ate burgers in the kitchen.

They stayed talking about that certain match up until when they heard Yufei arrived from meeting with Li Wei and Xin Yi.

"We're in the kitchen." Suchang shouted with a stuffed mouth.

When Yufei heard he walked towards the kitchen. When he got there he said, "I brought you guys a gift for all hard work this week."

Everyone wondered what Yufei had brought them because he held nothing in his hand. "What is it?" Fenhua asked.

"I have arranged a practice match for you against, Red Dragons. It's going to be on Monday. I want you guys to use this opportunity to use what you learnt this past week. Tomorrow we will be going over the strategy we will use." Yufei spouted making them all cheer in excitement.

That night everyone went to bed early for before Yufei went to bed he warned them that he will not spare them if they wake up late. They all fell asleep with one question on their mind, 'Will they win?'