League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Mr. Lei stared hard at Duo Duo as a gesture for him to tone down.

“Ms. Li, I am willing to collaborate with you, however, I just don’t see how your team can bring any benefits to my café.” Mr. Lei said politely.

“Mr. Lei, please don’t reject us first. Can I talk to you in private?” Meiqi said.

Mr. Lei nodded and walked over to a corner with Meiqi. He looked at Meiqi patiently as he listened to her proposal.

***

The manager of the café was clearly still annoyed and he scowled at Luocheng, Jian Feng and reprimanded them, “Please stop joking around. There are a lot of teams queueing up to stand in for our café, it’s just that our boss is rather picky about the selection. This is not a café you lowly punks could ever represent. Team Skycrown my ass. I have never even heard of this name and thought you guys were at least a monthly champ or a top-three provincial team judging by how boastful the lady was just now. Tell me, what do you guys have?”

“The capability to win,” Luocheng said confidently.

“Capability? Pfft. Are you in the Diamond Rank or Challenger?” Duo Duo asked in an ironic tone.

“Well, why don’t you tell me straight up what are the criterias for us to be endorsed by your café?” Luocheng asked with a smile.

“At the very least, you have to be in the top three of the monthly robin-round of the Champions War in the Shanghai region, can you do that?” Duo Duo said.

“We entered the competition in another province, so we are not eligible for the Shanghai competition,” Jian Feng explained.

“For God’s sake! Stop fooling around. If so, what about team ranking?” The manager questioned.

“We have only just started,” Luocheng answered.

“Gasp!” Duo Duo almost lost his temper.

‘Unbelievable! Where do these guys come from? How delusional are they to call themselves a team? Open your eyes now, this place is the most popular LOL-themed internet café in Shanghai, alright? Get the f*ck out of here!’

“We do plan on improving our ranking anyway. Just tell us your target and we will get there in no time.” Luocheng promised.

“Your humor beats me. Alright then. Of course, the higher the ranking, the better it is. But take a look at our promotional banner. That’s the highest rank our previous team had managed to reach—top 50 in server 1!” Duo Duo pointed at the wall and said.

Luocheng’s line of sight followed his finger and saw the cropped-out LOL ranking table that was printed on a giant poster.

47! They were once at the 47th position in server 1.

Everybody knew that the Ionia server assembled a lot of top LOL players in the country. To be able to stand at the 47th position in this server meant that they were also probably one of the top 100 teams in China.

“So, what now? If you guys are unable to overtake this record and make us renew the banner, then you’d better save your energy and get lost quickly!” Duo Duo sneered.

***

Meanwhile, Mr. Lei was no longer frowning after he listened to Meiqi’s proposal. In fact, he looked a little excited.

“No wonder he looked extremely familiar! So he was the world-class player who had wreaked havoc in last year’s LPL. I also watched that game, it was such a mind-blowing performance!” Mr. Lei was pumped.

“Hush…” Meiqi lowered her voice, “Sky Club has been harassing us non-stop. They’ve continuously tried to defame us even after we were out of the LPL, and so, before we are qualified for the next LPL, our actual identity has to remain a secret. I hope you can understand our situation.”

“I see, I see. No doubt, at one point, the issue between Team Skycrown and Team Sky was the center of attention. However, once Blood Eagle announced his return, the topic has since been redirected back to how dominant Blood Eagle is. We can’t deny that Sky Club’s PR does have a huge influence in the E-sports world.” Mr. Lei nodded.

Although Team Skycrown had shone brightly on the LPL stage before, they were still currently being banned from the competition. No sponsor would risk betting on them before they had proven themselves once again on the big stage.

Moreover, Xu Pingyang had taken even more drastic measures in hindering Team Skycrown, very determined to kill the team off in its infancy.

Team Skycrown were still pretty fragile at the moment, and they could not take another hit like the one that had befallen Xiao Bei. Thus, they chose to stay hidden to prevent any leak of information before the pre-season qualifiers. They were aiming to save their best performance for the grandest stage—LPL.

After one year of dedicated training, they believed that they could take on any team now, including Team Sky that had Blood Eagle in it.

“So, are you interested in investing in us?” Meiqi asked.

“Of course. When I changed the name of this café to Demacia, a lot of old-timers chastised my decision and claimed that I was digging my own grave. But do you see the outcome now? Most of them have left the scene, while my café is still going strong. Since I’m riding on the LOL wave and my target is to set up a high-standard internet café, the inclusion of such a top-tier team in my blueprint is definitely the best thing that could happen to Demacia café. With this collaboration, I believe there will be more and more LOL fans coming here in the future, and that’s when I can carry out my next move!” Mr. Lei agreed enthusiastically.

“Your next move?” Meiqi was puzzled.

“It’s a trade secret,” Mr. Lei replied with a mysterious smile.

“Then… Let’s discuss the endorsement fund?” Meiqi asked.

“Okay!”

***

The money part soaked up the rest of their lengthy negotiation, but it was expected as this was meant to be a draggy bargain.

After both sides had finally reached a consensus, Mr. Lei walked back to them with a cheerful smile. He tapped the manager’s shoulder and said, “Set up the VIP room for them. Resume the open challenge and raise the reward straight up to 10,000 RMB.”

“What? You are giving the VIP room to these clowns? Not only that, but you want to increase the prize of the open challenge to 10,000 RMB? You must be out of your mind, boss!” Duo Duo almost peed himself.

“I am dead serious.” Mr. Lei repeated firmly. “From tomorrow onward, they will come over every day to play team-ranking and accept open challenges from the public. This team is my choice to represent our café from now on.”

“Boss… You can’t be serious!” Duo Duo looked at Meiqi disbelievingly.

‘What had this busty girl said to Mr. Lei? How had she managed to change his mind? What had made Mr. Lei so confident as to set up 10,000 RMB as the prize money? This was insane!’

“That’s all. I still have things to do so I will leave the rest to you.” Mr. Lei didn’t say much after that. He walked out in a rush, leaving Duo Duo, who was still utterly baffled by such an abrupt decision.

***

“What is this open challenge and the 10,000 RMB prize about?” Jian Feng asked the manager.

Grudgingly, Duo Duo replied, “We have a unique member system since we are a LOL-themed café. Other than the normal rate, we have also introduced weekly, monthly, seasonal, and even yearly memberships.”

“The weekly card is called the Bronze card, monthly is Silver, seasonal is Gold, and the annual card is Platinum. We also have the Diamond membership. Those who have applied for these cards are allowed to join the open challenges. They will be given prize money if they reach certain goals, and these goals include new winning streaks, SOLO-battle, new best team-ranking, or defeating the in-house team. Different challenges offer different prizes, for instance…”

The manager pointed to another side of the wall. They realized that there was another poster hanging there, and on it was written “20 Win-Streak”. Underneath it was stated the prize amount of 3000 RMB in large fonts, followed by smaller fonts of terms and conditions.

“Now, look there!” Duo Duo pointed in another direction. That wall was just on the opposite of the main entrance. Anyone would see it as soon as they entered the shop. For some unknown reason, Luocheng had not noticed it earlier when they had first arrived.

Unsurprisingly, there was another poster hanging there. This time, it was a team logo that was printed on it. The line under it read, “Do you want the reward? Defeat them and the money is all yours!”

The manager then pointed at the glass counter directly under the poster and explained, “There was supposed to be cash in there. Previously, the highest reward would only accumulate to 5000 RMB. I wonder what has gotten into Mr. Lei’s mind today. I bet the 10,000 RMB will be gone in one day as your team is obviously unreliable!”

‘This café is pretty unique. To think that they would even offer such a reward…’

This way, those who lived quite a distance away would still be willing to visit the café due to the unique challenges posed by the owner. There would always be confident players who were eager to test their skills.

The thing was, to be able to take on the challenge, one must first apply for a membership.

They now realized that Mr. Lei was indeed a smart businessman.

If someone were to fail the challenge, the prize money would go up, and this was going to attract more challengers. Very few could resist the temptation of real money after all.

All Mr Lei needed to do was fork out a part of the membership fees as the prize money, and this would create a positive feedback loop. Even if someone did manage to claim the reward, his loss would be marginal as compared to the customers and atmosphere that such challenges had fished out.

If no one fell for this “trap”, the money would still be there, and he faced no deficit either.

A weekly card allowed only one challenge per week. Those who were aiming for the grand prize would definitely go straight for the more expensive memberships. If this café did manage to successfully create a competitive environment that suited LOL, then people like Xu Ben who had a ton of money and couldn’t wait to prove himself, would not mind signing up for the Platinum membership.

Think about those fitness gyms that charged their members 1000-2000 RMB per year. Many people would pay the fees but only attend a few times within that period. If Mr. Lei could turn his café into an attractive “LOL-gym”, the business would certainly flow in by itself.

***

After listening to Duo Duo’s explanation, Luocheng roughly grasped their future role in this café.

It seemed that there would be plenty of teams coming at them, allegedly the guardians of Demacia, in the future for the lucrative 10,000 RMB reward.

Besides, he knew that Meiqi must have told Mr. Lei their real identity, otherwise, the owner would not be so daring. Mr. Lei knew that unless another LPL team came to take the challenge, no other team would be able to defeat a top-tier team like Team Skycrown. Additionally, there was simply no reason that a team of the LPL level would purposely visit the café for 10,000 RMB. As a result, the prize money was basically secured.

This prize might even roll higher in the future to further boost the café’s name and attract more players who were hungry for the money.

“What do you think?” Meiqi had never seen any internet café like this, and she asked for Luocheng’s opinion.

“It’s great. It just so happens that we are lacking some punching bags right now.” A smirk appeared at the corner or Luocheng’s lips.

As the prize snowballed, stronger and stronger teams would emerge, trying to topple them. This kind of training might be exactly what Team Skycrown needed before the real competition.

‘This conveniently solves our lack of adequate opponents to test our team’s new strategy on.’

“Hey, don’t you worry. With them guarding the prize, not even a team from the LPL could pry the money away.” Jian Feng said to the manager as he laughed happily.

“Cut your bullshit. I don’t see how this can last for more than a week. There are a lot of strong teams around, including professional teams who visit frequently. Just wait and see, I seriously doubt Mr. Lei’s decision to employ you guys as the in-house defenders. This 10,000 RMB is going to be wasted for nothing.”