League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Boss Lei was over the moon!

What Demacia Cafe wanted was the coverage and popularity. With Luocheng’s arrogant challenge toward the entire nation, countless teams would be ticked off, and even more would be interested to witness with their own eyes the strength that LPL players could demonstrate. They would surely travel miles and miles to pay a visit to Demacia Cafe.

With a stunt like this, the cash was going to go rolling into Boss Lei’s pocket, his Demacia Cafe was going to be packed!

Without any drama, grudges, or revenge, how else were they going to get their big break? Even Boss Lei was becoming a fanboy of this charismatic leader!

***

“Whoa, what the hell is Fighting Hawk doing!?” Team Stardust who were watching the interview live were shocked by Luocheng’s words.

What kind of LPL professional team would simply accept challenges from any and all teams!? It didn’t just devalue their real competitions, but they also risked exposing their true battle tactics and skills. Weren’t Team Skycrown afraid that their strategies would be studied forward and back, causing them to be easily countered by the people from the LPL?

Every other professional team had the same thoughts, no normal human being would do such a thing!

***

“He’s so ballsy, if it were me, I probably wouldn’t have the guts.” Team Revelation’s Hao Yue gulped hard.

Bai Feng was having heart palpitations of his own, his eyes staring unblinkingly at the interview on the screen.

This guy was crazy.

However, after that 100 kill count match in the LPL, he was probably the only one in the country who had the right to say things like that!

“Yeah, isn’t Fighting Hawk being a bit too much? This was a challenge against our titles as LPL stars as well,” Qing Ye said.

Bai Feng shook his head, “He’s pioneering a path for us.”

“Pioneering? What do you mean?”

Bai Feng understood. Luocheng was challenging non-professional players, especially those that messed with the public’s perception of them just because they played video games as their job!

Professional players inherently needed a lot of self-control. They would need to follow certain rules and abide by strict restrictions, after all, not just anyone who played well to get into the ranks of a challenger could call themselves a professional. This was what a lot of LPL players couldn’t stand. Their country didn’t have a clear divider to differentiate between professionals and non-professionals, and so, a lot of players abused this to claim they were more than they were, frustrating the true professionals.

But now with Luocheng challenging every team in the country, this was an obvious attack against non-professional teams, he was going to start a revolution for LPL teams starting at the Demacia Cafe!

He was spreading the message, if you had the guts to come and challenge them, he would show you what true professional players were really capable of!

***

“Whether he is stepping on the League community’s nerves or trying to create a new future for e-sports, doesn’t he understand that he shouldn’t show his entire hand so quickly? Hmph, this kid is just asking to be taken out,” Team Sky’s Guang Langjie laughed coldly.

Team Sky had only recently heard of the news, quickly rushing to turn on the stream. Unfortunately, they had missed Luocheng’s riveting speech, but from what they had heard from others, they knew Luocheng had reached the peak of idiocracy.

Netizens weren’t ones you wanted to provoke. The more arrogant you were, the more you would be hated, and a lot of times, professional players who were just a tad too confident or “boastful” for these netizens would suddenly be on the headlines, being flamed!

“So what? It’s good news for us, no one is going to try defending their team now!”

“How about we mess with them a little, knock them down before they can get up?” Sun Liang suggested slyly.

The ACE signed contracts with all of their players. Spouting nonsense like this all over the media, straight up challenging every other LOL team in the country, it was definitely against the guidelines, and Sun Liang was thinking that they could take this opportunity to make a trip to the ACE Headquarters to report this incident!

Xu Pingyang’s face turned a steely green as soon as he saw Luocheng’s face on-screen. After listening to what Sun Liang had said, he immediately phoned the ACE’s Head Secretary.

“Hey, Liang? Did you see the interview at Demacia Cafe just now?” Xu Pingyang said through the phone.

“Yeah, I’m watching it right now,” ACE’s Head Secretary said.

“A professional player openly accepting all challenges from all local teams isn’t that great, right? If people start spreading news about how e-sports professional players think so little of your average player, we would be forced to come out and explain ourselves, maybe we should give him a little fine or something as a warning,” Xu Pingyang laid the kindness on thick in his voice as he didn’t want the Head Secretary to know that he had it out for Team Skycrown.

“Xu Pingyang, it’s not like you don’t know the situation Fighting Hawk is in.” ACE’s Head Secretary let out a long sigh, he was obviously aware of the rocky history between Xu Pingyang and Fighting Hawk.

“What situation?” Xu Pingyang asked.

Now, almost every professional player was under ACE’s unified management. There wasn’t any team that could entirely tough it out on their own, rules were rules after all. Moving forward, players officially recognized by the ACE were probably going to be the only ones who could truly take on the title of a professional player.

This was why, even though Team Skycrown had yet to join the ACE, if they wanted to participate in a competition held by Tencent, they would still have to apply for it through the ACE. This meant that the ACE still reserved the right to dish out punishments for misbehaviour.

In conclusion, Xu Pingyang’s report had no effect, and he begrudgingly put down the phone.

***

On the ACE’s side, the Head Secretary was staring intently at his computer, the same interview being shown on the screen.

“Mr. Liang, are we really just going to let him get away with this? He’s still a past participant in the LPL, to some degree, he still represents the LPL as a professional player. This overwhelming arrogance that he is displaying could undermine all the effort we’ve put in thus far to create a good reputation in the public’s eye regarding e-sports,” the female Vice Secretary said.

“Xiao Qing, there’s much that you still don’t know. Fighting Hawk is quite a… special player, and there’s not much we can do to reign him in,” Secretary Liang said.

“How is he special? Isn’t the entire purpose of our association to manage e-sports professional players like him?” The vice president pursued.

“Fighting Hawk isn’t ours to manage, his banning and punishments are to be handled by the International E-Sports Federation,” Secretary Liang said.

Xiao Qing was stunned. This was the first time since she had held this position that she’d heard of something that they couldn’t handle at the ACE, something that had to be settled by the International E-Sports Federation themselves!

Since when did their country have this sort of player!?

“Also, him doing this isn’t necessarily destroying the professional sector. Haven’t we been looking for a way to have a breakthrough in our industry? However reckless it may be, him issuing a challenge like this might be just what we need. Rather than letting those messy media platforms toy with us, why not take a firmer stance, why not show them our true potential, why not let them kneel before us?” Secretary Liang said.

***

Back at the Demacia Cafe, Luocheng’s speech had sent waves of shock, fear, and excitement through the crowd!

An LPL player, and none other than the world-renowned Fighting Hawk who was famous for his bloody match against Team Sky!

More than a few people had thought that their defending team shared some similarities with Team Skycrown, but they didn’t think an LPL-level team would plant their roots defending an open competition in some cybercafe. Who would’ve thought that it really was them!

“Wow, they really are legends! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I get to see real Gods in the flesh!” A pretty lady who came by to drink coffee often was ecstatic.

“I know right, they’re so hot! Especially when that guy was challenging everyone like that!”

“I thought you said Bai Feng was hot?”

“Bai Feng is too uptight, I like them a little on the wild side with more authority! I’m going to get his number later!”

A group of girls who had come for the coffee and League started chattering like magpies, gesturing wildly and jumping out of their seats. Others who knew a bit more about competitive LOL still hadn’t recovered from their state of shock.

They could barely believe that the troll Support they had been flaming for the past two months was actually the globally ranked Fighting Hawk!

These past two months, he must have been intentionally increasing the game’s difficulty as the leader to give his teammates the chance to train properly, so he was playing with only one hand… no, one foot, deliberately creating a 4 vs 6 situation!

Team Skycrown, these teams were little more than ants beneath your mighty reign, your leader shouldn’t force you to try so hard!

The regular customers were equally as excited, being in such close proximity with such God-like figures for so long and yet not having a single clue!

Team Sunlight’s brain-dead fans were all deadly silent. Team Skycrown was a real LPL team, and against a team as strong and powerful as them, Team Sunlight really was a grain of sand in Team Skycrown’s mighty kingdom!

Ending at 18 minutes, that was the leader Fighting Hawk showing you mercy, if he wanted to, he could torture you in a never ending game with over 100 casualties!

***

Team Sunlight’s Bing Bing was flabbergasted, staring open-mouthed at Luocheng!

Thinking back to the competition between Team Skycrown and Team Revelation, if they took the glasses off this kid, this troll Support really did look like the world-class Fighting Hawk!

What the hell!

Team Sunlight had specifically tried to find a cybercafe to build up some popularity, stir up some news, but they just had to encounter a real f*cking LPL team, and none other than the most controversial Team Skycrown!

They had claimed to be on par with LPL professionals, but they knew very well that they still had a long way to go before being on the same level as those in the LPL.

Being beaten in 18 minutes had not been a coincidence at all!

“Hey, so are you still going to play? We’ve already told you that we’ll accept any and all challenges, just try and make it past 20 minutes this time!” Da Luo barked a laugh at Team Sunlight.

Nine Days and Bing Bing didn’t dare talk back. In all honesty, if they were against Team Skycrown, they had no confidence whatsoever. Even if they did agree to a rematch, it was highly unlikely that they could even reach 20 minutes!

The stoney expression these two had told Team Skycrown and their fans everything, they were through!