League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Team Skycrown would usually head over to Demacia Cafe after their training matches. Not many teams would come to challenge them during the day, and so, 4 pm to 6 pm was free time for them to train.

Da Luo and Lin Dong had gone off to duo queue, the both of them hard set on getting into the top 30 of Ionia.

Wu Sen was playing ranked on the NA server while Zhou Yan was on the Korean server. Luocheng would usually go on the Korean Server or one of their local servers to try out new tactics on his smurf account “Trolling No. 1”, but since Xiao Zhuai had invited him to play today, that was what he was going to do.

The matches between teams in Bai Hu’s MSN group were quite intense with a lot of back and forth between godly teams, Luocheng always enjoyed the feeling.

“Mr. Leader, you’re going to play ranked on the Korean server?” Manager Duo Duo brought over a warm cup, smiling widely as he talked to Luocheng.

After the incident during their interview, Duo Duo’s attitude toward Luocheng had taken a complete 180. He had used to call Luocheng a troll on a daily basis, but upon finding out that Luocheng was that world-renowned player, he was just one step away from kissing the ground Luocheng walked on.

“Just playing an in-match with some friends,” Luocheng said.

After taking a sip of the drink given to him by Duo Duo, Luocheng glanced sideways at the shopkeeper who was still standing beside him.

Luocheng rolled his eyes hard, he knew what these business people were after, “Show it, there should still be a couple of people here.”

“Roger that!” The manager’s face lit up.

The room for the VIP teams at Demacia cafe was in its own glass-enclosed space with a door to enter and leave to keep random guests from getting in. Duo Duo was going to link their computers to the big screen in the lounge to allow their excited fans spectate.

Now, there were quite a few gamers who didn’t have anything better to do during the day, always waiting for Luocheng at Demacia Cafe, waiting for him to start playing and put on a show.

Xiao Duoduo complied with the wants and needs of his customers, after all, Team Skycrown’s presence was Demacia Cafe’s biggest selling point.

As the leader, Luocheng didn’t really allow others to view his personal games, however, today was a rare occurrence, just as a little fan service for the guys who had stayed just for him.

“Weird, why is it all in Traditional Chinese?” After a long wait in the lounge, Feng Da was the first to question the background of the match.

Feng Da was truly one of most loyal customers of Demacia Cafe, no matter what time of the day it was, chances were you’d find him hanging around the place. It was almost as if he didn’t have a day job or something.

“Yeah, what version is this?” a girl in formal attire and gold-rimmed glasses asked. The lady obviously worked somewhere close to the cafe, coming in to have a coffee and chat whenever she was free, and also to see what Team Skycrown was up to.

Duo Duo was stunned as well, this was his first time seeing LoL in traditional Chinese, and giving it a bit more thought, Taiwan was probably the only place in the world where this version was used.

So this meant that Luocheng was playing on the Taiwanese server!

“It’s the Taiwan server, Mr. Leader is playing on the Taiwan server!” Duo Duo said hastily.

Feng Da and the four or five other regulars lit up, it was their first time seeing the Taiwan servers!

They had already heard of strong players from Taiwan, and a few of the die-hard LoL enthusiasts were beyond excited! Today was a lucky day, not only were they able to catch a game by the legendary Luocheng himself, but it was also a game in Taiwan!

“Leader Yu! Who are you playing with!?” Feng Da shouted toward the glass enclosure Luocheng was sitting in.

“I don’t know them either, they’re from an anonymous MSN group,” Luocheng answered.

As he was talking, a gamer with the ID “Huo Ma” in traditional Chinese entered the game.

With everyone here, the host, Xiao Zhuai, started to find a match.

“Who’s this Huo Ma, it sounds familiar,” Feng Da said to no one in particular.

“Oh, who cares, just keep quiet and watch.”

The people on Luocheng’s team were separated into the Jungler “Xiao Zhuai”, Top “III”, read as “Third Gen” or “Gramps”, Mid “Death’s Dance”, and Luocheng’s ADC, “Mirage”.

The ID’s of Luocheng’s opponents were mostly familiar to him too, undoubtedly some other members of the group chat, and Luocheng guessed that the enemy’s Jungler was “Call me Daddy”, proving that he was one of Taiwan’s top Junglers.

Call me Daddy and Xiao Zhuai were infamous rivals and most bets were led by those two.

Both Team TPB and Team TPG were extremely strong teams, the only teams from Mainland China who could even hope to stand up against them were Team Daemons and Team Revelations. It was a shame that the two teams from Taiwan had gotten into the global top 8, but neither Team Revelations nor Team Daemons were able to get in. On the global ranks, Team TPB and Team TPG had ranked much higher than any other local team.

The gang that played with Feng Da followed news about professional players closely, and they got goosebumps when they saw the ID Huo Ma.

Huo Ma?

Could it be Team TPB’s Support? The one that had gotten the award of Best Support during the S International League???

If it really was him, this little match wasn’t just for fun and games, this was a battle between Gods!

“Today is going to be great! Guys, look, I did some research on a couple of Taiwanese teams, that Godly Support from Team TPB is called “Huo Ma”, our Leader is going to get it this time, queueing in a match with Taiwan’s Support God, and they’re on opposing teams too!” Mao excitedly shoved his phone in Feng Da’s face.

This was a once in a lifetime chance! The few of them were jumping in their seats, staring unblinkingly at the screen even before the minions had started to spawn, almost as if even the starting items of Gods had a special meaning behind them!

***

In the far north of the ice-covered Moscow, a brown-haired, dark-skinned Russian boy was doing push-ups in a fireplace-warmed room.

This was Fischer’s habit, before a game of LoL, he had to do 30 push-ups just so he could keep his body warm. Rumor had it then he even did so backstage during the S International League.

At his side, a man in a big featherdown jacket was nursing a warm cup of tea. “Is the punching bag ready?” the man asked.

“It’s a boxer, not a punching bag,” The muscly Fischer got up from the floor and took his seat in front of his computer, pulling a large animal-fur jacket over himself.

“Oh?” Jacket Guy raised an eyebrow and took a look at Fischer’s screen, “There’s a good player in the game? A Korean?”

“If we’re talking about China and Taipei, this, this, and this aren’t too bad, the rest are either saving their strength or aren’t playing their main roles,” Fischer pointed to “Xiao Zhuai”, “Call me Daddy”, and “Number 1”, and then let his gaze fall on the guy called “Huo Ma”.

“Huo Ma? Isn’t that that godly Support Zyra guy? Looks like you’ll actually have to try this game, otherwise, you won’t be able to recover from bottom lane’s disadvantage,” Jacket Guy said.

Fischer just shook his head in reply.

“What, your side’s bottom duo is strong as well? Which professional team are they from?” Jacket Guy asked.

“If I’m not mistaken, the ADC should be USA’s Harry, I don’t know where the Support’s from, though. From what W-Tiger has told me, he’s a pro-player from China. Pretty decent, always with some weird trick up his sleeve to turn the game,” Fischer said.

“That shouldn’t be too out of the ordinary. All your players are from that group of yours, they’re not going to try too hard since they don’t want to expose their true identities, so him making good plays while you guys are playing safe isn’t that strange,” Jacket guy said.

“Then sit next to me and watch, some things you just can’t hide,” Fischer said.

Jacket Guy laughed, “Bro, if you’re giving him such high praise, I’m going to give up my chance to snatch some fresh hot pizza and watch.”

Fischer gave a small smile in return, “This Chinese guy may be a bit off-kilter sometimes, but when he starts getting serious, even you would have a thing or two to learn from him.”

“Okay, if you disappoint me, you owe me a slice of pizza. You should know, your boy Ivan is an important part of the second place European Team, I am very easily disappointed.”

Fischer gave an empty laugh, eyes focused on his screen and buying mid lane starting items.

Fischer had been in Bai Hu’s MSN group for quite some time now. He had picked out a random name in Traditional Chinese and kept to his tactic of not speaking so that the others wouldn’t find out where he was from.

There were a bunch of people who didn’t talk in their group chat. Sometimes people would call for a fight in Traditional Chinese, and then retype the invitation in English. Everyone followed this unspoken rule and no one tried to dig for the identity of others.

***

“China boy, you’d better play seriously. The enemy team is pretty good, don’t make us lose too hard.” A string of Traditional Chinese was followed by Xiao Zhua’s ID.

“Got it, they have Huo Ma, how can I not be serious?” Luocheng replied.

“Oh, you’ve figured it out?” Xiao Zhuai asked as if he was shocked.

Luocheng sat in the Demacia Cafe with censor bars filling his head. The two words, “Huo Ma”, were literally right in front of him, did Xiao Zhuao really think he couldn’t f*cking read Traditional Chinese!?

Luocheng had been waiting for the chance to face off against Huo Ma. With an opportunity like this falling right into his lap, Luocheng was going to give it his all to try and take down the number 1 Support!

Receiving the title of Best Support during the S International League, this guy was internationally known!

Actually, Luocheng knew very well that besides Huo Ma, there were probably a lot more globally-ranked players playing under an anonymous guise. Everyone had masks and disguises on, and everyone was the best of the best among professional e-sports players, the burning desire to win in each of them showing itself even during their level 1 fights!

They needed to hold back their true power so that they wouldn’t be recognized, but they also needed to use that power to defeat international-level opponents who were at the same level as themselves.

A smile tugged at the corner of Luocheng’s lips, it looked like this was a game of chicken among the Gods of LoL.

“I’ve watched so many of your guys’ videos, I’ll figure you guys out!”

Luocheng was conjuring up ways to create a life or death scenario to lure out the real identities of the players of this game. Only under the immense mental stress of these situations would these sly scums of the earth rip off their protective bandaid and show their true potential, the truth will be exposed!