League of Legends: League of Unknowns

(T/N: Most, if not all references to chess are referring to Chinese Chess which has different rules to Western Chess)

They arrived at the Administrative Center of Chess where two old men were engrossed in a game of Chinese Chess with knitted brows.

Lianda called over a woman in her thirties, asking her where they could find the Mr. Zhao that the other lady had previously mentioned. The pregnant woman pointed toward one of the old men playing chess.

“If you need anything, it would be best to wait until this game is over, otherwise, he would most likely chase you two out in his anger,” the woman cautioned.

Without any other options, the two boys took a seat and watched as the game unfolded.

Chess was a competitive game as well, you needed extremely strong logic and calculating skills to be good. It shared this with LoL in which players would always have to plan their actions 2 steps ahead if they wanted to come out victorious.

The battle of wits between the two old men was at a constant state of back and forth, the once full chess board was now only left with a few surviving pieces. Luocheng had never been good at chess, but seeing these two play, even he was in awe. He was definitely witnessing two world-renowned Chess Masters at play, the boldness of their moves, their concentration and strategies, he could feel the power emanating from them!

And yet, when Luocheng saw Mr. Zhao make an illegal move with his horse without his opponent noticing, he very quickly retracted all his previous praise.

Is this how you play f**king chess?! That horse was clearly blocked!

You could almost hear the record-scratch playing in Luocheng’s mind, the whole atmosphere dropped.

“Check and mate, hahaha. Mr. Zhao, your chess skills are on a whole new level of bad!” The old man wearing a flat hat laughed out.

“Tsk, I’ve only learned for three days and I still got you backed into a corner, do you really still have the face to say you’ve been playing for three to four years?” Mr. Zhao said with a pinched face.

He glanced over at his two spectators, Luocheng and Lianda.

“And what do you two kids want?” Mr. Zhao asked.

“Oh, we’re e-sports players for the Asian Indoor Games. Here’s the thing, I can’t participate for some personal reasons, so I hoped that I could have the leader of the LPL’s champion team, Luocheng, to replace me,” Lianda explained.

“The e-sports team? The name list has already been sent over, we can’t change it anymore,” Mr. Zhao replied.

“What?” Lianda was stunned.

He had just asked his brother a little while ago, the name list was still being worked out, but now it’s already confirmed and sent out?

“It was set two days ago. If you had come before then, you would have still been able to change it,” Mr. Zhao said.

“Then…then…” Lianda didn’t know what to do.

Luocheng hadn’t expected this outcome either, he was more than a little disappointed.

“E-sports team, does the Asian Indoor Games even have e-sports?” asked a young man who was playing chess beside them.

A long towel was draped on the man’s body and his hair wasn’t even dry yet. From the looks of it, he had just come out of the water.

“Come on, Cao He, e-sports has been in the Games for a couple of years now, you didn’t know?” Mr. Zhao said.

“I’ve never heard. Just by sitting there moving a mouse and typing on a keyboard, playing a few games, and then suddenly you’re the champion… then why are we training for diving so hard, huh!” the Cao He boy said.

“You can’t say that…” Mr. Zhao kept a pleasant expression on his face.

“And why can’t I? We practice day in and day out, I can barely catch my breath most days, so I don’t understand why the council decided to list e-sports as an official sport! Real sports like swimming and diving require athletes to push themselves to the limits, mentally and physically. Can some stupid games compare to that?” Cao He had an obviously long-held resentment toward e-sports, and after his first few words, the floodgates were opened and the pent up hatred he had started to spill forth.

“Cao He, the Olympic Council has already given its seal of approval, so please just let it go and focus on your diving,” Mr. Zhao said.

“Maybe all that water has gotten into his head!” Lianda said coldly.

“Kid, do you even know who I am?! How dare you talk to me like that!” Cao He bolted up, glaring holes at Lianda.

Cao He was roughly 187 centimeters tall, the tank top he was wearing showed off all the muscles he had gained from years of training. In comparison, Lianda was only a bit taller than 170 centimeters, so he would be lying if he said he wasn’t intimidated by Cao He.

However, Lianda wasn’t going to back down, he held his firm stare on Cao He, anger seething off of him as well.

“Alright, alright, all of you fight for our country’s glory, there’s no need to differentiate between different sports. Cao He, go back to your section and don’t cause a scene.” Mr. Zhao tried to calm the two young men.

“This little nothing really thinks he’s hit it big. You’re not even an athlete, got it?” Cao He walked past the shorter Lianda with his head held high, not even trying to hide the disdain in his voice.

After Cao He left, Mr. Zhao shook his head and sighed. “Such bad temper, why couldn’t he be more like his brother?”

“Wasn’t that the diving champion, Cao He?” the pregnant lady from before said.

“Yes. He enjoys chess, so he often comes over to sit and play when he doesn’t have anything else to do. And you two, why argue with him? He’s famous so he’s ought to be a little on the prideful side. He was just venting a little, after all, the Asian Indoor Games is giving out fewer diving medals compared to e-sports, but that can’t be helped since the main organizer is Korea. E-sports is their strong suit, so they’d obviously give themselves a few more awards,” said another boy playing Chess.

“Young people are so quick to anger. You two should go back as well. E-sports already doesn’t have a great image so you shouldn’t cause a fuss as its representatives, understand?” Mr. Zhao told Lianda.

“So we’re just supposed to keep quiet and take it?” Luocheng rebutted coldly.

Just because he could dive, everyone here was protecting him?

Did they have brain damage? Or could they really not tell that the ‘his brain is filled with water’ jab was directed at all of them and their oh-so-high-and-mighty professions!?

“How rude! You’re talking as though we have a prejudice against you. I was going to lend you guys a hand and get that name list back, but with your arrogant behaviour…” Mr. Zhao was getting ticked off!

“Mr. Zhao is responsible for managing your e-sports competitions so you should give him your respect. Did you think we just took on this responsibility because we had nothing better to do? You don’t even have a proper Administration Center,” The pregnant lady chided them.

Because of the sudden addition of e-sports, Li Ying had gotten a lot more on her plate.

She was already six months pregnant. Previously, they hadn’t had much to do in the chess department and her work had been quite easy. She came in everyday to compile some files, type up some reports, and then she could continue chatting with her co-workers and go shopping on the weekends.

But then their higher-ups had put them in charge of e-sports as well, causing their workload to be more than doubled overnight.

Li Ying had no interest in e-sports whatsoever but her younger brother in university was always going on about L-O-L or whatever, and he had had to retake countless classes, he was useless!

These games that caused students to give up their school work were somehow listed as an official competition, she didn’t even know anymore.

It was fine if they made an association, but all the work fell onto a pregnant person like her!

So when Cao He was chewing them out, Li Ying naturally stood by his side. As for the two young men, Li Ying hadn’t liked them at first, and now, they were speaking so rudely to Mr. Zhao!

***

From the looks these people gave them, Luocheng knew that they had never welcomed them.

Even after the Asian Indoor Games included e-sports in their official competitions, the people working behind the scenes still didn’t take e-sports seriously at all, and all Luocheng could do was laugh.

You think you’re all that just because you’re a diving champion?

Us e-sports players could fill your little diving pool with our spit alone, just because the government gave you sponsors, gave you benefits, and gave you recognition as a national athlete, you think you’re better than us. You think you’ve done a lot for your country while our efforts were all only spent on playing some stupid games… this type of ignorance and sense of supremacy, maybe they really did hit their heads too hard on the water.

The two of them stumbled out of the Sports Administration.

Lianda hung up the phone, his entire person fuming with rage.

“F*cker, the old geezer lied to us, the name list hasn’t been sent over yet! And my brother told me that even if the name list was sent over, we could still change it, it would just involve a bit more work and a few forms. The old man told us we couldn’t change it just because he didn’t want to!!” Lianda half-shouted.

What else could Luocheng say.

Luocheng had mentally prepared himself before they had come here, but these people didn’t take e-sports seriously whatsoever. That was fine, but they had outwardly discriminated and belittled them, Luocheng felt worse than when he lost in competitions.

When the thing you were proudest of and most willing to work hard for was seen as worthless by other people, it was hard to put that emotion into words, he felt as though a fire was burning in his stomach!

“I’m sorry, I promised you… I didn’t expect it to turn out this way,” Lianda said sheepishly.

Luocheng gave a dry laugh and shook his head. “It’s okay.”

It was okay, it was truly okay. Someday, he would prove that e-sports was far more well-received than traditional sports; someday, those traditional sports were going to stand beneath e-sports, they would bow down to e-sports along with their pride and ignorance!

Even if it wasn’t now, it was definitely going to happen in the future. Even if he wasn’t the one to bring e-sports to glory, someone in the future was going to teach these people who had berated, ignored, and mocked e-sports a lesson!

E-sports wasn’t united, they needed to create unity.

Everyone in e-sports needed to stand together side-by-side. In times of conflict between the people and the country, they had to abolish the divider between clubs and teams. The only thing separating them would be which team represented which country!

Just as Shallow Dream had said, come here after you’ve won the LPL championship, and only then would you know what you had to do.

Maybe this wasn’t what Shallow Dream had intended, but Luocheng knew now what it was that he needed to do!