League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“As for choosing the members of this new team, I’ll let you all be the judge. If that’s okay with you, I’ll go share the news on Weibo and Wechat. I hope you’ll post something on Weibo as well, something about the Demacia Cafe looking for new talents to become the honorary Team A of the famous Team Skycrown, something to that effect,” Duoduo said.

“Since we’re building an A Team, we can’t be too lax when it comes to choosing new people. I’ll personally make the final decisions on who’s joining, but you guys can set the starting requirements yourself,” Luocheng said.

Boss Lei wanted to make an A Team, it was obvious that he wanted to expand Demacia Cafe’s reach even further.

“No, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jian Feng piped up.

“Why not?” Luocheng looked quizzically at Jian Feng.

“Only our main team needs to have fixed members, our A Team could be much more flexible,” Jian Feng said.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, any LoL team, as long as they’re strong enough, can become this cafe’s A Team, but if they’re defeated, the team that beat them will take their spot instead. It would a free-for-all of sorts, teams would fight for the glory and opportunity to represent Demacia Cafe and Team Skycrown as their A Team. Congratulations if you won, but no hard feelings if you lost either, they’re welcome to try again some other time,” Jian Feng explained.

Duoduo’s eyes lit up!

That was it! They could make the title of Demacia Cafe’s Team A a form of glory up for grabs to the public! The notion of a single undefeated team was getting old, so if your team was strong and could hold your ground against countless challengers, you would then become Team Skycrown’s A Team! You would get the chance to train with the legends themselves, but if your luck ran out and you lost, your title would then be given to your opponents.

If they played their cards right, many teams would come to defend and fight for the title of Team Skycrown’s Team A! The benefits for the cafe itself were obvious, but this format of choosing an A Team would also allow Team Skycrown to get a constantly self-renewing supply of the strongest punching bags to train themselves up!

Jian Feng’s idea was brilliant and Duoduo immediately turned to give Boss Lei a call. Boss Lei seemed interested in the proposal too, naming Jian Feng in charge of all the logistics regarding the new open challenges as well as promising a cut of their total profits.

Jian Feng was happy with the turnout, and he went off with Duoduo to start planning the whole thing out.

Team Skycrown went about their day basically the same as before, each of them going into ranked games to train with their games being streamed onto the big screen in the main hall.

Due to their previous contracts, Luocheng was only allowed to stream on the platform Thunder Club had created to attract more visitors.

Luocheng naturally did as he was expected to, broadcasting his games during their previously decided time slot.

Luocheng’s streams were different from the others as he played on the Korean server.

His games on the Korean servers felt like a breath of fresh air for the people over at Thunder Club.

Countless other streamers were playing on local servers, and with Luocheng’s popularity and extra promoting from the club, viewership could easily break eighty thousand.

Eighty thousand current viewers, this was a number most larger media platforms would never be able to achieve. When Luocheng streamed on the Korean server, his games would be filled to the brim with excitement and action as well! If they managed to break a hundred thousand, that would be such a huge milestone for their streaming platform!

***

Playing on the Korean server, Luocheng needed his partner-in-crime.

He was streaming after all, and the Korean server was dangerous territory. If anything went awry and Luocheng lost, all the fame and glory he had spent the last year painstakingly building up would vanish in an instant. He did still somewhat care about his public image.

If he was duo-ing and made a slip up, his player 2 could still turn the game around, it was sort of a safety-net for him.

Logging on to QQchat, Luocheng sent Shallow Dream a message.

“Help me!!!”

“What?” Shallow Dream’s messages were always short and to the point, giving people an icy feeling when talking to her.

“I’m going to stream on the Korean server, about three games or so, can you join in and help?” Luocheng asked.

“You’re scared you’ll feed?” Shallow Dream could always tell what Luocheng was thinking.

“Hehe, I’m still the leader of the LPL champion team, you know.” Luocheng laughed dryly.

“When?” Shallow Dream asked.

“This Saturday night. The expected viewership is going to be over 100,000, it’s going to be a big event,” Luocheng replied.

“Saturday…”

“How about I give you half of the earnings from the stream!” Luocheng just wanted his reputation!

Sigh, this is what happens after you get first place. If you let loose and let someone else beat you, articles about how you were a fraud would cover the internet the very next day, it wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before, so Luocheng was taking all the precautions he could!

“Whatever, I don’t want money… send me some nice Shanghainese snacks instead,” Shallow Dream answered.

“…” Luocheng couldn’t help but roll his eyes. If he had known that he could win Shallow Dream over with just a few snacks, he would’ve said that in the first place.

Hang on a minute.

She wanted him to send her something!

That meant she was going to tell him her address!

Holy crap, this mysterious final boss was finally going to reveal something about herself!

“No problemo, just give me your address.” Luocheng pushed his bubbling excitement down, calmly typing out his reply.

Shallow Dream didn’t seem to catch on to Luocheng’s hidden intentions, sending him a paragraph of her address, even including a telephone number.

Luocheng’s jaw was on the floor. He couldn’t believe that she had actually given him her address and phone number, why had she been acting all mysterious before, then?

Luocheng looked more closely at the address and his expression quickly turned into a blank stare.

Wasn’t this the freaking General Administration of Sports’ address!?

Even the phone number was the Sports Administration’s hotline, what the hell was Shallow Dream playing at!

Hang on, was Shallow Dream a part of the Sports Administration!?

So many questions floated into Luocheng’s mind, there was no way Shallow Dream worked at the Sports Administration, right?

But come to think of it, it wasn’t completely implausible, She did seem to know a lot about this stuff, even when she had told him all the stuff about how e-sports was being treated before…

“The Sports Administration? What’s your job there?” Luocheng quickly asked.

“I have a friend there. Send your stuff there, I’ll receive it,” Shallow Dream said.

“What does your friend do there?” Luocheng pushed.

He had already been to the Sports Administration once and not only did he get nothing done, he had taken a pretty heavy blow to his pride. If Shallow Dream had an insider friend over there, why didn’t she tell her friend to come and help?

“You’re still not over the Asian Indoor Games thing?” Shallow Dream asked.

“Of course.”

“I have some news. Good news. If you want to hear it, I can tell you, but I hope you’ll keep it a secret for the time being since it hasn’t been finalized yet,” Shallow Dream said.

“What news?” Luocheng hurriedly asked.

“We might get permission to create an E-sports Association by the end of this year, but…”

“But what?”

“But first, e-sports in China needs to prove its potential. That is to say, they can create an E-sports Association also help our players participate in a few competitions, international competitions, but first, the people going to the Asian Indoor Games have to bring back some impressive results,” Shallow Dream said.

Of course!

The Asian Indoor Games were our country’s trial run to see whether or not e-sports should be recognized! If they performed well, all spotlights would be on them!

F*ck, that d*mned old man, not letting him participate in the competition!!!

Luocheng was more than just a bit upset at that Mr. Zhao.

Luocheng told Shallow Dream what had happened that day, wanting to know if there was anything she could do to help him.

“Mr. Zhao didn’t do all that entirely on purpose. Making edits on the name list isn’t as easy as you might think. He would need a lot of signatures from a lot of people, it’s not just something you can do yourself,” Shallow Dream said.

Shallow Dream’s words all but confirmed Luocheng’s suspicion that she had some form of connection to the Sports Administration!

Right now, Luocheng could only make a silent prayer that Xie Lianda would be able to lead the 17-person e-sports team to victory in the Asian Indoor Games. The entire future of e-sports within their country rested on their shoulders!

Shallow Dream didn’t go any further on the topic, merely promising Luocheng that she would accompany him during his stream.

After Shallow Dream went offline, Luocheng was still left wondering what kind of person was this Shallow Dream. How could she have access to so much information that others didn’t?

***

Xin Ran Park, Chaoyang, Beijing.

“Tang, I’m not going to the celebration party this Saturday.”

“What’s the matter, are you not feeling too well? Or do you just not like such crowded places?” Downstairs, a woman in an apron preparing dinner in the kitchen called out.

There was no response from upstairs.

“Alright, alright. I’ll just go tell them, it’s not too big of a deal.”

***

“Do you have a date?” The lady in the kitchen couldn’t help but ask.

“No.”

“In any case, drink some soup before you go out. The seasons are changing quickly around this time of the year, it might get quite chilly after the sun sets.”

“I’m not going out.”

“Oh, that boy messaged you again, didn’t he? The kid has a lot of potential. In just a year he managed to become the LPL champion, I wonder what kind of exhilarating performance his team will put on during the S International League. Those foreign teams are like nothing within the country…”

“Come to think of it, are you going to watch the S competition live? I hear it might not be held in America this year.”

“It’s about time you went on a trip abroad, breathe in a little of that foreign air…”

The person upstairs still gave no response, it sounded like a scene straight out of a movie with the lady talking to herself in the kitchen.

However, the lady in the kitchen didn’t seem to mind the silence she was met with, she just wanted to know that the person upstairs was listening.