League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The hand that got injured was Huang Yu’s left one. The fingers were nearly paralyzed. After bandaging him up, Nurse Wang declared it would take at least one month for him to recover. With the damage he’d suffered, it was a struggle just to close his hand around something.

With the fragments of glass removed, some antiseptic applied, and a dressing placed around the wound, Huang Yu walked out to find Yin Qin and the others waiting for him. Full of regret, he was unable to speak.

“It’s not serious. Just don’t let that get wet.” Saying thus, the matron nurse bustled off to see to other matters.

“Let’s go.” Yin Qin didn’t have much to say, either. Xiao Dao and Terrance moved to escort their team leader home.

“Commander…” Huang Yu stood there, his hand wrapped up thickly, holding in a breath full of words.

“I’m sorry, commander. I… I shouldn’t have lost control…” Huang Yu didn’t dare to meet anyone’s gaze.

Team Scarlet was a team, one which Qin had poured no small amount of money into. And now, because of his own unbelievable stupidity, they were now up the creek without a paddle.

“Alright, that’s enough. Take care of yourself for now. Did anyone say we’re going to lose?” the commander replied.

“But… but I can’t even use a keyboard, now…” Huang Yu stared at his injured hand.

“You heal up first. Yu Luocheng will take your position at Mid for now.”

Perplexed, Huang Yu turned to look at Yu Luocheng.

All eyes were on Yu Luocheng now. Xiao Dao was the first to speak up: “It’s true that Yu Luocheng is an excellent Support, but playing Mid isn’t such a simple matter—it’s a completely different pace and play-style… anyway, if he goes Mid, won’t we lose an amazing Support in him?”

Everyone in Team Scarlet readily acknowledged Yu Luocheng as an elite player, a god-like Support. However, being good in the Support role didn’t mean he could find the same success in other roles. In ‘League of Legends’, no one truly dared to call themselves an all-rounder, because such players tended to prove mediocre all-round.

“We’re going to abandon the Support position. Our ADC will go into the Top lane solo, and our Solo Top will come down to face the enemy duo in the Bottom lane.” These were the new instructions from Commander Qin.

“So… we’re really going four against five?” Xiao Dao, Terrance, and Huang Yu were all stupefied.

In Normal games, playing 4v5 was nothing to make a fuss about, since the distribution of player skill was hardly even. However, in a serious match, every team fight would involve all the players on both teams—being short even one person would result in a total wipe-out.

And that was about team-fighting during the later stages of a game; going 4v5 meant being short a person throughout the laning stage ¹ —a marked disadvantage which would cause them to fall a long way behind the larger team. Going into team fights with inferior equipment as well as numbers… was there even any point in playing?

“Commander, even 5v5 we would not be assured of victory—to have to go 4v5…” Xiao Dao moaned.

“What, then? Shall we just give it all up? Throw away all your hard work for the past two months?” Commander Qin interjected. “If we don’t at least give it a try, we’ll never know if we really couldn’t have made it.”

We’ll never know if we could actually have made it.

These words sent a tremor through Xiao Dao, Xue Haiyang, and Xiao Tongtong.

After all, to surrender before the fight even started… wasn’t that exactly what those guys from the Aviator Cyber Café wanted to see them do?

Going 4v5 was not utterly without hope: with a reasonable team composition, if you crippled the enemy before they had the opportunity to grow strong and surpass you, and then wasted no time pushing through their towers to end the game… they’d all done this before in Normal games!

“Damn it, let’s fight, then!” Xiao Dao spat vehemently. “We’ll give those mangy curs a bloody good thrashing!”

“We’ll go four against five, if that’s how it has to be. And if we beat Aviator anyway, they’ll never be able to show their faces in public again!” Terrance declared.

Seeing everyone like this, their team leader Huang Yu felt his heart hanging like a leaden weight. Quietly, he whispered, “I’m only half a player, right now. I’ll play Support. Never mind everything else, I’ll focus on setting wards and denying the enemy Jungler any chance to gank us. Setting wards is something I’ll only need one hand to do!”

That’s right, it wasn’t truly 4v5 as long as Huang Yu could still hold a mouse. A big part of playing Support was setting wards, anyway. If they could maintain a clear vision of the battlefield, winning was far from impossible!

Xue Haiyang spoke up in agreement. “Indeed, nothing is more crucial than good map vision.”

“Alright, we fight!”

“Let’s get to training!”

“Let’s go!”

Team Scarlet was a hot-blooded bunch, never quick to throw in the towel! As one, they turned and left the hospital, heading for their home base and training ground, the Dragon Rising Cyber Café.

***

Yang Qianqian stood in the hospital’s entrance hall, watching the players of Team Scarlet go.

Honestly, she’d always viewed the young men of Team Scarlet with some disdain—but when Huang Yu raised his severely bandaged hand, and volunteered to place wards for the team, it had touched her deeply.

To them, this LOL tournament was not just some game. They worked tirelessly over it, and refused to back down in the face of any hardship. It was a matter of pride and livelihood.

She tugged at Yu Luocheng’s sleeve, looking up at him earnestly. “Can you win?”

“I don’t know.” Yu Luocheng shook his head.

LoL is not DotA. As far as DotA demands flawless teamwork between players, LoL relies upon it even more. Although it didn’t take the superhuman finesse required in DotA, Starcraft, or Warcraft, nor extremely high APM (Actions Per Minute), it did require the highest level of coordination and understanding between teammates.

In DotA, Yu Luocheng could lead a second-rate team to victory against some professional teams, because it was possible to win a whole game as a one-man show.

Not so with LoL: partly because he hadn’t been playing it for that long, as much as he’d played DotA; the rest of it was because the game was too delicately balanced to allow any one particular player or champion such an overwhelming advantage.

As such, not even a former world-class pro-gamer like Yu Luocheng Yu could say with certainty that they’d be able to win, four versus five.

But it was just as Commander Qin had said: If you don’t try, you’ll never know.

Four people still makes a team!

“I believe in you. I know you’ll kick all their asses!” Yang Qianqian beamed, her eyes sparkling like diamonds.

Gazing at that breathtaking countenance, Yu Luocheng smiled wanly in reply. “How can you have so much faith in me? I’m just some third-year boy, fresh out of high school. Any other game, I might have a chance…”

“It’s hard to say why…” Yang Qianqian said, “I guess it’s because, when you’re playing LoL, you have different eyes from other people.”

“Do you think this is an anime? Eyes flashing with power, nostrils flaring with dreams…”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Ah, I guess you’re trying to say that I look kinda cool when I’m playing. Everyone tells me that,” Yu Luocheng said flippantly, lightening the mood.

A smile twitched at the corners of her lips, but she didn’t dispute the statement.

“I’ll do my best.” Who was there to cheer you on when you were walking down the path of e-sports? To have Yang Qianqian here rooting for him, Yu Luocheng felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in his heart.

Such a good girl she was. If he didn’t take her as his wife, he would never be able to forgive himself.