League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The order of match-ups had already been determined ahead of time: The first game would be between the Dragon Rising’s Team Scarlet versus Team Aviator.

The team representing the Dragon Rising hadn’t taken the cyber café’s name as their own, the true sign of a regular team who called that cyber café home.

“Alright, it’s time for the earth-shaking games to begin!” the MC cried out. “Teams, to your places!”

Teams EZ and Dawn departed the stage, leaving Teams Aviator and Scarlet.

The players of Team Aviator all wore deep blue clothes. Yu Luocheng saw Wu Kai standing proudly at the right-most end of their formation.

This put him face-to-face with Yu Luocheng. Wu Kai sneered at him.

Both teams were standing rather close to each other, and with the commotion going on all around, Wu Kai muttered surreptitiously, “Schoolboy, don’t piss your pants when you all lose.”

“Are you hoping for a taste of me?” Yu Luocheng shot back placidly.

Kai harrumphed coldly at this.

He immediately changed targets: “Huang Yu, your hand feeling any better? I hope you usually use your right hand on yourself, otherwise it won’t just be LoL that you’ll no longer be able to play with anymore—I recall you don’t have a girl.”

Huang Yu had a quick temper, and Wu Kai’s words were dripping with venom. He wanted nothing more than to rip that grinning face to shreds!

All of Team Scarlet was glaring at Wu Kai. They’d surely do him in, given half the chance—this monster in human form!

“Are you hoping for a taste of him?” A quiet voice drifted through the still air. It was Yu Luocheng again.

It was the same line as before. The first time he heard it, Wu Kai had just found it kind of annoying. When it hit him a second time, however, he winced visibly.

Team Scarlet had been boiling with fury a moment ago, but this sharp jab from Yu Luocheng now had them all trembling with mirth, everyone imagining Wu Kai on his knees before Huang Yu… oh hell, forget it, it was too disgusting . ¹

Seeing the contemptuous smirks on the faces of the Team Scarlet players, Wu Kai’s face fell further.

Just as he was about to snarl something in return, the MC walked over and instructed them to take their positions.

Wu Kai was not known for his self-control, either. As he turned away, he stuck out his hand behind himself, and gave them the thumbs down.

It was a seemingly nonchalant bit of provocation, but also a terribly obvious offence. Quite a few people in the crowd spotted it, and those in the front row began hissing and muttering.

The MC saw it too, but he could only pretend that he hadn’t.

However, as both teams turned away towards the computers, Yu Luocheng remained standing in place.

“This contestant over here… is something wrong?” the MC asked him.

“According to tournament rules, players are prohibited from presenting any insult or disrespect amongst each other. Someone just made a very offensive gesture in my direction.” Yu Luocheng spoke tersely.

Everyone in Team Scarlet turned back to gape at Yu Luocheng.

Little things like this were commonplace during competitions, and were typically just ignored. Neither Commander Qin nor Huang Yu had expected Yu Luocheng to be so sensitive towards such things.

“Did they?” the MC continued playing dumb.

“They all saw it.” Yu Luocheng swept a finger across the front row of the audience.

And of course, the crowd likes nothing better than to help fan the flames and create a good bit of drama between opposing teams.

“That’s right, we all saw it. That player over there showed this to him.”

“I saw it too.”

“No mistaking it. Ask anyone here.”

A trace of hesitation appeared in the MC’s expression. One of the tournament organizers had already joined him on stage. The match was paused, and an inquiry was soon underway.

Now that the game had been delayed, and event staff were swarming all over the place, it had become a serious issue. The players of Team Aviator were aghast, taken by surprise by this sudden move.

“Damn, that’s what you call a schoolboy, throwing a tantrum over such a petty little thing!” Wu Kai growled under his breath.

“Wu Kai, have you lost your mind?” his team leader Liu Qi snapped, frowning darkly.

“Yeah, would it have killed you not to do that?”

“We’ve got this game in the bag. Don’t do anything stupid now!”

One of the event staff approached them. He regarded them sternly, particularly Wu Kai. “Contestant Wu Kai, due to your inappropriate actions against your opponent, you are being issued your first official warning, which will be recorded. If a second offense occurs, your team will be disqualified from this tournament with immediate effect.”

The official appeared to be dead serious. It was a zero-tolerance matter. This was a town championship involving thousands of people—if they didn’t enforce the rules, it raised questions about authenticity.

Wu Kai’s face was unreadable. Everyone on Team Aviator was in a foul mood now, shooting murderous glares at Yu Luocheng where he stood cheerfully nearby.

Their eyes burned with the promise of vengeance.

***

Now that the little bit of fuss had been dealt with, the players took their seats.

The thousands of spectators could feel the palpable hostility between Teams Aviator and Scarlet, not to mention the rumors about what had really caused Huang Yu’s injury—that it had been done by the hand of one of Team Aviator’s own players.

“Huang Yu, of Team ‘Scarlet Dragon Rising’… What happened to your hand?” the MC inquired.

The MC had to make conversation, after all. When nothing else came to mind, talk about the contestants.

“Bitten by a bunch of rabid dogs,” Huang Yu replied.

“Oh, I see. Must have been some filthy strays. You’ve got to be more careful—every player ought to treasure their own two hands. On that note: Will you be able to use the keyboard, like that?” The MC thought this was particularly witty, especially when the entire hall burst into laughter.

Yet at the same time, the MC felt a slight chill upon the back of his neck. Though he chalked it up to the air-conditioning being too strong, in truth it was the ice-cold glares that the players of Team Aviator were shooting his way!

“I won’t be able to,” Huang Yu replied shortly. He wouldn’t be able to use the keyboard, but he knew what he had to do.

“If that’s the case, Team Scarlet is basically short a man,” the MC exclaimed. “Is this going to be four against five?”

4v5! The moment the MC said this, the crowd began to roil.

Many of the less-informed members of the audience had figured that the bandage on Huang Yu’s hand was just for show, and when the game began, he’d remove it with a flourish, unveiling his masterful hands—sort of like how some assassins tended to wrap up their favorite swords, waiting for a major battle before they brought them out magnificently into the light.

It turned out that he actually was injured—and here they’d been expecting something dramatic.

… So if that was a real injury, did this really mean a 4v5 game?

“I’m sorry to hear about this. I didn’t know you had gotten injured. This is a truly distressing development, but I see Team Scarlet is competing in spite of this disadvantage. It’s very inspiring. When playing Ranked in LoL, you hit the slightest setback and there’ll be teammates hollering for Surrender, sneering down their noses like they know how the rest of the game is going to play out . ¹

“I always want to say, if you can’t play when the odds are against you, what are you doing in Ranked?”

“In e-sports as well, we must have sportsmanship. If you can’t stand in the face of adversity, it’s proof of your inferiority, and you have no place in a serious competition—just stick to Normal games. Ah, I apologize… this seems to have become a little personal for me.”

Although the MC’s words ran the risk of offending certain quarters, Yu Luocheng found himself in full agreement.

“Alright, both teams are logged in and picking out their Runes. We’ll soon be in the Banning phase!” The MC expertly disengaged from the subject.