League of Legends: League of Unknowns

The LoL tournament began with great fanfare and pageantry, starting with the mismatched battles of the preliminary rounds.

Today was the 11th, and the major cyber cafés (or net cafés) across Lecheng might as well be on fire. It had been years since any of these places had seen such crowds and merriment—to think that all this was thanks to some MOBA game…

Today, the owner of the Dragon Rising Net Café, Tang Nan, was present. How long had it been since he last saw a whole bunch of people gathered in anticipation before a bank of computers?

The hundred-over computers in the net café were all occupied by LoL players. Anyone who had come here to play something else felt smothered by the atmosphere, as though not playing LoL made you some inferior class of person.

“I say,” Tang Nan remarked, “Those contests we held in the past… despite all our begging and pleading, we could barely draw in a handful of teams, and the event was basically a failure. I never imagined LoL would be this popular, with more than seventy teams taking part, along with such a massive number of spectators.” He was beaming widely.

“Exactly. So many people play this game, and with so much competitive spirit. If our Dragon Rising manages to become ‘Lecheng’s Number 1’, where else will the LoL enthusiasts flock to?” Yin Qin said.

Tang Nan’s smile grew even wider. The cyber café business had been struggling these past few years, partly due to increased competition, but also because it was becoming ever more common for people to have a computer at home.

Later on, once everyone had their own computers, what choice would they have but to close down the cyber café?

Therefore, developing the cyber café into a MOBA-gaming center seemed to be a very promising avenue to explore.

***

The tournament matches would take place at the MOBA-gaming computers in Section B. There would be eight teams involved, which meant a total of four matches.

The top ten teams in the Dragon Rising Net Café would all receive some sort of prize. The top three teams would go on to face off against the rest of the Lecheng region.

By and large, it was already known which were the best teams in the Dragon Rising, and some people had already made their own predictive rankings.

The first match began at ten in the morning. After drawing lots, the two teams that would be going first comprised a group of young men, under the team name ‘Ghoul’s Fang’, and what looked like a bunch of newly graduated high-school students, who’d formed the ‘Jack of Hearts’.

When the members of the Ghoul’s Fang saw the fresh-faced children they’d been matched against, they grinned, confident that victory was already in the bag.

The schoolboys, meanwhile, looked tense and high-strung. They followed the instructions from the cyber café staff to the letter, as though fearful that the slightest error might result in them being disqualified.

The format was a typical Custom game, with one of the staff setting up a private game lobby.

Inside the lobby were ten game accounts, each one fully levelled up, with a complete set of Runes—there was no need for players to bring out their own accounts. All they had to do was sit at their assigned places, and use the accounts provided to play.

A placard had been placed above each computer, displaying the team name as well as the name of that team member.

Although not exactly standard tournament practice, this way of doing things was simple and straightforward, and it was alright because it was still just the qualifying round—even this much already represented a step above what you’d usually expect to see.

The ‘Ghoul’s Fang’ and ‘Jack of Hearts’ members found their places, as did the remaining six teams who would be competing first.

“Absolutely no substitutions will be allowed. Only registered contestants will be allowed to play. No last-minute changes!” Some official-sounding rules were being read aloud on the event floor.

“All the computers have been subjected to stringent inspection. There should be no technical issues. If any difficulties arise during the match, such as lag, frozen displays, disconnections and so on, the game will proceed regardless. As such, be sure that you don’t kick the power plug loose in your excitement.

“We require all players to maintain civilized conduct. No cursing or insults against your opponents. Any violators will be instantly disqualified.”

When the staff member had finished reading out these general guidelines, Ghoul’s Fang and Jack of Hearts were the first to enter Champion Selection, starting with the Banning Phase.

Obviously, the first teams to play attracted a huge swarm of spectators. Soon, there were countless people crowding in behind the ‘Ghoul’s Fang’ and the ‘Jack of Hearts’ teams. Many among the audience seemed to be knowledgeable players themselves, squinting closely and rubbing their jaws, discussing both teams’ choices.

The Jack of Hearts’ line-up wasn’t even a real team composition. One could already tell the outcome of this match from the selection itself.

Elsewhere, Team ‘ATM’ was also drawing comments over their own champion selections.

“Master Yi? Choosing Master Yi during a tournament… are they hoping to sneak in a few towers ¹ , or what?”

” AP Yi ¹ . Probably Mid.”

“Haha, the other team straight-away chose Annie. She’s gonna make Master Yi her bitch.”

“They’re just kids. If you took Master Yi into Ranked, you’d be laughed out of the room, but here they are…”

“The ATM players don’t look that young. Why are they picking like noobs?”

“Perhaps they’re university students on break. I rarely see them training in here, so they probably just play together from home. Once you saw them pick Master Yi, you could tell they’re nothing to worry about.”

***

“Damn, six minutes and they’ve already lost Mid. The Jack of Hearts Mid player doesn’t even dare to come outside anymore.”

***

“Oh, ATM’s Master Yi is going Jungler. Cool, so Annie will be facing Lux in Mid? I thought Lux was going Support.”

***

“What an unpredictable team. Surrender at 20.”

***

“Mike’s team seems to have run into some pros. It’s been a while now, and still no one’s coming out ahead.”

***

From ten in the morning until five in the afternoon, the players in the MOBA-gaming section rotated constantly. Many who’d arrived in high spirits ended up leaving with their heads hanging glumly.

Those teams which had been eliminated would still get a chance to play again, if they paid an additional fee of three hundred, allowing them another shot at the qualifiers.

Should they meet with misfortune again, a further six hundred bucks would be needed to stay in the game.

The cyber café management wouldn’t be collecting these extra fees for their own gain—rather, it would all go into the prize money for the top three teams.

On the first day, there were numerous teams that refused to give up despite being eliminated. They paid the three hundred straight up, unwilling to call it quits until they’d reached the semi-finals, at least.

Other teams, having clearly seen what a far cry they were from the true experts, realized that paying any more money was only asking to have their asses handed to them again. Holding back tears, they departed that merciless field of death.

The matches would resume from seven in the evening, all the way until around eleven at night.

Throughout the first day of the tournament, the Dragon Rising was veritably packed full to bursting. On a hot day like this, the air-conditioning alone wasn’t enough for everyone to keep cool, thus allowing the chilling effects of Coca-Cola to be inflicted upon many. In this way, the scorching heat of summer was kept under control, not to mention the fires of battle which raged across the competition floor.

If the cyber cafés in every major city were seeing the same circumstances, the consumption of Coca-Cola this season would be without equal.

Team Scarlet would be playing tonight.

Many people were looking forward to that match. Some purposely stayed behind even after their own matches had concluded, curious to see if the Team Scarlet that everyone seemed to hold in such high regard was really all that. Just how badly could they beat their opponents—and how would they go about it?

“I heard that Team Scarlet just picked up a new Support.”

“I saw him. I think he was training in Section C this afternoon. Looked like a schoolboy.”

Already, word was spreading.

“That’s because he is a schoolboy.”

“Is he good?”

“Who knows. That day, I saw Commander Qin in a quarrel with Wu Kai. Maybe he just couldn’t find a suitable player, so he picked some random guy to fill the spot.”