League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Commander Qin.” A skinny-looking young man walked into Section C, intercepting Yin Qin.

“How is it? See any strong teams out there?” Yin Qin inquired.

Yin Qin was not so arrogant as to believe that they could effortlessly take down every single team in the Dragon Rising. There were elite lone wolves wandering the place too—if they formed into a team and played a few games together, it would be unwise to underestimate them.

“That ATM team is pretty good,” the skinny one replied.

Nicknamed Kitten, he was the archetypal unemployed loafer, loitering around cyber cafés, sometimes working behind the counter to earn a bit of cash, occasionally assisting Yin Qin with something or other.

“Oh, that bunch of university students?” Yin Qin’s eyebrows rose.

It was essentially impossible to find elite players from amongst the ranks of high-school students, since they didn’t have the time to play.

University students were a different matter, especially the ones in their third or fourth year, who had all the time in the world to play LoL. Many of the top Ranked players were still in university.

On that topic, a particular saying had been gaining some popularity: It was said that those university players who were most skilled at LoL, were also developing the knack to take their fortunes into their own hands.

Ah, and Yu Luocheng was soon to join their proud number. He shouldn’t be led astray.

Kitten described Team ATM in exact detail, “Right from the start, they picked Master Yi, to which Annie was the response. Later, it turned out that Master Yi would be Jungling with Teleport.

“Several times they won in Mid, with Yi either joining the fight or Teleporting somewhere, forcing 4v2 or 4v3 situations. Twice they dove the enemy’s Tower to secure a kill, with Master Yi using Meditate to tank the Tower’s attacks. Team Pride lost their Bottom lane completely.”

Team ‘Pride’ was the one that Huang Mi was in. They should be among the top five teams in the Dragon Rising, but they’d gotten their butts kicked by a bunch of university boys.

Commander Qin nodded. “Right, we’ll have to keep a close eye on these ATM guys.”

He’d been sending people to gather information on the stronger teams in the Dragon Rising. It was critical to know one’s enemies as well as oneself.

***

“Commander, isn’t it our turn now?” The ADC of Team Scarlet smiled lazily at Yin Qin.

Their ADC was nearly the same age as Yu Luocheng, a guy by the name of Xue Haiyang. He was also a university student on summer break. Usually, he spent his summers working for Qin to earn some spending money.

“Right. Speaking of which, why hasn’t our Support player shown up yet?” the team leader Huang Yu asked. He himself played AP Solo Mid.

“No problem, it’s just qualifiers. Even 4v5, we’ll still get an easy win, hahaha!” their Jungler, Xiao Dao, declared.

Xiao Dao had been with Commander Qin the longest, one of the original members farming online games in his workshop, now re-assigned to play League of Legends.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Yin Qin said. “Come on, let’s go. Don’t worry, he’ll definitely be here.” Even as he said this, he was already moving out, leading his four men of Team Scarlet to the MOBA-gaming computers in Section B.

Yin Qin was a stickler for details. Since their team name was ‘Scarlet’, all the team members were wearing shirts the color of freshly spilled blood.

Xue Haiyang, Xiao Dao, Huang Yu, and Xiao Tongtong had each made their names in the Dragon Rising Cyber Café long ago . ¹ Each of them was undoubtedly an elite LoL player.

When they entered behind Commander Qin, wearing those blood-red T-shirts, there was an aura about them that caused people in the aisle to move out of their way.

“Here comes Team Scarlet!”

“Whoa, scarlet uniforms! Why didn’t I think of preparing a team uniform!”

“They’re so cool! That’s what you call ‘elite’. When their enemies see them dressed like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they wet their pants!”

A young man, caught in the frenetic action of his own game, turned when he heard that Team Scarlet had appeared, gazing in awe at these legendary players. When they were out of sight, he returned his attention to his own screen, where an angry text message had appeared in the chat window: “What the hell kind of Support are you, damn it! You don’t want to play anymore, so you die, AFK, and let them have a Tower? Are you trolling?”

Face frozen, the young man didn’t know how to explain himself.

***

There were people all along the aisle in this section, but they hurried to get out of the way of the oncoming parade of scarlet uniforms. Of course, as regular patrons here in this cyber café, they were friends with many of the audience, and they exchanged smiles and greetings as they walked past.

“So this is the strongest team in the Dragon Rising?” Amongst the crowd, a pretty girl with long, flowing hair whispered to the watchful man by her side.

“Exactly, exactly. Previously, during friendly matches within this cyber café, Team Scarlet joined in the fighting, and wiped out pretty much everyone else!” Wang Qin gushed.

As he spoke, he noticed Yin Qin looking their way. He nodded faintly at the long-haired beauty.

“Eh, Commander Qin knows you?” Wang Qin exclaimed in surprise.

“I’ve met him once. It’s actually Yu Luocheng who knows him,” Yang Qianqian replied.

Back then, when Yu Luocheng brought Yang Qianqian to meet Yin Qin in Section C, the only thing she knew was that they were a strong team. She hadn’t realized that they commanded such prestige within the Dragon Rising, the assumed champions-to-be.

It was also only now that she was starting to understand what it had really meant, for Commander Qin to have extended an invitation for Yu Luocheng to join them.

“How would Yu Luocheng know Commander Qin?” Wang Qin’s confusion had only deepened. However, he didn’t dwell on the matter. Turning to Sun Yang, beside him, he said, “You suck the most. Team Scarlet’s match will be starting soon. Hurry up and go find a spot behind them, so you can watch how their pro Support plays. What are you still doing here?”

Sun Yang cast a hapless look towards Yang Qianqian, reluctantly moving to enter the fray. It was fortunate that he was blessed with the natural advantage of height, so that even if he couldn’t get that close, he could still see what was going on.

“Something’s off, here.” Wang Qin counted the team members again. “Commander Qin is the coach, so he shouldn’t be playing. Does that mean Team Scarlet is only fielding four people for this game?”

Others had noticed the same problem. Everyone had heard that Team Scarlet had found themselves a new Support player, but few had actually ever seen him.

“Commander Qin, why do you only have four players here?” someone asked.

“He’s on his way,” Yin Qin answered shortly.

“Who’s your new Support? I heard that it’s Wu Kai?”

“Idiot, Wu Kai was given the boot by the commander, just the other day—how could it possibly be him?”

“Then who?”

“Someone amazing. Better than Wu Kai, even?”

Under this deluge of questions, Yin Qin smiled without reply, effecting an air of mystery.

Of course, in his heart he was grumbling, ‘Screw this! When is that bum Yu Luocheng going to show up? Are we really going 4v5, here?’

He wasn’t picking up his phone. This was a big damn joke he was playing, here!