NOVEL NEXT Chapter 181 (2)
Then Tong Yao suddenly said something that surprised everyone: “Actually, a lot of people probably don’t know that I wasn’t as tough as what everyone had imagined me to be when I first started playing professionally…… I still remember that I cried and got drunk after I lost the first skirmish against TAT simply because their mid’s timing was too precise-- --”
The hostess blinked and a little dumbfounded: [Hrm?]
The audience was also in commotion.
The cameraman also knew how to liven up the situation. He turned his camera to face the audience and zoomed in on one particular person who was sitting there with a peaked cap on-- --The screen showed him at first looking up at the big screen without any expression on his face. When he saw his own face appear on the screen, he was stunned, then lowered his head, and pulled down the brim of the cap to let the shadow cover half of his face.
-- --That person was TAT’s mid Li Mintai.
The audience was in commotion once again, some even started to cough loudly……
The hostess laughed out loud: [Oh, my goodness, it looks like the cameraman isn’t going to let TAT’s Tai walk out of the arena in one piece now. I can see from here that a lot of guys look like they’re prepared to hit someone….. As if they’re saying: hey, how could you bully the only girl we have in our league? !]
Tong Yao retained her composure and said with a smile: “lt’s quite a normal reaction, quite normal. It’s just the reaction when you can’t accept defeat-- --I can’t let others treat me differently just because I’m a girl, right? A major reason that I’m sitting here is hopefully to let everyone know: For esports, women aren’t necessarily less capable than men……”
The hostess kept nodding and started to applaud. Tong Yao continued: “We don’t want to be discriminated against, nor do we want to be treated in any special way-- --Just treat us as any normal player or professional player, no trolling nor trying to be “accommodating.” This shouldn’t be too hard to do, right?......”
The hostess: [It sure is like that when I play the game. Whenever a champion dies, someone would ask: is the support a woman? …...To hell with it, so what if I'm a woman?]
Tong Yao laughed out loud: “Right, right, right, it’s just like that! The reason why I mentioned Li Mintai earlier is that the next match against TAT means a lot to me personally as well as to my teammates……”
The hostess suddenly thought about something: [Chessman was with TAT before.]
Tong Yao kept the smile on her face and nodded: “Yes, yes! Our captain has to face his old team…… And we’ll all do our best-- --One thing I’m sure though is that I won’t choose to avoid him. It would mean a lot to me to defeat TAT’s mid Li Mintai……”
(Backstage, ZGDX teammates were quiet after hearing Tong Yao. Old Cat reached over to lift up Lu Sicheng’s hair. The captain slapped his hand away: “What are you doing?”
“Looking to see whether your hair’s turned green……” Old Cat said slowly.)
Tong Yao held the mic tightly and laughed: “Therefore, it’s a must that we defeat TAT…… no matter how you look at it.”
The hostess: [Good luck to you all.]
Tong Yao slightly bowed her head and smiled: “Thanks. Thanks everyone.”
The interview was over.
When Tong Yao jumped off the stool, she didn’t realize that she had collected a lot of fans all over the world-- --In the esports world, no matter the location, fans would boast about the winner and be dismissive of the loser. The moment when Tong Yao handed the mic back to the staff and walked towards the break room, the outside world was already boasting her as a star student, fluent in English, gentle and adorable, and most importantly, strong yet humble.
The fans back home felt so proud of her: Look how cultured our professional player is! Her English is 66666!
The female players around the world were also quite proud: Look at that, a player from the four best teams at S series has said it herself-- --Male players and female players are the same!
Tong Yao was walking briskly towards backstage, totally unconcerned whether she did well in the interview or not. All she wanted to do was to find a mirror to look at her own face-- --The lighting at the interview area was so blindingly bright. She had just finished a 50 minutes game and didn’t know whether her face was greasy or not, shit!