NOVEL NEXT Chapter 186 (1)
The life and death round was about to begin.
Usually, when a team won the first two rounds then lost the next two rounds back to back, the team, ZGDX, would feel much more pressure than the other team, TAT……
Yet, Lu Sicheng, as captain of ZGDX, didn’t say anything during the break.
He, instead, had a short chat before going on stage with TAT’s supervisor Jroom who was his old acquaintance as well-- --Jroom was a good judge of talent; he was the one who brought Lu Sicheng from LPL to LCK against almost everyone’s objection. Lu Sicheng, thus, became the one and only foreign player in LCK’s history……
Korea has always been one of the leading countries in esports. There were only Korean players playing for other countries. Lu Sicheng was the first one who went to Korea to play-- --Fortunately, through his own skills, he made those who had objected in the beginning shut their mouths in the end.
Later on, Lu Sicheng left LCK to go back to the LPL at the peak of his career in Korea before LCK was able to win a world championship.
Jroom had taken a lot of heat about Lu Sicheng’s departure. People said that there was something wrong with Jroom’s head. He had used the top Korean esports resources to foster a world class top AD, then let him return to where he was from……
-- --Jroom knew a lot of people were pointing fingers at him but he chose to ignore it. After TAT took the championship at S5 under his leadership, TAT was able to maintain their superiority in the whole till S6 despite losing Pope!
People said Jroom was the best League of Legends coach among all the professional teams in the world. He was different from Xiao Rui who only knew how to order take out for his team players.
Before they went on stage, Jroom was joking with Lu Sicheng-- --
Jroom: “It can’t be that you were going easy on us because we were your old team.”
“No way.” Lu Sicheng leaned against the doorway to the stage: “On the contrary, because I know that Supervisor Park’s very familiar with the way I play, I have to be extra careful to avoid all the habits I developed while at TAT……”
“Kid, what you said really hurts my feelings-- --You were part of LCK, remember? It was me who pulled up a stool to sit behind you to make sure you practiced farming, remember? And Korean…… I still remembered how you learned Korean sentence by sentence after me-- --Now, you can speak it so fluently.”
“Ge, what are you trying to say after all?”
“-- --Let our Mintai get Leblanc once more the next round, hum? He was ranting just now during the break that he still wants to challenge Smiling to see who’s better. Smiling’s Leblanc is so exciting to see and he still wants to see her tears……”
“That’s my wife. You want me to tolerate someone who wants to see her tears?” Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows: “And he shouldn’t get excited randomly at her. That’s not right.”
“Wasn’t I a patron of yours, hum? Aren’t you going to return the favor? I just want to take another world champion, then with the bonus money from the club I would be able to afford a villa in Gangnam District in Seoul!” Jroom said earnestly.
Lu Sicheng started laughing then said: “No can do.”
Jroom also chuckled, probably knowing that he was out of line and said: “Ah, you’re as annoying as Li Junhe. He’s also like that, didn’t even tower dive when he saw me around! I even told our jungler before the match that he had to hide in the bush to wait for Li Junhe since he would tower dive at level 4 for sure…… The first thing he asked me after the match was: Ge, didn’t you say Junhe Ge would tower dive for sure? You’re all liars QAQ!”
Lu Sicheng played with his name tag in his hand and tittered…… His long and lean fingertips gently stroke over the red letters “CN - LPL” on the tag.
Then he lightly said: “Yeah, it’s the world competition, everyone is for their own team. Li Junhe probably is thinking the same thing-- --This is the battle of honor for the region we represent.”
Jroom paused for a while…… When he looked up again, he happened to see his own players walking out of the passageway. He sentimentally patted Lu Sicheng’s shoulder: “No matter what, I don’t regret inviting you to come to LCK then.”
Tong Yao also walked over next to Lu Sicheng.
Lu Sicheng straightened up, picked up her hand, and smiled to Jroom: “Me too. I’m very glad to meet TAT at the world competition.”
-- --For a split second, he was almost sure that he had seen Jroom’s eyes brighten up against the lights on the stage. Suddenly, the background music for ban & pick phase started playing……
As opponents, they were at opposite positions.
As his old teammate and mentor, though Jroom didn’t say it, Lu Sicheng could tell from Jroom’s face that he was also glad they could meet on the world stage representing each of their own regions.