The Beijing Esports Association had assembled a team of seven talented yers for the Winter Collegiate Cup. None of these yers needed any experience at the university level. They could skip straight to the LSPL! And that was precisely why the Beijing Esports Association had recruited them. Because only with a lineup like this could they clinch the Winter Collegiate Cup title and show to the Guangzhou and Shanghai Esports Associations that they were the strongest and most talented region in all of China!


    Team Beijing had yed a good number of games, including scrimmages against university teams and the first couple of games in the Winter Collegiate Cup. They won each of those games convincingly, quickly bing a terrifying opponent for the other teamspeting. But what really threw the teams in North China off was that Team Beijing was ying with their B lineup. Their two star yers, the Miner and Toner, hadn’t yed a single game yet! This was a tactic the Beijing Esports Association hade up with in preparation for the main tournament. No one would know just how good they were until it was already far toote to do anything about it!


    The substitute Toner looked at Fan Yuan, the team’s manager, and shrugged. He nced at his teammates and said, “I don’t know what you guys think, but…” He pointed at the rey they were watching on the projector. “That Toner is shit.” Why do I even need to spend time on this? I’m a Master in the Ionia server! And that Zhang Hao? Yeah, that dude is like Diamond… His Fiora sucked hard. F.u.c.k.i.n.g waste of my time watching this!


    Fan Yuan nodded and said, “Thanks for sharing your insights.” He then turned to the others and asked, “What about you guys? Anything to add to that?”


    Team Beijing’s ad-carry stretched his back and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He yawned and said, “I don’t know. Those Boners are a terrible match. It doesn’t really matter how good they are individually, they can’t y together for shit. All I could see were the ring mistakes they kept making because ofmunication issues. If they y like that? We don’t even have to try.”


    Fan Yuan pped the ruler in his palm. He took a deep breath, looking at each of the team members in turn. “Stop this. Sit up straight. Watch the footage.” He pped the ruler behind him, where the beamer was projecting the rey of Team Shanghai’s game against the East China University of Science and Technology for a second time. “Look at what they’re doing right! We’re not going to underestimate them! We’re going to study them, and then when we y them, we’re going to tear them apart!” He narrowed his eyes and added, “Don’t forget. They beat Shanghai University of Finance 2-0 a while back. That’s a strong team.”


    “The way I see it,” Team Beijing’s Support started. He pushed his sses up the rim of his nose, irritated, and then looked straight at Fan Yuan. “The way I see it, Team Shanghai tricked them. Their Support is Zeng Rui, yeah? He’s a Challenger and I’m guessing the captain of the team. He has a decent idea about shotcalling. Not at all strange that they won against the Shanghai University of Finance. And that university team most likely underestimated Zeng Rui’s team as well. There really isn’t a whole lot to it. Zeng Rui used the little skill he has to trick Shanghai University of Finance. I don’t see why we need to spend time on this.” He chuckled and added, “Can’t wait to kick that noob’s fat ass though.”


    Team Beijing’s ad-carry nced at his Support, surprised. What’s got him all worked up? He never talks this much… And what the f.u.c.k was thatugh? But, hmm, a Challenger Support? Team Shanghai is better than I expected then. We shouldn’t underestimate any Challenger. Fan Yuan is right to tell us we need to prepare. He looked at his Support and asked, “Zhang Hongyi, how good do you think he realistically is? A Challenger is impressive. We can’t just push that aside.”


    Zhang Hongyi turned his head to look at his ad-carry and snorted. How good? Not good enough to worry me! I would’ve also been Challenger by now if there isn’t a hard cap of 200 yers! I’m at the top of Master! Screw that noob’s fat ass! He finally said, “Don’t worry about him. I got this.”


    Team Beijing’s Jungler looked at his two Boners and said, “If Zhang Hongyi says so, let’s assume that he’s got it. He’s been ying a ton of duo queue at the top of Master, so he’ll have plenty of experience against Challengers. Let’s forget about that Support for now. What about that Miner? That guy actually looked good.”


    The substitute Miner raised his eyebrows and moved his lips around. I’m a Master. He can’t be that much better than me… Right? F.u.c.k me. He is. That dude yed that far too well. He looked at the footage, which was still ying, and said, “He ys hisne really aggressively. I’m not sure I can beat him in the early game…”


    “Doesn’t matter,” Yu Ping said. He sat at the back of the room, leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table. “I’ll y against him.”


    Fan Yuan looked at Yu Ping, who was Team Beijing’s main Miner, and smiled. He looks confident. Good. We know how good our opponents are and he is still so confident. And no one knows a thing about Yu Ping! This n is going to work out great! He nodded at Yu Ping and said, “Good. I’ll leave that to you then.”


    Yu Ping snorted. He couldn’t be bothered to entertain Fan Yuan with a response. What a pathetic waste of time! Team Shanghai? Team Shangshit! I hope they get knocked out before we have to y them. Then I can focus on Team Guangzhou. On Goalie. His annoyed expression became a little bit tense. He narrowed his eyes and flexed his jaw. Goalie. Show me what a Rank 7 Korean Challenger is worth. I finally want to test my skills. Please make it fun. I don’t want to win this tournament without any challenge.


    ?


    Team Guangzhou was going through a simr preparation as Team Beijing. They’d gathered at the Guangzhou Esports Association and were watching the reys from Team Shanghai. The two coaches paused the videos on therge LCD screen every now and then to point out a couple of things, but they otherwise watched the games in silence. And in boredom. They came to the same conclusion Team Beijing had. There was a lotcking in the gamey from Team Shanghai. The only person on the team that looked on top of their game was the Miner. But Team Guangzhou had Goalie in the midne.


    One of the two coaches turned to look at Goalie. He was a small and thin youth with a sickly paleplexion. And his small, beady eyes were easy to miss. The coach asked, “What do you think about that Miner? Will he be a problem?”


    The interpreter sitting next to Goalie tranted the question to Korean. Goalie looked at the interpreter in confusion and then turned to the coach and raised an eyebrow. There was a spark in his eyes that was easy to miss due to how small they were. But the smirk on his lips said it all. He replied to the interpreter in Korean, though everyone could guess what he was about to say.


    “He says,” the interpreter tranted into Chinese. “That he won’t waste any more of his time on this Miner. This Lin Feng has no real skill. Goalie says he can beat him on his worst off day with three fingers in his nose.”


    Goalie noticed how the interpreter raised three fingers and suddenly scrunched his nose. He moved his head back and forth and then raised his hand and ced it behind his back. Everyone could guess what he meant. He was saying that he only needed one hand to beat Lin Feng. He then said in broken Chinese, “Easy.”


    ?


    Team Shanghai was making the most out of the little time they had to prepare for the next round of the Winter Collegiate Cup. They were still only a newly formed team and really needed every second they could get to work on their synergy and n out strategies. This was further reinforced by the minor setback due to Zeng Rui and Zhang Hao changing their approach to the game. It made them better yers, but it’d take time to adjust the team’s strategies and synergies to these changes. So they practiced every afternoon, meeting up at the cybercafe after school and only going home for dinner.


    Lin Feng went through the motions. School in the morning, practice with Team Shanghai in the afternoon and walking home with Tang Bingyao around dinner time. Su Xue was waiting for him at home every night, dinner usually already on the table. They’d share a quick bite together, after which he went to his room to do his homework. The night ended with him joining Su Xue on her stream, ying a couple of games with her or her viewers.


    Before Lin Feng could grow toofortable in this rhythm, it was interrupted. He’d just finished his homework and was about to have fun with Su Xue on stream, when his phone started ringing. Who;s calling me thiste at night? He reached for his phone and checked the caller ID. His eyes went wide in shock. He double-checked the caller ID, just to be sure. Then he smashed on the green phone icon and ced the phone next to his ear. “Sir!”


    “SIR!” Lin Feng repeated a secondter impatiently. He moved the phone from his ear again and checked to make sure the call was still connected. It was. He was on the phone with One, his mentor, the most famous yer in world esports! There were many people out there trying to make a name for themselves, like Han ‘Rake’ Seho or the older Lee ‘Rake’ Dojae, but none of them reached the ill.u.s.trious height of One. He was renowned worldwide as the best yer in the famous massive online battle arena game DotA! He was the first name added to the Esports Hall of Fame! He was everything Lin Feng aspired to be! It’s One! One is calling me! One! One!


    “Sir, sir! Are you there?” Lin Feng asked for a third time.


    “Hey, hey? Can you hear me?” One asked. “Sorry, I’m in Thand. The signal is pretty terrible here.”


    Lin Feng smiled and quickly replied, “It’s good! The connection is good! I can hear you!”


    “Good! That’s good!” One said. “I heard you’re ying in the Winter Collegiate Cup? How’s that going?”


    “Yeah, I am! We won the first round! And the second round!” Lin Feng eximed, grinning. “We crushed the opponents! It went really well! I guess I’m still really good at winning games too! Oh, I think we’re going to the Regionals next!”


    One chuckled and asked, “You’re winning the tournament, yeah?”


    “Of course I am!” Lin Feng replied, almost sounding insulted by the question. “I wouldn’t let you down! We’re going to win this tournament easily!”


    “Good, good,” One said. He breathed in sharply and looked out the window of his vi at the beautiful green scenery outside. Winning a university tournament when he was the best yer in the world. He yed at the World Finals! And now he sounds excited about winning a university tournament… How the mighty have fallen, hehe. He shook his head and moved his lips around. But he really needs to start challenging himself. He won’t learn anything from this. Hmm… Can I help him somehow? What could I make him do? He looked at hisputer, which had the League of Legends client open. I could do that… The season is almost over. Somest minute climbing of thedder could challenge him… Yeah, that’ll work. He smiled and asked, “Did you know that thepetitive ranked season ends in a month on the Korean server?”


    “I guess?” Lin Feng replied. “Why?”


    One ignored Lin Feng and continued, “The top ten Challengers in the Korean server are being tracked live until the season ends. Right now, Rake has got three ounts in that top 10. First, second and ninth. And it would be one, two and three if there were more hours in a day. You know how good he is. The entire top 10 could be his if he had the time and energy to go for it.”


    Lin Feng listened to One, his usual grin disappearing. He stared at hisptop and chewed on the inside of his cheeks. I know. I know. I know he’s ying really well! He’s the best yer in the world! I’m nowhere near good enough to be ying against him yet. I need more time! A lot more time! But he’s using that same time to get better himself! It’s difficult! I don’t know… It’s really difficult! Maybe I’m not good… I’m good enough, but maybe there isn’t enough time… Heughed at himself. He shook his head andughed at himself. Here I was all happy about beating some Diamond yers in a university tournament… What am I doing? Am I really happy about this!? Those guys were never my opponents! I’m way too good for that level! It’s not even… It’s not even worth my time. I’m only falling further behind Rake. All the time I’m spending messing around, Rake is getting better! And better! AND BETTER!


    Lin Feng was breathing faster and faster, biting on his lips in frustration. I’m letting myself get distracted! My goal isn’t this Collegiate Cup! I want to be the best yer in the world! And I can’t do that if I’m satisfied by beating a couple of Diamond yers! That won’t help me improve! There is only one thing I should be focusing on. To get back to my original level. Get on the level of the Four Emperors! Screw these damn qualifiers! They mean nothing! I need to stop letting myself get so happy about winning them! It’d be a disgrace if I lost them! These teams are bad. I’m so much better that I don’t even have to try to win! He knocked himself on the forehead. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!” While I’m here having fun, Rake is working hard to be better! I need to get my head in the game! I’ll never get to his level like this!


    One breathed out loudly, interrupting Lin Feng’s thoughts, and asked, “That Miner from Team Guangzhou? Goalie? You know who I’m talking about?”


    “Yeah,” Lin Feng replied, dejected.


    One continued with a second question, “He peaked at Rank 7 on the Korean Challengerdder, right?”


    “Yeah,” Lin Feng repeated in the same dejected voice.


    “You’re going to beat him, right?” One asked.


    “Yeah,” Lin Feng said, still dejected.


    One paused for a brief moment before saying, “Alright. Then I have a job for you. Something that might actually push you. Before this whole Winter Collegiate Cup ends, I want you to climb up to Challenger on the Korean server. And. You’re not stopping when you get there. You’re going to surpass Goalie’s peak and then break into the Top 5.”


    Lin Feng stuttered a few incoherent words, speechless. Top five? Top five in the Korean server? Can I? That is right up there at the top! Rake is there! I’d have to y against Rake… and, and I’d have to beat him! I can’t get to the top five if I don’t y against Rake! Unless I only y when he isn’t around. But he’s always ying… I’ll have to y against…


    “What?” One interrupted. He chuckled and asked, “Think you can’t do it?”


    The messagended. Lin Feng clenched his phone and gritted his teeth. He breathed in deeply, letting the air fill his lungs, and then breathed every negative emotion out of his body. Hisptop stood on his desk. He nced at it, determined. “I can do it. Of course I can do it! I’ll do it! I’ll get to the top of Challenger on the Korean server before the Collegiate Cup is over!”