Chapter 6
Translator: Aafkee
Proofreader: ChaiTea
The first one to ban is TS’s top lane, Brother Hu. Without any hesitation, he bans the hero Xu Hao is good at, Azir, to which the crowd hisses in response.
Mu Wanwan does not think that there is anything worth hissing at. Rather, there should be a commotion if TS had let Xu Hao play Azir.
This is what the League of Legends professional competition is about. The team members are fixed and each team knows who they are against beforehand, giving everyone a fair chance to research trial and error.
This is the reason why when a particular player plays a certain hero exceptionally well, that champion will most likely never escape from being banned by the opposite team.
It is meaningless no matter how good that single player is, or how good that player is with a single character.
Outstanding individual player? Target him. Outstanding control of a specific champion? Ban him.
This is the reason why players who have a shallow champion pool* can never play in a professional competition.
(T/N*: Champion pool refers to the list of champions a player always uses and optimises to ensure the highest performance and win rates, especially in Ranked matches. As mentioned, the opposite team can ban champions from being used in the game so in cases where a champion you are good at is banned, you have other options to choose from. This is especially important in a professional setting because the teams probably researched each other and, therefore, know exactly what the other team’s players are good at, which allows them to ban champions accordingly before the game starts.)
The censor monsters, Lulu and Janna, are banned in a flash. The last ban spot belongs to TS.
The young lady beside Mu Wanwan brings her hands together as if she is praying, and mumbles, “Please don’t ban God Hao*’s Galio…”
(T/N*: It is very common for fans to address the good players this way. For example, Pei Lu -> God Lu, Xu Hao -> God Hao. So in this case, God Hao is referring to Xu Hao, and this young lady here is obviously Xu Hao’s fangirl.)
Mu Wanwan stated, “Don’t worry, it won’t be banned.”
The young lady glances at her, “Are you a new fan? Don’t you know how strong God Hao’s Galio is in terms of providing support to his team? It will definitely be banned.”
…
Mu Wanwan shuts up.
This young lady is praying over there by herself. and Mu Wanwan merely wanted to console her but got dissed instead. Ladies nowadays are so hard to please!
When Mu Wanwan turns back to the stage, she sees TS banning Tristana straight away.
The young lady sitting beside her bursts out in laughter, “Hahaha, is TS dumb or what~ They actually banned an ADC.”
Mu Wanwan responds with a laugh, too.
Not long after, the bottom lane combination is revealed. Pei Lu has chosen Thresh, a champion that is not that popular in tournaments since Ardent Censer is normally not used in this character’s build. Without Ardent Censer on Thresh, the rest of the team will not get the power buff from the item either.
ADC Chen He picked Vayne, the opposite bottom lane picked Nami and Kog’Maw, while their jungler picked Lee Sin.
TS’s jungler, Mu Tou, seems to be in a pickle. He hesitates for nearly a minute before picking Pantheon.
The young lady beside her claps happily in response, “They even let us take Lee Sin. We’re gonna win for sure! There is no way Pantheon can get into the late game.”
Mu Wanwan smiles, noncommittally.
The game starts without any obstacles. None of the teams has any records of switching lanes in the middle of the game, so the supports from both teams return to the bottom lane after helping their junglers with their neutral camps.
Vayne is not very strong during the laning phase, so having Thresh, who has more of a presence and ability to oppress, as support is definitely appropriate.
Of course, she reckons that Pei Lu’s decision to use Thresh is not only limited to wanting to deal with Vayne’s relatively weak laning phase.
At level three, Pei Lu’s hook goes straight towards Kog’Maw, triggering a small team fight.
Not much is lost by both parties. There are some drops in health points, which can easily be fixed by drinking a health potion.
At the moment both sides are reaching level six soon, the opposite team’s Lee Sin is already on his way to the bottom lane.
It seems like TS has no idea what is going on at all since Vayne is still pushing the minion wave with no hesitation.
To bait the opponents, MA’s bottom lane is creating a facade of them losing and retreating bit by bit. Nami even goes up to the opponents and takes in two auto attacks before escaping in a panic.
That is what you’d call an Oscar actor.
Lee Sin quickly puts down a ward on the other side of the wall and jumps through, landing an accurate Q on Vayne. Lee Sin’s bottom lane duo reacts instantly, trying to follow up with Lee Sin’s attack.
Before the crowd can start cheering, a giant circle mark appears right underneath Vayne’s character - that’s Pantheon’s ultimate, which allows him to jump to anywhere within a specific distance.
Clearly, MA had thought that this would happen as Lee Sin does not waste any time and goes straight for Vayne’s life. However, just as Lee Sin’s second hit from his Q lands, he gets caught by Thresh’s hook and is pushed away by Thresh’s E.
Vayne immediately retreats with her Q, successfully dodging Kog’Maw’s attack. As Pantheon is about to land, Lee Sin times it perfectly and jumps back to his teammates before throwing out another Q. Vayne’s health point is already pretty low. In the worst-case scenario, it’ll become a three against three fight.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, a whirlpool appears on the ground - TS’s middle lane’s Orianna has arrived at the bottom lane without anyone noticing! Orianna is only left with half of her health bar, but it is obvious that all of her skills are already off cooldown and is ready to deal tons of damage.
MA’s middle lane, Galio, thought that Orianna has already returned to town and reckoned that Lee Sin should have no problem winning the fight at the bottom lane. To make sure his CS does not lag behind, Galio decides to return to town instead of going to the bottom lane to join the team fight.
The circumstances reverse in an instant. Seeing that the tides are against them, MA quickly makes the decision to sacrifice one life to ensure the safety of the other two. Who would have imagined that Nami missed her Q and could not stun Orianna but, instead, was killed in an instant by Orianna’s skill combo?
Kog’Maw does not turn back and uses his summoner skill to flash* away resolutely.
(T/N*: It is one of the summoner spells in League of Legends which allows the character to teleport to the indicated direction for a short distance.)
Pei Lu, who has hoarded his Q, quickly follows with his own flash and throws out his hook with no hesitation. It lands accurately on Kog’Maw. Pantheon quickly follows up and takes the kill.
0 for 3, Orianna gets one kill. This round of gank is definitely worth it, since TS can even take down the Infernal Drake in passing.
It is a perfect way to start the match.
Although Mu Wanwan had anticipated all that, she could not help but exclaim, “Beautiful!”
Everyone surrounding her turns their heads to stare at her the moment those words leave her mouth --
Those eyes are even scarier than just now.
Mu Wanwan points out, “... Kog’Maw’s skin sure is beautiful! I need to buy it when I get back!”
Lin Jiu is silent.
Although her bestie is a little foolish, her survival instincts are pretty strong…
After that 0 for 3 trade, MA’s pace is completely wrecked. Lee Sin is at least half a level behind Pantheon.
And Pantheon is almost always camping at the bottom lane, jumping in every time he has his ultimate ready. The bottom lane duo decides to just switch to the top lane after getting caught twice by him.
MA quickly pushes out the bottom lane and rushes to the top lane.
At this moment, Galio looks to be planning something. Judging from his movements, he is most likely planning to gank the top lane.
Someone from TS has been pinging the map like a madman, clearly having guessed Galio’s plans.
The camera points to Pei Lu, who suddenly laughs after hearing something.
Perhaps because she has already seen the real person backstage, Mu Wanwan can feel the full effect of that smile even through that small monitor.
The young lady beside Mu Wanwan leans towards her companion, “Don’t think you Pei Lu is pretty handsome, too?”
“That’s true… but he is not as cool and wild as God Hao!” her companion professes.
The young lady, immediately, comes back down from the wall* and agrees with her companion, “You’re right.”
(T/N*: In Chinese, “jumping or climbing over a wall” can be used to describe a fan becoming another person’s fan. In this case, the young lady was about to switch from being Xu Hao’s fan to becoming Pei Lu’s fan because of his good looks. Since her companion managed to convince her that Xu Hao is the “better” one, she did not manage to “become Pei Lu’s fan”, i.e. she did not manage to climb over the wall completely.)
Cool and wild??
What in the world?
She glances at Xu Hao. The latter’s hair is dyed in an iconic ash grey colour, his hair covering most of his eyebrows.
Can he even see the monitor with this hairstyle? Does the team’s coach not care?
The match ends in 25 minutes.
TS’s overwhelming victory is a shock to all MA fans. Evidently, MA did not take it to heart, so much that Xu Hao is still grinning from ear to ear backstage.
When Pei Lu stands up, his eyes subconsciously search the crowd.
His gaze momentarily meets with Mu Wanwan’s.
Pei Lu only glances hastily before leaving the stage to discuss their team’s strategy for the next game.
Mu Wanwan did not even have time to respond with a smile.
She shrugs - she is merely a fan in the other party’s eyes, it is completely normal for him to not have any response even if their eyes met.
She glances at the time and exclaims, “Ah, I need to go back now.”
Lin Jiu is surprised, “But it has only been the first match.”
Mu Wanwan sighs, “It’s already half-past two, I have promised viewers that I’ll be streaming at four.”
Lin Jiu rolls her eyes, “It doesn’t even take ten minutes for you to go back from here, what’s the rush?”
“I need time for my makeup.”
“How long does it take for you to do your makeup every time?” Lin Jiu is genuinely curious.
Mu Wanwan thinks for a second before she answers, “More than half an hour, probably.”
“... No wonder you look like you’ve changed your face completely every time. It must have been hard on you,” Lin Jiu tuts. “I, honestly, think that your idol has a high chance of winning. Do you really not want to watch it?”
LPL Spring Season Tournament’s regular match has a best of three rule, so the team who wins two games out of three will win the match.
“Of course I’ll watch it. At home.” Mu Wanwan replies evenly.
Lin Jiu stands up, looking resigned, “I can’t win against you, can I? Let’s go.”
“You’re not watching it, too?” she asks.
“I don’t like to watch such things anyway. I’m only here to accompany you.”
Mu Wanwan is touched, “I’ll not pay for food delivery tonight if it’s less than two hundred.”
Before leaving, she glances at Team TS’s manager, Brother Yang, who just got out of the room to discuss something with a staff member.
Seeing that she is lagging behind, Lin Jiu looks back and asks, “What’s wrong?”
Mu Wanwan shakes her head and quickly exits the venue.
The second game is starting soon. Pei Lu reflexively looks towards the seat where Mu Wanwan was sitting before.
She is no longer there.
Did she go to the toilet again?
As TS’s middle lane lost in the second game, they lost the game in 35 minutes. Pei Lu looks at the seat again when he leaves - it is still empty.
Back in his training room, he creases his brows slightly.
Lil Meat Bun pats his shoulder, slightly embarrassed, “Xiao-Lu, sorry about the previous game. It was my bad for losing the middle lane.”
Pei Lu lets out an “ah” and says, “It’s no problem.”
They have formulated many different plans to counter MA. They tried making Mu Tou target and gang the top lane, but the opponent’s jungler had decided to camp in their middle lane, too. The opponent dove their middle lane’s tower in all ways possible with three players, oppressing Lil Meat Bun completely. Lil Meat Bun can not be blamed completely for that.
They can always use a different plan if this does not work.
During their third deciding game, Pei Lu looks past his monitor towards the audience the moment he steps on the stage.
That seat remains empty.
He lets out a drawn-out sigh.
Brother Hu frowns, “What’s wrong, why do you keep sighing?”
Pei Lu remains silent for a moment before he answers, disappointment evident in his voice, “It’s so hard to satisfy fans nowadays.”
Brother Hu frowns, baffled.
**
Mu Wanwan is doing her makeup in front of her computer when Pei Lu says that.
She sticks on her fake eyelashes and puts on a few layers of mascara before she finally starts her stream.
Since her streams are punctual, many viewers have already gathered.
[You’re watching the match, too? MA is losing! What happened to TS that they became so strong??]
[It’s just a regular match, MA doesn’t even care. They’ll get into the playoff round no matter how they play.]
[Are you not embarrassed to praise a team that loses in only 25 minutes?]
Mu Wanwan bends her finger and swipes her fringe briefly, “Stop arguing and watch the match.”
[Are you not playing?]
Mu Wanwan replies, “I will, immediately.”
Just as she starts up her game client, the third game starts.
The corners of her lips lift into a smile the moment she sees the team composition.
[Wanan, which team do you think will win??]
She has heard this exact same question twice now.
But since this is a stream, she has smartly decided not to answer this time.
She quickly starts a game. When she is still in a team fight, she already sees the comments across the monitor.
[TS won WTF!!!]
[Isn’t MA being too dumb? They couldn’t even win against TS, wth are they doing?]
[Lu really is strong. If MA dares to let go of Janna, they need to be prepared to lose.]
[Aren’t you fans boasting blindly?]
Mu Wanwan answers in her own heart, Lu is, indeed, strong.
Only an ADC can understand the importance of a good support.
Just as her game ends, she receives a WeChat message from a certain manager from BattleCat.
Since it is not convenient for her to chat when she’s live on stream, and she does not have another computer nor does she have an assistant like some other streamers, so the manager will always contact her via WeChat when she is streaming.
Xiao-Yu says, “Wanan, do you have Weibo? You should advertise yourself a little so that it’s easier to increase your popularity. You can consider doing some sort of advertisement or something yourself, too.”
Wan responds with, “I do.”
Xiao-Yu also adds, “Send me your ID, we’ll help you get your account verified.”
Mu Wanwan’s Weibo is her in-game ID. She only has 3 followers - her name is so ugly that even the ghost followers are unwilling to follow her.
However, a big boss had sent her a direct message before.
And that big boss is called Manager Brother Yang.
The message he had sent previously is still there, waiting in the chatbox, “DepressedPrince from Server 1? May I ask if you are interested in going professional?”
Mu Wanwan did not reply.
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Author’s note:
MA: The current top ranking team locally
TS: Middle tier team, did not get to enter the League of Legends World Championship last year
HSS: Novice (Noob)
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