Chapter 42
As they reached mid game, both teams had already entered their power spike.
It was important to see who seized the opportunity first, since both kills and dragons were the same on both teams. This was a trial for the commander and whether the other team members were able to cooperate or not.
And at this moment, Gu Zixing, the commander, had put a ward in the baron pit. Seeing that the enemy support still had 20 seconds before reviving, Gu Zixing wanted to make a gamble.
“Baron.”
Gu Zixing ordered and the other EG members hurried over to the pit to gain vision control.
“Jungler, go hide in the bushes behind the pit for a bit.”
After hearing Gu Zixing, Qi Chen obediently wandered in a circle in the bushes behind the pit.
Everyone in EG was well aware that the bush Gu Zixing was talking about definitely had a ward from STG in it. Gu Zixing had Qi Chen intentionally do this to bait STG over to fight. Since STG was missing their support, he wanted to see if STG would fight more fiercely or be more cautious.
As expected, STG couldn’t endure the lure of the baron buff. The top laner, Luo Kai, jumped in first followed by their jungler.
The two teams were both surrounding baron but they were obviously separated. Seeing that the support only had 5 seconds left on their death timer, Qi Chen hurried to take the opportunity and used his QWE on the jungler and threw his R at the enemy ADC.
A slow effect followed by a strong CC put EG in a very good situation, but soon after the enemy Syndra rushed over and used her E ability to throw Qi Chen and Tang Xuan backwards. However Gu Zixing dodged the E ability and used his W skill to root the ADC in place. Meanwhile, the enemy top laner was targeting Tang Xuan, who was weaker without his support, however he didn’t expect Qi Chen to take all the damage himself. Qi Chen’s Sejuani, from mid to late game, was very tanky and beefy. So not only did Luo Kai fail to kill Tang Xuan, he actually also took a bit of damage from Tang Xuan.
Syndra was already poisoned by Gu Zixing and ended up flashing. She turned around and wanted to run but someone auto attacked the baron, and the angry baron spit out a green liquid and injured everyone in the baron pit. But Syndra’s positioning was the worst, after being poisoned she was then hit by the baron and died.
After losing a carry, even if the support came back with full health it was pointless. Gu Zixing had already positioned himself next to the enemy ADC. The enemy Kennen had wanted to support their ADC however he got locked up in place by Fu Xiaohai’s Camille. Shortly after with an R ability, Yao Le also used his vines to root down the Kennen.
Gu Zixing used his R ability in front of the ADC. Although he was also at half health from the ADC, but the hard CC that he saved became the key to winning the fight. With one R ability he Cc’ed the ADC and the support who came to help.
Qi Chen followed up with an EQW, and along with Gu Zixing applied Frost to the enemies one by one.
In the end, only STG’s jungler was able to run away.
In a beautiful 4 for 0, it instantly turned the climatic situation and let EG reverse the situation. The morale of the EG members were running high and they pushed all the way up the lane.
Seeing that the victory for the first round was already in the bag, everyone sitting in the EG lobby backstage acted like they were newbies who had never seen a competition and were excitedly cheering. However the real newbie, Qiao Yanzhou, at this very moment had disappeared somewhere.
“Let’s give a warm applause to EG for taking the first victory!”
STG’s nexus exploded in front of everyone as the commentator passionately spoke. The five members of EG walked towards the members of STG to shake their hands one by one.
The two analysts stood there as they began to reflect upon the match just now. Meanwhile the two teams had already returned to their lobbies.
___
“My playing isn’t too bad today.” While walking towards the lobby, Qi Chen spoke with his arm around Gu Zixing’s shoulders and he mischievously laughed. “Give me the spider next and I’ll guarantee you guys will see the finals!”
“Look after your own jungle first.”
Gu Zixing smiled as he picked up Qi Chen’s hand on his shoulders and threw it off as he pushed open the door to the lobby.
“....”
Just now when the competition ended, STG’s jungler Chu Tao sent Gu Zixing a wechat message. Gu Zixing didn’t even have a chance to finish reading it when Chu Tao deleted it then sent a new message over again.
Chu Tao: Too old, can’t play anymore.
Gu Zixing laughed at his phone for a moment. He didn’t reply to Chu Tao and put his phone away in his bag.
Lifting his head, he looked around the lobby and realized that it was missing a person. The table next to him even still had the ointment for his hand on it.
“Where’s Qiao Yanzhou?”
“Went out ba, he said he was going to buy water.” Qin Xiangnan was currently busy taking notes from the competition so he responded without thinking.
“Go out to buy what water? We brought over a giant case of water, is it not enough to drink?” Qi Chen pulled out a bottle of water from the chest and twisted off the lid and handed it to Gu Zixing, then got another one for himself. “Knowing that you are old and crippled, aren’t I pretty considerate?”
“Enough.” Gu Zixing put the water to the side and laughed, “It’s even more considerate if you go with me to find Qiao Yanzhou. I’ll let you command the next match.”
“You’re joking. Coach Chen will have a meeting in a moment. Pleading Xingxing to go bot lane.”
“Whatever lane I’m in, I still won’t be the scapegoat. I also didn’t lose baron.” Gu Zixing stood up intending to go out. Qi Chen was also about to call him and stood up when they saw Qiao Yanzhou open the door and come in. He even still had headphones on his ears.
Only after closing the door did Qiao Yanzhou notice that everyone in the room was honestly sitting upright. Only Qi Chen and Gu Zixing were foolishly standing, eyes fixed on him.
Qiao Yanzhou stared blankly for a moment before exposing a dumbfounded face. “What’s going on?”
“What did you go out for?” Seeing that Qiao Yanzhou had come back on his own, Gu Zixing obediently sat back down.
Qiao Yanzhou took his headphones off, turned towards Gu Zixing and waved his phone. “My mom just called me. I was afraid of disturbing everyone watching the competition so I went out to answer. Did you win or lose?”
“I’m here, how could we still lose.” Qi Chen waved his hand, “Not possible.”
“Then congrats congrats! Goodluck on your next match!” Qiao Yanzhou smiled and said towards Qi Chen. Then he turned around and walked towards Gu Zixing and gestured towards the ointment on the table. “You forgot to put it on so I put it on the table.”
“How considerate Xiao Zhou.” Gu Zixing didn’t even open his mouth yet when Tang Xuan spoke first. “Seems like we don’t even need two days before we can fire Qin Xiangnan.”
“Give me my salary for the month and I’ll leave right now. I heard that the mid laner for TR hasn’t found a substitute yet.” Qin Xiangnan hadn't even finished writing down the post-competition notes when he responded after hearing Tang Xuan talk about him.
“TR is still missing people?” Fu Xiaohai asked, “That’s strange.”
“Whether it’s strange or not, it doesn’t concern you guys. Worry about yourself first.” Coach Chen walked in front of them, interrupting Fu Xiaohai. In his hand he was also holding the post-match notes that Qin Xiangnan just finished writing.
After carefully examining it, he twisted his head to look at the 6 people sitting near him. “In the next match we’ll switch out Tang Xuan. Put Zhao Qin mid, Yao Le and Gu Zixing go bot, top and jungle doesn’t change. It’s already been announced.”
“Ok.”
As Coach Chen was talking, Qiao Yanzhou specifically observed Yao Le sitting by the side.
Yao Le was a person who didn’t normally say much. His face didn’t even have much facial expression, it made him feel very dull. But just now when Coach Chen said that Yao Le and Gu Zixing would go bot together, Qiao Yanzhou saw that Yao Le who kept his head down suddenly slightly raised his head to look at Gu Zixing.
One unconscious motion exposed many questions, Qiao Yanzhou thought. At the same time he felt that he himself was a drama queen. Someone randomly lifted their head and he could think of these disorderly thoughts that didn’t necessarily have to do with anything.
Coach Chen didn’t have much to say. In 2-3 sentences he finished talking. Actually he usually didn’t talk too much before a competition. It was rare to change tactics because of one game, and talking too much could cause things to fail. Coach Chen believed that competitions were a time to see their improvement, and sometimes it was also to watch fate. Victory, this kind of thing, if it was yours then it would be yours, if it wasn’t then it was pointless to say it was.
“I’m a bit nervous…” Zhao Qin rubbed his fingers then turned to look at Gu Zixing, “How about Commander Gu give some pointers?”
At this time Gu Zixing was letting Qiao Yanzhou rub the ointment on his hand. Hearing Zhao Qin say this, he lifted his head and extended his other hand, patting the thigh of Qi Chen sitting on his other side. “If you can’t defeat them then find Qi Chen.”
“That’s right.” Qi Chen nodded his head. It seemed that he was very pleased with this tip. “Zhao Qin let me tell you, an awesome jung…”
“He’ll accompany you to die together.” Gu Zixing didn’t have the patience to wait for Qi Chen to finished praising himself.
“........”
Frankly EG’s hope for the 2nd round was not as hopeful as the first round. First, it was because they changed the positions of some people. 2nd, after losing the first match, STG might try something different for the 2nd match.
The semi finals were a critical moment, so to be so deranged as to change things around, in the entire alliance only EG with Coach Chen would have this kind of courage.
The lineup for the second match was already announced to the spectators and as expected, it aroused discussion amongst all the spectators.
The mid lane overlord got swapped down to ADC.
The fans had mixed feelings about it. They had seen Gu Zixing as an ADC before. As long as the lineup had no issues, Gu Zixing could fight 1 v 5. But as long as the troop arrangement made Gu Zixing uncomfortable, all 5 enemies could run and bully him.
But the media were able to dig out more gossip. The former great midlaner of TR and the King of midlane in the alliance Gu Zixing were now together bot. Such an exciting headline! As they write the articles tonight, they wouldn’t even add it to their work hours!
“Let’s go.”
The notification beep to go onstage sounded, everyone who needed to leave all stood up.
“The final round! Play well! No round 3!” Coach Chen said to the EG players.
“If it’s not possible, then don’t endure.” Qiao Yanzhou was sitting down and he lifted his head to softly whisper to Gu Zixing. He was still a bit worried in his heart.
Why was he this worried? It could be because he was a die-hard fan of EG, so he didn’t want EG to lose the competition, that’s all.
Yes, that’s right, there’s nothing more to it.
Gu Zixing lowered his head to look at Qiao Yanzhou and smiled. His hand reached out to lightly rub Qiao Yanzhou’s hair.
“No problem.”
***