Chapter 47
“Xiao Qiao, the cool down for Orianna’s QWE is too long. During your skill cooldowns, just auto attack a bit.”
“Xiao Qiao, Galio’s skills have a long range, can you be more careful and keep some distance?”
“Xiao Qiao, if your little fish steps up a bit more he will be solo killed by me.”
“Xiao Qiao, Malzahar is recommended as a support this patch.”
“Xiao Qiao, Lulu mid lane doesn't even need me to say anything. Why didn’t you take ardent censor? Are you a little piglet?”
Little piglet: I'm not entirely sure but I think this refers to 猪八戒, which is the pig character from "Journey to the West". It's now used as a way to scold someone for either being ugly, perverted, or dumb.
“Xiao Qiao…”
“Xiao Qiao has already been annoyed to death by you!”
Qiao Yanzhou felt like he was already on the verge of becoming insane. Being nagged by Gu Zixing and polluting his mind was one thing, but he was also currently being pressured by him as well. Qiao Yanzhou was so vexed he wanted to die. Fortunately Gu Zixing was in a good mood, even if Qiao Yanzhou kept making really dumb mistakes, Gu Zixing continued to keep a cool voice as if he was coaxing a child, otherwise the two people wouldn’t be able to play together.
Qiao Yanzhou wasn’t actually annoyed with Gu Zixing, he was more annoyed with himself. Tomorrow was the talent selection competition. He had been practicing for a few days but there wasn’t an ounce of improvement.
Today he also saw the famous streamer Xiao Nan at the Org and his nervous mood practically filled every corner of EG. But the only person who seemed unaffected by his nervousness was the person by his side.
“Boss Gu.”
“En?”
Taking advantage of when they were loading into the game, Qiao Yanzhou turned his head to shout for Gu Zixing.
“How did you enter EG that year? Also through the talent competition?”
“When I entered, the talent competition didn't even exist yet.” Gu Zixing laughed and propped his head up to look at Qiao Yanzhou, “At the time, I was scouted by Coach Chen through connections from the previous coach. He asked me to come try it out.”
“Then your family didn’t oppose then? When you came to get interviewed you should have been in high school and didn’t graduate yet ba.”
“My family wasn’t in the country at the time, they also didn't care.”
While talking, the game was already loaded in. Qiao Yanzhou was holding onto his mouse clicking while talking.
“Just right, I still don’t dare to tell my mother that I'm participating in the competition. My mom doesn't believe that this is a proper career and will definitely not approve.”
“That’s normal.”
“In any case, I feel that what my mom said is also correct. Even if I manage to enter the team, I would still retire in a few years.” Qiao Yanzhou sighed, “If I enter the team and retire in a few years, I’ll go back to being a small streamer on Ivory Cat.”
“Sounds good.”
“Then I’ll find a girlfriend who has similar interests to me. In this way I can play League of Legends until I'm tired of it, then I can find some horror games to play with my girlfriend and stream.”
“En.”
“Then I’ll live the rest of my life under my mother’s mocking and sarcastic indifference.” Qiao Yanzhou finished talking and laughed.
Gu Zixing turned his head around to look at Qiao Yanzhou, then said, “Xiao Qiao.”
“En?”
“You’re about to die…”
Just as Gu Zixing’s voice fell, he only heard the announcer say “First blood!” and Qiao Yanzhou for the nth time that night was solo killed by Gu Zixing.
“F*ck!”
___
As an official event, for this tournament EG specifically emptied out the Org’s most luxurious training room to use as the competition stage.
It was standard for the SPL and International tournaments to have customized e-sport chairs. The moment someone pushed open the doors to the training room, it gave the illusion that they opened the doors to the International stage.
In the past few years, when EG had their talent competition, they would also have some kind of special broadcast. But afterwards because other teams were poaching them too much, both formal and informal, and considering that the newer players didn't not have much experience, they stopped broadcasting.
So the current competition to some degree was a secret.
The morning’s training test portion was fairly easy to Qiao Yanzhou. They were all popular questions that pertained to being a midlaner this patch. There were some questions that were unfamiliar but those questions were very few in comparison. The questions included the four different lanes, the current popular items, the updates to champion skills, and the new champion- Kayn. Qiao Yanzhou had experienced these things before. When Gu Zixing was his training partner, he’d always ask a question or two; so this portion of the test should be fine.
But when it came to the 1v1 in the 2nd round, Qiao Yanzhou felt ill. Because as luck would have it, the person he had to 1v1 was Gu Zixing!
But Gu Zixing was very mysterious. He disappeared in the morning for some reason. As a result when Qiao Yanzhou needed to play against Gu Zixing, it was changed to his substitute Zhao Qin.
Qiao Yanzho had seen Zhao Qin play at the SPL semifinals. When he played mid, they didn’t do anything big but also didn't have many mistakes against the mid laner of STG; the two peacefully farmed in their lanes.
When Zhao Qin saw that his opponent was Qiao Yanzhou, he also laughed. “Coincidence ah.”
“Coincidence.” Qiao Yanzhou laughed as well.
The importance of the 1v1 was to inspect how they played. The rules were: First blood, first tower, or first to 100cs would win. But just because you lost didn’t mean that you were eliminated. The ultimate decision was on the judging panel of the EG higher ups.
Qiao Yanzhou didn’t have much hopes on getting first blood against an EG player even if there were limitations, but 100cs was something he could try.
After quickly determining his goal, everything else was easy to deal with.
Qiao Yanzhou chose a champion that was able to clear minions very well - Syndra. Previously when he played against Gu Zixing, he witnessed the power of Syndra. Haven’t eaten the pork but having seen it, Qiao Yanzhou still understood it a bit.
But Zhao Qin’s train of thought was very clear-cut. When he saw that he was definitely able to get first blood he hurried a bit. Without hesitation, he picked a midlaner who was also to output high damage - Cassiopeia. Because it was a 1v1, neither side had a jungler to come help them, so Cassiopeia’s lack of mobility in the early game was no longer a weakness.
He was a bit nervous.
While the game was loading in, Qiao Yanzhou’s palm were a bit sweaty. It was already about to soak the mouse.
“Nervous?” Before they entered, Zhao Qin had asked him.
“A bit.”
“It doesn’t matter, goodluck.” Zhao Qin laughed, using his chin to point behind Qiao Yanzhou, “Commander Gu is watching behind you ne.”
As soon as he heard this, Qiao Yanzhou’s first thought was that Zhao Qin was just messing with him. Gu Zixing already disappeared early in the morning. But although his heart really thought this way, Qiao Yanzhou still turned his head around to look.
If you didn’t look then you wouldn’t know, but one look caused him to jump in fright. Gu Zixing was really sitting to the side with his legs crossed looking at him! Sitting next to him was Qi Chen and Fu Xiaohai.
Qiao Yanzhou turned his head back to look at Zhao Qin. “Gu Zixing is here, how come he still had you come play the 1v1?”
“Commander Gu has a hand injury, and also Coach said it was a good way for me to practice more, so they had me come.”
“Like this ah…”
Actually, this was fine. It helped lighten the burden on Qiao Yanzhou a bit.
After entering the game, Qiao Yanzhou bought a Doran’s ring and 2 health potions. Zhao Qin on the other hand was a bit more spicy and bought a Corrupting Potion and walked out.
Qiao Yanzhou had seen this method in competitions before. It was a strategy that was invented in the past few years. With the burn of the Corrupting Potion and her E skill, it could cause a mass amount of damage in a short amount of time, quickly suppressing the opponent during lane phase. But Qiao Yanzhou surprisingly wasn’t afraid of this, he simply only needed to sit safely under his tower and farm to 100 cs.
When he played against Gu Zixing, the fastest he could get 100 cs was in 15 minutes and 20 seconds. He was even killed by Gu Zixing once in the middle of the game. This time if he wanted to hit 100 cs, he would have to break his record.
Having arrived at the middle lane, Qiao Yanzhou carefully put a ward in the bush near the river. If Cassiopeia was hidden in the bush and did damage to him, it would hurt a lot.
Zhao Qin’s imposing manner was very fierce, he had no intentions to throw the game at all. He hurried to reach lv 2 and began to pressure Qiao Yanzhou.
Having gone through Gu Zixing’s inhumane treatment the past few days, although Qiao Yanzhou didn’t learn how to do the same thing, he could remain very calm. Even though he was pressured back to his tower, he didn’t lose a single minion, including all the ones the tower hit.
Zhao Qin’s Cassiopeia was very vicious, but compared to Gu Zixing it was still inferior.
It was the easiest for Cassiopeia to kill Syndra before Lv 6. Once Syndra hit Lv 6, her R ability was superior to Cassiopeia’s AOE. Qiao Yanzhou understood this clearly, but Zhao Qin was also very aware of this.
Seeing that Zhao Qin was already Lv 5, Qiao Yanzhou also just happened to hit Lv 5. Syndra’s ability to cs was slowly starting to become superior. Qiao Yanzhou was already 5 cs ahead of Zhao Qin.
In fact he could try fighting…
Qiao Yanzhou suddenly started to waver a bit. Although Zhao Qin’s Cassiopeia was played very aggressively, Qiao Yanzhou still found a weakness.
It could be because he had seen Gu Zixing’s Casseipeia so much that when other people played it, he was able to detect anything fishy about their playing. Zhao Qin’s manuevering with Casseipeia was actually not very smooth, in fact his Q would hardly hit. He mostly just used his E ability to maintain distance. In addition there was no jungler so Zhao Qin was not very focused on himself. He pressured the minions so far forward that if he retreated a bit, he wouldn’t even have the ranged minions to back him up. If he flashed forward to attack him, he should be able to kill him.
Qiao Yanzhou considered it a bit and decided to try it.
As soon as Zhao Qin saw that he hit Lv 6, Qiao Yanzhou flashed right in front of his face and used a Q on his champion. In a panic Casseiopeia used her R and W to poison Syndra, but Qiao Yanzhou used Cleanse to get rid of the CC and used his R to send energy balls towards the snake to deal mass amounts of damage. He quickly hurried to pick up a sphere off the ground while Casseipeia flashed into the bush and used her corrupting pot. Qiao Yanzhou side stepped her Q and threw the sphere he was holding onto her. At the same time Casseipeia used her Twin Fangs!
A set of natural and smooth movements on the computer was completed in a flash.
First blood!
An enemy has been slain!
It looked like both of them fell at the same time, however it was Zhao Qin who actually got first blood.
Qiao Yanzhou stared blankly at the screen. Without waiting for him to recollect himself, Zhao Qin spoke first.
“What are you still staring for? You’ve already reached 100 cs.”
Really?
Qiao Yanzhou hurried to click TAB and take a look at the scoreboard. 100 cs, and he was ahead of Zhao Qin by 3.
This… this counts as…. A tie?! He tied against a professional player?!
Qiao Yanzhou, with wide eyes, subconsciously with wide eyes looked towards Gu Zixing. This kind of excitement made him want to find Gu Zixing to vent. As for why it had to be Gu Zixing, he didn’t think about it too much.
But in an instant it was followed by disappointment.
He didn’t know when, but Gu Zixing had already disappeared from his original spot. In a split second, the smile on Qiao Yanzhou’s face disappeared.
This kind of feeling, it was even worse than the feeling of knowing Zhao Qin got first blood by a few milliseconds.
He admitted he wanted Gu Zixing to see his victory, he didn’t care about anyone else.
Solo killed a pro player and was ahead of him by 3 cs… he didn’t even know how to show off to Gu Zixing. But looking at it now, it seemed Gu Zixing wasn’t interested in it.
That's right, afterall he was a world champion. How could such a small talent selection competition enter his eyes?
Qiao Yanzhou’s soul returned to him, his nose felt a bit sore.
“Your neck is extended so far, who are you looking at ne.”
Qiao Yanzhou suddenly turned his head back around and saw Gu Zixing, full of smiles, standing right behind him, his soft hand placed on his shoulder.
“Commander Gu has been standing behind you for a while now.” Zhao Qin laughed as he spoke from the side.
“Have you become mute?” Gu Zixing stooped down to look at Qiao Yanzhou. He lowered his voice to Qiao Yanzhou, “Xiao Qiao is very amazing; 11 minutes 100 cs.”
He didn't even wait for the sound of Gu Zixing’s voice to finish before Qiao Yanzhou quickly twisted his head over.
He didn’t want Gu Zixing to stare at him.
He didn’t know why but tears were swimming around the rims of his eyes, his face was also burning hot.
If he let Gu Zixing see him like this, wouldn't he lose a lot of face?
***