League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Chapter 201: Unqualified to Challenge

He didn’t understand why Asmodai was bringing up the old tales in front of the club members. Was Asmodai doing it on purpose to isolate him from his current circle?

“Come! Let’s have a game, just you and me!” Asmodai challenged. If this was two years ago, Asmodai would be overestimating himself for saying these words, and he was well aware of that.

But it was a completely different situation now. Team Wings was long gone, and the responsibility of carrying the national pride in the E-Sports arena was now on Team Daemons’s shoulder. Their target was nothing less than the world champion, and to get to that stage, he must first surpass Fighting Hawk. Maybe Luocheng was insignificant in today’s E-Sports scene, but Asmodai knew he had to beat him to move forward.

“We already have,” Luocheng said in a calm voice.

“We did? When?” Asmodai asked.

“Server 3. The person you had sent invitations to persistently,” Luocheng answered.

Asmodai was stunned. ‘So that was you!’ He laughed bitterly.

He knew well about the strength of Snowfall. If Luocheng was able to contain him and Anubis while protecting a non-professional female player, this already somehow showed that he had outperformed the two of them.

Till now, Asmodai could not forget how his Zyra had instinctively blocked Thresh’s hook in advance by using Thorn Spitters.

MOBA was similar to chess. Normal players would only think about the current situation; higher ranked players would think a step ahead; while professional players were often two to three sequences in advance.

Somehow, a small group of gifted players had an unparalleled vision and could even see beyond what a professional player was capable of. That game had explicitly demonstrated Luocheng’s superiority over Anubis at the SP position…

He still distinctly recalled the kind of hopelessness he had experienced when playing against Luocheng in DOTA. Anyhow, Asmodai was not going to back down. Asmodai admitted Luocheng was definitely better in terms of laning and personal skills, but what about team fights?

He had been out of the pro scene for such a long time, Asmodai was confident that he no longer boasted the swagger of the Fighting Hawk in the past. Victory in LOL relied heavily on team fights rather than individual performance.

“If you want an official challenge, that’s fine, but it seems as though you have forgotten something very important,” Luocheng said.

“What do you mean?” Asmodai asked.

Luocheng did not elaborate and Asmodai frowned and thought hard.

He recalled it fairly quickly, his face turning disappointed, but he smiled quickly, trying to hide it.

He had indeed forgotten about a vital rule.

Other than the glory in the world competition, Fighting Hawk had also been crowned champion at the international all-star game. To challenge him, the challenger must also hold a title of a similar status, otherwise, it would be considered disrespectful.

Players of such status within the country were within finger-counting, more importantly, despite having set foot on the international stage, Asmodai had not obtained any recognizable prize just yet.

In other words, he was under-qualified to challenge Luocheng!

“Alright, I was indeed too full of myself. Before I get enough recognition, I do not have the right to challenge you,” Asmodai recollected himself and said determinedly, “But rest assured, I am going to get what I set out to reach!”

Asmodai’s claim shocked the entire room!

‘…don’t have the right to challenge…’

Asmodai is one of the members of the strongest LOL team in the country, if he was not qualified to challenge Luocheng, then who in this country was?

‘Is Luocheng really a first-year freshman?’ Xiao Jia, Zheng Xia, and Jian Feng were speechless. They’d been in doubt when Yang Ying had brought him into the club.

If Asmodai had not come over and revealed his past, they would still regard him as a newbie that was pretty talented in LOL.

It took Xiao Jia enormous effort to finally have Asmodai visit their E-Sports club and they had even put in a lot of sweat for the opening performance.

In Xiao Jia’s perspective, Asmodai was among the top guys on the altar, but as it turned out, the strongest ADC in his eyes had someone he was unqualified to challenge. Moreover, that person was just a low-rank committee in their club. They had even argued over whether it was appropriate to include him in the first team before.

Xiao Jia no longer knew what to believe in anymore.

“Sky Swan, Lone Gull, and Gale Crane are planning to attempt the LPL. They had come together and formed Team Skycrown not long ago,” Luocheng informed Asmodai.

“They are coming back? Team Skycrown?” Asmodai’s eyes brightened up.

“Yeah,” Luocheng nodded.

“That’s fantastic! Great stuff!!” Asmodai laughed joyfully. “You know what? Losing to you guys in the national final was an unhealable scar in our hearts. After that game, we decided that we were going to surpass whatever achievements Team Wings had gotten at the international stage. I can’t wait to see Team Skycrown return to their past glory. I believe my captain is equally looking forward to fighting them again.”

“It is a private team established by Lin Dong and the others, they haven’t qualified for anything yet and are still only an amateur team. But ultimately, they want to compete in the LPL.” Luocheng clarified.

“That would require a very good pre-season performance. Team Daemons is going to wait for Team Skycrown at the LPL as the defending champion. We are going to hammer them with our greatest strength and show you the difference between us after two years. We are going to take away the baton from Team Wings once and for all!” Asmodai boasted confidently.

There was nothing more encouraging than an opportunity to redeem past regrets.

Even though numerous teams had mushroomed in LOL and Team Daemons had overcome both old and new forces along the way… Team Wings remained the only team that they wanted to defeat the most!

The LPL!

Asmodai wanted it to start as soon as possible more than ever, and he wished for Team Daemons and Team Wings to be listed under the same group and fight their hearts out for the qualification.

Asmodai greatly anticipated the event. The LPL next year would surely be an entertaining one. He could almost see the excitement on his captain and coach Huang Kang’s faces when he brought this news to them. The entire team would definitely be enthused and train harder within this period.

***

“By the way, isn’t Team Skycrown the team we are going to fight today?” Jian Feng asked sheepishly.

“Er… I think so.” Yang Ying’s face had frozen too.

Xiao Jia clicked his tongue out of dissatisfaction. ‘Damn you Luocheng! This is a set up! We’re going against a team that had once entered the international final? This is such a one-sided humiliation!’

Their confidence was extremely low after the defeat to Fudan University. At first, they had thought Luocheng was bringing them a new team to help them regain confidence, but it seemed that it was the other way round.

‘We are not your toy, I don’t care, I am not going to play a sure-loss game.’ Yang Ying was the first to protest.

They were gearing up for the national university tournament, and Yang Ying doubted that getting beat up consecutively would do them any good in securing a top 10 spot.

Speaking of which, Yang Ying remembered Luocheng had told him that Team Skycrown’s base was just beside the university compound.

Didn’t this mean that their E-Sports Club was now having some sort of connection with a past runner-up of the international tournament?

Hangzhou University was where they were today because of their close proximity to Team Revelation. Although Team Revelation had a rich history as a MOBA team, they had not won a lot and were not even close to being on the international stage.

Their best result last year was only as good as a quarter-finalist in the LPL. Hangzhou University had managed to secure second place at the national tournament with the help from such a moderate team. In comparison, Shanghai University was right next to the previous second-best team in the world…

‘Gosh! The lady luck is smiling upon us!’ Yang Ying was relieved as he thought those through.

‘So, handing Qianqian to Luocheng paid off after all. This brother-in-law is one hell of a guy!’

Thinking back, Qianqian had once told Yang Ying through the phone that Luocheng was actually a great player. He’d thought she had just been exaggerating because of blind admiration, but now, he realized she had been telling the truth all this while!

“Luocheng, I think maybe we should just cancel the game, I am unwilling to see our team get humiliated again. Why don’t you ask your friends to come over when they are free and give us a proper lesson…?” Xiao Jia asked in embarrassment.

Xiao Jia’s emotions were all mixed up now. He was still transitioning from looking down on Luocheng to accepting the fact that he was once the god of DOTA.

“Cancel? Seriously?” Luocheng asked.

“F*ck! You expect us to play? I am more willing to take on Fudan University again rather than fight with Team Skycrown!” Even the more passive Jinbei could no longer hold back.

“It’s not that serious, they’ve only played the game sporadically before this, they are no longer the peak Team Wings. We still stand a chance as their chemistry is not as good as ours,” Luocheng explained.

‘Sigh. Why did Asmodai choose to expose me in front of everyone?’

He had been hoping to use Shanghai University as Team Skycrown’s sandbag at this stage, but Asmodai’s words had greatly terrified them to the point that they were now refusing to play. Where was Luocheng going to find another ideal prey like Shanghai University next?

“I don’t care, I am not playing.” Yang Ying had decided to give up.

“Count me out, you guys go ahead and have fun.” Xiao Jia, too.

“…” Luocheng didn’t know what to say.

Asmodai was in a great mood at the moment and tried to ease the situation. “Can I give a suggestion? Why don’t we play as initially planned? I will team up with Luocheng and take the bottom lane. With me and Fighting Hawk covering the bottom, I think we will be able to play against them evenly, right?”

Xiao Jia, Yang Ying, and Jinbei looked at each other…

“Sigh, alright, alright. But let us make it clear, please do not blame us if we feed hard,” Yang Ying said with a bitter smile.

To be honest, Yang Ying was reluctant to play against such a prestigious team even though it was a thing of the past. This was going to be so demotivating.

Bottom line, it was comforting to have Asmodai and Luocheng in their team. At least they wouldn’t lose too miserably with the help of the two pro players.

***

“So, who is going to be our opponents at the bottom lane? Is it Sky Swan or Lone Gull?” Asmodai asked.

Luocheng shook his head and said, “It will be Xiao Bei and Wu Sen.”

“Wu Sen? He’s in Team Skycrown?” Asmodai was stunned.

Wu Sen was a top talent and a proven SP player. Asmodai had heard about his departure from his old club but it was surprising to learn that he had joined Team Skycrown.

‘So the laning phase is not going to be easy in this game.’

This was the first time he had ever partnered with Fighting Hawk. Although he was more eager to go against him, teaming up with him would no less be an exciting experience!

This was a man that he was destined to challenge and beat, and he vowed to put in his 110% effort into this game.