Glory [e-sports]

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Bai Cai was a support. It was all due to his shamelessness that he was able to gain so much popularity in his live broadcast room.

Professional players were all like this. The other positions could all show off enough to reach the heavens, but for support players, the most important thing was stability and not bursts of amazing gameplay.

Brother Cai was very stable. He sat very firmly in the empress seat of the great demon king’s throne, relying on indulging the little sister fans’ imaginations to 艹 and send himself up until he reached the popularity he had today.

Now…

Brother Cai experienced what it meant to have it ‘backfire’.

“Caicai! Your old gong has run off with your new lover!”

“The great demon king kicked away the empress and abducted his love rival?”

“This circle is really messy, I don’t have enough brainpower to keep up…”

Bai Cai simply closed the scrolling comments and played dead.

Ning Zhehan sent over a team request. Bai Cai accepted it.

Little Ning: “Brother Cai!”

Bai Cai: “Mm.”

“Brother Feng had something to do and told me to double queue with you first.”

“Okay.”

Bai Cai didn’t even need to look at the scrolling comments to know what they were saying––

“The out of favor team of two?”

“A story between four people. Are we supporting the wrong CP?”

There was a more rational one, “God Lu can’t really want to sign this casual king, right?”

“Holy crap, maybe!”

“Where exactly did this jungler king come from?”

“Someone on Weibo is digging, this One Lamp Grandmaster is really damned amazing…”

It was a pity that Bai Cai had closed the scrolling comments. Otherwise, he would definitely have stopped his live stream early and gone onto Weibo to guide public opinion. Unfortunately, he was engrossed in his livestream for a long time. By the time he was done, ‘One Lamp Grandmaster’ was already up on the hot search.

This was something for later. At this moment, Wei Xiaoxiao was well and truly flustered.

Wei Xiao was someone who hadn’t been scared of anyone in his 19 years of life.

When he was a child, he’d been invincible as he played all over the school yard. As he grew up, he became both the school bully and the learning bully. Later, he became addicted to gaming, but he was also able to kill gods when he encountered gods, and kill buddhas when he encountered buddhas.

Until he kicked an iron plate called Lu Feng.

Even when he’d lost for 48 hours straight, Wei Xiao hadn’t been afraid. Instead, he’d been full of fighting spirit and dreams of winning against him.

But, he’d run away.

At a time like that, when Lu Feng had been full of appreciation and expectations for him, he’d left.

It wasn’t so much that he was scared of Lu Feng. It was more that he felt guilt and self-reproach.

If one had to be metaphorical about his current mood, then it was probably like a reunion between a scum man who’d run off after having sex and his ex-girlfriend.

Wei Xiao was the scum man.

Lu Feng was the ex-girlfriend.

“F*ck!” Wei Xiao had struck himself so thoroughly with lightning that he was charred outside and crispy inside.

“Can you hear me?” Lu Feng turned on the voice channel.

Wei Xiao: “!”

Although it was two years later, he was no stranger to Lu Feng’s voice. After all, he’d watched all the FTW competitions over the past two years and listened to all of Lu Feng’s interviews. He’d even squatted in his live broadcast studio and given him quite a few gifts… even though Lu Feng seldom spoke.

“I can hear you.”

Wei Xiao was very careful when he spoke.

Lu Feng didn’t say anything unnecessary, “I’ll start, then.”

He chose to start the game in anonymous mode.

Wei Xiao: “Okay.”

The interface began to search for players. Wei Xiao, who was usually bursting with words, was now as well behaved as a quail.

Of course, this didn’t affect the crazy storm in his head––

What did this mean? What did Close mean by this?!

Driving out Bai Cai and queuing for doubles with him. Was he in trouble or was he in trouble?!

If Lu Feng really asked about the matter from two years ago…

Where was he supposed to get a New Oriental diploma from if Lu Feng wanted to see?!

Becoming a chef or whatever, if Wei Xiao really had that kind of dream, then he wouldn’t need to nibble on bread every day!

The higher their rankings, the more difficult it was to match with other players.

In order to carry Bai Cai, Wei Xiao had used an alt account that was ranked 500th or so, but this couldn’t block Lu Feng’s high ranking. On average, the matching time was very slow.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes…

After three minutes of silence, Wei Xiao couldn’t hold back anymore.

Wei Xiao: “So…”

Lu Feng: “No solo.”

Wei Xiao: “……”

How had he known he was going to say that?!

Lu Feng: “We’ve never played 5v5 together, right.”

Wei Xiao paused, “No.”

In fact, they had.

During one off-season, Lu Feng’s live broadcast studio had held an event where they drew fans for a 5v5 game. Wei Xiao had been lucky enough to win the draw, and had even used a voice changer to act as a little sister and play as Lu Feng’s support.

Lu Feng: “We have?”

Wei Xiao: “!”

This person must have installed a lie detector in his heart. How could he be so sharp!

“No way.” Wei Xiao didn’t want to expose that kind of brain-damaged black history and began to talk nonsense, “Won’t the opposite side end up self-destructing their crystal if we queue for doubles together?”

Lu Feng: “Not necessarily.”

Wei Xiao’s desire to win instantly rose up, “100%. If I don’t hammer them until they enter seclusion, I’ll…”

He was just about to throw down the verbal gauntlet when he seemed to become aware of the risks and hurriedly shut up.

Just then, they were finally matched up with other players and entered the game.

Dangerous, dangerous. Wei Xiao reminded himself that if he spoke less, he’d end up in less trouble; if he didn’t speak, he’d be in no trouble, so he should shut up!

Lu Feng didn’t follow up on his words and only asked him, “What position are you playing?”

Glory had five positions: top-lane, mid-lane, jungler, bottom lane, support.

Wei Xiao was best at the jungler position, of course, but Lu Feng was the number one jungler in China.

The two of them both played the same position.

Wei Xiao: “I can do anything.”

After saying so, he realized that he’d been unable to control his mouth once again and changed it to, “I mean, I’m okay with anything.”

Lu Feng laughed lightly, “I know you can do anything.”

Wei Xiao: “………”

Being told that he could do anything by the one that the entire world recognized as being all-powerful, how come it made his thick skin feel a little hot?!

“In fact… I’m not good at everything.”

“It’s just being proficient with 11 heroes and 130 talent specs.”

“130? It’s clearly 140 talent specs… f*ck!”

Wei Xiao finally realized. There were now 140 talent specs in Glory, but there had only been 130 two years ago.

Lu Feng’s words were clearly repeating Wei Xiao’s ‘trash talk’ from two years ago.

He still remembered.

Wei Xiao felt Close might have a tiny bit more ‘anger’ in his heart than he’d thought.

“You play jungler, then.” Lu Feng said.

Wei Xiao really wanted to control his own mouth, “Don’t do that, if I play jungler, it’ll be too easy to win.”

Lu Feng: “Then I’ll play it?”

Wei Xiao choked.

Alright then, it won’t even be about winning if you play as a jungler. The other side won’t even have any kind of game experience!

Wei Xiao picked the thief while muttering, “That’s why I was saying, why rank? Solo is much more interesting.”

Lu Feng said nothing and took an undead warrior.

Wei Xiao wasn’t that surprised. Although Lu Feng could do anything, he still had some slight tendencies.

Compared with remote poke heroes, Lu Feng was better at the close combat assault heroes.

He was best at the assassin types, followed by warriors. Of course, he was also good at melee mages and short-ranged hunters.

When the game began, Wei Xiao was a little absent-minded.

He didn’t look down on team games. In fact, he really loved 5v5. Leading a team to victory was very exciting, and he really liked it.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have led the youth training team to fight everywhere two years ago.

He just didn’t want to see Lu Feng play 5v5.

To put it bluntly, he felt that the 5v5 canyon shackled Lu Feng.

A man who could clearly play at a level that reached the heavens was forcibly contained within a narrow cage. It made people angry when they saw it.

Lu Feng was very strong, but his teammates couldn’t keep up.

It wasn’t that obvious in domestic games, but once they hit the grand finals where there were strong opponents everywhere, FTW’s weakness became all too clear.

Lu Feng had to cater to his teammates and didn’t have any way to compete with his opponents.

If Lu Feng let loose, it would cause the entire team to lose coordination, and FTW’s performance would become even worse.

The haters often used this point to flame Lu Feng, saying that he was the cancer of the team, and the ‘number one’ at being a round peg in a square hole. They begged for him to hurry up and give up the team competitions, and let the FTW team off.

Wei Xiao got angry whenever he saw stuff like that. He’d lobbed back several chunks of text, leaving the haters with blue noses and swollen faces, but they set their teeth into one point and refused to let go––

If your Close has the ability, then bring back a team championship! What use is an individual championship?! It’s only stupid fans who are praising him to the sky!

If there was no individual championship from Close, then the China competition zone would really have lost until even their underpants were gone, okay?!

Thinking about it made him angry, and Wei Xiao’s attacks at the start of the game were inevitably more fierce.

The gunner on the opposite side who’d been caught and killed twice suffered a bit of a mental breakdown: “No way… what’s the deal with this jungler? Did laozi match up with Close?” Because they’d picked anonymous mode, the players who hadn’t queued in with them couldn’t see their opponent’s IDs and would see a codename instead.

You really did match with Close, but he’s playing the undead warrior.

Wei Xiao typed out on the public channel, “Be good, daddy loves you.”

The gunner on the other side: “… Damn it, you just wait!”

Later on, the gunner really managed to develop and indeed dealt some damage. It was very difficult for Wei Xiao to bypass the other side’s support and cut him down, but––

Your side’s undead warrior has killed the opposing side’s artillery gunner.

Wei Xiao couldn’t cut his way in, but the undead warrior who’d remained silent as he developed and could stand up tall in the second half of the game then became the real daddy of the entire map.

Killing spree! Rampage! Invincible! Dominating! Legendary!

Amidst a series of system announcements, Lu Feng used the undead warrior to finish off the other side’s resurrection crystal.

When they returned to the team room interface, Lu Feng: “Top-lane is quite fun.”

Wei Xiao: “………” You had fun, but what about my gaming experience?!

Lu Feng was in a pretty good mood, “Continue?”

Although Wei Xiao had pretty much done nothing for the second half of the game, he’d still had a lot of fun playing, “Go to the international server?”

They should go big if they were going to play.

Lu Feng: “Okay. You play jungler.”

Wei Xiao: “No problem!”

Wei Xiao was just about to leave the room when Lu Feng spoke again, “Add me on WeChat.”

Wei Xiao’s heart leapt.

Lu Feng was very reasonable, “I’ll send the room link on WeChat.”

That made sense, they weren’t even friends on the international server. If they wanted to queue together, they could only invite each other through a room link.

Wei Xiao paused for a moment and typed out his own WeChat account ID, “WX7758521.”

Lu Feng slowly read it out loud, “Wei Xiao, kiss kiss me, I love you?”

Wei Xiao: “……………………” F*ck!

After exiting the room, Wei Xiao’s cell phone immediately had a new friend application.

Seeing the name Close, he closed his eyes and approved it.

It was impossible for him to play professionally.

But being able to play queued games with Close…

Lu Feng soon sent over a room link. Wei Xiao clicked in, and the two of them went to the international server.

The international server was much fiercer than the domestic one, especially when it came to ranked games. The top 300 were almost all professional players, so they could meet celebrities in any random match.

Lu Feng continued to use anonymous mode, and this time, it didn’t take long for them to enter a new game.

Wei Xiao played a jungler, and Lu Feng continued to play top-lane.

These two positions weren’t very suitable for double queueing, because there wasn’t much cooperation between the two positions in the early stage of the game.

The top-lane position was also called the ‘single lane’ because it was very lonely.

Most of the time, the jungler would go for the mid-lane or bottom lane heroes. If they could maim the c-position, the greater part of the game was already won.

The top-laner’s task was to solo against the opposite side’s top-laner. It was best if they could kill them on their own, and if they couldn’t, it also wasn’t a loss to simply remain alive.

In a way, Lu Feng was very suitable for the top-lane. This was because his personal ability was too strong, and even the world’s current strongest top-lane Y God wouldn’t be able to obtain any benefits from him in a 1v1 fight.

It was a pity that Lu Feng couldn’t take the top-lane position, because top-laners weren’t suited for commanding the game, and it was difficult for them to lead the rhythm of the team in a game.

As Chen Feng had said, Lu Feng was the absolute core of FTW. If he went to the top-lane position, then it would be the same as FTW losing their backbone, and it would end up in chaos.

Of course, there was no need to worry about these things in random matches.

Wei Xiao was the jungler, and Lu Feng went to the top lane. The two of them swept away all obstacles wherever they went.

They unwittingly queued and played for four hours. Wei Xiao was totally immersed in it, and even urged when they returned to the room, “Again, again!”

They’d accidentally lost in the last game because their teammate had gone to answer a phone call in the middle of their last group fight. It was impossible for them to win in this kind of four against five situation. Even Wei Xiao and Lu Feng couldn’t save them from defeat when one of their team members sent over a free kill right at the start of the fight.

Lu Feng: “It’s not early anymore. I’m going off first.”

Wei Xiao: “You’re already logging off? What time is it…”

He looked at the time and was shocked to find that it was already one o’clock in the morning!

So fast? It didn’t feel like it… it seemed as though the two of them had only played for a little while.

Wei Xiao’s heart was full of disappointment, but he couldn’t really say anything.

Lu Feng quit the game, and Wei Xiao queued for a game on his own, but there wasn’t much happiness involved.

Wei Xiao stretched, then heard a beep from his cell phone.

He picked it up. It was a WeChat message from Close––

“You play jungler very well.”

Wei Xiao’s eyes curved, and he engaged in mutual praise, “Your top-lane is also very strong.”

Close: “Queue again tomorrow?”

Wei Xiao: “Yes!”

Close: “You’ll still play jungler?”

Wei Xiao: “Okay!”

Close: “Do you want to solo?”

Wei Xiao’s heart leapt up to his throat, “Yes!”

Close: “Do you want to come to FTW?”

Wei Xiao, who was answering smoothly, “Yes!”

Wei Xiao, half a second later: “F*ck!!!”

Juurensha: Hahahaha, trap succeded!

xiin: WX: F*ck, my mouth is faster than my brain!