CHAPTER 39
Though she was very apprehensive in the beginning, when the five champions
appeared at spawn Tong Yao calmed down all of a sudden-- --
The audience, the opponents, the staff backstage and so on had disappeared
for her. Her stomach ache, which was like an elephant discoing inside of her,
lessened. Tong Yao raised her hands to adjust her earphones and now the only
focus for her was her opponent-- --CK team's mid, Little Flower.
Little Flower chose Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time, as his champion. Ekko
was a wandering type assassin champion; he had crowd control, damage, and
mobility. He had basically all the abilities a champion should have. There weren't
many champions that could top him. Tong Yao's Twisted Fate couldn't fight against
him in lane in the early game-- --
Yet, it didn't really matter to Tong Yao. If the opponent challenged her champion,
she would find an opportunity to fight back…...She was looking forward to the
chance to fight back, therefore the summoner abilities she brought with her were
flash and ignite-- --
"Flash" instantly teleported a champion a short distance, usually used when getting
into a team fight or running away. "Ignite" was used to deal damage to an enemy over
time, its damage was scaled based on the level of the champion.
These two abilities were the basic abilities that allowed Tong Yao to kill an enemy.
…...However, they definitely weren't enough in dealing with Little Flower.
Tong Yao cleared her throat: "Teammates, to tell you the truth, the opponent's jungler
was my ex boyfriend. We didn't breakup peacefully. He'll probably hang around at mid
…...Old K, you decide whether you want to come to mid later."
Old K laughed: "This is the most genius reason for asking a jungler to come for help."
Little Fatty: "I know that post about the esports version of Legend of the White Snake,
hahahahahahahahahaha. I couldn't stop reading it-- --"
Lu Sicheng: "What she said is true."
Little Fatty abruptly stopped laughing.
At this moment, the fans in the front rows were surprised to see ZGDX's top, jungler,
and support all suddenly turn to look in disbelief at their mid after Lu Sicheng had said
something-- --
Their mid was stone faced.
The game officially began. Both teams sent out minions from each base to the three
lanes. Tong Yao carefully dodged the enemy's q ability while at the same time, using
her own q ability to kill minions and increase health…...When both champions reached
level 3, Tong Yao suddenly was reminded the horror of being controlled by TAT team's
Ah Tai not too long ago. She started to move back. Just as she was back in the safe
area of her own side, she noticed Jian Yang's champion passing right by...
Tong Yao felt like she has just survived a disaster.
"Enemy jungler's here!" Tong Yao reminded Old K.
Old K acknowledged it. Lu Sicheng also made some moves at bot when he heard
Tong Yao's warning.
Jinx usually performed better than the rat, Twitch, at lane in the early game.
Lu Sicheng easily outperformed Butterfly in minion kills and reached level 3
before Butterfly. With all three abilities available to him, he tapped on the floor
as a signal and muttered: "Little Fatty, go forward a bit and waste his two abilities."
After Little Fatty went up and sacrificed half of his health, Lu Sicheng told him to
move back toward Lu's position. The enemy was expected to chase after Little Fatty-- --
Just then, Little Fatty turned around to cast Exhaust (a summoner's spell that
reduces the enemy's attack and speed by almost half) Then Lu Sicheng jumped
out of the bush and attacked Butterfly with a combo of abilities. His fingers moved
swiftly on the keyboard and Butterfly's health began to disappear!
Butterfly tried to retreat, but Lu Sicheng didn't give him the chance and blasted
Butterfly's remaining health away and took in the 400 gold for the first kill of the
game-- --
When the system announced Butterfly's death, Lu Sicheng could hear praises
from his teammates over the headphones-- --
Lu Sicheng didn't respond to any of them; to him, this was only the beginning.
The enemy's support, Old Wang, seeing their own adc dead and Lu Sicheng
with quite a bit of health left, decided it would be better to retreat. Lu Sicheng's
cooldown for his E ability, Flame Chompers, happened to just end. He turned to
toss 3 chompers right in front of Old Wang's feet. Little Fatty's ability, Death Sentence,
also finished its cooldown and he turned to use his scythe's chain to drag Old Wang
towards his direction. Old Wang misstepped into one of the chompers, causing a 1.5
second stun-- --
1.5 seconds was enough for Lu Sicheng to cast all of his abilities on Old Wang
and kill the weakened support!
Double kill!
Though the players couldn't hear it, the whole audience burst into cheers and
applause for the Little Fatty and Lu Sicheng's perfect coordination! In the first
5 minutes after the match began, Lu Sicheng already had two kills at bot. He
happily harvested the wave of minions next to him and went back to base to buy
new equipment-- --
Two kills plus the reward for first blood was worth a total of 700 gold. When he
went back to lane, he would be better equipped than the enemy's adc. It would
be very difficult for the enemy to get ahead!
As bot began to gain an advantage, Tong Yao felt that the pressure on her had
lessened quite a bit. Little Flower on the other hand became anxious-- --about
one minute after Lu Sicheng got his double kill, Jian Yang came up to mid to gank.
Tong Yao used her Q ability to throw cards in his face while running towards the
allied turret. The cooldown time for her W ability finished just in time, she called for
Old K and a cougar lady jumped out of the bush right under Little Flower and
Jian Yang's noses. Tong Yao applied a combination of all her abilities on Jian Yang
and his health plummeted. It was too late for him to retreat and Tong Yao took
down the third kill for the team!
Little Flower barely made it back to his turret. A large wave of minions attacked his
turret, dying to the turret's returning fire making it difficult for him to farm. On the
other hand, Tong Yao earned gold from a kill and the advantage was tilting towards
Tong Yao's side!
Afterwards, though Old Cat's Rumble had been caught twice by Jian Yang,
ZGDX's mid and bot had become a hurdle that CK couldn't get over. Lu Sicheng
didn't give Butterfly any breathing room and killed Butterfly right under their turret-- --
Lu Sicheng kept the pressure on Butterfly, Butterfly would call on Jian Yang to
come help. But no matter how many times Jian Yang showed up, he would find
ZGDX's jungler, Old K, also there!
Old K stayed put at mid and bot to make sure the team kept their advantages there.
CK tried their very best to counterattack, but they weren't able to get any more kills
even though both sides had reached level 6-- --
At that moment, the ratio of kills were 3 to 2 and ZGDX was ahead by about 1,000 gold-- --
The difference in gold was from the minion kills by mid and bot!
Tong Yao was the first one to reach level 6 and got her ultimate. CK team
was in a mess; Little Flower kept warning his teammates: "She's level 6, you
all take care of yourself." Right after he finished, Butterfly, not even having the
time to react, saw a yellow teleport circle appear just a few steps behind him.
He wanted to retreat but Tong Yao had appeared right behind him using her ultimate!
As she appeared, she immediately cast her red card to slow Butterfly and
Old Wang. Little Fatty came up to throw out his scythe's chain, using his ultimate
to constrict both Butterfly and Old Wang-- --Their health fell like rocks. They
intended to run away but were delayed by Little Fatty's E ability. ZGDX's adc
and mid arrived just on time-- --
Tong Yao: "Let me have a kill, let me have a kill. It took me a lot effort to come
here, if you don't let me have a kill, I'll never come to bot anymore!"
Lu Sicheng: "...You can have it. No need to shout, be careful you don't poop
on your pants."
Tong Yao: "...Can't you forget about it!"
Lu Sicheng: "How can I?"
Tong Yao: "At least don't remind me!"
Lu Sicheng: "..."
…...The end result was that both Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng got a kill each. Then
they went push the enemy's bot turret. Jian Yang, however, went for the dragon
and took down the first Elemental Drake by himself.
Then, Jian Yang together with Come Good Luck went to top to get the Rift Herald-- --
Old Cat: "You're all are doing well at mid and bot; have you all forgotten there's a
place called top in the game? Damn, Come Good Luck got the Rift Herald buff; do
you guys want me to continue playing or not? ! Where's Old K? ! You're always with
me when we play ranked games, now you're leaving me alone during the competition,
are you still a human being, damn!"
Tong Yao: "I'll go up next wave."
Lu Sicheng: "Old K will go too. Push the turret at top."
Amid Old Cat's complaints, four minutes later, CK's top experienced the gank dive
of ZGDX's top, mid and jungler. Ck reacted quickly; Little Flower teleported over
and Jian Yang also arrived soon after-- --
Since Tong Yao and her teammates had chosen to tower dive when Come Good Luck's
Gnar was in the recovering period, he was too weak to resist the enemy. Even with
the help of Little Flower and Jian Yang and their own turret, they still couldn't defeat
the three from ZGDX in the team fight. Tong Yao gave the three kills to the other two
and the depressed Old Cat. She returned to lane to farm minions for gold...
Twenty minutes into the match, CK team was losing the slight advantage they had
gained at top.
At 25 minutes, when both sides were fighting over the third Elemental Drake at bot,
CK's adc could barely hurt anyone since he hadn't been able to develop his economy.
Whenever he entered the fight, Tong Yao and Little Fatty would kill him in seconds
with a combo of abilities. Without their adc, CK was like a cripple; CK lost this
important team fight very quickly since all the other positions were ill developed as well.
28 minutes into the match, ZGDX began pushing into the enemy base.
At this time, the difference in economy between the two teams had reached
15,000 gold, the kill ratio was 13 to 5.
CK knew no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't drag the match into the late
game, so they voted to surrender and got ready for the next match.
Tong Yao and her teammates were about to rush Baron when the CK
decided to give in. Suddenly, she saw the enemy Nexus explode by itself.
She was stunned at first then burst into laughter. The moment she took off
her earphones and stood up from her seat she could hear the roaring audience.
People were yelling-- --
"Nice! ZGDX, keep it up!"
"Ms. Smiling, marry me, ahhhhhhhh!"
She couldn't really make out the individuals in the audience, but gracefully
waved with a smile towards the direction someone was calling her name.
Then she turned to rush to the restroom-- --
"...Damn, I'm dying from holding it for so long."
Finally, she could relax, then she discovered that the urge had disappeared…...
Tong Yao started to check Tieba and Weibo as she sat on the toilet-- --
[The coolest thing is that CK had to surrender!]
[They had to under the circumstances. Wouldn't it be better than have their
confidence totally shattered?]
[Before it felt like ZGDX had a sign down out bot that said "beware of dog."
Now with Smiling, it has become 2 dogs.]
[...During the whole match, I just saw cards flying up and down killing
everyone in a frenzy. It looks like ZGDX has two junglers! Their Twisted Fate
is really strong at getting to the right position!]
[In comparison, it felt like Yang god was sleepwalking.]
[What's the matter with CK lately. It seems like they aren't in the best condition.
I heard not too long ago that they lost to YQCB in a skirmish. They didn't perform
like a top team at this match either.]
[......It seemed that both Cheng Ge and Tong Yao were kind of in a rush in
this match. Both were speeding out of control. What were they in such a hurry for?]
[Reply to the last comment, probably in a hurry to go the bathroom.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!]
Tong Yao: "..."
Tong Yao quietly turned off her cellphone and stood up from the toilet.
She washed her hands and left the restroom. When she went back to the rest
area, she saw the sickly Lu Sicheng huddling in the corner, a total contrast to
the energetic killing machine while playing the game.
Little Fatty greeted Tong Yao with a smile as she walked in: "Done relieving
yourself?"
Tong Yao answered with a serious face: "I'm constipated."
LIttle Fatty: "Someone said that ZGDX now has two uncontrollable mad dogs."
Tong Yao: "... Isn't that a good thing? Esports is a young people's sport.
Passion, passion is very important."
Lu Sicheng changed his position and coughed a couple times. Tong Yao walked
over and lifted the clothes he had over his face. Then she felt his forehead-- --
When the man impatiently opened his dark brown eyes, she fearlessly fixed her
eyes on his: "Captain, you have a fever."
Lu Sicheng: "Oh."
The intermission was almost over, Xiao Rui came to hustle them back onstage-- --
During the second match, Lu Sicheng was obviously not doing as well as the first
one. In the early game, he was held down by Butterfly quite a bit. The two teams
were going back and forth until the mid game, when they were fighting over dragon!
This time it was Old K who stepped up to the plate. He used Smite to claim dragon
while Tong Yao's Leblanc chained Butterfly, completely throwing the enemy into
disarray. ZGDX won this important team fight and began to catch up from the early
disadvantage the team had suffered.
ZGDX grabbed the chance and kept the momentum, turning the game around.
They didn't give CK a chance for a comeback. They pushed through turrets, slew
dragons, and farmed until they were invading the enemy base-- --
At 42nd minute, ZGDX won another team fight in the enemy base and finished
the match!
ZGDX had won their first match!
Watching the Nexus explode, Tong Yao pull off her earphones, she could
hear the background music at the end of the match and the cheering audience.
Tong Yao stood up and turned to look at the screen behind their side of the stage
with the word "Win" on the blue background. She was taken aback.
She won?
Three seconds later, Tong Yao screamed internally-- --
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, she won. Ahhhh shit, she won. Ahhhhhhhhh!
Tong the great!
Tong the handsome!
Tong the carry!
Though she didn't show any emotion on her face, she was jumping up and down
inside and almost broke out into a dance right there. Then she saw Old K stand
up and walk towards CK and remembered the ritual of shaking hands-- --The
players of the winning team walk over to the losing team and shake hands with
each member of the losing team.
Tong Yao was behind Old K, she was a little nervous since it was the first time
she was doing it. Players from CK all looked saddened yet still politely shook
hands with the winning team. CK's top Come Good Luck even smiled as he was
shaking hands with Tong Yao: "Little jiejie, you're good. Looking forward to our next
match."
Tong Yao finally couldn't hold her happiness anymore, showing a bright smile.
However, the smile only lasted for about 3 seconds.
Jian Yang was right after Come Good Luck. Tong Yao hesitated, then reached out
with her hand. This was the first time after two years she held his hand again-- --
His palm was slightly sweaty. When they shook hands, he suddenly flipped his hand
and held onto her wrist.
Tong Yao looked up and smiled embarrassingly while silently trying to slip her wrist
out of his grip-- --
Her struggling only made him tighten his grip.
All the other players shook hands for 3 seconds, Tong Yao and Jian Yang took ten
times longer. Tong Yao's smile on her face began to wane. She felt some people
down in the audience begin to look at their direction out of curiosity...
"You have become stronger." Jian Yan casted his eyes down and lightly said.
"Yeah, so I'll come over to shake your hand quite often from now on, till the time you
retire." Tong Yao said without much expression on her face: "So, let go of me, now."
Jian Yang: "..."
Right after she finished speaking, someone patted her head from behind: "Impolite."
While the man spoke with a hoarse voice, his tall body also stepped forward to
squeeze in front of Tong Yao. Jian Yang reluctantly let go of Tong Yao. Lu Sicheng
instantly held onto Jian Yang's hand and shook it.
Then it was mid Little Flower, adc Butterfly, and support Old Wang-- --
Before anyone had realized it, Lu Sicheng had moved in front of Tong Yao. Even
after the hand shaking, the team went to the front of the stage to bow to the audience,
that tall figure was still standing in front of her.