Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
âTeam Skycrownâs coach is finally taking the stage himself!â Zhang Aijing announced. âAs I understand it, this guy played in the LOL University League as Support for Shanghai University. With his addition to their team, Shanghai University made an unprecedented breakthrough, going all the way to the semi-finals!
âBased on an ID check and analysis by our statistics team, the Skycrown coach is a long-time Bot-lane player, typically going Support or ADC. Heâs got an exceptional winning rate in Ranked playâ100% when playing as Ezreal!â
When sheâd found out about F-Hawkâs re-appearance, Aijing had used her own methods to ferret out Yu Luochengâs in-game ID, and had sifted through all his performance stats.
He was a Bot-laner, and nothing stood out more than that 100% winning rate on Ezreal. Heâd risen from the bottom to the top in Ranked play, and heâd won every single game during his transition from 2,200 ELO to Diamond 1. It was a startling notion.
Now that Aijing had spilled the beans like this, the whole crowd was in an uproar!
Who had ever heard of a 100% winning rate? Whether in Normal and Ranked play, the system in âLeague of Legendsâ always strove to bring your winning rate down to 50%, and it should be the same no matter how good you were.
It was a ladder system which reached a very long way up. If you were a skilled player, this ladder would quickly bring you up to a level where all the players were equal to you in ability. As a result, your winning rate would gradually tend towards 50%.
Outside of smurfing, the only way one could maintain a winning rate that high was if the system genuinely couldnât find anyone who was your equal!
Luochengâs 100% winning rate on Ezreal came as a shock to everyone. Perhaps luck played some part in it, or perhaps he hadnât actually played that many games as Ezrealâbut to hold a 100% winning rate at Diamond 1 tier⦠whatever else that might be said about it, it wasnât an achievement to be taken lightly!
***
âOh, hell⦠Luocheng is really going to duel Blood Eagle!â Yang Ying wasnât quite coming to terms with the notion.
Not too long ago, Yu Luocheng was just another freshman, with perhaps a few things worth noticing about him.
His partnership with Asmodai had already been a huge shock. Now he was going into a solo duel against national LOL royalty. Exactly what was going on, here?
âDidnât the two of them use to be teammates? Why does it feel like theyâre fighting over something, right now?â Li Meiqi wondered.
âDidnât Zhang Aijing mention that this involved the International E-Sports Federation?â Xiao Jia pointed out. âMaybe it has something to do with the title of âWorld Champion of Gamingâ? Luocheng is the title-holder, and only world-class players have any right to challenge him.â
âZhao Tinghua definitely counts as one, so heâs got the right to challenge,â Zhang Xia noted. âSo itâs a brawl between ex-comrades. In the past, F-Hawk was the more well-known among the twoâand probably the better player. Nowadays, hardly anyone knows either Luocheng or F-Hawk, and heâs not returning to the professional scene. He should no longer be any match for Blood Eagleâs reputation or abilities.â
âDamn it, dueling against Blood Eagle⦠once we start spreading word of this around the campus, itâs gonna whip up a storm!â Yang Ying exclaimed.
âLuocheng doesnât like bringing up his past. You should ask him how he feels about that, beforehand.â
âUgh! Somethingâs wrong with that guy! Keeping a nuclear bomb like that quietly tucked away; if it were me, I wouldnât be able to stop myself from letting the entire campus know. It would be raining panties all day long!â Xiao Jia moaned enviously.
***
As he put on the headphones, Luocheng could feel Tinghuaâs eyes on him. He returned the gaze serenely, betraying no hint of passion.
As far as the world of professional gaming was concerned, heâd purposely forced himself to remain aloof and distant. He couldnât decide whether it was because he couldnât really let go of it after all, or if it was because everyone he ran into was some kind of hardcore gamer, but somehow he had found his way back in again.
Heâd decided to remain an amateur player, playing casually with friends and classmates, a wolf among the sheep. It had been an enjoyable pretense⦠but without noticing it, heâd stumbled right back into pro gaming once more.
Truth be told, when Team Skycrown looked like they were about to get defeated by Team Fudan, heâd felt worse than any of the actual playersâespecially when they turned to look at him in despair. In that moment, heâd wanted nothing more than to just tear his way in thereâ¦
Tinghua had humiliated Lin Dong and Da Luo in their own lanes, growing ever more full of himself the whole time. Luocheng had been unable to intervene during the tournament earlier, because it would be against the rules for him to suddenly join in halfway throughâbut there was nothing stopping him now!
It wouldnât be his first time kicking Blood Eagleâs butt. So what if he wasnât a pro player anymore? He could still give out a bloody good trashing!
Luocheng had to admit that in a pro-level tournament, whatever contributions he could make would be nothing close to matching the Blood Eagle as he was nowâbut a solo duel was all about individual skill, and where that was concerned, he didnât fear Zhao Tinghua in the slightest.
Was there a professional player whoâd never, while playing in random games, been done in by some exceptionally skilled player in passing?
Yu Luocheng did that sort of thing to other people all the time!
***
They were in Champion Selection now. As usual, neither player could see what their opponent was going for.
Different champions flashed rapidly past Luochengâs screen.
This being a Jungler duel, the choice of champion was of paramount importance. He had to pick someone with tremendous early-game power!
Truth be told, Luocheng already had a champion in mind. The reason he was cycling through other champions like this was because he was trying to figure out which one Tinghua would choose.
Riven? Would he go with Riven again?
Blood Eagle was undeniably skilled with Riven. Luocheng couldnât recall ever seeing anyone who could string Rivenâs combos together as deftly as Blood Eagle did. Since he often used Riven as a Jungler too, the odds of it being Riven again were quite high.
There was pretty much no champion who could stand against Riven at Level 1, but Luocheng himself was no good at Riven, so picking her was not an option for him.
Klung!
The portrait flashed with light. In the end, Luocheng would be going into this with an incomparably popular Jungling champion: Lee Sin!
In a duel between Junglers, Lee Sin was second to none. Luocheng felt fairly confident about locking him in.
âTeam Skycrownâs coach has made his decision, but Blood Eagle is still trying to make up his mind. The last two rounds, heâd locked in his choice immediately; this time, he seems full of hesitation. Itâs clear to see that this opponent is not someone he takes lightly.
âItâs time for another juicy tidbit: Both the Skycrown coach as well as Blood Eagle are former DOTA players. They faced off against each other often, and proved to be evenly matched. The question is whether the same will hold true in LOL!â Aijing unveiled another revelation.
Aijing was still skirting around the heart of the matter regarding the historyâand ensuing bad bloodâbetween Yu Luocheng and Zhao Tinghua, but sheâd nevertheless implied that a lot of conflict had happened between them. This duel was not some spur-of-the-moment impulse, but something that had been a long time coming!
âBlood Eagleâs made his choice: Lee Sin! Whoâd have thought that heâd choose the same champion!â For some reason, this was getting Aijing really excited.
There were clear separations of power between each champion in âLeague of Legendsâ. As was demonstrated earlier, at Level 6, Riven could kill off Orianna with a single combo chain, and there was no real way to prevent it from happening. Even if you hid under the tower, as long as Riven had Flash, Orianna would be completely at her mercy.
However, if both sides were using the same champion, these differences were completely moot. All that mattered then was individual skill, judgment, and reflexes!
This was exactly the sort of thing sheâd been yearning to see!
This would be worth an entire page of info about F-Hawk, at the very least! Aijing was beside herself with anticipation.
The audience was oblivious to the fact that this was a face-off between two world-class players. None among them suspected that the title of âWorld Champion of Gamingâ was at stake!
Lee Sin vs. Lee Sinâ¦
That was one of Aijingâs favorite champions. One could say that after you mastered how Lee Sin was played, basically all the other champions in LOL became trivial.
Lee Sin is an agile, deadly champion, at once spectacular yet terrifying to watch in action!
A beloved champion in the hands of two elite players, about to clash in a thrilling solo duel!
Just thinking about it was making her breath draw faster!
The loading screen appeared. When both players realized that theyâd chosen the same champion, they simultaneously exchanged looks across the stage.
Excellent. A mirror match!
It was the best way to show off their worth as players!
âBefore the game begins, letâs talk about the rules to this Jungler solo duel:
âAs before, weâll be using the 5v5 Summonerâs Rift map. During the first minute, both Junglers will come down the Middle lane. The duel will officially begin at exactly one minute into the game. The playing field will be restricted to the jungle areas between the Middle and Bottom lanes, and both Junglers are required to remain within these bounds, with no distinction between Blue and Red sides.
âThe match point will be one champion kill, or forty jungle creeps!â
Solo duels typically only took place along a particular lane. Carrying out a duel within the jungle like this was an exceedingly rare sight.
However, once Aijing read out these rules, the audience had a pretty clear idea of what was going on: Both players could only operate within the same half of the jungle. As they cleared out the creep camps, it was inevitable that theyâd run into each other.
âCome to think of it, these rules are kinda wonky. With such a large playing field, if one player decides to hide somewhere⦠thatâs still a lot of jungle, and with all those bushes in there, they could just stay hidden forever and never get caught. Itâs like playing hide-and-seek,â a student among the crowd commented.
âNo way. If they just want to hide, then let them hide. The other player can keep farming creeps, building up levels and equipment⦠then you might as well stay hidden, because if you get caught, youâre dead. Keep on running from a fight, and your opponent will eventually pick up that 40 CSâthen youâll lose anyway!â
âSo thatâs how it is⦠Gotta be careful with the Recall, then.â
âThatâs for sure. If you just Recall for nothing, your side of the jungle will get cleaned out. If your opponent is really cunning, theyâll leave one tiny creep alive in each camp for you, delaying the whole campâs respawn time. Youâll be flat broke.â
It was probably the first time a jungle duel was being broadcast in public like thisâand a Lee Sin mirror match, no lessâbetween Blood Eagle and this mysterious expert player. It should be something worth watching!
Before anyone noticed it, the event was already spreading like wildfire across the internet. The match between Team Skycrown and Team Fudan had already been drawing a hundred thousand viewers to begin with, but suddenly the views had increased to a hundred and fifty thousandâan extra fifty thousand clicks, in hardly any time at all!
The fight hadnât even started yet, and there were already a hundred and fifty thousand people watching. If there had been time to do a proper bit of advertising, the views would surely be in the millions!
The media team for this event was utterly astounded. No one had imagined that an impromptu duel could produce such results!