Inside a five-star Shaxian Delicacies restaurant near the apartment complex.
Rice, chicken drumsticks, greens.
Li Yao ate a very healthy meal.
While eating, Li Yao did not idle away his time; he was reviewing his performance in the morning's ranked matches.
Four ranked matches, and Li Yao had chosen four different champions.
LeBlanc and Fizz were the two champions Li Yao had been most proficient with, starting from when he first came into contact with League of Legends up until three years ago when he left Summoner's Rift behind.
Sylas and Azir, however, were champions Li Yao had never played even once.
The reason he picked them this morning was naturally because he wanted to verify something.
He wanted to verify the "himself" from his dreams.
Most people would forget the dreams they once had completely.
But Li Yao was different.
Not only had the experiences of that "himself" in the dream not been forgotten by him, but every single detail was deeply branded into his mind.
Li Yao clearly remembered all the setbacks "himself" had encountered along the path of growth.
He also clearly remembered the various improvements made by "himself".
In Li Yao's view, the "himself" in the dream was very much like him when he first came into contact with League of Legends—a severely "lopsided" player.
He was proficient in all kinds of engaging and diving mid-lane assassin champions, and relying on extremely high talent and a severely lopsided champion pool, he had forcefully fought his way into the finals of the World Championship in his very first year as a professional player.
Alas, he ultimately foundered on the stage of the finals.
Starting from the beginning of this year, the training of this "lopsided" self in the dream began to shift.
Azir was the first champion that "himself" in the dream practiced to broaden his own champion pool and change himself.
As for Sylas, who debuted on the game version in Season 9, Li Yao had never touched him before.
His performance in the ranked matches that morning relied entirely on the experience brought to him by that "himself" in the dream.
It was obvious that Li Yao felt not the slightest difficulty in picking up the champion Sylas; his rich experience endowed him with what seemed to be an extremely high level of proficiency, though Li Yao could also clearly perceive that this experience was not enough for him to build something from nothing and play this champion to perfection like those professional players who had trained diligently on Sylas countless times.
The eight-character phrase "possessing only the form, yet lacking the spirit" described it most appropriately.
The same was true for Azir, but what differed from Sylas was that the game comprehension of Azir held by the "himself" in the dream had a certain degree of divergence from ordinary professional players who played Azir.
This sense of divergence came from the influence exerted by a player's personal style.
After eating and drinking his fill, Li Yao looked at his palms and gently clenched them.
His fingers were very slender.
Relatives had once said that this was a pair of hands meant for playing the piano.
Whether he could play the piano, Li Yao did not know, but regarding his own gaming talent, Li Yao had never harbored the slightest doubt.
As he was now, he had talent and experience.
What he lacked was simply effort.
……
Returning home, Li Yao did not immediately start queuing for matches again.
Instead, he took a thick notebook out of his suitcase.
This was a diary Li Yao had begun keeping after the "himself" from his dreams appeared.
The time he recorded it every day was right after lunch.
The reason this time was chosen was originally because Li Yao wanted to verify whether, if he did not record the contents of his dreams immediately after waking up in the morning, he would forget them later on.
Facts proved that the memories from these dreams were much more reliable than the English words he usually tried hard and diligently to memorize.
Opening the diary, every page was densely filled; before he knew it, Li Yao had already been recording for three years.
He was not worried that the contents of the diary would be discovered by others, because to outsiders, the experiences of various characters in the diary and the notes Li Yao provided read just like a fictional novel written in his spare time.
Among the diary-novel, the name Li Yao mentioned most often was annotated by him with "A."
This "A" was also, in Li Yao's view, the person who had the greatest impact on him in the dream, and concurrently the head coach in the second season after the "himself" in the dream suffered defeat at the World Championship.
This recording session lasted for nearly an hour.
Even though typing it out with a keyboard might have been faster, Li Yao was accustomed to writing with a pen.
Perhaps it was because that neat and beautiful handwriting was pleasing for Li Yao to look at.
……
One-thirty in the afternoon.
Li Yao received a call from sask.
sask had specially set up a Korean server account for Li Yao, and besides that, he told Li Yao to go pick out a set of peripherals that suited him.
Glancing at the old peripherals on the desk, Li Yao agreed.
The peripherals he had used for his ranked matches that morning were the equipment that came with the computer being phased out.
Using them did indeed bring a slight sense of discomfort, but Li Yao felt it was alright too; of course, if he could change them, he was still willing to go pick some out.
After stepping outside, Li Yao walked toward the WE competition arena.
According to sask, the WE home arena had a dedicated peripheral equipment room.
Just today, the WE players were at the venue shooting promotional videos, so he could just go to the venue and pick out a set of peripherals.
There were still five days left before the opening of the 2021 LPL Summer Split Xi'an home matches.
Even though it wasn't a match day, there were still quite a few WE fans lingering around the venue, trying to have some interaction with the players shooting in front of the venue, and the home arena security guards had to organize themselves and come to work early.
Unsurprisingly, Li Yao was also stopped, but fortunately sask had already greeted a young female staff member at the base, and seeing Li Yao, the young woman not far away waved at him.
Under the curious and envious gazes of a crowd of WE fans, Li Yao was let through.
"Coach Zhou's cousin?"
The young woman looked Li Yao up and down with a smiling expression: "Follow me."
"Okay."
Li Yao replied, obediently following behind.
The young woman talked quite a lot, still gossiping along the way: "Are you and Coach Zhou distant relatives?"
"Um... you could say that."
"I knew it, you can't see any trace of a family blood relation in terms of looks."
Li Yao didn't know how to respond to that, although he knew he looked quite pleasing to the eye, but to passively-aggressively mock Brother Jiao like this... wasn't that appropriate?
"Just go upstairs following the side door. I have some things to do, so I won't accompany you over."
The young female staff member led Li Yao to a small plaza within the venue and pointed ahead as she spoke.
"Sorry to trouble you."
Walking up to this point, Li Yao didn't need anyone to lead the way anymore.
He could already see young guys wearing WE's distinct red team uniforms posing under the direction of the photographer for a shoot.
And sask was standing on the third floor at this moment, waving at him through the glass.
Entering the venue through the side entrance, Li Yao went upstairs and then passed through the second-floor corridor bridge.
Before stepping onto the corridor bridge, Li Yao turned his head and glanced.
Hah, an absolute prime viewing spot for WE fans.
Another end of a ladder that looked somewhat hazardous was propped up on the second floor, not far from where Li Yao was currently standing.
At this moment, WE's AD player Elk had already climbed up the ladder under the photographer's camera angle.
This scene made Li Yao feel quite emotional; it seemed esports players didn't just need to play games well—they were all working stiffs, after all.
What Li Yao didn't know was that as he crossed the corridor bridge and reached the middle of it, the distant camera lens also froze in place accordingly.
……
"Finally done shooting."
Elk climbed down the ladder with trembling steps.
Although it wasn't high, it shook.
And besides, no matter how you looked at it, this ladder didn't seem very sturdy.
On the other side, the photographers and the person in charge were viewing the finished footage that had just been shot.
Right at this moment, the photographer responsible for shooting the players' individual posters suddenly spoke up: "Boss, this... there's a problem with this shot."
"What is it?"
The person in charge looked over, then froze.
According to their shooting guidelines, every player would shoot an individual poster at a different location.
Aside from the player, the other element of the poster was the WE team logo.
The position Elk had been in just now was very suitable; right in the exact center of the second-floor corridor bridge, a flag belonging to WE was hanging.
Yet in this captured finished shot, there was the side profile of an extra person.
At the edge of the finished shot, the teenager's profile was clearly visible, his gaze directed toward the WE team flag.
"Who is this, some staff member? He looks very young, doesn't he?"
A nearby photographer crowded over, pensive: "Do we need to reshoot?"
The person in charge stared at Li Yao in the photo for a few seconds before shaking his head: "No need to reshoot, just process it a bit in post-production."
Afterward, the person in charge thought for a moment and added another sentence: "Keep the raw footage."
The photographer was stunned: "Alright."
His companion next to him clicked his tongue and said: "Not gonna lie, if this weren't an individual player poster, this shot would actually be pretty good."
"You know your stuff again?"
The previous photographer rolled his eyes.
"Look at you, you don't have a single bone of artistic bacteria in you. How can someone doing photography not understand art?"
……
Third floor.
Inside the room.
After entering the door, Li Yao first greeted sask, and then saw a dazzling array of peripheral equipment.
This was a specialized equipment room inside the venue, created precisely to prevent emergency equipment issues for players during matches.
Therefore, the categories were quite complete.
Aside from peripherals, there were also some items usable in player lounges, such as gaming chairs, whiteboards used by coaches, and the like.
At this moment, sask was standing in front of a whiteboard, writing and drawing on it.
It didn't take long for Li Yao to select a set of mouse peripherals that felt great in his grip.
As for the keyboard, Li Yao wasn't picky, as long as the keys weren't too stiff.
"I heard your recovery training state in Summoner's Rift was pretty good this morning?"
Sask looked at the whiteboard, seeming to think of something amidst his contemplation, and said with a hint of teasing tone.
"You even know about this?"
Li Yao was startled, thinking to himself that this guy gave him his account—could it be that he regarded him as cheap labor to climb ranks for free? He even monitored match history on schedule?
"You duo-ed with Liu Shiyu and got OBS'd. You know how much traffic he pulls."
Sask put down his pen, turned around, and said helplessly: "Otherwise I would have just let you play on my account, no need to go through the trouble of getting you a new one."
"So it was mlxg."
Li Yao pondered for a few seconds before understanding the stakes involved, and nodded: "Understood, then I'll head back first?"
"Alright."
Sask nodded.
As Li Yao walked to the door, sask seemed to remember something and suddenly asked: "If you practiced a new champion, would you play it when playing against strong teams or weak teams?"
Li Yao paused his footsteps, looking at sask in puzzlement; he didn't understand why the latter would suddenly ask him this question.
After pondering for a brief moment, Li Yao said: "If it were me, I'd use it when playing against strong teams."
"Reason?"
Sask was curious.
Li Yao fell silent for a moment; at this moment, he seemed to recall words someone had spoken to him deep within his mind.
"Whether something newly practiced is useful can only be known when playing against strong teams, because even if you win against weak teams, it doesn't mean the skill level of the champion you practiced is sufficient."
"Against weak teams, you have to take your most proficient picks to secure points steadily. If you want to practice new things, strong teams are the best targets; it doesn't matter even if you lose, but once you win..."
Li Yao did not continue speaking; he believed sask already understood.
Indeed, as a coach, although sask's operational capability was quite a bit inferior compared to those excellent coaches, it didn't mean he was stupid.
And precisely because he understood Li Yao's meaning, he felt astonished by it.
Watching Li Yao leave, sask suddenly felt that there was a fog shrouding his neighbor, making him completely unable to see through him.