Returning to the apartment complex, Li Yao wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Many people had watched him enter the venue and then exit carrying his peripheral equipment, leading fans to assume that Li Yao had participated in some event held by Weibo or the WE organization and won a prize—perhaps even player-autographed peripherals.
Consequently, quite a few people came up to ask him about it, and some even offered high prices to buy his gear.
Li Yao could only respond with a bitter smile. He even took a taxi for the mere few-hundred-meter distance just to make his escape.
It wasn't very hot yet in Xi'an in early June. After getting home, Li Yao took a shower, sat down at his computer, plugged in his new peripherals, and logged out of sask's account.
Just as he was about to log into the new account sask had given him, Li Yao suddenly remembered something. He sat blankly in front of the computer for a long time before recalling his own Korean server account from three years ago in his memories.
There had been two accounts: one belonged to Li Yao himself, and the other belonged to the internet cafe administrator from a nearby net cafe back then.
Both accounts had been obtained by that net cafe administrator. When Li Yao's own account was banned, the administrator gave his account to Li Yao, and Li Yao used that one from then on.
To this day, Li Yao still remembered the dumbfounded expression on his face when he first logged into that account and saw its 7 wins and 47 losses in Iron IV.
To pull off such a skill level on an account, that net cafe administrator was truly a talent.
It was just a pity that later on, when Li Yao passed by that area, the internet cafe had already gone out of business, and the administrator—who claimed to be a big brother in real life, but practically treated himself like a son to others in the game—had also vanished without a trace.
Li Yao first tried logging into that account, but a prompt indicated that it was still suspended.
However, when he logged into his previous account, he was surprised to find that for some reason, the ban had already been lifted.
Li Yao couldn't read the Korean text in the pop-up window, but looking at the game ID in the top right corner, a trace of nostalgia welled up in the depths of his eyes.
Killer.
At the time, Li Yao had originally wanted to name himself Assassin.
As a result, after looking up the English word for assassin, Li Yao fell silent for a moment and changed the name instead.
Assassin.
This was the ID Jiaoshen had used when he played professionally.
He flipped through his past match history.
In 2017, the account's highest tier was Challenger, at 640 LP.
177 games, 126 wins, 51 losses.
His three most played champions were LeBlanc, Fizz, and Zed.
Li Yao tried playing a game and found that the competition level wasn't very high, so he simply spent the afternoon finishing his placement matches.
After ten placement matches, Li Yao's account was placed in Platinum I with a record of 9 wins and 1 loss.
The game he lost seemed to have paired him with trolls on his own team; both of their accelerators had issues, causing them to disconnect simultaneously. The top and jungle both dropped, and the bottom lane completely collapsed. Li Yao played a one-versus-nine, hacking down thirty-two kills by himself, but still failed to turn the game around.
Small incidents like this were not enough to shake Li Yao's mental fortitude.
After a brief consideration, Li Yao finalized his training schedule.
Right now he had two Korean server accounts. If time permitted, it would be best to grind both of them up.
Many professional players had two to three accounts because if their rank got too high, even during peak evening hours, they would need to wait a certain amount of time in the queue. To maximize efficiency, players would use smurf accounts.
Anyway, as long as they reached a certain rating, the quality of teammates and opponents matched would be quite high.
By this time, the sky outside the window was completely dark.
Li Yao brewed a bowl of instant noodles, simply settled his dinner, and then started up ranked queue once again.
Solo queue is monotonous.
However, Li Yao was able to endure the solitude.
Moreover, Li Yao also intended to consciously adjust his sleep schedule starting today.
Adjusting his sleep schedule to be a bit more nocturnal would better match a professional player's circadian rhythm; otherwise, if he played ranked in the morning, he really wouldn't be able to find any matches.
……
Time flew by, and five days passed.
The WE Xi'an home arena ushered in its opening match of the LPL Summer Split.
Through his connection with sask, this was also Li Yao's first close-up contact with professional players.
Backstage resting room.
"Respected Coach Assassin, who is this brother?"
Breathe, also known as Breathe, walked over with instant familiarity upon seeing Li Yao and asked curiously.
"My cousin, he'll be joining the training squad in a few days."
sask's reply caught Breathe somewhat off guard. Beishang, Elk, and the support Miss, who were sitting nearby playing on their phones, also raised their heads to glance at Li Yao.
As for WE's two mid laners, Shanks was resting with his eyes closed, while Mole was staring blankly into space.
"Yo? You actually gained the approval of our Coach Assassin. What year were you born, brother? What position do you play? Let's Duo Queue together sometime."
Looking at the enthusiastic Breathe, whose social butterfly energy was cranked to the maximum, Li Yao smiled and shook hands with him: "Born in '03, mid lane."
"So young?"
Breathe looked somewhat dejected: "Before I know it, a guy like me born in '01 is getting old."
Upon hearing Li Yao state that he was a mid laner, Shanks, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly raised his head and glared at Li Yao.
Shanks was a bit sensitive right now.
His performance in the Spring Playoffs had been subpar, making him one of the scapegoats for WE's defeat.
The disadvantage of a relatively shallow champion pool led WE to introduce Mole in the Summer Split, and he was directly put into the starting lineup.
As the heart of WE's Youth Storm 2.0, being relegated straight to a substitute inevitably left Shanks feeling somewhat lost.
Furthermore, hearing that Li Yao was going to join the youth training squad struck a chord with Shanks. He was a homegrown WE player himself; having once competed in the LDL league as the mid laner for the WEA team, he had helped WE's second team win the LDL Spring Split championship last year and had also captured the LDL Spring Split MVP. It was precisely because of this that he had been promoted directly to the main roster.
Yet who would have thought that in less than a year, he would become a substitute.
"Gather around, let's talk about the strategy for today's match against TT."
sask spoke up at the appropriate moment.
This was WE's opening match of the Summer Split and also sask's debut as WE's head coach, so he took it very seriously, his expression solemn.
"For the match against TT, I plan to focus primarily on the top and jungle. The tempo of the mythic item version is very fast, and an ADC with two completed items doesn't have enough combat power to change the outcome of the game. Therefore, as long as our top and jungle have a big enough advantage, their bottom lane won't have any room to operate. So Chen Chen, you'll be the explosive point of this match."
sask looked toward Breathe, waiting for the latter's reaction.
"No problem."
Breathe stretched lazily with complete confidence.
"In the bottom lane, I'll pick a relatively comfortable matchup for laning. Their jungler might target bottom, so be careful not to be greedy for minions, and don't play overly aggressive when there's no vision."
"As for the mid lane, just play what you're good at. Mole, I believe in your strength."
"TT's strength isn't high. For this match, I only have one requirement: reduce mistakes and don't give them any chances. For the first game of the Summer Split, I want to see a 2 to 0."
sask was concise and to the point; he didn't like being long-winded. He just blurted out whatever came to mind and left the rest to the players.
Moments later, the players went up on stage.
Li Yao stayed behind in the resting room.
Right at that moment, the door to the resting room opened, and someone Li Yao found very familiar walked in.
"Yo, Brother Cheng is here."
WE's assistant manager had also accompanied the team to the venue. Seeing the newcomer, he looked somewhat surprised and stepped forward to greet him.
"First game, after all, figured I'd come take a look."
The newcomer was none other than WeiXiao, a veteran and meritorious former player of the WE team.
The strongest ADC of the ancient era.
"Brother Cheng."
Shanks also greeted him with a bit of embarrassment.
As a semi-introvert, not knowing what else to call him, Li Yao simply followed along and called him Brother Cheng.
"Who are you?"
WeiXiao looked somewhat puzzled upon seeing Li Yao's unfamiliar face.
"Jiaoshen's cousin, says he's joining our youth training squad in a few days."
The assistant manager's words made WeiXiao's realization dawn: "You're the mid laner who used Jiaoshen's account to duo with MLXG, right?"
"Eh?"
Li Yao was surprised. He had seen the related posts; Xiangguo hadn't streamed these past few days, so the hype had already died down. Coupled with the fact that everyone's discussions were focused on the matches once the LPL started, almost nobody was talking about this matter anymore.
WeiXiao knew about it too?
"It's me."
Li Yao replied.
Just then, sask had finished the draft and returned to the resting room.
Seeing WeiXiao, sask was stunned at first, and then joked: "What, don't you trust me? You even ran over here in person to oversee the battle."
"Not at all, not at all. Just wanted to come take a look. I have to be involved in the first match of the Summer Split somehow. Even though we're playing TT, a team with relatively weak paper strength, a Bo3 like this can still reveal a lot of things, letting me get an early outlook on WE's Summer Split."
WeiXiao said with a smile: "You wouldn't want me to mentally break down in front of the viewers when I stream casting matches later on, would you?"
"Tch."
sask curled his lips in disdain, then noticed Li Yao staring at the live broadcast screen in the resting room, reached out, and nudged Li Yao: "My draft is pretty decent, right?"
"Not bad."
Li Yao nodded.
Just as sask had arranged earlier in the resting room:
He gave the top-laner Breathe the version's explosive pick, Lee Sin, to play in the top lane.
The fundamental reason why Lee Sin could be played in the top lane in the current patch boiled down to the increased damage on his E skill.
Slamming the ground had undoubtedly become an excellent poke skill for Lee Sin during the laning phase against bruiser champions.
Coupled with the sustain from his W skill, Lee Sin's staying power in lane was extremely strong. Furthermore, having mobility and the capability for solo kills naturally made him one of the popular top-lane champions.
For the jungle, he gave Beishang Udyr, focusing purely on early-game tempo.
In the mid lane, Mole also got his signature champion, Zoe.
Matched with the relatively flexible Ezreal and Alistar combination in the bottom lane, the overall team composition was very complete.
In contrast, TT Team's composition was somewhat abstract.
Gwen in the top lane, Rumble in the jungle, Sett in the mid lane, and Kai'Sa paired with Rakan in the bottom lane.
Seeing this draft, Li Yao seriously suspected that TT's coach was an impostor.
sask hadn't gotten a satisfactory evaluation and was about to say something else when Li Yao suddenly spoke up: "The new champion you mentioned practicing earlier is mid lane Sett, right?"
"You figured it out again?"
sask was shocked.
WeiXiao beside him also wore a look of someone eating melons.
On the other side, Shanks, upon hearing this, felt a mixture of curiosity and dejection.
Another reason Mole was able to secure the starting spot was that he had pulled out a very useful champion in scrims.
Sett.
In the current version, the item Prowler's Claw wasn't just for show.
True to its name, Prowler's Claw actually allowed the user to dash forward a short distance in this patch.
This gave seemingly clumsy champions like Sett a tiny bit of mobility.
On the professional stage, this tiny bit of mobility often represented the birth of an opportunity.
What a pity—he had tried it as well, but couldn't get the hang of it, yet Mole had managed to master it.
"I ran into him in my rank games."
Li Yao's reply made sask understand, but immediately afterward, he realized something was wrong.
WeiXiao, standing beside him, voiced the question in his heart: "Mole... I remember he's around 600 LP? When did you start playing on the Korean server that you were already able to get matched with him?"