League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Right after Da Luo’s outburst, Lin Dong returned with a long face. They could guess the unpleasant outcome from his gloomy expression.

“Another failed negotiation?” asked Zhou Yan.

Since no team was willing to arrange practice games with them, they had been training on their own for consecutive days. Lin Dong had taken this opportunity to meet with the tournament officer, Xi Xi.

Besides just casual conversation, Lin Dong had also inquired about the sponsorship.

Normally, sponsors would directly contact teams to discuss endorsement. However, this privilege belongs only to the better-known teams. A fresh team like Team Skycrown that had no backing and platform would not attract enough interest from the relevant parties. Even if certain bodies were willing to provide financial assistance, they would not know where to seek them. Do you expect them to search your team on Baidu?

Team Skycrown had neither a PR platform nor any promotional videos to publicize themselves. This hindered interested organizations from getting in touch with them, which is why Lin Dong had asked Xi Xi to help them promote Team Skycrown to potential sponsors.

Xi Xi was a responsible and kind-hearted individual. He vaguely suggested to Lin Dong that Sky Club was currently exerting their enormous influence over the broad sponsorship network and had dominated almost the whole internet gaming platform.

Not only had they implied their strong stance against Team Skycrown to the other LPL teams, but they had also spread propaganda through all possible channels that Sky Club still retained the right to take legal action against Da Luo, Zhou Yan, and Lin Dong.

In other words, they could dissolve Team Skycrown at any moment if they wanted to!

No sponsor would be stupid enough to dump money into a team that is at risk of being disbanded at any time!

“Bullshit! I tore apart the contract with them. Why would they still reserve the right to sue us? F*cking nonsense! Besides, we’re just gamers. Do they have to be this malicious?” Da Luo could no longer control his temper after listening to Lin Dong.

‘What an effing shameless company. They play dirty just to prevent us from getting sponsored. They’re trying to stifle Team Skycrown’s financial source!’

Sky Club had tried to forbid them from re-entering the E-sport world by spreading negative rumors and boycotting them along with other LPL teams, as well as falsely accusing them of contract violation to jeopardize their source of income. Could the principal of Sky Club be more brazen?

“Xu Ping Yang! F*ck you and your family! I have never met anyone as disgusting as him!” Da Luo could not stop whinging.

Xu Ping Yang was none other than the owner of Sky Club. He was originally small reseller of an electronic brand and used to own a computer store.

After his business expanded, he bought the barely surviving Sky Club in an attempt to diversify his assets. Sky Club had a long history in E-sports but was about to go under as the founder had chosen to switch professions because the E-sports environment was still rather unhealthy and disorganized during that period.

Xu Ping Yang had sufficient capital to support this new venture. He single-handedly revitalized Sky Club by striking deals with several E-Sports professionals that excelled in several major platforms like StarCraft, WAR3, DOTA, etc. Besides that, Sky Club also had its pawns in some of the popular MMORPGs such as Legend Online, World of Warcraft, Perfect World, DNF, CF, and more.

As long as the online game was popular enough, with micro-transactions that promised lucrative returns, Sky Club would definitely be involved with it. This intensified over the past three to four years, and now Sky Club’s influence in the domestic E-Sports scene was overwhelming. They had ongoing deals with almost 90% of the online gaming businesses in the country.

A corporate giant like them often had such aggressive and ruthless tendencies.

The five members of Team Wings were among the first batch of Sky Club recruits. Xu Ping Yang himself signed the contracts with them. Back then, he was not as successful yet.

Ironically, the name of Sky Club had been popularized by Team Wings’ excellent performance in DOTA. With this newly acquired fame, Xu Ping Yang began to spread his net and gained more fortune as he continued to benefit from Team Wings’ name.

While Xu Ping Yang was enjoying his new-found wealth, Team Wings continued to train tirelessly and represented Sky Club at numerous tournaments. But their success did not translate into additional income. They were only given their basic salaries as well as part of the prize money that they had fought hard to win from the beginning to the very end.

That didn’t change even after they had attained world-class honor.

When Yu Luocheng lost his desire to play and wanted to resign, Xu Ping Yang, knowing that the team relied heavily on Yu Luocheng’s leadership, threatened him with the contract. He warned that if Yu Luocheng were to withdraw, he would need to pay a large penalty fee for breaching the contract. He even intimidated the teenager by claiming that he was going to take legal action against him, all in an effort to make sure that Yu Luocheng would not join another team.

Yu Luocheng was only a kid back then. He knew nothing about the law and his own rights. They had all been deceived and taken advantage of.

As it is, they were already upset at not being appreciated by the club despite pouring in their blood, sweat, and tears for the job. The contract conflict further verified the selfishness of the club owner who was just exploiting the younglings’ talent for his own benefit.

Yu Luocheng wanted nothing. He returned every cent of the money and even all the medals he rightfully earned. His only wish was to quit playing professionally, that’s all.

Da Luo, Lin Dong, and Zhou Yan had also decided to pull out. Thanks to Sky Club’s blackmailing, they ended up using almost all the money they earned throughout their two-year career to pay off the compensation.

For the entire two years, they had never skipped a single day of practice. All their efforts went down the drain the day they decided to retire. Their exit received no applause but unjust humiliation instead.

They had invested their most valuable youth into E-sports with enormous risk. When their two-year gamble ended in vain, they had to bear the judgment and reproach from the people closest to them.

To a certain degree, they did blame Yu Luocheng for the team’s downfall, but they also understood that working under such an abysmal boss would only result in them facing a similar fate once they were no longer of use to him.

After relinquishing the main stage, they were hit hard by the reality of not having money, vocational skills, and academic qualifications to survive in this cutthroat society. Over the past two years, their grudge towards Sky Club only grew larger with each passing day.

Seeing Sky Club gradually become the largest gaming club in the country pissed them off. And watching a con man like Xu Ping Yang prosper by exploiting inferior parties absolutely infuriated them.

So when they rebuilt their roster, Lin Dong, Zhou Yan, and Da Luo had decided not to join any club without a second thought. They also implicitly viewed Sky Club as the main nemesis they needed to take down at all costs.

Fast forward to now, the three of them were once again experiencing the malice of Sky Club. They were especially furious when Lin Dong told them how Sky Club had killed all kinds of support they might get through multiple channels.

They were already in the worst possible scenario — living in a shabby apartment, filling their stomach with only cup noodles, and too embarrassed to face their own families…

Yet, Sky Club still refused to spare them.

“I am not going to sit here and do nothing!” After he whined for more than half an hour, Da Luo picked up a metal rod and went straight to the front door.

“Da Luo, have you lost your goddamn mind?” bellowed Zhou Yan.

“I know where he lives. I’m going to ambush him there tonight. I’m not coming back until I give him a good taste of my anger!” Da Luo had indeed completely lost his cool.

Only they knew what kind of life they had to suffer through for the past two years.

Da Luo swung the door open and was startled to find Yu Luocheng standing there glaring at him.

“What are you going to do? Silence that b*stard then cast Ignite? You think this is a game?” Yu Luocheng had heard the entire conversation. Da Luo’s unconstrained protests could easily be heard through the thin wall.

“I’m not kidding!” rebutted Da Luo.

“Do you think I’m kidding? You’re not even at level 6. How are you going to fight him? You think you can just walk away after assaulting him? He’s a perceptive b*tch! He will show no mercy once he holds something against you.” Yu Luocheng snatched the iron rod from Da Luo’s hand and pushed him back into the house.

“Then tell me, are we just going to stand aside and let him oppress us as he pleases? I refuse to give in this easily!” Da Luo bawled.

“None of us like it but you just have to live with it, at least for now. This is your Achilles heel. You are too hot-headed at times. If one day you manage to learn how to stay one step ahead of your opponent, then perhaps your solo Top play style would improve drastically,” said Yu Luocheng calmly.

A gamer’s play style is practically a reflection of their true personality.

Yu Luocheng was aware of Da Luo’s greatest weakness. He is often the better player in the top lane but the glaring problem was his obsession to look for insignificant kills. Such recklessness usually resulted in him being ambushed by the opponent’s reinforcements, clumsily handing over the team’s hard-built advantage to the enemy.

Worse, the words ‘retreat’ and ‘patience’ did not exist in his dictionary. He would not hesitate to rush into a fight even when he knew that it was a battle he had no chance of winning.

Judging by his impulsiveness alone, he should be called Blood Eagle instead of Lone Gull. But if he could play well as Blood Eagle and not die unnecessarily, then Yu Luocheng would have no complaints.

“Can you not link everything back to the game?” said Da Luo dejectedly.

“I can’t. That’s my duty as your coach.”

Da Luo felt exasperated as he was unable to refute Yu Luocheng’s reasoning. Turning his back on them, he went into his room and slammed the door.

“Will Da Luo be alright?” asked Xiao Bei sheepishly. This was the first time he had seen Da Luo making such a big fuss.

“He will be fine. Just leave him be for now,” said Yu Luocheng.

“We have been cut off completely.” Zhou Yan delivered the news gloomily.

Yu Luocheng looked at the four of them. The news was definitely a huge blow to Team Skycrown. They wouldn’t be able to survive without a sponsor. How do you continue to play as a professional when you couldn’t even guarantee your next meal?

“I heard. I still have some money with me. It should be enough to support the team until the tournament,” Yu Luocheng comforted them.

“It won’t last. If the team can’t stand on its own feet and start earning money soon, we will still collapse in no time. Even the tournament subsidy won’t be able to cover our expenses. Li Meiqi and Li Feng have also told me that the online platform is another dead end. Any promotion about Team Skycrown has failed to get approval from the clients they’ve tried to approach so far,” claimed Lin Dong.

“Then there is only one way left,” announced Yu Luocheng.

“Which is?” the four of them asked simultaneously.

Yu Luocheng paused dramatically before giving them the answer. “Defeat Team Sky on the stage.”

The four of them were baffled.

‘Defeat Team Sky? Is this possible?’

They knew exactly how huge the gap between them and Team Sky was.

Da Luo had probably also heard Yu Luocheng’s boastful suggestion. He walked out of his room and looked at Yu Luocheng with a puzzled expression.

“Perhaps we are not strong enough to counter Xu Ping Yang by ourselves,” continued Yu Luocheng after he glanced at Da Luo. “But if we can demonstrate our true strength to the world, then all his tricks and foul play will be meaningless!”