Rise

t to An Xin, saying, “Here.”

An Xin examined the plushy from every angle before complaining, “This is Garen… I wanted Ashe.”

Lin Feng pursed his lips and kicked against an imaginary rock.
He mumbled, “I’ll come back for that Ashe plushy! Trust me! Just take the Garen for now! But we’re going to come back here and I’mma bring all my money to get you that Ashe!”

An Xin looked at Lin Feng and smiled. Why is he so nice today… She hugged the Garen and said, “With your goldfish memory and our full schedule, I doubt you’ll remember it.
Guess I’ll have to learn to like this Garen.” She then winked at Lin Feng and suggested, “Wanna get a pastry? I still got my card.”

“Yes!” Lin Feng exclaimed.
He grinned and added, “You always come so well prepared! I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

✹

It was almost 6 P.M.
when Lin Feng and An Xin returned to the hotel.
They took the elevator up to the 23rd floor and walked over to their rooms that were opposite each other.
Lin Feng swiped his keycard to unlock the door and pushed it open.
A wave of noise slammed into him.
He furrowed his brows and looked into the room.
Chu Fang was sitting at a table with the team and Su Xue, talking about something.
Lin Feng asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

Chu Fang looked up and said, “Good.
You’re back.
I was about to call you.”

An Xin looked over her shoulder into Lin Feng’s hotel room.
She raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Zeng Rui looked up from his phone and said, “The Guangzhou Esports Association posted the brackets for the first round of the tournament online.”

“We got super lucky!” Zhang Hao exclaimed.
He turned his phone to show Lin Feng and An Xin and continued, “We got matched up against Guangzhou Tech Institute! The game is in two days!”

“Guangzhou Tech?” An Xin asked.
She tilted her head and looked up at the ceiling for a brief moment before asking, “They’re the third place team from South China, correct?”

Zeng Rui nodded and explained, “Correct.
They’re a B grade team.
They’re a weak team.
We shouldn’t have any trouble beating them.”

“So we’ve already practically qualified for the next round?” Lin Feng asked.

Zeng Rui looked up at Lin Feng and frowned.
He then slowly shook his head and replied, “We haven’t.
Until we’ve beaten them, we aren’t in the next round.
And just because we’re better on paper doesn’t mean we’ll show that ingame.
We have to come prepared.” He briefly paused before adding, “Beyond that, we also need to pay attention to the other teams.”

Chu Fang lifted his hand and said, “Someone couldn’t count, so there might be a few more teams than there should be.
After the first round, we move on to an in-between round before going to the Round of 16.
The half of 36 is 18 and we need 16 teams.
So four teams will be drawn at random from the winners in the first round.
Then when we’ve got 16 teams, the real thing starts.”

Lin Feng waved his hand and replied, “Who cares? We’ll just win both series and move on to the Round of 16.
Easy enough!”

Zeng Rui closed his eyes and massaged his temples. You, you, you thundering dumbass! It’s not all that easy! We can get matched up against the winners from last year in that ‘in-between’ round if we’re unlucky! Our tournament could be over then and there! Stop taking everything so damn, so damn… He took a deep breath, trying to calm his raging emotions. Don’t let him get to you.
Don’t let him get to you. He took another deep breath and said, “Something else entirely.
I got contacted by Sun Ruinian.
He’s asking if we want to scrim tonight.”

Chu Fang chimed in, “Zhejiang University was a lot less fortunate with their draw.
They’re up against the China University of Political Science and Law.
Those guys nearly knocked out Fudan University last year! It was a super close 5-game series! And the bad news doesn’t end there for Zhejiang.
They also have very little time to prepare.
They’re playing in the second group tomorrow!”

“A scrim, huh?” Lin Feng mumbled, rubbing his chin.
He then clapped his hands and said, “Sure, why not! But I’mma count this as doing Shi Hang a favour!”

Zeng Rui snorted and said, “I’ve already agreed.
We need a strong scrim partner to practice.
Zhejiang is a great team for that.”

Su Xue looked up from her phone at Lin Feng and An Xin.
She scrunched her nose. Why is BunBun hugging that Garen? Wait, where did she get it? It looks great! I want one! She pointed at the Garen plushy and asked, “That looks so cute, BunBun! Where did you get it?”

An Xin smiled and said, “Lin Feng got it for me from a claw machine.–”

“After the scrim I’m going back there and getting the Ashe!” Lin Feng interrupted.

Zeng Rui looked up at Lin Feng and said, “That’s right. After the scrim.
Until then I want you focused!”

✹

Team Shanghai and Zhejiang University met up at an internet cafe at 7 P.M.
The players from both teams nodded and looked at each other but didn’t really say anything.
That all changed when Lin Feng grinned and stepped forward.
He grabbed Sun Ruinian’s hand, shook it and said, “Long time no see!”

“Whu?” Sun Ruinian blurted.
He looked down at his hand in surprise. What just… He shook his head and pulled his hand back.
He then turned to look at Chu Fang and bowed.
He said, “Thanks for agreeing to this scrim request on such short notice.”

An Xin smiled and replied, “It’s fine.
You guys are a strong team.
This scrim will be great practice for us too!”

“Hey! Where’s Shi Hang?” Lin Feng interrupted.

Sun Ruinian looked back at Lin Feng and explained, “He joined a team that competes in the LPL, so he won’t be playing for us anymore.
But we’ve got a strong team, even without him! We won’t be easy to beat!”

The players behind Sun Ruinian all nodded.
They stared down their lane opponents, fires of determination blazing in their eyes.

“We’re going to make it all the way to the end!”
“We’ve got this, for the cap!”
“Tomorrow, we’ll show everyone why we deserve to be here!”
“For Shi Hang!”

Chu Fang looked at the players from Zhejiang University and smiled. Looks like they took their loss against Team Shanghai pretty well.
Shi Hang sounded worried the other day that these guys might sulk and give up, but they’re not looking like that at all! Guess he was worried about nothing.
These guys look like they’re here to win! It’s great to see them with so much confidence! This will be great for the East China region!

“Let’s play already!” Lin Feng suddenly shouted.
He looked at everyone and continued, “Why aren’t we playing yet? What are we just standing around here for? Let’s play!”

✹

Team Shanghai and Zhejiang University played a total of six games.
All of them were close, with minimal differences deciding the outcome of the match.
Yet it wasn’t anything like their series in the quarterfinals of the East China Regionals.
The players from Zhejiang University were ready.
Prepared even.
They played to the best of their ability and really pushed Team Shanghai to fight for all they were worth.
As for Team Shanghai, Tang Bingyao had practically breached the A- grade, An Xin wasn’t experiencing any flare ups and hadn’t for the last couple of weeks, and Lin Feng was better than everyone else.

The mid lane difference resulted in the series ending in four wins for Team Shanghai and two for Zhejiang University.
Both teams learned a ton.
Zhang Hao was initially losing hard in the top lane.
But with the help from An Xin, it became pretty even between the two of them and Zhejiang’s Jungler and Toplaner.
Down in the bot lane was another very even battle that went back and forth between the games and during the games.
The only lane that wasn’t all too exciting was the mid lane.
Lin Feng was far better than Zuo Cheng.
Something that was of incredible value to Zuo Cheng.

When they were all done, Lin Feng clenched his fist and raised it up to his head.
He said, “You guys were great! If you play like that tomorrow, you’re gonna make it to the next round easily! Maybe you’ll even make it all the way to the Finals if you keep playing like that!” He briefly paused before adding, “Just remember that we’ll knock you out in the Finals and claim the Championship Trophy!”