Rise

Serves you right! I hope they get rid of you. He looked away from Coach Yin and back at the large LCD screen, smiling.

After Team Shanghai won the teamfight, they went straight to the mid lane where super minions were attacking the two Nexus towers.
Lin Feng’s Kalista, Tang Bingyao’s Braum and An Xin’s Morgana helped the super minions in taking down the two towers before Team Guangzhou could respawn.
When they moved on to the Nexus, Twisted Fate spawned on the fountain.
He charged at them and tried to stop them, which he succeeded at.
The three from Team Shanghai turned their attention to him and killed him.
Then they focused back on the Nexus and destroyed it before anyone else could respawn.
The blue energy broke free from the nexus and morphed into the victory screen.

VICTORY!

Su Xue lost any semblance of impartiality that she still had.
She tightly clutched the microphone and screamed, “WE WOOOOOON! WE WOOOOOOOOON! TEAM SHANGHAI CLEAN SWEEPS TEAM GUANGZHOU AND ADVANCES TO THE QUARTERFINALS!” She turned to look at Zephyr, lost in joy, and added, “LIN FENG DID IT! HE WON!”

✹

Zeng Rui relaxed in his gaming chair and breathed out the tension from his shoulders.
He smiled and said, “Good job! Good job! Yes!”

“That was great!” Lin Feng cheered, laughing.
He turned his head to look at Zeng Rui and added, “See? I told you so! I’m a great ad-carry!”

An Xin rolled her eyes and said, “Idiot.
It was a team effort.” She then smiled and added, “Great work, everyone!”

“I don’t know, BunBun…” Zhang Hao replied.
He was grinning from ear to ear as he added, “Lin Feng did get two pentas. Two pentas! When have you ever gotten two pentas like that? Shit, I really wanna see those guys from Team Guangzhou tilt! Can you imagine what they must look like right now?”

Tang Bingyao looked across the stage into Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth, where mice and keyboards were flying around and people were just short from fighting each other.
She smiled and said, “Mhm! Look!”

The five players from Team Shanghai huddled around the far end of the soundproof booth which was the closest to Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth across the stage.
They stood there, watching Team Guangzhou lose it.
And when it finally looked like things were cooling down a bit, Coach Yin walked in and everything started from scratch again.

Zhang Hao laughed and said, “Guess we’re not shaking hands?”

“Come,” Zeng Rui finally said.
“Let’s go and see Chu Fang.” He then opened the door to the soundproof booth and held it open for the others.
Together, as a team, they walked to the front of the stage and bowed to the tens of thousands of fans at the stadium and the hundreds of thousands of fans watching from home.
They then walked down the stage and into the player seating area, where they received congratulatory words from several teams before finding their own seats.

Chu Fang smiled brightly and said, “Good work out there! I’m really proud of you all!” He then nodded at Team Guangzhou’s soundproof booth, from which the players and Coach Yin emerged, and continued, “You guys should’ve seen Coach Yin’s reaction when Lin Feng got that second penta.
It was the best thing ever! I think I saw the exact moment a part of him died!”

Zhang Hao laughed and replied, “He did look pretty mad! Oh, look! Look! They’re coming down! They’re coming down! Hey! HEY! TEAM GUANGZHOU! WELL PLAYED BUDS! GREAT GAMES! STRONG WORK!”

Coach Yin glanced at Zhang Hao and then mumbled something over his shoulders.
The players from Team Guangzhou all turned their heads away from Team Shanghai and hurried after Coach Yin in the direction of the stadium’s exit.

“Hey! What’s this? Are they really going to act like they didn’t hear me?” Zhang Hao asked, stunned.
He then snorted and shouted, “What’s wrong? Did you leave your big dicks on the nightstand this morning? I thought you guys had some balls! Guess you were wimps after all…” He shook his head and loudly said to his teammates, “I thought they were supposed to be good… What a letdown.”

It was the last bit that made Coach Yin pause.
He turned his head to glare at Zhang Hao and said, “You little pie–” He took a deep, long breath, trying to contain his humiliation-turned-fury, and continued, “Don’t push me.
You won’t like what happens.”

Zeng Rui smiled and asked, “Kind of how you don’t like what happened after Seo pushed Tang Tang, right?”

“Call it karma,” An Xin chimed in.

Coach Yin wanted to scream! He wanted to yell at them that he’d make sure they would never get the support from the Chinese Esports Association again! He almost did, but then Lin Feng opened his mouth and said, “Korea really has a ton of amazing players.
You’re not wrong there.”

“Uh?” Coach Yin blurted out.
His anger relaxed a little, part of it replaced with confusion.
He wanted to ask what Lin Feng meant, when Lin Feng continued to explain himself, “But that doesn’t mean you can just take some random players from Korea and expect to win.
The Chinese competitive scene hasn’t fallen that low.
How about the next time you go to Korea to find players, you scout out some actually talented players, rather than opening the Challenger ladder and throwing darts?”

Coach Yin looked at Lin Feng, but rather than argue he turned around and shouted at the interpreter, “DON’T TRANSLATE THAT!” He then grabbed Seo and Goalie by their arms and pulled them away, adding, “Come, we’re going.
Now! Come! GoGoGO!”

Chu Fang bit hard on his teeth to force back the laughter.
He then turned to Lin Feng and the others and said, “Come.
We should go too.
Nothing good’s gonna come when Seo and Goalie hear what Lin Feng just said.”

✹

Su Xue ran out of the Tianhe Stadium and straight at Lin Feng who was waiting for her with the others.
She laughed and hugged him and said, “You were great! That was such an amazing series! Those two pentas! I thought for sure you were dead at the end there with the Tristana but then you cut vision by going into that brush and just… just… Aaaaaaaaaah! You were great!”

Lin Feng grinned and replied, “Yeah, I know right! I am great!” He ignored the glares and stares from his teammates and continued, “But I’m also really hungry.
And we can’t possibly not celebrate this win! So look…” he pulled out his phone and opened the restaurant ranking list he’d compiled with Tian Tian.
“…
I say we go to this one.
It’s Korean Barbecue! Get it? Korean Barbecue! Because we just roasted two Koreans! You know, Goa–”

“Yeah yeah, we know,” An Xin interrupted.
She shook her head, smiling, and said, “Alright, let’s go.
Lead the way.”

Lin Feng walked out in front of the rest and showed them where to go.
After he’d orientated himself, he looked over his shoulder at Su Xue and asked, “How was the casting anyway?”

Su Xue smiled and replied, “It was great! I had so much fun and I wasn’t nervous at all! I even tried to be impartial, though that didn’t really work out… Team Guangzhou is just such a toxic team! It’s really hard to cheer for them.
But I tried!”

An Xin winked at Su Xue and said, “With the way you interact with your viewers and how you cast when Lin Feng is playing a game I never doubted your casting ability for a second! You didn’t have any reason to be nervous! You’re really good at this kind of stuff!”

“What BunBun says! I said that too! Before, remember? I told you it’d be easy for you!” Lin Feng exclaimed.
He then paused, nearly causing Zeng Rui to walk up against him, and asked, “Hey, XueXue? Did you remember to brag about me like I asked you to?”

“What was there to brag about? You got two pentas!” Su Xue countered.
She laughed and added, “I tried to be impartial… But I think that at some point I might’ve gotten carried away a bit and become slightly partial towards you guys.
Though… It wasn’t too much either I don’t think.
Zephyr said I did great too!”

Tang Bingyao nodded and said, “Mhm! That’s because you’re good at this.
Like BunBun said.”

Su Xue was beaming with joy, glowing even.
She suddenly raised her finger and said, “That reminds me.
Remember how I said I’m casting two games? The second one is the one with Team Beijing.
It’s after lunch I think? Or the second one after lunch? I need to check the schedule again… But yeah! I’m casting the other high school team too!”