You’re Beautiful When You Smile

Tong Yao still remembered how she felt the last time she was sitting on the substitute seat– –Watching her teammates on the stage while enduring a state of miserable indignation, while also praying for the team.
On the one hand, she was worried that Lu Yue would perform too well and replace her; on the other hand, she worried that Lu Yue wasn’t going to play well enough and cause the team to lose the match……

 

At the time she had a lot of negative thoughts, though some positive ones as well.
Nevertheless, she was totally detached from the game that was being played at the time.

 

She had thought that she would never get used to sitting in the substitute seat in her life.
But now a miracle happened.
She and Ming god sat shoulder to shoulder in the break room backstage, looking up at the screen that showed the match, now about to begin.
There was a notebook on her lap and she was tense– —

 

The feeling she had now was quite different from before.

 

She felt that there were six players on stage playing the game.
She wasn’t able to detach herself from the game like before.
She nervously fixed her eyes on the screen as the match was about to begin the ban & pick phase.
All she could think of was: What will Jin Yuguang take this round? How is he going to play it? Will he still maintain his intricate play style like the last round? His condition today is really good……

 

She didn’t think too much about Lu Yue, surprisingly.

 

In addition, Ming god was nagging next to her ear: “I was so anxious while watching the last round.
You can’t be that aggressive fighting against Jin Yuguang.
Didn’t I prepare the data on him and told you so earlier.
He has a solid defense and makes strong counterattacks.
He especially can target a player like you…… Before your first death, I don’t believe your captain didn't tell you to pull back the minion lane.”

 

Tong Yao: “He did, he did.”

 

Ming god: “Then why didn’t you pull back? !”

 

Tong Yao: “I couldn’t help it, couldn’t help it.”

 

Tong Yao thought about it: “Hrm, that’s Jin Yuguang– –I can’t think of anything else once I see him, my brain goes blank.
I forgot that I said I would play safe and wouldn’t get too excited.
The aggressive blood in my body was boiling and I could only think: Kill him! I’ll be the world’s first mid if I kill him! Mid king of the world!”

 

Ming god: “……”

 

Tong Yao: “It’s like Gollum who can only think of the ring.
I’ve also fallen into the spell of ‘wanting to kill Jin Yuguang’– –But since I’ve calmed down, I have a profound recognition of my mistakes and foolishness.
I was wrong.”

 

Ming god: “……”

 

Ming god: “Shit, were you bewitched or cursed? Nevermind, I’ll tentatively categorize this as regret for not meeting each other earlier which is unique to world competitions among good players– –Actually you aren’t the only one.
Many players also get in over their heads when they go against Jin Yuguang.
All they think about is getting into a fight with him then it’ll give OP a chance to get the upper hand…… This is probably the aura buff that comes with Jin Yuguang himself?”

 

Tong Yao touched her chin: “Not everyone’s like that.
There’s someone who’s quite capable of keeping his cool.”

 

Ming god was surprised: “Who?”

 

Tong Yao lifted her chin at the screen in front of them: “Our player Lu Yue.”

 

Ming god looked up and happened to see the camera cut to Lu Yue.
He had just sat down in his seat and was playing with his fingernails quite earnestly like a retard…… Ming god sighed and patted Tong Yao’s shoulder before he stood up.
He walked out of the break room in a hurry to go onstage to take care of the ban & pick phase.

 

A few minutes later, OP noticed that ZGDX had changed their mid player.
OP knew that Lu Yue’s champion pool paled in comparison to Tong Yao’s and they targeted mid champions during the ban.
Lu Yue’s Azir, Twisted Fate, and Vladimir which were quite strong in the current patch all got banned.
Lu Yue, with his champion pool almost depleted, had no choice but to choose the mid champion that leaned a bit heavily on support power, Karma, after he turned to talk to other teammates.

 

Tong Yao guessed that he probably said: If I knew this would happen, I shouldn’t have shown off my Twisted Fate during the league competition back home.

 

Jin Yuguang, unexpectedly, took Corki as his champion.

Tong Yao vaguely felt that there was something off about Jin Yuguang’s choice of champion.
She lowered her head and started to flip through the data in hand.
Half way through, she suddenly stopped, pushed the notebook down, and frowned.
She suddenly remembered what the commentator had said when she reviewed the finals of the summer competition: [Wait till the world competition, you’ll face even more different types of professional players.
As far as I know, just within the Korea and Europe regions there are more than two high power players who are proficient in Smiling’s and Ai Jia’s play style.
Who would you do, ZGDX, then? Have Lu play? Or Smiling……]

 

Tong Yao: “……”

 

She vaguely guessed where her uneasiness was coming from.
She turned on her cell phone to check Tieba and sure enough there were various comments– —

 

[666666666 Jin Yuguang takes Corki.]

 

[Didn’t he play defensively and make vicious counterstrikes so happily, why is he taking Corki now?]

 

[Congrats to ZGDX, using the mid rotation to beckon the second version of Jin Yuguang: the aggressive Jin Yuguang.]

 

[Jin Yuguang is now in killing mode.
It’s over.]

 

[ZGDX’s going to have a hard time again this round…… If they really want to win, they can’t just fixate on the mid lane.
If I may say so, the rotation doesn’t mean much.
Jin Yuguang can handle any type of player.
ZGDX is better off letting Smiling, who’s getting used to him, continue to play this round.]

 

“……”

 

That’s right, Jin Yuguang was indeed an all-around player who could be aggressive or defensive and show off or lay low.

 

Tong Yao got off Tieba.

 

The ban & pick phase had ended by then.
Both teams entered the match– —

 

The comment on Tieba “Jin Yuguang is now in killing mode” made Tong Yao feel quite uneasy.
When the camera cut to Lu Yue, she silently drew numerous crosses in her mind, wishing Lu Yue a peaceful match…… Ming god pushed the door open and walked into the break room just as the match started and the minions began to arrive in their lanes.
The screen happened to show Lu Yue being attacked by a level one Jin Yuguang a few times and Lu Yue drank a health potion and backed away– —

 

Ming god: “Damn, what happened.
The match just began and this retard only has half of his health left!”

 

Tong Yao: “……Jin Yuguang the second version is truly ferocious.”

 

Ming god sat down next to Tong Yao.
Tong Yao wrote down some data in the notebook as she listened to the commentators.
When she looked up again, it was four minutes into the game.
Lu Yue, by this time, was finally in a more stable position but was harassed by Corki’s attack, Q, attack from time to time as he was farming.
When Lu Yue wanted to counterattack, Corki reacted swiftly by using his W to run away.
Lu Yue couldn’t land a counter strike and the entire situation was rather depressing– —

 

Fortunately, his creep score wasn’t too far behind Corki’s.

 

Tong Yao: “If I were there, there would probably be 7 or 8 kills already and all at mid lane.
Either he’d be dead or I’d be dead.”

 

Ming god: “If he’s facing you, he would never play this way– –After being a completely defensive player, now he’s playing aggressively, constantly harassing Lu Yue when he’s farming…… Jin Yuguang isn’t even in his killing mode yet, otherwise he would have called their jungler already.”

 

This round, OP’s jungler was hanging around the top lane.

 

First blood happened in the top lane.
Old Cat and Old K initiated an attack on OP’s jungler and were planning to tower dive but they were attacked instead.
Old Cat quickly ran away while Old K was left behind, chased by OP’s top and jungler duo and eventually dying under their inner turret……

Ming god sighed and patted Tong Yao’s shoulder: “Think about how you’re going to play the next round.
This round our mid endure the pressure well, you have to learn from Lu Yue how to take the pressure well.
Then you have to figure out how to look for a chance to fight back while enduring the pressure– –Damn, just don’t be like Lu Yue who just stands there like a vegetable, as if there’s no one at the ZGDX side…… We can’t always let OP lead us by the nose.”

 

Tong Yao nodded.

 

She fixed her eyes on the mid lane, on every detail on Lu Yue’s and Jin Yuguang’s movements.
She was afraid that she’d miss something– —

 

She was quite nervous.

 

She was even more hard working than if she was playing the match on stage.
When she was on stage, all she focused on was Jin Yuguang, but while watching the match off stage, she could see more things– —

 

Lu Yue took the pressure and didn’t die but he was totally trapped in the mid lane.
As a mid with some support power, he had been constantly using his ultimate, after level 6, running away.
He didn’t have a single chance to use Karma’s high mobility to support his teammates.

 

In comparison, Jin Yuguang could always find new opportunities; he’ll find chances, when Corki has missile ammo, to go top or bot to get kills or help his teammates grow the team’s advantage……

 

Because she was watching the match as an onlooker, she could clearly see how the proactiveness or passiveness of the mid player could affect the whole game……

 

……

 

The second round lasted for almost 50 minutes.
When ZGDX’s nexus exploded, the break room was momentarily silent– –Now the score was 2 : 0; ZGDX had been pushed to the edge of the cliff.

 

Ming god sighed: “S series’ quarter-finals are always different from skirmishes or even group matches.
I don’t even know at this moment whether using this sort of on the spot teaching method would even work for you guys or not……”

 

Tong Yao lowered her head and pulled some stray hair behind her ears.
She thought about it but only said: “En.” The cell phone in her hand was on a stream site.
The bullet comments were saying things like “3 : 0” “GGGGGGGG” “Congrats to ZGDX for qualifying for the quarter-finals”, filling the cell phone screen, covering the faces of the players……

 

Tong Yao couldn’t even see the expressions on her teammates' faces.

 

After a while, footsteps could be heard outside the break room– —

 

The one who came in first was Lu Yue with tightly knit eyebrows.
When he walked in and looked up to see Tong Yao’s face, his expression froze.
Tong Yao couldn’t tell whether it was out of dejection or embarrassment.

 

Before Lu Yue came into the room, Tong Yao was also debating how she should face her depressed teammates.
She figured it could be an awkward moment or she could be depressed with them or she should keep encouraging them not to give up…… But what happened was that when she met Lu Yue’s eyes, she found her flustered heart suddenly settle down– —

 

The rest of the team came in after Lu Yue.
Little Fatty mumbled while pounding his waist: “Shit, OP didn’t play this way against CK at the group matches.”

 

Old Cat and Old K were discussing the failure of their first attempt to tower dive which was due to bad ward placement.

 

Lu Sicheng was the last one to come in.
He walked in the room and took a look at Tong Yao, then walked straight over to Tong Yao’s side……

 

He looked down and figured that since Tong Yao was easily discouraged after defeats, he wanted to say something to calm her down.
But before he could say a single word of comfort, he saw the person sitting on the chair suddenly gave me a big smile.

 

Lu Sicheng was surprised.

 

Tong Yao took his hand while he was still trying to understand what had happened and rubbed his somewhat cold finger tips.

 

“It’s alright.
We can win the next round.”

 

It wasn’t simply some word of comfort– —

 

With the setbacks she and Lu Yue had experienced, she felt that she probably knew how to go against OP now.