C16 Part1

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Chapter 16: A Brothers’ Game

The day of the CPL tryout competition was growing nearer and nearer. The members of Phoenix stepped up their training, as busy as whirling tops. One evening, when Qiu Ying gave Ji Xiangkong all of the game analytics, hero winning percentages, and such data that she’d stayed up long nights compiling, he had a solo map open and was frequently sending out various instructions in the chat box, with data continuously scrolling in another small box.

Upon feeling Qiu Ying stand by his side, Ji Xiangkong reached out to grasp her waist, bringing her over to his lap. He dipped his head to kiss her face. “I’m doing an experiment.”

Qiu Ying looked at all of the different types of charts on the screen, and understood that he was once more beginning to research new methods of hero item builds.

Level 1 uninjured jungler, Level 1 traveller, a conventional support hero that was playing mid… that which onlookers saw as “wild paths” which Ji Xiangkong used during competitions had, in truth, already been tested countless times during training.

As Luogic Notes1 states, gaming is split up into three realms. The first realm is to be cool. The second realm is to win. And those who can truly distinguish themselves in the gaming word will always do the things that they don’t know how to do.

To be a master gamer is to continually pursue the pinnacle.

Just like Ji Xiangkong, who would excavate all of the details in a single map.

When playing adventure games, normal people fought monsters, raised their levels, and beat the boss; yet he used game mods to lock the character’s attributes at Level 1 and then attempted to clear the level in the fastest possible time without receiving any injuries at all.

The nature of learning is breaking away from your comfort zone, to do challenging things, to make yourself uncomfortable. That was why he had confidence in certain games, when he was in close combat but pulled out the equipment that mages commonly used, and the audience shouted that they couldn’t understand.

And only top gamers could understand that at this particular moment in the battle, this equipment was the most profitable.

What Qiu Ying most admired was that Ji Xiangkong had a very good way with players’ daily training. Rather than blindly lining up for battles, he was always exploring even more optimized playstyles and adding all sorts of difficulties to challenge the limits of his teammates and himself in their team training.

Among the first steps was to broaden their hero pool.

Conquer had over one hundred heroes in total. The number of heroes that professional players were masters at was termed “hero pool”, and the deeper a player’s “hero pool” was, the more levels of heroes they could choose from during a game.

When we speak of “whether or not” a player can play a certain hero, what it refers to is not whether they can actually play it, but rather the level that they operated this hero, whether it was equal to or higher than other professional players in their same position. So, to widen a hero pool needed quite a lot of practice, tempering a hero that they weren’t at all good at until it reached its peak.

Previously while at VPG, while Ji Xiangkong had thought of many new tactics, his teammates unfortunately lost their ambition after becoming the Fall Champions. They didn’t learn, didn’t practice, refused to leave their comfort zones, and even blamed the heroes that he chose for having a low win rate, that the newest game update wasn’t good, that he didn’t love gaming…

Now the great ancient god Sun Zeyi’s understanding of Conquer could be classified as textbook-level; the only thing to be scared about with the genius Pei Xi was that his training would be too easy and he’d get bored; Lin Yixuan was wholly interested in new things; the youngest, Xia Ling, relied on random heroes to get points in solo queue.

After gaining united teammates, Ji Xiangkong was no longer afraid of being called into question. He could carry out his tactics into real combat.

Qiu Ying’s heart was overwhelmed with the thought of this team’s bright prospects when she suddenly felt a warmth at her chest. Very quickly, her entire body was flooded with a tingling itch. She looked down to see Ji Xiangkong’s left hand typing on the keyboard and his right hand…

How could he study the recordings while being a hooligan?!

Early the next morning, a pile of logistical items that Qiu Ying had ordered arrived. Neck pillows, cushions, goggles, health products… all sorts of various boxes nearly made up a sofa. Ji Xiangkong got up the earliest and helped her sort them out while listening to her explain about the applications of these treasures.

After the items were nearly sorted completely into the living room’s lockers, there was a pile of balls with rubber-band finger covers remaining on the coffee table.

“Right now, ‘carpal tunnel syndrome’, also called ‘mouse-hand’, is increasing in professional players. While it’s an occupational injury caused by mouse and keyboard overuse, we should still properly take precautions.”

Qiu Ying’s five fingers spread out within the covers of the rubber band ball, gripping the elastic ball with force, then releasing it, and repeating that for a few times. Proudly, she said, “This is the newest HandmasterPlus. Repeated gripping of the elastic ball can exercise all the hand muscles at once and prevent mouse-hand. Look, it’s even divided into different strengths.”

Ji Xiangkong glanced at her, his eyebrows lifting slightly. “That’s great. Let’s give it to them to play with in a bit.”

Seeing him stretch himself out and turn as if to leave, Qiu Ying hurriedly asked him, “Ai, you won’t take one?”

Ji Xiangkong looked back, his laugh wicked as he leaned toward her ear. “I don’t need it.”

He stopped, lowered his eyes to look at her, and the smile in his voice grew stronger. “I’m just not used to them being so small.”

Qiu Ying stared blankly for a few seconds before there was a sudden boom and her entire head exploded in a mushroom cloud.

**

In November, the CPL tryout competition sounded its first shot. More than a thousand teams across the whole country would first go through eight Best-of-1 knockout rounds, each stage being a life-or-death game. The knockout stage of the competition was held online. During their preparatory period, Qiu Ying was like an old mother with high school third-years in her family, decorating the villa full of victory banners and chicken soup for the soul, always caring for the “children”’s diet and health, work-rest status, psychological pressures, early love affairs…

Phoenix’s first match was at 2 in the afternoon. After Qiu Ying urged them to debug their computer hosts and peripherals countless times, she didn’t forget to emphasize those words that they’d heard so many times their ears formed calluses. “Don’t underestimate the enemies! Don’t be careless! Don’t drown in the fishpond!”

Ten minutes before the game began, several boys hooked each other around their necks as they stood in an open area. When he realized they were missing one person, Ji Xiangkong looked all around him before gesturing to that onlooker who was to the side. “Pei Xi, come over!”

Seeing that Pei Xi was still as unmoving as a wall, Lin Yixuan ran over to pull at him. “Come on, don’t be shy!”

After being dragged by the elbow, Pei Xi was originally going to retreat, his lips pursed tight, but to his surprise Qiu Ying pushed at him from behind. He staggered forward and Ji Xiangkong hooked him around the neck in one go. The five people took each other’s shoulders to form a circle, bending to push their heads together.

Ji Xiangkong’s voice was firm. “Beginning from now on is the fight. We can’t lose even a single one.”

All of them said in unison, “One, two, three, let’s go!”

The following set of games could be described as driving a steamrolling tank. For the first few rounds, Phoenix was matched up with recreational gaming teams, so before long the number of heads on the field went from several dozen to zero. No one in Phoenix died, while their opponents were obviously more occupied with taking pictures and talking in chat than competing.

“Woah, we’re matched with a celebrity team! We’ve won the lottery!”

“Sun god, good luck! I’ve watched you play ever since I was in elementary school!”

“Emperor Pei, what’s up with those rumors with you and Film Empress Qiao before? Why could that woman hug you? Everyone’s super angry!”

After the sixth round, they began encountering second- and third-string professional teams. There were streamers who broadcasted the competition from the game client end in succession along with commentary on streaming platforms, but most of their content was mockery: “Everyone, let’s bet on whether or not Void will misfire his ult this round?” “Will Void give them some blood?”

Of course the result was no. Ji Xiangkong’s handicap was limited merely in comparison to top-class professional players. When he met with ordinary people, it was an easy clean sweep. The fans who supported Ji Xiangkong seized the chance to express, “Those chat gods who flame Ji Xiangkong for being a noob, you’ll meet this kind of bloody end if you really play a game against him!”

On the other side, ever since Pei Xi had announced he was entering Phoenix, Pei Xi’s fans were like daddies watching their daughters’ white cabbages being dug up and eaten by a pig. Their hatred for Ji Xiangkong escalated, and they yelled on all the major platforms that Pei Xi had no future in joining this type of team, completely wasting his present golden state. In this tryout competition, when they saw that Pei Xi had changed from being a mid to a jungler, there was even more wailing. Fortunately, Phoenix played a triumphant song the entire way through, so they were relieved. They would just take it as the opponents were too weak and Emperor Pei had decided to game in the human realm.

One month later, the remaining tried and tested eight teams would contend with two lowest-ranking teams from the Fall Season for tickets into the Spring Season. The last half of the competition would be held offline in a Beijing stadium. Qiu Ying arranged their itinerary for them early on, even unpacking and inspecting their luggage one by one before they went out.

Seeing her squatting on the group looking meticulous, Lin Yixuan laughed as he nudged Xia Ling with his elbow. “Have you seen this scene before? Did your mom look like this too when she took you to the base?”

Xia Ling shook his head. “No, there’s a big difference between my mom and Ying jie.”

Qiu Ying was still talking over on her side. “Where’s the neck pillow? Ai, Xia Ling, where did you put it after you used it last time? Oh right, let’s bring more energy bars, you probably won’t have time to eat with the afternoon games.”

The first day of the competition, when the Phoenix team members got off the bus, a huge cheer erupted from the stadium entrance. The attention directed at the tryout competition had always been far less than the CPL games, but this time, the situation was much different.

With Cris who was known as “the top player in Chinese Conquer” as the behind-the-scenes boss, along with the speech from the manager Qiu Ying from the “Qiao Xin substitute” incident from before, Phoenix, a new team led by the man of much discussion, Ji Xiangkong, drew attention from every direction.

Although gamers on the internet weren’t at all optimistic about this team of “old, weak, sick and disabled”, once you took it apart, every member of the team was full of entertaining topics for discussion. This led to a sharp increase in the number of people who watched their competition.

The crowd of people blocking up the entrance of the stadium was divided into several groups. Among them, the most powerful voices did not exceed those of Ji Xiangkong and Pei Xi’s female face fans who cheered on the group, but unfortunately, not all of them were quite “group-type”. The two families of fans nearly broke out in a fight at the entrance. Next were Lin Yixuan and Sun Zeyi’s diehard fans. As a newcomer, Xia Ling was not yet widely known. He bowed his head to slowly walk with difficulty at the very back, when suddenly he heard his name called out from behind him.

“Captain Xia!”

Xia Ling turned. After he recognized those familiar faces, it seemed as if instantaneously there were countless unseen threads, crossing the long river of spacetime to connect two ends of different points of time. Fragments of memories clambered into his mind.

Of these people shouting at him, some were his previous teammates from the basketball court and some were his previous opponents. They had once run and struggled together, shed sweat beneath the scorching sun, written a passionate chapter for their books of youth. After that disaster occurred, he deliberately estranged them and cut off all contact with them. He built a fortress around his whole body that was completely covered with sharp thorns atop it. It hurt others, but it also stung himself.

But they trekked across long distances to purposely come here and cheer for him.

The rims of Xia Ling’s eyes gradually grew red. He hadn’t thought that in this vast sea of people, there was a group of people that had come, just for him.

“Xia Ling, go! Your brothers are here watching you!”

A tall person broke out of the stream of people to stand in front of him. It was a former teammate he’d played with since middle school, Zhou Yu.

“Captain Xia! In the beginning when I was just a newcomer who couldn’t even dribble properly, you were the one who brought me into basketball. Back then, as long as you were there on the court, we were fearless!”

Zhou Yu wiped at his face with the back of his hands. His voice trembled slightly from the emotion.

“On court, I’ve always kept your teachings in mind! To me, Captain, you’ve never left! I believe that no matter whether it’s basketball or esports, you can become the MVP of the battlefield!”

Xia Ling stood there dumbfounded. After a very long time, he showed a slight smile of relief.

“Thank you, you guys. I’m truly really well right now, truly really well.” Xia Ling limped forward and patted Zhou Yu on the back. “You too. With even my share too, keep on doing well.”

“Captain Xia!” A boy who was nearly 1.7 meters tall actually shed tears just like that.

Before they went on stage, there was a show of the entering teams. While surrounded by lights and cameras, Xia Ling’s expression was slightly awkward. After his leg became disabled, he couldn’t even face the mirror, but now he had to be beneath the gazes of millions of people…

Someone next to him took his shoulder. Xia Ling looked up to see Ji Xiangkong smiling warmly. “I’m here. Don’t be afraid.”

A warm current surged into his heart, the nervousness and panic gradually scattering and disappearing. Xia Ling faced the stage and followed Ji Xiangkong who was deliberately walking slower. Amidst the boiling shouts and cheers in the arena, he walked forward, bravely and firmly.

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1 A Chinese talkshow.

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