Chapter 101: CHAPTER 101
After the movie, Tong Yao and Lu Sicheng were planning to eat dinner before going back to base. As they walked out of the theatre, Lu Sicheng's cell phone started vibrating. Lu Sicheng answered the phone and Tong Yao could hear Little Fatty's loud voice at the other end of the phone-- --
[Hello? Cheng Ge? Did you two go shopping all the way to Las Vegas to get married? Can you come back now? The B team has gone down to the first floor this afternoon. They're going to have a training match with Obsidian tonight at 8. Ming god wants you to come back to watch over those kids! ! !]
Lu Sicheng listened with the phone next to his ear, then replied simply: "Wait." He looked down and glanced at Tong Yao. Tong Yao shrugged and gestured: then we just go back, what else can we do?
ZGDX's LoL B team was formed from kids picked from various youth training camps. Their ages ranged between 15 and 19. Usually, they would sit at the second floor of the base and play training matches against teams from the junior league or city leagues…...The B team players were really only kids and considered ZGDX's reserve-- --Among these kids…...there were certainly some more rebellious ones like any normal school and wouldn't listen to anyone when they acted up. So it was harder to manage than the regular players…...Ming god, Little Fatty, and Old Cat had all moved up from the B Team. Since Ming god was much more senior than the others and was well respected, those kids would listen to him. The only other person who could keep those kids in line was A team's captain, Lu Sicheng. The reason was simple, he was a strong player and was very strict.
That was the reason why Xiao Rui was in a hurry to get Lu Sicheng back to base to keep those kids reined in
"..." Obviously Lu Sicheng wasn't too interested in going back to watch over a bunch of monkeys, he covered the phone and said to Tong Yao: "Actually, it won't matter if I don't go back. Ming god can keep those little monkeys in check as well."
[Go to hell, Captain, I can hear it! You think it's like in those TV dramas when you cover the phone I can't hear what you say on the other end!]
Lu Sicheng: "..."
Tong Yao: "..."
Lu Sicheng had no choice but to hang up the phone and drove back to base with Tong Yao. When they were in the car, Tong Yao chuckled as she buckled in: "I feel like dating a big movie star. We have to act secretively to avoid fans and get called back without even eating dinner."
"Not happy about it?"
"No." Tong Yao shook her hands: "Next time. There's other times."
When Lu Sicheng heard "next time" and "there's other times," his eyes brightened up and he sat up a little straighter. As if inadvertently, he glanced over the lips of the person next to him. "En." He answered in a low voice and drove the car out of the parking lot.
...
When they were back at base, Tong Yao saw Little Fatty, Old K, and Old Cat crowded on the couch. Old K and Old Cat each had a cat in arm, Little Fatty was looking at them enviously...
The B team players were all on the first floor, looking rather excited to be there. They each sat in an A team player's seat who played the same position as them and were happily conversing. Only Tong Yao's seat was empty; since Lu Yue had fought to get his own seat earlier, he already had his own seat on the first floor.
The person sitting on Lu Sicheng's seat was someone with a game id called Dubhe. He was only 15 years old, not even old enough to play in league competitions or international tournaments. Despite that, Tong Yao had heard her teammates talk about him: Though young, he already showed a lot of potential and was the B team's important carry. When he played, he was aggressive and flexible with his positioning. One could faintly see Lu Sicheng's playstyle from an earlier time.
Some people called Dubhe "Little Chessman" and they meant it as a compliment. But Tong Yao felt that Dubhe probably didn't appreciate the nickname-- --It was just like back when Lu Sicheng wasn't satisfied with being resigned to being Pope's "shadow."
"Little Dubhe, which champion are you planning to take tonight?"
Tong Yao went to her seat to put down her bag and looked up to greet the kid sitting on Lu Sicheng's seat-- --Dubhe was holding a cup in his hand drinking water. Tong Yao's voice might have startled him as his hand shook and water splashed onto the floor, his cup almost fell to the ground...
It was Tong Yao who acted swiftly and caught the cup midair.
At the time, B team's support Alkaid called out: "We're ready." Dubhe rather uncomfortably stood up from the seat and quickly took a look at Tong Yao, then whispered: "Tong Yao Jie, pick the champion for me?"
Tong Yao waved her hand, telling him to hurry back. Dubhe turned around with his wet clothes and hurried off…...
Lu Sicheng walked over with a writing tablet in hand for taking notes and stopped behind his own seat. He used the pen in his hand to tap the head of the person who was sitting on his seat: "Why are you goofing around over here? Where's that kid, Dubhe?"
"He spilled some water and I'm here to pick a champion for him." Tong Yao kept clicking the mouse without looking back and kept asking the B team top next to her: "Has Little Dubhe said what champion he wants to get?"
Right afterwards, she heard the man behind her use a voice that only she could hear mumble "Little Dubhe" in a sneering tone.
Tong Yao looked back and met the eyes of the stone faced man for three seconds.
Tong Yao: "Don't stand behind me, you're blocking the light."
Lu Sicheng: "..."
The other three players of the B team cast envious looks towards Tong Yao. The jungler of B team, Ah Yue, stretched his neck to ask Lu Yue: "Ugh, Ah Lu, does everyone on A team dare talk to Cheng Ge this way?"
Lu Yue's eyes rolled around: "Take a look at Little Fatty and the others, do they all have a face like Smiling which says she's getting tired of living?"
Ah Yue shook his head. Lu Yue gave out a short, mirthless laugh and took Ekko as his champion at the same time…...After mid made his choice, it was time for the ad to choose. Tong Yao found that the B team had taken Alistar and most of the other ad champions had been banned. She raised her voice to ask: "Does Little Dubhe know how to play Kalista?" She was about to take Kalista for him when Dubhe's flustered voice came from behind: "Don't take Kalista!"
Tong Yao's hand paused and turned together with Lu Sicheng to look at the kid who had just scurried out of the bathroom-- --
"It's ok to take Jinx." Dubhe's face was slightly red: "I've practiced Jinx lately."
Tong Yao said: "Oh." Lu Sicheng kept quiet, but didn't stop him. Tong Yao locked Jinx for Dubhe and stood up to give the seat back to him. Dubhe thanked her in a low voice and sat down at Lu Sicheng's seat.
The ban & pick phase ended then.
The training match between ZGDX B team and Obsidian officially started-- --
ZGDX's B team was actually one of the stronger teams in the junior league this season. Their mid was a new recruit, because of that Lu Yue took his place and further strengthened the power of the team. The B team had a good chance to beat most of the junior league teams and even a weaker team from the major league such as Obsidian shouldn't pose too much of a difficulty for them either-- --Before the match started, everyone was confident that the B team would win the match easily. But the end result was rather unexpected...
Tong Yao stood with Ming god and Lu Sicheng behind the B team players, watching. They discovered that only Lu Yue could play at his usual skill level and keep the opponent's mid under the turret. However, bot's performance was totally under par!
"Back, back. Have you seen the other team's support's ward, cd? You haven't even warded the river yet, why go in so deep? Are you waiting to be caught? Wait till their jungler comes this way and you'll be dead. Are you giving them two kills as a gift?"
"If you two went up together, the enemy would be dead by now. Where's your communication with your support?"
"Missed a minion."
"Missed again."
"Check the stat, see how far you're lagging behind?"
"Move forward a bit. If you want to be this wimpy, why did you let Alkaid take Alistar? Wouldn't it be better to have him take Soraka to keep healing you?"
Lu Sicheng's voice was the only voice in the base other than Alkaid's voice giving out instructions-- --Lu Sicheng's cold and harsh questions made everyone in the base, except the two cats, cast sympathetic looks at Dubhe.
With Lu Sicheng's icy glare on his back, Dubhe was forced by Obsidian's ad to farm under the turret. And without knowing why, he didn't seem to be very good at calculating Jinx's attack damage and often missed last hitting the minions...
Tong Yao pulled on Lu Sicheng's sleeve-- --He bent over towards her but his eyes were still fixed on Dubhe's computer screen.
Tong Yao: "You're too harsh on him that he doesn't even know how to farm now."
Lu Sicheng was quiet for a moment, then he used a voice which could be heard by everyone in the base: "In the last half month, he has never used Jinx in a ranked or training match. He doesn't know how to play and lied about having practiced it. What is he trying to prove insisting on taking Jinx?"
Dubhe's hand shook and the mouse hit the desk making a light impact sound.
Tong Yao released Lu Sicheng's sleeve.
Lu Sicheng: "This is just a training match so it doesn't matter whether you win or lose? Do you plan to surprise your teammates like this at the Demacia Cup as well?"
Dubhe's back stiffened up and he slightly sat up straighter, then he quietly finished farming the wave of minions before returning to base.
Tong Yao moved back three steps away from Lu Sicheng.
Then she swiftly sprang to the couch and shivered next to Little Fatty: "Shit, why is the captain so mean?"
"..........Our captain has always been this mean." Little Fatty took a glance at Tong Yao: "Last night, I asked him to help me rank up. I had to play Bard the whole night. Think about it, a whole night of Bard."
Little Fatty wasn't good at playing Bard, he would cast the ultimate at the wrong moment or miss the moment all together-- --
When Little Fatty played by himself, he would never use Bard as his champion...
Little Fatty: "If it wasn't for the fact that Cheng Ge was playing with me and my account was one that Riot gave me, I probably would have been reported numerous times that the 'skill level didn't match the rank'."
Tong Yao: "..."
Little Fatty: "Now don't you feel overly pampered after you grabbed the red buff from our captain and still live till this day. Don't you feel like you're covered by Buhdda's halo and have gold fingers?"
Tong Yao: "......Don't say that. I've been shut into the little black house to be lectured."
Little Fatty: "But our captain is doing that for our own good, you do know that, right? Look at Little Dubhe, he resisted taking Kalista just because it's our captain's signature champion. That's not a good thing. With the lineup they have, it's perfect to take Kalista. When playing a match, nothing is more important than to win."
Tong Yao nodded with a serious look on her face.
...
In the end, the B team lost the match to Obsidian because of bot. Everyone looked somewhat depressed-- --They all knew that Obsidian was one of the weaker teams in the major league and the reason for arranging this training match was originally to build up B team's confidence.
But the end result was a loss.
After the match was over, Old Cat and the other A team players were all standing behind their own seats analyzing, based on the stats, what had gone wrong with the B team's young players...
But Dubhe didn't wait for Lu Sicheng to walk up to him to say anything, he stood up and walked out of the base himself…...Lu Sicheng put down the writing tablet in his hand which was covered with handwritten notes. He took a look at Dubhe's back but didn't say anything, just frowned.
Tong Yao moved over to take a peek at Lu Sicheng's notes. She found that Lu Sicheng had jotted down, in dense handwriting, all about what Dubhe had done during the match and what he should have done at each moment-- --
X minutes x seconds, miscalculate where to position, should have gone to xxx then won't be hit or start a team fight;
X minutes x seconds, miscalculate ability damage, champion is at level 6 and Jinx initial damage is xxx, with the items xx, xxx and the q ability damage should be xxx;
X minutes x seconds, miss minion, not familiar with the champion's damage, should practice more on farming;
X minutes x seconds, the enemy's top has good teleport ability at the moment, hastily pushed line while your support has seen wards there, rash;
X minutes x seconds ...
Tong Yao read all the way from top to bottom. In the beginning the characters were bold and flying probably because their captain was cranky. Later, there was not much space left for him to write, the characters became smaller and smaller, finally shrinking into teeny-weeny ones...
Tong Yao: "..."
The notes became more and more detailed…...It looked like Lu Sicheng almost wanted to grab the mouse from Dubhe and go play himself.
......Tong Yao thought: what a babysitter!
As Tong Yao was amazed by the discovery, the tablet in her hand was pulled away by the man behind. "Gee." She turned her head and met a pair of dark brown eyes which were without much emotions.
"..." Tong Yao blinked: "What?"
Lu Sicheng had an expression on his face as if he was torn-- --but only for one second-- --The face returned to being expressionless and ordered: "You go to get him back."
Tong Yao: "Huh?
Lu Sicheng: "Dubhe."
Tong Yao: "...You're the one who scared him away."
Lu Sicheng pretended that he didn't hear it and kept nagging: "Why run out after the match when it's time to do review? If he doesn't want to hear it, I'll just throw away the tablet."
"..." Tong Yao fixed her eyes on the man, then squeezed out words through her teeth: "What are you being tsundere for? You scared him off and then turned to me to clean up the mess you've made."
"Don't know what you're talking about." Lu Sicheng felt it was justified: "Lu Yue doesn't need you to do a review with him anyway. You go call Dubhe back. Aren't you his jiejie? He just listens to you."
Tong Yao turned to look at the direction where Dubhe had left, looked back to make a face at Lu Sicheng, then hurriedly ran out with her slippers.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone