All-Round Mid Laner

By the time their ranked match concluded, it was already forty minutes past midnight.

The White Wolf King required a huge amount of player input to be played properly. It was actually very tiring to play him in several games in a row. Ye Shaoyang rubbed at his sore wrists and said, "Captain Chi, let's wrap up training here for today."

Chi Shuo didn't intend to continue either. He simply turned off his computer and said, "Okay. Let's go back to our rooms and sleep."

Qin Yizhu was practicing heroes by himself. A plate of walnuts sat on his desk. He ate while he played, giving off the leisurely aura of a cool, aloof top laner who didn't have a care in the world. Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing were also playing ranked on the domestic server. When Chi Shuo got up, he was just in time to see the word 'DEFEAT' flash across their screens.

Chi Shuo paused and asked, "Why did you lose again?"

Cheng Xing hung his head, barely even daring to breathe.

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "Little Xing is collapsing under the pressure of being ganked too much?"

Qu Jiang said, "This round wasn't actually because of Little Xing."

He opened up the post-game analysis and pointed out Cheng Xing's kill-death-assist stat, which was 9-4-5. Then he pointed out one other teammate, who had gone 1-9-3 in that round. He helplessly said, "We ran into someone who threw the match."

In a 5v5 game, if one teammate deliberately gave away kills to fatten up the other team, it would be very difficult for you to win regardless of how powerful you were or how good your gear was.

The domestic server was also full of big and small fish alike. There were plenty of streamers, professional players, and passersby playing together. Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing had been on a bumpy road these past few days. Their win rate was only wavering at around 60% or so.

Chi Shuo was a bit concerned. "How's it going? Are you two working together a bit better?"

Qu Jiang helped Cheng Xing save some face. He said, "We're a bit more in sync than before."

Chi Shuo moved over to the computer and said, "Let me see your battle records."

He opened up Qu Jiang's battle history. In every single match, he had been flagged as the MVP. The results were a loss, a victory, a loss…

The problem was, Qu Jiang was playing support, right? If the support was being named the MVP, it meant that the jungler, mid laner, and marksman weren't doing what they were supposed to do.

In most games, Cheng Xing's final rating was between 7 and 9. He rarely ever went above 10.

As for Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang, their final ratings were above 10.0 in every game they played.

These ratings were determined based on how you performed in the game, and they took your kill-death-assist stat into consideration as well. The main reason Cheng Xing's ratings were low was that he died too many times. Of course, it was very normal for a marksman to die. The enemy jungler always targeted them first, after all.

But dying an average of five times in a game… wasn't that too much?

There were even games in which he'd died eight times?

Chi Shuo opened up the log of the game in which the marksman had died eight times. He looked towards Cheng Xing and mildly stated, "You're pretty impressive to manage eight deaths in one game. Did you use your head to ram into the enemy's defensive tower?"

Cheng Xing was silent.

Chi Shuo didn't show the slightest bit of mercy when reprimanding his apprentice. He was even more severe than the coach.

Unsurprisingly, Cheng Xing was scolded until his ears burned with shame. His head drooped to the point that his face was nearly buried in his keyboard.

Qu Jiang hastily tried to smooth things over from the side. "Ahem, we ran into A-Yan on the other side in that game. Little Xing was ganked like crazy."

Chi Shuo raised his eyebrows. "A-Yan is playing ranked on the domestic server?"

"Mm," Qu Jiang confirmed. "He seems to be queueing solo."

Chi Shuo silently mulled it over for a few seconds. When he looked at his apprentice again, his expression was still stern. "Even if you ran into A-Yan, you shouldn't have been ganked eight times. In official games, are you going to deliver your head on a platter to jungler gods?"

Cheng Xing hung his head lower and meekly whispered, "I'll be careful next time…"

Ye Shaoyang could see that Cheng Xing's eyes were reddening. He took the initiative to lighten the mood. "Little Xing just switched over to playing marksman. He'll need some time to get used to it, yeah?"

He moved up and gave Cheng Xing a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Smiling, he continued, "Marksman is a position which requires you to develop well in early-game. If you don't die in early-game, you'll be the boss in late-game. Be more patient. Don't rush. Take it nice and easy."

Cheng Xing hadn't imagined Ye Shaoyang would speak on his behalf. He froze for a moment, then looked up at Ye Shaoyang gratefully. Still red-faced, he said, "I got it, Yang-ge. I'll be more cautious in the future."

"Alright," Ye Shaoyang said. "We're going back to our rooms now. You guys don't stay up too late."

Chi Shuo looked at his apprentice once more, then turned and left with Ye Shaoyang.

The two of them returned to their dorm room together. Upon entering, Ye Shaoyang prepared a can of food for Xiao Bai while asking, "Who's the A-Yan that Qu Jiang was talking about? A jungler who can destroy the bottom lane and kill Little Xing eight times sounds very impressive."

"A-Yan, player ID YanYan," Chi Shuo said. "His name is Yan Yan, he's Huowen's jungler. When he isn't training, he likes to solo queue on the national server."

"Oh, him!" Ye Shaoyang remembered this person.

During the match between Huowen and Jingzhe, the spotlight had been on the captains of the two teams. As a result, Huowen's jungler hadn't really stood out, so Ye Shaoyang hadn't taken special note of him. But now he could tell that this player wasn't bad at all.

Chi Shuo explained, "Zhou Jiawen made a name for himself on the international server. Huowen signed him for a high price. Actually, before Zhou Jiawen joined Huowen, the team also ran a jungler core comp. A-Yan's skills aren't weak. After Zhou Jiawen joined, in order to accommodate their new mid laner's play style, Huowen started to try out all sorts of terrain control and crowd control comps. Part of A-Yan's light was covered up by Little Zhou, but he's an extremely steady player."

Ye Shaoyang mused, "Huowen's jungler and mid laner are both pretty strong, but they won't play a mid/jungle duo?"

"Huowen has mid/jungle comps as well," Chi Shuo said, "but they usually play with their mid laner as their one and only core, while their jungler takes control skills. That's because when Zhou Jiawen plays, he loves to instakill people."

When Ye Shaoyang thought back to Zhou Jiawen's Destruction Mage, he remembered that Zhou Jiawen really had instakilled the other team's back line heroes. Forget about using flash to run away; his enemies couldn't react at all, dying off in the blink of an eye. Zhou Jiawen's play style was fierce yet level-headed. It was very hard to imagine that this person was only nineteen years old, and that he'd already become Huowen's captain at such a young age.

Ye Shaoyang curiously asked, "Zhou Jiawen and Fang Zhengqing are the only powerful mid laners in the Chinese division, right?"

"Right," Chi Shuo said. "Zhou Jiawen enjoys playing artillery mages, instakilling people from afar. He has a very direct play style. Fang Zhengqing enjoys summoner mages. He likes slowly grinding his enemies to dust. His play style is a bit like a hunter who toys with his prey. They both know how to play assassin mages, but their two teams don't have many comps that are built around assassin mages."

Ye Shaoyang turned back to look at Chi Shuo. He crinkled the corners of his eyes with a smile and said, "Then, what does Captain Chi think my play style is?"

Chi Shuo thought of the ^_^ that Ye Shaoyang would send after getting a kill. He coughed lightly and said, "You're probably… the type to piss people off to death?"

Ye Shaoyang nodded like that was to be expected. "You have a point. Making your enemies die mad is a type of psychological warfare too."

Chi Shuo fell silent.

Xiao Bai ate its fill and came up mewling, pawing at the leg of Ye Shaoyang's pants.

Ye Shaoyang leaned down and picked up the cat. He smiled slightly and said, "Captain Chi, get some sleep soon. Good night."

Chi Shuo watched him carry the cat into his bedroom. A trace of warmth surfaced in his eyes.

Shaoyang had yet to learn how to play all of the mid lane heroes, but even with the few heroes he'd already learned, he could already make Chi Shuo feel what his unique play style was like.

One couldn't judge Shaoyang by how mild and happy he usually seemed, or by those ^_^ emoticons that he typed. As Ye Shaoyang's partner, Chi Shuo was very sure of one thing—Ye Shaoyang was the calmest and sharpest mid laner Chi Shuo had ever met.

He didn't just piss people off and make his enemies suffer total mental collapses.

He was also a sharp blade that could split the sky.

At the same time, at Team Huowen's base.

The coach and the players were all very energetic. None of them were at all sleepy.

Yan Yan had just finished playing a match when he heard Coach Li call out from the side, "A-Yan, you come over here too. Take a look at this replay."

Yan Yan skeptically walked over to stand beside Captain Zhou's computer. "What is it?"

Zhou Jiawen pointed to the names Sunshine and Moonlight on his screen. He said, "A pair of high-level players, the sun and the moon, suddenly popped up on the international server. Earlier, Mitchell's newbies ran into them and were destroyed by their flight comp. Today, we bumped into them by chance as well. They'd switched over to playing the black/white wolf kings comp."

Yan Yan instantly leaned in closer. His interest had been piqued. "Black/white wolf kings? How many years has it been since this duo appeared?"

Coach Li sighed deeply. "Exactly. That's why we're curious about where these two came from."

When the replay began, the coach set it to play at 0.5x speed.

Zhou Jiawen had faced off against a pair of professional players on the bottom lane; he could only take a beating from the enemy marksman and support. As a result, he didn't have much time to go observe the black and white wolves. Now that the game had concluded, he could watch the eagle eye replay of the game. It was only then that he realized that these wolves had a terrifying degree of synchronicity.

Coach Li exclaimed, "In this reverse flank, the White Wolf King's operations are very detailed and precise! The four wolf cubs attacked from two separate directions. The hidden Nightmare had no way to dodge!"

Yan Yan thoughtfully said, "These two, with their positioning, practically wrapped up the enemy mid laner in a bag."

Zhou Jiawen said, "Plus, the White Wolf King has very good judgment when it comes to deciding when to use his 'Protect the Master' skill. He activated that skill the instant the enemy Ninja appeared, using his wolf cubs to tank quite a lot of damage."

Coach Li said, "The Ninja on the other team was probably Fujita Naoya. Not many professional players can fend off Fujita's assassination attempts. But in this one game, the White Wolf King actually evaded him twice. Have you guys noticed that, from start to finish, he was never solo killed by the jungler? The one and only time he died was when the enemy mid laner and jungler teamed up, taking him down in a 2v1."

A brief silence descended upon the training room.

Soon enough, Yan Yan said, "From my perspective as a jungler, this mid laner is very, very difficult to kill. His sense for danger is too keen. It seems he can practically always detect where the jungler is lurking. He feels like the sort of player who… has a ton of experience in big games and has been frequently ganked by world-class junglers. He's a veteran player whose reflexes have been molded by his experiences."

Why were new players easy to kill? Because they lacked experience. If they got the slightest bit distracted and failed to notice a jungler lurking in the woods, waiting to launch a sneak attack, they would definitely be killed.

However, veteran players who had a wealth of experience could pick up on minute details which warned them of danger.

Being able to 'smell' danger sounded like superstition, but it was fundamentally the conditioned reflexes that veteran players developed after amassing tons of experience playing in big games. For example, when the jungler went to gank on the middle lane, the White Wolf King hadn't had any wards up—he didn't have any visibility in the area, and he had no way of seeing the enemy jungler. But because the enemy mid laner had taken just one step forward, the White Wolf King had instantly made the decision to flash away.

Zhou Jiawen furrowed his brow faintly. "This person's game sense is even more terrifying than someone running a visibility hack."

Coach Li had a complex feeling in his heart, and his expression was quite grave. "What do you guys think of the skill level of this jungler, the Black Wolf?"

Yan Yan confidently said, "He's world-class."

He pointed at the last fight that was playing out on the monitor. "He knows the jungle as well as his own backyard. Look at these few consecutive leaps the Black Wolf makes to get over walls. He cuts into fights at very good times, then kills the enemy in an instant. Not only can he pursue fleeing enemies, he knows how to retreat and escape as well."

Some junglers ganked enemies with a 'do or die' attitude. They could kill their enemy, but they would give up their own life too.

But every time this Moonlight ganked his enemies, he always left a way out for himself. He could attack when he charged in, and he could retreat when he pulled back. He came without warning and left without a trace. He could leap in from a thousand miles away, claim an enemy's head, and retreat unscathed!

This kind of assassin was the most terrifying sort. You never knew where he would emerge to kill you, and he could slip away once you were dead. A few seconds later, he could pop up yet again and kill off your teammates.

A kill-oriented jungler who took four kills in one team fight—that was enough to prove that this player had an extremely sharp grasp of the ideal times to enter a battle.

Zhou Jiawen mused, "All things considered, the mid laner playing the White Wolf King seems like a veteran player with a lot of experience in big games? And the Black Wolf isn't played by a newbie either?"

Coach Li scratched his head, perplexed. "Two veteran players, teaming up on the international server? Exactly which team are they from?"

Zhou Jiawen and Yan Yan exchanged a look.

Yan Yan said, "If we run into them in a game, Captain Zhou, what do you think our chances of victory are?"

Zhou Jiawen was silent for a moment, before he smiled and said, "Dunno."

He really didn't know. This kind of perfectly synchronized mid/jungle duo, with such immense damage potential, could completely throw a game into chaos if they were allowed to put pressure on their enemies.

With some suspicion, Zhou Jiawen murmured, "Were there any veterans like this, over in Europe?"

In his previous life, Ye Shaoyang had been assassinated countless times by all sorts of professional junglers from all over the world. He really did have conditioned reflexes and a large amount of experience in big games. It was no wonder Team Huowen would assume he was a veteran player.

The next day, Ye Shaoyang woke up feeling refreshed and went down to the cafeteria to have breakfast with Chi Shuo. Then the two of them went to the training room to turn on their computers.

It wasn't even eight in the morning yet. He and Chi Shuo had work and sleep schedules that weren't like those of professional esports players at all.

That day, they continued to practice with the black/white wolf kings comp. In 20 stars and above in the King rank, griefers were very rarely seen, and the chances of running into professional players skyrocketed. With the win rate Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo had maintained these past few days, they were nearly at 20 stars.

At nine in the morning, they entered a ranked match where they were clearly facing off against professionals—a marksman/support duo. The two of them once again circled around the support to kill the marksman, ultimately succeeding in killing the bottom lane marksman three times in a row.

In the training room of a certain European team, a youth was swearing explosively as he forwarded the recording of that game to his captain.

And in the early hours of morning, Mitchell turned on his computer and suddenly received a video file. The recording showed Sunshine and Moonlight using the long-abandoned black/white wolf kings comp to destroy the enemy's bottom lane. In that game, the bottom laners were players from Team TP in the European division.

Mitchell was baffled.

This news had done a lap and come back to him?!

He once again sent the recording to Zhou Jiawen and wrote: [The European division says they don't know these two. Koreans?]

Zhou Jiawen: [Jin Minjun sent a recording into his pro players group chat. No one says they know them.]

Mitchell: [I'll send it into the international players group chat and ask around.]

The international pro players group chat of Gods War was far more terrifying that the [Gods War - Supreme Gods] group chat that was dedicated to pro players from the Chinese division. All of the top players in the world were gathered in this international group chat. All the captains of the teams that had made it to the world championships were there. Usually, everyone conversed in stilted English and used auto-translate when necessary. They could more or less understand each other.

Many coaches would also add contacts from that group and privately message one another to arrange practice games between international teams. For example, if Tianhuan—a Chinese division team—scheduled a practice game with a team from the same division during the regular season, then it wouldn't matter who won or lost. The players' mentalities would definitely be affected when running into the other team in the future. However, if they scheduled practice games with North American, European, or Korean teams, they could completely avoid this influence.

Mitchell sent three video clips.

The first clip was of his team's rookies running into the sun and the moon for the first time, going up against their double flight comp.

The second clip showed Zhou Jiawen and Jin Minjun teaming up with the sun and the moon by coincidence. During that game, the two players ran the black/white wolf kings comp.

And in the third clip, players from the European division had run into that duo. The two of them were like gods with their black and white wolves; they dismantled the enemy's bottom lane in ten minutes.

Mitchell asked into the chat: [Which division?]

All these professional players temporarily became detectives, splitting off to ask their teammates and peers.

Finally, the European division concluded: [We don't have these two here.]

The Korean division: [Neither do we.]

Japan: [They're probably not ours. All our players are still asleep at nine in the morning.]

Zhou Jiawen wrote: [They're not from the Chinese division either. The earliest risers over here don't get up until ten in the morning.]

Fang Zhengqing, after watching these recordings, was a bit bemused.

Are you sure about that, Little Zhou?

Why am I getting a very strange feeling…

In our Chinese division, there truly isn't any professional player who gets up so early.

But there is a streamer.

His name is Xiao Bai. Have you all forgotten?