All-Round Mid Laner

Meanwhile, at Tianhuan's base—

Coach Lin looked over the post-game stats. He patted Cheng Xing on the shoulder and said, "Although this was only a practice match, which we won, we can see that Little Xing's damage output isn't very pretty!"

Cheng Xing looked at the stats, then hung his head in embarrassment.

In the first round, his damage contribution rate was around 20% or so. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were each at 35% or above. Qin Yizhu had 10%—but that was understandable for Old Qin. He had chosen a top lane hero that specialized in starting fights; this hero's own damage output wasn't terribly impressive. However, for a marksman like Cheng Xing to have done only 20% of the damage in a game… in an official match, this would be far from okay!

His performance in the second game had been even more miserable. He'd been killed six times, and his final damage contribution was only 15%.

The sight of these stats was really unbearable. It was like he was a noobish Bronze-ranked marksman.

Coach Lin smiled and said, "Tomorrow, let's add some training hours. Captain Chi and Shaoyang have been playing 1v1 with the kids from the second-string team, right? Little Xing, you join in on that extra training too. You and Qu Jiang team up, go 2v2 against Chi Shuo and Shaoyang. Let that mid/jungle duo focus on ganking the bottom lane. You should be able to practice running away."

Cheng Xing blinked.

Going 2v2 with those demon kings?

His life wasn't going to be easy!

After the practice games, Lin Feng and Coach Tom exchanged a few polite words, then both sides went offline.

Coach Tom privately messaged Lin Feng to ask: [Did you guys get a new mid laner at Tianhuan? Where did you buy such a powerful mid laner from?]

Lin Feng answered with a smiley face and added: [Secret.]

Coach Tom also knew of the rules of the esports world.

Before a team made an official announcement, signing a new player was something that a team couldn't just casually reveal to outsiders. Tom simply responded with a thumbs up emoji and wrote: [You got a good eye! Looks like Tianhuan will make it into the world championships next season? Our FNO will also work hard to win the right to appear at worlds as one of the North American teams.]

Lin Feng wrote: [Let's work hard together. We'll see each other again at the world championships stage!]

It was already half past one in the afternoon. Lin Feng took the players down to the cafeteria for lunch.

Over in America, it was already half past one in the morning. But Mitchell wasn't at all sleepy. He watched their two practice games from start to finish, then opened his friends list and found the person named 'zhouzhou' to start up a private conversation.

Mitchell: [You there?]

Mitchell: [TornFace.jpg][TornFace.jpg]

Zhou Jiawen had just reached Huowen's training room after eating lunch. When he saw a bunch of shattered smiley faces from his old friend, he confusedly asked: [What is it? Why has your face been torn apart?]

Mitchell: [Next season, you take care of yourself.]

Zhou Jiawen: [??]

Mitchell: [I'll light a candle for you in advance.][Candle.jpg][Candle.jpg]

Zhou Jiawen had debuted in the same season as Mitchell. They'd been good friends ever since they met each other on the international server.

FNO's new captain Mitchell always spoke with a sense of humor. After spending a lot of time with Zhou Jiawen, he'd also saved a ton of emojis and reaction memes that were popular in China. Among the international players, he was considered a 'Reaction Meme Aficionado'.

Every time Mitchell chatted with Zhou Jiawen, he liked to spam those reaction memes and emojis.

First a bunch of torn faces, then a bunch of candles. What kind of stimulating thing had Mitchell just experienced, exactly?

Mitchell: [Coach is telling me to keep it a secret. In any case, you just take care of yourself next season.]

Mitchell: [A boss has appeared in your Chinese division.][ROFL.jpg]

Zhou Jiawen carefully scrutinized these words, then quickly realized—Mitchell must have lost a practice game.

In S9, Team FNO hadn't qualified for a place at the world championships either. FNO wouldn't have any official games to play in during this time, but their bottom laners had already been changed. Their coach would definitely arrange some practice games to help the team sync up.

It looked like FNO had been completely destroyed in a practice game. That must have been what made Mitchell send all those [TornFace.jpg] emojis.

A boss from the Chinese division?

Zhou Jiawen fell deep into thought for a moment. He turned and looked at Coach Li. "Coach, have you heard any news lately? About some team in our division scheduling a practice game with FNO?"

Coach Li said, "No, nothing. Practice games are all arranged privately."

Zhou Jiawen carefully sorted through the possibilities. "It couldn't be Jingzhe or Binghun, they just finished playing in the finals. They would definitely take a breather before getting ready for the world championships. Of the remaining teams, Tianhuan has Qu Jiang as their mid laner. Qu Jiang wouldn't be able to take Mitchell in a head-on fight. He wouldn't get Mitchell this worked up. Yueying's mid laner is also a support mid laner…"

He paused for a second. Then his eyes lit up with a flash. "It's Beimu!"

Coach Li gave it some careful thought, then instantly nodded. "That's right, Beimu's mid laner retired this year. So far, we don't know who their new mid laner will be. Could it be that they paid a huge sum to recruit some powerful mid laner?"

"It's possible," Zhou Jiawen said. "Mitchell said a new boss has appeared in our Chinese division. If Beimu has signed a powerful mid laner who could go toe-to-toe with Mitchell, then Beimu would indeed become a big boss in our division next season."

Coach Li instantly opened up the official team Weibo of the Beimu Professional Esports Club.

There was no official news about a new mid laner, but there was one post which read:

We would like to thank @Beimu-AFeng for his contributions to Team Beimu in these past years. A-Feng has played with Team Beimu for three years, and he's chosen to retire today. Although we're very sad to see him go, we respect the player's decision. We hope A-Feng will experience success and joy in all things in his time after leaving Beimu.

It was an extremely formal farewell message. Under that post, tens of thousands of comments were saying goodbye to the old player as well.

Coach Li said, "Beimu is strong on their two outer lanes. If they add a fierce mid laner to their ranks, then it really won't be easy to battle them next season! I wonder who they signed?"

Zhou Jiawen smiled faintly and closed his chat window with Mitchell. He said, "It looks like we need to train up our troops in advance as well. We can't fall behind."

Team Beimu's HQ.

Zhao Xin'an sneezed three times in a row. He rubbed his nose and said, "Fuck, why do I feel like someone is dissing me?"

Zhao Xinping gave him a look. "It's rare for you to not be dissing other people. How could anyone diss you?"

Zhao Xin'an grinned and scratched at his head. "Have the coaches decided on a new mid laner yet? S10 is almost here, y'know. How are we supposed to practice if our new mid laner doesn't get here soon?"

When he said that, his temper flared up again. He muttered under his breath, "It's all because I was an idiot who sent Xiao Bai's video into the stream back then. Otherwise, Xiao Bai wouldn't have been poached by someone else! If we could sign him to our team, we'd be set. Ai…"

Zhao Xinping mildly said, "Xiao Bai's play style doesn't necessarily suit our team. Don't spend every day moping about that. He's currently only streaming two hours per day. It's very likely that he signed with some minor league team and has already started training."

Zhao Xin'an said, "Oh, that's right. Will our Beimu's second-string team be entering the Silver Dragon Cup this year? Maybe they would run into Xiao Bai's team! All the minor league teams would definitely play in the Silver Dragon Cup, right?"

At that, he couldn't help but sigh mournfully again. "It's such a pity! If he's signed with a second-string team, he won't be able to play in major league games! If he signed with us at Beimu and could get in sync with us, then he might have been able to debut next season."

Zhao Xin'an had been the first to discover Xiao Bai's talent, after all.

With Xiao Bai ultimately signing with another team, Zhao Xin'an just couldn't feel happy.

At just that moment, Beimu's coach suddenly rushed into the training room and approached the twins. He smiled merrily and said, "Let me tell you some good news. Our amazing manager has already contacted a world-class mid laner from the European division. They're talking over the terms of a transfer right now!"

Zhao Xinping remained as calm as ever as she said, "Let's talk about it once it's set in stone. No need to get excited too early."

Zhao Xin'an's eyes flashed. "European division?! Who?!"

Beimu's coach quietly whispered a name.

The twins looked at each other. Zhao Xinping thoughtfully said, "If he joins Beimu, our top, middle, and bottom lanes… we won't have a single weak spot."

Zhao Xin'an excitedly said, "That's awesome! Next season, we can charge straight towards the world championships trophy, right?!"

Beimu's coach said, "The club is shelling out a lot in order to sign him. But the official trade window for the European and Chinese divisions hasn't opened yet. As soon as the first round of trades open up in December, we'll get the paperwork started right away. We've already sorted out his visa. If nothing unexpected happens, he'll be able to come back to join us for practice in December."

Only two months remained until the beginning of S10.

Tianhuan wasn't the only team taking advantage of this time to practice. Other teams were all devoted to making their preparations for the next season as well.

Whether it was signing a powerful player from abroad, promoting from within, or swapping positions…

The games of the next season would be fiercer than anyone could imagine.

Tianhuan's team training entered its third phase—targeted practice.

Currently, their mid laner and jungler were perfectly in sync. Qin Yizhu and Qu Jiang also had a deep tacit understanding between them. But after this period of training, the coaches discovered that the team very easily fell out of sync when the five players grouped up for team fights.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang would be too fast. As soon as their teammates became incapable of keeping up, it would be very common for their mid laner and jungler to die one after the other when facing off against strong opponents. No matter how strong the two of them were, they couldn't win a 2v5 on their own.

As for the bottom lane, Cheng Xing was currently Tianhuan's most obvious weak spot. It wasn't that he was an awful player; it was simply that he lacked experience in big games. It was very easy for him to be ganked by the enemy jungler and mid laner. His self-preservation skills weren't strong enough.

In the top lane, Qin Yizhu was an extremely by-the-book player. He didn't have many weaknesses, but he didn't shine in many ways either. Most of the time, the 'orphaned' top laner would just mind his own business and watch the drama unfold elsewhere on the map. When it came time for him to participate in team fights, he did place his control skills quite well. He could seamlessly immobilize the enemy with Qu Jiang's support heroes. However, asking Qin Yizhu to cut into the enemy's back line? He wasn't very good at playing this sort of burst fighter in the top lane.

Sometimes, playing by the book wasn't a good thing—this top laner could be turned into the enemy's breakthrough point. As soon as they ran into teams like Beimu or Yueying, with exceptionally powerful outer lanes, it would be very difficult for Qin Yizhu to stand his ground.

So, targeted practice would focus on training up the top and bottom lanes.

First, Cheng Xing needed to work on his self-preservation skills. Second, Qin Yizhu needed to work on his anti-pressure ability. The training which ensued was simple—Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were to group up and gank them.

From then on, every night after 22:00, Tianhuan's players would be forced to endure a waking 'nightmare'.

From 22:00 to 23:00, Ye Shaoyang would play 1v1 against the mid laner Xie Xiaotian from the second-string team. He would give Xie Xiaotian a taste of the pressure a top-tier mid laner was capable of exerting.

Xie Xiaotian: [I basically can't leave my tower, but even if I don't leave, Yang-ge will charge in and kill me. T_T]

Chi Shuo would spend this time playing 5v5 practice games with the jungler from the second-string team. Four A.I. programs would play the other positions on their teams, and the two junglers would face off against each other in the jungle.

Qin Sui: [Whenever I peek into the jungle, it's completely swept clean of resources! My heart feels so cold!]

After the kids from Team Two were sufficiently schooled, Team One would get together for internal training.

From 23:00 to 1:00, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang would work together to gank Cheng Xing and Qu Jiang in the bottom lane or Qin Yizhu in the top lane.

Qin  Yizhu usually liked to keep a plate of walnuts next to his keyboard when he trained. Ever since these two demon kings started to repeatedly gank him, he wouldn't have time to eat a single walnut in a whole night!

The pressure was too intense. The jungler and mid laner could kill him with some fancy combos at the drop of a hat.

Double flight, double wolves, and so on… there was no escape. Even using a flash to escape as soon as these demons appeared wasn't enough. Those two could charge into the range of your tower and fiercely kill you anyway! Their other mid/jungle combos were also very difficult to fend off.

The Illusionist and the Stealthy  Rogue?

The Holy Mage and the King of Fighters?

Qin Yizhu had played for so many years, but even if he added up all the times he'd been killed throughout those years, the sum wouldn't be greater than the number of times he died at the hands of Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang—they'd outright changed Qin Yizhu from a top laner who could defend his lane to a top laner who absolutely couldn't.

As for Cheng Xing?

The less said the better.

The bottom lane changed from a place where heroes could develop to a place where heroes could only hope to die—it could turn into a nightmarish hellscape at any second.

Top lane heroes were, at least, quite tanky. When ganked, top laners could occasionally escape while clinging on to their last sliver of life. Marksmen, on the other hand, were very fragile. One skill combo from a mid laner, or one skill combo from a jungler, would practically be enough to kill a marksman twice!

While the support thought of every means possible to protect Cheng Xing, Cheng Xing was repeatedly killed by those two demons. He died in every way imaginable. His computer screen blacked out again and again and again… Cheng Xing was killed so much that he was close to ending himself.

Daddy, I want to go home! This game is too hard. I've been killed again and again by my master and Yang-ge. I don't even remember how to walk anymore!

In the end, it got to the point that Cheng Xing would use his flash to get back to his tower as soon as he so much as glimpsed Ye Shaoyang.

He would escape in such a panic that he could even flash himself into a wall.

Ye Shaoyang was speechless.

This kid had been scared stupid. His mental fortitude still wasn't strong enough.

What should they do now?

Better kill him a few more times.

As training progressed day by day, time flew by very quickly. In the blink of an eye, the end of November arrived.

The world championships formally began. Team Binghun and Team Jingzhe, representatives of the Chinese division, collectively headed out to Paris, the place where this year's world championships would be held. The teams that hadn't been able to secure a spot at worlds also watched these big games unfold from home.

Meanwhile, the Silver Dragon Cup began as well. Tianhuan's second-string team, led by their captain Yan Bin, set out for Rong City to compete in the tournament.

With the second-string team at the Silver Dragon Cup, the starting lineup had no way of playing 5v5 practice games anymore. So, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang continued to keep Cheng Xing in their evil clutches. Cheng Xing died countless times every day. Qu Jiang very thoughtfully compiled a '100 Ways to Kill Cheng Xing' highlights video as a commemorative gift.

In the video, Cheng Xing fell to the Abyssal Lord, the Illusionist, the Stealthy Rogue, the Bloodstained Assassin… more than fifty heroes took turns killing him.

Qu Jiang was a bit of an expert when it came to editing videos. The special effects he added were especially amusing.

He'd even added a very sorrowful background track.

Cheng Xing was dumbfounded.

Qu-ge, you really shouldn't have!

I'm only how old? And this music… sounds like it's already sending me to my funeral!

Author's Notes:

I won't write out the details of the training process, we'll gloss over it.

The trade window is approaching quickly!