All-Round Mid Laner

The match ended, and all the screens changed over to an image of the post-game interview.

During the regular season, one of the MVPs of the day would typically be invited to give the post-game interview. Sometimes, the coach would be invited as well. This time, it was unquestionably Ye Shaoyang who would be asked to do the post-game interview.

The lights in the interview room were extremely bright. They splashed down on Ye Shaoyang and made his skin glow an even paler shade. Pimples were often seen on esports players, but there wasn't a single one on Ye Shaoyang's light-bathed skin. When he smiled, he looked even more attractive than he did in his promotional photos.

This appearance which could shine even in front of a high-definition camera made all the feral fans in the streaming room get more excited.

[Announcement! I am formally brainrotting hard for this little omega gege!]

[Yangyang, do you need a laogong? Although I'm also an omega, I'm willing to become an alpha for you~]

[Can you rabid fans get out of the stream? Who cares about an esports player's face, we care about their skills!]

[And you think he, an Abyssal Lord with a pentakill, doesn't have enough skills?]

[We can be fans of his skills too!]

The interviewer excitedly applauded Ye Shaoyang's arrival. "Welcome, Tianhuan-Lieyang, to our post-game interview!"

Ye Shaoyang smiled very politely at the camera.

The interviewer continued, "As the first omega mid laner in the major league, lots of online voices called your abilities into question before you debuted. Did you feel a great deal of pressure?"

Ye Shaoyang took the microphone and answered, "There wasn't much pressure on me."

The interviewer blinked, confused.

Ye Shaoyang smiled happily and said, "Because before the regular season began, our team trained in isolation for a long time. The coach didn't let us check Weibo. So, I didn't actually see what kind of insults netizens were hurling at me."

As he spoke, he turned to the camera and once again smiled very politely.

His expression was full of innocence, as though he were asking, Oh? Was someone dissing me?

The anti-fans who'd posted tens of thousands of incendiary comments online were instantly rendered speechless.

This guy hadn't even noticed them.

How hurtful!

This horde of anti-fans had spent such a long time dissing Tianhuan, to the point that they'd gotten Tianhuan trending twice. But now Ye Shaoyang claimed he hadn't seen a word of it… what a massive waste of their precious emotions.

The interviewer coughed and continued, "Tianhuan won three matches and lost five in the preseason this year, dropping into Group B. Did you guys decide to go for Group B on purpose?"

This question was a little prickly. If the answer wasn't good enough, it would be easy for the team to be flamed online.

Ye Shaoyang thought for a moment, then earnestly said, "We didn't intentionally drop in the rankings, and Tianhuan didn't throw any games. We took every preseason game very seriously and did everything in our power to prepare. For example, when we played against Jingzhe, we used a highly mobile formation which allowed us to avoid getting into too many team fights. We wouldn't have been able to defeat them head-on, after all. The reason we lost in the end was that Captain Fang was able to instakill our marksman, which caused us to collapse in a team fight. In the game against Binghun, we a;sldkfj;lkj…"

The interviewer stared at him, dumbstruck.

Question marks filled up the heads of all the viewers of the livestream.

This guy was giving them a live review of their preseason games?

Ye Shaoyang's blah blah blah went on endlessly. He laid out every reason Tianhuan had for losing with perfect clarity.

The interviewer was completely stupefied by all this talk. Seeing that Ye Shaoyang could easily go on for another ten minutes, the interviewer hastily coughed again to interrupt him. "Ahem, it looks like… Tianhuan really did earnestly prepare for the preseason games! Everyone has now realized that Tianhuan's team lineup has changed dramatically. How was the decision made for you to replace Qu Jiang as the mid laner?"

Ye Shaoyang said, "Little Xing is a newbie, and marksmen are easily ganked. Qu Jiang plays in a very steady, stable way. The coaching team believed it would be best for Qu Jiang to protect Little Xing, which makes it less likely for us to be destroyed on the bottom lane. I think the coaching team's strategies are pretty on point, and Qu Jiang is also happy to protect the newbie in the bottom lane, to stabilize things down there."

The interviewer continued, "But you're also a newbie. The coaches are totally relaxed about you replacing Qu Jiang as the mid laner?"

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "They're not relaxed at all. So the coaches have asked Captain Chi to help me. They were definitely worried that I, a newbie, wouldn't be able to perform well. So in these two games, Captain Chi left all the blue buffs to me. We should thank Captain Chi for his hard work."

Chi Shuo watched on in silence.

Question marks continued to swim through the viewers' heads.

[He's really considered everything. How is this guy such a smooth talker?]

[He's managed to praise his teammates and coaches all in one interview?]

[Our little omega gege's EQ is pretty high. With that explanation, Qu Jiang's shift to support is easier to accept, isn't it?]

[Qu Jiang really is a very stable player. With Qu Jiang's protection, Little Xing won't fall apart on the bottom lane!]

The interviewer immediately continued, "Lieyang, we must congratulate you for that pentakill in the first game. This is the first pentakill of S10. You rose to godhood with five kills in your first game, immediately making a name for yourself. Is there anything you'd like to say to our viewers?"

Ye Shaoyang continued to smile with his eyes as he said, "I was able to get a pentakill because of my teammates' excellent teamwork. Little Xing got the enemies to waste their key skills on him. Old Qin and Qu Jiang seamlessly provided crowd control to create an opportunity for me to join the fight. Chi Shuo pursued a fleeing enemy and stunned them, before letting me take the kill. I'd like to thank my teammates, my coaches—I'd like to thank everyone. A pentakill is just the beginning. I'll continue to work hard in the future."

The viewers were silent.

Ye Shaoyang really was a smooth talker.

[Why do I feel like the interviewer gave him the questions in advance, and he secretly drafted up his responses earlier?]

[These answers really are smooth enough to be official press releases.]

[Tianhuan-PublicRelations-Lieyang]

[Hahaha, I feel like this little omega gege who answers questions so earnestly is pretty cute!]

[Is this really a newbie? He's answering these questions way too calmly!]

The interviewer had originally thought that a new player might get stage fright during an interview, and have a hard time answering questions. But Ye Shaoyang handled all these questions like he was holding a press conference. He seemed to be so familiar with answering these questions that he almost gave off the aura of… an experienced team captain?

The interviewer said, "Thank you for speaking with us, Lieyang!"

A fierce wave of applause rumbled up from below the stage again. Ye Shaoyang bowed at the end of the interview, then turned to walk away.

He had been a team captain for several years. How could this sort of interview faze him? To anyone who was concerned, he thought—

Thanks. But you're worrying too much.

Meanwhile, at Team Beimu's HQ.

After watching that post-game interview, Zhao Xin'an's emotions became more and more complex. He scratched at his hair and muttered, "This guy's voice is really familiar, and his way of talking… why does he feel so much like the streamer Xiao Bai?"

Beimu's coach exclaimed, "He plays the Abyssal Lord like Xiao Bai does as well!"

The two of them were still discussing when Zhao Xinping loaded up a video clip on her laptop. She turned up the volume and started to play a recording of an old game. It was the recording of the King-rank promotion match that Xiao Bai had played against Brother Fish. That time, Xiao Bai had gotten into the voice chat to issue commands to his teammates.

A crisp, clear, and very familiar voice rang out from the laptop.

"Guard the mid lane."

"Marksman and support, push with the bot lane minions. Get them to the river, then haste and run back to base."

Zhao Xinping looked back. "Does this sound like him?"

Zhao Xin'an was dumbstruck. "It doesn't sound like him. That's the same damn voice!"

The expression on Beimu's coach's face was about to crumble. "Holy shit! Could Ye Shaoyang be the streamer Xiao Bai? He didn't sign with a minor league team, he signed with Tianhuan? And he signed as the starting mid laner?!"

Zhao Xin'an was speechless.

At the S9 playoffs finals, everyone had already seen Chi Shuo hanging around the new player Little Ye. At that time, Ye Shaoyang had sat like such a nice, docile boy at Chi Shuo's side. He would smile happily at anyone who looked his way, without speaking much. At most, he'd just uttered a brief greeting to Captain Zhao. So Zhao Xin'an hadn't gotten a chance to realize that he sounded the same as Xiao Bai.

But in today's post-game interview, Ye Shaoyang had rambled on like a professional media spokesperson. His voice really was the same as Xiao Bai's voice from those recorded games.

Moreover, the streamer Xiao Bai once took the National #1 Abyssal Lord title!

Taking the matching voices and the matching Abyssal Lord play styles into consideration… this person… was absolutely the streamer Xiao Bai!

Zhao Xin'an's face oscillated between unhealthy shades of green and white. Why exactly had he been so brain damaged that he'd sent that video into the group chat in the first place? Why'd he blab about this hidden gem to everyone? The end result was that Tianhuan had cut in and stolen this gem for themselves!

Zhao Xinping calmly said, "Our initial assessment was wrong. The streamer Xiao Bai isn't just good at playing games casually. In official games, he won't drop the ball either. That pentakill with the Abyssal Lord is the best proof of that."

Beimu's coach let out a very, very long sigh.

Regret! So much regret!

Why hadn't they moved sooner? Why hadn't they signed Xiao Bai to their team?

Now, Tianhuan had stolen him away.

Although Tianhuan had fallen to Group B this season, it was obvious from this match that their entire team's condition was far better than what it was last season.

Chi Shuo still hadn't shown off as a jungler core. They relied on their mid laner to set the rhythm, and that had been enough for them to completely destroy NTG, a team that had recently advanced from the minor leagues.

Later on, once Tianhuan put their mid/jungle duo into play, the teams in Groups A and B could forget about standing against them. Tianhuan would be on par with the teams in Group S.

Zhao Xin'an sullenly muttered, "Fuck, I wanna mess Chi Shuo up so bad!"

Zhao Xinping mildly said, "You're blaming Tianhuan for getting in our way, but don't forget that Xiao Bai set a condition when we reached out to him. He wanted to debut as a starting mid laner right away. Tianhuan put enough faith in him, but we didn't. So, it wasn't that Tianhuan stole Xiao Bai out of our hands. It was that Xiao Bai chose the team which treated him better."

Regardless of the circumstances, this alpha jiejie would always remain calm.

Zhao Xin'an was caught between crying and laughing. "…jie, don't say anything else. I'm getting more and more pissed!"

Beimu's coach sighed again. "There's no point quibbling over this now. Sean, the mid laner we signed, is a godly mid laner from the European division. He's also synced up pretty well with our team. When the time comes to meet on the battlefield, will our Beimu be afraid of Tianhuan?"

Zhao Xinping nodded curtly. "That's exactly right. So, it doesn't matter what other teams are doing. We just need to strengthen ourselves."

Zhao Xin'an took a deep breath. Although they were making rational sense, he was still having a hard time accepting this! The gem that had first been discovered by him had been stolen by someone else. Who could be happy about something like that?

He could only force himself to not think about this anymore. Otherwise, he would feel worse and worse!

Team Jingzhe's HQ.

After watching that interview, Coach Chen went through the exact same steps that had been taken at Beimu's base. He swiftly got on his computer and loaded up the game recording Zhao Xin'an had sent into the top players' group chat back then. After fast forwarding to the point where Xiao Bai started to give voice commands, he listened for a while…

And then his expression instantly collapsed. "He's Xiao Bai? He is, isn't he?"

"His voice is pretty similar," Fang Zhengqing said. "His play style is pretty similar too."

Coach Chen said, "So… when Xiao Bai said he'd already signed with a team, he was talking about Tianhuan?!"

Fang Zhengqing rubbed at his own temples. "Tianhuan's coaching team does have the guts to do something like this. Letting a newbie replace Qu Jiang as mid laner. If he's the streamer Xiao Bai, that does make sense. Xiao Bai is indeed a very good mid laner, after all."

Otherwise, how could Tianhuan possibly let an inexperienced omega player become their mid laner? The streamer Xiao Bai didn't have any experience, but he did have eight National #1 titles! That did, on some level, prove his might.

Coach Chen thoughtfully stared at Tianhuan's list of players for a while.

He pointed to their official team photo and said, "Tianhuan-Shuoyue, Tianhuan-Lieyang. Have you noticed anything about this? That Sunshine and Moonlight pair on the international server, the one that played all those mid/jungle duos… could it be these two?!"

Fang Zhengqing raised his eyebrows. "Chi Shuo's ID is Shuoyue. If he made an alt account, how could he possibly use a name as obvious as Moonlight? Their main accounts are Shuoyue and Lieyang, and their alts are Moonlight and Sunshine? Wouldn't they be afraid of being recognized too easily?"

Coach Chen had been very sure of his deduction at first, but with Fang Zhengqing saying that, he started to doubt himself again. "…you do seem to have a point? Chi Shuo is such a cautious person. Since he hid Ye Shaoyang's status as their mid laner until this point, he definitely wouldn't choose such an obvious ID when opening an alt account."

Fang Zhengqing nodded. "Mm. Besides, Chi Shuo doesn't know how to play the Black Wolf. He also wouldn't be capable of waking up at seven in the morning every day."

Coach Chen let out a breath of relief. "Looks like that mid/jungle pair from the international server really is from another division."

The two men once again reassured each other of that and dispelled their worries.

Ye Shaoyang was the streamer Xiao Bai. All the teams that had followed his streaming room before pieced together this information now. His voice was just like Xiao Bai's, after all, and the Abyssal Lord was one of Xiao Bai's namesake heroes.

But as for the true identities of Sunshine and Moonlight from the international server… that was something which remained shrouded in mystery.

After Ye Shaoyang gave the post-game interview, he returned to the players' lounge to pick up his down jacket. "Are we going back to the hotel?"

Coach Lin smiled and said, "Not yet. Let's all go out for a hotpot. It's the coach's treat!"

Eating hotpot on a snowy winter day was just the most wonderful thing. Ye Shaoyang happily followed his teammates to the hotpot restaurant that Tang Can-jie had booked for them in advance. Everyone happily started to dip thin beef slices into the steaming pot.

While they ate, Ye Shaoyang's cell phone suddenly vibrated with a few new messages.

Fang Zhengqing: [Xiao Bai = Ye Shaoyang = Tianhuan-Lieyang?]

Zhao Xin'an: [Fuck!  You signed with Tianhuan? And you're an omega!!]

Coach Chen: [Xiao Bai, ah… our Jingzhe really did approach you with sincerity before, but it looks like we weren't as sincere as Tianhuan? I really do admire you very much. In any case, even if we can't be teammates, we'll see you on the battlefield soon.]

Ye Shaoyang sent each and every one of them his trademark smiley face—

^_^

It seemed he'd been exposed!

As soon as he took out the Abyssal Lord, he'd abandoned all thoughts of keeping his identity hidden. The club was going to have to start linking to their players' Weibo accounts in official announcements, anyway. It wouldn't be good for Ye Shaoyang to be the only one without a Weibo.

Their new contract with Whale Streaming was about to go into effect as well. Ye Shaoyang would have had to make his identity public sooner or later.

Later, he would tell Tianhuan's official social media team that they could mention him on social media now.

The coaches of other teams were probably going to have a big headache in the upcoming season. Xiao Bai had eight National #1 titles. Which of those heroes were they supposed to ban?