All-Round Mid Laner

All summit tournament games were randomly matched. After winning in one round, Chi Shuo very quickly started up another game. Ye Shaoyang joined another game as well. The two of them didn't run into each other again, so their shippers could only run off to excavate their own content.

As they dug and dug, they soon discovered a very shocking secret—Chi Shuo was currently streaming with an alt account named 'Jungler No. 8'. And on the list of big spenders in Xiao Bai's streaming room, there was one who'd sent a total of 200,000 yuan in torpedoes… and that big spender was also named 'Jungler No. 8'.

These shippers all turned into little sleuths. They looked up the timestamps of when those gifts were sent and started to review old videos of Xiao Bai's streams from back then. Very quickly, someone found the footage of Jungler No. 8 sending the streamer Xiao Bai a flood of gifts.

Back then, the jungler boss had used 100,000 yuan of torpedoes as an excuse to ask the streamer to help him rank up. He managed to get himself added to Xiao Bai's friends list, and the two of them started to queue together. When they ran into a trio from Jingzhe, Xiao Bai's winning streak was finally cut off. After that, Xiao Bai's didi Xiao Rui went offline, leaving Xiao Bai and the jungler boss to queue on their own.

That mid/jungle duo went on to take seven consecutive wins.

The second wave of gifts came when Xiao Bai was officially named the National #1 Abyssal Lord.

In the #RiyueTonghui# super topic, someone edited together some of these clips and wrote—

[So, the person who sent those gifts in his stream was Captain Chi, right? Yangyang also said in his post-game interview that Captain Chi and Coach Lin scouted him to sign him to Tianhuan.]

[Chi Shuo discovered the streamer Xiao Bai when Xiao Bai was a total newbie with tons of potential. He sent Xiao Bai loads of gifts to get on his friends list, then signed Xiao Bai to Tianhuan. He stood his ground against all opposition and convinced the coaches to let Xiao Bai play as their starting mid laner. In their first official match, he played the part of a support jungler in order to let Xiao Bai play well. He gave Xiao Bai all the blue buffs… wahhh, this is a divine love, I'm going to ship this to death!]

[Sister, everything you say feels like it could be true. This ship is really pretty sweet~]

[You won't regret investing your feels in Riyue!]

Gradually, the number of shippers in the super topic grew. But no one in the bullet comments of any livestream said anything inappropriate, so Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had no idea that a ship between them had already been born.

Ye Shaoyang continued to play in the summit tournament. His fans asked him to keep using the Abyssal Lord, so he continued to show off with this hero in his second game. Even without Chi Shuo's help, he masterfully carried his team to victory.

His luck was pretty good that night. All his randomly assigned teammates were playing quite seriously. Plus, as Ye Shaoyang got more and more into the groove, he managed to take five consecutive wins.

When it was nearly midnight, Ye Shaoyang turned off the game to take a breather. He said to the viewers of his stream, "The summit tournament will close at midnight, but I'm not sleepy yet, so I'll play another two rounds of ranked later."

People in the streaming room instantly spoke up—

[Ask Captain Chi to double queue with you!]

[I'm watching both of your streams at the same time right now. Captain Chi also said he doesn't want to sleep yet.]

[What kind of esports player would sleep at midnight? It's the weekend tomorrow, anyway. I want to see you play until 3AM~]

[Yangyang, play another two hours! I haven't seen enough yet!]

Ye Shaoyang got up to make a trip to the bathroom. On his way back to his computer, he received a private message. It just so happened to be from Chi Shuo, who wrote: [A lot of people in my stream are asking me to double queue with you. Are you sleepy? If not, how about we play a few more games?]

Ye Shaoyang answered: [Okay, add me to your team.]

Chi Shuo's Jungler No. 8 alt account had already been thoroughly exposed in the league. Since Ye Shaoyang signed with Tianhuan in the end, everyone was sure to guess that the person who'd sent Xiao Bai so many gifts was Chi Shuo. So there was no need for Chi Shuo to continue hiding this account.

He used this alt to invite Ye Shaoyang onto his team.

Since the two of them had been busy training this season, their domestic accounts had just gotten up to the King rank. They currently both had five stars or so, which meant their rank was relatively low.

But their win rate was over 88%, so their MMR was extremely high, and the opponents they were matched against would definitely be extremely tough.

They had a day off, so the coaches didn't care how late they played. This was a very good time to stream some tutoring sessions for fans, because there were plenty of viewers around. The other three members of Tianhuan were already planning to stay online until three, and Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo also wanted to use this opportunity to fulfill some of their streaming hours. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to complete their required thirty hours per month.

Once the two of them got into the same team, Chi Shuo showed some concern and asked, "Are you tired? Do you need to get a glass of water first?"

The mature alpha's voice was deep and warm. All the viewers of their streams shrieked about their ears getting pregnant.

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "Not tired. Let's get ready."

Chi Shuo hit the 'ready' button, and the two of them were swiftly matched into a game.

It was rare for major domestic teams to assign training to their players after midnight. So, at this time, many professional players flocked to the server to play ranked on their own. Some players who had streaming obligations to fulfill would use that time after midnight to rack up some hours.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang entered their match.

As soon as they saw the username [Square Square] on their list of team members, they were both rendered speechless.

Fang Zhengqing was also speechless. He slowly typed into the team chat: [??]

[Xiao Bai]: Hello, Captain Fang. ^_^

[Jungler No. 8]: Solo queueing?

[Square Square]: Mm, rushing to finish my streaming hours.

[Square Square]: If I don't stream a few more now, my pay will be docked.

The viewers of their livestreams instantly worked themselves into an excited frenzy.

[Omg, omg, Captain Fang! We actually matched with Captain Fang!]

[I'm curious who their opponents will be. I bet their MMRs will be super high.]

[Damn, we have Shuoyue, Lieyang, and Fangfang over here. Three big gods. There must be big gods on the other side too, right? According to the rules of the matching system, the players in this game must all have terrifyingly high win rates!]

[I bet the big gods in the pro league are about to crash into one another again. Doge.jpg]

In the team chat, the two random passersby were very excited.

[Bunny Princess]: Captain Fang! I need a screenshot as a souvenir!

[Deleting If I Lose]: Xiao Bai? Is this the Lieyang who's been really popular lately?

[Bunny Princess]: So that means Jungler No. 8 is Captain Chi? Ahhh, what kind of godly luck is this!

Things were really getting lively now.

With Fang Zhengqing and Ye Shaoyang matched to the same team… how were these two mid laners supposed to play?

Ye Shaoyang took the initiative to type: [Captain Fang, you take the mid lane. I'll take another position.]

Captain Fang had more seniority as a player, after all. It would be far too irrational for a newbie like Ye Shaoyang to try to steal a position away from Fang Zhengqing. Furthermore, Ye Shaoyang actually really wanted to see what the mid/jungle combo of Fang Zhengqing and Chi Shuo would look like.

[Square Square]: Xiao Bai is letting me have the middle lane?

[Square Square]: Okay, then I'll play mid laner.

[Jungler No. 8]: I'll play jungler.

[Bunny Princess]: Then I'll be support. What about you, Xiao Bai?

[Xiao Bai]: I'll fill in where I'm needed. You guys pick first.

[Deleting If I Lose]: I'm pretty okay as a marksman. Xiao Bai, can you take top laner?

[Xiao Bai]: Sure.

Both teams swiftly locked in their heroes.

On Xiao Bai's side, they had the Black Dragon Knight in the top lane, the King of Fighters in the jungle, the Cobra King in the middle lane, and the Divine Archer and Forest Envoy in the bottom lane.

On the other side, the players chose the Vampiric Duke, the Brawler, the Destruction Mage, the Warlock of Poison, and the Dark Priest.

As soon as they entered the game, the bullet comments suddenly exploded with activity—

[Holy shit, I'm laughing my ass off, the enemy bottom laners are A-Yuan and Momo from Jingzhe!]

[Square Square, Round Round… the names of your alt accounts are pretty interesting.]

[Jingzhe's poison comp has been split onto two teams. Will Old Fang have the heart to kill his own family's marksman?]

[The enemy top laner is Beimu's Reporter Zhao, hahaha! I'm watching his stream on Panda Streaming right now, his room has finally been unbanned! Confetti.jpg]

[Things are really getting heated up now. I don't mind that at all! Fight, fight, fight!]

The viewers who recognized these IDs on both teams completely blew up the comments section.

In the global chat of the game—

[Round Round]: Captain Fang, why are you over there? Captain Fang is abandoning us~

[Square Square]: Shh, I'm undercover. Spying on the enemy.

[Jungler No. 8]: ……

[Reporter Zhao]: WTF?

[Reporter Zhao]: Old Fang, just you wait. In this game, I'll be sure to get into the back line to take you down!

[Square Square]: Don't take me down, go take down our jungler. That's Chi Shuo.

[Square Square]: Oh, that's right. He also brought his Xiao Bai with him.

[Xiao Bai]: Hello, gaming gods. ^_^

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

What kind of matching system was this?

It had just chucked a bunch of pro players with win rates of over 80% into the same game.

On Panda Streaming, in the streaming room of Reporter Zhao from Team Beimu, Zhao Xin'an couldn't help but babble, "Fudge, fudge, fudge. That's a food, I'm not saying any bad words!"

His viewers were on the brink of laughing themselves to death. Little Zhao had waited so long to be unbanned; he'd better not get himself banned again so soon.

Netizens started to lay down their bets.

[I'm betting on the blue team. They have Captain Chi and Captain Fang as their mid/jungle duo, after all.]

[I'm better on red. They have Jingzhe's duo on the bottom lane, and Little Zhao in the top lane. They're extremely strong on both sides.]

[Blue team has a random support and marksman, red team has a random mid laner and jungler. This game should be about 50/50, right?]

All the random players who'd been shuffled into this game were dumbstruck.

This was a freaking battle of the gods. Were these passersby just supposed to lie down and die?

The random mid laner wrote: [Captain Fang, can you please not instakill me? I'm scared of your little snakes.]

The random bottom laner wrote: [God Xie, please be a little slower when you destroy our tower. Let me defend my tower for six minutes before you push it down~]

Everyone spent the time at the start of the game chatting away.

Until, finally, minions and buffs spawned after 90 seconds. The enemy jungler was a casual player; they didn't invade to steal Chi Shuo's blue buff. They simply remained docile in their own jungle and leveled up steadily. Chi Shuo swiftly moved through his jungle to get to his own blue buff, and Fang Zhengqing followed along as well.

When Chi Shuo had the blue buff down to critically low health, Fang Zhengqing hit a button to issue a command: [Retreat!]

At the very same time, Chi Shuo issued a command as well: [Retreat!]

All the netizens in the streams were speechless.

They both wanted the other to back off. This was every bit like a scene in a game between random online players. The jungler and mid laner both wanted to take the blue buff.

In the voice channel, Fang Zhengqing said, "Let me have the blue."

Chi Shuo killed off the blue buff with a single smite, then mildly answered, "No."

Fang Zhengqing raised his eyebrows. "You always let Xiao Bai take the blue buff, right? Mid laners who take the blue buff can push the enemy towers faster."

Chi Shuo said, "Xiao Bai is my family's mid laner. And you are…?"

Fang Zhengqing was silent.

Friendship over. He was going to delete Chi Shuo from his WeChat contacts immediately.

The viewers in the streaming rooms were laughing their asses off.

[Captain Fang and Xiao Bai receive very different treatments.]

[Captain Chi's meaning: 'Xiao Bai is my family's mid laner, I'm happy to give him the blue. Who are you? Why should I give you anything?']

[Friendship is only good for taking each other's lives a few extra times in a game.]

[Captain Fang! Hurry and delete him from your WeChat friends list!]

Ye Shaoyang had taken the Black Dragon Knight as the top laner in this game. He hadn't personally tried out this hero before, but Old Qin played it every day, so Ye Shaoyang at least knew how this hero worked. Plus, the Black Dragon Knight was very tanky. He wasn't easily killed off. Even if Ye Shaoyang was facing off against the top-tier professional top laner Reporter Zhao, he wouldn't be too worried about losing his life.

In this game, the top lane match-up was Ye Shaoyang vs Zhao Xin'an. Because Ye Shaoyang was running a tank, he wouldn't be solo killed. He could withstand some pressure from the other side. Fang Zhengqing would be able to suppress the other mid laner. And in the bottom lane, Xie Yuan and Li Yunmo would have no problem destroying the passersby on the other side. Judging by the situation on the three lanes, it seemed each team had a 50% chance of victory.

Ultimately, the key which determined a team's victory would be the movements of the jungler and the whole team's performance in team fights.

[Captain Fang and Captain Chi are old friends. Their tacit understanding should be pretty strong!]

[I'll be looking forward to seeing Captain Fang and Captain Chi's mid/jungle teamwork~]

These poor, sweet souls who knew nothing about the reality of the situation excitedly flooded the screen with their comments.

At this time, there were still many people who didn't know that back in the day, at Star City's rookie training camp…

The mid/jungle team-up between Chi Shuo and Fang Zhengqing would very easily end in a 'kill one, get one free' deal for the enemy.

It wasn't even unheard of for them to lose ten games in a row.