All-Round Mid Laner

Tianhuan taking a 2-0 win over BOB was a result many people had predicted. BOB sat at the bottom of Group B, after all. If Tianhuan couldn't even defeat BOB, then they could really just start getting ready to be eliminated from the tournament entirely.

Ye Shaoyang was awarded the title of MVP in the first round with a dazzling twelve kills. In the second round, he was surrounded by all five enemy players and killed, but he still got twelve assists. His participation rate was 100%, and he was by far the player who contributed the most to his team's attacks. He was awarded the title of MVP once more.

During the post-game interview, the reporter excitedly greeted, "Welcome to our interview stage, Lieyang!"

Ye Shaoyang politely nodded towards the reporter.

The reporter continued, "You played two games today, and in both you were named the MVP. You also took the title of MVP in one game of your previous match. Currently, you've already taken three MVP titles—which is the most any player has in this season in the entire league. Is there anything you'd like to say to everyone?"

During a season, the league would keep a tally of various achievements. For example, most kills or most supports or most gold gained per minute. Number of MVP titles was a very significant statistic for players as well—in fact, it was the most important one.

The player with the most MVP titles in a season would be awarded a grand MVP prize at the end of that season. They would be named the Most Valuable Player of the Season. This award was about as prestigious as the title of FMVP—Most Valuable Player of the Finals. Both titles were celebrated with gilded trophies, marking a player's accomplishments as an individual.

The championship trophy cup was an indicator of a team's power, while the MVP title served as proof of a specific player's strength. After being named the MVP of the Season, a player's monetary worth could easily triple or quadruple.

Chi Shuo had been the MVP of Season 6, and Ye Shaoyang really wanted to be named the MVP of Season 10.

Of course, the competition for this title would be extremely fierce. Every single team had an ace up its sleeve, after all. When everyone's MVP titles were counted up, Ye Shaoyang might not be able to surpass all the other aces in the league.

Ye Shaoyang accepted the mic and smiled as he said, "Receiving three MVP titles doesn't prove much. S10 has only just begun, and many teams didn't have a game scheduled for the first week. Our Tianhuan has already played two games in these two weeks, and we just so happened to win. So, I'm currently in the lead in terms of number of MVP titles, but that's no reason to be arrogant."

"Then do you believe you can take the MVP of the Season award?" the reporter asked.

"Of course," Ye Shaoyang answered straightforwardly. "I'm sure many players dream of winning the grand MVP of the Season award, right?"

The reporter nodded. "That's true. Those who don't strive for the grand prize aren't good players! I do have another question for you. We all know now that Shaoyang is the streamer Xiao Bai, and we know you once earned eight National #1 titles with various heroes. Netizens are very curious. Besides these eight heroes, do you know how to play any other mid laners?"

Ye Shaoyang smiled. "I'm not very good with other heroes. Coaches don't need to worry about banning them."

The other coaches of Group B teams all blinked as that.

As if we would believe you!

It was impossible for a professional player to only know how to play eight heroes. So, Ye Shaoyang was clearly joking with that answer. But that joke gave all the coaches of Group B teams a massive headache—

Just how deep was Ye Shaoyang's hero pool? He couldn't… possibly be strong with every single mid laner, right?!

After the interview, Tianhuan's players all returned to their hotel together.

On the way back, Cheng Xing remained in high spirits the whole time. "My Yang-ge is an all-rounder, he knows how to play all mid lane heroes. When they play our Tianhuan in the future, coaches won't even know which heroes to ban!"

In the back row of the van, Coach Lin was also feeling pretty good. Their Tianhuan hadn't been this proud and powerful in a long while.

Could they even believe that they'd had two mid laners banned in a row? In the past, other coaches always targeted their junglers. This proved that Shaoyang had already made the other coaches in the league feel that he was a threat. In future games, Tianhuan could consider a larger variety of team comps. They could try out all sorts of diabolical lineups. After all, with Shaoyang taking half of the heat from opposing coaches… Chi Shuo would be unleashed!

Coach Lin took out a notebook and swiftly scribbled down some thoughts, already planning out their new team comps.

The car arrived at their hotel very quickly. Coach Lin decided to strike while the iron was hot; he called everyone into a meeting to review their game tapes. After a quick review session, he sent everyone back to their rooms to rest.

It was only half past nine when Ye Shaoyang returned to his room. Since it was still early, he decided to stream for a while—he needed to fulfill his monthly obligation of streaming thirty hours per month, after all. Professional players all needed to squeeze in their streaming hours here and there, whenever they could find a bit of time.

It was currently Friday. Many students and office workers would be home at that time of night, getting ready for their weekends. Not long after Ye Shaoyang opened up his Whale Streaming room, millions of viewers rushed in.

[There's no kitty cat today?]

[Hurry up and bring out your cat, I want to give it a big mwah~]

Ye Shaoyang said, "Good evening, everyone. I'm at a hotel right now, my cat isn't with me."

Lots of viewers in the stream had already become self-proclaimed members of the 'Online Kitty Litter Division'. When they saw that Ye Shaoyang's cat wasn't there that night, they all felt pretty disappointed.

Ye Shaoyang explained, "Whenever Tianhuan travels to an away game, I leave my cat at home. Don't worry, guys. There are a bunch of nice jiejie at the base who help look after Xiao Bai."

[Yangyang, you did great today, you got two MVP titles!]

[I never used to watch pro games. I started watching just for you, and you played so well. I'll be following you for a long time. ^_^]

[I watched your interview. Yangyang, I feel like you can sprint straight towards the MVP of the Season award, right?]

[You already have three MVP titles. I think Yangyang is powerful enough to win the big prize!]

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "Of course I really want to win the big MVP prize. But the league is full of formidable players. I can only do my very best. I can't guarantee that I'll win it in the end."

Among all those cheerful bullet comments, a few incendiary comments suddenly popped up—

[A newbie with only three MVP titles is already starting to get full of himself??]

[LMAO, every pro player in the league is in the running for the MVP of the Season award. How can a newbie even think about winning that title?]

[You think people like Captain Fang, Zhouzhou, Ping-jie, and Old Xu are dead or something?]

[He took three MVP titles in Group B and thinks he's a god now. Are all newbies this arrogant these days?]

Ye Shaoyang furrowed his brow faintly.

He could tell with just one glance that there was something up with these people.

Whose fans had organized this group invasion?

Little Rui was diligently watching the stream. As soon as he saw those combative comments, he instantly banned over a dozen accounts.

However, more and more of those comments popped up.

Ye Shaoyang received a private message from Little Rui on his phone: [Ge, these people have probably made a lot of alt accounts. I can't ban them all! What's going on? I feel like this is a huge mob of anti-fans?]

Ye Shaoyang smiled and answered: [My debut was probably too flashy. It drew a lot of resentment from some people. Go ahead and ban their IPs.]

He didn't pay any more attention to the bullet comments, instead continuing to focus on queueing up for a ranked match. "Everyone, there's no need to pay attention to these sorts of incendiary comments. Let's continue to play ranked. I'll explain some of the Illusionist's mechanics to new viewers."

Ye Shaoyang streamed for nearly three hours before getting offline at around midnight.

Tianhuan had a flight back to the capital city at eight in the morning. He would need to get some sleep early to make the flight in time.

After he washed up and started to make his way to bed, his cell phone suddenly started to vibrate. Ye Shaoyang checked his messages and saw a bunch of alarmed emojis from Little Rui, who wrote: [Ge, hurry up and check what's trending on Weibo!]

Ye Shaoyang tapped on the link that Little Rui included—

There was a trending topic with his name.

#CongratulationsHonorableTianhuanLieyangS10MVP#

This kind of trending tag was so obviously filled with ridicule. It had clearly been created by someone with unpleasant intentions.

Ye Shaoyang checked out the Weibo account of the person who'd started the tag. This account had under one hundred followers, and it had only ever shared some daily news from the professional Gods War league. It was clearly an alt account. There were no casual posts from the user at all.

On this user's page, there were two captioned screenshots from that day's post-game interview. They were clearly deliberately taken out of context.

In one, the reporter was asking, "Then do you believe you can take the MVP of the Season award?

And in the second, Ye Shaoyang was smiling as he said, "Of course."

In addition to those screenshots, the Weibo user had also composed a comment: [I'm seriously shocked! Tianhuan-Lieyang is so arrogant. He took a pentakill in his first game, and the media praised him as a newbie god, so he really thinks he's a god now? This is a newbie who talks big and looks down on everyone else, huh? He doesn't think any of the real gods in the league are a match for him?!]

Under that post, there were many comments voicing their agreement.

[I got sick of the sight of him a long time ago. Just because he's the only omega player in the league, he's getting the best treatment from Tianhuan. The jungler lets him have all the blue buffs and resources. If it were me in that position, I'd be the MVP too.]

[He's the MVP, sure, but that's only because Chi Shuo and Old Qin raised him up, right?]

[Previous commenter, don't forget about Cheng Xing. The whole team is spoiling this omega.]

[I watched today's game too. Ye Shaoyang was going wild, eating up minions on all three lanes. He even took a bunch of resources from the jungle. He had a gold advantage of 2,000 over the other mid laner. With that kind of economic advantage, what random King-ranked mid laner couldn't go on a wild killing spree?]

[His teammates gave him so many resources to fatten him up. I don't know what he's so proud of himself for.]

[And he even thinks he can be the MVP of S10. He's really shameless.]

The comments were becoming more and more unsightly, and since this post had been shared and liked too many times, it was steadily climbing up the trending topics list. When Ye Shaoyang's fans saw these anti-fans insulting him, they all rushed to Weibo to fight back.

[Yangyang only said that he has faith in himself, not that he would definitely win the title. You guys are getting worked up over nothing!]

[I just don't get what you people expect. When the reporter asked him if he believed he could take that title, did you expect him to say, 'No, I have no faith in myself'?]

[He talked about it during his stream, too. The league is full of formidable players, he can't guarantee he'll take the MVP of the Season title. He would just do his best. OP, you clearly haven't watched his stream, and you're just taking things out of context?]

Both sides argued fiercely, sending their heated debate straight onto the Top 10 Topics of the day list.

Ye Shaoyang had been doing far too well lately. There were people who didn't like the look of him. It was very normal for those people to look for opportunities to harass him. Although most esports players just kept their heads down and focused on competing, each player had their own investors and media presence. It was impossible for the whole industry to just happily applaud the rise of a new god.

Ye Shaoyang's appearance meant that he could very well seize the S10 Best Newcomer award. In that case, other players who had the power to try to win that title would certainly be displeased. The reporter in today's post-game interview had just casually asked a question, and Ye Shaoyang had just casually given an answer—but his words were taken out of context by some people, which allowed them to twist him into the type of person who made bold claims, didn't respect his elders, saw himself as the best, and looked down on everyone else…

Ye Shaoyang didn't bother to respond to these comments. He couldn't be bothered to address this nonsense at all. Sometimes, the more a person tried to explain themselves, the more worked up their anti-fans would get. Acting like he hadn't seen anything at all was the best way to deal with these matters.

However, Chi Shuo took a look at Weibo before going to bed. Upon seeing this trending topic, he just couldn't sit still. He swiftly skimmed through the comments under that original post, with his brows furrowing deeper and deeper as he read.

Over the years, he had been insulted countless times. Every time, he'd reacted very calmly—he didn't even give his anti-fans a second glance. But for some reason that he couldn't explain, when he saw anti-fans insulting Shaoyang, he felt extremely unhappy.

Shaoyang was the player he'd gone to great lengths to recruit for Tianhuan. And in the past two weeks, Shaoyang had performed exceptionally well. It was very normal for him to gain negative attention from a small group of people. But this sort of overwhelming mob attack was clearly orchestrated by someone.

Chi Shuo frowned deeply as he shared that Weibo post, along with his own comment: [Lieyang's performance has been too radiant, so he's earned the jealousy of some people, is that right? Instead of devoting yourselves to insulting my new mid laner, why not spend some time and earnestly consider how you'll handle yourselves when you face off against our Tianhuan? Hiring anti-fans to drag a player in an attempt to wage psychological warfare… these tactics are just too low.]

Chi Shuo's fans were all rendered speechless.

Holy shit! Captain Chi was so bold!

Everyone had always seen Chi Shuo as an extremely calm and taciturn captain. In the past, he wouldn't even say anything when he was dissed onto the trending topics list himself. No one had imagined that he would actually stand up to defend Tianhuan's new mid laner.

This protective Captain Chi instantly made many fans feel more at ease.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang's shippers were especially satisfied. Their minds ran away with these new developments, and they swiftly composed countless new stories to 'fill in the blanks'.

Ye Shaoyang had originally been ready to go to sleep.

But when he refreshed Weibo on his phone, he saw Chi Shuo's new comment.

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

Captain Chi was really very strong-willed.

Ye Shaoyang grinned and wrote to Chi Shuo: [Captain Chi, you're so brave! ThumbsUp.jpg]

Chi Shuo answered with a short audio recording. In the deep, late night, his low voice was extremely comforting as it flowed out. "Don't take that sort of thing to heart," he said. "You've been playing so well lately that these people are going red with rage. In the esports world, you usually only see teams attacked when they lose. It's rare to see them insulted when they win. It's clear that someone has hired these anti-fans specifically to attack you."

Ye Shaoyang also answered with an audio clip. "It's fine, I'm very easygoing. I don't mind this sort of thing at all!"

Chi Shuo could hear the smile in Ye Shaoyang's voice. He couldn't help but curve up the corners of his own lips too—Shaoyang really was easygoing. When faced with something like this, he could actually still smile.

Someone had used these dirty tactics in an attempt to damage a new player's state of mind, to make that new player suffer mistakes in their next game. It had to be said that this sort of dirty trick was very effective against many players whose mental states weren't too strong.

However, Ye Shaoyang was someone who could smile and say 'thanks' after he was marked by an alpha.

…someone wanted to affect his mental state? It was impossible.

Chi Shuo said, "There's definitely someone pulling the strings behind this. Based on their usual style, I suspect it's Yaoguang."

Ye Shaoyang was a bit surprised. "Team Yaoguang?"

"Mm. One of Yaoguang's major investors is an entertainment company. They have a lot of money, and their boss is some rich heir who's very good at controlling public opinion and stirring up drama. Do you remember how Xie Weiyu jumped ship during the S9 trading window?"

"I remember. Xie Weiyu suddenly left his team, and Yaoguang was badmouthed endlessly by his fans."

Xie Weiyu was a powerful player, and he had been the captain of Yaoguang. Why would he suddenly be at odds with his team? Ye Shaoyang carefully thought about it for a while, then quickly understood. "Could it be that Yaoguang is trying to raise up a new god? So they pushed Xie Weiyu out?"

"It's very possible. Yaoguang wants to push a new god into the spotlight this season, but your presence is too much. It's affected the popularity of their own 'godly newbie'. It just so happens that they're scheduled to play this weekend, and it'll be their new player's debut game. The timing matches up."

There could only be one Best Newcomer in a season.

If Yaoguang intended to spend a lot of money to manufacture a new god, then Ye Shaoyang's existence was a huge threat to them.

So, their plan was to throw some dirt on a powerful new player before their own newbie debuted? It seemed they were hoping to make this other team's powerful newbie come off as an arrogant player who looked down on everyone else.

Then, if Yaoguang debuted a kind, humble, and sweet new player who was also quite good-looking… if that player could take a triple kill or pentakill… then wouldn't that player be much more popular than Ye Shaoyang?

This really was one hell of a plan!

Yaoguang wasn't backed by an entertainment company for nothing. They were bringing all of the entertainment industry's dirty tricks into the esports industry.

Ye Shaoyang smiled faintly and said, "Captain Chi, don't worry. This kind of public opinion doesn't have much of an effect on me. Since they've gone out of their way to throw dirt on me… then I can only pay them back on the battlefield."