All-Round Mid Laner

"Let us congratulate Team Tianhuan for taking a 2-0 win in this match!"

"The MVP title of the second game once again goes to Lieyang. His Flower Dryad took ten kills without dying a single time. With this performance, he is fully deserving of being crowned the best player of this match!"

"Let's all give Tianhuan another round of applause!"

"Currently, Tianhuan has won all their Group B matches in clean 2-0 sweeps. They have six points now, and they're ranked first in the group."

"Let's take a look at Group B's rankings now."

The scores of the six Group B teams flashed across the big screens.

"Tianhuan stands at six points, CYC has four. Teams AT and MID each have three points, while Team TNG has one. And BOB currently remains at zero points. In the next two weeks, Tianhuan will be facing off against their final two opponents in Group B—Teams AT and MID."

"Logically speaking, as long as Tianhuan doesn't lose 0-2 in both of their next games, they'll definitely be promoted from Group B!"

"That's right. Teams AT and MID both lost 1-2 to CYC previously. So, based on their respective track records, it's quite unlikely for Tianhuan to self-destruct while facing off against these teams. Of course, we can't be sure of anything yet."

"Tianhuan has really made everyone notice them this season. The addition of their new mid laner Lieyang, especially, has made Tianhuan's battle tactics more robust and fresh. Let's all look forward to seeing how Tianhuan will perform in future games! At the same time, let's also give a round of applause to Team CYC for their remarkable performance in today's games!"

When Chi Shuo took off his headset, he heard shrill shrieks and thunderous applause from the audience.

He glanced at the crowd below the stage and saw a sea of fans excitedly waving banners in support of Tianhuan. Some of those fans were even shouting—

"Yangyang, marry me!"

"Yangyang, I love you!"

Lately, Ye Shaoyang was glowing as brightly as the sun.

He'd passed the ten million followers mark on Weibo, and more and more fans were coming to support him at live games as well.

Since he was an omega, many of these fans were calling him Yangyang-laopo.

Chi Shuo turned back to look towards Ye Shaoyang, who had also just taken off his headphones. Playing two games in a row had caused a fine sheen of sweat to appear on Ye Shaoyang's brow, and his hair was also faintly damp as it gently framed his face. Since Ye Shaoyang's head was lowered, part of his pale nape was exposed. A pheromone suppressant patch was in place at the nape of his neck; Ye Shaoyang was very careful to put one on before leaving home every day.

Chi Shuo had last marked him in January. Based on their past experiences, the temporary marks Chi Shuo gave Ye Shaoyang had a period of effect of around three months. Which meant they would need to refresh it at the end of April or the beginning of May.

According to the league's regular season schedule, Tianhuan would play two more games in Group B. Teams AT and MID weren't even as strong as Team CYC; Tianhuan had nothing to worry about when going up against them. By the time they finished these games, it would be the end of February.

After advancing to Group A, the second round—including off weeks and rank-deciding matches—would last for around seven weeks. This meant that, before Tianhuan fought their way to Group S in May, Chi Shuo would need to mark Ye Shaoyang one more time to make sure Ye Shaoyang wouldn't be affected during their Group S games.

Just as Chi Shuo was thinking all sorts of nonsense, Ye Shaoyang suddenly turned around. Their eyes met.

Chi Shuo's heart abruptly skipped a beat. When Ye Shaoyang discovered Captain Chi was looking at him, he simply smiled at Chi Shuo and took the initiative to open his arms and give Chi Shuo a big hug.

Chi Shuo was silent.

Ye Shaoyang earnestly said, "Thank you for the two MVP titles, Captain Chi!"

Chi Shuo's heart was beating at unreasonable speeds. It was the first time an omega had taken the initiative to hug him. The faint scent of shower gel clung to Ye Shaoyang, making it so that his pheromones weren't quite the same as what Chi Shuo remembered—but they were very alluring all the same.

Chi Shuo was teased to the brink of losing his composure. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Ye Shaoyang release him and turn to hug Cheng Xing.

"Little Xing, you didn't even die once today!"

Cheng Xing excitedly gave his teammates a thumbs up. "My Yang-ge is awesome!"

Then, Ye Shaoyang went to hug Qu Jiang. "Thank you, A-Jiang. Your Blazing Angel is way too sick."

Qu Jiang smiled faintly and said, "You're the one who's sick, giving our opponents flowers like crazy. I bet CYC will be psychologically scarred after this."

Qin Yizhu laughed from the side as well. "Here's a flower for you, no need for thanks. Hahaha, what a cruel hero!"

Chi Shuo fell silent.

He had been overthinking things.

This was just the sort of encouraging hug players gave each other after a match. Ye Shaoyang had a very strong sense of propriety. He wasn't doing anything outrageously intimate; he was purely giving quick hugs and congratulatory pats on the shoulders.

Even if everyone in the crowd saw it, there was nothing significant about an omega player hugging alpha players like this. Ye Shaoyang's hugs were quick and perfunctory, after all. Just the type of encouragement shared between 'good teammates'.

However, when Chi Shuo had been lightly embraced by Ye Shaoyang…

Chi Shuo had nearly lost control and lifted his own arms. He'd nearly wrapped Ye Shaoyang up in a tight, unrelenting embrace.

That urge had most likely been stirred up by the possessiveness that the mark made him feel, right?

Chi Shuo took deep breaths to calm his racing heart. He stood and mildly said, "Let's go. We need to shake hands with our opponents."

Chi Shuo led the team over to CYC's soundproofed room, where they shook hands with the other players. This was a basic courtesy after matches. When CYC's captain shook hands with Ye Shaoyang, he couldn't help but joke, "Thank you for the flowers!"

Ye Shaoyang said, "You're welcome. If you'd like, I'll gift you another bouquet?"

CYC's players were speechless.

No, better not. We're scared of having nightmares tonight!

After bowing to the applauding crowd, Tianhuan's players finally left the stage.

Originally, the post-game interview was supposed to feature Ye Shaoyang again. But Ye Shaoyang had been interviewed after their previous two matches, and he didn't want to be the only one to stand in the spotlight, so he suggested having the coach take the post-game interview. Thus, Coach Lin was the one who showed up in front of the interview cameras.

"Let's give a warm welcome to Tianhuan's Coach Lin!"

"Hello, everyone." Lin Feng could finally stand proud in front of the cameras. His smile was more dazzling than usual.

"We've all noticed that Tianhuan's battle tactics in this season aren't quite like what you've run in the past. Many netizens have left comments to ask—has the coaching team been developing these new strategies around the mid laner?"

"That isn't it," Coach Lin said. "Of course, our mid laner is extremely outstanding, but this is a five-person game. The coaching team has to take every player's hero pool into consideration, then devise team comps and synergies that work for everyone. We always seek out the optimal lineups."

"Just out of curiosity, may I ask how deep Tianhuan-Lieyang's hero pool actually is?"

"That's a secret," Coach Lin said with a merry smile.

All other coaches watching this interview immediately wanted to spit up a mouthful of blood—

Don't be coy!

Your Tianhuan seriously has a few too many secrets. We can't handle them all!

"The 'standing punishment' and 'flower delivery' comps we saw today," the interviewer continued. "Are these lineups you came up with on the fly, or are they ones you practiced in advance?"

"Of course we practiced them for a long time in advance. We diligently prepare for every single game we play. Tactics like the Blazing Angel dragging enemies into the Trapper's snares are things that Chi Shuo and Qu Jiang have privately practiced countless times. Otherwise, our teamwork wouldn't have been so smooth."

"There's one more question that everyone is very keen to ask. We all know that, in the past, Tianhuan has been a jungler core team. But in this season, we've seen Tianhuan run a mid laner core in all three matches to date. Does Tianhuan plan on giving up on their jungler cores?"

"Our jungler has really been targeted too fiercely. It's a shame." Coach Lin sighed, then continued, "If other teams didn't target our Chi Shuo so much, we wouldn't have changed our typical thought process. We wouldn't have had Chi Shuo pick up support junglers while the mid laner sets the rhythm."

The implication was—

Who told you to target Chi Shuo?

Our Chi Shuo will be a support jungler, just like you wanted. But he'll raise up a mid lane demon king to deal with you!

"As for whether or not Chi Shuo's jungler cores will make an appearance in this season, we'll see how things go later on," Coach Lin added with a slight smile. "But the good news for us is that during the picks and bans, the opposing coach won't consecutively ban junglers from now on."

A long silence ensued.

Those words were basically like alarm sirens, which blared so loudly that every coach in the league developed a staggering headache.

After watching until that point, Team Beimu's coach couldn't help but mutter, "Lin Feng, you cunning old fox! What he means is that if the opposing coaches don't ban their junglers, they can take out a jungler core at any time. Is that right?"

"Of course. Rumors about Chi Shuo's condition declining are just rumors from outsiders. We actually don't know exactly what his abilities are now," Zhao Xinping said calmly. "Don't forget how Tianhuan made it to the world championships in S6."

"With their mid/jungle duo?"

"Exactly. If Chi Shuo has maintained his condition from S6, and if he links up to form a mid/jungle duo with Ye Shaoyang now… that would make them truly difficult to contend with," Zhao Xinping said.

"Fuck!" Zhao Xin'an practically wanted to slam his head against a wall. He had basically played matchmaker for Xiao Bai and Tianhuan, hadn't he? Zhao Xin'an indignantly fumed, "Why did I hand our enemy such a strong partner on a platter?"

"You really are an impressive matchmaker," Zhao Xinping said dryly. She reached for a vase on the desk and pushed it over to her little brother. "Here, a flower for you. No need to thank me."

"Jie, don't be like that!" Zhao Xin'an wailed. "If Ye Shaoyang dares to take out the Flower Dryad when he plays against Beimu, I swear to god I'll kill him dead!"

"This Lieyang you're talking about. His skills are indeed pretty good," Sean suddenly interjected.

"…do you have a way to fight against him?" Zhao Xin'an asked, immediately turning to look at Sean and meeting his dark blue eyes.

Sean smiled cryptically and said, "We have many strong mid laners in Europe. You just need to use fighters on the outer lanes to target them together. When we play against him, I'll take a magic tank, and he won't be able to suppress me either."

"Sean's way of thinking is absolutely right. We can study some lineups with this composition," the coach excitedly said.

"Isn't Tianhuan in Group B? We start studying for them now?" Sean asked dubiously.

"Ahem, Tianhuan isn't normal this season. I have a suspicion that they'll sprint their way to us, riding a consecutive win streak through Groups A and B. They'll be our biggest boss fight in Group S! It's better to study in advance and be prepared," the coach said.

"I agree," Zhao Xinping said. "Beimu is ranked in the top three of Group S right now. We don't need to worry about being demoted. Finding some time now to study comps that could counter Tianhuan just might lead us to new revelations."

"Jie, everything you say is right!" Zhao Xin'an instantly agreed, enthusiastically kissing up to the boss.

At the same time, the coaches of Jingzhe, Huowen, Binghun, and other teams were also watching Tianhuan's games.

In the past, coaches of Group S teams wouldn't watch Group B games at all. After all, Group B teams and Group S teams were essentially on different levels of ability altogether. It was like the difference between a King-ranked player and a Diamond-ranked player. Rather than watching Group B games, coaches could typically make better use of their time by watching streams from other professional leagues across the globe.

But this year was different.

A big boss was currently farming mobs in Group B, clawing their way to the top—Team Tianhuan.

So, the coaches of Group S teams had to sometimes observe the games in Group B.

And then they were all rendered somewhat speechless by all of Tianhuan's bizarre and wretched strategies.

Of course, with their skills, the teams in Group S weren't actually afraid of Tianhuan's weird team comps. But they were afraid of…

The fact that Tianhuan could still be concealing more powerful comps!

After all, you wouldn't bring out the big guns against minor characters. Tianhuan definitely wouldn't feel the need to use their strongest comps now, right?

Their mid laner core comps were already enough to send Group B teams home, crying for their mommies and daddies. No one could know what kind of powerful comps Tianhuan still had hidden up their sleeve.

All major teams started trying to decipher Ye Shaoyang's play style, and to guess at how Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo would work together.

Tianhuan had yet to reach Group S, but the coaches of Group S teams already had their eyes on them.

In the following two weeks, Tianhuan played two more matches—one against Team AT, one against Team MID.

As Coach Lin predicted, these two teams weren't very strong. Tianhuan played a few very relaxed games against them—they continued to use mid laner cores, allowing Ye Shaoyang to go wild and set the rhythm for pushing the enemy towers. That was all it took to win.

It was very difficult for Group B teams to kill Ye Shaoyang, who had Chi Shuo's protection. As soon as Ye Shaoyang leveled up and started gearing up, he would become the fearsome boss of the field. Group B's marksmen all died at his hands so often that they were left traumatized.

Tianhuan swept Group B cleanly. They played five matches and won five matches, ultimately ranking as the top team in Group B with ten points. They were unquestionably one of the Group B teams that would be promoted.

Ye Shaoyang, with the help of his teammates, also took a total of nine MVP titles. He stood at the very top of the MVP of the Season ranking list.

At this stage of the regular season, Group B was the one to finish their games first.

On March 15th, all the Group B matches concluded. Tianhuan's promotion to Group A was officially confirmed.

Now, it was time for the coaches of Group A teams to suffer massive headaches.

How exactly were they going to deal with Tianhuan's mid lane demon king?

Translator's Notes:

老婆 (lǎopó): Means 'wife'. Used in this sense by fans, it might be a bit like they're calling Yangyang their 'wifey' or 'waifu'.