All-Round Mid Laner

On the night of March 25th, Ye Shaoyang logged into his Weibo account and saw tens of thousands of birthday wishes in his comments and DMs. He had input his birthday when signing up, so his Weibo displayed his date of birth.

Some fans had also made promotional videos for him. They cut together all of Ye Shaoyang's kills from the five matches Tianhuan had played in Group B, and they added backing tracks of invigorating music. These videos were labeled as footage of a 'mid lane demon king'… and it was all footage of a bunch of triple kills and pentakills. It really did look like a big demon king was bullying a bunch of little kids.

[Happy birthday to our great demon king, Lieyang!]

[I'm so glad to have gotten to know Yangyang through the league this year. You're my favorite pro player. ^_^]

[Happy birthday, Yangyang. We'll remember this date, and we'll all spend your birthdays with you in the future. Keep up the good work!]

[You've performed so well as a newbie. I believe you can make history!]

Ye Shaoyang felt his heart warm up as he looked through this unending sea of well wishes from his fans. He used his cell phone to make a post: [Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes. The happiest part of my year has been joining Tianhuan, becoming a professional player, and meeting all you adorable people. In the next year, I'll continue to work hard. I'll do my best not to fall short of everyone's expectations of me. ^_^]

As soon as that message was posted, countless fans commented to wish him happy birthday again.

#HappyBirthdayTianhuanLieyang# swiftly shot up the trending topics list.

Chi Shuo shared Ye Shaoyang's new Weibo post as soon as he saw it. He added: [Happy birthday. We at Tianhuan are also very happy to have you here.]

And so, all of Chi Shuo's fans also learned that it was Ye Shaoyang's birthday. They all ran over to his page to wish him a happy birthday too.

Many regular viewers of Ye Shaoyang's stream also ran to his room to send him gifts. Whale Streaming's top male and female streamers, Xiao Wei and Mumu, also came over to send him some gifts. Ye Shaoyang's streaming room soon shot to the top of the chart which tracked 'amount of gifts received' for every streamer.

A trending tag, and a chart-topping number of gifts. This birthday really made him feel like a hotshot!

At the same time, in the #RiyueTonghui# super topic…

A few sharp-eyed fangirls saw that Ye Shaoyang had sent his new Weibo post from a new cell phone, and Chi Shuo had also shared that post from a new cell phone. They instantly took screenshots of those details and posted it to their super topic group.

[Yangyang and Yueyue have gotten new cell phones at the same time!]

Everyone else clicked into that topic to take a look. And it was true—at the bottom left corner of the Weibo post Ye Shaoyang put up last night, there was a line which read, 'Sent from my TC-X30'. This cell phone had been very popular a few years ago, and it sold for less than five thousand yuan.

But at the bottom left of today's Weibo post, there was a line which read, 'Sent from my HM-V40 Pro - Sun Gold'.

Chi Shuo was the same. A few days ago, he'd made a Weibo post using a flagship model from last year. Today, when he shared Ye Shaoyang's post, his own Weibo declared, 'Sent from my HM-V40 Pro - Quicksand Silver'.

[OMG! This phone has a price tag of twenty-five grand, doesn't it? I think it's HM's latest foldable model?]

[With the two of them switching phones at the same time, could it be that HM has sponsored Team Tianhuan?]

[Previous commenter, that's definitely not it. I saw that this family's water, fire, and little star have shared this Weibo post as well, and their cell phones haven't changed. Only Yueyue and Yangyang have changed their phones.]

[This couldn't be a birthday gift from Yueyue to Yangyang, could it?]

[That's possible!]

[Yangyang is using a warm gold phone, and Yueyue is using a cool, sleek silver one. It's a sweetheart set, they're matching!]

[Ahhh, sweetheart phones, how sweet! I'm dying of feels!]

Shippers loved to excavate some sweet content from minute details. They only flailed amongst themselves, of course, and they didn't bother the real people behind their ships, so no one bothered to get in their business. Team Jingzhe had Fangfang and Yuanyuan shippers as well, in the #FangyuanZhidi# super topic group. No one minded them either.

The detail of Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo both switching their cell phones was discovered by their shippers first.

By noon of the next day, their teammates had discovered this fact as well.

Cheng Xing saw Ye Shaoyang carrying a new phone and couldn't help but ask, "Yang-ge, you upgraded your phone? This phone is really expensive, right? I remember it was over ten grand."

Chi Shuo was sitting nearby. When he heard this, he calmly said, "I went with Shaoyang to buy them."

He didn't say the phone was a birthday present. After all, he'd given Ye Shaoyang a gift that cost tens of thousands of yuan, while their teammates had gifted some smaller and more sentimental items. Chi Shuo's gift was at least several times, or even several dozen times, the value of the others.

The sentiment behind birthday gifts was the most important thing. There was no need for them to compare with one another.

As long as Shaoyang knew the truth, that was enough.

Ye Shaoyang glanced over at Chi Shuo, instantly understanding what Chi Shuo was thinking. He smiled slightly and said, "Xiao Bai knocked my cell phone to the ground a few days ago. The screen cracked. Captain Chi just so happened to be thinking about switching his phone too, so we went to buy new ones."

Their other teammates also flocked over to check out their new phones.

Old Qin sighed. "I just can't bring myself to buy such an expensive phone. I've already been using mine for the past four years."

Qu Jiang teased, "You're already living the life of an old man. You can just use a flip phone."

Old Qin scratched his head. "What's so bad about saving money for retirement?!"

He was usually very frugal about his spending habits. He only never skimped when it came to snacks, which he bought by the case.

At just that time, Coach Lin Feng walked over.

Everyone's cell phones chimed at the same time with a notification. Lin Feng brought his own lunch tray over and looked at the group of gathered players. "The league has released the schedule for the next round. I sent it into the group chat, everyone take a look."

The second round of the regular season formally began in April and ended on May 7th.

The schedule was packed even more densely than the schedule of the first round. None of the teams had a week off. Games would be held from Thursdays to Sundays, with three games per day on the weekends. After five weeks, the second round of the group stage would conclude, and the rank-deciding games would ensue.

Lin Feng got a headache just from looking at Tianhuan's schedule in Group A.

April 4th, Sunday. 19:00. Tianhuan vs Yueying.

April 10th, Saturday. 15:00. Tianhuan vs CYC.

April 17th, Saturday. 15:00. Tianhuan vs Jixuan.

April 24th, Saturday. 15:00. Tianhuan vs Xueying.

May 2nd, Sunday. 19:00. Tianhuan vs Luoshendian.

All the games in the second round of the group stage would end in early May. Tianhuan vs Luoshendian just so happened to be the last match. May 8th and May 9th would be the weekend dedicated to rank-deciding games, which would determine the teams that were promoted and demoted. After these deciding matches, everyone in Group B would be eliminated from the tournament. The remaining teams in Groups A and S would continue on to the third round of the group stage, to fight for a spot in the playoffs.

After reading through this schedule, Qu Jiang couldn't help but mutter, "In this schedule, we're starting out against a boss, then facing off against some slightly weaker teams, and then ending with another boss?"

Qin Yizhu gave him a thumbs up. "Accurate summary!"

Tianhuan's first opponent in Group A would be Yueying, and their last opponent would be Luoshendian. These two were the teams that had been demoted from Group S, and they'd both placed in the Top Eight last season. They really did deserve to be called the bosses of Group A.

A boss at the start, and a boss at the end?

The league clearly hadn't randomly drawn up this schedule. It was deliberately designed to create suspense.

Because in this round, only two teams from Group A could ascend to Group S.

On paper, it seemed very likely that of Teams Tianhuan, Yueying, and Luoshendian—two of them would be promoted.

Cheng Xing noticed another key detail. "In this round, our games are all either on Sunday night or Saturday afternoon. We don't have anything on Thursdays and Fridays?"

Coach Lin said, "Weekend games draw a bigger audience. Naturally, the league has to schedule popular teams for weekend matches in order to boost viewership numbers. At the start, they didn't think much of our Tianhuan, so all our games were scheduled for weekdays. But things are different now. Our popularity is on the rise again, and people have acknowledged our strength. It's very normal for us to be playing weekend games in this round."

Tianhuan had a match every week. They basically had no time to rest and recuperate.

While playing games under such a huge amount of pressure, maintenance of the players' mental states became incredibly important. Sometimes losing just one game could cause a team to collapse, leading to a losing streak.

After lunch, everyone bustled into a meeting room to continue their preparations.

Previously, because they weren't sure of which team they would face next, they couldn't do much targeted practice. Every day, they simply trained a bit against the second-string kids in order to keep themselves in shape.

Now that they knew who they would be battling next, the coaches would definitely provide the players with some more specific training plans.

By now, Lin Feng had already led the coaching team to thoroughly study up on every single Group A team. They'd looked into the enemy players' stats and play styles. Once it was confirmed that Tianhuan would be facing Yueying first, the coaches instantly took out the team comps they'd prepared for facing Yueying.

Lin Feng loaded up a slideshow presentation and very earnestly began, "Team Yueying is one of our old rivals. Everyone should be familiar with them. They've had a change in lineup this season—Xie Weiyu transferred in and replaced their old marksman. Our coaching team has carefully studied their team, and we've discovered that their play style in their Group S games wasn't quite the same as what they demonstrated last season."

Lin Feng started to play some clips from Team Yueying's earlier games. While the footage played, he explained, "Xu Zhuo is the strongest anti-pressure top laner in the league. He's very good at playing tanks and fighters, that sort of hero. He can often escape with his life even in 1v2 or 1v3 fights. He likes to choose heroes with high survivability rates, which allows him to push very aggressively on the outer lanes. Even when enemy teams send two people to gank him, he'll often survive. If teams send three people to attack him, then Yueying will have the numbers advantage in other lanes, which enables them to easily destroy their opponents."

Lin Feng looked towards Chi Shuo. "Captain Chi should be very clear on this."

"Mm," Chi Shuo confirmed with a nod. "In this regard, Old Xu is indeed difficult to deal with."

This kind of player who was very strong on an outer lane was tough to contend with. If you went to gank him, you wouldn't necessarily be able to kill him. If you took more people to confront him, you would be leaving yourself exposed on other lanes. If you didn't go to gank him at all… then he would simply obliterate your top lane!

"With the addition of Xie Weiyu in this season," Chi Shuo said, "they'll probably have taken their macro plays to a new level. They have Xu Zhuo pushing on the top lane, and they have Xie Weiyu and their support attacking towers like crazy on the bottom lane. Their mid laner just needs to play a support mid lane hero who can withstand some pressure and move with their jungler to provide assistance where needed."

Lin Feng said, "After studying Team Yueying's five Group S matches, we've realized that their jungler gets on the move immediately after hitting Level 6. And 70% of the time, the jungler moves to help in the top lane."

Ye Shaoyang understood what that meant. "Yueying's team comps are built around their top lane? They run a top/jungle duo?"

Lin Feng said, "That's right. Their top laner is extremely outstanding, after all. As long as their jungler goes up once and helps Xu Zhuo kill the enemy top laner, Yueying will have an advantage. After that, Xu Zhuo will be able to quickly break through on the top lane.

"As for the bottom lane, with the addition of Xie Weiyu, their power has very clearly grown. Xie Weiyu is the most cautious marksman in the league. Yueying has played twelve games in this season already, and Xie Weiyu has died less than twenty-four times."

And those had been Group S games. On average, he'd died less than twice per game while facing off against world-class players.

From Beimu, there was Zhao Xin'an, who fiercely attacked the enemy's back line. From Jingzhe, there was Fang Zhengqing, who was extremely adept at getting solo kills. From Huowen, there was Zhou Jiawen, who could instakill a glass cannon with an ult.

Dying twice per game, or less, against these major threats was a truly outstanding battle achievement for an extremely fragile marksman.

Ye Shaoyang dubiously asked, "Yueying is very strong on the top lane, and their bottom laner Xie Weiyu is also very strong… so why were they demoted from Group S?"

Lin Feng smiled slightly and said, "This detail is of key importance—their top and bottom lanes have players that haven't been working together for very long. Their tacit understanding isn't strong enough. They aren't in sync when it comes to pushing a lane, and it's very easy for them to fall apart during team fights.

"They lost two key matches in Group S, which dropped them to fifth place within their group. As a result, they were demoted to Group A."

When playing against Group S teams, a slip in team fights was indeed enough to be fatal for Yueying.

However, in Group A, Yueying was a very formidable threat. Because Tianhuan could also have weaknesses in their team fight formations!

When Cheng Xing faced off against Xie Weiyu, the pressure on Cheng Xing would be immense. When Qin Yizhu faced off against Xu Zhuo, the pressure on Qin Yizhu would be even greater. If Tianhuan's top and bottom lanes were both suppressed…

Lin Feng looked towards Ye Shaoyang. "When we play against Yueying, the coaching team has concluded that the best move would be… a mid/jungle duo that finds a breakthrough point on the middle lane!"

Ye Shaoyang would have reached the same conclusion.

Once they swiftly broke through on the middle lane, the mid laner would be free to roam the rift, taking advantage of their superb agility. The mid laner would be able to provide support on the top and bottom lanes to help alleviate the pressure on their teammates.

This was indeed the best plan.

If the mid laner was restricted to their own lane, and the jungler was the only person who could provide assistance on other lanes…

Chi Shuo and Qin Yizhu would be left to face off alone against Xu Zhuo. If Xu Zhuo called his own jungler up for help, then Tianhuan wouldn't necessarily be able to send Xu Zhuo home in that 2v2.

But if they added Ye Shaoyang to the mix, even if the enemy mid laner came up as well—the 3v3 could turn out very differently.

Chi Shuo looked towards Ye Shaoyang. He quietly said, "Xu Zhuo is the most difficult top laner to kill in the whole league. We won't necessarily be able to kill him together. We just need to wound him badly enough that he's forced to return to his base. We can't let him freely push down our lane. That'll be enough."

Ye Shaoyang nodded. "Understood."

Meanwhile, at Team Yueying's HQ—

Xu Zhuo leaned back in his chair and grinned. "I never thought we'd be running into old friends in our first match."

Xie Weiyu was sitting next to him, scribbling something down with his head lowered. Every time they had a team meeting, he would take notes in a notebook with a turquoise cover. It was just like he was attending a lecture.

Xu Zhuo curiously glanced over at his notes. He found that Xie Weiyu's handwriting was extremely neat. His notes almost looked like they had been printed out from a computer. Xie Weiyu had written down all of the key points the coach just ran through.

Yueying's coach continued, "This season's Tianhuan is different. In the past, when we played against Tianhuan, we could wildly invade their jungle and suppress Chi Shuo's development. But now, Chi Shuo is no longer playing jungler cores in this season. He's been choosing support junglers to protect their mid laner. Tianhuan's core, in this season, is that mid laner. So, the coaching team has reached a decision after much discussion. In this match against Tianhuan—

"We'll do everything in our power to destroy their middle lane!"