The Scapegoat

November 20, 2017. It had been over half a month since the S7 World Finals concluded.

Even now, the LPL's domestic internet was rife with endless rumors, disputes, and arguments.

The biggest joke of the year was that not a single LPL representative team made it to the finals at the Bird's Nest. Both teams in the final were from the LCK.

The three LPL teams that participated in this World Championship were all heavily criticized.

EDG, who broke the curse of the quarterfinals only to be eliminated in the Round of 16, chose their usual tactic of silence and playing dead, intending to let time overcome their poor performance.

WE, as the third seed, had two players who performed exceptionally well in the World Championship, even reaching the semifinals. They were narrowly defeated by the champions, SSG, so the backlash against them was less severe.

The other major target of criticism was naturally RNG. Like WE, they had also reached the semifinals, but their performance was abysmal! They weren't even a fraction as good as the third seed, WE!

The incident of "Five Bans of Galio" was particularly singled out and relentlessly criticized, almost to the point of wishing death upon RNG.

Initially, RNG chose the same path as EDG and remained silent. However, the atmosphere at the base began to change day by day following the release of an S8 season outlook plan by RNG's upper management.

As early as the 15th, RNG held a small internal meeting where team manager Damon laid out a preliminary plan for dealing with the fallout.

Find scapegoats!

Since the outside world blamed the draft for the loss, coach Fire Fox was the first to be put forward for judgment.

However, simply sacrificing Fire Fox clearly wasn't enough to convey RNG's sincerity in admitting their mistakes. If they couldn't express enough remorse, how could they successfully and effectively execute their S8 fan engagement marketing outlook plan?

Therefore, RNG chose another person: their substitute top laner for the S7 season, ID: Silence, Xu Junyan.

In the semifinals' best-of-five series, RNG had let Xu Junyan play one game. In the second game, he played Gnar and lost, resulting in a defeat.

This point was perfect! It could be used to their advantage in many ways.

During that small meeting, Damon seized upon this, instructing Xu Junyan to take the blame, post on Weibo, and explain that his mentality had exploded after the loss, leading him to throw a tantrum off-stage, which in turn affected everyone.

This way, RNG could smoothly dismiss Xu Junyan, the "team parasite," and then post a sincere apology on their official Weibo.

With two scapegoats presented and their club's seemingly sincere response, they could quickly gain the understanding of countless fans. Following this, they could logically begin to execute their plan and market themselves.

Perhaps, with this opportunity, their future marketing efforts could even be smoother. After all, who in the LPL could refuse a strong and genuinely reformed all-Chinese roster?

However, the plan was met with opposition from two individuals, undoubtedly the two chosen to be scapegoats: Fire Fox and Xu Junyan.

Thus, both sides remained in a stalemate for five days. Today, in the RNG meeting room, the atmosphere was once again tense as everyone gathered together.

"Have you considered it?"

Damon scanned the room, his gaze finally settling on Fire Fox and Xu Junyan, who were seated next to each other. His tone was condescending from the start.

He didn't believe Fire Fox and Xu Junyan would resist until the end. After all, Fire Fox and Xu Junyan were merely hired 'employees'; they were the capital.

In the meeting room, others like Uzi and Letme sat further back, their attention now focused on the two individuals in the front row.

"Others might not know, but insiders are aware that the loss in that game was absolutely not because of five bans of Galio. The biggest reason for the defeat didn't stem from there," Fire Fox said, looking up to explain himself.

"Regardless of whether that's the real reason, it's what the outside world believes, isn't it?" Damon scoffed. "What's the point of explaining it to me? If you have the ability, make the entire LPL agree with your statement."

Fire Fox was momentarily speechless.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered explaining, but RNG had already publicly admitted five days ago, after that small meeting, that they shouldn't have five-banned Galio.

This effectively cut off his retreat.

Even if he were to step forward now and explain it from the perspective of a professional coach, how many people would believe him?

Setting aside whether they'd believe him, people wouldn't even pay attention to him!

Fire Fox now deeply understood what it meant to be insignificant. Facing the powerful RNG club and team manager Damon, he could only lower his head and force a bitter smile.

Damon glanced at Fire Fox again, knowing that this person was essentially secured. In fact, he had seen Fire Fox's outward strength and inner weakness five days ago. The real trouble was that other guy!

Damon shifted his gaze to Xu Junyan, who had been silent since entering the room, his head bowed as he fiddled with his fingers.

"Little Xu, Brother Feng has tacitly agreed. What about you? Are you still going to insist?" Damon asked.

Hearing this, Fire Fox let out another bitter smile, twitching the corner of his mouth. He ultimately chose to remain silent and said nothing.

"Insist on what?" Xu Junyan looked up and glanced at Damon, as if looking at a piece of trash. He quickly, and indifferently, lowered his head again to play with his fingers.

Damon's heart burned with anger. He shouted, "The Weibo post I asked you to make, it's been five days! Why haven't you posted it yet?!"

"Post my ass. You say a bunch of crap and expect me to eagerly post it? Who do you think you are?" Xu Junyan sneered, not even bothering to look up, continuing to examine his fingers with indifference.

Damon's face turned from green to purple. He cursed inwardly, thinking that this guy wasn't so rebellious before. He was clearly humble, low-key, and not attention-seeking.

But ever since five days ago, perhaps stimulated by their small meeting, this guy had completely changed his personality, undergoing a 360-degree U-turn, becoming incredibly defiant!

Damon suppressed his anger and said, "Don't you think this is the best way to handle it?"

"No," Xu Junyan replied calmly. "I didn't do anything wrong, so why should I admit fault? Yes, I admit we lost that game, but ask yourselves honestly, was that game really my fault?"

As he spoke, Xu Junyan glanced at the others sitting behind him. Xiaohu, Uzi, and the others all avoided his gaze, not daring to meet his eyes.

On the post-game stat screen for that match, Xu Junyan alone dealt a massive 28,000 damage, which was the sum of everyone else's combined damage!

Furthermore, in that game, Xu Junyan on top lane absorbed almost all of Galio's ultimate abilities, while their mid laner, Xiaohu, never arrived to help. The same was true in late-game team fights. Xu Junyan initiated excellent engages, but his teammates either didn't dare to follow up or engaged in extremely awkward positions, leading to them being instantly focused and killed by SKT. This also resulted in Xu Junyan's stats not looking good on the post-game screen, with only a 3-8-5 record.

"If it wasn't you, then who was it?" Damon's cold laugh echoed again in the silent conference room.