Matching the God of War? Just a master of hype

"Welcome, user of machine 43-96, the strongest King player from Ionia, to Wangyu Internet Cafe's Xinjiang Branch. Enjoy your game."

Xinjiang, Wangyu Internet Cafe.

"Old Xu, so many people are watching us..."

The deskmate beside him suppressed his excitement, glancing around pretending it was accidental, but inwardly he was thrilled.

"Isn't this the effect you wanted?"

Xu Cheng completed his "daily login task" and held out his hand, "Hurry up."

"Aiya, we agreed to settle up once a week..."

Saying that, the deskmate still took out a red bill and stuffed it into Xu Cheng's hand. "It's a deal, let me borrow the account to look cool. A few girls have added me recently, and I need the prestige. Don't expose me."

"...That'll cost extra."

"Fine!"

Xu Cheng shook his head and ignored his deskmate, who was looking for targets. He turned and opened his QQ chat window.

It was 2016, and League of Legends was globally popular.

Xu Cheng had gotten into LOL two months ago through his deskmate.

As soon as he started playing, he fell in love with this 5v5 competitive game.

In less than half a month, he easily reached King.

His deskmate said that was the highest rank in League of Legends.

He felt he had a bit of talent.

Even if he couldn't compare to professional players, he was at least better than ordinary people.

Of course, Xu Cheng was busy with his studies and didn't know that the fastest King rank record globally was held by the Korean solo queue king, Dopa.

King in 57 ranked games.

With hidden MMR.

He was only 5 games behind this record.

"Playing another normal game?"

Seeing Xu Cheng skillfully log out of the game and then log into a new account, his deskmate asked curiously.

"No, I have a client to play for, but they don't want me to boost, just play with them."

Xu Cheng said casually. After contacting the client, he officially started the ranked game.

"Okay. By the way, do you want some instant noodles? We can get some late-night snacks during evening study hall later?"

"You decide."

"Alright."

Seeing Xu Cheng already seriously communicating with his client, his deskmate inexplicably felt a sense of melancholy.

Xu Cheng came from an ordinary family.

That's why, after discovering his talent, he took on some boosting jobs in his free time.

With the current popularity of League of Legends, the boosting industry was quite good, and he had saved quite a bit of money from it.

A high school sophomore, so young, was already helping to share the family's burden, making his deskmate feel both touched and envious.

Of course, when he remembered that Xu Cheng's grades remained in the upper-middle tier even while playing games every day, and he could occasionally break into the top five, it made him feel a bit resentful of fate.

Why were there people in this world who played games all day and still got such good grades?

It was so unfair!

Xu Cheng didn't know his deskmate's sour thoughts. He skillfully played two games with the client, finishing in forty minutes and logging out precisely on time.

Then he began his own happy time--

Normal games.

This was the best mode he had discovered long ago. It wasn't as tedious as ranked games and saved a lot of time, allowing him to squeeze in a few matches even when busy with studies.

As for whether he would get bored of stomping weaker players... Xu Cheng had his own methods.

He actively increased the game's difficulty.

Specifically--

He would habitually not buy starting items, intentionally fall behind by one item, dive towers and get counter-kills while low on health, play all five roles randomly, and use his main support to carry as a primary damage dealer, etc.

Various fancy ways of courting death, operations that seemed inconceivable to outsiders, but because of his extremely high game skill and the opponents being too weak, he almost never lost.

"Today's opponents are a bit strong."

Seeing that he dived the tower but ultimately failed to get a counter-kill, Xu Cheng was surprised.

He felt that today's opponents were slightly stronger than usual.

At the same time.

SKT Club.

Faker, at the peak of his career, looked on in confusion as he was solo-killed yet again.

He had thought he encountered a novice player when the opponent actively tanked tower earlier.

While sighing that the management cared about money more than reputation, he also felt in his heart that matchmaking was indeed a gathering place for armchair players--

Because Riot was planning to revamp the ranked system soon, and for a long time, many high-ranked players, celebrities, and professional players from all major regions would only be able to play in normal matchmaking.

To prevent dissatisfaction among these high-level players, the officials planned to invite Li Ge, currently the number one player in LOL, to participate in a matchmaking event.

Starting with the LPL.

Li Ge was currently preparing for the event, so he downloaded a domestic client himself late at night, intending to experience the local customs of LPL matchmaking.

As a result...

This first matchmaking game made him feel the malice of people.

It was one thing for the opponent not to buy any items and still go out, but why could they solo kill him?

Is this the skill level of matchmaking players in the LPL region?

Or is the LPL deliberately causing trouble and finding a top-tier player to fight him?

That's not right either; with those noobs in the LPL, who could beat him?

Li Ge in S6, with the perfect fusion of his S3 sharpness and S6 experience, had reached the pinnacle of operation and awareness, truly leading the era and crushing everyone in the world.

With his insight, he could even feel a sense of humiliation from the opponent's casual attitude!

Yes, that kind of deliberate holding back, playing around wildly, yet still being able to crush and humiliate you!

"Could the opponent be a robot set up by the officials?"

He lost interest in playing further and decided to slack off. Li Ge already suspected that the officials had set up a robot to solo him.

Xu Cheng ended his entertainment activities for the day.

On the way back to school with his deskmate, he felt quite refreshed--

The opponent he encountered today was very strong, even giving him the urge to abandon his "bottom line" and not play tricks.

Fortunately, he ultimately overcame himself, continued his usual style of playing tricks, and successfully won the game.

"Could it be a professional player?"

Xu Cheng wondered in his heart.

If it were a professional player, then everything would make sense.

Although those playing matchmaking might just be youth training reserves, not even second-tier LPL players, they were professionals nonetheless.

He simply believed that professional players who could make a living playing games definitely had real skills.

Their talent and strength far surpassed his own.

"What a shame. The esports scene looks like it only has a few people, but the competition is actually huge. Otherwise, with your talent, I think you could at least be in youth training, right?"

His deskmate also said with emotion upon hearing him.

For ordinary players like them, professional players were an insurmountable mountain.

"Play professionally? Go jerk off... By the way, how are you preparing for the provincial competition?"

Xu Cheng said with lingering fear, "I have to prepare well this time. If I don't perform well, my dad will probably beat me again."

"Don't worry, I've noted down the key points. Everything will be fine then."

His deskmate patted his chest.

His English wasn't as good as Xu Cheng's, but he was good at math, which was one of the few areas where he could get the upper hand.

The two chatted and laughed all the way back to school, neither of them paying much attention to their previous conversation.

Playing professionally was too far off for Xu Cheng at the moment.

He hadn't even thought about it.

For him, or rather for most ordinary families, studying was the only path they had been instilled with since birth.

Meanwhile.

As Xu Cheng went back for evening self-study, Riot Games officially announced the news--

The ranked system would be officially closed next Monday, the day after tomorrow.

At that time, everyone would only be able to play in the matchmaking system.

This news caused a huge stir.

The S6 era was the peak of LOL's popularity. Following the climax of EDG's first MSI championship in S5, S6 was also a period with the best environment for climbing ranks in the LPL.

A certain dog once said that the S6 Chinese server rankings were full of titans, making it the most valuable season.

Looking at the subsequent years, no season could compare to this one.

The value was severely lacking!

"Isn't it what the streamer always talks about, the value, everyone, do you understand the value of S6?"

"Come, come, let's look at the text and see the people on the rankings."

"JackeyLove, Mala Xiang Guo, Ming, Ning... and Brother Long, me, who among us isn't a titan, a renowned warrior?"

"Not to mention those professional players, this group of people, and you, pig-like official, want us to play Normal games? Who are you looking down on?!"

"Everyone listen to me, let's all go complain to the officials together, we deserve a good environment to climb the ranks!"

Dou Sha Live.

A certain dog was barking furiously, inciting the viewers in the livestream chat to complain to the officials.

The bullet comments floated by, and apart from the insults, most viewers, unusually, did not mock Brother Long.

Because Xuan Shen had spoken their minds.

As everyone knows, League of Legends also has a hierarchy.

Professional players look down on solo queue kings, solo queue kings look down on high-elo players, high-elo players look down on low-ranked players, and low-ranked players look down on Normal players...

Normal games are at the very bottom of the hierarchy.

After all, the vast majority of people who play Normal games are beginners who just started playing.

Having these long-established big streamers and celebrities play against beginners, just as Xuan Shen said—who are you looking down on?

Even the bounty hunters who smurf in low-elo games couldn't stand it!

For a time, emotions ran high, and countless big streamers and professional players jointly petitioned the officials for an explanation.

The officials, however, were prepared.

Not only did they announce that Faker would be streaming in Normal mode over the weekend, but they also announced that in Normal mode, for high-ranked players, the system would select players with the highest win rates and strongest skills.

In other words, in Normal mode, the opponent pool would shrink, and you would still be playing against each other, just unable to climb the ranks.

Thus, this incident finally came to a close.

Because he had to prepare for a competition, Xu Cheng unusually did not play games this weekend.

He also ignored the wealthy patrons who urged him to play games together.

Monday.

After school in the afternoon, with some time before evening self-study began, Xu Cheng went to an internet cafe alone.

He found the familiar 4396 computer, sat down, put down his schoolbag, and turned on the computer.

He checked the time; at an average of twenty minutes per game, he should be able to play two Normal games.

Taking a deep breath, he logged into his account and clicked on Normal.

Buzzz.

The Normal game started instantly.