West quietly packed away the things on his desk, making room for Lu Chen.
Then he walked over to the nearby spectator seats and sat with Yu Wenbo, Kid, and the others.
"Hey, bro, it's okay." Kid seemed to sense how he felt and patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Look at me. Didn't I switch from ADC to jungle too?"
That was a fair attempt at consolation.
Who would have thought that Kid, once one of IG's twin stars and hailed as a prodigy ADC, would switch to jungle a few years later?
And even in the jungle, the newly arrived Ning Wang had now pushed him out of the starting lineup.
The two were fellow sufferers, in a way.
West glanced at him, then shook his head as though he had come to terms with it. "You don't have to comfort me. I knew this day would come. I just didn't expect it to come so soon."
Ever since the club signed JackeyLove, otherwise known as Yu Wenbo, West had known he would lose his starting spot sooner or later.
He knew his own ability.
However unwilling he was to accept it, if he couldn't measure up, he couldn't measure up.
When JackeyLove reached rank one on the Korean server with a 65% win rate, he had shaken up plenty of Chinese clubs, leaving them scrambling to sign him.
And now an even greater monster, Chen,Yu, had appeared, topping the Chinese server with an 85% win rate. West couldn't even imagine achieving a number like that!
Whatever the case, the second scrim of the best-of-three was soon about to begin.
"Relax," Rookie said first. "It's just a scrim. Winning or losing doesn't matter. Play as you normally would, and don't put pressure on yourself."
He was the captain, after all.
With a newcomer joining them, he naturally had to look after him.
Ning Wang shrugged too. "Just call me if you need anything. I'll come bot more often to gank for you, so don't worry."
Lu Chen showed no sign of nerves. He merely loosened his wrists and smiled. "Yeah, I will."
Instead, Baolan, sitting beside him, sounded a little nervous. "I'll do my best to work with you too..."
Soon, the draft began.
EDG still didn't know that IG had changed their ADC.
They stuck to their usual draft, banning Elise, Rek'Sai, and Rumble in the first phase.
IG, on the other hand, took a different approach.
Under Coach Mafa's direction, they stopped targeting ADCs with their bans and removed Taliyah, Trundle, and Zyra instead.
Inside EDG's training room.
The players and Coach Nofe all looked a little surprised.
A Guang scratched his head. "Huh? Weird. Have IG just given up? They didn't ban a single ADC?"
Last game, their opponents had banned four ADCs, only sparing one ban out of respect for Meiko's Thresh.
"Makes sense, I guess," Meiko, Tian Ye, said with a smile. "They banned like that last game and their bot lane still got destroyed. Now they're trying something different."
Beside him, iBoy, Hu Xianzhao, looked utterly confident. "Whatever they pick, I can crush him in lane!"
For a moment, everyone on EDG seemed to understand.
True enough. If targeting ADCs in the draft didn't help anyway, they might as well spend their bans on the other roles and see whether that worked.
But...
At that thought, the EDG players' expressions grew strange.
Even with all those targeted bans last game, their bot lane had fallen more than forty CS behind at ten minutes.
Without those bans this game, wouldn't their bot lane get utterly demolished?
Soon, the draft entered its second half.
As usual, EDG picked their signature top-lane Maokai, along with Rakan support and Sejuani jungle.
IG picked the hypercarry Corki mid, Alistar support, and Ning Wang's signature Zac jungle.
EDG then banned Shen and Gnar.
IG answered with bans on Cassiopeia and Galio.
"Lu Chen, vhich champion do you vant?"
Coach Mafa asked in fluent Chinese, though his accent sounded strange.
Lu Chen didn't hesitate. "Caitlyn."
"Good!" Mafa's eyes lit up. "Caitlyn it is."
On this patch, Caitlyn was an extremely strong ADC pick.
Or rather, ever since the critical-strike buffs in patch 7.09, Caitlyn had stood in a tier of her own among ADCs!
With her enormous 650-unit attack range, she could poke plenty of ADCs until they dreaded facing her!
With equally skilled players, an opponent who dared pick a weak laning champion could even get completely crushed in lane!
But there was a problem.
In the past, IG hadn't dared pick this champion.
West's champion pool limited IG's ADC options.
Besides, even if they picked Caitlyn, West would struggle to pressure his opponent in lane. They were better off picking something like Tristana and gambling on late-game teamfights.
Their opponents, by contrast, frequently picked this champion against IG.
Last game, for instance.
EDG had used Caitlyn to steamroll IG outright.
Now, however, the situation seemed about to reverse...
"Time for the show."
Accompanied by her signature voice line, Caitlyn was locked in.
EDG looked a little bewildered.
IBoy, in particular, frowned. "What's this supposed to mean? They want to pressure me in lane?"
Were they trying to turn his own lesson back on him?
Where had West found that kind of confidence?
"Don't worry about it," Clearlove said calmly. "Just draft normally. If they can't make the pick work, they're the ones who lose out."
However strong Caitlyn was in lane, her weak midgame couldn't be ignored.
Unless she was far ahead in items, a midgame Caitlyn couldn't put a dent in those tanky top laners.
Last game, iBoy's Caitlyn had farmed so freely that he could take over the game barely a dozen minutes in.
If they couldn't establish complete lane dominance, picking this champion would only backfire.
Did they really believe West, who had been getting hammered last game, could pick Caitlyn and suddenly turn around and hammer iBoy?
This wasn't Dragon Ball. He couldn't just power up into a Super Saiyan.
"Pick Xayah!"
A trace of mockery flashed through Coach Nofe's eyes. "They gave us both Xayah and Rakan just so they could get Caitlyn."
If Caitlyn was in a tier of her own among ADCs on this patch...
Then Xayah and Rakan, released only a few months earlier, were in a tier of their own among bot-lane duos!
Almost no team would let their opponents have both champions.
IG were simply asking for trouble with this draft.
"Sure." IBoy decisively locked in Xayah, his eyes full of fighting spirit. "Let's see how West plans to pressure me with his Caitlyn!"
Next, EDG picked Lucian mid.
IG rounded out their lineup with Cho'Gath top.
Both compositions were now complete.
Blue side, EDG: Maokai top, Lucian mid, Sejuani jungle, Xayah ADC, and Rakan support.
Red side, IG: Cho'Gath top, Corki mid, Zac jungle, Caitlyn ADC, and Alistar support.
Essentially, this game would have little to do with either team's top laner.
The two hulking tanks would farm against each other, then serve as reliable frontline punching bags in mid-to-late-game teamfights.
That was especially true for IG. Their mid-lane Corki was a late-game hypercarry who would have little presence early on.
They would rely entirely on Zac jungle to drive the tempo.
And Caitlyn would undoubtedly have to carry the early and midgame.
In other words, the outcome of this match would depend heavily on how Caitlyn performed in bot lane.
A moment later.
The game entered the loading screen.
Lu Chen's gaze sharpened, and his entire bearing abruptly changed.
"Let's do this. It's only a scrim, but it's still my debut."
"EDG will be my first sacrifice now that I've stepped onto the stage!"
Before you continue