Chapter 13: Team Rules. I Don’t Want to Wash the Whole Team’s Stinky Socks!
It was past 11:00 PM when the match concluded with ZAP’s narrow 3:2 victory over BLUE.
Zuo Chi went backstage with the marksman and support to greet ZAP’s coach and manager.
The other party had just won and secured their spot in the top eight, so they were in a great mood. They readily agreed to discuss Wall and Beyond’s transfers tomorrow. They gave a quote: if bought as a bundle, they could sign the contract immediately for five million yuan.
The subsequent price negotiations were left to Manager Li.
The next morning, Manager Li went to the ZAP base with the marksman and support. He returned a few hours later, looking overjoyed, and pulled two contracts from his bag.
“Coach! We successfully settled on 4.5 million! The paperwork can be handled as soon as the transfer period opens. Wall and Beyond will stay at our base to train for now!”
“Perfect. The jerseys with their IDs are already prepared.” Zuo Chi smiled. “VEX’s new five-man roster is complete.”
[Congratulations to the Host. Main Mission 1: Form the Best Five-Man Lineup. Progress 5/5. Mission complete.]
[Mission rewards “Coaching BP Ability +10, Ultimate Draw Luck for the Spring Split” have been credited.]
[Main Mission 2: Secure the First Win in the Spring Split Group Stage. (The first match of the new season is crucial. A win will significantly boost team morale. Please manage training time well and improve the team’s strength.)]
[Mission Reward: Mystery Wheel x1.]
The system prompt echoed in his mind. The phantom of the “Mystery Wheel” flashed and vanished. He took a look; the ratio of common rewards to special rewards was roughly 9:1. As someone who usually hit the “pity” counter in gacha games, Zuo Chi felt indifferent toward such games of luck.
Returning to Nancheng by rail, after dinner, the five starting players gathered in the training room. Everyone was wearing the VEX jersey—a large expanse of flame-like red with black patterns and the VEX logo embroidered on the chest. They looked vibrant and full of energy.
“First of all, welcome to VEX! I hope everyone treasures this fate of being teammates.”
The players clapped supportively, and the applause in the training room grew enthusiastic.
Zuo Chi handed out the papers he had printed earlier.
“Secondly, let’s agree on some team rules. Everyone, take a look at the content on the paper.”
[VEX Team Player Conduct Code]
- No blaming after a loss. Do not criticize teammates; a loss is a team failure.
- Follow the shot-caller’s decisions on the field. The Jungler calls the shots during the laning phase; the Support calls the shots for mid-to-late-game teamfights.
- Strictly follow training hours. A 200 yuan fine for being late or leaving early. No match-fixing, no sleeping with fans, and no illegal activities. Any violation results in permanent disqualification from the starting roster.
- Speak your mind if there are conflicts or ideas. Private grudges must be settled off the field; do not bring personal emotions to a match.
- The player with the lowest rank in ranked queue each day is responsible for washing everyone’s socks.
Zuo Chi smiled at the players’ colorful expressions. “Any suggestions?”
Ning Luzhao placed the paper prominently on the desk. “None.”
“Um, Coach…” Fugui hissed. “I don’t have issues with the other rules, but that last one about washing socks…”
Wall: “Luckily, Beyond and my feet don’t smell.”
Beyond nodded immediately.
Fugui: “Mine don’t either.”
Wu Yang glanced at him. “When I w-w-alked into the d-d-orm this afternoon, it s-s-melled like s-s-our, st-st-inky s-s-ocks.”
Fugui: “Wu Yang, you’re slandering me!”
“The s-s-tinky s-s-ocks are st-st-ill under y-y-our b-b-ed. I s-s-aw s-s-em!”
“…Those are just three-day-old socks. Can you even call them stinky?”
Wall and Beyond silently moved their chairs away from Fugui.
Ning Luzhao looked at the flip-flops Fugui was wearing and said seriously, “Coach, maybe someone should buy a bottle of air freshener to compensate for our losses.”
The players laughed, while a red-faced Fugui shouted that he would wash his socks as soon as he got back tonight.
Zuo Chi let out a soft laugh, his eyes glinting with a hint of mischief. “It seems no one has suggestions for the rules then? Just a reminder, the rules take effect today. The person with the lowest rank right now is—”
Wu Yang raised his hand. “C-c-oach, m-m-e, m-m-e. I w-w-as b-b-oosting b-b-efore, so I p-p-layed on o-o-thers’ a-a-ccounts. M-m-y own a-a-ccount has a v-v-ery l-l-ow r-r-ank. W-w-hat sh-sh-ould I d-d-o?”
“Kekekeke…” Fugui laughed sinisterly. “There’s no other way, dear roommate. You’ll just have to honestly help me wash my socks for a few days, kekeke—”
“Alright, stop teasing Wu Yang.” Zuo Chi interrupted Fugui’s ‘casting’ and said to Wu Yang, “Manager Li applied for a new professional account for you with all heroes and skins. You don’t have to participate in the ‘sock washing’ rankings for one week. I’ll send you the login info on WeChat in a bit.”
“Sh-sh-ank you, C-c-oach!”
Fugui’s smile froze. “Then… then the one with the lowest rank right now… isn’t it me?!”
Zuo Chi: “Have some confidence; it’s you. But the good news is, you’re only a few dozen ranks behind Wall. If you work hard and win a few more games tonight, you’ll definitely surpass him.”
“Forget it, Fugui. I’ve been on a win streak. My climb today will definitely be faster than yours.”
“Coach! When can we start playing ranked?”
“After training ends each day, it’s your free practice time. That’s about two or three hours—don’t be in a rush.” Zuo Chi handed everyone a pen. “Everyone sit in your seats. You’re going to take an exam. No whispering and no peeking.”
Most pro players had stopped their schooling at fourteen or fifteen to train in camps, dealing with games every day. The word “exam” felt very distant to them.
Confusion and doubt appeared on their faces.
“Coach, does our team… have to test on Chinese, Math, and English?”
Ning Luzhao, who had witnessed the entire process of designing the exam in the dorm last night, explained simply: “No, the questions are all game-related.”
The players breathed a sigh of relief. “Then don’t worry, Coach. We can get full marks on game-related questions without even discussing them!”
Zuo Chi’s eyes curved meaningfully. “I believe you.”
The papers were handed out.
The players wrote their names with smiles and flipped through the papers with curiosity. But after a few seconds, the smiles quickly vanished.
Question 1: After a Jungler upgrades a basic jungle item to an intermediate one, how much will the damage against monsters increase?
Question 2: The W-skills of the following heroes all deal damage over time. Which ones provide vision of enemy heroes during that duration?
Question 3: Observe the equipment of the hero in the image. Given the CD reduction effects of these items, what are the cooldowns for this hero’s four skills?
…
As Zuo Chi walked through the training room, he heard a wave of painful hisses.
Accurately remembering the skill cooldowns of common heroes, monster respawn times, and item stats was a required course for pro players. But often, some detailed values were calculated quite vaguely. Although it might only be a difference of a second or two, or dozens of points of damage, it could be fatal in a match.
While observing the players in ranked queue before, he noticed this issue in their communication.
There weren’t many questions. Half an hour later, Zuo Chi signaled for them to turn in the papers.
He skimmed through them. The better ones got about two-thirds right. Someone like Wu Yang, who hadn’t gone through systematic camp training and had explored the game on his own, had more blanks than answers.
As Zuo Chi flipped through each person’s paper, the atmosphere in the training room grew even more somber.
When he looked up, he saw several “pups” with their heads hanging, looking like students who had been caught doing something wrong and were waiting for a lecture.
He looked at them one by one.
Ning Luzhao: “I watched the coach write the questions in the dorm last night and tried answering them once. I got a lot wrong.”
Wall: “I’ve played for so many years… I never noticed some of these details.”
Fugui: “I think the theory classes in the camp covered some of this… but I was spacing out and didn’t listen.”
Beyond: “Me too.”
Wu Yang: “I g-g-ot the m-m-ost w-w-rong. I d-d-idn’t k-k-now m-m-any of th-th-ese q-q-uestions.”
“It’s normal. When I was writing some of these, even I didn’t know the answers. I had to look them up.” Zuo Chi comforted them.
The players’ attitudes were good; there was no need for him to lecture them or speak grand truths.
“Alright, stop looking so miserable. Now that you know where you’re lacking, just fill in the gaps. You can all take some time each day to study these things. When you’re training, reporting positions and skills needs to be more accurate… Now, start your five-man queue practice. I’ll book a scrim for you tomorrow.”
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