Chapter 14: Eternal Black History. A Total Mess.
The brand-new five-man squad required time to gel, except for the marksman-support duo who had been training together for a year.
Teammates’ habits, ability coordination, positioning in teamfights, key decision-making… every player had their own ideas. Even though the main shot-caller had been determined, it was absolutely impossible for a newly formed team to have perfect synergy from the start.
“I caught someone! Can kill! Hey—Wu Yang, why’d you leave?”
“Fugui, you charged in too fast. Beyond and I couldn’t keep up.”
“Dragon’s up. Go to the dragon first, don’t go out to push lanes…”
In the first five-man game, “cringe-worthy” plays occurred constantly.
The mid-jungle duo was camping in the brush and successfully ambushed someone. Just as Wu Yang threw out a CC skill, Ning Luzhao used his ultimate to push the person away. After working so hard, the two ended up being counter-killed by the enemy.
Wu Yang: “…S-s-orry, B-b-ro Land.”
Ning Luzhao looked at the red respawn timer on the grey screen: “It’s fine. My fault.”
Fugui was the first to Flash-initiate on four enemies, shouting excitedly, “Crap! Look at this initiation! Isn’t it awesome?!” He looked back to see his teammates were all doing the dragon. No one followed him, and he was immediately beaten to death by the enemy team.
Fugui QAQ: “Who will speak for me?”
In a late-game teamfight, Wall was protecting Beyond in the backline. Several teammates had charged forward to shut down the enemy carry. Just as Beyond was about to follow, the enemy solo laner appeared from the brush behind him and Flashed onto his face.
Beyond fled frantically. Wall shouted for “protection” while using skills to shield the marksman, but in the end, he still couldn’t save him.
Wall: “How can I protect you, my marksman—who was watching the flank?”
The game was disjointed and messy. Fortunately, everyone’s individual mechanics were solid. After several twists and turns, they managed a hard-fought win.
The stats were not very pretty, even worse than when they solo-queued.
Zuo Chi had already noted some points for review: “Continue, continue. A new team is like a person who just got new prosthetic limbs; there’s always an adjustment period. It’s normal not to be able to walk at first. Listen more to the shot-calls in your headsets.”
In the second game, the players were more restrained. Fugui had learned the lesson that reckless initiation only leads to death, so he stayed honestly in the solo lane to 1v1 the opponent. Ning Luzhao and Wu Yang stopped camping in the brush, focusing on their own jungle and waves. Wall and Beyond diligently used skills to check for vision in every brush.
The problem was that as a result, there was no rhythm at all in the early game.
When ganking, the mid-jungle duo were both a beat slow when throwing skills, as if afraid of interfering with each other.
In teamfights, Fugui wouldn’t initiate, and Wall wouldn’t initiate while protecting the marksman. They just postured at the dragon pit indefinitely.
Zuo Chi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t help but speak up: “I want you to gel, not bind yourselves and stop making plays. It’s fine to make mistakes. If ability timing is off, then practice it more. Otherwise, people will think there’s some conflict in our team and that no one is coordinating.”
In the third game, the training room returned to a state of total mess.
If these “cringe-worthy” plays were recorded, they would likely become eternal “black history” for these players.
At 10:00 PM, training time ended. The alarm in the room rang its cheerful tune on time.
Next was the players’ free practice time. Generally, they could stream to interact with fans or have a late-night snack to relax.
However, none of the five players showed any intention of leaving the lobby or ending the five-man queue.
Zuo Chi didn’t interfere. He quietly ordered late-night snacks for the pups, sent a screenshot of the order to Ning Luzhao, and told him to go downstairs to get it when the time came. Then he found an empty seat and opened Manager Li’s chat box.
[Zuo Chi: Manager Li, is there a group for all the Arena Professional League teams?]
[Manager Li: Yes, yes. All the managers and head coaches are in it. I was so busy I forgot to add you.]
[“Manager Li” invited you to the group chat “Charging Toward Worlds.”]
[Manager Li: What is it, Coach?]
[Zuo Chi: I want to find a team for a scrim.]
There were fifteen other teams who were eliminated just like them. Although they were the ones who lost most miserably, everyone was just staying at their base with no matches to play. Since they were free, what else would they do besides scrimming, right?
Zuo Chi added the head coaches of the other fifteen teams one by one.
[Hello, I am VEX’s coach, Zuo Chi. (Handshake.jpg)]
[Do you have time for a scrim tomorrow? (Starry-eyed.jpg)]
Whenever he received a reply saying “Sorry, other plans tomorrow” or “The team is on vacation and not at the base,” he immediately moved on to the next.
When he reached the fourth team, “ASH,” the other party asked about his intention and first sent a “brothers in suffering” emoji. Then they replied: [A scrim tomorrow? Is 1:00 PM okay? We’ll do a BO5.]
[Zuo Chi: OK! (Cupped-fist.jpg)]
Zuo Chi didn’t know much about this team. After securing the scrim, he searched for ASH’s match videos.
After seeing their group stage results, he understood why ASH’s coach had sent the “brothers in suffering” emoji.
Because this team was just as bad as VEX during the Autumn Split—both were clean-swept 3:0 or 3:1 in three consecutive matches.
They were indeed brothers in suffering.
However, VEX had been successful in the past. They had accumulated some old fans from a few years ago when their results were good, so the wave of insults after losing was much louder. ASH was so irrelevant they were almost “missing in action” in the league.
After searching ASH’s data, Zuo Chi felt a bit of shared sympathy.
[Zuo Chi: Will the starters from the Autumn Split be playing in the scrim?]
[ASH Coach: Yeah. Did VEX change players? I saw the trending search yesterday saying ZAP’s second-team marksman-support duo were transferring to VEX. Is it true?]
Before an official announcement, people in the circle generally wouldn’t spread such news; it was a common understanding.
Zuo Chi didn’t hide it.
[Zuo Chi: Yes.]
[ASH Coach: VEX is being sold after the Spring Split. Is your boss still approving funds to buy players for reinforcements?]
Zuo Chi: “…”
Wait, what?
VEX was being sold after the Spring Split? Why didn’t he know?!
Zuo Chi’s expression turned complex.
After a long silence, the other party likely realized something was wrong and asked cautiously.
[ASH Coach: I heard about VEX being sold after the Spring Split when I was out at a dinner with our boss… You haven’t heard? Then maybe it’s just a rumor.]
[ASH Coach: Honestly, even if the team is sold, it’s fine, right? As long as the team gets good results in the Spring Split, there’s no need to worry about not finding a good home later.]
Zuo Chi pondered it.
Manager Li wasn’t at the base today; he said he was going to a meeting and hadn’t returned. Otherwise, Zuo Chi wouldn’t have needed to message him on WeChat.
Since ASH’s coach told him about VEX being sold, it likely wasn’t baseless. He guessed the other was quite surprised that he was unaware.
There was a possibility that Manager Li had been at a meeting for so long today precisely because of the sale.
VEX’s results had been trash for several consecutive seasons. There wasn’t much prize money or endorsement fees; they were only losing money. It was only human for the boss to want to sell.
Approving several million for them to buy players was probably so VEX’s Spring Split results would look a bit better. Even if they just advanced to the playoffs, it would be enough to negotiate a better price with the new boss.
Then, once the players were sold later, that several million would come right back.
As for him, the coach, his fixed monthly salary was only three thousand yuan. The rest was all prize money shares—he’d only get that if they won matches. He was basically a “beast of burden” who worked for almost nothing.
Ah! Evil capitalists!
[ASH Coach: You still there? About the scrim tomorrow…]
Zuo Chi snapped out of it and immediately replied.
[Zuo Chi: Sorry, something came up and I couldn’t reply in time. Scrim tomorrow as planned!]
If the sale was already a done deal, they couldn’t do anything about it.
Esports spoke with results.
If they reached the top eight, four, or even the grand finals in the Spring Split, even if VEX was sold to a new boss, the new boss wouldn’t be likely to replace the team members. They might even increase the budget and encourage them to push for the championship.
Even in a worst-case scenario where everyone had to leave after the Spring Split, a good result would give the players more opportunities to be noticed by strong teams and get tryouts, rather than languishing on a substitute bench for the rest of their careers.
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