Chapter 16: Remedial Lessons. You Two Go First.
The next morning.
Fugui came downstairs to the training room with his hair in a disheveled mess. Seeing that Ning Luzhao was already logged into the game practicing combos in the single-player training mode, he wailed, “Ning-god, you’re so early—look, I washed everyone’s socks yesterday, and my fingers are frozen red from the scrubbing, sob sob sob.”
Yesterday, everyone had been so focused on their five-man queue that they had completely forgotten about the “sock washing” ranking. It wasn’t until right before bed, when Zuo Chi announced the rank standings, that Fugui realized with a face of despair: the only thing scarier than washing your own stinky socks was washing everyone’s socks.
Fortunately, only his own socks were actually stinky. He felt a bit guilty.
But that didn’t stop him from coming to the training room today to play the victim.
After telling every single person about the hardships of his sock-washing labor, he received a word of comfort from Coach Zuo.
“You washed them quite well. Try your best not to have to wash them today.”
Then Ning-god also spoke up: “The base is equipped with a water heater. Your hands aren’t red from the cold; they’re just red because you scrubbed them for too long.”
After being heartlessly exposed by Ning Luzhao, a burst of cheerful laughter erupted in the training room.
Wu Yang testified: “’S true. I saw him washin’ ’em yesterday, an’ the basin o’ wa’er was still steamin’.”
Fugui: “Sob sob sob, you’re all ‘slandering’ me! I trained all day and still had to wash socks. This little one is so, so tired…”
Beyond was eating a bun while holding a bottle of milk: “Coach Zuo probably slept even later than us. I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and heard the coach and Manager Li talking in the corridor. I was too sleepy to hear clearly, but it was likely about team matters.”
Because the attribute entries showed that Beyond’s hands were very fragile and had old injuries, Zuo Chi had specifically taken him to the hospital for a checkup. The results showed that the kid had mild tenosynovitis; regular massages and medicated patches could alleviate it. However, the biggest issue was physical malnutrition.
Coupled with Wall saying that Beyond was usually a very picky eater who loved vegetables but hated meat, Zuo Chi was now making sure Beyond drank a glass of milk every morning and night, and he mandated that the boy eat meat or seafood at every meal, determined to nurse the cub’s body back to health.
“Coach Zuo, you stayed up that late?!” Fugui asked in surprise. “Is Brother Li already back? I didn’t see him from the time training ended yesterday until now. What kind of meeting lasts that late?”
Manager Li was likely still catching up on sleep at this hour.
Zuo Chi explained the situation about Manager Li returning in the early hours and forgetting his keycard. As for the news that the team was being sold next year, he left that to Ning Luzhao to explain.
After Ning Luzhao finished his clear and organized narration, Zuo Chi observed the reactions of the players.
After a moment of slight surprise, Fugui went back to being his usual self, likely not taking the matter to heart.
Wall frowned, then spoke after a while: “When I went to ZAP’s second team, I actually wondered if I’d ever have the chance to play on stage again. Being able to come to VEX, regardless of how long I can play, I consider it my gain.”
Wu Yang had a bewildered face, likely not even understanding what “selling the team” meant. After Zuo Chi explained it, Wu Yang asked cautiously, “Will the s-s-alary for th-th-ese few m-m-onths still be p-p-aid? Are there st-st-ill p-p-rize b-b-onuses for w-w-inning m-m-atches?”
“Of course!”
“Th-th-en it’s f-f-ine. I’ll p-p-lay well to earn b-b-onuses. If the t-t-eam is s-s-old and I c-c-an’t earn b-b-onuses anymore, I’ll j-j-ust go b-b-ack to b-b-oosting on m-m-y st-st-ream.”
Only Beyond looked a bit nervous after hearing the news. Zuo Chi and Ning Luzhao exchanged a glance, then looked at Wall; the three of them immediately pulled Beyond to the side to do some “ideological work.”
After twenty minutes of Zuo Chi’s flowery persuasion, Wall’s patient counseling, and Ning Luzhao’s occasional, calm “Correct,” Beyond’s gaze gradually grew firm: “I will work hard together with everyone!”
To prove his resolve, he even downed his disliked bottle of milk in one go, causing Zuo Chi to pat his shoulder with great satisfaction.
Since they were playing a scrim against ASH at 1:00 PM, Zuo Chi didn’t arrange anything else for the morning. Instead, he reviewed the issues that had cropped up during yesterday’s five-man queue for each player.
“Fugui, when you’re in a teamfight, don’t always think about being the one to initiate.” He pointed to a position on the map. “In this game, Wall took a tanky support who can initiate and squeeze out vision. The marksman Beyond is playing has no displacement. If someone on the enemy team isn’t showing on the map, you need to keep an eye on the backline to prevent them from flanking.”
“Beyond, your average death rate per game is a bit high.” Although part of the reason was the lack of synergy among teammates—there were several times during teamfights where no one protected him—Zuo Chi still decided to be strict. “In a bit, start a solo match. Have Land, Fugui, and Wu Yang take assassins and warriors to rotate diving you. You see how you can escape.”
A look of even greater nervousness appeared on Beyond’s face than when he had heard “VEX is being sold next year.”
But this time, no one was doing “ideological work” for him.
Wu Yang: “D-d-iving h-h-im? I g-g-otta p-p-ick an a-a-ssassin m-m-age to d-d-ive h-h-im!”
Fugui: “Kekekeke, Beyond, just wait for this Great King to come dive you, kekeke—”
Ning Luzhao: “Are we going to practice like this every day?”
Zuo Chi felt the suggestion was good and nodded, “Sure.”
Beyond looked deathly pale. He stood up and grabbed another bottle of milk, seemingly attempting to use the milk to convince himself that Coach Zuo still cared about him very much.
“Wall, your shot-calling is a bit too detailed. You can simplify it a bit. Otherwise, when everyone is talking in the headsets, they might not be able to hear clearly.”
Wall agreed readily: “OK, I’ll change that.”
“Wu Yang, your main issue is economic distribution.”
How to yield gold to the jungler, helping the jungler clear camps, and when to hang out in the side lanes to pressure the enemy… these were all parts of “Macro Operations,” which were still quite advanced for the current league.
“I’ll tell you more about it in detail after the scrim this afternoon.”
“G-g-ot it, C-c-oach.”
Zuo Chi finally turned to Ning Luzhao. While he was talking to the others, the little Jungler-god had been keeping notes with his head down. His handwriting was very beautiful, standing out like a crane among a flock of chickens compared to the others’ hideous “dog-scratch” script. He had undoubtedly become the target of the other cubs, who were all clamoring for him to print a copy for them.
“Land, you and Wu Yang come find me after the scrim for remedial lessons—Fugui, what are you grinning for? Everyone has to take remedial lessons; we’re just doing it one by one.”
His energy was limited, and “Macro/Operations” was something that required attention to many small, detailed areas; it wasn’t something that could be explained all at once. If they could develop a basic prototype after practicing for two months, it would be very good.
A bit after 12:00 PM, after they had lunch in the cafeteria, the ASH coach proactively sent him a message.
[ASH Coach: Coach Zuo, don’t forget the 1:00 PM scrim.]
[Zuo Chi: Always-ready-for-battle.jpg]
[ASH Coach: Handshake.jpg]
Everyone attached great importance to the first scrim of the new five-man squad.
Half an hour early, the players had already returned to the training room, some testing their keyboards and others doing pre-match warm-ups to maintain their “feel.”
Zuo Chi knew that their synergy was still in its budding stage, so he didn’t put pressure on them: “Just play freely. It’s a scrim; losing is the best way to find problems. Of course, if we win, we’ll have extra late-night snacks!”
There was a superstition in the professional league: generally, those who were invincible in scrims wouldn’t win the championship in the main tournament.
Fans who followed the scene online knew that if a team kept winning scrims, the fans wouldn’t be happy at all. The official Weibo would be flooded with comments like:
[I beg of you, don’t be fooled by scrims! Those teams are letting you win scrims because they have bad intentions!!!]
However, Zuo Chi wasn’t worried about this at all.
Because Manager Li had told him that the previous VEX didn’t win a single game in the main split, and they were also a pile of garbage in scrims.
Building a house on ruins always came with very little psychological pressure.
At exactly 1:00 PM, ASH punctually pulled them into the prepared match room.
Zuo Chi had intentionally had them practice three sets of lineups during their five-man queues, and now they were put to use.
In the first round, ASH chose a middle-of-the-road lineup, the type that could fight against anything. Zuo Chi chose five heroes with “dive-in-the-face” initiation capabilities.
In the early game, neither side established a rhythm. During a mid-game dragon fight, the mid-top-jungle trio coordinated a great initiation. Beyond followed up with maximum damage, resulting in a “Sudden Death” teamfight for ASH. VEX took the first round.
In the second round, Zuo Chi gave Beyond a late-game hyper-carry marksman, with Land’s assassin jungle as the second core, and the other three positions as bodyguards. Compared to the first round, Wu Yang and Fugui were clearly not proficient enough with the “protect the marksman” playstyle, allowing ASH to win a round.
…
After playing the full five rounds, VEX narrowly won 3:2. The rounds they won were basically due to winning early-to-mid-game teamfights and initiations.
Exiting the scrim room, the players began discussing their in-game performances among themselves. Zuo Chi wasn’t in a hurry to review yet and greeted the ASH coach.
[Zuo Chi: Let’s scrim again in the future.]
[ASH Coach: Handshake.jpg x3]
[ASH Coach: Out of VEX’s new starters, I only recognize Wall and Land. The other three are all rookies, right?]
[Zuo Chi: Yes, they haven’t been on the professional stage yet.]
[ASH Coach: Rookie generals are truly fierce. I was just telling our players to look at how daring those rookies are with their initiations.]
[Zuo Chi: ASH’s late-game handling is much better than ours.]
This wasn’t just professional courtesy. Looking at these few scrim rounds, the ASH players had a lot of resilience; they had successfully defended their base and turned the game around several times after dragging it to the late game.
This was something they could learn from.
After finishing the chat with the ASH coach, the sounds of the players’ communication gradually quieted. Seeing him look up, the players all went silent, their eyes burning as they looked at him.
Zuo Chi stood up: “Land, Wu Yang. You two come with me first—remedial lessons.”
Translator’s Note:
- Sock Washing: In gaming houses, small bets or punishments like this are very common to keep the atmosphere light (or competitive!).
- Tenosynovitis (腱鞘炎): Also known as tendonitis. It’s a very common occupational injury for pro gamers due to repetitive clicking and high APM (Actions Per Minute).
- “Ideological Work” (思想工作): This is a very common Chinese term. It basically means having a heart-to-heart to align someone’s thinking, give them a pep talk, or resolve mental blocks.
- Scrim Superstitions: It’s a running joke in the LoL/MOBA community that being “Scrim Gods” means you’ll “choke” during the actual tournament.
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