Chapter 7: Tryout. Stomp Him or Bully Him?
He took a look at the youth training camp where Wang Fugui was located. It was also in Nancheng, the same city as the VEX base. It would only take about an hour’s drive to get there for a tryout.
“Manager, prepare the car. We’re going to the Nancheng Youth Training Camp in a bit.”
“Now?!”
“Yes!”
Zuo Chi saved Wang Fugui’s data and game videos, then walked quickly to Ning Luzhao’s side. Seeing that the other was practicing combos instead of playing ranked, he lightly patted the boy’s shoulder.
“Land, look at this trainee. He’s a solo laner.”
Ning Luzhao took the phone and watched seriously for over twenty minutes. “His laning details are very precise, and he’s quite daring in teamfights.”
This video was of a game where Wang Fugui ran into three professional players in ranked. Facing the starting solo laner of the top-four team WIN, Wang Fugui achieved a solo kill during the laning phase even without a clear hero counter, and he successfully shut down the enemy carries multiple times in teamfights.
“I looked at this trainee’s data. He’s a bit unstable, but his performance when in good form is excellent. He has quite a bit of potential—Manager Li has gone to get the car. Bring your peripheral bag and come with us to the Nancheng Youth Training Camp for a tryout.”
In the car, Manager Li called the person in charge of the training camp first.
The Autumn season hadn’t ended yet. Teams like VEX, which had no more matches and could buy players early during their “vacation,” were considered rare. The person in charge was extremely enthusiastic, recommending seven or eight trainees to them over the phone.
“Our camp has produced many good seeds this year. We have ‘National Server’ rank players for all heroes in several positions, and several have already had other teams express interest in purchasing them. If VEX is also interested, I can take you to try out those trainees later…”
Zuo Chi: “Can you give me the data for the solo lane trainees?”
“Of course! VEX needs a solo laner, right? Our camp’s ‘Top Pick’ is a solo lane player. He—”
“No need to go to the trouble. We can find a trainee to try out ourselves after we arrive.”
The training camp manager was confused: “…Do you have some concerns?”
“We’re short on money.”
“Our camp doesn’t sell people at high prices. As long as we can give the trainees a good destination, the price can be negotiated…”
Zuo Chi was sincere: “Our budget is only 500,000.”
“…Then you can enter the camp by showing your coaching license to the staff after you arrive. I have an urgent matter here, hanging up now.”
An hour and a half later, they arrived at the Nancheng Youth Training Camp.
Since the transfer window hadn’t opened yet, there weren’t many people coming and going. The staff member who received them gave them a paper document indicating the room numbers of the training rooms for all solo lane players, and then left.
Zuo Chi glanced at the document and quickly found the training room where Wang Fugui was located.
There were about ten trainees sitting in Training Room 3004. Perhaps because no coach was present, only two or three were still training. The others were huddled together, discussing the Autumn season and the transfer period tryouts. When they saw someone standing at the door, they scattered and returned to their computers in a flurry.
A chubby little guy sitting near the door was tapping his keyboard while muttering things like “kill him,” “don’t be a coward,” and “initiate, initiate!” Only after returning to the fountain did he take off his headphones and look at them. “Did you guys go to the wrong room?”
The chubby guy was fair and round, looking very cheerful and a bit familiar.
Zuo Chi: “Why do you say that?”
“You look unfamiliar, so you shouldn’t be the camp’s coaches. That means you’re from various teams looking to buy people. Our camp divides training rooms based on comprehensive rankings. The rooms for the top ten aren’t here; they’re next door.”
“Has no one come here to look for people for tryouts before?”
The chubby guy shook his head. “No one.”
Zuo Chi glanced at his computer screen. The chubby guy was playing on the Korean server and was already close to the top fifty.
“We didn’t go to the wrong room. we’re here to find someone for a tryout. Are you interested in a tryout? Also, which one is Wang Fugui?”
The chubby guy had been humming a song while waiting for his next game to find a match, but upon hearing this, he hurriedly canceled the matchmaking.
“I am Wang Fugui. You’re looking for me for a tryout?!”
Zuo Chi raised an eyebrow, hurriedly picked up the data in his hand, looked at the ID photo, and then looked at the joyful chubby guy before him.
The chubby guy chuckled. “I really am Wang Fugui. This ID photo was photoshopped quite a bit. Mainly, I’ve also gained over twenty pounds since coming to the training camp, so I don’t look much like the photo… Are you guys really here for me?”
Zuo Chi scrutinized him twice. Although the photo and the person were “like two different people” due to weight, he could still see similarities in the facial features.
“Yes, we’re really here for you. We’re from Team VEX. We’re missing a solo laner for next year’s Spring Split. Are you interested in trying out?”
They found an empty training room.
Wang Fugui followed them eagerly. In less than five minutes, his way of addressing them had changed from “Coach,” “Manager,” and “Land” to “Coach Zuo,” “Brother Li,” and “Ning-god.”
Since VEX’s starting roster needed a major overhaul, Zuo Chi didn’t arrange a conventional 5v5 tryout match.
“The rule for the tryout is five rounds of solo queue. You and Land will use the same solo lane hero for a 1v1 in each round. Whoever destroys the other’s crystal wins. Any problems?”
Wang Fugui logged into his account. “No problem!”
In the current version of Arena, many popular heroes for jungle and solo lane were interchangeable. Furthermore, since many macro strategies and systems had not yet appeared in the professional league in this world, most team matches were just brawls from start to finish, with dozens of kills occurring in a single round. A player’s individual strength accounted for a large portion of their performance. Therefore, arranging a solo match was enough to see Wang Fugui’s mechanical skills.
As for teamfight coordination, how to play macros, and training systems, those would need to be gradually refined after the starting five were gathered.
For the first round of the solo match, Zuo Chi specified the solo lane hero with the highest current pick rate in matches: “Skeleton Duke.”
Skeleton Duke had displacement on all four skills and a flexible playstyle, but the difficulty of operation was very high. There were many “funeral-reel” and “highlight-reel” moments on the stage.
Entering the solo match, both sides took Flash as their summoner spell and bought a piece of cloth armor for defense.
The minion waves met, and both chose to hit the backline minions first to rush Level 2.
The leveling numbers jumped out almost simultaneously. Both sides threw out a Q-W combo at each other, then postured near the river brush, keeping an eye on the health of the river creep.
In a solo match, the river creep respawned every two minutes. It was very important for reaching Level 6 first and gaining a gold lead.
The second wave of minions met. Wang Fugui landed two critical hits with his basic attacks and finished the minions first. After taking the river creep with a Q and basic attack, he hit Level 3.
At this point, Ning Luzhao’s experience bar was still a bit short.
[First Blood!]
Wang Fugui took First Blood.
At five minutes, Wang Fugui used the advantage of First Blood to hit Level 6 first. He tried to dive under the tower following the minion wave, but ended up being outplayed after dodging skills and was killed in a counter-play.
At ten minutes, the kill score was tied.
At thirteen minutes, the two had a fight in the river and both returned to base with slivers of health.
This solo match dragged on for nearly thirty minutes before it was declared over. Wang Fugui destroyed the crystal and took the first round.
Zuo Chi said nothing, only asking, “Do you need to rest?”
Ning Luzhao shook his head.
Wang Fugui also waved his hand.
In the second round, it was still a meta-strong hero.
After Ning Luzhao got First Blood, he made no mechanical errors. His gold advantage continued to expand, and Wang Fugui could barely leave his tower.
Zuo Chi observed Wang Fugui’s play. Although he was under pressure under the tower, he missed almost no minion last-hits. His fundamentals were very solid, and he didn’t get hot-headed and charge in to feed.
The second solo match ended in less than twenty minutes, and the score was tied.
For the third round, Zuo Chi chose a relatively niche hero to test Wang Fugui’s hero pool.
The opponent’s mechanics were very fluid, and his damage calculations were precise.
By the time they reached the fifth round tiebreaker, Manager Li was already sitting aside, tiredly resting his eyes. The two players still looked in good spirits. Ning Luzhao’s expression was calm, while Wang Fugui was red-faced with excitement, incessantly discussing the previous solo match with Ning Luzhao.
Entering the BP interface, Zuo Chi did not specify a hero.
“Land, I’ll play this round.”
The training room went silent for an instant. After a brief freeze in Ning Luzhao’s dark grey eyes, he rose and gave the gaming chair to Zuo Chi.
“Ning-god, Coach Zuo… isn’t Coach Zuo the coach for VEX?” Wang Fugui looked at them blankly. “Coach, Coach Zuo, you’re personally playing against me?”
“Yes.”
To be honest, Zuo Chi had secretly checked his own attribute entries in the mirror this morning.
[Name: Zuo Chi. ID: Don’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns. Position: Coach.]
[Unknown Entry: You might become an excellent support, but trust me, you’re still better suited to be an esports coach.]
His main position was support, and his skill level was about the same as some technical streamers. However, he wasn’t very proficient with solo lane heroes. He was personally getting on stage to fight Wang Fugui mainly because he wanted to see to what extent the opponent’s [Stronger Against the Strong, Weaker Against the Weak] entry could go. Wang Fugui had fought back and forth with Ning Luzhao; surely he wouldn’t suddenly become trash just because the opponent changed to him, right?
“Don’t be nervous. Just play against me normally.”
After the fifth round started, Zuo Chi realized his words were completely redundant.
Because the fifth round turned into a complete and utter slaughter.
At ten minutes, after Wang Fugui had chased him all the way from the first tower to the high ground to take his head, he looked at the scoreboard and said somewhat awkwardly: “Coach, Coach… are we continuing this?”
Zuo Chi looked at his score of four deaths in ten minutes and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“…No need.”
It seemed that even for [Weaker Against the Weak], there was a bottom line. At least he could still easily bully someone at Zuo Chi’s level.
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