League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Master, K and I are now in the Challenger Rank, haha! Challenger Rank!” Xu Ben’s voice from the other side of the phone came bursting out in hysterical laughter.

Under Luocheng’s guidance, Xu Ben had improved drastically, as did his win rate. He had managed to reach the Challenger Rank slightly earlier than Luocheng had expected.

“Master, where are you now? I heard that there’s an arrogant team that has surfaced near Shaoxing recently. They were bragging that the provincial champion was theirs for the taking. They even claimed that they had fought Team Dusk before and the scores were very close. Bloody braggarts. What’s there to be proud of? I bet the LPL team only treated them as training bots.” Xu Ben was on fire.

“I am now in Shanghai looking for a high-class cyber café. We plan to dock in and earn some extra cash while playing for free. What’s the name of the team that you just mentioned?” Luocheng asked.

“Team Zhejiang,” Xu Ben answered.

“Team Zhejiang? Are they the official provincial team from your region?” Luocheng was stunned.

Recently, some groups had begun to insert city or province names directly into their team name, and it seemed that these teams were acknowledged by the General Administration of Sport and CGA.

To be able to name a team according to the province was no simple matter. In traditional sports such as basketball, soccer, swimming, and many more, athletes that were accepted into the provincial team were usually among the best in the country!

Currently, in China, most LOL teams usually played under the name of their organization or internet club. Even though sometimes participating teams in nationwide competitions such as the Coca Cola Cup or Champions War would be regarded as a team from a certain province, they were just representing the area in that particular competition and did not have the right to use it permanently.

Thus, Luocheng was startled when he heard that there was such a team called Team Zhejiang now.

He remembered several years back when E-sports was still unpopular, he had asked some veterans as to why E-sports in this country did not have an official championship like other sports.

The person who had given Luocheng the answer at that time was Li Tuchuan.

Tuchuan had joined E-sports way earlier than Luocheng, and he had patiently explained to Luocheng that even though the government had listed E-sports as the 99th official sport in China, in reality, there wasn’t any association founded to support its development.

Almost all sports programs were tied to their respective associations. Without it, there wouldn’t be any media coverage, support, or regulations coming from the administration. Even if someone in the authority had the intention to organize a national championship, it would be too difficult to realize since there was no appropriate association to oversee the project.

Why was the country still lacking such an association even after E-sports had become so wildly popular in the country? This was no longer at a mere university level, but that of region, city, province, and all the way to the national scale.

The International E-sports Federation had long been established, and other countries such as Korea, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and many more, already had their own E-sports association. It was a norm in these countries that official championships equivalent to that of the CBA were held frequently.

CBA was the acronym of the Chinese Basketball Association, and it seemed that nobody knew what the E-sports association in China was called.

Simply put, such an organization was non-existent. In China, any sports program under the Administration of Sport was not allowed to stand alone from its association, however, the Ministry of Civil Affairs had refused to approve the formation of the E-sports Association till this day.

“Why is that so?” Luocheng had asked Tuchuan back then.

Tuchuan had laughed bitterly. “You should have seen the sign “Under 18 is prohibited” when you were younger, right? To put it frankly, the officer from the Civil Affair would not recognize any activity labeled as detrimental to teenagers.”

“This country is still not ready to accept E-sports, after all. Without the country’s recognition, E-sports will always be viewed as a negative hobby. Family teaching here often follows the government standard, so if the government says no, it means no.”

In Luocheng’s memory, that had been their final conversation, because after that, Tuchuan had courageously left the country with his limited assets.

As for Luocheng, he had been focused solely on playing at that time and did not realize the importance of these political matters.

However, as he grew older and gained more life experience, Luocheng began to realize how vital these things were.

There had to be a lot of teenagers like himself, whereby their ambition to be successful in this field was restricted by the so-called family value. Such a tragedy would not end as long as E-sports was not acknowledged by the authorities, and the professional players would never be truly accepted by society as well.

The Ministry of Education and Civil Affairs indeed had the responsibility to prevent teenagers from falling prey to video game addiction, nonetheless, Luocheng wanted to tell the world that the one thing he was so passionate about was not just the game in itself, but the fact that it was a competitive sport!

‘Please learn to differentiate E-sports from video game addiction!’

***

Back to the problem at hand.

If the E-sports Association was non-existent, how could a team use the name ‘Zhejiang’?

“They named it themselves. Is there any problem? I guess it does no harm since no other team is using the same name at the moment, and besides, they are indeed unbeatable around the Zhejiang region for the time-being,” Xu Ben said.

“I see… I thought they were directly under Zhejiang’s authority,” Luocheng realized he had misunderstood.

The team was simply using Zhejiang as a name, just like Team Skycrown, Team Dust, etc.

It would be an entirely different scenario if they were representing Zhejiang instead. To represent a province in a sports event meant that you were actually shouldering the pride of the entire region. Provincial sportsmen and sportswomen often enjoyed better privileges due to the honor they might bring to their province.

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me they are actually very good?” Xu Ben asked.

Luocheng replied, “It’s nothing, don’t mind me.”

After he hung up, Luocheng shook his head and laughed to himself. ‘I am thinking too much.’ For a brief moment, he had thought that the governing body had approved the development of the E-sports association.

Currently, all the expenses spent on event promotions and the majority of the tournaments were borne by Tencent.

Despite the popularity, lucrative prizes, and media attention, these events were still considered “private” and “non-official”.

Luocheng sincerely hoped that E-sports would be fully accepted and acknowledged by the government one day. Only then would he and his compatriots see the light at the end of the tunnel.

***

Through the Baidu maps, Meiqi located a high-class internet café easily.

Just about one kilometer away from their residence, Feng Mei Condominium, there was an internet café named Demacia.

The café had changed its name just recently, and the reason was simple—this café wanted to ride on the tide of LOL as well. The owner must have been thinking of turning this place into a landmark where pilgrims of LOL would gather and yell “Demacia!”.

“This is the café we’re looking for. It seems as though lady luck is still smiling on us. This place is quite near to our new home!” Jian Feng smiled in satisfaction.

He was especially pleased with their new place. There were four rooms in the house, and the five members had selected their own rooms first. Team Skycrown had occupied three of the rooms and reserved one for Meiqi and Jian Feng.

Meiqi planned to stay at the condo on days when she didn’t have any classes. Jian Feng had drooled over the opportunity to share the same room with Meiqi, only to be kicked out and moved into Wu Sen’s room bitterly.

Four rooms and seven tenants, just nice!

When six men and one woman lived under the same roof, it was hard for the guys not to imagine who would become the first to get laid.

However, the six of them had trembled when Meiqi herself had made the first move and suggested seductively that she was going to decide who would be her companion every night.

‘You win, my queen!’

“Let’s go in,” Meiqi led them into the cafe.

Lately, Meiqi had grown familiar with such business after meeting with numerous café owners. On the contrary, Luocheng and Jian Feng appeared much less comfortable. They were akin to two inferior subordinates cowering behind their imposing lady boss.

***

After they had obtained the contact number of the owner, Meiqi immediately made the call.

Meiqi’s soft and gentle tone was often difficult to resist. The owner seemed interested and promised to meet up later during the evening.

The coffee at the Demacia Internet Café was just so-so, but other than that, the café did have a presentable bar counter, rest area, and VIP zone.

The owner appeared on time. He was a handsome man in his thirties and introduced himself as Mr. Lei.

“So, will your team use our café name?” Mr. Lei asked.

Meiqi shook her head. “We are not going to change our team name. We will only accept sponsorship and wish to be stationed in your café.”

Mr. Lei frowned. “Why should I sponsor you when you are not going to help promote my café?”

“Mr. Lei, I think you still fail to grasp the actual situation. First of all, I believe your Demacia café is only known around this Jingan area. People who come to your café are those living nearby, so, simply adopting your café’s name is meaningless,” Meiqi explained.

“Hmph. Are you implying that your team is more famous than our café?” The manager of the café who had joined the meeting snorted at Meiqi.

The manager of this café was called Xiao Duo Duo. He was also a LOL player and had formed Team Demacia in the past. The team had been one of the top teams in Shanghai, but due to internal disputes, they had just disbanded not too long ago.

Despite not having a qualified team, Demacia café was still a hot spot in Shanghai. A lot of players had purposely come to get a taste of the LOL-themed café, and the owner’s decision to change the café’s name was proven timely and wise.

The barging in of this unknown team and their unreasonable request thus made the proud manager feel agitated. This team was acting high and mighty, refusing to play under their café’s name. ‘If these people are really as great as they’re bragging, why don’t they just join a club instead? Why come to our café?’

Meiqi had obviously noticed Duo Duo’s discontent, and she replied calmly, “Our team name is very important to the members so it has to remain. After we finish the pre-season qualifications, we will announce that Demacia Café is the team’s main sponsor on our main page. By then, our fame will surely bring you more customers than you have ever imagined.”

“What’s the use of that? What is your team called?” Xiao Duo Duo didn’t even try to hide his disdain.

“Team Skycrown,” Meiqi answered steadily.

“How many subscriptions has your main page, Weibo, and WeChat, amassed so far?” Mr. Lei was far more reasonable and asked carefully.

“We are still working on it…” Meiqi said.

“Then why the f*ck are you wasting our time?” The manager was infuriated.

Despite his lack of manners, Meiqi did not budge. She paid no attention to the manager’s rant and chose to forgive his ignorance.