Jiang Mo stayed at the Chi Yu’s house for two days. Chi Yu had emphasized to him that if he didn’t like it, he could refuse.
Every time, Chi Yu’s mother would look at him with pitiful eyes. Jiang Mo couldn’t bring himself to refuse. During these two days, he was asked to change into several different styles of clothing by Chi Yu’s mother several times. Wearing these clothes wasn’t embarrassing, but the most embarrassing part was that in the evening, Chi Yu would insist on him wearing them again, and the result wasn’t as simple as Chi Yu’s mother just taking photos for him.
It was supposed to be a break, but it was even more tiring than training camp.
After returning to the Lu family, Jiang Mo finally took a breath of relief. At least at home, with his parents and his brother around, Chi Yu wouldn’t do anything to him. However, the cuddling and kissing at night were still inevitable.
The summer championship prize money was two million. The team didn’t want this money, so Chi Yu distributed it among the team members. Manager Da Tian didn’t discriminate, and even the members of the second team who didn’t participate received a small share, as a reward for their hard work over the year.
The first team consisted of five main players, along with Jiang Mo and Xiao Xi as substitutes, totaling seven people. After deducting the share for the second team and buying snacks for the youth trainees, Jiang Mo received a prize money of 250,000.
He gave his family 50,000 when he returned home and saved the rest in his account.
Upon hearing from Lu Yu that Jiang Mo had won the championship, Lu’s father and Lu’s mother were both very happy. When Jiang Mo returned, they prepared a grand feast to celebrate. During these two days at home, Jiang Mo had gained a little weight, and some of the flesh on his face had returned, not much, but enough to please Chi Yu for a while.
Not long after returning to the Lu family, Jiang Mo received a call from Jiang Ying.
Having spent too long in the team, Jiang Mo’s memory seemed to be malfunctioning. Even though it was a matter from the first half of the year, it felt like it had been several years. Seeing the names of the people in the small room again, Jiang Mo had a moment of confusion.
“So, you’ve forgotten about me so quickly, that’s quite heartbreaking,” Jiang Ying lamented on the other end of the phone. “If I hadn’t joined the crew for filming, I would have visited you much earlier. I know you started your professional gaming career, and your boyfriend didn’t want me to disturb your training. So now, seeing that you’ve won the championship, I dare to call and congratulate you!”
“Thank you,” Jiang Mo replied happily. Among the guests in the small room, he only felt comfortable chatting with Jiang Ying.
The fact that Jiang Ying remembered him and contacted him made him very happy.J
iang Ying said, “I just finished filming, and my manager has given me a month off. I assume you’re on break too. Can I come and visit you? Ask your boyfriend if it’s okay.”
Jiang Mo blushed at being referred to as a boyfriend by Jiang Ying and, in a rebellious moment, agreed without thinking, “Feel free to come. You don’t need to ask for Chi Yu’s opinion.”
Jiang Ying chuckled and said, “You may not care, but I do. I’m afraid that if I don’t inform him, he’ll think I’m here to steal his boyfriend.”
Jiang Mo: “…”
Jiang Mo listened to Jiang Ying’s words, went to the living room, and inquired with Chi Yu. After receiving Chi Yu’s consent, he relayed the information to Jiang Ying.
Jiang Ying acted swiftly and, being nearby for filming, arrived at Jiang Mo’s house within a few hours.
The house was too small to accommodate Jiang Ying, and he didn’t need Jiang Mo’s care. He had already booked a nearby hotel before coming.
While they were in the small room, and even though their relationship hadn’t been officially defined, Jiang Ying was still a guest on O group. Therefore, it was only natural for Chi Yu to be cautious about him. After leaving the small room, Jiang Mo was accompanied by Jiang Ying, but Chi Yu didn’t follow them. He stayed at home to play games with Lu Yu.
The imaginary rival didn’t matter; what mattered was pleasing his older brother-in-law.
…
Jiang Ying and Jiang Mo were both public figures, so they didn’t dare to linger on the streets. They bought two cups of milk tea at a nearby shop and then entered a hotpot restaurant.
They requested a private room and both removed their masks and hats.
Because of his filming schedule, Jiang Ying had lost some weight since their time in the small room, but he remained as handsome as ever.
“Nice hair,” Jiang Ying said with a cheeky smile.
Jiang Mo blushed at the compliment and replied, “Th-thank you.”
“I didn’t realize it before, but you’re really a gaming material. I thought you only played cards. When I asked you what games you liked, you didn’t mention that you played League of Legends. I’ve played it a few times before, but I’m not very good. Maybe you can teach me sometime,” Jiang Ying suggested.
“Sure!”Jiang Ying, in the presence of someone familiar, became more talkative.
During the meal, Jiang Ying did most of the talking, with Jiang Mo occasionally chiming in with his own thoughts.
Before, Jiang Mo had moved on from the people and events of the past. Since leaving the small room, he hadn’t kept up with the activities of those people.
Through Jiang Ying’s gossip, Jiang Mo learned about the current situations of the other people from the small room:
Shen An, after enduring Ye Lin’s actions for so many years, finally couldn’t take it anymore. He had a heart-to-heart talk with his parents after returning home and revealed everything that Ye Lin had done behind their backs. Shen’s parents finally realized the extent of their debt to Ye Lin and repaid it in full. Shen An’s career was still thriving, and Ye Lin’s actions had actually boosted his popularity. His fanbase was even larger than before.
As for Ye Lin, after the show ended, without the support of the Shen family, he couldn’t survive in the entertainment industry. He went back to being an internet celebrity, but his loyal fans had already abandoned him, and nobody watched his videos. The comments were filled with criticism, and he couldn’t continue in the internet celebrity circle. He had deleted his accounts and disappeared.
Since Jiang Mo left, Lou An no longer followed Lu Xuan around. He had also seen the truth online and was disappointed in Lu Xuan. After the show, he, like Shen An, returned to filming. He had been introduced to a promising person through his family, and they were getting along well. It was expected that they would have good news soon.
Lu Xuan had changed his name to Jiang Xuan. His career had suffered a significant blow. The Jiang family had adopted a nine-year-old child from a welfare home, known for being highly intelligent and even skipping grades. Jiang Xuan’s parents treated the child as a treasure and paid little attention to Jiang Xuan. It was also rumored that Jiang Xuan’s mother and his manager had taken a substantial amount of money from him, and they were now embroiled in a legal battle. Nobody knew what the future held for them, but because of Jiang Xuan’s mother and manager’s actions, Jiang Xuan had gained a following of sympathetic fans. Jiang Ying hadn’t kept up with the details, but he believed that if Jiang Xuan worked hard and stayed on the right path, he could have a bright future.
As for Li Heng, he was doing well, just like Lou An. In a short span of a few months, he had been in two relationships, and it seemed like he had broken up with the current one.
“On the first day we spent time together, I could tell that Li Heng is indeed a playboy, just as the rumors say. Fortunately, I wasn’t interested in him,” Jiang Ying commented.
Being a playboy wasn’t the issue; Li Heng didn’t play both sides when he was in a relationship. He was completely devoted during a relationship, with no overlapping, and he only started a new one after a clean break. However, his quick transitions between partners were quite unreliable.
Jiang Mo chuckled and, following Jiang Ying’s comment, casually asked, “So, what type of person do you like?”
Shen An and Lou An were both quite reliable, and Jiang Ying hadn’t shown an interest in them.
Jiang Ying replied, “Good-looking, I suppose. As long as they can handle me, I’ll like them.”
Jiang Mo looked perplexed, not quite understanding Jiang Ying’s peculiar criteria for selecting a partner. “Handle” him? Did Jiang Ying like being controlled by someone?
…
After finishing the hotpot, it was already evening when they returned.
Jiang Mo wanted to accompany Jiang Ying to the hotel, but Jiang Ying declined, stating that Jiang Mo was younger and there was no need for him to see him off.
Jiang Ying saw Jiang Mo off at the building’s entrance, patting his hat brim and saying, “You must be packing to return to the training center tomorrow. I won’t bother you. Good luck in the competition. I’ll be watching every match, and when you make it to the finals, I’ll buy tickets to watch the games live at the venue.”
Jiang Mo nodded, resolute as he said, “You must come to watch our matches in person.”
“You sound so confident,” Jiang Ying said with a serious expression that was too cute. Unable to resist, Jiang Ying, taking advantage of Chi Yu’s absence, reached out and pinched Jiang Mo’s cheek.
It was soft, just like the sensation he remembered.
“Hurry upstairs,” Jiang Ying withdrew his hand and urged.
“Be careful when you go back, alright?” Jiang Mo was still concerned and added, “And send me a message when you get to the hotel!”
“What message?” Lu Yu, yawning, emerged from the warehouse alley a short distance away and heard Jiang Mo’s voice.
“Big brother,” Jiang Mo obediently called out.
“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Lu Yu responded and glanced at Jiang Ying standing beside Jiang Mo.
Taller by half a head, dressed stylishly with his face masked, a chestnut-colored hair tousled by the wind revealed a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes. Just looking at the top half of his face, he didn’t seem very old, probably around the same age as Jiang Mo.
“I’m…I’m about to go upstairs. This is my friend, Jiang Ying,” Jiang Mo introduced.
Lu Yu asked, “Is he going back alone?”
Jiang Mo replied, “Yeah.”
Lu Yu rubbed his somewhat sore forehead; he had just had a heated argument with that woman, Tan Yaya, about a business matter. His head still hurt. He had to be a pig to choose people he knew as his subordinates in the future.
“I’ll escort you,” Lu Yu offered, wanting to step out and get some fresh air to calm down. He said to Jiang Ying, “I know the hotel is nearby, about 800 meters away, right? It’s quite lively around here during the day, but it gets quieter past a certain time, and it’s even quieter near the hotel. It’s not safe for you to go alone. Let me accompany you.”
“You really don’t need to, it’s not too much trouble,” Jiang Ying replied, donning his figurative mask in front of a stranger, his voice sounding very docile.
“You’re Mo Mo’s friend; it’s only natural,” Lu Yu looked at Jiang Ying and explained, “I’m going to buy some late-night snacks over there, and I just happened to pass by. Let’s go.”
Jiang Ying pursed his lips and remained silent, essentially agreeing.
Late-night snacks.
Jiang Mo felt a bit tempted, and Lu Yu noticed his thoughts. He walked up and patted Jiang Mo’s hat, saying, “You just had dinner and now you want to eat again? Why do you like junk food so much? Be careful not to turn into junk. Go upstairs quickly, or I’ll tell Chi Yu that you’re eating junk food again.”
Jiang Mo: “…” If you’re saying this about me, then what about you going to buy junk food?
After resting for a little over a week, Jiang Mo and Chi Yu returned to the training center.
Manager Da Tian had already notified the cleaning staff to prepare the rooms, so they didn’t need to tidy up. Once all the team members gathered, they would start their training.
The LOL World Championship is divided into the Play-In Stage, Group Stage, and Knockout Stage. SVP was the champion of both the Spring and Summer splits, making them the top-seeded team from the LPL region. The other top seeds were from PG, UN, and RAG, and their rankings were determined by their scores from the Spring and Summer splits.
Currently, there are 12 regions in the LOL World Championship, including the four major regions and eight wildcard regions.The four major regions are LPL
Out of these regions, LPL, LCK, and LEC each have four slots to participate in the World Championship, while LCS has three.
The top three seeds from LPL, LCK, and LEC, as well as the top two seeds from LCS and the top seed from PCS
SVP didn’t have to worry about the Play-In Stage, but the drawing ceremony had to take place in advance. The league officials needed to conduct a fair and transparent draw to determine the groupings.
On the evening of the drawing ceremony, the official livestream had already surpassed tens of millions of viewers.
Every team had stopped training, eagerly awaiting the results of the draw.
Once the Play-In Stage groups were drawn, it was time for the Group Stage draw.
The Group Stage draw rules stipulated that the first seeds from the four major regions would be placed into one draw pool, the second seeds into another, and the third seeds the same way. Starting with drawing the first team for groups A, B, C, and D from the first seed pool, then moving to the second seed pool to draw the second team, and so on. Each group had to consist of teams from different regions, with no two teams from the same region in a single group.
Currently, there were only twelve teams, but there were only three spots in each of the four groups. The remaining spot in each group would be filled by one of the four teams that advanced from the Play-In Stage.
The draw was conducted by a few retired foreign players, and the barrage of comments filled with their names and fond memories appeared on the screen. Without saying much more, the drawing ceremony began.
[“Please, please, make a good draw!”]
[“Ah, I don’t ask for anything else; I just hope UN gets an easier team. Please, not EK!”]
[“Don’t be so timid. We need to go all out. If we can knock EK out of the top eight, that would be the best.”]
[“Joking aside, that’s EK we’re talking about.”]
[“So what if it’s EK? They’re the top seed from the Korean region, and our region has a top seed too! When SVP meets EK, we might not necessarily lose!”]
[“Hush, don’t be so sure before the match. I’m afraid of jinxing it!”]
[“What are you afraid of? Don’t you believe in SVP’s strength?”]
Jiang Mo didn’t pay much attention to the Group Stage draw. They would have to face whatever team they were drawn against. Their goal was the World Championship, and they could potentially face any opponents. As the top seed, losing to the second or third seeds or teams that advanced from the Play-In Stage would be a disgrace.
The coach and his teammates were nervous, lacking Jiang Mo’s confidence.
Jiang Mo continued to eat his half-eaten burger. Thanks to Chi Yu’s supervision, he rarely had the chance to indulge in junk food, and today, with Chi Yu’s permission, his food had just been delivered. He was worried that the food would get cold if he waited for the results, as these things were best enjoyed while hot.
As the team owner, Chi Yu shows little concern for the team’s performance in matches, but he gets a bit nervous only when Jiang Mo is on the field.
He sits next to Jiang Mo, keeping him company and occasionally handing him tissues to wipe away sauce from the corners of his mouth.
The results of the group draw are out.
They are placed in Group A, and their opponents are the Korean second seed G10 team and the European third seed SY team. The third team is still unknown.
“Phew, SY team is okay, but G10 is a bit challenging,” Tao Zi says.
A’Kang gives Tao Zi a headshot and scolds, “Say something like that again, and you’ll have to train for an additional 2 hours.”
Tao Zi: “I’m sorry.”
Jiang Mo has encountered G10 team three times in world competitions. Anyone who follows the matches knows that LCK likes to play the macro game, and each match takes a long time to unfold. Even without intense team fights, they strive to create even more advantages. After watching a match, people often feel tired, but their mentality remains strong. G10 team, however, is one of the few teams in LCK that do not play the macro game.
G10’s jungle duo has been together in the team for three years, and they have reached a level of understanding where they don’t even need to speak to know what the other is thinking.
In terms of individual skill, Jiang Mo can confidently say that he doesn’t lose to any League of Legends player. But in terms of synergy, Jiang Mo and Tao Zi still can’t catch up with G10’s jungle duo.
After all, this game is not a solo show; it’s a team game.
Jiang Mo doesn’t only think about himself.
The group stage draw is out, and Coach A’Kang doesn’t give the players any relaxation time. The tasks are tough, and none of the players dare to complain.
In the relentless day and night training, the one-week long qualifiers finally come to an end. The wildcard regions have risen later and have an overall lower skill level compared to the four major regions. Every year at the World Championships, their regions are nowhere to be found, and the championship trophies are consistently won by teams from the four major regions. In this year’s qualifiers, they couldn’t secure a spot against the teams from the four major regions.
The four teams that made it through the qualifiers automatically joined the previously drawn group stage. SVP’s third opponent is the North American team CAL.
…
SVP’s match officially starts three days later at the outdoor venue of the Summer Season Finals. There are a total of sixteen teams in the group stage, with 16 advancing to the top 8. The teams are divided into four groups, and each team plays two matches against the other teams in their group. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.
SVP’s first match in the group stage is against CAL. Two games, one win equals one point, and they aim to keep all the points to themselves.In the first game, as expected, Xia Zeyu takes the stage, and Jiang Mo had previously analyzed that CAL’s jungler was not as strong as Xia Zeyu. With Xie Ning and Tang Zi in the team, as long as Tao Zi and Xia Zeyu perform steadily, there is no need for him to play. Just as he predicted, SVP easily takes two points from CAL.
With a good start, the team’s social media is celebrating, but now they have to face the European SY team.
The first game against SY is exceptionally challenging, and it ends with a beautiful team fight led by Xie Ning’s Kai’Sa
In the LPL region, Xia Zeyu’s health has recovered well, but as soon as he stepped onto the world stage, his old habit of nervousness resurfaced. Afraid that Xia Zeyu might make a mistake, Coach A’Kang decided to let Jiang Mo play in the second game.
RAG’s coach believed that Jiang Mo, being a rookie, had the advantage of being a newcomer. However, if limited to domestic matches, the RAG coach’s opinion was incorrect.
Throughout the summer season, Jiang Mo openly acknowledged that he was Moo, even welcoming opponents to analyze his previous rank videos. Though he didn’t have many appearances during the summer season, he gave his best in every game, providing ample material for analysis. If they couldn’t figure him out, it was their lack of preparation.
For teams from foreign regions, Jiang Mo was truly a newcomer. Knowing their opponents were SVP, coaches from other regions stayed up late studying SVP’s jungler, Xia Zeyu. They also gathered some information about Jiang Mo, but their analysis wasn’t as thorough as it was for the starting players.
After watching the video of Jiang Mo’s quadra kill, SY team’s coach banned Jiang Mo’s Lee Sin
He allowed Jiang Mo to play Graves, a champion Jiang Mo had secured a pentakill with in a previous game. The coach believed that in terms of laning, Graves was less threatening than Fiddlesticks and Lee Sin.
Moreover, there were too many champions that could restrict Graves’ damage output. As long as they controlled him, even for a second, their team could dispatch Graves.
SY team’s coach thought this way, but not even ten minutes into the game, he received a harsh wake-up call—Xie Ning was caught by the enemy top laner in a skirmish, and with no Flash available, he was taken down with coordinated efforts from the enemy. At this point, the enemy top laner Gnar
Gragas had already used his ultimate ability while catching Xie Ning, and he wanted to get close to Graves. However, Gravesused his ultimate ability to fire in the direction Gnar was escaping, displacing himself backward and dodging Gragas’s approach once more. He used his W ability, Smoke Screen, to obstruct Gragas’s vision, and after delivering a full rotation of attacks, Gnar had already fallen, and Gragas was significantly weakened, forced to retreat. However, Graves didn’t let him escape and chased him under the turret, securing the kill.
—Double kill
SY’s mid laner was on his way to assist in this skirmish, and while Graves was fighting the two, he kept an eye on the minimap, making sure he didn’t leave the enemy turret’s attack range, and ultimately took down the turret.
The kill notification showed that Graves was killed by the turret.
In other words, in that skirmish, Gragas didn’t even touch Graves.
[“What the heck? Is this something a human can do? What was Gragas doing? Is it even possible to dodge his E?”]
[“You should say that Wish’s positioning is insane!”]
[“SY’s midlaner must be so frustrated, going there for nothing, just to watch the enemy team’s bounty increase.”]
[“Jiang Mo: I can defend the turret, but you have to leave some for me.”]
[“I’m getting goosebumps from watching this play, so why did SY’s coach let his male gun
SY’s coach looked grim. He really underestimated Wish’s male gun. If he had known earlier, he would rather ban three jungle champions than let Wish’s male gun out.
In this game, Jiang Mo’s performance was excellent. Every move was on point. During team fights, thanks to Xie Ning drawing enemy fire in the front, he had space to deal damage. With his high burst damage and insane positioning, he barely got hit by the enemy’s crowd control abilities.
The most crucial moment was during the Baron Nashor team fight, where the male gun secured a triple kill. Baron Nashor was taken by SVP, and SY lost three high ground turrets and their inhibitor turret, with the nexus turrets falling as well. The economic gap had become insurmountable, and they could only defend their base and clear waves.
SVP chose a conservative approach. After taking down the enemy’s three crystal inhibitors, they went back to their base to upgrade their equipment before making a final push for the enemy’s high ground.With super minions on all three lanes and their strong damage output, SY couldn’t withstand SVP’s assault.
In the second match of the group stage, SVP earned two points.
Before the match began, the foreign audience saw a new face appearing on SVP’s roster and initially thought he was cute with his white hair. However, after the game ended, they retracted their ‘cute‘ label.
Cute my foot!
How could the adorable-looking white-haired boy on the stage be the ruthless demon king who was mercilessly killing on the battlefield?!
…
Before this, G10’s coach had paid little attention to SVP’s substitute rookie. The rookie had no major tournament experience, LPL had never won a world championship, and the strongest LPL teams weren’t even in the same league as their Korean teams. So, why would they fear a mere substitute jungler?
However, after witnessing SY’s defeat and learning from their mistakes, G10’s coach became more vigilant in the third match.
G10’s coach put in a lot of effort, meticulously reviewing Jiang Mo’s Summer Split matches several times, and finally developed several counter tactics.
On the day of the match, SVP’s starting player was still Xia Zeyu. G10’s coach wasn’t surprised; it was a normal choice. He had also studied Xia Zeyu and knew that he tended to get nervous during big tournaments, and applying pressure would cause him to crumble.
However, the result left him disappointed.
Xia Zeyu’s performance today wasn’t as nervous as when facing SY, and he managed to hold on during the tough jungle coordination against G10. In the bot lane, Tang Zi, with Xie Ning’s teleport support, secured a triple kill in a skirmish, setting the pace for the whole game and winning the first match.
G10’s coach remained calm despite the loss, thinking that losing this game was okay, they could bounce back in the next one.
He expected that Jiang Mo would play in the second match. However, to his surprise, Xia Zeyu was still the one to take the stage in the second match.
In the second game, Xia Zeyu seemed to have experienced a sudden transformation. He went from being on the defensive to an aggressive stance, frequently roaming with Tao Zi, who had a reputation for avoiding combat. Their attacks hit the mark several times, leaving G10 caught off guard.
If the camera had zoomed in on Xia Zeyu’s and Tao Zi’s eyes, you would have seen their heavy dark circles and bloodshot eyes.
Jiang Mo hadn’t been busy with his own training these past few days. He had played numerous ranked games with Xie Ning, and his synergy with the bot lane duo, Tang Zi and Li Yuan, was quite solid. Only with Tao Zi did they need to fine-tune their coordination. Jiang Mo was patient, and for the past few days, he had focused on supervising Xia Zeyu and Tao Zi.
G10 had a jungle coordination strategy, and so did SVP. Xia Zeyu and Tao Zi were initially struggling, but under Jiang Mo’s relentless coaching, they achieved the results seen today. Before the second game, Jiang Mo had sternly threatened the two, saying that if they didn’t cooperate properly, they wouldn’t get to eat, and they would have to train for several hours first when they returned.
Xia Zeyu and Tao Zi were most obedient to Jiang Mo’s words.
For the sake of food and their master’s praise, they gave it their all to showcase their abilities.
G10’s jungle duo was formidable, and G10’s coach aimed to disrupt Jiang Mo’s jungle area using their coordination. With the current synergy between Tao Zi and Jiang Mo, Jiang Mo decided not to engage. He knew the opponents were well-prepared, and with no certainty of winning, he maximized his chances by relying on Xia Zeyu, who had worked with Tao Zi for a longer time.
Fortunately, both Xia Zeyu and Peach lived up to his expectations.
In the group stage, SVP achieved a clean sweep, entering the knockout stage as the top seed.
After the match, G10’s coach was livid. Wish didn’t even play. He wondered why he had spent so much time studying Wish.
Aphelios should be Graves
Aphelios has no E dash or W smokescreen