Rise

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Lin Feng grinned and said, “Yeah! We won! 2-0! It was super easy! Our next game is in three days!”

Chu Fang replied, “That’s good to hear! Keep at it!”

“Don’t worry! We’ll keep going at it!” Lin Feng exclaimed.
He then struck his trademark victory pose before adding, “We’re going to win the entire tournament! Zero losses! Many wins! I’m really good at winning too!”

Chu Fang laughed and said, “Good, good! I’ll be looking forward to that.
And when you guys make it a little further, I’ll make sure to come and cheer you on in person!”

“You get to see me carrying again! Just like before!” Lin Feng replied, laughing.

✹

Chu Fang was in Fang Hao’s office at the headquarters of the Shanghai Esports Association.
His phone call with Lin Feng was played on speaker, so that Fang Hao could also listen to everything being said.
After the connection broke, the two men looked at each other.
They knew Lin Feng and how happy he liked to act, especially when things were going right.
Fang Hao was eventually the first to talk.
“Good,” he said.

Chu Fang nodded and said, “Sounded like he was pretty confident.
It’s good to see him like this again.”

Fang Hao laughed and replied, “The happy little kid.” He grinned before continuing, “But it’s too early to celebrate.
All I want is to see him return to his real form.
This is only a university tournament.
It’d be terrible if he lost.” His expression suddenly fell.
He gazed out of the window and took a deep, long breath.
He finally added, “I’m afraid it’s not enough though.
It’s taking him too long to get back to form.”

Chu Fang didn’t reply right away.
He sat back in his chair and followed Fang Hao’s gaze out of the window, looking out at the night sky of Shanghai. What Lin Feng is doing is great for anyone else.
We’d be jumping around with someone that talented.
But… This is Lin Feng.
This is Maple we’re talking about! He was already playing in the World Finals when he was only 15 years old.
And now, at 19, he’s playing in a university tournament.
It is slow.
It isn’t going fast enough.
The new season is going to start soon and before we know it, Worlds is back.
Where will he be? We need him back on his game! We need Maple! Some high school kid having fun at a university tournament is worthless to us.
Come on, Lin Feng! Find your rhythm again.
We need the real you to step up.
Help everyone remember the wonderkid from Season 1! We know you can do it.
You just… You need to do it already.
Step up! He breathed in long and deep, then let it all out. But he’s still just a kid.
Can we really ask so much from a kid? Isn’t that what we did four years ago too? And that’s when he left.
It was too much pressure. He chewed on his lips and finally asked, “Don’t you think we’re asking too much from him? Maybe we should just be happy that he’s on his way back…”

“I know we should be happy.
Don’t think I don’t,” Fang Hao replied.
He then shook his head and continued, “But who else can do what he can? Do you know anyone who’s as talented as he is? Absolutely anyone out there who has what it takes to beat Rake? Because I don’t.
I can’t think of a single player here in Shanghai who has even half of his talent.”

Chu Fang had no response to this.
They both knew that Lin Feng was still just a kid who liked to act as such.
But hidden behind that playful exterior was a monstrous talent. Zeng Rui is good, but not that good.
Tang Bingyao is good, but not even close to that good.
BunBun… They’re all great players.
But they’re not Lin Feng.
He is just so much better.
And it comes so easily to him.
It’s… He shook his head. We need Maple.

Fang Hao stood up from his seat and walked over to the window.
He looked at the busy streets below and said, “There’s no one else.
We both know it.
It has to be him.
It can only be him.
I wish, I really do wish that there was someone else.
Someone who could share the burden with him.
But there just isn’t.
He is so far above everyone else that we can only turn to him.
When he gets rolling, there’s no stopping him.
That’s the Lin Feng… We need Maple, it’s that simple.”

Chu Fang slowly nodded.
“I know.”

Fang Hao chuckled and shook his head.
“Of course One had to be the one to find this kid.
It takes talent to find talent, or something inspirational like that.
One was so good in his active years.
He still is.
It almost sounds like a fairytale when you think about it.
China’s biggest talent finds an even bigger talent! And we’ve got front row seats.
I just really hope Lin Feng can do half of what One did for the Chinese esports scene.”

✹

The second best of three for Team Shanghai took place on Friday.
The team traveled to East China Medical School after their classes ended and waited for their turn to play.
The audience was a bit more on their side because of the spectacular fashion in which they beat East China University of Science and Technology in the first round.
And this second best of three series wasn’t any different.
Their opponents just weren’t good enough.
Team Shanghai won their lanes and from there carried the two games to quick victories.
Both games ended on the 20-minute mark, one by a unanimous surrender vote and the other by a destroyed nexus.
With this series in the bag, Team Shanghai secured their spot in the next round of the tournament.
The East China Regionals.

Every local division concluded around the same time.
Replays of all the games were uploaded to the tournament website, giving a first glimpse into the strength of the teams still in it.
This opened up the possibility for teams to prepare for the next round by working through the available data from their potential opponents.
They could search for weak spots and come up with tactics to counter a team’s favoured Champions.

Every team competing in the East China Regionals was doing this.
And while researching, they also looked at the games from Team Shanghai, who’d made it two rounds further than most people expected.
It quickly became evident why Team Shanghai had made it to Regionals.
They were a far better team than anyone initially expected.
From individual skill to team synergy, they were better at every facet of the game compared to their opponents.

Rumours started floating around that Team Shanghai wasn’t just playing in the Winter Collegiate Cup to get experience at the university level, but to compete at the university level.
People started comparing their games with those from Fudan University and realised that Team Shanghai had the raw skill to make it to the main tournament.
This was a very important discovery, because that was where it became region versus region.

In the Regionals of the Winter Collegiate Cup, the teams from East China duked it out between themselves to see who would move on to Nationals.
But once there, they wanted to make sure that the teams from East China made it as far as possible.
So they trained together and gave each other feedback and ideas.
Anything that might be of help to see the teams from East China make it a step further in the main tournament.
This was especially important this time around because their best team in the previous edition only made it to third place.

The condescending tone disappeared when people discussed Team Shanghai.
They didn’t talk about the high school team or about the team with two girls on its roster, but about a team who could potentially make it to Nationals and achieve a great result for East China.

✹

The teams in East China weren’t the only ones reviewing the games from Team Shanghai.
The high school team from Beijing, Team Beijing, had gathered in a conference room at the Beijing Esports Association.
There was a large projection on the wall, showing the replay of the third game played by Team Shanghai.
It was a fast game, where the different lanes beat their opponents with relative ease.
There was a lot of action, and somehow it all ended in Team Shanghai’s favour.
But the members from Team Beijing quickly lost interest.
If they wanted to watch some random team stomping another random team, they could do that anywhere.
There was nothing about this game that really stood out to them.
And it was the third one of its kind.

Team Beijing’s manager was Fan Yuan, a 28 year old man with short, black hair.
He was one of the three Vice Presidents from the Beijing Esports Association.
He pointed a couple of things out on the projection with his ruler and kept on talking throughout the entire replay, not once looking at the members of the team.
When the replay finally ended, he turned to look at them and asked, “So what do you guys think about Team Shanghai?”

There were a couple of shrugs and one team member was picking his nose.
They really didn’t care about Team Shanghai.
If these games proved anything, it was that there were better things to waste their time on.

“Hey!” Fan Yuan shouted.
He pointed his ruler at the team members and said, “We’re having a team meeting! Pay some attention! Tell me what you guys think about Team Shanghai!”

It was the substitute Toplaner who eventually replied.
He snorted and said, “I don’t know? What do you want us to say? You saw the games, right? They look like shit.
What are we wasting our time on them for?”