You're Beautiful When You Smile

19

The quarter-finals of the S series were a best of five, the first team to win three out of five rounds advances. It was going to be held four days after the group matches, on October 17 in the city of Chicago.

Among the eight teams in the quarter-finals, three were from the LPL, three from the Korean region, Taiwan LMS region's Team C, and the only team from the European region, LCS's G4. Overall, the fans of the European and North American regions were quite disappointed at the result-- --

First off, the fans of the European region didn't think their team, G4, would be able to defeat CK. Then, the fans of the North American region simply gave up on their own region and picked their other favorite teams from other regions to support the rest of the S competition...... Otherwise, they would be left with no team to root for the next half of the month.

On the night of October 13, after the match, Tong Yao and her teammates carried their luggage, which their team staff had packed for them, to the airport-- --The organizer had already arranged a training location and hotel for the eight teams in Chicago. 

At the airport, they met players from CK and YQCB. After passing the security check, they could see TAT's Ah Tai, with an expressionless face, standing not far from the security check area with his teammates. OP's mid-Jin Yuguang was next to him, laughing while saying something......

The two of them seemed to sense that they were being watched and looked up. They saw Lu Sicheng and both of them politely nodded as greetings-- --Ah Tai even slightly bowed. When Lu Sicheng was still TAT's Chessman, he was Ah Tai's senpai after all.

After Tong Yao came through the security check, the first thing she saw was that her two biggest nemeses of this year's S competition were cordially greeting each other with Lu Sicheng.

 She tugged on Lu Sicheng's sleeve and asked: "Why are they here too?"

Lu Sicheng slightly turned his head over: "What nonsense are you talking about? Are they going to swim from San Francisco to Chicago?"

Tong Yao pretended to be calm: "Oh, I passed the security check and happened to see you fraternizing the enemy. I'm just using the question to sugarcoat my warning."

Lu Sicheng could tell that Tong Yao was intimidated by the two mids. He curved up his lips as he teased her: "You can't beat those two guys whether I'm fraternizing them or not. So don't mind them too much...... Ay, why did you hit me?"

"I want to hit you to death." The hand that had slapped his back began pinching him: "I'm going to play against Jin Yuguang at the quarter-finals and you're still boosting their morale here. What if I really can't fight against him......"

"If you really can't fight against him, then I'll carry you." Lu Sicheng laughed while reaching over to hug her shoulder. As he was talking, he lazily raised his hand to wave to those two top Korean mids. "You've carried me, a senior, for so many matches already, it's time for me to show you what the saying 'an old steed in the stable still dreams of galloping 500 more kilometers' means......"

Lu Sicheng hugged Tong Yao. She could smell his scent, a mixture of cologne and a faint smell of sweat...... She had to admit that his embrace was solid and warm and gave her a sense of security somehow.

Though the way he said such a solemn idiom sounded like a flirt...... Tong Yao figured that was probably the specialty for a rascal like him.Tong Yao, while ridiculing him in her mind, reached over to hold his waist, trying to enjoy the last moment of peacefulness-- --

Little Fatty, Lu Yue, Old K, Old Cat, and Ming god had gathered together to review videos of the other group matches in the past few days...... The vibe of the team was rather serious and anxious, unlike the time before they boarded the plane to fly to the US with Little Fatty playing mobile games on his cell phone.

For ZGDX, the quarter-finals were the real beginning of their trip to the world competition. They had to be on their toes when facing OP-- --

From the perspective of the players of both the China and Korea regions, the quarter-final match between the two telecommunication teams from both countries was truly a preview of the finals. It would be a match between highly skilled players.......

Four days later, on October 17, the quarter-finals began. On the first day of the competition, only one team from the LPL had a match. It was CK against G4-- --Though no one thought G4 had a good chance to win, they nonetheless enjoyed a sort of home-court advantage...... 

Both the European region and the North American region were called LCS. Though they were competitors before, now as the only team in both LCS regions that made it to the quarter-finals, the audience was cheering for G4! 

Tong Yao and her teammates sat at the designated area in the arena to watch the match between CK and G4. There were loud cheers for G4 from foreigners but cheers for CK in Chinese were also audible......Chinese are present anywhere one goes. And at critical moments, they could also show solidarity-- --When it was time to show their presence and the volume of their cheering, they wouldn't shy away from it. 

The two commentators for the match seemed a little surprised to hear people cheering in Chinese. After a few moments of silence, one of the commentators couldn't stop himself from giggling. 

Commentator T: [Uh oh, hrm, don't keep thinking you're in the home court and then find out that the Chinese in the audience are not to be outdone.]

Commentator G: [I hope next time we can be even louder when we cheer. They can't distinguish passports when they're selling tickets. We can't be outdone on our own turf.]

Someone in the audience shouted out as if in protest to what the commentators had said: "Go CK. Long live LPL." The audience burst into laughter and the players of this match stepped onto the stage-- --

Commentator T: [You know what's the most annoying thing here? The most annoying thing is that they can understand what we say here but we can't understand a single word they're saying.]

Commentator G: [Hahahahaha!]

While the commentators were chatting, the first match began with the ban & pick phase. Tong Yao and her teammates could also feel the same nervousness as the players on stage...... G4 wasn't a favored team, so there shouldn't be any problem for CK to defeat them since CK had defeated OP before? Tong Yao thought to herself. 

Then the game officially started and she found out that it didn't go as she had anticipated-- --The way the European and North American regions played the game was different from the China and Korean regions. 

They would usually come up with a strange lineup in comparison to the LPL and LCK teams. Champions like Amumu, Ziggs, Anivia, Aurelion Sol, Katarina, and Yasuo seldom appeared in official competitions in the LPL and LCK regions. But European and North American teams would take them without hesitation-- --

In addition, they didn't have the same kind of stress to win.G4 was from the second-seeded pool. Before the competition, the media didn't think the team was favored to win. Therefore losing the match, though regretful, wasn't a big concern of the players.

In the first round of the match, G4 took Varus and Jayce, two champions that had a strong poking ability and could quickly push lanes. Though this lineup didn't have any advantage in the lane during the early game, it was fast at taking turrets and agile in the jungle. They would stay away from fights and keep stealing resources to fuel their own development......

In the mid-game, CK started to get bogged down and the economic lead they had been enjoying began to get narrower-- --Then CK carelessly lost two outer turrets and two drakes. 

During the team fight at the 25th minute, they lost three players in exchange for only one enemy. In the midst of commentators' exalted shouting and the passionate cheering from the audience, G4 advanced smoothly. At the 37th minute, they pushed into CK's base. Varus used three arrows to shoot down CK's ad. CK had no choice but to retreat.

 On their way back, their mid, Xiao Hua, also died. Without both of their carries, they could only watch in despair as their nexus exploded. When the first round was over, G4's players had beaming smiles on their faces. In contrast, CK's players were drinking water from their water cups with stone faces...... 

Tong Yao got hold of Lu Sicheng's hand. She had suddenly had an ominous premonition. Lu Sicheng probably sensed the temperature of her palm and he turned his hand over to cover her hand and lightly patted it: "Don't panic, it's alright."