October 3rd, 9:30 pm US time, the first round of S6’s group matches concluded after ZGDX finished and deferred Tank from the North America region, in only 35 minutes.
During this match, Tong Yao played Leblanc and earned 15 kills, 0 death, and 3 assists. She had moved up from being the “first Leblanc on the Chinese server” to the “first Leblanc of the world.” Even commentator F who hadn’t thought too highly of the China region sighed with admiration after the match---
During the second round of the group matches, there might not be any team that’ll willingly let Smiling have Leblanc again.
ZGDX and their female mid won overnight fame from the first round of group matches!
On foreign websites, comics appeared depicting Tong Yao thrashing the other 17 mids from other teams. The comics were in various forms and basically showed her high up in a leading position.
It was awesome in capital letters!
Female games back in China could now hold their heads high. Whenever there were male players who said “she thought she was somebody just because she beat a bunch of noob teams,” the female players could confidently say “you’re just jealous.” Then they would haughtily turn their heads and walk away--
Starting from the day the group match began, the number of Tong Yao’s fans on Weibo had increased three fold over three days. Many of them were female fans and her popularity among female fans was beginning to gain on her boyfriend, Lu Sicheng.
Perhaps Lu Sicheng was shocked by the phenomenon or he liked showing off to begin with. The night after the first round of group matches ended, he also did something that shocked his fans. During the interview with foreign media, Lu Sicheng showed that he not only had a good looking face, but was also well educated. He didn’t use a translator throughout the whole interview and interacted with the foreign reporters in fluent English.
His pronunciation was quite accurate and he had no problem conveying his ideas precisely. The only imperfection to the Americans was that Lu Sicheng was speaking British English, with a little bit of a London accent.
About an hour later, the video of Lu Sicheng’s interview quickly became the headlines of various media, replacing the news about Tong Yao’s excellent performance during the match against Tank.
The headlines were quite uniform---
Hubris! ZGDX’s captain boasted during the interview with foreign media: ZGDX will again be undefeated in the second round of group matches! Not intimidated by the Korean teams, the ultimate goal is the championship!
……
The second round would begin October 13.
The standings after the first round for the teams from the China region was: ZGDX was first in its group with an undefeated record; CK lost to the Taiwanese team but beat the Koreans, OP; CK was tied with OP in points but since CK had defeated OP, CK was placed first in their group; YQCB also had two wins and one loss and was second in their group.
Overall, the Chinese teams had performed well enough that both CK and YQCB managed to schedule a lot more skirmishes with other teams. The most disheartening defeat for the China region in the group matches was delivered by a Korean team which made the LPL players feel relieved but also helpless.
They felt relieved because it seemed that there wasn’t much of a problem for LPL teams to defeat teams from other regions, except the Korean region. The imaginary scenario that LPL teams would be thrashed by foreign teams didn’t happen. Actually, they had discovered that, after they were out of the country, there were a lot of noob teams as well. The only difference from the league back home was that there were a greater variety of noob teams.
They felt helpless because they still had difficulty defeating Korean teams and it was a difficult obstacle to overcome. It was like someone had placed three weasels inside the chicken coop and the 15 chickens inside were just staring at each other.
Little Fatty: “Especially that TAT, the king of the weasels. They’re too strong. Not only were they undefeated in their group, no other team has even seen what their inhibitor looks like. The team next door hung in there for 40 minutes and was only able to take down 5 or 6 of TAT’s outer turrets before giving the GG.”
Little Fatty made his comment as ZGDX was riding on the bus on their way back to the hotel. There was a ten-day break from between now and the start of the second round. Xiao Rui was kind enough to give everyone a break and didn’t arrange any skirmishes for them tonight. The players planned to use one or two days during the break to tour around.
To all the otakus on the bus, they actually weren’t very interested in touring. To them, it was better to have a one-day tour of Summoner’s Rift. But Tong Yao said something to change their minds: We’re here already, why not go have a look around.
The other players thought her words made some sense. They figured that after they went back to China and when people asked them what they had seen in the US, they couldn’t just say that there wasn’t any lag playing games in the US.l.
How embarrassing would that be?
They began flipping through sightseeing pamphlets to see whether there were any places worth visiting.
Tong Yao was checking the pamphlet while looking at her cell phone at the same time. She opened a video of Lu Sicheng’s interview which had been shared over several tens of thousands of times. The most popular comment under the video was:
If Smiling’s vindicated all the female players by her performance at the world competition, then Chessman has vindicated all internet addicted teenagers with the interview. Dammit. Who dares to say that we’re a bunch of uneducated people that only know how to play games?! Who?!
Tong Yao was quite amused and gave this person a like.
Her annoyance of being upstaged by Lu Sicheng had now been completely replaced by pride for taming such an outstanding man.
Lu Sicheng also flipped through a pamphlet as Tong Yao leaned against him. He didn’t find anything interesting in the pamphlet and put down the pamphlet while deciding that he would go along with whatever Tong Yao had decided. Then he lazily responded to Little Fatty’s comment: “Assuming all of our teams come out of the second round of group matches in the same ranking as they are now, there’ll be the drawing for all groups to match a first place team against a second place team from a different group. And since teams from the same region won’t be matched against each other, then the only possible teams that we’ll go up against in the quarter finals will either be the second place team from D group or OP if they stay in second place.”
Tong Yao: “If OP places first in their group and CK comes in second, then aren’t we playing the second place from D group and be guaranteed to go to semi-finals?”
Lu Sicheng: “Correct.”
Tong Yao sat up, Little Fatty also sat up, Old K, Old Cat, and Lu Yue all turned to look at Lu Sicheng with eyes shining with excitement. They asked in unison: “Is that so?”
Lu Sicheng frustratly said: “Can’t you grow a backbone? I’ve educated you all for so long and you just all turned into cowards, hrm? Afraid of the Koreans?”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Tong Yao: “Ah, what should I do, now I want CK to lose the match. Is it very evil of me---We’ve all agreed to work together after we arrived in the US. I said that I’ll bury the past and sincerely wish my ex-boyfriend will win every match except the one against me? All promises become drifting clouds in front of the reality of trying to get ahead.”
Little Fatty: “If OP is second in their group and we happen to have bad luck in drawing, we’ve beaten them a few times in skirmishes, right?”
Lu Sicheng: “We have to face them sooner or later.”
Little Fatty: “Maybe OP will get sent packing by some other teams before we have to face them.”
Lu Sicheng: “Then what about TAT?”
Little Fatty: “We’ve beaten them a few times during skirmishes-- --when Lu Yue was playing.”
Tong Yao rolled her eyes.
Lu Sicheng gave Little Fatty a glance, then reached over to grab the pamphlet out of Tong Yao’s hand. He slightly bent over and got closer to ask her in a small voice: “Have you decided where to go?”
“It doesn’t matter.” In the dim light inside the bus, Tong Yao noticed that Lu Sicheng’s usually stone face was unusually mellow. She reached over to pinch his face: “I’ll go wherever you’ll go.”
She had the same idea that Lu Sicheng had earlier.
Something flashed in Lu Sicheng’s eyes and his lips curved up: “Shopping?”
Tong Yao shook her head without even giving it a thought: “I don’t have anything I want to buy.”
Lu Sicheng grabbed her hand and used it to pat his chest: “You have a human ATM machine here and you’re telling me that?”
Tong Yao pulled her hand back: “Am I attracted by your money?”
Lu Sicheng’s smile widened: “Are you attracted by my money?”
Tong Yao placed the back of her hand onto his forehead: “Are you alright? Why do you want me to spend your money so badly?”
Lu Sicheng didn’t push her hand off: “En, when you like a person, you simply want to let her spend all of your money. If I have 10 dollars, I’ll let her spend 9.50 and use the leftover 50 cents to buy a bun in case she was hungry.”
Lu Sicheng’s voice could be heard by everyone on the bus. Amid all the “eew”s, Little Fatty was saying: “I’ve played support for you for three years and fed you countless kills. I'm not greedy at all, just give me a Givenchy dog shirt.” Tong Yao pushed Lu Sicheng’s head back while laughing and watched him slump back in the back row.
After riding on the bus for a while, the players began to fall asleep. Lu Sicheng also closed his eyes. Tong Yao was also about to fall asleep, but her cell phone vibrated. She checked her cell phone and found Jinyang was messaging her-- --
Ah Mao’s mom: Where are you? Why didn’t I see you after the match? Is this the so-called running after showing off?
This girl keeps a German shepherd at home: What?
Ah Mao’s mom: Your new name sounds rather suggestive.
This girl keeps German shepherd at home: Shut up. Why are you looking for me?
Ah Mao’s mom: Do I have to have an excuse to look for you?
Ah Mao’s mom: See, isn’t your birthday on the 13th? How do you want to celebrate it? This is the first time that we’re out of the country and can still meet. Somehow I feel like it’s worth commemorating. What should I give you for your birthday? A handbag? Shoes? A necklace? Jewelry? A wedding gown?
Ah Mao’s mom: Nevermind jewelry and wedding gown, let your man give them to you. I’m not being cynical, he’s much richer than me and with just a word from you, he can buy the entirety of San Francisco for you and change the name to “Wishing my wife a happy birthday city”.
This girl keeps German shepherd at home: …….Don’t, don’t, don’t do that. Don’t tell him it’s my birthday. If he really bought some expensive thing for me, I won’t be able to repay him even if I got chopped up and sold by the pound.
Ah Mao’s mom: Human flesh doesn’t taste good. Girl, you are worth more as a whole than in pieces. I’m so jealous, I wish my boyfriend could buy me a gift so expensive that I can’t pay back even if I sold myself.
This girl keeps German shepherd at home: ……What are you trying to say exactly? Why are you all of a sudden bringing up my birthday?
Ah Mao’s mom: Auntie…… Er, your mom gave me a call earlier and said that this is your twentieth birthday, an important one. She told me to celebrate with you, not to let you pass the day without realizing it.
This girl keeps German shepherd at home: Is she your mom or mine? Why didn’t she tell me directly?
Ah Mao’s mom: She felt awkward telling you to your face.
This girl keeps German shepherd at home: “What?
Ah Mao’s mom: “I know you young people like to celebrate birthdays romantically, especially now Tong Yao has a boyfriend. I just saw it on Weibo, her boyfriend’s pretty good. Good looks and well educated. So we don’t have any objection to it but Yangyang, remind her to be more careful. She needs to finish her schooling, so make sure they don’t create a new life.”-- --That’s what she said to me.
Ah Mao’s mom: Hehe.
Ah Mao’s mom: Let me translate it for you: Make sure he’s wearing the condom. Your mom is still young and does not want to be a grandma yet.
Tong Yao: ....................................
Tong Yao gasped.
Lu Sicheng happened to wake up and glanced at Tong Yao in a daze: “What’s wrong? Why is your face so red?”
He reached over with his hand to touch Tong Yao’s face as he asked.
When his hand barely touched her, Tong Yao stared at him and jumped up as if she had been scalded. Lu Sicheng was baffled: “What’s wrong?”
Tong Yao: “My mom watched the video of your interview.”
Lu Sicheng raised his eyebrows.
Tong Yao: “She said you’re good looking and well educated.”
Lu Sicheng: “Oh.” He looked quite complacent.
Tong Yao: “But your facial features look immodest and she could tell you’re a douchebag. She told me to keep a safe distance from you.”
Lu Sicheng: “You added the last part yourself, right?”
Tong Yao: ..........