The Shanghai 16 School Tournament was the pathway to the professional League of Legends scene for the high schoolers of Shanghai. This was the big stage where everyone wanted to play and perform at! But there were also many people, both young and old, who wanted to watch the games. This was their chance to see the next generation of professional players! Some of them went to the venue, but there were far more who couldn’t make it. There were, after all, only 700 seats. So the Shanghai Esports Association had done the only logical thing. They’d approached different live streaming platforms and signed broadcasting deals with them. The Shanghai 16 School Tournament would be on the frontpage of every big streaming website for the Semifinals and Finals!
Chu Fang, who was the vice president of the Shanghai Esports Association, had put time, money, and effort into promoting the broadcast for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. He had prepared targeted ads and bought mentions on the streams of influencers. All that hard work proved to be worth it. When the stream went live on Huya TV, it opened with 5,000 viewers and that number kept climbing higher with every passing second. Family, friends, and fellow students who couldn’t make it to the venue tuned in. Diehard League of Legends fans took this high school tournament as an appetizer for the Season 5 Worlds Finals that was scheduled the next day. Then there were the trolls who opened the stream just to make fun of the players. They believed that high schoolers were too young to be any good at the game, so they were rubbing their hands together in anticipation, ready to start trolling and riling people up.
「LEL 5k peepz watching nubs play XD go watch lovelyrose, maybe you’ll GIT GUD」
「shit i was watching smutsentinal vids and got bored, so i hopped on huya. Think this might even be worse. At least i can get a laugh out of that cupnoodles guy.」
「Can’t believe there are so many idiots who want to see high schoolers play… Bunch of pedos if you ask me.」
「go watch lspl or lpl replays. better waste of your time morons」
The first game between Shanghai High School and Tonji Affiliated started. More and more people joined the stream, curious to see what so many others were watching. It was a high school tournament. Most scoffed and thought about clicking away. But they quickly changed their minds when they saw how well the two teams were playing. These weren’t kids fooling around. These were full fledged players, displaying high level tactics and gameplay! In fact, it was almost indistinguishable from professional games in the LSPL, and maybe even the LPL!
「Are these guys really still in high school? They’re so good!」
「hoho woww, man, you’d almost feel bad for those tonji kids. They’re getting dumpstered XDDDDDDD」
「OH SNAP! look at the shanghai high school support’s name! HE”S A CHALLENGER!!!!! I KNOW HIM!!! HE”S FRIGGIN GOOOODDDDDD」
「KEK UwU UwU CARRY ME DADDY」
Shanghai High School and Tonji Affiliated both showed impeccable individual and team play. This quickly garnered respect from the viewers. More people kept joining the stream, many of them sticking around to see how the series would end. They found it hard to believe a group of high schoolers were this good. But the evidence was right in front of them. They watched until Shanghai High School won 3-0 over Tonji Affiliated High. And then they kept watching as the second Semifinal series got underway. High School 13 versus Shanghai International.
「I heard Shanghai International is about as good as Shanghai High School. someone confirm?」
「yo i watched them last year! Pretty sure their ad-carry got scouted for an LSPL team!?」
「WOWA. Forreals? That good????? We got more of this coming? SWWEEETTTTTT」
「pls let hs13 be better than tonji .<”」
「TEACH ME SENPAI! I WANNA BE GOD LIKE YOU!!!!」
「wait… i think i’ve seen him somewhere before.wasn’t he that kid that played with Nightsong in bot lane!? He was that Vayne, and Nightsnng was Blitz! why is he mid, i thought he was an adc main! lmaaaao.」
The number of viewers on the livestream grew to such an extent that it also started to get the attention of famous streamers. Amongst them was Twilight, a retired professional player. His viewers had asked him to open the stream and give his opinion on the level of gameplay. Twilight had played in the LPL, so they really wanted to know what he thought of these high schoolers. Twilight opened the stream and watched it. He planned to watch it for a few minutes and move on. But he soon forgot about the time. This was a good game. A really good game. The Twisted Fate especially left a deep impression on him. He ended up watching the entire game before finally turning to look at his webcam and saying, “That Twisted Fate, right? That kid’s got talent. His roams and awareness are insane. I can see him go pro.”
✹
Su Xue had told Lin Feng that she would be cheering for him in his upcoming matches. But it just so happened that she’d scheduled a duo queue session with Ol’ Black when Lin Feng was playing in the Semifinals. She’d apologized profusely to Lin Feng and explained the situation to him. He said he understood and that it really wasn’t a big deal. So she’d stayed home and was streaming with Ol’ Black. This gave her a large pool of potential new viewers, something she’d do anything for.
Ol’ Black was casually playing a few games with Su Xue, reading through his stream chat and replying to messages from his viewers. There wasn’t anything interesting happening at first, but then his viewers started talking about the tournament stream. He raised his eyebrows and said over the voice chat, “Hey, Snowfall, didn’t you say lil bro of yours is playing in the Shanghai 16 School Tournament? He made it to the semis, right?”
“Yeah. I guess he’s probably playing right now,” Su Xue replied. “Why?”
Ol’ Black said, “Some viewers are talking about it. Looks like the tournament is being streamed. Wanna go watch it?”
“Wait, WHAT?” Su Xue yelped. “It’s being live streamed? Yes! Of course! Let’s go watch it!”
This new bit of information also got a strong response from Su Xue’s viewers. They’d much rather see Lin Feng compete than watch the maid play some duo queue! So they took it upon themselves to announce that to her.
「Be a good maid and show us the stream! Then go fetch me some water! No wait! Get off the stream and bring water to lil bro! Hes probably thirsty right now!」
「SHOW US THE STREAM! WE WANNA SEE LIL BRO PLAY!!!!!」
「exit that queue! go watch lil bro! how did you not know this? this stupid maid. smh.」
「I’m only here for lil brooooooooo!!!!!!1!!! LIL BRO IS MY HERO」
Su Xue looked at the webcam and said, “Haha, you guys are so funny.” But she did as they asked, mostly because she herself wanted to watch Lin Feng play. She opened the Shanghai 16 School Tournament stream just in time to watch the Level 1 teamfight in Game 3 break out. They witnessed Thresh's hook on the Rek’Sai, followed by Lin Feng chasing away four players from Shanghai International with only an axe. Su Xue couldn’t stifle her laughter as she said, “So cool! Go, Lin Feng! He made them all Flash away! Amazing!”
「AMAAAZZIINNNGGGGGG」
「666666666666 siicckckkkkkk playyzzzzz」
「dayummmm, look at that score! 2-0! If they win this, they’re through to the finals!」
「carry them to the finals, lil bro! IN LIL BRO WE TRUST!!!」
Su Xue cheered with her viewers, watching Lin Feng take the Blue Buff and then heading towards the Red Buff Camp on Shanghai International’s side of the map. “Ohhh! He’s invading! Lin Feng is invading! GoGoGo!”
1. bad mannered