The moment he sat down, Yan Shu pushed all his excitement to the back of his mind and picked up the tournament-designated phone to test the equipment.
As the commentators hyped up the pre-match build-up, the match entered the drafting phase.
Yan Shu could sense that Coach Jane’s attention had been entirely on him, as if he still had something special to instruct him on.
“Let us ban Da Qiao first. The Lion team’s Da Qiao and Gongsun Li combination is still very strong.” Incorporating the players’ discussion results, Coach Jane decided to ban Da Qiao right off the bat.
The SR team allocated their first two ban slots to Da Qiao and Jin Chan, securing room for their jungle-centric core to farm safely.
Once all the bans were locked in, it was time to decide on the team composition.
Jane tapped his chin with his fingertips, slowing his pace considerably as he walked behind Yan Shu. He weighed his options in his mind, but ultimately remained undecided.
“How we determine our core strategy depends entirely on our support.”
“Coach Jane, I will follow whatever arrangements you make.” Yan Shu knew that the person Coach Jane was worried about was him.
The coach had not expected someone weighed down by a scandal to be so cooperative. After deep deliberation over the hero pool, he decided to prioritize picking Taizhen.
Following meticulous drafting, the SR team finalized their lineup.
The jungler hero Zhuoyue chose this time was Orange Right-Jing.
Although the hero was not as dominant as traditional jungle-centric cores, it had high adaptability with the overall team composition.
On the loading screen, the commentator exclaimed with high energy: “Alright, let us look forward to the performance of both sides!”
An enthusiastic wave of cheers erupted from the audience. Nearly half of the crowd were SR fans, chanting Zhuoyue’s name loudly, a testament to his vital importance to the entire team.
Once the match officially began, Yan Shu heard nothing in his ears except his teammates’ communication. Whenever he played a match without severe disruptions, his concentration always reached this level of immersion.
As the support, Yan Shu knew precisely what tasks needed to be accomplished before the first minion wave arrived.
He entered the bush to scout vision and sped up the mid-laner’s wave-clearing speed.
“Hey, what are you standing there for? You are not Zhong Kui, why are you scouting vision in the enemy’s blue buff jungle?” As the mid-laner, Luo Yan arrived in lane only to find the support crouching far away in a bush, and his temper instantly flared up.
“Gan Jiang has long range, just watch your positioning.” Yan Shu spoke during a match like a completely different person; he did not care about a teammate’s negative emotions at all.
The reason he claimed this bush was because the opponents had chosen a dual-side lane composition. It was highly likely that the first wave of minions would come to mid-lane to help the mage clear, allowing them to quickly rotate to the farm lane to catch opponents off guard.
Sure enough, the enemy’s Old Master showed up!
Yan Shu was fully prepared, directly blocking Old Master’s path and forcefully dismantling the Lion team’s plan.
Seeing Yan Shu being whittled down by Old Master all by himself in the river, Luo Yan refused to step up and support him.
“Luo Yan, hurry up! Drive Old Master away and we can directly invade the enemy jungle.” Watching his health bar tick down bit by bit, Yan Shu wanted to retreat yet hoped the mid-laner would join him so they could seize the early-game advantage.
No one responded.
Not only did Luo Yan ignore him, but the other three members also remained silent. The voice channel grew completely quiet.
Without backup from his teammates, Yan Shu could not escape even if he wanted to.
“First Blood!”
Surrounded by the enemy mid-laner and clash-laner, Yan Shu handed over the first kill of the match.
Even though it was his own teammate’s lack of support that caused the death, Luo Yan burst out laughing with a mocking sneer. “What kind of skill level is that? Giving away kills right at the start? Captain, did you see that?”
Zhuoyue had seen the whole thing while dragging his camera view across the mini-map just moments before. He could not help but admire that Yan Shu’s strategy had been correct, if only Luo Yan had followed up…
“I saw it. What is your skill level? Are matches a joke to you to mess around in?” Considering they were at an official venue, Zhuoyue reined in most of his temper, but his tone was already unpleasant.
Yan Shu was surprised. He had assumed Zhuoyue would mock him right along with Luo Yan.
Stung by this reprimand from Zhuoyue, SR’s overall teamwork improved by leaps and bounds.
Roaming fluidly across the top, mid, and bottom lanes, Yan Shu pushed vision control to the absolute limit.
Lin Qi, playing the marksman position, felt an immediate sense of relief. In all his matches, this was the first time he felt the farm lane was actually safe.
The rest of the team also farmed rapidly under Yan Shu’s assistance.
“Right now, both teams’ junglers are lurking in the bushes on either side of mid-lane. Looks like a fight is brewing,” the commentator analyzed passionately.
Yan Shu called out the enemy jungler’s potential location into his mic: “Right bush.”
“The enemy dual lanes are not at full health, we can fight,” Zhuoyue commanded.
Receiving the order, Yan Shu analyzed the enemy positioning, pinpointed the precise moment to engage, and charged straight in to initiate the team fight.
“Great setup!” Lin Qi happened to be positioned right by the side of the tier-one tower, giving him an optimal location for both offense and defense. In his excitement, he threw any internal team conflicts completely to the winds.
“The enemy Yixing is going to trap us, watch your positioning,” Yan Shu warned. “We can still keep fighting, let us take down their Old Master…”
“Fight what? My health is bad, I am out.” Intent on defying Yan Shu, Luo Yan abandoned his teammates and spun around to run away alone.
With numbers disadvantageous in the front-line skirmish, the enemy swarmed forward, and the marksman and clash-laner failed to escape, falling one by one.
At the ten-minute mark, a crucial team fight loss like this widened the economic gap significantly. Following the defeat, Luo Yan refused to follow the support’s calls and repeatedly threw massive advantages away, leading to a regrettable defeat at the sixteen-minute mark.
“Let us congratulate the Lion team on taking the first point!”
Amidst the host’s congratulatory remarks, the entire SR lineup left the competition seats in silence.
The moment they reached the lounge, Yan Shu was met with Luo Yan pointing right in his face and cursing.
“I…” Yan Shu wanted to retort, but second-guessing his precarious standing within this team, he kept his mouth shut and nervously twisted the hem of his uniform.
“If it were not for you, how could we have lost? Look at what you were doing, you should just hurry up and… What the hell, who bumped into me?” Just as Luo Yan prepared to pin the entire blame onto Yan Shu, a shoulder slammed heavily into his elbow. The force coming from behind threw him completely off balance as he stumbled forward.
Assuming some clueless idiot had rammed into him, Luo Yan prepared to turn around and vent his anger, only to find his team captain glaring at him with a dark, thunderous expression.
Having been chewed out by Luo Yan, Yan Shu had prepared to shoulder the blame himself, only for his words to be cut off by someone else.
“Come here.” Zhuoyue’s voice was chillingly cold, stripping every single syllable of emotion.
Terrified, Luo Yan clamped his mouth shut and obediently trailed behind the captain into the adjacent room without daring to breathe too loudly. Deep down, he knew the match’s failure did not stem from the support, but rather from his own refusal to cooperate.
With the captain’s face looking this dark, the rest of the SR team members standing in the lounge did not even dare to sit down. Yan Shu stood right along with them, watching silently as Luo Yan followed Zhuoyue into the side room for a private chat.
A best-of-three mid-match break lasted a mere fifteen minutes, leaving very little time for private talks.
Before Yan Shu had finished taking a few sips of water, the people from the next room emerged one after another.
“Holy…” Seeing Luo Yan’s tear-rimmed eyes, Lin Qi could not help letting out a curse.
Ye Xuanqing shifted closer to him, nudging him with an elbow. “Shh.”
The air in the lounge felt practically frozen, not a single person dared to speak up.
Someone as proud and arrogant as Luo Yan had looked upset before going in, but coming out, he looked on the verge of tears.
Nobody knew what Zhuoyue had said to Luo Yan to make a grown man’s eyes turn red.
“If you can play, then play. If you cannot, get lost. You can play, but youth trainees can play too, the SR team does not harbor useless trash who do not know how to play a match.” Leaving a thinly veiled warning, Zhuoyue softened his tone slightly after dropping the harsh words. “Regroup your mental state. If we win tonight, dinner is on me.”
No one dared to answer.
“Answer me, can we win?” Zhuoyue prompted with a hint of exasperation.
“Y-Yes, we can!” Lin Qi answered.
The others immediately echoed the captain in quick succession.
Yan Shu offered a quiet agreement as well.
Lifting his gaze toward Yan Shu, Zhuoyue frowned slightly. “Yan Shu.”
“Hm?” Yan Shu blinked in confusion.
“Just play at your normal level,” Zhuoyue said as he walked past him. “Do not waste the opportunity I gave you.”
With their team morale readjusted, the SR players walked back onto the stage with a completely changed demeanor.
During the drafting phase, the Lion team secured the Da Qiao and Gongsun Li composition.
Ye Xuanqing volunteered himself. “Coach, I will take Old Master, I can lock down Gongsun Li.”
After a moment of thought, the coach agreed. To better counter Gongsun Li’s scaling, Jane pinched his chin and instructed Yan Shu: “Take Dunshan. If Old Master fails to lock down their core carry, you need to step up.”
“Understood.” Yan Shu’s heart rate was dangerously high, having forgotten to take his medication on schedule when leaving the stage earlier, his entire condition felt somewhat hazy and disconnected.
However, for the sake of the match, he had to grit his teeth and push through it. No matter how obstructed his breathing felt, he had to readjust his state immediately.
“Hah…” Yan Shu’s breathing sounded somewhat pronounced, and some unusual sounds bled through the team’s voice channel.
To avoid being a burden to his teammates, Yan Shu repeatedly held his breath, waiting until his breathing stabilized before exhaling.
Fortunately, their early-game strategy of invading the enemy jungle proved entirely correct, making this match far less difficult.
At the fourteen-minute mark of game two, the match was closed out by the SR team.
“Goodness, the match ended in just fourteen minutes, is this the true strength of the SR team?” the host asked in mild astonishment. “The SR team plotted their blue-buff invasion right from the start, it seems jungle-centric playstyles truly cannot be underestimated. Wind’s playstyle remains as fiercely lone-wolf as ever.”
The winning team was required to step forward on stage and bow. When Yan Shu stood up, both of his legs were trembling. He forced himself onto the stage to thank the audience, and the moment protocol ended, he bolted toward the lounge as the very first person.
“What the heck just flashed past us?” Lin Qi’s shoulder was accidentally brushed by Yan Shu. “Was that Yan Shu?”
“Hmph,” Luo Yan rolled his eyes at the fleeting figure.
“Desperate for the restroom, probably. Hahaha,” Xu Ya covered his mouth and giggled.
Zhuoyue raised an eyebrow, shifting his gaze toward the backstage corridor with a faint glint in his eyes.
A few steps down the hall, Yan Shu ran out of stamina entirely. Leaning his back against the wall, he raised a trembling hand and pulled off his face mask, already panting heavily.
His face was completely drained of color. He tossed his soaked mask into a trash can nearby, then steadied himself against the wall as he entered the lounge.
Fortunately, no one else was inside. Retrieving his small medicine bottle, he hurried straight into the restroom.
Leaning against the door of a restroom stall, he popped a tiny pill into his mouth and swallowed it raw without a drop of water.
Just as Yan Shu managed to swallow the pill and catch his breath, he heard footsteps echoing at the entrance of the restroom.
Someone had walked in.