🎖️ Day 21st of Anniversary Celebration 🎖️
Everyone was in a pretty good mood after winning the match. After all, it was a great start to the season.
But no matter how good the mood was, there was no getting out of the post match review. Not a single game could be skipped.
In the meeting room, Yuanshan pulled up the recording of today’s match. He first switched to Danqing’s perspective. “You missed last hits again during the laning phase. Every missed one costs you twenty gold. Count how many you missed this game yourself.”
In Starfall Echoes, when a minion dies, all players nearby can receive the corresponding gold. However, if a player personally lands the final hit and kills the minion, they receive an additional gold bonus. This was also known as securing a last hit.
For professional players, not missing last hits was a basic requirement. However, mage heroes generally had low basic attack damage and once a fight broke out and things became chaotic, it was easy for them to lose track of their minions and forget to secure the final hits.
Missing last hits was an old problem for Danqing. He guiltily hunched his neck and said, “Got it. I misremembered the basic attack damage. I’ll practice it later.”
“Practice it tomorrow. Jiangnan, keep an eye on him. You don’t need to go to the training camp. Just practice it in ranked.”
After finishing with Danqing’s problems, Yuanshan continued scrolling through the match recording.
Overall, there weren’t any major problems with the others. The only exception was a few of Duan Chi’s plays, which made Yuanshan frown as he watched them.
“Safer, there were a few moments where you weren’t steady enough. At the dragon pit, Yuanche’s jungler and mid laner came around to collapse on you. Encore was out in front and had already cleared the vision for you. You still didn’t leave. What were you waiting for?”
He paused for a moment before scrolling to the recording of the final game.
“And here, too. You two were fighting three. Encore was already at low health, so why did you turn around and re engage? You won but that was because you got lucky. Xu Qiao was intimidated by you and reacted too slowly. If that had been someone else, the two of you would both have been dead.”
Well.
There was no denying that luck was also a part of strength but on an esports stage, it was the details that determined victory or defeat. Getting lucky once didn’t mean you could keep getting lucky every time…
The safest way to handle that situation would have been for Duan Chi to simply retreat. Lin Anke’s health really was dangerously low but that was still better than the two of them dying together.
Yuanshan didn’t need to explain that principle any further. Both Duan Chi and Lin Anke understood it perfectly well.
Duan Chi didn’t try to defend himself and simply admitted it. “My fault.”
Yuanshan waved a hand. “Just pay attention next time. It’s not a big deal. Your performance against Yuanche was pretty good overall but you still need to be more cautious when you face stronger teams in the future.”
Danqing raised his hand indignantly. “Coach, I have a question. Why do I have to do extra practice when I make a mistake but when it comes to Safer, it’s just ‘pay attention next time’? I want to pay attention next time too!”
Yuanshan shot him a look. “Your missed last hits are an issue with your mechanics. His problem is with shot calling and coordination. How exactly are we supposed to practice that? Have Encore give him orders and test his obedience?”
Duan Chi raised an eyebrow, his gaze slowly drifting toward Lin Anke as the corner of his lips curved upward.
“That’s not necessarily a bad idea.”
The others chimed in one after another and before long, Lin Anke, who had remained silent the entire time, had somehow been pushed directly into the fire.
His fingertips felt inexplicably numb. He couldn’t understand how the conversation had suddenly taken such a sharp turn and ended up involving him.
Yuanshan was practically laughing from exasperation by now. He couldn’t be bothered to interfere with them anymore.
“Fine, whatever. Practice however you want. If you can really train Safer until he becomes completely obedient, then that’s a good thing too.”
Only then was Danqing satisfied. At least he wasn’t going to be the only one getting punished.
The group returned to the training room. Danqing rubbed his hands together in anticipation and while turning on his computer, he called out, “Jiangnan, hurry up and come help me climb! The coach assigned us a task. I’m only a few games away from breaking into the top one hundred on the national server.”
Hearing him, Lin Anke glanced at his own ranked score as well. He wasn’t far behind either. He was only a few games away from reaching the same point.
“Anke, have you figured out how you’re going to train me?” Duan Chi leaned closer, lowering his voice, a deliberately teasing note evident in his tone.
Anyone could tell that Yuanshan had only been joking just now.
Lin Anke shot him a look. Since Duan Chi was practically volunteering to be ordered around by him and he happened to be short one person to help him climb the rankings, he simply said, “Come over and duo with me.”
Duan Chi raised an eyebrow. The slight curve at the corner of his lips was already impossible to suppress but he deliberately asked another question. “Any other orders?”
Lin Anke actually thought about it seriously for a moment. “Pick Star Hunter. I want to practice our coordination.”
The amusement in Duan Chi’s eyes deepened. He turned his head and started up his computer.
Lin Anke probably hadn’t even realized how natural it had become for him to make requests of Duan Chi.
A month ago, he couldn’t even bring himself to ask a single “Why?” when he was substituted out in the middle of a match.
Xu Sheng had arranged everything for him and Lin Anke simply accepted whatever was handed to him, as though he had been born believing that he shouldn’t have an opinion, shouldn’t make demands and shouldn’t cause other people any trouble.
And now, he was ordering Duan Chi around as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Even if that sense of natural entitlement was based solely on the coach’s instructions, when he opened his mouth, there hadn’t been even the slightest hesitation.
Duan Chi propped his chin up with one hand and clicked into the game interface, thinking to himself:
That’s more like it.
Encore was supposed to be this unapologetic.
After this regular season match, the public opinion surrounding DG improved considerably. The fans of the teams that had already written off DG’s Summer Split had finally fallen silent but the fans on TIG’s side were far from pleased.
Especially Xu Sheng’s fans.
For them to acknowledge Lin Anke’s strength would essentially mean openly admitting that the person who had truly been bad was Xu Sheng.
And besides, why was it that when Lin Anke had been at TIG, he had been so timid and submissive, either going onto the field just to feed kills or hiding under the tower with the marksman yet the moment he joined DG, he could suddenly initiate team fights and take MVP titles?
Wasn’t he actually throwing matches before?
At first, there weren’t many people who thought this way. That changed when Xu Qiao, a player from Yuanche Club, accidentally let something slip during one of his livestreams.
“Some people take advantage of other people being soft hearted. They take the club’s salary, throw their teammates under the bus in the grand finals and then, after they’re done, just pat themselves on the ass and walk away, as if their teammates aren’t even people.
“I’ve seen plenty of petty little people like that. Do they really think there’s nothing anyone can do about them? You don’t need to guess who I’m talking about. I’ve already reported him to the officials. Just wait for the league officials’ notice.”
His words stirred up a tremendous uproar.
For Xu Qiao to come out and say something like that at this particular moment was practically no different from naming Lin Anke outright.
Xu Sheng’s fans were the first to explode.
In their eyes, Lin Anke had been dragging Xu Sheng down all these years. If TIG had simply changed supports, they would have won the championship long ago yet Xu Sheng had always valued the friendship they had shared since childhood and had never replaced his support.
And now Xu Qiao had come right out and said that Lin Anke had been throwing matches before?
How could they possibly tolerate that?
The moment Xu Qiao’s livestream ended, Lin Anke’s Weibo comment section was completely overrun.
Panda received the news and hurried into the training room.
“Encore, have you checked Weibo?”
Lin Anke hadn’t even finished his current game. Without turning his head, he answered, “No. What happened?”
Duan Chi took off his headset and looked over at them..
Duan Chi took off his headset and looked over.
Panda rubbed the space between his brows, already getting a headache. “Xu Qiao said during his livestream that you used to throw your teammates when you were at TIG and that he’s already reported it to the league officials. I haven’t received anything from the officials yet but for now, don’t look at Weibo. Give me your account. I’ll keep it for you.”
Duan Chi’s brows furrowed. “Xu Qiao? The Yuanche jungler?”
The movements of everyone else in the room stopped as well. One after another, they all raised their heads and looked toward Panda.
Panda nodded. “Yeah.”
Danqing’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor. “Is there something wrong with his brain? Anke throwing matches for his teammates? If it weren’t for Anke dragging our tempo back several times during the Spring Finals, TIG would have been steamrolled in ten minutes. If anything, the other four were the ones throwing Anke under the bus.”
He remembered those matches with perfect clarity. TIG had been at a disadvantage in every single game and Lin Anke had been the only one desperately searching for opportunities to turn things around. Everyone else had been completely suppressed by them.
Yuanshan naturally knew that as well. Holding his thermos cup, he asked suspiciously, “The officials haven’t contacted you?”
Panda shook his head. “No. I only found out because I saw it online just now. The forums are already in complete chaos and the comments under Encore’s Weibo are even worse. They’re practically impossible to look at.”
Why can’t someone accept defeat?? 🙄
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
This chapter was powered by questionable decisions. The next one may require coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · He was substituted off the fieldChapter 2 · I’ll avenge youChapter 3 · Leaving TIGChapter 4 · Point and shootChapter 5 · Join DGChapter 6 · Live stream collisionChapter 7 · MysteriousChapter 8 · Transfer NoticeChapter 9 · Want the championshipChapter 10 · Galaxy BattleshipChapter 11 · Be my DogChapter 12 · Post match ConflictChapter 13 · ReportedChapter 14 · Weibo CodeChapter 15 · Live Streaming to attract FansChapter 16 · Duan Chi’s horse was exposedChapter 17 · Emotional articlesChapter 18 · Match voice recording