Lin Anke had never expected his luck to be this terrible.
His main account’s rank was not exactly low but it could not be considered particularly high either. As a support player, climbing the ranks through solo queue was fairly difficult, so Lin Anke had remained at a middling rank for years, neither particularly high nor particularly low. He rarely ever ran into other professional players.
He had never expected to run into Xu Sheng this time and what was even worse was that his own teammate had a name like this.
Those five short characters contained two of his nicknames used by haters. Even though Lin Anke had long since grown accustomed to being cursed at, he still could not help staring blankly for a moment.
【Did Captain Xu’s rank get dragged down because he duo queued with Xingxing? I remember Captain Xu’s ranking being pretty high.】
【I’m a little scared. What if this fifth floor player intentionally throws the game for Keke?】
Lin Anke steadied himself, picked his hero as usual and locked in Chronos.
His main account used his professional name. Since the transfer announcement had not yet been made public, his ID was still TIG Encore, meaning that everyone in the match could see it.
The players on the first three floors were extremely excited to run into a professional player. They kept sending messages asking whether Lin Anke was really the person himself.
The fifth floor player, however, remained silent. When it was finally his turn to pick a hero, he waited for a long time before locking in Cupid.
Lin Anke breathed a sigh of relief. He had chosen a normal marksman, so it did not look like he intended to throw the game. Perhaps even a hater cared about his ranked points.
Once everyone had selected their heroes and they entered the game map, Lin Anke had already put his worries aside. Just as he thought they could play normally, Xu Sheng, who was on the opposing team, sent a message to everyone in the match.
【TIG XuSheng】: Anke, why didn’t you accept my invitation just now?
Lin Anke’s gaze swept over the barrage of comments and only then did he realize that Xu Sheng had been streaming just now. Xu Sheng’s fans had all seen him reject the invitation.
It was not really a big deal to begin with. Everyone had times when they simply wanted to solo queue.
Unfortunately, TIG had just lost a match and the haters had been waiting for an opportunity to stir up trouble.
【We just lost a match and he’s already giving his teammate attitude. Is this what our number one support is like?】
【A support player should focus on practicing coordination with his teammates instead of solo queuing and streaming every day. No wonder someone had to teach him a lesson.】
【Was losing the match Encore’s responsibility alone? What’s wrong with solo queuing and streaming during the break? Haters, get lost.】
【We’ll know who the problem is after this game. If the number one support loses to a substitute, shouldn’t he step down from the starting lineup?】
Lin Anke ignored the trolls in the livestream chat and proceeded down the lane with his random teammates as usual, beginning to farm and develop.
The hero Xu Sheng had chosen had a stronger early game power than Cupid. Lin Anke had initially been worried that this particular hater would stubbornly pick fights and feed but unexpectedly, the hater’s game sense was quite good. Relying on his movement speed, he repeatedly kept his distance from Xu Sheng and maneuvered around him.
Whenever Xu Sheng advanced, he retreated. Whenever Xu Sheng backed off, he moved forward again.
It made Xu Sheng increasingly irritated. No matter how high his hero’s early game damage was, it was useless when Cupid simply refused to fight him!
Seeing that this hater was actually quite capable, Lin Anke finally relaxed.
Five minutes into the game, the enemy jungler kept ganking the mid lane. Their own mid laner did not dare come out and was also being pinned under the wave. Lin Anke therefore went to the mid lane for a moment and helped his mid laner clear the wave.
Lin Anke calculated the time it would take for the enemy jungler to come and gank the bottom lane, then circled back toward bottom lane through his own jungle.
Xu Sheng’s vision disappeared from the map and Cupid immediately sent out a signal.
Lin Anke had already anticipated that they might be coming for him, so he held his skills in advance, keeping them ready.
One second before Xingxing and Xu Sheng appeared within his field of vision, Lin Anke had already predicted their positions. The instant the two of them released their skills, he forcibly rewound their positions to where they had been one second earlier.
This was Chronos’s core mechanic, Time Reversal.
But what Lin Anke absolutely had not expected was that three people had come over from the opposing side.
He had no idea how Xu Sheng had communicated with their jungler. At a time like this, the jungler should have been taking the Dragon yet instead, he had run all the way into the enemy jungle to gank a support.
No matter how fast Lin Anke’s hands were, it did not change the fact that he was only a support player, while the opposing side had three people.
After Xu Sheng took his kill, Lin Anke’s own mid laner and marksman rushed over but there was nothing they could do. The opposing players had retreated far too quickly. Fortunately, however, they had not managed to steal the red buff from his jungle.
【I really don’t know how you ever became a professional player. All you know how to do is feed.】
【May I ask what exactly Anke contributed to that exchange?】
【Isn’t Xu Sheng going a little too far……? He actually came all the way into the jungle just to kill Encore?】
【Your fans really have some nerve. This is a ranked game. What’s wrong with Xu Sheng playing normally? Why should he go easy on your precious Anke?】
Lin Anke was not affected by that exchange at all.
The opposing side had indeed taken his kill but because their jungler, marksman and support had chased him too deep into his jungle, his own jungler had already secured a Dragon and then invaded the upper half of the enemy jungle. Meanwhile, their marksman had pushed the minion wave into the enemy bottom tower, leaving the first enemy tower heavily damaged.
It was not a loss.
If anything, they had gained a little.
After all, Lin Anke only needed to wait a few seconds before he could revive, whereas the enemy jungle resources and the first tower in the bottom lane were gone for good.
If this had happened on the SEL stage, Xu Sheng’s decision in this exchange could be considered a major strategic mistake.
But this was a ranked game with random players and most people only looked at the number of kills.
Calculating the timing, Lin Anke sent a message to remind Cupid: They should be coming back soon. You should return to the tower first.
The moment the message was sent, Xu Sheng and Xingxing had already returned to the bottom lane.
In the very instant they came face to face, Cupid, who had already taken half a step backward, suddenly turned around. The arrow in his hand locked directly onto Xu Sheng.
At the same time, Cupid shifted sideways, cleanly dodging Xingxing’s control skill. The second stage of his binding skill accurately locked onto Xingxing, followed immediately by his ultimate.
The two of them were forcibly pulled together.
Even while tanking the tower’s damage, Cupid still managed to land the final burst of area of effect damage.
Double Kill!
The entire sequence happened so quickly that Xu Sheng did not even have time to react. Cupid’s half step backward had been far too deceptive. No one had expected him to suddenly turn back.
The defensive towers in Starfall Echo dealt extremely high damage but Cupid had timed everything perfectly. He withdrew from the tower’s attack range at precisely the moment when he had only a sliver of health remaining.
After securing the Double Kill, Cupid simply stood where he was and began recalling.
The corpses of Xu Sheng and Xingxing lay directly in front of him.
【Anke, Number One Support in the World】: You two are blocking the way for me to get home as a support.
Livestream viewers:
Every character on the game map came to a complete stop.
【What’s going on?】
【Wait, isn’t this Cupid one of Keke’s haters? What is happening now???】
【A hater is avenging Keke?】
【Why aren’t the haters saying anything? Looks like your bro has switched sides.】
On the other side, Xu Sheng’s face had already turned as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot, while the substitute Xingxing did not dare say a word.
All the TIG team fans who were still watching the livestream fell silent. The scene was simply too bizarre.
Xu Sheng had brought the substitute support all the way into the jungle to hunt down Encore, only for the random marksman Lin Anke had been matched with, who seemed suspiciously like one of his haters, to dive under the tower and avenge him instead.
【Why do I feel like something is wrong inside the TIG team? I really don’t understand what Xu Sheng was trying to accomplish by going all the way over there to gank Encore, who was only a support.】
【The moment they subbed Encore out in the final game of the Spring Finals, I knew something was going to happen. I just don’t understand why Xu Sheng is the one targeting Encore. Shouldn’t the person who got benched from the starting lineup be the one who was angry?】
【Maybe they’re just joking around. Captain Xu and Encore have been close friends for many years. This random player is making a mountain out of a molehill.】
【Exactly and don’t you guys know that they’ve been childhood friends? Captain Xu is probably just teasing Encore. People who deliberately stir up drama are so annoying.】
Fans from opposing sides each stubbornly defended their own position and before long, the argument had become completely heated.
In the game, by the time Lin Anke returned to the lane, Cupid had already recovered to full strength and destroyed Xu Sheng’s first tower.
【TIG Encore】: Thanks.
Cupid’s movements paused for a moment after seeing the message but he did not say anything. After clearing the minion wave, he headed into the enemy team’s lower jungle.
Lin Anke did not think much of it. After destroying the first tower, naturally invading the enemy jungle was perfectly normal.
Starfall Echo had a relatively large jungle area with complicated terrain. Around the edges of the jungle were several small neutral monsters that provided relatively little experience and gold. Junglers would generally leave these smaller camps for the marksman and support to take.
Once the first tower was gone, those resources could only be left for the enemy marksman and support to take.
Lin Anke was slowly working his way through the small jungle monsters when he noticed Cupid heading straight toward the enemy jungle. From the looks of it, he intended to steal the enemy buff.
Taking the buff at this point in the game was possible but it carried some risk, because the enemy jungler would definitely be heading toward the bottom lane.
But Cupid had already gone in. There was no way Lin Anke could simply leave him alone, so he had no choice but to follow.
Sure enough, while the two of them were taking the enemy blue buff, the opposing jungler and mid laner arrived.
According to Lin Anke’s usual habits, the safest option would unquestionably have been to retreat first.
But Cupid clearly had no intention of doing that.
Another “Double Kill!” rang out and the enemy jungler and mid laner collapsed to the ground.
【666, that was so sick!】
【This Cupid is pretty good. He actually took down the enemy mid and jungler while bringing his support along with him!】
Their own mid laner had originally seen the marksman and support getting caught and was already heading over to help but halfway there, he heard the announcement of the Double Kill and immediately turned around and went back.
Perhaps the others could not see everything clearly but as a professional player, Lin Anke had excellent dynamic vision. He had clearly seen Cupid’s positioning and skill usage just now and there had not been a single mistake. His movements did not look like those of an ordinary ranked player.
【Anke, Number One Support in the World】: Take blue.
Lin Anke froze for a moment. His hands moved faster than his brain and he accepted the blue buff.
A beautiful blue aura appeared beneath Chronos’s feet, granting mana regeneration and reduced skill cooldowns, the kind of buff every mid laner and support dreamed of.
At this point, even the most oblivious person could see it.
How could this person possibly look like a hater?
Had anyone ever seen a hater give a blue buff to the person they were supposedly there to hate?
And this guy had even gone into the enemy jungle and killed their mid laner and jungler just to help his support secure a blue buff?
【Now, even if you told me Cupid’s ID wasn’t just some joke and that he genuinely meant it, I’d believe you.】
【I’m crying tears of joy as an old fan. This is the first time someone has given our Encore a blue buff. I don’t know what happens when they’re playing privately but during a livestream, this is definitely the first time. As for on the professional stage, you can forget about it.】
【I’m a little jealous of this Cupid. I want to give Encore blue too. I want to run into Encore in a game too but I don’t have the skill for it, sob.】
After completely looting the enemy jungle, the economic gap between the two sides continued to widen.
By this point, Xu Sheng had already turned on his microphone and instructed his teammates to avoid unnecessary fights and focus on farming but it was already too late.
Lin Anke’s side continued pressuring the towers and pushing the lanes. It did not take long before they reached the high ground, destroyed the crystal and ended the game.
There was no doubt that the MVP was Cupid.
Lin Anke gave him a like.
【Anke, Number One Support in the World has requested to add you as a friend.】
Lin Anke accepted.
【Anke, Number One Support in the World has sent you a party invitation.】
This AD’s mechanics were quite good and besides…… As Lin Anke recalled the game they had just played, a faint guess had begun forming in his mind.
He accepted the party invitation.
The two of them duo queued for the entire night, winning thirteen games in a row. Apart from the occasional necessary communication, however, they barely spoke to each other.
By the time Lin Anke ended his livestream, his rank points had already climbed into the top two hundred players on the national server.
A few days later, the SEL transfer window opened.
There were two transfer windows in SEL every year. This one took place in the middle of the year and most of the top tier teams generally did not make roster changes during this period, with only a few exceptions.
This particular transfer window was one such exception.
The support player Yuanshan of DG, the champions of the Spring Split, had announced his retirement, which immediately attracted a great deal of attention.
The esports forums were filled with posts discussing which support DG would sign.
#Who do you think DG will buy this time?#
【It seems like none of the current top tier supports are planning to transfer, right? Could they be planning to choose someone from their second team or youth academy?】
【A youth player is unlikely. Yuanshan was the team’s shot caller, so DG definitely needs to bring in an experienced successor this time.】
【Among the top tier domestic supports, isn’t Encore’s contract the one that’s about to expire?】
【What are you even thinking? Would a championship winning team really want the number one support?】
【Encore can’t possibly leave. He and Xu Sheng have a pretty good relationship. Didn’t Xu Sheng even say before that Encore only became a professional player because he wanted to accompany him?】
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
No propaganda here. Only 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