Ch.16 – Does Love at First Sight Exist in Esports?

Waking up early Saturday morning, Wang Yuxi grabbed Yao Sen, wanting to gossip. The other night’s livestream Yao Sen and Shao Han’s solo match had gone viral on the internet for several days. Half of the fans under the stream recap was made up of real esports fans, while CP fans made up the other half.

“Since when did you get so good at perspective evasion?” Wang Yuxi looked at Yao Sen in amazement, “Say, did you secretly train behind our backs!”

Perspective evasion and pre-targeting training have always been a part of Titans’s main team training regimen, yet these two aspects were a big problem for professional players, especially the former. 

Yao Sen casually said, “Got lucky that night.”

“If you were that lucky all the time, Lao-Gou would cry tears of joy.”

“I get it, hurry up and get ready. Don’t be late for today’s team tryouts.”

Titans’ internal tryouts officially began today. As soon as Yao Sen and the rest of the main team walked into the training room, the atmosphere in the room became substantially different. 

Coach Gou stood up front and solemnly spoke to all the team members, announcing how today’s tryouts would be evaluated.

Except for the secondary team, all the other team members needed to complete three sets of solo queues and team matches. The secondary team members, on the other hand, would need to complete three sets of team matches and five sets of alternating duos, and would have four people from the main team as their teammates or enemies.

The purpose of having the four members of the main team participate was so their opinions on the final selection of the substitute player could be heard. After all, they’re the ones who really understood what to look out for in a field full of experts. 

While the title here was ‘enemies’, in practice, it was unlikely for Yao Sen and the others to give it their all. Otherwise, it might really develop into an internal battle in the end. 

Hearing that they were going to be facing the members of the main team, the secondary team members eagerly rolled up their sleeves for battle, itching to immediately stand out from the rest of their teammates. 

The first match of the morning was between the youth training team and the third team, while the secondary team’s matches would start in the afternoon. Four people from the secondary team made final preparations in the training room. Zhou Ziyu sat upright in front of the computer with sweaty palms.

Jiang Yang looked at ease as usual. His average assessment score was the highest in the secondary team, and his personal ranking in the Asia server was also pretty good. When Yao Sen, who was in charge of the training, came up behind him, he specially sniped two people off to give the captain a fancy show.

Yao Sen didn’t say anything. Seeing that Zhou Ziyu had made some minor mistakes due to nerves, he walked up and patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t be nervous.”

Zhou Ziyu was so startled that he missed another shot. He looked up to see that it was the captain, and immediately apologized over and over again in shame.

Zhou Ziyu was the youngest member of the secondary team. Usually, whenever he saw Yao Sen, he would respectfully call out ‘captain’. He was polite and full of admiration, only falling short of bowing to Yao Sen. 

After the squad matches ended, in the first duos match, Yao Sen and Jiang Yang faced Wang Yuxi and Zhou Ziyu. The combination of Zhou Ziyu and Wang Yuxi ought to play reasonably well. After all, one was a support type while the other was an assault.

However, the result was not what everyone expected. Zhou Ziyu made three mistakes in the first game, while Jiang Yang was indeed better at offense, directly leading to Zhou Ziyu’s loss in the first game when both Yao Sen and Wang Yuxi were taking it easy. 

The first game completely discouraged Zhou Ziyu, and he sat on his chair watching his defeat on the screen, his head hung dejectedly.

There was still some time to adjust before the second game began. Yao Sen switched to team up with Zhou Ziyu to play against Bai Yue and Jiang Yang. 

Yao Sen didn’t say much about not being nervous, as it would be better to let Zhou Ziyu make his own adjustments. He only pointed out Zhou Ziyu’s mistakes in the previous round, and added a simple “Just play at your usual level”, which slowly cheered Zhou Ziyu up. 

In the second round, Zhou Ziyu played much better than he did in the first round. On the contrary, Jiang Yang’s offense became more impatient and hot-tempered, like he wanted to eliminate Zhou Ziyu early on by relying on his high hit rate and beautiful operation.

Although Zhou Ziyu was still a little nervous, he wisely chose to retreat in order to advance later on. His hit rate couldn’t compare to Jiang Yang’s, so he didn’t pit his weakness against the other party. Meanwhile, his observation and control of the overall game gave him a lot of points, and in the end, he assisted Yao Sen to take the win.

After five full rounds, Jiang Yang won three games, and Zhou Ziyu won two.

Zhou Ziyu grabbed at his hair in frustration, gave up his seat to another team member, and thanked the main team and coach. He sat on the side, seriously watching his teammates’ matches.

By the time tryouts were over, it was almost dinner time. Coach Gou asked the many team members to sum up the results of today’s game and go to dinner and rest early, leaving only the four members of the main team behind. 

The results of the tryouts were to be announced next week. Coach Gou already had his own calculations about the youth training team and third team’s matches, so he got right to the point and asked the four members of the main team to talk about their thoughts on who should be the main team’s substitute. 

Wang Yuxi: “I vote for Jiang Yang.”

Coach Gou raised his chin: “Reason.”

“He’s a little impatient from time to time, but his hit rate and operation is really consistent. If either Yao Sen or I screw up during an official match, the team’s overall hit rate won’t drop too much.”

A few years ago, Wang Yuxi was also someone who hated putting people in his eyes and looked down on others. When he looked at Jiang Yang, he somewhat felt a sense of kinship. “Just throw those impatient shortcomings of his to Yao Sen to discipline for two days. Didn’t this also happen to me back then?”

Yao Sen: “Do you think I’m interested in disciplining anyone?”

Coach Gou nodded yet didn’t say anything and turned to Song Mingzhe, “Mingzhe, what about you?”

Song Mingzhe: “I’m in favour of Zhou Ziyu. If he can drop his overly vigilant and nervous habits, his operation is actually very stable. Also, this kid is quite thoughtful, and his observation skills are strong, so he’s a pretty good support.”

Bai Yue paused, then said, “My thoughts are the same as Wang Yuxi’s, I vote for Jiang Yang.”

Coach remained silent. He finally looked at Yao Sen, expression serious. “Yao Sen, what do you think?”

“If you ask me, I’m not too satisfied with either of them,” Yao Sen replied, “Their personality issues aside, Jiang Yang’s operation is full of petty maneuvers that would take some time to get over. Zhou Ziyu’s coordination is a bit poor, and the interval when he switches between his left and right hand functions is a little long, which affects the fluidity of his movements.”

Yao Sen could indeed see some problems that would be difficult for the average person to detect. Coach Gou nodded and motioned him to continue.

“But if I really had to pick one of them, I’d still go with Zhou Ziyu,” Yao Sen said. “There’s no particular reason. Zhou Ziyu’s control of the whole game is really good. He’s also pretty smart, and he adjusts his form quite quickly.”

He shot a glance at Wang Yuxi and said, “And it’s enough for our team to have one bighead, I can’t take care of two. I need someone mature.”

Wang Yuxi slapped the table, “Ten of me can’t even compare to your bighead!”

Coach Gou just nodded and didn’t make any comments, letting them all go back to rest.

Yao Sen hadn’t had much chance to talk to Shao Han in the last few days, and he only had time to watch his live broadcasts in the evening. Wang Yuxi caught on and refused to let go, teasing Yao Sen all day long, a “Shao ge” here and a “Shao ge” there. It made his heart itch and he was dying to just go up and whip Wang Yuxi to death. 

On Tuesday morning, Coach Gou held a short team meeting and directly announced the results of the team tryouts.

Coach Gou ultimately chose Zhou Ziyu to join the main team as a substitute, which, as a matter of fact, didn’t come as a surprise to Yao Sen at all. He sat on one side of the sofa and watched the two people’s faces. Zhou Ziyu’s entire body trembled when he heard his name, almost jumping right off the couch as his eyes instantly reddened. 

Jiang Yang’s face didn’t look so good, his expression turning gloomy and ugly on the spot. As soon as the meeting ended, he directly got up and left without saying anything, his back cutting an angry figure in front of everyone’s eyes. 

Coach Gou didn’t pay attention to him, probably because he had already seen all kinds of players who have lost their tempers over the years. He continued with the meeting, planning to deal with him later. 

On the other hand, Zhou Ziyu was called away by Coach Gou after the meeting. Before leaving, he looked as if he was in an unbelievable dream.

The training that day went on as usual. After the training session in the afternoon, Yao Sen planned to eat out at a restaurant. On the way, Wang Yuxi couldn’t help talking about the team tryouts.

Wang Yuxi: “Although I think what Lao-Gou said was reasonable, why not pick another assault to come up as a substitute? What if Yao Sen or I screw up before the game?”

“Lao-Wang, to be honest,” Bai Yue said, “If Yao Sen collapses, the rest of us can only rely on ourselves, and there won’t be much of a difference between the support and the output. If you collapse, and a support replaces you, there’ll be three supports backing one Yao Sen. I think we’d still have a chance of winning. And don’t we still have Lao-Song? Our output and support can be seamlessly linked up.”

Wang Yuxi: “…….”

Wang Yuxi: “Okay okay.”

The four of them had just turned the corner of the corridor when Jiang Yang suddenly walked out and stopped right in front of Yao Sen. He obviously had something to say.

Jiang Yang had probably been scolded by his coach just a moment ago. His face was still radiating resentment and dissatisfaction. 

Yao Sen calmly said, “What’s wrong?”

“Captain, I could’ve won the second round if you hadn’t interfered,” Jiang Yang had tried his best to suppress it, yet in the end he couldn’t help but say, “Coach Gou was just unhappy with my performance in the second round. The internal tryouts is a competition between the four of us in the secondary team. Captain, you’re biased towards Zhou Ziyu, I really can’t accept this result!”

The three people behind Yao Sen looked at each other in dismat, but Yao Sen’s face didn’t change all that much.

Wang Yuxi couldn’t help but frown and say, “Jiang Yang, you…”

Bai Yue lightly tugged Wang Yuxi, and he didn’t say anything further.

“Do you think you lost the second game against Zhou Ziyu because of me?” Yao Sen stared at him, saying, “Then you thought wrong. Zhou Ziyu’s assistance was spot on at the time. Believe it or not, even if it wasn’t me, another amateur player would’ve won.”

Jiang Yang glared at him. There was still fury between his brows, but he couldn’t say a word.

“And what reason do I have to favor Zhou Ziyu? We’re not related. You should carefully think about how to change those amateur habits of yours. It was right for Coach Gou to be unhappy with your performance in the second round,” Yao Sen paused, “Solo with me for two hours this weekend ba, I’ll teach you.”

Without waiting for Jiang Yang’s reply, Yao Sen patted him on the shoulder and left with the remaining three.

As the four of them walked out of Yiyou’s entrance, Wang Yuxi was finally unable to hold back and said to Yao Sen, “You’re not going to use the same trick you used against me back then against him, are you? You flatter him too much.”

Yao Sen: “Weren’t you quite optimistic about him?”

“How was I supposed to know that he was so aggressive? He’s like a firecracker. Even back then I wasn’t this bad.”

Bai Yue laughed out loud, “He’s not going to turn around and tell Lao-Gou that the captain bullied him?”

“His mouth is his, he can go and complain to whoever he wants to,” Yao Sen was indifferent, “And I don’t think he’s that unreasonable.”

Song Mingzhe was also a little disgruntled, “Boss has given him preferential treatment, how ungrateful would he be to think that Boss is bullying him?”

Bai Yue: “How can a kid’s mind be easily guessed? Lao-Song, with your age, the generation gap between you and him is already large enough.”

Song Mingzhe, who was four years older than the average age of the main team and nine years older than the average age of the youth training team: “…….”

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – no shao han this chapter T___T

⟵ Chapter 15 | TOC | Chapter 17 ⟶