LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 568 Ke Jie is dealt a blow
And it seems that this is indeed the case.

If Lin Ruo isn't the strongest opponent in this Samsung Cup, Ke Jie believes he really can't find a second one.

Participating in the Samsung Cup is like having a home-field advantage for Ke Jie. He has won the championship for three consecutive years, making him one of the most significant champions in the history of the Samsung Cup.

Despite not having experienced a significant decline in strength this year, Ke Jie still believes he has a very good chance of winning the championship. Although he lost to a South Korean in the Mengbaihe Cup, it did not affect Ke Jie's confidence.

However, upon seeing Lin Ruo, Ke Jie's belief in winning the championship wavered slightly.

Because he understood Lin Ruo all too well.

Or perhaps he understood better than Lin Ruo what talent and self-confidence truly meant.

Ke Jie considers himself to be like this: after achieving success, he enters a period of narcissism, and not training properly is just a minor matter.

But in his eyes, Lin Ruo...

This kind of mistake is obvious.

Ke Jie believes that his overconfidence after winning the championship led him to neglect training to a minor degree, but Lin Ruo is a different story.

It's one thing that he wasn't a proper professional Go player to begin with, but what's even more frightening is that he didn't train properly despite knowing he only had a month to prepare for the Samsung Cup.

That's incredibly arrogant.

No, no, it has to be how confident you are in your own abilities.

Ke Jie understands this better than anyone else. In fact, as a champion, his so-called lack of training is definitely not a sign of slacking off, but rather a sign of excessive confidence, or rather, a very clear understanding of his own abilities.

That means it won't affect anything if I don't train, because my ability can handle it.

Ke Jie has done this to some extent as well. When he is too confident in his abilities, he tends to become complacent.

But at least for now, Ke Jie has not yet experienced the consequences of such a lapse in concentration.

But Lin Ruo.

What really puzzled Ke Jie was that everyone else was a genius who suddenly appeared and won the championship, but this level of relaxation was way too much.

That's something no normal person could do; even geniuses don't work that laxly.

Ke Jie still wants to ask, how confident are you in your own abilities?

So, in order to verify whether the person opposite him was his strongest opponent in the Samsung Cup, Ke Jie very politely issued the challenge on the plane.

"Hey bro, are you free? We can have a go at the hotel later. You should be looking for a partner to train with, right?"

After saying this, Ke Jie pondered the matter. He thought that Lin Ruo would most likely not agree, since geniuses prefer to do their own research and wouldn't hire someone to train with them.

Ke Jie, for example, believes that tinkering is definitely more useful than playing with others.

Moreover, they are likely to be opponents in the upcoming Samsung Cup, and based on that alone, they probably won't agree to any sparring partners.

In fact, there are many ways for players to train. They can ask a coach to accompany them as an opponent, play against each other on FoxGo, or even study endgames and practice their strategies.

If someone calls out that they might be playing chess against their opponent...

"Sure, if my idol wants to test my abilities, I'll definitely do my duty."

While Ke Jie was still deep in thought, he heard Lin Ruo's very quick response.

No problem, let's have a one-on-one fight, who's afraid of who?

Forehead…

Ke Jie smiled and didn't say much. He thought to himself that this kid was much more arrogant than him. He actually agreed. He would have to give him a good beating after getting off the plane.

harm.

Ke Jie suddenly got a little excited. After watching the Mengbaihe Cup final, he really wanted to play a game with Lin Ruo because the latter's playing style was indeed novel.

In an era where everyone is eager to adopt AI-based playing styles, Ke Jie, who is somewhat resistant to it, is interested in seeing someone whose playing style is not entirely the same as AI's.

So even before getting off the plane, Ke Jie felt that this match would be very interesting.

Unlike Lin Ruo, whose expression was much more normal.

He hadn't thought about playing against Ke Jie. If they met on the court, he would have a great game; if not, it wouldn't matter much.

However, since it's a challenge to fight offline, Lin Ruo definitely won't refuse.

Ke Jie, who is currently at his peak, is too arrogant. Lin Ruo felt it was necessary to ensure that this great player would not be chased and beaten by some kid in the future, so it was essential to give him a heads-up beforehand.

Right.

Ke Jie, you don't want to have a nemesis in the future, do you?

However, it seems that preventing the arrival of the shovel would be more effective in adjusting Ke Jie's game.

Forget it.

This is something that can't be stopped.

Lin Ruo can only handle things within his own power. All he can do now is make Ke Jie understand that you are not invincible, and you may even be beaten.

So please adapt to the times, thank you. Don't try to follow your own ideas and become complacent, thus becoming someone who is eliminated by time.

OK?

no problem.

...

In just one afternoon, the plane arrived at the venue for the Samsung Cup main tournament, Daejeon, South Korea's most famous municipality.

After disembarking, everyone checked into a hotel next to the Korea Training Institute, the venue for this competition.

Here, Lin Ruo saw many familiar contestants, such as Yu Zhiying, who had been eliminated but had not yet left.

At the same time, a number of South Korean media outlets were also present.

Because she could understand Korean, Lin Ruo became the first target of interviews from the Korean media even before she entered the hotel. As someone who never refuses anyone, Lin Ruo didn't show any sign of turning down interviews.

Come on, everyone interview me! Let all eyes be on me, thank you.

"Why is Lin Ruo, who just finished a League of Legends competition, thinking of immediately participating in the Samsung Cup?"

"No, someone asked me to come, so I came. Thank you."

The South Korean media rushed to ask questions, and Lin Ruo answered them very quickly, striving to give every reporter a chance to ask so that she could report back to the media.

Does Lin Ruo think she is confident of winning the championship?

"A little."

"Who does Lin Ruo think is the biggest opponent in this Samsung Cup?"

"Everyone."

Who would Lin Ruo most like to face?

"I really want to."

...

Ok.

After a series of interviews, the South Korean media realized that while the guy was genuinely willing to be interviewed, he was also incredibly good at deflecting questions. Miraculously, after asking so many questions, the South Korean media discovered that not a single answer was useful.

This is not right.

There was a time when Lin Ruo was so willing to listen to the opinions of media friends. When media friends couldn't find topics, she would take the initiative to create memes and make interviews that would generate the most traffic.

But now it seems like everything has changed.

So you're starting to just fill in the numbers too? That's no fun.

In short, all the journalists left disappointed when the interviews ended.

Because they didn't get any sensational or attention-grabbing information out of Lin Ruo.

If Lin Ruo doesn't want to talk, then he will definitely be able to use the most perfunctory way to deal with the interview.

It's like replying to someone's chat with "um," "okay," or "oh," which only shows that you don't want to chat anymore, and you have absolutely no intention of continuing the conversation.

Therefore, it's useless for the media to ask any more questions. It's unrealistic to expect them to get any name out of Lin Ruo.

Lin Ruo wasn't saying she didn't want to answer; it's just that there were too many people interviewing her, and she didn't have enough witty remarks to go on, so she decided to just let it go.

Let's save it for... for our great idol Ke Jie.

The group that checked into the hotel later didn't have much time to rest. Soon it was time for dinner, and it would be getting dark soon afterward.

With the draw ceremony for the main tournament starting the next day, the preparation time is quite tight. However, most people have already made all the necessary preparations in the months leading up to the start of the tournament.

Except for Lin Ruo.

Not only does he have to play a game of chess with Ke Jie, but he also needs to buy a well-fitting suit to make it easier to participate in tomorrow's draw.

"You didn't even bring a suit? Are you trying to make me laugh?"

In the hotel's chess room, Ke Jie, still fiddling with the white pieces, found it increasingly amusing.

It is well known that Go players wearing suits in competitions is not an explicit rule, but over the years it has clearly become a tacitly accepted habit.

Wearing a suit in a formal competition setting signifies both the importance one places on the competition and respect for one's opponent.

Ke Jie had to admit that he had never met anyone like the person who only thought about buying a suit right before the match.

"Why don't you go buy it first? I'm afraid you won't be in the mood to buy it after you've finished downloading it."

Ke Jie was still smiling, and his chatter never stopped.

Lin Ruo finally understood why many people said Ke Jie was both slutty and shameless; now it seemed that was perhaps a euphemism.

It's okay, he can do that too.

"Has it started? I'm holding the white flag, right?"

Lin Ruo calmly looked at the chessboard, thinking about the fastest way to end the game. It was indeed getting late, and what if the shop was closed if she went too late?

So we need to hurry.

Therefore, Lin Ruo displayed the most aggressive offensive rhythm from the very beginning.

Ke Jie also looked full of fighting spirit.

Well, you actually want to go head-to-head with me? I've seen Korean players use all sorts of maneuvering tactics all the time, but this is the first time I've seen someone play so directly.

Ke Jie can't help but take things seriously; he really enjoys being challenged to the bitter end.

Want to compete on raw power? Then let's fight.

On the chessboard, in just over a hundred moves, the two players almost completely filled the lower right corner.

When all the situations are concentrated in one place, a sudden collapse in that place can very likely mean the end of the entire game.

Therefore, the game between the two ended very quickly. In less than an hour, Lin Ruo packed up her things and left the chess room.

He also shook his head the whole time, indicating that he was somewhat disappointed.

Seeing this, Ke Jie's coach immediately assumed that Ke Jie had won. However, he wondered how he could have won so quickly. He thought to himself, "Has Ke Jie's skill improved again? That would be a good thing."

So he happily went in, and then he saw Ke Jie sitting in front of the chessboard in a daze, pulling his hair and adjusting his glasses while muttering the usual words of a loser.

"How could this be? It's impossible! How could he have thought of this? How could I not have noticed?"

What's happening here?
The coach was completely dumbfounded.

Why do both of them look so unhappy? So the question is, who actually won this match?

Looking at the chessboard and the chess box next to Ke Jie, the coach immediately understood: Ke Jie had lost the game, so why did Lin Ruo look so annoyed when she left?

The coach didn't understand.

He didn't know that Lin Ruo was just regretting not ending the game faster. He could have achieved his goal in less than a hundred moves, but Ke Jie was clearly still capable and made a good move to slightly delay the game.

So it took a little longer than expected.

This is the reason for Lin Ruo's frustration. He originally planned to leave at 9:30 pm, but it ended up being 10 pm.

I don't know if I can still find a clothing store that's open at this hour.

It's hard to say.

However, some people are destined to have trouble sleeping tonight. For example, Ke Jie, who returned to his hotel room, tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. He first reviewed the game until around midnight, and then, still unable to sleep, he started challenging people to a match on FoxPlay.

Ke Jie stayed up until around 3 a.m. before finally falling asleep.

This strange sign was quickly spread to the Go forum.

[Shocking! Ke Jie was playing Go on FoxGo at 3 AM!]

[Really? Ke Jie would work this hard? No way, he's not that kind of person.]

[This is probably photoshopped. It's already a miracle if Ke Jie plays on Yefox during the day; you expect him to play at night too?]

[If this is true, does it mean Ke Jie has started working hard? Does he realize that progress requires more than just talent; it also requires effort? Forget it, I'd better go to sleep. I've been staying up too long; I'm having such unrealistic dreams.]

To Go enthusiasts, this is obviously like a sow climbing a tree, because who is Ke Jie? Would he work day and night?

They rely on talent.

Do you expect someone with natural talent to put in ten times the effort? If that were possible, Ke Jie wouldn't be Ke Jie.

However, when viewers discovered that it was true that Ke Jie was still playing chess on Yewu at 3 a.m., they had to reason about the matter in another direction.

They still don't believe Ke Jie has come to his senses, because there should be a better reason.

[Was Ke Jie discouraged by someone? Otherwise, why would he still be playing chess so late?]

I think that's the case. Ke Jie must have suffered a huge blow, otherwise why would he be staying up so late playing chess and training?

I think there's only one truth: Ke Jie was dumped by his girlfriend. Isn't that a huge blow?

This is indeed a big blow, but the question is, when did Ke Jie get a girlfriend?

As the night ended, no one could figure out the reason behind this huge blow. The viewers of the Go forum only knew that Ke Jie must have been hurt by someone.

It's hard to say who did it.

(End of this chapter)