LPL History

Chapter 289 The Gathering of Martial Arts Heroes in Shanghai: A Battle of Two Heroes Begins

2015, April 1.

Jingwu Stadium in Shanghai.

"Have you not seen the waters of the Yellow River..."

"Ugh... Why are you hitting me?!"

The giant soldier slapped the back of his head, and upon seeing Zhou Li's face, he swallowed back the Korean national treasure that was about to come out.

"What the hell are you talking about? How come you, a Korean, speak with such a strong Colonel accent?"

"What's wrong with the ancient poem I just learned?"

"Stop learning, it's all dirty coming out of your mouth."

The LGD players watched the interaction between the two with strange expressions.

After all, in their eyes, it's incredibly strange that one Korean beats up another simply because the other's inaccurate Chinese pronunciation is considered an insult to ancient Chinese poetry!

Chris tenderly ruffled Imp's hair, seemingly afraid that Zhou Li might damage the head of the ADC whom LGD had hired at a multi-million dollar annual salary. He then said to Zhou Li with displeasure:
"What's all the fuss about? Get ready to go on stage!"

Chris now has a lot of strong opinions about Zhou Li.

Two days ago, he took Zhou Li and Imp to the hospital to visit Acorn.

Everything was fine until he went out to answer a phone call. When he came back, Acorn saw him and started crying, hugging his leg.

His snot got all over his leg.

Acorn cried so bitterly, Chris still feels it vividly.

This top-tier top laner from South Korea cried and begged LGD to let him go.

Chris, who had just acquired a key player, naturally wouldn't agree to Acorn's request. He spent a long time comforting Acorn until he calmed him down, but no matter how much he asked for the reason, Acorn refused to reveal a single word.

The next day, Chris received a call from the hospital saying that Acorn had fallen off the bed while sleeping and injured his hand, and it would take at least two or three months to recover.

Two or three months! By the time Acorn is discharged from the hospital, the Spring Split will almost be over!

Chris was really at his wit's end, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't help but think that this matter was related to Zhou Li.

What's even more outrageous is that Chris discovered that their team's absolute core, the champion ADC Giant Soldier whose salary is twice that of three Chinese players, seems to have been bullied by Zhou Li!
Chris felt heartbroken every time he saw the cute and innocent Imp being bullied by Zhou Li.

But for some reason, even though Zhou Li no longer treated the giant warrior as a person, the giant warrior still insisted on sticking to him.

Look! Right now! Zhou Li had just slapped the back of the giant soldier's head when the giant soldier leaned in and whispered something to Zhou Li.

"Brother Zhou, how's Mata doing?"

Although Zhou Li had always asked Imp to communicate with her in Chinese, Imp used Korean at this moment.

Zhou Li picked at his ear, looking completely unconcerned.

"Ah, we're already in contact with them. Don't worry, it shouldn't be a big problem."

imp seemed somewhat skeptical and curiously pressed for an answer:

"How did you do that? Can I see it? Mata is very smart."

Seeing that Imp didn't trust him, Zhou Li gave him another tap on the back of the head.

"Don't worry, your brother Zhou is the pioneer of online dating."

After Imp helped Zhou Li complete the task of intimidating Acorn, in exchange, Zhou Li also had to complete the task of helping Imp with the real Mata.

The two originally planned to take action the next day.

To Zhou Li's surprise, Imp suddenly had a breakthrough before he even started!

"If I invite Mata out and you beat him up, what if he suspects me?"

"I'm only responsible for beating people up. Does he even know what you have to do with me?"

"No, I definitely can't let him know that I did it."

"Then why don't we just forget about it? It does seem quite risky."

Judging from Zhou Li's expression, Imp knew that the other party wanted to get something for nothing.

If he hadn't already helped Zhou Li set a trap for Acorn, he would have let it go.

But now that he has already put in the effort, if he were to end the scheme just like that, Imp would feel like he's losing out.

"Is there any way to beat up Mata without him recognizing me?"

"Have."

"any solution?!"

"You have to pay more."

After being thoroughly persuaded by Zhou Li, Imp completely became his lackey.

Asking Mata out is actually very simple.

If he creates a new AA account that doesn't eat cilantro, getting a Mata account is a piece of cake.

After all, this was a skill he had already mastered in Season 2.

Although he has already achieved great success, resorting to such despicable means inevitably draws some moral condemnation. But there's nothing he can do; it's what Imp wanted, and it just so happens to be his specialty.

Hearing Zhou Li's confident assurance, Imp could only nod and say with a smile:

"If you beat up Mata for me, I'll introduce you to a girlfriend."

Zhou Li curled his lip.

Imp introducing himself to a girlfriend is practically like something out of a horror movie.

Chris sighed as he watched Zhou Li and Imp being so close.

He decided to find an opportunity to have a good talk with Imp and ask him to maintain a certain social distance from Zhou Li, the mentally ill man.

He is already looking for a new top laner for the team, and he will not hesitate to replace Zhou Li as long as a suitable candidate is found.

However, the Spring Split has already started, so Zhou Li has to step up for now.

The enthusiastic cheers from the audience outside made Chris involuntarily nervous.

Logically speaking, this coach, who led Royal Club to two runner-up finishes at the World Championship in S3 and S4, shouldn't be nervous about an LPL Spring Split match.

However, this year, the responsibilities of coaches are quite different from those in the past.

Before this, in LPL teams, the so-called coaches were mostly just ordering takeout for the players.

However, according to Riot's new rules, they want to increase the coach's presence in the team. Now, during the draft phase of each match, the coaches of both teams will go on stage to directly direct the team's draft!
In other words, the coaching profession not only requires taking on more professional responsibilities, but also requires stepping out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight to be judged by the audience.

So even for a seasoned veteran like Chris, he was still nervous when he stepped in front of the camera for the first time in a proper manner.

Especially considering that today's opponent is EDG, a top team in the LPL!
The EDG team was just established in S4 and immediately won the LPL Spring and Summer championships that year. Although they did not perform well in the World Championship that year, they made a big investment this year to bring in Pawn from Samsung White and Deft from Samsung Blue, and showed great strength in scrims.

Although LGD's win rate in scrims against EDG is not low, Chris also knows that scrims cannot show the true strength of EDG due to EDG's team style.

In fact, today is already the second day of the LPL Spring Split. On the first day of matches, several LPL teams have already clashed.

What Chris is most concerned about is that when the team loses a game, fans often choose to blame a certain player.

However, as the coaches stepped into the spotlight, every coach from the teams that lost the game yesterday received warm greetings from the fans.

After all, compared to the players, coaches are clearly at a disadvantage in terms of online public opinion.

This put invisible pressure on Chris.

Thinking of this, Chris looked again at Zhou Li, the ticking time bomb in his team.

In a state of extreme worry, Chris approached Zhou Li and said something that made everyone in LGD feel that it was utterly outrageous.

"Zhou Li, could you please replace the previous Zhou Li with the one from before?"

Even Zhou Li himself was stunned by what Chris said.

Listen, is this human speech?
If he could switch personalities at will, would he still be considered mentally ill?
"Are you out of your mind, Chris?"

"If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Why resort to insults?"

Chris pouted.

"I think you've lost your mind too."

Wei Shen couldn't help but make a joke.

On the other side, Kou Rou was smiling and typing in the fan group on his phone.

The female fans in the group were cheering him on, which made him feel very warm.

"Don't worry, today's match shouldn't be a problem. At least I'm sure I'll be fine in the top lane."

He pressed the send button and looked up to meet Abu's sinister gaze.

Kou Rou pursed his lips and put his phone in his pocket.

"Alright guys," Abu clapped his hands, "get your spirits up! In the first match of the Spring Split, we need to show everyone that EDG is stronger!"

After he finished speaking, he tidied his hair and then tugged at his slightly ill-fitting suit.

"Pfft."

Kou Rou couldn't help but laugh out loud, and even started complaining to the factory manager.

“Look at Abu’s head, it’s as big as a club.”

The factory manager's face darkened.

Sometimes he doesn't quite understand Kou Rou (a type of braised pork).

Everyone in the world knows that the factory manager and Abu are inseparable, but Kou Rou (a nickname for a male celebrity) loves to complain about Abu to the factory manager all the time.

It's become so inflated that it's almost out of control.

With the adoration of those female fans, Koro1 probably felt that EDG couldn't function without him.

Little did the factory manager know that Abu had actually been contacting new top laners all along.

I heard that LGD has also been looking for a top laner.

Their starting top laner, Korean import Acorn, broke his hand before the Spring Split even started, which is quite absurd.

Today, LGD's top laner is Li, who is known as the worst Korean import.

After the Dopa ranking controversy, Clearlove was still doubting the authenticity of the title.

However, the two training matches seemed to completely expose Li's true colors as a player.

While I'm not as bad as some people online say, I'm just at a decent level.

In his many years of professional career, Clearlove has seen far too many players like this who are dominant in ranked matches and treated like royalty in professional games.

The cheers inside the stadium came in waves.

In 2015, League of Legends reached its true peak.

"Hello to the audience here and those watching the live stream! You are now watching the 2015 League of Legends LPL Spring Split regular season match! The two teams facing off are LGD Esports Club and EDG Esports Club! I am your commentator, Miller!"

"I'm the commentator, Waa!"

When the Haier Brothers' voices rang out, another round of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the audience.

"I'm really looking forward to today's match. On paper, both teams are undoubtedly top-tier teams in the LPL right now! EDG needs no introduction, especially with the addition of Pawn and Deft this year. And LGD also has last year's champion AD carry, Imp!"

"However, it seems that LGD has had a bad start to the year. Their starting top laner, Acorn, formerly of Samsung Blue, is also injured and will be unable to participate in the competition for a while. The current starting top laner for LGD is another Korean player, Li."

Miller had barely finished speaking when the doll laughed and teased:

"I reckon many LPL viewers remember Li. His performance in the Demacia Cup was indeed somewhat... unsatisfactory. After LGD replaced him with Acorn, LGD's competitive state changed significantly. I thought they would perform better in the Spring Split, but then Acorn got injured."

At this moment, the live stream chat was buzzing with discussion.

[Haha, Li is probably the first professional player whose name is remembered because he's so bad.]

[It was a free gift with the purchase of Acorn, so what are you expecting it to be?]

[The LPL bought a bunch of Korean players, some of whom are just there to collect salaries; it's truly disgusting.]

So how exactly did Acorn get injured?

[I heard he broke his hand by punching a trash can while drunk.]

I saw Li carrying the game like crazy during Dopa's stream the other day!

Yes, they thrashed EDG 3/5 of the time.

[Hilarious! Does anyone actually believe ranked matches have any semen content?]

[I don't know any Li, but my husband is invincible!]

[Ahhh! I'm so excited! Go, honey!]

"However, the Demacia Cup is probably more of a period of adaptation and adjustment for everyone. I believe that after this period of training, all the teams should have adjusted their form! So for today's match, I am sure that both teams will bring me more exciting matches! Especially the performance of the new players!"

"Yes, and we know that the bot lane matchup in today's game will be a lot of attention. Deft and Imp, as former ADC players of Samsung Ten, are often compared. Today, these two ADC players are meeting for the first time since switching teams, and I'm really looking forward to seeing who comes out on top!"

“That’s right,” Wawa nodded. “Now we can see that both sides have entered the draft phase! It’s worth mentioning that this year’s competition is different from previous years. Both coaches have come up on stage and directly participated in the draft process! EDG’s coach Abu and LGD’s coach Chris!”

"We see that EDG banned Lulu, Annie, and Corki, while LGD banned Rek'Sai, Rumble, and Lissandra. Both teams were basically doing standard bans targeting the current meta champions!"

"EDG just picked LeBlanc on the first floor! It's clear that EDG has a lot of confidence in Fatty's abilities! And LGD... wait?"

Miller paused for a moment when he saw LGD's champion selection screen.

"What's going on? It seems like LGD had some disagreements about the draft phase right from the start!"

"It seems like Li is arguing with Chris about something!"

(End of this chapter)