Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 115, Section 112: The LPL Stage Has Faded (First Update)
Although there was no match that day, the CFO team watched the game together in the hotel's training room, all for the purpose of studying their opponents.

They didn't go to the venue; it was just a group of people gathered at the hotel arranged by Riot Games, each watching the match.

While watching the match, Shimamura Yuna found herself almost subconsciously adopting the stance of an LPL fan.

Yes, although she is no longer Chinese—her past life as a Chinese person is long gone—she is now a pure Japanese person, both by blood and by law.

Yes, although she is not even an LPL player yet, she is a CFO player, an LCP player.

However, deep down, a large part of her sense of self-identity is still the same as in her previous life.

All of one's past life experiences, perspectives, and memories.
These things did not undergo any fundamental change as a new life and new memories were mixed together.

In her past life, she was a simple gamer who loved playing games, and she was actually quite naive in many ways.

When these simple concepts are applied to the modern body, they can sometimes seem somewhat abstract.

When Shimamura Yuna occasionally browses Bilibili and sees videos of people "winning," she still gets caught up in the excitement and thinks, "My mom is really strong."

Even after belatedly realizing that she is now Japanese and that the person "winning" in the video is herself, she still doesn't think it's a big deal.

The main point is to establish a first impression.

Since neither of the two souls in this body has been well-educated, whoever lives longer will have higher priority in their beliefs.

If she were to openly display this side of herself, given the prevailing attitude on the Chinese internet, she would definitely be given the title of "ladies' man."

Yuna Shimamura is not someone who likes to attract attention.

So during the live stream, she almost intentionally restrained herself from revealing this side of herself, deliberately making everyone feel that she had a very calm and non-aggressive attitude towards certain things.

There's even a saying online now that "Shimamura Yuna is ultimately just a Japanese person. I've never seen her engage in any matchmaking or anything like that. She doesn't even pretend to be one."

Shimamura Yuna never offered any explanation for this; she simply found it amusing.

When she was in private and didn't hide it, her side as an LPL fan, influenced by her past life memories, was revealed, which, to be honest, startled the CFO team members.

Everyone could see that when TES was at a disadvantage, Shimamura Yuna was visibly heartbroken, and she couldn't say a word.

Once TES caught their breath, she would immediately say, "Okay, that was alright!"

When TES lost, she looked ashen-faced and fell silent again.

Of course, judging from the course of the match, TES was almost always at a slight disadvantage, gradually becoming much worse, with very few moments of slight advantage.

As a result, Shimamura Yuna looked very disappointed throughout.

The CFO's other teammates were a bit dumbfounded when they saw her like this.

Everyone thought that she was learning Chinese and streaming on Bilibili just to make money, and that she probably didn't have any special feelings for the LPL.

Or rather, even if they outwardly show their liking for the LPL, it should be an act for the audience.

It's hard to imagine what reason a Japanese person would have to like LPL.

Is it grades?

Is it still about character?
I feel like I can't find a place to settle down.

However, as a foreign streamer, it is only natural for you to serve your viewers and provide them with some emotional value.

However, after the CFO team watched the game with Yuna Shimamura, they discovered something.
Oh no, this guy doesn't seem to be acting after all.

After all, there were no audience members present, so she had no need to act.

Moreover, her dejected expression after losing in the LPL was something that couldn't be faked.

This is something that everyone finds a bit hard to understand.

Junjia asked curiously, "Shimamura-nee, are you really a fan of the LPL?"

Shimamura Yuna did not answer directly, but simply sighed and said, "I don't know."

She said that, but her expression betrayed her.

Junjia then asked, "You're actually a fan of LPL? That's quite rare for a Japanese person."

"I thought foreigners would all be fans of LCK, or at least fans of Faker."

Shimamura Yuna did not answer, but simply lowered her head and remained silent.

The photographers accompanying the team found the scene amusing, so they snapped a picture.

Unsurprisingly, they will likely use this footage in their post-match vlogs as a way to attract LPL fans.

But at that moment, Shimamura Yuna was in no mood to care about such things.

At this very moment, a storm of thoughts was raging in her mind.

Actually, before the match started, she had a feeling that TES probably wouldn't perform well this year.

This feeling comes from many sources.

First of all, CFO, TES, and HLE have been playing a lot of scrimmages these past two days.

The existence of Shimamura Yuna undoubtedly aroused the curiosity of the two strongest teams in LPL and LCK. As a result, they were happy to accept CFO's invitation to practice matches, wanting to experience firsthand the strength of Shimamura Yuna, the world's first female player.

This gives Shimamura Yuna the opportunity to make a very intuitive prediction of the strength of TES and HLE.

Then, she came to this conclusion.
At least in the scrimmages, HLE definitely seemed much stronger than TES.

Both teams have a high win rate against CFO; no matter who they face, CFO is not easy to beat.

However, it is quite obvious that TES's dominance is not as strong as CFO's.

The pressure Shimamura felt when facing 369 in practice matches was much less than when facing Zeus.

Of course, this is also due to factors such as team positioning and player style.

It's even possible that the two teams took their practice matches differently.

However, Shimamura Yuna still concludes that "HLE should be stronger than TES" based on this.

Aside from her experience in training matches, as a veteran professional player and a long-time viewer, she could sense the decline of the LPL this year simply from the atmosphere.

Some players whose performance has clearly declined are being combined, while BLG, the only team that looks like they have a really strong lineup, is not in good form.

Compared to the LCK, where there are many strong teams and the top teams all seem very strong, this year's LPL really doesn't feel good.

It's easy to imagine the strength of the teams that emerge from such a league.

To put it bluntly...

TES's lineup is good enough to qualify for FS.

So what are the other teams doing?

It wasn't just her; in fact, before the competition even started, the majority of voices online were pessimistic about the outcome.

Everyone thinks LPL is doomed, and that TES and HLE are not even in the same league.

Even so, as an LPL fan, she still harbors some hope for this year's outcome. As the saying goes, the outcome is still uncertain, and anyone could be a dark horse.

What if?
What if TES can make LPL great again?
She was hoping for what she called a miracle.

But after actually seeing TES's performance, she felt that her fantasies had been shattered.

Two defeats that seemed to offer little hope, and it's hard to say whether they made mistakes or played poorly.

Rather, it's because HLE played too casually that TES got the illusion that they could fight back.

However, HLE will take back all these misconceptions on its own.

To put it bluntly, this was a best-of-three series that made you feel like you would lose even if you played it ten times more.

Although she didn't react as strongly as other LPL fans.

She wouldn't react as excessively as other LPL fans.

She finally came to terms with reality.
'The LPL today is a stage that is definitely declining and becoming less dazzling.'

'The things I once longed for, anticipated, and looked up to, now seem less worthy of my yearning.'

This realization made her feel very conflicted.

She recalled the things she thought about when she decided at the end of last year that she wanted to continue playing competitive games for the rest of her life.

She remembered why she decided to give up playing professionally in her past life.

It's precisely because I feel like there's no hope left for the LPL, and that the stage I dreamed of seems to have declined.

But right now, all of this feels like it's no longer just a feeling.

This is certain, undeniable, and beyond question.
The so-called "truth".

Shimamura Yuna's negative mood lasted for quite a while before she gradually recovered.

In the end, she shook her head, banishing these thoughts from her mind.

Actually, I've thought about this kind of thing before.

Yes, I had thought about it a long time ago.

"I stepped back onto this stage with this determination and with full preparation."

Therefore, what is happening now cannot be used as a reason for her to stagnate.

Rather
Even though the stage has withered away.

"But I can still shine."

Yuna Shimamura's eyes were filled with determination.
-
Soon, the second day of the competition arrived.

Today's matches are CFO vs KC and TES vs TL.

For LPL viewers, today's match was full of highlights.

It's a day with no dull moments, as you get to see both Shimamura Yuna playing and your own TES team playing.

However, compared to TES, everyone is obviously more concerned about Shimamura Yuna's CFO.

After TES's disappointing loss to HLE on the first day, LPL viewers are now completely disillusioned.

Although TES only lost one BO3 yesterday, they still have a chance to come back.

But based on their performance on the first day alone, everyone felt that TES and HLE were not even in the same league.

I reckon they'll just dominate some Pacific wildcard teams and European and American teams, and unsurprisingly, they'll get second place.

LPL viewers are tired of this kind of script and find it boring.

If they can't beat South Korea, LPL viewers will find their expectations unmet.

Since it's better to watch Shimamura Yuna than to keep following the struggling TES team, it's more worthwhile.

Since the CFO is from Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan, isn't that considered being one of our own?

If we're really talking about the amount of Chinese players, TES has one Korean foreign player and CFO has one Japanese foreign player, so their Chinese content isn't that different.

As a result, many similar opinions appeared online that day.

Watching TES and North America go head-to-head is less appealing than watching Shimamura take on KC; a win would be a huge profit, a loss wouldn't be a loss.

I'm not watching TES anymore; let whoever wants to watch it watch it. I don't want to waste my emotions. From today onwards, I unconditionally support Shimamura.

[Hopefully, Shimamura-san can get off to a winning start]

It seems they sensed the heat.

On the day of the match, Longshen went live to watch the game, and the title of his live stream was simply "CFO vs KC, supporting our own people".

It goes without saying who this "family member" refers to.

And his first words after starting the broadcast were: "OK, look what you guys don't know. Actually, China has two teams representing China in FS this time, and both teams have one foreign player."

"Then I'd like to see whether the Japanese foreign aid is more powerful or the South Korean foreign aid is more powerful."

"Enough said, I'm unconditionally supporting Shimamura-san today, okay? Come on, Shimamura-san, keep it up! Shimamura-san is awesome!"

The broadcast had only been going on for a short while, and was still in the pre-match preparation stage, but the number of viewers in the live stream had already exceeded 5.

Normally, he might only get tens of thousands of viewers halfway through his live stream, during peak viewing times.

But it has already reached that goal right after the show started airing.

At this rate, it won't be difficult for the number of viewers in the live stream to exceed 100,000.

This shows just how popular Yuna Shimamura is.

Yuna Shimamura is the sole protagonist of today's match and the focus of everyone's attention.

Before the match, commentator Guan Zeyuan was providing analysis for everyone at the analysis table.

"As we all know, CFO is currently receiving a lot of attention because of Shimamura. It can be said that they are already the second main team for LPL viewers. Everyone is probably hoping that CFO can perform well and advance to the next knockout stage."

"However, for LCP teams, the probability of winning against LPL and LCK teams is objectively not high. The basic scenario is that LCK and LPL teams will likely secure their spots, with the remaining three teams advancing to the next round."

"This means that whether the CFO can score points against the other two European and American teams will be the key."

"If possible, I think the CFO should try their best not to finish fourth in the group stage, and try to get third place in the end. Otherwise, there is a very high probability that they will pick Hanwha in the first round of the knockout stage."

Another commentator chimed in, "Yes, another key point today is that after losing to Hanwha, TES is now highly unlikely to compete for first place in the group. However, they still need to keep winning to secure their second or third place in the group stage."

Guan Zeyuan said, "Yes, so we need to cheer for them in both of today's matches, whether it's CFO or TES."

The three commentators then proceeded to analyze the game on the analysis table, discussing everything from the starting lineup to the players' individual styles and their styles in previous matches.

After chatting for about ten minutes, Guan Zeyuan smoothly transitioned and said, "Well then, the venue is ready, let's hand the camera over to the main stage."

(End of this chapter)