Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 171, 168. T1 Reserve Top Laner: Shimamura
The contact with T1 is an objective fact, not just a rumor.

When T1 felt they might not make it to Worlds and the internal strife was at its worst, they invited her mid-season to discuss a verbal agreement.

Even Shimamura Yuna's presence influenced T1's internal decision-making.

In another parallel world, the question of whether to start with Gumayusi or Smash was a long-standing internal struggle within T1, leading to a prolonged infighting among the team's management, internal staff, and fans.

But in this world, T1 actually decided to start with Gumayusi much earlier than in another parallel universe, instead of continuing to drag Smash down.

This was also influenced by Yuna Shimamura.

They considered that if Shimamura Yuna came, the problem of "we need a carry AD" would be naturally solved, making it easier to decide to bring Gumayusi back into the starting lineup.

At worst, we can just let the second stage be a disaster.

'As long as Shimamura Yuna comes, everything will be alright.'

T1 fans all share this sentiment, waiting and hoping.

From this perspective, Shimamura Yuna made a certain contribution to quelling the internal strife within the T1 team.

And Shimamura Yuna now indeed sees T1 as her most likely destination.

Whether from a financial perspective or from the perspective of achievements and honors.

Also, T1 showed a lot of sincerity.

but not now.

The two-month journey of the second stage has greatly changed her mindset and ability.

Although she didn't feel much when she won the championship, she wasn't very excited despite being a champion. This somewhat bland feeling made her feel a little bored.

In her post-championship interview, she barely mentioned anything about the LCP league, only saying, "I will do my best in the upcoming World Championship."

But if she had to say, she didn't think the low-pressure environment of the LCP was a complete waste of time for her.

She needs a season like this to relax.

Despite her outstanding performance in the Pioneer Tournament, Shimamura Yuna felt that her form was declining rapidly during the back-to-back tournament schedule.

After completing the entire series, she felt weak for several days in a row, as if her soul had been drained. She still remembers it vividly.

In the LPL or LCK, matches of this intensity are commonplace.

While the intensity of the matches isn't necessarily lower than the Pioneer Tournament, combined with the daily training intensity, it's fair to say that it's just as intense.

Considering the longer time span of the regular season and playoffs, the physical and mental challenges are actually greater than those of the intensive but short preseason games.

The Vanguard match was something you could just grit your teeth and get through.

So, can you just grit your teeth and get through the regular season?
Moreover, this also relates to the overall atmosphere of a competition area.

To perform well and demonstrate your strength in the LPL or LCK, you need more than just talent; you also need a lot of training to maintain a stronger performance.

Everyone here is a genius, a top expert selected from a huge pool of candidates. So, how do you stand out among these geniuses and experts?
The answer is more training.

If everyone has the same talent, then you need to work harder to surpass those who have the same talent as you.

With everyone in the region generally maintaining a high level of training, players with low training levels will naturally be at a certain disadvantage.

However, Shimamura Yuna's physical condition was not well able to withstand this level of training.

She needs a full season to improve her fitness and recover her body.

LCP was a suitable environment for her.

To be honest, during her season in the LCP, she was more focused on recovering her physical condition than on the matches themselves.

After all, this competition doesn't pose much of a challenge for CFO, who has made significant progress in both mentality and technique since returning from the Pioneer Tournament.

Just train naturally and easily.

I occasionally play practice matches and ranked games to familiarize myself with tactics and the current version of the game.

That was enough for them to achieve good results in the competition area.

During her regular training sessions outside of competition days, she should spend no more than 5 hours a day playing games.

This doesn't seem like much.
In fact, there aren't many professional players.

Even so, Shimamura Yuna was able to deliver a performance that can be described as dominant in the league.

In the case of the LPL, the overly dense schedule inevitably makes people feel that 'we must go all out and cannot relax even for a moment'.

Yuna Shimamura has never denied the value of hard work, nor has she ever thought that there was anything wrong with putting more energy into her work.

But the luxury of achieving success in her career without having to exert all her energy at LCP is very important to her now.

She needs more time to recover.
Not just physically, but also mentally.

Therefore, she regarded these last two months in Taiwan as a transition point in her life.

Go to the night market, watch a movie, visit various tourist attractions, and try all kinds of local Taiwanese snacks.

After completing her training every day, just like clocking in for work, she would go out to relax, rest, and play.

This was a rare, even unprecedented, period of complete relaxation in her nearly 40 years of life across two lifetimes.

In the past two months, countless Taiwanese fans have caught up with her offline, and videos of them taking photos with her and asking for her autograph have recently been generated in large numbers on YouTube and Instagram.

Some people might even think, "Is this guy getting a little too cocky after winning the Pioneer Tournament? I've never seen a professional player running around like he's on vacation every day during the season."

Shimamura Yuna seemed somewhat bothered by these comments, but did not offer any explanation.

She felt it was all meaningless.

Even if she says things like, "I have mental health issues, and my doctor advised me to relax more and exercise more," many viewers still won't understand and will just think she's making excuses.

Instead of making excuses, it's better to prove yourself with concrete actions.

After Shimamura won the LCP championship, some comments started appearing online, saying, "Didn't people say before that Shimamura was a bit neglecting her duties and not focused on the competition? So what? She still won the championship."

Opponents responded that "the LCP issue has caused a huge uproar."

Yuna Shimamura agrees with the statements of the opponents.

That's right, playing LCP has caused a lot of trouble.

This proves nothing; it was a victory that was expected anyway.

Over the two seasons in LCP, she has gradually gotten used to the self-perception that "I am a strong player".

In the past, she always intentionally kept her expectations very low.

She began to adjust to not setting her expectations so low, and to no longer believe that "even the smallest victory is a victory." No, that wasn't enough.

She now has a starting point that is arguably much higher than before.

I used to have very low expectations because I felt that if my expectations were too high, I would be disappointed when they were not met.

After all, she had achieved almost nothing in her professional career in her previous life, so any expectation of success would seem like a pipe dream.

At times like these, instead of hoping for something, it's better to honestly take things one step at a time, not to expect a championship, but to look forward to every victory to come.

To borrow a phrase from a world-renowned mid-laner.

"Reaching the top four would be considered a success."

This was Shimamura Yuna's true thought during the Vanguard Match.

But now, the situation is different.

She has achieved results that she never dared to dream of before.

He has achieved unprecedented success.

She has broken her own curse, overcoming her long-standing fears and anxieties.

In this situation, I can no longer comfort myself with the idea that "taking it one step at a time, winning one game is a success."

If you continue to think like that, it's not about 'lowering expectations,' but simply cowardice.

I need a stronger desire to win and a stronger will to succeed to drive myself forward.

Therefore, although objectively she believes that the CFO's chances of winning this time are not particularly high, it can only be considered a chance.

But she still has the highest expectations for the outcome of the competition.

Only in this way can one give their all without harboring any wishful thinking.

"I will win."

"I will win."

On the day she won the LCP championship, Yuna Shimamura lay on her bed in her rented room, repeatedly telling herself this in a way that was almost like self-hypnosis.

"I will win."

"I will win."

After a period of reflection throughout the second stage of the LCP, she needs an even stronger victory to prove that she's not just good at dominating weaker opponents.

A higher stage, brighter spotlights, and a stronger, more irreplaceable sense of brilliance.

For Yuna Shimamura, pursuing these things is the greatest meaning of her life right now.

She will dedicate all her energy to this.
-
After the second stage of the competition officially ended and the participating teams of each major region were confirmed, various pre-competition promotional, preview, and prediction videos about MSI also appeared one after another.

Professional analysis bloggers have begun to analyze who will win the championship and who is the favorite.

In these analyses, GenG, T1, and AL were almost universally ranked in the top tier, meaning "the teams most likely to win the championship."

Teams like BLG and G2 were placed in the second tier, which is "teams with a certain level of competitiveness".

Actually, this ranking is influenced by public opinion.

Because it's obvious to everyone that CFO's performance in the first stage was somewhat phenomenal, and it's highly unlikely that he'll be able to replicate that at MSI.

Their performance in the LCP was not convincing; it only proved that they were indeed better than all the teams in the Pacific. However, there are many teams in China and South Korea that are better than the entire Pacific, so it doesn't prove anything.

Moreover, even if we're talking about the Pioneer Tournament champion, none of the Pioneer Tournament participants came to the Pioneer Tournament this time.

The team they overcame in the finals, HLE, wouldn't be considered a top-tier team in the LCK even by today's standards.

That is enough to prove how much randomness there is in the Pioneer Tournament format and how low the quality of the participating teams is.

To claim that CFO is on par with top teams like GENG, T1, and AL based on just one mediocre championship won in a particularly strong performance is, frankly, not very convincing.

In response, a blogger from Europe and America said: "Although the LCP region where CFO plays is not competitive enough, their performance in the region is not enough to prove that they will perform strongly in the World Championship. Many people will say that they are not actually one of the strongest favorites to win this tournament, and they don't deserve to be ranked with T1 and GENG. Yes, maybe you are right."

"But as a fan of Shimamura, I would say that Shimamura is a player who can create miracles."

This blogger's words implied support for Yuna Shimamura.

But what I really mean is, "The CFO doesn't seem that strong, maybe only at the top 4 level, but I support them."

In other words, CFO is the weakest team among the favorites to win this World Championship, which is a generally accepted fact.

Without the Pioneer Tournament championship, no one would consider them the favorites to win the title.

Even many fans from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan accepted this kind of pre-match public opinion.

It's normal that people aren't optimistic; it just doesn't seem convincing enough to use LCP as a benchmark.

The strength lies with the CFO, not the LCP. The CFO's performance was actually dragged down by the overall strength of the LCP.

Indeed, if CFO were to join the LCK or LPL for a season, things might be much better. However, playing against idiotic opponents in an idiotic region almost always results in 2-0 or 3-0 victories. When Shimamura was playing, they never even lost a single game. For fans, it's entertaining to watch, but there's absolutely no training benefit.

I just hope this time we can replicate the miracle of the Pioneer Tournament.

[I'm actually hoping T1 beats CFO right now, and ideally, Doran can defeat Shimamura head-on. That way, T1 will have to send Shimamura back, and she can stay with CFO for another season.]

Alright, stop daydreaming. Even if he doesn't go to T1, he'll go to the LPL. Who would stay in that idiotic region? Instead of indulging in such fantasies, let's cheer for CFO and hope he can achieve good results in this last full-length version of CFO.

[That's true. I hope Shimamura-san can win the championship this time too.]

Yes, even though they had already won the Pioneer Tournament, the CFO was still seen as an underdog, a challenger rather than a defender in this MSI.

Moreover, he is a challenger recognized both domestically and internationally, and almost no one would deny his status.

This negative reputation can be partly attributed to the fact that LCP is terrible.

Another part of the blame lies with teams like HLE and KC; these teams participating in the Pioneer Tournament were simply too disappointing.

After returning to their respective competition areas, these people revealed their true colors, turning into rotten maggots.

Even the Pioneer Tournament championship that the CFO won by defeating them seems to have lost its meaning, turning from "defeating the first place in each region" into "defeating the maggots in each region".

The first stage was full of maggots.

From this perspective, Zeus was truly a sinner.

Some of Yuna Shimamura's extreme fans even started to hurl insults.

[May the curse have devalued the Shimamura Miss title and cause her whole family to die.]

(End of this chapter)