Glory [e-sports]

It was a dreamless night. By the time Wei Xiao woke up, he was the only one left in the room.

He sat up and patted his face, then noticed that there were unread messages on his cell phone.

Current time, 11 in the morning.

Great, there was still two hours before the winter training server opened. Steady!

The unread messages had come in five minutes ago. They were from Bai Cai, “Are you awake?”

Wei Xiao kicked on his slippers and headed to the bathroom, “What?”

Bai Cai: “Food!”

Wei Xiao: “Oh…”

A while later, Bai Cai sent another three words, “Last night, you…”

Wei Xiao poked out a question mark with one hand.

Bai Cai’s worries were very reasonable, “You guys didn’t do anything last night, right?”

Wei Xiao: “???”

Bai Cai saw that using euphemisms wouldn’t work and spoke directly, “You didn’t climb into the captain’s bed, right?!”

Wei Xiao tsked and set down his toothbrush to snark at Bai Cai, “Old Bai, what’s the matter with you. Are you so eager to fall in love? What are you hinting at all day long?!”

He had no reason to doubt that Bai Cai had some problems. How could a normal straight man manage a ‘wonderful’ account like the Gossip Emperor account?

Bai Cai was really angry, “Sleepwalking! I’m talking about whether or not you sleepwalked!”

Based on this situation, he probably hadn’t.

Wei Xiao’s fingers moved quickly, “I won’t sleepwalk unless I’m too tired. I slept before 3AM last night, so why the hell would I sleepwalk?!”

There were conditions for his sleepwalking, such as staying up late to play games. As soon as he stayed up for 18 hours consecutively, there was a high probability that he would sleepwalk.

Bai Cai relaxed, “Say, you know you have this problem, but you still dare to sleep with others.”

Wei Xiao thought: What do you understand? The captain and I have already slept together once. Making it twice or three times wouldn’t make a difference.

Bai Cai said, “I have a single room, yet you don’t want to come over and live here, and insist on squeezing in with the captain.”

Wei Xiao: “??????”

Bai Cai: “I think you’re…”

Wei Xiao: “F*ck, you have a single room?”

Bai Cai: “Yeah, there’s nine of us. There has to be someone with a single room.”

Wei Xiao: “………………”

Damn it, he’d been overthinking it and confused for a while and hadn’t thought about living alone!

Bai Cai understood him too well, “Could it be that you didn’t know there was a single room?”

Wei Xiao really hadn’t known, but how could he admit it?!

Wei Xiao insisted, “Of course I knew.”

Bai Cai was surprised, “So then… you just wanted to live with the captain?!”

When it came to this, Wei Xiao once again acted shameless, “What, is that not okay? Our captain is strong and handsome and takes care of me. Why can’t I sleep with him!”

Bai Cai: “…………”

Sleep, sooner or later, you’ll be ‘slept’ to death!

Wei Xiao finished washing up and wondered where Lu Feng had gone.

However, he thought about how the captain was a busy man who had to exercise and arrange work. He definitely wasn’t as free as Wei Xiao the internet addict.

Wei Xiao went to Bai Cai’s room and wandered around. Seeing how big and comfortable the room was, he looked envious.

If he’d known earlier that there was a single room, he…

Ah, forget it. Sleeping with the captain was pretty good too. After all, they needed to cultivate tacit understanding in all aspects in order to play doubles together.

The two of them went to eat together and ran into Yue Wenle and Ning Zhehan.

Bai Cai asked, “How’s the buffet?”

Yue Wenle: “The chips are pretty good.”

Bai Cai: “……”

Did you go over to eat a meal, or did you just go over to nibble on snacks?!

He went to look at Ning Zhehan.

Little Ning was relatively more reliable, “The food was very rich and delicious!”

Bai Cai relaxed. His suitcase was a little small, and he hadn’t brought any instant noodles. If the food wasn’t good, he wouldn’t have the strength to play games.

Wei Xiao wasn’t interested in eating. He picked up a plate of watermelon and sat down.

Bai Cai was speechless, “Is that all you’re eating?”

Wei Xiao: “Hunger keeps me focused.”

Bai Cai: “???”

Brother Cai often felt a sense of confusion because he was out of sync with his teammates.

Wei Xiao bit into a piece of watermelon, “You don’t get it. A hungry stomach can stimulate potential. In a bit, I’m going to go up and train with the divine warrior.”

Bai Cai: “……………”

Wei Xiao spoke deeply, “As a top-laner, I can’t indulge myself with the shadow thief. I must master all the top lane heroes so that I can be worthy of our captain.”

Bai Cai pushed over the steak that was in front of him, “I think you’ll starve to death before you catch up to the captain!”

Wei Xiao refused, “Old Bai, don’t harm me. After eating enough, laozi will just want to go to sleep. It’ll influence how much strength I can exert.”

Bai Cai: “You just f*cking woke up!”

Wei Xiao: “Digesting food affects the brain!”

Bai Cai: “Stupid fool.”

Wei Xiao: “???”

“Did you just curse at me?”

“No.”

“You cursed me! You called me a stupid fool, Old Bai, you’re done for!”

Bai Cai stuffed a piece of steak into his mouth. He was about to end up tired to death from dealing with this picky eater with his potty mouth who could starve himself for the sake of playing games!

The actions between the two of them weren’t small. A certain someone who’d been sleeping next to them slowly opened his eyes.

The members of the 3U team: “!”

Their captain woke up, but their vice-captain wasn’t there. What should they do.

Wei Xiao had also noticed it. He asked without much sincerity, “Did we wake you up?”

He was actually able to fall asleep at the dining table. Brother Sleep, did you come here to eat, or did you come here to sleep?

Asleep opened his eyes and looked at Wei Xiao for a while.

Wei Xiao wasn’t Cong Yi and didn’t understand if he was trying to say something or not.

Then, something happened that left the 3U team stunned!

Their captain spoke, and he spoke words that people could actually understand!

Asleep: “You lost miserably yesterday.”

Wei Xiao: “???”

Asleep comforted him, “Don’t be sad. I’ll help you get revenge in the doubles.”

Wei Xiao: “………………”

After saying these two sentences, Asleep toppled over again.

Wei Xiao exploded, “Old Sleep, what do you mean? Are you looking down on me? I may have lost the doubles, but I…”

Asleep: “Zzzz…”

Speaking of which, our Brother Xiao might defy the heavens, the earth, and even the air, but he’d really never gone up against an immortal who could provoke him and then go straight into a deep slumber!

At one o’clock in the afternoon, the winter training server came online.

In order to fight for points, everyone rushed in as soon as they could.

The competition committee likely had plans to keep the winter training server for the future, and the server was quite well built.

They had copied the regular server for the most part, and the team hall was exactly the same, but the player accounts for this server were all max levelled, had all the heroes, and even had all the skins.

If ordinary players could see these accounts, their eyes might actually start to glow.

They could pick any talent at will, and there were thousands of skins to choose from. Not to mention the limited edition ones that hadn’t been up for sale in a long time…

Even though they were professional players, they also found it quite refreshing.

For ordinary players, character skins were nothing but a matter of appearance. It didn’t affect their operations.

For professional players, there was a big difference. It wasn’t due to the skins’ attribute bonuses, but because of ‘hand feel’.

Hand feel was something that could make a difference as big as the gap between the heavens and the earth during a professional competition.

Why did people love to use the heroes they became famous with? Why did people like to tie together certain contestants with certain heroes?

It was really not the same. Having that kind of godly pairing was just as if the real person was entering the canyon and becoming one with the hero!

The difference between the winter training server and the official servers was in the bulletin board.

The bulletin board for the official servers held notices regarding new heroes and talents, update tips, official game notices, and so on.

The winter training server bulletin board was full of rules.

Wei Xiao glanced over it and quickly summed up the key points.

First, free matching was limited to single or doubles, and they couldn’t queue together as three or five people.

Second, the free matches were divided into team competitions, doubles matches, and individual matches, and each had their own professional arena.

Third, the rules for points was that winning a match was worth three points, while losing a match meant they lost three points. Having a negative point count was possible, but if there weren’t any special circumstances, they wouldn’t be banned from competing.

Fourth, the points were the same for all three competition modes.

Fifth, the total points would be calculated every day at 6PM. All the points from every player in the team would be tallied up at that time.

Sixth, the starters of each team had to participate in the free matches for at least three hours a day. If they played for less than three hours, then the team would lose their qualifications for the rankings that day.

Seventh, fighting on behalf of others wasn’t allowed. If it was discovered, the team would lose the qualifications to participate in training matches.

Chen Feng sent a message in the team group chat at almost the same time, “Bai Cai, don’t slack off. Play for the full amount of time every day. It’s fine to lose, since this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to familiarize yourself with your opponents.”

The free matching rules were relatively fair.

Three points were given for winning, and three points were deducted for losing. In order to avoid having teams ‘farm points’ internally, the rankings were based on the total points of the five team starters.

Each team’s players were of different levels. In order to avoid having the weaker players play less so as not to lose points, a minimum play time was enforced.

In fact, these problems weren’t big ones. These simple constraints were already enough. The purpose for those attending winter training was to improve themselves, and they wouldn’t refuse to participate in the free matches.

As Chen Feng had said, losing didn’t matter. This was a great opportunity for the players to understand their opponents.

However, there was one thing that caused excitement amongst the players.

There was a public chat area in the main hall, and the chat box came with an inbuilt language translator. Although the translations weren’t perfect, it was still enough to understand the general idea.

“Why are the points for singles and doubles the same as team games?”

“That’s not fair! How can we win a doubles match against Kim Sung-hyun and Li Heran? Can I win against Close in a singles match?”

“Isn’t that a chance for them to farm points?”

Someone immediately picked up the conversation topic, “You can choose not to play singles or doubles. Nobody’s asking you to play.”

Another person kicked up a fuss, “Wake up, person above me. Singles and doubles are part of the free matches. What does ‘free’ mean? Even the mode is random!”

Indeed. This free matching in the winter training server was very ‘free’.

Those who queued on their own could end up in singles, doubles, or team mode, and they had to play whatever game they were matched into.

Those who queued in pairs wouldn’t be put into a singles competition, but they would be randomly allocated to either a doubles or team game.

So, it wasn’t as though the contestants could simply choose not to play!

Another person retorted, “So what? Everyone is relying on their own strength. Losing just means you suck. Why blame the system for being unfair?”

“Besides, there is only one great demon king. If you match up with him, you’re just unlucky. What’s the point in being a coward?”

“Wait a minute… If it’s random matching, does that mean there’s a chance to see Close against Marshal.”

“Holy shit! And Kim Sung-hyun!”

“Kim Sung-hyun will definitely double queue. What are you thinking?”

“Marshal is good too. How long has it been since he’s soloed?”

The information in the public screen scrolled by very quickly. Most people felt that tying to make it to the top three was hopeless and were randomly muddling along trying to score points.

Wei Xiao was unwilling to waste time. There was a total of five hours, and even if the games ended quickly, that was still only seven or eight matches. He needed to get started on scoring points right away!

Wei Xiao bravely pressed down on the match button…

In the FTW training room, Brother Cai called out passionately, “Begging for a doubles partner! Come and score points happily with me!”

Ning Zhehan raised his hand, “I’ll join you!”

Brother Cai spoke mercilessly, “We might end up scoring negative points.”

Yue Wenle: “I want to queue on my own.”

It was obvious that queuing for the single mode was the most fun. Who didn’t want to try participating in a singles game?

Brother Vegetable looked towards Wei Xiao, “Brother Xiao!”

Wei Xiao: “Not happening.”

Bai Cai: “What’s going on with all of you. Can’t you take along this old, weak, sick and disabled person?!”

Wei Xiao hadn’t been matched up yet. He earnestly advised him, “Old Bai, you’re already a fully mature vegetable. You should learn to take care of yourself.”

Milk Dad Bai was angered, “Don’t ask me to heal you in the future!”

Wei Xiao was very calm, “We’ll talk about future matters later. We should focus on the present.”

Bai Cai: “……”

I’m looking at the f*cking present!

In a fit of anger, Bai Cai also clicked on the singles match button.

Wei Xiao was happy, “I’ve matched up with an opponent!”

Bai Cai harrumphed, then turned to find that he’d also been matched up. And it was a damned singles match.

Holy shit… it couldn’t be.

They couldn’t see their opponents’ names when they entered the battle interface.

Bai Cai silently recited a hundred times: It’s impossible, impossible. He and Old Wei didn’t have this kind of dogshit luck that stretched over a thousand miles.

And then… he heard Wei Xiao say, “This person actually banned the shadow thief. I’m now Top-lane Wei and definitely won’t use the shadow thief.”

Bai Cai looked at the shadow thief that he’d just sent up into the ban position: It couldn’t be!

No way!

Banning the shadow thief was common practice. It didn’t have to mean that he’d matched up with Wei Xiao.

Then, he heard Wei Xiao continue, “Who should I ban? There’s nothing I want to ban. I’ll just ban the holy priest then!’

The holy priest wasn’t a talent that would be used in a singles match. Only fools would ban it.

Bai Cai: “…F*ck!” He’d encountered a fool!

Wei Xiao stretched his head over to look at him, “What’s the problem? Banning the holy priest is me taking it easy on the other side.”

The corners of Bai Cai’s mouth twitched.

It continued until Wei Xiao entered the game interface and saw the ID FTW.White.

What kind of dogshit luck was this? He’d unexpectedly matched up with Bai Cai in his first free match?!

And it was a singles match!

Wei Xiao was in a trance, “Is this retribution? Revenge on me for not doing a double queue with the milk dad?” He was still dazed as he killed off Bai Cai and sent him off.

Bai Cai: “To hell with your f*cking retribution. Who exactly is the one suffering here!”

In the first set of games, FTW’s Wei Xiao gained three points, and FTW’s Bai Cai lost three points.

FTW total score: 0.

With the miserable experience of the two of them as an example, Yue Wenle who’d originally planned to single queue went to look at Ning Zhehan.

Ning Zhehan: “Brother Le!”

Yue Wenle nodded.

The two of them went to queue up together.

After struggling for ten minutes, Wei Xiao, who’d caused such a problematic situation, was really unreconciled, “Come double queue!”

Bai Cai had just died six times, and his heart felt blocked and flustered, “Couldn’t you have f*cking killed me a little less!”

Although he’d lost, couldn’t he have lost a little more decently!

The two of them went to double queue together.

Yue Wenle and Ning Zhehan were also in the doubles queue.

And then…

At two o’clock in the afternoon, the audience who were watching the live broadcast for the winter training matches all exploded.

“Holy, look at FTW!”

“God, hahaha, what kind of dogshit luck does my FTW have?!”

“I’m about to f*cking die of laughter. In the first game, Quiet matched up with God Bai in a singles match; in the second game, Quiet and Brother Vegetable went to double queue and matched up with Yue Wenle and Ning Zhehan!”

“FTW, how can you be so improper? It was agreed that you went to winter training in order to train with the other 17 teams. Why are you fighting amongst yourselves?!”

“It’s been 40 minutes. Pro already has 15 points. Our FTW…”

“It’s a huge mess. They’re all hammering themselves.”

When Chen Feng and Lu Feng arrived in the training room, the four cubs were preparing for the next round.

He looked at the score…

Chen Feng fell silent.

Wei Xiao was really angry, “Old Bai, again. For better or worse, we’ve been paired up and flying together for over two years. How can we fold up our wings like this?!”

He’d just clicked on the match button when Lu Feng held down his hand.

Wei Xiao paused.

Lu Feng covered his hand, moved the mouse to cancel the matching process, then pulled him out of the doubles team.

Wei Xiao: “???”

Chen Feng was about to die from anger. He really wished he could use the documents in his hand to knock their small heads together, “Are you guys stupid? Do you not know to take turns queueing?!”

The four little children: “…………………..”