Rise

Reader Squeaker:

"Consider the coconut!" - Shanks, watching Moana for the 305th time — FortColors

The esports club arrived at the barbeque place much more glum than they intended. The original plan was to celebrate their victory with grilled meat. But watching Worlds and the unstoppable might of SSK put a damper on things. They walked in quietly, everyone lost in their own thoughts about Worlds and SSK. But the smell of grilled meat and the happy atmosphere of the restaurant soon snapped them out of it. They all ordered, and soon the conversation turned to the food that was about to arrive. Then the food arrived and everyone started eating.

Lin Feng grabbed a pork belly rib and gnawed on it. Grease stuck to his lips and his fingers were a saucy mess. But he couldn’t care less as he took another bite. Superteam. Superteam. We were so good back in Season 1. Eleven and me… Those were the days. Fatty and me… He grabbed a piece of char siu and wolfed it down, completely ignoring the conversation around him. I’ma make a new team! A new superteam! Better than last time! A 2.0!

An Xin tried to follow the conversation Ouyang and Liu Yue were having, but found herself glancing over at Lin Feng. Are you also thinking about our old team? I think about those days all the time. We had something great! She closed her eyes as a touch of a smile appeared on her face. We had a top 3 in the world player in each position! And we had you in the midlane. I don’t care what happened in those finals. You were the best. You really were. We lost, yes. But that was only because we got unlucky. You were the better Midlaner!

The food at the barbeque place tasted great, but An Xin wasn’t really hungry. She tried to get out of her own mind and looked over at Ren Rou, who was talking about how the LPL never really achieved anything in the world of League of Legends. We did. People just forgot. We were great in Season 1! We would’ve won, if we didn’t get so unlucky. Our team was better than SSK! And that’s an honest assessment. We were just better. But they got lucky. That was the difference. We lost because they got luck—

Lin Feng jumped to his feet and clenched his fists, shouting, “Don’t worry, guys! We got this! We’re going to win Worlds!” He wiped the grease from his lips with his sleeve. A fire burned in his eyes. He looked at his friends, each in turn, then proclaimed, “Trust me! We’re gonna climb to the top and win Worlds!”

Ouyang shook his head and said, “There he goes again. Bro, be a little realistic here. How are we going to win Worlds?” He sighed, letting his gaze fall down, and added, “You’re my bro. I don’t wanna make fun of you. But you’re kinda asking for it right now… What? You think HoG or KG will win it next year? Did you forget how SSK stomped them?”

An Xin looked at Lin Feng and smiled. Then she interjected, “HoG and KG aren’t good enough. You’re right about that, Ouyang. But why can’t a new team rise up? Who knows, maybe there’ll be a new superteam next season!”

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