Rise

Team Shanghai returned to their gruelling schedule of training every day! There was no rest for the wicked! The Winter Collegiate Cup was right around the corner and they were still a long way away from being able to compete for the title. And that was exactly what they were going for. Anything less than winning the championship was unacceptable! Not just for Team Shanghai, but also for Fang Hao and Chu Fang. They were well aware of how good Lin Feng was at League of Legends. If Lin Feng really gave it his all, they were convinced he would lead his team to the title.

But Lin Feng wasn’t thinking too much about practicing. He was celebrating the victory against Shanghai University of Finance together with Tang Bingyao and Zhang Hao. That win was a big confidence booster, lifting the pressure right off their shoulders. Zeng Rui was fortunately a realist. He quickly put an end to the joy by reminding the team that the Shanghai University of Finance was only a top 8 team in China. “We’re not playing to get into the top 8. We play to win. Right now, we can’t even win the regionals. There are two other teams in the East China region that are far better than the Shanghai University of Finance. You might’ve heard about them before. They are Fudan University and Zhejiang University. I’ve only seen them play in the last Collegiate Cup, but we should assume they’re better now than they were then.”

An Xin nodded along with everything Zeng Rui said. She spent much of her free time watching replays from the previous Collegiate Cup. And the rest of her free time went towards discussing what she’d seen with Zeng Rui. She looked at Lin Feng and said, “The skill differences between those two and Shanghai University of Finance is really big. I don’t think we can confidently beat them, or at all. It’s a toss up really. A 2-1 result that could go either way. And remember, they only made it to the semis last year. I also watched the finals… Those two teams were good.”

“Really? No! We can’t let that happen!” Lin Feng exclaimed. Then he shook his head and continued, “We have to practice harder! We’re going to win this tournament! Top 4 means nothing!”

Zeng Rui stared at Lin Feng, ready to erupt. That’s what I’ve been saying! Thundering dumbass! Do you always have to be this stupid? Why can’t you use your brain for once? He sighed and massaged his temples. Calm, calm. He finally looked at Lin Feng and said, “Of course we want to win. But it’s not easy. There can be only one!”

An Xin smiled and said, “Yeap. There can be only one! Now let’s focus on our training.”

It was the sign for everyone to sit back down behind their computers. They then turned to look at Zeng Rui and An Xin, who started explaining the strategy and tactics the team were going to practice next. Before long, they were putting the game plan into action against Master and Challenger rank teams. And they won. They always won. The tactics looked perfect, the execution flawless. No one could beat them! Lin Feng got excited again! But then An Xin and Zeng Rui hit the team with a dose of reality. Their opponents weren’t tryharding, nor did they have a Lin Feng on their team. An Xin then pulled up a recording of the game and pointed out all the mistakes they made, so that they could learn from them.

Team Shanghai used this method of planning, playing, reviewing, and adapting to improve as quickly as they could. They played game after game, day after day. The only distraction to the monotony was their old teammates who would occasionally drop by to watch the games. To be impressed. Both the players from Shanghai High School and High School 13 were absolutely amazed by the immense progress Team Shanghai had made in only a few weeks of training.

Ouyang was particularly stunned. He remembered High School 13’s training regime for the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Back when they started, he was only Gold. But the training had helped him climb up the ladder to Platinum. That practice was just right for him. He understood what was expected of him and how he could improve. But when he listened to Zeng Rui and An Xin discussing tactics and then relaying that to the rest of the team, he was drawing blanks. The level of micro management was so high that he was completely lost. But he could see that it worked. The team won just about every game! He smacked his forehead and said, “Sweet Brosus! It’s like I’m watching my best bros becoming a professional team! I bet the LSPL doesn’t have anything on you! How are you all this good?”