Chapter 20: Summer Match Rosters (Multiple Images Warning)

Liang Yan's pressure rose instantly.

Speaking purely of technique, Liang Yan naturally knows he's stronger than CyanideFI, and not just by a little; after all, many tactical understandings from the old era are too outdated.

But what Liang Yan has to face is not merely technical competition.

What he has to face is a living legend deity with countless followers.

Pressure aside, Liang Yan cannot possibly give up competing for the starting spot; although he does admire CyanideFI, that's just respect for his past achievements—now the old legend has fallen, and the new legend will be created by himself.

Moreover, Liang Yan has to take responsibility for Lao Zhang, who is currently going through the visa process.

However, he was really curious, and after the welcome ceremony ended, he secretly found someone drinking on the balcony—Ka Lao Si—and asked:

"I say, boss, how exactly did you bring back these three gods?"

Ka Lao Si put down his drink, crossed one arm over his chest, pretentiously stroked his chin, and looked up at the sparsely starry night sky:

"Oh, you're asking about that? Well, it probably starts with me meeting Mithy on a flight back to my hometown..."

As it turns out, this guy is from the same hometown as Mithy.

Probably after appealing to emotion, reason, and money, he finally convinced Mithy; then, with Mithy as an insider helping out, he used his silver tongue to successfully lure Zven and CyanideFI over as well.

Zven and Mithy are originally a bottom lane duo and good friends, so securing them was relatively easy; Liang Yan wonders, though, how someone like CyanideFI, who was about to retire, could also be brought over by Ka Lao Si.

Ka Lao Si turned his head to look at Liang Yan and pointed to his own left chest:

"Liang, if I told you that, if I were still able to compete, I would definitely seize this opportunity without hesitation—do you believe me?"

Liang Yan understood instantly.

CyanideFI isn't trying to retire; he just lost confidence in his own ability.

And Ka Lao Si gave him courage.

Just like Liang Yan lured Lao Zhang.

"I see."

Liang Yan let out a relieved smile, turned his head to look at the night scenery outside—the dense traffic drew lines of light on the road, and for a moment he had the illusion of time and space being disordered.

"What about the top lane? Besides my recommendation, you should have made preparations too, right?"

Ka Lao Si glanced at Liang Yan, smiling without saying a word.

Everything is left unsaid.

It's impossible to be unprepared; although Ka Lao Si values Liang Yan, that doesn't mean he'll entrust the entire season's hopes solely to Liang Yan.

So he contacted another top laner.

Just three days before the summer season opens, a top laner with an Eastern face, looking full of grudges, arrived at G2's base.

He came from China, but he is not Chinese.

Expect, who debuted for the FIO(MidasFIO) team in the LCK(OGN) region, had also spent some time with the XS team that nurtured stars like Impact, Swift, and Ohq; before coming here, however, he had been competing in China's LSPL region for the team 2144.

After two years since his debut, Expect has joined many teams, but his career never took off and his skill hasn't improved much, so he gradually became something like an esports mercenary.

Ka Lao Si invited him mainly because he's cheap.

Indeed, he spent too much budget poaching the bottom lane duo and CyanideFI, so Ka Lao Si really has no money left.

Coincidentally, Expect posted a job-seeking tweet on Twitter; Ka Lao Si saw it and, without much thought, contacted him—partly because there was no time left, and partly because the budget limited his options, so after briefly looking into Expect's resume, he reached out proactively.

The two hit it off immediately; Expect packed up and flew over.

That same afternoon, Lao Zhang also landed at Berlin airport.

Liang Yan accompanied Ka Lao Si in driving to pick him up; when they brought him back, Expect's fourth tryout match had just begun the ban/pick phase.

Ka Lao Si also didn't bother with formalities, asking Lao Zhang:

"How about you take this game?"

Lao Zhang glanced at the crocodile Expect had already locked in, then looked at Liang Yan.

Liang Yan smiled and nodded.

So Lao Zhang didn't stand on ceremony, took off his glasses, wiped them, rolled up his sleeves, and jumped in.

After playing one game, Lao Zhang posted a screenshot of his tryout match performance on Weibo:

"In Europe, just landed."

"Just finished a tryout game, performance was okay"

Fans:

"What the hell?!"

Late at night.

Ka Lao Si deliberately arranged for Lao Zhang to stay in the same dorm as Liang Yan.

Between them, two beds were placed side by side against the wall.

Lao Zhang had just returned after signing his contract, taken a shower, lain in bed, and was chatting with Liang Yan.

"By the way, are you still using your old ID?"

"No, I made a new one."

"What's it called?"

"Island."

"An island."

"A deserted island."

"Cultured."

"Hey, lay off—I mean, your English is just like a native's. Hey, how did I not realize you were this awesome before?"

Locals speak German. There's a lot you don't know.

……

Going to sleep.

Liang Yan pulled up the blanket and turned over.

Like a dream......

Lao Zhang murmured dreamily, then turned his head to look at Liang Yan lying on the opposite bed, facing away.

But coming back to it, bro, do I really have what it takes? Going up against Koreans, I really have no confidence.

Rotation, do you even know what rotation means?

Liang Yan said without turning his head,

It means that no matter how well or poorly you play, they'll guarantee you a certain amount of playing time, and that's written in the contract.

He originally said I'd be a substitute, I said I could take half the salary so I could play a few more games to get used to it, and then they changed it to rotation... Damn, I'm paying to play matches, I make tens of thousands a month streaming, what the hell am I doing here, you've screwed me over, bro.

Lao Zhang muttered, saying that on the surface, but he actually had no resentment toward Liang Yan; he just wanted to vent.

Liang Yan thought for a moment, then turned and said,

In less than half a season, I'll have him looking at the water cooler.

How do we do that?

First you need to practice two more heroes, nothing else to worry about.

……

That same night, Ka Lao Si announced G2's summer season roster on the European league's official website and Twitter.

G2's summer season roster is now complete.

Top lane: Expect (Korean import)

Expect

Top lane substitute: Island (Chinese import)

Lao Zhang

Jungle: CyanideFI

CyanideFI

Jungle substitute: Firrrrrre (Chinese import)

Shen

Mid lane: Perkz

Youth version Perkz

ADC: Zven

Full-haired version Zven

Support: Mithy

Mithy

Coach: ocelote (Ka Lao Si)

Ka Lao Si

After G2 announced the summer season roster, some were happy, some were sad.

Trick and Emperor, who were still waiting for Ka Lao Si to change his mind, saw the announcement and immediately became a mess in their Berlin rental.

The two of them traded insults at Ka Lao Si, but couldn't change the fact they were unemployed; in the end they could only silently open their phones to book tickets back to Korea.

OG and FNC fans as usual flooded the comments, cursing heaven and earth, giving Ka Lao Si's ancestors up to eighteen generations a warm greeting, but for Ka Lao Si, who has been getting thousands of comments a day on Twitter since MSI ended, he's pretty much used to this by now.

Ka Lao Si is basically a rascal now.

It's come to this, I'll still dig up dirt on people, throw whatever insults you want, but don't let me win the summer season, or else the championship interview will be awkward for whoever has to do it.