Chapter 438: Placement Match Turmoil (Part 2)

The next morning, Liang Yan got up, washed up, and came to the cafeteria.

Two people were already seated: Fu Lan Duo and Li Zhixun, each holding a bun in one hand and scrolling on their phone with the other.

"Good morning."

Li Zhixun looked up and greeted Liang Yan, Liang Yan nodded and replied "Good morning," then went to get his own breakfast, while Fu Lan Duo raised her phone at him:

"Little Foot Bro, you're on the hot search again."

"Oh."

Liang Yan casually replied, his heart undisturbed.

It wasn't him pretending; he had simply grown accustomed to it.

Since returning to the LPL, he has been on the hot search every few days, his Weibo followers surging past 8 million; whenever anything happens in the LPL that even slightly involves him, he is guaranteed to trend that night, usually ranking no lower than top ten.

To others, this popularity was explosively hot, thus drawing some sour complaints; but for Liang Yan, he neither makes a living off fame nor intends to be an influencer pushing products—occasionally accepting an ad invitation from the platform is already his biggest concession, and he basically only takes ads for virtual items like games or apps; if he were to promote physical goods, he would only do so for products he knows well, such as esports peripherals, and would reject any ad for unfamiliar physical products no matter how high the price.

With such a laid‑back mindset, how could Liang Yan care whether he trends or not?

Fu Lan Duo certainly understood Liang Yan, so after speaking she added specially:

"This time is different; I guess Gao Jun will look for you."

Liang Yan, hearing this, was a little surprised; he put down his bowl and plate of food, sat opposite Fu Lan Duo, and asked:

"What's up?"

"Just look for yourself."

Liang Yan then opened his phone, logged into the Weibo app he hadn't opened in a long while, scanned the hot‑search list, but saw no major news related to him, and wondered:

"Nothing."

"That Uzi post."

Li Zhixun said.

Hearing this, Liang Yan's eyebrows twitched slightly, his surprise growing stronger.

He hasn't had any interaction with Uzi or RNG lately; the last time he appeared alongside Uzi on Weibo was during the regular‑season cross‑group match, which was almost a month ago—bringing it up now isn't even rehashing old news, it's basically boiling slop; surely this isn't it. What else could it be?

Liang Yan continued scrolling Weibo with doubt and surprise, and only then did he see his name appear in Uzi's hot‑search entry.

"Placement match……superior accounts also differ……manual rank filling……"

The more Liang Yan looked, the less he understood; his expression gradually turned into that of a confused subway elder, finally he lifted his head and stared blankly at Fu Lan Duo:

"What is this? Are these people brainless?"

Fu Lan Duo gazed at the ceiling, thought for a moment, and said a rather philosophical line:

"These people should have brains, but when they gather together they lose them."

"???"

Liang Yan pondered for a while, and before finishing breakfast he posted a Weibo.

Just two characters:

【SB】

Just after posting, Gao Jun walked in from the doorway, saw Liang Yan sitting at the table, and said with a smile:

"Little Liang, come by my office later; we'll have a quick chat."

"No need."

Gao Jun froze at the words, his smile turning awkward:

"What's wrong?"

Liang Yan gulped down the millet porridge in his bowl, set the bowl down, pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth, then added:

"I've already responded."

"Responded to what?"

"The Weibo."

"Ah…… oh, okay, fine."

Gao Jun didn't want to press further, gave a vague reply, and after Liang Yan left the cafeteria he opened Weibo on his phone to take a look.

Seeing Liang Yan's new Weibo, his eyes widened instantly.

"This…… might be too blunt?"

"This isn't putting out a fire—it's pouring oil on the flames!"

Gao Jun was a bit anxious, yet dared not blame Liang Yan; he pondered all morning, then finally called boss Lu Wenjun and explained everything in detail.

Lu Wenjun fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a smile:

"It's fine; let him be."

"No, boss, I think this could be big or small; if we don't take it seriously…"

"Relax, just listen to me."

"……Alright then, so I don't have to do anything?"

"Yeah, you don't need to do anything; someone is even more anxious than us—just watch."

After hanging up, Gao Jun's heart was filled with doubt.

"Someone is more anxious than us?"

"Who?"

The answer soon surfaced.

Before the afternoon relegation match began, the LPL official account, Riot's official blog, and the Summit of the Canyon super server official account simultaneously released a statement, roughly meaning we noticed some online commentary, then technically explained that the so‑called manual rank filling cannot be achieved, blah‑blah explanation, summing up as follows:

"Manual rank filling is a rumor; there is no difference in so‑called super accounts. All pro players receive accounts with the same hidden rating—no claim that any star player has a higher hidden score. The ceiling for placement is Diamond I; only outstanding performance and high contribution can reach it. If you make it, it's because the player is skilled; if you don't, it's your lack of ability."

Only then did Gao Jun finally understand; the more anxious party was actually the officials, because the Summit of the Canyon is a major project of the League of Legends China server team—although the Summit of the Canyon cannot generate any revenue for the China team since it requires no top‑up points or coins, it is still a flagship brand!

Obviously, the domestic server's Fist would not allow anyone to tarnish him, so they made a big announcement to explain.

Moreover, this announcement was tantamount to slapping Uzi in the face, and it subtly revealed the official stance—the LPL's top banner is about to change.

After the three official accounts' announcements were released, Gao Jun immediately received a call from Lu Wenjun, who urged him to press the advantage and, in the name of VG's official account, posted an official Weibo:

【We will not allow anyone to insult our players.

【We are exercising restraint because we don't want to blow things out of proportion, but we reserve the right to use legal means to defend our reputation and interests.

【The internet is not a lawless place; rumor-mongers, you will get what's coming to you!】

As soon as the Weibo was posted, countless onlookers gathered.

Public opinion gradually shifted, and the controversy spread to Uzi and RNG.

By evening, RNG and Uzi had posted Weibo updates; RNG announced that it would penalize Uzi for his impulsive 'speaking without thinking' with a fine of 5000 yuan.

Uzi then posted a Weibo, saying he hadn't thought carefully when he spoke and shouldn't have said that, and then added that it wasn't aimed at anyone; it was just netizens spreading rumors.

With just a few sentences, he shifted the blame completely.

Fu Lan Duo saw Uzi's Weibo and directly commented:

"It's absolutely not something he wrote himself; either RNG or his girlfriend wrote it—you can tell at a glance that Uzi wouldn't say something like that."

Liang Yan gave an indifferent 'oh' and didn't care at all.

He opened the livestream as if nothing had happened and watched the LPL relegation match together with the fans.