Chapter 517

MSI venue.

Liang Yan had just steadied himself on the stands when suddenly someone grabbed his hand, and then he felt something soft land on the back of his hand.

He lowered his head to look and was immediately startled.

A female spectator cosplaying as the harp girl was holding his hand and kissing the back of his hand.

You don't say, this female spectator's cosplay is quite accurate, especially the part that the audience loves most—one word to describe it: big!

Liang Yan politely averted his gaze, then noticed the VG letters painted on her face, realizing she was probably his fan, so he smiled at her before pulling his hand away.

That female fan then tilted her head up and gazed at him excitedly.

Liang Yan, however, felt it improper to keep looking at her from that angle, as it was indeed somewhat rude.

Subsequently, the opening ceremony officially began; the venue had a total of seven large screens, on which jumping numbers appeared simultaneously, and the audience joined in shouting the countdown. When the countdown reached zero, the audience's shouts peaked.

Suddenly, stage lights appeared; a spotlight fell, and beneath each beam stood a drummer wearing local traditional attire, the Ba Xi native ethnic music style steel drums clanging. In the center of the stage, a female drummer stepped onto the Mid‑Season Championship logo, beating the drum while performing a war dance. Although not every audience member might grasp this ethnic culture, as long as they could hear the sound and see the scene, they could all feel the tense, fierce atmosphere of an impending battle.

Immediately after, a grand, majestic background music piece came in.

The seven on‑site large screens simultaneously began playing the pre‑match promotional video; the sonorous narration gradually turned into a rapid, intense match commentary, with classic historical flashes flashing by, the commentator's voice growing faster, the commentary from all major regions overlapping to create an ultimate fervent atmosphere, the entire audience cheered together in that atmosphere, the venue's atmosphere blazing hot, as if a spark would ignite an explosion.

When the drumming and background music reached their climax, a team flag slowly descended from above the stage, and the venue host's voice rose, overriding everything:

"Welcome——! Welcome——!"

"2016 League of Legends World Championship!"

"Champion team!"

"G——! 2——! Esports!!!"

With a boom, the sound wave erupting from the crowd was like a nuclear blast, shaking the entire arena so violently it trembled.

The prestige of the champions is terrifying indeed!

The lights illuminated the section of the stands where the G2 Zhong Ren team sat; the G2 Zhong Ren team members (including the coach) standing mid‑way up the stands waved both hands, faces bearing proud, confident smiles, steadily descended the stand steps and walked toward the stage.

Over on the VG side, everyone cast envious glances and, lowering their voices, excitedly discussed.

"Damn, this popularity is insane—champions are just badass!"

"To be honest, I'm really jealous!"

"I can't even imagine how awesome it would be if it were us."

"We also have a world champion!"

"Pretty coach, tsk tsk~"

"Every day coming to find Foot Brother."

Fu Lan Duo suddenly blurted out this sentence. He and Liang Yan share a room, so there's no way to hide it, especially since Liang Yan wasn't deliberately avoiding people.

But the others truly didn't know; hearing this, they all froze at once.

Then they became excited:

"What?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Holy shit, I didn't know either!"

"You don't know? Every night……"

"Shut up."

Liang Yan, who had not joined the discussion, spoke up:

"Wait a bit longer and I'll pick Qing Ying for you."

"Brother, I was wrong……"

Fu Lan Duo, being a man who doesn't suffer immediate losses, honestly closed his mouth.

The others stopped asking, but their curiosity was about to explode, with only four words constantly replaying in their minds:

"What's going on?!"

But Fu Lan Duo surely wouldn't dare say more, and Liang Yan had no intention of explaining; he watched the G2 Zhong Ren team walking toward the stage.

He watched that slender, delicate figure, saw her signature aloof expression as she walked calmly at the rear of the team, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Tang Anna seemed to sense Liang Yan looking at her and turned her gaze in that direction. However, she was in the light while Liang Yan was in the dark, so she couldn't see him.

When the G2 Zhong Ren members had taken their positions on stage, the host then loudly announced the name of the next team to appear.

The remaining five teams appeared one after another.

When the lights shone on VG's section, the entire audience likewise erupted in a deafening roar, though not as earth‑shaking as when G2 Zhong Ren entered, it was still not far behind.

The VG members knew clearly that this cheering was directed at Liang Yan.

To many overseas fans, Liang Yan is actually an "Uncrowned King"—he is indeed the champion jungler, but what foreign netizens discuss most these days is that he did not win the FMVP at the S6 World Championship.

Some think the FMVP should actually have gone to Liang Yan, since even the FMVP winner Perkz has openly admitted it. Others believe the FMVP rightly belongs to Perkz, and Perkz saying it should go to Firrrrrre is merely modesty, a great virtue.

Regardless, Liang Yan's overseas popularity, although it dropped sharply after his return compared to his championship peak, remains the highest among LPL players in the eyes of foreign fans; if you add his domestic LPL following, there is no doubt that, as an individual player, Liang Yan's fanbase is absolutely the largest in the world.

Even among the over ten thousand spectators present, an estimated three to four thousand are his fans—some having crossed oceans from China and other regions to support him, while many more are local Ba Xi "native" fans; just the sound from those few thousand would be shocking enough, let alone the applause from the rest of the audience.

Consequently, although VG is making its debut on an international stage, the cheers the audience gives them exceed those of every other region's team except G2 Zhong Ren.

As for the newly crowned LCK champions KT, they are incomparable; KT is also a new team, and although it has world‑champion players in its roster, its fame ultimately falls short of Liang Yan's, so the popularity boost it gives the team is naturally far inferior to Liang Yan's.

If the LCK side were SKT led by Faker, perhaps they could still put up a fight; after all, setting aside Faker's personal fans, SKT's team following is also quite large.

For the KT members, some disappointment and dissatisfaction are certainly present, yet they also maintain the pride and composure of the LCK kings, their faces appearing calm enough.

In reality, however, they harbor a fierce determination, having already planned to crush their opponents with the most ruthless tactics today, so as to regain their dignity.

Their luck is not bad—their opening opponent is strong enough, making it perfect for establishing dominance!