Chapter 26: with translation of chapter title

We've got this round!

Shh, don't pop the champagne yet, the match isn't over.

Backstage lounge, the QG coaching staff clenched their fists, faces bright.

In that bottom lane teamfight just now, they went through a wonderful journey from hell to heaven.

As UZI was about to be insta-killed, Xu Dongmen performed a miraculous sheep spirit rebirth that changed everything.

Bottom lane 1 for 3, the lounge filled with howls.

When Xu Dongmen subsequently pulled off an extreme counterkill against Spicy Hot Pot, even the usually steady Pu Longyun jumped up from his chair.

Our composition is better, our position is superior, and our key players outperform the opponents!

Not to say it's a guaranteed win, but we have an eighty percent chance.

This round, Dongmen again went bottom to protect Baotuqi and took down the turret, letting Zixiu also get a wave of farm, very comfortable!

RNG is already out of options; our composition this round is strong, we don't fear teamfights at any stage.

This is the composition the blue side should have gotten; looking back, my BP in the first game was terrible, but thanks everyone held on.

Pu Longyun and Coach Cui have been communicating.

What surprised them was that manager Lin Ke, who had been tense in the first two matches, seemed like a different person this round, staying unusually calm from start to finish; even after our side gained an advantage, he didn't erupt in panic, instead he kept typing on his phone, his typing speed rivaling Doinb's.

No way, at this point, you still have the mood to chat with others?

The QG members were a bit puzzled; Love Shooter Jia Yi leaned over to peek, seeing only that the person he was chatting with had a note labeled 【Jiawen】.

Jiawen?

It's not the Jiawen from the Prince, but you have to admit, the name does sound somewhat familiar.

It's him, Zhu Jiawen!

Love Shooter Jia Yi slapped his forehead, suddenly recalling who this person was.

RNG's substitute AD, Namei.

Weird, what does he have to chat about with the enemy AD? The RNG manager hasn't even come to talk to me!

Love Shooter Jia Yi felt strange; given his understanding of Lin Ke, he could tell without thinking that this guy was up to no good.

This isn't a stereotype; it's because there's a prior lesson.

The incident traces back to the S5 Summer Split, when QG, as a promoted team, shone brightly in its first LPL season, defeating one veteran powerhouse after another.

In the first round, the blue side went undefeated, ultimately finishing second in the regular season; in the playoffs they even eliminated IG, which had Kakao and Rookie as its jungler-mid duo, advancing to the finals!

They peaked right from debut, their rookie season storming through to the finals.

For Love Shooter Jia Yi, those memories were incomparably sweet, also the peak of his career!

Why was the peak the semifinals, not the finals?

Because they lost the finals, QG fell 2-3 to Old Godfather, missing the championship by a hair.

Losing was bad enough, but that final also drew a torrent of criticism.

The reason is simple: on the eve of the finals, Lin Ke invited the then-LGD head coach Chris out for drinks.

After drinking, Chris kicked off a salary dispute, falling out with LGD management; in the end he didn't even show up at the finals venue, so Old Godfather had to send analyst Firefox as a last-minute substitute to handle the finals' bans and picks.

No one knows exactly what Lin Ke said to Chris that made him refuse to even appear at the finals; Love Shooter Jia Yi isn't sure either, only knowing it concerned the 【coach salary】 issue.

At that time Pu Longyun hadn't yet joined QG; the team was coached by a Korean named Hiro, who wasn't well known and had a thin résumé, with hardly anyone in China able to recall his name.

Although Chris had long been teased as a 'takeout guy', he had in fact led Royal to two Worlds finals as a veteran coach, so he naturally looked down on such a nobody.

Lin Ke seized on that, inadvertently revealing Hiro's annual salary during their drinking session.

At that time Chris had only coached Old Godfather for a month, having taken over from BSYY, and was only brought out of retirement toward the end of the regular season.

In just a month Chris racked up meritorious service, bringing Old Godfather—ranked fifth in the regular season—to the finals while also helping the team secure an S5 Worlds berth early.

According to Chris's agreement with the club, as long as they made it to S5, he would receive a $100,000 bonus.

Given the market at the time, 100,000 was not small, and Chris had come precisely for that bonus.

But once he learned that Hiro—a nobody who'd never even made Worlds—earned hundreds of thousands annually, that 100,000 suddenly lost its appeal!

Chris went to Old Godfather to argue, but they only offered him 30,000 a month.

Feeling insulted, Chris fled overnight!

Afterward, both sides took the feud to Weibo, tearing into each other online; as a master of pacing, Lin Ke naturally couldn't stay out of it, drawing the wrath of the Optimist Family, which also dragged in the QG players.

Love Shooter Jia Yi still feels extremely embarrassed to this day.

Just pulling shenanigans off-stage is bad enough, but to do so and still not have played? It's utterly humiliating, bringing shame even to one's grandmother's house…

Of course LGD ultimately couldn't escape the sanction of the Judgment's Scythe; this B team, after winning the summer finals, acted high and mighty—playing Tian Dao, picking skins, boozing at bars, doing proxy purchases…

Most importantly, winning the summer finals gave LGD management the illusion that coaches weren't that important.

Or rather, they believed Firefox had the talent of a general and could fully take on the head coach role; Godv's classic saying 《With Feng Ge around, no ban will go wrong》 is the best illustration.

After winning the title, LGD didn't bolster its coaching staff; instead they chose the simplest, crudest approach—promoting Firefox to head coach, with Feng Ge, who had been the team's analyst just a month prior, taking command.

What followed is common knowledge: Old Godfather threw three Iron Men in the S5 group stage, sending themselves home, and Imp's battered skull still bears a bowl‑sized scar from being hammered.

Tracing it back, QG bears full responsibility!

If they hadn't lost the finals, Old Godfather wouldn't have swollen to that extent.

If it weren't for Lin Ke's drinks that drove Chris to quit over a salary dispute, even without his takeout‑ordering talent to turn the tide, at least he wouldn't have been so stubborn in the bans and picks.

A simple example: in the second round of the summer playoffs, LGD faced Snake; Game 1 saw Li Xuanjun carry with Riven, after which Chris ruthlessly banned the next three games, ultimately Old Godfather pulled off a 1‑3 comeback to advance, then swept the defending champions EDG out of the tournament……

The mastermind behind the S5 Worlds disaster has been found!

Outsiders may not know, but insiders are all clear about it.

Lin Ke, a plague one dare not provoke, this guy's life dictionary has never contained the words 【morality】 or 【rules】!

This is also why RNG manager Quan Zhonghe, upon seeing him getting chummy with his own players, immediately snatched him away without a word.

Can't afford to provoke, can't even hide, old man?!

Really can't hide!

No way, who made this an information age?

Just a broken wall, can't stop a WeChat private chat.

At this moment, Lin Ke and Zhu Jiawen were chatting in full swing.

【Not that I'm saying, this spicy hot pot bastard really looks down on people; if it weren't for that bowl of beef noodles, he wouldn't even be worthy to speak loudly to you, Brother Jiawen?】

【Certified by the fists themselves, back when UZI was dominating Los Angeles, the world's number one ADC was still in China】

【People only know that Chui Changzhang is the LPL's number one, but they forgot who was actually the LPL's first triple crown winner】

【Brother Jiawen, look, without you, EDG can't even dominate the league now】

【spicy hot pot bullying you is bad enough; what really fills us with righteous indignation is that Wuxin even got on top of you? Let me put it this way: if you were on our QG, even the little dog would have to play substitute for Brother Jiawen!】

【RNG really deserves to die, actually trampling the veterans' dignity like that】

【Not related to spicy hot pot? Is it Mata who demanded Wuxin start?】

【To be frank, how many LPL championships does Mata have?】