Chapter 36: Don

Jiang Ming required his team members to follow a strict training schedule modeled after professional esports teams, precise down to every time slot of the day for both lifestyle and training tasks.

In today’s LOL scene, no other region’s training management could match NXG’s professionalism.

Their hardware may still lag behind some wealthy clubs, but in terms of content, Jiang Ming frankly claimed he could single-handedly crush them.

The effects of this meticulous training were obvious: the five NXG players, originally hovering around 2200 rating, improved through intense practice to reach the level of top fifty players in Division One.

Individual skill was secondary; more crucial was their professional discipline, far beyond their era—that’s why NXG effortlessly dominated during the selection trials.

Of course, such an extreme training regimen had drawbacks.

During NXG’s recruitment phase, few internet-addicted teens could endure such intensity; most lasted two days before realizing pro play wasn’t as easy as they thought and tried to quit.

The current five NXG members were only assembled after Jiang Ming reluctantly lowered his rank requirements.

Fortunately, these five, though not exceptionally gifted, were willing to endure hardship and follow orders.

At 3 p.m., it was their individual specialized training time.

First came the daily mandatory last-hitting drill.

All roles except support—including the jungler—had to meet their targets; Shi Zhenyu didn’t understand why a player who spent all day fighting monsters needed last-hitting practice, but he knew Ming-ge would never harm them.

“Today’s ten-minute uninterrupted last-hit target: Mid and ADC 95+, Top 92+, Jungle 90+!”

“Got it.”

“Lao Pang, I finished my ten-minute uninterrupted last-hits—help me with high-pressure last-hits and tower-hitting drills.”

Xu Tao had the best fundamentals among the five, so he usually completed basic training first.

At this point, the support, Pang Ran, who had no basic training task, served as the tool for interference drills.

This trained both his teammates and his own ability to harass in the bottom lane.

Today, Pang Ran picked Robot to give their ADC special training in dodging Robot’s Q skill; without support pressure, single-lane last-hitting while moving to dodge Q was significantly harder.

Dodging skills through movement was mandatory for every NXG member, regardless of role.

Besides tower-hitting pressure, there was also special terrain edge movement training.

The ADC had to practice dodging skills or using Flash to cross walls at positions marked by Jiang Ming on the map.

…

“Hey hey, Lao Pang, you’re playing dirty—you can Flash and Q like that?”

Xu Tao slammed the desk, making his keyboard jump half an inch, “Referee! I’m reporting someone using physical hacks!”

“This is unfair!”

Pang Ran adjusted his reflective glasses, spinning a tactical board in his fingers until it blurred: “Ming-ge’s saying—war is deception. Besides…” He suddenly flashed the standard Cat-Mouse Team grin, “Helping the ADC improve is my duty as a bottom-lane support—I cannot shirk it.”

Amid the chorus of groans in the training room, the other three exchanged glances of “here we go again.”

Song Yuan silently lowered his esports chair by three centimeters, as if that could shield him from the coming storm.

After basic training came role-specific advanced drills.

Things like fixed-position skill combos or moving-target skill prediction were team-wide tasks.

Once Pang Ran finished his hundred-hit interference movement drill for Xu Tao, it was the bottom lane’s turn to give the top laner extra training.

"Yuan-ge~" The bottom lane duo leaned in, arms around the trembling top laner, "Today, feel like a Jeep crash or a cane star ambush?" Pang Ran cooperatively rolled his gaming chair, the screech of metal echoing like a blade being sharpened.

Song Yuan’s face twisted in agony, “Brothers, go easy on me!”

Every time this came around, it felt like a Landry’s torture for him.

He wanted to run, but he couldn’t escape.

Top lane advanced training: ① Pressure resistance drill: (1v2 wave control, farming, and anti-gank training.)

Yes, in Jiang Ming’s view, 1v2 pressure was a classic mandatory lesson: bottom lane pressures, then mid and jungle look for opportunities to dive; facing constant bottom lane pressure and endless dives, Song Yuan had to dance on the blade—when to last-hit, when to soak XP, when to abandon the tower—every decision meant life or death.

Dying was allowed, but you had to extract every last bit of XP from the last minion. Once, Song Yuan perfectly avoided a 4v1 gank but lost XP from three melee minions; Jiang Ming punished him with an extra half-hour of last-hitting basics.

In other words, death was acceptable—but if it was an ineffective death, the training was deemed invalid.

Combined, it was no wonder top lane training was pure torment.

“Song Yuan, don’t run—come toward us!”

“Gagaga, here comes the dirt bike to crash into you.”

“No, you’re some kind of cane-star alien—I don’t want a Jeep randomly smashing me!”

“This is personal revenge!” After his 27th tower dive, Song Yuan’s face on-screen showed utter despair, “Waaah, I’m calling Ming-ge! I want to switch to turret defense!”

Compared to the endless cycle of random collisions with his teammates, Song Yuan felt the subsequent top lane map awareness and TP timing training was paradise.

Listening to Song Yuan’s screams, Shi Zhenyu sighed with a wry smile—his teammates acted like they were putting on a show, going through the same routine daily yet pretending it was a life-or-death horror.

That wasn’t because his own tasks were easier.

The jungler’s advanced training was the complete opposite—even sometimes didn’t require launching the game.

Every so often, Ming-ge sent him a document; he just had to plan jungle routes based on the hypothetical scenarios, then propose at least one or two invasion or counter-gank strategies for each situation.

Yeah, playing pro required taking exams!

As a jungler, he solved Jiang Ming’s tactical puzzles daily: jungle route planning was an open-ended question, invasion and counter-gank were essay questions, and jungle resource priority decisions were pure multiple-choice.

If top lane advanced training was mental and physical pressure, the jungler’s advanced training, the team said, was a test of willpower.

MMP, nobody told me pro play involved exams!

“Too scary, seriously too scary—glad I don’t play jungler!” ×4

Of course, as the jungler’s close teammate, the mid laner’s situation was similar—right now, Wu Zhiqiang was battling over vision control.