Chapter 50

The so-called pre-match bravado, in-match babble, and post-match silence.

At this moment, the five PE team members, their faces flushed and utterly silent, perfectly embodied this saying.

The mid-laner Van’s eyes darted around; though he was playing Jax, the champion with the best last-hitting potential, he kept missing last hits one after another.

He felt like he’d forgotten how to play the game.

He got single-killed online by the Fox, got instantly killed in teamfights when Lux turned him into a sheep, and when he tried split-pushing…

The only thing left to save face—his split-push—ended with him having to sing “Conquered” because he couldn’t beat his own tanky top-laner.

“Conquered by you like this…”

It wasn’t just the mid-lane— the other four were no better. The top-laner Aruka’s Gnar was treated like a giant toy by NXG in teamfights; he’d unleash his ultimate and swing left and right, yet couldn’t even brush the sleeve of the enemy Ashe.

The bottom-lane duo, the strongest on paper, was even worse: Nami and Sicca, whenever they were without teammates, died instantly upon seeing the Fox or the Prince.

Sicca, responsible for vision, would tremble at the sound of Minghuo ’s hiss in his headset—he’d developed a PTSD-like reaction.

Of course, the worst wasn’t the bottom lane.

As the jungler, Ziv, since the ten-minute mark, had felt as if the jungle monsters no longer respawned; now he desperately wanted to go outside the team base to check if his newly bought bicycle wheels were still there—or if he should leave his lights on at night.

Afraid a Demacia knight in golden armor might leap out from under his blanket!

At 21:10, PE was wiped out after being ambushed by NXG at the Baron pit.

With both the Prince and Ashe still alive, Jiang Ming judged the timing sufficient; the purple team chose not to fight Nashor and instead pushed straight down the mid-lane to destroy PE’s base.

As the dazzling explosion effect of the main crystal flashed, PE’s players let out heavy sighs and collapsed onto their gaming chairs—five of them nearly driven into autism by the loss.

…

Inside Penguin’s LPL demo livestream room, even though the stream had immediately switched to another match the moment NXG won and the crystal exploded,

it failed to quell the shock among LOL players over the just-concluded match.

【What the f***, is NXG even playing against bots?】

【Gulp… a 21:2 kill ratio? I couldn’t even achieve this playing gold-ranked bots as a diamond player.】

【Penguin, are you sure you didn’t stream the wrong match? Someone tell me—did we just watch JM leading NXG in a normal ranked queue, not a professional selection match?】

【Bro, stop lying to yourself—I checked the previous match records. PE isn’t weak at all; they’re among the top three teams in the selection tournament.】

【WTF?】

【Are you kidding? What the hell happened in that match? PE got utterly dominated—“poor performance” doesn’t even explain it.】

【Is it possible that JM and his NXG team are just that strong?】

【Having watched the entire match, I must say the guy above is right: there’s a real skill gap—not in individual ability, but in fundamental understanding of teamfighting. They’re on completely different levels.】

【In my region, Diamond 2 player (attached JPG). PE’s five players are all Masters-ranked. I’ve queued with them before—they crushed me hard. Now I see even these guys got crushed on the pro stage.】

【NXG is just absurdly strong, you know…】

【So JM teaches us in ranked, then comes to the pro scene and teaches pro players how to play?】

The livestream discussion grew fiercer, gradually shifting from the match room to Weibo, Tieba, and other major forums.

Even Penguin hadn’t expected that a demo stream would coincide with NXG giving their absolute all to test their own level.

21:2!

Against the backdrop of this shocking professional selection score, and amplified by Jiang Ming’s prior reputation as the #1 player on the national server from his livestreams,

“National Server #1” and “Invincible Pro Team”

combined instantly ignited Penguin’s long-prepared promotional campaign for the pro league.

The tournament hadn’t even officially started; NXG had only just secured their LPL promotion slot.

Yet the entire LOL community exploded.

#NXG Wins All Selection Matches, Sweeping Through Like No One’s There!#

#Beating Masters Like Playing Bots—How Strong Is JM’s Game Understanding?#

#NXG Looks Like a Well-Trained, Disciplined Special Forces Unit.#

#Amateur Team—No, NXG Might Be LPL’s First Real Professional Army.#

#Explosive! NXG’s Terrifying Training Volume—After Seeing This, Do You Still Want to Play?#

#NXG Team Members’ Daily Schedule and Training Routine…#

Alongside match news, a strangely timed table slipped into the trending topics.

It was likely a training room wall sign, installed during renovation or equipment purchase, that someone had photographed and uploaded after seeing the online buzz over NXG’s selection performance—hoping to ride the wave.

The moment it was posted, the already skyrocketing discussion around NXG’s match exploded like gasoline on fire.

【???】

【This training schedule isn’t made up!】

【Sis, you’re serious about training until 3 or 4 a.m. every day?】

【Let me calculate—even counting the so-called tactical study time, each player trains about twelve to thirteen hours daily.】

【!!!】

【Something’s off, NXG—you’re not normal. JM, is this some kind of internet addiction rehab camp? Who the hell can handle thirteen hours a day?】

【A schedule precise to the minute—tell me this is what a gamer’s life actually looks like?】

【Internet addict… right now I feel like I’m the real addict. According to NXG’s schedule, playing games is no different from a job.】

【Wake up—you don’t even work this long!】

【If NXG really trains their players this much, then the flawless, disciplined gameplay we saw in the video isn’t so hard to understand.】

【Holy shit, is this the power of Jinling University geniuses? Beat the national server #1, run an online store earning millions a year, livestream as a platform flagship—and now you tell me he’s making his pro team more professional than anyone else?】

【I’m a Jinling University graduate too—I’m sorry I’ve shamed the school (facepalming）】

It exploded!

After NXG’s terrifying training volume went viral, the playback count of the shocking pro domination match on TGA skyrocketed.

No one expected Jiang Ming’s NXG team would instantly become the first traffic hub of the LPL professional league.

Not WE, the IPL5 champions, nor IG, their famed twin stars—but a brand-new team founded by a pancake-streamer.

As if fate had arranged it perfectly: had Penguin not randomly decided to demo-stream, or had Jiang Ming not chosen to play himself to test NXG’s true level against PE, even if NXG’s training volume later surfaced,

without the results to back it up—or without such a shocking, lopsided match as now—people would’ve merely sighed, then forgotten it entirely.