5
Esports players don’t have mornings, unless they pull all-nighters.
The OLG First Team had just returned from the EWC Esports World Cup in Riyadh and was still adjusting to the time difference. Their training room was on the separate second floor, while the Second Team and some other substitute players trained in the basement.
The basement was spacious. Going down the stairs, the entire basement floor was the training room, with only a bathroom built in the southeast corner.
Directly opposite the stairs was a large sofa. Against the left wall were four esports desk-and-chair setups. To the right were five.
The empty space in the middle was piled high with assorted peripheral parts: Razer headsets and keyboards, Logitech G Pro Wireless 2/3/4th gen mice, some unopened, just tossed on the coffee table. There were also several fully modded Wooting keyboards, all identically themed, only marked with the owner’s name on a sticker in the top right corner.
A skinny young man, wearing the OLG black-and-white team uniform, lay sprawled on the large sofa playing on his phone. Hearing someone coming down, he craned his neck to look. Seeing Huarong, he immediately sat up and said eagerly, “Sister Hua is here.”
Huarong waved a hand in front of her face, speaking with obvious displeasure: “Where is everyone else? Look at the time! Also, which little bastard was smoking in here yesterday? I told you, no smoking in the training room! I go with the First Team to Saudi for a tournament and with no one watching, you lot turn the place upside down?”
The skinny kid was so scared he immediately straightened up: “Not me, Sister Hua! I don’t know who smoked either! They should be up by now. I’ll go get them!” He turned and ran off.
Running past Yan Xiu, he glanced at him curiously for a few moments before being glared at by Huarong, hurrying upstairs to call the others without further delay.
Yan Xiu recognized this person. OLG Second Team player “Superman,” in-game ID: OLG.Superman.
The OLG Second Team currently didn’t qualify for the main league tournaments, but they participated in official-affiliated platform tournaments and university tournaments, enjoying decent popularity even among casual players.
Huarong: “Feel free to grab and use any of these peripherals. See which one fits your hand best. Just take it directly when we start scrims later. The team provides these for free.” She first showed Yan Xiu the pile of equipment on the coffee table and the wall shelves, then led him to a desk in the corner: “This is the computer the Second Team uses for replay reviews. Specs are the same as the club’s standard setup. You’ll use this computer for the scrims with them today.”
Yan Xiu nodded, placing his black backpack on the table and taking out his personal mouse, keyboard, and mousepad one by one.
Huarong: “Brought such a full set, all top-tier.”
Yan Xiu: “Peripherals I’m used to make it more convenient.”
Huarong nodded in understanding.
During official matches, the PCs are uniformly configured by the league. The towers and monitors are all sponsored by paid sponsors. Even the esports chairs and desks, as well as the headsets, go through a sponsorship bidding process. The DFL makes a huge amount of money from sponsors every year. But of course, the DFL’s biggest backer is Daddy Tencent, and the game itself earns tons, so they don’t survive on this small change alone.
Aside from these officially sponsored items, the peripherals Yan Xiu brought—like mouse, keyboard—are all player-chosen and brought to tournaments.
After plugging in his mouse and keyboard and booting up the PC to test settings, the Second Team members started trickling downstairs one after another.
Huarong didn’t say a word, a single look making the five or so tall lads line up against the wall for inspection. After subjecting them to a death stare one by one, she asked: “Which dumbass smoked in the training room?”
Yan Xiu looked at Huarong in surprise. Sister Hua was only about 1.6 meters tall, yet she had these Second Team boys, with an average height well over 1.7 meters, too scared to breathe loudly.
Composing himself, Yan Xiu seriously adjusted his equipment, opened the game, and tuned the settings to his preferred parameters. Meanwhile, Sister Hua’s scolding session had ended, and the Second Team members obediently returned to their seats.
Huarong: “Superman, Tao Shi, you two will play the T3 scrims with Show. Play your own roles.”
Yan Xiu’s tryout for today had been briefed by Huarong the night before. The five Second Team players acknowledged this. Superman and Tao Shi both voiced their agreement. Superman asked proactively: “Show, what’s your game ID? I’ll add you.” The other three who weren’t participating in the scrims also discreetly observed the new ringer trying out.
Yan Xiu: “Onlyshow, capital O.”
Tao Shi: “…?” He glanced towards his partner Superman.
Superman returned a knowing “Bro, I understand” look.
Superman and Tao Shi had been a fixed-duo queue since their streamer days before joining OLG’s Second Team together. They’d been playing three years, averaging over eight hours of high-intensity training daily. One just needed to stick out his butt, and the other knew exactly what flavor of fart was coming.
Tao Shi: This kid looks like that and has a pretty good voice?
Superman: I feel you, bro.
Exchanging one last mutual look of understanding, they reached a consensus: He must be incredibly trash for CatClaw not to just instantly sign him to OLG.
Esports was a path where looks mattered, but also didn’t.
Good looks would definitely attract many female fans. But if you only had looks and were too bad at the game, you still wouldn’t generate much popularity. If people solely wanted to look at faces, they’d just go chase idols directly. Trash players weren’t worthy of breathing. However, once a player was cracked and handsome, their popularity would increase geometrically. Money too.
At 2 PM, the official T3 Scrims began on schedule.
Tao Shi: “Tournament play is different from regular games. You can’t afford such good gear. Forget Tier 6 Gear and A-Max. Even ammo needs to be conserved.” During the Ban-Pick Phase, he kindly explained to Yan Xiu: “First game, six teams. Each team only has 5 million starting funds. That means we three average around 1.8 million each.”
Superman: “But we can’t actually use up the full 5 million. In case we go bankrupt this round, the remaining five matches are screwed. Taozi is Entry Fragger, he takes Tier 5 Gear, Tier 5 Ammo. I’m Recon, Tier 5 Gear, Tier 4 Ammo. You’re Support, Tier 4 Gear, Tier 4 Ammo. Okay, Show?”
Yan Xiu: “OK.”
Just now, Sister Hua had said to let Superman and Tao Shi play their usual roles, no need to switch. So this tryout was testing Yan Xiu’s ability in the Support Role.
T3 Scrim, Game 1. Map: Zero Dam.
Tao Shi picked Entry Fragger operator “Vyron.” Superman picked Recon operator “Mai Xiaowen.” Yan Xiu picked “Red Wolf.”
The three spawned…
Tao Shi: “Oh sht, exiled. Why a forsaken spot like Tourist Center…”
Superman: “So unlucky. Admin Building’s out of the question for us now. Let’s search Tourist Center first, listen for intel, then head to Admin Building to join the fight later.”
“OK.” Yan Xiu had no objections. He was Support, and Superman was one of the Second Team’s IGLs.
“Zero Dam” was the “Beginner Map” in Delta Force, with no rank requirement for players. Every newbie to the game would first get familiar with Zero Dam. Once their account level hit 15, they could unlock other maps like “Aerospace Base” and “Bakesh.”
Tourist Center was the “Exiled Spawn” on Zero Dam, located at the very edge of the map. With the random system spawn point, since they were born in a spot where they could only drink leftover soup, the three chose to simply eat up as much nearby resource as possible to earn a bit more money, preparing to buy better gear for the next round.
After five minutes of crackling gunfire from the Admin Building at the map’s center, Superman made a call: “Enter Admin Building.”
The three entered the Admin Building. The battle inside was already in its final stages, leaving only one full squad and one broken squad.
Previously, the OLG Second Team never participated in the tournament organizers’ official T3 Scrims. They always played T2, where even the OLG Second Team was considered a strong team. Among the six teams in today’s T3 Scrims, aside from OLG, only the VE Second Team was also a pro team. The remaining four teams were university teams and streamer teams.
They specifically played today’s T3 Scrims to give Yan Xiu his tryout.
The first game went smoothly. The three successfully Third-Partied, wiping the last full streamer squad, and extracted fat and wealthy. Show’s actual skill was completely untested.
By the second game, the map was Aerospace Base.
A mature male voice appeared in the KOOK voice channel.
“Superman, you’re out. Carrier Pigeon, you’re in. Show, this game you play Recon, okay?”
Yan Xiu looked at the new person in the voice channel, then turned his head towards the computer desk not far behind him.
Behind the monitor sat a man with a long horsey face. OLG Coach Jack had arrived midway through the first game, entering the match’s Observer slot and issuing instructions.
Yan Xiu: “No problem. Playing Luna, okay?”
Jack: “Fine.”
Superman left the voice channel, and Carrier Pigeon joined the room.
Jack did the Ban-Pick: “Tao Shi, play Gale. Show, Luna. Carrier Pigeon, Stinger.”
This Ban-Pick was undeniably cursed. Except for Yan Xiu’s Luna, the other two were far from meta operators. But if Yan Xiu couldn’t perform in a T3 Scrim, he wouldn’t have the face to join the OLG First Team.
Even as a Substitute.
Yan Xiu’s expression grew serious. He gripped his mouse, waiting for the spawn point on screen.
Yan Xiu: “Coach, who’s IGL?”
The initiative from the trialing newcomer made Jack pause for a second before answering: “You can IGL.”
Yan Xiu: “Okay.”
Just then, the opening CD ended and Yan Xiu saw the spawn point.
His voice was concise and crisp: “We spawned at Control Center this round. We’re blitzing straight into the Dormitory.”
…
When Bai Wei came down the stairs, Tao Shi was already a loot box, Carrier Pigeon had successfully extracted, and both were spectating their teammate. Jack sat at the Observer position, also watching the in-game situation.
None of the three noticed his arrival, much less Yan Xiu, who had just completed a 1v2 counter-kill and was now being ambushed by a fourth team.
When the few other kids from the Second Team spotted him, they all whipped their heads back, no longer daring to gossip about the newbie’s tryout, staring obediently at their own screens.
Bai Wei swept a glance across the training room and saw a slender, unfamiliar silhouette at the corner desk against the wall.
The OLG gaming chair was a high-end Herman Miller ergonomic chair, sponsored as a gift. The one in the corner was a silver-gray Sayl base model. Its backrest only reached the young man’s chest, leaving his shoulders exposed. From behind, he looked very thin. The black T-shirt seemed old and well-worn, its collar loose and stretched, revealing half his collarbone. His hair was long, black strands smoothly following his neck downward, brushing against his fair collarbone.
So thin that his skin was almost translucent, two beautiful lines of ligament running from his jaw down, looking like they’d snap at the slightest bend, disappearing into his ribcage, lost in the deep shadows of his collar.
…
Bai Wei looked away.
He raised a hand, brushing back the hair from his forehead.
