LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 508 Oh my, my brother Lin is awesome!

With the awards ceremony concluded, the five-day Asian Games journey finally came to a glorious end.

As the Chinese team, holding their gold medals, left the venue under the guidance of staff, a large number of Chinese people could still be clearly seen gathering outside.

They eagerly awaited their arrival, cheering with joy.

"China is awesome!"

"Lin Shen, you're so handsome."

"We are the champions, haha."

With a habitual wave, Lin Ruo understood better than anyone the excitement one should feel upon winning a championship.

The newly established Asian Games may lack the attention and even the competitive aspect of the annual official World Championship.

But as long as the word "country" is involved, its value will always be the highest, without exception, especially for the Chinese gaming region.

Since winning the World Championship last year, LPL has undoubtedly become the number one region, but there is still one thing that makes people feel a little regretful.

That is, not all five players who won the championship were Chinese; the idea of ​​an all-Chinese team remains a misconception.

Even if you defeat LCK teams a million times, Korean netizens can still say, "Your team has our Korean players, so what are you pretending for?"

At least in this respect, it is unavoidable.

However, with this victory at the Asian Games, this hypothesis seems to be coming to an end.

Because this time, it really was a Chinese coach leading five Chinese people who defeated a Korean coach leading five Koreans.

At this time, the phrase "China No.1" was being used everywhere on the League of Legends forums in China. Being able to say this English phrase with pride was a huge boost to the self-esteem of all LPL viewers.

[I never imagined in my life that League of Legends would be featured in the Asian Games, and that we actually won a gold medal! Now I can finally hold my head high.]

[Yes, actually, when news broke early last year that League of Legends might become an Asian Games event, I was completely against it. The reason was simple: while it would be a good thing for League of Legends to be included in the Asian Games, the problem was that we really couldn't beat the South Korean team back then.]

Indeed, it's one thing to lose to the LPL, but it's truly shameful to lose to the national team. But who would have thought that we would reverse our fortunes starting with last year's Mid-Season Invitational?

[This is all because of Lin Gou's appearance. Lin Gou is really... too awesome.]

...

While the extremely excited netizens on Tieba were celebrating the Asian Games championship, many couldn't help but think back to the defeat they suffered against LCK 17 years ago.

But who could have imagined that they would actually achieve such a seamless switch between offense and defense in such a short time, and demonstrate an even stronger dominance than the LCK?

This has resulted in the neighboring team going almost without a single win in the past two years.

How could this not evoke emotion, or surprise?

What the netizens on Tieba probably didn't expect was that one day their League of Legends would become famous throughout the country and bring glory to their ancestors.

On the night of the championship victory, many netizens noticed that CCTV specifically broadcast a segment about the League of Legends championship win.

This is far more meaningful than any congratulatory message from CCTV News on Weibo or other social media platforms.

It's worth noting that CCTV's daily half-hour evening news usually focuses on national competitions related to social development, yet now they've specifically set aside time to introduce a game tournament victory.

Tsk tsk.

Do we still need to know what the gold content is?
Netizens who saw the news immediately copied it word for word to Tieba, which inadvertently caused a lot of heated discussion on Tieba.

Kang Hui, one of CCTV's most famous news anchors, was seen facing the screen, broadcasting the event in perfect Mandarin.

"Next, we have a news flash. In the Asian Games event held at noon today, the League of Legends demonstration match in esports came to a perfect end. After five days of competition, the final was held at 9:00 AM local time between the Chinese and South Korean teams. The Chinese team, relying on the perfect performance of players such as Lin Ruo, ultimately defeated the South Korean team with a score of 3:0, achieving the milestone of winning the first Asian Games championship in esports history."

During the brief pause after Kang Hui finished speaking, the news broadcast even took more than 20 seconds to switch to live video footage, which was transmitted back by CCTV reporters.

In addition to footage of the Chinese team competing from their seats, there were also shots of their regular training sessions, and finally, the moment they won the championship and stood on the podium – the camera gave them ample coverage.

Now who can underestimate League of Legends?
The first time people took this so seriously, they read it repeatedly as if it were gospel, scrutinizing the content meticulously. In the end, they all had only one thought: their League of Legends is just too amazing.

Especially Lin Ruo, being singled out and having her name read aloud, even the audience felt incredibly satisfied. If Lin Ruo herself knew this, she would probably float to outer space that very night.

It turns out that Lin Ruo over there had indeed drifted to outer space.

Having anticipated that the evening news might feature something unusual, Lin Ruo started watching it on her phone while having hot pot at a dinner party, causing her teammates, who were busy grabbing beef, to pause in their scramble.

"Holy crap, are we watching the 19 PM news broadcast?" Upon hearing that familiar voice, Mouse knew it must be the news broadcast, and when he went over to take a look, it was indeed true.

This was something he had never imagined in his entire life; it was as unrealistic as a dream.

Xiao Hu next to him looked the same way, as if he were dreaming: "We gamers actually got to be on the news one day, that's unbelievable!"

Upon hearing this, Xiaoming slammed his hammer down: "Who's the one who plays games like a lousy bum? I'm an Asian Games champion who brought glory to the country, okay?"

"Look, did we appear on TV? Were we just mentioned briefly?" UZI turned around and saw that there was a video of each of them looking directly at the camera, and his mood immediately improved.

Actually, he had been interviewed by CCTV and other media outlets before, but that was five years ago when he was playing for Royal Never Give Up (RNG), and at that time he was still the world runner-up who reached his peak right from his debut.

If we had won the championship, we probably wouldn't have had to wait until now to be featured on CCTV News.

However, considering the gaming environment at that time, even if they had won the championship, it wouldn't have been anything special, and the level of public attention wouldn't have been what it is now.

"Tsk tsk, how come I got called out?"

Seeing that his name was mentioned again, Lin Ruo immediately became arrogant. This is the value of being a carry and a core player. Even people who don't play League of Legends know this.

"Tch, look at how smug you are," Tianye taunted as usual.

Unlike Xiaohu, who was already fawning over him at this moment: "Brother Lin is awesome. Brother Lin is the big brother of our team. It's normal for his name to be mentioned."

Clearly, he knew that Lin Ruo had carried him throughout the Asian Games, which is why he didn't make any major mistakes and become a mere background figure.

Xiao Hu is still grateful. He may not know whether Lin Ruoqiang is strong or not, but he is absolutely amazing when Lin Ruoqiang carries him.

"Keep it low-key, it's just that my name was mentioned once, really, it's not a big deal." Lin Ruo stopped there, making the others believe her.

However, when they turned around and saw Lin Ruo opening Weibo to post a message, they knew that Lin Ruo was now planning to let the whole world know about this. Is this what they call being low-key? That's certainly high-profile enough.

Lin Ruo, who logged into Weibo, didn't really intend to say anything. He simply made the shortest post he'd ever made since registering his Weibo account, consisting of only ten characters.

Did you watch today's evening news?

His expression was concise and to the point, getting straight to the heart of the matter, as if he was afraid the audience wouldn't know what he wanted to ask.

The first thing the people who arrived quickly didn't say was about the news broadcast; instead, they all gaped open, expressing their utter shock and disbelief.

[My God, it's like a zombie has come back to life! Quickly, go and fetch Master Lin Zhengying, a member of Lin Ruo's clan.]

【No need, I have glutinous rice at home. I think I can easily defend against Lin Ruo alone.】

Whose coffin lid wasn't closed properly, allowing Lin Ruo to lift it up?

[If I hadn't seen this Weibo post, I would have thought Lin Gou's Weibo account had been hacked. Tell me, how did you manage to go two and a half months without posting on Weibo? How did you manage to hold back? Did you even consider whether we could?]

[Lin Ruo might have been holding back something big by not posting on Weibo, and now it seems she really has. So after two months, this is all she posts? Where's her witty banter, her post-match reflections, her sentimental remarks?]

Judging from the comments at the top, it's clear that people still have grievances about Lin Ruo's long-term inactivity on Weibo. The current Lin Ruo is no longer the man who used to take matters into his own hands on Weibo at the slightest disagreement.

Let's stop with the frivolous talk.

In the past, there was a warm-up before a match and a debriefing after the match, but now none of these procedures exist.

Is this the price of fame? He's become increasingly aloof, no longer the seventeen-year-old boy he once was.

After discussing these things, Lezi finally paid attention to what Lin Ruo had posted.

[What? You were on CCTV? You were even mentioned by name? Wow, my brother Lin is awesome!]

[You made a huge fuss on CCTV News, I'd never envy you even if I never made it on CCTV in ten lifetimes (sunglasses emoji).]

[So what if you won an Asian Games gold medal? Lin Gou, you won't get my approval unless... you come back and start streaming immediately.]

[Seriously, come back and start streaming soon! Damn, I'm saving up my wife's savings to tip you!]

cough cough.

At this moment, how could Lin Ruo not know? Thinking back to the last time he won the world Go championship and brought glory to the country, there's no need to mention what the situation was like during the Queen's first live broadcast that day.

That means the amount of gifts received in one day is almost equal to the weekly revenue of the Zhanqi platform.

So this time, she has won glory for the country again and even accidentally won a gold medal. Lin Ruo can't even imagine what wonderful days will come after the show starts airing.

It's really hard to refuse such a kind invitation.

In order to get back to Shanghai quickly and start the live stream, Lin Ruo bought a plane ticket overnight to fly back to Shanghai early the next morning, emphasizing that speed was of the essence.

Of course, he would have bought it even if he hadn't.

Because they have a regular season game the day after tomorrow. Yes, EDG's regular season isn't over yet; they still have two games to play.

However, it's highly likely that Lin Ruo won't get a chance to play.

The top spot in the West was secured several rounds in advance, and even if Lin Ruo went, he would just sit obediently on the bench. After all, if Haro isn't allowed to play in games like this, then what game would he be allowed to play?

He's not like his good brothers from RNG next to him.

The battle for the top two spots in the regular season is still at its most intense stage, because these players don't even have time to rest and must continue to dedicate themselves to the remaining regular season games to strive for a better ranking.

According to the previous playoff rules, the second seed in the East will most likely face the first seed in the West in the semifinals, which means whoever gets the second seed in the East will be eliminated.

They might not have believed it before, but after being carried by Lin Ruo during the Asian Games, they are now completely convinced.

UZI even regarded the final round of the regular season against IG the day after tomorrow as a life-or-death battle. They absolutely cannot lose, otherwise they would be destined to have the same ending as in the Spring Split, be eliminated by EDG in the semifinals, and then suffer the same fate of taking third place and going home to live a miserable life.

This won't do. We have to crawl to the finals and lift up the runner-up title, even if we have to crawl.

So the three members of RNG went to bed early that night, unlike Lin Ruo who could party until two or three in the morning and just browse some forum comments.

Is it really that bad? Is it really that good-looking?

Lin Ruoke didn't know whether it would be good or not; all he knew was that he would have to take a six-hour flight the next morning, so wouldn't it be better to use that time to catch up on sleep?

So what's the big deal about staying up all night tonight? It's really nothing.

...

Time passed quickly, and early the next morning after the Asian Games ended, everyone packed their bags and rushed to Jakarta Airport.

Along with this, Scout, who parted ways with the South Korean team, will also be returning to the team in Shanghai to prepare for the regular season game the day after tomorrow, as soon as the Asian Games are over.

It's definitely impossible for me to go back and get scolded along with my Korean teammates; that's simply not possible.

Having played so many games as a substitute during the Asian Games, and even when the team was down 0-2 in the final, the coaching staff didn't seem to want to put him on the court, Scout was incredibly frustrated.

However, after seeing Lin Ruo, this frustration vanished.

because…

"Hey, isn't this the Asian Games silver medalist mid laner? Let me see if the silver medal is any good, I've never seen one before."

Lin Ruo immediately turned Scout into a red-hot character upon their first meeting. Scout's frustration was no longer just a feeling of being stifled; his anger was practically bursting out of the horizon.

Scout, who exclaimed that Lin Ruo was giving him too much credit, wanted to teach his good brother a lesson, but unfortunately, he was being guarded by the sycophantic Xiao Hu.

Xiao Hu is naturally strong; he can take on Tianye Xiaoming and Mala Xiangguo all by himself, so his fighting ability goes without saying.

Especially several years later, with his big, fat belly, Xiao Hu's physique was clearly going to improve even further.

Sure enough, there's a reason why people like to build tank items, since they're already tanky themselves.

(End of this chapter)