LPL History

Chapter 121 Grudges Escalate into Fist and Body, Under the Banner of Courtesy, Prestige Shines
At this moment, the netizens in the live broadcast room were completely excited.

Five-minute godlike game? What the hell?!

IG is truly awful now.

[If IG didn't fix the match, I'd never believe it even if you paid me.]

To be fair, in this grudge match, IG has no reason to throw the game.

For a moment, it's hard to tell whether EDG is too strong or IG is too weak.

Lion: You used to ignore me, but today you'll regret it.

[That kid was bashing Lion on Weibo before, it's hilarious.]

[Kid is just a random guy off the street, he's seriously bad at this.]

After Zhou Li replenished his troops several more times, he pressed the recall button.

He took down three more people, one of whom was the final blow. This time, he pulled the Bloodthirster directly from his crotch.

On the other hand, kid is still working hard to save money for the Stormbreaker.

IG's bot lane matchup has completely fallen apart.

Graves is a champion that is different from ordinary ADCs.

Even if an ADC hero like Caitlyn is well-farmed, she is still vulnerable to being caught off guard by warriors and assassins.

But Graves is different.

If the male gunner develops well, he dares to go for the faces of warriors and assassins.

EDG quickly destroyed IG's bottom lane turret.

They then switched directly to the mid lane to suppress Zz1tai's Karthus's development.

After taking down the mid tower, EDG planted all their vision in IG's jungle.

At this moment, everyone in IG had a strong sense of déjà vu.

It's important to understand that the current situation is remarkably similar to when they played against OMG a month ago.

However, now they've become the victims on Instagram.

The same aggressive carry in the bot lane, coupled with the strict discipline of the mid and top laners who gave no chance, resulted in the instant loss of all jungle resources after the outer mid tower fell, creating an irresistible sense of suffocation.

"Damn it! If Zhou Li were here, we'd be beating them up like this right now."

PDD couldn't help but complain.

At this moment, none of the IG members have ever regretted it so much.

Faced with EDG's fierce offensive, and lacking Zhou Li's command, the IG players were like headless flies, running around aimlessly and being completely led by the nose by EDG.

Upon hearing PDD's words, Kid finally couldn't hold back anymore.

"Zhou Li! Zhou Li! Damn it, wasn't it you and Sun Yalong who wanted to rebel and drive him out back then?!"

Kid was truly wronged.

Comparing PDD and Sun Yalong.

They were the same two who drove Zhou Li away.

Now, those two are the ones reminiscing about Zhou Li and looking down on him.

This time, he didn't even bother calling him Brother Sun.

Sun Yalong was stunned for a moment.

Kid has always been very obedient and subservient to him.

This time, they actually started yelling!
"What the hell do you mean?" Sun Yalong roared. "When we rebelled, you didn't say no."

PDD even started cursing.

"No way, you've fed so many bot laners, why are you yelling? I really want to beat you up."

Kid is completely obsessed.

"Come on, fucking come and fight! You really think I'm afraid of you?!"

The two continued their exchange, their insults growing increasingly harsh.

One to twenty minutes into the game, PDD immediately initiated a surrender vote.

Before the surrender was even confirmed, PDD had already lost his temper, took off his headphones, and threw them directly at Kid.

However, this furious attack was slightly off target and struck Zita's head instead.

He covered his head, looking aggrieved.

When Kid saw PDD's action, he also took off his headphones and threw them at PDD.

PDD was prepared and with a flick of his wrist, the earphone hit Zita's head again.

He stood frozen in place, his chubby face trembling slightly.

"Um, I didn't offend anyone..."

Sun Yalong and PDD have always had a good relationship. When he saw the two of them start fighting, Sun Yalong not only did not try to stop them, but also took off his headphones and smashed them on Kid's head with a bang.

This scene was witnessed by Zhou Li, who was stretching.

"What a fucking idiot!"

He was genuinely afraid that these guys would start a fight on stage.

LPL has only just been established. If such a serious incident of fighting and brawling occurs, it's really finished.

Fortunately, the members of IG knew they were on stage and were relatively restrained, so the scene of them throwing their headphones went unnoticed.

"Off work! Wow, this game was so much fun! I, Lu Benwei, got a complete stomp!"

Upon hearing Lu Benwei's words, Tabe spoke frankly:

"Killing only two people in the whole game is also called a mass kill."

Shenchao stood up and said with a smile:

"I'm off work, I'm off work. This game feels like it has nothing to do with me anymore, and it's over."

Zhou Li patted Tabe and said:

"Go find Zhu Kai, get his phone, and then go straight to the backstage area. Remember to record a video!"

Seeing that Tabe was still standing there in a daze, Zhou Li urged:
"What are you standing there for! Hurry up! Run!"

He then stood up and walked towards the backstage area.

Lu Benwei and the others didn't know what Zhou Li was planning to do, but they followed him anyway.

Meanwhile, the IG team had already arrived at the toilet entrance.

PDD started swearing at kid.

"What the hell do you want? You're playing like a dog and you think I can't even say anything?"

Kid was clearly on the verge of losing his mind, his eyes bloodshot, and he shouted:

"You played well, you got killed in two hits by Graves!"

As the captain of ID, when has PDD ever been insulted like this?

Taking advantage of his greater weight than Kid, PDD stepped forward directly.

"I'll beat you to death, you believe me!"

Kid pushed PDD away, but PDD pushed back and they started shoving each other.

Sun Yalong and others stepped forward to try to break up the fight, but PDD stopped them.

"Don't come any closer, I'm really going to teach this bastard a lesson today!"

To PDD's surprise, this time, Kid directly started throwing punches.

The child, in a moment of inspiration, struck first! (*)

PDD was stunned by the punch, and the arm of his glasses was knocked askew.

Realizing what was happening, PDD rushed over and started wrestling with Kid. (*)

To everyone's surprise, PDD, who clearly had a significant advantage in size, perhaps stunned by Kid's initial attack, found himself at a disadvantage in their clash. (*)

The two heavyweights began to clash, and even if Sun Yalong and others wanted to intervene, it was clearly too late.
-
the next day.

WE Club.

WE, having achieved a 48-game winning streak, is now at the peak of their popularity in the country.

The team members' mindset had also undergone some subtle changes at this point.

Even though the match was scheduled for that evening, the sound of playing cards could still be heard coming from WE's training room.

After all, they won yesterday's match very easily as well.

It's not fair to blame WE for being overconfident, given that their winning streak was unprecedented.

It's important to know that these victories weren't solely won by domestic Muggle teams.

This includes IPL5, which brings together the world's top teams, and the Dragon Fight Cup held in South Korea, among other international tournaments.

Of course, besides that, there are some cup competitions and city championships in various regions.

However, this is already enough for WE to stand out from the crowd.

Therefore, WE did not take tonight's match against the emerging team EDG too seriously.

After all, when this EDG team was still called Royal Club, they had a perfect record against WE.

At this moment, only Ruofeng was sitting in front of the computer in WE's training room.

However, he didn't train; instead, he idly browsed fan comments or league-related news online.

While browsing the WE Tieba forum, Ruofeng suddenly saw a pinned post.

[Yesterday after the IG match, PDD and Kid got into a fight backstage. The team had to intervene to break it up. There's video evidence; it's hilarious!]

Ruofeng immediately became interested and clicked on it.

At this moment, Weixiao and the others also finished their card game and walked over. They happened to see Ruofeng's screen and gathered around.

"Holy crap, IG lost their match yesterday?"

Strawberry asked.

They didn't care at all about the wins and losses of other teams.

Ruofeng nodded.

"It seems like it's already past 20."

"They've actually started fighting?" Smiling, she asked, watching the video still loading. "Did they lose badly?"

Ruofeng didn't know very well either, and replied:

"I just saw a report that IG's bot lane gave away seven kills to the enemy ADC in five minutes, making the game unplayable. It's already 20 PM."

She paused for a moment, then spoke;

"Is this really that outrageous? Wait, I remember that EDG ADC is Zhou Li, right? I saw him in the news before."

Smile and Zhou Li still had some connection.

After all, they had played cards together.

But recently, this person seems to have disappeared.

What Weixiao didn't know was that Zhou Li didn't actually want to disappear; it was just that Abu wouldn't let him into WE's door.

Upon hearing the smiling words, the factory manager asked in surprise;

"Is Zhou Li really that good? A team manager turned player?"

Strawberry laughed.

"He got kicked by IG, he must have been furious, so he went and became a player instead. But IG is something else, having such a great AD carry, and they made him their manager and then kicked him out."

"No wonder they said it was a grudge match, so IG lost the game and their mentality collapsed?"

While everyone was still discussing it, the video had already loaded.

The opening scene shows a person holding a phone running frantically backstage, with heavy breathing coming from behind.

Immediately afterwards, you could hear all sorts of vulgar and offensive curses.

Three characters for "etiquette" appeared in the image.

Strawberry couldn't help but speak up:

"You know what, the team uniforms for this team are actually pretty cool."

The phone shook for a moment and then stopped. Lu Benwei's face appeared on the screen.

The person holding the phone asked:
"Where's Brother Zhou?"

Lu Benwei looked very excited and said:

"Brother Zhou has gone up!"

The phone shook again, accompanied by various shouts and curses.

Immediately afterwards, a voice rang out.

"Stop it, all of you!!"

The camera happened to pan around the doorway and capture the scene inside the toilet.

There are three people in the video.

The faces of the people on both sides were blurred out with mosaics.

But it's not hard to tell from their clothes and physiques that these two are PDD and Kid.

The man in the middle, with his back to the camera, is wearing the EDG team uniform, and the "礼" (Li, meaning courtesy) logo on his back is particularly eye-catching.

He grabbed their hands, one in each hand, like a martial arts master suddenly appearing out of nowhere to stop the fight between the two scoundrels.

"Friendship first, games second! Why can't we reason things out instead of resorting to violence?!"

Seemingly sensing someone behind him, the person turned around.

"Holy crap, Zhou rituals!"

Strawberry's eyes widened, and she immediately swore.

The factory manager wore a strange smile and said:

"Is he really that strong? He can grab a child and PDD with one hand?"

Zhou Li glanced impatiently at the camera and said:

"What are you filming for? Get out!"

The camera shook slightly and then exited.

However, the recording did not end there; all the sounds were captured.

"PDD, are you saving all that fat to tank towers or to get beaten up? Do you really think you're some kind of esports sumo wrestler?"

"Kid, if you're bad at the game, practice more. If you're so tough, come at me. Why are you taking your anger out on your teammates? Do you really think you're a kid?! Your bot lane CS is missing more than PDD's sweat, and you still have the nerve to try and initiate team fights?"

"You two noobs are quite something, aren't you?! Trying to fight like other people, when I was fighting, you two were still eating instant noodles with snot running down your faces!"

Listening to the sounds in the video, the WE members looked at each other in bewilderment.

The factory manager couldn't help but speak up:

"Given PDD and Kid's personalities, how could Zhou Li possibly leave the restroom after yelling at them like that?"

Seemingly in response to the factory manager's questioning, Zhou Li quickly emerged from the restroom looking relaxed.

After seeing that the person filming was still recording, he smiled at the camera and said:

"Family members, no matter what happens, we should always keep a calm mind. Only by being courteous to ourselves and others can society and the esports community become better. This is also the founding principle of our 'Truth-Based' team: upholding courtesy and pursuing excellence. We hope all esports players can strive together with us!"

The video has finally come to an end.

The factory manager wore a knowing smile and said in a sarcastic tone:
"If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a promotional video for their 'Reasonable Team'."

Ruofeng thought for a moment and then said:

"Promise, do you mean this was staged?"

Strawberry expressed a different opinion:
"That can't be right. Those two are pretty obvious, they're PDD and Kid. Would they cooperate with Zhou Li to film this kind of video?"

The factory manager sneered, his eyes revealing a wisdom that saw through all illusions.

"Aren't these people from IG just like that? There's nothing they wouldn't do. Anyway, I don't believe that Zhou Li can carry 200 pounds in one hand and one hand. I might believe it a little if Zhou Li turned into a pig's head and came out of the toilet."

Ruofeng scrolled through the webpage, reading the comments.

The comments from netizens were indeed divided into two camps.

One group believes the video is completely fake and clearly staged for publicity.

One person believes that unless Zhou Li is the biological father of both PDD and KID, he would not cooperate in filming such a video, especially since KID had clearly disliked Zhou Li online before.

Ruofeng closed the webpage and said:

"Let's take a look at their game yesterday, and try our best to keep the winning streak going."

Smiling, he cracked a joke:

"What, we're not going to start fighting after the game tonight, are we?"
-
Daoli Esports Club.

Zhu Kai was looking at the data on the tablet computer and reporting to Zhou Li.

"Mr. Zhou, your video of mediating the fight has gone viral. Now, every forum and website related to League of Legends is discussing this."

Zhou Li smiled and said:

"Good."

Zhu Kai hesitated for a moment, then said softly:

"But we also have a lot of people criticizing us, saying that we staged this video on purpose."

Zhou Li smiled again:
"Good."

Zhu Kai was clearly somewhat confused.

"Is it okay if we scold them too?"

Zhu Kai had actually made suggestions before releasing this video.

Because if he hadn't actually witnessed it himself, he would have thought the video was a bit fake.

Even if that was the truth at the time, it would certainly be questioned.

So Zhu Kai's idea was to edit it a little.

However, Zhou Li directly refused.

Instead, people blurred out PDD and KID's faces.

“Of course it is,” Zhou Li stood up from Zhu Kai’s boss’s chair, which he had bought for himself.

"First, we can't confirm this directly. If it were confirmed, it would definitely have a huge negative impact on the e-sports community. Right now, some people believe it and some people don't. It's fine to just treat it as a prank video."

Upon hearing Zhou Li's words, Zhu Kai suddenly understood.

Indeed, if such a fight video were to be exposed, it would inevitably attract huge controversy, especially given that the LPL has only just been established.

When that happens, it won't just be IG who will be affected; everyone in the esports circle will be impacted.

No wonder Zhou Li covered PDD and KID's faces back then.

"Secondly," Zhou Li continued, "where there's criticism, there's controversy; where there's controversy, there's traffic; and where there's traffic, there's exposure. Right now, we don't need to worry about whether the traffic is positive or negative. As long as we achieve results, all the negative will turn positive."

Upon hearing Zhou Li's explanation, Zhu Kai suddenly understood.

"Mr. Zhou, you really are him!"

He gave a thumbs up.

"Keep an eye on this. If necessary, you can ask me for funding to hire some online trolls. Control the public opinion. If there are too many people criticizing us, hire some online trolls to whitewash us. If there are too many people praising us, hire some more online trolls to smear us and maintain the current level of attention."

Zhu Kai now felt like kneeling down before Zhou Li.

This was a tactic he had never imagined before.

"besides……"

"besides?!"

Zhu Kai's eyes widened, and he quickly picked up his pen to continue writing.

"Go talk to Lu Benwei and Tabe and ask their girlfriends if they'd like to film a love video with them. When filming, focus on Lu Benwei. Make people think that someone as ugly as him can still find a girlfriend, so that they'll aspire to be esports players. At the same time, give Lu Benwei some recognition. I'm already in contact with YY. We'll talk to everyone and we'll all be streaming on YY."

Zhu Kai took a deep breath. He could foresee that once Zhou Li finished his series of moves, their Reasonable Team would definitely become the second most famous League of Legends team in the country.

Why is it second?

Because the top spot belongs to WE, with 60 billion fans, so reaching that level is simply impossible.

Zhu Kai was about to go and assign these tasks when he heard Zhou Li continue:

"Oh, right, there's one more important thing. After we play WE tonight, you must remember to lock the club's doors tightly when we get back! And you must make sure to tell everyone that no one is allowed to leave the club tonight after the match! No matter what, personal safety comes first."
-
IG e-sports club.

PDD and Kid, who were fighting yesterday, are now leaning weakly against the sofa.

"Damn it, these bastards are disgusting! I'll beat you up for fixing the match, you pigskin!"

PDD was so angry he was practically spitting fire, and his speech became weak and listless.

The entire internet is now questioning whether IG threw the match against EDG yesterday.

At first, everyone was just skeptical.

After all, sending the enemy ADC to near godlike status in just five minutes is a bit too outrageous.

But in this era when professional League of Legends competitions were just beginning, such abstract competitions, though few in number, were not uncommon.

The video that provided solid evidence of IG fixing the match was the release of a video showing Zhou Li stopping two people from fighting in the restroom.

Conspiracy theories quickly emerged.

[PDD and KID have no shame whatsoever. They're just clowns promoting a team that believes in reason. What's wrong with throwing a match?]

Such remarks seem reasonable at first glance.

Upon closer listening, it becomes even more reasonable.

After all, no one believed that Zhou Li could separate two 200-pound fat men who were locked in a fierce battle all by himself.

In fact, even PDD and Kid themselves still find it hard to believe.

But looking at the red marks on my arm that hadn't faded even after a day, that's the truth!
The two were locked in fierce combat when Zhou Li suddenly rushed in.

He kicked each of them in the stomach.

While the two were in pain, he grabbed their arms.

PDD and KID, realizing what was happening, were about to give Zhou Li a few whacks.

But he discovered that he couldn't break free from Zhou Li's control!
"Wow! That guy's hands were like fucking iron clamps, I still get scared just thinking about it."

PDD sighed.

Kid nodded as well:
"I can't move at all, and it hurts terribly."

PDD sighed. He was now glad that when Zhou Li was still with IG, he had actually wanted to beat Zhou Li several times.

Looking back now, I'm glad his mother held back.

Otherwise, his skin would probably be peeled off.

However, the two people in the bathroom did not completely calm down until they saw Tabe pointing his phone at them.

The camera is practically right up to their faces, how can they possibly keep fighting?

Currently, IG is powerless against online bullying and can only endure it.

What else to do?
Is it true that they weren't just putting on an act to cooperate with Zhou Li, but were actually fighting?
This matter has escalated so much now that, if things really come to this, their careers are probably over.

And it would also make the two fat guys look especially useless.

Or should we simply take the opportunity to admit that we were just putting on an act in accordance with the Zhou rituals?

Doesn't that just confirm that they fixed the match even more directly?

"Damn, I'm going to be a WE fan tonight!"

Sun Yalong cursed.

As veteran teams, IG and WE often face off, but IG has consistently lost more than it has won.

In addition, WE has so many fans that when IG plays against WE, IG is always bombarded with criticism.

Therefore, from any perspective, none of the IG members wanted to see WE win.

But if WE's opponent is EDG—

Forget it, Sun Yalong just hopes that both teams will just explode on the spot.

Of course, if Zhou Li is sensible enough to invite Sun Yalong to join EDG, then EDG will have the right to be immune to being defeated.
-
Six p.m.

Taicang LOFT Industrial Design Park!
The red ocean has long since stretched into a continuous expanse.

The match between Team WE and Team EDG is about to begin!

(End of this chapter)