From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Gu Ran sat on the subway for almost two hours.

From downtown Shanghai to the suburbs, take Line 1 to the last stop and then transfer to a rickety bus. The scenery outside the window gradually changes from office buildings and shopping malls to low-rise industrial parks and large green belts.

He leaned against the bus window, his phone screen displaying the location Su Xiaoman had sent to the group chat the night before—a street name he had never heard of before, with the map showing only a few logistics warehouses and a vacant lot awaiting development in the vicinity.

He zoomed in on the location and finally saw that the address was labeled "Shanghai Leyou Party House - Esports Theme".

After getting off the bus, I walked along the navigation for a while, and gradually some detached buildings appeared on the roadside. They weren't very tall, only two or three stories high, and the exterior walls were painted in various colors—one was a Mediterranean-style building with white walls and blue windows, another had a Japanese-style wooden facade, and yet another was simply designed like a castle, with a faded flag flying on the tower.

These buildings stand quietly in the afternoon sun, as if they were forgotten here after a theme park closed.

Gu Ran followed the address and finally stopped in front of a building with a gray exterior.

Pushing open the door, a warm, woody scent wafted over me. The entryway featured a full-wall shoe cabinet with light oak doors, each compartment labeled with a name: "Huaqiang," "XS," "Lao Fang," "Shikamaru," "Sora," or "Firefly." His cabinet was on the bottom shelf, next to the labels, where a stick figure was drawn holding a ball of fire.

Passing through the entryway, the first-floor space unfolds before you. It's a large, open-plan room with a high ceiling, easily over 100 square meters. In the center is a long dining table that seats twenty people, with a solid wood, dark walnut-colored tabletop covered with off-white placemats. Above the table is a set of industrial-style pendant lights with black metal mesh shades; warm light filters through the mesh, casting delicate shadows on the tabletop and the wood grain. At the far end of the table is an open kitchen with a matte black slate island countertop, upon which sits an espresso machine and a row of neatly arranged mugs.

The sliding doors on the second floor are made of transparent glass, and the moment they are opened, a familiar smell of heat from electronic devices wafts out. The entire second floor has been transformed into a professional e-sports area. There are no superfluous decorations or fancy light strips; all the lights are evenly distributed from the diffused light panels on the ceiling, with a standard eye-friendly warm white color temperature. The walls are covered with dark gray sound-absorbing cotton, and the floor is covered with anti-static carpet, which is soft but not sinking underfoot.

In the very center is a five-seater set. Five gaming chairs are lined up in a row, with breathable mesh backrests, adjustable lumbar support, and touch panels embedded in the armrests. In front of each chair is a height-adjustable desk with a matte black surface, slightly wider than a standard gaming desk, just enough to accommodate all the peripherals with some room to spare. Each desk already has its own equipment—keyboard, mouse, and headset—and each slot is labeled with an ID.

On Lao Fang's desk was an extra pair of glasses, the case exactly the same as the one he used in the hotel room. On Jiang Xia's desk sat a covered stainless steel thermos, with a "Shikamaru" sticker printed on it in Song typeface, neatly placed. Lu Chen's desk was the messiest, with a few Pocky sticks and an open bottle of iced green tea scattered next to his keyboard.

The innermost seat was Wang Chunyu's. He was sitting there, focused, clearly engaged in a fierce ranked match.

Gu Ran remained silent, slowly walked to his seat, turned on his computer, adjusted all the settings, and then opened DOTA2.

Upon entering the game, Gu Ran saw that his friend XS was in a ranked match. Gu Ran wasn't in a hurry and planned to wait for Wang Chunyu to finish his match before queuing with him. His ranked points had now reached 15000, which meant he could be matched with Brother Yu at the same table.

Just as he was engrossed in watching the match from Chunyu's first-person perspective, the room door opened, and Lao Fang, Jiang Xia, and Lu Chen walked in together. Lu Chen was still yawning, looking like he had just finished his afternoon nap and come to the training room.

"Hey, Little Gu's here!"

Old Fang greeted Gu Ran, and then the brothers sat down and skillfully turned on their computers.

Actually, there is no training this afternoon. The earliest scrim match they received is two days later. However, the team members are very enthusiastic about training. They are also aware that the upcoming TI qualifiers are a higher-level event, and the teams they will face will be stronger than those they faced in the Immortal Cup. If they do not intensify their training, it will be difficult to secure the only qualifying spot.

The five brothers played solo queue together for four hours in the afternoon. Their scores were quite close, and they basically sat at the same table to choose horses. Sometimes when you are facing your teammate on the other side, you can understand his habits better and learn some details that you can't see when you are on the same side as him.

They played until 7 p.m., when Lu Chen's stomach started growling and everyone realized they were hungry, so they went downstairs together.

The restaurant lights had been on long ago. The long dining table, which could seat twenty people, only contained their bowls and chopsticks today, gathered on the side closest to the kitchen. The porcelain bowls and plates were neatly arranged, the chopsticks rested on chopstick rests, and a glass of warm water was already poured beside them.

The auntie's surname is Wu, she is in her early fifties, and Su Xiaoman found her from a nearby housekeeping company. It is said that she used to cook for the family of a private company owner in downtown Shanghai for ten years. Later, the family's child went abroad, and she took on various short-term jobs, specializing in catering for party venues and team building camps.

She has a habit: she doesn't leave the stove until all the dishes are ready. Just now, I vaguely heard the sound of a chair moving upstairs, and she knew it was time, so she started bringing up the warm dishes one by one.

In the very center is a large earthenware pot of corn and pork rib soup. When the lid is lifted, white steam rises up, the soup is milky white with a thin layer of oil floating on the surface, a few pieces of corn are half-submerged and half-floating in the soup, and the carrot chunks are stewed until soft but not mushy, trembling slightly when picked up with chopsticks.

Aunt Wu specially served everyone a separate bowl of soup. The bowls weren't big, but each one contained a piece of pork rib, a piece of corn, and a piece of carrot. Jiang Xia picked up his bowl, took a sip, blew on it several times because it was so hot, and then said, "This soup is better than the one in the buffet at the venue."

The meat dishes include twice-cooked pork, sweet and sour pork, and sauerkraut fish. The vegetable dishes include stir-fried broccoli and lettuce with oyster sauce. What is being served now is cucumber salad. The ratio of minced garlic to vinegar is just right. The cucumbers are smashed before being cut into sections. They are marinated to perfection but still retain their crispness. Placed in the middle of the hot dishes, it is like a clear and bright gavel.

Besides white rice, the main dish also included a plate of steamed sweet potatoes. They were cut into sections, with the skin on, and steamed until the flesh was soft and crumbly, easily pierced with chopsticks.

Old Fang ate three pieces in a row, saying that they were even sweeter than the ones steamed on the stove at home when he was a child.

Wang Chunyu ate the fastest, and as soon as he finished, he went upstairs to the second floor. Lu Chen had originally planned to find someone to play board games or sing karaoke on the third floor after finishing his meal, but seeing this, he could only say one thing.

[Holy crap, Lao Wang's gone solo queue again.]

He then quickly finished the soup in his bowl and went upstairs.

[Damn, let's get another 100 points today!]

Everyone used to know that hard work pays off, but after actually witnessing it, you're still shocked. There really are people who can play DOTA all day long without getting tired.

However, playing solo queue is like going to the library to study. Once you see everyone around you studying seriously, you'll feel guilty if you want to slack off.

What else is there to say? Let's keep queuing!