LOL: Do I have to be a spinning top too?

In a rented room in a residential area of ​​Shanghai, Wayward was sitting in front of his computer, the Counter-Strike interface still on the screen.

He stared at the announcement on TES's official Weibo account for a long time.

The accompanying picture shows Guo Hao's smile, his brand-new team uniform, and all the things that once belonged to him.

He moved his lips as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just rubbed his eyes hard and closed the webpage.

After the S12 World Championship ended, the entire region's live chat was filled with nothing but insults directed at him.

"A top-16 player still has the nerve to play CS?"

"If you like CS so much, why don't you go and play CS professionally?"

"You really know how to get spinning like a top laner in Vietnam."

"Big Yellow, stop playing professionally and go work in the circus."

His mentality was severely damaged by these taunts during this period.

In anger, I uninstalled Weibo and locked myself in my rented room, playing ranked matches for ten whole days.

He wanted to prove he could still play in ranked games, but the more he played, the more confused and less confident he became.

Now, the team has officially announced his replacement.

A complete newcomer promoted directly from the youth training program.

Wayward leaned back in his chair, looking up at the dim yellow chandelier on the ceiling.

There's not much to say, S12 was played like that.

  

He knew what he was doing.

He knew this day would come, but when it actually arrived, he still felt a little sad.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from RA's manager.

RA is willing to give him a chance; he can sign as a free agent and play in the Demacia Cup.

Huang Renxing stared at the message and remained silent for a long time.

Then he typed a line of text.

"Okay, I'll sign."

Tiger Duck Live, 9 PM.

The chat in Zitai's live stream was flooded with comments.

He was duo-queuing with Crystal, playing mid-lane Viktor, with a score of 2-7.

"Seriously, is this jungler even human?"

"He's come to the middle three times since reaching level six, I'm done for, let's take down his sheep!"

"If it weren't for this lousy jungler, I would definitely have carried with Viktor this game."

While cursing, he switched to check the live chat and suddenly saw a comment float by:

"TES has officially announced their new top laner, whose ID is Glory, and he will be starting in the Demacia Cup."

"Is it true? TES has officially announced their new top laner?"

He leaned back dramatically and shouted in his characteristic eunuch-like voice:

"Where did you get this information?"

"I heard someone say the other day that TES was planning to take down 669?"

"Why did they announce a new top laner so quickly?"

Crystal chimed in over the voice chat: "What new top laner?"

"The comments say that TES officially announced a new top laner named Glory."

He switched to Weibo, scrolled for a while, found the official announcement from TES, looked at it for a few seconds, and his eyes widened.

"I know, you know what, it's true!"

"Glory, is it?"

"That's a cool ID, it's really classy."

He scrolled down twice more, his voice suddenly rising:

"And this guy's name is Li Hu?"

"Wouldn't Li Yuanhao be completely dumbfounded if he found out?"

"Hahaha……"

"Li Hu?"

Crystal's voice rose eight octaves: "Damn Yang Lei! Has a little tiger just appeared in our League of Legends pro scene?"

The screen was instantly flooded with "hahahahaha".

"Who the hell is Li Hu? Little Tiger is here."

"No, I have to talk to him!"

With a grin, he picked up his phone and sent a WeChat message to Li Yuanhao right in front of the live stream audience.

After sending the message and putting down his phone, his expression became extremely excited:

"I'll have to catch this guy during the Demacia Cup!"

"I'm a seasoned top laner, let's see how this rookie Li Hu plays top lane!"

Crystal was being sarcastic in the voice message:

"Yare, stop bragging about your top lane game. How many AD carries have you screwed over?"

"fart!"

"My top lane play was textbook-level, it's just that everyone else back then was too good!"

"Yeah, yeah, the opponents were too strong, and your teammates were too weak, so you went to play mid lane, right?"

"screw you!"

With a laugh, he said:

"When I was a pro, you were still playing mahjong. Who do you think you are?"

"TES and iG are playing in the Demacia Cup, right?"

"I had to provide commentary for the entire match to see just how good Glory really was."

This small ripple about Li Hu was quickly swallowed up by a much larger wave.

On December 14th, the transfer window officially opened, with many star players announcing their departure from their previous teams to join new ones.

On December 14th, a wave of official transfer announcements swept across the board, completely wiping out Li Hu's little bit of Weibo popularity.

JDG officially announced the addition of Knight and Ruler, while 369 and Kanpiange renewed their contracts, officially forming the "Galactic Battleship".

Rookie joins TES, Tian renews his contract.

LNG officially announced Scout's joining the team, and the comment section was instantly flooded with comments from xmm, who had done a perfect job of controlling the narrative.

RNG officially announced that GALA, Ming, and Wei have renewed their contracts.

WBG officially announced that Xiaohu has joined the company, marking a change of allegiance for the "Tiger General".

Official announcements from various star players are coming one after another, and esports-related topics are taking turns dominating the Weibo hot search list, with the popularity reaching an absurdly high level.

The amount of discussion surrounding Li Hu was instantly wiped out, and the official announcement Weibo post remained quietly on TES's homepage.

On the same day, Wayward officially announced his departure from the team.

[RA Esports Club Announcement]

Following friendly negotiations with TES Esports Club, former TES top laner Wayward (Huang Renxing) has officially joined the RA team as a free agent, effective immediately.

With this, Da Huang's TES career has officially come to an end.

Huang Renxing reposted RA's official announcement on Weibo, with a caption of only four words: "Starting over."

There are still angry comments in the comment section.

However, many fans offered encouragement, saying that RA had struck gold, and that it was good for Big Yellow to have a change of environment.

When Li Hu saw this Weibo post, he was in the training room playing a solo match with Qing Tian.

He stared at Da Huang's Weibo post for a few seconds, then silently gave it a like.

It wasn't mockery, it was a sincere blessing.

Because he knew very well that if he hadn't joined TES, Wayward's fate wouldn't have been much better...

He'll play one more season with TES, then be replaced by 369.

After playing for several weaker mid-to-lower-tier teams, they eventually disappeared quietly from the top league.

That's how it is on the sports field.

If you play well, you'll be adored by thousands; if you play poorly, you'll be packing your bags and leaving.

To avoid being eliminated, you have to keep winning.

At least for now, he can still be a starter at RA.

In the days that followed, Li Hu entered a hellish mode at the base.

He made Qingtian lose weight.

He drags me into solo matches every day, from Darius to Fiora, from Renekton to Gnar, from Aatrox to Gwen.

Sunny's laning pressure remains fierce, with every solo kill executed with meticulous detail.

Li Hu's hero profile is progressing at a visible pace.

But he was not satisfied with only whipping people on sunny days.

He challenged all three of the second team's AD carry, Xiaofang, jungler, and Wangxiao in turn.

"Jiaqi, let's solo. You pick Lucian and I'll pick Camille. Let me practice how to take down an ADC."

Ten minutes later, JiaQi looked at his 9-0 score and fell into deep thought. Was he really that strong?

"Xiao Fang, you pick Lee Sin and I'll pick Nasus. Let me practice how to defend against ganks."

After playing three rounds, Xiaofang wiped the sweat from her forehead:

"Tiger, you seem a little weak."

"Why do I keep getting killed by Nasus's Q every time I play him..."

Li Hu smiled and said, "Is it possible that, Xiao Fang, it's not that I'm too weak, but that you're in too good a state?"

"You're really good. It's a shame that someone with your solo skills isn't playing top lane or jungle."

Mid laner Wangxiao fared even worse, as Li Hu dragged him into practicing long-range vs. short-range combat.

Syndra, Orianna, and Viktor took turns attacking, while Li Hu, playing a short-range warrior, was relentlessly attacked and solo killed.

After finishing the game, Wangxiao was completely devastated.

"Tiger, do you have masochistic tendencies?"

"What top laner would willingly ask to be harassed by ranged attackers?"

Li Hu nodded with a smile: "There's nothing I can do!"

"Maybe one day it will be the mage top lane meta, so I'll practice in advance. Looks like I'm still too bad."

After taking a shower and returning to his dorm that evening, Li Hu flipped through his hero encyclopedia.

青钢影100%、锐雯100%、腕豪100%、石头人100%、狗头100%、薇恩100%。

诺手52%、鳄鱼33%、纳尔28%、剑姬32%、格温24%、剑魔32%……

Under the relentless scrutiny of professional players, his hero pool is expanding at a visible rate.

Looking at the slowly fluctuating numbers on the illustration.

Li Hu rolled over with satisfaction.

Sunny's whip, Xiao Fang's whip, Jiaqi's whip, Haoyang's whip...

You guys have worked so hard spinning tops.

After the Demacia Cup is over, I'll treat you guys to pork knuckle rice for a month.

On December 16th, TES's official Weibo account released the roster for the Demacia Cup.

Top Esports Club Demacia Cup Roster

Top laner: Qingtian (Yu Zihan)

Top laner: Glory (Li Hu)

Jungler: xiaofang (方哲宇)

Mid Laner: Wangxiao (Xu Haoyang)

Bottom Lane: JiaQi (资嘉琪)

Support: Mark (Ling Xu)

Head Coach: Chieh (Li Jie)

With lofty aspirations and eyes set on the highest peak, strive to achieve your goals without regret.

#TES Roster for the Demacia Cup##Fight to the End#

The release of this list sparked another small wave of discussion.

Fans discovered that this TES Demacia Cup roster is almost entirely made up of players from the second team and youth training programs.

None of the team's main players showed up except for support player Mark.

"Can this lineup even compete in the Demacia Cup?"

"Just for training purposes, the Demacia Cup isn't important anyway."

"Glory is confirmed to start, even Qingtian is playing as his substitute."

"Is this Glory team any good? I hope they don't get repeatedly taught a lesson by all the LPL top laners."

"So be it, newcomers always have to pay their dues."

Under Li Hu's special instructions, TES did not withdraw from the competition this time due to "player health issues" as they had done in the previous life.

In the previous 2022 Demacia Cup, TES withdrew from the tournament before the quarterfinals, and their substitute spot was given to BLG.

BLG fought their way through the competition and finally defeated TT in the final to win their first Demacia Cup title in team history.

Li Hu remembers clearly that when BLG won the championship that year, the online opinions were polarized...

Some say it was a lucky break, while others say BLG is strong enough on its own.

But regardless, that championship was BLG's first official tournament trophy in team history.

But now, the timeline has been rewritten.

BLG was eliminated in the group stage due to underestimating their opponent TT and losing directly, failing to even reach the quarterfinals.

"Sorry, BLG."

Li Hu silently said to himself, his tone devoid of apology:

"I want the championship."

December 21st, Shanghai Alliance Arena.

Guo Hao personally led the team, and a bus carrying the TES Demacia Cup roster drove into the underground garage of the stadium.

Li Hu got off the car carrying his peripheral bag and looked up at the stadium that could accommodate thousands of spectators.

The giant screen on the exterior wall was playing a promotional video for the Demacia Cup on a loop, with the logos of the various teams flashing by in turn, and the music making the ground tremble slightly.

This was his first time entering the venue for an official competition.

In his previous life, he spent a year on the bench in the second division.

I've only been to LDL competition venues a few times, let alone a venue of this size.

And now he stands here, wearing a jersey with the TES team logo, the spinning top-shaped emblem on his chest reflecting the light.

Demacia Cup quarterfinals.

TESvsIG.