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

The day after winning the Demacia Cup, Shanghai was blessed with a rare sunny day.

Li Hu was jolted awake by the various notification sounds on his phone.

He groggily reached for his phone next to his pillow; the screen was covered with a dense array of message notifications.

99+ unread messages on WeChat, 999+ private messages on Weibo, 999+ messages on Douyin, and 99+ messages in the Bilibili backend.

There were also about ten missed calls, all from unknown numbers, probably from a club manager or a platform operator.

Li Hu casually swiped the message, turned over, and pulled the blanket over his head.

The celebration party ended close to midnight last night. He had originally planned to go to sleep, but then he remembered his promise to Qingtian, and ended up dragging her to the training room for a solo match until 3 a.m.

Winning the Demacia Cup is one thing, but the spin can't stop; his hero pool isn't deep enough yet.

Qingtian was exhausted and looked ashen. In the end, Li Hu helped her back to the dormitory, muttering, "Huzi, you're not human."

It's only 9 a.m., and my phone is already acting up.

Now he finally understands why those big stars always say they are exhausted from working in this industry.

He lay there with his eyes closed for five minutes, making sure he really couldn't fall asleep, before sitting up and leaning against the headboard to start scrolling through messages.

Shen Jiayu's message was pinned to the top.

"Little Tiger, you're super popular right now, I'm sure of it. (Grinning)"

"Our classmates' group chat was full of talk about you yesterday. Several girls and boys asked me if they could have your WeChat."

"I know you prefer quiet and don't like being polite with others, so I rejected all of them."

The unified response was: Tiger is a professional player now and needs to focus on playing the game; we can't just add people randomly.

Li Hu stared at these lines of text for a long time, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

He replied with a voice message, his voice slightly hoarse:

"Haha! Thank you so much, Sister Shen!"

"You are my strongest shield. When I make it to the LPL Spring Split finals, I'll get you a ticket for the family section so you can come with my mom."

After posting his message, I switched to Weibo to see if the trending topics after yesterday's championship win were still there.

As soon as I opened the app, my phone almost froze.

His Weibo account, "虎虎QAQ", boasts a staggering 91.7 followers.

Li Hu rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Before winning the championship, he had more than 100,000 fans, which increased by nearly 800,000 overnight.

He scrolled down a few lines and finally figured out the source of this surge in followers.

First, there's the hype surrounding the championship itself...

Undefeated championship, MVP in eight out of nine games, Darius' pentakill and Azir's desperate push in the finals—these terms trended on social media all night.

Secondly, there's his post-match interview... "The Relative Theory of Gyroscopes" was edited into short videos by various marketing accounts, paired with all sorts of catchy background music, and the number of views was extremely high.

Finally, there was a trending topic that he never expected... #FarmersCrossCircleSupportBigTigerBrother#.

Li Hu clicked in and almost burst out laughing.

It all started when a farmer commented on his Weibo post about winning the championship:

"That's absolutely right. Fly, Baishou, Tanran, Zimo, Qingqing, Nuoyan, and others sometimes play like spinning tops, they're incredibly bad."

This comment received over 80,000 likes, quickly becoming the top-rated comment.

Then, a massive online battle erupted between the "Lupi" (a derogatory term for people who engage in online shopping) and "Nongpi" (another derogatory term for people who engage in online shopping) in the comments section...

Lu Pi said farmers shouldn't try to ride the coattails of this trend, while Nong Pi said the spinning top theory is a universal truth that applies to everyone.

The two groups argued all the way from Li Hu's comment section to the super topic and then to the Tieba forum.

The debate has escalated from regional honors to the question of which is the true MOBA game, whether it's a PC or mobile game.

It eventually escalated into a massive free-for-all spanning two game sectors.

They managed to generate so much buzz about a mediocre Demacia Cup champion that it went viral.

One of the comments from the agricultural wholesale market received the most upvotes:

"Whether it's League of Legends or Challenger, the core essence of top lane is spinning tops."

"It's either you're the one being picked or you're the one being picked."

"Brother Da Hu has spoken the minds of us top laners. From today onwards, I am a disciple of the Spinning Top Sect."

Someone replied below: "The Spinning Top Sect? Who's the sect leader?"

Someone else replied, "Of course it's Big Tiger, who else could it be?"

Then someone else asked, "What about Brother Ba?"

"Brother Ba is the Supreme Elder of the Spinning Top Sect, specializing in mixed learning."

"Where is General Sunny Day?"

"Sunny Day is the protector of the Spinning Top Sect."

"What about 369 universities?"

"The 9 in 66 rolls out the door and spins by itself."

Upon seeing this, Li Hu finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

The leader of the spinning top sect, this generation of netizens is truly talented.

He logged out of Weibo and opened Douyin.

With the addition of highlights from the official League of Legends account featuring his Darius pentakill, Azir's incredible push, Jayce's one-shot Aphelios, and his spinning top theory in post-match interviews, his fan count surged to 330,000.

Each video has comments using the "Beyblade King" meme.

"Greetings, Master of Spinning Tops!"

"See Beyblade King"

"Big Tiger, please teach me how to spin in place! Once you learn, I'll let the rice cracker..."

Bilibili was a bit slower, but it still managed to accumulate 180,000 followers. Various content creators worked overnight to edit videos such as "Glory Demacia Cup All-Time Memorable Moments" and "Nine Ways to Play Top Laner with a Spinning Top," and the number of views skyrocketed.

Real eSports, also known as AiTao TV, Silver eSports, and Wild Dog eSports.

Although he didn't understand the pulling and tugging techniques and gameplay, it didn't stop him from praising Li Hu in the video to belittle 369 and Da Huang.

The number of video views kept increasing, bringing him a lot of traffic.

These numbers are still quite far behind the fan base of top star players like JKL and TheShy.

But for a complete newcomer who has only played in one Demacia Cup, this is already a leap in status.

Li Hu turned off his phone and prepared to get out of bed to wash up.

I had just put on my slippers when there was a knock on the dormitory door.

"Tiger, are you up yet?"

It was Guo Hao's voice.

Li Hu opened the door, and Guo Hao stood there, holding a stack of documents in his hand, his smile impossible to hide.

Li Hu was very familiar with that smile...

In my past life, when I watched the TES documentary, Guo Hao always had this expression whenever he was about to announce a major decision for Xiyao.

"Brother Hao, so early?"

"What do you mean 'early'? It's already 9:30."

Guo Hao walked in, sat down in Li Hu's chair, and placed the stack of documents on the table:

"There's something I need to discuss with you in person."

Li Hu sat down opposite him, his gaze falling on the stack of documents. The cover bore the TES team logo, and the bottom right corner featured the Huya Live logo.

"Live streaming contract?"

"right."

Guo Hao nodded: "And your previous player contract, I had the legal department draft a new one, and the salary and terms have been adjusted."

Li Hu was stunned for a moment.

Player contracts?

He remembered clearly that he had just signed the contract half a month ago, with a monthly salary of 66,000 yuan, a signing fee of 666,000 yuan, and a term of 1+1 years.

This is an astronomical price for a rookie who has just turned eighteen and has never played a single LPL game.

Now Guo Hao says there are still adjustments needed?

Guo Hao pushed the documents in front of him, his tone indifferent:

"Take a look yourself, and feel free to point out any unreasonable points."

Li Hu opened the contract and went straight to the page with the salary terms.

Then he froze.

Monthly salary: 180,000 before tax.

Additional signing fee: two million before tax.