Chapter 10: A New Mid-Lane Prodigy! Another Path?

Ye Bo took a deep breath and accepted all the friend requests in his list.

Previously, he had no choice. Now, he finally had the luxury to compare!

He counted a total of 19 requests. If he wasn't mistaken, the remarks indicated that almost 17 LPL teams were represented.

"Talk about prestige!"

Ye Bo was actually quite surprised; he hadn't expected a casual player like himself to receive such treatment.

In reality, however, the situation was not quite what he imagined.

Over the past few years, the LPL had clearly begun to show signs of a talent drought. Since 2021, the league officials had been heavily promoting the LDL and implementing a series of measures to address it. The people reaching out to him now were the recruiters or managers for the academy and secondary teams of their respective clubs, whose primary job was to stay on top of the latest intelligence from the Super Server and the Korean Server.

If they were too slow... they’d miss out on the fresh talent!

Moreover, Ye Bo was drastically underestimating his own significance. If he were still just a one-trick pony like his "original self," then no matter how hot his stream was yesterday or how much traffic he gained from the incident with Bin, he would never have garnered such serious attention from these academy managers.

Initially, these managers were just indulging in their professional habit of "gossiping." After hearing the news last night, they casually looked into the match history of the account "Forty-Year-Old Aunt Wants to Go Pro."

But as they delved deeper into their research, their eyes began to light up!

They realized that this person didn't seem to be the kind of "one-trick pony" they had assumed. Given the competitive environment of the high-elo Chinese server, even if Ye Bo deliberately waited between games, it was impossible to avoid being "banned out." During this week of climbing the ladder, whenever Akali was banned or the team composition wasn't suitable for his other two assassin picks, Ye Bo would occasionally pull out a game or two on Galio, Lissandra, or Seraphine.

He didn't really like playing those heroes. But to complete his mission early... well, climbing the ladder wasn't shameful!

Even though his proficiency with these heroes—gained through "welfare assistance"—was only at level five, barely passing as the minimum requirement for a professional stage, it was more than enough for ranked play.

The managers became immediately interested. Using their own methods, they quickly found the replays of his matches on these heroes and studied them overnight. After watching them all, they were even more shocked and pleasantly surprised.

"Although it doesn't look as inspired as his Akali, it's clear he has a real understanding of the game, not just filling in blindly!"

"If someone can play assassins that well, their mechanical foundation is definitely solid. If they can also play these utility heroes, it shows their game sense and team synergy aren't bad either..."

"Mechanics, game sense, vision control, coordination... he even has some shot-calling ability!"

"My goodness, this feels like a hidden treasure!"

"I think I've found the next Knight!"

"Three minutes! I want this guy's full dossier!"

Similar observations and exchanges were happening among almost every academy manager.

In the current LPL, the two positions in highest demand are Mid and Support. Support is scarce because fewer people choose to play it, while Mid is difficult because the barrier to breaking through is incredibly high. However, the value of a breakout Mid laner is unparalleled.

So, when a mechanically gifted player appeared who didn't seem to have a shallow champion pool, who had climbed to the top ten of the Super Server with a terrifying win rate, and who had just solo-killed a current top-tier LPL Mid laner... all these factors combined created the foundation of a perfect prospect!

In the eyes of these coaches, a new genius Mid laner had emerged!

...

Ye Bo chatted briefly with all of them. The process and responses were largely the same. They all wanted him to visit their offline training facilities for a trial. If the results were good, they would sign a contract and, provided he met the league's age and eligibility requirements, promote him to the main roster "as soon as possible."

If this were the naive Ye Bo from before, he might have gone along happily. But having learned about how organizations like RNG operated, he was currently a bit wary of these professional teams.

"Why does it always feel like... they're just feeding me empty promises?"

He understood that it was unlikely for a professional team to give him any concrete guarantees right off the bat. But if he were to choose a team now, go for a trial, and sign a contract, wouldn't that just be another gamble? What if there was another RNG waiting inside?

Ye Bo couldn't predict the future.

Just then, he noticed messages from two other friend requests. One was labeled "Huya Live Streaming Representative."

[Hello Mr. Ye Bo, I am the head of the League of Legends division at Huya. We sincerely invite you to collaborate with us...]

[Received: "Streamer (Ye Bo) Broadcasting Agreement".PDF]

This was the first time Ye Bo had ever seen such a formal official contract. Curious, he opened it, and the long string of zeros caught his eye, leaving him stunned.

"How much!?"

"One million!!!"

For an eighteen-year-old, the largest numbers he encountered in daily life rarely exceeded four digits. And this was just the "signing bonus," not counting other income. Ye Bo didn't know the ins and outs of the streaming industry. He only knew that one million was an astronomical figure for him right now.

If he remembered correctly, the highest-paid "top prospect" in the LPL academy system topped out at an annual salary of 500,000. In other words, if he chose the academy route, even if he managed to surpass all the talented teenagers from across the country and became the number one pick, the compensation would still be far less than what he was looking at right now. As for the top-tier salaries of professional players, in the current era before the streaming industry bubble burst, the top earners were making just as much.

"Hmph... trying to test me with this!"

"I guess I'm quite the catch~"

Ye Bo forwarded the contract file and the chat history to his family group chat, "Loving Family (3)." Afterward, he closed the chat window without replying.

Though the shock and excitement were significant, after the initial rush, Ye Bo wasn't swayed. He was firm and had no intention of changing his long-held goals. In fact, he was even more excited about everything to come!

The greatest value of this contract was that he could now prove to his parents that he could make a living doing this, putting their minds at ease.

There was one more friend request, labeled "Chu Jun."

And the very first sentence the person sent successfully grabbed Ye Bo's attention.

[Brother, I've watched a lot of your stream replays. I hear you often mention that you want to go pro, is that right?]

[If so, I might suggest that you don't be in a hurry to sign with a team just yet...]