Chapter 47: Cherishing and Hardship [3K]

After the handshakes, the players walked to the center of the stage to bow.

Just as Ye Bo stepped into the player tunnel, he was immediately intercepted by a referee and stage official guarding the entrance.

"Player YE, you have a post-match interview!"

"Ah, me again?"

Ye Bo felt a little surprised.

For two consecutive BO3 matches, the official broadcast had specifically requested him for the interview. They really seemed to value him.

Noticing Ye Bo's surprise, Jiejie very naturally reached out to take the keyboard and mouse from Ye Bo's hands and chuckled, "My friend, you're on a 4-match MVP streak now. You're almost catching up to Brother RuiCan!"

"Besides, you've been playing all sorts of flashy picks these past two games. The livestream chat must be going crazy right now, so of course the officials want to interview you to drum up some hype~"

Although the MVP winner had not been officially announced yet, the suspense was practically non-existent.

Everyone was now well aware of the criteria voters used to select MVPs, which was essentially just looking at the stats.

Speaking of which...

Despite EDG dropping quite a few games in the Spring Split, and although Scout wasn't in as rough a shape as Flandre, he was definitely completely outclassed by every single tier-one mid laner across the board. After all, even mid laners who weren't known for their laning prowess, like Doinb, were able to suppress him.

And the kicker was, even with all that...

Scout still secured a share of the {Damage Share} ranking with a placement of {16th out of 23 players}.

Yet he successfully snatched 14 of the {Total MVP Count across all positions}, ranking absolute first!

You could only say it was pure, unadulterated gold-plated value.

The reason was also very simple: the voters only looked at KDA records.

After all, he always played high-range battlemages like Azir, Corki, Orianna, and Ryze, which were naturally hard to kill. By leeching off the team to farm until the mid-to-late game and then taking over, it was very easy to rack up an extremely luxurious KDA.

And if you only looked at the stats, anyone seeing an Azir or Orianna sitting constantly at 6-0 or 8-0 would think, " Wow, he's carrying so hard, the MVP should definitely go to him!"

Many people didn't understand the significance of metrics like {Damage Share} when evaluating a hyper-carry core.

However, in this match, neither Ye Bo's performance nor his stats left any room for debate.

Walking toward the backstage area, Ye Bo caught a glimpse of his own stats on the screens along the corridor.

An 8/0/11 KDA, 88% kill participation, a laning gold differential of +4,888.84, and a team damage share of 38.4%...

If it weren't for the fact that Ye Bo was playing it safe to secure the win and intentionally feeding kills to the Aphelios and Vladimir later on, his stats would have been even more extravagant!

Even so, judging by his KDA, damage share, and all other key metrics, Akshan's performance in this game thoroughly deserved the title of a "Hard Carry"!

Yu Shuang walked toward Ye Bo with a beaming smile. Due to the rather high slit on her dress, she had to take measured steps as she ascended the interview stage.

"Alright, welcome EDG's mid lane player YE to accept our interview..."

"So, for our first question, let's ask Player Ye Bo how he's feeling right now after effortlessly securing a four-match MVP streak?"

Yu Shuang felt a little nervous, worried that he might drop another round of "meaningless rhetorical nonsense."

Fortunately, last time was only because Ye Bo had temporarily gotten carried away and spoken too enthusiastically, braking at the last second which made things a bit awkward.

This time, things went quite normally.

"Well, I'm definitely super happy!" Ye Bo said with genuine sincerity. "I'm very grateful for the trust from my teammates and the coaching staff. It's because they were willing to trust me, allowing me to fully showcase my abilities, and even willing to coordinate with me."

"Without their help and sacrifices, I definitely wouldn't have won the MVP!"

Ye Bo wasn't just giving a polite, scripted answer; these words came straight from his heart.

In his mind, the [Hidden Challenge] he had temporarily triggered required playing an off-meta champion like Akshan. If he were on a high-pressure coaching staff and team, they definitely would have agreed to it.

Let alone having Jiejie specially pick Trundle to synergize with him.

Of course, in reality, all of this was earned through his own stellar performances in the first three games.

It was just that Ye Bo didn't see it that way.

He felt that this was pure trust!

Yu Shuang wore a reassuring smile and smoothly transitioned to the next question: "Then, Player Ye Bo, in the second game you drafted the Rogue, a champion who is extremely, extremely unpopular, yet you played him exceptionally well! It seems you must have put in a massive amount of hard work behind the scenes. Is this your secret weapon?"

Hearing this question, the honest Ye Bo felt a tiny, microscopic pang of a guilty conscience.

Although he was essentially "cashing in his own chips," Ye Bo genuinely hadn't practiced Akshan prior to this.

Come to think of it, old man Bo's Akshan proficiency was actually only at [Level 5], still a distance away from level six, and far from being a signature pocket pick.

It was simply because Akshan himself was off-meta, coupled with the fact that the champion had so many "mechanics" packed into his kit, that even with just level-five proficiency, he possessed plenty of techniques that could leave people wide-eyed with astonishment.

The good news, however, was that the critical teamfight where Ye Bo successfully executed the [E-Hextech Delayed Flash] mechanic to secure victory had triggered the reward for [Extreme Operation].

And the reason it met the conditions was actually because that mechanic wasn't originally intended to be used that way.

So it was equivalent to Ye Bo "developing" and utilizing it himself into a novel technique, and indeed, it achieved completely unexpected results.

Ye Bo raised the microphone: "Um... well, you can't really call it hard work, just normal practice. I think there are still many areas where my Akshan needs improvement."

Hearing this reply, the audience completely assumed it was just Ye Bo being modest.

Even though he played so well in both games and could even be described as "flexing out of his mind," he still claimed that many aspects needed improvement.

Mostly, you could simply hear from his expression and tone that it honestly sounded like the absolute truth.

Quite a few neutral viewers couldn't help but develop a favorable impression of him.

Only someone who was already exceptionally skilled, yet constantly sought breakthroughs and self-improvement, truly deserved to win!

Following up on his words, Yu Shuang smiled and tossed out the next question: "Player Ye Bo is so modest. Actually, I heard from somewhere before that during your time in the LDL training camp, you were even thinking about training in your {dreams}. And when Player Jiejie was interviewed last time, he also said that you are truly extremely diligent and hardworking..."

"This kind of spirit is truly worth learning from. So I'd also like to ask on behalf of our audience, how do you manage to overcome the pressure, monotony, and hardship of training?"

When Ye Bo heard this question, he noticeably furrowed his brows.

Without barely any hesitation, he picked up the microphone and directly voiced a thought he had held onto for a long time.

"I think pressure definitely exists, but actually, whatever you do, there's going to be pressure."

"To be honest, the pressure was pretty high when I was in school taking math classes too..."

Saying this, Ye Bo even shrugged helplessly, prompting Yu Shuang to cover her mouth and chuckle.

Yet immediately afterward, upon hearing what Ye Bo said next, she couldn't laugh anymore.

"As for monotony and hardship, well, in my personal opinion, those things shouldn't really belong to a professional esports player."

"We professional players just need to play the game well, that's our job. Compared to so many other professions, playing games really doesn't count as hardship at all."

"At the very least, it's something we love doing, isn't that right?"

"Compared to other jobs, professional players actually just need to play the game well and win matches to make a lot of money. So talk of any hardship... there really isn't any."

These words were something Ye Bo had thought of a year ago, back when the system first appeared and he began his endless "grind loading."

If not for the turning point of fate, he might right now be just like the old man Bo in the records, wasting away a decade in the passage of time only to leave the stage filled with nothing but deep regrets.

Therefore, Ye Bo had genuinely never felt a single trace of so-called hardship during those thirty-hour daily training ground trials.

In fact, he eagerly anticipated the daily cooldown reset.

Ye Bo deeply cherished this opportunity, especially after reading the "Old Man's Diary."

He hoped he could stay right here and pour every ounce of his effort into it.

The torrent of livestream chat seemed to momentarily vanish into thin air at that exact moment.

The LPL welcomed rookies every year, and the world was certainly never short of geniuses.

Yet it seemed there had never been a rookie quite like this person—someone who could deliver explosive, flawless performances on the stage, while simultaneously possessing such a profoundly positive mindset off the stage.

In contrast, many professional players amassed wealth at a young age and thus grew quite arrogant, making it difficult for them to quiet their minds and truly figure out what they ought to be doing most.

Most importantly of all, everyone could sense the sincere honesty in Ye Bo's words.

It was clearly spoken without any prepared draft; it was simply what had always been on his mind, casually spoken just like chatting with a friend.

At that moment, countless people formed a much deeper impression of this player named YE.

Yu Shuang paused for a moment before recovering her smile: "Alright, then for our final question: EDG's match outcomes fluctuated a bit during the first half and the early part of the second half of the split, but ever since the last match, you've already welcomed a two-game winning streak. So what are your expectations for the upcoming matches?"

"As for that, it's definitely hoping that we can keep this winning streak going all the way!" Ye Bo returned to his smiling, optimistic persona and answered quite naturally.

"The first half of the year was just a technical adjustment. From now on, we're definitely going to keep winning!"

Having experienced these two BO3 matches, Ye Bo had gained the confidence to utter such words.

He grew increasingly convinced that he could achieve that challenge!

"How arrogant, Ye Wen!" Xika in the livestream room started shaking his large head again. "He really managed to flex!"

"Can't a four-match MVP flex?" Sun Yalong pretended to be a troll. "If I had four MVPs in a row, I'd swear right on stage and mortgage the championship trophy ahead of time!"

"Hehe~ Then the question arises, Brother Sun, how many MVPs did you collect in your career?"

"Hehe, we didn't have MVP ratings back in our day, aw~"

[First humble, then flexed—building up just to drop the hammer. That's our guy's playstyle, he's even playing mind games in the interview!]

[There's zero problem with talking trash when you have the skills to back it up~ Humble to yourself, flexing on the enemy—that's the best state for esports!]

[As expected of EDG, a true disciple of Patriarch Clearlove. In our esports, you've just got to be arrogant! Just like my Patriarch Clearlove, treating all opponents like absolute idiots and you're good to go!]

[Wait, beating Doinb and Angela, two of the biggest frauds among tier-one mid laners, plus recharging against a middle-aged zombie, does he really think he's hot stuff now?]

[Master Ye is an interesting guy. I asked him who the worst mid laner he ever lanned against was, and he told me not to stir up trouble for Doinb~]

[Just checked EDG's schedule, the {true laning king} is waiting for you down the road. Just you wait!]