Chapter 51: Spring Split Opening Match: EDG vs. FPX

Right now, Lu Ziyang's mind was having a bit of trouble processing everything.

For the past two years, he had never entertained such a possibility because Jelly was simply too strong. Her gaming talent was on par with his own.

How could she possibly be a girl?

That defied all logic.

Involuntary flashes of countless memories raced through his mind—scenes of himself and Jelly fighting side by side in the Summoner's Rift.

Reaching the rank one spot on the Korean server twice in a row, sweeping through internal matches with unstoppable force, completely peerless. Even top-tier professional players struggled to gain any advantage when laning against Jelly.

The two of them had practically played every single role in League of Legends!

Top lane, jungle, mid lane, ADC, support.

His mind began to clear up. Lu Ziyang recalled that Jelly only ever played female champions, and she owned the complete skin collection for every single one of them...

Furthermore, in the two years he had known her, she had never once played support for anyone other than him...

Not to mention how she always loved using all sorts of super cute sticker emojis whenever she chatted with him.

Even their text conversations didn't sound like those of a guy; it was just that Lu Ziyang had preconceived notions and never once considered Jelly as a female.

Because of this, throughout all these years, Lu Ziyang had never hopped on a voice channel with Jelly, nor had he ever sent voice messages, let alone video calls.

"Whew."

Connecting all the dots and pieces together, Lu Ziyang was now completely certain of the truth. He let out a breath—he really had no experience chatting with girls.

"Alright, Jelly, I get it," Lu Ziyang sent a message over.

Jelly: "(*^▽^*) Hmph! Do you want to see my photo?"

Lu Ziyang: "Why would I want to see your photo? Why would you want to show me your photo?"

Jelly: "(Angry) You really suck at chatting, ugh. Whatever, a good woman doesn't fight with men. If you don't want to see it, fine, but I happen to know where the EDG Club is! I also know what you look like and what you do for a living, I know it all (Haughty)."

Lu Ziyang: "I..."

Jelly: "Were you about to say that esports doesn't need girls? (Hands on hips)"

Lu Ziyang: "Ever since I met you, I haven't played a single ranked match with anyone else. Your talent is too strong. Have you ever thought about going pro?"

Jelly: "(Dazed) Absolutely not. I still have the college entrance exams, school, and a lot of other things waiting for me to do. I'm not like you, Lu Ziyang."

Lu Ziyang: "Alright. No wonder whenever I tried to persuade you so many times, you always came up with excuses. Why did you suddenly decide to tell me you're a girl today of all days?"

The lemon avatar remained quiet for a moment, then began to bounce again—

Jelly: "Because you've finally stepped onto the LPL stage you've always dreamed of, fair and square."

Jelly: "And I don't need to accompany you in ranked games anymore. That place is the stage that truly belongs to you."

Lu Ziyang sat in front of his computer, reading those two lines of text over and over again. For a moment, he was left speechless, the complex emotions stirred within him understood by him alone.

Jelly didn't send any more messages, as if she were waiting for Lu Ziyang's reply.

After a long while, Lu Ziyang slowly typed out a line of text in the message box: "Thank you, Jelly."

He added another sentence: "We'll meet, right?"

Jelly: "Mhm."

Jelly: "Lu Ziyang, I will definitely come to watch your match in person."

Jelly: "It's getting late, I need to sleep. I have to go to school starting tomorrow (Obedient)."

Jelly: "Good night (Moon)."

Lu Ziyang instinctively typed the words "Sweet dreams," but then deleted them, retyped "Good night," and hit the enter key to send it.

At the same time, inside a luxury residential building at Lujiazui, Tomson Riviera in the Magic City.

Sitting in front of her computer, Bai Chuxia saw the "Good night" message in the chat box, and the corners of her lips curled up into a gentle, blossoming smile.

"Mom!! I want to eat Shanghai style old-school wontons tomorrow morning!" The girl jumped up from her chair, dashed out, pushed open her bedroom door, and announced loudly.

In the living room, the beautiful woman hard at work at her desk pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, her slender eyebrows furrowing slightly: "Don't tell me you want to eat the ones your mom makes by hand again?"

"Mm-hmm." Bai Chuxia hurried over to her mother's side, nodding like a pecking chick, her voice soft: "I'll eat the wontons tomorrow morning and then go straight to school."

The beautiful woman was momentarily stunned, her expression rather surprised: "Just yesterday you told me you needed to recuperate for a while longer. How come you're suddenly all better today?"

"Look! I'm completely healed. I was about to grow mold lying around at home all day. I want to study, I love studying, I'm going to school tomorrow." As she spoke, she even lifted her slender legs and kicked the air a few times.

This scared the beautiful woman out of her wits. She hurriedly stopped her daughter's movements: "My goodness, even if you're fully recovered, you shouldn't do such strenuous exercise all of a sudden. Mom will make you wontons tomorrow morning, okay!"

"Yay~! Then I'm going back to my room to sleep~! Good night, Mom!"

Having received a definite promise, Bai Chuxia light-footedly skipped back to her room.

The beautiful woman looked at her somewhat unusual behavior lately, feeling quite puzzled inside, before a terrifying thought popped into her mind: "Could my daughter actually be in love?!"

This hypothesis genuinely startled her for a moment, but upon second thought, she had never seen her care about any boy from childhood until now, had she?

Besides, this girl was just like her when she was young—driven and career-oriented.

How could she possibly be falling in love?

Impossible.

There was absolutely no such possibility.

...

EDG Esports Club, training base, player training room.

Lu Ziyang had changed into the team uniform issued by the club, emblazoned with the logos of various corporate sponsors.

Time flew by, and almost in the blink of an eye, the S9 Spring Regular Season was about to kick off.

And tonight was the opening match of the LPL Spring Regular Season for the S9 season!

The venue was the LPL home arena located in the Magic City—the Super Brand Mall.

The two teams facing off in tonight's BO3 opening match were none other than the esports powerhouse EDG, and the formidable rising contender FPX (FunPlus Phoenix).

The headquarters of both EDG and FPX were located in the bustling Magic City, not far from the Super Brand Mall, making travel quite convenient.

Tonight's S9 Spring Split opening match would be Lu Ziyang's debut in the true sense of stepping onto the LPL stage.

Prior to this, he had only played in the LDL secondary league and during the final match against G2 at the S8 World Championship Finals.

By this time, EDG's starting roster for tonight, along with the coach, assistants, data analysts, and other staff members, had already boarded the bus heading toward the Super Brand Mall.

"Everyone, let me nag you all one more time. Tonight's match is not as simple as you might think. FPX is very strong; their ADC Lwx and mid laner Doinb are both top-tier professional players in our LPL!"

"So, Knight, you need to pay attention and not let this guy Doinb find any openings. This fellow is very restless and always up to something."

Clearlove looked toward Knight with a word of caution. Knight listened very attentively and nodded: "Coach Clearlove, I understand! I guarantee I won't give Doinb any openings."

"Mhm. After this period of scrims, I know everyone here like the back of my hand. Right now, EDG's strength is formidable! FPX..."

Saying this, Clearlove shook his head, then added:

"Just keep an eye on Doinb, that rascal is full of tricks these days. Otherwise, there shouldn't be any major issues. Don't put any psychological burden on yourselves, just play at your normal level! Well, let's aim for a 2:0 so we can clock out early."