Chapter 14: The Battle of the Strongest King

Half an hour later, the fourth match arrived as scheduled.

Still, there were no familiar faces. Compared to the previous three matches, this fourth one was easier to handle. Luck was on their side as they drew an opponent who had already secured three wins with zero losses—a player thoroughly demoralized.

Several high-ranking players, once brimming with confidence, had hoped to chase their dreams by teaming up to break into the professional circuit.

But unexpectedly, right at the doorstep of the LPL, before even glimpsing what lay inside, they were repeatedly thrashed. Bruised and battered, their professional dreams were discarded somewhere unknown. The only thing keeping them going now was the unwillingness to end their competitive journey with their heads shaved.

After all, they were all top-tier players from their respective servers—pride mattered.

Unfortunately for them, their fourth match was against Jiang Ming’s NXG.

At seventeen minutes in, NXG once again overwhelmed their opponents, securing their fourth victory and clinching a spot in the LPL preseason tournament next January.

At that moment, Jiang Ming glanced at a message privately sent to him by the head of his streaming platform.

“Riot will be updating the ladder ranking system tonight, introducing a brand-new ranking system for the new season.”

A ranking system!

Jiang Ming’s eyes lit up. The fierce competition for the top King tier across major platforms—and the opportunity it presented for negotiating a partnership with YY—was finally within reach.

...

With the advent of Season 3 came the first player-centric change: the replacement of the ELO ladder points system with tiered rankings, which future players would come to know as the well-familiar Bronze, Silver, and other tier divisions.

The existing rank points transformed into what players called “hidden points.”

There were six tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and King. Each tier, except for King, was subdivided into five sub-levels. Achieving 100 victory points in a sub-level would trigger a promotion series, which came in two formats: a best-of-three for minor tier promotion and a best-of-five for major tier promotion.

As for the King tier, it was reserved for the top fifty players by victory points on each server after surpassing Diamond I.

Jiang Ming saw Riot’s reform of the ladder system as a very wise decision.

Previously, the fluctuations in ELO scores often caused frustration among ranked players, discouraging lower-tier players from remaining active.

By shifting to tiered rankings, high-tier players could pursue the ultimate King title, while lower-tier players had attainable goals like the seasonal Gold skin.

This change greatly enhanced player engagement.

When the tier system was first introduced, it sparked a wave of all-night pushes to reach high tiers, even inspiring female players to surge up to Diamond in a single burst.

Of course, the system wasn’t perfect. The promotion series were criticized for adding randomness, some players complained about “getting stuck” at certain ranks, and issues like account boosting and smurfing emerged.

Even today, many video content creators openly advertise boosting services in their online shops.

But Jiang Ming’s ambition wasn’t to make quick money riding the current “Western frontier” boom of League of Legends. Otherwise, under his title as one of the top-ranked players in the Chinese server, he could simply post a boosting service link and eliminate any competition.

Jiang Ming knew well that boosting was a dangerous game. Though not explicitly banned by current rules, any involvement could explode like a bomb later on, ruining a player's esports career once they reached a certain level.

“By the way, does YY sending this message mean they’re preparing to enter the competition?” Jiang Ming speculated. It seemed the ripple caused by his small butterfly wings was beginning to stir some change.

In the original timeline, YY only restructured into a major live-streaming platform in 2014, lagging a year behind their rival SharkTV, which had aggressively signed LoL streamers in 2013, offering big bonuses for the top-ranked King of the Chinese server and capturing a vast market share. For a long time, before SharkTV faltered, YY had been stuck as a perennial runner-up, missing the early wave of the gaming boom.

While pondering this, Jiang Ming’s phone rang, displaying a call from the head of YY.

“Hey JM, hope I’m not disturbing you,” came a hearty laugh from the other end.

Jiang Ming slowly walked to his computer and took a seat, smiling. “Not at all. But I’m curious, Brother Xu, what’s the urgent matter that has you working late tonight?”

Urgent?

Of course it was urgent.

Xu Tao on the other side chuckled dryly. If he didn’t call tonight, after the LoL ranking update at midnight, JM’s ID might be tagged with another streaming platform’s prefix.

Ordinary players might have only just learned about the ranking update, but Xu Tao knew that a top player like JM had definitely heard the news long ago. JM’s recent silence could only mean he was watching to see if YY would make any moves.

“High-education streamers are hard to please...” Xu Tao muttered, a little exasperated.

Still, he went on to explain YY’s next plan.

“Brother Xu means that YY is ready to increase its promotional resources for the LoL streaming section. They want to use the ranking update as a stepping stone to launch a ‘King-tier climb’ competition with prize money, right?”

“Yes, exactly. Any player who adds the YY prefix to their in-game ID will qualify to enter the contest.”

“What do you need me to do?” Jiang Ming asked directly.

Need you to do what?

Big brother, you’re asking a question you already know the answer to.

Xu Tao sighed. Which do you think is more likely to get the very first King rank on another platform, a top player like JM who’s mastered the game and boasts exceptional skill, or a regular streamer they just recruited?

Right now, there’s no one on YY with a higher ladder score than JM.

Despite the sarcasm, Xu Tao understood that YY was expecting them to offer matching conditions.

“JM,” Xu Tao chose his words carefully, “working with you has been very pleasant for the platform, and we hope to continue. Here’s something I can reveal in advance: the platform will undergo restructuring and optimization in the second half of the year. At that time, top streamers like you will receive significant resource support...”

“Mm.”

Keep going, I’m listening. Save the big promises for later.

“So before the restructuring, the platform wants to capitalize on the traffic surge from the LoL ranking reform. We hope you can add our platform’s prefix to your ID and claim the title of the number one King on the Chinese server!”

“As for the rewards: three hundred thousand RMB for becoming the first King on the entire server, and an additional five hundred thousand RMB for topping the first region!”

“Besides that, after reaching the peak, we’ll change your gift revenue split to 60/40 in your favor, and during your climb, guarantee at least four homepage feature promotions.”

Xu Tao finished outlining YY’s offer in one breath.