Chapter 6: The NXG Team?

December 1st, 5:00 PM sharp.

Jiang Ming’s QQ suddenly emitted a sharp notification sound. The LPL preseason coordinator posted an announcement in the “LPL Preseason Qualifiers” work group: [All teams prepare to enter the game client].

“Change your team prefix before entering the game!” Jiang Ming’s voice cut through the clicking of mechanical keyboards. “Don’t change your pro IDs last minute if you’ve already decided them—”

“Got it, Brother Yang!” The mid-laner Wu Zhiqiang responded first, skillfully searching for the “Name Change Card” in the game client’s store, then entering the ID he had long memorized by muscle memory:

NXG-yihan!

The team name Jiang Ming personally designed, Nexus Vanguard, derived from the tactical term for the Protoss mothership core in StarCraft.

“Tch, so many points. I can finally buy all those skins I used to hesitate on,” the support player Pang Ran’s eyes lit up. After changing his name, he browsed the store. Unlike future players who would typically buy skins for their signature heroes, Pang Ran and his teammates, earning only a couple thousand yuan in total, lamented their limited funds.

If high-ranked players felt the pinch, ordinary players were in an even tighter spot. That’s why, early on, game booster programs like Duowan Box quickly became essential software sweeping across internet cafes.

They enhanced combat capabilities, allowed players to show off, provided expert hero guides, and most importantly, enabled one-click skin changes!

The other three players said nothing, focusing solely on purchasing rune pages and various special runes. Hero skins could be bought later from within the game interface.

Top laner Song Yuan was creating his 12th rune setup: [High Burst Laning Phase]—3 fixed armor marks, 6 scaling armor marks, 3 quintessences...

Jiang Ming was quite satisfied with his players’ reactions. Unlike future versions where talents and runes merged seamlessly, at this time, rune setups had to be prepared in advance. This explained why, in early days, high-rank players or pros streaming ranked games would display long lists of rune pages with detailed notes.

Restricted by the team’s budget, Jiang Ming had only unlocked ten rune pages for each player on their ranked accounts. Now, on the official game client provided by the LPL organizer—equipped with hundreds of thousands of points—there was no reason not to go all out.

Unlike regular players who relied on two general rune pages—one for AD and one for AP—Jiang Ming had been conducting professional-level training for his team since formation, covering rune talents, ward timing, and more.

“One minute until the match starts!”

In the “LPL Preseason Qualifiers” group chat, the referee tagged all members.

Offline matches used a single round-robin point system. The top two teams from each of fourteen servers crossed over for matchups, with the first-place team on each server facing the second-place team from another.

Winners would then draw lots among teams with the same points; similarly, losers would draw from the pool of teams with zero wins and one loss—essentially the Swiss-system tournament format used later in the World Championship.

Of course, this so-called “Swiss system” was a rudimentary version: the top two teams from fourteen servers were randomly paired, and teams with identical points drew lots for their opponents, quite different from the formal Swiss system.

After five rounds, the eight teams with the highest points advanced to the LPL preseason. The final twelve teams in the preseason would then battle in a single round-robin and double-elimination bracket to determine the final six teams.

Together with the first and second place teams from the third City League, these eight teams would form the inaugural LPL roster.

Jiang Ming pondered this as the referee, having created the lobby and assigned players their positions, clicked “Start Game.”

As the referee instantly opened the room, Jiang Ming couldn’t help but mutter, “No equipment check? What if someone uses Duowan Box’s one-click timer and gets an instant loss?”

QX!

The opposing team’s name.

Upon entering the game, Jiang Ming’s gaze swept across the purple side’s five player IDs. None were familiar.

It made sense—a player famous on the pro circuit wouldn’t fail to top even a non-first-server queue.

For side selection, NXG, as the first-place server team, had priority.

Jiang Ming naturally chose the blue side.

“Brother Ming, who are we banning?” Song Yuan, in the first position, asked.

Now, the game defaulted the first player as team captain, responsible for banning the three heroes.

This was also why many players ranked fourth or fifth in casual games feared not having a support and begged someone to ban certain troublesome heroes.

“Shen, Jarvan, Vayne!” Jiang Ming deliberated before locking in these bans among the many meta heroes. Without knowing the opponent’s exact strength, he chose to play it safe, banning the most frequently picked strong heroes in the current meta.

Not having any information on their opponents wasn’t due to Jiang Ming’s negligence as coach or owner. At this stage, nobody had any clue who their opponents really were.

Song Yuan quickly locked in the bans in the hero selection screen, and the purple side QX team’s first player simultaneously completed their bans:

Twisted Fate, Janna, Ezreal!

“Let’s give Zhenyu the jungle role first.”

“I’m fine with anything, just follow Brother Ming,” the jungler Stone shook his head, passing the decision to the coach.

Since joining Brother Ming’s team, Stone clearly felt the difference from casual gaming squads. Though the environment was similar, the salary, daily management, and professional training were all strictly regulated. Playing professionally was nothing like casually queuing in an internet cafe.

Didn’t WE win IPL5 thanks in large part to Abus’s dozens of tactical plans?

Hearing the jungler, Song Yuan smiled sheepishly—he was still not used to needing to consult a sixth person outside the game during matches.

“Pick Lee Sin first!”

Jiang Ming, ever the patient teacher, glanced at the jungler and instructed.

In the preseason of Season 3, junglers held a less dominant role compared to later seasons like S6 or S10 due to the limited jungle economy. Viable picks were either early-game pressure heroes like Elise and Lee Sin or utility tanks like Jarvan and Maokai, who didn’t require much gold but offered strong crowd control.

Selecting Lee Sin first ensured dominance in jungle skirmishes without being easily countered in lane.

Meanwhile,

In a private room of an internet cafe somewhere in Guangdong province, smoke curled thickly as the QX team erupted in a heated argument.

The red-haired captain slammed the table fiercely: “Steal the buffs! That JM guy can make tutorial videos, so why can’t I after practicing fifty games in three days?”

“But we haven’t even mastered the combo to chain-kill with Shadow Step...” the timid support reminded him, only to be cut off by the ADC.

“Don’t be scared! Do you know how much the betting at this internet cafe is? Twenty strips of red Nanjing cigarettes!”