Chapter 11

His voice was indifferent, the tone calm, but it carried an unsettling tension due to his usual peculiar way of speaking.

Rong Yi’s throat tightened, and his fingertips began to burn.

When they first met, it was back home, during the endless rainy days in A City. At that time, Xiao Yin was in the youth training program for RO, RS’s main rival team. Because his personal style was too avant-garde and difficult to manage, he had significant conflicts within the team.

Back then, he trained for more than fifteen hours a day. Anyone who got close to him could feel his AI-like low pressure and didn’t dare to provoke him. Rong Yi, however, would provoke him every day, coaxing him out to play, saying it would help relieve his stress.

Xiao Yin didn’t say much, but Rong Yi later discovered his habit his only way to relieve stress was to go to bed.

He was always very gentle and polite, but the frequency and duration were somewhat overwhelming for Rong Yi.

Xiao Yin, understanding and empathetic, would notice when Rong Yi was under emotional pressure and would ask if he wanted to “relieve stress.”

Rong Yi snapped back to reality, feeling a bit embarrassed, and quickly lowered his voice, “No… no need.”

His brows lowered, his gaze still fixed on the table in front of him, not moving an inch.

Xiao Yin’s hand was still covering Rong Yi’s slim, pale hand, the heat gradually rising. After hearing what Rong Yi said, Xiao Yin finally withdrew his hand, took a few steps back, and sat down, nodding slightly, “Got it.”

After such an encounter, the thoughts Rong Yi had about RS’s defeat were long gone.

There was some noise downstairs, indicating the post match analysis had ended. Rong Yi got up, turned on the light, opened the door, and saw Wu Daogu coming up with a summary. Upon seeing him, Wu Daogu called out, “Captain Rong,” and then asked, “Captain Rong, are you going to watch today’s team post match analysis?”

Rong Yi had been there for a few days, and perhaps they had learned it online, calling him Captain Rong.

In contrast, Xiao Yin, the real captain, seemed like an afterthought.

Rong Yi nodded, and Xiao Yin followed, coming out of the room. He took the post match analysis summary, glanced at it, and said, “Let’s go, we’ll discuss it downstairs.”

Rong Yi had been working on team coordination for a few days now, and the integration of shotcalling still required more rigorous practice.

The training room on the first floor of the villa was empty, with some scattered papers on the desks, all related to post match analysis and operational presets.

VIT’s post match analysis differed from domestic teams’ habits. Without a unified competition training team and coach, everyone brainstormed together, supplemented by AI analysis, often resulting in some excellent ideas.

The four members of VIT had known each other for a long time, and everyone was intimately familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Xiao Yin rarely disconnected, but he often found himself in isolated positions. If the team couldn’t pull together, he couldn’t turn the tide on his own. Grey Cat, the youngest, occasionally played too conservatively to keep up. Hydralisk was usually under pressure at this stage, so naturally, the demands on his details were higher.

As for Wu Daogu’s top laner role, there were countless systems awaiting adjustments.

After several team integrations and post match analyses, what surprised the other three members of VIT the most was that Rong Yi never disconnected.

In every post match analysis, Rong Yi had nothing that needed summarizing. Compared to others’ reaction speeds, his greatest strength was his in-game adaptability. This kind of pro player was like flowing water, able to blend into everyone and also bear the aggregation and flow of the entire team.

All members of VIT knew that such a level of pro player was an extraordinary genius.

Rong Yi reviewed the post match analysis and added a few points regarding issues not mentioned by the team, then handed it to Xiao Yin. “Take a look at this. I think these are areas we can improve.”

His expression was serious, his voice calm and light. His usually charming eyes turned sharp and focused when he was serious.

Xiao Yin took it, glanced at it, and said, “Alright, we’ll try it tomorrow.”

In the afternoon, the operations staff added a new schedule and posted a message in the group chat, tagging all members. Rong Yi scrolled through the message and read it slowly, “Tomorrow, we’ll have a public scrim with the long-established domestic team CH.”

Public scrims were a common way for major esports clubs to interact, primarily as friendly matches. Naturally, tactics couldn’t be exposed too much. Teams usually let their second team play or have players switch positions to maintain their feel for the game, preventing them from losing their touch during the off-season.

“How are we going to play?”

Rong Yi knew that VIT had always been casual, but he hadn’t expected them to be this laid-back for their first public scrim in the country.

They had only been practicing team coordination for four or five days. The operations staff had arrived when he and Xiao Yin were not around, and he had only just seen the message.

“The team was chosen by drawing lots, organized by Hydralisk. Public scrims are long. I wanted them to play in these scrims to get familiar with the domestic system and situation,” Xiao Yin explained.

Rong Yi was thoughtful.

The league had already abolished the promotion and relegation system. According to previous rules, teams that had achieved rankings in the World Championship retained the lowest seat in the Regular Season, which was a Level B seat.

VIT was a new team, but Xiao Yin had registered early and acquired a foreign team that had previously participated in the Intercontinental Tournament but had since disbanded. This served as VIT’s predecessor and secured their entry ticket to the Regular Season.

However, this first season was disadvantageous for VIT. Being in Group B, they could only compete with other Group B teams in the Regular Season, making it difficult for a newly returned team to accumulate valuable real battle experience.

CH, on the other hand, was a Group A team, making this scrim with CH particularly important.

“Play as you normally would. Nothing different for tomorrow.” Xiao Yin said, “That’s why I didn’t mention it earlier.”

“Got it.”

Rong Yi nodded. When he was with RS, he had never received a request for a public scrim, so he was unfamiliar with the process.

“Also…”

Rong Yi felt he might have too many requirements and questions, unlike when he was with RS, where he could decide everything. Here at VIT, he might need to bring up certain matters himself: “About the league organizer’s on-site cameras…”

“I’ve already informed them. Our team won’t be filmed on-site,” Xiao Yin said.

In open matches, besides live streaming the in-game action of the two teams, the league organizer had a habit of filming the players on-site. This was tied to creating star players and fulfilling sponsors’ requirements for screen time. Most teams wouldn’t or couldn’t refuse this.

At RS, for five years, Rong Yi had never allowed on-site filming. His player page was always blacked out, which was a major point of contention between RS’s sponsors and him and a constant source of fans’ questions.

Rong Yi smiled lightly and nodded, “Thank you.”

“Is it okay if we update the match roster tonight?” Xiao Yin asked, checking the time with a calm expression.

Rong Yi nodded.

The off-season was over, and it was time for the club to announce the starters for the matches.

Given his recent flurry of news, Rong Yi wondered if Xiao Yin had any PR preparations in place.

Rong Yi doubted it.

Xiao Yin was a person with a perfectionist streak. He naturally couldn’t understand anything beyond the arena. VIT’s operations were handled by specialists. Since the club’s inception, Xiao Yin had always delegated operational matters to Wu Daogu, showing his impatience with such tasks.

Rong Yi returned to his room to wash up. Before bed, he habitually added the post match analysis content from the past two days.

Time slipped away, and it was nearly midnight. But at this hour, his background notifications started pinging like crazy.

Rong Yi guessed that VIT had announced the member roster. He logged into his platform account to take a look.

His default login was a smurf account, and as soon as he opened it, the messages flooded in, causing a delay before he could find the team’s official account.

The message had been posted right at midnight.

@VIOLET Team: “Here is the starting roster for the upcoming scrims.”

Within just half an hour, the retweets and comments had skyrocketed to an alarming level.

Rong Yi immediately noticed the prominence given to him by the team’s operations鈥”his ID was boldly listed at the top of the announcement.

“Mid Laner: VIT.Easy.”

Everyone following the VIT team would see his ID first.

He was even listed before Xiao Yin.

Underneath the message, the top ten hot comments were all about him, filled with question marks.

“Easy?? Is it the Easy I know?” This comment had nearly 30,000 likes.

“Is it him? Wasn’t he RS’s Support and Shotcaller?”

This one didn’t have many likes but had the highest number of retweets. Rong Yi, channeling his inner old-timer’s internet browsing spirit, tracked down the source of the massive retweets.

It was Xiao Yin’s retweet and reply to this comment.

VIT.Yin: “He’s my mid laner.”