Chapter 44

Xiao Yin’s voice was soft and seamless, like the wind. He himself was like the wind, not lingering, just passing by.

GREEN stood frozen, caught in an awkward limbo where continuing the conversation or moving on to the next person both seemed equally uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, his mind was fixated on the two words Xiao Yin had said.

Lover?

Yin and Easy are married now?

GREEN had heard those rumors within the circle. Five years ago, after Xiao Yin and Rong Yi broke up, Xiao Yin went abroad, and they seemingly had no contact in between.

Back then, Xiao Yin must have believed those words; otherwise, why would he have broken up?

Their conversation off-camera was quiet, with few people hearing it, though a handful noticed Xiao Yin walking away without responding a rare coldness from someone usually so gentle and kind like Yin. Very strange.

Some nosy reporters and fans secretly captured the moment.

A few people entered the match room.

Rong Yi sat in his gaming chair, gently flexing his fingers.

His BP plan was already drafted and distributed to others for feedback.

Today, Rong Yi had a strong premonition that he would be targeted.

“Any basis for that?” Xiao Yin asked, glancing at his judgment.

Rong Yi shook his head. “Just a feeling, we’ll have to adapt as the situation unfolds. Everyone else is fine, but RVG’s GREEN is a formidable player. There’s a reason he’s been a starter in the league for so long. Since they restructured their team, they’ve been holding back in recent regular season matches. I fear they might have a big move hidden.”

“But it’s okay,” Rong Yi said. “No matter who they target, we have ways to handle it.”

The game begins.

VIT’s BP (Ban-Pick) is mostly handled by Grey Cat, with the others discussing and voting on the final decisions.

The number of times VIT gets counter-picked is gradually decreasing, and everyone can see the rapid growth of the young players in the team.

The subsequent results also confirmed another tactical judgment of Rong Yi assigning BP responsibilities to the less experienced players often yields better results.

Rong Yi, Xiao Yin, and Wu Daogu have more extensive match experience, making them better suited to make timely adjustments in formation and strategy, providing seamless team coordination.

However, the bot lane duo has fewer options: either they carry the game or they don’t.

If they don’t carry, it means they’ve been targeted. Their role then shifts to stalling for time and distracting the opponents, allowing the rest of the team to farm and push.

This means that the only part of VIT that can be significantly affected by BP is the bot lane.

The three veterans first accommodate Hydralisk and Grey Cat’s optimal setup. The opponents can only counter based on VIT’s bot lane strategy. Then, the entire VIT team can figure out the best synergy for the final lineup.

In other words, whether or not to sacrifice the bot lane for the team.

In the first match, the opponents banned Li, Empress, and Mother of the Earth.

Based on the opponent’s picks, Rong Yi chose a vision-control mage, Xiao.

The first match is usually a testing ground, with neither side revealing their full strategies.

Xiao Yin picked Yin, and the others took their positions.

There’s usually a few minutes of downtime between BP preparation and the start of laning, during which commentators and guest panelists fill the gap with banter.

“Actually, RVG is an old team with close ties to Easy. From what we know, their team manager wanted to buy Easy, but the deal fell through.”

“GREEN is also facing an old friend today. He’s known Captain Rong for a long time, right? I recall they have a good personal relationship, and GREEN has always been a fan of Easy.”

“He mentioned wanting Easy as his support.”

“What jungler doesn’t want Easy as their support, right?”

“But I noticed he knows Yin too. They all trained together in youth training. Looks like today’s match is a nostalgic one!”

Despite the nostalgic context, the match was anything but sentimental once it began; it was intense right from the start.

Hydralisk and Grey Cat picked a strong duo for the first match. They initially thought the opponents would target the bot lane, but GREEN’s team had a clear strategy. Within the first minute, they went straight to the mid lane, executing a turret dive to take down Rong Yi.

“No problem.”

Rong Yi glanced at the time, his voice calm. “Looks like my premonition was correct; they’re targeting mid. I’ll be the sacrificial lamb. You guys focus on farming. Don’t worry about me. I can stall.”

RVG aimed to cut off the mid lane, controlling the connections between the top lane, jungle, and bot lane, and rapidly push the turret. If VIT didn’t come to support the mid lane, they would face a scenario where the mid lane was completely pushed through, and their core vision areas would be entirely choked off.

But no one from VIT came to support.

Rong Yi could hold them off alone.

So far, the opponents had been doing three-man, sometimes four-man dives. The longer Rong Yi held them off, the more advantageous it was for the other four members of VIT.

The crisp sound of keyboard clicks echoed in the quiet training room.

Holding off four players alone was no small feat.

Xiao wasn’t a champion like Silver Hook, who was good at dodging and maneuvering, nor like Li, who excelled at quick in-and-out attacks. His passive ability was “Clarity”—all allied members within range were immune to soft control skills and could activate a watchful state.

In this state, they could reflect any control used on him back to all enemy champions within range, lasting for three seconds.

Rong Yi quite liked the name of this ability—”Stay.”

It’s a champion well-suited for the support role, but due to low health and several nerfs from the developers, Xiao was mainly played as a supportive mid laner.

“Easy’s pick of Xiao… well, it’s not bad, but it does seem difficult to counterattack effectively or maneuver.”

“Exactly, he can only scout closely and provide vision for his teammates, which is very challenging, especially since Easy has already given up the first death.”

The audience held their breath, watching the mid lane intently.

Rong Yi was pushing Xiao to his limits, surviving multiple three-man and four-man dives for over thirty seconds each time.

These crucial half-minutes created the best farming environment for everyone else.

Wu Daogu in the top lane cleared two waves of jungle creeps, while Hydralisk and Grey Cat in the bot lane continuously expanded their advantage.

The first turning point came when Xiao Yin maxed out his skills.

The enemy team knew Xiao Yin had reached max level. Unwilling to face Yin head-on, they retreated, leaving Rong Yi low on health in the mid lane.

Originally, it was a disengage move. Rong Yi was already 0-3, so he could have retreated to avoid another death.

Everyone thought Rong Yi would pull back, but he didn’t.

He used Flash to engage GREEN’s jungler, Di, activating a passive ability and providing vision for Xiao Yin.

On the screen, silver light shattered as Yin, with a few swift strikes, took down GREEN and cut off RVG’s retreat.

Rong Yi took some splash damage from the control, leaving him with a sliver of health.

“But he wasn’t dead yet.

His health bar precariously hovered at 3/4200.

Unexpectedly, he survived.

Audience: “Oh my god!! What a win!”

“God-tier luck, it’s like he has a built-in death avoidance.”

Rong Yi didn’t expect to survive either. He had risked it all, but it hadn’t been in vain. He found a hidden spot to recall.

Xiao Yin stopped by, standing next to him to provide vision and ensure his safe return.

Rong Yi said, “It’s okay, I can recall.”

Xiao Yin replied, “It’s okay. They’ve already taken a loss.”

RVG’s initial momentum was broken. Rong Yi stalled them long enough to prevent them from capitalizing before Xiao Yin reached full strength. Meanwhile, the rest of VIT had time to farm and grow.

Hydralisk was in top form today, dominating the laning phase and repeatedly forcing the enemy ADC to retreat and heal. After a few successful ganks by Xiao Yin in the bot lane, the game started to turn in VIT’s favor.

Xiao Yin’s targeting was precise today. He seemed especially cold in his gameplay.

He continuously disrupted the enemy’s rhythm, killing them and shattering their morale.

After witnessing Xiao Yin dive under the enemy’s first turret to take out the C-position target, the audience couldn’t contain themselves.

The livestream chat exploded with comments.

“How can fingers at 36 degrees pull off such ice-cold plays?”

“RVG must regret not banning Yin. I really want to see a close-up of Yin-Ge’s expression while he’s getting these kills.”

“Previously, when he was with QILIN abroad, we saw him play; he was usually very relaxed, without much expression.”

After gaining the advantage in the bot lane, Rong Yi swapped positions with Wu Daogu.

It’s not unheard of for the mid laner and top laner to switch places, but it’s rare due to the significant differences between the lanes.

This is one of the key differences between the professional arena and normal games. In normal games, everyone sticks to their designated positions, but in the professional arena, there are no fixed positions, only roles and calculated risks.

“From our perspective, we see Easy moving to the top lane! He hasn’t been spotted! Wu Daogu hasn’t either!”

“RVG is looking for them! They’ve sensed something is off but don’t know what exactly!”

In the vision, Wu Daogu was hiding in the brush near the mid lane. The enemy support came to scout for vision, intending to set up another 3v1. But Wu Daogu, combining his skills with Xiao Yin, secured a double kill.

Only GREEN escaped with low health, using a burst of speed.

In just a few seconds, Rong Yi cleared Wu Daogu’s minion wave, gradually recovering the gold deficit caused by his earlier deaths.

VIT only reorganizes resources to allow underperforming team members to catch up when they have a clear advantage and are starting to consume the enemy’s resources.

This strategy closely mirrors the best practices of AI computing power and game theory.

Hydralisk used to operate this way, and now Rong Yi does too.

It was an exceptionally smooth lane switch and resource redistribution.

As Rong Yi passed through the blue buff area, Xiao Yin said, “Take it.”

Rong Yi glanced at the blue buff in front of him and, without hesitation, took it for himself.

At this point, Rong Yi’s score was still 0-3, but that ‘3’ would no longer change. His kills and assists began to rise exponentially.

The enemy continued to fall back, and ten minutes later, the game ended as expected.

Exiting the game screen, the only impressive scores on VIT’s side were from Hydralisk and Xiao Yin. The overall damage dealt was also in RVG’s favor.

But this is VIT’s style.

The enemy might rack up high kill counts and seem effective in team fights, but every advantage they gain is slowly chipped away, leading to their ultimate defeat.

Even the audience couldn’t hold back anymore.

“VIT has turned around every losing game so far. What kind of team is this? It’s terrifying!”

“It’s really like a trap. Whether it’s RVG or RS, they seem to be losing at first, but they always turn it around in the end. If I were a fan of the opposing team, I’d be losing my mind.”

“Weren’t RS fans already losing their minds before?”

“Ugh, I’m an RVG fan, and my heart can’t take it. VIT is like a trap in a winning game. I can’t even understand how we lost.”

In the training room, the match had just ended. Hydralisk needed to use the bathroom urgently, and Grey Cat said he wanted a drink.

As soon as the match ended, everyone suddenly had things to do. Rong Yi raised his hand and asked the referee for a break.

The training room was left with just him and Xiao Yin.

Rong Yi got up to fetch a glass of water and brought one for Xiao Yin as well. He casually remarked, “The other team played well today, better than RVG before they restructured. GREEN still has some skills.”

There was still a referee in the room, someone Rong Yi knew. He chimed in, “Captain Rong, you’ve played against GREEN quite a few times, haven’t you?”

“They’re old acquaintances. They must have played about 800 games against each other back when he was with RS. But they haven’t seen each other much offline.”

Rong Yi said, “RVG’s home base is in C City, which is quite far. I haven’t seen him in years.”

The referee then chatted with Rong Yi for a bit.

Xiao Yin remained silent, sipping slowly from his cup.

When the conversation ended, the referee left to switch out, and Rong Yi returned to his gaming chair.

Xiao Yin’s gaze swept over him and then paused.

Rong Yi remembered that Xiao Yin probably knew GREEN as well. He asked, “You’ve met him too, right? Weren’t you in the same youth training program? RO’s youth players are really talented.”

Xiao Yin hesitated, then replied, “Not really familiar.”

He made a soft “tsk” sound that Rong Yi barely heard, but when he glanced at Xiao Yin, he noticed a rare, visible frustration on his face.