Chapter 118: Coca Cola Cup – National Semifinals

Translator Note: The author wrote quarter-final but in the text it was mentioned that only four teams were left in the tournament. So it has been changed to semifinals.

“Gosh, it’s Cat Eye from Team CT!” Jiang Jiu exclaimed out of the blue.

Qiu Jingtai turned his head hastily and spied a youth who was being accompanied by a chubby, middle-aged man on his way up to the competition stage.

The audience burst into a loud cheer as the small-sized player took his seat. This player was apparently well celebrated.

There were roughly three hundred seats inside the event hall. The distribution between male and female audience was rather even, with no shortage of beautiful ladies in sexy black stockings.

Qiu Jingtai was envious seeing how the crowd (especially the ladies) applauded the CT player like he was a superstar. ‘I never thought that E-Sports players are so highly regarded. That player from CT does not look that different as compared to me…’

“By the way, who is that guy? Is he any good?” Qiu Jingtai questioned.

“He is the ADC of Team CT, their core player. I heard that he recently earned the Challenger title in the Korean server and a lot of the pro players in LoL sing his praises,” Jiang Jiu explained.

“How strong is that?” Qiu Jingtai was not very knowledgeable in such matters.

“I guess he is at least one of the top ten best ADCs in our country. In short, his skill as a player is beyond the grasp of people like you and me,” Jiang Jiu concluded.

As they were conversing, the audience began cheering excitedly once again. The two of them turned to the stage and realized a pretty lady had appeared without them knowing and was now seated on the commentator’s seat with a microphone in her hand.

“Wow, what a gorgeous lady,” Qiu Jingtai was astounded.

Wearing a white V-necked tight business suit, her hair was waist length and her fair skin and ample bosom drew many eyes. Her eyes were catty and cutely rounded at the same time, while her pink lips were sexy and always accompanied by a faint smile when she talked.

She was indeed a vision in addition to her voice being sweet but not too theatrical whilst bearing a thick Beijing accent.

“My God! That’s Qi Qiao!” Jiang Jiu was astonished.

The audience around Jiang Jiu were no different and their eyes shone with great admiration!

The crowd made a thundering cheer to welcome the commentator, this time with a teasing hint. The hall with only hundreds of audiences instantly sounded like it held a thousand people.

“Who is she? She seems popular,” Qiu Jingtai asked straightaway.

“She is a popular game analyst from GTV named Qi Qiao. I always watch her commentary videos. She’s famous for her cute and sweet voice which won her a lot of supporters in LoL. I almost forgot that this Coca Cola Cup is organized by GTV so it shouldn’t be surprising that such a heavyweight person would be in charge of hosting a game of this degree… Wait, at this rate, Miss Qin might be the commentator of the Grand Final. It would be a dream come true if she is!” Jiang Jiu described to Qiu Jingtai enthusiastically.

Professional stage, professional computer, professional commentator, coupled with a nationwide live broadcast by a professional TV station—This was going to be one hell of a match!

“Who is this Miss Qin? Is she prettier than Qi Qiao?” Qiu Jingtai asked again.

Jiang Jiu looked at him in disdain and sneered at the ill-informed rookie. “How dare you not have a clue on who Miss Qin is…”

“I seldom watch playbacks,” Qiu Jingtai, embarrassed, defended himself.

“Miss Qin is also a commentator under GTV and she is an absolute beauty. Mature, sexy, angelic, all while retaining her glamorous side. She is the indisputable number one goddess of most of the nerds who play LoL. All of her videos have easily reached millions of views at a record-breaking rate. She is Qi Qiao’s superior and the reason why Qi Qiao is so popular now. Unfortunately, she suddenly stopped commentating a few months ago and did not release any videos since. Sigh. I like her so much but it’s just like Ai Iijima, she now lives only in my memory and computer hard drive…” Jiang Jiu elaborated, sounding almost intoxicated.

“This Qi Qiao is not too bad either,” Qiu Jingtai replied.

“Yea, yea. Just that it would be perfect if I got to see Miss Qin in person.” Jiang Jiu said, the wishfulness ringing clear in his voice.

***

“Dear audience, welcome to the semifinals of the National Coca Cola Cup. I am Qi Qiao from GTV and it is my honor today to be your commentator on this important match.”

“Today marks the third month since the Coca Cola Cup has commenced from last June. Throughout these three months, players have gone through regional, city, province and now, the national stage. Only four teams remain following the fierce and merciless qualifying rounds. These four teams are Cyclone Internet Cafe from Liaoning, Sunlight Internet Cafe from Shanghai, First Internet Cafe from Guangdong, and Godsent Internet Cafe from Beijing.”

These four teams must have received a huge sum of sponsorship from those loaded internet cafe chains. No wonder a lot of professional players originally in the LPL were seen in this competition. Sponsorship was no doubt the most important source of income for E-Sports players.

The combined total of the sponsorship supplied by the internet cafe added to the prize money given by the Coca Cola company would turn a player’s fortune around overnight if they managed to secure the top spot.

“The players are now seated and have logged in to the game. We will be entering the banning phase anytime now,” Qi Qiao’s gentle voice filled the hall.

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“We will soon find out what formation Team Shanghai will be going for in this semi-final match. My guess is that they will, for sure, revolve around Cat Eye, the ADC of the team. He is the captain of the well-known Team CT and whether this team can qualify for the next round will be highly dependent on the ADC performance today.”

The camera was focused on Cat Eye as Qi Qiao introduced him.

Cat Eye’s real name was Qiu Shenping and he was quite famous in the LoL pro scene due to his exceptional skills as an ADC.

Almost everyone who queued for a high-end ranked game on the Telecom 1 server recognized his ID, Cat Eye. Normally, when his ID appeared, the opponent team would immediately ban his favorite hero—Vayne, the Night Hunter.

Recently, it was rumored that he had even taken down the Challenger Title in the Korean server which further flamed his reputation and more LoL players had begun to pay closer attention to him.

“Cat Eye looks a little nervous today with both of his hands on the keyboard…” Qi Qiao continued to relate the ongoing events.

Qiu Shenping sat rigidly upright during the selection phase. Indeed, he did appear to be rather anxious.

Every professional player needs to go through this process and overcome stage fright. Although Qiu Shenping was a regular player in this game, he did not have a lot of experience in an official tournament, hence, it was entirely normal for him to feel anxious at the beginning. He would be more relaxed once he got deeper into the game.

“Eh? What a surprise! Liaoning Cyclone Internet Cafe has decided to ignore Vayne!”

“The extraordinary performance of Cat Eye’s Vayne in the past is no joke. Everybody knows that. And yet, Team Liaoning has chosen not to ban the hero. This is obviously a challenge to the Shanghai team. Do you dare to pick Vayne?”

Players who had considerable experience in LoL would be well aware that Vayne was a controversial champion. She was violent and powerful enough to carry a team single-handedly, however, this champion also had its glaring weakness. Picking her could drag the entire team down to hell if she was not played properly.

Seeing as a team success would be solely dependent on Vayne, the reason Team Liaoning decided against banning this champion must be that they had enough confidence to nullify the star player of Team CT, Cat Eye.

“Will Team Shanghai select Vayne…?”

Vayne could not possibly be the first pick. That would just be plain trolling.

Team Shanghai’s first pick was Jax, Grandmaster of Arms. This champion was great in mid to late-game. All he needed was a little extra farm during the early game and he would shine brilliantly as the game progresses.

The champions pick proceeded speedily and soon, the champions at the earlier sequences for both teams had been decided.

This time, the camera once again focused on Qiu Shenping. The greatest suspense of this match so far was whether Qiu Shenping would go for his favorite champion after being openly challenged by the opposing team.

Sweat droplets started to bead Qiu Shenping’s forehead. He was still awfully nervous. His hand was on the mouse and moved purposefully but the pointer on the computer screen did not shift as much.

Ding!!

After the hum, the portrait of Vayne appeared abruptly on the big screen!

“He has selected Vayne! Qiu Shenping goes for his strongest hero without a doubt. Team Shanghai is not backing down from Team Liaoning’s provocation, as they say, challenge accepted! Now we have the chance to watch the hero that made Cat Eye famous, live in-action, with our very own eyes!” Qi Qiao said and smiled.

This match that combined viewers from various platforms—including internet streaming, TV broadcasts, and smartphone live feeds—could easily hit millions. The moment Qiu Shenping selected Vayne, countless LoL enthusiasts who had been glued to the screen were astonished by the bold selection, and their eyes opened wide.

Certainly, a great number of professional players were also taking note of such a cut-throat match. Those elite ADC players who would only bring out their best in a major competition (like LPL) must be sporting a delighted grin right about now. For instance, Asmodai from Team Daemon, who was watching the live stream in his team’s training base.

” As ¹ , this Cat Eye is trying to show off his Vayne in front of the true master, hahaha!” Zheng Bin, his head full of yellow hair said, laughing.

“He has what it takes. This player named Cat Eye is pretty skillful and deserves all the hype,” Asmodai replied.

“Really? Then I should spar with him sometime in the future.”

“That will only happen if he manages to enter the LPL,” Asmodai retorted.

“True that, hahaha. By the way, someone was on the phone looking for you just now. Have you replied?” Anubis interjected.

“Done that.”

“Who was on the phone?”

“A student from Shanghai University. She invited me to visit their university’s E-Sports Club.”

“How strong could a group of university students possibly be? Boring.”

“I have accepted the invitation.”

“Are you serious!? You must be thinking it’s a date. What a jerk.”