Rise

arm and asked, “Lin Feng?” She bit her lips.
He looked at her.
She had to continue now.
“Was Roundy always this nervous? When you were playing with him, I mean.”

“Mhm.
He was.” Lin Feng nodded.
“You see, Fatty is a coward at heart.
He stresses out over nothing and always worries that he’ll screw things up.
The pressure that comes with a big event like Worlds is just too much for him.
He collapses under it.”

Tang Bingyao cupped her hands over her mouth and blew a warm breath into them.
Then she placed her hands over her ears, trying to beat the cold night air.
She looked back up at Lin Feng and asked, “So did he always tilt this badly? Or did he have it better under control back then?”

“No.
He didn’t tilt back then.” Lin Feng shook his head.
He turned to Tang Bingyao and smiled, “Back then he had us.
When he got stressed, we were there for him.
Always.
He had real friends who looked out for him.” He grinned as he thought back to Season 1 Worlds.

Sponsored Content

Lin Feng remembered how stressed out they all were when they arrived in London.
They were the only Chinese team at Worlds.
They carried the weight of an entire region on their shoulders! The fans at home were expecting big results, but those fans were at home.
They weren’t at the event.
Many players of the team were traveling outside of China for the first time in their lives.
They were in a strange place, where they didn’t know anyone.

The teams from Europe and North America had fans everywhere, recognizing them on the streets and cheering for them in the arena.
Lin Feng and his team only had themselves.
They could only look to each other for support.
Whenever they felt helpless, lost, angry, or frustrated, they would turn to their teammates.
Their friends.
And they would fight through it together.
They would come out of it stronger as they battled their way through the tournament! And when they couldn’t sleep the night before a big game, they would explore the streets of London.
Together, as a team.
Because they were a team, even when they were hollering in the empty streets like a bunch of idiots.
They did everything together as a team.

“WE WILL BE THE CHAMPIONS! NO TIME FOR LOSERS!”“NO ONE CAN BEAT US! WE WILL BE THE VERY BEST!”“WE’LL SHOW THOSE EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS WHO THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD IS!”

They would sing and yell and have a good time.
Laughter was the best medicine! By venting their worries with their teammates, their worries suddenly didn’t seem all that scary anymore.
The burden felt smaller when they shared it with their teammates.
Together, there was nothing they couldn’t do! They would charge at any obstacle as a team and crush it together!

However, Fatty had none of that right now.
He didn’t have a team.
The KG that appeared at Worlds was little more than a group of five individually strong players.
Players who didn’t stand up for each other.
Players who weren’t there for each other.
Players who only worried about doing well themselves.
And from the looks of it, the coaching staff was just another unit of individuals.

Lin Feng stopped thinking about the past and halted his step.
His stomach felt like it was tied up in knots.
He bit his lips as he looked down at the pavement, anxious.
Fatty wasn’t just anyone.
Fatty was God Roundy! He had achieved so much in his career and was supposed to be the star player on KG’s roster! This brought a ton of unwanted stress with it.
Everyone in China expected him to carry every game he played.
Their expectations were like shackles to Tian Tian, locking him down.
He needed his friends or a support system to break free from this and show everyone how good he was.

“You can always try calling him,” Tang Bingyao said.
Everyone had a phone these days.
It shouldn’t be much of a problem.
“Just hearing your voice should help him a bit, right?”

Lin Feng’s eyes went wide as he froze for a moment.
Then he turned to Tang Bingyao and started shaking his head.
“No no no! I can’t do that! It’ll only make things worse! He’ll only start stressing more!”

Sponsored Content

Tang Bingyao looked Lin Feng in the eyes.
The frantic look in them revealed how full of shit he was.
“You’re lying again, Lin Feng.
It doesn’t look good on you.”

“I-i’m not! Really! You have to believe me!” Lin Feng replied.

Tang Bingyao curled her lips.
“That didn’t sound convincing one bit.”

✹

It was the second day of the Season 5 League of Legends World Championships.
Group A and Group B had their second round of matches.
The Chinese teams had to play three games.
Hand of God would play two games, the first against Korea’s Fate and the second against Europe’s Gold, while KG would play one game.
Their opponent was North America’s Flash.

Hand of God showed a strong performance with one win and one loss, making the Chinese fans proud.
They started the day with the loss.
Fate was just too strong.
They meticulously outplayed HoG in every stage of the game and closed it out in the 32nd minute.
There wasn’t much to say about it.
HoG showed that they were trying, but it wasn’t enough.
The fans could understand this.
Fate had an Emperor.
This was an acceptable loss.
In the second game, however, Hand of God made their fans really happy.
They completely destroyed Gold! What Fate did to them in the first game, they did to Gold!

Then there was KG, the team on full tilt.
They had clearly not dealt with their problems from the day before.
The team was playing like a nervous wreck.
Nothing they tried worked.
Flash toyed around with them.
It was a match that really didn’t belong at Worlds.
The players from KG looked completely out of it.
They even looked a little bit happy when Flash finished it at 35 minutes into the game.
If it went on for any longer, that would only be more suffering for KG.

With this loss, KG’s chances of making it out of the group stage started looking bleak.
There were three more games to be played, but it was already almost out of their control.
If they wanted to make it through to the next round, they would have to win all their matches from here on out.
This was a task that seemed impossible for the current KG.
The camera zoomed in on Tian Tian, the supposed star player of the team.
His expression said it all.
He looked very worried, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

Please go to https://www.novelupdates.cc/Rise/ to read the latest chapters for free