Chapter 26: An All-Star Escort!
The honor of being the first King did not affect Jiang Ming’s campaign to top the national server rankings, but naturally, if he could claim all the accolades, that would be even better.
The first match, held around two in the afternoon, was won quite smoothly. Some of the night-owl grinders had probably already gone to sleep, and many who had planned to sabotage Jiang Ming hadn’t anticipated that he and YY would come to an agreement so quickly and start the climb to the top with a live broadcast that very afternoon.
“666, one hundred victory points now!”
“The strongest King, the strongest King, charge ahead, Ah Ming! The Ming family army is the fiercest!”
“Damn, streaming live in broad daylight? Old Jiang, you’re something else. Bro, you’re in sync with me, so think hard with me.”
“To be fair, JM is a nighttime streamer and also a college student, so his routine is terrifyingly regular.”
“Hey upstairs, the college kid’s eating your rice. Our schedule is perfectly regular, okay?”
“JM, hurry and queue up! The neighboring pro players’ stream rooms are all online, looks like they want to snipe you.”
Snipe me?
Reading the barrage of comments, Jiang Ming frowned.
Thanks to the big moves from YY, the professional players and other high-ranking players on different platforms certainly had some reaction, but he hadn’t expected them to come this fast.
Indeed, from the perspective of professional players, letting him blatantly snatch the first King title in Region One and stream his ascent would be a blow to their pride.
“Brother Ming, we’re queuing too!”
“Hopefully we get to queue with Brother Ming. Damn it, want to snipe our boss? Didn’t even ask us.”
Several members of his NXG team messaged him on WeChat.
Ever since Riot launched Season 3 and updated the ranking system, Jiang Ming had assigned everyone the task of climbing to King rank in Region One.
It was a strict requirement—mandatory.
One, to prepare for signing a team streaming contract with Huya, which was reorganizing with YY in advance, to secure better terms; two, to facilitate external promotion.
He certainly didn’t want NXG to be introduced on live broadcasts during the LPL main stage as just some diamond-level players from a random region.
High rank doesn’t guarantee pro skill, but if you can’t even reach a high rank, you definitely can’t go pro.
That famous nonsense about rank points being useless from some pig-headed player was best taken with a grain of salt.
GodV was able to dominate LeftHand, the second-best player in Korea, not because diamond two rank was overwhelming, but because he himself had the skill to reach that level.
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“YY platform boldly claims: Can a random King outclass professional players?”
“Who will claim the honor of being the first King and strongest player on the national server?”
“Pro players announce plans to snipe JM; many random Kings join the challenge.”
“The newly established Shark streaming platform offers a hefty bonus for topping the rankings; the title of LOL’s strongest King sparks a frenzy among players.”
Online, the industry was both impressed by YY’s sensitivity to shifts in traffic trends and stunned by the decisiveness of the executives behind JM’s climb.
Putting so many promotional resources behind one streamer—even at the expense of other platform streamers’ traffic—could they really recoup their investment?
Meanwhile, doubts about Jiang Ming’s ability were not baseless.
Discussions, initially confined to the WE fan forums, spread outward. WE fans found it utterly ridiculous to hype a random streamer as the country’s number one mid-laner, especially since he had never faced their world-class Card player. Dissatisfied, WE fans began leaving comments on various pro players’ social media and streams to undermine the claim that JM was the strongest mid-laner in the national server.
As for some random players who joined midway—some sought fame by putting down JM, others were bounty hunters, or simply aiming to increase their own rank.
“I made it into the queue!”
That day, countless viewers were glued to Jiang Ming’s stream. When he entered the draft pick mode lobby, everyone’s spirits lifted.
“Quick, quick, let’s see which streamers or pro players got matched.”
“No way, PDD and gogoing are here too!”
“Let me see, TheShy, Smile, Uzi all got in. Wow, can they all be on the same team?”
NXG’s basement.
“Who got in?”
“I did. It’s full of pros—they really came to snipe the boss.”
“No way, feels like the game company did this on purpose. Such a coincidence—boss is just one game away from King, and suddenly faces all these pros.”
“Not surprising. There are only so many high-rank players; the matchmaking naturally groups them together.”
“Didn’t any of us get in?” AD player Xu Jing felt a bit disappointed. He was watching WE’s full team stream on his browser, hoping to face off against the top AD.
“I got matched with Brother Ming!”
Suddenly, jungler Shi Zhenyu took off his headphones and told his teammates.
“Oh? Really?”
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“Nice, Shi. If you can protect the boss this round, promotion and raise are just around the corner.”
The others lost interest in queuing, some moving their chairs behind the jungler, others finding their teammates’ IDs to observe the game once it started.
Having the jungler in the same game was more helpful to Brother Ming than any of them entering individually.
Coincidentally, the mid and jungle on the other side were WE’s duo, MingKai and Ruo Feng.
(gogoing: Hi JM!)
(tabe: Got matched with JM, little dog, we’re lucky! JM, can you add me as a friend after the game?)
(JM: Hello both, I’ll add you.)
“What a classic storyline.”
Seeing the familiar IDs in chat, Jiang Ming shook his head.
Besides his own NXG jungler Shi Zhenyu, the top lane was OMG’s gogoing, and the bottom lane duo was Royal’s Uzi plus tabe.
On the opposing side, according to the viewers, except for top lane being IG’s PDD, the other four were all WE players.
“A real all-star match.”
Jiang Ming felt a headache coming on.
Not because he feared the WE four-man plus PDD’s top-lane combo—his own top, mid, and AD were all strong players. Even if the rest were randoms, as long as the jungler was on his side, winning this crucial game wouldn’t be too difficult.
The problem was, after this match, the brainless WE fanboys would probably hold a grudge against him in advance.
As the most fearsome force in the 2013 LPL, they had even forced some players to organize pressure-resistance forums just to counter them, demonstrating their notorious combat power.
“Ban Zed, ban JM’s Zed.”
On the red side, Smile quickly typed in chat.
As an AD player, he knew too well the threat a deadly assassin posed.
Ruo Feng was also an option to ban; if he wanted to play his signature Card, Zed would definitely be banned.
Knowing their own team’s tendencies, Smile, who had practiced but not fully grasped the assassin’s essence, wasn’t about to be dazzled by a few flattering words from fans into thinking he was invincible.
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