SITS CH22

Chapter 22: Playoffs

Shen Man stood on the balcony, smoking a cigarette.

Having just parted from his mother—and likely never seeing her again for the rest of his life—theoretically, he ought to feel sad.

Yet his emotions were as hollow as his eyes; he felt nothing, let alone grief, not even a stir of feeling.

The weather was clear today. ACE’s base was located in the suburbs, free from light pollution, where lifting his eyes revealed a scattering of sparse stars across the vault of heaven.

With the cigarette between his lips, Shen Man suddenly heard someone call his name. Turning his head, he saw a silhouette stepping out of the darkness.

It was actually Xu Zhouye.

Xu Zhouye seemed to have just returned from outside, his hair soaked through, smiling brightly like an adorable big dog. Keeping one hand behind his back, he walked up in front of Shen Man.

“Why are you standing out here smoking?” Xu Zhouye asked. “Isn’t it hot?”

Shen Man said, “It’s alright.” A calm mind keeps one cool; it wasn’t overly hot.

Xu Zhouye asked him again, “What are you thinking about?”

Shen Man thought about it: “I’m thinking about how to get Yan Cao and Qin Sang to break up.”

When he said this, both of them laughed. Xu Zhouye chuckled, rocking back and forth, when suddenly he extended his hand—a bouquet of lovely, pristine white daisies appeared before Shen Man: “For you.”

“Just picked them up on the way back,” Xu Zhouye said. “Only cost ten yuan…”

As he spoke, his eyes quietly gazed upon Shen Man, his pupils reflecting Shen Man’s figure in full. Earnest and devout, like a believer making a prayer before a deity: “Shen Man, I hope you will always be happy.”

Shen Man took the flowers.

“Always being happy is a bit difficult,” Shen Man lowered his head, gently fidgeting with the petals with his finger. “But right now, I’m pretty happy.”

Xu Zhouye’s eyes curved into crescents.

The two chatted for a while before Xu Zhouye went back to shower and wash up. Shen Man returned to his room as well, finding a plastic bottle to arrange the little daisies inside.

The adorable blossoms looked entirely out of place in a room so bare it held almost no personal belongings.

Yet Shen Man liked them very much.

Saturday’s match between ACE and TKR was the most heavyweight showdown of the entire playoffs.

The league had begun building hype days in advance, with promotional clips of Shen Man and Qin Yixing alternating across official stream broadcasts. Tickets to the venue were scalped to exorbitant prices. The day before the match, Zhao Rui crept stealthily up to Shen Man’s side: “Captain, if you have an extra family ticket, spare one for me, will you?”

Shen Man asked, puzzled, “Where is yours?”

Zhao Rui grinned sheepishly: “Sold it.”

Shen Man: “…” You really are a genius.

“How was I supposed to know family was coming?” Zhao Rui pleaded for mercy. “Captain, please, please!”

Shen Man shot him a glance, opened his drawer, pulled out a ticket, and handed it over. These were family tickets issued to every player; he had practically never used his, so giving it to Zhao Rui was fine. But the question was…

“Where did you even get family from?” Shen Man asked.

Zhao Rui stammered without giving a straight answer. Shen Man: “…Zhao Rui, don’t let me see news on Weibo trending about you getting scammed out of eight hundred thousand yuan by an online date.”

Zhao Rui said, “No such thing, no such thing! Captain, nobody cares about me at all; only when you date does it hit trending!”

Shen Man: “?”

Zhao Rui chuckled, hastily took the ticket, and beat a retreat.

The outcome of this match against TKR would determine who claimed the Summer Championship title.

Everyone was on high alert, prepared for battle.

On the team bus, Liu Shishi was somewhat anxious, rubbing his hands together relentlessly. Glancing at Shen Man sitting beside him and Xu Zhouye next to Shen Man, he muttered, “Xu Zhouye, this is your very first finals match. Are you nervous?”

Xu Zhouye said, “It’s alright, I guess.”

Shen Man sat beside him, currently resting with his eyes closed and headphones on.

“You’re truly not nervous?” Liu Shishi pressed.

Xu Zhouye thought for a moment, figuring that claiming not to be nervous at all was a lie—it wasn’t like he was a corpse. He said, “Nervous.”

Wearing headphones, Shen Man reached up, pulled one ear cup off, and consoled his little Carry Jungler in a soft voice: “Don’t be nervous. If you get killed by a jungle monster again, it won’t be easy to jump ship next season.”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Xu Zhouye found it quite funny as well. The clip of him being solo-killed by a creep had already successfully landed in the HCC’s Top 1 highlights of the season—unfortunately, in the bloopers category.

“I’ll put in the effort this time,” Xu Zhouye declared. “Strive to die a little later.”

The bus arrived at the venue, surrounded everywhere by passionate fans. The atmosphere of the finals was indeed nothing to scoff at. Looking out through the bus window, it was Xu Zhouye’s first time seeing this many people.

Fortunately, the organizers were well-prepared; security guards had already cordoned off a path below, clearing a route so they could smoothly reach the arena.

As usual, Shen Man was the first to step off the bus. The moment he walked out, fervent cheers erupted around them, chants of “ACE” and “SLOW” ringing incessantly in their ears.

It was motivation, but also pressure. Play well, and they were your sweet, adorable fans; play poorly… forget it, better not contemplate that alternative.

Once inside the inner venue, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

“It’s like this every time we play TKR,” Zhao Rui wiped the sweat from his forehead, muttering, “The pressure is suffocating.”

Due to the historical bad blood between TKR and ACE, fans from both sides were rather hostile toward each other. Back when ACE performed poorly and couldn’t win, so be it, but who could have foreseen that this season they would suddenly rise like a dark horse and go toe-to-toe with TKR.

Now there was something on the line. In esports, everything else was secondary; results were the sole ultimate objective.

Lose a single match, and you could be ridiculed for three months straight.

“Heads up, everyone,” the coach clapped his hands. “Get in the zone, prepare to take the stage.”

After the host finished warming up the crowd, it was time for the players to take the stage.

Wearing his oversized team jersey and clutching his keyboard, the moment Shen Man—as ACE’s captain—stepped onto the stage, the audience erupted into a tidal wave of ecstatic cheers.

Simultaneously, TKR, represented by Qin Yixing, entered the stage as well. The deafening roars of cheering fans seemed to shake the entire arena.

“ACE, ACE, ACE!”

“TKR, TKR, TKR!”

The synchronized chants served as the opening ceremony to a carnival.

Game 1: BP Phase.

Having suffered at Xu Zhouye’s hands before, TKR was clearly well-prepared this time. They had rigorously studied ACE’s tournament matches down to the players’ daily ranked practice, banning two strong meta Junglers and one Marksman.

Shen Man locked in his Marksman first and began configuring his build.

The coach was communicating with Xu Zhouye to decide which hero to run.

“Still nervous?” Shen Man asked through his headset.

Xu Zhouye shook his head, even finding the leisure to joke: “Captain, if we lose, will we make it out of the arena alive?”

Shen Man scoffed, “Don’t worry. They’ll definitely beat me first. While they’re beating me, you guys just run.”

Everyone laughed.

Xu Zhouye shook his head: “Then I’d rather stay and get beaten together with you.”

Shen Man said, “Yo, how touching. So what are you playing?”

Xu Zhouye said, “Something tanky.” He locked in a standard utility Jungler—a meat shield named Horn Mountain.

Shen Man nodded.

The game began, and the players maneuvered their heros out of the fountain.

“Nine will definitely camp bot this game,” Shen Man knew Qin Yixing’s playstyle inside and out. “Don’t push the wave.”

Zhao Rui said, “Got it.”

As the premier face of the HCC, for Qin Yixing to reach where he was today, he naturally possessed qualities unattainable by ordinary players. His macro awareness and mechanics were both first-rate; when it came to controlling game tempo, no one in the entire HCC could surpass him.

Shen Man quickly felt the pressure.

Qin Yixing was playing Leap Girl this game—an assassin Carry Jungler whose ultimate dashed straight into the backline, posing a catastrophic threat to Marksmen. He knew full well how formidable Shen Man’s Marksman was, and precisely because he knew, he chose to smother Shen Man to death during the laning phase, refusing to grant him any breathing room to scale.

Few could withstand Qin Yixing’s pressure, which was why Shen Man’s bot lane had historically endured a rather miserable time.

Yet at this moment, Xu Zhouye became a steadfast shield protecting Shen Man.

Whenever Qin Yixing showed his face, Xu Zhouye’s Horn Mountain appeared alongside him as if possessing foresight.

Horn Mountain was a heavily armored female hero, lore-wise the Queen of the Mountain-Sea Tower. Bearing a shield in her left hand and a spear in her right, clad entirely in heavy plate with only a pair of blood-red eyes exposed, she boasted an indomitable physique. In early-game skirmishes, Horn Mountain raised her shield, blocking all crowd control from tricky angles and enabling Shen Man to sidestep the burst damage when Leap Girl plunged into the fray. He firmly sheltered the fragile Marksman behind his back.

By the mid-game, Shen Man’s Marksman successfully assembled his three-item core, entering his hero’s power spike.

“It’s over,” Qin Yixing felt a bad premonition. “He’s scaled up. Rubber, look for an opening.”

Rubber—Yang Shanhe—was piloting Cat Ghost this game, a pick with reliable hard crowd control. Their sole chance lay in Yang Shanhe finding a flaw in Shen Man’s positioning, using his dash combined with his ultimate to forcibly drag Shen Man’s Marksman into the crowd.

Yet that was far too difficult. Shen Man’s Marksman was famously renowned for slick positioning; finding a flaw in his movement was no easy task.

The situation remained deadlocked as both sides constantly probed each other.

At twenty-eight minutes, an opportunity suddenly presented itself. Yang Shanhe spotted Shen Man near the edge of a bush, seemingly disconnected from his teammates—a rare, golden opening! Without hesitation, Yang Shanhe dashed forward, locking Shen Man down with his ultimate crowd control.

Hooked him! Yet Yang Shanhe only had time to celebrate for a single second before watching Shen Man instantly cleanse the CC with an active item, followed by landing a tracking mark on a nearby jungle monster to activate a recast dash, leaping right over his head back to his teammates’ side… The entire sequence unfolded in under a second, so fast that even the casters failed to process it in time.

An exquisite escape on a sliver of health.

With their crucial skill instantly cleansed, TKR lost their biggest trump card. ACE reacted swiftly, turning around to counterattack immediately: Zhao Rui hurled a hook that clamped onto Yang Shanhe, locking him dead in the center of the fray.

Yang Shanhe’s fragile Mage health bar melted in an instant.

Qin Yixing still wanted to finish the kill, charging straight for the low-health Shen Man. But Xu Zhouye’s hero acted as Shen Man’s most dutiful bodyguard, standing like an impassable wall, using his body to block Leap Girl’s path entirely—not a single skill could bypass him to touch Shen Man.

With their Mage dead and their formation torn to shreds, most crucially, Shen Man—the pivotal carry—remained alive on low health. Standing behind Xu Zhouye, three basic attacks shredded Qin Yixing down to critical health.

Defeat was sealed.

“Two for five, two for five!! Rubber is bursted down!” Caster 1 casted passionately. “Seeing SLOW get locked down earlier, I thought he was dead for sure, but to watch him escape right under their noses?! God-tier reflexes!!”

Caster 2 nodded repeatedly: “They can push to end! Let us congratulate ACE on taking Game 1!!!”

Taking Game 1 was a splendid start, and the whole squad breathed a sigh of relief.

After a ten-minute intermission, the draft for Game 2 began shortly.

“They’re cranking up the intensity, the pressure is immense,” Qin Yixing said he felt pressured, yet a smile played on his lips.

Yang Shanhe muttered, “This fest really has something. His synergy with SLOW’s playstyle is insane…”

Qin Yixing said, “Really? I don’t feel that way.”

Having spoken, he locked in his hero for Game 2.

Glancing at the screen, Yang Shanhe hissed softly. Qin Yixing had actually picked the Burner.

“He actually brought it out,” the coach said, holding his notebook, frowning. This hero had indeed surfaced in high-elo ranked, but being a newly released hero, its optimization was still in the early stages.

Given the coach’s understanding of Qin Yixing, for him to dare bring it out meant the guy had drilled it extensively.

“What should we do?” Zhao Rui asked.

“Let’s play it safe first,” the coach ultimately opted for a balanced draft—neither exceptionally flashy nor prone to blunders.

With the drafts locked, the match began.

The Burner chosen by Qin Yixing was a hard-carry Jungler tailored perfectly to his style. He wouldn’t yield a single jungle camp to his teammates and taxed lane waves whenever possible; while lacking reliable crowd control, his astronomical damage output and teamfighting prowess compensated for it completely.

In early-game skirmishes of two or three people, they couldn’t withstand the Burner’s burst damage at all. One didn’t even need to be crowd-controlled; merely stepping on the little embers he scattered would instantly incinerate a third of your health bar, leaving heros crippled right out of the gate.

Shen Man and Xu Zhouye died simultaneously, collapsing almost on the exact same patch of ground. After dying, they looked at each other in tacit sync.

This exact moment was caught by the broadcast observer.

Watching this, the casters couldn’t help laughing: “Are they asking each other, ‘Why did you step on the fire and burn me to death too?'”

The other caster chimed in: “It really seems like it, hahahahaha! Glancing at each other at the exact same time.”

Over the voice comms, the two were still talking. Shen Man said, “What’s the call on that wave?”

Xu Zhouye: “Uhm…”

Shen Man said, “Let’s not stand so close next time.”

Xu Zhouye replied aggrievedly, “Fine.” He had passed by Shen Man, who was recalling on low health, failed to spot Qin Yixing’s ember hidden under the tower, stepped right on it, and both of them perished together.

Xu Zhouye said, “Then I’ll stay farther away from you next time.”

Shen Man: “…Mm.”

Listening to their exchange, Zhao Rui reminded them faintly: “If someone clips this conversation out of context, it’ll be ironclad proof of you bullying Xu Zhouye again.”

Shen Man: “Tch.”

Xu Zhouye: “…” Will this drama ever end?

Game 2 took a dire turn; ACE’s composition was torched to cinders by Qin Yixing’s Burner. Once a teamfight erupted, whoever was struck by his ultimate evaporated on the spot.

Without any surprise, ACE’s Nexus shattered, leading into Game 3.

During the intermission, the stream chat didn’t cease, rapidly scrolling across the screen:

[Know why Nine’s Burner can beat ACE down so hard?]

[Because the Burner specifically incinerates real couples]

[Doesn’t fest get beaten by slow every day? How are they lovebirds again?]

[What the fuck do you know, even if you put your face right in front of slow he wouldn’t bother slapping you]

[fest looks pretty much like a paper tiger to me. The second Nine gets serious, he gets smashed to bits]

[Oh please, getting thrashed like that in Game 1 and you still have the nerve to bark?]

[If you ask me, Nine just held back in Game 1 out of respect for his former teammate]

[Then why don’t you hold back two more games and send ACE straight to Worlds?]

…

Fortunately, competing players couldn’t read the chat during matches; otherwise, glancing at the screen mid-game would inevitably shatter one’s competitive dao heart.

ACE and TKR were truly matched in strength, trading blows back and forth in an extraordinarily thrilling contest.

Even the casters couldn’t help praising them, remarking that even the loser could still be considered a winner.

Yet nobody wanted to be that “winner.”

In Game 3, ACE opened by target-banning Qin Yixing’s scorching Burner, securing another point with a rock-solid composition.

In Game 4, TKR evened the score once again.

They had finally arrived at the decider match.

The match demanded high-intensity focus from every single player; playing four games in a row was no easy feat.

Desiring victory in every game, giving everything in every game, blossoming with dazzling brilliance in the collision—such was the meaning of competition.

The battle anthem for the BO5 decider sounded.

During the break, Shen Man lifted his personal thermos and took a sip of water.

Zhao Rui was drinking mineral water. Catching sight of Shen Man’s thermos, he asked, “What good stuff are you drinking?” Carrying it in a thermos, no less.

Shen Man swallowed a mouthful: “Traditional Chinese medicine.”

Zhao Rui: “…” Ge, why are you drinking Chinese medicine again?

Shen Man said languidly, “The weather is hot. Purging internal fire.”

Zhao Rui: “…Is it bitter?”

Shen Man said, “It’s alright, pretty similar to an Americano.”

Zhao Rui saw with his own eyes that steam was still rising from the thermos, instantly sending shivers down his spine. Drinking an Americano wasn’t terrifying; what was terrifying was a heated Americano—taking one sip of that concoction would give him nightmares for half the night.

Beside them, the coach and coaching staff were locked in heated discussions over the draft for Game 5.

The players, however, remained relatively relaxed, exchanging a few words now and then.

Xu Zhouye sat beside Shen Man, having remained quiet for most of the time. Shen Man looked toward him: “What, nervous?”

Xu Zhouye shook his head, pausing for a moment: “Not nervous.”

On the contrary, he was extraordinarily excited.

Being able to stand atop the peak alongside Shen Man was the dream he had yearned for most, and right now, the opportunity lay right before his eyes.

There was no reason in the world not to seize it.