I just turned eighteen, and you want me to make a comeback?

The static suddenly amplified, like some kind of emotion exploding in the telephone line.

Yuan Shen's hand holding the phone trembled slightly, and the sunset in front of the spring suddenly stopped moving. Images from the 2018 Demacia Cup uncontrollably flooded his mind: back then, as a trainee, he was hiding backstage watching RNG train, and Uzi came out wiping his sweat and casually handed him a half-finished bottle of Red Bull: "Kid, don't miss any last hits."

"Well, I will."

Yuan Shen's voice was nasal, and the air conditioner in the training room suddenly hummed, masking the sound of his gasping.

He looked at the notification on the screen that the enemy Kai'Sa had a pentakill, and remembered what Uzi had said: "An ADC can only deal damage if they are alive." But now, the man who had once etched those words into his bones had fallen to the enemy Xayah's hook on the stage of the quarterfinals.

Uzi twirled the titanium steel ring on his ring finger, a model of the championship ring customized for Season 8, now worn smooth with a shallow scratch on the inside. "They say the four-protect-one strategy is a shackle," he suddenly chuckled, his voice like sandpaper scraping across the surface, "but what's the point of tactics if there aren't even any worthwhile players to protect?"

As snowflakes pelted against the glass outside the window, he recalled those controversial matches—when Xiaohu was in a slump, he used Kai'Sa to flash into the enemy team and instantly kill their carry; when Letme was caught out, he defended the tower alone for five minutes until his teammates came to his aid.

"When things are going well, Jian Zihao is awesome; when things are going badly, he's a mad dog; when things are going badly, he's a Uzi."

Yuan Shen suddenly murmured. This phrase had circulated in the CPL for eight years, but at this moment it brought tears to Uzi's eyes. He remembered the S7 finals at the Bird's Nest, the moment the crystal exploded, his hand gripping the mouse trembling, and the commentator's screams still echoing in his ears: "Uzi flashes forward! He's about to make a move!"

“Yuuki,” Uzi took a deep breath, “We need to be careful with the Flash Wolves’ jungle-support synergy. Snake’s Rakan is 0.7 seconds faster than yours, and GodV’s LeBlanc…” His voice suddenly choked. The tactical analysis that should have belonged to him was now being transmitted to another young man via telephone.

On the other end of the phone, Yuan Shen had already opened the tactics board.

He quickly jotted down every detail Uzi said, the nib of his pen leaving ink dots on the paper.

On the screen, Flash Wolves' match replay was playing on a loop—Swordsman's Rakan initiated a perfect team fight at the dragon pit, and GodV's LeBlanc instantly killed the enemy AD, causing the chat to explode. "Brother Zaozi," he suddenly interrupted, "I'll take your share..."

"I know."

Before hanging up the phone, Uzi took one last look at the poster on the wall. It was his official photo from his S8 championship victory, and the words "Royal Never Give Up" at the bottom of the poster had faded somewhat. He got up and turned off the overhead light. Moonlight streamed through the blinds, casting stripes on his tactical notebook. The Demacia Cup ticket stub tucked inside the notebook had its edges creased and frayed.

On the other side, Yuan Shen pressed his phone against his heart.

His teammates gathered around in the training room, falling silent when they saw his reddened eyes. "Tomorrow," he said, pulling up the Flash Wolves' vision distribution map, "we'll focus on Snake's warding habits. They usually control the Rift Scuttler at 2:15, we..."

At 3 a.m., the lights at the Flash Wolves' base were still on. Snake was reviewing RNG's defeat when he suddenly pointed at the screen: "Mata's vision control setup with Zyra in the last game was completely different from what Uzi said."

Wei Shen took off his glasses and wiped them: "Uzi must have given Yuan Shen a lot of advice."

Kasa twirled the tiles on the tactics board and suddenly said, "Then let them see that the legacy of CPL is not just talk."

Outside the venue on match day, fans lined up holding light sticks. RNG fans handed out Uzi's merchandise to every passing Flash Wolves supporter, saying, "Help Uzi fulfill his dream."

Inside the venue, Yuan Shen repeatedly checked the mouse sensitivity.

In the locker room, he secretly placed a bottle of Red Bull—the same flavor that Uzi had given him years ago.

When the team compositions appeared on the big screen, commentator Miller's voice trembled slightly: "Flash Wolves have picked Kai'Sa! Yuan Shen has chosen Kai'Sa! This is Uzi's signature champion!"

Suddenly, the CPL fans in the stands chanted in unison, "Uzi! Uzi!" Amidst the roar, Uzi's voice came through Yuan Shen's earpiece: "Remember, an ADC can only deal damage if they're alive. But sometimes..."

He paused, then said, "When it's time to draw your sword, don't be a coward."

The moment the crystal exploded, Yuan Shen's Kai'Sa unleashed a perfect ultimate ability in mid-air.

He saw the output percentage in the upper right corner of the screen—41.2%, exactly like Uzi's famous moment back then.

The camera panned across the stands, where a girl wearing an RNG team logo was crying her eyes out, yet still frantically waving her light stick. Meanwhile, in the club's training room, Uzi took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his jersey sleeve. The snow outside had stopped sometime earlier, and moonlight shone warmly on the "Royal Never Give Up" banner.

Even in the current situation, Flash Wolves can still create their own legend.

After hanging up the phone, Yuan Shen also watched the match between the two sides.
And they began to study their future opponents.
ROX, although a newly formed team, boasts players whose skill level in each position is absolutely not to be underestimated.

The only possible advantage Flash Wolves might have over ROX now is experience.

For this confrontation, Yuan Shen has prepared himself mentally for facing difficulties.

But in any case, he believes that the Flash Wolves will ultimately win.

Before the Flash Wolves game, many CPL commentators and League of Legends anchors began to cheer for the Flash Wolves on social media.

Although in RNG's game, the commentators gave them enough face and encouraged them well in advance.

But this final result left all CPL viewers disheartened.

No one expected RNG's journey to end in this way. No one anticipated that Mata, the mastermind behind team fights, would make so many unbelievable plays. But now everything is set in stone. Even with immense resentment, all they can do in the end is patiently serve their country. Perhaps time will heal all wounds, but at least for now, everyone's emotions desperately need calming.

Faker's knuckles turned white as he gripped the tactical board, and the iconic wolf head embroidery on the cuffs of his black jersey was visible.

On the large screen in front of him, Flash Wolves' match replays were playing on a loop—the footage of GodV's Azir accurately pushing the sand in a team fight, and Snake's Alistar flashing to knock up three people was repeatedly frozen.

"Their mid-jungle synergy is 0.3 seconds faster than that of LCK teams."

ROX's coach circled the Dragon Pit on the map with a marker, "Especially Yuan Shen's Kai'Sa, the timing of her entry into team fights..."

Before he could finish speaking, the door to the lounge was pushed open, and SKT's support player, Wolf, walked in carrying a stack of peripherals, with a World Championship commemorative badge hanging on his backpack.

“We’ve brought the vision control plan for S6,” he said, plugging the USB drive into the computer. A dense array of ward coordinates immediately appeared on the screen. “Flash Wolves usually control Baron Nashor at 14 minutes, and at this point…”

Meanwhile, the Flash Wolves' base in Shanghai Hongqiao was brightly lit. The training room echoed with the clatter of mechanical keyboards; Karsa spun his chair, and ROX's hero pool was marked on the tactical board with red and blue tiles. "Smeb's Kennen is a problem,"

He pointed at the data chart with a laser pointer, "His Thunderstrike accuracy is a whopping 87% in the last three games." Snake suddenly stopped what he was doing, and Yuan Shen's voice came through the headset: "Coach, I'd like to request leave this afternoon." Yuan Shen took off his headset; Kai'Sa's champion selection screen glowed blue, creating a strange echo with the desktop wallpaper—

Kobe leaped backward in the twilight of Staples Center, his jersey number "24" bathed in the golden light of the setting sun. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he said to the club manager pacing behind him, "I want to go see a CBA game."

These words caused the air in the entire training room to freeze instantly.

Karsa spun his chair, the red and blue tiles on the tactics board still showing the simulated layout against ROX; Wei Shen's LeBlanc spun in place on the screen, her skill cooldown bar spinning idly. The manager pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, the glare obscuring his expression: "Tomorrow is a do-or-die match..."

"Let him be."

Casa's voice drowned out the keyboard sounds.

The legendary jungler stroked his SteelSeries mouse, the click of the metal scroll wheel particularly clear. "Before last year's MSI finals, I went fishing by the river for two hours." As he stood up, a gust of wind stirred, causing the sticky note on the tactics board to tremble slightly. It read "Break the mindset" in red pen.

The dome of the Mercedes-Benz Arena hangs high, and a large LED screen plays CBA promotional videos.

Yuan Shen huddled in the back row, his black baseball cap pulled low, the popcorn bucket in his arms already cold.

The crowd erupted in cheers as Guangdong's foreign player, Weems, made a crossover dribble and, as the defender stumbled, his fingers unconsciously tapped on his knee—a rhythm strikingly similar to Snake's feint before Thresh's hook.

As the opening whistle blew, Yi Jianlian called for the ball in the low post. The captain of the men's basketball team leaned against the defender with his back to the basket, his shoulder first dropping to the left, but then suddenly turning to the right to jump and shoot.

The moment the basketball swished through the net, Yuan Shen's pupils constricted—wasn't Wei Shen's use of LeBlanc to bait out ROX's mid laner's Flash last week exactly this kind of "feint before real" game?

He took out his phone and typed in the memo: "Fake move cost = skill cooldown time / benefit ratio".

The middle-aged man next to me suddenly slapped his thigh and roared, "They've changed the security checkpoint!"

Yuan Shen looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the Shanghai team's small forward was unguarded beyond the three-point line. This scene reminded him of a practice match three days ago, where ROX's Peanut had taken advantage of a defensive switch by the Flash Wolves, using Lee Sin to steal the dragon from the dragon pit by passing through the wall.

He drew a simple map of the jungle movement on his phone, circling the words "blind spot" repeatedly.

When the game entered the second quarter, the Guangdong team used a full-court press tactic.

The players, like agile cheetahs, wove a net beyond the three-point line.

Yuan Shen's breathing quickened—how similar this was to the "jungle blockade tactic" designed by Karsa! He remembered Karsa saying: "Controlling the map is not about occupying it, but about making the opponent afraid to step in."

The sense of pressure on the basketball court right now is a true reflection of the battle for control of the Summoner's Rift jungle.

The stadium lights suddenly dimmed, and the cheerleading performance for halftime began.

Yuan Shen stared at the tactical board projection on the floor, where red and blue arrows crisscrossed in a net-like pattern.

He recalled the Flash Wolves' post-game analysis video, where Wei Shen's timing of using LeBlanc's stopwatch and the change in rhythm during Yi Jianlian's breakthrough both subtly aligned with the economic principle of "risk and reward."

As the game entered its decisive moment, Shanghai's foreign player Fredette dribbled the ball forward.

He dribbled between his legs repeatedly, then suddenly stopped and took a three-pointer—the image of the defender missing his target overlapped with the scene of Snake being tricked into using Flash by Kai'Sa's E skill in a practice match.

Yuan Shen sat bolt upright, oblivious to the popcorn spilling down half his trouser leg. He frantically typed in his memo: "Esports skill ballistic prediction ≈ Basketball shooting feint reading."

As the final buzzer sounded, the Guangdong team players embraced in celebration. Yuan Shen stood up, clutching his phone; the screen already held over twenty tactical notes.

The moment he stepped out of the arena, the night wind ruffled his clothes, and the lights of the Oriental Pearl Tower in the distance shimmered in the rain, creating a dazzling display of esports colors. He knew that tomorrow, in the match against ROX, his Kai'Sa would trace a new trajectory across Summoner's Rift, with the arc of Kobe's fadeaway jumper.

He typed rapidly in his phone's memo app, "The pick-and-roll play in the CBA is just like our mid-jungle 4-man gank on the 2-man?" The camera cut to the coach's whiteboard on the sidelines, where red and blue arrows crisscrossed, reminding him of the jungle resource control map drawn by Casa.

The middle-aged man sitting next to him suddenly slapped his thigh: "They left someone open on defense!" Yuan Shen's heart skipped a beat—didn't ROX's support player, GorillA, often make fatal mistakes in blind spots?

In Seoul, ROX's training room has been transformed into a tactical melting pot.

Faker personally demonstrated the laning phase with Ryze, the CS counter on the screen showing 12.3 perfect CS per minute. "Flash Wolves' Wei Shen is used to pushing the lane and roaming before level 6," he turned to ROX's mid laner Kuro, "You need to use Ryze's mobility to counter..." Wolf suddenly interjected, "Their bot lane duo likes to use Kai'Sa and Rakan, the weakness of this system is..."

On the subway late at night, Yuan Shen flipped through an e-sports industry report. The glaring contrast in the data made him frown: global basketball events had 45 billion viewers annually, while the peak viewership for the S-series finals was only 6000 million.

“Traditional sports have a cultural barrier built up over a century,” he wrote in his memo, “but esports’ immediacy and sense of participation are the key to breaking that barrier.” His phone suddenly vibrated, and Snake sent him a message: “Brother Zaozi just gave Kai’Sa a voice chat and gave her some advice on item builds.”

Outside the venue on match day, CPL and LCK fans confronted each other across a police cordon.

The Flash Wolves' silver-gray team logo fluttered in the cold wind, while ROX's purple support flag featured a roaring tiger.

Inside the arena, Yuan Shen stroked the custom keycaps on his keyboard, a gift from Uzi, engraved with the word "Carry." During the warm-up, he pulled up a CBA game video—Guangdong team's foreign player Weems' off-ball movement perfectly matched the route he had envisioned for Kai'Sa's entry onto the court.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the S7 quarterfinals match between Flash Wolves and ROX is about to begin!" Commentator Miller's voice ignited the crowd. Yuan Shen took a deep breath, and on the screen, Kai'Sa spread her wings in front of the fountain.

He recalled the moment he made that fadeaway jump shot in the basketball game—all the tactical analysis and the advice from his seniors turned into instinct at that moment.

On the ROX coaching bench, Faker clutched the SKT team flag. When the Flash Wolves' mid-jungle duo secured First Blood at 3 minutes, he heard the Korean commentator's exclamation behind him.

In a corner of the stands, a girl wearing an RNG team logo gripped a Flash Wolves light stick tightly in her hand—Uzi once said, "The glory of CPL is everyone's medal."

At 28 minutes into the game, a team fight broke out involving the dragon.

The static suddenly amplified, like some kind of emotion exploding within the telephone line. (End of Chapter)