Chapter 60: Brothers, My Drafting Was Solid, Right?

Two days later, on February 13th, at 19:00, at Super Brand Mall in Shanghai.

IG faced off against Snake.

Just as the scrims concluded, Lin Ruo, too busy to even eat, bit down on a straw to sip his cola and sat in front of his computer to live-stream the match.

He changed his stream title, vowing to ruthlessly critique the match today.

Three days without a meal, all for this single battle.

Thousands of trolls caught the scent and swarmed in.

[Is the streamer going to give a serious commentary or a funny one?]
[I am not watching if he doesn't start any drama.]
[If it's boring, I'm heading over to the official broadcast room.]
[He literally said it's a ruthless critique, of course it's meant to grab eyeballs.]

The bullet chat was flooded with troublemakers stirring the pot. Lin Ruo raised an eyebrow and said with a righteous expression, "Of course I am providing an objective and fair evaluation of the match, absolutely without a shred of personal bias."

Hearing Lin Ruo's words, the bullet chat was filled with skepticism; not a single person believed him.

Sure enough, the very next second, Lin Ruo validated their thoughts.

"Oh, today's two guest commentators are quite heavyweight figures: Teacher PDD, who excels at three strikes of the peasant's fist and throwing snakes, and Comrade Xiao Xiao, who loves eating duck necks in bed. Both are legendary IG alumni."

[That sudden drama completely blinded me.]
[“Objective and fair.”]
[Just tell us if it's true or not.]

Ailuoli, having just finished eating, walked into the training room and jumped in surprise. "Where are there snakes? What duck necks? Don't tell me it's rat heads."

Realizing it was Lin Ruo speaking, Ailuoli leaned over. "What kind of memes are you talking about? How come I've never heard of them?"

"What memes? I'm not memeing at all. I'm just objectively and publicly introducing today's match guests," Lin Ruo replied, shaking his head.

Refusing to believe it, Ailuoli sat back down at his desk and quietly began searching online.

After reading the search results, he burst into laughter, rocking back and forth.

"Good evening, audience friends at the venue and behind the live streams, welcome to today's match."

"I am the host, Remember. Today we've also invited two guest commentators to join us."

"Hello everyone, I'm PDD."
"Hello everyone, I'm Xiao Xiao."

Inside the bustling arena, at the Snake player booths, Zhu Kai stood calm and composed behind the team.

"Lads, no nonsense today, we must take this win, alright?"

Seeing their head coach looking rather confident, Crystal哥 was momentarily puzzled. "Zhu Kai, did that EDG AD carry really pass down a secret manual on how to deal with IG?"

"What secret manual could there even be? I came straight out of IG, if there was a secret manual I would have mentioned it long ago," Zzitai said, looking unconvinced.

Zhu Kai smiled without a word, quietly flipping open to page 77 of his new notebook, which read:

"Operation Save Private Zhu Kai, Plan One: Identify the opponent's weak points, lock onto the target Kid, and force him to play Lee Sin. An aging pro playing Lee Sin lacks the mechanics to keep up with his game sense. Once the game stagnates, if he can't get carried, he will eventually just int."

Closing the notebook, Zhu Kai straightened his back with a sudden surge of confidence.

As the draft began, Snake made their target crystal clear by banning three jungle champions: Elise, Rek'Sai, and Rengar were all sent to the penalty box.

At the commentator desk, Remember spoke up, "We see Snake banning three consecutive junglers targeting the jungle position. This is forcing IG to pick a jungler first—if you don't pick one, I will."

"Most of the strong junglers are basically gone, especially the Rek'Sai that Wanderer frequently plays. That leaves Lee Sin and Kha'Zix. By comparison, Lee Sin definitely has a stronger early game advantage, and Wanderer doesn't really play pure damage junglers like Kha'Zix much," Xiao Xiao analyzed thoroughly, showing a deep understanding of IG.

PDD nodded along, "You can't hand Lee Sin over to SoFM either. His Lee Sin has been proven; his mechanics are phenomenal. Maybe Wanderer should just take it to deny them through a counter-pick ban."

Back in the IG player booths, Mafa zeroed in on the exact same choice: "Just grab Lee Sin, otherwise the enemy will take it."

Duke followed instructions and locked in Lee Sin on the first rotation.

"The enemy even banned Rek'Sai in the first three bans. Outrageous."

Kid grumbled, rolling up his sleeves.

It was his first time being targeted with three jungle bans in the opening phase, and he hadn't expected Snake to look down on him so much.

"Are you kidding me? Even though I don't play him often, don't tell me you guys actually think I can't play Lee Sin? Back in the day, I was one of the top three pillars of the Chinese server."

At the Snake player booths, Zhu Kai flipped open his notebook once again to study it.

"Operation Save Private Zhu Kai, Plan Two: The import is the big boss. If SoFM wants to invade, everyone tags along. As the saying goes, blocking is worse than dredging; once the big boss is happy, he might just carry a game."

"Operation Save Private Zhu Kai, Plan Three: The red side has a counter-pick. I won't pick until their mid laner picks. Restrict Rookie, suppress him in the laning phase, and invading becomes much easier."

Feeling enlightened, Zhu Kai instructed the team to lock in Kha'Zix and Rumble on the first two picks.

If they wanted to invade, they had to secure the laning advantage. With Jayce banned, Rumble was undoubtedly the best choice.

Flandre locked in Rumble, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

"Zhu Kai, you finally figured out not to stare at the Three Almighty Tanks and actually picked a strong hero for me first. Not bad, I'm satisfied."

Zhu Kai patted him on the shoulder. "Good, then you better work hard to coordinate with SoFM and invade to take their gromp."

Flandre: ......

"Operation Save Private Zhu Kai, Plan Four: The bot lane lacks strength; they cannot just survive the laning phase by doing nothing, or they will inevitably implode. Show appropriate strength to ensure we have the breathing room to get through the early game."

Seeing the enemy lock in Varus and Zyra, Zhu Kai furrowed his brow. "You guys pick bot lane first, what can you play to make the laning phase more comfortable?"

Upon hearing this, Crystal哥 immediately raised his head. "Without Miss Fortune, I can manage just fine playing Lulu in lane. Facing Zyra won't be too miserable."

Snake ultimately locked in Ashe and Lulu.

Finally not needing to play a champion who just watched the wave crash under his tower, Crystal哥 grinned so wide his two big white teeth showed.

"Zhu Kai, did you actually learn something during your studies, kid?"

Zzitai, who had secured the counter-pick position, also started smiling brightly. "It's great that I get to pick last. I'm going to style on the enemy this game."

The final two picks for IG were Ryze and Kled.

Snake locked in Taliyah.

The draft phase for both sides concluded.

"Taking Kled as a supplementary pick ensures the laning phase won't be too miserable. Much better than picking a tank just to absorb pressure," Remember said, highly approving of this selection.

"With Syndra absent, Snake picking Taliyah at the end makes it clear that they don't want Ryze making any moves in the early game. Looks like they did their homework; Snake is playing hardball this game."

Xiao Xiao revealed a hint of worry while joking, "I have to say, Zhu Kai's draft today was decisive and precise. It was completely pre-arranged, and every step forced IG to react, not at all like someone masquerading as a coach."

A wave of laughter rippled through the audience.

Ever since the "masquerading as a coach" meme went viral, quite a few netizens had dug up Zhu Kai's first three drafts and found that they were indeed absolute garbage.

Some even unearthed the fact that Zhu Kai used to be a regular IG fan and community member.

Though the truth of it was unknown for a moment, the meme spread far and wide.

As the match began, Zhu Kai hurried back to the backstage area after the handshake and quickly posted on Weibo to farm engagement.

"Lords, as a fake coach, my draft this time wasn't too bad, right?"

Watching the comment count skyrocket, Zhu Kai felt wonderful inside.

If they could win the match, he would start a live stream tonight. Whether his reputation got cleaned up didn't matter—he would have farmed massive clout either way.

If he lost his job, transforming into an internet celebrity in the future didn't sound like a bad or impassable path after all.