As a rookie player who had only played five matches in the LPL, Lin Fan wouldn't normally attract this much attention.
TL: LPL is League Professional League
He was just a nobody.
But the team he was on was Top Esports.
Top lane, mid lane, jungle, and bot lane—every single one of those players was world-class.
Not to mention that two of them had already lifted the World Championship trophy.
Yet the season opened with five straight losses.
Before the season, this ultra-luxury all-Chinese roster had been hailed as a galactic battleship. Even if they didn't start with five straight wins, their record should at least have been more wins than losses.
TES's current results were far below fan expectations, so every one of Lin Fan's plays was magnified.
He became the scapegoat for losing crucial matches.
For example, getting backdoored while ahead because vision around the base wasn't properly set up.
Marketing accounts seized on these points to stir up fan anger and generate traffic.
They might not have made a fortune, but the profits were still considerable.
As long as TES's losing streak didn't end, any attack on Lin Fan was considered justified.
Even late at night, forums and Weibo were flooded with new posts.
The noise was massive.
Of course, alongside direct attacks on Lin Fan, there was no shortage of sarcasm.
"Such a big organization, yet every position except support is a league superstar. Why are they unwilling to spend money on support?"
"Exactly. Building a luxury roster, but they won't pay for a proper support?"
"All of this is nonsense. To me, it's clearly a team coordination problem. Do losses really need to be pinned on the support?"
"I think JackeyLove's problems are actually bigger than Dine's. That bot lane duo is both top-tier at feeding."
"Does anyone seriously think the mid-lane turret statue has no issues? From start to finish, all he does is farm. At least JackeyLove dares to output in teamfights and fight when behind. I'll say it straight—if one of TES's double carries doesn't change, they'll never go far."
"Why haven't they replaced this support yet? Why haven't they replaced this support yet?"
"Did Dine save Guohao's entire family in his past life?"
"He uninstalled the game on stream, and JackeyLove still asked him to train together. Then he turned around and went to play PUBG?"
"This is obviously Weishen's disciple. Why did he come here to sabotage Top Esports?"
…
TES Manager's Office.
Guohao took quick, hurried steps and shoved open the office door.
As the team manager—especially of Top Esports—he was extremely busy.
The team's disastrous results had already left him frazzled.
And when he woke up that morning, Weibo had completely exploded.
This season hadn't seen a single word of praise so far—his feed was nothing but flaming.
It left him mentally exhausted.
The boss had poured in a huge budget this season. On top of that, the domestic double carries had even taken pay cuts to renew their contracts, all to chase results.
But the current situation was clearly spiraling out of control.
Thankfully, it wasn't all bad news.
Mark's signing process had fully passed review, and the league had completed his player registration.
That meant Mark was officially a member of Top Esports.
Thinking of this finally eased Guohao's tightly furrowed brow.
He'd come in early specifically to deal with this.
First, he needed to calm the fans and let them know the team wasn't just sitting around doing nothing—they were actively trying to improve.
Next, all they had to do was wait for Mark to arrive at the club, take a photo, and post it on Weibo to announce that Top Esports had a new support.
As for Dine… Guohao frowned slightly. What kind of nonsense had that kid pulled last night to cause such a stir?
"Have Luo Sheng come to my office." He picked up the desk phone.
…
"Lin Fan caused quite a scene last night. What exactly happened?"
As Luo Sheng entered the manager's office, Guohao wasted no time asking.
He knew about yesterday's internal meeting. Even though he hadn't attended, for Lin Fan to create such a commotion, it had to be related to that meeting.
Luo Sheng quickly replied.
At the end of the day, real power in the club rested with the manager.
Money meant authority.
A coach could be fired at any time, but as long as a manager didn't commit a fundamental mistake, they usually stayed.
"Yesterday was basically like that. I didn't even say much. He's always been like this—can't accept even a bit of criticism."
"Mm… let's handle it coldly. Mark will arrive at the club this morning. After some time, we'll demote him to the academy team. Dine's ability is still pretty decent. Cultivating a support isn't easy, and later we can sell him for a good price."
After all, every established support in the professional league was considered a club asset.
RNG's Ming. EDG's Meiko.
When a team decided to fully invest in developing a support, the contracts were massive.
A top-tier support could even be worth more than a mid laner—the traditional core position.
Because a support wasn't just an ADC's babysitter, but also the team's brain and tactical commander.
Back when RNG was first founded, if their support hadn't been Mata, they wouldn't have grown so fast—let alone winning the Spring Split outright.
The only regret was failing to achieve great results at the Mid-Season Invitational.
That was why Guohao still wanted to keep Dine around for now, polish him up a bit, and sell him for a good price to offset the club's huge expenses.
Their operating funds were already getting tight.
At least for now, he didn't have the face to go ask the boss for more money.
When Luo Sheng heard that Mark would be arriving at the club that very morning, his face immediately lit up with joy.
It felt like a top student transferring into the worst class.
But with TES currently on a five-loss streak and sitting dead last, calling it a bad class wasn't wrong.
Now that a support had arrived, they'd see whether Mark could connect these problem players together.
At least there was hope.
"Leave these matters to you. The team must show improvement. Otherwise, the two of us will be packing our bags and leaving," Guohao said seriously.
They'd spent a massive amount of money. If the losses continued, everyone—from manager to coach—would be gone.
The boss's money didn't grow on trees.
Nobody was an idiot who'd let you burn cash without results.
"No problem. This time, the team will definitely turn things around."
Meanwhile, Lin Fan had woken up and headed to the training room with everyone after breakfast.
As a familiar ding sounded, a new day's slacking task arrived.
"Task issued: As the ultimate slacking master, how can you not slack during work hours? Slack for eight hours."
"Reward: 100,000 in funds. Max proficiency Heimerdinger."
TL: Heimerdinger is defensive area control champion who uses turrets. Rocket Raccoon if he had a gramps that was blonde.
"Holy crap, this reward is insane!" Lin Fan practically drooled.
Definitely not because of the 100,000 funds—after all, as a pro player, hero pool came first.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup