(Keywords: professional esports league, gender-gap charm, mid-jungle mind games, skill-focused sweet romance)
Jiang Li’s Rift ID, “Pear-Shaped Wrench,” is a nightmare in high-ranked games. Her mid laner can toy with three opponents beneath their own tower using all kinds of skills, and her devastating ultimate always lands squarely on the enemy AD’s head. Because she plays recklessly and fights fiercely, the livestream chat is always saying, “That hand speed has to belong to some burly guy playing for her.” She never pays them any mind.
Then one night, during a ranked match, she gets cornered by the top-ranked jungler in China, “Zoe,” at the Dragon pit. Her opponent uses an R-Flash to escort her out of the encirclement, then suddenly lowers their voice and asks, “With plays that wild, are you a little brother, or a little sister secretly using her older brother’s account?”
Jiang Li is just about to throw out a skill and counterattack when she gets a private message from Shen Zhuoye, captain of team TOW: “Go pro. I’ll manage your minion waves, guard your blue buff, and stick with you for life.”
At her first team practice, she takes off her voice changer and adjusts her headset, only for the support player to spot her and cry out in shock, “No way! Wrench is a girl?!”
The keyboards in the practice room fall silent. Shen Zhuoye spins around in his gaming chair and taps the rune page on her screen. Every champion in the Precision primary tree has a note marked with a little dimple. “Would some big tough guy hide a girlish touch in his Conqueror runes?” He grins. “I had my eye on this ‘fake tough guy’ with great footwork ever since you used Star Maiden to steal my blue buff over the wall.”
Later, TOW’s mid-jungle synergy becomes the stuff of legend in the Rift.
She handles the flashy plays and dominates mid lane. He takes care of killing anyone who calls her a “tough guy” until they’re nothing but a cannon minion beneath her tower.
I'll come if you smell it [you taste it carefully]