Climbing the Ranked Ladder Again Today [Esports]

Quirky gaming commentator × popular pro player on a championship team

Lian Yi's hero pool is absurdly shallow: he only knows how to play support, and whether he can climb the solo queue ladder depends entirely on his teammates.

Shan An's hero pool is bottomless. He's a pro player in the bot lane, and no matter how bad his teammates are, he can carry the whole game.

One night, after Lian Yi had lost more than ten ranked games in a row, the matchmaking System finally took pity on him and paired him with Shan An. Shan An kept calling him "Little Fishy," and Lian Yi became his biggest fan from then on.

Lian Yi went to watch the match in person. "CLK is so strong! Tell me, how could they lose!?"

The match ended. CLK lost.

The livestream chat:

[Shut up, you esports jinx!]

[You jinxed your idol's team into losing.]

[How could you jinx the team you support?]

Lian Yi pretended to be innocent. "Who said I support CLK? Look closely. I'm holding the sign for the winning team."

The livestream chat:

[Holy crap... When did this kid sneak into the opposing team's section and switch his sign?]

[As long as you switch signs fast enough, your team never loses?]

After the match, Lian Yi shouted from the audience during the interview: "God An! I like you!"

Shan An kept smiling, doing his best to look calm. "Thank you to the fan holding a JHC sign for your support..."

Netizen 1: "Did he just succeed in confessing?"

Netizen 2: "Yeah, right. God An was just being polite."

The two of them started interacting more and more, both online and in person:

One day, Lian Yi visited the CLK team house and played duo queue during Shan An's livestream.

Fans: [Just friends.]

Then Lian Yi went to another CLK match in person and helped a fan get Shan An's autograph.

Fans: [Good friends.]

Lian Yi went to a post-match dinner with CLK.

Fans: [Normal. He just tagged along to a team dinner.]

Lian Yi and Shan An were photographed shopping, with Shan An feeding him a bite of something.

The fans gave up: [When are you two going to make it official?]

Reader's Guide:

1. The bottom starts out as a gaming streamer and later returns to school as a college student, while also becoming an esports commentator. The later part takes up less of the story.

2. The characters aren't based on real people. This is a light, sweet romance where everything goes smoothly for the leads, in life and in love.

3. The game's version in the story differs from the current real-world version.

Theme: There are more choices in life than the conventional ones.