The gaming competition finally began.
Currently still preliminaries, scheduled for after 9 PM every evening—one game decides everything. Win and advance, lose and get eliminated, until the top ten teams are determined for offline competition.
When Lin Nan passed by the main athletic field after evening classes, he discovered that the rostrum had already begun being set up as a gaming competition venue. Three huge screens stood left, center, and right on the platform, with many esports club students busily working and hanging banners for the venue.
"Prize money and prizes for this event jointly sponsored by Jincheng Ramen Shop on the second floor of the cafeteria, Zhigen Zhidi Pizza, and I-Come!"
"Sincere thanks to Yinghua Computer City for sponsoring all computer hosts and screens for this event. For gaming, use Yinghua computers!"
Lin Nan was stunned. During high school he'd also had various competitions—mainly sports meets and top ten singers contests—but this was his first time encountering a sponsored competition.
This instantly made gaming seem much more prestigious, though the venue setup was rather crude. There were no soundproof booths like in competition livestreams, just three big screens and two rows of tables.
"I heard this competition will have Douyu livestreaming." Chen Yao put his hands in his pockets, glanced at the setup on the athletic field, and explained: "Next Tuesday is the King of Glory competition first, the Tuesday after that is League of Legends, and supposedly they want to hold a PUBG competition too, but there aren't enough computers."
"So high-end." Lin Nan sighed, feeling his blood starting to boil.
"However, we're not even sure we can pass tonight's preliminaries."
True enough.
Lin Nan pursed his lips. Although League of Legends had declined in popularity recently, the various teams participating still totaled over thirty, including quite a few experts, and supposedly some had recruited off-campus assistance.
After all, this wasn't an official school-organized competition like the top ten singers contest—the rules weren't that strict.
Returning to the dorm, Lin Nan quickly ate some chocolate to replenish energy half an hour before the match. He'd had PE class this afternoon and was so exhausted he nearly passed out. Dong An had also brought his laptop to their dorm and was currently chatting with Chen Yao about long-legged girls at school.
"During the big lecture today, that girl from the next class over has seriously long legs!"
"I'm not a leg enthusiast," Chen Yao said disdainfully.
So Dong An pulled out his phone and showed Chen Yao a secretly taken photo.
"Holy shit! Really long!" Chen Yao's attention was immediately captured.
Xiong Da continued hugging his phone playing his game, while Tu Junhui eagerly crowded toward Chen Yao's side, then similarly let out male exclamations of admiration.
Lin Nan was dismissive.
My legs are definitely no worse than that girl's!
He grumbled somewhat jealously in his heart, but the next moment Lin Nan suddenly slapped his forehead.
Why am I comparing legs with a girl! This is all Lilith's fault!
The competition wouldn't start for a while yet, but Lin Nan and his group had already logged into their accounts and entered the custom room, ready and waiting for the match.
Lin Nan realized he and his roommates seemed a bit out of sync. Last semester their dorm often had late-night jokes, sending various GIFs and images in the dorm group chat. But this semester, whether because his feminization made everyone cautious or these men had suddenly changed their nature, the evening talk sessions had unknowingly been canceled.
Even worse, these three seemed to have formed another group chat without him, giving him a feeling of being isolated by his roommates, which was quite uncomfortable.
Xiong Da also curiously put down his phone to crowd over and look at the girl. The several of them muttered and discussed something in low voices. Lin Nan felt he should integrate more into this dorm, so he also scurried over.
But as soon as he approached, Chen Yao suddenly put away his amazed expression and said seriously: "The match hasn't started yet. How about we practice a couple solo rounds?"
"???"
Tu Junhui's lecherous smile also became serious: "We should practice solo. This round I'm determined to crush the enemy top laner!"
Wait, are you guys conspiring to hide something from me?
Dong An took back his phone. Since Lin Nan wasn't familiar with him and particularly disliked this guy's constantly casual attitude, he could only awkwardly return to his seat.
So why was he suddenly being excluded?
Wasn't it supposed to be that only girls' dorms had cliques, while boys' dorms usually solved problems with little fists?
Lin Nan sighed, but saw that the referee was already confirming participants.
He quickly replied with a "1," then reminded the other four in the dorm: "It's starting."
"What's the rush," Dong An sat beside Chen Yao. The already small desk looked particularly cramped with two big men squeezed onto it.
This was just the first round of preliminaries. Tomorrow, the day after, there would be other preliminary rounds until ten teams were determined for offline competition. Lin Nan felt that with their configuration, even without serious training, entering offline shouldn't be too difficult.
For this preliminary round, their opponents were a casual team with average Gold rank called "No Feelings Team," while Lin Nan's dorm team name, after a fair vote where four agreed and Lin Nan alone objected, was ultimately decided to be called "My Family's Nan Nan Is So Cute Team."
"Is My Family's Nan Nan Is So Cute Team ready?"
This line appeared on the game interface's public screen, embarrassing Lin Nan until his face turned red.
He couldn't imagine when it came to offline competition, when their five members walked on stage and the host enthusiastically shouted the introduction: "Before you are the five members of My Family's Nan Nan Is So Cute Team."
Just thinking about it felt extremely shameful.
Lin Nan was once again lifeless. After this competition, his name would probably become a regular on the school forum. Even though this was just preliminaries, people on the school forum had already become suspicious about their team name and some had started searching for who exactly "Nan Nan" in the team name was.
Who knows why these college students could be so idle.
Since it was preliminaries, this competition would only have text commentary on the school forum. Lin Nan took a moment to look and found that even though they'd just entered the preparation phase, the text commentary post already had dozens of comments.
"It's starting!"
Suddenly they entered the ban/pick interface, and Lin Nan immediately cast aside all the thoughts in his mind.
For that thousand yuan prize money, endure it.
He held back his energy, thinking about how this thousand yuan could let him eat well.
Lobster, king crab, bluefin tuna!
Clearly a coastal person, but in his lifetime he'd only eaten Boston lobster at banquets. Now that the computer was bought, his goal naturally shifted to satisfying his appetite.
"Play seriously, don't get abused by a bunch of Gold players." His emotions grew tense.
Dong An said disdainfully: "Just that group of noobs, I could take on ten of them myself."
The game started, and Dong An gave away first blood.