Did The Captain Catch Up With The Coach Today [Esports] Chapter 11
byChapter 11
Wei Xiao had been tired all night, relying entirely on the excitement of meeting his idol to stay awake. So the moment his body touched the bed, sleepiness swept over him like a tsunami, instantly plunging him into a deep slumber.
Because he slept so soundly, he didn’t hear the 8 AM alarm and slept until past 10 AM.
He woke up, hurriedly dressed, washed up, and went out, knocking on the training room door. He quickly heard the familiar voice: “Come in.”
Wei Xiao opened the door and walked in, expecting to see the FHM team already training, but only Wen Shi Yu was in the room.
Wen Shi Yu was lying on the sofa against the wall, his legs crossed and resting on the armrest, one hand supporting his forehead, looking slightly uncomfortable.
“Morning, Brother Wen, what’s wrong? Headache?” Wei Xiao approached him.
Wen Shi Yu replied with his eyes closed: “How dare you ask me? Who set an 8 AM alarm, dragged their coach out of bed, and then didn’t wake up themselves?”
“Ah, about that, I’m sorry, I’ll delete the alarm right now!” Wei Xiao immediately pulled out his phone to delete the alarm.
He hadn’t expected Wen Shi Yu to be so sensitive to sound that an alarm he himself hadn’t heard could wake him up through two doors.
“Actually, you could have kicked my door open, dragged me out of bed, and beaten me up,” Wei Xiao said.
His tone was so serious that Wen Shi Yu wasn’t sure for a moment if he was joking or serious.
“I’m not that violent.” Wen Shi Yu sat up from the sofa, rubbed his eyes, and yawned. “This is my fault. I forgot to tell you yesterday, we usually get up at 12 PM for lunch and start training at 1 PM. Matches are usually in the afternoon and evening, sometimes lasting past midnight. This is to adapt to the competition schedule.”
“I see, I’ve noted that.” Wei Xiao changed his alarm to 12 PM, then asked, “It’s only a little past 10 AM now, aren’t you going back to bed to catch up on sleep?”
“I am, but I didn’t want someone knocking on the door before 12 PM, finding no one, thinking they’d been tricked, and filing a lawsuit against me, did I?”
“I wouldn’t… Ah, you came in early just to wait for me?”
Wei Xiao was flattered once he realized.
Before meeting Wen Shi Yu in person, he had thought, based on his image on screen, that Wen Shi Yu would be cold and aloof. He hadn’t expected him to be so gentle in real life.
Although his expression didn’t show gentleness, he was woken up, yet instead of blaming Wei Xiao, he got up early and waited in the training room to inform him of the training schedule—if this wasn’t gentle, what was?
But his gentleness made Wei Xiao feel even more guilty: “My fault, I didn’t ask clearly beforehand. By the way, we exchanged chat IDs, you could have just messaged me.”
“Too lazy to type,” Wen Shi Yu replied. “I wasn’t fully awake, couldn’t press the keys properly.”
There was a hint of emotion in his words, and Wei Xiao chuckled, finding the real-life Wen Shi Yu not only gentle but also a little cute.
“Let me treat you to coffee,” Wei Xiao decided to atone with food. “Milk tea is fine too, or cake, whatever you like.”
Wen Shi Yu thought for a moment and didn’t stand on ceremony: “Coconut latte, large, light sugar.”
“Okay,” Wei Xiao agreed, unable to suppress his smile.
He liked Wen Shi Yu’s tsundere attitude, and he also liked Wen Shi Yu’s frankness.
It was strange; these were two completely opposite personalities, yet why did he like both?
Wen Shi Yu ultimately didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, he accompanied Wei Xiao for a walk near the internet café and had an early lunch.
On the way back, Wei Xiao bought six coconut lattes. Not only were the FHM team members included, but the internet café owner, Wen Ban Xia, got one too.
When buying them, Wei Xiao thought that since he was new, it was proper to treat everyone to something, ensuring everyone had a good impression of him.
But after buying them, he felt the nature of the drinks had changed, so he asked Wen Shi Yu: “Is there anything else you want to eat? I’ll buy it all at once.”
Wen Shi Yu took a sip of his latte, licked his lips, and replied without turning his head: “Haven’t thought of anything yet. Later.”
Wei Xiao caught the movement of him licking his lips and suddenly thought he resembled a cat.
Do normal people lick their lips after drinking?
Wei Xiao took a sip of the latte in his hand and licked his lips.
Wen Shi Yu caught it in his peripheral vision and felt slightly offended?
Is he mimicking me?
Wei Xiao didn’t realize his small action had been noticed and responded nonchalantly: “Okay, let me know when you think of something. By the way, while eating just now, I searched for some earplugs that are quite effective. If inserted correctly, you can become as deaf as a deaf person, unable to hear a single sound. If you need them, should I share the link?”
“I don’t like sleeping with things stuffed in my ears,” Wen Shi Yu replied.
“Alright.”
“Send me the link.”
“Oh… Pfft.”
…
At 12 PM, the FHM team members gradually woke up. They went out individually to find food, and after filling their stomachs, they came to the training room on the third floor. Seeing the lattes on their desks, they were all pleasantly surprised.
Before they could ask, Wen Shi Yu said, “Brother Wei bought them for you.”
He called him “Brother Wei,” but Wei Xiao was actually the youngest among them.
However, their ages were only months apart. Wen Shi Yu, whom they called “Brother Wen,” was only 23 this year.
“Brother” was more a recognition of skill than age.
But the FHM team members had their own ways of addressing him.
Zhou Miao Miao: “Thank you, Brother To Be Continued!”
Tang Li: “We should call him Captain now. Thank you, Captain!”
Lu Qing Yang: “Captain Wei is the best! Long live Captain Wei!”
Qin Jin Yao: “Thanks, bro. I’ll treat you to barbecue later!”
Four people, four different ways of addressing him. Well, that works too.
In the afternoon, they trained individually. At 9 PM, everyone searched for a room named “Show of Force,” entered the password six 6s, and prepared to face DIE.
Only after entering did they realize the room was public—no password was needed for spectators.
Wei Xiao couldn’t help but ask the opposing team: “It’s a scrim, aren’t you afraid of exposing your strength by having public spectators?”
DIE’s captain was the Marksman, and the commander was the Support.
The captain, the Marksman, replied to Wei Xiao: “Oh, I forgot to tell you, we plan to play five consecutive games with you. Only the first game is public. The coach made us do it. We don’t know why, and we dare not ask.”
Wei Xiao looked back at Wen Shi Yu, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa with a laptop on his knees.
For this game, Wen Shi Yu planned to watch from the spectator perspective to facilitate post-match analysis.
Wei Xiao looked back at the screen and asked the opponent: “So, are you planning to play seriously or just hold back?”
“Of course we’re playing seriously,” the DIE captain replied. “Didn’t you see the room name? Show of Force. Who’s holding back against you?”
“Oh, you’re bold,” Wei Xiao smiled. “Anyone would think you were the ones who beat KPI last night.”
“We don’t know what crazy idea our coach had… *Slap!*”
The DIE captain was interrupted, seemingly hit, and when he spoke again, his tone shifted: “So what if you beat KPI? It’s no big deal! If we beat you, we’ll have technically beaten KPI too!”
“Was he just hit?” Zhou Miao Miao exposed him mercilessly.
“So it’s not just our coach who hits people… *Slap!*”
Tang Li was also interrupted mid-sentence, slapped by Wen Shi Yu, who had appeared behind him at some point.
A burst of laughter came from the other side of the headset, and the FHM side couldn’t help but laugh too. For a moment, the match voice chat was filled with cheerful energy.
Then, the first game started. It lasted 23 minutes, and DIE won.
What happened was that DIE, for some unknown reason, immediately banned Xing Guang, completely throwing Zhou Miao Miao off.
Zhou Miao Miao said he only knew Xing Guang, and he really only knew Xing Guang. His second choice, Blade Shadow Dancer, he hadn’t fully mastered the ultimate skill. Once the Starry Rift opened, neither the enemy nor his teammates knew where they were. The opponent was confused, and so were his teammates.
But his blunder alone wasn’t enough to lose; the bottom lane also struggled.
The melee Marksman, Overlord Blade, was suppressed by the opposing Void Hunter, who had an extremely long range, sniping them with every shot.
Wei Xiao ganked the bottom lane once at the start, only killing the Support and letting the Marksman escape. Unable to establish an advantage, he had to abandon the mid and bottom lanes and focus on freeing up the Top Laner.
He successfully helped Qin Jin Yao gain an advantage in the top lane, pushed down the top outer turret, and together they invaded the enemy jungle, killing the DIE Jungler and stealing some jungle resources.
However, a team centered around a Marksman is truly different from a team centered around a Jungler.
After DIE’s Top Laner and Jungler were shut down, they chose to sacrifice themselves, giving all the lane and jungle gold to the Marksman.
While everyone else was struggling at levels 11–13, DIE’s Marksman was already level 18, fully equipped with six items.
By the 20-minute mark, he was basically killing randomly with his eyes closed; no one could get close to him.
Even though Wei Xiao desperately secured the last hit on the Elder Dragon, it couldn’t stop FHM from being wiped out.
DIE pushed all the way to their base with the Dragon minions.
After this game, DIE changed the room to private, disallowing spectators.
On the FHM side, Wen Shi Yu didn’t rush to analyze the match but first asked Wei Xiao: “What are your thoughts?”
“Competitive play is so different from Solo Queue.” This was Wei Xiao’s biggest takeaway after the game. “In Solo Queue, no one sacrifices themselves to this extent just to help a teammate get ahead.”
When he threw out an ultimate and the opposing Jungler rushed in to take the hit for the Marksman, he was stunned—what kind of loyalty and disregard for life is this!
If this were Solo Queue, Wei Xiao would suspect the opposing Marksman was a succubus.
“Do you know how to break the situation?” Wen Shi Yu asked.
“Focus on killing whoever is carrying.” Wei Xiao replied. “KPI’s Jungler carried, so killing the Jungler was fine. But for DIE, the Jungler is just a utility player. If we can’t kill the Marksman, it gets impossible the later the game goes.”
He paused, then added: “But it’s best if only one of the mid or bottom lanes collapses. If both collapse, the pressure on me is huge.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my fault!” Zhou Miao Miao clasped his hands and apologized profusely. “I shouldn’t have used my ultimate randomly. After I use it, I don’t even know where I am!”
“Thanks, I don’t know either.” Wei Xiao had been transported by Zhou Miao Miao’s Blade Shadow Dancer’s “Starry Rift” right into the opposing Mid Laner’s ultimate, escaping only after frantically smashing his keyboard, breaking out in a cold sweat.
But the strange thing was, he wasn’t angry at all.
Perhaps it was because this was the team Wen Shi Yu had assembled. Since Wen Shi Yu decided to sign Zhou Miao Miao, he must have some merit.
After hearing Wei Xiao’s answer, Wen Shi Yu turned to Zhou Miao Miao and said lightly: “A magic Assassin in the first difficulty tier, you’ve only practiced her for two days, less than 30 games in total, and you can already execute combos. That’s not bad.”
Zhou Miao Miao was overwhelmed with guilt, and being praised made him feel even worse: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I will intensify my training and master her before the league! By the way…”
He paused before speaking again: “Since the next game won’t allow spectators, can I play an Assassin in the mid lane?”
Xing Guang was his first choice among Mages, but not his first choice in his hero pool.
As a player who transitioned from Jungler to MID, he was never proficient in Mages, but in Assassins.
That’s why, after transitioning to MID, he immediately challenged high-difficulty magic Assassins like Xing Guang and Blade Shadow Dancer.
But if a magic Assassin can go mid, why can’t a physical Assassin?
However, Wen Shi Yu’s answer was: “No. Don’t get carried away in scrims. Keep practicing your heroes. Don’t use your ultimate on your own; listen to the Captain’s command.”
“Is that okay?” Zhou Miao Miao looked at Wei Xiao.
Wei Xiao smiled at him: “Listening to the coach is always right.”
Fine, let him try to see if he can kill the opposing carry even with a completely collapsing mid lane, achieving a true carry!