All-Round Mid Laner

ranked at the bottom of Group S would be demoted to Group A.
The bottom two teams in Group A would be demoted to Group B.
And the top two teams in Group A and Group B would be promoted.

Then, every team's season score would be set back to zero.
The second round would begin.
At the end of the second round, the bottom two teams in Group S would again be demoted.
The top two teams in Groups A and B would be promoted.

As for the six teams remaining in Group B at the end of the second round—they would all be eliminated.

In the third round, the teams competing in the domestic playoffs would be determined.
The top four teams in Group S would become the winners bracket of the playoffs, while the fifth and sixth team in Group S, along with the first and second team in Group A, would become the losers bracket.

This tournament structure was somewhat complex, but Ye Shaoyang understood it very quickly.
It was essentially an elimination system in which the bottom of the pack would be cast out.
Many competitive sports shared similar tournament structures.
The weakest teams in the superior group would be demoted to the regular group, the strongest teams in the regular group would be promoted to the superior group, and so on…

Each group was under a great deal of pressure.

What plans did Tianhuan's coaching team have? Ye Shaoyang looked towards Coach Lin expectantly.

Lin Feng said, “Our coaching team has looked into the other teams.
After a thorough discussion, we've decided to let our second-string team play in the preseason games.
We aren't aiming for Group S.
If we can get into Group A, that'll be good enough.
If we really can't make it into Group A, then slowly climbing up from Group B will do.”

Everyone exchanged a look of surprise with one another.

Tianhuan had been beaten bloody in Group S last season.
They had been demoted in the first round, and they barely managed to cling onto their position in Group A in the second and third rounds.
This season, they weren't even going to Group S?

Coach Lin continued, “Entering Group S is only an achievement that sounds nice, but it presents a big problem—our Team Tianhuan has just seen a huge change in our lineup.
Plus, S10 has brought big changes to the game.
If we can't keep up with the pace in Group S, it's very possible that we'll become one of the first teams to be demoted.
This will be a huge hit to our players' morale.”

He looked towards Ye Shaoyang and Cheng Xing, and added, “Especially for Shaoyang and Cheng Xing, who are newbies without any experience in major games, directly diving into matches with fierce opponents in Group S would be difficult.
If we lose many games in a row, the whole team's fighting spirit will be negatively affected.”

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

Alright, that made sense.
From the perspective of the coaching team, it really was better for Tianhuan not to try to get into Group S that year.

Ye Shaoyang was a 'newbie', and Cheng Xing was also a newbie.
Plus, Qu Jiang had just made an emergency switch from mid laner to support.
How could Tianhuan, in its current state, face off against the fierce foes of Group S? If they went on a losing streak in their first round-robin tournament, if they were demoted to Group A from there, then the players' mental states would collapse.
It would be difficult for them to regroup from there even if they tried.

Fighting spirit was also a huge factor in the outcome of a game.

When a new player lost, they would start to doubt themselves.
They would lose their confidence and fall into a cycle of feeling weak and inferior, causing them to lose more in games down the line.

On the contrary, if they entered Group A or Group B, the pressure on them would be a little less at the start of the season.
For one thing, this would give them time to swiftly improve their skills and team synchronicity.
For another, winning many games would give the players more confidence.
It was a much, much better outcome than going on a losing streak.

Ye Shaoyang could understand why the coaches made this decision.

Rising from Group B to Group S was much better than being eliminated entirely.

Lin Feng said, “The preseason games will take place over the course of one week.
Starting players, take advantage of this time to work on your teamwork.
I want the five of you to open up five alt accounts and play on the international server as a group of five.
Get used to the new rhythm of the new update as soon as possible.
You have to commit these timing changes to memory.
Once the preseason games conclude and our regular season group is formally decided, you guys will emerge in a brand new formation for the regular season games.”

Everyone nodded to express their understanding.

Coach Lin turned to Yan Bin and said, “As rookies from the second-string team, you guys rarely get chances to play against gods like Fang Zhengqing and Xu Zhuo.
You'll run into many extremely fearsome foes in these preseason games.
Regardless of the final results, play your best—exercise your personal play styles and skills.
That'll be enough.”

Yan Bin instantly nodded.
“Understood!”

Coach Lin continued, “Okay.
Dismissed.
All of you, go practice.”

The five members of the starting lineup got on the international server and created new alt accounts with randomized letters and numbers as their IDs.
Then they grouped up for ranked games.
When a group of five queued together, it was very easy for them to run into other groups of five—which meant other professional teams.
A new season was beginning, so it was no surprise that there were many other professional teams sharpening their edges on the international server.

Ye Shaoyang discovered that the changes to the game after the recent update made the rhythm of each round closer to that of LoL from his previous world.
There was a lot that a team could do in the 1.5 minutes of time before the first buffs and minions spawned.
They could establish visibility across the map, or they could explore the jungle, or they could target one of the three lanes.
Even if all they managed to do was make the enemy mid laner waste a flash, it would make their match-ups much more relaxed down the line.

During this time, everyone familiarized themselves with the new rhythm of the game.
If Captain Chi was willing to place his faith in him…

Ye Shaoyang would also be fit to lead.

 

Time passed very quickly.
On January 15th, Season 10 of the official Gods War professional league formally began.

All major teams started to post the official announcements and photos of the players on their roster.

In these official photos, every player glowed with determination and energy.
They were full of confidence as they looked forward to the new season.

Among these announcements, Team Tianhuan's S10 photo drew a huge amount of attention—

On the list of ten players registered by Tianhuan to play in the next season, there was one unfamiliar ID: Tianhuan-Lieyang.

And this new player was actually standing front and center, with the starting lineup!

The vast majority of teams had their star player or their captain take the center position.
Having a brand new player take the center spot was really unprecedented!

The five players on Tianhuan's starting lineup also seemed to be standing in a completely mixed up order.

The top laner, Tianhuan-Zhuhuo, and the jungler, Tianhuan-Shuoyue, were on one side.
Standing in the middle was the new player, Tianhuan-Lieyang.
To his side was Tianhuan-Fanxing, and off to the very edge was Qu Jiang—Tianhuan-Jiangshui.

Netizens were all mystified and confused by the order of this lineup.

[What's going on here? Who is Lieyang? He's standing in the center!]

Someone reminded the crowd—

[He's the omega newbie that Tianhuan spent five million yuan to sign.
Ye Shaoyang, ah~]

Everyone took a look at that new team promo photo, then went to look at the trade site again—the image really was a match for that handsome little omega ge.

Fans excitedly started to screech and shout.

[An omega! No wonder he's in the center!]

[This is the face of our handsome little omega ge? I'm in love, I'm in love.]

[Shuoyue, Lieyang, Fanxing? What kind of family-themed names are these? The sun, the moon, and the stars are all here.]

[Is Tianhuan playing some sort of joke on us this season?]

[And on the left and right, we have Zhuhuo and Jiangshui.
Fire and water.
So to put it simply… the sun, moon, and stars have to stand between the opposing forces of fire and water?]

[They really know how to name themselves. Doge.jpg]

Among the players in the professional league, the team photo from Tianhuan also stirred up quite a lot of new questions and doubts.

Why was Ye Shaoyang standing in the center? This was probably special treatment for an omega player, right?

Everyone assumed that Tianhuan was operating under the premise that omegas deserved to be treated specially, and that was why they'd let the omega Ye Shaoyang stand front and center.
He was also ten centimeters shorter than Chi Shuo, so he was indeed very suitable for that center position.

Many professional teams would adjust the positions of their players in official team photos in order to make the photo look nicer.

No one could have imagined that this little omega gege with the dazzling, radiant smile had actually taken Qu Jiang's place as mid laner.

 

Author's Notes:

1.
Team promo photos don't have positions like mid laner and jungler written on them.
Anyone who doesn't believe me can look at team photos on Baidu, they only list player IDs in group photos.
Star players take the center position, there's no rule that says players have to stand in order of their positions.
Arranging players by height is also fine, as long as it looks nice.

2.
The preseason and regular season tournament structure here is based on the structure of the KPL (King Pro League) of the game Honor of Kings.