Little Brian: "......"

"Alright, stop scaring him." Coach came downstairs, holding his ever-present notebook.

Brian Carter put one hand in his pocket: "How did this rumor start?"

"At first, people said you hurt your hand. Then someone leaked that people from the league came to the base last night... so it turned into you retiring." Coach said, "I asked the auntie to make breakfast, go down and eat first."

The auntie hired by the base was already used to their schedule, and at 3 p.m. she quickly made breakfast for Brian Carter.

After sending Little Brian to the living room, Coach spoke: "Kan messaged me."

Brian Carter didn't stop slicing the ham. Among the dozens of messages he received, there was one from Kan. He only glanced at the preview and didn't open it: "What did the league say?"

"They're still investigating, it won't be that fast." Coach said, "Sigh, maybe we're just overthinking it..."

Brian Carter said nothing. For things like this, it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, if Kan really didn't do it, the league wouldn't just convict him for no reason.

"Let's not talk about this." Coach asked, "There's a week off after the match, any plans?"

Brian Carter said, "I'll stay at the base."

He's been getting acupuncture lately, it's inconvenient to go home, and he doesn't want his parents to know about his hand injury.

Coach nodded: "Alright, then I'll have the auntie come over on time to cook for you."

"No need, I'll just make do." Brian Carter pulled out a napkin and wiped his mouth, "Did you bring the list?"

Coach pulled a sheet of paper from his notebook: "Here."

There were only six people on the list. Next to their IDs were their rank scores, streaming room numbers, or past achievements in teams, as well as various ratings given by the management team.

Coach said, "The team also compiled some of their gameplay videos. I watched them and think the first two are pretty good. I'll send them to your email later."

Brian Carter's gaze lingered at the bottom of the white paper, where a name had been crossed out with a black pen.

Noticing his gaze, Coach explained, "This guy is called Soft. I excluded him. He's a streamer, I don't think he's suitable."

Brian Carter asked, "Why not suitable?"

"In every way, really. I even suspect one of his fans got into the team." Coach thought for a moment and casually picked a reason, "The champions he's best at are... Zed, Yasuo, Talon, basically all those benchwarmers in pro play, he likes to play them."

Every champion in League of Legends has their own background and damage role. The three champions Coach listed are all assassins—agile, high burst.

These three are popular picks in solo queue. If you play them well, you can carry the game; if not, you can drag your teammates down so much they question their life choices.

But in pro matches, their weaknesses get magnified—short range, weak poke, overly reliant on early game advantage, not good at starting team fights.

In this year's Worlds, these three assassin champions have never appeared on stage.

Hearing these names, Brian Carter raised an eyebrow.

To play assassin champions well, you need extremely fast hands and reaction speed.

"Champions can be practiced," he said.

"That's true, but..." Coach laid it out, "I just don't think this streamer is pro material."

Brian Carter looked up at him: "Any scandals?"

"Sort of." Coach said, "He's really just an entertainment streamer. Usually plays in Diamond, sometimes even drops to Gold, and the people he lanes against are all over the place, so you can't really tell his true skill. Plus, he really likes to flame people."

That really wouldn't do. Brian Carter asked, "The platform allows streamers to flame people?"

He remembered last time Little Brian cursed a few times on stream, and within seconds the admin suspended the stream.

"They don't, so he usually flames people without using actual curse words. And he doesn't just argue with viewers, he especially likes to trash talk pro players." Coach paused, "Put it this way, out of all the LPL players, you're the only one he hasn't trashed."

Brian Carter: "......Oh."

Brian Carter took the list back to his station and watched two of the videos Coach sent him.

Compared to the last batch of trainees, they were a bit better, but just too by-the-book—no big mistakes, but nothing impressive either.

After watching for a few more minutes, Brian Carter paused the video, then turned to ask Little Brian, who was sitting next to him: "Do you know Soft?"

Little Brian was eating a red bean pie, and stopped chewing when he heard the name: "That blue-haired troll streamer who started streaming in the wrong beauty section and got sent back to the LOL section for flaming people?"

You could tell he really held a grudge.

Brian Carter smiled: "That's him. You know quite a lot about him."

"Bro, you can still laugh? You have no idea how infuriating that troll is." Little Brian said bluntly, "He's pissed off so many players that someone even made a forum just to flame him. I heard all this in there."

Brian Carter gave a hum: "What level are you in there?"