"I can't play anymore." David Parker's voice came through, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Little Brian wants to duo queue with me, maybe next time?"

Is his mic working again?

Ryan Cooper was just about to reply "mm" when he faintly heard a muffled voice from the other end of the headset.

"Hurry up and kick that blue-haired troll, he's definitely going to throw your game later!"

Hearing this, Ryan Cooper paused just as he was about to leave the team: "Little Brian?"

The other end instantly went quiet, and that voice didn't speak again. It was obvious David Parker was using his computer speakers now, not wearing headphones.

"Your team's Bye?" Ryan Cooper deliberately slowed his speech and asked, "The support who played Thresh and missed every Q in the regular season, and got lost in the jungle as Yuumi?"

Little Brian: "…………"

David Parker wanted to defend his teammate, but everything Ryan Cooper said was true—he couldn't refute a single word. So he gave a light cough and mumbled, "Mm…"

"Well, good luck then." Ryan Cooper's tone was sympathetic. "I'm out."

Little Brian: "……!!!"

As soon as Soft left the room, Little Brian exploded: "Is this troll obsessed with our team or what! Why does he watch every single one of our matches! Isn't he annoyed yet!!"

Pine asked without even turning his head, "Why didn't you say that to him just now?"

Little Brian replied righteously, "Duh! I can't out-trash talk him!"

Brian Carter had already returned to his own station. He plugged his headphones into his computer and opened the Starry Sky TV app again.

Switching to his alt account, he entered Soft's stream room. Sure enough, the stream had already ended, and the replay was up on the screen.

Brian Carter adjusted his gaming chair to a comfortable angle, randomly clicked on a segment of the replay, and started watching quietly.

-

On the day of the S10 World Championship finals, Ryan Cooper bailed on his stream and arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Stadium right at 5 p.m.

He was wearing a black baseball cap with the Crown team logo on it, head down, playing on his phone while waiting for someone.

He scrolled through the leave-of-absence post he had just made on Weibo. There were a few hundred comments below, all flaming him for bailing.

Normally, Ryan Cooper would argue back with them, but today he really had ditched at the last minute, so he had no excuse.

He picked out a few replies.

["I've waited for you for two hours, and all you say is you bailed? I'm done with you."]

["Soft: ^-^"]

["You even bailed on the finals? What, you in a rush to reincarnate??"]

["Soft: T.T"]

["Idiot, get back here and stream, I'll send you a Starsea gift"]　　

["Soft: Not coming back, watch it yourself >_<"]

The viewers were so triggered by his emoticons that their replies got even more intense. Ryan Cooper couldn't help but laugh as he scrolled.

"Here, here." A man in a black trench coat ran up to him, panting. "Traffic jam, I was stuck in the parking lot for over half an hour…"

It was Evan Clark.

Evan Clark had just broken up with his girlfriend and had an extra ticket to the finals, so last night he asked Ryan Cooper if he wanted to go together.

The ticket was obtained through special channels, VIP seat, prime location—money couldn't buy it. Ryan Cooper thought for two seconds and decisively ditched his stream for the day.

Evan Clark looked around. "Come on, let's go in through another entrance. With these tickets, we don't have to wait in line."

By the time they entered, the audience seats were already filling up. Ryan Cooper's ticket was for the very front row. Anyone who could get a seat like this had some connections. Ryan Cooper glanced around and spotted quite a few big streamers from Starry Sky TV, and even some pro players from various teams.

Evan Clark greeted and chatted with those people like a pro. Ryan Cooper was never into socializing, so he pulled his cap lower and kept replying with emoticons on his phone.

A few minutes later, the group quietly entered the venue.

They were all bundled up, wearing hats and masks, so their faces were completely hidden. But no matter how well they covered up, people around them still recognized them, and everyone kept glancing in their direction while whispering.

After sitting down, Little Brian couldn't help but look around the finals venue.

So impressive.

Thinking that this could have been his own stage, he felt a bit frustrated, pulled his scarf up over his nose, and said, "The venue's just so-so… How long until the match starts?"

David Parker checked his watch. "Should be soon."

Little Brian replied, "Oh," and looked at the person to his right. "Bro, you're still watching replays? Which match?"

Brian Carter had one earbud in and replied without looking up, "Quarterfinals."

In the game replay, "No way, you're really that bad" was playing Orianna, which was the least played champion in Soft's stream replays.

In this play, Orianna was under her own tower, 1v2, and outplayed both the enemy mid and jungler, then danced on their "corpses."

After dancing, Soft recalled to base and sneered, "If this jungler can gank me to death once, I'll call him daddy."

At the same time, the audience member sitting to his right was chatting.