Chapter 424: Exhibition Match
After the hype from the new *League of Legends* champion CG, the atmosphere at the venue was already electric. The entire booth was packed to the brim, with more people streaming in from other exhibition areas.
Soon, five lucky players were selected.
Chen Mo announced, "Please welcome the five players to the stage. This exhibition match will be broadcast live. Everyone, don’t wander off—after the match, we’ll have the truly heavy segment!"
Before the five players even started the match, they each pulled out little notebooks to get autographs and photos from the five NRG pro players.
The players who weren’t selected weren’t so lucky; they could only watch from below, snapping photos with their phones like crazy.
"Chen Mo said the heavy segment comes after the exhibition match? What heavy segment?"
"Are you a fish with a five-second memory? He just said earlier that there’s a brand-new VR game to experience."
"Uh, then why not reveal the new game first and then do the exhibition match?"
"Are you dumb? Do you throw down a royal flush at the start of a game of Dou Di Zhu? You build up to the big news! Other game companies do the same."
"But these two new *League of Legends* champions are so awesome, and the exhibition match has the entire NRG team. Can the new game at the end really top that?"
"...How should I know? Go ask Chen Mo."
These players worrying about Chen Mo’s plans were a minority. Most just watched whatever came their way, eagerly anticipating the start of the exhibition match.
Soon, the players and the five on-site contestants took their seats. The venue conditions were limited, so there was no need for soundproof booths; each person was just given noise-canceling headphones.
During the preparation phase, Chen Mo explained the rules of the exhibition match to the audience.
"Since both sides are adjusting their machines, let me use this time to introduce the rules for this advertising segment—oh, I mean, the exhibition match segment."
"These five NRG players must use their exclusive championship skins and can only play with one hand. That means they can only use the mouse, not the keyboard."
"As you can see, there are no keyboards in front of the five NRG players; they’ve all been put away."
"Also, as the game progresses, new rules will be introduced. I won’t reveal what they are yet—just stay tuned."
Two cameras were broadcasting live, and they specifically zoomed in on the desks of the five NRG players, showing only mice, no keyboards.
The five players looked visibly uncomfortable, their left hands resting on the table but fidgeting awkwardly with nowhere to go.
The audience below burst into laughter.
"Hey, you slipped up! This isn’t an exhibition match at all—it’s clearly an advertising segment! You just want to show off the championship skins to trick us into buying them!"
"Yeah, we saw through Chen Mo’s ulterior motives a long time ago!"
"But the match rules are interesting—pro players without keyboards!"
"One-handed play? I really feel for Xiao Hei. How’s he supposed to play Lee Sin? 23333"
"And Silver’s Orianna is going to be tough too!"
"Maybe support Sona is the easiest? But if she misses her ult, that’ll be hilarious."
"Haha, the five players look totally dumbfounded. Chen Mo’s really messing with us!"
"Wow, those five lucky players are in for a treat—they might get a chance to solo kill Silver!"
Initially, many players thought the exhibition match would be boring. With all five NRG players together, they were top-tier—how could the amateurs compete?
But after hearing the rules, everyone perked up. One-handed *League of Legends*? They’d never seen that before!
Soon, the match appeared on the big screen, with both sides going through the motions of banning and picking champions.
Of course, the five NRG players had to use the five champions with championship skins, which had been announced in advance. So, NRG symbolically banned Garen, Teemo, and Tryndamere.
NRG’s lineup was Shen, Lee Sin, Orianna, Vayne, and Sona, each using their championship skins.
The player side was more chaotic. The mid laner and ADC immediately locked in the new champions, Zed and Jinx, clearly eager to try them out, thinking they must be strong.
The other three positions were Renekton, Amumu, and Thresh.
It was obvious that only the jungler among the players genuinely wanted to win, picking a teamfight-oriented crowd-control champion, while the others just went wild.
Loading into the game.
Seeing the lineup of NRG championship skins and five English IDs on the screen was incredibly cool. Many players felt an urge to "buy, buy, buy" rising in their hearts.
"Shen’s two trophies look so badass."
"Yeah, Orianna looks cool too."
"Sona’s chest is huge, tsk tsk. I’ve got to buy this skin!"
As the match began, Chen Mo stepped in as a commentator, narrating from the big screen.
"Both sides are starting with a standard opening. The players aren’t bad—they’re playing pretty solidly."
"Hmm? Xiao Hei’s Lee Sin took blue buff and immediately went to gank top lane?"
The audience initially thought that with all five NRG players restricted to one hand, the match would be evenly matched. But they quickly realized they were wrong.
In the top lane, NRG’s Shen started cautiously, while Renekton pushed the wave aggressively, hitting level 2 and shoving the minions under Shen’s tower.
Xiao Hei’s Lee Sin ganked top at level 2, appearing from the brush, slowing with his E, landing his Q, and then Shen followed up with a taunt for crowd control.
Renekton panicked and used Flash, but Xiao Hei’s Lee Sin followed with his second Q, finishing him off with an auto attack for the kill.
The audience below erupted in shock.
"What the hell? What’s going on? Isn’t it one-handed?"
"Haha, Xiao Hei’s Lee Sin is no different from two-handed play!"
"Damn, these pro players are monsters. I thought it’d be a sloppy fight between noobs, but I was clearly overthinking it!"
"Uh oh, the mid laner with the new champion is getting crushed by Silver’s Orianna. He’s already recalled, losing a huge wave of minions."
"It’s over, it’s over. Might as well just enjoy the championship skins..."
"Why do these new champions feel so weak..."
The audience watched, puzzled. How were the pro players really playing one-handed?
The cameras kept showing close-ups—it was indeed one-handed. There were no keyboards on the desks, so they couldn’t use both hands even if they wanted to!
Around the 4-minute mark, Silver’s Orianna landed a Q-W combo, solo-killing the low-health Zed recalling in the tower.
The worst part was that by 4 minutes, the mid-lane Zed only had 3 CS—absolutely pathetic.
Fortunately, the NRG players were playing relaxed. The bottom lane Sona positioned too aggressively, and Amumu caught her, giving back a kill.
The players weren’t complete noobs either. At one point, Xiao Hei’s Lee Sin tried to gank the jungler Amumu, but Amumu dodged two Q’s, drawing cheers from the audience.
Still, the gap was too big. Even with the pro players playing one-handed, not trying hard, and even giving away shutdowns, the kill count quickly widened.
By the 20-minute mark, the score was 21 to 7 in NRG’s favor. The five NRG players had grouped mid and were pushing the enemy’s inhibitor tower.
The players had no resistance, only able to watch from afar in front of their nexus.
There was no helping it—the gap was enormous. Silver’s Orianna had out-CS’d the Zed by 130, with 180 CS to the Zed’s 50. One Q-W combo and the Zed had to recall.