Chapter 6 — Middle Road Rules

True to Hải Đăng's threat, a week later, Bảo Châu, with her natural diplomacy skills, arranged a practice match (Scrimmage) with the E-sports team of Le Hong Phong Specialized School (E-sports Festival).

LHP E-sports is not the championship seed, but they are a well-organized team that regularly reaches the Quarterfinals of regional tournaments. Compared to a team that is both patchy and "defensive" like HD E-sports, this is an overwhelming challenge.

Exactly at 7pm on Saturday night, all five HD E-sports members sat in front of the computer screen in the common room, put on headphones and logged into the optional match room. The atmosphere was so tense that you could hear Tuấn 'Compass''s pounding heart.

"Mr. Đăng, what is the strategy of this battle?" Hùng 'Gaur' rubbed his sweaty hands and turned to ask. He became much more obedient after being beaten by the Support champion.

"There's no strategy at all," Đăng replied calmly, taking a sip of strawberry milk. "You guys just choose your most favorable champion. This match will let me see how your survival instincts and natural reflexes are when faced with real pressure."

"Are you sure?" Châu stood behind, worriedly asking softly. "The LHP squad is very strong in objective control."

"Let them fight freely. People only really learn how to swim when thrown into deep water," Đăng shrugged.

In the Ban/Pick phase, the Festival clearly demonstrated its professionalism. They immediately banned two of Hùng and Kiên's favorite generals, proving that they had researched their opponents. The formation they locked was a very strong teamfight formation with wide area damage.

On the HD side, because they were allowed to "play freely", the final lineup looked like a circus: Hùng was forced to choose a Gladiator that he had only learned to play for a few days, Tuấn chose a fragile Jungle Assassin, Kiên held a poorly mobile Gunner, and Nam trembled and chose a pure Blood buff Support standing from afar. Only Post in Mid locks onto a controlling Mage.

"Welcome to the Hall of Fame!"

The match began.

For the first three minutes, everything went quite smoothly. Đăng easily crushed the opponent's Mid laner, creating enormous pressure in the center of the map. He continuously pinged (signaled) the map, directing the direction of the Jungle goers.

But E-sports is a game of five people. One swallow does not make spring, especially when the remaining four swallows are competing... crashing into the electricity pole.

Minute 4. Tuấn 'Compass', after eating his blue buff, suddenly got excited and wanted to steal the opponent's red buff. He trotted straight into the dark forest without any visibility.

*BOOM!*

Three LHP members were hiding in the bushes and simultaneously discharged damage. Tuấn evaporated in less than a second. First Blood for the Film Festival.

"Tuấn! Why did you go in there? I already pinged the warning!" Đăng shouted through the microphone.

"I... I saw on the internet that people often rob the forest with their heads tied..." Tuấn stammered.

"On the internet, people put wards to control vision before stealing. You going blind like that is no different from committing suicide?" Đăng sighed.

The disaster began a chain effect. Because Jungle died too early, Hùng's Top lane had no support. The enemy jungle immediately ganked (organized an attack). Hùng was forced against the pillar. He tried to use his skills to fight back but missed them all, and was finally defeated by the opponent right under the turret.

"Hùng, what the hell are you doing? What's the point of flashing?" Kiên '3G' started complaining from the Bottom Lane area.

"Shut up! If Jungle doesn't gank me, I'll die!" Hùng snapped back.

Concentration began to crumble. At minute 8, the first dragon appeared. This was a major objective that had to be contested.

Đăng moved to the dragon's cave and successfully defeated the enemy Mage. He pinged Kiên and Nam to help eat the dragon.

But disaster continued to strike. Kiên had just walked halfway when his character suddenly stopped, standing still like a wooden statue.

"Fuck! The 3G package is out of high-speed capacity! Ping 999+, Mr. Đăng!" Kiên shouted in panic, smashing the phone he borrowed temporarily to connect to Wifi.

The festival seized the opportunity. Their four remaining members flooded into the dragon's den. Đăng tried to use his poke skill, but he couldn't fight four people alone. Đăng had to step back.

But Trần Nam - the team's cowardly support - instead of retreating with Đăng, instead panicked and pressed the Flash button... straight into the middle of the enemy team. He evaporated instantly.

LHP easily ate the Dragon, then conveniently sent Kiên '3G' who was standing AFK (standing still due to lag) back to the fountain.

The score was now 5–1 in favor of LHP. HD's only kill was Đăng's solo kill in the Mid lane.

From the 10th minute on, the match turned into a one-sided massacre. Tuấn kept getting lost in his home forest and was caught alone. Hùng died his fifth life and began typing and cursing at his opponent. Men cowered and hid inside the altar, not daring to show their faces. Kiên was fighting while complaining about the network.

Although Đăng had superior personal skills, single-handedly defeating three people in a team fight in the 12th minute, he could not save a game in which four teammates had completely lost their spirit and position.

At minute 15, LHP summoned the biggest boss on the map, rushing straight into the mid lane, destroying the main base of HD E-sports.

The words "DEFEAT" appeared in red on five computer screens.

The engine room fell into a dead silence. Only the sound of the computer's cooling fan was still running. No one said a word to anyone. The atmosphere was so stuffy that even Bảo Châu standing behind felt suffocated.

The first practice match wasn't just a failure. It was an insult, exposing the bitter truth that HD E-sports was nothing more than a bunch of miscreants.

Hải Đăng stood up, walked in front of the server, and turned off the screen displaying the match statistics. He didn't want the whole team to sit and stare at those red numbers, deepening the feeling of failure in their heads.

"Everyone has the right to play poorly on the first day," Đăng said, his voice no longer as harsh as when directing the match, but quiet, almost unusually gentle. "But no one has the right to play badly and not get anything out of it."

Hùng raised his head, his eyes still red from anger. "But those LHPs are much stronger than us, Mr. Đăng. Studying for a whole year won't necessarily catch up."

"You're half right," Đăng nodded, not denying at all. "They have more practice time and a more professional coaching staff. But you forgot one thing: a week ago, the five of you didn't even know what to do with control wards. Now, at least Tuấn knows not to go blindly into the enemy jungle. That's progress, even if it doesn't show up on the scoreboard."

Bảo Châu stood behind, quietly recording that sentence. She realized that behind Đăng's cold, cruel appearance, there was always a very clear logic: never let a loss turn into a verdict. Let it become a lesson, no matter how bitter that lesson was.

Kiên still sat still, holding his head in his hands, still shocked by his poor performance. "But my wifi network is really unstable, it's not like I'm playing it bad on purpose."

Đăng turned, his eyes no longer as harsh as before. "I know. That's why tomorrow I will take you to see Mr. Quang to upgrade the internet connection for the computer room. But in the meantime, you must learn how to play stably even when the ping jumps to 200, 300. Don't wait for perfect conditions to try, because your opponent will never wait for you."

Kiên nodded and quickly wiped the sweat from his forehead. For the first time, he felt that Đăng's reproach was not to humiliate him, but to point out a specific path that could be followed.

Nam, still sitting crouched at the corner of the table, spoke softly, his voice trembling. "What about me? I... I don't know how to fix it."

Đăng walked over and squatted down to eye level with the smallest boy on the team. "You don't need to fix it all overnight. Just tomorrow, when you see the enemy coming, try to do only one thing: don't press Flash right away. Count to two first. That's all."

Nam nodded, pursed his lips tightly as if he was taking the advice to heart. That evening, when the whole team left, everyone brought with them a small, specific, easy-to-implement task — not an empty promise to "try harder", but a clear action that could be practiced starting tomorrow. Đăng stood last, turned off the engine room light, feeling something was gradually changing within himself, slowly but surely.