[once again, i didn't read the translation, so my review does not reflect the quality of the translation.]

jzb managed to strike the perfect balance between gameplay and the rest of the plot while also making the gameplay intelligible and compelling, and i say this as someone who knew nothing about gaming or lol before reading this novel. even then, i still got caught up in the excitement and tension of each competition, to say nothing of my reaction at how soft showed off exactly what he was capable of when playing 蛇女 (cassiopeia). i think i took half an hour to calm down from that.

lurong are, as always, incredibly sweet. they have so much trust in each other, and both of them, especially jian rong, open up so much more to each other as their relationship develops. jian rong no longer views lu boyuan as his idol alone, but is now comfortable enough to snap at him to stop laughing and to step on his foot when he teases jian rong just a little too much. he would never have even side-eyed lu boyuan at the start of this novel, so it's wonderful to see the progression of their relationship through this.

the only part i didn't like quite as much was pine and xiao-bai's relationship. it should be entirely up my alley, because i'm a sucker for pining and especially for 酸涩 stories, which pine's perspective definitely is, but i just couldn't connect to their relationship the same way i connected to lurong's. maybe it's because xiao-bai is portrayed as too much of a blockhead for me, because wangxian's relationship is very similar but i didn't have a problem with it. the only difference is that wwx's intelligence and genius is consistently emphasised in the narrative, whereas xiao-bai is one of the main comedic relief characters, so not as much time is spent on his skills such as playing support (even though he's definitely incredibly talented and well-practised at doing so).

[i didn't read the translation, so my rating does not reflect the translation quality at all. i just love this novel so much one review isn't enough]

this is a 爽文 / feel-good novel in the most literal sense. i absolutely adored jian rong's 不服来战 / come fight me attitude, because he has the strength of both skill and spirit to back it up. he's already one of the best mid-laners in the league, but even when he does lose, he doesn't try to push off his defeat onto his teammates (looking at you m🤬), he just pushes himself even harder and picks himself up in the exact same spot he fell from. he has exactly the right kind of 狂妄 / wildly arrogant spirit that burns so brightly in the esports world, but we never get the sense that he's arrogant without cause, because he always, always proves himself.

his only flaw is that he's too much of a lone wolf, which leads perfectly into this novel's theme of jian rong finding and surrounding himself with a new family in his team. even beyond lu boyuan, whose blatant favouritism doesn't even need to be mentioned, xiao-bai immediately takes jian rong under his wing too despite his initial claims of being angry at jian rong's previous flaming of him online. yuan qian treats jian rong like his younger brother, and even pine (despite his loner tendencies) doesn't reject jian rong when he requests to train together to hone his teamwork, whereas ding-ge nearly comes to blows with the league to defend jian rong's right to curse people out express himself in public. it's just really sweet and heart-warming to watch jian rong slowly open himself up to all these new people and learn to work together with them as they get closer to the championship.