Valley of Light - World's Final Stage of 2019. Four years ago.
Although no one knew it at the time, this one championship would go down in esports history.
Nearly a hundred thousand people filled the stadium which was unheard of for an esports competition at the time. More than half of the audience were wearing something red and screaming out for their team and their members, whereas the others were all wearing something black while trying to outmatch the others in their chants!
It was a day full of excitement that everyone present would remember, the adrenaline that filled the room was just so powerful! Even the MC on stage, Hei Lu wouldn't forget this day despite going on to be one of the most renowned MCs and facing larger crowds.
He hit the mic a few times, motioning for the crowd to calm down and the crowd listened, sitting politely while holding their signs up. The cameras which were sending the scene to a live stream full of millions of people zoomed in to the stage.
"Welcome to Valley! It's our third world championship, are you excited?" With the cheers answering the question, Hei Lu smiled and nodded along, "Of course! This year we have the rookie team, X fighting against the three-time champions - FFS!"
Behind Hei Lu were two large screens that showcased the banners of the two teams along with portraits of the members, all ten boys depicted looked youthful.
Hei Lu went on to brag about the teams, "FFS has won four world championships for Korea in a row! They are the first team in history to do so! On the other hand, it's the first year that a Chinese team has made it so far! The arena sure is packed tonight! Ah, even I'm nervous - is FFS going to take the championship again or will X snatch it?"
Hei Lu wound up the crowd and began to walk off stage. Normally the MC would stay to introduce the members, where was he going? The audience quieted down and looked at each other in confusion but that was long forgotten as a white dragon created with drones flew above their heads.
It was the first time drones were used in an esports competition and to say the crowd, both in the stadium and at home, were shocked would be an understatement.
The white dragon slowly circled the stadium, its long body created by drones seemed to be without any weight as it leisurely flew above the audience's head. The camera pulled out to see it creating a circle, before bouncing up into the air once more and flying towards the stage.
The crowd screamed in amazement as it breathed out white flames and let out a roar, of course, it was all effects but it was just too realistic! The dragon then seemingly dived through the middle of the stage and disappeared.
The flames also faded, leaving the Valley of Light logo in its place as the screens with the team banners faded to show the game beginning between the two teams.
"Wasn't that quite a show, aren't you even more excited?"
Due to the live streaming of the competition many fans were able to quickly grab a screen recording and push it up to trending quite fast, many more people joined the live stream.
Four years later, it would still remain the most viewed esports live stream no matter what the game was. It wasn't just for the effects, though.
Team X absolutely destroyed FFS, they hung them out to dry so shamelessly in front of the entire world that FFS members wouldn't be able to look at one of the five boys on the other team without being fearful.
Although it was a team match, one man shined. Frost.
Frost was the captain of Team X, but he was also just an assassin. In all of the previous games, he'd hidden his strength unless necessary and was just seen as a pretty sneaky assassin. He was still great, but he wasn't the largest threat on the team.
They'd underestimated him.
Frost didn't quite play as an assassin, he didn't wait in sneaky areas to ambush anyone but he would directly appear in front of them and kill them before disappearing again. He teased them a bit sometimes, like a cat playing with a mouse before mercifully killing them.
At one point in the game, Frost showed new, mechanically difficult moves and won a 1v5.
The worst point? Frost didn't have one death throughout the entire 2 hours.
Hei Lu found himself cheering for the rogue assassin who was clearly just doing his own thing and having fun, while his teammates were also cheering him on telling him not to hold back anymore.
Eventually, the two teams came around to the stage and shook hands with one another. FFS engraved each face into their minds, so they could avoid them in the future, and Team X was just respectful.
Hei Lu handed the five boys the trophy and pointed the microphone to the team,"We welcome Team X to the Valley! You are the first all-Chinese team to win the championship and bring glory to the country! How do you guys feel?"
Flame put his arms around Frost and Moon's shoulders and smiled cheekily, "It's great, we'll definitely win another trophy next year!"
Little did he know, they would disband only a few months later.
Hei Lu glanced at Frost, the captain of the team whom no one had ever seen before, still wearing his black mask mysteriously, and asked, "Our best captain and MVP of this championship… Are you ever going to show your face to the fans?"
A loud applause sounded from below them and Flame's face paled as he moved to answer the question, only to be stopped by Frost's voice, "Do I need a face to play games?"

Thank you for all the support and I hope you enjoy this version of Frost. <3
I'll be updating Frost twice a week on Monday and Friday as usual as well as two chapters in advance on Patreon.
If you miss V1, I'll be keeping it on Patreon and I'll be bundling it as a PDF to send to Ko-Fi and Patreon supporters in the future.