Chapter 97: League Calls Me Fake, Speed Calls Me What?
Li Fan signed his name and calmly put down the pen, as if the two astonishing results he had just achieved were not his own.
He nodded slightly to the referee and staff, then turned and left. He had no interest in watching the others run the tracks next, so he might as well lie in bed early to rest more and prepare for tomorrow’s group stage.
Both tracks were run only once… and each time it was an unbeatable result.
The entire backstage area, the moment Li Fan left, was still gripped by fear and unable to speak.
The referee nearby secretly took out his mobile phone to snap this scene.
Because they knew this was highly topical…
It could be said that all Speed players were waiting for today’s time trial results.
What QQ Speed referees love most is talking about exactly what happened in the arena, talking about the sour grape moments.
Just one mention draws a ton of attention and rewards.
Even a small spat can be dragged out by the referee for two or three whole months.
Then, relying on those two or three months, they barely hold out until the next match, accumulate more material, and keep talking.
But this time was different. With this screen and this scene, the referee had already imagined twenty to thirty thousand words in his head, figuring out how to describe it vividly and immersively!
Pair it with a photo, and the show effect will definitely explode.
After handling all this, the referee finally started urging second-place Liang Haipeng to hurry up and run.
“How are we supposed to run this?” No one knew who muttered it softly, voicing everyone’s thoughts.
Hearing the referee’s call, Liang Haipeng stumbled awkwardly to the seat and sat down.
Sitting in front of the match computer, his mind kept replaying Li Fan’s incomprehensible ultra-high speed, reaching 304 mph at the small bay in Western Mine!
His originally relaxed mentality was long gone, replaced by a head full of question marks and immense pressure.
After all, this was just a simple time trial.
This ranking only affects grouping; to advance, you still have to fight it out in tomorrow’s group stage.
But the two tracks Li Fan ran had already thrown his current state into total chaos.
How exactly was this achieved?
B car’s speed reaching 304 mph!
For professional players at this time who had no concept of triple boost, it was extremely hard to understand.
And during the run, you couldn’t see the key inputs… making it even harder to understand the operation.
Yet why was this league player so strong?
You play League of Legends, yet you understand Speed so thoroughly, so exaggeratedly.
When the countdown on Rainbow Windmill Island ended, Liang Haipeng’s race car shot out from the start.
His operation was clearly hesitant and stiff.
Because in his mind, he was thinking about Li Fan’s operation.
Compared to Western Mine… Rainbow Windmill Island should offer a better chance to imitate the route.
But when going uphill to imitate Li Fan’s nitrogen exit drift connection to leap, the rhythm was completely off—either nitrogen activated too early or small boost timing failed, leap height insufficient, car head skewed on landing, forcing adjustments.
As for sky break drift… he directly hit the side at an angle.
Never mind that stylish car head pull triple boost cornering.
Liang Haipeng’s was just top-level stiffness.
Such exaggerated mistakes already doomed this run to be slow.
Finally, when his race car staggered across the finish line, the big screen showed 1:25.12.
No need to say, this result was absolutely not competitive.
Almost certainly second to last place.
Watching from behind, Jiang Zhangchuang couldn’t help but sneer.
“Doghead, can you do it or not? If not, just withdraw from the match, stop embarrassing yourself here.”
“What are you barking about! Can you do it? You couldn’t back then either! Sour grapes!” Liang Haipeng turned his head and fired back.
The referee nearby hurriedly controlled the scene.
If there’s any match where offline cursing gets super intense and referees don’t interfere much, it’s Speed.
After the two sides finished their cursing match, Liang Haipeng wasn’t so nervous anymore.
If he ended up second to last and grouped with Li Fan, it would definitely be miserable no matter what.
He might even get eliminated…
Time trial strong players may not be strong in confrontation, but confrontation strong players’ time trials are definitely not bad.
Simple logic: if you can’t even catch up, how can you confront them?
Liang Haipeng took a deep breath; luckily, he still had two chances left.
He chose his most familiar running method; researching could be practiced later.
This time, zero mistakes to the finish line, improving a full three seconds over the previous run.
1:22.12…
Seeing this result, he finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.
This result was decent enough, no need to worry too much; probably wouldn’t be grouped with Li Fan.
Next, Liang Haipeng played it safe and steady, no more blindly copying…
Still need to get the recording; study it slowly together as a group.
The third to go up, Luo Wei, had an extremely grave expression.
As a three-time Car King, his experience and mentality should have been the most stable.
But at this moment, he also felt an unprecedented challenge.
Being able to research a run method for maps that are already very fixed definitely marks a master.
……
It took about an hour and a half, and the time trial finally ended, with final rankings and groupings settled.
When the official posted the eight players’ results and grouping list online, it was like dropping a bombshell into a calm lake, instantly causing an uproar.
【QQ Speed Event Official Weibo】: SSC Spring Split Quarterfinals Time Trial Results and Grouping Announcement
Group A: Li Fan（1）, Jiang Zhangchuang（3）, Liang Haipeng（5）, Xiong Mengqi（7）
Group B: Chen Zi（2）, Luo Wei（4）, Liang Haihui（6）, Hu Xu（8）
Attached: Players’ Best Single-Track Results
Li Fan – Rainbow Windmill Island: 1:13.88 / Western Mine: 1:06.28
Chen Zi – Rainbow Windmill Island: 1:19.01 / Western Mine: 1:11.45
……
In just an instant, comments broke tens of thousands.
After all, when Speed announces time trial groupings in the evening, everyone stays up waiting for the ranking results.
And they complain why the official doesn’t live stream; time trials are also very interesting, and every time hearing the referee talk about fun incidents makes them desperate to go onsite to see if it’s true.
Not live streaming is really such a pity.
But ultimately, they were shocked by these exaggerated time trial results.
Because the runs were just too outrageous.
【????? Am I seeing things? Western Mine 1:06? Rainbow Windmill Island 1:13?】
【Holy crap! Is this freaking Razor’s result? Official data wrong? Pasted S car data by mistake?】
【Cheating, definitely cheating, this speed is impossible! Pros are 6-7 seconds slower, what’s the point of playing?】
【This is official offline time trial】
【If you don’t play Speed, seeing this result is like a frog in a well seeing the moon; if you do play Speed, it’s like a mayfly seeing the blue sky… I realized I still underestimated Unreal.】
【You League players called me fake when I yelled at you, ignored you; come to Speed, what should you call me?】
【Car King! Car King! Car King!】
【How are the other three brothers in Group A doing? Can they sleep tonight seeing this result?】
【Jiang Zhangchuang, Liang Haipeng, Xiong Mengqi: Referee, we apply to switch to Group B!】
【Group B’s Chen Zi and Luo Wei are probably secretly wiping sweat, lucky not grouped with this monster.】
【Could it be… he really is a genius?】
And at this time, Speed match audiences had already flooded into the referee’s personal account.
Waiting for him to go live and spill the tea…
Sure enough, past 1 AM, the referee started streaming.
The live stream room title was full of suspense: 【Exclusive Reveal, SSC Quarterfinals Time Trial Onsite, How Unreal Crushed the Field with Razor?】
Audiences who had been waiting poured in instantly, bullet comments flying fast.
【Here it comes! Quick, tell us!】
【Waited till the flowers wilted, referee bro hurry up!】
The referee saw the explosive popularity, grinned ear to ear, cleared his throat, and began describing the onsite screen.
“Brothers, I’m not bragging, this scene today—as a referee for so many years, first time seeing it!”
His exaggerated tone instantly grabbed everyone’s attention.
“You didn’t see it, Li Fan, that’s Unreal the pro from League of Legends. There was that event collab before, right? I really thought he was just there to hype the official event heat, but he actually slapped me in the face, and super fast too.”
“He drew first to run, so calm, zero expression, like just going up for a sip of water. Actually, running time trial first has no advantage, lots of pressure, but he really had the confidence!”
“Then, the highlight! Rainbow Windmill Island, start, cornering, that uphill leap after… my god! Actually entering the corner like that, I saw something new today! That leap height, that landing connection, so silky smooth our later referees were dumbfounded, glanced at each other, eyes saying: What the heck?”
“Even more outrageous was Western Mine! I saw his screen top-right speedometer, whoosh straight to 304! I was like holy crap in my head, B car Razor big brother, you believe this speed?”
“I almost thought I was seeing things, thought he was cheating, but this machine we debugged ourselves, how could we not know if it’s cheating.”
The referee spoke with flying spit, timely pulling out the photo he took on his mobile phone.
Though a bit blurry, it clearly showed Li Fan’s focused side profile at the computer, and not far behind, the other players standing or sitting, all craning their necks with uniform shocked and bewildered expressions.
This photo was extremely convincing!
“The absolute best part, you know what?” The referee deliberately teased, waiting for a wave of bullet comments.
Seeing the screen full of “tell us quick,” he continued satisfied: “He ran both tracks once each, once brothers! Finished, result out, got up directly, came over super calmly and said to me referee, sign.
“That tone, that demeanor, I was stunned for a second before reacting to hand over the form.”
The live stream room audiences, with the referee describing so vividly, felt like they were there themselves.
【Holy crap, just hearing the referee describe, I got goosebumps!】
【One run per track, still this result, is this human? This is god!】
【One person, shocking all seven pro big shots, this scene too cool, novels wouldn’t dare write it!】
【League of Legends held him back, this reaction speed, this game understanding, why play MOBA, come to Speed to start a dynasty not better?】
【@EDG Club, have mercy, let Unreal come to Speed world, this is his real stage!】
【League players feel complex mood, proud yet worried… Unreal, remember playoffs the day after tomorrow?】
The referee saw the hot interactions and drifting reward gifts, delighted inside: “Brothers rest assured, tomorrow group stage, I’ll definitely bring you the freshest firsthand news. Those three in Group A probably can’t sleep tonight, tomorrow we’ll see how the Car God performs in actual combat.”
Just as the referee teased in the live stream room, this night was destined to be sleepless for the SSC Quarterfinals players.
Not just the three in Group A facing Li Fan the next day, the four in Group B were the same… without figuring it out, no peace of mind, couldn’t sleep.
Especially since the official had already given post-match videos to all players.
So almost everyone’s first thing was to lock themselves in their rooms, repeatedly watching and studying Li Fan’s time trial recording.
On the computer screen, Rainbow Windmill Island’s sky break drift, Western Mine’s limit triple boost cornering and violent cuts…
“Here, look at his nitrogen release timing, he keeps carrying it forward, isn’t it because this speed is so high the leap goes higher to enable that car head pull operation?” Chen Zi paused the screen, pointing at it, frowning as he asked Hu Xu in the same room.
Hu Xu shook his head: “Not just timing, look at his car head adjustment after landing, almost no pause, directly into the next drift… his car control is too strong.”
……
“Not right! I already copied his operation, but why am I still slower entering the corner?”
Jiang Zhangchuang looked at his run speed, puzzled.
“Essentially still Song Qian Piao… exactly where’s the gap?”
Had to say, Jiang Zhangchuang’s Speed research was indeed top-tier.
Just by watching then trying it himself, he actually replicated a normal sky break drift.
But compared to Li Fan, it seemed too stiff, corner entry speed not fast enough.
Yet compared to before, still improved by a second.
If practiced more properly, the result could improve a lot more.
Liang Haihui saw this scene and was unfazed.
To him, Jiang Zhangchuang was the most talented young Speed player he’d seen.
Replicating it so quickly was normal.
“Definitely details we don’t know…” Jiang Zhangchuang no longer focused on the leap moment, pulled back to the start, planning to rewatch once, then watched another time after.
April 17, QQ Speed SSC Quarterfinals Offline Match officially started at Hongqiao Tiandi Performing Arts Center!
