He's had a pretty tough life. His mother dumped him on his neglectful father with an empty promise of taking him back later, and his father saw him as nothing but a tool to wheedle a little more money from the MC's grandfather. His grandfather didn't care for him, and his cousin's family, who treated him the "kindest" out of all his relatives, only did so with the intent of removing him from the inheritance power struggle altogether. All this accumulates to a sh*t ton of abandonment issues, which is worsened by the fact that the ML does the exact same thing to the MC despite knowing what the MC went through (even if he had valid reasons for why he did so).

There's a scene where they're at a welcome back party for the ML, & MC brings out 10 glasses full of high % alcohol except one glass, and makes a bet with the ML, forcing him to pick one and drink it. (ML has a medical condition where he can't drink anymore). The bet being that if he picks out the one cup that's fill with tea, MC will sign with ML's team for free. ML ends up drinking the cup with the tea, and then leaves. But he's suspicious, so comes back and tries all the cups, and it turns out that all of the cups were tea so, ML had a 100% chance to "win".

Snippet from Ch 84

Chen Huo said wearily, "If that brat Shi Luo suddenly breaks his hand tomorrow, I would rather him play with one arm than let a substitute stand in for him."

Shi Luo outside the door was startled.

"We'll carry him if we have to... " Puppy slowly said. "He's been targeted by the sprayers for so long because he doesn't have any World Championship experience... If he hadn't been tossed about because of all the sh*t that went down two years ago, he should have f*cking made it to the World Championships already. Sigh, we really shouldn't dwell on this... "

Yu Sui said indifferently, "On Shi Luo's behalf, I would like to thank you for all the poisoned milk. Now, his hand will never be broken in this life."

Old Qiao smiled, "Then, we're going to have to work extra hard. This year, we must rush to the World Championship to get Evil there."

Shi Luo was leaning outside the door. A moment later, he lowered his head and smiled.

MC started as a down-on-his-luck game livestreamer after a falling out with his family. ML is a successful esports player, and takes MC under his wing to shape him into his protege. shortly after, the club has a falling out with its members and everybody's contracts get sold off. ML and the rest of the team are shipped to europe, leaving MC behind. MC grows resentful of ml, as ML pulled some strings to have MC stay in the domestic league instead of bringing him over as well.

two years later, they reunite and ML starts his own esports club. ML buys mc's contract and they finally clear up the misunderstanding. at the time, MC being the newest and weakest member back then, had no protection in a foreign league, and so would have been safer playing domestically. they reconcile and begin a relationship. ML and team face off against their old european league and win the world championship in the end.

i wanna say the emotional aspect of the story is really well done, but funnily most of those 'emotions' comes from frankly some of the most annoying side characters ive ever had the displeasure to meet. I swear to god I have never been so mad at a side character as I have with ji yanhan. the shameless good for nothing bastard really took all of yu sui's hard work, all of the whole team's hard work, and stepped on it without a f*cking care in the world. to have the damn audacity to sell them out and have them outright suffer in a foreign country, just because hes a money grubbing little b*tch, is absolutely rage-inducing. icing on the cake is when he was acting all apologetic one second, then making demands the next - demands that drove yu sui's reputation to the ground and started all these hurtful rumors about him. f*cking vile. the whole drama only spanned 2-3 chapters but I swear it took me over an hour to read because I was. just. so. pissed. the whole time.

and besides him, there's also shi luo's scheming little cousin, shi luo's shitty parents, and yu sui's old sacred sword club - every one of them I legit wanted to throws hands. f*ck. kudos to the author for being able to write so many punchable characters lmao

when they reunited 2 years later and shi luo offered yu sui strong alcohol as part of a bet to buy him over. it came with the implication that shi luo, acting all tough and unfeeling, couldnt care less if yu sui wrecked his health and bled to death. but as it turns out, the bet was a feign and all this time shi luo was just offering himself to yu sui's team for free :') in then in the extras were yu sui played the same thing to shi luo but this time with proposal gifts???!!! UGH.

when yu sui learned that he was scamming a homeless kid camping out on an internet cafe and feeling all guilty.. when he formally invited shi luo into the team he tried to redeem himself by giving him a whopping salary out of his own pocket and spoiled him and indulged him and took such good care of him.

when shi luo admited that his feelings towards yu sui hadnt developed much given that theyve only known each other for 2 months before they had to separate, but there was definitely something special about him... how if he had been given more time, shi luo wouldve sorted out his feelings and fallen in love for sure :' (the relevation that yu sui and shi luo couldve gotten together 2 years sooner... but theyve spent these 2 years apart and alone and miserable... really hits man.

when shi luo admitted that he was acting all pitiful in front of yu sui to get his attention... such as letting him on in his sad family backstory, how he forced himself to 'cycle at the resusection stone over and over' just so yu sui would feel guilty afterwards, etc etc. but the best part is when yu sui admits that 'when the person he likes schemes, its called acting spoiled' :') hes so indulgent aiya

when shi luo got exposed to listening to yu sui's soundclips but turns out it was really just him putting yu sui's apology from two years ago on loop... and playing it over and over whenever he felt down and needed someone by his side, hed listen to yu sui's voice and find comfort in that... : (

and finally, shi luo's little diary on his side account!! he doesnt show his emotions often, but the insights he posts about their yu sui and their relationship, that not even yu sui is fancy to, gives their love a whole new flavor... its sickening sweet, its so cliche, but oh my god its so cute and so on-brand for shi luo.

now that I finished the novel, I realized that the angsts in the early parts are actually almost nonexistent, because all parties actually knew what had happened in the past in the first place, and it's just SL acting spoiled towards his captain (?). 🤦‍♀️ Truthfully, this is also really strange. If SL already knew the reason why ML have to leave, and things that ML had done for him in the first place, then why was he being so aggressive towards the ML when they first re-encountered? Have I missed anything? I am confused.