After Five Crowns, Please Leave the Stage

“As of today, Lin Zhou will no longer start for Obsidian.” Camera flashes turned the press room white. Onstage, club manager Gu Chen slid the microphone toward her. The gesture was courteous, almost gentle—the way one might offer someone a knife. The giant screen behind them replayed her career: a seventeen-year-old rookie entering the league, a twenty-two-year-old completing a three-peat, a twenty-seven-year-old raising her fifth world trophy. Then came last night’s defeat. Her avatar fell outside the final objective, two tenths of a second too late. “Lin Zhou is twenty-nine,” Gu Chen explained for her. “A decline in competitive form is natural. The club respects its legends, and it respects science.”