CAMP: Chapter 155
The alliance arranged for people to pick them up. After getting off the plane, the group successfully arrived at the hotel to check in. It was the same as before. Lin Yan and Jing Yuanzhou naturally stayed together.
That evening, the filming staff came to meet them and recorded an interview. Since the third and fourth seeds had to go through the qualifying rounds before the group stage, LDF and PAY had arrived a few days earlier to maintain a better competitive state. Meanwhile, Three’s flight arrived half a day earlier and this made GH the last team from the China region to be interviewed in the late afternoon. It was just that Bi Yaohua was present and he would never let anyone down when it came to provoking the other regions.
Once the recording was over, everyone recalled the content just now and wondered if people would come find them once it was broadcasted. In particular, Win was the number one seed from the South Korean division and it was the first to be bombarded in this session due to the previous grudges between the two divisions.
During the interview with the Trash Talk King, there was a scene like this:
Bi Yaohua stared at the camera with his colorful shamate style hair. “Win? I think their team’s name is really good. The meaning alone is particularly beautiful? Look at us. Our GH is Go Home and there is the meaning of sending the opponent home. This Win is definitely more amazing! Win! It means to send the opponents to win the championship! This is the most self-aware and dedicated team I have seen in recent years! A wave of 66 is given to them! It is really awesome!”
As everyone left the shooting hall and prepared to go back to their rooms to rest, everyone didn’t forget to send a wave of 666 to Brother Trash Talk. This interpretation was really unbelievable. He was worthy of being the man in their club who could prop up the sky with his mouth alone.
Before they separated, Lin Yan didn’t forget to give a reminder. “Manager Luo has already contacted the training hall that will be used later. Have a good rest tonight. We will start training tomorrow afternoon. The qualifying stage is only a few days and once it ends, the group stage will officially start. Take advantage of these days to adjust yourself to the best state as soon as possible, do you understand?”
The players replied in unison. “We understand!”
The status of the second seed meant they avoided the hassle of participating in the qualifiers but it also meant they had to directly enter their best state the first time on the field. Every group was destined to have two teams miss out in the top eight knockout rounds. This was how cruel e-sports was.
***
The training hall that Luo Mo had contacted was soon in place. In this regard, Lin Yan had always been willing to spend money. All the supporting equipment was readily available and there was a separate lounge.
The moment the daily training program was completed, the group gathered in the lounge to watch the live broadcast as the qualifiers officially began.
The ones participating in the qualifiers were the top seeds in several small divisions and the third and fourth seeds of the major divisions. Apart from the two teams from the South Korean division, the other teams generally weren’t too strong. The strength of LDF and PAY meant they could basically enter the top 16. As for the remaining qualifying spots, it depended on which team in the other divisions who could grab the last chance.
Lin Yan wasn’t worried about the two teams from his own division. Taking the time to watch the qualifiers was a break from training and it also helped him know the specific level of the other competition zones. Unsurprisingly, the qualifiers proceeded one round after another and PAY and LDF didn’t take long to book spots in the top 16 with an outstanding record.
The qualifiers ended and the full roster for those participating in the group stage was officially generated. Next was the part that Lin Yan was most worried about. It was the group draw for the group stage.
After coming to South Korea, Lin Yan had unknowingly developed the habit of taking a walk outside with Jing Yuanzhou after meals. The day before the official grouping, he was walking with Jing Yuanzhou as usual when he looked at his phone and found that the interview videos of various big teams were finally officially released on the Internet.
Aside from the eliminated teams who didn’t get the advertisement treatment, the interviews for the teams who locked a spot in the top 16 were officially released one by one. As for whose trash talk was more ruthless, they only needed to look at the number of reposts and the amount of comments underneath it. There was definitely a reason if the popularity exploded.
Lin Yan glanced at it casually. Thanks to Bi Yaohua, the popularity of GH’s video was simply sky-high. The comments below were filled with waves of broken Chinese. It wasn’t hard to guess that they were all curse words that Korean fans had found using translation software.
Just below them on the popularity list was Win of the South Korean division. Since the competition for the national server rankings, the arrogant Nilay had reigned it in for quite some time. They thought he had learned his lesson but now it seemed he had just been holding back.
He finally had an opportunity to speak rubbish freely and he obviously let out his breath. “I said that my goal is to become the world’s best side-lane player. I don’t deny that the old players in other regions are really good but in this year’s World Competition, it is time to change the top position. As for the group stage, if there is a chance then I naturally hope to collide with GH on the field as soon as possible. Isn’t it said that the situation of our team is very similar to GH’s situation? It is precisely due to this that the winner should be determined earlier. After all, in the professional league, there is never a need for two teams with similar attributes to exist at the same time…one thing I firmly believe in is that this year’s Korean division is absolutely the strongest!”
Lin Yan didn’t need the subtitle translation to watch this type of video. After the video finished, he realized they had already taken a lap and arrived back at the hotel. After entering the lobby, he followed Jing Yuanzhou into the elevator while giving a smile that wasn’t a smile. “Win is in a similar situation to our team? Some of the e-sports media in South Korea are blind.”
It wasn’t known if these media really thought so or were deliberately looking for fault. Since the World Competition began, there were always people comparing Win with GH.
The reason was that both teams were seeded teams in their respective regions and Win was indeed full of newcomers like GH after the reorganization. In this way, both teams participated in the professional league for the first time and reached the World Competition in one fell swoop. Looking at the entire history of the e-sports competition, there were only a handful of cases.
There was nothing wrong with this when considering the news value to the outside world but from Lin Yan’s perspective, it felt like the team he had built was being insulted. Putting Win and GH together was like comparing Nilay with Jing Yuanzhou. Was it worthy?!
Jing Yuanzhou saw Lin Yan’s unhappy expression and laughed slightly. He touched Lin Yan’s shoulder and squeezed it twice. “It’s just trash talk before the game. Do you need to take it seriously?”
Lin Yan didn’t talk and pushed open the door. He understood what a pre-match interview was and knew it wasn’t necessary to take such videos seriously at all. Still, this didn’t affect the fact that he was unhappy with the Win team.
Jing Yuanzhou walked into the room. He glanced at Lin Yan’s expression and suggested, “Why don’t you do tomorrow’s draw?”
Lin Yan found it strange and asked, “Why?”
“Isn’t it said that thinking about things is particularly mysterious? You are thinking about Win right now. Perhaps you’ll really draw them?”
Lin Yan thought about it before shaking his head. “I will teach Win a lesson sooner or later. It’s better for you to do the group draw. I am cursed and this type of thing doesn’t suit me. It is really hard to say if I will get the same group as Win but it is certain that I will get one of the three teams of LFD, PAY and Three.”
The thing he was most afraid of encountering at the World Competition was the friendly teams of their own division fighting each other. After all, four of the top 16 teams were from China. In order to avoid this tragedy, Lin Yan still firmly refused to do this type of thing.
***
The next day, the drawing ceremony was held. The representatives of the teams from each division came together.
Lin Yan and Jing Yuanzhou arrived and they could feel the gazes from the surroundings. After all, it had been a while since the global scene had seen a team go straight to the World Competition the moment they appeared. Jing Yuanzhou had been famous for a long time but it was still unavoidable for other players to pay a bit more attention to the mysterious dark horse team, GH.
Lin Yan didn’t seem aware of these exploratory gazes. He looked indifferent as he walked with Jing Yuanzhou to the teams in their division and sat down next to Luni. They didn’t arrive too early and a number of representatives arrived after them.
Lin Yan lowered his head to play with his phone and didn’t pay attention to the surroundings. It wasn’t until he felt an abrupt pause in the discussions throughout the room that he looked up in confusion. It wasn’t just the others who quieted down. Jing Yuanzhou who was talking with Luni also fell silent.
Lin Yan turned around again and saw two figures walking through the door. One person was dressed in a casual suit while the other was wearing the grey-red uniform of the KING team. It was Song Cheng, the coach of the Korean KING team and An Seungyeob, the legendary player with the ID of Flm.
The face that had previously only been seen in videos appeared in front of him, causing Lin Yan to frown. He took a glance and was ready to withdraw his gaze when he found that the man in front of them inadvertently looked in their direction and subtly paused.
Then he walked over.
The author has something to say:
Lin Yan: Do you dare to come over? ╰_╯
Proofreader: Nao