This year's Spring Festival was on January 23rd, which came earlier than in previous years. Pei Qian looked at the calendar and calculated the time. After this week's exams, he would have to spend a lot of energy on spending money and settling accounts.
When he arrived at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Pei Qian sipped his drink and scrolled through his cell phone to see if there was any news recently.
"Hmm? The foreign media exposed that FV Club couldn't get a mock competition? "
Pei Qian did not want to pay special attention to FV Club's news. However, this news was on the headlines of the games and esports zone. He had no choice but to pay attention to it.
Pei Qian perked up when he saw this piece of news. He quickly clicked on it.
This was a piece of news from the foreign media, and the source of the foreign media seemed to be the European and American clubs.
The news itself was very simple. The reason was that the media had gone to interview the European and American clubs that had entered the top eight before the start of the quarterfinals. They had also briefly inquired about their current state and training matches. One of the clubs said that FV Club had made an appointment with them for a training match, but they did not accept.
Of course, this kind of rumor had no concrete evidence, not even chat records. However, the media that broke the news was still a little famous, so it was quickly reprinted by the major media.
The top eight would only start on the weekend. The GPL Spring Competition would also start on Saturday, so there was no news in the E-Sports circle during this period. Such a rumor without any concrete evidence was pushed to the top of the headlines and caused a heated discussion.
Pei Qian did not know if Long Yu Corporation was involved. However, it was impossible to say that there were no fake reviewers behind this news based on its popularity and discussion.
There were already many comments below this news. Many people were criticizing FV Club.
"No mock competition? Isn't this too tragic? "
"Then what's the point of playing? Don't tell me we can only play the Human Game on the Stairway Road? Won't they be crushed in the quarterfinals? "
"This must be a dereliction of duty by the club's management, right? Of course, you have to book a mock competition early. If you only book a mock competition when it's full, you definitely won't be able to get one! "
"Do you really think you can't make an appointment because your time is full? How could her thoughts be so simple? If you were really from a strong team, would they miss the chance to play a mock competition with you? Even if you forcefully squeezed, you would still be able to squeeze out time! It's obvious that he thinks you're a noob, so he's finding an excuse to shirk his responsibility! "
"Go to foreign live streaming platforms and forums and you will understand. They are all browsing CN.
Noob, I think you're too weak. Playing mock matches with you is a waste of time. "
"What about the other two clubs? Just like that? We're both domestic teams. Aren't you going to stay and spar with us? "
"My foot. Wasn't FV adding insult to injury when the club lost the competition? And to spar with you? "
"Heh, if I were to say, FV only has themselves to blame. Didn't they have a lot of fun on Weibo previously? They mocked almost all the teams participating in the international competition. The other clubs might not say anything, but how could they not have any grudges? Now, you're isolated. You can't even make an appointment for a mock competition! "
"There's no hope. I'm really angry at IOI's world finals this year. The qualifiers were terrible, and two teams were eliminated in the group stages. The first seed did not fight in the mock competition and spent all day on Weibo. I reckon that they would be defeated by 3: 0. That's it. I'll go watch the GPL."
"The match hasn't even started yet. There's no need to be in such a hurry, right? I heard that the SUG is still training with them. "
"What's the use? The difference in standards between domestic and foreign teams is too huge. Isn't the SUG also doomed to be beaten up? They don't even have the chance to play mock competitions with European and American teams. How can they study their tactics and playstyles? Their understanding of the game has been left behind by a huge margin. This is not something that can be made up for with operations! "
The internet was filled with pessimistic voices. Even the few players who supported FV Club did not have much hope.
What's more, FV Club had been working on Weibo. In addition, Long Yu Corporation had hired some fake reviewers to lead the way. Thus, FV's popularity was not very good.
Now that the negative news of 'no mock competition to play' had been released, it made things worse for the players who had no confidence in domestic teams.
All in all, the internet was filled with gloominess.
Pei Qian could not help but smile as he flipped through the comments.
Not bad!
Could this be the so-called 'heaven and earth are working together'?
Even foreign clubs are starting to help me?
Pei Qian did not ask Wu Yue about the authenticity of this news because it was most likely true.
Teams in the same division tended to team up when they played mock competitions. After all, they did not want to reveal the trump cards of their division to the other divisions.
What's more, FV was the only domestic team left in the top eight. Those European and American teams would team up to play mock competitions and isolate FV Club. Objectively speaking, they could also greatly weaken FV Team's strength and reduce their competitors.
Logically speaking, the motivation of foreign teams to do such a thing was very sufficient.
Pei Qian was very happy. He had already made preparations in advance.
He would call Wu Yue immediately after FV Club was eliminated in the top eight. He would tell everyone that he had tried his best and not to be sad. He would continue to play in Los Angeles until the world finals ended!
…
At the same time, in Los Angeles …
On the second floor of the internet cafe, FV and SUG teams were still seriously training.
At that moment, Wu Yue was looking at the news online and was furious.
"Are these European and American teams crazy?"
"It's one thing that they don't want to accept our mock competition, but they're even saying it everywhere?"
"They must be crazy! Do you think we care about playing mock competitions with you? "
FV Club had a special data analysis team and two training teams. There was indeed no need for them to play mock competitions with European and American teams. Not only might they not be able to train anything, but they might also expose their tactics.
However, seeing that the competition was about to start, Wu Yue felt that it was not appropriate to not have played any mock competitions at all. Thus, he thought of inviting a European and American team to play as a warm-up before the competition and to stabilize the players' mentality.
In the end, he did not expect to be rejected when he went to a few European and American clubs to arrange mock competitions!
Of course, these clubs would not say the reason for the rejection. They would only use the excuse that the mock competition was already full.
However, everyone knew very well.
There were more than ten hours of training a day. How could it be possible to be full just for mock competitions?
If it was a very important mock competition opponent, they would definitely be able to squeeze out time.
Thus, to put it bluntly, these clubs' response was due to two reasons: First, they felt that FV was too lousy and the mock competition was not effective. They did not want to waste time; second, they deliberately isolated FV, affected FV's training state, and killed an opponent.
Wu Yue did not take it to heart at first. In any case, so be it. FV Club did not lack these mock competitions. Since everyone looked down on each other, they would go their separate ways.
In the end, he did not know which club was so big-mouthed as to tell the media that the news had spread!
That made Wu Yue very angry.
"Tell the team members to go all out in the quarterfinals. Tower jumping, spring dashing, dancing, and showing off all of them!"
"Don't these European and American teams look down on us? Let them experience what cruelty is! "
…
…
January 7th, Saturday …
Pei Qian slept all the way until noon before waking up. He felt refreshed.
He had just finished a very crucial closed-book exam last Friday. What's more, Pei Qian felt good about himself. Thus, he played games until late at night when he was happy. He woke up naturally today.
Pei Qian still had two more classes to revise this weekend. However, one was open-book and the other was closed-book. He should not be under as much pressure as before.
Pei Qian planned to relax a little. He would go to the GPL venue on Saturday to watch the competition. He would rest at home on the weekend and take some time to read.
This weekend was like a festival for the E-Sports audience.
The GPL Spring Competition would officially begin this afternoon.
The schedule for the GPL Spring Competition was very full. There were 16 teams in the entire league after all. What's more, they had to play 'best-of-three' matches. Thus, apart from Monday, there were competitions at other times.
What's more, even though there were no competitions on Monday, there would be a review program arranged. It would briefly review last week's competition, review some key battles, and play with the jokes that appeared in the competition to interact with netizens.
In terms of time, the GPL could be said to be a high-intensity performance seven days a week. The audience would watch it every day.
At the same time, the IOI World Finals had also entered the top eight. There would be two 'best-of-five' matches on Saturday and Sunday, directly deciding the top four.
Due to the time difference and competition schedule, the top eight of the IOI World Finals was held at 5 am the next day in China. That was even more friendly to the domestic audience.
They would watch the opening battle of the GPL on Saturday afternoon, watch the IOI top eight on Sunday morning, continue watching the GPL in the afternoon, and continue watching the IOI top eight on Monday morning …
It could be said that the competition schedule was full, and they could watch it all at once.
There might not be many IOI players in the country, but IOI was the world finals after all. Long Yu Corporation had been sparing no effort in promoting it recently. Coupled with the previous series of public opinion storms, the attention was still very high.
…
In the afternoon, Pei Qian wore a mask and arrived at the venue for the GPL Spring Competition.
The pre-season competition had been held last month. Several new teams that had been formed had already appeared. Some of the problems that had appeared in the competition had been repaired and improved. Some possible emergencies had also been planned.
Today's opening battle was between H4 and SHG. The former was the world champion, while the latter was a team formed by Shenhua.
Ever since SHG was formed, they had received a lot of attention. After all, Shenhua's results in football were very good. Using football to play E-Sports could be seen as a form of dimensional reduction. Many people were looking forward to their performance.
SHG had also appeared a few times in the previous pre-season competition and performed well. After this period of preparation and running-in, the main lineup had been confirmed. What's more, they had improved very quickly. According to the situation of the mock competition, Zhang Yuan finally decided to let them open the opening battle. It could also be considered a better opportunity for this team to be exposed.
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