Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 218 Selection, Extravagant E-sports!
Feng Ge's driving speed is as steady as his personality. Even though he was in a hurry to get back to training, he was still driving very steadily.

From abroad, especially in places like Paris, the time difference is more than ten hours.

Li Luo is a dedicated person, but not so dedicated that he even tries to save time by adjusting to the time difference. As soon as he entered the room, the group started clamoring to go back to their respective bedrooms, take a shower, and catch up on sleep.

After being woken up for lunch in the afternoon, everyone sleepily arrived at the base's dining hall.

"Everyone's awake? Come on, come on, let's eat!"

Upon seeing everyone, Bai Xing jumped to his feet, beaming with joy, as if he had been given a second spring.

After the S7 tournament, Bai Xing's e-sports business, which was not initially favored by his family, took off like a pig on a windy gust of wind.

After the MSI season ended in S8, the income became even more staggering, and it has clearly become the pillar industry of the family business.

Abu once said:

"Of all the teams in the league, only EDG is consistently making money; the other teams are either losing money or on their way to losing money."

The time from acquiring RNG to RNG taking off is incredibly short, and the returns are unbelievable.

For a family like Shirahoshi's that wants to transform itself, this opportunity is even more rare.

In the past, esports was alright. Even though it was large in scale and had a significant influence among young people, outsiders had a lot of prejudice against it.

Therefore, esports has always been a hot potato. Countless people want to get involved and improve the esports ecosystem, but countless others are hesitant and dare not enter the field.

But now that esports has been included in the Asian Games, the significance is completely different from before. To put it more broadly, it means that the country is supporting this industry!
With the country so optimistic about this industry, which businessperson wouldn't see an opportunity?

Even though Li Luo took away her shares, Bai Xing, who held the majority, was not greedy; on the contrary, she was genuinely happy.

RNG's success is undoubtedly due in no small part to Li Luo's contributions. He is not the type to betray those who have helped him, and he is well aware of this.

"Oh, Bai Xing, what brings you here? Didn't you say yesterday you were going to stay in Shanghai for a few more days?"

"Don't try to fool me. The people from the General Administration have been selected. The preliminary rounds are best-of-one matches, involving several teams, and we only have three days to train."

Bai Xing said impatiently.

Once everyone was seated at the table, Bai Xing continued:
"Everyone, don't rush. You'll all be in the preliminary lineup the day after tomorrow!" Bai Xing said decisively.

"Oh wow, that feels so good, that feels so good!"

The other three RNG players were fine, but Yan Junze in the top lane and Xiaohu in the mid lane were in a more precarious situation. However, when they finally got the answer, they were relieved.

In essence, the League of Legends championship is a team-based honor, except for the Finals MVP.

The history of the S-series over the years has long proven that you can't win a championship by playing alone. To a large extent, a team's ability to win a championship is inseparable from the strength of each individual member of the team.

However, RNG's situation is somewhat unique compared to other teams.

The ADC position is shining too brightly!

Uzi's brilliance has completely overshadowed everyone else after winning two championships. The first internal conflict in RNG in the previous life was precisely because Xiaohu could not participate in the Asian Games, and Zz1tai's instigation caused the first wave to erupt.

At that time, RNG formed two gangs: the Tiger Gang and the Black Tiger Gang.

If RNG hadn't failed to win the championship in S8, the team would definitely have gone their separate ways after S8.

Nevertheless, after S8, with Letme, the only remaining member of the Tiger team, leaving, Xiaohu was also suppressed and lost his way in S9.

Unlike Doinb, Xiaohu appears calm about honors on the surface, but is actually very competitive inside. When he encounters someone like Zz1tai, before Xiaohu became indifferent to honors, the two of them engaged in fierce internal competition, which led to the entire RNG team becoming withdrawn whenever they were in a losing situation.

"National team, play well. This opportunity is rare, especially for an industry like ours where professional careers are relatively short. It's a four-year cycle, and some professional players who don't participate this time may never have another chance in their lives."

Bai Xing, sitting at the head of the table with considerable emotion, said:
"Especially you, Li Yuanhao, there's only one person in the country who can compete with you, Xiye. Whether you can seize this opportunity and soar to great heights depends entirely on yourself."

"On a side note, it's possible that after this event, the league will establish a Hall of Fame. Whether you can earn that honor and enter the Hall of Fame depends on yourselves."

Xiao Hu, who had a very good relationship with Bai Xing, nodded solemnly, then asked curiously:

Who are the other players chosen to face us?

Bai Xing didn't keep them in suspense. She took out her phone, looked at the message from an acquaintance, and said seriously:
"The esports competition the day after tomorrow has divided us into two teams. We are team one, and they are team two. Team two's lineup is..."

"Top laner Langx, mid laner Xiye, jungler Mingkai, ADC Sima Laozei, support Mekio"

"This is the lineup that everyone has discussed. From these 10 of you, we will select seven people to participate in this year's national team training and represent China at the Asian Games."

"Of course, the coaches are also controversial. There were many coaches who applied this time, and the General Administration selected two coaches: Chris and Abu!"

"Fuck!"

Upon hearing Bai Xing's words, Xiang Guo, who was sitting at the lower end of the table, exclaimed in surprise.

"Didn't Abu go to be a manager? What's wrong? Does he want to be a coach for the national team this time?"

If we divide the coaches in the LPL professional circle into three levels: top coaches, first-class coaches, and second-class coaches.

So, the only top-tier domestic coach who can rival a top coach like Chris is Abu, who has already transitioned to a different role.

Before RNG won the World Championship in S7, the only World Championship title for the LPL was won by EDG, led by Abu.

Since then, Abu has been promoted to manager at EDG. Putting aside his domineering role within the team, his coaching ability alone makes him absolutely capable of handling the coaching position.

Everyone finished their meal with heavy hearts and sat down in the training room.

Many players will activate a buff after not playing the game for a long time, or after playing less. If this period lasts for more than a month, it will be activated.

Under this buff, if you suddenly return to intensive gameplay, you'll be surprised to find that, apart from being a little rusty in your skills, your awareness is exceptionally high, sometimes half or even a whole level above your current rank.

With proper training and practice over a period of time, one can definitely score high marks.

Conversely, if you play the game every day, very frequently, you'll find that you've become immersed in your current rank and can't break free.

Once you reach the level of a professional player, although there is very limited room for improvement, once you enter the game, you immediately feel like you are being outmatched.

The two-day training period passed in the blink of an eye. Early in the morning, the group boarded a bus and headed to the national team's training venue.

Stepping into this national-level training venue for the first time, and seeing the lively scenes of other events along the way, everyone's eyes were opened, and they couldn't help but feel even more excited.

Soon, when the group entered the training hall under the guidance of the staff, they were immediately stunned.

It is well known that the national team is very poor, as can be seen from the equipment they use.

Aside from high-performing projects receiving substantial funding, many less popular projects have to repeatedly apply for personnel subsidies. However, the esports room at this time was equipped with a huge central air conditioner, and besides the monitor being an old-fashioned competition monitor, the computer configuration was almost maxed out—a configuration that even RNG's training room didn't have.

It's not that I don't have the money, it's just that who would use top-of-the-line specs to play League of Legends? Damn it!
Is there really that much funding for esports?

Seemingly noticing their confusion, before the staff member who brought them could speak, one of the people sitting to the side looked up.

"The puppies are here? Come and see these computers provided by the sponsors, they're really generous!"

As Mingkai greeted them, he let the familiar people crack jokes with him.

"Forget about these computers, the sponsors cover all your meals and transportation during training."

"It's fair to say that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television not only provided a venue, but also completed all the renovations. Even other less popular projects benefited from this, and they asked me to come and thank you."

The staff member added with a smile.

Regardless of the sponsors' motives, these goalkeepers who bring glory to the country are undoubtedly the biggest beneficiaries.

The trainer was very large; after Mingkai spoke, several heads popped out from behind the computer screen.

The Wolf Walker of today is not as weathered as he will be later; occasionally, one can see a hint of untamed arrogance on his face.

As for Xiye and Meikou, Laozei was already familiar with them. After exchanging greetings, they each found seats and sat down.

As for Mingkai, he took the initiative to ask to sit with Li Luo, ostensibly to "exchange feelings."

The main competition will begin after lunch, so these players can only be considered warm-up players at this point.

"What's the selection process? They're not going to send the five of us to fight the five of you, are they? That's just too unfair..."

Unlike RNG's five players, even though they haven't trained properly during this period, when it comes to teamwork and synergy, the hastily assembled second team is no match for RNG.

"Definitely not. Actually, the best strategy is for all five RNG players to play, since their teamwork will be better. But the general administration always needs some margin for error. I don't know whether the substitute spot will be given to the top laner or the mid laner."

Mingkai shook his head and said helplessly.

Looking at the all-Chinese teams in S8, it's really hard to find a team that can compete with RNG. Even IG, with Korean foreign players as the core of the team, wouldn't dare to say that they have more than a 30% chance of winning against RNG.

However, it's not uncommon for national teams to fall short of club teams.

With basketball and football being the main sports, this phenomenon is perfectly normal.

In the NBA, if a position is weak, you can simply spend money to buy or strengthen it. A team that was performing poorly the previous year might win the championship after acquiring someone like LeBron James or Dwight Howard.

This is especially true in football, where most national teams simply cannot beat some of the top teams.

As for why LCK doesn't field an entire club team, such as fielding the entire SKT team.

It's simply a matter of strength.

SKT just lost to RNG, and RNG won by a crushing margin. Naturally, the Korean team wouldn't do something so stupid.

As for other teams, you can't even beat SKT, so how can you expect to beat their national teams?

Filled with doubt, after warming up and having lunch, Abu and Chris arrived together, each holding a coaching notebook.

Several people who appeared to be leaders were also present and sat at the head of the training room.

The leaders were all quite young; even the oldest was only in his early thirties.

Abu began reading the competition rules and regulations with a serious expression.

"Today's training will be a full best-of-ten (BO10) match, with teams one and two taking turns substituting players."

"Each win will earn 1 point. If players have the same number of points at the end, they will compete in a solo match. The winner will gain 1 point, and the loser will not gain any points."

"For solo lane matches, it's best of five. For solo bot lane matches, players can team up with a support, also best of five."

"Junglers are an exception; they will be subject to additional criteria."

After the rules were announced and no one in the audience raised any objections, Abu nodded in satisfaction, indicating that they could start the first game's ban/pick phase.

This time, there is not only competition between the players, but also open and covert struggles between the coaches.

When Abramovich came in, he took the initiative and gave everyone the feeling that he was the head coach and Chris was the assistant coach.

But when Abu saw Chris's smiling face, which resembled that of Maitreya Buddha, he couldn't help but feel like he had punched a cotton candy.

Letme's hands were shaking a little; those who know him well know that Letme was a bit too nervous at this moment.

Little did he know, Wolf, sitting opposite him, was even more nervous than him, struggling to control his facial expressions.

The bot lane jungler is a done deal, but the top and mid lane positions are still undecided. Whoever performs well will be able to represent the country in the competition.

"Damn, what kind of luck is this? I'm facing Abu in the very first game. This is just too much!"

After Abucris threw the dice, he stood next to his respective partner.

As is well known, Abu's coaching style for Edg has always been: recruit top laners who can play Maokai well.

This also explains his coaching style: sacrifice the top laner to open up the mid, bot, and jungle, with the top laner just a utility tank.

This was nothing short of a bolt from the blue for Wolf, who wanted to have a standout performance in the competition.

Mentality needs to be built up step by step, and the same goes for top laners. Suning gives Langx a lot of room to maneuver, and the team's style is similar to IG's, focusing on the mid, top, and jungle, and emphasizing the advantages of the top lane.

"Wolf, you can do it!"

The sudden sound forcibly pulled Lang Xing's scattered thoughts back to reality.

Xi Ye stared at Lang Xing with a kind and gentle expression. For some reason, he had a special feeling of affinity with his team's top laner, as if the two of them would become teammates in the future.

Then Xi Ye whispered cheekily, "I heard Letme's ranked game performance has been terrible these past few days. They've had such a long break, their form might not be great. If they play well, they have a chance."

Hearing Xi Ye's words, Lang Xing seemed to regain his fighting spirit and asked expectantly:
"Then you'll catch it for me?"

"hehe!"

“mmp”

Honest Wolf seemed to have forgotten that Xi Ye was his rival. How could this kind-looking elementary school student possibly help him?

(End of this chapter)