Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 220: Confronting Japan, an Astounding Success!
The overwhelming aura silenced everyone in the room.

The huge conference room fell silent for a moment.

Even Chris, who had just stepped off the stage, was stunned and stood frozen in place by Li Luo's imposing aura.

"As long as we win the gold medal, everyone will receive their due prize money in full. I will even personally contribute a portion to the prize money."

The carrot and stick approach: an age-old principle.

If you want these people to work diligently, you not only have to keep them busy, but you also have to feed them.

After saying this, Li Luo didn't say anything more and walked off the stage.

Seeing Li Luo step down from the stage, all the staff breathed a sigh of relief, and their previous thoughts of slacking off were completely gone.

After the internal conflict was resolved, all preparations for the competition returned to normal.

On their first night in Jakarta, the group decided not to rush into training anymore. After all, physical condition is a mysterious thing, and it requires a balance of work and rest.

After leaving the e-sports area, Li Luo and his group met many athletes at the hotel restaurant.

Everyone is here to represent their country. There is no discrimination against esports, a new industry, and there are no scenes like those in melodramatic novels where people look down on others, show off, or get humiliated.

Almost every Asian Games and Olympic Games sees emerging industries applying to participate. Some athletes who haven't reached their limits in a particular field are even less accomplished than a few esports athletes in terms of achievements.

The athletes have tall, well-defined muscles, and many of the female athletes even have abs with healthy and aesthetically pleasing lines, which is something that couch potatoes who sit in front of their computers all day can only envy.

If it weren't for the management regulations implemented at the beginning of the year, probably none of us would have been able to come here and fight alongside players from other fields.

The nights in Ara were chaotic. The group wandered around the hotel for a while, but didn't go out and went to bed early.

The next day was the esports qualifiers.

The opponents in the qualifiers consist of 32 countries, representing four regions of China: Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

In addition, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Almost every country in Asia has participated in League of Legends competitions.

Thirty-two countries will compete in a best-of-one (BO1) match on the first day to determine sixteen spots.

A best-of-three (BO3) format will be used to determine the eight remaining spots.

All of these matches need to be completed in the morning.

In the afternoon, the eight teams will compete in a best-of-five series to determine the top four.

The next day, the four teams will compete in a best-of-five series to determine the final two countries.

Three or four teams will compete in a best-of-five series at the same time. The winner will receive a bronze medal, and the loser will receive no medal.

The final will also be a best-of-five series, with the winner taking the gold medal and the loser the silver medal.

On the first day, the Chinese team's first opponent was not strong; it was a team from Singapore.

Facing teams without regional servers, everyone jokingly said they would give it their all and not be careless.

But after the match, the score of 23-0 on the screen undoubtedly demonstrated just how terrifying the strength of this Chinese team was.

"It seems like teams from other countries are just cannon fodder in this competition."

"Apart from a few teams that can make a name for themselves in the World Championship, the level of other countries is hard to describe; they don't even seem to be at the level of our LSPL."

"Hopefully, they won't get overconfident. Beating a Singaporean team isn't anything to brag about; they just don't want to crash and burn!"

The result of the first match did not make domestic fans happy; instead, they started having family planning on social media.

LPL teams have a tradition of overconfidence, even the national team, which is just RNG in a different skin.

After eliminating Vietnam, the home of the richest man in the country, in the second match, the Chinese team finally faced their first controversial opponent in this World Championship.

Japan.

When talking about this country with its complex history, many people have extremely mixed feelings.

Therefore, the moment the draw results were announced, the Weibo trending topic "China esports vs. Japan esports" immediately surged to the top spot.

Even people who don't know anything about esports clicked in with great interest when they saw the match between the Chinese and Japanese teams.

"I never expected the Japanese server to make it to the top 8, it's just unbelievable!"

"The person upstairs is still living in the last version. This season, they're not weak at all, especially their mid laner Ceros, who's reached the top 100 in the Korean server."

"Hey, anyone with a big dick, are there a lot of girls on the Japanese server?"

"Are you living in a dream? In one game, there are 10 people, 9 Chinese, and one foreigner, a Japanese, and you can't see any of them."

When the topic of Japan comes up, people's focus often becomes strange.

However, when it comes to the level of Japanese teams, they were actually not very strong during the S8 period.

In the Asian Games in his previous life, he was once crushed 0-8-0 by Maple, who was Li Ning's mid laner in S10.

In the match against the Chinese team, the Japanese team's mid laner Ceros played Karma and was completely outplayed by Xiye, which was quite outrageous and not something a Korean Challenger player could do.

The overall quality of online games in Japanese servers is not high.

In fact, the proportion of gamers in Japan is much higher than in China.

Internationally, Japan is a country with a relatively high degree of cultural inclusiveness. Logically, the Japanese server should have been established at the same time as other less popular countries.

However, online games, especially those involving esports, are not very popular in the Japanese server.

No audience means your competition has no buzz, and without buzz, there's no funding.

As a major handheld gaming nation, Japan rarely sees people playing games like League of Legends in internet cafes. Instead, they often rent comic books or play certain games late at night to pass the time.

Letting these couch potatoes play League of Legends, with their long-standing casual gaming habits, will only be like a virgin encountering Picasso—they can only stare blankly and anxiously.

Of course, there are many reasons why it is not popular, such as the exclusion by the local video game industry. Without these industry leaders to act as agents, online games cannot get publicity and development.

For example, the prevalence of class culture and various historical reasons meant that even phenomenal online games like PUBG and League of Legends did not receive much attention in Season 8.

The most important reason why the Japanese server can continue to operate is due to the globalization strategy of League of Legends.

Although Li Luo knew that this team was notoriously weak in big competitions, Chris still used his lunch break to collect information about the Japanese team out of caution, given the explosive public opinion surrounding them.

"Japanese Faker? This team is pretty strong; they crushed everyone in the play-in stage this morning."

Chris exclaimed in surprise as he watched one game go on a godlike streak and another on a 5-0 record.

Li Luo also curiously leaned over.

You see, in the past, the Japanese team just happened to run into the Korean team right at the start. The Japanese Faker facing off against the real Korean Faker was naturally a crushing defeat. "Wait, how come the Japanese team's rank is so high? And why is their ADC Yutapon?"

Two strong teams from the Japanese region: DFM and v3.

The AD carry players from DFM and V3 are old rivals.

V3's AD carry, Yutorimoyashi, was once hailed as "Japan's strongest AD carry." He participated in the S7 World Championship with the RPG team (the predecessor of PGM, which was later exposed for withholding the temporary residence permits of Korean players).

DFM's AD, Yutapon, was always overshadowed by Yutori, and only in the last two years has he turned the tables.

Coincidentally, in addition to both having S-series experience, the two also share the same name, Yuta. However, Yutorimoyashi is Yuta Noguchi, while Yutapon is Yuta Sugiura.

So, jokingly speaking, their fight could actually be called the "Yuta Battle".

But now that Li Luo sees Yuta Kodo replacing Yuta Odo at the Asian Games, even he has become curious.

"I've seen this person before. He's pretty good at the Korean server, but he's still a ways off from the top players."

Mingkai also joined in. His rank wasn't high; he was only around Master Diamond I in the Korean server. Therefore, he often encountered players from wildcard regions.

"no no no"

Li Luo, a man from a later generation, had seen online posts exposing Yuta's past. Rumor had it that before becoming a professional gamer, Yuta was a professional actor, and of course, she acted in "the kind" of films that everyone enjoyed.

In professional matches, after a poor performance, people often jokingly ask if the player has gone to film a movie again.

The nickname "softie" for the Japanese team in major tournaments originated from a meme about Yuta, and gradually spread to the entire Japanese team.

Once this joke was told, the lounge, where everyone was playing on their phones, suddenly became lively.

"Little dog, if you say that, I won't be sleepy anymore!"

"No, no, no, let me borrow a phone to talk."

"Is League of Legends also going to fall?"

Seeing the group of people sitting intently beside him, ready to listen to a story session, Li Luo was so frightened that he immediately gave Chris a "danger, save me!" look.

Chris, of course, understood perfectly:

"Japan does well against wildcard teams, but they're no match for us. Don't panic, just go out there and play your best."

This summary offers absolutely no insight, yet it resonated with everyone.

In the morning's match, Clearlove played a game and truly experienced just how terrifying this RNG team is.

Unlike his time with EDG, where he was responsible for controlling the team's rhythm, Clearlove also had to switch screens to provide guidance on some online details.

But at RNG, Clearlove truly experienced what a great gaming experience is all about.

Whether it's the practice matches these days or the official matches, all the factory manager needs to do is:

While farming jungle camps, I was called for a gank. I got the kill, I got the kill, I got the kill. I went on a rampage and charged into the fountain.

Extremely mechanical, extremely numb.

Even when facing several LPL practice teams, the process did not encounter any major setbacks.

Upon hearing Chris's words, the factory manager was the first to nod in agreement, indicating that he was deeply moved.

While the Japanese team is not weak and is stronger than other wildcard regions, the gap is clearly visible when compared to teams from established regions like LPL, LCK, and LMS.

The lunch break was short because of the esports competition format, so all the athletes started entering the venue again at 2 p.m.

Unfortunately, this highly anticipated "friendly" battle between China and Japan failed to be broadcast on CCTV due to public opinion.

First of all, the format of esports competitions takes up too much time. In contrast, in track and field, the 100-meter dash has a large audience, and the entire process, including preparation and the end, only takes about ten minutes.

Esports matches are often best-of-three (BO3) series, and even with seamless transitions, they still take up at least an hour of broadcast time in the best-case scenario.

The fact that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television agreed to broadcast the finals on CCTV already shows that it has given esports a great deal of preferential treatment.

Although it wasn't on TV, major live streaming platforms, including all channels under Tencent, started pushing information about the match. As long as you clicked on the push notification, you could immediately and smoothly watch this "evenly matched" game.

Thanks to the friendly promotion from domestic fans, people who don't watch the games or don't understand esports at all thought that the Japanese team and the Chinese team were evenly matched.

More and more passersby, unaware of the truth, joined in, and the buzz spread rapidly in various places.

"League of Legends is destined to become a phenomenal online game that will endure."

Sitting on the 360-square-meter penthouse sofa, the owner of X Fish remarked with considerable emotion.

Hearing his subordinates' increasingly excited voices, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, feeling both excited and uneasy.

The more chaotic a market is, the more profit can be made within it.

Before any rules were established or before a more powerful player could dominate the scene, X-Fish had already achieved enviable profits in League of Legends.

"The Asian Games... I wonder if it will be a blessing or a curse for the industry in the future."

As the saying goes, "the bigger the tree, the more the wind blows," and other traditional industries, including other games, could not sit idly by when League of Legends rose to prominence.

Allowing League of Legends to dominate the competitive gaming market and expand its influence is something that people in other game development industries definitely don't want to see.

If they can weather this storm, League of Legends will become a game that influences generations.

Unable to hold on any longer, the owner of X Fish stared at the data on the report and gave a bitter smile.

"What kind of game could possibly have attracted over 8000 million viewers?"

It's not just these few big bosses who are reaping the benefits who are lamenting this; this sentiment is everywhere in the esports industry.

More than winning the championship or taking the gold medal, the match against the Japanese team has ignited the esports war ahead of time, and everyone's attention is focused on the match that is about to start at 2:30.

Major media outlets, including several major media outlets, also broadcast the competition information and links. Before securing sponsorship, their actions were essentially doing it out of love.

With major media outlets mobilized, marketing accounts were naturally not to be outdone. In no time, anyone across the internet who had followed esports or gaming could receive information pushed by big data when they opened their social media accounts.

"The hype this year is ridiculously high. Whoever wins the World Championship will be set for life!"

"Excuse me, what's the connection between RNG and the national team? I see everyone's asking about it."

"No way, no way, there really are newbies in League of Legends? Holy crap! It really is a newbie!"

"It's such a pity. If we could have won the Asian Games first and then won the championship at the Bird's Nest, the scene and the excitement would have been incredible!"

(End of this chapter)