Chapter 1 The Early Side

This year's Spring Festival is on January 23rd, earlier than usual. Pei Qian looked at the calendar and calculated the time. After the exams this week, he would have to spend a lot of energy on a spending spree and preparing for the settlement.

Arriving at Mo Yu Internet Cafe, Pei Qian drank his beverage while scrolling through his phone, checking if there was any news.

"Hmm? Foreign media reveals FV club can't find scrim partners?"

Pei Qian hadn't intended to pay special attention to FV club's news, but this news was on the front page of the gaming and e-sports section, so it was hard to miss.

Seeing this news, Pei Qian perked up and quickly clicked on it to check it out.

This was a piece of gossip from foreign media, and the foreign media's source seemed to be European and American clubs.

The news itself was very simple. The origin was that this media went to interview various European and American clubs that had entered the quarterfinals before the start of the quarterfinals, and simply asked them about their current state and scrim situation. One of the clubs said that FV club had asked them for scrims, but they had not accepted.

Of course, this kind of gossip had no solid evidence, not even chat records, but the media that broke the news was still quite well-known, so it was quickly reprinted by major media outlets.

The quarterfinals were not until the weekend, and the GPL Spring Split also started this Saturday, so there was no news in the e-sports circle during this time. Such a piece of gossip without solid evidence was pushed to the headlines and sparked heated discussions.

Pei Qian wasn't sure if Longyu Group was involved, but seeing the popularity and discussion of this news, it was impossible to say that there were no water armies pushing the waves behind the scenes.

There were already many comments below this news, and many people were singing the blues for FV club.

"No scrims to play? That's too bad, isn't it?"

"Then what's the point of playing? Could it be that they can only play solo queue on the ladder? Wouldn't they be crushed in the quarterfinals?"

"This must be the club management's negligence, right? You have to book scrims early. If you only book when other teams' schedules are full, of course you won't get any!"

"Do you really think it's because the schedule is full that they can't get scrims? How can you be so naive? If you're really a strong team, would other teams miss the opportunity to scrim with you? They'd squeeze in time even if they had to! Obviously, they think you're too weak and are making excuses to refuse!"

"Go to the foreign streaming platforms and forums and you'll understand. They're all spamming 'CN IOI NOOB'. They think you're too weak, and scrimming with you is a waste of time."

"What about the other two clubs? Did they just return to China? They're all domestic teams, won't they stay and practice together?"

"Practice? When other clubs lost the competition, wasn't FV kicking them when they were down? And you expect them to practice with you?"

"Heh, if you ask me, this is all FV's own fault. Weren't they happily making fun of everyone on Weibo before, mocking almost all the teams participating in the World Championship? Other clubs may not say it, but can they really have no grudges in their hearts? Now it's good, they're isolated, and they can't even get scrims!"

"I have no expectations. This year's IOI World Finals is really infuriating. The qualifiers were a mess, and both teams were eliminated in the group stage. The number one seed doesn't have scrims and is just having fun on Weibo all day. I guess they'll be 3:0'd in the end. That's it, I'm going to watch GPL."

"The competition hasn't even started yet, there's no need to be so eager to sing the blues, right? It is said that SUG is still practicing with them."

"What's the use? The gap between domestic and foreign levels is too big. Isn't SUG also destined to be crushed? They don't even have the opportunity to scrim with European and American teams, how can they study their tactics and play styles? Their understanding of the game is far behind, and this can't be compensated for by skill!"

The internet was full of voices singing the blues, and even the few players who supported FV club didn't have much hope.

Moreover, FV club had been making fun of everything on Weibo, and with Longyu Group hiring some water armies to create momentum, FV's public image wasn't very good.

Now that this negative news of "no scrims to play" was exposed, it was even worse for players who were already unconfident in domestic teams.

In short, the internet was full of gloom.

Pei Qian flipped through the comments and couldn't help but be overjoyed.

Not bad!

Could this be the so-called "when the time comes, the whole world will help"?

Even foreign clubs have begun to lend me a hand?

Pei Qian didn't ask Wu Yue about the authenticity of this news, because it was likely true.

Teams in the same region tend to stick together when playing scrims, after all, no one wants to reveal their region's trump card to other regions.

Moreover, with only FV left as the only domestic team in the quarterfinals, those European and American teams could greatly weaken FV's strength by forming a group to play scrims and isolating FV club, thus reducing their own competition.

From a logical and emotional point of view, foreign teams had plenty of motivation to do this.

Pei Qian was very happy and had already prepared in advance.

When FV club is eliminated in the quarterfinals, he will call Wu Yue as soon as possible to express his condolences, telling everyone that they have tried their best and not to be sad, and to continue playing in Los Angeles until the end of the World Finals before returning!

...

At the same time, Los Angeles.

On the second floor of the internet cafe, the FV and SUG teams were still diligently carrying out their daily training.

At this time, Wu Yue was looking at the news on the internet and was very angry.

"Are these European and American teams sick?"

"It's fine if they don't accept our scrims, but why are they gossiping everywhere?"

"Are they crazy! Do they think we want to scrim with you so badly?"

FV club had a dedicated data analysis team and two scrim teams, so it really didn't need to scrim with European and American teams. Not only might they not learn anything, but they might also reveal their tactics.

But with the start of the competition just around the corner, Wu Yue felt that it didn't seem appropriate to have not played any scrims at all, so he was thinking of inviting a European and American team to play a game at random to warm up before the competition and stabilize the players' mentality.

But he didn't expect that he went to several European and American clubs to book scrims, and they were all rejected!

As for the reason for being rejected, these clubs would certainly not say it clearly, but would only use excuses such as "the schedule is already full."

But in reality, everyone knew.

There were more than ten hours of training time in a day. How could the schedule be full with just scrims?

If it was a very important scrim opponent, they could definitely squeeze in time.

So, the response from these clubs was basically due to two reasons: first, they thought FV was too weak and the scrims would be ineffective, so they didn't want to waste time; second, they deliberately formed a group to isolate FV, affecting FV's training state, and taking down an opponent along the way.

Wu Yue didn't take it too seriously at first. Anyway, if they didn't want to book, then they didn't want to book. FV club didn't lack these few scrims, and everyone didn't like each other, so they just broke up.

But he didn't know which club was so gossipy and told the media, and the news spread!

This made Wu Yue very angry.

"Tell the team members to go all out in the quarterfinals, tower dive, dance at the fountain, and spam emotes!"

"Aren't these European and American teams looking down on people? Let them feel what cruelty is!"

...

...

January 7th, Saturday.

Pei Qian didn't get up until noon, feeling refreshed.

He had just finished a very important closed-book exam last Friday, and Pei Qian felt good about it. So, he was so happy that he played games until late at night, and today he slept until he woke up naturally.

Pei Qian had two more courses to review this weekend, but one was open-book and the other was closed-book, so he shouldn't be as stressed as before.

Pei Qian planned to relax a little, go to the GPL live to watch the game on Saturday, rest at home on the weekend, and take some time to simply read a book.

And this weekend was like a festival for e-sports fans.

This afternoon, the GPL Spring Split will officially begin.

The GPL Spring Split's schedule was very full. After all, there were 16 teams in the entire league now, and they had to play Bo3s, so there were matches every day except Monday.

Moreover, although there were no matches on Monday, there would be a review program, which would briefly review the matches of the previous week, review some key battles, play with the memes that appeared in the matches, and interact with netizens.

In terms of time, GPL can be said to be high-intensity entertainment seven days a week, and viewers have something to watch every day.

At the same time, the IOI World Finals had also entered the quarterfinal stage, with two Bo5s every Saturday and Sunday, directly deciding the top four spots.

Due to the time difference and schedule, the IOI World Finals quarterfinals were at 5 a.m. local time in China the next day, which was more friendly to domestic viewers.

Watch the GPL opening match on Saturday afternoon, watch the IOI quarterfinals on Sunday morning, continue watching GPL in the afternoon, and continue watching IOI quarterfinals on Monday morning...

It can be said that the schedule was full, allowing viewers to enjoy it to the fullest.

Although there were not many IOI players in China, IOI was, after all, the World Finals, and Longyu Group 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, wearing a mask, arrived at the GPL Spring Split venue.

The preseason had already been held last month, and several newly formed teams had already made their debut. Some of the problems that had appeared in the matches had been fixed and improved, and some possible emergency situations had already been planned for.

Today's opening match was arranged between the H4 team and the SHG team. The former was the world champion, while the latter was the team formed by Shenhua.

Since the SHG team was formed, it had attracted much attention. After all, Shenhua's performance in football was very good, and using football's gameplay to play e-sports could be seen as a dimensional reduction strike. Many people were looking forward to their performance.

In the previous preseason, SHG also played a few times and performed well. After this period of preparation and running-in, the main lineup had been determined and had improved rapidly. According to the training match situation, Zhang Yuan finally decided to let them open the opening match, which could be considered as giving this team better exposure opportunities.