Wu Yue and Manager Lu quickly went through the list and selected five players, one for each position.

Actually, they had only intended to buy two players to fill the gaps in the team. After all, with the few resources they had on hand, they never thought they could assemble a full all-star IOI team of five.

But seeing how generous Lin Chang and the other club owners were, they felt a little embarrassed to be picky!

There were even two good players for some positions. After careful consideration, taking into account the personalities of all the team members, their familiarity with each other, their teamwork, and so on, Wu Yue and Manager Lu finalized the final five-man lineup.

These players could be said to be the players Wu Yue and Manager Lu had dreamed of, but unfortunately, they couldn't afford them.

Before IOI became popular worldwide and GOG hadn't yet swept the nation, a group of talented young players emerged in the country. However, most of these talented players were snatched up by established clubs like SUG, and they were simply impossible to buy.

But recently, with the rapid development of GOG, the overall shrinkage of IOI's Chinese server, and the establishment of the GPL league, there were fewer and fewer IOI players in China, and the environment was getting worse and worse. Both IOI players and clubs were starting to think about leaving.

The whole environment had loosened up, and clubs were no longer clinging to their players and asking for sky-high prices.

And Lin Chang and the other new clubs weren't short of money. With an extreme shortage of players to form the GPL league, they bought up a batch of IOI players at bargain prices, intending to slowly cultivate them.

Now that the club invested in by President Pei needed them, why not have each club contribute one person to form a five-man team?

Even for large clubs like Shenhua, giving away a player wouldn't affect their own strength in any way. After all, these players didn't have the opportunity to play before and still needed to be cultivated and integrated.

Now, letting them go back to playing IOI, returning to their old profession, and at the same time doing President Pei a favor, what could be better?

After the players were selected, the team leaders of each club immediately communicated with these players and quickly received a "willing" response.

Because these clubs were very accommodating and wouldn't restrict the players' freedom in terms of contracts. The contract stipulated that these players would transfer to FV Club to play in an IOI qualifier. If they failed to qualify for the World Championship, they could choose whether to return to their previous club. If they qualified for the World Championship, they would make a decision after the World Championship.

For the players, everything, including salary and benefits, remained the same. They could play IOI, which they loved, their teammates were very strong, and they could even try for the World Championship.

Such a world-class competition could bring a lot of attention and traffic. Doing well in international matches could attract a lot of fans, and even if they didn't qualify, they could return to their original club at any time without any loss.

Therefore, these players happily agreed.

Lin Chang said with a smile, "Okay, since the players have all agreed, let's sign the contracts. You can take them away today. Time is tight, so take them back and train them well!"

Wu Yue was deeply moved and now deeply felt what it meant to have someone to rely on.

In fact, he didn't think so much at first. He was just trying to buy two players to fill out the team.

He didn't expect the club owners to be so supportive for President Pei's sake. These excellent IOI players were almost given away for free. FV Club only needed to pay their salaries for the qualifier period.

Originally, Wu Yue felt that FV Club's chances of breaking through the qualifier were very slim. After all, the team's hard power was there, and it definitely couldn't be improved significantly overnight.

But now that they had such an all-star IOI team, Wu Yue suddenly felt full of confidence!

Although this team still needed to integrate, the old teams like SUG also needed to integrate. In a situation where everyone was equally bad, FV Club had a chance!

Wu Yue and Manager Lu quickly signed the contracts and met the five players.

The two shook hands with the players, their eyes filled with undisguised admiration and joy.

After shaking hands, Wu Yue said with some doubt, "Each of you has quite a strong grip."

He often spent time with the players on his own team, but he felt that his team's players were either skinny or overweight. But these five players didn't look particularly strong, but their grips were all quite powerful.

Lin Chang smiled and said, "Oh, they've all been training according to DGE's training methods for a while, and their muscle mass has increased."

Manager Lu looked at one of the players, "Pan Ying, can you be the captain from now on?"

Pan Ying was the smallest-eyed of the five players, and he was somewhat unremarkable. But Manager Lu knew very well that Pan Ying had just turned 17 this year. He had been a high-scoring IOI solo queue player a long time ago, playing the support position, and he was a rare commander-type player.

As early as when they were selecting players, Wu Yue and Manager Lu had already decided to let Pan Ying be the captain and lead the team.

Pan Ying nodded, "Okay, but can I make some suggestions regarding training?"

Wu Yue nodded, "Of course! We're all one family now, so feel free to make any requests."

Pan Ying looked at the other four players, "Then I'll say a few words. If anyone has any different opinions, they can raise them at any time."

"First of all, I hope that daily training can continue to adopt the DGE model, training according to the GOG team's training methods, including split pushing, vision control, and lane switching."

"Secondly, I hope that everyone can go to the high-elo solo queues on the international server to practice and recover their individual skills."

"Finally, I hope that we can use the remaining players to organize a practice team to test various strategies."

Wu Yue immediately nodded, "No problem! FV Club originally had three more players, and with two more, we can form a practice team. The two teams can practice against each other and improve faster."

Manager Lu said somewhat uncertainly, "Using GOG's training methods is fine, but using GOG's playstyle to play IOI, will that really work?"

Pan Ying nodded, "I think it's fine."

"During this period of playing GOG scrims, after in-depth research into the tactics of various teams, I feel that GOG teams are indeed more sophisticated in their understanding of the game than IOI teams."

"Including lane switching and team composition, they have given me a lot of inspiration. In fact, the main differences between the two are in hero selection, game tempo, and other aspects, but there are also many commonalities. As long as we can make good use of these commonalities and use some of GOG's tactics in IOI, it might have surprising effects."

Manager Lu was stunned.

That's possible?

Although it sounded a bit outrageous, after all, the game differences between GOG and IOI were very large, but on closer thought, it seemed to make some sense.

Although GOG came out later, its esports professionalism was much earlier than IOI's, and with DGE Club constantly beating other teams, the overall level improved very quickly.

Although these two games were different, they were still the same type of game, and there were commonalities in the operational thinking of the games.

These players themselves were skilled and had a good understanding of IOI. If they could integrate and utilize the operational thinking in GOG games, it might really have unexpected effects?

It's hard to say whether we can get a ranking in the World Championship, but if we can win the qualifier, dominating domestically would be good too!

Wu Yue nodded, "Okay, no problem, these requirements can all be met. Just let go and play, and train hard!"

…

At the same time, the IOI domestic qualifier was also in full swing.

This qualifier was held in Shanghai. After all, Finger Company's Chinese headquarters and Longyu Group were both in Shanghai, and there were more clubs and a strong esports atmosphere in Shanghai, making it the best choice in all aspects.

The venue for the qualifier was an indoor studio in a shopping mall in Shanghai. The venue was not large, with a capacity of 600 people, and the venue was almost decorated.

It wasn't as grand as the GPL, but it was still passable.

Ding Gan and Zhao Xuming walked around the qualifier venue twice, talking about the recent preparations for the qualifier.

Ding Gan said, "President Zhao, the team has been formed, so don't worry. But the three of our clubs have also spent a lot of money to buy people. If we can't qualify, we'll suffer a big loss…"

Zhao Xuming smiled, "Don't you know if you can qualify? This time, we came forward to help you put pressure on those small clubs and let them sell people. If you still can't qualify, then you deserve it, right?"

Ding Gan chuckled twice, "That's right."

This time, forming a team was a mess for each club. Although Longyu Group had internally decided on three old clubs, it still cost a lot of money to buy people from other clubs.

The other clubs were reluctant to sell people, so naturally they had to offer higher transfer fees. Old clubs like SUG were already a bit in the wrong, so they could only obediently take the hit.

However, Ding Gan and the other bosses didn't think too much about it. After all, it wasn't a loss to spend money to buy a chance to show their faces at the IOI World Championship.

All the small clubs were dismantled to pieces, while the three old clubs, including SUG, were strengthened, making the possibility of being eliminated in the qualifier slim.

Ding Gan looked at the competition venue and sighed softly, "It's a pity that this venue is still much worse than the GPL venue in terms of grandeur."

Zhao Xuming said, "There's no other way. Let's see the World Championship."

Longyu Group and Finger Company didn't lack money, but the key was where to spend it.

Renting a venue and doing decoration cost too much money. If they rented a large venue and spent a lot of money on decoration, but the competition was only played a few times and the attention wasn't high, wouldn't that be a pure waste of money?

Even if they had money, they wouldn't be willing to spend it like that.

So Longyu Group decided that the venue would just be a studio for the time being, as long as it was passable.

Anyway, the IOI World Finals would be held in the US, and it would definitely outshine the GOG finals in terms of scale, and that would be fine.

The domestic qualifier was just a formality to allow the three teams, including SUG, to enter the World Championship in a legitimate way. The venue was just a temporary solution.