ARML CH63

At 1:30 PM, Coach Lin arrived at the training room punctually. He signaled for everyone to take their seats and announced loudly, “I have a few things to share with everyone. First, Shaoyang’s profile approval has passed. The League Disciplinary Committee will personally come to the Tianhuan team for an investigation and assessment next Wednesday. I hope everyone will cooperate seriously.”

Everyone nodded in unison to show they understood.

Lin Feng then handed a notice to Chi Shuo and said, “Second, the grand finals of the S9 season will be held this weekend, November 11th at 7 PM, at the Imperial Capital Esports Center. The league requests that major teams attend the venue to show support if they have the time. I’d like to ask for your opinions. Do you guys want to go to the venue?”

The players looked at each other in dismay. Cheng Xing whispered, “We got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. Will we be laughed at if we go to the venue?” Xie Xiaotian lowered his voice, “I want to go. Watching the match at the venue has a different atmosphere than watching a video at the club.”

Coach Lin looked at Chi Shuo and asked, “What does Captain Chi think?”

Chi Shuo’s expression was calm, “Let’s go to the venue.” He paused, then said in a low voice, “The professional league grand finals only happen once a year. Although Tianhuan’s results this year weren’t satisfactory, next season’s grand finals might just be our Tianhuan sitting on that stage. Familiarizing ourselves in advance won’t hurt.”

Everyone: “…”

Captain Chi still had the most resolve!

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the serious Chi Shuo and said with a smile, “I agree with Captain Chi. It’s an annual grand final; it would feel like a pity not to go.”

Qu Jiang said earnestly, “That’s right, even if it’s just sitting in the spectator seats, let’s go experience the atmosphere. Besides, Old Nie and A’Ning also bought tickets to go, and I kinda miss them.”

Coach Lin nodded, “Alright, then both Team 1 and Team 2 will go to the venue to watch the match. However, there’s something I need to remind everyone about. The league has reserved a dedicated viewing area for major teams. There will be many top players from other teams present, so remember not to speak out of turn.”

He shifted his gaze to Ye Shaoyang and exhorted, “Especially regarding Shaoyang’s identity, do not reveal it before the club officially announces it. If other teams ask, just say he’s Tianhuan’s new rookie.”

Ye Shaoyang was indeed Tianhuan’s new rookie. Only, he was a rookie who broke the entire league’s rookie signing fee record and was starting immediately upon signing, and he was an Omega to boot—unprecedented.

If this were revealed at the grand finals venue, the backstage would probably explode. No one would even bother watching the match; other teams would flock over to gawk at Ye Shaoyang. Ye Shaoyang didn’t want the backstage to turn into a “gorilla viewing exhibition,” so it was better to keep a low profile. He just wanted to watch a match.

Coach Lin continued, “Third, after discussion within the coaching staff, we’ve decided to register Tianhuan Team 2 for this year’s Silver Dragon Cup tournament. Yan Bin, please make the preparations, fill out the players’ information, and hand it to me.”

Yan Bin looked up at the coach in surprise, “The Silver Dragon Cup? Haven’t we skipped it in previous years?”

Coach Lin explained, “The rewards this year are higher than last year. The champion gets 2 million in cash plus an annual endorsement from the Silver Dragon Group. Second and third place get 1 million and 800,000 respectively. Other teams that make it to the finals also get a 200,000 participation fee. The second teams of major clubs will basically all be there, along with many tier-two and tier-three teams. Initial estimates suggest hundreds of teams will register. The competition in the group stage knockouts will be extremely fierce. Just treat it as a training exercise for your troops.”

Ye Shaoyang quietly asked Chi Shuo, “Is the Silver Dragon Cup a privately organized tournament?”

Chi Shuo replied softly, “En. There are many Gods’ War cup tournaments. The famous ones are the ‘Ice and Snow Goddess Cup’ during the winter holidays, the ‘Seven Star Cup’ in July, and the ‘Silver Dragon Cup’ in November. The prize pools all exceed a million. Many tier-two and tier-three teams rely on these cup tournaments for prize money.”

The game Gods’ War had become globally popular, with a terrifyingly large player base. The official revenue figures were staggering; a single good-looking legendary skin could easily sell over a hundred million. Tournaments, big and small, ran continuously throughout the year, and countless professional players relied on playing matches to make a living. The China region alone had several thousand registered professional players.

The official professional league, abbreviated as SPL, was the highest-spec professional competitive tournament supervised personally by the professional league. It only allowed 18 teams to participate and employed a “bottom elimination system.” The bottom two teams of each season would play qualifiers against the champion and runner-up of the secondary league to compete for a league spot in the next season.

If tier-two or tier-three teams wanted to advance to the SPL, they needed to earn points in the secondary league, then PK against the bottom two teams of the professional league. If they won, they could advance the following season.

Every year, teams were eliminated, and fresh blood joined the league.

The competition was incredibly fierce.

With only 18 limited spots in the top-tier league, what were the other professional players supposed to do? They could only play in the secondary league and various privately organized cup tournaments.

Not everyone in the esports circle was as glamorous as players like Chi Shuo and Fang Zhengqing, with net worths in the tens of millions. For many tier-two and tier-three teams, professional players only earned a meager monthly salary and survived on cup tournament rewards. Many teams disbanded every year because they couldn’t sustain operations; this circle was actually quite cruel.

Ye Shaoyang was undoubtedly lucky to catch the eye of the Tianhuan club and directly sign with a tier-one team to play in the SPL. If he had signed with those tier-two or tier-three teams, he wouldn’t even have the qualification to play in the league.

Chi Shuo added, “Tianhuan doesn’t lack that 2 million champion prize. Sending Team 2 to play the Silver Dragon Cup is likely due to capital partnership relations. The Silver Dragon Group has invested in quite a few clubs, so it’s purely to show support and keep up appearances.”

Ye Shaoyang nodded in understanding. The Silver Dragon Cup had nothing to do with their main squad. But since Team 2 was going, they represented the face of the Tianhuan club. Since they were training internally right now, it was a good opportunity to improve the game sense of the young players on Team 2. Ye Shaoyang planned to give Xie Xiaotian some extra tutoring later; perhaps they could achieve a good result.

After announcing the three pieces of news, Coach Lin continued to organize everyone’s training.

Yesterday they practiced the Flying Duo combo, and today they began practicing the Black and White Wolf and Fox.

Team 2 was brutally crushed once again.

Xie Xiaotian was chased all over the canyon by Ye Shaoyang’s 4 little foxes, getting bitten until he developed psychological trauma! Finally, Coach Lin had to forcefully create a massive disadvantageous situation to let Team 2 win a game and relieve their collapsing mental states.

After training ended, Ye Shaoyang called out to Xie Xiaotian in Tianhuan’s internal group chat: “@HappyEveryDay Starting today, after training ends at 12 AM every night, let’s duel for a few games before sleeping ^_^”

Xie Xiaotian was scared out of his wits by the smiley face symbol: “Brother Yang, did I… did I offend you somehow? T_T”

Ye Shaoyang said: “Helping you improve your psychological fortitude ^_^”

Xie Xiaotian: “…”

Chi Shuo quickly followed: “@QinSui, Team 2’s Jungler, you also come duel with me.”

Qin Sui: “…………”

Coach Lin understood what the two were doing and sent a message: “Captain Chi and Shaoyang are helping you guys, why aren’t you hurrying up? Playing the Silver Dragon Cup next week, once you step out of the base, you represent Tianhuan. You don’t want to get beaten and sent home after just one round in the group stage, do you?”

Xie Xiaotian instantly understood: “Thank you for the guidance, Brother Yang!”

Qin Sui also responded eagerly: “After getting crushed by Captain Chi a few more times, I won’t be afraid when I encounter other Junglers in matches.”

Thus, after 12 AM every night, when Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo would normally duo-queue on the international server, they temporarily changed their training plan for these few days. The two started carrying the rookies of Team 2.

The youngsters of Team 2 acting as sparring partners every day, passively taking a beating like punching bags, truly had their mental states easily collapse. In order to let them test strategies, they also had to replicate the composition systems of other teams, which was actually quite exhausting.

Ye Shaoyang deliberately cultivated Xie Xiaotian, the Mid-laner of Team 2, and Coach Lin was happy to see it happen.

Watching the various 1v1 instructional matches within the team, Lin Feng couldn’t help but sigh emotionally— Back in the day, Chi Shuo was brought up by his master in the exact same way.

For a full ten years, the Tianhuan team had weathered storms, reached the peak, and fallen to the bottom. The only constant was this positive, harmonious atmosphere, which was also the reason he was willing to stay and coach at Tianhuan.

Lin Feng opened his phone and sent a message to someone with the ID “Tom”: “Do you have time for a scrim during the week of November 20th to 25th?”

Tom replied quickly: “Team 2 vs Team 2?”

Lin Feng: “Main squads. Preparing for next season.”

Tom hesitated for a moment, then replied: “Sure, I’ll discuss the specific time with them.”

Coach Tom was the head coach of the FNO team in the North American Region. The team’s captain, Mitchell, was a highly popular Mid-laner player. However, FNO was just as unlucky as Tianhuan in the S9 season. They ran into TBP, the championship favorite of the North American Region, in the first round of the playoffs and were eliminated, also suffering a “one-round tour” of the playoffs and missing the World Championship.

Furthermore, FNO’s Marksman and Support had also retired, replaced by a new rookie duo named Alan and Angus. Very similar to Tianhuan, they had a massive roster overhaul in the bottom lane. The two coaches felt somewhat like brothers in distress.

Anyway, the upcoming World Championship had nothing to do with them. Scheduling a few scrims to practice against each other would be good preparation for next season. Besides, teams from the North American Region and the China region didn’t have as many scruples playing against each other.

Soon, TOM sent a message: “November 20th at 12 PM, 12 PM noon for us, 12 AM midnight for you, or the other way around is fine too, play two games.”

Coach Lin replied: “Alright, then let’s do noon on my end. I’ll have them wake up early.”

TOM: “OK.”

After confirming the time for the scrim, Coach Lin set a memo on his phone and went to sleep happily.

The S9 season was coming to an end, and in next year’s S10, their Tianhuan would definitely bounce back from the bottom!

Chi Shuo saying they should go to the grand finals venue to experience the atmosphere wasn’t just talk. For the S10 grand finals, they might truly be able to sit on the grand finals stage as competitors.

The next few days passed quickly. In the afternoons and evenings, Team 1 and Team 2 continued their internal training, swapping through various composition setups; after 12 AM, it was Ye Shaoyang’s time to crush Xie Xiaotian and Chi Shuo’s time to crush Qin Sui.

Team 2’s Mid-laner and Jungler had their tempers completely beaten out of them by the two great demon kings, but they were also improving rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, it was November 11th.

In his past life, Double Eleven was a nationwide shopping festival, but in this world, Double Eleven was a carnival for the esports circle—the annual SPL Gods’ War Professional League grand finals were held on the night of November 11th!

The Regular Season of the ninth season lasted for half a year. Out of the 18 teams, 8 made it to the playoffs. Tianhuan and Beimu were eliminated in the first round, and Jingzhe was knocked from the winner’s bracket to the loser’s bracket.

Unexpectedly, after Jingzhe was knocked into the loser’s bracket by Huowen, they actually went on a winning streak, becoming the champion of the loser’s bracket and fighting their way back into the grand finals!

Meanwhile, the Huowen team, which everyone initially favored the most, was eliminated by Binghun.

The S9 grand finals were Jingzhe vs Binghun.

At noon on November 11th, team manager Tang Can knocked on Ye Shaoyang’s dorm door and said with a smile, “Shaoyang, your team uniforms are ready, custom-tailored. We made three sets so you can change and wash them. Try them on.”

Ye Shaoyang took the clothes and went back to his room to try them on.

Tianhuan’s team uniform was blue and white, with a simple and elegant design and a relatively standard color. But the fabric material was very good, feeling extremely comfortable when worn. A tailor had specially taken his measurements before, so this outfit fit him perfectly.

Ye Shaoyang simply wore his new team uniform, walked up to Chi Shuo, and asked with a bright smile, “Captain Chi, how is it? Dressed like this, do I look more like a Tianhuan team member?”

Chi Shuo looked away from his smiling face and coughed lightly, “Ver-very good-looking.”

It truly was very good-looking. The blue color made Ye Shaoyang’s skin look even fairer, his large eyes were filled with mirth, and the simple sportswear highlighted his youthful vitality. His appearance naturally leaned towards looking young, and wearing the team uniform made him look like a high school student. With this look, he could truly just go directly and shoot a commercial for the team uniforms.

Sure enough, Tang Can’s eyes also lit up, and she praised, “Shaoyang looks so handsome in the team uniform! Take a few more sets of photos for next season’s print ads; our team’s uniform merchandise might just sell out completely!”

Team uniform merchandise was also a major source of income for clubs. The sales volume of a team’s uniforms reflected the team’s popularity to a certain extent. Ye Shaoyang said readily, “Just let me know if you need promotional photos or anything, of course I’ll cooperate.”

Chi Shuo also changed into his team uniform, and the two went downstairs to eat together, happening to bump into the coaches. Coach Lin said, “No training this afternoon, we’ll depart right at 4 PM and head over early.”

At 4 PM, the Tianhuan team’s vehicles drove out of the base.

Ye Shaoyang had a pheromone blocker patch on the back of his neck. He wore his team uniform jacket with the collar slightly turned up, perfectly covering the sensitive area on the back of his neck.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang sat in the back row of the car. After a moment of silence, he finally exhorted in a low voice, “At the grand finals venue, there will be many Alpha players in the spectator area. Just sit next to me then, to avoid being influenced by others.”

Ye Shaoyang nodded, “Okay.”

Seeing Ye Shaoyang obediently nod, Chi Shuo’s heart inexplicably softened.

Omegas truly do develop a sense of dependency on the Alpha who marked them, right? After Shaoyang got in the car, even though there were so many empty seats, he insisted on sitting next to him and even smiled at him.

Cough, never mind- who told him to be the captain of the Tianhuan team? Protecting his own team members was only proper.