ARML CH67

The match lasted for 4 hours, and it was already 11 PM by the time it ended. The team manager, Tang Can, had everyone take a car back. The car didn’t directly return to the base, but instead stopped in front of a famous all-you-can-eat seafood city in the imperial capital.

Coach Lin smiled and said, “Everyone has been working hard recently. Tonight is a treat for you all, let’s have late-night snacks!”

Enthusiastic cheers erupted inside the car. The players got off one by one and arrived at a pre-booked private room, only to see two unexpectedly familiar faces.

Qu Jiang immediately ran over happily, “Old Nie, A’Ning!”

Old Nie gave him a hug, “Sister Tang Can notified us, so we came over to freeload a meal too, haha.”

Song Yuning said, “We came back to watch the finals today, perfect timing to gather with everyone. It’s been a long time.”

Chi Shuo walked over to greet them. Old Nie smiled and said, “Captain Chi, aren’t you going to introduce the new member?” Chi Shuo looked back at Ye Shaoyang beside him and introduced, “This is the streamer Xiao Bai, Ye Shaoyang.”

Old Nie extended his hand, “Hello!”

Ye Shaoyang also shook hands with both of them in turn to say hello. They were friends on WeChat, but this was the first time meeting in person. These two were quite warm towards Ye Shaoyang; back then, they had even tipped tens of thousands in gifts in his stream.

After the two retired and left Tianhuan, Old Nie stayed in the imperial capital and decided to become a full-time game streamer. A’Ning said he wanted to go home and open a small shop selling esports merchandise. Their retirement lives were quite flavorful.

Looking at the players’ excited faces, Coach Lin smiled and walked into the room, saying, “S9 has already ended. Everyone, stop overthinking the past and properly relax tonight. Eat as much as you want, the coach is treating!”

Everyone rushed to grab food. Ye Shaoyang brought over a large plate of seafood, put on gloves, and asked while peeling shrimp, “Next up, Binghun and Jingzhe will go abroad for the World Championship, right?”

Coach Lin nodded, “Yes, the champion and runner-up of the China region every year will go to the World Championship.”

Ye Shaoyang was a bit curious, “Does every region get 2 slots?”

Coach Lin replied, “The scale of the regions differs, and so do the slots. For regions like China, North America, Europe, Korea, and Southeast Asia, where there are more esports players, they are allocated 2 fixed slots every year. The region that won the championship last season gets an extra slot for the World Championship. The Africa and Latin America regions have lower levels of esports competition and only get 1 slot each. That adds up to 13 slots. The remaining 3 slots are determined from the Wildcard regions.”

Hearing this, Chi Shuo added in a low voice, “The Wildcard tournament starts every November. Regardless of nationality, teams from all regions can pay to register and compete for a spot in the World Championship. The competition is extremely fierce.”

Tianhuan could participate in the Wildcard tournament, but with Old Nie and A’Ning retiring and the new team not yet fully synergized, there was no need to spend that unnecessary money to go suffer abroad. So, they had effectively given up on this season.

Old Nie chimed in, “The champion of last year’s World Championship was the FLD team from the North American region, right? This year, North America gets to send 3 teams to the World Championship.”

Qu Jiang smiled and said, “The FLD team is from Florida. They weren’t very well-known before. I heard they were a dark horse in the North American region last season, eliminating several championship favorites.”

Qin Yizhu sighed, “Every year, some dark horse teams pop up in the major regions. Conversely, there are plenty of championship favorites who crash and burn in the playoffs and can’t even make it to the World Championship!”

Listening to their conversation, Ye Shaoyang couldn’t help but think of the World Championship from his past life.

The LOL World Championship was basically always a showdown between China and Korea, with other regions just making up the numbers. But the World Championship here was quite different. The esports development in countries like North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea was very good. Last season’s champion came from the North American region, showing that the overall strength of that region was also very high.

The domestic leagues were filled with experts, and the World Championship was surrounded by a pack of wolves.

Realizing the dream of a World Championship was much harder than he had imagined. However, where there is a challenge, there is motivation. If he could easily achieve his goal, it wouldn’t be very interesting.

Seeing Ye Shaoyang deep in thought, Coach Lin smiled and said, “Shaoyang, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. This is your first time playing professionally. For next season, let’s start with a small goal—making it to the playoffs, and take it step by step.”

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

First time playing professionally? No, I’ve played matches for four years and even made it to the global finals. He didn’t dare tell anyone this secret; in everyone’s eyes, he was still a “rookie” who needed a lot of looking after.

Ye Shaoyang smiled and nodded, “Okay, Coach, we’ll start from a small goal.”

After everyone had eaten their fill, they returned to the base and went back to their respective rooms to sleep.

There were no training tasks scheduled for the next day. Coach Lin called everyone to the meeting room to thoroughly review the S9 grand finals, analyzing the 5 games between Binghun and Jingzhe to draw lessons from them.

Everyone listened very earnestly.

After the review, Coach Lin said, “From this match, we can see the importance of a team. Individually, the players of Binghun aren’t at the very top of the league, but the 5 of them twisted into a single rope, and the coordination of the entire team was incredibly tacit. This is exactly the key to their championship victory.”

Coach Lin paused, his gaze sweeping across the room, “For our Tianhuan, the coaching staff has also noticed some issues during training these past few days. The tempo of Chi Shuo and Shaoyang is somewhat disjointed from the top and bottom lanes. Especially Cheng Xing in the bottom lane, he has trouble keeping up with the tempo during team fights.”

Cheng Xing immediately lowered his head.

Coach Lin continued, “Next, we need to practice other compositions. For example, a Double Carry system, letting Cheng Xing also shoulder the burden of a core damage dealer; or mid-jungle synergy, but leaning towards a jungle-core or mid-core. We must try various compositions so our tactics will be more diverse next season.”

Chi Shuo nodded straightforwardly, “No problem, we’ll follow the coaching staff’s arrangements.”

Coach Lin added, “I’ve arranged a scrimmage with the FNO team from the North American region on November 20th, everyone prepare well. In a scrimmage, winning or losing doesn’t matter; the key is to discover issues in team coordination.”

Everyone nodded to show their understanding.

After the meeting ended, Cheng Xing followed behind everyone with his head down. Seeing his sad expression, Ye Shaoyang smiled, patted the little guy’s shoulder, and asked, “Feeling bad about being called out by the coach?”

Cheng Xing blushed and whispered, “Have I constantly been dragging you guys down?”

Ye Shaoyang said gently, “Being disjointed in coordination doesn’t mean you’re dragging us down. It could also be that Chi Shuo’s and my tempo is too fast. Actually, for a team to synergize well, everyone has to find an appropriate tempo and speed. Too fast or too slow isn’t a good thing.”

Cheng Xing was stunned for a moment and looked up at Ye Shaoyang, not expecting Brother Yang to actually comfort him.

Ye Shaoyang said, “Don’t stress too much. Chi Shuo and I will also adjust; we still have time to slowly build synergy.”

Cheng Xing breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, smiled, and nodded, “En, I will try my best to keep up!”

Chi Shuo watched this scene with complex emotions. Shaoyang is actually helping him mentor his disciple?

Upon arriving at the training room, Chi Shuo sat down next to Ye Shaoyang and whispered, “Cheng Xing’s talent is pretty good, he just lacks major tournament experience. He can’t hold his composure and is prone to impulsiveness during matches. Rushing forward to die when he shouldn’t engage, and not being decisive enough when he should.”

Ye Shaoyang replied, “He’s still young, after all. Asking him to immediately become a calm, mature player is too high a demand. We have to give him some time to grow, right?”

Chi Shuo nodded, “En, from now on during training, we’ll focus more on the bottom lane, letting Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing coordinate with our tempo.”

Ye Shaoyang: “Alright, let Cheng Xing try a few late-game marksmen.”

In the subsequent training matches, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang tried their best to slow down the tempo of their mid-jungle synergy, frequently visiting the bottom lane to gank and protecting the bottom lane’s farm. Cheng Xing was also working hard to improve his game sense, following everyone to get kills, counter-jungle, and push towers…

Training proceeded in an orderly manner.

Soon it was Tuesday.

That evening, Sister Tang Can proactively sought out Ye Shaoyang and said privately, “Tomorrow, Chairman Xue from the League Disciplinary Committee will personally come to Tianhuan for an investigation. Shaoyang, make some preparations in advance.”

After returning to the dorm, Ye Shaoyang privately asked Chi Shuo, “What does the Disciplinary Committee usually investigate? I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing; it’d be troublesome if there are issues with registration later.”

Chi Shuo recalled the investigation he underwent when he joined the team back then and said, “On one hand, the League’s Disciplinary Committee supervises the conduct of pro players; on the other hand, it also supervises the major clubs to prevent situations where clubs exploit players. If you have any dissatisfaction with the Tianhuan club, you can report it to them.”

He paused, then added, “However, you’re an Omega player, so they might ask some personal questions. For example, do you have any plans to date an Alpha? Are your pheromones stable, and will they affect matches? Have the Alpha players in the club ever harassed you, and so on.”

Ye Shaoyang thoughtfully stroked his chin.

In other words, this committee mainly managed issues regarding discipline and conduct. If the club oppressed him, or if Tianhuan’s Alpha players harassed him, he could report it to the higher-ups.

Ye Shaoyang proactively tore off the blocker patch on the back of his neck, turned to Chi Shuo, and asked, “Then will the fact that you marked me have any impact?”

Chi Shuo: “…”

Ye Shaoyang carefully touched the back of his neck and said, “The mark left back then can’t be felt anymore after a month. It shouldn’t be noticeable, right? If the league misunderstands that Chi Shuo, as the captain, bullied the new Omega player, neither of us will have a good time.”

Chi Shuo’s ears burned, and he looked away from the back of his neck, whispering, “It’s been over a month, the mark from biting the gland has long disappeared, nothing can be seen from the outside. But… the pheromones I left inside your body can still be detected if they check carefully.”

Ye Shaoyang asked worriedly, “Will they check carefully? You left pheromones inside my body?”

This conversation was sounding increasingly wrong.

Chi Shuo said with red ears, “They probably won’t. Even if you’ve been marked by an Alpha, that’s your privacy. Everyone’s right to privacy is protected by law. As long as you don’t proactively file a complaint saying I took advantage of your precarious situation to mark you, they won’t cause trouble for me.”

Ye Shaoyang couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “How could I possibly file a complaint? I was the one who asked for it proactively, and it was a decision made out of desperation.” He paused and looked at Chi Shuo, “Don’t worry, if they really ask, I’ll just say I used an inhibitor. They surely wouldn’t drag me to the hospital for an examination.”

Chi Shuo breathed a slight sigh of relief, “That’s for the best.”

Early the next morning, the people from the League Disciplinary Committee arrived at the Tianhuan team base for the investigation.

The leader was a very gentle-looking Beta lady named Xue Ling, around 30 years old. She was said to be one of the vice-chairmen of the Gods’ War Professional League, in charge of discipline. Zhao Xin’an’s stream was banned exactly by her.

Her attitude towards Ye Shaoyang was very gentle: “Xiao Ye, you are one of the very few Omega players in our league, so the chairman asked me to personally come and check on you.”

Ye Shaoyang said politely, “Thank you for the league’s concern.”

Xue Ling asked softly, “Do you have any inconveniences in your daily life at the Tianhuan team? Are you getting along well with the players in the team, especially the Alpha players? Is anyone bullying you?”

Sure enough, Chi Shuo had guessed the direction of their investigation.

Ye Shaoyang’s gaze was candid, and he said calmly, “The club treats me very well. They let me live in a separate bedroom, and I just go back to my bedroom to sleep after training every day. I rarely interact with the Alpha players privately. We just have a pure teammate relationship, and we get along very harmoniously.”

Xue Ling smiled, “You don’t need to be afraid. If you’ve been wronged, you can boldly speak up. The league will stand up for every professional player, you can rest assured about this.”

Ye Shaoyang smiled brightly, “Wronged? No, no. The Tianhuan team is like my home, everyone is good brothers. Maybe because my personality is too much like an Alpha, they don’t even treat me like an Omega at all.”

Xue Ling: “…”

This Omega player seems to have a very big heart!

The accompanying doctor gave Ye Shaoyang a simple pheromone check. The conclusion was that his pheromones were stably controlled, and there was no possibility of a heat period anytime soon.

Following that, they took a tour of Ye Shaoyang’s bedroom and saw a cute cat. Xue Ling patted the kitten’s head. This bedroom had an independent bathroom, truly isolated from the others.

She couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Who lives in the bedroom across from you?”

Ye Shaoyang answered frankly, “Captain Chi lives across. Don’t worry, Captain Chi only has matches in his head, he doesn’t treat me like an Omega at all. If I make a mistake during training, he’ll still scold me without holding back.”

Chi Shuo: “??”

Xue Ling smiled and said, “Captain Chi, then it’s fine.” After all, this Alpha captain was famous for being serious and upright. Chi Shuo harassing an Omega player? That was impossible.

The league also investigated whether the signing bonus was paid on time, whether the club had any harsh requirements for the players, and so on, before driving away.

Ye Shaoyang saw them off.

After returning to the training room, Chi Shuo immediately asked in a low voice, “How was it?”

Ye Shaoyang replied, “It was nothing, just asked me a few questions and took a tour of the dorm. I told them Tianhuan is like my home and everyone is good brothers. Chairman Xue’s expression was a bit strange.”

Chi Shuo: “…”

You’re the strange one. What do you mean everyone is good brothers? Ye Shaoyang truly lacks self-awareness as an Omega.

However, the league should be at ease now. After all, with a big-hearted Omega like Ye Shaoyang, being bullied? That’s impossible. If anyone dared to bully him, Ye Shaoyang would probably beat them until they were looking for their teeth on the floor.

Facts also proved this to be true. Shortly after the Disciplinary Committee’s routine investigation, the league sent a notification—the signing contract between the Tianhuan club and Ye Shaoyang was successfully recorded.

The Gods’ War Professional League database gained a new Omega player named Ye Shaoyang. Official registered ID: Tianhuan – Lieyang.