ARML CH96

After the Group B matches concluded, Group A and Group S also finished their final battles over the two-day weekend.

Ye Shaoyang returned to Tianhuan with his teammates, and everyone watched the matches together in the conference room for two days. It wasn’t until 10 PM on Sunday night that the league officially released the team standings and individual leaderboards for the first phase of the regular season.

Ranked first in Group S was Team Beimu. The Zhao Xinping and Zhao Xin’an siblings had synergized very well with their new mid-laner, Sean. With no weaknesses across their top, mid, and bottom lanes, Beimu was exceptionally strong this season.

The point difference between the 2nd and 4th place teams in Group S wasn’t large; they were Jingzhe, Xueying, and Huowen (Fire Rune), respectively.

Jingzhe’s Double Carry system was still very hard to crack. Fang Zhengqing and Xie Yuan’s partnership dated back to their youth training camp days. Having played together for 4 seasons, their brainwaves were practically in sync—unlike the complete lack of tacit understanding with Chi Shuo.

Xueying was still strong in team fights, relying purely on 5v5 brawls to stabilize their position in Group S. Huowen, on the other hand, had a mid-laner with clearly outstanding individual strength, and with no shortcomings in the jungle, marksman, top, and support roles, their roster was much more comprehensive and well-rounded.

The 1st to 4th place teams in Group S would remain in Group S for the second phase. The 5th and 6th place teams would be relegated to Group A.

The relegated teams were Yueying and Luoshendian.

Yueying had Xu Zhuo, a top laner with strong pressure-resistance capabilities, as well as Xie Weiyu, who had just transferred over. Coach Lin wasn’t surprised that this team was relegated, analyzing: “It might be because of the roster changes; the team hasn’t fully synergized yet. Xu Zhuo’s top lane and Xie Weiyu’s bottom lane are hard to coordinate?”

After all, the top and bottom lanes were too far apart; even if they wanted to provide support, they couldn’t arrive immediately.

Chi Shuo frowned: “Yaoguang got promoted to Group A. There will definitely be people cursing Xie Weiyu.”

Yaoguang’s promotion was expected. Because Yaoguang was also a strong team that took runner-up in S8 and 4th place in S9. They only swapped out one marksman, and the new marksman they brought up had pretty good skills.

Although the boss behind Yaoguang used god-making techniques from the entertainment industry—leaving the players who honestly competed in the esports circle somewhat speechless—it had to be said that the new god they wanted to promote did indeed have some real ability.

On the individual MVP count leaderboard, Ye Shaoyang had 9 MVPs, ranking first; Yaoguang’s Yu’mao had 8 MVPs, ranking second. Furthermore, since Yaoguang was in Group A, theoretically, Group A’s MVPs were harder to obtain.

Yaoguang achieved a 5-game win streak in Group A, charging into Group S as the first place team in Group A.

Conversely, Team Yueying, which Xie Weiyu had transferred to, was relegated to Group A as the fifth place team in Group S.

Sure enough, Yaoguang bought Water Armies to add fuel to the fire and smear Xie Weiyu. Many people online believed that Xie Weiyu’s skills were inferior to the new marksman Yu’mao. A large portion of Xie Weiyu’s fans jumped ship to support the handsome rookie, leaving behind only the die-hard fans who liked his playstyle.

Ye Shaoyang’s heart ached a bit for this player. Looking at Chi Shuo, he said: “Xie Weiyu must be under a lot of pressure, right? After his transfer, Team Yueying was relegated. Also, with Yueying dropping to Group A, we’re going to bump into your old friend earlier than expected.”

Chi Shuo said: “Old Xu probably anticipated this result a long time ago. He even messaged me yesterday saying we don’t need to wait for Group S, we can cross swords in Group A.”

Coach Lin sighed: “The intra-group matches in the second phase won’t be easy to play.”

Under the regular season format, in the first phase, the top 2 teams in a group were directly promoted, and the bottom 2 were relegated, without any promotion/relegation matches. In the second phase, there would be a “promotion/relegation match,” meaning the relegated teams and promoted teams would fight for the slots in Group S, ensuring that only top-tier teams advanced to Group S.

Yueying and Luoshendian, the teams that dropped down from Group S this time, were both quarter-finalists last season. Their strength was about the same as Tianhuan’s last season. With Xie Weiyu joining Yueying, their true strength likely hadn’t been fully displayed yet.

Tianhuan would have to face them in Group A, so it seemed they needed to make some thorough preparations.

“The match schedule isn’t out yet, so everyone rest for two days first.” Coach Lin paused, turning to look at everyone: “In Group A, we definitely can’t rely on the mid-laner controlling the tempo to crush opponents like we did in Group B. We have to bring out stronger team compositions. Shaoyang and Chi Shuo, you two should duo-queue more on the international server these few days to keep your mechanics sharp. I’m worried that the other coaches, especially from strong teams that dropped from Group S like Luoshendian and Yueying, are already studying our Tianhuan in advance.”

Lin Feng’s worries were not unfounded. Just as Tianhuan had been watching Group S matches, those Group S coaches were all shrewd individuals who were definitely keeping a close eye on the massively overhauled Tianhuan this season.

After all, they were old rivals; no one dared to underestimate anyone.

On March 18th, the group assignments for the second round of the regular season were posted on the league’s official Weibo.

Group S members: Beimu, Jingzhe, Xueying, Huowen (Fire Rune), Yaoguang, and Langzu. Group A members: Luoshendian, Yueying, Xueying, Jixuan, Tianhuan, CYC. Group B consisted of weak teams; if they still couldn’t get promoted, they would all be eliminated in the third phase.

Among them, Group A had the biggest changes: 2 teams dropped down from Group S, 2 teams promoted from Group B, and only two veteran teams remained. The coaches of these two veteran teams were almost losing sleep over their worries.

—One BOSS climbed up from Group B, and two BOSSes dropped down from Group S!

The upcoming matches were going to be tough!

At noon the next day, the team members who had slept in went to the cafeteria to eat. The team manager, Tang Can, hurriedly came over to notify them: “Everyone, pack up after you finish eating, we’re going to the filming studio.”

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

Tang Can smiled and said: “Did you forget about the Silver Dragon Cup? Earlier, our Tianhuan won the Silver Dragon Cup championship, and the rewards included an annual endorsement for the Silver Dragon Group. The club has already negotiated the endorsement fee. Since it’s a bye week and everyone happens to have time, we’re taking the opportunity to go shoot the commercials.”

Yan Bin from Team 2 couldn’t help but ask: “Are we from Team 2 going as well?”

Tang Can: “Of course. You guys were the ones who secured the Silver Dragon Cup championship, and the endorsement is given to the Tianhuan Club. Everyone gets to shoot a short segment of the commercial.”

The youths of Team 2 were thrilled.

Cheng Xing also looked expectant: “I’ve never shot a commercial before! Will it be broadcast on TV?”

Tang Can said: “Not only will it be broadcast on TV, but it will also be played on loop during the breaks in the middle of league matches, because the Silver Dragon Group is also one of the sponsors for the professional league this year.”

Ye Shaoyang’s expression was calm; he didn’t seem very willing to go.

The Silver Dragon Group was a famous technology company in China. They had independently developed smartphones and computers, as well as various matching smart speakers, keyboards, mice, headphones, and other peripherals.

They invested in the Silver Dragon Cup, collaborated with the championship team for endorsements every year, and also sponsored the professional league. This company’s reputation in the circle was quite good.

Seeing Ye Shaoyang’s lack of interest, Chi Shuo couldn’t help but ask softly: “You don’t want to go?”

Ye Shaoyang smiled helplessly: “I’m not very interested in shooting commercials, but I’ll try my best to cooperate.”

Ye Shaoyang had shot commercials in his past life too. Truth be told, rather than spending a day in a photography studio, he’d rather go play ranked for a day. After all, he wasn’t a professional actor. He could manage smiling at the camera for a couple of photos, but a dynamic commercial required reciting lines… just thinking about it made him feel awkward.

But there was no helping it. Since the club accepted this endorsement, they could only bite the bullet and go.

After lunch, the Tianhuan group took a bus to the designated photography base.

The young lady from the Silver Dragon Group responsible for contacting the Tianhuan project was named Xu Qiman. She was very enthusiastic. First, she had everyone go to the lounge to prepare, and then distributed the scripts to everyone according to their roles: “You guys can take a look at the script first to get a general idea of the process! We’ll be shooting in groups later, so find out who your partner is.”

Chi Shuo opened it and took a look—

The names “Shuoyue” and “Lieyang” were impressively written on the script.

His heart skipped a beat, and he earnestly read further down.

Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had the highest popularity, so naturally, they endorsed more products. The first was the Silver Dragon Group’s newly developed laptop for this year. The TY series laptops took the high-end route, equipped with dedicated graphics cards and the most advanced processors, capable of smoothly running various large-scale 3D games, including the currently most popular MOBA game, “Gods’ War.”

The laptop’s exterior design was very beautiful, available in various colors such as black-gold, silver-white, red, blue, and so on. Of course, the price was also relatively high.

Seeing the promotional pictures, Ye Shaoyang’s interest was immediately piqued: “This laptop is actually quite nice-looking. The specs should be top-tier for a gaming laptop, right? I want to buy one, is there an internal discount?”

Xu Qiman said affectionately: “No need to buy! Our company will gift each of Tianhuan’s 10 players a top-spec gaming laptop!”

Cheers immediately erupted in the lounge.

Qin Yizhu shouted: “Silver Dragon Group is so generous!”

Qu Jiang raised his hand and asked: “Can we choose the color? Can I choose red?”

Everyone: “…”

Qu Jiang actually liked red?

Cheng Xing raised his hand: “I also want red, it looks very cool!”

It seemed the bottom lane duo’s aesthetic tastes were quite aligned.

Qin Yizhu said: “I want blue.”

Hearing this, Chi Shuo asked Ye Shaoyang softly: “What color do you like?”

Ye Shaoyang pointed at the promotional picture: “I have my eyes on this white one.”

Chi Shuo praised: “Mhm, white is quite simple and nice-looking… Then I’ll choose black.”

Xu Qiman said: “Besides the laptop, our company will also gift everyone matching peripherals, including mechanical keyboards, mice, and noise-canceling headphones! They will be printed with Tianhuan’s logo and each player’s in-game ID. Colors and mechanical switches can all be custom-chosen. Everyone just let Sister Tang Can know later, she’ll tally them up.”

Tang Can closely followed up: “The Silver Dragon Group has given our Tianhuan a year’s worth of sponsorship funding. Therefore, everyone’s peripherals must also be completely replaced with new ones. Once tallied, we’ll hand them over to be manufactured, which will be done very quickly. For the next match, everyone will use the new keyboards and mice on stage.”

On the customized keyboards, besides the Tianhuan team emblem and the players’ names, there would definitely be the Silver Dragon Group’s trademark. By sponsoring Tianhuan, they could conveniently advertise their products.

If Team Tianhuan made a name for themselves and gained high popularity, it would naturally drive the sales of their computers, headphones, keyboards, and other electronic products and peripherals, resulting in a win-win situation.

Ye Shaoyang followed everyone to look at the keyboards brought by the person in charge, tapping on them to test them out; the tactile feel was quite good.

The keyboards used by professional players had to be comfortable to use. The mechanical switches used in this batch had a strong strike feel and crisp rebound, similar to the ones they used before, only the appearance of the keyboard was quite different.

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the keyboards displayed on the table and said: “Then I want a white keyboard too.”

Chi Shuo: “…I’ll choose black.”

He didn’t care for any other flashy colors anyway.

Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing chose keyboards with RGB lighting effects. Cheng Xing said: “Colorful lights are very cool!” Qu Jiang smiled and said: “I think so too!” Of course, having too many lighting effects during a match would dazzle the eyes, so they could be turned off.

Old Qin silently walked over to the blue keyboard: “I want this blue one to match the blue laptop.”

Everyone’s keyboards only differed in color; the patterns and logos were all the same. When the time came, their Tianhuan team emblem and each player’s match ID would be printed on the side.

Ye Shaoyang thought: If this exclusive set of keyboard and mouse could be brought to the World Championship… The Silver Dragon Group could be considered to have a keen eye for talent, making a huge profit on their investment, right?