CH 77

Jiang Shaoyu came out of the FAD Club and returned to the hotel with everyone. The group came to the cafe on the 3rd floor of the hotel and found a private room to sit in.

Qin Bo handed over the copied data to Jiang Shaoyu. Jiang Shaoyu glanced at it and said indifferently, “There is no need to look at FAD’s data. They can do something like acting in front of us so this daily training data will definitely be falsified.”

Qin Bo pushed up his glasses as he realized. “No wonder why their daily training data looks particularly beautiful… it turned out to be changed?”

Qi Heng cursed in a low voice. “These clubs are really interesting. Their mind isn’t focused on the competition and they are thinking of cheating people every day. No wonder why the level of the domestic A-grade League has plummeted while more and more star players are created.”

Yu Mingxiang said helplessly, “Now it is the era where traffic is king. Let’s not talk about how the players play the game. The personas established are all better than the other. The club will package them and hype them up. As long as the popularity is high and they’re not too bad in the game, there will naturally be fans who spend money on them.”

Jiang Shaoyu sneered. “Are there no clubs in China that seriously play the game?”

Qi Heng replied, “Of course there are. The YY Club might be loosely managed but Ye Qingming’s popularity is real. Their results were achieved by themselves. There are also teams like JZ and HW. These old clubs don’t bother with hype and they usually play very seriously.”

Qin Bo added, “The problematic clubs that Coach Jiang inspected before haven’t won a championship once.”

Clubs like TNG, RED and FAD played the star-making model. The ‘packaged players’ might have very high popularity but the team’s results weren’t that good in the professional arena. At most, they would take third or fourth place.

The championship teams in the past few years relied on themselves.

For example, Lao Lin, Ye Qingming and Lin Shaozhou were all players who had won championships and their popularity was real.

The Chinese Gun King e-sports circle might’ve been polluted by these capital-backed clubs but fortunately, there were still players who stuck to their original intention when playing e-sports. This circle could still be saved. The members of the national team that Jiang Shaoyu wanted to select were those who played the game seriously.

The clubs behind Mo Hantian and Shi Xiaobin might be engaged in marketing but the two little guys were aware of their problems and trained seriously to improve their level. On the other hand, for Lu Xingyun and Tang Kai, the former thought highly of himself while the latter cooperated with his coach and proved his progress through acting… they had no intention of doing anything!

Jiang Shaoyu was particularly disappointed with Tang Kai. He originally put Tang Kai on the pending list because Tang Kai’s style of play was completely different from Ye Zi and the national team needed different style scouts. As a result, Tang Kai relied on cheating in the exam?

Was he going to cheat when going to the World Serie as well? Who would cooperate with him in acting? It was really confusing.

Jiang Shaoyu took a deep breath and looked at Qi Heng. “I’m not going back to the national team’s base. I will take advantage of the next few days to visit a few more clubs. The news of our surprise inspection has leaked out. It is better to seize the time and complete a round of inspections within the month as soon as possible. Vice-chairman Qi, what do you think?”

Qi Heng agreed. “Okay, I am idle anyway. You can arrange the itinerary.”

Jiang Shaoyu looked at the form on Qin Bo’s computer. “For those who have no matches this week… just choose SN. Let’s go and see if the Third Baby Xia Li has made any progress recently.”

Yu Mingxiang checked the itinerary. “If we go to the SN Club from here, we can take the high-speed train tomorrow and arrive at noon.”

Jiang Shaoyu nodded. “Yes, I will trouble Sister Yu to book tickets.” He paused before saying, “After going to SN, we won’t eat dinner and will go directly to JZ. We will visit two in one day and then stay in J City afterward.”

One club in the afternoon and one in the evening. Based on such efficiency, it might be too late to prepare even if the other party received a tip-off.

They finished discussing the next itinerary and Jiang Shaoyu went back to the hotel. He opened his black leather notebook and looked at the ratings and evaluations of the major clubs with mixed feelings in his heart.

In the S3 season, the e-sports circle wasn’t so complicated. Everyone was playing seriously. Jiang Shaoyu led ACE from the secondary league all the way to the A-grade League. The major clubs had tried to target him as a ‘dark horse’ but they all targeted him on the field. There was no public opinion war, off-field smearing or other insidious tricks.

Unexpectedly, after so many years, those clubs were the only ones still playing the game seriously. Most of the newly built teams in recent years just wanted to make money. The players were more impetuous than each other and the club’s power was great enough to affect the selection of the national team. No wonder why they were always abused in the World Series and hadn’t won trophies for five consecutive years.

Jiang Shaoyu frowned before putting away his notebook. Then he took a shower and went to bed.

The next morning, they took the high-speed train together to S City.

It was only mid-March and the average temperature in S City in the south had reached 30 degrees Celsius. The streets were full of trees and flowers as if it was summer.

When setting off from the capital this time, everyone was wearing coats because it snowed from time to time in the capital. Now it was extremely hot when coming to the south. Yu Mingxiang took everyone to the locker room and took off their coats and wore only t-shirts. They had a casual lunch before calling a special car and heading straight to the SN Club.

SN was established five years ago, the year after Jiang Shaoyu retired.

On the way, Qi Heng introduced it in a low voice, “The emblem of the SN team is very similar to a snake and it is called the snake team by netizens. Their coach is Zhu Hong. Do you remember this person?”

“Zhu Hong?” Jiang Shaoyu searched through his memory and quickly remembered. “The captain of the Wolf Clan?”

Qi Heng smiled. “Yes, the Wolf Clan that was disbanded by you in the promotion match.”

Jiang Shaoyu: “……”

From this perspective, enemies met on a narrow road.

The Gun King Pro League had a ‘promotion and relegation’ system. The champion of the B-grade League and the last place team of the A-grade League. They would enter the ‘pending zone’ at the same time and compete for the qualification of the next season. The one who won would stay in the A-grade League.

At that time, the ACE team led by Jiang Shaoyu entered the pending zone as the champion of the B-grade League and met the Wolf Clan, who were ranked last in the A-grade League.

This match was very difficult to play. At that time, the members of the ACE team weren’t as strong as they were later on and Jiang Shaoyu’s tactical ideas were slowly being explored. The promotion and relegation match was a 4 wins out of 7 rounds. In the end, the two sides tied 3:3. In the decisive game of the seventh round, Jiang Shaoyu shot the head of the Wolf Clan’s captain, Zhu Hong at a crucial moment. The ACE team defeated the Wolf Clan 4:# and advanced to the A-grade League.

The Wolf Clan lost its qualification to play in the A-grade League so the investors withdrew their investment and the team was quickly disbanded. Captain Zhu Hong never appeared in the professional arena again.

Jiang Shaoyu wondered, “He actually went to be a coach?”

Qi Heng replied seriously, “It is probably because you created a psychological shadow so he didn’t want to be a player any longer.”

Yu Mingxiang said, “In this way, many of the captains of the A-grade League have become club coaches after retiring. AT present, JZ’s coach and HW’s coach seem to be Ah Yu’s ‘enemies’ back then!”

Jiang Shaoyu gently held his forehead. “So now it is ‘visiting the sworn enemies’ mode?”

Qi Heng joked. “Don’t worry, we will protect you.”

Jiang Shaoyu was only 18 years old when he debuted. Most of the opponents in the arena were older than him. After five years, these ‘old friends’ retired and became executives in the league like Qi Heng, while others changed to become coaches.

Jiang Shaoyu was deeply impressed by Zhu Hong. The match between the ACE team and the Wolf Clan almost became a ‘life-or-death battle’ and whoever won entered the A-grade League.

In that promotion match, Jiang Shaoyu experienced the tenacity and persistence of his opponent. He actually admired Captain Zhu in his heart but unfortunately, e-sports was cruel. Winning and being promoted or losing and being eliminated. The Wolf Clan was disbanded due to this and Jiang Shaoyu felt it was a pity.

In the blink of an eye, the car drove to the SN Club.

Qi Heng and Jiang Shaoyu went to find the general manager of SN. The assistant said, “Our manager isn’t in the club. He has something to do and will come back the day after tomorrow. Vice-chairman Qi, if you need anything then you can ask our head coach.”

The female assistant didn’t know Jiang Shaoyu, only Qi Heng. She thought it was the league coming for a routine inspection.

Qi Heng took advantage of the situation. “Okay. Then I will trouble you to notify the coaching staff as well as the data expert to come to the office together. Just say it is a routine league inspection.”

The female assistant quickly went to call the people. Some time later, Zhu Hong pushed open the office door with his assistant and data expert. He greeted Vice-chairman Qi before becoming stunned when he saw the calm-looking young man sitting in the corner.

Jiang Shaoyu stood up and stretched out his hand. “Coach Zhu, long time no see.”

This Captain Zhu was exactly the same as what he remembered. He was good-looking, mature and steady.

He had endured his sadness after losing to ACE that year. When Jiang Shaoyu led the team to shake hands, he simply told Jiang Shaoyu, “Congratulations, you played very well.”

Perhaps he knew that the team would be disbanded when losing the match, right? It was the last game of his career.

Zhu Hong’s mind returned. He shook hands with Jiang Shaoyu and said with a smile, “God Wing… No, should I call you Coach Jiang now?”

They were once opponents on the field but they were now coaches. Time really flew.

Zhu Hong’s mood was complicated as he said in a low voice, “You came here suddenly. Is it to inspect the training of the club? Or is it to select the players of the national team?”

Since he was an old acquaintance, Jiang Shaoyu didn’t prolong it and said directly, “It is a routine inspection. Do you have any training matches scheduled for today?”

Zhu Hong nodded. “Yes, but the time of our training match is usually 8 p.m.”

Jiang Shaoyu asked, “Can you fight in advance? I want to take a look.”

Zhu Hong simply replied, “Of course, we can. I’ll go and inform them.”

There was the example of FAD’s acting. It couldn’t be ruled out that the other clubs had also received the news and prepared in advance. However, they probably wouldn’t play a fake match and act. After all, there were ‘smart’ people like Coach Cheng Feifan who arranged a script.

Jiang Shaoyu followed Zhu Hong to the training room next door. The latter entered the room and didn’t say it was a national team’s inspection. He just clapped his hands and told the players, “Everyone, stop. We will play a training match first. The daily training tasks will be completed at night.”

The players got ready.

Jiang Shaoyu saw Third Baby Xia Li instantly. Her hair was longer and in a high ponytail. She was stealing snacks when Coach Zhu entered the door. She heard the coach’s words and almost choked on the snacks. She hurriedly gulped and coughed desperately.

A team member next to her patted her on the back. “Sister Xia, are you okay?”

Xia Li was breathless. She waved her hand and signaled that she was fine.

Coach Zhu glanced at her and said helplessly, “Xia Li, have you finished eating?”

Xia Li swallowed the potato chips stuck in her throat and could finally breathe smoothly. She called out loudly, “Reporting to Coach,I have finished eating!”

There was a burst of laughter. Everyone seemed used to Xia Li’s operation of stealing snacks.

Zhu Hong said, “Okay, let’s go. We will play the Extreme Duel and the map is Cross Street.”

Cross Street was a typical multi-obstacle comprehensive map. The existence of a large number of buildings and streets allowed for melee combat and medics to have room to play. There were four sniper points on the map: east, south, west and north. The snipers could also have different styles of play.

Zhu Hong walked out of the training room. He took Jiang Shaoyu and Qi Heng to the training room next door and said, “Two here, please.”

The two of them walked to the small training room. Zhu Hong directly turned on the big screen to the referee’s perspective. Jiang Shaoyu and Qi Heng looked at each other. Judging from the performance of the SN Club’s players, they didn’t seem to know that the national team was coming to inspect. Otherwise, Xia Li wouldn’t steal potato chips in front of the coach of the national team.

Zhu Hong’s attitude was very casual. There was a type of ‘upright and not afraid of any shadows.’ They could check it casually and calmly.

Jiang Shaoyu looked at the big screen. The match had started and the 1st and 2nd teams of the SN Club were fighting fiercely. It was an in-team practice match but it was played professionally like the professional league.

Jiang Shaoyu watched for half a minute. He soon found that the 2nd team was completely replicating the YY team’s scout shadow attack tactic.

Jiang Shaoyu asked, “Your opponent in the next match is YY. Do you want to rely on the suppression style of play to break directly through the front row?”

Zhu Hong nodded and analyzed it in a low voice, “Ye Qingming’s apprentice, Little Yellow Leaf is very talented. He can already completely imitate his master’s shadow attack tactic. YY uses sneak tactics centered around the scout. The strength of our team’s scout isn’t as good so we can’t defend against the scouting. If this is the case, we will use our strengths to avoid weaknesses. We will destroy their front row as quickly as possible to establish a numerical advantage. No matter how good their scout, it is estimated to fight 1V3 against us.”

Jiang Shaoyu admired it. “Your idea is correct but it depends on the performance of the players. If the sniper and medic in the back row are killed by the enemy scout before you destroy YY’s front row, you will be at a disadvantage.”

Zhu Hong smiled. “Yes, isn’t the competition like this? Whether the tactic is effective or not depends on their performance on the field.”

Jiang Shaoyu shifted his gaze to the big screen. The front row of the two sides soon met on the narrow street. The moment they encountered the opponent, Xiao Li of the 1st team shot quickly with the AK in her hand. The bullets fired out instantly covered the opponent and turned the enemies into a hornet’s nest.

Xia Li’s instantaneous reaction ability was indeed very strong.

If Jiang Shaoyu remembered correctly, this player was very unstable. The upper limit was extremely high and the lower limit was extremely low. Playing a match was like the lottery. Sometimes she played well like the king rank while other times she was as bad as a bronze player.

Jiang Shaoyu thought of this and suddenly asked, “Last time, why did SN recommend Xia Li to the national team?”

Zhu Hong was silent for a moment before saying, “Xia Li was recommended by me. This player is a typical partial talent. She is very good at encounters and her instantaneous reaction ability is strong. However, if it drags out for a long time then she will be weak and unstable. My idea was that if she went to the national team, she could fit in with some quick guerrilla lineups. In any case, the national team has many players. If encountering games with large maps that will drag out for a long time, she can be replaced with someone else.”

She could always get a score of 90 or more!

What a good coach needed to do was discover the talent and potential of the player, so that the player could maximize their strengths and avoid weaknesses.

Xia Li was indeed unstable. She was like a student in high school who was seriously partial when it came to subjects. If a test paper had a score of 100 papers, she could score 90 points in the English test while failing the math test with a score of 40 points. It was true that she wasn’t very good in a comprehensive exam but what if she was only allowed to take the English test?

She could always get a score of 90 or more!

The national team had many options and the lineup was highly variable. Players could be replaced at any time during a match. In other words, Xia Li didn’t need to pass all the subjects. She just needed to do what she was good at.

It wasn’t Coach Zhu’s fault for recommending a partial player like Xia Li to the national team. It was that the head coach of the previous national team didn’t let Xia Li use her advantages at all!

They had inspected so many clubs and finally met a coach with normal thinking. It really wasn’t easy!