Chapter 34

While Zhou Huo was relaying messages, he was also reporting work in the group.

[Manager·Zhou]: [I would like to remind everyone that the relegation tournament is about to start. Although it is not our game, but barring any incidents, the teams that are defeated tomorrow may be matched up against us in the qualifiers. You should watch the game tomorrow so that you’ll be familiar with the opponent’s situation. ]

There are only twelve teams in the FOG professional league in China. Last year, those twelve teams were Saint, NSN, Bison, ICA, Yizhan, Ten Thousand Mountains, YT, DDF, FS, Warframe, MO, and Windflash.

Each season starts with the regular season. During the regular season, the twelve teams adopt a double-loop best-of-3 system, and each team accumulates points in pairs. After the regular season, according to the points ranking, the top eight teams will enter the playoffs. Subsequently, those who couldn’t enter the playoffs, the four teams ranked at the bottom will play in the relegation matches.

These four teams were also the last four teams in last year’s ranking: FS, Warframe, MO and Windflash.

The four teams compete in a round-robin game, and the two teams with the most defeats are directly relegated. This means that the two teams are officially kicked out of the FOG professional league team in the Chinese division and relegated to the secondary league.

There are then only ten professional league teams left, so two seats have opened up. At this time, the highlight is coming. It is the one time in the year when the doors to the FOG league open up.

The qualifiers for two precious professional league teams will then officially start.This is the only chance for the secondary league teams to advance to the first league every year.

After the end of the relegation tournament, all the officially registered and league-recognized secondary league teams plus the two teams that were relegated will play a round-robin tournament. The two teams with the highest points would be promoted to first league. After filling up the twelve seats, all the remaining teams are officially classified as the second-level league teams for the year. If these teams want to enter the first league, they will have to wait for the next year’s qualifiers.

This system is a bit cruel, but it’s very important for the entire league.

According to regulations, there are only to be twelve teams in the league. Each quota is very precious. But teams and clubs can be bought, which opens them to the risk of capital being used to intervene in the league.

The e-sports industry has developed rapidly in recent years, moving step-by-step from its niche market to center stage. It has changed from being disliked to being faintly fashionable. It has also attracted the interest of capitalists. Among them are countless people who don’t understand sh*t, taking a club and treating it like a plaything. They would spend huge sums of money to buy a professional league team, occupying valuable quota, fooling around, making a mess of things and instating a bunch of trash to serve as players.

The relegation system is a good way to put an end to this kind of possibility.

Capital can buy one or two of the twelve teams but at most they’d only be able to play one regular season. At the end of the regular season, other professional teams will use their strength to clean up the league together and boot this dishonest and unscrupulous team out the door.

The base price for a team that occupies one of the spots in the first league is eight digits. There’s no cap on the first five digits of that. Given the huge amount of money involved, after they’ve managed to play only one bland regular season, no matter how rich the fool, they would think twice about doing it again.

Under such a system, the FOG League is able to preserve the teams that are honest and diligent about playing the game. They can also motivate the teams to do their best to improve. Year by year, they can add new blood into the league, replacing the teams that were at the end of their level and absorbing strong secondary teams. They’re killing several birds with one stone.

[Manager·Zhou]: [The relegation matches are played using a double-loop best-of-1. All the matches should be done within a day. The two teams with the lowest scores among FS, Warframe, MO, and Windflash will be joining us to play in the qualifiers. Would you all like to guess...which of these four it will be? ]

[Puppy]: [Wait, something’s not right.]

[Puppy]: [... I just returned to China, don’t understand the situation in your region. Don’t scare me like this. Are my eyes deceiving me? How is it that I’m seeing a team that I’m very familiar with? ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [...I haven’t been home for long. I think my eyes are also failing me. What’s going on here? That’s my mother team! ]

[Puppy]: [? ]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [You didn’t see that wrong.]

[Puppy]: [...]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Things couldn’t have gotten as bad as this, right? In any case, this is a World Championship double crown team. Now it’s fallen so low that it has to play in the relegation matches? ]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [It’s the players who won the World Championships, not the team. ]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [Calling it the e-sports holy land doesn’t mean that this club is really a championship incubator. No matter how many jaw-dropping games the team has won, it’s the players who won those game after game. What does that have to do with the team itself? ]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [Without the players and without even working hard to train any newcomers, they’re just relying on an empty shell to trick other players to serve as a stopgap. What favorable result were they expecting?]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [They were barely able to enter the playoffs last year and they dropped out after the first round. In the second year, it was completely impossible. They weren’t able to make it into the playoffs. Now, they’re just a relegation club.]

[Puppy]: [...Don’t say anymore.]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Don’t say anymore. My heart’s feeling a little suffocated. ]

Yu Sui looked at the chat but didn’t want to say anything.

After selling the players, Ji Yanhan originally wanted to sell the entire FS club. However, the FS club had no players and could only rely on its reputation as the World Championship double crown team. Like someone who wasn’t good enough for a high post but too proud to take a low one, although Ji Yanhan had been in talks with several parties for a long time, nothing came out of it. Those who wanted to buy couldn’t afford it and those that could afford it hated that it was merely a shell with no players. In the end, FS remained as is. Back then, he basically had no money to sign any players. He was in a dilemma, with no room to advance or retreat.

But at the time, FS was still a sacred place for e-sports. There really were players who just wanted to enter the championship club and transferred to FS. Of course, these definitely weren’t clear-headed first-line players.

In this way, FS’s results plummeted in the next year. Relying on the transferred players’ hot-blooded zeal they staggered into the playoffs and were eliminated in the postseason. Of the four starters, three immediately transferred. After a year, Ji Yanhan had managed to gather a bit of money and signed on a few relatively strong players. He also began to watch over the team’s operations closely. But there were some things that once broken, were broken forever.

This year, Ji Yanhan did his very best. He diligently ran that team, tried hard to sign on new players, and even trained a second team. But FS’ results weren’t as good as the previous year’s. They played poorly in the regular season and despite staking their all, weren’t able to enter into the playoffs. Nowadays, they had become a relegation team.

FS has always meant something different for Yu Sui, Old Qiao, Chen Huo and Puppy.

FS was the club Yu Sui and Old Qiao established with their own hands and it was Chen Huo and Puppy’s first club.

Old Qiao was right, the game was played by the players. It was them four who made the letters FS the nightmare of the four divisions.

Only two years.

None of them felt distressed for Ji Yanhan. Only that they couldn’t get rid of the thought that the team they had once poured all their blood into has fallen to this level.

Chen Huo and Puppy felt a little suffocated, and no longer talked in the group. Old Qiao spoke a bunch of words to vent out his feelings and then stopped talking. After a few minutes of silence in the group, it shook once again.

[Manager·Zhou]: [What’s with this atmosphere? Don’t worry, among these four, FS has the highest ranking during the regular season. Chances are, they’re not gonna lose in the relegation tournament. They’ll be able to keep their spot. Don’t worry. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [Moreover, they have a double insurance. Even if they fail in the relegation matches, they can continue to play the qualifiers. There are two spots to be able to return to the first league. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [It’s not that I’m ridiculing the secondary league teams. But really, there’s a wall between them and the first league. A match between the bottom team in the first league and any one of the teams in the secondary league, is like a father hitting his son. There’s basically no suspense. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [FS practically has double insurance. It is 99% impossible to be downgraded. What are you feeling all choked up for? ]

[Puppy]: [Knowing that FS cannot be relegated, but has fallen to the relegation tournament is already enough to get me choked up. What’s the relegation tournament? I hadn’t even heard of it when I was in FS. I don’t even know what the relegation format is. ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [That’s true...I only just found out the format because I checked it just now. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [When you start to mix in with the bottom or the twelve teams, this is the treatment you get. They better get used to it. Let me speak truthfully. If you have time to be feeling sorry for someone else, you better use that to feel sorry for yourself. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [After you pass through the qualifiers, you’ll officially be in the same division as your previous employer.]

[Manager·Zhou]: [Come the regular and postseason, there’ll be lots of chances to meet them. Better get used to it now, so that you won’t lament over the passing of spring and the coming of autumn every time. ]

[Puppy]: [OK. ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [OK. We’ll wait and watch the relegation matches tomorrow.]

At 12 noon the following day, the relegation matches officially began.

The four teams will play the matches in a double-looped best-of-1 format; a total of 12 small matches. Each team wins one point for each game won.

The average time for each game is forty minutes. It will be evening by the time all 12 matches are finished. At first, no one in the group ‘A whole family on friendly terms’ was concerned. According to the trend from previous years, those who would lose in the relegation tournament were the two at the very bottom of the rankings, namely this year’s Team MO and Windflash.

But this year there was something unexpected.

No one knew whether Warframe, second to FS in regular season, had undergone some sort of special training, but whether it was their mental strength or their players’ personal ability, both were much better than during the regular season. The tournament had barely just started when they had already snatched three points.

Comparatively, the FS team players’ mental state was loose. No one expected they would encounter anything unexpected during the relegation matches, but they lost the first game against Warframe and then lost again against the MO team. In an instant, their situation had become precarious. By the evening, FS was at the edge of the cliff. They had only managed to get two points off the Windflash team.

It was only then that Yu Sui started watching the relegation game.

Twelve small games, only one game left, FS vs. MO.

Team Warframe had gotten five points and successfully secured their spot. Team Windflash only got 2 points and they have been directly relegated.

The only question left was whether it will be FS or MO who will be relegated.

Right now, MO had 3 points and FS had two.

If FS can win against MO, they’ll both have three points and they’ll have to play a tiebreaker.

If FS loses against MO, they’ll be relegated, just like Windflash.

The group chat kept buzzing with message after message.

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [F*ck. It’s the last game, the last game. How come I’m more nervous than when I’m the one playing?]

[Puppy]: FS’ play during the first games was utter sh*t. What’s with this team’s mentality? The way they play is completely deformed. I can’t watch this.]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [What to do, what to do, I’m so nervous!]

[Manager·Zhou]: [What are you nervous for?]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Fuck! That was my old club, my alma mater, my first team!]

[Puppy]: [+1]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [...To tell the truth, I’m also nervous. Although this whole thing’s suffocating, I really don’t want FS to be relegated.]

Yu Sui didn’t look at the group chat. He looked at the computer screen quietly, the last game had already started.

Five minutes into the game, Yu Sui exhaled and shut down the live broadcast interface.

They had no possibility of winning.

At least three of the four players have mentally collapsed. They were all professional league players. Falling into the relegation tournament was tantamount to being humiliated; not to mention the risk that they would actually be relegated. If they really were relegated, it would be a black mark on their resumes.

The greater the pressure, the more nervous they got, the more nervous they got the more mistakes they made. Five minutes into the game, each of the two strikers had lost their heads once. Having both strikers killed at the same time was something that should be avoided at all costs. It would mean that only the medic was left on the front line, it was tantamount to handing over their map to MO.

While they were waiting for FS’ strikers to resurrect, MO’s strikers had cleared the map of fog. This opening was too stimulating. There basically wasn’t any reason to play anymore.

Yu Sui opened his game client and queued up for a game. Twenty minutes later, he looked at the group chat.

[Puppy]: [The absolute f*ck! They were actually relegated!]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Gods! I really want to ask those FS strikers! What are you playing? Hammers? ! ]

[Puppy]: [Was it because they felt too pressured?]

[Coach·Old Qiao]: [Which professional player hasn’t felt pressured on the field? ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [Why are you all so angry? Do you have lingering feelings for Ji Yanhan? Why are you feeling so distressed for him? ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Who’s feeling distressed for him? ! ! ! Laozi feels distressed for himself! ! ! ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [I used to be able to boast that I made my debut in FS. When anyone heard this, they all bowed down and called me ‘father’! ]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Now? If I say I debuted in FS! Others will only say, ‘oh, that team that was relegated’! F*ck! ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [hhhhhh]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [Really... Sigh.]

[Manager·Zhou]: [They’ll have to play in qualifiers, just like us. Getting back into the first league won’t be too much of a problem. After all, Team Windflash really sucks. In the end, we’ll probably be promoted together with Team FS. Oh, f*ck, that’s disgusting. I don’t want to be promoted together with Ji Yanhan to anything. ]

[Manager·Zhou]: [It’s fine. The matches are over. Go get some rest. Soon, it will be our turn.]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [ok. ]

[Puppy]: [ok. ]

[Evil]: [Will Ji Yanhan go to the qualifiers?]

[Manager·Zhou]: [He should. He went to watch the relegation matches. He must also be anxious. Why are you asking? ]

[Evil]: [Nothing.]

[Manager·Zhou]: [Evil, let me say it now. Don’t cause any trouble.]

[Evil]: [...You think I’m crazy?]

[Evil]: [Believe it or not, I also don’t want FS to be relegated.]

[Handsome Chen Huo]: [That’s right. If they really get relegated, how are we going to boast now!]

[Evil]: [...]

Yu Sui looked at the group chat records and opened Shi Luo’s profile. A moment later, he clicked “Add as a friend”.

A minute later, Yu Sui’s mobile phone buzzed. Shi Luo had accepted his friend invite.

Yu Sui opened the chat interface, hesitating on what to say. While he was hesitating, Shi Luo sent a message.

[Evil]: [I want tickets to the qualifiers.]

[Evil]: [... To your games.]

Yu Sui looked at the phone and typed.

[Whisper]: [Wear a mask and sunglasses.]

Yu Sui’s cell phone vibrated. Shi Luo had sent another message.

[Evil]: [Qualifier...You better not be like FS and suddenly develop some sort of problem in the qualifiers.]

Yu Sui slowly typed: [Of course not.]

[Whisper]: [Is your luggage packed?]

[Whisper]: [After we successfully pass through the qualifiers, I’ll come pick you up.]