Chapter 69: Edg Stands With Unreal!
Abu arrived at the Training Room in the afternoon, and as soon as he pushed open the door, he was completely stunned.
Good news: Jungler and Mid Laner duo queue, bad news: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
“Hit him hit him hit him!”
“nice! nice! Win the Game! Strong strong strong!”
“Awesome awesome, Brother Kai, I didn’t expect you to have such talent.”
“You think I’m joking? I’m just as good at FPS games. If it weren’t for League of Legends, I would’ve gone pro in Crossfire long ago.” Mentioning this, Clearlove looked proud.
“Indeed, with your hand speed, going pro in Crossfire would put you at the top tier.”
Abu restrained his urgent mood at the moment.
There was already one problem child in the team; they couldn’t afford another.
At Clearlove’s age, he could play for at most two more years before retiring. If he didn’t train properly, his state would decline faster than imaginable.
His presence in the Jungle already lacked dominance now, and it was obvious in matches that he was under a lot of pressure.
He quickly called Clearlove out, wanting to talk about what exactly happened and why he was suddenly playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds with Li Fan.
Seeing Abu’s expression, Clearlove knew what he was worried about.
He patted Abu on the shoulder.
“I think Li Fan was right in the interview. Ranked Match data is actually garbage data. It really misled me a lot in matches. I’m reducing the number of Ranked Matches lately and rethinking how to arrange training intensity.”
Hearing this, Abu became even more anxious.
Not good!
Clearlove had been brainwashed by Li Fan.
“Everyone has their own training methods; what works for Li Fan might not work for you.” Abu said this somewhat urgently, afraid that Clearlove would really lower his training intensity next, which would be real trouble.
At his age, without high-intensity training to maintain state, he could have lasted two or three more years, but with no state this year, he’d have to retire next year—that wasn’t exaggerated at all.
After all, a Professional Player’s career is only five or six short years, and players from Clearlove’s era had already retired.
Clearlove could still persist now because, besides being a Jungler, high-intensity training played a big role.
After so many years, he was afraid the tightly strung string would snap at this moment.
“Don’t worry, Abu, I know what I’m doing. Of course I won’t be like Li Fan; his way is way too exaggerated.”
He just planned to appropriately reduce training intensity.
Clearlove knew better than Abu that everyone has different training methods.
If he really copied Li Fan completely, that would truly ruin his career.
The reason he stopped high-intensity training was to properly sort out his Ranked Match data.
Eliminate the garbage data and keep high-quality normal data.
Clearlove had a feeling that if he successfully completed the correct data integration, his improvement would be beyond imagination.
At his age, he was past the time for flashy operation; in matches, he had to use his brain, so various data was extremely crucial for Clearlove.
Seeing Clearlove say this and be so confident, Abu could only choose to believe him.
After all, questioning wouldn’t help; he knew very well that once Clearlove made a decision, advising him was useless unless Clearlove changed his mind himself.
He’d known this since bringing him from WE.
On the surface, it seemed like he contacted Ai De Zhu first, but in fact, Clearlove had the idea long ago; otherwise, how could he have persuaded him?
“Since you have your own plans, I’ll believe you can do it.” Now that he knew Clearlove’s idea, Abu felt reassured.
Coach Kuaisu Xing, seeing the Mid Laner and Jungler duo queuing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds here, wasn’t angry but rather somewhat happy.
Good good good.
While still in the Club with a bit of small power, make them as messed up as possible.
Reputation didn’t matter anymore; being swept out the door meant no reputation anyway.
Worst case, go back to Korea to find work.
He picked up the pen in his hand and changed the Starting Mid Laner scout to Unreal.
Jungler and Mid Laner duo queuing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had already been promoted via Live Stream.
If these two had cooperation issues in tomorrow’s match, leading to a loss, the Rhythm would be unimaginably terrifying.
This point was the same in China and Korea.
That evening, EDG Esports Club’s Official Weibo timely released the starting lineup for the next day’s match against NB Team.
Top: Mouse, Jungle: Clearlove, Mid: Unreal, ADC: Zet, Support: Meiko
This Weibo post was like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up massive waves; in just five minutes, comments exceeded five thousand and kept rising at an unimaginable speed.
Mainly because the slicing of Li Fan and Clearlove duo queuing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from the afternoon had just come out, and discussions were already very heated.
EDG already had a Slacking Mid Laner; though he stopped the losing streak in matches, no one thought Li Fan had any strength.
Dragging the old Captain Jungler to Slack together, planning to put pressure on EDG.
But they never expected the starting lineup to be this outrageous.
Unreal directly kicked Scout to the bench just based on last game’s performance?
This hasty? Do they really not want to make Playoffs or Mid-Season Invitational?
After losing last year’s matches, has the whole team lost all motivation?
【？？？？？？？】
【Am I seeing things? Mid Laner who? Unreal? They can put him in?】
【No way, are you for real, Abu? Duo queuing Win the Game and Neglecting one’s duties with Clearlove this afternoon, and directly arranging him as Starter tonight?】
【What about Xiao Xue Di? Xiao Xue Di’s Spring Split performance was noteworthy; how can you bench him without reason?】
【Crazy, absolutely crazy! Starting someone who barely plays Ranked Match and plays other games all day? I admit he has some inexplicable appeal, makes you itch seeing him play, but not to the point of bewitching the management.】
The comments under EDG’s lineup announcement were almost entirely negative, full of doubt and confusion.
On the Hot Search list, terms like #EDG Starter#, #Unreal Starter#, #Clearlove PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds# quickly rose.
Clearlove naturally saw the flood of public opinion.
In the Live Stream Room, Bullet Comments were all polite, calling him great god, insane plays, another round; how come Weibo reputation was so bad? Getting cursed like this? Ridiculous!
Li Fan naturally saw it too, but he didn’t care at all; let them curse, it wouldn’t cost him any flesh.
Seeing Li Fan’s indifferent look, Clearlove knew his worries were unnecessary.
“Congrats on Starting; let’s cooperate well in tomorrow’s match.”
Li Fan looked at Clearlove’s smiling face and nodded.
iboy looked envious; he still couldn’t play matches yet, his hands were really itching.
But no way around it; he wasn’t old enough yet, and compared to JackeyLove, he was indeed a bit better and could play in Summer Split, but JackeyLove wouldn’t turn 17 until November, meaning he could only debut next Spring Split.
Equivalent to wasting a World Championship opportunity.
Thinking of this, iboy’s mood improved a bit.
As expected, Daozhang didn’t teach wrong: when you feel miserable, think of others even more miserable, and your mood will improve a lot.
After Clearlove, the others also congratulated Li Fan on Starting.
For Substitutes, this was definitely worth celebrating.
Regardless, Li Fan led them to win last game, avoiding bigger Rhythm; that favor couldn’t be repaid!
For Li Fan’s Starting match, they had to give 120% effort and take it down beautifully.
Of course, Scout’s mood wasn’t great right now.
His solid Starting spot was gone!
Really didn’t know what the Coach was thinking; did he really think Li Fan could do it? Really think he was stronger than him?
Just as the internet was verbally attacking Li Fan, thinking EDG Starting him was extremely irresponsible and had a very bad impact.
An Esports Marketing Account analyzed from a different angle.
《Is EDG Starting Unreal really as simple as it seems on the surface?》
This article analyzed quite convincingly, mainly from Wu Zhuang Tai’s earlier post looking forward to facing Scout.
Then Abu posted on Weibo explaining for Unreal.
From this, it wasn’t hard to see EDG still sided with Players.
Since Wu Zhuang Tai taunted Unreal as a Substitute, directly make him Starter for a counterattack.
And his performance against GT last game was very eye-catching; Starting now to check his state, swap him out if not good.
Could also confirm if Unreal really had level; whether last match was just a fluke like eating Dumplings for New Year. The approach could be very clever.
Once this short essay was posted, it actually gained a lot of agreement.
First, EDG Club had no black material targeting Players.
If there was a problem, it was the management…
From this perspective, the possibility was very high.
Really doing it to help Unreal get revenge.
Wu Zhuang Tai was scrolling Weibo, originally wanting to see the explosive public opinion after EDG announced the Starting lineup and enjoy the pleasure of opponents being verbally attacked.
Indeed, the screen full of doubt and anger made him feel much better.
Unreal was now like a pariah; no one who offended him had a good end!
But soon, that analysis article titled 《Is EDG Starting Unreal really as simple as it seems on the surface?》 was @’ed to his comment section by Fans and onlookers.
Wu Zhuang Tai frowned and clicked in.
The article’s “serious” analysis portrayed EDG’s decision as a counterattack to his earlier comments, as if Abu and EDG management were scheming to slap his face.
“Pa!”
Wu Zhuang Tai slammed his Mobile Phone on the table, his face instantly darkening.
“Damn!” he muttered under his breath.
Helping Unreal get revenge? Clearly using a Substitute in the Starting spot to counter my Taunt?
What did EDG mean by this? Really think Starting a PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Substitute could slap my face?
“Good good good, EDG, you’re awesome.” Wu Zhuang Tai sneered coldly in anger. “Using a rookie, a Slacker, to disgust me? Think I’m old? Easy to bully?”
No matter what, he was a star Mid Laner; even a tiger without teeth was still a tiger!
What was originally a low-key group stage regular match became completely explosive with all this Rhythm; even the Official somewhat regretted scheduling it wrong—should’ve put it in prime time.
Luckily tomorrow was Sunday; with this hype, it shouldn’t be greatly affected.
For the Official, as long as Unreal brought hype to the event, he was a great Player.
He’d successfully made a name; as long as he didn’t go too far, there generally wouldn’t be harsh penalties.
April 2nd.
By 9 AM, the Training Room was already full.
Because today’s EDG vs NB match was scheduled for 1 PM.
After breakfast, head straight to the venue, so play an hour of League of Legends to warm up and adjust state beforehand.
Mainly, this wasn’t everyone’s peak state time; they even had some sleep deprivation.
Luckily, they could nap on the Bus.
By the time they reached Grand Plaza, it was noon.
Hurriedly got off the car and went in, quickly did makeup, then waited for the match to officially start.
……
Grand Plaza.
“Hello everyone!”
Sitting in the commentator’s center seat was Su Xiao Yan, with Ji De to her left and Chang Mao to her right.
The Official always arranged it this way: female Commentator could change, but golden duo bound, Taiwan duo bound, hoping for better Commentator cooperation and exciting match commentary.
The effect so far was quite good.
“Today’s EDG vs NB match is full of highlights.” Chang Mao grabbed the talk first.
Su Xiao Yan frowned slightly but didn’t say anything.
She planned to stop being a Commentator after this year… and Chang Mao was just like this; she was used to it now.
Just then, Li Fan’s photo appeared on the big screen.
Every Audience member at the venue couldn’t help screaming upon seeing this photo.
“EDG’s Starting Mid Laner for this match is Unreal!”
Su Xiao Yan smiled and said: “Seeing this photo, I don’t know what feelings you have; I think he’s really photogenic and handsome.”
“Indeed super handsome! This official photo is god-tier; heard it was rushed out yesterday?” Ji De followed Su Xiao Yan’s words.
But this topic wasn’t what Chang Mao wanted to talk about; he wanted to discuss the Weibo Rhythm.
But with Su Xiao Yan mentioning Appearance, it wasn’t easy to abruptly switch.
“In the last match, Unreal’s performance was very eye-catching: one game Mid Laner Lucian, one Lulu, both delivered satisfying results. I think that’s why he got the start.”
“Honestly, watching that match shocked me because I never expected Unreal to have no weaknesses throughout, whether aggressive Mid Laner or Support Mid Laner Lulu—two completely different styles, switching perfectly.”
“Alright, both teams’ Players have entered; first game starts soon!”
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