After the National Day holidays, the journey to the playoffs officially began. The latter competition was in the knock-out format. GH was ranked second in the regular season and directly occupied the semi-final spot of Group B.
In the next arrangement, the first match in the group would be played between the seventh ranked UL and the sixth ranked SUU teams. After that, the winner and the third ranked PAY would compete in the second match. The final winner would get the qualifications to the semi-finals and compete with GH for the ticket to the finals.
Thus, getting the second place ranking really wasn’t in vain. One last round of participation meant saving time and energy to better prepare for the semi-finals a week later. Based on the match arrangements, the first week of the competition came to a successful conclusion under the expectant eyes of the viewers.
During the first round, the BK team in Group A and the SUU team in Group B lived up to expectations. It was a BO3 format and they won with an absolute advantage of 2:0.
Then on the Saturday of that week, the second round of the playoffs officially began.
The BK team and LDF team in Group A played 1:1 first. The final match point was won by LDF and they obtained a thrilling score of 2:1. Meanwhile in Group B, PAY showed absolute strength and crushed SUU with a score of 2:0 to advance to the semi-finals without any suspense.
The first week of the competition ending and the semi-final matchups were official.
In Group A, the first ranked Three would play against LDF. In Group B, the second ranked GH would play against PAY.
The top four teams would compete on Wednesday and Friday of next week respectively. The playoffs were in full swing and the promotional videos of the teams were already posted on the Internet.
As the cameraman predicted, the video of the GH team had the largest number of views. After editing by various fans, it even boarded the rankings of the major video sites. In the days approaching the semi-finals, they were in the limelight.
Luo Mo was the manager of the GH Club and he had mixed feelings seeing the term ‘the e-sports boys group’ on several hot searches.
The good thing was that the number of fans of the team was growing in almost a straight line as the autumn competition progressed. The worry was that among these fans, the number of face fans and career fans was basically 50:50.
This ratio undoubtedly made the team’s overall fan base extremely weak. Even if they had performed well up to now, if they didn’t perform well in the future then they would suffer a backlash from these fans.
Luo Mo’s worries were indeed reasonable but Lin Yan heard about it and didn’t care at all. “If they want to fight back then fight back! Which team doesn’t have a pile of black fans? Should we be afraid of the keyboard warriors on the Internet? Compared with this, I don’t think your attitude is quite right. Ah Mo, what do you mean by not playing well? Are these the words of a human? We haven’t played in the semi-finals yet and you are already talking about our players’ poor performances. If this really affects the final result then can this blame be put on your head?”
Luo Mo originally wanted to discuss the management plan for the team’s fans. Now instead of discussing anything, he received a lecture instead. In the end, he could only withdraw tactically.
The semi-finals were approaching and Lin Yan didn’t want to hear any jinxes in the final days. He sent Luo Mo away and systematically sorted out the lineup arrangement. After confirming it several times, he finally put down his worries. He walked to the door of the training room, greeted the players, and called out Jing Yuanzhou.
Soon after, two figures kissing together could be seen in the dormitory. Lin Yan hung off Jing Yuanzhou’s body and enjoyed this rare pleasant time. Jing Yuanzhou was always very cooperative about being tasted by his boyfriend. It wasn’t until he felt the touch on his lips being removed that he looked down. “What’s the matter?”
“Listening to Ah Mo, it seems that you have more girlfriend fans?” Lin Yan met this gaze as if he was thinking of something interesting. “Tell me, if they know that their male god has a master, will they come over and blow up our club?”
He said this but there was no worry at all. Rather, there was a look of anticipation in his eyes.
Jing Yuanzhou thought about it. “Do you want to go public?”
Lin Yan shook his head. “I’m not in a hurry.”
For Lin Yan, feelings were something that flowed naturally when conditions were right. He didn’t care if it was public or not. The problem was that the trend of fan circles in all walks of life was too obvious, especially in the e-sports circle. As a coach, he was behind the scenes a lot and the pressure of public opinion was much lighter. Meanwhile, professional players like JIng Yuanzhou were different. They were in the spotlight.
It was really cool to declare sovereignty. Who didn’t want to enjoy the feeling of showing love to the world? However, it was still the autumn competition.
It was just like Luo Mo’s worries. Once the team didn’t perform well, pressure from everywhere would be overwhelming. At that time, fans wouldn’t care if there was no link between a relationship and the performance in the game. They only knew that anything that wasn’t related to the game was an original sin.
Lin Yan slowly sighed as he thought of this. He picked up Jing Yuanzhou’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “Let it go with the flow.”
On the day of the match with PAY, GH got into the business car early and went to the venue of the semi-final match.
Lin Yan cocked his head and saw the familiar profile picture on the screen of Jing Yuanzhou’s phone. “Didn’t LDF finish the match already? Why is Luni bothering you?”
Jing Yuanzhou replied, “It is because the match is finished that he called me to cheer for us.”
“What is this?” Lin Yan raised his eyebrow. “He can’t make it to the finals so he can only place his hope in his good friend? Can the inheritance of will still be done in different teams?”
“It’s almost similar?” Jing Yuanzhou explained, “In the semi-finals, LDF lost to Three in the last game. Luni is having a hard time accepting it. Still, a loss is a loss. He has no choice but to hope that we will reach the finals and get revenge for them.”
Just two days ago, the first match was played between Three and LDF.
Under the BO3 format, Three won the final victory with 2:1 and continued the undefeated myth of this autumn competition.
Luni had watched that match. LDF had performed very brightly throughout the match. Both sides were very anxious in the third game. Unfortunately, in the final team battle, Wuhoo and Come showed off their skills and pushed directly to the high grounds. LDF lost to Three.
Luni was ready to retire after this season so it was understandable that he wasn’t happy with the results. Just…
“It’s a must to enter the finals.” Lin Yan felt it was more interesting as he thought about it. “The only match we lost in the regular season was to Three. Even if Luni doesn’t say anything, the revenge battle must be carried out. We have to fight but it isn’t for their LDF’s revenge. It is for ourselves.”
Jing Yuanzhou lowered his head, typed Lin Yan’s words directly and sent them.
He didn’t bother reading Luni’s reply. He put his phone in his pocket and glanced out the window. “We’re here. Get out of the car.”
Compared with the previous regular season, the venue of the semi-finals was much more formal. Supporters of both sides were present and the support scene was extremely enthusiastic, adding a lot of fighting spirit to the scene.
The PAY fans always felt that they had lost to GH in the regular season due to the tactical arrangements that could be called cheating. This type of opportunistic approach took advantage of the BO1 format. This semi-final was based on the BO3 format. They had to win beautifully to relieve the previous anger.
The GH fans naturally sneered at such remarks. They were even more convinced that GH could win against PAY the first time so they would definitely win the second team. The fans of this new team were very enthusiastic and didn’t lose to an old team like PAY in terms of support momentum.
Unfortunately, it didn’t matter how much momentum the GH fans had. It didn’t change the fact that the online attitude toward GH wasn’t very optimistic. It wasn’t because they doubted GH’s strength. It was that for most netizens, this team was really too new.
Looking back at GH’s history, they didn’t even rise up from the regular secondary league. They participated in a variety show and won the qualification for the professional league. Now they smoothly entered the playoffs and even got second place, allowing them to directly enter the semi-finals.
Apart from the captain Jing Yuanzhou, the other members had no resume or were controversial on various levels. They created a legend but it wasn’t enough to get the recognition of the professional league fans in such a short amount of time.
There was no doubt that GH was strong. But how strong were they truly and did they really have the qualifications to compete with the four giants? At this point, it wasn’t enough to rely solely on the results of the BO1 system. It wasn’t convincing.
The autumn competition was coming to an end but for the new team, this might just be their new starting point to prove themselves to the entire league.
The semi-finals were BO3 and the finals were BO5. This type of competition system that was directly linked to the World Competition was a better indication of their true strength.
The Burning Hot officials put a lot of thought into the playoffs. It was the same on Wednesday. Before the semi-finals officially started, the competition committee specifically arranged a small media interview backstage for the two teams participating that day.
The PAY team was being interviewed when the GH team arrived. They waited at the door.
At this time, a reporter asked a question, “I would like to ask DeMen. Recently, there have been rumors about your plans to retire. Is this true or false? As we all know, LDF’s Luni has decided to officially retire at the end of this competition. If you are going to retire as well then is the foreign media’s ridicule about the serious aging of the China division’s players true? What do you in PAY think about this?”
Bi Yaohua heard this and couldn’t help sighing. “These e-sports media reporters really dare to ask this!”
Lin Yan didn’t say anything but when he looked up, he wasn’t surprised to see that the AI in the center had a dark expression.
Lin Yan, “……”
It didn’t matter if they asked but did these people have to rush to stimulate AI before the match? According to this rhythm, it was obvious that AI’s fighting spirit had been fully stimulated!
Haha, well done. Then let’s be happy together!
CG 10K event
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