Chapter 64

The format of the EPL Asia Qualifier is a group round-robin, with 4 East Asian teams in one group: VG, Tyloo, 5Power, and MVP.

According to the round-robin, any one of these four teams would meet the other three, the winner gets 1 point, and finally, the ranking is based on points and net round wins.

The top two enter the second stage and compete with the two qualifying teams from Southeast Asia for the final 1 EPL main event spot, competing on the same stage with a total of 16 teams from all over the world.

On the first day of the competition, VG narrowly defeated MVP, while Tyloo and 5Power also fought a hard battle over three maps, and in the end, Tyloo was slightly better.

Thus, VG and Tyloo each got one point, with VG getting 4 net round wins with a 38-34 record, and Tyloo getting 5 net round wins with a 44-39 record.

MVP and 5Power had no points and each had corresponding net round losses.

In the livestream, they had already started to taste the data of the first day.

Jiao Yang stood firmly at the top of the list with a 1.74 rating; if it weren't for the "prison" in map one, it might have been even higher.

Then there was kaze's 1.37; without his Sniper Rifle sharing the pressure on the other side in map two, relying only on the Qiyou Trio who hadn't woken up, VG wouldn't have even seen map three.

Third was Tyloo's xccurate, another Sniper, whose 1.35 rating was the best result he had performed in these few months.

The rest didn't exceed 1.3, but the Snipers' data was still better than the Riflers'.

Near the end of the list, they still found traces of the Qiyou Trio.

zhokiNg was okay, having an eye-catching 1v3 performance plus a rating exceeding 1.0, which could only be said to balance out his merits and demerits.

As for the two A-gods, one was 0.89 and the other was 0.81; they were the big scapegoats in map one, had no performance in map two, and only got a little soup in map three.

It's no wonder the comments couldn't help it:

【This VG is really newcomers carrying old men!】

【I feel like if the Qiyou Trio keeps doing this, it's really like what was said in that analysis video, even Jiao Yang can't carry them.】

【Find two younger gunners, replace aumaN and advent, I think they have a chance.】

【Why not beg freeman to stay, and pull in JamYoung who has been playing 5epl with Ori all along.】

【I already said, the positions conflict!】

However, the VG members didn't know they had become material for esports managers, and were ordering takeout at this time.

"If only we had a coach, we should have eaten by now." aumaN didn't struggle with his performance at all.

As a "freeloader" Free Agent, it was always—win and it's fine, lose and we'll talk later.

"I am the coach right now." Jiao Yang was still participating in the competition as a coach on the roster.

"Then we need a team leader, other departments have one. We are the most miserable, after the reorganization, we have nothing left." aumaN wished.

advent directly woke him up: "Now the club is starting to lay off employees, you're still daydreaming. Play well, don't wait until our department is gone."

As the captain, advent still had some sources of information; he knew that the club's equity had undergone huge changes, and the decision-making had become more aggressive.

"What's the situation? It won't go back to before, right?" aumaN was startled.

The "before" here refers to the darkest time of CNCS, where clubs and players drained the pond to catch all the fish, directly eating up the future of CNCS through various match-fixing and eating "vegetables" (match-fixing).

Betting itself was not allowed in the country, and match-fixing swallowed up the last bit of trust.

Disappointment in watching matches, withdrawal of capital from organizing matches, without matches, professional players had no environment to survive; those who should retire retired, those who should change careers changed careers, and those who could stay were only those who continued to eat "vegetables" and big clubs like VG that wanted to turn legitimate but no one believed.

aumaN meant—the club wouldn't start eating "vegetables" again, right?

"That won't happen."

If it were before, advent wouldn't have given such a certain answer, but now that Jiao Yang was on the CS side, even if the boss's brain short-circuited, he wouldn't risk implicating the Dota2 department to eat a small CS match.

After all, a year's Ti prize money along with various sponsorships was something the CS department could never eat in a lifetime.

"It's just that they might really move a few departments."

advent sighed; on his chat software, the coach of VG's Honor of Kings found him and asked if the CS department had been sold. Obviously, this Honor of Kings department, which was not at the Shanghai main base, was going to be sold.

"Jiao Yang, do you have any news?" Although he knew Jiao Yang was a professional Dota2 player, his relationship with Qing Zong must be unusual.

However, except for being called by Aqing a few days ago to discuss the EPL qualifier, Jiao Yang had no other news.

But since Aqing didn't mention it, it should mean the CS department would not be affected.

"I don't know the specifics, but there shouldn't be any big things on the CS side."

advent immediately realized; if the relationship between Aqing and Jiao Yang was indeed unusual, then Jiao Yang being in the CS department meant the CS department wouldn't collapse.

But this didn't mean the few of them were safe.

"By the way, I won't be playing with you at IEM Sydney." Jiao Yang thought about it; this matter had to be said first.

"What?!"

The few people present all showed surprised expressions, among which aumaN was the most exaggerated; he was simply scared, thinking that if they lost, wouldn't they have to share the blame?

Jiao Yang nodded: "You might have to play with freeman."

kaze's surprise turned into frustration—this meant what freeman said was true, and the contract he signed was also true.

However, after these few rounds, he found that Jiao Yang's Sniper Rifle wasn't weak, and leaving might not have a huge impact on VG.

Thinking of this, kaze relaxed a bit.

On the contrary, advent, who wasn't too surprised originally, became painful; he had just expelled freeman before the match, and having to play a match with someone he had already fallen out with was too embarrassing.

"Can't we change people?"

As soon as the question was asked, advent knew the result—

At this time, there were only six people on the list submitted by the club, and Jiao Yang was going to play in the Dota2 Major.

Then, unless they forfeited, he would inevitably have to play the match with freeman.

Jiao Yang also knew advent was a bit embarrassed and comforted him: "It's fine, if it really doesn't work, just report colors to replace them."

When he plays Dota, sometimes he quarrels with teammates, and the two directly call each other by hero names, but in the end, they can still win.

A poor team atmosphere doesn't necessarily mean the team's results will be poor.

Actually, as long as five people want to win, it's fine, but Jiao Yang didn't know how freeman would play.

"freeman definitely wants to put up good data, because he will transfer next, and the data will be very important."

kaze gave the information he heard from freeman in a speculative way; in fact, freeman had already told him that he wanted to achieve results to prove his strength.

"Then what about the positions?" The taciturn zhokiNg raised his doubt; he had been playing trade-kill since Jiao Yang came, and he might not be used to switching again in a short time after the match.

"Let him play entry! There's no saying that we have to accommodate him."

Jiao Yang's words made advent feel very useful, but—

"If he doesn't play entry, aren't we finished?"

aumaN helped advent ask the question.

Jiao Yang smiled and took out his phone, typing rapidly.