Chapter 155: Departure

Berlin and Beijing are only six hours apart, so there's no jet lag; after Snake's members landed, they received Ka Lao Si's warm welcome, and both sides went out for a meal together. After returning that night, they kicked off the practice matches.

G2's second team was on vacation, so the training room on the first floor was empty, perfect for Snake to use.

Snake set up camp at the G2 base.

The Western players in G2 have made great progress in their Chinese, daily communication is basically problem-free, so they mixed easily with Snake's members.

After a few days, the G2 base resembled a scene where the two teams were as close as one family.

However, the World Championship opening is less than half a month away, and the organizer requires all participating teams to arrive in San Francisco, the group stage venue, by September 26 at the latest, having rented an entire hotel there—that is, counting from Snake's arrival, there are less than ten days left until the latest departure deadline set by the organizer.

Snake wasn't here just to play.

So, starting the day after Snake arrived at G2, the two teams' schedule became:

7 a. m. wake up.

8 a. m. start practice matches.

11:30 a. m. rest and briefly review.

12 p. m. eat lunch then rest.

2 p. m. wake up.

2:30 p. m. continue practice matches.

7 p. m. eat dinner and rest half an hour,

7:30 p. m. continue practice matches.

10 p. m. end practice matches, then formally begin summarizing and reviewing the day's practice matches.

Of course, the two teams' review meetings were mostly held separately.

By the 21st, the two teams had already played four days of practice matches.

For the first three days, neither side banned anyone; if the gold difference exceeded 5000, they quit and restarted the game, so matches went quickly—dozens could be played in a day.

But starting yesterday, following the advice of G2's training staff, both sides changed their training approach; from now on they will conduct practice matches in the format of official games.

That is, from ban/pick to the match, they follow the official game procedure exactly.

Until the base exploded.

Consequently, the number of practice matches dropped sharply, sometimes a single game lasting tens of minutes.

But the match quality rose linearly.

The effect was also significant, because this practice-match format better arouses the players' fighting spirit—in other words, their competitiveness.

Today they continue with this model.

The departure day is also drawing nearer.

After another day, the two sides' training staff discussed again and changed the practice-match format: they would drill a single system all day, then review together afterward.

To facilitate this review model, Liang Yan made many efforts that went unnoticed.

Of course, complete candor isn't realistic, but this review indeed lets both sides spot some tactical flaws or system loopholes they would hardly notice on their own.

Aside from Snake posting on Weibo the day of departure, "Departure, heading to training camp," neither side leaked any details about this training camp to the outside world.

Such a training model can be said to be unprecedented; if you told outsiders, they'd even laugh, saying you're spouting fairy tales—how could two teams review together?

Only the members of the two teams themselves know that this truly happened at the G2 base.

……

September 25.

Today is the day of departure.

Since the practice matches went well, Ka Lao Si generously bought tickets for all eight Snake members—originally Snake planned to send only seven, but Zuowu thought it safer to go with the team, so the number was increased to eight.

Both teams booked the same flight, departing at 2 p. m.

It's only 11:30 now; the G2 base isn't far from the airport, so there's no need to rush—arriving early would just mean waiting around.

Everyone had just finished lunch, everything that needed packing was already packed, so they sat in groups of two or three in the lounge chatting.

Liang Yan, Lao Zhang, Fu Lan Duo, and Ke Li Si Tuo gathered together.

"Lao Zhang, your skills are so strong—why didn't you turn pro earlier?"

Fu Lan Duo had been curious about this for a long time, and only now did she ask—she had been holding back. They had faced each other countless times, and Fu Lan Duo knew Lao Zhang's strength well, hence the question.

Upon hearing this, Lao Zhang quickly waved his hands, embarrassed, and said:

"Oh come on, you don't know—I was forced into it. I used to be terrible, so bad you couldn't watch."

Ke Li Si Tuo's eyes widened instantly, like a bigoted adult come to life:

"No way, don't lie to me—I've watched your streams; back then I recall you were already in the top 100 of the Korean server, pretty impressive."

Lao Zhang felt even more embarrassed:

"I'm not lying to you—if I look back at myself three months ago, I really feel I can't bear to watch; I was that bad."

"That shows you've improved a lot."

"Hurry up and stop saying that—you still can't beat me anyway."

Fu Lan Duo just chuckled and said openly:

"After all, I've played a few years longer than you; if I couldn't even beat a newcomer like you, I'd have no point in continuing."

"But you haven't played against me either."

Liang Yan bluntly interjected:

Lao Zhang and Ke Li Si Tuo immediately burst out laughing.

Fu Lan Duo's face flushed with embarrassment as she scratched her nose and said:

"How could I compare to you? You're basically a monster—no, wait, people here really do call you Monster Brother, right? Monster Brother, awesome—just hearing the name sounds badass."

"「……」"

Now it was Liang Yan's turn to feel depressed.

To be frank, Liang Yan actually doesn't really like this nickname; mainly it's awkward to say, and also kind of embarrassing, far inferior to Jiao Shen or Ta Di; no wonder LPL netizens are all naming geniuses.

Oh, Ta Di is actually a homophone of 'Tower Enemy', and also an abbreviation of 'Eternal Enemy of the Defense Tower'. At first some people thought typing seven characters was too troublesome, so they typed 'Tower Enemy', which was still understandable. Then, during one of Liang Yan's livestream ranked matches when he and a teammate were tower-diving, the latency suddenly spiked, causing Liang Yan to fail the tower dive and be killed by the defense tower. After that, someone in the barrage started spamming 'Ta Di' nonstop, and the trend took off. However, because Liang Yan's performance in matches is truly invincible, netizens felt that using the 'Di' (younger brother) suffix was inappropriate, so more people still call him Ta Di.

And so it spread. Fewer people use this nickname than 'Jiao Shen', but these days it's also fairly well-known among LPL viewers.

However, compared to LPL's domestic stars, Liang Yan's popularity is still far behind.

Although G2 now has over 200,000 Weibo followers, compared to several LPL traditional powerhouses that regularly boast over two million fans, it's truly a small fry next to a big shot.

At 1 p. m., G2's minibus set off from Ji Di for the airport.

Both teams packed the minibus full to the brim.

Team leader Biman then joked:

"Looks like we'll have to change vehicles again."

Ka Lao Si said:

"Change, we'll change it when we get back!"