Chapter 280: Back View

Perkz initiated conversation with Liang Yan.

His Chinese proficiency improved day by day; recently he got addicted to browsing Bilibili, mingling with Chinese netizens in the comments and bullet chats, the more he understood Chinese people's daily lives, the more fascinated he became, so it was natural for him to be curious about the life views of the two mid laners on his team.

But what Perkz didn't know was that Liang Yan had actually achieved financial freedom.

Over the past six months, Liang Yan earned a lot of money from his salary and streaming; aside from the few thousand euros he kept in his card for emergencies, he converted the rest into RMB and poured it into a roller coaster simulator.

Most investors poured their money into the A-share market, and that was a real sinking; the vast majority couldn't even hear a sound, basically disappearing without a trace.

But Liang Yan mastered an undisclosed wealth secret, so he dared to put all his assets in; as for his stock‑trading style, it can be said to be very laid‑back—sometimes he buys a single stock and leaves it untouched for two or three weeks, never bothering to read any financial news, yet just by making a few trades like that, the numbers in his account multiplied several times—over the previous month they only doubled, but after he enabled permission to trade on the Sci‑Tech Innovation Board, they started exploding: 2 became 4, 4 became 8… He treated the A‑share market like a money‑printing machine.

By now, Liang Yan's total assets have approached a modest goal; if anyone knew his initial investment was less than a tenth of that, they'd likely turn it into a legend.

"Eastern Buffett" and such.

But Liang Yan remained relatively low‑key; after that time when Ka Lao Si leaked some information about him, Liang Yan has since only traded via his mobile app, and even Lao Zhang doesn't know how much money Liang Yan has made from the A‑share market.

It would be even less possible to tell Perkz, after all this matter is indeed too mysterious; spreading it would still carry considerable risk, possibly bringing great trouble to both himself and the messenger.

Therefore, when faced with Perkz's question, Liang Yan thought seriously for a moment:

"I'll probably keep playing professionally, and after retirement I'll do something else."

"Streaming?"

Liang Yan shook his head:

"If I truly retired, I estimate I wouldn't stream anymore; I might occasionally go on, but that would only be because I want to chat with friends, not to earn money."

Perkz exclaimed:

"Wow, that sounds like the feeling of a hermit."

Does a retired player not streaming make them a hermit?

Liang Yan doesn't see it that way; after he stops competing and streaming, he simply no longer puts his current activities in front of online viewers, but his story will still circulate online, his life will continue in reality, and he will still intersect with many people…

In short, he's just an ordinary person.

How could that be called a hermit?

Suddenly, a huge cheer came from outside.

"It's started, it's started!"

Zven, who was watching the stream around the computer, also shouted.

The opening ceremony began.

…

The scene.

On the sheer, gauze‑like transparent curtains that surrounded the stage, the opening‑ceremony countdown was displayed in real time; when the countdown entered the one‑minute mark, many spectators in the venue began to loudly count down, and when the countdown reached the single digits, the sound of the counting surged to a peak, with the whole audience joining in loudly counting.

When the countdown reached zero, almost all the lights in the venue went out, except for a small area in front of the stage that remained dimly lit, where a symphony orchestra of about thirty people sat.

Majestic background music sounded; on the dark stage, blue mist gradually gathered and condensed into a huge chest, while at the same time a golden key flew halfway around the stage, finally aiming at the chest's front like a flying sword, thrusting into the keyhole, and the chest slowly opened amid mechanical sounds.

Figure: Hextech Chest.

This is a loot system introduced in a certain version late in this summer season; the chest and key shown on stage are important components of this system, called the Hextech Chest and Hextech Key.

Riot Games put great effort into creating this, and likewise, to promote it they spared no effort, even using many high‑tech means in the opening ceremony of the S6 World Championship to showcase it, including 360‑degree panoramic screen technology, holographic projection technology, ground‑screen technology, and so on.

At the same time, to improve the viewing experience for online audiences, Riot Games partnered with YouTube to first adopt a 360‑degree viewing angle for the stream, allowing netizens to freely switch camera positions; for the streaming industry, this is actually a very impressive technique, a first in esports history.

Objectively speaking, the net‑audience reaction to this opening ceremony was so‑so, but in terms of technological content it can be said to be the utmost in human history; prior to this, no esports event, nor any traditional sports event, had ever used so much high‑tech.

After the opening ceremony ended, the players came down to the stage, took their places on the lifting platform, and got into position.

Overhead came a roar like mountains and seas, presumably the pre‑match promotional video being played; when Liang Yan had earlier gone to record trash talk, a certain editor pretended to ask for his opinion but actually showed him a glance, which was in fact a montage of all the highlight moments from the S6 group stage to the semifinals, and Liang Yan himself had many highlight clips in it.

For example, in the quarterfinals against RNG, three marksmen instantly killed opponents; in the MV, a clip lasting nearly ten seconds vividly depicts Liang Yan's marksman in the first game crossing the turret in top lane and even charging onto high ground for a 1v2 double kill against the RNG duo, paired with the passionate shouts of the European‑American commentators, intercut with a scene of Uzi losing emotional control on the RNG bench, and the effect is still pretty good.

The final set of clips in the promotional video shows the third game of the semifinals, where G2 faced SKT and Mang Seng's astonishing kick reversed the tide against SKT; after the match, Faker sat on the player bench covering his face in tears, and the last scene shows Faker quietly leaving the stage, the image fading as he walks backstage to the tunnel entrance and looks back at the stage.

This scene made the twenty‑thousand‑strong audience fall silent.

Da Mowang left, yet left a profound silhouette in the hearts of global viewers.

In short, the promotional video mainly consists of highlight plays, supplemented by the players' stage performances in moments of victory and defeat, pieced together into a promotional video.

Nevertheless, it was still quite successful—just look at the exploding bullet chats in the livestreams of all major regions to see that.

Moreover, this is only the opening promotional video, not the finals promotional video.

The finals promotional video mainly features the players on camera.