Chapter 318: Damn fucking crazy

The buzz around the Worlds topics remains high across the global internet.

Over the past half month, European netizens have been constantly having a blast.

Netizens from other regions gradually shifted to transfer-related topics.

For LPL netizens, although the champion was the 'Fourth Seed,' this is ultimately self-deception; everyone actually knows deep down that, although this year's LPL Worlds performance looks a bit better than last year's and isn't as disastrous—for example, the first seed reached the round of 16, only to be swept 4-0 by Europe—but if we talk about the level of disappointment, it's even stronger than last year's.

After all, at the start of the campaign they shouted slogans like 'the most promising year' and 'aiming for LPL's first championship'; the result was that although three teams made it to the quarterfinals, the heavily favored EDG and RNG were both crushed, especially RNG, which was actually swept 3-0 by Ou Mei.

It's worth noting that, as the topic of G2's victory heated up further, the meaning of the term 'Ou Mei lo bi' underwent a subtle shift—previously it was natural to use this term to refer to Ou Mei teams, but now nobody dares to utter a single character of it.

But although netizens may have short memories, the internet does not——

People dug up those extreme disparaging remarks made by 'pig-dog' fans about Ou Mei region teams in the past, settled accounts one by one—some were snide, some were direct vicious slapbacks, and of course there were all kinds of tag-team reverse psychology.

【Ou Mei lo bi won the championship; we're all lo bi (sobbing)】

【So what is RNG, which got swept 3-0 by Ou Mei lo bi? Rotten fish and shrimp?】

【Given that G2 swept ROX 3-0, G2 swept RNG 3-0, and ROX beat EDG 3-1, we can infer G2 > ROX = RNG; EDG =?】

The clearing-up storm blew across the Chinese internet for several days; in the end, EDG and RNG fans were all silenced, after which things gradually calmed down.

At this point, the annual winter transfer window is also approaching.

Naturally, Liang Yan's destination became the focus of global public opinion.

At the same time, the Intel Extreme Masters Cup (IEM) sent G2 an invitation to participate.

The tournament is fairly large in scale, but its main event is StarCraft II, with the bulk of the prize money also there; League of Legends is not the main attraction, so in the LoL sphere its prestige is not high.

By comparison, it's even worse than the LPL's Demacia Cup. So the LPL side just played their own Demacia Cup and didn't send any teams to IEM.

The enthusiasm of teams from other regions to participate is similarly low; unless there really are no other matches, or IEM pays an appearance fee, basically no high-profile teams are willing to join.

However, this year is after all G2's first year in a top-tier league, and Ka Lao Si might have other thoughts, so they accepted IEM's participation invitation.

Players returned one after another, and the base became lively again.

That night, Lao Zhang returned to the base, entered the room without even putting down his luggage, and after furtively closing the door, he shouted at Liang Yan in a low voice:

"Liang Yan, Liang Yan, a big deal!"

Liang Yan was lying on the bed looking at his phone, watching the KeSPA Cup (Korea e-Sports Association Cup) match replay; hearing this, he merely lifted his eyelids:

"What's up?"

Lao Zhang pushed the suitcase into the corner of the room, plopped down on Liang Yan's bed, and said mysteriously:

"Do you know what happened to me during these ten days I went back?"

"Huh?"

"It's totally absurd, let me tell you!"

Lao Zhang waved his hands, looking very excited.

Liang Yan, to go along with him, lifted his eyelids again and made an 'uh-huh' sound.

Lao Zhang could of course see that Liang Yan wasn't very interested, thought Liang Yan didn't realize the seriousness of the matter, raised his hand high intending to slap Liang Yan's thigh, but Liang Yan glanced at him, and his hand ended up slapping his own thigh with a smack:

"Six."

Lao Zhang made a 'six' hand gesture,

"Out of the twelve LPL teams, the managers and even owners of six teams came to my backwater town to chat with me! Holy shit!"

"Oh, what did they talk about?"

"They talked about you!!"

Lao Zhang shouted loudly, then realized his voice was too loud and might be heard outside, immediately glanced warily at the door, and then lowered his voice again:

"Damn, every single one of them asked for your WeChat! Some even came with cash—holy fucking crazy! Do you know how high the top offer went?"

Seeing Liang Yan not speak, Lao Zhang himself gave the answer:

"Eight figures!"

Liang Yan grunted, thinking it was about what he had expected.

That reaction was too bland.

Lao Zhang then looked at him strangely:

"Over ten million, bro—you're not even a bit excited? When I heard that I was freaked out! And they even said we could negotiate!"

Liang Yan finally put down his phone, looked at Lao Zhang, thought for a moment, and asked:

"If I'm not mistaken, the highest opening bid should be… RNG?"

Lao Zhang blinked:

"Holy shit, you could even guess that?"

"It's not hard to guess."

Liang Yan shrugged.

These past few years have been when RNG most urgently wanted to achieve results, so they were also the most aggressive in recruiting; moreover, if Liang Yan remembers correctly, at this point Mata had already fallen out with RNG, and Looper had decided to leave the team, so the RNG boss saw this as an opportunity to push for an all-Chinese lineup, and as for the sinner Sanshao, he was naturally cut.

After all, the RNG boss is a shrewd businessman; he saw the prospects of LoL's development, knew that after G2's championship the global popularity of LoL would inevitably surge, and he also apparently had some insider information, having already heard rumors that next year's Worlds would be held in China.

Indeed, starting from next spring's season, RNG began chanting the 'all-Chinese lineup' slogan, as if they were the only all-Chinese team in the entire LPL; actually, though, RNG was the first LPL team to import Korean players, and back then their team name was SHR.

If this 'Korean aid' includes the coach, then it's WE.

At that time, LoL esports' transfer management was still imperfect, with no concept of a salary cap, so superstar players' annual salaries were exaggerated; the top earner was undoubtedly Uzi, though no exact figure was ever given, but rumors said it was close to twenty million.

Because Sanshao left a bad impression, Liang Yan didn't want to talk more about RNG, and then said:

"Then the second-highest opening bid should be Old Godfather and WE."

Lao Zhang widened his eyes and gave a thumbs-up:

"Awesome, you guessed them all! Old Godfather and WE also opened with eight figures, only two million less than RNG!"

"What about VG?" Liang Yan asked.

"VG? Oh right, there's also VG, they came looking for me too, but they..."

"They didn't talk about me, but they wanted to poach you, right?"

Under Liang Yan's half-smile gaze, Lao Zhang scratched his head embarrassedly:

"Um, they offered me three million... and a five-hundred-thousand signing bonus..."