Chapter 405: Blitz Strike Bo Lan!

In ancient times, IEM's prestige and value in the global LOL esports scene were still quite high, because back then the LPL hadn't yet taken off, there were hardly any regular tournaments worldwide, and as one of the few international tournaments at the time, IEM's popularity was very high.

But times have changed; in today's LOL tournament system, the weight of IEM is far less than before. Taking the LPL as an example, winning an IEM championship, whether in terms of economic benefit or fame, is even less valuable than winning a Demacia Cup championship.

So nowadays, few people pay attention to IEM, and for strong teams already covered in honors, their willingness to participate is even lower.

In early February, SKT and C9 both announced on the same day their withdrawal from this year's IEM11 finals to be held in Bo Lan Katowice, and expressed willingness to defer their slots to other teams in the same region.

EDG's withdrawal announcement came ten days later than the two teams mentioned above.

Originally, this wouldn't have caused any stir, after all netizens also knew IEM lacked value, so not participating was just not participating.

But at this special juncture, combined with some coincidental factors, this originally unremarkable incident triggered a huge uproar that nobody expected.

Why did this blow up?

There are several key factors:

First, EDG has great fame, many fans, and high loyalty.

Second, EDG suffered consecutive setbacks in the S5 and S6 World Championships, severely damaging its prestige in the LPL, and fans urgently needed a big win in an international tournament to recharge their confidence.

Third, each major region reserved a week for teams participating in IEM, and the following week all regions entered their offseason, leaving viewers with no matches to watch; out of boredom they fueled the incident, and with someone deliberately fanning the flames, it spiraled out of control.

In short, the development of events matched Liang Yan's memory exactly.

After EDG's official Weibo posted the withdrawal announcement, not long later, the renowned LOL esports website 'Logging Tired' called EDG management for a brief interview, then reposted EDG's Weibo, saying: 'Today, when I interviewed A Bu, A Bu said: "We also really want to go, but we've gone three times and still couldn't complete the visa procedures, there's no way."'

After three visits to the embassy still no visa, fans felt heartbroken.

In the EDG fan group, emotions ran high, and people began to suspect that the Polish Embassy was maliciously blocking visas and discriminating against esports players, conjuring up countless conspiracies in their minds; with the instigation of those with ulterior motives and the inaction of the EDG fan group administrators, the situation gradually spiraled out of control.

Anger makes people lose their senses.

When the VG members returned to Ji Di, the comment section of the Polish Embassy's official Weibo account already contained attacking comments from EDG fans.

Around eight o'clock, EDG played a match and defeated QG, which was touted as a potential major dark horse of the season, with a score of 2-0.

Fans were both happy and angry.

They were happy because EDG crushed QG like pulling a spinning top, proving that the team still dominates in the LPL.

They were angry because such a strong team would lose an international tournament championship that should have been a sure thing due to a minor visa issue!

What? You say IEM has no strong teams participating and lacks value?

EDG fans won't accept that.

Last year's World Championship champions G2 and runners-up ROX participated, the second-place team of the Europe Region, H2K, participated, the LMS region's king Flash Wolves (FW) also participated, and LCK had KDM competing—do you dare say there are no strong teams?

If these teams aren't considered strong, then who is?!

Moreover, IEM is an international tournament!

For the sake of bringing glory to the nation, you dare say it has no value? Are you not patriotic?

Nobody wants to lose their nationality.

Reasonable onlookers merely watched, while those less reasonable were likely to be infected by EDG fans' emotions, swept up in the mudslide and join the charge.

Furthermore, the LPL entered its offseason, with no matches, and there truly are many bored people.

Both official Weibo accounts of the Polish Embassy gained a huge surge of traffic; the number of comments obtained in just two days exceeded the total comments since the accounts were created.

However, most of these comments were not friendly.

In the comment section of the latest Weibo post from the Polish Embassy Culture Department's official account, the top ten comments sorted by number of likes from high to low are as follows:

【Stupid donkey!】

【Anti-Bar tourism group assemble, come get a small stool, no shooting, just watch the show!】

【Are you bullying EDG because they have no fans? EDG fans, give me likes, let the stupid donkeys see our strength!】

【If you're a compatriot, rush!】

【Do you want to escalate this into a diplomatic incident? Fine, I'll satisfy you.】

【I'm a rational fan; I don't like insulting people, I just want a fair, just, and public answer to my question: why won't you give EDG a visa?!】

【Remember, you owe EDG an IEM11 finals championship!】

【Speaking fairly, some say EDG is intentionally not going, blocking the door so other LPL teams can't go, thus delaying withdrawal until the end; those who think that probably don't know, IEM has standards—it's not that anyone who wants to go can go, and some teams that want to go are not wanted.】

【If you want to break relations, just say it straight; no need for these sneaky tactics—such a big country, making a laughingstock.】

【Don't believe me? I, Miss, will bring a truckload of bread people to block your embassy gate!】

When future Liang Yan wanted to recall this incident, the Polish Embassy's official Weibo post where EDG fans had gathered in the comment section to charge had already been deleted; however, the later statement from the Polish Embassy was retained, but the comments under 'Ten Thousand Pigs Arching Tower' were indeed gone, so Liang Yan never actually saw those comments.

In this lifetime, having personally experienced it, Liang Yan finally witnessed firsthand the occurrence of this extraordinarily absurd event; aside from marveling at the eye-opening experience, he also felt somewhat startled.

It seems I'll also need to screen fans in the future; I can't accept just any nc fans, for I fear not ten thousand but the one-in-ten-thousand chance.

The uproar lasted two days, and the matter grew bigger and bigger.

The Polish Embassy could no longer sit still, forced to issue a statement:

【Statement

【Today, our embassy's Culture Department learned from news and interactive media of a report concerning EDG esports club team's visa application to participate in the IEM tournament held in Bo Lan Katowice being denied, along with inquiries from enthusiastic netizens. The announcement is as follows:】

【After communication between our side and relevant EDG personnel, this situation is due to insufficient documents in the visa submission process by the responsible party. Because the materials were not prepared adequately, the visa submission documents were ultimately not submitted to the xxxxxxxx Consulate General for review. Therefore, the news and information that the EDG team was denied a visa are untrue.】

【This is hereby declared!】

【xxxxxxx Culture Department】

【February 20, 2017】

Figure: xxxxx Embassy statement