Chapter 408

One day before the start of the fourth week of the spring regular season, VG boss Lu Wenjun inadvertently opened his team's official blog and discovered that the number of followers had actually exceeded four million!

In an instant, Lu Wenjun froze, instinctively rubbing his eyes a few times, thinking he had misread.

But he really hadn't misread.

In just over a week, the follower count on VG Club's official Weibo surged from over two million to four million!

Lu Wenjun racked his brains but could not figure it out.

What's going on? Isn't it the off-season?

Since the new VG team was formed, Liang Yan and the other members' streams have been giving VG steady growth in popularity, but these past few days the increase has been outrageous!

Lu Wenjun couldn't figure out why this phenomenon had occurred, so he messaged Jun Gao a few times on WeChat, wanting to confirm whether there was some major event he had missed—such as all VG members rushing into the top ten on the Korean server and continuously dominating the rankings, or some team member inadvertently triggering a big event that brought excellent word‑of‑mouth publicity.

However, Gao Jun's reply was:

【No, everything has been normal lately】

Gao Jun even wanted to say that, while EDG was being condemned and battered by wind and rain, our VG remained secluded and tranquil. But thinking that saying so would seem to take pleasure in others' misfortune, which would be unkind, he ultimately shortened it to just 'Everything is normal.'

【Then that's strange.】

Lu Wenjun casually took a screenshot of his own team's official Weibo and posted it:

【Recently, how did our Weibo followers suddenly increase so much?】

【!】

Over four million?!

Gao Jun also got shocked seeing the picture:

【How come so many!】

【I'm also puzzled, so I wanted to ask if you have something I don't know about】

【No, really everything's normal! If I had to point to any advantage, it's probably just that EDG has been going crazy lately, and compared to that, we look a bit better?】

Lu Wenjun froze for a moment.

Besides this, there really isn't anything else.

So this is... winning by lying down?

All we can say is it's completely an unexpected joy.

Indeed, in esports, not making mistakes is progress; it's all thanks to the competition making us look good.

Who said that again? Rival companies are...

That evening, the happy Lu Wenjun again pulled everyone out for a celebratory meal.

At the banquet, he stood up and raised his cup:

"Let's have a small celebration, congratulations on our club's influence reaching a new level, everyone keep pushing forward! As long as we don't do stupid things, someday we'll become the benchmark for all LPL clubs!"

……

【What's a small IEM championship? We'll continue proving ourselves in more international tournaments—although you left, we're still invincible!】

【Oh? That confident】

【MSI is waiting for you; bring your VG team, you are our best touchstone】

【Alright, you wait】

Liang Yan lay on the bed in the single dormitory at VG's base, ended his WeChat chat with Perkz, gazed at the dim lights outside the window, his heart filled with some sentiment and nostalgia.

One S6 season caused Perkz to undergo an internal and external transformation; the current Perkz still possesses that extreme confidence as before, not making Liang Yan feel unfamiliar, but besides that, Liang Yan also sensed something new from Perkz, like the sharp aura naturally emanating after a sword embryo is tempered.

Liang Yan had of course watched G2's match recordings, and had some judgments about Perkz's current strength, but before actually facing him, no judgment could be considered reliable.

Thinking of the mid-season showdown that will start in a couple of months, Liang Yan couldn't help but feel more anticipation.

……

At the end of February, the domestic server updated to version 7.4; hero changes were few, the only impact on players' daily training being that Marquis could temporarily remove the hero 'Airplane' from the hero pool— in the hero pool safeguard plan jointly researched by Liang Yan and Zhu Xiaolong, Liang Yan specifically requested adding the word 'temporary' and bolded it, printed on A4 paper.

Because Liang Yan vaguely remembered that the hero 'Airplane' would become popular again in the summer split.

Besides that, the other notable changes in version 7.4 were compiled into the document '7.4 Version Research Report', similarly distributed to each player— VG's second team also received a copy.

The key points mentioned in the version research report are:

1. The Black Cleaver synthesis path was reworked, stats adjusted— tankier but attack power reduced, making champions like the crocodile rise in status.

2. Several major armor-piercing items were nerfed, tanks became tankier, ADs harder to kill, shield-support fits the environment better, and attack-speed ADs gained higher status.

3. More experience for level catch-up, fasting-style play will dominate the jungle.

4. First blood tower bounty reduced, early-game pressure in the bottom half slightly weakened.

Besides that, some supplementary details for the 7.2+3 version were added, because the upcoming fourth week's schedule will directly use 7.4, whereas previously they used 7.1; the adjustment spanning two versions will naturally have a considerable impact on the match environment.

This report can be said to embody the research efforts of VG's entire training team (mainly Liang Yan's) over this period; although it bears no confidential markings and VG has not established a written confidentiality system, its importance is self-evident— if any second-team player were greedy for money, they could even secretly sell it for a considerable sum, with tens of thousands likely being an asking price someone would accept.

Would anyone really do that?

Then no one would know.

In short, VG now has a complete process from theoretical research to training execution for each game version update.

And this is exactly a major change that Liang Yan has brought to this team.

Zhu Xiaolong often sighs, feeling that as a coach he is truly inadequate, his abilities seriously lacking, with too much to learn.

At the same time, Zhu Xiaolong feels guilty for delegating many duties that should be the coach's to Liang Yan, and therefore repeatedly asks Gao Jun and Boss Lu about the progress of hiring an analyst.

Finally, on the day before the fourth week of the LPL regular season began, Gao Jun brought a new member into VG's base.

Short stature, slightly dark skin, hair dry and yellowish looking malnourished, wearing a gray suit with a tie, looking somewhat……

When Gao Jun brought before him the former LPL veteran support Tabe, who had become infamous for leaking IG tactics on the English broadcast desk at the S5 World Championship, consequently being boycotted by the ACE Alliance and labeled by LPL netizens as 'Esports Wang Jingwei', thus withdrawing from public view, Liang Yan's feeling was one of great surprise.

How did Tabe end up at VG?

……

I'll take a day off tomorrow.

The Spring Festival holiday is over, my backlog is exhausted, boo-hoo.