Chapter 612: I'm your fans!

The summer season is about to begin, and all LPL teams have started preparing intensely; VG faces little pressure, but they still have the necessary version adaptation training.

But I don't know if some teams are secretly forming cliques to exclude VG; several top teams seem to have agreed among themselves not to play with VG.

During the spring season, these teams were still vying to arrange scrimmages with VG, but now they not only stopped inviting VG proactively, even when Zhu Xiaolong called, they made up a bunch of excuses, saying plenty of pleasant things, yet they simply refused to play practice matches with VG.

Then Zhu Xiaolong tried contacting KT, last season's regular scrim opponent, but was also rejected. For a moment, VG seemed utterly isolated; at this critical juncture before the summer season opens, they actually had no scrims to play!

Zhu Xiaolong, worried, went to Gao Jun to discuss.

"There's still this?"

Gao Jun looked surprised, then began to think. KT's refusal to scrim with VG was something he had anticipated; after the MSI finals, when he met KT's entourage at the hotel, he sensed their management's bad attitude. But what's up with these LPL folks?

Lately I haven't heard any rumors…… Could it be that those guys are deliberately avoiding VG and secretly colluding? By rights, given the chairman (Lu Wenjun)'s prestige and connections in the domestic circle, VG shouldn't be isolated like this.

This whole affair reeks of weirdness.

"Don't worry about it for now……"

After a bout of brainstorming, Gao Jun solemnly instructed Zhu Xiaolong,

"Anyway, we're not lacking in training volume; if they want to scrim, let them, if not, we'll arrange with LCK teams—there are plenty eager to practice with us. Well, you don't have connections there, so go talk to the Marquis and have him help liaison."

After giving those instructions, Gao Jun hurriedly left his office.

Zhu Xiaolong also returned to the training room to consult the Marquis.

Meanwhile, Gao Jun found Lu Wenjun and reported in detail what Zhu Xiaolong had said.

Lu Wenjun seemed to already know; he sat behind his desk, wearing a gentle smile, calmly gestured for Gao Jun to sit, then spoke slowly:

"I know about this; I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want you to overthink. Simply put, I went to a league meeting recently and, in short, things blew up."

"What?!"

Gao Jun widened his eyes,

"Chatted... blew up?"

"Well, at first Zuowu had a hard time..."

"Zuowu, what's he got going for him?!" Gao Jun exclaimed excitedly, "He's been demoted!"

Lu Jun pressed his hands: "Don't rush; Zuowu is actually just the instigator. He started by using our poaching of their two cores as an excuse, then EDG and RNG pretended to mediate, claiming that our poaching of Xiao Liang already gave us a big advantage, we can't take all the benefits, so we should return Li Xuanjun and Fanzi to Snake on loan."

"That's impossible!"

Gao Jun shouted, his face turning red with anger.

Lu Wenjun smiled: "I said the same. I know what they're scheming; they just want us to swap players mid‑battle so they can take advantage while we're adjusting, or maybe someone still hopes to poach Xiao Liang in the chaos."

"Heh..."

Gao Jun couldn't help but sneer,

"We have the one‑year contract in our hands; what do they have to poach with? Or are they going to pay Xiao Liang's breach‑of‑contract fee? Can they afford it?"

"Don't say that kind of thing, even in private."

Lu Wenjun let out a light sigh, his face showing no particular worry, and he continued gently:

"Anyway, that's pretty much the situation; in the end we didn't reach any conclusion, and finally RNG just threw out, 'VG is unsportsmanlike, they're not taking us to play in the summer season.'"

Gao Jun fell silent.

At the bottom line, are they just jealous of VG's results?

What kind of situation is this?

Damn it, obviously those were people you didn't want at first, but VG paid a big price to bring them back from Europe! Now that VG has indeed taken off, they actually have the nerve to accuse VG of taking huge advantages? They can't even be called shameless; they're basically beasts!

Gao Jun left Lu Wenjun's office and went to the scrims, finally hearing some good news: many LCK teams are willing to scrim with VG, aside from the two top powerhouses SKT and SSG, there's also the new team LZ!

Oh, calling it a new team might not be accurate; the predecessor of the LZ team was actually one of the oldest clubs in the Korean esports scene, IncredibleMiracle (IM). IM has achieved quite a bit in other fields, but in LoL it's been quite tumultuous, having suffered relegation in both the S3 and S5 seasons.

Although IM had nurtured many strong players for the LCK—even a top‑tier player like Smeb—its own results never took off. Last year, its backers finally grew disappointed, sold IM to Chinese capital—the Dragon Pearl live‑streaming platform—and renamed the team Dragon Pearl Gaming, which is this LZ.

After the reorganization, LZ's core roster still featured the former ROX duo PraY and GorillA as the solid foundation; however, its top‑lane player is Khan, who later became very famous but at present is still just an obscure LPL secondary‑league player who never made a name for himself, so he decided to return to the LCK to give it a shot.

As a veteran, Liang Yan naturally knew LZ's S7 story; upon hearing the Marquis say that LZ also wanted to scrim with VG, he couldn't help but feel a subtle mix of emotions.

That very night they went ahead and scrimmed with SSG.

Speaking of which, when the two sides first opened a room, something funny happened: as soon as the SSG people entered the room, someone immediately typed a line in the room's public channel:

{Firrrrrre, Imyourfans! }

Liang Yan was looking at the ID "SSGHaru" to recall who that guy was, when he saw the room flood with four identical lines of "Imyourfans!"

Laughter broke out in the VG training room, and everyone felt a sense of shared honor.

Liang Yan thought it over and then replied with:

{WhereisAmbition? }

In the Samsong base training room, the person nicknamed "An Zhangmen" Ambition stood there with arms crossed, calm and composed, behind SSG's substitute jungler Haru, clearly having no intention of going up to exchange a couple of moves with Liang Yan.

During the spring season, KT's having held many scrims with VG was no secret in the LCK circle, and KT's MSI outcome was plain for all to see.

Although SSG agreed to scrim with VG, they couldn't help but think a step further.