Chapter 615

On the same evening that Liang Yan's Weibo followers surpassed 10 million, the S6 World Championship champion skin for the Mang Seng, which had already been slipped into the update package during the early morning version update the previous night, officially went on sale.

Liang Yan's Mang Seng skin sold out instantly, the number of buyers quickly exceeding the pre‑order figure shown in the pre‑sale period; in the China server alone, sales reached 300,000 copies within the first hour.

TX, seeing the skin selling like hotcakes, struck while the iron was hot and added fuel to the fire, launching a frenzy of promotion on its own advertising platforms such as QQ, vx Moments, and others.

At that moment, when the clock hands overlapped at 12 o'clock, the Mang Seng skin had already sold 600,000 copies in the China server.

With all sides fanning the flames and the popularity of the world's number‑one LoL player himself, this terrifying result came to pass.

And this result brought another result: the next morning, Lu Wenjun and Gao Jun each received calls from more than five major brands within a single day.

Moreover, the small brands that came forward through various channels, hoping to discuss sponsorship deals with VG, were an endless stream.

Anyone who has bought a mouse and keyboard online knows that peripheral brands nowadays are countless; these off‑brand companies are either gimmicky or genuinely capable, and whether they are the former or the latter, they all hope to become famous overnight through VG. Some quoted prices even exceed those of the big brands, and there were even burly men willing to pay five million for a single promotion item. Gao Jun, who received this burly man, was somewhat startled, couldn't help suspecting the other party of being a scammer, and after repeated verification learned that the man was actually the vice‑president of a certain off‑brand keyboard manufacturer, leaving Gao Jun astonished for a while.

But after Gao Jun and Lu Wenjun discussed it, they ultimately turned down that five‑million‑dollar deal, because the other side demanded that VG's players go to their factory to film several advertising videos, and their factory is located in the southwest.

The summer season starts tomorrow; although VG has had no matches the past few days, dragging the whole team out of town to film an advertisement at this critical juncture seems inappropriate in every way—not to mention that if word got out, fans might drown the management in spit, and VG's own team style would never allow such a thing.

However, speaking again, although Lu Wenjun never thought of using Liang Yan as a cash cow when he initially scouted him, the fact is that, whether acknowledged or not, Liang Yan has in substance become VG's cash cow.

The management of certain teams watched all this with envy, nearly driven to madness.

As for those teams that originally rejected Liang Yan, needless to say they already regretted it bitterly when G2 won the S6 World Championship, and now——

Some regretted it to the point of banging their heads against the wall, some tossed and turned unable to sleep all night, some raged helplessly and cursed the management, some felt disheartened and prepared to withdraw……

But these little incidents cannot stop the tide.

The tide is that Liang Yan has completely sparked an esports craze, with countless capital now turning their gaze toward this field they previously ignored, waiting for an opportunity to enter.

Amidst this surging tide, the LPL Summer Season kicked off.

VG welcomed its first match of the Summer Season.

……

On the national summer "city heat index" ranking, Shanghai was a city that didn't even make the list, but the data is dead; human perception is the most accurate.

When June arrived, Shanghai's lowest average temperature stabilized above 20°C, and from the afternoon onward, the high could reach over thirty degrees.

Today just happened to be windless, making it even hotter.

The good news is that this year's LPL home venue is the performing arts center on the 9th floor of Zhengda Guangchang, which has air conditioning in the mall; the bad news is that there are really too many people, and it's a popular match with all 2,000 seats open. At this moment, more than ten minutes before the doors open, hundreds of people have already packed the lobby in front of the venue entrance, such that one person exhaling a breath could raise the temperature on the 9th floor of Zhengda Guangchang by several degrees.

But this could not dampen the fans' enthusiasm.

Beside the lobby, an LPL merchandise staffer held up a small megaphone, his voice hoarse from shouting:

"Don't push forward anymore, friends over 1.7 meters tall don't push forward anymore! VG jerseys are only left in size S, only size S! Everything else is sold out!"

But many tall, burly youngsters still pushed forward, because even if the jersey doesn't fit, hanging it on a dorm desk as decoration is fine, and if they could snag one with the "Firrrrrre" ID, they could even give themselves a powerful buff while gaming—after all, many online say so.

A male student about 1.8 meters tall, holding a black-and-white VG jersey, squeezed out of the crowd and excitedly shouted at a girl standing on the periphery:

"I got it, baby, I got it!"

The girl jumped up on the spot, shrieking excitedly:

"Ahhhh, Nao Gong, you're awesome!! Is it the signed edition? Is it the Yan Bao signed edition?"

"Um, that's probably long gone, even the Jiao Shen ID is gone…"

The girl pursed her lips, obviously a bit unhappy, but in the end she still wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck and gave him a mua on the face.

"Alright, then we'll come again for the next VG match! Next time we'll come a bit earlier, Nao Gong, keep cheering!"

"Oh!!!"

……

Backstage at the venue, VG's lounge.

VG members had already freshened up in the dressing room; now they lay on the sofa like salted fish, twisted and askew in a row, either resting with eyes closed or whispering.

Only the newly joined Zz1tai, not yet familiar with the rest, felt awkward squeezing onto the sofa, so he sat alone beside Coach Zhu Xiaolong and Tabe, pretending to attentively listen to their discussion of today's match, while actually his focus was entirely on his teammates' quiet chatter nearby.

Zhu Xiaolong lightly tapped the edge of his notebook spread on his thigh with his pen, and whispered to Tabe: "……EDG has always favored a steady playstyle; today's first game they will likely stick with their spring season pick‑order."

Tabe pondered: "You mean the soft‑support suppression composition?"

Zhu Xiaolong nodded: "Actually, their top‑lane hero pool happens to fit this version quite well…… oh right, today they're on the blue side, I think we still can't ban Shen."

Then we need to think it over—if we ban Shen, our ban slots are still a bit tight; Zac must be banned, Thresh is played very well and also needs to be banned—oh wait, you said they'd likely stick with their spring pick‑order, so maybe Thresh could be left open……

Tabe propped his chin on one hand, emitted an 'emmm' for a moment, then nodded:

"Our Xiao Duan is good with Thresh, we can really try leaving Thresh open, but we feel we'd have to give something up, otherwise we definitely won't get it."

Zhu Xiaolong, however, hesitated: "Um…… I'll look into it again."