Chapter 758: An entire city

LCK Bubbling Tournament second round this Bo5, AFS facing SSG, just finished a half‑month training exchange with VG. However, aside from the two teams that took part in the training exchange, nobody else knew about this situation.

Therefore, for this Bo5, most people predicted SSG would likely win 3‑2 in a close match, while a smaller chance was AFS crushing SSG 3‑2.

The result shocked everyone:

SSG 3‑0 AFS.

Moreover, SSG seemed to win too easily, likely still having strength to spare.

The global LoL scene buzzed, with people everywhere saying the God of the Bubbling Tournament had returned.

This made KT fans panic, wondering if SSG would really, like last year, start evolving as soon as the Bubbling Tournament began.

In fact, KT's players and coaching staff were even more panicked.

After SSG's 3‑0 sweep of AFS that day, SSG's head Ambition accepted a post‑match interview; when the host asked why SSG's performance differed so greatly between the playoffs and the Bubbling Tournament, Ambition answered half‑truthfully:

"Because we invited the God of the Bubbling Tournament."

This left KT feeling extremely uneasy, suspecting SSG had learned something formidable from some strong team.

But KT didn't think of VG; they assumed SSG had buried the hatchet, reached out to SKT, and the two teams were secretly cooperating……

KT felt awkward asking anyone to verify this, so they stayed up all night studying SSG's three match recordings against AFS, because in two days KT would have to face this "God of the Bubbling Tournament" team.

Next, the LPL summer season final finally arrived.

……

September 1, afternoon, Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium.

Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium

The venue overall looks like a big golden box; construction began in 2005, completed in 2007, and served as the main basketball arena for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Many out‑of‑town spectators, upon seeing the huge logo on the stadium's outer wall, would feel puzzled—wasn't the venue called Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium? Why did the writing differ? It's a bit complicated: the stadium's official name is indeed Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium, but it was built specially for the Olympics, so who would pay for its upkeep after the Games? Relying on government funding was impossible; they had to find their own way. Thus, after the Olympics, the sports‑business unit managing the venue sold the naming rights to Mastercard, and the stadium became Mastercard Center; when Mastercard's contract expired last year, the aggressively expanding LeSports group paid a huge sum for the stadium's new naming rights, renaming it LeSports Ecological Center; but only a year later LeSports ran into trouble, Jia Lao­ban fled to the United States to dodge debt, and LeSports naturally couldn't pay the promised follow‑up naming fees; so around February this year, luxury car brand Cadillac snatched a bargain, securing the stadium's naming rights at far below market rate, and the contract was signed for many years… Now the stadium's formal name is Cadillac Center, except when appearing in official media it's still called Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium, and in many commercial promotions it's referred to as the name bought by the paying sponsor.

Of course, that's just a naming right.

The LPL is quite interesting: the address printed on the final tickets reads "Beijing Five Pine Trees Sports Stadium·Cadillac Center," leaving people baffled.

At this moment, LPL final posters covered the stadium inside and out, and VG and EDG flags were planted all the way from the main road to the venue entrance.

Outside the plaza surged with crowds—not only ticket‑holding spectators who came to watch, but also many who turned up just for the fun, since the areas around the stadium's several entrances were filled with stalls selling all kinds of merchandise, both official and unofficial, a dazzling array of gear and cheer items, making the scene extremely lively.

A few people with strange expressions and abnormal behavior weaved through the crowd, occasionally pulling out a ticket from their pocket to show passersby:

"Handsome guy/pretty lady, want a ticket?"

When the other party showed interest, these people would open their mouths wide like a lion:

"I originally bought it for myself to watch, but seeing the ticket price spike, I'm thinking of selling it—want it? I won't rip you off; scalpers ask over 1000, I only want 800……"

Not mentioning those VIP seats driven up to several thousand, just talking about regular tickets—official price is over 200, online some ask over 1000, but the actual average transaction price is around 800…… So when these people say they only want 800 and won't rip you off, they're actually the scalpers doing the ripping.

The stadium holds nearly 20,000 seats; even with both gates checking tickets simultaneously, getting 20,000 people in safely and orderly still takes considerable effort and time. Therefore, the match starts at 3 p. m., and the venue begins admitting spectators around 2 p. m.

In front of the entrance a long line quickly formed.

The VG members sat on the bus, passing outside the plaza; through the windows they saw the winding line that looped around dozens of times, and they couldn't help clicking their tongues.

"Tsk tsk, there are quite a lot of people, brothers."

"This is nothing—wait till Worlds, then you'll see what a real crowd looks like!"

"But the venue is only this big, so this is about as much as it can hold, right?"

"You're kidding—the Bird's Nest can hold up to 90,000 people!"

"???"

"What the heck?!"

"Awesome!"

Easyhoon, who comes from Han Guo and never imagined the world could have such a massive structure, stared agape and said, "Ninety thousand… that's almost the population of a small county, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Whoa… an entire city's worth of people packed in here!"

"Heh heh, so what's this? Come on, brothers, cheer!"

Xiao Duan wiped his nose, wore a smug grin, proud as if the Bird's Nest were his own backyard—he'd let whoever he wanted in.

However, when everyone entered the backstage area and ran to the backstage exit to peek outside, Xiao Duan himself was so shocked he couldn't speak.

It's obvious that, despite having taken part in MSI, the Intercontinental Tournament and other world‑class events and seen some big scenes, Xiao Duan still had no idea what a gathering of 20,000 people looks like.

On the stands all around, packed thick and dense, it was nothing but people.

Looking up from the stage, one feels like being inside an ant nest, and it's hard to find the right words to describe that overwhelming, immersive shock.

"VG!"

"Come on!!!"

Startled, Xiao Duan jerked his head back.

Yet inside he felt a bit proud, thinking: "Guigu… I've actually become a celebrity's escort!"

He secretly felt a bit pleased, thinking: "Turtle... I actually really am bringing a star!"