Chapter 812: Global Explosion

The news that G2 and CNB had moved into VG's base to hold a World Championship training camp exploded across the global LoL community; surprisingly, the reaction from LCK netizens was no less than that of North America.

Not only did netizens go crazy criticizing, but many professional players also personally jumped in to fire off shots, and some even called out Riot, demanding punishment and restrictions for the three teams.

【LPL and EU are in cahoots!】

【CNB, what trash fish and shrimp, even a wild card wants a seat at the table?】

【Don't look down on wild cards; last year's ANX team was pretty strong, CNB has latched onto VG and G2's thighs, and S7 is going to change!】

【Although it's officially allowed for teams to interact during the World Championship, living together and holding a training camp is way too against the rules!】

【Hehe, LPL always does this; I heard their region even organized a huge sparring squad for the three teams.】

【Hah, what's the point of all this? When the time comes, Dragon Pearl will slaughter them one by one like pigs and dogs!】

【Even without Dragon Pearl lifting a finger, SKT and SSG could crush LPL and EU completely underfoot!】

【Don't underestimate them! Don't underestimate them! Don't underestimate them! G2 is very strong!】

The Korean netizens were all in an uproar.

Actually it's not hard to understand; from the LCK's perspective, this year's World Championship already had G2 and VG as the biggest threats to LCK teams, and now the two have teamed up to hold an offline closed-door training camp. For the LCK, this is no longer just gossip to view optimistically, but a matter that will pose a greater threat to the entire region.

The same goes for the LMS region, whose teams are aiming for the quarterfinals; however, this involves the foreigners of the Europe Region, so the locals dare not speak out loud, only hiding in their own PPT forums to mutter a couple of sarcastic remarks, except that a few LPL busybodyes occasionally repost their discussions on Tieba for everyone to laugh at, and otherwise hardly anyone pays attention.

Over in Europe, meanwhile, it's all cheerful and festive, like New Year's.

Europe netizens' views are actually not much different from LPL netizens'; besides enjoying the news, they're mostly just in it for the excitement.

Things like master-disciple reunions, the fourth seed returning home, the three heroes versus Lü Bu, and even more far-fetched ones like side stories about Twin Consorts and Batch 3...

All in all, the netizens of China and Europe treat this as gossip far more important than anything else.

As for that second-team rookie who accidentally leaked the news, he went viral overnight, with his livestream's viewership surging by hundreds of thousands; countless netizens, like village elders, dragged little stools to his livestream to wait, all hoping to catch his next leak.

After the kid caused trouble, he spent a sleepless night, anxiously awaiting punishment from management; but by noon the next day, his phone remained silent—no one messaged him, let alone the imagined beat-down he had fantasized about in his panic.

Unable to hold back, the kid adopted a self-reporting mindset, mustered courage, and proactively sent a message to LOL division manager Gao Jun, also wanting to gauge the higher-ups' attitude.

The result was that Gao Jun replied with a voice message: 'It's none of your business.'

It sounded a bit impatient, but there was no extra scolding or punishment.

The kid felt blissfully dazed, having thought he'd be fired, but instead management didn't even give him the time of day, leaving him with a sense of relief and relaxation after having escaped disaster.

Then he plucked up the courage to go live, and the sudden influx of traffic frightened him to the core.

……

The other VG members have all been cut off from the internet; can't they see what's happening online?

Of course not.

Not long after the leak appeared online, someone in the team group forwarded it. At that time, the VG members were having a meal with G2 and CNB in the small cafeteria; one person found out, and soon everyone knew.

At first, Gao Jun was also furious and rushed to consult Lu Wenjun.

Lu Wenjun was also taken aback, saying, 'How did it leak out so fast?' Gao Jun was equally surprised; seeing the boss's expression, it seemed he had already expected people to find out. Then his thinking shifted: realizing it's normal for people to know, and it's not a big deal.

Lu Wenjun then laughed and said, 'It's fine; there won't be any impact. Just keep an eye on public opinion direction—unless someone is deliberately stirring things up, you don't need to worry.'

How the other two teams would view it is unknown, but they don't seem to have reacted much either, suggesting they didn't take it to heart.

As for CNB, the boss had specifically instructed them before they left: their attitude was already upright—I'm openly relying on connections to glom onto a big thigh, so what's the problem? If you're unhappy, you go ahead and glom onto one too!

As for G2, Ka Lao Si personally led the team into battle; the whole team takes him as its supreme will, and his attitude is the team's attitude.

As for what attitude Ka Lao Si has—

Put it this way: wherever Liang Yan is, that's the place he dreams of and yearns for; it's his second spiritual homeland.

So what's the problem with me going home?

Ka Lao Si even went so far as to give North American and LCK netizens eye drops, posting a tweet on Twitter:

【Last year you all shouted that G2 was LPL's fourth seed.

【So what's wrong with us holding training camp with the LPL teams?】

Europe netizens could see that Ka Lao Si was just joking; they didn't consider his remarks 'treasonous,' and they left comments in the reply section laughing haha.

But Ka Lao Si's tweet angered North American and LCK netizens greatly, yet they couldn't refute him, so they instead went to Riot's official Twitter to build a team.

This time the team-building event was even larger in scale.

Their demand was simply this: they wanted Riot to step in and stop the three teams from holding training camp, with some radicals even demanding that Riot cancel the three teams' eligibility for the World Championship.

This time it fell to the company's operations chief, General Manager Brandon Bek, to get a headache.

Stop it?

Punish them?!

Ban them from competing?!

You actually thought of that?!

Let's be reasonable: they're holding training camp properly, with no stealing or robbery, and there's no evidence they'll collude to fix matches—what's wrong with training camp?

Come on, some LCK teams even banded together last year at the World Championship to boycott G2, forming a clique and refusing to schedule scrims with other teams—that's the kind of thing that's really over the line!

Normal interaction among global teams is exactly what Riot likes to see; having all the global teams be one big family would be better, and it would help the global esports industry flourish.

You're just jealous and resentful; arguing within your own region is fine, at most letting other regions see a joke, but you still want Riot to step in as the villain?

That's absolutely out of the question!

But Bek was also in a tough spot, because North American and LCK netizens had too many opinions.

Some voices might not be right, but when enough people speak up, you can't help but go along with them, since everything actually depends on one's stance.

Bek went back and forth in thought, really having no choice, so he ended up calling Lu Wenjun.