Chapter 354: What Do You Mean by a CCTV Mid Laner!

The grand awards ceremony concluded, and the venue was immediately set to host the finals of other esports events; athletes from various countries walked back toward the backstage area from the same direction.

In the KR representative team trailing closely behind, Beryl immediately regained his smile the moment he saw the live broadcast cameras turn off.

He and Deft huddled into the crowd of the team ahead, chatting and laughing; after all, the CN team was composed almost entirely of teammates, so for a moment, it seemed natural and devoid of any awkwardness.

However, the expressions of the few people behind them were not as pleasant.

Score was comforting Chovy, Li Xianghe was comforting Zeus, and the two from Jingdong stood with their arms crossed on either side, ignoring each other, once again forming the classic "2/2/2" formation.

But just as everyone pushed open the backstage doors.

A rather ceremonial round of applause rushed toward them, echoing throughout the entire room!

Among the crowd that had come to support and congratulate them, there were a few supporters from Saudi Arabia and the Taipei region, but hardly any Korean faces could be seen.

Naturally, the majority were supporters of the gold-medal-winning Chinese team, including leaders from the Asian Games Village, familiar faces from the esports circle, and even quite a few professional athletes who had also come to compete in the Asian Games.

As League of Legends is currently the most influential esports title, the athletes, who are generally quite young, are naturally its audience; being so close to the action, it was hard for them to resist coming here to see their favorite players.

Among them were quite a few heavyweight sports athletes.

"Congratulations! You played so well!"

"Especially Master Ye, I didn't expect to see your Akali today! It was truly worth coming!"

A player who was not particularly tall but possessed a lean, muscular build—with leg muscles that looked exceptionally developed even just to the eye—stepped forward to express his congratulations warmly.

Ye Bo, having his nickname called out directly by the other party, did not shy away and replied generously, "God Su, I'm your fan!"

Su Bingtian laughed and joked, "Hey, hey, you want to solo kill me too, huh? I know that anyone who hears you say that is bound to be solo killed by you!"

"It's fine, God Su! You run so fast that even Talon couldn't catch you!" Xun, standing nearby, joked with a grin.

Su Bingtian, who might seem like he had nothing to do with this, was actually a serious esports fan.

As early as the S5 season Demacia Cup All-Star exhibition match, Su Bingtian had teamed up with Jay Chou—at that time, among his teammates, there was even Deft there to provide cover!

He also recognized Deft standing nearby and stepped forward to kindly comfort him: "Actually, a bronze medal is quite good too; as long as you tried your best, it's fine. I just received a bronze medal myself."

Because of an injury, Su Bingtian was unable to participate in these Hangzhou Asian Games, but he had just received the track and field bronze medal reissued from the {Tokyo Olympics} on-site.

Unfortunately, these words clearly had no comforting effect and were even a bit more heart-wrenching.

After all, those who understood knew that the gold content of the two, whether in terms of the event itself or the competition itself, was worlds apart!

There are gaps even among bronze medals!

The few KR players nearby could only pretend not to hear and led everyone to the corner of the interview room, the spot belonging to the third-place bronze medalists, to accept interviews.

The scene was cleared.

The media, having waited for a long time, swarmed forward like they were famished.

Every single person on the Chinese team had their share, and long queues even formed behind each person, including substitute players and the invisible coaching staff, everywhere displaying the treatment of gold medalists.

Everyone here, even if they were just a substitute, was a gold-medal substitute!

Even certain takeout coupon managers had to evolve into "Gold-Medal Takeout Coupon Managers"!

It was a case of "when one man gets the Tao, all his followers ascend to heaven."

Interestingly.

Compared to everyone else, there were only a pitifully small number of cameras placed in front of Ye Bo.

It was just very obvious that no media reporter would not want to interview this well-known [National Team Core]—it was just that no one dared to compete for the order with the two satellite TV nameplates placed there, so they all had to honestly interview others first.

Even the big-name CCTV5 sports channel, which was usually the first to interview, could only temporarily move its camera back this time.

Because right in front of Ye Bo was the host Zhang Yan, whom he had met once during the semi-finals; she was currently smiling at him while wearing the "CCTV1" badge.

And at the same time.

On television sets all across China, the immediate news of the Asian Games gold medal win was being broadcast as an interruption, just like for all other events.

"We are now interrupting with the latest victory report from the front lines of the Hangzhou Asian Games!"

"The final result of the League of Legends event in the esports category has been decided; the Chinese team has emerged victorious in the grand finals! They have won the first gold medal in the history of esports at the Asian Games!"

"Our station's reporter Zhang Yan will now bring you the report from the scene."

The screen cut to the scene.

Zhang Yan first familiarly opened the segment: "Congratulations once again to the Chinese League of Legends esports team for winning the gold! We are interviewing the captain of the League of Legends national team, Ye Bo!"

"Ye Bo performed exceptionally well today, winning [Most Valuable Player] multiple times throughout the schedule, leading the Chinese team to sweep Vietnam and South Korea in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, and successfully winning the gold medal today!"

She also specifically explained to the public: "[Most Valuable Player] refers to the highest individual honor in this team event, meaning the player's outstanding contribution and eye-catching performance in the match!"

"How is Ye Bo feeling right now?"

The fanfare after winning the championship was truly different from pre-match interviews; even though Ye Bo had already cultivated considerable interview experience in the LPL, the young man could not help but appear green and reserved when facing this lineup.

Fortunately, Ye Bo's character of never being stage-frightened shone through, and he generously raised the microphone to the screen, expressing his pride and the sense of duty fulfilled in being able to represent the national team.

His individual interview footage occupied nearly 40 seconds of full-screen solo time!

You have to know.

This was the non-sports channel of CCTV-1!

The level of prestige was absolutely maxed out.

This actually allows one to see the big picture from a small detail: the attitude of the higher-ups toward this first esports gold medal, as well as their attitude toward this event, had already quietly undergone some changes.

The brief interview ended.

Host Zhang Yan also knew that Ye Bo was busy at this moment, so she just smiled and congratulated him again, and once again brought up the previous invitation for the "Documentary Program."

The CCTV5 reporter nearby also hurriedly set up their camera—and as the main sports channel, CCTV5 was much more generous with the length.

Ye Bo's individual solo interview occupied a full two and a half minutes, even longer than the gold medal reviews of some events!

Such a grand event was naturally discovered by netizens very quickly, who immediately shared screenshots and links to the video on forums and message boards.

Countless fans and netizens watched together, once again stirring up a thousand waves!

[Holy crap!! The prestige!!]

[The Chinese team is awesome! Master Ye is awesome!]

[Damn, we Equilibrium disciples have so much face!]

[I suggest V5 do some psychological counseling for Beryl and Deft in advance, don't let their mentalities collapse after they go back! The World Championship is the main event!]

[That's impossible. When these two guys played in the Asian Games, who was sitting in the mid lane next to them? And who is it when they open their eyes now? They'll be resurrected immediately upon returning!]

[What do you mean by C-station mid laner! There are still people saying the Asian Games have no gold content? Do you understand what CCTV-certified gold content is!]

[Actually, we were on CCTV5 when we won the championship last year, but it was in the late-night slot. I really didn't expect it to be broadcast as a morning interruption this time, and on both 1 and 5 together!]

The CCTV interview had just ended.

The hungry wolves surrounding them immediately swarmed in like they were fighting for meat, aiming their live broadcast lenses at the center and flashing their lights frantically; everyone talking at once made the scene somewhat chaotic.

Fortunately, the on-site host coordinated and stopped them, reminding them that each person could only ask one question.

{Tencent Sports Reporter}: "As the captain of the Chinese team, after winning the gold medal, is there anything you would like to say to the fans and audience who supported you?"

Ye Bo: "Being able to win the first Asian Games League esports championship for China, every one of us is proud and honored!"

He paused after speaking.

Then he continued to add: "I want to say to those who were once disappointed, this time! We did it!"

The netizens in the live broadcast room all thought that Ye Bo was "whipping the corpse" of those who had been pessimistic during the match against KR, and they were all extremely hyped.

No one knew that these words were actually Ye Bo speaking to someone who might not be able to see this scene.

After waiting for a long time, a Korean reporter wearing a Taiji symbol badge finally grabbed the opportunity and raised his hand to ask a question.

"The Chinese team's schedule this time was very smooth, and you even broke several competition records. So, player Ye Bo, do you feel that the performance of teams from other countries was very poor?"

"Or, are there any players from other countries that you think performed relatively well?"

Anyone with a discerning eye could see—this Korean reporter was definitely a Faker fan.

He was clearly trying to lead the other party to express that the KR representative team did not play well, preferably emphasizing the shameful "1550."