Chapter 57: From This Moment On, Train the LPL!

Magic City, the Huanyu Multimedia Valley in Zhabei District!

Unlike the regular season, the LPL preseason is not held in Taicang, but in the broadcast halls of the Magic City Game Cloud.

Outside the building, many spectators are waiting to check their tickets and enter.

As the first professional League of Legends tournament, Penguin, considering the need for early promotion, gave the preseason tickets to the audience in a way that was half-sale, half-gift.

Those queuing up at this time to watch the esports match are mostly college students and young people from the nearby area.

While waiting, some social butterflies chatted a bit and then began discussing the teams they favored.

"I think teams like IG and LGD should have no problem advancing to the regular season."

"PE's overall strength is also decent; I even think they are stronger than IG."

"Pfft, PE is decent... Brother, didn't you watch the previous LPL TGA live stream?"

"Ah, the LPL live stream?"

"Didn't the LPL just start today? Where was there a live stream before?"

"The brother is talking about the LPL qualifier trial broadcast, the match where NXG played PE; I happened to watch it."

"A slaughter match. NXG was insanely cool; playing five King-rank players was like playing against bots for them."

"No way. PE performed very well in previous offline tournaments; they got crushed by NXG?"

"The last match of the qualifiers is replayed on Tencent Video; NXG almost turned PE into a crystal tower."

Once the topic was raised, the discussion among the crowd grew louder and louder.

Centered on the two male college students who started it, "NXG is absolutely a preseason powerhouse team; look at their team discipline, which no other team can compare to."

"Playing a game with the feeling of an army at war; this is the first time I've ever seen it."

"Their tactical understanding is on a completely different level from other teams. JM, as the number one player in the national server, is both the mid-laner and the coach. Look at some other teams; they don't even have a coach."

"I came all the way from Jin Ling specifically to watch NXG's match."

"Indeed. Speaking of which, JM is truly awesome. I followed his progression videos for half a month and my rank jumped up a whole tier."

"May I ask what rank the brother is at now?"

"I am unworthy, but I have already reached Gold 1, Golden Core stage, with hope of ascending to Platinum!"

"666!"

Just then, a cry of surprise suddenly came from the right side of the queue.

"Whoa, does the NXG team even have a base vehicle?"

"Isn't this something only foreign CS esports powerhouses have?"

The spectators' position was some distance from the back lot where the team vehicles were parked, so Jiang Ming and the others did not notice the commotion in front of the multimedia building.

Driving from Jin Ling to Shanghai, they spent about four hours on the road and only arrived in the city center around two in the afternoon.

Fortunately, Senior Sister Lin was reliable; since they couldn't return directly to the base after today's match, she had rented a cheap hotel in advance.

After dropping off their luggage at the hotel midway, everyone had afternoon dinner before driving to the competition venue.

"I'll go report first!"

Wearing the NXG team manager badge, Lin Jingyi, dressed in a professional OL skirt today, was the first to get out of the car.

"Take your personal items with you; don't leave them on the car." Jiang Ming turned back to the teammates behind him.

"And Zhou Shu, I'll trouble you to wait outside for us for a while. You are free to move around in between, but don't go too far, just in case of an emergency."

"Alright, Boss."

The LPL preseason lasts seven days in total, but actually, including the opening ceremony, there are only five days of matches.

The first two days are mainly for the LPL officials to organize training related to the matches for all teams, as well as practice matches between teams.

There are twelve teams in the preseason in total, composed of the 3rd and 4th place teams from the third City Hero Competition, the 1st and 2nd place teams from the media qualifiers, and the top eight from the server competition, making a total of twelve teams.

The preseason consists of two rounds; the first round is a double-elimination system, with the twelve teams divided into three groups of four teams each.

Teams with two wins advance directly to the Spring Season; teams with two losses in the group are eliminated directly; teams with one win and one loss are pending, proceeding to a subsequent six-into-three single-round elimination tournament.

NXG was assigned to Group A, meaning that if they can win both matches today, they can finish the preseason early and prepare for the subsequent regular season.

The opponents in Group A are not considered strong; apart from the veteran LPL team Lao Gan Di, the other two are the Duoduo Club and BLQG, a random internet cafe team.

The opponent for the first match is the team named BLQG (Violent Cut Cake).

Inside the building, in the esports match demonstration hall.

Heavy metal music with a distinct 2013 style echoed around, and on the large screen in the very center, promotional photos of the two teams hung.

NXG vs BLQG!

However, the spectators entering the demonstration hall twitched their mouths the moment they saw the large screen.

Just looking at the appearance of these two teams, the distinction is huge...

On the screen bearing the BLQG team name, the image showed five players striking chuunibyou poses, wearing cheap T-shirts with text printed by a Taobao shop for ten yuan.

In contrast, their opponent NXG, not only having trendy uniform designs and stunning looks, also had sponsor information on their right shoulders.

It gave the feeling of a showdown between a powerhouse and a humble ant...

Of course, if one only looks at the appearance, one might not rule out novel fans automatically imagining a scene of a loser's counterattack, where an ant team defeats a powerhouse.

Actually, that doesn't seem right either; NXG is also a newly established team with no honors, so they cannot be considered a powerhouse.

"Alright, everyone, welcome to the live broadcast of the 2013 League of Legends Professional League Preseason match."

On the commentator's stand, a male commentator with a slight local accent, while reciting the opening remarks in a rigid manner, pushed the historical wheel of the League of Legends Professional League forward.

"Alright, let's first look at the data of the players from both sides in today's Group A match."

"Blue side NXG team: Top laner norsha, Jungler stone, Mid laner: yihan, AD: sorry, Support: door"

"Red Square BLQG team: Top Lane: BladeCrusher (Blade Crusher), Jungle: RampageBoard (Rampage Board), Mid Lane: SugarTyrant (Sugar Tyrant), AD: NovaSlash (Nova Slash), Support: LayeredGuardian (Layered Guardian)."

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce one more person on the NXG team... NXG Head Coach JM!"

The wording was stiff, it took an excessively long time to introduce the players' IDs, and they even forgot to mention the NXG team's coach.

These mistakes, which in later eras would have gotten a caster roasted out of the industry, were perfectly normal in the preseason of 2013.

Today's casters were a combination of WaWa and the first-generation Poison Milk Joker; strictly speaking, neither of them were professionals.

"We are now seeing the director show some stats for the five players of the BLQG team."

"In the previous LPL qualifiers, BLQG also put in a very good performance, winning four out of six matches and losing only two."

"Next is the player introduction: BLQG Top Lane player BladeCrusher, Ranked Points: Diamond 1, 55 LP..."

(PS: Since the casting skills during the S3 era were very poor, the descriptions would appear somewhat awkward; Lao Qing will try to minimize or avoid these issues as much as possible.)