Chapter 66: Mindset Control

It was at the exact same moment the first match between NXG and BLQG ended.

Across the country, in internet cafes and on personal computers, users opening the League of Legends client to fight in Summoner's Rift were surprised to find the homepage flooded with news about the professional league and headlines containing NXG.

The pinned recommendation slots were even occupied by blood-red titles!

#The 2013 League of Legends Professional League Pre-Season begins today! #

#The initial schedule is released, with the NXG team, which won all six matches in the qualifiers, prominently listed. #

#On-site audience exposed, NXG's base vehicle attracting countless eyes. #

#Team vehicle, head coach, uniforms plus advertisements—how many more surprises can NXG give us? #

#The outcome of the LPL professional league's first match, a battle like crushing withered wood, NXG still maintains their terrifying tactical style! #

#NXG—the LPL's own M5? #

What the heck?

In an internet cafe in Magic City, a young man preparing to queue stared at the screen, his pupils shaking with shock. He trembled as he took a screenshot of the client's homepage nine-grid recommendation image and sent it to the group chat, captioning it "The client has been hijacked!"

"The professional league has already started?"

Many players in the group who paid close attention to professional information immediately realized what was happening; many immediately chose to postpone their ranking endeavors and clicked into the official match livestream.

The moment they arrived, their jaws dropped.

"Wotan Art, a kill difference of over twenty, is this a professional match?"

The promotional resources finalized by the LPL operators before the match began to spread across the internet at an extremely fast pace.

Perhaps one second some players were scrolling past news that the professional league started today, and the next second it switched to news that NXG defeated BLQG by a huge margin, securing the first victory of the LPL Pre-Season.

The content of various press releases was naturally prepared in advance; even a shocking version regarding BLQG's upset was ready, of course, to avoid any accidents during the match.

Facts proved that Jiang Ming and his NXG did not disappoint the LPL league's operations management team.

A victory by a huge margin, a crushing blow between professional teams, coupled with the final team fight where NXG displayed fluid, artistic esports performance in their coordination, made the LPL's promotion very easy.

Not to mention those players who had already been following the development of their own region's professional league.

The match ended with the purple side's crystal exploding; within just a few minutes, the online discussion volume ignited as if set on fire.

【666!】

【I originally thought NXG was just ruling the qualifiers where there were no tigers in the mountains, I didn't expect them to be this fierce even after entering the Pre-Season officially.】

【Feels like they have no weak points; top laner Norsha completely destroyed the enemy Kennen.】

【To be honest, in ranked, if I were Kennen, I would have surrendered early; the top lane internet addiction rehab has arrived.】

【(Funny) Less than twenty minutes, you can't surrender, and isn't it possible that NXG just didn't want to push too fast, leaving the enemy some face?】

【The situation for the Jungler Imperial Prince is similar; Blind Monk has been in his jungle the whole time, I feel like tonight sleeping I'm afraid there's someone hiding under the blanket.】

【BLQG's Twisted Fate is so bad; wanted to learn from people like WE, but before he could fly, his legs were broken.】

【Haha, why don't you talk about the bottom lane Caitlyn? Both are Challenger, teammates gave him so many resources, yet he got over thirty CS behind, and his damage was also trash.】

【Picked a full ultimate composition, but only fought one 5v5 team fight from start to finish; BLQG is really brain-dead.】

【No way, why do I feel like BLQG wanted to fight but couldn't, constantly being led by the nose.】

【Right, right, right, I just feel like these NXG guys are always moving, especially after a tower is pushed; you can't see any lane just standing there staring blankly.】

【How did they do it? Always running, as soon as the Dragon respawns, everyone is mysteriously gathered, yet the CS isn't affected.】

【Seems like it's called something like lane management; JM mentioned it once during a stream.】

【Here we go again, has NXG played any strong teams? PE? Wait until the regular season starts and watch how WE handles them.】

【WE has crushed NXG many times in practice matches.】

【This is a WE hate thread, WE fans get out!】

【Someone with a big dick, tell me, does NXG have any more matches today?】

【Yes, yes, yes, the Pre-Season plays one group in a single day; NXG plays the winner between the third and second matches of the other two teams.】

"Good work!"

Behind the stage, Jiang Ming stood at the door, welcoming his own victorious heroes returning.

"Hehe, Brother Ming, our performance in the first game wasn't bad, right?"

Entering the room, Song Yuan pulled up a plastic chair, sat down, and asked Jiang Ming with a grin.

"Very good, created an advantage in lane, no major mistakes during the lane-swapping phase, perfectly suppressed Kennen's farming, and the restriction choices in the final team fight were even more spiritual."

"What about me? What about me?"

Xu Jing, who had a flamboyant personality, hearing the team leader praise the top laner so generously, became a bit anxious.

His Varus achieved a perfect 6-0-4 record; his damage output was absolutely not much worse than the Renekton's.

"Ahem, Old Xu, your fourth item..."

"Fourth item?"

Feeling the support tugging at his sleeve beside him, Xu Jing suddenly realized, and the expression on his face instantly collapsed.

"That... that... Brother Ming, listen to my excuse—no, explanation: for the fourth item, I considered that there was a Soraka on the enemy side and the damage was severely insufficient, so I bought the large B. F. Sword component first, which is why I didn't consider buying the Giant's Belt to build Randuin's..."

"Your reasoning is sound, but what if, lacking the health support from Randuin's, the Soraka failed to protect you in time, resulting in you being one-shot in the team fight?"

In the early S3 season, the era when Randuin's Omen was at its peak had already passed, yet this low-priced item providing massive health had become the best defensive item for ADs.

(A bit blurry, but there's no way around it; this is the clearest one I could find.)

"I have always emphasized to you, what is the core concept of our NXG team?" Jiang Ming did not criticize directly but asked the other person in return.

Xu Jing lowered his head embarrassedly, "Disadvantage deals damage, advantage builds defense! Before the crystal explodes, everything is unknown!"

"Good to remember; we'll discuss specifics when we return to training."

Jiang Ming waved his hand; he did not like to intentionally criticize people when the team achieved victory, as that would not have much effect and would easily interfere with the players' state.

"As for the other comments, you can go into the forum right now and see what the audience is saying."

Lin Jingyi understood immediately, took the players' phones from her bag, and distributed them one by one.

In a short while, the room was quickly drowned out by the impatient discussion sounds of the NXG youths.

"Hehe, hehe, I like Prehistoric Crocodile."

"As expected, my Flash, Wind, and Control on three targets is just cool; the audience has good taste, get to know the God of Support."

"Haha, Stone, look at this reply from that brother; he asks if you have a grudge against Kaelan and came to cure his professional league addiction."

"Pfft, the Purple Side Card broke his leg, yet he couldn't outrun the Clockwork in support; Qiangzi, you're about to become the Swift Steed."

"That flashy AD over there, someone is praising your fierce playstyle."

Jiang Ming quietly watched the group of young people discuss; under the condition that material needs could not be met for the time being, providing certain spiritual value could continue to supply them with internal driving force.

Of course, actively arranging for the players to watch the post-match commentary was also a small trick of his to train everyone's mindset.