Chapter 67: The Gap Is Simply Too Huge!

In the management of professional teams in later eras, many clubs have requirements prohibiting players from accessing Kangba or browsing comment sections during competitions.

Regarding this, Jiang Ming wanted to say that opinions vary depending on one's perspective; standing from different angles often yields completely different results.

Admittedly, preventing players from browsing Tieba or reading online public opinion during competitions can, to a certain extent, prevent their mindset from being influenced by external factors.

But do the players really not know?

The real-time reactions of the audience at the competition venue, and the personal browsing they do privately in their daily lives; the players are absolutely clear about all the various comments online regarding them.

The so-called "not looking" is merely burying one's head and covering it like an ostrich.

Therefore, Jiang Ming chose to open up from the very beginning, treating this as part of the team's mindset training, even its core!

Starting from daily matches, let them get used to the cheers and jeers from outside the arena.

Due to the special nature of communication in esports, players often wear headphones during matches to isolate themselves from real-time external interference.

In contrast, traditional competitive sports, such as football and basketball—these two major human sports—countless champion players have all climbed their way up from the jeers of opponents in away games.

In traditional competitive sports, strong psychological quality and willpower can often become the aid for those legends to break through themselves.

The growth environments of the two are not on the same level from the very beginning.

From this perspective, one can actually understand why the mindsets of so many esports players are so easily affected.

And for someone with weaknesses in their mindset, on what grounds do you claim you want to reach the peak of Summoner's Rift?

"However, there is no rush; at present, NXG is still in its starting phase, and there is a long way to go to perfect the mindset training and various aspects." Jiang Ming's eyes were gentle; for the five who could persist in the inhuman training schedule he had set, he had enough patience to help the people before him grow.

"There is a ten-minute halftime break; if anyone needs to use the restroom, go quickly. After the second match ends, we will conduct tactical arrangements."

"Understood!"

Although it was called a rest, everyone merely sat on chairs and leaned back for a simple rest.

Although the hosting environment of the first LPL could not be called terrible, it absolutely could not be called good either.

Inside the team's rest room, there were no sofas, no water dispensers, and certainly no computers for coaches to watch the live broadcast of the match in real time.

There were only a few plastic stools, and they had to bring their own drinking water.

Of course, compared to the S2 period, where players didn't even have a place to rest while playing matches, things were already much better now.

Regarding supplies, NXG did not need to rely on the organizers; Jiang Ming, with ample experience, had already considered everything thoroughly.

The trunk of the base vehicle was not only equipped with some drinking water and chocolate snacks to fill the stomach, but had even additionally prepared some common medical supplies to deal with the players' physical conditions.

At the same time, the second match of Group A in the venue also started synchronously after a brief transition.

Jiang Ming took out his portable laptop, opened the official live stream, and began observing the other two opponents in the same group.

LGD vs DD (Duo Duo Club)

As the famous "Happy Family" within the LPL league, the Lao Lao Gandie team must be familiar to any domestic player in later eras.

As a club established in 2009, in the strict sense, their LOL division was actually far less formidable than their DOTA division; after all, as early as the DOTA division of the LGD team in 2011, they won the championship at the GIGABYTE Stars War 6 Killer Global Finals held in June of that year by defeating the EHOME team 2:0, and the champion of last year's Gigabyte Masters was also taken into their possession.

To say they were a domestic esports powerhouse would not be an exaggeration, but their LPL division, for some reason, always hovered between being a bottom-feeder and being abstract.

The LPL division began forming last year, but their original world trajectory was not until the winter of 2013, after introducing mid-laner Wei Shen and support Pingyuan A, etc., that they secured the LPL entry slot for 2014 through the TGA tournament.

As for the stories further down the line, they can mostly be summarized as a Varus arrow circling the Earth once, sticking into the face of top-laner Lang Xing in year 20.

In the qualifiers, LGD's record was also four wins and two losses, having only lost to WOA Dawn's Wing and the L·H team.

As for the DD team that LGD's opponent was to face in this match, Jiang Ming basically had no impression of them; the team had not advanced to the LPL regular season stage, and none of the players had left any traces in the initial professional arena.

However, just as Jiang Ming thought that a newly formed division team of a standardized club meeting an internet cafe team would be a match without suspense, Lao Lao Gandie displayed their fine traditions and directly dropped a huge load of shit for the audience.

The Lao Lao Gandie team, situated in the blue side, first selected a team-fighting composition that looked beautiful during the BP phase.

Mid-lane Annie, jungle Xin Zhao, top-lane Malphite—a violent offensive combination!

The result was that they were successfully pierced by DD on the purple side; the jungle player Chu Yuxuan's lock-on targeted the mid-lane relentlessly.

Annie had short legs and no dashes; matched against the Shadow Fiend, and facing the crazy targeting from the purple side's jungle brothers, she died four times in a row within just thirteen minutes of the opening.

The mid-game was a huge disadvantage; they were once pushed to their high ground after DD secured the Baron.

However, just as Jiang Ming was preparing to use DD as the opponent for the promotion zone in his BP, the DD team on the purple side also started playing the game of "Phoenix seeking the Sleeping Dragon."

Since the Baron in the S3 period lacked one layer of the buff effect that protected minions, DD, having chosen Varus who had short range and feared Malphite's ultimate ramming into their faces, advanced slowly; this gave the time for the blue side's Caitlyn to farm.

At the 33-minute Baron team fight, the DD team's carry jungler Vi, who had carried the entire match, made a fatal mistake; taking the Baron with teammates without clearing vision completely, she was flashed and knocked away by Xin Zhao's three shots, and the Nashor Baron was miserably stolen.

Plus, everyone's attention was mostly focused on the Baron, which also gave Annie and Malphite the perfect opportunity to initiate a team fight.

Thump! Thump!

Finally, under the two consecutive face-slams of a bear and a stone golem, the blue side completed a comeback victory in the Baron team fight.

【GG!】

【Haha, this is just a fight between noobs.】

【Having watched NXG's matches, I really can't stand this; if you haven't cleared the vision completely, do you dare to fight for the Baron?】

【Classic: The Baron ruins a life.】

【Is this mid-laner of DD even human? One Zed ulting up to take the Exhaust was one thing, but getting crowd-controlled to death by Caitlyn's traps?】

【The difference between a ninja and a ninja dog!】

【The others weren't great either; the AD had only a little over two hundred CS at twenty-seven minutes, and they couldn't even bear to buy a single true sight ward; look at the treatment of the NXG support.】

【I feel like the team fights of these two teams were very chaotic; some wanted to fight, some wanted to retreat; there was simply no unified opinion.】

【Hurry up with the next match; I want to watch NXG's match.】

Accompanied by the live broadcast of the match between the two professional teams, LGD and DD, being released.

Some casual players finally understood why the internet was so highly praising the suddenly emerged NXG.

Damn it, this gap is simply too huge.