"Brother-in-law, something terrible has happened! Tian Qu Mo Xie has been hospitalized!" the night before the China-US invitational tournament was to begin, Huang He, who had just finished a conversation with Hu Jing and was preparing to rest, was startled by Leng Zhimo, who rushed in.
"Why is he suddenly hospitalized?" Huang He asked with a frown.
"It seems that he and some other contestants went out for dinner together tonight. A few hours after eating, Tian Qu Mo Xie felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, writhing on the ground in agony, and was directly sent to the hospital!" Leng Zhimo said.
"Then let's go together!" Huang He said quickly. The two of them rushed to the local hospital. From the doctor, they learned that Tian Qu Mo Xie had acute appendicitis and had already been sent to the operating room for an appendectomy.
"What did Tian Qu Mo Xie eat? Was it food poisoning?" Huang He asked the other contestants who had eaten with Tian Qu Mo Xie.
"It shouldn't be. We all ate at the same restaurant, and it looked quite upscale, not like a place that would have poisoned food!" Xuanwu, the team captain, said with a wry smile.
"Then what did he eat?" Huang He asked again.
"I remember it was beef noodles!" Xuanwu said.
"Beef noodles..." The flesh on Huang He's face twitched. If eating beef noodles caused such a problem, it seemed very normal. After all, beef noodles were a fatal mistake for esports players!
"Listen, from now on, for any important competition, you are absolutely not allowed to eat beef noodles, or anything related to beef noodles, understand?" Huang He said helplessly.
"Ah..." Everyone was shocked. They had no idea why a bowl of beef noodles had suddenly become taboo. But since Huang He said so, they could only comply.
Fortunately, they were only forbidden from eating beef noodles. If they were forbidden from eating rice, they would be in big trouble.
"But boss, Mo Xie can clearly not compete tomorrow. The doctor said he needs to rest in bed for at least a week. It's even questionable if he can make it to the WCg. Tomorrow's match is definitely impossible!" Xuanwu said with great concern. "In that case, we won't have 5 contestants tomorrow."
"This is also my fault for not anticipating this situation!" Huang He said with a headache. Because the competition required 5 players, Huang He had directly selected the top 4 contestants from the national finals, and then organized a few elimination matches among those ranked 5th to 8th to determine the final spot, and then brought these 5 people to compete.
However, Huang He never expected that Tian Qu Mo Xie, the runner-up in the national finals, would suffer from acute appendicitis due to a bowl of beef noodles, resulting in not being able to gather the required five players for the competition.
"I'll go and negotiate with the American side temporarily!" Huang He nodded, then left the hospital and found the hotel where the American team was staying, directly communicating with Allen Adhan about the issue of their contestant being unable to compete. xxs
Since this was a hastily organized event, and there was likely no second round of matches, there was no formal organizing committee or systematic competition rules. Therefore, specific matters were discussed and decided by the Chinese and American delegations.
"How about we just play with four people? After all, it was our mistake!" Huang He said.
"No! No! No!" Allen Adhan shook his head and said, "Huang, we Americans never take advantage of others' misfortune. What kind of logic is it for five people to play against four? I think you should just temporarily replace a contestant."
"But where can I find a fifth player?" Huang He spread his hands helplessly.
"That's your business, not mine!" Allen Adhan said, "If we win five against four, it will seem unsportsmanlike. If we lose, it will be even more embarrassing! So you must have five people. Your delegation has quite a few people, doesn't it? It's perfectly fine to pull anyone over to fill the spot!"
What Allen Adhan referred to as the delegation was the Chinese delegation coming to the WCg. Besides the Warcraft players, there were also contestants from various other projects. They were all professional players, and selecting one from them to play Warcraft 3 would not be an unreasonable idea.
After all, many professional players play other games to relax in their spare time.
For example, selecting a StarCraft player to play Warcraft 3 would be an excellent choice.
"Alright!" Huang He nodded, then went back and gathered the entire delegation in the hotel's conference room. He explained the situation and said, "Who among you has a better skill level in Warcraft 3, please step forward and take this spot. This is a rare opportunity to be seen by the whole country, especially since CCTV Sports Channel is broadcasting it. Such a good thing is very rare!"
Huang He expected a flood of people to seize this opportunity after he finished speaking. However, after a full five minutes passed, all the other professional players were looking down at the ground, and no one showed any intention of stepping forward.
"What's going on? You all used to be so arrogant, but now you don't even have one courageous person!" Huang He said with a glare, very displeased.
"Brother-in-law, you can't blame them. As you said yourself, this competition is highly anticipated, and even CCTV Sports Channel is broadcasting it live. If they rashly participate in the competition, it's fine if they win, but if they lose, it would be a disgrace."
"Moreover, they usually train for their own projects. Competing against top American players now would almost certainly result in a loss, and disgrace is inevitable. It's understandable that they don't want to do this!" Leng Zhimo explained on their behalf. They all looked at Leng Zhimo with gratitude.
"But the audience will know that they are here to fill in temporarily, so they won't be too harsh on them!" Huang He said.
"That's assuming we win. But if we lose, they will definitely have to take the blame!" Leng Zhimo said, "You should also think about it from their perspective!"
"Alright!" Huang He shrugged his shoulders. "But tell me, if we don't choose a professional player, who should we choose to fill this spot?"
"Do I even need to think about that?" Leng Zhimo blinked her eyes and stared intently at Huang He.
"What? Are you suggesting I go?" Huang He was stunned.
"Yes, brother-in-law, you are simply too smart!" Leng Zhimo slapped her thigh vigorously. "Brother-in-law, to be honest, among our entire delegation, apart from those professional players, I'm afraid no one is your match! Just yesterday, you beat me 5:0 and thrashed me!"
"That's because you're too bad!" Huang He said unceremoniously.
"But, can't you still 1v3, beating three ruthless computers by yourself?" Leng Zhimo continued, "And it seems like when you're at work, you spend more than half of your time playing games!"
"Ahem! What nonsense are you talking about? Brother-in-law is working!" Huang He coughed, then still shook his head. "No, how can I participate? It's not appropriate!"
"Brother-in-law, don't you remember that you lost a condition to me when we were watching the national finals?" Leng Zhimo asked with a smile.
"..." Huang He rolled his eyes. "Alright, I know. I can participate, but that condition is settled then! You're not allowed to threaten me with that condition anymore!"
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At 3 PM on October 15, 2002, the competition began as scheduled. Thanks to the extensive pre-event publicity, when the Sports Channel started broadcasting, several million people had already gathered in front of their televisions, waiting for the live broadcast. The vast majority of them were gamers.
Before the actual competition began, the host briefly introduced the competition, such as the contestants and the match progress. The hosts even had to briefly explain the gameplay of a game, because there were many viewers in front of the television who had never played computer games and simply wanted to watch a satisfying show of China defeating the Americans.
However, what no one expected was that at the beginning of the program, there was a piece of bad news.
"Dear viewers, we have an urgent report just received. In this China-US invitational tournament, Chinese contestant Wang Peicheng is currently receiving emergency treatment in the hospital due to a sudden illness and is unable to participate in today's competition."
"After urgent consultations between the organizing committees of both countries, Chinese contestant Huang He will participate in this China-US invitational tournament as an emergency substitute!" the host announced.
"Contestant Huang He, this name sounds familiar. Could it be our hero who saved the day, Mr. Huang He!"
"Based on the information received so far, it is indeed contestant Huang He!"
"Is he also a professional Warcraft 3 player?"
"It doesn't seem so. Contestant Huang He is the leader of the Chinese delegation. He claims to be an amateur Warcraft 3 enthusiast. However, this time, the delegation only has five professional players, and the rest are ordinary staff members. Faced with the necessity of an emergency substitute, it seems that the delegation's staff members held a temporary competition, and in the end, Mr. Huang He heroically won, defeating other staff members and becoming the emergency substitute!" the host said with a smile.
In fact, this explanation was agreed upon by Huang He and the television station. First of all, they had to tell the audience that Huang He was an ordinary amateur enthusiast. This way, if Huang He lost badly, he wouldn't be heavily criticized by the domestic public.
Our Boss Huang was also afraid of being blamed, and he didn't want to bear the pressure.