Chapter 1 GPL Spring Season

The opening ceremony of the GPL Spring Season was quite concise. First, they played the incredibly popular Spring Season promotional video on the big screen. Then, the captains of each team took the stage, and the host introduced the origins of these clubs and their star players to the audience one by one.

The sixteen team captains corresponded to the sixteen war flags in the venue and the sixteen warriors dressed as heroes in the promotional CG.

The audience members were all veterans and were very supportive, with applause and cheers resounding continuously.

Then, the competition officially began.

Strictly speaking, the GPL Spring Season wasn't quite as grand as the IOI World Finals. After all, they weren't the same level of competition. The IOI World Championship was held in a large venue that could accommodate 20,000 people, so the scale was definitely much larger than the GPL Spring Season.

But the GPL Spring Season had the advantage of better attention to detail.

From the very first GOG Global Invitational to the later Preseason, the entire GPL operations team had accumulated a wealth of experience.

On the one hand, the rules were clear, and various contingency plans were very detailed, so the probability of problems occurring was very low. Even if problems did arise, they could be quickly resolved, preventing serious broadcast accidents.

On the other hand, they had figured out the audience's preferences. They tried their best to make the necessary segments the best they could be, and they cut out all unnecessary segments.

For example, many esports competitions like to have cosplay or singing and dancing performances at their opening ceremonies. However, most viewers are indifferent to this, so the GPL completely cut out similar superfluous segments, bringing the audience the purest viewing experience.

So, in the audience's perception, although the GPL venue was smaller, it was very professional in all aspects. The level of care put into the event preparation could be seen in the details, so it didn't seem cheap.

Soon, the competition officially began.

Although SHG was a new team, they performed very well, playing aggressively and courageously, going all three games against H4 Club before unfortunately losing.

Even so, SHG's performance earned them applause from the audience, and some of their excellent decisions and plays sparked heated discussions on the forums.

Pei Qian was also very pleased with what he saw. He pulled out his phone, opened the livestream, and wanted to see the reactions of the online audience.

However, some discordant voices appeared in the barrage.

"H4 World Champions, is that all you've got? Playing evenly with a newly formed team?"

"This just shows the value of the GOG Global Invitational, if you know what I mean."

"If H4's strength is enough to dominate foreign teams, then what kind of quality are those foreign teams that they paid to invite? I don't need to say more, right?"

"I've said long ago that the competitive level of GOG isn't good. The so-called 'dominance' of domestic teams is only because no one plays it abroad!"

"What's so great about paying for foreign overlords to accompany you?"

"Playing for fun, playing for fun, playing for fun..."

A group of people of unknown origin were frantically spamming "playing for fun" in the livestream, belittling the value of the GPL and even the GOG Global Invitational.

This was the same tactic as the previous post, *Domestic Esports Started Late, Lacks Foundation, Still Needs to Work Harder*, constantly brainwashing the masses with a false logic: GOG dominates foreign teams because no one plays it abroad, so the value is not high; IOI loses to foreign teams because the level of Chinese players is not good, so the value is very high.

The final conclusion was that IOI is far superior to GOG.

This argument had already been debated once before, and now that the GPL had started, it was being brought up again. Obviously, these people with ulterior motives were trying to undermine the popularity of the GPL Spring Season to promote the IOI World Finals knockout stage.

Many GOG players were angry and argued with these players in the livestream and on the forums, but it was useless.

These troublemakers were professional trolls. If you presented them with facts and reasoned with them, they would pretend not to see it, only using their twisted logic to constantly quibble. They would also use sarcasm and personal attacks; once you lost your temper and argued with them, you would fall into their trap.

The two groups arguing only made the GPL livestream a mess. The competition was originally very exciting, but no one was discussing the matches, and everyone was just tearing each other apart, greatly affecting the viewing experience.

Pei Qian wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, he was very happy.

Longyu Group and President Zhao were finally being effective; it was truly touching!

He would be able to watch FV Club's match at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning. As long as FV Club lost, the internet would definitely be very lively!

Although Pei Qian didn't think that this bit of public opinion would affect the GPL league's ability to make money, it was better to have something than nothing!

Pei Qian decided to go to bed early tonight and wake up at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning to watch FV Club's match.

...

...

At 1:00 PM on the 7th in Los Angeles time, and 5:00 AM on the 8th in Jingzhou time, the IOI World Finals quarterfinals officially began!

The quarterfinals consisted of four best-of-five matches (Bo5). The matches would be completed over two days, Saturday and Sunday, in Los Angeles time. FV Team would be the first to play, facing the European club, Cem, that had crushed domestic teams in the group stage.

Cem was also an old and strong European and American team, similar to FRY. They showed extremely strong dominance in the group stage, qualifying with a 4-0 record, and they crushed the domestic team in their group so badly that they couldn't even lift their heads.

All the staff of FV Club were waiting backstage. Wu Yue and Manager Lu looked a little nervous.

Although they completely trusted the strength of their players, the outcome of esports was never absolute. The other team wasn't weak, and FV Club wasn't 100% certain of victory.

Moreover, this was an offline match. The European and American teams were playing on their home turf. It was hard to say whether the players would lose their composure and perform poorly due to the cheers of the opposing audience.

"They're coming on stage!"

Someone shouted, and everyone looked at the screen backstage.

At the same time, thunderous applause and cheers came from inside the venue!

Cem came on stage first. Each of the five players had a confident smile on their face, waving frequently at the audience and enjoying the applause and cheers.

Next was FV Club. The audience was also very supportive, and the cheers were a little lower than for Cem, but they were still very enthusiastic.

After all, FV Club had consistently been creating content on Twitter and interacting frequently with various clubs, so they had gained a good reputation among foreign players.

However, the comments on foreign livestream platforms were not so kind, with overwhelming "3:0" and "cnioinoob."

Obviously, most foreign viewers just thought that FV Club was good at creating content, but they didn't recognize their competitive strength.

In the eyes of most viewers, this would be a one-sided match, and FV Club would probably have a hard time winning even one game.

The players of FV Club couldn't see the barrage, so of course they wouldn't be affected. They were just enjoying the cheers and applause, waiting to conquer the 20,000 spectators in the venue with their performance in the match.

The quarterfinals and semi-finals didn't have so much fanfare, and the match quickly entered the banning and picking (Bp) phase.

...

At the same time, Pei Qian had just woken up.

He turned on the TV, took out potato chips and cola, and sat on the sofa, just in time to see the two teams' Bp phase.

The barrage was still very chaotic, and the players were fighting as one.

Some were sarcastically saying that GOG was just playing for fun, some were constantly spamming "swim back," some were cheering for FV Team, and some were constantly spamming meaningless numbers to block the screen. It was simply impossible to enjoy the match.

Obviously, the internet trolls hired by Longyu Group at the GOG opening match yesterday had angered the GOG players, and today, some GOG players had come to retaliate at the IOI match.

The result was that the barrages of both matches were unwatchable.

Pei Qian was also a little speechless, but just as he was about to close the barrage, he saw a string of question marks floating across the screen.

"?????"

"FV is so stubborn? They let Chaos Doom go?"

"It was released a total of four times in the group stage and they were all crushed. They're still letting it go?"

"Could it be that FV Club doesn't know how OP this hero is because they didn't have practice matches? That can't be right. Even if they didn't have practice matches, they should have at least watched the group stage, right?"

"I get it, maybe FV thinks they're going to be 3:0'd anyway, so releasing Chaos Doom gives them an excuse, making it seem like they lost because of Bp issues, not because they're bad. FV is on the fifth level!"

"We can close the livestream, go eat breakfast, and come back in 30 minutes to watch the second game!"

"Good job, FV!"

"I can already see the script. Chaos Doom farms for twenty minutes, then comes out and ends the game in three team fights."

"Who is FV Club's coach? How could they release this thing? Is their brain broken? Or is it because the accommodation in Los Angeles is too good, and their brain has rusted?"

"The coach seems to be... Old Zhou? Holy crap, isn't that the support player from the old DGE Club?"

"Huh? A GOG player came to be the head coach? That's just outrageous. No wonder they released Chaos Doom! This isn't playing GOG, bro!"

Before, several groups of people in the barrage were arguing non-stop, spamming repetitive words to attack each other, like a chaotic battle. But after the banning phase ended and Cem directly picked the hero "Chaos Doom," the content of the barrage was immediately unified.

Everyone was singing the blues for FV Club!

Many people then noticed that the coach on stage for the Bp was Zhou Pengyuan.

As a former GOG star player, Zhou Pengyuan had not appeared in the public eye since coming to Los Angeles.

This was his first time on stage for Bp, and he immediately released Chaos Doom, which was universally recognized as a must-ban for the purple side in this version, which was nothing short of astonishing.

Pei Qian was a little curious and searched for the hero "Chaos Doom" on Qian Du.

This was a new hero recently released in IOI. Its appearance was a dark cloud. It was a ranged hero, but its range was only slightly longer than melee. Its strength was that it had good team control ability in the mid and late game, and it was both tanky and had high damage. Once it entered the team fight stage, it was almost guaranteed to win.

It had been released a total of four times in the group stage, and without exception, all the teams that released it had been crushed.

Everyone thought that this hero would be permanently banned and would never appear in the knockout stage. But unexpectedly, FV Club released it right away.

Pei Qian couldn't help but be refreshed. FV Club was doing great, they were living up to expectations!

This style reminded Pei Qian of the legendary Three Releases of Tie Nan and Five Releases of Galio, highlighting their stubbornness and unwillingness to win.

Pei Qian chewed on potato chips and watched the following match.