Zhang Yuan and the group of internet-addicted youths looked at each other in bewilderment.
Would this work?
This approach seemed extremely bizarre.
But Mr. Pei had spoken so decisively that they couldn’t immediately find any good points to counter with.
Pei Qian was very satisfied. “Excellent! Since no one has any objections, we’ll proceed as planned. Everyone gets along well. For any issues, Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling can discuss and resolve them together. I’ll be going now!”
With everything settled, Pei Qian prepared to slip away.
Zhang Yuan quickly stopped Mr. Pei. “Mr. Pei, please wait a moment!”
“Ahem, I think this training method might be worth trying for a period to see its effects. However, before that, shouldn’t we finalize the training schedule?”
“Coach Ya Ling and I will certainly have our respective views, and when disagreements arise, we’ll need you to make the final decision, Mr. Pei.”
Coach Ya Ling nodded in agreement.
She also realized that she might have been manipulated by Mr. Pei.
However, she wasn’t inclined to refuse this job because once she accepted this arrangement, it seemed quite reasonable.
These internet-addicted youths indeed appeared to severely lack exercise. Since Mr. Pei wanted her to train these people to build muscles, it was still within her professional scope.
After all, training students at a gym or training students here made no difference, and the conditions were even more favorable here. What reason was there to refuse?
However, there was one prerequisite—the division of responsibilities with Team Leader Zhang Yuan had to be clearly defined.
Otherwise, if one pointed east while the other pointed west, with Zhang Yuan saying practice hand speed and Ya Ling saying build chest muscles, who should the team members listen to?
So, Zhang Yuan and Ya Ling reached a preliminary consensus that they could try this training method, but Mr. Pei needed to help them clarify their responsibilities and establish a proper training schedule.
Pei Qian had initially wanted to gloss over this and let the two of them clash, but since they had clearly brought it up, it wouldn’t be appropriate to just walk away.
He reluctantly nodded. “Alright, let’s find a place to align on the training schedule.”
Zhang Yuan waved at the players. “Everyone, practice solo ranked games for now.”
The players all took their seats, put on their headphones, and entered GOG to start playing.
They didn’t know what specific training plan the three leaders would formulate, but they felt deep concern about their future.
If not for Tenda Group’s reputation as a guarantee, they might have thought they were being scammed.
…
Zhang Yuan pushed the whiteboard with the training schedule to the dining area in the living room, which served as the club’s conference room.
Coach Ya Ling found a seat and, looking at the training schedule now, suddenly felt it was completely normal.
This appeared to be a standard esports player training schedule, with nothing that needed changing.
Pei Qian and Zhang Yuan also sat down.
“Mr. Pei, let’s review the schedule first. Do you see anything that needs to be modified?”
Pei Qian looked at the schedule on the whiteboard, then at Coach Ya Ling. “Coach, what are your thoughts?”
Coach Ya Ling shook her head. “This is just a standard esports player training schedule, nothing special to say. I only require one thing—that I have two hours each day to take everyone to the gym for exercise.”
Upon hearing this, Pei Qian immediately shook his head.
“Nothing special to say? I think there’s a lot to discuss!”
“First, early to bed and early to rise makes one healthy. Waking up at nine and sleeping at one, although it ensures eight hours of sleep, this schedule is too unhealthy!”
Pei Qian took out his phone and quickly searched for “dangers of staying up late.”
“Scientific research shows that at 9 PM, the human body begins to secrete melatonin. At 10:30 PM, intestinal movement slows down. At 2 AM, a normal person should be in deep sleep.”
“Staying up late disrupts the biological clock and has a series of harmful effects.”
“These harms include: decline in short-term memory, decreased learning ability, endocrine system disorders, weakened immunity, increased risk of heart disease, and so on.”
“In summary, it makes you fatter, uglier, dumber, more forgetful, and more prone to illness. For esports athletes, being fat and ugly might be acceptable, but if they become stupid, what about their understanding? If they become forgetful, how will they remember skill cooldown times? And illness is even worse—if one team member gets sick, all the other team members can’t play practice matches.”
“If ten people take turns getting sick, at least a third of the month will be without practice matches!”
“This is an extremely serious problem! We must correct the schedule!”
“In my view, they should wake up at 6:30 AM and go to bed at 10 PM.”
Zhang Yuan’s expression was bewildered. “But Mr. Pei, this schedule is mainly to ensure training effectiveness. From 6 AM to 10 AM, there are no players in high-end matches. Most players are active in the evening and late night, so to better play high-end matches, we have to shift the overall time later…”
Pei Qian raised his hand. “Of course, I understand this point. This is simply a matter of choice—do you choose the players’ health, or some excessive, useless high-end matches?”
“If they sleep at 10 PM, they’re only missing two hours of high-end matches each day. The overall training time remains unchanged, so the impact isn’t that significant.”
“Comparatively, maintaining a healthy body, abundant energy, and good memory is more important.”
Zhang Yuan thought for a moment. “Then… Mr. Pei, if they finish breakfast at 7 AM and continue until 10 AM, during this time, there won’t be people for high-end matches, so they can’t practice solo ranked. What should the team members do during this time?”
Pei Qian chuckled. “Custom games, of course!”
“Research each hero’s skill cast time, familiarize themselves with pre-cast and post-cast animations, practice the basics of operating various heroes—aren’t these also important training contents?”
“Or they could play casual matches, 5v5 brawls, and similar modes, which are also good training methods.”
“Oh, and before all that, we should schedule an hour for fitness.”
“Let me just write out the schedule directly.”
Pei Qian stood up, erased the content on the whiteboard, and rewrote a new schedule:
6:30 Wake up and wash up, 40-minute morning run
7:20-8:00 Breakfast, arrive at the training room
8:00-10:00 Custom game basics practice
10:00-12:00 Two practice matches, post-match summary meeting
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-13:30 Midday rest
13:30-14:00 In-game warm-up
14:00-17:30 BO5 practice match, post-match summary meeting
17:30-18:00 Dinner
18:00-20:00 Fitness training
20:00-22:00 Solo ranked training
22:00 Wash up, sleep
After writing it, Pei Qian handed the pen to Ya Ling. “Coach, please add the snack times.”
Coach Ya Ling: “Snacks?”
Pei Qian nodded. “Of course, isn’t frequent small meals part of fitness? Eat small portions more frequently for better health. Add the snack times and ensure they eat enough. Outside of these times, they absolutely cannot order takeout randomly.”
Coach Ya Ling thought for a moment and added a cup of black coffee after waking up, egg whites and oatmeal at 10 o’clock, beef, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and a cup of black coffee at 15 o’clock, and some post-workout meal around 21 o’clock.
Eating small meals frequently, without increasing the total food intake, avoids excessive eating while extending the feeling of fullness, relieving intestinal pressure, and improving the body’s metabolism.
Pei Qian nodded. “Very good. Eat more, train more. I hope that when I come back next time, these people will have muscles as developed as fitness coaches!”
Looking at this new schedule, Zhang Yuan felt a headache coming on.
It was certainly healthy, but could they guarantee training effectiveness?
Moreover, these internet-addicted youths were all accustomed to their habits. Would they be able to fall asleep if forced to go to bed at 10?
Zhang Yuan raised his concerns.
Pei Qian chuckled. “Can’t fall asleep?”
He glanced at Coach Ya Ling. “Coach Ya Ling should know how to solve these people’s sleep problems.”
Coach Ya Ling was startled momentarily, then nodded.
From Mr. Pei’s meaningful gaze, she saw only four words: Increase the intensity!
If they couldn’t sleep, that was easy to solve—just increase the intensity and train them until they couldn’t get out of bed.
Zhang Yuan asked another question: “There’s another issue, Mr. Pei. How do we ensure the effectiveness of practice matches?”
If there were a coach, they could review the results of practice matches and analyze each player’s objectively existing problems.
But now Coach Ya Ling didn’t understand GOG at all, so how could she review the matches?
Pei Qian was prepared for this. “That’s simple. The two teams are each electing a captain, right? After the practice matches, the captain reviews the performance, and the worst-performing player does extra training at night!”
Zhang Yuan: “But what if the captain shifts blame?”
Pei Qian thought for a moment. “Good point. Then the captain does extra training with the player! And the losing team also does extra training! Regardless of what problem arises, extra training solves everything.”
“If they can’t win matches, they need more training. Ya Ling, I’m entrusting this to you. If you don’t train these people until they throw up, I’ll hold you responsible!”
After all, the more time spent on fitness, the less time for game training.
Ideally, after each workout, they would be so exhausted they couldn’t even lift their arms or hold a mouse and keyboard—that would be perfect!
With such an absurd training method, wouldn’t it discourage all the players? Even if these people had signed one-year contracts and couldn’t leave, once this news spread, it would at least deter other players who might want to join the DGE club.
Without players, what club could exist?
Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling both fell silent.
For some reason, Mr. Pei’s strict requirements seemed to hide a hint of schadenfreude…
Pei Qian stood up. “Alright, the issue is resolved. Train according to this method. When I come back next time, I hope to see a group of players who are invincible in offline competitions!”
Having arranged all training-related matters, Pei Qian left with style.
Only Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling remained, lost in bewilderment.
Zhang Yuan thought for a moment. “So… should we proceed as planned?”
As everyone knows, Tenda’s employees must strictly follow Mr. Pei’s requirements when he gives clear instructions, and can only make their own interpretations when Mr. Pei hasn’t provided specific guidance.
Now that Mr. Pei had arranged even the daily schedule, they seemed to have no choice but to follow it.
Coach Ya Ling nodded. “I have no objections.”
Zhang Yuan sighed. “But the players will probably have many objections.”
Coach Ya Ling smiled. “It doesn’t matter whether they have objections or not.”
“Team Leader Zhang, there’s one thing I must clarify in advance.”
“These people are in very poor physical condition. During the first few days of training, they might not be able to hold a mouse or walk normally.”
“But don’t worry, it will get better in at most a week.”
Zhang Yuan, seeing Coach Ya Ling’s sweet smile, couldn’t help but shudder.