July 22, Friday.
The members of H4 Esports Club set foot on Jingzhou soil for the first time.
Team Leader Su and Team Leader Guan, each leading the GOG division and IOI division of H4 Club, came to participate in the competition held in Jingzhou this weekend.
The tournament schedule was simple: BO5 for the finals, BO3 for everything else, with eight teams in a single-elimination format, totaling seven matches to be completed over Saturday and Sunday.
Although this time arrangement was a bit tight, it was reasonable. After all, a more concentrated competition schedule would better maintain excitement in the short term, preventing the audience from losing patience while waiting.
What Team Leader Su found quite ridiculous was that the GOG and IOI competitions were held at the same time, both this Saturday and Sunday!
Did they have to squeeze them together, forcing the audience to choose one?
Moreover, both were Tenda’s games. Was this about competing for attention with themselves? Internal fighting?
Wouldn’t it be better to split the two competitions into two weekends?
It was truly puzzling.
However, what nobody knew was that GOG and IOI were engaged in internal fighting.
There was a reason for this scheduling.
Preparing for competitions required contacting teams, preparing venues, setting up schedules, etc. Both sides had roughly the same preparation time.
And whoever’s competition went first would gain more attention!
For GOG players, if they knew there was an IOI competition this week and the GOG competition would only start next week, they would likely watch some of the IOI competition this week.
The same applied to IOI players.
But by the next week, when the GOG competition started, IOI players might not bother to watch.
The first to host would always gain more attention, just like many phone manufacturers rushing to be the first to launch.
So, Tenda Games and Shangyang Games refused to yield to each other in this aspect, both wanting to be first.
However, the preparation time for the competition couldn’t be shortened, and competitions had to be held during weekends when foot traffic was higher. Neither wanted to fall behind, so after all the fighting, the preparation time couldn’t be compressed any further, and they ended up squeezing into the same weekend.
After finalizing the dates, it was too late to change, so they could only compete head-on!
In terms of player base, GOG undoubtedly had the advantage.
But IOI had also spent heavily on promotion this time. Besides inviting several well-known first-tier domestic clubs, they also invited several foreign clubs, playing up the “world championship” angle.
This was very attractive to many viewers, as foreign matches were always the most exciting and thrilling to watch.
Both sides had already invested heavily in advertising for promotion and warming up. Whether IOI could make a comeback in the domestic server market depended on this.
If it were still overshadowed by GOG, future promotions would be even more difficult.
“Team Leader Su, we’re heading to the hotel first. Let’s both do our best to bring back the trophies and meet in victory!” Team Leader Guan said, leaving with his team members by taxi.
The two competition venues were in different locations in Jingzhou, quite far apart, clearly making it impossible for the audience to be on both sides—they had to choose one to watch.
So, the two teams from H4 Club also stayed in different hotels to make it more convenient to reach their respective competition venues.
Of course, hotel and food expenses were covered by the organizers.
Team Leader Su was also about to hail a taxi to the hotel.
At this moment, team captain Pang Ling suggested: “Team Leader Su, it’s still early, we don’t have to go to the hotel yet. Wouldn’t it be better to go to the DGE Club and have a training match with Huang Wang and Jiang Huan?”
Team Leader Su was stunned for a moment, then nodded: “You’re right! It’s a good chance to test our recent training results.”
After the DGE Club left Shanghai, the H4 Club had been training diligently, repeatedly watching the DGE team’s recordings while arranging online training matches with other clubs.
Their progress was rapid!
The fact that DGE’s two teams could win against H4 in a 4v6 match was due to various factors, including strong individual abilities, good team coordination, and many unexpected tactical routines.
In addition, another important point was their understanding of the game.
What to do at each time point, what each person’s responsibilities were, how the tactical system should be executed… these details greatly benefited the members of the H4 Club.
By imitating these tactics when playing against other clubs, the results were surprisingly good.
So, everyone had become a bit overconfident and wanted to play against DGE Club again to see how much they had improved.
Team Leader Su sent a message to Zhang Yuan, who gladly agreed and sent over the location.
The GOG division members of H4 Club headed directly to Mingyun Villa.
“We can just find an internet café to play the training match, right?”
“I heard there’s a famous internet café in Jingzhou called Slackin’ Internet Café? They say the setup is great and the environment is good too. I wonder if we’ll go there for the training match.”
“Is the setup really that good? How good can it be?”
“Who knows? I feel like the online hype is a bit excessive. It’s better than the internet café we usually go to, but it can’t be that much better, right? Anyway, we’ll see when we get there…”
The six members of the H4 Club took two taxis and arrived at Mingyun Villa about half an hour later.
Along the way, everyone was idle and took in the scenery outside.
The biggest impression was: it’s far behind Shanghai!
After all, Jingzhou was only a second-tier city, without Shanghai’s towering skyscrapers or special landmark buildings like the Oriental Pearl Tower. Looking around along the way, they only saw ordinary urban landscapes with nothing special.
This balanced the team members’ mindsets somewhat, even giving them a slight sense of superiority.
Previously, they had always heard that Jingzhou was very livable, with convenient internet cafés, takeout, express delivery, etc. Some even praised Jingzhou as better than Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, which the H4 Club members found quite objectionable.
Now it seemed that, at least in terms of skyscrapers, Shanghai still had Jingzhou firmly under control.
The two taxis stopped one after another at Mingyun Villa. Seeing the spacious villas, the team members’ faces showed a hint of envy for the first time.
It was much more impressive than the villa they lived in on the outskirts of Shanghai!
However, considering this was mainly due to land prices—their Shanghai villa could be worth two of these—everyone’s mindset balanced out a bit again.
H4’s team captain Pang Ling was also looking at these villas, suddenly realizing that he had maintained a strange competitive mentality since arriving in Jingzhou.
When he became aware of this, Pang Ling was a bit surprised himself.
But thinking carefully, this competitive mindset wasn’t strange at all.
Because after being crushed by DGE Club, the members of H4 Club were all kinds of unwilling to accept it!
They were all high-ranking solo queue players who had joined H4 Club after trials.
H4 Club was an established club in China, and many internet-addicted teenagers took pride in joining this club and becoming professional players.
Pang Ling and others were very proud to be members of the H4 Club’s GOG division.
However, DGE Club’s members had been severely struck at their pride, crushing them in both personal image and team strength.
How could the H4 Club members accept this?
It was like in many martial arts novels where an elite talent endures countless hardships to enter a prestigious orthodox sect, only to have some unknown small sect come to challenge and crush them.
Of course, they would feel psychologically unbalanced!
So, the members of H4 Club naturally developed this unbalanced mindset, subconsciously comparing themselves.
Realizing this, Pang Ling immediately became vigilant, reminding himself to maintain a normal mindset.
For competitive athletes, maintaining the right mentality was a crucial lesson.
Pang Ling took a deep breath, trying not to think too much and instead focusing his energy on the upcoming training match with DGE Club.
Zhang Yuan had already come out to welcome them.
“Team Leader Su! Please come in, please come in.”
Zhang Yuan was very enthusiastic, after all, DGE Club would need to maintain good relationships with other domestic clubs in the future, and cultivating more connections was always right.
“Our training base is quite modest. Please make yourselves comfortable. It’s almost lunchtime, so I’ve ordered takeout for everyone. After we eat, we can go to Slackin’ Internet Café for the training match.”
Team Leader Su nodded: “Alright, we’ll follow your arrangements, Brother Zhang.”
As they walked in, H4’s team members looked around with interest. The villa even had a yard, with well-trimmed plants, clearly maintained by specialized staff.
However, upon entering the training hall, all the H4 Club members fell silent.
Pang Ling didn’t know how to express his feelings at this moment.
This is what you call a “modest training base”?
This villa belonged to Mr. Li. After buying it, he had maintained the original decoration without ostentatiously making it luxurious.
But the original decoration was already high-end!
Zhang Yuan had also specifically purchased various furniture, computers, etc., so the entire training hall looked harmonious and professional, not like a guesthouse.
Compared to H4’s training base, Pang Ling immediately saw the obvious difference!
The villa that H4 Club rented still had some of the landlord’s furniture and miscellaneous items that couldn’t be thrown away, so they had to make do.
As a result, it looked neither here nor there.
The furniture included both the original landlord’s and newly purchased items, with inconsistent styles and nothing particularly attractive. The living conditions were even worse—some slept in bunk beds, others had single bedding on double beds, and many team members didn’t even have a wardrobe, having to buy simple clothes racks to hang their clothes.
But looking at the DGE Club, it was completely different!
All the furniture, including computer desks, wardrobes, resting sofas, team members’ beds, etc., had been purchased uniformly, with consistent styles and appropriate sizes. Even with over ten computer desks in the training hall, it didn’t feel crowded at all, but rather like it was meant to be that way.
These computers, flashing with cool RGB lights, were very high-tech, seeming at least ten years ahead of those at H4 Club.
In short, the environment here was similar to what you’d see in many TV dramas, as if it were a deliberately set scene, without any signs of “making do”!
Pang Ling couldn’t help but wonder, if this was called “modest,” what would H4’s training base be called?
A slum or a garbage dump?
Team Leader Su felt even worse, feeling like this was a grand public humiliation.
Because when the DGE Club visited the H4 Club, he had proudly introduced everything to everyone.
Now, thinking about what he had boasted about, it was truly embarrassing, and he wondered how Zhang Yuan and others had managed to endure it at the time…