Wu Yue and Manager Lu quickly went through the list and selected five players, one for each position.
Originally, they had only planned to buy two players to fill the team’s vacancies. Given their limited resources, they hadn’t even imagined being able to assemble a complete five-person all-star IOI team.
But seeing Lin Chang and the other club owners being so generous, they felt almost embarrassed not to take full advantage!
For some positions, there were even two excellent players available. Wu Yue and Manager Lu carefully deliberated, considering each player’s personality, familiarity, and teamwork synergy, before finalizing the five-person lineup.
These players were the ones Wu Yue and Manager Lu had previously only dreamed of, but couldn’t afford.
Back when IOI was popular worldwide and GOG hadn’t yet swept across the country, a batch of talented young players had emerged domestically. But most of these talented youths had been divided among established clubs like SUG and were impossible to acquire.
However, recently, with GOG’s rapid development, IOI’s comprehensive decline in the domestic server, and the establishment of the GPL league, domestic IOI players had become fewer and the environment had deteriorated. Both IOI players and clubs were beginning to have second thoughts.
The entire environment had become unstable, and clubs were no longer holding onto their players at all costs as they had before.
Lin Chang and the other new club owners had no shortage of money. With GPL league players being excessively scarce, they had bought a batch of IOI players at bottom prices, planning to train them gradually.
Now that Mr. Pei’s invested club needed players, couldn’t each club contribute one person to form a five-person team?
For large clubs like Shenhua, giving away a player for free wouldn’t affect their strength at all. These players hadn’t had any opportunity to play anyway and would have required slow training and integration.
Now letting them return to playing IOI, going back to their original profession, while also doing Mr. Pei a favor—why not?
After selecting the players, the team leaders from each club immediately went to communicate with them, and quickly received “willing” responses.
These clubs were all very accommodating and wouldn’t restrict the players’ freedom in the contracts. The contracts stipulated that after these players transferred to FV Club, they would play in the IOI qualifiers. If they failed to qualify for the World Championship, they could choose whether to return to their previous clubs; if they did qualify, they would make decisions after completing the World Championship.
For the players, everything remained unchanged—salary, benefits, and they could return to playing the IOI they enjoyed, with powerful teammates, and a chance at the World Championship.
Such a world-class competition could bring a lot of attention and traffic. Performing well in international matches could attract many fans. Even without qualifying, they could return to their original clubs anytime, with no losses.
Therefore, these players readily agreed.
Lin Chang smiled and said, “Good, since all the players have agreed, let’s sign the contracts. You can take them with you today. Time is tight, take them back and start training hard!”
Wu Yue was deeply moved, now truly feeling what it meant to have connections that made things happen.
He hadn’t thought that far ahead initially. He had just approached this with a wait-and-see attitude, hoping to buy two players to complete his team.
Unexpectedly, these club owners were so supportive because of Mr. Pei’s influence. These excellent IOI players were practically being given away, with FV Club only needing to pay their salaries during the qualification period.
Originally, Wu Yue had felt that FV Club’s chances of breaking through the qualifiers were extremely remote, given the team’s limited capabilities, which couldn’t be significantly improved overnight.
But now, with such a star-studded IOI team, Wu Yue was suddenly full of confidence!
Although the team would need time to gel, SUG and other established teams would also need to integrate their new players. In a situation where everyone was on relatively equal footing, FV Club now had a real chance!
Wu Yue and Manager Lu quickly signed the contracts and met the five players.
The two shook hands with each player, their eyes unable to hide their admiration and joy.
After shaking hands, Wu Yue said with some surprise: “Each of you has quite a firm handshake.”
He often interacted with his own team’s players, who were either skinny or soft, but these five players all had unassuming physiques yet surprisingly strong grips.
Lin Chang smiled: “Oh, they’ve all been training according to DGE’s methods for some time, so their muscle mass has increased.”
Manager Lu turned to one of the players: “Pan Ying, will you be the team captain from now on?”
Pan Ying was the one with the smallest eyes among the five players, somewhat plain-looking. But Manager Lu knew well that Pan Ying was only 17 years old and had been a high-ranked IOI player for a long time, playing the support position—a rare player with leadership qualities.
When selecting players, Wu Yue and Manager Lu had already decided to make Pan Ying the team captain to lead the team.
Pan Ying nodded: “Yes, but may I offer some suggestions about training?”
Wu Yue nodded: “Of course! We’re all family now. Feel free to voice any requests.”
Pan Ying looked at the other four players: “Then I’ll say a few words briefly. If anyone has different opinions, please speak up anytime.”
“First, I hope our daily training can continue to adopt the DGE model, training according to GOG team methods, including split pushing, vision placement, rotation operations, and so on—all following GOG’s approach.”
“Second, I hope everyone can play solo ranked matches on the international server’s high ranks to restore individual skills.”
“Finally, I hope we can organize a practice team with the remaining players to experiment with various strategies.”
Wu Yue immediately nodded: “No problem! FV Club originally had three players. If we find two more, we can form a practice team. Having two teams practicing against each other will accelerate improvement.”
Manager Lu said with some uncertainty: “Using GOG’s training methods is fine, but using GOG’s strategies to play IOI—will that work?”
Pan Ying nodded: “I think it will be fine.”
“After playing GOG scrimmages during this period and deeply studying the tactics of various teams, I feel that GOG teams truly have a more sophisticated understanding of the game than those on the IOI side.”
“Including rotation operations, lineup selection, and other aspects, they’ve given me a lot of inspiration. The main differences between the two are in hero selection, game rhythm, and so on, but there are many commonalities as well. If we can utilize these commonalities and apply some of GOG’s tactics to IOI, it might produce unexpectedly effective results.”
Manager Lu listened in amazement.
Could this work?
Although it sounded a bit far-fetched, given the significant differences between GOG and IOI, upon careful consideration, it seemed to make some sense.
Although GOG was released later, its professional esports scene had developed much earlier than IOI’s. With the DGE Club consistently dominating other teams, the overall level has improved very rapidly.
While the two games had differences, they were of the same genre and shared common operational principles.
These players were skilled and had a good understanding of IOI. If they could integrate and apply operational strategies from GOG matches, they might indeed achieve surprising results.
Whether they could place well in the World Championship was uncertain, but if they could win the qualifiers and dominate domestically, that would be quite an achievement!
Wu Yue nodded: “Good, no problem. All these requirements can be met. Just go ahead and play, and train hard!”
…
Meanwhile, IOI’s domestic qualifiers were also being actively prepared.
The qualifiers would be held in Shanghai, as both Finger Corporation’s domestic server headquarters and Dragon Yu Group were located there. With numerous clubs and a strong esports atmosphere, Shanghai was the optimal choice from all perspectives.
The venue for the qualifiers was an indoor studio in a Shanghai mall. It wasn’t large, accommodating 600 people, and the site was nearly fully decorated.
Not as grand as GPL, but acceptable.
Ding Gan and Zhao Xuming walked around the qualifier venue twice, discussing recent matters related to organizing the qualifiers.
Ding Gan said, “Mr. Zhao, the teams have been assembled, so rest assured. However, our three clubs have bled heavily to buy players. If we don’t qualify, we’ll be at a significant loss…”
Zhao Xuming smiled: “Don’t you know your chances of qualifying? We’ve helped pressure those small clubs to sell players. If you still can’t qualify with such support, wouldn’t that be your fault?”
Ding Gan laughed dryly: “That’s true.”
The process of assembling teams had thrown the various clubs into chaos. Although Dragon Yu Group had essentially predetermined three established clubs, buying players from other clubs still cost a considerable amount.
Other clubs reluctantly sold their players, naturally demanding high transfer fees, and established clubs like SUG, already in the wrong, could only quietly accept the gouging.
However, Ding Gan and the other owners hadn’t thought too much about it. After all, spending money for a chance to appear in the IOI World Championship didn’t seem like a bad deal.
Those small clubs had all been dismantled to varying degrees, while SUG and the other two established clubs had been strengthened, making their elimination in the qualifiers highly unlikely.
Ding Gan looked at the competition venue and sighed softly: “It’s a pity this venue doesn’t compare to GPL’s in terms of prestige.”
Zhao Xuming said, “Nothing we can do about that. Let’s see how the World Championship goes.”
Neither Dragon Yu Group nor Finger Corporation lacked money, but the key was where to spend it.
Renting venues and doing renovations was very expensive. Renting a large venue and spending a lot on renovations for just a few matches with low attention would be a pure waste of money.
Having money didn’t mean they were willing to spend it that way.
So Dragon Yu Group decided to make do with a studio as the venue, as long as it was passable.
After all, IOI’s World Finals would be held in the United States and would certainly overshadow GOG’s finals in terms of spectacle.
The domestic qualifiers were merely a formality to legitimately send SUG and the other two teams to the World Championship. As for the venue, making do would suffice.