GPL’s spring season opening ceremony was fairly concise – first playing the extremely well-received spring season promotional video on the big screen, followed by team captains taking the stage, with hosts introducing each club’s background and star players to the audience.
The sixteen team captains corresponded perfectly to the sixteen battle flags in the venue, as well as the sixteen warriors dressed as heroes in the promotional CG.
The live audience was all experienced fans who showed great support, with waves of applause and cheers filling the air.
Then the matches officially began.
Strictly speaking, GPL’s spring season didn’t quite match up to the IOL world finals in scale – after all, they weren’t on the same level by positioning. The IOL world championship was held in a massive venue accommodating twenty thousand people, definitely more grand than GPL’s spring season.
But GPL’s spring season had the advantage of better attention to detail.
From the initial GOG global invitational to the later preseason matches, GPL’s entire operations team had accumulated rich experience.
On one hand, rules were clear with detailed contingency plans, keeping problems to a minimum, and even when issues arose, they could be quickly resolved without causing serious broadcasting incidents.
On the other hand, they understood audience preferences well, doing their best with necessary segments while cutting all unnecessary ones.
For instance, many esports events love to include Cosplay or song-and-dance performances at their opening ceremonies, but most audiences are fairly indifferent to such content. So, GPL eliminated such extraneous elements, providing fans with the purest viewing experience.
Therefore, in audience perception, despite GPL’s smaller venue, everything was properly run. The attention to detail showed the event’s preparation quality, not making it seem inferior.
Soon, the match officially started.
Though SHG was a new team, they performed remarkably well, playing aggressively against H4 club, going the full three games before ultimately falling short.
Even so, SHG’s performance earned applause from the live audience, with some brilliant decisions and plays sparking heated discussions on forums.
Pei Qian watched with satisfaction at the venue, pulling out his phone to check the livestream and see netizens’ reactions.
However, some discordant voices appeared in the chat:
“That’s a world champion H4? Going back and forth with a newly formed team?”
“This shows the value of GOG’s global invitational – those who know, know.”
“With H4’s level crushing foreign teams, what quality were those paid foreign teams? No need to say more, right?”
“I’ve been saying GOG’s competitive level is lacking – domestic teams’ so-called ‘dominance’ is simply because foreigners don’t play it!”
“What’s so impressive about paying foreigners to tag along?”
“Self-entertainment self-entertainment self-entertainment…”
A group of people with questionable origins spammed “self-entertainment” in the chat, undermining GPL and even GOG’s global invitational’s credibility.
This was the same strategy as the previous post “Domestic Esports Started Late, Weak Foundation, Must Keep Working Hard” – continuously using false logic to brainwash casual observers: GOG crushing foreign teams is because foreigners don’t play it, so low value; IOL losing to foreign teams is because domestic skill is lacking, so high value.
Conclusion: IOL far superior to GOG.
This argument had been debated before, now resurfacing with GPL’s opening. These people with ulterior motives wanted to dampen GPL’s spring season buzz while hyping up IOL’s world finals elimination rounds.
Many GOG players were angry, arguing in chat rooms and forums with these people, but to no avail.
These troublemakers were professional trolls – you present facts and logic, they pretend not to see, only clinging to their twisted reasoning while resorting to sarcasm and personal attacks. Once you get heated arguing with them, you’ve fallen into their trap.
The fighting between groups turned GPL’s chat room toxic. Despite exciting matches, nobody discussed the actual games, just arguing, greatly diminishing the viewing experience.
Pei Qian wasn’t angry at all – quite the opposite, he was happy.
Dragon Yu Group and Mr. Zhao finally came through – so touching!
Tomorrow at 5 AM he could watch FV club’s match. Once FV lost, the internet would definitely explode!
Though Pei Qian didn’t think this minor controversy would affect GPL’s profits, something was better than nothing!
Pei Qian decided to rest early tonight, waking at 5 AM tomorrow to watch the FV club’s match.
…
…
1 PM Los Angeles time on the 7th, 5 AM Beijing time on the 8th – IOI World Finals quarterfinals officially began!
Four BO5 matches total over Saturday and Sunday, Los Angeles time, with the FV team first up, facing the European club CEM, who had previously dominated domestic teams in the group stage.
CEM was another established powerhouse like FRY, showing massive dominance in groups, finishing 4-0 and completely crushing their domestic group opponents.
All FV club staff waited backstage, Wu Yue and Manager Lu showing slight nervousness.
Though they fully trusted their players’ abilities, esports victories weren’t absolute, especially against strong opponents – FV didn’t have a guaranteed victory.
Plus, this was offline, with European teams having a home advantage. Whether players would lose composure from crowd cheers was uncertain.
“They’re coming out!”
Someone shouted, and everyone turned to the backstage screen.
Simultaneously, thunderous applause and cheers erupted in the venue!
CEM entered first, all five members wearing confident smiles, waving enthusiastically to fans, soaking up applause and cheers.
Next came the FV club, receiving a similarly warm reception – cheers slightly lower than CEM but still passionate.
After all, FV’s consistent Twitter activity and interactions with major clubs had earned decent recognition among foreign players.
However, foreign streaming platforms’ comments weren’t as kind – endless “3:0” and “cn lol noob.”
Most foreign viewers found FV entertaining, but didn’t respect their competitive skills.
In most viewers’ minds, this would be a one-sided match where FV would struggle to win even one game.
FV players couldn’t see the chat and remained unaffected, simply enjoying the live cheers while preparing to win over twenty thousand spectators with their performance.
Quarterfinals had less fluff – matches quickly entered the pick/ban phase.
…
Meanwhile, Pei Qian had just woken up.
Turning on the TV with chips and cola on the couch, he caught both teams’ draft phase.
Chat remained chaotic with players fighting furiously.
Some mocked GOG as “self-entertainment,” others constantly spammed “swim back home,” FV supporters, and meaningless number spams blocking the screen, completely ruining the viewing experience.
Yesterday’s GPL opening had Dragon Yu Group’s hired trolls angering GOG players, who retaliated in today’s IOL match.
Result: unwatchable chat in both games.
Pei Qian was speechless. Just as he prepared to disable chat, a string of question marks appeared:
“?????”
“FV that stubborn? Not banning Chaos Fate?”
“Four group stage games released, all crushed, and they’re releasing it again?”
“Are FV unaware of this hero’s strength because they can’t get scrims? But they should’ve watched the group stage at least, right?”
“I get it – maybe FV knows they’ll get 3- 0ed anyway, so releasing Chaos Fate gives them an excuse, making it look like they lost due to draft problems, not skill. FV playing 4D chess here!”
“Might as well close stream, grab breakfast, come back in 30 minutes for game two!”
“Classic FV!”
“I can already see the script – Chaos Fate farms 20 minutes, then three teamfights end the game.”
“Who’s FV’s coach? How can they release this? Brain damaged or did LA’s luxury conditions rust their brain?”
“Coach seems to be… Old Zhou? Wait, isn’t that DGE club’s former support player?”
“Huh? A GOG player coaching IOL? Ridiculous, no wonder they released Chaos Fate! Bro, this isn’t GOG!”
Previously, multiple groups fought in chat with repetitive phrases, attacking each other, like a battlefield. But once bans ended and CEM locked in “Chaos Fate,” chat instantly unified.
Everyone wrote off the FV club!
Many only then noticed Zhou Pengyuan’s coaching draft.
As a former GOG star, Zhou Pengyuan hadn’t appeared publicly since arriving in Los Angeles.
This was his first coaching appearance, immediately releasing the version’s consensus purple-side permaban Chaos Fate – quite the introduction.
Pei Qian, curious, searched “Chaos Fate” on Qiandu.
This was IOL’s recent new hero, appearing as a dark cloud, a ranged character with barely-better-than-melee range. Its strength lay in late-game crowd control, tankiness, and damage output – nearly unbeatable once teamfights began.
Released four times in groups, every team that allowed it got demolished.
Everyone assumed this hero would be permanently banned, never appearing in eliminations. Yet FV released it immediately.
Pei Qian perked up – nice job FV, way to go!
This reminded him of legendary tales like “releasing Mordekaiser three times” and “releasing Galio five times” – pure stubbornness and apparent disinterest in winning.
Pei Qian munched chips while continuing to watch.