Seeing this post, Mr. Pei’s first reaction was bewilderment.

Using GOG tactics to play ioi?

That seemed impossible?

Actually, there were signs of this during the qualifiers, but back then this playstyle had held FV Team back!

These players were all star players who had been playing ioi for a long time, yet it was precisely because they forcefully used GOG’s playstyle that they had to battle through ten grueling games. If they had used their previously proficient mainstream tactics, they might have played two fewer matches.

Mr. Pei thought this method of practicing Nine Yin Manual backwards would definitely weaken FV Team’s strength, which is why he encouraged them to keep going down this dead end.

Yet… practicing Nine Yin Manual backwards actually worked?

Mr. Pei hadn’t paid much attention to FV Team’s training situation, so his first reaction to this post was thinking it was nonsense. But then he reconsidered – FV Team had already achieved two 3-0 victories, which clearly deviated severely from his expectations!

So where exactly did things go wrong?

Mr. Pei hurriedly examined the post carefully.

The poster was an ioi high-rank player and former professional team analyst with deep understanding of ioi. But as ioi’s market gradually shrank, he had switched to doing GOG review shows for a living, which had recently taken off.

And this time, he obviously saw the heat from ioi World Finals and happened upon his field of expertise, which prompted this post.

“Let me carefully analyze these matches for everyone. The tactics FV Team used actually all appeared in GOG competitions, and FV Team also used them in domestic qualifiers!”

“It’s just that the effect wasn’t great during qualifiers, but they dominated at Worlds, so many people instinctively didn’t connect the two.”

“I believe there are two main reasons: first, ioi World Championship version changes made its gameplay converge with GOG, giving these tactics more room to shine; second, FV Team was actually constantly evolving. The details and execution of these tactics greatly improved, which is why they achieved completely different results…”

The poster had clearly put considerable effort into the analysis, examining everything from hero selection, team composition, resource management, and tactical decisions in-game.

The final conclusion: FV Team’s playstyle hadn’t actually changed from qualifiers to Worlds.

The reason they went from pecking at each other with domestic teams to crushing world-class teams was fundamentally due to ioi version changes and FV Team’s dramatically improved proficiency with these tactics!

Finally, the poster summarized his views.

“In conclusion, we can draw three points.”

“First, FV Team has an extremely powerful tactical analysis and data analysis team, plus a strong practice team. Otherwise, they couldn’t have perfected tactical details to this extent in such a short time, and their combat power couldn’t have made such a leap!”

“Second, the convergence between ioi’s new version and GOG’s design philosophy is a major reason for the ‘version meta’ change. This shows Finger Company’s design team to some extent acknowledged the view that ‘ioi’s design philosophy lags behind GOG’s,’ so they modified the game.”

“Third, the view that ‘GOG competitions are just Chinese self-entertainment’ can be discarded now – it’s a complete joke. Based on current facts, GOG is comprehensively superior to ioi in both design philosophy and team tactical levels. Otherwise, Zhou Pengyuan couldn’t have transformed FV into such an oppressive and dominant team using GOG training methods in such a short time!”

“In fact, the other two domestic teams’ group stage eliminations weren’t entirely about their strength, but also importantly their insufficient version adaptation ability, only knowing how to imitate foreign teams’ playstyles. When you learn from others while having inferior game understanding and no operational advantage, how can you win?”

“FV has proven through actions that it’s not foreign teams that are strong, but domestic ioi teams that are too weak! GOG tactics slightly modified can reach finals and challenge for championships at ioi Global Finals – doesn’t this precisely show that ioi teams are all mediocre, with no competitive level worth mentioning?”

“If FV Team really wins the championship, everyone can stop watching ioi matches and just watch GPL instead. The competitive levels are completely on different planes!”

“Finally, one minor issue: clearly, Zhou Pengyuan as FV Team’s head coach played a decisive role in tactical planning. But Zhou Pengyuan went to coach DGE club after retirement, so why would he accompany FV Team to Los Angeles?”

“Everyone can think about who made this appointment.”

This post exploded shortly after posting, receiving hundreds of upvotes and countless reposts!

The poster presented all solid content, logical arguments, and proposed a highly controversial viewpoint: GOG’s competitive level actually far exceeds ioi’s!

Previously, water armies attacking GOG used simple logic: GOG domestic teams dominate, which means foreigners don’t take it seriously – it has no substance, foreign teams have higher competitive levels.

But now, with FV Team cutting through opponents like vegetables under GOG coaching, the claim that foreign teams are stronger naturally crumbled!

In other words, GOG tactics not only lead the world but also lead ioi’s entire esports scene!

This argument actually established GPL as the world’s highest competitive level esports event.

Suddenly, those water armies always spamming “self-entertainment” went quiet. When similar voices occasionally appeared, they were immediately attacked by masses.

GOG players all stood proud, watching FV Team match replays while battling online with those belittling GOG, outputting at full power with the tailwind!

Mr. Pei was dumbfounded.

Pan Ying spouting nonsense was one thing, but why were viewers also pinning blame on him?

In the comments below this post, many players discussed various points, yet analyzed from every angle, they believed the top contributor was actually Mr. Pei!

While Zhou Pengyuan as head coach certainly deserved credit, he was DGE club’s head coach and technically had no qualification to coach FV Team.

But Mr. Pei, who made the seemingly absurd yet brilliant decision to “let GOG head coach lead,” was clearly FV Team’s primary benefactor enabling their success!

Mr. Pei silently finished reading the entire post, momentarily unsure what to say.

The finals haven’t even been played yet, and I’m already carrying the blame??

…

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles.

In one of Finger Company headquarters’ conference rooms, Cretian and Zhao Xuming both looked grave, each with many troubles on their minds.

From an outside perspective, the ioi Global Finals had been extremely successful so far.

Great popularity, hot topics – hadn’t the goals been achieved? What was there to be dissatisfied with?

But casual observers only saw surface-level heat. Cretian and Zhao Xuming, being in the thick of it, could feel the undercurrents stirring below.

Longyu Group’s ioi partnership department had been monitoring domestic reactions to ioi Global Finals throughout, with this information being reported immediately to Zhao Xuming in Los Angeles.

What troubled Zhao Xuming most was that his previous schemes to elevate ioi by putting down GOG had completely failed!

To create some sense of superiority among ioi players, Zhao Xuming had water armies heavily promote that GOG Global Invitational was Tenda Group’s self-entertainment, while ioi World Championships had higher competitive levels.

Originally this narrative had spread and achieved obfuscating effects, but FV Team’s victories made these claims collapse!

All the water armies hired and discussions about GOG vs ioi competitive levels ended up benefiting others.

Now most people believed GOG had higher competitive levels and were more willing to watch GPL matches!

This created larger obstacles for Longyu Group promoting ioi domestically – a classic case of shooting oneself in the foot.

Cretian’s current situation was also quite difficult.

Online discussions about “ioi new version converging with GOG design” dealt a severe blow to him as a designer.

Actually, even before ioi World Finals when the new version just launched, such voices appeared online.

Back then many veteran players felt uncomfortable with new version changes, losing the game’s original flavor, protesting online.

But Cretian insisted on the new version changes, and these modifications indeed worked, quickly making players say “true fragrance.”

Even when occasional GOG players came claiming ioi copied GOG, it didn’t generate widespread reaction due to lack of evidence.

If you claim ioi’s new version copied GOG, show the proof!

Even if ioi’s new version accelerated pace and intensified resource competition, you couldn’t say this copied GOG – fundamentally they remained two completely different games.

But now, FV Team actually used GOG tactics to achieve good results at ioi Global Finals, making things quite meaningful.

Whether Finger Company referenced GOG gameplay when designing ioi’s new version, everyone had their own answer now.

This dealt a heavy blow to ioi players’ confidence and pride.

Previously many felt ioi was harder and a foreign game, giving them inexplicable superiority over GOG.

But now suddenly discovering ioi had moved toward GOG’s direction – wasn’t this admitting their gameplay design was inferior?

Thus, Cretian, who had fully pushed for ioi gameplay changes, would likely bear the brunt and become Finger Company’s internal scapegoat!

From current circumstances, while ioi Global Finals had high popularity, it seemed to concentrate around FV Team. If FV Team really won the championship, whether this finals would benefit Finger Company more or FV Team and Tenda Group more became uncertain!

Hosting this Global Finals had cost Finger Company dearly and bore pressure from Dayak Group. If they truly became someone else’s stepping stone, no one could bear such failure.

So both Zhao Xuming and Cretian looked grave, deeply worried about their futures.

Zhao Xuming refused to sit idle. After long contemplation, he said: “We can’t continue like this.”

“There’s still one week until the final. We must do something! Absolutely cannot let FV Team win the championship!”

Cretian glanced at him: “What can we do? We’re the hosts.”

Dirty tricks were impossible. Once exposed, Finger Company and Dayak Group would be completely disgraced. Such high-risk, low-reward behavior only fools would attempt.

Zhao Xuming replied: “Of course we can’t affect competition fairness. But… privately sending one or two designers as individuals to coach FRY Team, that should be fine, right?”

“Mr. Pei has already shown his hand. We can’t just sit here waiting for doom!”