Chapter 19: Shameless. Even Blushing Looking at It Myself
Because the VEX official Weibo had been silent for too long, by the time Zuo Chi had finished editing the photos, the fans and gossip-loving netizens had already sent them to the trending topics.
[#Where is your welcome Weibo? @VEX Esports Team#]
Zuo Chi quickly posted everything that needed to be posted and added a lucky draw link: reposting and following could enter a draw for ten signed photos of the players.
[Ten signed photos?! So generous. I admit I was a bit too loud just now. Sorry, VEX.]
[Pick me! Pick me! I want Zhuo-god Wall’s signed photo!]
[Wait, you guys are too easy to appease. A few signed photos and you forgive them?]
[What else can we do? The transfer is already a done deal. We can only pray VEX can show some spine in the Spring Split. Don’t go out in the first round, otherwise, our Zhuo-god will really be flamed to death by the haters.]
[VEX bought quite a few rookies this time, but why isn’t there a single jungler?]
[You’ve discovered a key point.]
[Meaning, that trash Land can continue to start? Look at how he fed in that game against ZAP; he can still start?!]
[Old VEX fans are heartbroken. Seeing Wall transfer over made me happy for a moment, thinking VEX might actually stand up. But Land continuing as a starter… our Spring Split is over.]
[VEX suddenly updated so many Weibo posts. You guys go look at the one announcing the new coach.]
[“Unique game insights, versatile tactical style, skilled at uncovering player potential, match reviews are deep and clear…” Blech, I’m gonna throw up. This coach sure can talk.]
[Coaches who have led teams to championships don’t even dare to brag like this. What results does he have?]
[Is VEX trying to eat “negative-fame” traffic?]
[Since they can’t get results in matches, they start putting on a show on Weibo, huh?]
[VEX’s configuration: old, trash, weak, and small. There’s going to be a lot of fun to watch in the Spring Split.]
The transfer period had just begun. There weren’t many teams that announced player changes as early as VEX. Most teams were still in the player trial stage, so viewers who followed the Arena Professional League, fans of other teams, and individual player fans all flocked over to watch the excitement.
There were those analyzing VEX’s new starters, those flaming Land, those demanding a change in coach, and those feeling sorry for Wall… they managed to push the comment count to five digits.
In the training room, Zuo Chi was feeling numb.
The good news: VEX had never been this popular. One should know that losing a game in the Autumn Split only garnered a few hundred comments.
The bad news: He had forgotten to save the modified version of his own Weibo post! Which meant the version that went out was the one Land wrote, the one praising him as the world’s number one coach.
No wonder netizens thought he was shameless and trying to get attention.
He was blushing himself just looking at it.
But Ning Luzhao wrote it so seriously; how could that be wrong!
Zuo Chi decided that what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.
Fugui: “Coach Zuo, is the Weibo posted? Is it posted?”
“It’s posted, it’s posted. The popularity is very high. Many fans are saying they have high expectations for our performance in next year’s Spring Split.”
Expectations that we can bravely seize the last-place spot.
You just tell me if they’re “expectations” or not.
The greatest merit of the players he chose was that they were simple-minded. Fugui didn’t doubt him and grinned so wide his face wrinkled: “Really?! Hehehe… the fans are too enthusiastic.”
Wu Yang and Beyond also had somewhat joyful smiles on their faces.
Only Wall and Land, the two “old veterans” who had been in matches, guessed the truth. They neither refuted nor agreed. Zuo Chi gave them a look, and they reached a tacit understanding.
“Break time isn’t here yet. Everyone go back to your seats and continue training—Wu Yang, Wall, practice your crowd control chaining again. Fugui, your last-hitting is the worst among the few of you; adjust that yourself. Land, today it’s your turn to dive Beyond…”
The most important things during the transfer period were: first, trialing and buying players; second, scheduling scrims with other teams.
The busiest scrim schedule naturally belonged to ZAP, who had just won the Autumn Split championship. Scrims with other top-four teams were also very hard to book.
After all, with 32 teams in total, everyone wanted to scrim with strong teams to learn from experience and review their shortcomings.
Zuo Chi asked the ZAP coach and, as expected, received a reply saying [The scrim schedule for the next week is already full].
He wasn’t picky. Whichever team had time, he would schedule a scrim with them. If he couldn’t get the starters, the second team was fine too.
After scheduling like this for about a week, Zuo Chi sensed something was wrong.
Because his team kept winning.
Manager Li also sensed something was wrong. On the seventh day of consecutive wins, he specifically pulled Zuo Chi for a meeting, speaking earnestly: “Coach Zuo, I see we’ve been winning scrims constantly lately. This, this isn’t right, is it? Since the Arena Professional League began, no team with a scrim winning streak has ever come to a good end.”
From a metaphysical perspective, a team with a scrim winning streak never wins the championship.
From a scientific perspective, although winning games in scrims can also reveal shortcomings, if you don’t lose a single game, where are you supposed to find your weaknesses to improve?
Zuo Chi analyzed seriously: “It’s probably because we haven’t scheduled any strong teams for scrims lately.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but the top eight teams were all very busy. He had contacted them several times, and only one team had played a BO5 with them.
“I’ll work harder.” He promised. “I’ll try my best to get a scrim with ZAP—the kids have been winning these few days and are getting a bit cocky. It would be a good thing to lose a bit.”
Manager Li nodded, then thought and added: “Regardless, winning scrims is better than losing them. Coach Zuo, before you came to VEX, you don’t know the bitter days I had—for several splits in a row, even if we won just one scrim, the team would be happy enough to go out and celebrate with a meal!”
“Celebrating with a meal isn’t necessary… it takes up training time.”
Manager Li: “…”
They deserved to have a scrim winning streak!
“Fine, Coach Zuo. I am ten thousand times at ease leaving the players’ training to you. As for me, I’ll try my best to pull some business for the players. Even if I can’t find endorsements, it would be good even if we can just sign with a streaming platform.”
Zuo Chi’s mind moved, thinking of Fang Tong.
His team matters were busy, and now he only chatted with the other every three or four days.
Fang Tong had mentioned signing a streaming contract several times, “complaining” explicitly and implicitly that now that Zuo Chi was a head coach, he was so busy he took two or three hours to reply to WeChat messages. Even an ancient emperor holding court and reviewing memorials wasn’t this busy; he definitely didn’t have time to continue his streaming career.
His streaming career had met an untimely end, but the players had time to stream, right?
When he had some free time, he would go ask Fang Tong if he was interested in signing a few players.
The top priority was still scheduling scrims.
He persevered and once again opened the WeChat chat with the ZAP coach.
[Zuo Chi: Sorry, I’m here to bother you again.]
[Zuo Chi: Does ZAP have time to schedule a scrim with us lately? Handshake.jpg]
When teams played scrims, the players would open rooms and pull people in themselves. It was inevitable that some players’ accounts didn’t hide their match history, allowing people to check the scrim results of various teams.
There was also a blogger specifically dedicated to statistics of scrim results. Every day, they would post the summarized data on major platforms, attracting many team fans and casual match observers to watch the fun.
[An Overview of Today’s Scrim Results (10 teams are on break; no scrims today)
ZAP vs BLUE, ZAP wins 3:1
KING vs THE, THE wins 3:2
…
VEX vs ASH, VEX wins 3:0
Several teams, including ZAP, have changed their starters multiple times in scrims, likely still trialing suitable players.
ZAP still hasn’t selected a satisfactory jungler because their coach has been running to the youth training camps lately specifically to trial junglers. If they haven’t bought a jungler who can replace Every by the end of the transfer period, Every will continue to start in the Spring Split.
According to gossip, VEX has been on a scrim winning streak for the past few days, even beating a top-eight team. It’s suspected that VEX’s restructuring really has a miraculous effect. They might become the biggest dark horse of the Spring Split.]
[ZAP has probably trialed every listed jungler by now, right? Still haven’t found a satisfactory one?]
[You guys all say Every is trash, but in reality, talented junglers are scarce in the league. Since Every could win a championship, it’s impossible for him to be that trash.]
[In an unnoticed corner, VEX is on a seven-game scrim winning streak.]
[Welcome the new Scrim God to the throne!!!]
[What’s the point of a seven-game scrim winning streak? Look at the teams they played—trash teams. They’ll be put in their place once they meet ZAP.]
[Breaking news: Every just said on stream that there’s a scrim tomorrow and he’ll be playing. Everyone guess who the opponent is?]
[BLUE? THE?]
[It’s VEX.]
[Doesn’t ZAP never scrim with teams below the top eight? Why can VEX scrim with ZAP?]
[After all, Wall and Beyond both transferred to VEX from the ZAP second team. They must have some connections, right?]
Zuo Chi’s WeChat chat interface.
[ZAP Coach: Coach Zuo, you’ve asked me this question for several days in a row.]
[Zuo Chi: Just asking again. Sweating.jpg]
[ZAP Coach: Our scrim schedule is really full. Unless you’re willing to wait until after 10:00 PM tomorrow, we can squeeze in one game.]
[Zuo Chi: Even if it’s just one game, we are willing.]
[ZAP Coach: …]
[ZAP Coach: Only one game. Our players have been working hard in scrims these few days; they need to rest after 10:00 PM.]
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