Chapter 6: Youth Training. “I Have a Lot of Money”
VEX’s meeting room was next to the training room. It wasn’t large, and the electronic screen at the front used for projecting match footage took up most of the space—likely to prevent players from zoning out during reviews.
Zuo Chi brought the USB drive and walked into the training room with Ning Luzhao, opening the match footage from that day.
Taking advantage of the video loading gap, Zuo Chi asked, “I watched your interview after the match that day. Actually, you didn’t need to take all the team’s problems onto yourself.”
A flash of daze appeared on Ning Luzhao’s face, as if he hadn’t expected Zuo Chi to bring this up. Then, he lowered his eyes and gave a very light nod.
The video finished loading. Zuo Chi had already watched these three rounds back and forth many times. He remembered the timing of every key node and dragged the progress bar directly to the BP (Ban and Pick) interface.
“In the first round, our lineup was too weak in the early game. Four cores needed gold to power up in the mid-to-late game. ZAP’s jungle and top had high early-game strength, and their bot lane also had the advantage, so they chose to invade the jungle at Level 1. Because of the hero match-ups, it was difficult for you to defend the jungle.”
About forty seconds into the game, ZAP’s mid, top, and jungle had already entered their blue buff area and successfully snatched it away.
Zuo Chi played the opening scene twice. “When the BP was being made, did you guys communicate about defending the jungle?”
“We did, but ZAP’s mid and solo lane cleared waves faster and hit Level 2 first. Our team’s rotation was a step too slow.”
“What if you had done a lane swap?”
A ripple of emotion appeared in the depths of Ning Luzhao’s phoenix eyes. He followed up in a low voice: “If we had swapped lanes at the start… even though ZAP’s solo laner is strong in lane, they have no displacement at Level 1 and short range. If our marksman and support went to the top lane to face the solo laner, they could have cleared the minions first to hit Level 2 and poked down the enemy’s health. Then they could have helped defend the jungle. Without the solo laner there, ZAP wouldn’t have dared to invade, and we could have secured the blue buff at the start.”
Players who could play professionally in the league were one in ten thousand. Most of the time, a coach only needed to provide a line of strategic thinking, and the players themselves would realize the problem.
Zuo Chi gave a sound of approval and dragged the progress bar.
“After that, during normal laning, our solo laner got hot-headed and ignored pings, getting caught. The marksman’s last-hitting was also poor; out of four minions, he missed two. I won’t go into detail about personal mechanics… let’s talk about this dragon fight at the five-minute mark.”
“Actually, there was no need to contest this dragon with ZAP. It was the peak of their lineup’s strength, and they were already leading by a thousand gold. Unless ZAP made a major mistake themselves, it was unlikely we would win that teamfight. If you don’t have at least a fifty percent chance of winning a fight in the early game, consider trading resources. For example, while five of them are taking the dragon and the blue jungle just respawned, you could have cleared out their entire blue side and let the others clear the mid-lane wave.”
Ning Luzhao’s gaze lingered on the positions of both sides on the map for a moment. “We wasted too much time posturing with ZAP at the dragon pit. Because the mid wave wasn’t cleared, the Tier 1 mid tower lost HP too quickly.”
“Correct. Once the Tier 1 mid tower is gone, it becomes much easier for ZAP to enter the jungle and flank the carries.” Zuo Chi nodded. “We collapsed completely in the early game, the gold gap widened too much, and naturally, we were just steamrolled.”
The review of the three rounds took over three hours.
In reality, Land made very few mechanical errors in the matches. However, the professional league in this world had only started a few years ago, and many lineup systems and macro strategies had not yet appeared. Consequently, VEX’s key decision-making often ran into issues, and they were led by the nose by ZAP.
Furthermore, the other players often hesitated during teamfights, meaning no one followed up on Land’s initiations, making it look like he was constantly feeding.
After finishing the entire review, Zuo Chi closed the recording and downed a full glass of water before finally feeling his stomach growling with hunger.
VEX had its own cafeteria; they should be able to get lunch at this hour.
Zuo Chi tidied up the tables and chairs in the meeting room. “I’ve reviewed all of VEX’s Autumn matches and saved them on the USB. If you want to watch them, why don’t you keep the USB for now?”
“Okay.”
“Let’s go, let’s eat first. After eating, I’ll look through the youth training data. If there are suitable candidates, we’ll hurry to hold tryouts.”
“Okay.” Ning Luzhao went silent for a while before suddenly speaking. “Coach, why… did you come to coach VEX?”
“I saw VEX was hiring online before graduation, submitted a resume, passed the written test and interview, signed the contract, and came.” Zuo Chi raised an eyebrow and teased, “Why? After hearing my review, do you feel like I’m overqualified for VEX?”
“Yes.”
Zuo Chi dazed for a second, his arm nearly hitting the meeting room door.
Land seemed like such a quiet kid; surely he wouldn’t make this kind of dry joke?
He carefully looked at the other’s expression and couldn’t find a hint of a jest.
Ning Luzhao’s tone carried a bit of apology: “I originally thought… the coach was one of management’s people.”
Zuo Chi quickly realized. The internal strife in VEX’s management was common knowledge in the esports circle, and there were even rumors that they planned to sell the team and withdraw investment.
Under such circumstances, a young coach who just graduated seemed much more likely to be a “nepotism hire” looking to pad his resume than someone truly there to lead the players.
“After returning to the base last night, I looked through some of the materials on the coach’s USB, and combined with your review just now…”
Zuo Chi laughed. “It’s fine, I understand what you mean. Regardless of whether VEX gets sold in the future, we just need to focus on our own results. Besides, given how I looked after drinking last night, it’s normal for you to misunderstand—I think I smell braised beef.”
“The braised beef noodles in the cafeteria aren’t bad.”
“Let’s go. How can we have the energy to train without being full?”
As he walked out of the meeting room, he heard the system notification sound in his mind.
[Congratulations to the Host for completing the Newbie Mission!]
[Mission rewards: “Coaching Expression +10, Coaching Authority +10, Coaching Professionalism +10” have been credited.]
[Current Main Mission 1: “Form the Best Five-Man Lineup”: A genius coach’s fame is inseparable from excellent players. Please recruit five players to form a starting roster before the start of next year’s Spring Split.]
[Mission Reward: Coaching BP Ability +10, Ultimate Draw Luck for the Spring Split.]
[Mission Progress: 1/5.]
Zuo Chi focused and checked himself. After the mission rewards were issued, he didn’t feel any specific change. There was none of that “sudden flash of inspiration” or “body filled with power” described in novels.
For a second, he suspected the system was just “painting a cake” (making empty promises).
However, the “Ultimate Draw Luck for the Spring Split” reward seemed very practical.
After all, for a newly formed team, there was a huge difference between being placed in a “Group of Death” full of powerhouses or a “Group of Rookies” in the group stages.
Manager Li sat on a long bench in the cafeteria, secretly peeking at the two people sitting across from him.
For some reason, he felt that just a few hours ago, Coach Zuo and Land were still in a state of “unfamiliarity,” like strangers, but now there seemed to be a subtle change.
For instance, now Coach Zuo was complaining that there was too little meat in the beef noodles, and Land nodded in agreement.
Furthermore, while eating his noodles, Coach Zuo placed his phone next to Land, and the two of them were looking at youth training data together, discussing from time to time.
Could it be…
Manager Li sucked in a breath of cold air: Could it be that VEX really lucked out and recruited a coach with maximum charisma?
Zuo Chi flipped through the youth training data on his phone one by one. The training stats and video recordings were very detailed, but as he watched, he felt like the beef noodles in his mouth were losing their flavor.
Esports teams with deep foundations would have dedicated teams responsible for observing and selecting youth players to ensure the team had fresh blood every year. However, he currently had no time and even fewer hands to conduct detailed, long-term inspections. He could only use the system to quickly filter through and see if there were any good seeds to pick up as a “bargain.”
He went through the youth players one by one. Grey entry, white entry, white entry, grey-grey-blue-white-white-white…
His eyes hurt.
Zuo Chi massaged his temples, placed the empty bowl in the sink for the cafeteria auntie, and said to Ning Luzhao, “Land, you go to the training room first. I’ll slowly look through these materials some more.”
Looking across all the youth training camps, there were hundreds of trainees. After filtering out the minors who couldn’t play professionally yet, he finally selected only two players with golden entries and eight with purple entries.
And most of them were already reserved by other teams; VEX was definitely no match in a bidding war.
Zuo Chi decisively gave up and began to watch the training videos of the remaining few youth players in detail.
Manager Li sat with Zuo Chi in the corner of the training room, only seeing their new coach quickly skim past photo after photo. He would linger on some for a moment, while on others, Zuo Chi would swipe away before Li could even read the name.
…Is picking people like this really reliable?
Manager Li couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.
But the team’s results had been terrible for several seasons now; there was no room left to fall. Might as well treat a dead horse as if it were alive.
Several hours later.
Zuo Chi exhaled slowly, looking at the last remaining youth player on the computer screen.
[Name: Wang Fugui. ID: million. Position: Solo Lane.]
[Purple Entry: Super Big Heart (To him, slander and praise are like passing clouds; they don’t affect his mindset. Match nerves simply don’t exist, as if he’s missing a nerve in his brain).]
[Blue Entry: Stronger Against the Strong (Weaker against the weak. His form depends on his opponent. When he’s “godly,” he crushes champions; when he’s “ghostly,” he’s worse than a random casual).]
[Purple Entry: I Have a Lot of Money (Literal meaning. Recruiting him is equivalent to recruiting a ‘Sugar Daddy’ for the team).]
This youth player’s ranking in the training camp was not at the top. He had won championships in a few minor tournaments but was also eliminated in the first round several times. It was likely that his form was very unstable, so currently no one was interested. His transfer price was very cheap—only 500,000 yuan.
“Stronger Against the Strong” showed that the opponent’s talent ceiling was very high. As for stability, that could be trained.
Zuo Chi swore he was absolutely not interested just because the guy was a “Sugar Daddy.”
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