Chapter 72: Spring Split Grand Finals (Part 1) Pre-match Trash Talk…
[Zuo Chi: Who got 4 and who got 2?]
[storm: ZAP got 2 points, of course.]
[Zuo Chi: Massive improvement?]
[storm: Coach Zuo, do you not follow the World Championship much? Last year at Worlds, ZAP was drawn into the same group as H Country’s Spring Split runner-up during the group stage. The Worlds group stages are all BO5. ZAP got completely blood-bathed and swept 3:0. Now they managed to take 2 points in a BO7 scrim, so of course it’s considered a massive improvement.]
[Zuo Chi: I’m feeling a sense of crisis.]
[storm: Well, they’re just scrims. You can’t entirely disbelieve them, but you shouldn’t blindly trust them either. I feel like VEX’s current form is excellent. There’s no need to go schedule scrims with H Country teams and ask for trouble.]
[Zuo Chi: …]
Not long after his chat with Storm, the results of ZAP’s scrim against the H Country runner-up spread to everyone’s ears.
ZAP’s fans were jubilant. Taking two points from the H Country runner-up meant that ZAP had a very good chance of breaking into the Top 8 at this year’s World Championship. Top 8 was a very respectable result; at the very least, it had been a long time since a Hua Country team had achieved it.
As for the domestic Spring Split Grand Finals, the competition was nowhere near as fierce as Worlds.
For a time, the internet was split. Some praised ZAP’s rapid improvement, while others mocked ZAP for having no backbone and being satisfied with merely taking 2 points…
Zuo Chi focused solely on watching the cubs train, ensuring every tiny detail they could nitpick was refined to its absolute best.
The day before the Grand Finals, he secretly poured the system-provided “Rejuvenation Potion” into the players’ water cups. If it could guarantee the cubs a good night’s sleep on the eve of the finals, then the potion was well worth it.
The following afternoon, they set off from the hotel two hours early, heading for the Haishi Esports Center.
Although the Grand Finals were still held at this venue, two new segments had been added: the Opening Ceremony and the Halftime Show. The Opening Ceremony included the player entrance and pre-match trash talk, while the Halftime Show featured several ancient-style singers invited to perform musical numbers after the first four games.
They arrived early primarily to rehearse the Opening Ceremony sequence.
A staff member guided them through the entrance route: “When the time comes, the players will walk up to here and stop. When you hear your ID called over the speakers, take a step forward. The camera will pan to you. You can wave to the audience or strike a cool pose, whatever you like.”
“After both teams are introduced, the commentators will announce, ‘Players of both teams, please proceed to the match booths to prepare.’ You can all head to the booths then. The entrance process is very simple and rarely goes wrong. The main thing is the pre-match trash talk segment. For this Grand Final, every player has to speak—you guys prepared in advance, right?”
No one at VEX remembered this requirement.
Fugui muttered, “I even thought about this right before bed last night. But for some reason, the moment my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep. Slept like a log…”
“Me too! I thought I’d have insomnia last night, but I actually slept incredibly well. I didn’t even hear you snoring.”
“Damn it! Who was snoring? Wu Yang, don’t you dare slander me!”
Wall intervened between the two: “Let’s figure out what to say for the trash talk first.”
“God Zhuo, you have it easy. Just say you’re going to violently beat up your former team—and Beyond can tell ZAP that keeping him on the second team and then selling him was the worst mistake they ever made!”
Beyond chuckled, but after laughing, his tone turned a bit apprehensive. “I… I might be too embarrassed to say that…”
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? It’s pre-match trash talk. The main point is to just spout whatever nonsense comes to mind. Whoever gets red-faced and tilted listening to it loses.”
Wu Yang: “Then help me think of something too.”
Fugui patted his chest: “No problem! I’ll come up with all the trash talk for our team. I absolutely won’t drop the ball.”
“Let me interject,” Zuo Chi reminded them. “When you’re done with your trash talk and it’s the other team’s turn to speak, I want all of you to put on your noise-canceling headsets. You can joke around or hum a song, but whatever you do, do not listen to what they’re saying.”
ZAP were veterans at pre-match trash talk.
It wasn’t that he lacked confidence in his cubs’ mental fortitude, but he worried that exchanging barbs would progressively escalate the hostility. The fans of both teams in the audience already couldn’t stand each other. If they heard the trash talk reeking of gunpowder, a fight might literally break out on the spot.
After all, there had been precedents where fans screamed “xxx is guaranteed to lose” or “xxx get out of the league” right to players’ faces during matches, and security had to step in to prevent a major incident.
At 6:00 PM, inside the Haishi Esports Center, the ten-thousand-seat arena was packed to the brim.
Brilliant lights flashed, and the music swelled with intensity.
“Welcome to the scene of the Arena Professional League Spring Split Grand Finals!!! After fierce battles and weathering the storm, the two teams standing on the Grand Finals stage today represent the highest level of competition in the Hua Country region this spring!!!”
“Today, will it be the continuation of a dynasty and the legacy of consecutive championships, or the birth of a new king and the dawn of a brand new era?!”
“Now, please welcome the first team to enter the arena—the new spark igniting the prairie this Spring Split, the dark horse squad that has created miracles all the way here, VEX!!!”
Spotlights followed the five players dressed in black and red team uniforms as they slowly walked onto the stage.
The giant screen displayed the imagery of a black phoenix being reborn in fire, perfectly complementing the blazing flames printed across VEX’s uniforms. The phoenix cried out to the heavens, ready to spread its wings and soar.
Every time the commentators announced a player, the audience roared their ID, followed by thunderous applause.
“VEX! Invincible! Unstoppable!”
“Land, let’s go! Take the heads of both their carries!”
“Sea—the team-fight initiating Mage King!”
The commentators waited for the crowd’s cheers to slightly subside: “The second team to enter the arena—they are the defending champions who secured back-to-back titles last year, returning with overwhelming force to the finals this Spring Split—ZAP!!!”
ZAP’s team logo was a lightning bolt. Projections of their five players appeared on the big screen, standing atop a mountain peak amidst a thunderstorm, facing the wind and rain.
“ZAP for the three-peat today!!!”
“Every, prove that you are the number one Jungle King!!”
“The players from both teams have finished their entrances! What kind of fierce, glorious battle will they bring us today?! Who will lift the championship trophy, the highest honor of the Spring Split?! Regardless of the outcome, simply standing on the Grand Finals stage makes them all warriors! Now, players of both teams, please enter the match booths to prepare!”
“To all our fans and viewers, both online and offline, please hold your breath—the countdown is at 30 seconds! In 30 seconds, join the players as we dive into the first game of the day!”
As the countdown timer on the big screen hit “0,” all the players were seated in their match booths, their equipment thoroughly tested and ready.
“As everyone knows, our Arena Professional League Grand Finals features a highly anticipated segment—pre-match trash talk. We can clearly hear the incredible enthusiasm from the audience, and the cheering from both fanbases refuses to yield. So, what words do the players have for their opponents today? Let’s hand the mic over to VEX first. VEX’s veteran, Wall, takes the mic.”
[I knew Wall was going to say he’s ready to violently beat up his old team.]
[Honestly, no one expected that Wall, who is nearing retirement age and left the professional stage for a year, would manage to reach the finals with VEX.]
“Wall wants to violently beat up his former team. Does ZAP have any response to this?”
The camera cut to ZAP’s support, who smiled: “I admire Wall for holding down the fort for so long. But today, we’ll let Wall know exactly why he was only fit to be a substitute at ZAP for a whole year.”
Players from both sides traded barbs one by one while Zuo Chi listened from backstage.
The first few exchanges were relatively polite back-and-forths. Although harsh, they knew when to stop and exchanged some pleasantries.
However, as it progressed, the atmosphere turned subtly tense when it was the two junglers’ turn to speak.
First, the trash talk Fugui had prepared for Land was a direct shot right in the face of ZAP’s jungler, Every—”During the transfer period, ZAP wanted to buy me to be a starter. I think the position they wanted to replace was yours.”
Compared to the preceding “who was whose sub,” “who kept who on the second team,” and “who’s going to retire who,” this statement’s offensive power was actually quite average.
But Land delivered it with breezy indifference. When the camera cut back to Every, his expression looked quite ugly. On the giant screen, any shift in expression was virtually impossible to hide.
“If I remember correctly, ZAP only invited you for a trial. When did we ever say we were buying you?” Every sneered. “Besides, you’ve never even beaten me in a scrim, let alone an official match.”
The audience erupted in a simultaneous mixture of cheers and boos.
The cubs obediently kept their noise-canceling headsets on. Judging by their expressions, they were currently joking around with each other and hadn’t heard a single word of Every’s retort.
Zuo Chi recalled their scrim against ZAP.
Indeed, they hadn’t produced much of a result; they hadn’t even finished the first game.
But if he remembered correctly, during that short portion of the scrim, Land had utterly dominated Every. It was precisely because of his performance in that scrim that ZAP’s coach had called, attempting to poach Land.
He shook his head. The pre-match trash talk segment had concluded, and the commentators resumed the schedule.
“The match hasn’t even officially started, yet the stage is already flashing with swords and shadows. The players are all prepared—now, let’s welcome the coaches from both teams to the stage to begin the BP phase for game one!”
The Grand Finals were BO7. Compared to the BO5 elimination matches, team drafts underwent massive changes. For example, in the later games, the pool of meta-strong heroes would be depleted, heavily testing the depths of the players’ hero pools.
Furthermore, over the course of several games, there were bound to be drafts where a team had an advantageous composition, and others where they had a disadvantageous one.
Losing with an advantageous composition was a massive net loss.
Winning with a disadvantageous composition was a massive net gain.
“For game one, can we pull off a massive gain?” Zuo Chi walked up behind his cubs, looking at the BP panel.
Generally speaking, the first point was fiercely contested by both teams. Taking the first game greatly boosted team morale, so both sides would draft their strongest possible compositions, burning at least three T0-tier heroes. ZAP was a team that particularly loved fighting for that first point.
But going all-in right at the start wasn’t his style.
Translator’s Note:
- Trash Talk: A classic staple in esports finals (like LoL or Dota) where players pre-record or live-broadcast spicy comments to hype up the match.
- BO7: Best of 7. The first team to win 4 games wins the match.
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