The King's Avatar

Chen Guo said she was going to scold Chang Xian, but she was just saying it. Chang Xian had good intentions, although it was rather depressing that his help ended up doing no good. Chen Guo and Ye Xiu had wasted time and effort going there to not get a sponsor, but they didn’t lose anything either, so it wasn’t too bad.

So in the call, Chen Guo still expressed her gratitude before giving a simple explanation of why they couldn’t get the sponsorship from Ch’ien Tea Green. Then, she asked if Chang Xian had any other recommendations.

Cao Guangcheng, who was listening in, knew that Happy had wasted their time on this and basked in secret delight. He had been Excellent Era’s team reporter for all these years, so he naturally knew what the deal with Ch’ien Tea Green was and what kind of person Xia Zhongtian was. He knew from the beginning that Happy wouldn’t get anything from Xia Zhongtian. From the phone call, it sounded as if Xia Zhongtian had asked them to visit. This was unexpected. He had thought it would be pretty good if Happy just got no response. He hadn’t thought Xia Zhongtian would have called them to visit. He definitely managed to mess with Happy.

Cao Guangcheng found it unfortunate that he couldn’t have witnessed it in person. He could only imagine it himself to cheer himself up. He had no idea that although Ye Xiu and Chen Guo had been stood up at their scheduled appointment, in return, they had also bullied Xia Zhongtian for a good while.

Chang Xian wasn’t an idiot either. He didn’t know about the situation regarding Ch’ien Tea Green, but Cao Guangcheng had followed Excellent Era for so long, so how could he have been ignorant to this? Chang Xian had realized that this was Cao Guangcheng’s little trick. But even if he knew, he couldn’t do anything about it. Nothing would be gained by arguing about it. Except that this time, he wouldn’t ask this senior. After agreeing to Chen Guo’s request, he prepared to take a look over things himself.

With what had occured, Chang Xian realized that it wouldn’t be easy for Happy to take Excellent Era’s sponsors. However, Chang Xian was clever. If it wasn’t convenient for Excellent Era’s sponsors to sponsor Happy because of Happy defeating Excellent Era, then what about these sponsors’ competitors? If they sponsored Happy, wouldn’t that be a win-win situation?

Competition was omnipresent, even in business. Chang Xian decided to bring his thoughts in a different direction and went to look for the competitors of Excellent Era’s sponsors. However, this was outside of Chang Xian’s area of control. This information wasn’t something that Chang Xian had at hand, so it would be slower. Yet he hadn’t even managed to do anything before Happy received their first phone call that expressed interest in sponsoring them.

　　而这电话的来处,则正好证明了常先思路的正确性.

This phone call also managed to justify the logic in Chang Xian’s thought process.

Feike.

This was a well-known computer peripheral brand with their keyboards and mouse being the most famous. These two things were doubtlessly the sharpest tool for esports athletes. With how the Glory Alliance flourished, it would be strange if they didn’t sponsor anyone. In reality, Feike was already sponsoring a team in the Alliance.

Tyranny!

The team Feike was currently sponsoring was Team Tyranny, who many thought would win the championships. In addition, Feike was the archrival of a peripheral device company sponsoring Excellent Era, Speed Serpent. Speed Serpent chose Excellent Era and Feike chose Tyranny. The sponsors were archenemies as well. What Feike was thinking of when they chose to sponsor Happy was clear as day.

Feike’s headquarters weren’t in City H. After getting in contact through the call, Feike and Happy had two video meetings to negotiate the sponsorship. Although Happy was a hot topic right now, their fame and influence was nothing compared to Tyranny and Feike’s contract for Happy showed their caution. The contract would be a year long for 1,500,000 RMB along with the request that their sponsorship would be put above all others.

The year length of the contract was clearly a representation of Feike’s wait-and-see attitude to Happy’s continued survival in the Alliance. The request to be considered above all other sponsors showed that they actually had quite a bit of optimism towards this. As for the one and a half million, it wasn’t much if you considered the entirety of the Glory circle, but for a team that had just arrived in the Alliance, it was a considerable amount. This was all thanks to how Happy managed to defeat Excellent Era and gain public attention. Otherwise, for other teams that had managed to fight their way back into the Alliance, it wasn’t unheard of for them to be completely ignored.

After negotiating back and forth for a while, the sponsorship money was eventually raised to 1,800,000 RMB. The other requirements didn’t change. Both sides were very satisfied with this contract. Then, the time came to officially sign the contract. Although this was a small contract, Feike wanted to use Happy’s current popularity to hold a press conference for the contract signing. However, the playoffs were still ongoing, and the Glory circle was focused on the competition, so this sort of promotional activity had to be delayed.

After completing the contract with Feike, the business doors to Happy were completely opened. They received more and more calls inquiring about sponsorship. Chang Xian had managed to compile a list of worthwhile sponsors, but by then, Chen Guo was already too busy to initiate any attacks. Just the sponsors that were calling was already making her more than busy. Some were sincere, but some were there to try and profit in the chaos. Some even tried to bully Happy through Happy’s lack of experience by directly tricking or scamming them. Some even had no idea what was happening and just called to be a part of the action. Chen Guo was finally finding the feel of running a pro team and being the boss. She hadn’t really done much in the past.

At the same time, the playoffs were already at the semifinals. Tyranny versus Tiny Herb, Samsara versus Wind Howl.

The first match was Team Tiny Herb’s home game against Team Tyranny.

Team Tiny Herb had gone through a lot of changes this year. The All-Star level account Flying Drops had been sold to Samsara and Tiny Herb’s lineup lost a Grappler. The original player of Flying Drops, Li Yihui, had also left the team in summer. Xu Bin, the Grind King from 301 Degrees had taken over the retired Deng Fusheng’s Knight, Angelica, and managed to become an All-Star with his excellent performances. Then, prodigy Gao Yingjie had debuted this season, becoming a part of the Witch Duo with his captain, Wang Jiexi. There was also the hand speed expert, Liu Xiaobie, who had grown into a very dependable player. He had been mere steps away from becoming an All-Star this season. Team Tiny Herb was almost had a four All-Star lineup.

As for Tyranny, it wasn’t just four All-Stars, but four top Gods of their classes. The only one who was in a little awkward of a position was Lin Jingyan. The other three still counted as the top of their respective classes.

With this lineup, curiosity towards the person in the other position of their starting lineup was aroused.

Since the team competition needed five people to fight at once, who would be the fifth person who stood beside the four gods?

In the summer transfer window, since they were bringing in powerful aces and changing up their lineup, a lot of Tyranny’s players and accounts had left. From that time on, everyone had been wondering who would appear beside these four gods, but the one who appeared was a person that no one was familiar with.

Qin Muyun.

Before this season, no one had ever heard this name. He was such a plain and obscure player, yet he had become the last puzzle piece in Tyranny’s starting lineup.

Qin Muyun had come from Tyranny’s training camp. He hadn’t had any sort of fame before this and he was already 21 when he became a part of Tyranny’s starting lineup.

This debuting age was rather late. Compared to Lu Hanwen who wasn’t even of age yet, he should’ve been a senior, but now, they were rookies of the same generation.

Qin Muyun had a Sharpshooter character and in this position, Tyranny originally had Wang Chixuan. Wang Chixuan wasn’t a God, but he was still a very good player. However, Tyranny still decided to pick Qin Muyun from the training camp, while Wang Chixuan left in the summer transfer window.

What was special about this Qin Muyun? What allowed him to squeeze out this skilled, experienced Wang Chixuan, who was also familiar with the team, making him a core member of the team that stood next to these four Gods?

Everyone held high expectations for Qin Muyun, but soon enough, they were all disappointed.

Qin Muyun gave no striking performances on the field, and the data from each match seemed to point out that he was normal. He was just a very average player.

Soon enough, no one paid him any attention any longer. Rookie? There were more striking rookies this season. Wasn’t Team Blue Rain’s 14 year old Lu Hanwen a riot right now?

Thus, if you asked who Qin Muyun was, most players would probably shake their heads in confusion.

This was the media, the public’s attitude.

However, pro teams wouldn’t do this. They wouldn’t underestimate any opponents, especially in the playoffs, especially a core member of a team like Tyranny.

Qin Muyun’s data was very average, but don’t forget who he’s standing next to.

Apart from Zhang Xinjie, who was a Cleric, Han Wenqing, Zhang Jiale and Lin Jingyan weren’t just normal All-Star players. In their old teams, they were all core DPSers. Next to people like that, what sort of data are you expecting a rookie to the pro league to have?

The media and the players didn’t think Qin Muyun important, but Tiny Herb wouldn’t do that. A slight mistake might mean that their journey this year would be over.

Thus, against Qin Muyun, Tiny Herb put equal attention in research on him as the four Gods.

Often, in the data for this season, the reports concerning Qin Muyun always started with: this player’s data is average but he hasn’t met the Rookie’s Block.

That’s right, he hadn’t met the Rookie’s Block.

In all nine seasons, only two players had never met the Rookie’s Block: Wang Jiexi and Sun Xiang.

Now, a third had appeared, but compared to the previous two, he had very average performances. His lack of Rookie’s Block might be because of some objective reasons like, with Tyranny’s lineup, the four Gods took too much attention from players and attacks.

Tiny Herb wouldn’t reject this sort of possibility, and in reality, they hoped that this was the reason. Otherwise, if it was because Qin Muyun had some sort of hidden talent, then that might become the biggest variable in the match.

The unknown was always the scariest.