Full-time: Starting from Ye Xiu vs. Faker

Chapter 411: Quota Allocation and Expedition (Part )
Originally, the allocation of quotas should have been a very clear matter.

The rules are there: the summer season champion gets the number one seed, and the team ranked second in points throughout the year gets the number two seed.

As for the third and fourth seeds, they will be placed in the bubble match for the four qualified teams to compete together.

For example, LEC, which also got four places, implemented it in this way.

But the problem is: LPL also has an MSI champion, Fanhua. According to the MSI rules, as the champions, they will automatically get a spot in the S game.

This is actually normal. The remaining three teams will compete for the last spot and play two BO5s. There is nothing much to say.

But the problem lies with the seed number of the flowers.

Of the four seeding spots in LPL, the number one seed will definitely belong to Blue Rain, the final winner of the summer season.

But in terms of the second seed, Xingxin, who was runner-up in both spring and summer, got 70 points in the spring and 110 points in the summer, for a total of 180 points.

The spring champion and summer runner-up Fanhua received 90 points plus 80 points, totaling 170 points.

The spring season champion unfortunately missed out on the second seed due to a ten-point difference.

In this case, according to the league's regulations, although Fanhua can still get a guaranteed spot in the World Championship, it also needs to participate in the bubble match to determine its seeding order.

If we accidentally lose in the first BO5, we might only be able to go out as the fourth seed.

So, when the schedule of the LPL bubble game was announced, the world's attention immediately returned to the LPL before it had moved away from the summer finals for long.

It's not that they love or care about flowers, but because of an extremely realistic problem:

The fourth seed has to play an extra round of qualifying matches compared to the third seed.

When formulating the S-League format, Pei Yunteng was not in a hurry to directly adopt the Swiss round model, but chose the group stage system like the previous S-Leagues.

This means that even the last seed in one of the four major regions must play in the qualifying round.

Joining them in the qualifying rounds are the only young players from the smaller regions.

The competition in small divisions is not that fierce most of the time. Whoever wins the championship in the spring is likely to be the champion in the summer as well, with few changes.

For example, in LJL, in the summer it was Brother Xia who made a comeback with a group of colonels from DFM.

These familiar faces were so scared that their legs went weak when they thought that they might encounter the big devil who unilaterally defeated them in the spring in the qualifying round.

For a while, whether it was a region like LJL that had been completely assimilated into the LPL fanboy, or those small regions that feared the LPL more than they admired it,
From the player management to the ordinary players, everyone shouted out in unison:
You must win!

Some people may not believe it, but Fanhua actually discussed seriously whether or not to give up this bubble match and try the qualifying round.

The versions of the qualifying round and the main competition are completely synchronized, which means that the teams participating in the qualifying round will have a full round more warm-up and preparation opportunities than the teams that go directly to the main competition.

This is still very tempting for Fanhua.

But in the end, after much deliberation, Fanhua gave up this crazy idea.

First, whether it is voluntarily abandoning the game or voluntarily giving up and losing in the first BO5 against Xuanqi, the consequences are extremely serious.

As long as the league is not blind, it may evolve into accountability and suspension.

Even if the league is merciful and does not deal with it, the impact on public opinion will undoubtedly be extremely bad.

It is definitely not worthwhile to let the club become the target of public criticism just for a single qualifying round and let the players be attacked by everyone.

Another reason is that when Zhang Jiale and others were studying the qualifying round, they took a look at the list of opponents they would face.

Then, I saw a long list of familiar names.

When they saw the name, Zhang Jiale and his team were reminded of the helpless scene during MSI when these people were beaten and trembling in front of them.

The enthusiasm in my heart suddenly cooled down.

I've been playing chess with these bad chess players for too long. Will my skills be ruined?

So, Fanhua was feeling bored, so she used a little more strength in her hands when facing Xuanqi.

During this period, the entire Fanhua team was racking their brains to study the tactics and counterattack methods of the championship and runner-up teams. It just so happened that Xuanqi's tactics and style were not less similar to those of Blue Rain.

Fanhua can’t beat the genuine Blue Rain, and can’t beat your gun version?

In the end, amidst the sighs of relief from the other small-division champions, Fanhua easily defeated Xuanqi 3-1 and calmly took over their third seed spot.

The whole process is relaxed and free-spirited, vividly showing the LPL's combat power gap.

After the battle of Fanhua, Xuanqi was very depressed, but everyone except Xuanqi seemed very excited.

Yizhan and LGM, who were ranked fifth and sixth in the total points, were very happy that Fanhua won and did not directly occupy the fourth seed spot, which meant that they had a chance to play in the bubble match.

The audience was also very excited, as they had another match to watch. The level might not be that high, but it was still a strong match and definitely worth watching.

The teams from other regions were even more grateful, even if they replaced Fanhua with another LPL team, their chances of entering the finals would still be slim.

But at least we don’t have to be beaten up by the big devil in the qualifying round, which is a good thing.

In such an atmosphere where only Xuanqi was injured and everyone else was winning,
The most significant upset in this LPL season just happened.

The story may have to be traced back to the Paris Olympics more than a month ago.

Logically speaking, the Paris Olympics should not have anything to do with e-sports in the slightest.

After all, even if the IOC relaxes its attitude towards e-sports, that will have to happen after the Olympics.

However, sometimes, the butterfly effect occurs inadvertently in these seemingly unrelated small details.

One of the more famous news at this Olympics was that a famous table tennis player named Wang created a huge upset in the men's singles competition and made it into the top 32.

For the Chinese people who have always believed that Chinese table tennis is invincible in the world, this is almost a bolt from the blue.

Even though fans kept emphasizing objective factors such as "the photographer broke the racket and had to use a backup camera" to make up for Wang's failure,
Angry netizens launched an online crusade against him without hesitation.

There was no other way. For Chinese table tennis, which had won for so many years, the shock of the world's No. 1 reaching the top 32 was too great. So there was no doubt that the entire table tennis world was in a huge storm of public opinion during that period.

However, as Fan Xiaopang gambled his career and defended the half zone alone, he finally saved the gold medal for the men's singles table tennis for China, as well as the last bit of dignity.
This storm of public opinion has calmed down a little bit...

If Mr. Wang doesn’t continue to drag things down.

But the problem is that if Wang doesn't pull people down, he won't be Wang anymore.

As Wang won a lot of top 16 and top 32 matches in the following long period of time, upsets became the norm.
This means that the voices of doubt and criticism about Chinese table tennis can no longer be suppressed.

For a time, from the management to the players, anyone with the slightest problem or poor performance was thoroughly dug up by angry netizens, and all kinds of rumors were flying around.

Among them, the more credible gossip that has been circulating in the market for a long time is Mr. Wang’s age.

There are a lot of gossips. Through some of Wang's own speeches and interviews in his early years, as well as some leaked tables and information from the national team, one thing is speculated:

Mr. Wang most likely changed his age by two years.

Originally, these rumors should have been suppressed and disappeared from the public eye as he became the world's number one player last year.

However, as he failed to perform well in many competitions in a row, his already controversial image was shattered. These rumors, which were not unreliable to begin with, once again appeared openly in the public discussion.

It was this rumor that gave rise to the most legendary upset in the LPL this year.

Don't forget, LGM, the team ranked sixth in total points and narrowly made it to the bubble match, has a genius who has a lot of connections with Mr. Wang.

As we all know, LGM jungler meteor Zeng Guohao is a talented young table tennis athlete who was selected for the national training team four times.

The reason why he later gave up table tennis and chose to switch to e-sports, at least in the eyes of outsiders, was largely because a certain game destroyed his spirit.

In that national youth competition, Guohao ranked eighth in the group and lost to Wang, who ranked first in the group, and was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

This matter has always been a hot topic among LGM and even the entire LPL fans.

However, Wang had not yet become an upset at that time, so public opinion was just regretting that he was unlucky. He ran into the world's number one in the quarterfinals and was beaten so badly that his faith was shattered. It was really a pity.

But as Wang's reputation declined at a rapid pace and his old scandals were exposed, LPL fans noticed something was wrong.

As we all know, the age limit for youth competitions is generally very strict. After all, for these young talents who are in a period of rapid growth, their level may undergo a qualitative change with every additional year of training and growth.

And Mr. Wang’s age is likely to be reduced by two years, which means——

At that time, sixteen-year-old Wang should not have been in the same group with fourteen-year-old Guohao.

This news was quite explosive.

As a former table tennis player who has never played for his country or played in a real top-level world competition,

Most people actually have no idea what level Zeng Guohao's table tennis level is at.

However, it is precisely because they have no concept that they can diverge and imagine without restraint.

Zeng Guohao was eliminated in the quarterfinals because of Wang, and Wang was able to participate in the competition because he deliberately changed his age.

So, if Wang had not been able to participate in the competition, what level would Guohao have been able to reach?
Semi-finals? Finals? Champions?

Even more, if he, who was able to win a small game against the sixteen-year-old Wang at the age of fourteen, had not died prematurely, would he have had the opportunity to become a player playing for the country in the world arena?
There is no "if" in this kind of thing, but precisely because there is no "if", the decline and divergence of outsiders are even more terrifying.

In a short time, Zeng Guohao's image quickly changed into a rare super table tennis genius, who could have supported the next era of Chinese table tennis. However, because of Wang's dishonorable means, he was plotted against and his faith was shattered.

Eventually, he gave up table tennis and found his new home in the field of e-sports.

No matter how outrageous and unbelievable this story is, just tell me, it's quite eye-catching, right?

For a time, similar remarks were widely circulated under the banner of speaking up for Guohao, and became one of the most frequently discussed gossip topics in major discussion forums, in addition to the important competitions at the time.

Soon, these rumors flowed back to the LGM club.

After all, under Guohao’s personal Weibo, there are already a lot of people making outrageous remarks like “Stop playing e-sports and go practice basketball to prepare for the 2028 Los Angeles game” all day long.

For Guohao himself, when he saw these netizens who loaned him multiple Olympic champions and team champions in 2024 and 2028,
He was happy at first, and then quickly felt relieved.

Although he did have a strong obsession with Wang, he also knew that the game that year was indeed not very clean.

But as an eyewitness, he still has some idea of ​​his own level.

He was unhappy with Wang because he clearly had a talent beyond his own, but was unwilling to develop it seriously. Instead, he practiced some unorthodox methods and had evil intentions, which made Guohao very unhappy.

And not because he really feels that he has the ability to replace Wang and become the hope and legend of the national table tennis team.

So he just treated the discussions of netizens as a joke.

But the next day after the public opinion broke out, when he yawned and walked out of the bedroom to prepare for training, he was surrounded by a group of teammates with red eyes and angry and serious faces. He knew something was wrong.

"Brothers, I--" Before he could say anything, he was interrupted by Haichao.

Hai Chao's eyes were red, and there was anger in his voice: "No need to say anything, brother, you have been wronged."

"The chance to win glory for the country was snatched away by that grandson!"

Looking at this group of excited brothers, Zeng Guohao wanted to explain, but the young master's next words made him stop where he was.

"It's okay, Brother Guohao. Although it's a pity that your chance to play for the country in the national table tennis team was taken away, as long as we can make it to the next S game, we can play for the country in the LPL!"

"Brothers, we have to fight back the opportunity that was taken away from Guohao in LPL!"

“ohhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Zeng Guohao was stunned when he saw his good brothers who suddenly started to go berserk.

No, I, the person involved, haven't said anything yet, so how come you guys decided on your own?
But for some reason, having experienced a successful upset thanks to passion, he feels that LGM’s current mental state seems... quite favorable?
How about... hiding the truth for a few days and explaining it to them after the bubble game? Guohao thought.

　Update, update, the content of this chapter is purely subjective speculation and does not represent the author's personal views.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)