Go: The live broadcast queen launched a gorgeous rebellion against the dog

Hearing this, Lei Qi was slightly surprised.

Originally Shang Chaotian said these words with some emotion. He thought the teacher would say something like "Forget it, it doesn't matter if they win the championship", but Shang Chaotian directly stated that he wanted to "kill them all"!
This... seems a bit inconsistent, right?
Seeing that the student seemed a little surprised by what he said, Shang Chaotian smiled helplessly and said:
"Why? Do you think we are too cruel to 'eradicate the enemy' when we can win without any hesitation?"

"Ah, no, no!"

Lei Qi hurriedly shook his head and said:

“As a chess player, once you step onto the field, you must always try your best to win.

"It's just that... based on what you just said, it's indeed a bit of a contrast."

"Haha, actually there's nothing hard to understand."

The chairman of the chess association subconsciously glanced elsewhere, and then said helplessly:
"When you were competing, I talked to Wen Jie about it, and we both had the same opinion:

"South Korea is thinking too much to rely on Liu Shixian's remaining power to produce another genius.

"Even if Liu Shixian eventually won the World's Strongest Go Player Championship and surpassed Choi Myung-ho to become the best in history, the continued decline and even demise of South Korean Go is almost inevitable.

"So, instead of letting them waste their time on this useless task, why not... let us preserve the hope for the future development of Go to the greatest extent possible."

Hearing this, Lei Qi frowned slightly, a little confused.

He understood the first half of the teacher's sentence - the new generation of South Koreans are generally not interested in "old things" like Go, and now the project is entirely supported by the national pride created by suppressing China.

If the performance declines, it is understandable that such a niche project can survive by relying solely on its glorious historical achievements, but in fact it is hard to be optimistic.

However, the second half of the sentence undoubtedly made Xiao Lei Jiudan a little slow to follow.

Although he had received a lot of care and guidance from his teachers since he was a child, what he said now was obviously beyond the scope of his previous teachings:

“Um…Teacher Shang.

"What you mean by 'preserving hope for the future development of Go' is..."

Shang Chaotian glanced at his increasingly mature student, shook his head slightly and said:

"Hey! Tell the truth!

"We have already made preparations for the possibility that the main popularity of professional Go will shrink from the three East Asian countries to our own.

"but……

“Even those of us who are the most motivated have our own headaches.”

"The number of Go players in Ying and Han has been shrinking recently. I know this clearly."

Lei Qi said in a deep voice:

"But as for us...it should be okay, right?

"Especially recently Rui Zhao has been making waves, and has actually attracted many people outside the circle to join her."

"Rui Zhao has indeed attracted many domestic fans, this is indeed true."

Shang Chaotian did not deny the students' statement:
"But a project that is only pursued by one country is always at risk of collapse at any time.

“Now we can rely on Ruizhao to increase the domestic base, but when it comes to international promotion, it ultimately depends on official support.

“In fact…the country has always attached great importance to our Go over the years.

"Whether it is the inclusion of Go in the two Asian Games held in China or the support of local governments in hosting related events, it shows the strength of official support.

"Even... in a previous private discussion, a senior leader made it clear to me that the country has always wanted to officially classify our Go as a 'national sport' to promote it abroad.

"Indeed! Considering the origin, history, culture, connotation, and competitiveness, I think among all competitive sports, there is no better representative of my country's sports culture soft power than Go."

Hearing this, Lei Qi nodded slightly to show his agreement.

As a sports powerhouse, China has numerous advantageous sports.

Sports like table tennis, diving, weightlifting, etc., are all called the dream team when they go to the Olympics.

But...all of these advantageous projects, without exception, originated in the West.

As an ancient and civilized country with thousands of years of history, it is absolutely unacceptable for the government, which is determined to achieve the great rejuvenation of Chinese civilization, to vigorously promote projects that originated in the West as "national skills" that symbolize cultural soft power.

Therefore, if we have to choose a "national sport" from competitive sports, Go is the best and almost the only candidate.

However, at this point, Shang Chaotian changed the subject and asked the student:
"But Lei Qi...

"Then do you know why the government has not promoted Go to this level yet, and has only promoted Go as an ordinary traditional sport?"

"……Eh?"

Lei Qi was slightly startled by this sudden question, but after a little thought, he quickly figured out the correct answer:
“It’s clearly a ‘national sport’, but the top few in the sport’s history have all been South Koreans, and they’re leading by a huge margin…

“Neither the country nor the people can accept such an outcome, right?” “Yes, that’s right.”

The chairman of the chess association nodded:

"For us, the performance of our chess players in international competitions is an important part of whether the status of our sport can be further improved."

"Besides... we can't just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor after Go declines in South Korea.

"Otherwise, those gossipy South Koreans will shout every day, 'You can only take first place if we don't play anymore', and we won't be able to hold our heads up!
“Compared to 20 years ago, it is hard to say that our material conditions are worse than those of South Korea.

"Under such circumstances, if South Korea still allows another player to surpass Choi Myung-ho, and then bloom like a summer flower and then quickly disappear, and we don't even have a place to take revenge, this is unacceptable to us!

“So… we can’t just watch Liu Shixian become the No. 1 player in history right before our eyes and then naturally fall from the top.

"Especially when they specially launched the World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament with the highest prize money in history in an attempt to crown Liu Shixian in the end!"

"...Teacher Shang, I understand."

Hearing this, Lei Qi nodded slowly and took the initiative to take over the conversation:

“In the World’s Strongest Chess Player Tournament early next year, I will do my best to stop Liu Shixian from winning the championship!
"Including the Tongge Cup at the end of June!"

"Ah...don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Shang Chaotian suddenly realized that his heartfelt words might have given his students too much expectation, so he quickly smoothed it over:
"It doesn't matter if I don't win! Maybe if Liu Shixian wins, it will really extend the life of South Korean Go!"

"...I will adjust myself, don't worry."

Lei Qi first responded to the teacher, and then said with some emotion:
"It's just... we were just trying to make our own projects better, but we ended up fighting with South Korea in various world competitions, and it even seemed like we couldn't retreat at all...

"...it really fits the involutionary style of our three East Asian countries!"

Hearing this word that he had heard before in a storm, Shang Chaotian was startled at first, then he subconsciously narrowed his eyes and spoke his opinion in a slightly low voice:
“Yeah… this is involution!
"From the overall development of the project, other countries will not have any extra interest in this 'monotonous and boring game' that is only popular in the Confucian cultural circle.

“Unless our country really replaces the current international status of Western countries and fully controls the international discourse power, it will be difficult to change this situation.

"Before that, facing this fast-paced era, how Go, a sport with a relatively slow pace, should develop and save itself has always been a problem that all Go players have to face.

"Even AI, which has greatly improved Go skills, has also had a very negative impact on the promotion of Go. I don't know how many times I have seen the outrageous statement "Go in the AI ​​era is just memorizing the rules" on the Internet, but as soon as I refute it, I will be shut up by saying "Can you beat AI?"

"The previous Bai Yinhua incident... was a concentrated manifestation of these problems.

"The reason why the association was very tolerant of Lin Ruixin's many extraordinary behaviors was because as an internet celebrity, he had outstanding achievements and indeed attracted a lot of attention and traffic to the Go circle.

“It’s just that it’s hard to say whether this attention and traffic is good or bad for the development of the Go sport itself.

"After all, many sayings like 'Go is dead' and 'the last Go master' were spread by his fans..."

"It's okay... we still have Rui Zhao!"

Hearing that the teacher's tone seemed quite sad, Lei Qi immediately spoke to comfort him:
"【Weiqi Xiaozhao】is doing very well in all kinds of live broadcasts and programs now! She is undoubtedly the top star in the domestic sports circle now.

"A star chess player like her will inevitably set off a new trend every time she achieves success!
"Although she met Brother Sun relatively early in the Tianyuan Tournament this time and didn't make any big news, but judging by her performance, I believe there will be new breakthroughs soon!"

“A new breakthrough… and a project boom?”

Shang Chaotian looked at the student for two seconds, then said meaningfully:
"Yes! We still have Rui Zhao!

"And if that's the case... then there will probably be a new breakthrough soon!"

"……Eh?"

...

...

Time quickly came to May 5, the day before the Lakeside Cup World Women's Go Team Tournament officially began.

The Chinese team, led by Lu Wenjie and Jiao Kai, arrived safely at Ingang International Airport in South Korea.

This is something that couldn't be more normal - in an offline competition, participating countries naturally have to form teams to participate.

However, for the visit of the Chinese team, many South Korean media were still waiting at the airport.

As for the reason...it's naturally because of that "Queen Zhaotian".

In last year's Lakeside Cup, Rui Zhao did not join the team in the first stage, but in the second stage when he was likely to play, Zhao Tianhou still arrived at the scene.

Because of the Asian Games and the preliminaries this year, all the Lakeside Cup matches were concentrated in May. Therefore, many media were very interested in whether this Go star, who is very popular in the three countries, would come to the scene directly with the team, so they all came to the airport to wait.

But... the final result made all the media present excited at first, and then shocked!
The reason for the excitement was that Queen Zhao Tian had indeed appeared at Renjiang Airport with the team this time! This immediately gave the Lakeside Cup another major focus of coverage!
The reason why they were so surprised and even shocked was that among the five members of the Huaxia team, only the current Zhaojun came with the team...

Just one person. (End of this chapter)