Rebirth is fine, but I get eight hundred dollars right from the start?

"Hey, why are you pulling me?" His teammate gave him a perfectly standard scornful gesture. "I may be a fan of the WE team, but I'm also a fan of E-God personally."

As he spoke, his companion walked past him, stepped closer to the table, pulled out his phone, and chuckled, "Ladies, look, I not only follow HWG's official Weibo account, but also E-God's personal account. I'm an active fan on every social media platform—Duowan, Youku, Weibo..."

The short-haired girl behind the table smiled and said, "Thank you for your support of HWG and Emperor players. Since you are the first fan to sign in today, our club is also giving away a limited edition autographed team jersey."

As soon as he finished speaking, his ponytail-wearing partner pulled out a neatly folded HWG team jersey from a cardboard box behind him, raised it high with both hands, like displaying a trophy, and showed it to the boy in front of him, or rather, to the crowd queuing behind him...

The black and red team uniforms were particularly eye-catching in the sunlight, with Emperor's handwritten signature printed on the chest.

The boy's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he instinctively took it with both hands. This subtle movement caused a noticeable commotion in the crowd behind him—several people who had been looking down at their phones looked up and craned their necks to look in their direction.

"Really free?"

"It's free." The short-haired girl nodded, "but we need you to take a picture with us. If possible, it would be best if you could help us promote it on social media."

"OK!" The boy grinned from ear to ear, grabbed the team uniform, stood next to the display stand, and gave a thumbs up. "Take pictures! Take as many pictures as you like! I'll post them on QQ Space, then Weibo, then the Duowan forum. I'll post ten of them!"

Once the first person took the plunge, the players who were queuing behind or who were originally sitting swarmed around him.

A boy wearing black-rimmed glasses was the fastest. He picked up a sticker from the table, held it up to his phone case, and asked curiously, "Are you guys from HWG?"

"It's a part-time job," the girl with the ponytail said honestly. "I came here specifically to hand out fan support items. Do you support HWG?"

"I wouldn't call it support, I just watched the preseason and thought the team was really strong. But there's no doubt I'm a personal fan of Emperor, and I came here specifically to watch him play WE."

The bespectacled man said, showing his following history, signing his ID, then picking a banner from the table, folding it, and stuffing it into the side pocket of his backpack. "Thanks."

As the match time approached, the crowd grew denser.

A small queue started forming in front of the two girls' table, mostly bystanders who came to watch the excitement and thought, "Why not take something free?"

There were also a few die-hard fans who brought their own HWG support items. One of them, a girl dressed as Syndra, took out her phone and asked if she could take a photo with the banner after receiving it.

"You've worked hard!" She bowed to the two girls, making the girl with the ponytail a little embarrassed, who waved her hands repeatedly and said, "It's no trouble at all."

Of course, not everyone is interested in HWG's merchandise.

A guy wearing a WE team scarf glanced at the banner on the table as he walked by and scoffed, "They're already organizing fan events? Are they afraid of losing face if they lose the opening match?"

Then he walked away without looking back.

The short-haired girl muttered under her breath, "We're distributing it for free, we're not forcing you to support us..."

The girl with the ponytail quickly nudged her with her elbow, signaling her not to cause trouble.

Just then, a young man wearing a baseball cap walked over quickly, holding a homemade support sign that read "Emperor is number one in the world".

As soon as he reached the table, he excitedly asked, "Do you have HWG team jerseys? I want to buy one!"

"No team uniforms will be issued today, only stickers and banners."

The girl with the ponytail explained, "The team uniforms were given away in a raffle after the game."

"Okay, okay, give me a few more stickers, I'll stick them on my notebook when I get back."

The young man smiled, tucked the support sign under his arm, freed his hand to take a picture of the poster, and walked towards the ticket gate while posting on Weibo with his head down.

Fifteen minutes before the competition started, the two girls cleaned up the table. They had given out most of the stickers they brought, but only about ten banners remained.

They packed their things and prepared to go backstage to rest.

"How many people do you think will come today?" the girl with the ponytail asked.

"I don't know," the short-haired girl glanced back at the entrance where there was still a queue, "but there are more than I expected."

"WE has a lot of fans."

"Yes, more than us."

Amidst the crowd, red and black mingled, and occasionally a few spectators holding HWG banners could be seen standing in the ranks, appearing somewhat out of place and particularly conspicuous amidst the surrounding WE team jerseys.

……

Inside the LPL tournament venue.

The small lounge was packed with HWG members.

There were peripheral bags piled up under the table, and several cases of bottled water stacked in the corner. Yes, the venue for the first LPL tournament didn't even have a water dispenser.

"It's completely full," Zhang Hai craned his neck to look into the spectator area. "Why does it feel like everyone here is a WE fan?"

"Master, your astrological chart looks a bit damaged."

"Get out of here, what are you talking about?"

Li Nan stretched out his foot from the side and lightly nudged Zhang Hai, saying, "WE is a veteran professional team that has been building its popularity for years. They've been campaigning offline and holding fan meet-and-greets since S2. Master's fans are mainly ordinary players who watch his live streams and buy his tutorial videos. It's hard to convert them into fans at offline events in a short time. To put it bluntly, we're on someone else's home turf today, so this scene is normal."

"Oh yes, yes, you know so much."

His words were well-reasoned and supported by evidence, and all his teammates looked over at him.

Upon hearing this, compared to Zhang Hai rolling his eyes, Sima Laozei and White Crescent looked at their own jungler with great envy.

The differences between people are sometimes truly unreasonable.

Their gaming talent is off the charts, and as teammates, they can barely keep up with Li Nan in terms of gameplay. But when it comes to social life, logical analysis, and knowledge comprehension, the two of them are definitely the atmosphere-maker, responsible for nodding and agreeing when others finish speaking.

Lin Shu observed the reaction of the bottom lane duo and his lips twitched slightly.

It seems necessary to arrange some training for the players in communication and social experience later on. Regardless of how much it will help them on the field, it will at least be of great help to their personal growth off the field.

"Xiao Hai is right. Before today, the professional arena was dominated by WE, and they had more supporters."

Lin Shu looked around the stadium and couldn't help but smile as he thought of the WE fans online saying they wanted to make today's opening match their home game.

"You don't need to be envious. Competitive sports are fair to everyone. As long as you are strong enough to defeat all your opponents, flowers and applause will always belong to you."

Just because it's not there now doesn't mean it won't be in the future.

"To put it dramatically, if you perform well after today's match, it's not impossible for WE's fans to turn into fans of you."

As he spoke, he pointed to a corner.

"Besides... look over there, there are fans supporting HWG, aren't there?"

"Where, where..."

Following Lin Shu's gaze, Zhang Hai saw a simple support sign, drawn with a highlighter, held crookedly in the air in the third row of the audience seats, on the left. It read, "HWG Fighting!"

"Wow, even though there aren't many, they really are HWG's support signs!"

HWG, or rather Lin Shu's fans, are certainly not limited to the number shown in front of them. However, as Li Nan analyzed, compared to WE fans who have experienced and even become accustomed to watching matches offline, most of their viewers are probably watching the live stream right now.

"I've made up my mind!"

Zhang Hai suddenly jumped up, startling White Crescent, who was drinking water next to him, so much so that her hand trembled.

Li Nan: "What have you decided this time?"

"In order not to disappoint our fans who came to the scene, we can only make things difficult for the guys on the opposing WE team today."

"Haha, that's great!"