The former champion team reunited and abandoned their old club tok to join a new team.
This news quickly exploded on the “Devour” game forums. Even fans of other e-sports had heard about it and came over with stools to watch the drama unfold.
According to convention, after spraying the three players, fans began to spray tok next, saying that the performance of this veteran team with two championships would certainly look good this season after the departure of their captain and two strong players.
After they finished their barrage of scolding and mocking, they began to talk about something else in unison.
Just what was this Chenzhou team, and where did they come from?
Which company or capital was behind this team? How could they complete three transfer applications in such a short time? What was the background of this team?
Everyone was confused, never having heard of this team before.
Some proactive fans did some research and finally traced some clues about this team.
When fans learned the news, they were first shocked, then delighted, but ultimately still confused.
They were shocked that this team was able to form thanks to the start-up funds from Jingzhe’s Dream Incubation Project. They were delighted that even though they were e-sports fans who didn’t follow the entertainment industry, they knew Jingzhe was one of the few companies in the industry with a strong reputation, strength, and financial reserves and had the Jiang family’s support behind it.
As long as they could partner with Jingzhe, at the very least, funding should not be a big issue. They didn’t have to worry about news breaking out that this team was facing imminent financial collapse and the team disbanding with the boss running away with the money due to inability to attract investment.
However, they had barely felt delighted when some bro dug up that although this team had participated in Jingzhe’s Dream Incubation Project, they did not make it past the second round of reviews.
In short, although this team was under Jingzhe, they were not a biological child of Jingzhe. If they had to describe it, they could only be considered a distant relative at most.
The blows kept coming. Soon there was new news leaked, with someone posting a photo that turned out to be Xu Cheng’s application form when he applied to Jingzhe’s Dream Incubation Project.
That’s right, that extremely straightforward form where he wrote “has decades of restaurant management experience” in the introduction, leaving people not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
As soon as the application form was posted, fans on this side instantly exploded. A team formed by a restaurant owner, this was a joke!
As a result, the scolding war that had just calmed down flared up again. The entire e-sports section was almost completely flooded by this wondrous team, though most were engaged in mad spraying. The fans were fully possessed by Zaunites1Zaun is a fictional city in the video game League of Legends. It is a large, industrial undercity that lies below Piltover, a wealthy and advanced city. Zaun is known for its pollution, crime, and experimentation with hextech, a form of magic and technology. Zaun is also the home of many champions in the game, such as Ekko, Jinx, Singed, and Warwick., cursing up a storm in various threads with endless creativity.
No one held high hopes for this team. Although Chenzhou spent big money to sign very strong former tok players, fans still did not think much of them.
Some vicious fans even outright said a team cobbled together like Chenzhou would have trouble just getting through the qualifiers to obtain a spot in the official competition.
Not just the fans, even Ye Zhou, the investor, did not have high hopes for this team initially!
It was just that the face-slapping came too fast, like a whirlwind. He thought the money invested was going to be wasted, but there was suddenly hope of breaking even. As the investor, what could Ye Zhou do? He was very hopeless too!
In mid-November, signups officially opened for the 2029 “Devour” Challenge tournament. The most attention-grabbing new team Chenzhou registered with a full roster.
Actually, their team only had four people right now, lacking a controller. Registration required five people, and Ye Zhou didn’t know where Xu Cheng found someone to fill the gap at the last minute.
At that time, Ye Zhou, who was used to being beaten, thought this controller must also be some super awesome professional player. Only later did he find out that Xu Cheng said he just randomly pulled someone in to make up numbers, and this person really was just there to fill the headcount.
According to interviews after the competition, this new team member was randomly picked up by Xu Cheng at the competition registration site. He was paid 500 yuan per match to play through the entire qualifier tournament and then leave.
After the 15-day signup period ended, the “Devour” qualifier tournament officially kicked off at 9 am on December 1st at the largest e-sports stadium in City A.
Ye Zhou sat in the front row, looking a little nervous with eyes full of entanglement.
Beside him sat Boss Jiang. Unlike usual, the typically serious Boss Jiang had forgone his normal formal suit today and wore a light-colored casual outfit instead, making his whole aura seem less stern and more relaxed.
Their tickets were given by Xu Cheng. Ye Zhou had not expected Boss Jiang to come at all since Boss Jiang was very busy, seemingly involved in some equity acquisition recently that kept him extremely occupied day and night.
Unexpectedly, he hadn’t even asked yet, but one evening after Boss Jiang got off work and returned home, he saw the two tickets left on the coffee table and directly told Ye Zhou that he happened to have time recently.
If not for the faint dark circles under his eyes, Ye Zhou would have almost believed his nonsense about having time.
Whenever he thought about this matter, Ye Zhou had to complain. In the past when reading novels and watching TV shows and movies, he saw domineering presidents who were free all day to just hang around the female lead, chasing girls and showing off their wealth while money rolled in as they laid around. That was clearly too unrealistic!
Only after getting to know Boss Jiang did Ye Zhou finally gain a clear understanding of the enormous daily workload domineering presidents had. When busy, they wished they could split time in half. They didn’t even have time to eat three meals a day properly, let alone leisurely stroll around sightseeing and frolicking with girls.
It! Was! All! Fake!
Ye Zhou was afraid Boss Jiang’s health couldn’t take it and initially wanted him to rest at home while he went alone. But when words reached his mouth, he suddenly thought that long-term overwork led to excessive mental stress, and proper rest combined with leisure was probably better for the body.
So he decided to bring Boss Jiang to watch the match and relax.
Before coming, Ye Zhou had deliberately adjusted his mentality in front of a mirror. No matter if they won or lost this match, he had to keep calm and accept the outcome.
He couldn’t be happy if they lost or sad if they won. He had to keep his emotions from showing on his face, to be breezy and unperturbed like Boss Jiang!
But it was one thing at home and another thing entirely at the actual scene.
Ye Zhou realized that although winning one match increased the probability of earning money a little, when he truly saw his few players full of youthful spirit walking onto the stage, waving confidently at him from their positions…
Ye Zhou instantly betrayed his stance and switched sides. Losing? That didn’t exist!
Ye Xiao Zhou’s competitive spirit was ignited. His gaze swept the opponent’s seats disdainfully, snorting in contempt. It wasn’t his own bias, but objectively, in terms of strength, looks, and aura, their Chenzhou team members were much better than the opponents by a wide margin.
Moreover, his team members were all top players. They were very powerful.
They had to win. Victory could only belong to them, Chenzhou!
“Want some water?”
Just as Ye Zhou was engrossed in his fantasies, he suddenly heard Boss Jiang’s cool voice. Then, his palm felt an icy cold sensation.
The chill instantly sobered Ye Zhou back up. Looking at the water in his hand, then at Boss Jiang, he twisted the cap open and gulped down a few mouthfuls.
While he was drinking, the lighting in the entire stadium darkened. After a brief darkness, the giant screen in the center of the stage gradually lit up.
Accompanied by a fast-paced tune, the screen showed one classic scene after another from “Devour”’s competitions over the years. The passionate footage and rousing melody quickly brought the stadium atmosphere to a small climax.
After the 3-minute video ended, the screen darkened again. Two seconds later, a line of stylized golden characters appeared in the center:
2029 “Devour” Star Championship Cup – 36th Challenge Tournament officially begins!
Round 1: Chenzhou Team vs. Xuan Xin Team
This was Ye Zhou’s first time watching an e-sports match live. As the caption disappeared, he hugged the bottle and whispered excitedly to Boss Jiang: “It’s starting, it’s starting!”
Although his voice was very soft, it wasn’t hard to hear the excitement and delight in it.
In the darkness, Jiang Tingyuan’s thin lips pursed slightly, curving into an arc. He held back again and again, but in the end, couldn’t resist reaching out to rub Ye Zhou’s head.
Very soothing.
Ye Zhou had never played this game. Although after receiving the invitation, he had crammed the mechanics and rules of the game for three days to gain a basic understanding, without hands-on experience, watching the match was still a bit of a struggle.
He always couldn’t distinguish the effects of skills. As for tactical systems and such, sorry to say, even if you gave a gaming idiot like Ye Zhou three years, he still might not be able to explain the basics.
That’s right, although Ye Zhou had some skill as a director, when it came to gaming…sorry, he was the kind at the bottom of the contempt chain – a complete noob.
Let me just tell you, no bragging here, he really was hopeless at every game with no opponents. Back when filming, to destress, he liked to play the brick breaker game on his phone.
He played for several years, finished filming several projects, and his highest record was level 32. That game had a total of 150 levels.
So, when he first met Xu Cheng and heard him say he also had an e-sports dream and such, it was all lies. To be blunt, if you really made Ye Zhou compete in e-sports, even figuring out his position on the map would be difficult for him – he’d definitely never find north.
Although he didn’t really understand, his heart still worried for Boss Jiang, afraid he wouldn’t understand either. Ye Zhou racked his brain to laboriously mumble explanations in Boss Jiang’s ear using his meager e-sports knowledge.
Have to say, Ye Zhou really lived up to being a director. His mental fortitude was extremely resilient. Although he only half understood what he saw, he could spin a tale! Relying on his limited knowledge reserves and rich imagination, he made it sound quite convincing.
Sometimes, when he really couldn’t continue spinning, the quick-witted Ye Zhou would pause and listen to what the commentators were saying, reorient himself, and then continue mumbling ultra-softly next to Boss Jiang’s ear in a volume only the two of them could hear.
If it were anyone else, they’d definitely be pissed enough to punch him. But not Jiang Tingyuan. He remained very patient the entire time, not bothered at all by the pestering. He even cooperated by occasionally nodding to indicate he was listening, silently encouraging Ye Zhou to prattle even more enthusiastically.
But unbeknownst to Ye Zhou, Boss Jiang actually owned a portion of the shares in “Devour”. As a shareholder, although Boss Jiang had not played it either, his understanding of the various game rules far exceeded the half-baked Ye Zhou’s by a wide margin.
Yet Jiang Tingyuan said nothing. His gaze remained fixed on Ye Zhou the entire time. If Ye Zhou was watching the match, then what Boss Jiang was watching…was Ye Zhou.
Time ticked by second by second, and the match approached its end. Ye Zhou reluctantly closed his mouth, no longer wanting it to be over, and took a couple of gulps of water for himself.
Although Ye Zhou didn’t understand the match intricacies too clearly, this didn’t prevent him from seeing that his team had firmly maintained the upper hand the entire time.
When a fierce barrage from Xu Cheng hammered down the last player on the blue side, blood dropping rapidly until he was finally Devoured, the match finally had a result.
“We won!”
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