159: Chapter 159 The Food Delivery War Officially Begins

Hearing Qin Mo's words, everyone looked at each other.

The comparison between the two videos just now was too straightforward.

A team fight without commentary is just a bunch of skill effects flashing on the screen, completely unable to grab anyone's attention.

But once paired with the commentator's voice, the rhythm of the entire scene was instantly elevated.

Every pause for a key play, every bit of commentary on real-time judgment, the emotions built up layer by layer, finally exploding completely when the team fight began.

At this moment, they also understood just how important the existence of league of legends match commentary was.

Now only one question remained.

Whether esports could actually become popular; although they themselves had been stirred with excitement just now, they didn't know if ordinary players would have their emotions stirred in the same way when seeing these same scenes.

After a while, it was Colonel Guan who spoke first.

"Alright, I can give it a try."

"Anyway, the third and fourth stages only add up to two months. If esports really can't take off..."

Qin Mo picked up where he left off, his tone calm.

"For these two months, I will give you the best treatment. After two months, regardless of the esports results, you can choose whether or not to stay."

Hearing him say this, the others nodded one after another, no longer having any misgivings.

"I can also give it a try," Mi Le followed up.

Wang Duo and the remaining few also agreed one after another.

"People from Langchao Group will contact you later. For the next half month, you need to learn how to provide commentary for league of legends matches."

"Every hero's skill mechanics, the resource rhythm of the map, and the playstyles of each major team—you need to thoroughly understand all of these within this time."

Qin Mo continued to remind them.

And with the commentary lineup finalized, the league of legends third stage matches officially entered the final countdown.

But before that, the focus of most netizens across the country was still on the upcoming Takeout War.

...

The next day. Taobao Flash Buy officially launched.

On Taobao, pop-ups and homepage recommendations were pushed simultaneously.

Exactly as countless netizens had expected, Taobao Flash Buy launched with huge subsidized discounts on its first day. Milk tea and coffee priced at 1.9 yuan were snatched up so fast that the system lagged several times.

Meanwhile, JD.com Flash Delivery and Pinxixi Flash Buy also maximized their subsidized discounts at the same time, stuffing all kinds of red packets and discount coupons into users' accounts one after another.

That night, the entry for "Takeout War" surged to the top of the trending lists on major social platforms, and the comment sections completely turned into sharing centers for tips on how to "fleece the wool".

"Milk tea for 1.9 yuan, coffee for 0.9 yuan. Mom, is this what the Takeout War is?"

"Eat Pinduoduo for lunch, Taobao for dinner, and JD.com for a late-night snack. I'm rotating through the new user freebie offers on all three platforms, but bro, I still want to lose weight!"

"The three companies are trashing prices like this just to grab market share; even the last Takeout War wasn't this ruthless."

"At the age when I should be losing weight, I run into the most exaggerated Takeout War. Is this life? Fine, since you're being this ruthless, I'll just go for it. If I get fat, so be it!"

Over the next few days, the discount intensity of the three platforms showed no signs of abating, but instead became more aggressive day by day.

Some users started taking screenshots to show off their achievements, with their freezer compartments stuffed full of Mixue ice cream, all hoarded over the past few days using new user freebies and first-order discounts on different platforms.

Some people even made a table of the weekly discount times for Meituan, JD.com, and Taobao's takeout services and posted it on Weibo, where it was reposted tens of thousands of times.

Time passed like this, with five days gone under the constant barrage of low-priced milk tea and discounted fried chicken.

At this moment, the countdown to the official start of the league of legends third stage was already in its final ten days.

...

In Shenzhen, in a unit building in an old residential complex.

The wall plaster in the hallway had peeled off in some places, revealing the grayish-white cement underneath. The stair railing was made of iron, its paint worn shiny, and a few dusty old bicycles were piled up at the corner.

A-Shui's living room was not big. The sofa was a style from several years ago, the fabric on the armrests already worn and frayed, and a few half-finished glasses of cold boiled water sat on the coffee table.

"Don't worry, it's really not a scam. I've been an adult for so long, it's impossible for me to still be scammed."

A-Shui sat on the sofa, his tone somewhat helpless.

"Besides, we already have a guaranteed prize pool of at least 100,000 yuan. It's six people in total, five team members plus the coach, so that's almost 20,000 yuan each."

"I'll be leaving once the specific match schedule is out. I'll probably be traveling all over the country for competitions, but we don't have to pay for any expenses ourselves; food, lodging, and transportation are all covered."

"You know Douyin, right? This competition is organized by their parent company."

His father sat on the rattan chair opposite him, arms crossed over his chest, his expression not softening in the slightest.

A-Shui's dad was an old worker at a factory, having stood on the assembly line for nearly twenty years, and knew almost nothing about internet matters.

What kind of game competition, what kind of esports—in his understanding, games were just neglecting one's proper work. He had been reciting words about "indulging in games and losing one's will" since he was little.

During this time, A-Shui had been going out to surf the internet every weekend, and he had been scolded by him who knows how many times.

Having finally made it to summer vacation, his dad had originally already found him a temporary job position at the factory, thinking his son could help share some of the family's expenses.

And what happened? In the last two days, A-Shui suddenly came home talking about going to participate in a game competition and even said he could earn money. How could he believe that?

"Anyway, you are not allowed to go to that whatever competition."

A-Shui's dad threw down this sentence, stood up from the rattan chair, turned, and went back to the bedroom. The door closed behind him with a dull thud.

A-Shui leaned back against the sofa, looking at the closed door, and didn't speak.

The reason he hadn't told his dad about this in advance was that he knew it would be useless to say it too early.

Before he brought money home, his parents wouldn't believe that playing games could earn money. Talking about esports or professional players sounded fake to them.

However, no matter what his dad said, it couldn't stop his intention to participate in the competition. He would definitely achieve some results to show his dad.

A-Shui's mom had been sitting on the other end of the sofa without speaking.

She looked at the closed bedroom door, then at her son, and then fished a few hundred yuan out of her pocket and gave it to A-Shui.

"Don't listen to your dad."

Her voice was very soft.

"If you want to go, then go. You don't need to worry about things at home."

"Actually, the family isn't as poor as it looks. We have saved quite a bit of money for you; we just never told you."

A-Shui didn't take the money and pushed it back. After all, food and lodging for the competition were all covered, and there was a rich second-generation kid in their team who wasn't short of money, so he couldn't possibly use his family's money again.

Just as A-Shui's mom wanted to say something more to get A-Shui to accept the money, the door was knocked on from the outside.

A-Shui took the opportunity to stand up and walk over to open the door. A takeout rider was standing at the door, carrying a bag of lunch boxes that were still steaming.

This was a deal A-Shui had specifically "fleeced" on Pinxixi Flash Buy. There were large discount coupons every day, and today he hadn't spent a single cent. He carried the takeout inside and put it on the coffee table. Just as he was about to open it, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

On the screen was an unfamiliar number he had never seen before.

A-Shui was stunned for a moment, then answered it.

On the other end of the line was a strange voice, but the tone was very polite.

"May I ask if you are the captain of the A-Shui team?"

A-Shui nodded.

"It's me."

The other party paused slightly.

"We are the officials in charge of the league of legends tournament."

"After analyzing the excitement level of the matches of the sixteen teams."

"We have finally decided to make your team's match the opening match of the third stage in the Great Xia region."

"The location is in Shanghai."