167: Chapter 167 All Team Members Assembled

The next morning.

Although there were still two days until the competition began, both teams for the opening match had already arrived in Shanghai and checked into a hotel near the venue.

At this moment.

In a high-rise suite of the hotel, three figures had just opened the door and were waiting in the room to meet up with their teammates.

A-Shui stood by the window, his gaze falling on the grey-walled stadium. Looking from here, the exterior of the stadium didn't look special, with only a few banners promoting league of legends esports.

Behind him was a quite spacious suite.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could see a small half of Shanghai's skyline. In the bathroom sat a large bathtub, and on the coffee table in the center of the living room, there was a fruit platter and several bottles of mineral water prepared by the hotel in advance.

In the corner, a row of five computers was neatly arranged. The golden Riot Games logos on the computer cases reflected slightly under the lights, and the network cables and gaming chairs were all set up.

On the other side.

Fatty hadn't closed his mouth since entering the door.

He had already circled the suite several times, touched the bathtub, laid on the lounge chair in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, and even changed hotel slippers twice.

He kept exclaiming in amazement while touring.

"Bathtub, floor-to-ceiling windows, this large suite is so awesome! Is this the legendary presidential suite!"

"It's my first time staying in such a nice hotel in my life. The cheap hostels I stayed at when backpacking before didn't even have a bathroom as big as this bathtub!"

Liu Yang leaned on the sofa, holding a grape he had swiped from the fruit platter, his tone carrying a bit of composure from someone who had seen the world.

"Tsk."

"You can tell at a glance that you haven't seen much of the world. This isn't a presidential suite."

"Al-although it's really nice, it's still lacking a bit. Real presidential suites are a circle bigger than this one, and they have dedicated butler service."

Although he said that, his feet couldn't help but tremble slightly, and he even had trouble speaking clearly.

From the end of the second round until now, Liu Yang had informed the event organizers about his existence as a coach, and the other party didn't feel surprised; instead, they covered all his expenses as well.

Furthermore.

He could even go on stage during the champion ban and pick phase, which was what he hadn't expected the most.

Afterwards.

After taking several deep breaths, Liu Yang finally calmed his excited mood.

"But Langchao Group is truly wealthy."

"Before, when their people contacted me, they specifically asked if they should prepare separate rooms for each of you, or if you wanted a large suite to stay together."

"I thought about it. We haven't met the other three teammates yet, just playing games together online via voice chat every day. Since we finally have a chance to meet in person this time, it's better to stay together to get to know each other."

"This suite has enough beds, and with these computers set up together, we can train and build synergy right in the room for the next two days."

After saying this.

Liu Yang pulled up the team group chat messages on his phone.

"The specific match schedule has also been received."

"Over the next month, we have to travel all over the country, from Shanghai to Shudu, and from Shudu to fly to Yuecheng."

"If we make it into the top few, we'll finally have to fly to Beijing. By the end of the month, we will have traveled across the whole country from east to west."

Hearing Liu Yang finish.

A-Shui also spoke slowly. Although his family background wasn't good and he had never stayed in such a nice hotel, he was the calmest of the three.

Since entering the room.

The direction he had been looking was always that stadium.

"This venue is a ten-thousand-person stadium."

"I looked it up. This place used to host celebrity concerts and traditional sports competitions. I didn't expect it to be renovated into an esports venue by Langchao Group. I wonder what it looks like inside."

He turned around and leaned against the windowsill.

Thinking about the heated online discussions that started last night, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"But I also didn't expect the popularity of this opening match to be so high right now."

"As soon as the viewing event was announced, the whole internet was discussing it."

"This morning, at least three of the top ten trending searches on Weibo were related to the opening match, which makes me a little nervous now."

"Usually when I play ranked games at an internet cafe, I don't feel anything even if a few people are standing behind me. If there are really ten thousand people sitting in the audience this time, I don't even know if my hands will shake when I enter the venue."

"That's two free skin chests, how could the attention not be high?"

Fatty swallowed the free fruit in his mouth and wiped his hands with a tissue.

"Guaranteed unowned epic skin, and if you watch all five games, you get another one."

"If I weren't participating in the competition, I would definitely watch the livestream. But I think there shouldn't be many people at the opening match venue, but the players watching the livestream across the internet will probably be at least ten or twenty million people, or even more."

After speaking, Fatty thought of something and looked towards the door.

"By the way, why haven't Zz1tai and the others arrived yet?"

"We listen to him bragging about being the 'Jincheng Eddie Peng' in voice chat every day. It's been four months, and we haven't even seen a photo. Send a message and ask where they are."

"We were originally going to look at photos before meeting offline, but this Zz1tai insisted on keeping a sense of mystery, so now we don't even know what they look like."

A-Shui picked up his phone and was just about to open QQ when there was a knock at the door.

After Fatty ran over to open the door.

Almost simultaneously, a loud voice came in from the hallway.

"The flight last night was delayed. We were supposed to arrive before you guys today. How are you brothers doing?"

Three people were standing at the door.

The one in front was wearing a black hoodie with the zipper pulled down to his chest, his hair combed back, face full of acne, but when he stood there, his back was straight.

The other two, one was thin and one was fat, both looked very ordinary.

Fatty stood at the door, unabashedly looking the three up and down. Looking left and right, it didn't seem like any of them were related to being handsome.

"You are Zz1tai? The 'Jincheng Eddie Peng'?"

Although he didn't want to believe it, Fatty was too familiar with the other person's voice; they had been playing games together almost every day during this period.

The leader flicked his hair, looking confident.

"Of course it's me. Who else would it be besides me?"

"You must be Fatty, right? I heard your voice was the loudest in voice chat before. Seeing you today, it's about what I expected."

"This is our jungler, Changzhang, and this is Brother Huzi. We've been playing games together for a while, so I probably don't need to introduce them much, right?"

Afterwards.

A-Shui and Liu Yang also stepped forward to greet them.

Although this was the first time these people had met today, the tacit understanding from playing two rounds of games together had already smoothed out their personalities quite a bit.

In voice chat, they would argue when they should and yield when they should. Today, putting those familiar voices to real faces, there was actually no sense of estrangement.

Although Liu Yang played with them less, as a coach, he often reviewed games with them over voice chat, so he was also very familiar with them.

After chatting casually for a few sentences, and after Zz1tai and the others put their things down, Fatty checked the time.

"It's about time, let's go down and have a meal first."

"I just scrolled through Douyin and saw this hotel's restaurant. It's so sumptuous; there are several rows of desserts alone."

"After eating, we can go to the outdoor swimming pool for a swim, and then go to the spa for a massage. All of this is free."

"The room booked for us by Langchao Group allows us to enjoy all the services for free."

The others also felt a bit excited listening to this.

After all, most of them were staying in such a luxurious hotel for the first time. Before, when playing online tournaments, they lived in school dormitories or their own homes, and rarely even stayed in budget hotels.

Now that they had suddenly moved into a place of this level, with a free outdoor swimming pool and spa, it would be a lie to say they weren't tempted. Moreover, the outdoor pools of such hotels usually have a lot of 'scenery' to look at.

Several of them were eager to try it out.

However, listening to Fatty's voice, Liu Yang didn't make any move to leave.

He also glanced at the time.

"It's only eleven o'clock; we can definitely practice and play two games first."