Maybe it was because of the weather, or maybe it was because today's games were not so popular, the venue that was bustling and crowded yesterday was obviously much quieter now.
Shen Yanming followed He Changkong and the others into the spectator seats and sat on the top of a distant mountain.
In order to be fair, the teams for the Return to the Throne professional league are drawn before the game. Therefore, for the players, especially those who are drawn to the top teams, the preparation time will be a little rushed.
For example, this match between CTG and JT was the first group of teams drawn at the opening ceremony yesterday.
Now the two teams were ready in the player room. There were many familiar faces inside, and Shen Yanming was not interested. However, he still wanted to know what He Changkong and Meng Yan were up to, so he watched patiently.
The game was in the form of BO3 (best of three). In the first game, CTG's Aji was the core player. In the first 20 minutes, Aji killed the opponent 5 times. This result looked good, but it was not surprising. The opponent's players were not good at fighting alone, and they made many mistakes today.
Even so, there was still cheers at the scene when ctg won the victory.
The big screen gave a close-up of Aji who was high-fiving his teammates. He had a smug smile on his face and even whistled.
Ever since Aji lost to Shen Yanming last time, he has never jumped around on the Internet again.
The coach of ctg found him, took back his social media accounts, and asked him to stop causing trouble online.
His social media accounts were blocked and he could not post anything, but that did not mean he did not read netizens’ comments. He registered a small account and searched his own name every day as if possessed, whenever he had free time to see what others were saying about him.
From the moment he lost, posts on forums and Weibo discussing this solo flooded in like a tide, making it hard for him to breathe.
He has just started playing professionally and is not yet a star player. Only a few fans are still cheering for him.
But those cheering voices seemed insignificant amid the laughter.
Almost everyone was laughing at him, saying that it would have been better for him to admit earlier that he was inferior to others in skills. He was so green and jumpy, and it was really embarrassing to be in this state now.
He was furious and searched the entire Internet, trying to find more information about [I'm messing around again].
He felt that this person must be a player from a strong team who was deliberately trying to mess with people's mentality.
But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any evidence.
He refused to admit that he was beaten like this by an ordinary anchor.
Aji was worried about these things and his training condition deteriorated seriously.
They are about to participate in the regular season. This is the first time that CTG has participated in the regular season since its establishment. The club’s bosses have high hopes for these players.
Who knew that Aji was absent-minded every day, not only did he play terribly in daily team training, but also when he arranged training matches with other teams, the entire CTG team was defeated again and again because of his mistakes.
He didn't wake up until the coach told him that he might be demoted to the bench.
He has to play well. He has worked hard to become a professional player and he absolutely cannot fall to the level of a host.
But things never went as planned. Perhaps it was because the psychological pressure was too great. The more he wanted to exert his strength, the less he could do it.
Seeing the coach's face getting darker and darker, he contacted several buddies in the team who were short of money to arrange a training match.
The first time he hired someone to play a fake match, he was terrified. The entire training match lasted less than 40 minutes, but it felt like 40 years. He was afraid of being discovered, so he would use simple skills in vain. But later he found that he didn't need to use his brain, the actors on the other side would cooperate with him and die under his knife.
He calmed down, and except for the mistakes at the beginning, he played well afterwards, as if it was really his own ability that got so many kills and led the team.
No one else noticed anything unusual; even his coach and teammates came to encourage him, saying that as long as he played well, he would be able to perform well.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
After the first time, there will be a second time, a third time... But it doesn't matter anymore, he has already walked out of the shadow of that anchor. As long as he adjusts his mentality and performs normally, he won't get a great result, but it will be no problem for him to show up in the regular season.
But after he arrived at the stadium, he saw the haunting anchor again.
It was just an entertainment game at the opening ceremony. A mere netizen was picked up, but he stole the limelight, became the center of topic, and was even fought over by two strong teams.
When his teammates came over and joked, "I didn't expect the host who soloed with you last time was so good. You are just unlucky," the water in Aji's hand spilled directly.
He wants to win, he must win. He doesn't want to be in the control group of such a host. He doesn't want others to only say that he is a one-rounder when they mention him, but use an envious tone when they mention that host.
He forgot that no one actually cares about these things.
He just wants to win, no matter what the method, and he wants to stay in this arena as long as possible.
He did it too.
He looked at the audience below who were cheering for him and felt that he was finally - floating on the clouds.
Shen Yanming leaned close to He Changkong's ear and whispered, "You said he played a fake match?"
After all, this kind of thing is a fatal stain for a professional player and it cannot be talked about casually. Therefore, even though Shen Yanming was very annoyed with Aji, he did not dare to say it directly without evidence.
He Changkong felt his ears a little itchy, so he moved to the side and nodded.
Shen Yanming’s first reaction was, No way, is it really that serious to face an opponent of this level
After looking around, Shen Yanming leaned over again and asked, "How did you know that?"
Meng Yan didn't have as many concerns as Shen Yanming. Anyway, the tickets for this game were not sold out, and the nearest audience around them was several meters away from them. Meng Yan directly said in a voice slightly lower than normal: "Did you know that he has been very successful recently?"
Shen Yanming shook his head.
Meng Yan added: "After he lost to you that time, he was in a very bad state and kept losing. He was even warned by their top management."
Shen Yanming: "I've heard classmates mention this..."
However, he was not very clear about what happened afterwards. Ever since that solo, he never even glanced at Aji again, and he didn't care at all whether this person was square or round, happy or frustrated.
"After being warned, he seemed to have been reborn. Didn't his team arrange a few training matches? Of course, they were also arranged with teams with similar results, or some players from the second team..."
Meng Yan didn't need to explain this, Shen Yanming also understood that the competitive circle of their game was about a group of passionate young people chasing their dreams, but sometimes it was quite realistic. If you didn't play well, no strong team would invite you to a training match. Occasionally, a strong team would help a weak team, but that was only occasionally. In just one or two games, the weaker teams with lower levels would feel that they couldn't stand it.
Meng Yan continued: "Then Aji found a few people, gave them money and let them lose."
Shen Yanming found it unbelievable. What was the point of this? It was just a training match. Besides, the opponents were of similar level and he might not be defeated... Was it necessary
Even if he was unwilling to accept the defeat he received, shouldn't a normal person who wants to save face work harder to improve himself and then have another solo performance with dignity
Shen Yanming felt that Meng Yan’s statement was quite outrageous. At least in their previous life, except for that little thing at the end, Aji behaved like a normal person.
But Shen Yanming thought that Meng Yan was not the kind of person who would speak without thinking, so he asked directly: "Then how did you know? It's impossible for them to ask you to play a fake game, right?"
Meng Yan took out his phone mysteriously, pointed at a screenshot of a group of five people on the screen and said, "This was sent to me by my brother."
"Your brother?"
"My cousin is a playmate. These guys in the group are also playmates. They are all players. They are old buddies."
Shen Yanming: "This..."
Players at the top of the pyramid naturally don't have to worry about money, but many players who can only play in one round or even fail to qualify for the league don't live that well. Many small teams' clubs are just makeshift teams, and the players' salaries are lower than those of office white-collar workers. In order to make more money, some players do live broadcasts or play games as a side job after training. This is also the unspoken rule at the bottom of the circle.
From the screenshots Meng Yan provided, it looked like Aji was offering them 50,000 yuan a pair. Aji's family was well off, so he could afford the money.
This price is neither too much nor too little. At least it is very attractive to those low-level players who work hard every month but may not even earn more than 10,000 yuan a month.
Moreover, it was just a private training match, not a formal competition... In addition, the teams of several of the players who were approached did not actually make the cut for this year's league selection, so some of them simply agreed to Aji's offer.
Shen Yanming frowned when he heard this: "You're still a contestant? Don't you have any sense of faith?"
Meng Yan patted Shen Yanming on the shoulder and said, "Little friend, not everyone comes here for dreams and passion. Think about it, some people can do nothing but play games, but they are not the best at playing games, so they need to make a living..."
He Changkong interrupted Meng Yan: "Don't talk about these crooked theories."
Meng Yan spread his hands and said, "I just described the psychology of some people, I didn't say it was right."
Of course Shen Yanming knew that there were such people, but he had never dealt with them before. Now, after hearing what Meng Yan said, he was somewhat shocked.
"That can't be a fake match," Shen Yanming said with a frown on his face, "but you only have a screenshot of the chat..."
Meng Yan also got angry when he said this: "Indeed, my stupid brother is also very impatient. He saw a few buddies in the group talking about match-fixing, and he had a quarrel with them and left the group. He only left this screenshot, which can't be used as any evidence at all..."
Shen Yanming: "... What about today's game?"
Meng Yan put his phone away and said, "Wasn't today's match decided last night? Last night in the backstage, there was a small utility room. Normally, there should be no one there. Your brother Kong and I helped move some things over there. Isn't it just a coincidence that I heard them doing some shady deals. I really didn't expect that Aji would be so arrogant. It's okay to do something in the training match, but he dares to do this in the regular season... The point is that he can actually find people willing to play with him?"
Shen Yanming sighed with mixed emotions. In addition to regret, he also felt a bit of resentment and said, "What's the point? If we go up and meet a stronger team, our true colors will be exposed."
Meng Yan: "You are right, but that is not the point. The point is that your brother Kong calmly took out his phone to record the conversation, pulled me aside, and after Aji left, your brother Kong made his appearance in a very handsome manner."
He Changkong touched his ears and said nothing.
Shen Yanming looked at him, then at Meng Yan: "Kong Ge made a handsome appearance, and then what? Didn't you guys do that after you recorded the audio? CTG still 'won' the game just now..."
Meng Yan was being mysterious. He raised his chin and motioned Shen Yanming to look at the big screen: "Here, look."
The second game has begun. If ctg wins this game, they can advance to the next round.
It’s just that… the JT players who had been making mistakes repeatedly just now, suddenly seemed to have taken some magic medicine and were full of energy. They caught Aji and killed him more than ten times in a row.
By the end of the fight, Aji's mentality was broken. The game wasn't over yet, but he actually stood up.
During the competition, the audience cannot hear the contestant's voice, but they can see his mouth shape, which seems to be saying "How is this possible".
The audience below was in an uproar.
Shen Yanming also turned to look at He Changkong: "So this is... what's going on?"