The director carefully looked at the message sent by the partner. The only partner who could make him smile a little bit only revealed some clues in the corners.
The partner said, “Well, although the previous cooperation was very pleasant, we also have to re-evaluate the cooperation object due to certain conditions. For example, some important opinions from other partners… Recently, the boss of the new team in the league, is there no cooperation with RS?”
After the message was announced, everyone present fell silent.
“What’s the background of Xiao Yin?”
Now Qi Su couldn’t hold it back either. In his impression, Xiao Yin was indeed an object that many people in the league wanted to flatter, but no one expected that he could still affect the business department.
His face was a little pale, and he asked calmly, “Is it confirmed? Did everyone say that? We didn’t provoke him.”
“Keep asking, don’t spread this out for now.”
The conference room was depressed, from the director to the business manager, everyone was gloomy and uncertain.
The commercial value behind RS, combined with domestic operations, has long surpassed the billion-level. In addition to the popularity of the game itself, it also depends on RS’s commercial model.
Not to mention players, everyone in the industry knows how high RS’s price is, basically more than ten times that of same-level teams. But because they dominate the market, there is no room for bargaining, and brand partners still rush to them like fish in the river.
Several partners are temporarily watching, but their revenue reports for the next quarter will look very bad.
“Can’t dig it up. Even the acquaintances who knew about it didn’t want to talk.”
An entire morning passed, and the business department and Qi Su were still anxiously waiting for news, but in the end, this was the only result they received.
Generally speaking, if someone can obtain some information, it means that there is at least a chance to exploit it. If they can’t get any information, it means that the matter has already gone beyond their control.
The e-sports industry is only a very small circle among various industries. Even though it is currently gaining popularity, it also means that it is very vulnerable to influence from other fields, and can be easily shaken apart piece by piece.
A hammer can easily crush the seemingly glorious and sparkling palace.
The news about the temporary withdrawal of the cooperating partners was blocked by RS, but fans could still find some clues from the official websites of major brands.
“Are they going to change their endorsed team this season? They used to be on the homepage banner, but now they even hide their previous promotional slogans.”
“Maybe it’s just that the contract has expired? Or is it because our purchasing power is insufficient, so they don’t want to renew?”
Some fans were anxious, while others said, “Don’t worry! Xiao Yun’s popularity is already soaring this season, so why worry about this?”
Inside RS, the atmosphere was gloomy.
In the training room, everything was silent and the atmosphere was dull as usual. Xiao Yun repeated a flash Q operation on the screen over and over again, failing nine times out of ten. He let out a sigh and picked up his phone with sweaty hands.
His domestic fans had skyrocketed by millions overnight, and he had become known as the top young assistant in the league, with tens of millions of fans overseas. His four-to-one play, one of the league’s unrepeatable highlights, had been sent to the home pages of hundreds of millions of players.
But instead of feeling happy and excited, he looked pale and anxious. He repeatedly pinched his fingertips and repeated the difficult flash Q until Coach Zhou noticed his behavior and asked in a low voice, “Xiao Yun, what are you practicing? Didn’t I ask you to practice Earth Mother operation? You’ve never practiced this hero before, why are you suddenly using him?”
Xiao Yun broke out in a cold sweat and lowered his head, not speaking. After a while, he switched the hero to Earth Mother. Everything was familiar, everything was in his memory.
Xiao Yun’s Earth Mother was taught to him by Rong Yi, every detail even down to the frame was remembered vividly by him. But precisely because he remembered everything so clearly… he knew better than anyone how much that person knew about him.
For some unknown reason, the league officials had become very cautious in promoting this game. Previously, every round of RS games would have big headlines featured on various web pages, but this time even the promotional posters had been subtly adjusted – from the black and yellow colors of the RS team, they were split in half, with the other half belonging to VIT’s silver-gray and blue.
Rong Yi thought he would have some special feeling, but on the day of the competition, he really didn’t have any other special feelings.
He had compulsive thoughts when it came to tactics and detail research, and his mind almost never stopped turning. In the week leading up to the competition, he had hardly any rest time, sleeping no more than five hours a day.
Hui Mao and Ci She were worried that he would overwork himself to death and wanted to slip melatonin gummies into his cup. Xiao Yin, on the other hand, didn’t say anything and just poured him a small cup of sweet milk before bed every day.
No one in the league understood and respected his habits better than Xiao Yin. They were all workaholics, and for them, the game in their hands was the most important thing.
The importance and abnormality of RS actually showed that he was in a certain sense, competing.
Early in the morning, Rong Yi got up as usual and went downstairs to have breakfast.
What was different from usual was that Xiao Yin also got up early today.
By the time Rong Yi arrived, Xiao Yin was already holding a cup of clear coffee, drinking and reading the early report of the match.
Seeing him coming over, Xiao Yin greeted him with a “morning.”
Rong Yi replied with a “morning.”
After that, there were no more words.
This was a rare moment of peace before dawn, because once the other three woke up, the club would be filled with noisy chaos.
Ci She had been too excited to sleep since last night, boasting that he would get a pentakill in the match against RS.
Rong Yi flipped through several social media platforms.
This game didn’t need any warming up.
As a new team in the league, the dark horse in the hands of Xiao Yin, after advancing from Group B, played against last year’s domestic champion in the first match. It was already attracting attention, and there would probably be a lot of media coverage and reports on this game.
Foreign media and fans were concerned about VIT’s latest performance and domestic rankings; domestic fans, besides caring about the victory or defeat, were still focused on Rong Yi.
Rong Yi’s title as the world’s number one support was not given to him by anyone, but was earned by himself five years ago.
When he and his old teammates became the world’s number one support, they set records for individual damage taken/healing done/initiation impact, all ranking first in the three categories.
To this day, these records are still firmly held by him at the top of the World Championships, and no one can surpass them.
If Xiao Yun wants to rise to the top, he must face this huge mountain.
RS fans were discussing the “Easy not worthy” issue: “Easy’s records from five years ago, what kind of ancient game version was that? Do they still need to brag about past achievements?”
A post titled “Five years, isn’t it time to change the world’s number one support position? Didn’t the last one already switch to mid laner?” had already floated to the front page of major forums, and was topped as HOT.
VIT is very low-key in public opinion shaping. This is what Xiao Yin and Rong Yi mean. They both know better than anyone that if you don’t match your words with your deeds, there will be consequences.
Words like “number one,” “unique,” and “world-class” have never been used in VIT’s operations, and they are very cautious in their publicity.
At half past eight in the morning, everyone finished their meal and took the club’s vehicles to the league building.
VIT and RS are both located in the city, and according to tradition, they do not distinguish between home and away games and enter the league arena together for the competition.
By noon, when the game started at twelve o’clock, there were already a large number of media and fans gathered near the arena by nine o’clock.
No matter how much they tried to avoid the cameras, they would still be within range of them. Xiao Yin arranged a car specifically for Rong Yi and had his walk with the regular staff to the back garage, and then enter the league building under the escort of the assistants.
Unexpectedly, he was the first person to arrive at the training room of the arena.
Standing by the window of the building, looking down, the streets on the day off were crowded with people.
Most of the fans of both teams had been waiting to enter for several hours, and the scene was a brilliant display of flashing lights, banners, and media flashes.
He entered the training room, sat down gently, adjusted the earphones on his position, and then stood up and walked to the door, his fingertips holding the door handle.
At that moment, he saw the people in the opposite training room-Manager Qi Su and Coach Zhou Shanyang had already taken their places. They pushed open the door and were about to enter the RS training room.
RS’s training room in the league has always been fixed, and some fans jokingly call it the “exclusive seat”.
Because they were in the same city, every time RS played at home, their training room would be located on the second floor corner next to the audience section, on the right-hand side. The wallpaper was painted blue and already somewhat old.
He had played matches for a full five years in the training room across from it. He was familiar with the place, even more so than his own home.
It wasn’t that he was unwilling.
Rong Yi lowered his hand, twisted the doorknob, and closed the door to the training room.
Xiao Yin and the others arrived here half an hour later.
Rong Yi had already started the equipment and was quietly waiting in the corner of the training room.
The other four quickly got into their respective roles. Hui Mao asked, “Will Captain Rong be leading us today? It’s our first regular season game.”
Rong Yi replied, “You lead, you BP.”
Hui Mao was stunned.
Everyone thought that this crucial match might hold a special meaning for Rong Yi. He had been studying nonstop for a whole week just to prepare for this game. But now Rong Yi still intended to treat it like an ordinary training game.
He stretched lazily and flexed his fair fingers, then focused his mind and said calmly, “You three, get a feel for the BP style of the top domestic coaches.”
“What about this game then…”
Wu Dao Gu looked behind him subconsciously.
Beyond the soundproof room was the enlarged sound from the commentator’s platform and the thunderous cheering of the fans. RS members had sharpened their skills, and they had already made fierce statements before the game.
RS had not pre-recorded their pre-game trash talk; the logistics team made them record it on the spot.
Rong Yi took the microphone and said in a calm voice, “Training game.”
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