Chapter 1385: Playoffs Special Issue
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Chang Xian was worrying over the fact that he might not be able to complete his assigned task. Professionally speaking, the blame was partly on Happy for not being reliable. Other teams, for example Blue Rain, were also in closed training, and weren’t taking interviews, but they had their own public relations team working to provide their reporters with something to report, allowing them to deal with their own work responsibilities. As for Happy? In a single year, they had the core of the team down, but they didn’t have a club system that could deal with all their issues like Blue Rain did!
Public relations?
Happy didn’t have anything of the sort. Chen Guo didn’t have enough experience, while Ye Xiu put everything he had into overseeing his team members’ growth, their strategic arrangements, improvement of their equipment, accumulation of stored materials. However, he didn’t care about things like dealing with the media that had no direct influence of their team’s strength. The others wouldn’t notice this sort of thing either, so Team Happy really had no understanding of this whatsoever.
Chang Xian once again returned empty-handed. Some of Happy’s regulars were now looking at him weirdly. He had heard them mumbling once and almost coughed blood. With him running over to Happy so often and constantly hanging around Chen Guo, he no longer seemed so innocent. In the eyes of outsiders, he seemed like a shameless pretty boy who refused to stop clinging to Chen Guo.
Chang Xian felt like crying himself to death. When he went back and checked their Esports Home reporters’ group chat, the other team reporters responsible for the playoffs issue had plenty of material to go on, and even the City G reporter responsible for Blue Rain had a draft that Blue Rain had provided. All he had to do was add some of his own opinions and then he’d be good to go for Blue Rain.
As for him?
This time, he’d better not think of distinguishing himself from everyone else. If he could even get anything in, he’d be content.
Chang Xian could feel his anxiety rising, he pulled on his hair, he couldn’t sleep!
He didn’t bother hoping for an article draft like Blue Rain had given because he knew very clearly that Happy didn’t have anyone to deal with that sort of thing. He couldn’t place his hopes on the players, they didn’t have the time. Apart from that? Boss Chen? Chang Xian felt cold sweat on his head just thinking about it. His impression of Chen Guo was the furthest it could be from writing this sort of thing.
There was nothing for it. He could only rely on himself. He’ll just make it up! He’ll show it to them afterwards to make sure it was okay.
Helpless, Chang Xian could only write up draft himself. After struggling over it for two days, he went back to Happy, with a slight hope that he might be able to meet one of their players, only be be crushed when he saw Chen Guo downstairs again.
“Sister Chen,” Chang Xian greeted.
“Back again!” Chen Guo greeted him, but why did that ‘again’ sound so piercing? Looking around the Internet cafe, there were quite a few looks of disdain directed at him that were quickly retracted and fixated to computer screens when they noticed Chang Xian looking over.
“I drafted this article on Happy for the playoffs issue. Have a look, how is it?” Chang Xian weakly handed over his substanceless article draft, which had no sources but himself to take from.
“Oh? Alright!” Chen Guo accepted it and looked through it carefully, which made Chang Xian feel marginally better.
“Little Chang! This article is just full of slogans. There’s no substance to it!” Chen Guo said.
Chang Xian felt the tears start again.
Of course there wasn’t any substance! You always block me at the Internet cafe and never let me interview the players or leak any information to me. Where would I get any substance from?
Chag Xian felt chagrined, to the point of speechlessness. Seeing this, Chen Guo wasn’t completely clueless as to why.
“Er… just now I was just speaking from the point of a reader. It’s actually pretty good, go ahead and publish it!” Chen Guo said.
“Sister Chen, can’t you give me something to write about?” Chang Xian asked.
“There really isn’t much I can give you. We Happy only have so much to our name, you know that! And because of this, we have to fully utilize all the time we’re given and improve as much as possible in this week,” Chen Guo replied.
“Stop trying to fool me, Sister Chen, I know you guys have a trick up your sleeves. I can tell,” Chang Xian said.
“Haha. Of course we have something, but we can’t say anything about it! Otherwise, how are we going to surprise everyone?” Chen Guo said.
“Alright!” Chang Xian nodded. Chen Guo had personally admitted that they had an ace up the sleeve and that could probably count as something with substance he could write about. As for not knowing the specifics to their ace up the sleeve, that was reasonable! If a team really revealed all the tricks and strategies they were going to use to deal with their opponents, then everyone would probably be suspicious that they were doing it on purpose to fuck with their opponents. Chang Xian was pretty skilled at his job, and upon hearing of this information, the gears were already turning in his head, figuring out how he could use this.
Soon enough, the weekly esports special playoffs issue started publishing. The pre-match articles were, naturally, about predictions and hopes for each team in the playoffs. Apart from articles from the assigned reporters of each team, Esports Home had also invited renowned Glory analysts to write about their views of the playoffs.
For example, famous guest commentator Li Yibo. His special column was of the same style as his commentating this season, careful and cautious, not daring to make predictions. Li Yibo’s section was like a replay. He brought up all the most spectacular moments of the regular season; of course, he had been a commentator for all these matches, and his rehash of the events were lifelike and clear. Then, he went on to explain what strengths and flaws each team had, in his opinions, before bringing his article to a close with best wishes to all the teams.
Renown analyst Cha Xiaoxia had announced that he was a brainless fan of Happy’s long ago, and had supported Happy plenty throughout the season. However, Cha Xiaoxia’s brainless fan comment was just a simple joke. He merely looked more highly upon Happy and thought them more interesting. He merely spent more effort on uncovering Happy’s strengths. His praises for Happy were methodical and logical, unlike those Happy haters with Ruan Cheng at their head. They were really brainless crazies and pretty much beyond saving with their delusional talk.
In Cha Xiaoxia’s column, he had continued to express his love for Happy, and in his analysis for the eight playoffs teams, Happy took up 70 percent while the other seven teams took up the other thirty.
The editorial department had mixed opinions on if they should invite Zuo Chenrui to write a section or not because this guy was a real brainless maniac when it came to what he loved and what he hated. It would be natural that anything he wrote would lack objectivity. In the end, the editorial department decided to try and get Zuo Chenrui to write a piece not about Blue Rain and Tiny Herb. In the end, they were resolutely rejected by Zuo Chenrui.
Others, like Ruan Cheng, only wrote for Esports Times, so even Esports Home wanted them, they wouldn’t be able to invite them.
They had gotten plenty of long and eloquent pieces. Apart from these renowned analysts, they also had a few by pro players, some retired, some still going. The players of the eight playoffs teams naturally didn’t have any time for it, but the players of other teams were already on summer break. The media usually invited renowned gods to write for them. This time, they had managed to invite Void’s Li Xuan, Misty Rain’s Chu Yunxiu and Royal Style’s Tian Sen.
The three had more or less recovered from their disappointment of this season, and had their popcorn prepared for the show ahead. They each had different views on how the playoffs would go.
Li Xuan had his bets set on Samsara. This was the most mainstream opinion; there wasn’t much more to it.
Chu Yunxiu, on the other hand, was rooting for Happy, and she directly admitted that the main reason was because her good friend was in Happy. Of course, afterwards, she also went and discussed Happy’s strengths and flaws from a competitive perspective.
As for Tian Sen, he had his eyes set on Tyranny. He thought that, after holding back for a season, they would meet the playoffs with explosive force. Royal Style, once at the top, was heading towards ruin, and Tian Sen deeply felt that forlorn feeling of feeling himself wither away. Tyranny’s veterans were, no doubt, currently experiencing this stage of life. Though Tian Sen was in his prime as a pro player, he had the same feeling as he watched them. His hopes in them was more like well wishes.
The esports weekly issue was comprised of these contents. Afterwards, the reporters they had sent provided more into each of the eight teams. Apart from Blue Rain and Happy, the other six had managed to interview the team players and had plenty of material. Blue Rain’s club had provided a draft, and the reporter had, naturally, built off of that. Happy’s was a little worse. Chang Xian had more or less written a draft for Happy and then used what little he had gotten from Chen Guo to expand.
Yet, in the end, the six that had managed to interview the team players all seemed rather plain and boring. The severe atmosphere of the playoffs seemed to have already enveloped them. Though they had personally faced the media, the players of those six teams had barely said anything of substance. Blue Rain had provided a draft, so that was even worse. In the end, it was Chang Xian’s piece on Happy that was most authentic, stating how boss Chen Guo herself had personally admitted that Happy had an ace up the sleeve for the playoffs.
What was this ace up the sleeve?
This was what Chang Xian had focused on.
Chang Xian’s guesses weren’t important. After all, anyone could try and guess! Thus, what ace up the sleeve Happy had became the biggest discussion of the issue. Some guessed that it was a new strategy, some guessed that it was a new and never before seen team formation, and some guessed that it was secret weapon in the form of equipment. Either way, there was a limited amount that could be talked about and all sorts of guesses were flying around.
“What do you think?”
Team Blue Rain, Huang Shaotian asked Yu Wenzhou as he set down his newspaper. They were going to be Happy’s opponents soon, so they were naturally rather concerned about this. After he asked, Huang Shaotian didn’t bother waiting for Yu Wenzhou to answer, immediately expressing his own opinion, “With that guy present, I bet that this is just a smokescreen.”
“Really? I don’t think so.” Yu Wenzhou held a newspaper in hand, too. His gaze didn’t leave the page as he listened to Huang Shaotian talk.
“They probably have some sort of trick or ace. If they didn’t have anything, then this smokescreen would be rather pointless. Happy’s members aren’t that immature,” Yu Wenzhou continued.
“Then what is it?” Huang Shaotian was confused.
“Don’t think. If you think about it, then you’ll have fallen for the trap,” Yu Wenzhou set the newspaper down as he spoke. “Just pretend you haven’t seen it!”
“I’ll do my best…” Huang Shaotian didn’t sound very confident.