Chapter 830: Temporarily Not Publishing
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Chang Xian had only been in this line of work for a little over a year and hadn’t had many chances to do exclusive interviews, but he had taken many photos over the past year, even when he had worked with Cao Guangcheng on an interview.
Chang Xian was rather skilled at photography. Chen Guo almost asked for a few copies of the photos he showed her, but she pushed down the urge; she couldn’t act like she was completely naive, right?
After the photos had been taken, the interview came to a close. Overall, it hadn’t taken very long. Chang Xian left after bidding them goodbye. Thinking back to it now, he knew he still lacked experience, which was why he had felt like he didn’t know where to start. And he had done so much preparation, too! If it had been Cao Guangcheng instead, he would be able to do much better at interviewing even someone he had met by coincidence and hadn’t prepared for. Difference! This was the difference in skill between them. To make a comparison to Glory, this was the difference between a rookie and a God.
Chang Xian lamented about this the whole way back.
"You’re back?" Cao Guangcheng was sitting in the living room, boredly watching TV. Seeing Chang Xian come in, he first glanced at the clock on the wall.
How much time it took to get to Excellent Era was something Cao Guangcheng was very clear of. Happy was across the street from Excellent Era, so the distance was about the same. The time that Chang Xian had used was, if his experience didn’t betray him, barely enough to familiarize himself with his targets.
"Yeah, I’m back," Chang Xian responded.
"Did you get to see Ye Qiu?" Cao Guangchang asked with false nonchalance. He had originally believed that Chang Xian definitely wouldn’t get to see Ye Qiu, but he started to doubt that after Chang Xian left. Times had changed! Ye Qiu was no longer the same Ye Qiu that was a part of Excellent Era. He had since left the pro scene. If he had changed his attitude and was now willing to be interviewed, wouldn’t that mean Cao Guangcheng had missed a great opportunity?
But Cao Guangcheng was a veteran interviewer in the Glory circle; he wouldn’t lose it for a big interview. So, even if he worried about it internally, he still sat in the room, peacefully waiting for Chang Xian to return.
"I didn’t."
Chang Xian’s answer was a huge relief to Cao Guangcheng. Though, if his experience as a veteran reporter was correct, there was no disappointment in Chang Xian’s words. That meant that Chang Xian had obtained satisfying results from his interview.
"Oh, then what did you manage to get?" Cao Guangcheng didn’t bother guessing and asked directly.
"Team Happy’s current captain, the one who applied with Lord Grim, is named Ye Xiu. He’s also a ten year veteran of Glory," Chang Xian started to introduce.
"Ye Xiu?" Cao Guangcheng was taken aback upon hearing this name.
"Yup, Ye Xiu. Xiu, not Qiu," Chang Xian said. "That can’t be a coincidence, can it?" Cao Guangcheng had a sharp intuition. He immediately thought that Ye Qiu might have changed his name to apply for the Challenger League.
But, thinking over it again, Ye Qiu didn’t seem to have any reason to need to change his identity. It wasn’t as if he was doing some sort of top secret mission for the country. What did it matter if his identity was exposed? If it was, he would even be able to draw more attention. Cao Guangcheng had personally interviewed the Alliance’s representatives, knowing that the year in which a player couldn’t return after their retirement was only in regards to the Pro League. There were no similar rules for the Challenger League, since the Challenger League didn’t exist when the rules had been made. Even after the Challenger League was created, nothing like this had ever happened, so it was completely ignored.
So if it really was Ye Qiu, there was no problem with directly participating in the Challenger League under his own name. In addition, if he really wanted to hide his identity, then why did he choose a name that made people think of Ye Qiu? And if he used a fake identity, how was he going to deal with the offline matches? He would definitely be exposed there!
Thinking of this, a fake name didn’t seem reasonable at all.
"Ye Xiu, has he been the player behind Lord Grim this whole time? What is his relationship with Ye Qiu?" Cao Guangcheng asked.
"Ah…." Chang Xian was stunned upon hearing this.
Difference! This was the difference in experience between them! How come he hadn’t thought to ask that before? This was a question that definitely should have been asked! Chang Xian became crestfallen upon realizing his mistake.
Cao Guangcheng could understand what he was thinking upon seeing his crestfallen look. He didn’t say much; he just smiled and said, "Don’t worry, take it slow!"
Speaking seriously, Cao Guangcheng was quite a good senior colleague to have. He often gave Chang Xian many useful tips, and although he had thought that this interview didn’t have much value, he didn’t stop Chang Xian from going. Even if this interview couldn’t be published, going out and trying for himself was a good learning experience for Chang Xian and could give him some experience. Later, when he realized Chang Xian might have the chance to interview Ye Qiu, Cao Guangcheng didn’t go and try to steal the opportunity from him.
"Ai, why didn’t I think of such an important question?" Chang Xian slapped himself on the head.
"Don’t worry about, there’ll be many more opportunities in the future for you. Tell me what you managed to find out first!" Cao Guangcheng said with a smile.
A beautiful boss, the strikingly attractive female player Tang Rou, Cao Guangcheng dismissed these topics with a smile after hearing them. This was esports, not entertainment, so beauty was only a peripheral advantage, not foundational. You had to have skills to earn achievements and survive in esports. Everything else was just on the side. For a team in the second round of the Challenger League like Happy, there was no reason to pay attention to how good the players looked.
"Is there anything else?" Cao Guangcheng asked. If that was it, there was no need to continue. "Tang Rou only started playing when the new server was released," Chang Xian said.
"Oh?" This was definitely something much more interesting to Cao Guangcheng. Soft Mist was a character that had caught his eye a while back. If she had only started playing upon the launch of the new server, then the ability she had now was rather impressive. Only a person who had skill like that to back them up was worth the attention.
"Also, Bao Rongxing, Steamed Bun Invasion’s player, is also a player from the new server," Chang Xian said.
"Interesting, I diddn’t realize that Team Happy had such good talents!" Cao Guangcheng said.
"They don’t only have newbies. Qiao Yifan, the player of the Ghostblade, One Inch Ash, used to be a member of Team Tiny Herb last season. He’s a real pro player." Chang Xian said.
"Team Tiny Herb? Qiao Yifan?" Cao Guangcheng took a moment to process this. Though he was the team reporter for Excellent Era, he wasn’t clueless about the other teams. In fact, he was much more familiar with them than normal players and spectators were. He did rely on this to put food on the table after all.
But this Qiao Yifan…. Cao Guangcheng thought back through what he knew and vaguely had an impression of him. Using the process of elimination, he realized it might be the kid that joined Tiny Herb with Gao Yingjie.
"Tiny Herb didn’t renew his contract and he didn’t receive any offers from other teams, so he joined Team Happy," Chang Xian said.
"So it’s like that!" Cao Guangcheng nodded. Pro players like that weren’t very rare, but it was rare for one from a champion team like Tiny Herb to have fallen to joining a grassroots team. Even if they had to joined a team in the Challenger League, they would usually find a place in a team like Everlasting.
"There’s another person, called Wei Chen. He’s apparently the ex-captain of Team Blue Rain and…." "Wei Chen?"
Chang Xian was about to say he didn’t know much about this person, but then Cao Guangcheng actually jumped out of his seat. He was an old reporter, so how could he not know who Wei Chen was? This was about a God from the first generation of Glory players. Starting with him, Team Blue Rain’s current captain Yu Wenzhou was the third successor of Swoksaar. Why would an old God like him, who had left the Glory circle for so long, suddenly return to participate in the Challenger League?
Cao Guangcheng was pretty sure he had met Wei Chen before. It was just that it was too long ago, so he only had a vague idea of what Wei Chen was like. At that time, Esports Home wasn’t comparable to other sports media like the way it was today! It was Glory that pushed the development of eSports to higher heights, allowing Esports Home to grow into the corporate giant that it was today.
The name Wei Chen really brought back memories!
"This Team Happy is very interesting," Cao Guangcheng nodded.
"Yeah, so I thought we could pay more attention to them in the future," Chang Xian said.
"Yeah, you should follow them!" Cao Guangcheng said.
"Then, I’ll go and organize the content for this," Chang Xian said.
"There’s no need to rush it. Just take it slow," Cao Guangcheng said.
"Oh yeah!" Chang Xian slapped his own forehead, "It’s only Saturday. I have over a day to do this!" Esports Home’s weekly papers came out every Monday and Friday. Since the Glory match days were usually held every Saturday, the reporters were used to organizing their information into drafts on Sunday, and Chang Xian had gone to interview a team from the Challenger League, which had its matches on Friday, leaving him with two days time to finish his article.
"You have plenty of time, don’t worry. The paper on Monday wouldn’t possibly publish your interview," Cao Guangcheng said.
"Why?" Chang Xian was startled.
"Because the match isn’t over," Cao Guangcheng said.
"Ah?"
"Do you think, with a hundred percent certainty, that Team Everlasting can’t turn the tides in the second round?" Cao Guangcheng asked.
"Well…."
"Only by completely claiming victory can Happy earn a place in the article for the Challenger League. For this issue, one sentence about Team Happy’s victory over Everlasting is the most you’ll be able to get," Cao Guangcheng said with certainty.
"In the second round of the Challenger League, Team Everlasting took a huge blow. Facing off against the recently popular Team Happy, they lost 8.5 to 1.5 on their home field. Their future in the Challenger League has become clouded. Team Everlasting began a closed training session after the match, planning on wiping away this shame in the second round."
Chen Guo flipped through the Monday issue of Esports Home, but didn’t find any other mention of Team Happy, and this article even had Everlasting as the main character. Chen Guo was confused.
"Where’s our interview?" Chen Guo began to suspect that her paper was missing pages.
"If we defeat Everlasting in this round, then it’ll appear," Ye Xiu understood the mechanics behind this.