Chapter 1124: Weibo War
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Zhao Yang was a pro player who had debuted in the third season. He had been highly regarded upon his debut, but had lost to Wang Jiexi for the season's title of Best Rookie. But, he had still managed to be voted into the All Stars for seven years in succession, starting from the year of his debut. He was, unarguably, the number one Qi Master in Glory.
This glory belonged to Zhao Yang, but what stood out most about him was that he had managed to be voted into the All Stars for seven years, yet hadn't played in a single playoffs match in seven years.
Out of all the All Stars, the only player that had never made it to the playoffs was Zhao Yang. Seven consecutive years of making it into All Stars spoke lengths of Zhao Yang's strength. Seven consecutive years of not making it into the playoffs spoke lengths about Team Seaside's strength.
People weren't willing to give them the label of 'weak team' because of their All Star player. In truth, Seaside was quite far from those teams that drifted about the relegation zone. They were solidly mid-tier, always just steps away from the playoffs.
Because of this awkward situation, plenty of people tried to entice Zhao Yang to other teams, but he stayed, leading Seaside over and over again in an attempt to charge into the playoffs. Seven years of hard work, seven years of disappointment, results that were beyond average, Zhao Yang had been suspended in such a situation for seven whole years, and now he was finally exhausted. He hadn't switched teams to try again, bur instead gave in to defeat and announced his retirement.
Zhao Yang's career as a pro player hadn't been short of mockery. There was little need to talk about Wang Jiexi, who had debuted in season three with him and was considered the most successful pro player second to Ye Xiu. To most people, there was nothing to compare, what with Zhao Yang having never even experienced a single playoffs.
Most people were more willing to compare him to Yang Cong.
Captain of 301 Degrees, the number one Assassin of the Alliance and also a third season debutant. Yang Cong was different from Wang Jiexi and Zhao Yang though. At first, Yang Cong hadn't stood out at all, but as he grew and developed, he slowly gained acknowledgement, and with him, 301 Degrees also grew as a team.
This team was full of players who, like Yang Cong, weren't eye-catching, but had a great grasp of the basics and trained themselves up step by step. They lacked natural talent, but made up for it with their diligence. They weren't a powerhouse, and didn't really have any sort of solid identity as a strong team, but they often managed to slip into the playoffs and could cause quite some trouble for any powerhouse.
In comparison, Zhao Yang, who held everyone's expectations, had never drawn any doubt about his skill, but he had never managed to bring his team up to a breakthrough. And Seaside also had terrible management as a club, having managed to experience all the problems a club could experience: financial troubles, workplace politics, etc. It was impressive that they had managed to hold on for so long. However, Zhao Yang was leaving now and no one would expect anything more from this team. Even though they had an All Star level account, Boundless Sea, that they had put all their resources into making, Seaside's chaotic management meant that even an All Star account wouldn't be enough to attract any talents.
Zhao Yang's retirement press conference was very peaceful, and his career had been one entire awkward situation without anything worth commemorating. In the end, even Zhao Yang himself could only use "at least I got here and tried my best," to comment on his seven years as a pro. After that, it was just the necessities like Seaside thanking him for all his hard work and what not.
Another talented player left, but like his career, his departure didn't have much of an effect on the Alliance as a whole. What people cared about most would always be the fight for the championship, and Seaside had never been a part of that. Their weakening would only let those in danger of relegation sigh in relief.
Since there weren't any significant repercussions, Cheng Siyan ignored it after looking over the gist. It wasn't like she would be doing any of the interviewing regarding Zhao Yang's retirement. Cheng Siyan prepared to contact Fang Rui, but opened up Weibo beforehand, only to stare in shock at what she saw. The Weibo post by Fang Rui had exploded.
Cheng Siyan had analyzed and guessed, coming to the conclusion that Fang Rui might want to leave. But she needed more resources before she could act on this because she was a news reporter. No normal person would need to show this form of integrity. After making their guess, they could just announce it freely, and then gossip.
What was different though, was that many pro players were also participating in this irresponsible gossiping.
"What's wrong?" This sort of sincere and plain inquiry came from Fang Rui's once teammate, Lin Jingyan. As old partners, they had quite a close relationship, and would naturally show more worry for the other at times like this.
However, most of the comments were full of mockery, just to rile things up for entertainment.
"What's wrong, shameless Fang? Has your shamelessness reached the point where Wind Howl can no longer endure it and has to get rid of you?" Void's Wu Yuce, a player who had debuted the same season as Fang Rui, sent a not-so-sincere and caring question.
"Senior Fang Rui's style really doesn't quite align with Wind Howl's current style!" Samsara's Jiang Botao used Wu Yuce's question to formulate his own comment. Though he had only debuted a year after Fang Rui, he still politely called the other senior.
"Wind Howl's high paced and efficient fighting style has placed constraints on the effectiveness of dirty play." The opinion from Tyranny's Zhang Xinjie was professional and concise, and after that, he didn't say a single extra word.
"Tch, what's with all the useless chatter!" Huang Shaotian expressed, but his comment didn't end there. To avoid the 140 character word limit that was contraining him, Huang Shaotian had only used that as a title for his lengthy article that he attached to the comment.
Cheng Siyan subconsciously clicked into the article and was hit with exclamation marks that took up a third of the article. Cheng Siyan skimmed a few lines before calmly closing the article. There was no need to read pure trash talk, and that "tch, what's with all the useless chatter" of Huang Shaotian's was the most irritating thing in sight.
From Gods to rookies, there were many pro players who joined in with the discussion. After commenting, they also reposted and commented on each other's comments. Cheng Siyan had naturally followed all the pro players with Weibo and ended up getting her screen flooded by said pro players. The number of posts were still increasing by the minute. It was clear that these guys had gotten stirred up upon seeing Fang Rui's post in the morning. Just think of the hand speed they had; with every passing second, several new Weibo posts would appear. Cheng Siyan couldn't keep up at all.
However, she refused to give up.
The pure trash talk that most pro players sent were worthless. Cheng Siyan wanted to see if any members of Wind Howl were joining in with the discussion. For a while, she had completely forgotten that she had planned to contact Fang Rui, the one who had started all this. But, as she continuously refreshed the screen, a Weibo post suddenly jumped out at her.
"You don't have a future there. Why don't you pack up and come to Happy?"
Weibo poster: Ye Xiu.
Cheng Siyan was stunned. As for the reason, it was clear upon looking at Ye Xiu's Weibo account. Ye Xiu's Weibo account had been verified with his ID and had been created for a long time now. After so many years, his followers had rose to tens of millions. However, Follow: 0. Weibo: 0.*
That meant, Ye Xiu hadn't used his Weibo at all since its creation. He had maintained his air of mystery and didn't appear in public in any form or manner.
However, after establishing Happy and winning the Challenger League, Ye Xiu began to tread into this territory. He accepted interviews and attended press conferences. In the past, he would've never done any of these. Now, was he even using Weibo?
For a moment, Cheng Siyan didn't even care about the contents of Ye Xiu's post, immediately heading for the comments section where everyone was dumbstruck, half of them asking if his account had been hacked...
However, the pro players had already begun rapidly reposting and trash talking Ye Xiu's post. The discussion surrounding Fang Rui had cooled down drastically. This reminded Cheng Siyan of a boss spawning. Only a boss spawning would immediately draw all aggro, no?
"Holy crap, who on earth is this? Let me take a look!" Void's Li Xuan managed to get the first kill in trash talking.
"Old Ye knows how to use Weibo? How long have you been learning? This is actually Mucheng, right? Mucheng, I see you!" Chu Yunxiu was the second.
But she soon got a response back, Su Mucheng having reposted and commented on her Weibo: "I'm over here!"
"The great Ye Xiu has given his Weibo virginity that he's been protecting for all these years to Fang Rui. True love needs no explanation." Team Thunderclap's Dai Yanqi courageously came up to tease Ye Xiu and immediately gained a wave of attention.
"The truth…"
"Exposed…"
"Repost ten thousand times and your true love will become a reality, come on, everyone…"
"Holy shit, if true love comes, then will Happy get yet another All Star?"
The topic suddenly swerved back to the main road and everyone suddenly realized that this was an important question. Everyone had always looked at Happy as a grassroots team, a new team, a weak team. But now, they had Ye Xiu, they had Su Mucheng. That was already two All Stars. If Fang Rui really went, then that would be a three All Star player team. How many teams like this were there in the Alliance? Even if their characters weren't the strongest, how many would dare leble them as a weak team?
"Compared to Happy, Tiny Herb is the real best option." Wang Jiexi, who hadn't been seen at all during the trash talking, suddenly popped up then.
"Are there even any spaces left in Tiny Herb? Why not come to our Thunderclap?" Xiao Shiqin suggested.
"Come to Void, Void needs more shamelessness," Li Xuan added, but his comment came with mockery. It was clear that he was just here for fun and not really here to recruit. Fang Rui was a good player, but they couldn't just try and take home every talent that seemed good. If you were going to take someone home, he or she had to be useful. If you were doing it for ornamental purposes, you might be willing, but Fang Rui might not!
Cheng Siyan was completely dumbstruck. By now, the only words that were actually relevant to Fang Rui were the nine words, "The weather has changed, my love has been exhausted." However, under this Weibo post, a recruitment war had erupted. Of course, there were plenty that were just there to trash talk or just for fun, but some teams truly could give Fang Rui a stable place on their team.