The final grouping results were published on the Internet and instantly aroused much discussion. Out of the four groups, Group B and Group C were recognized as the death groups. The teams in the China division failed to completely avoid the fate of killing each other.

In Group B, the co-existence of PAY and LDF was already very suffocating, not to mention the presence of the Korean KING.

The competition hadn’t even started yet but one team in the group had almost certainly received the ticket to go home in advance. As for which of the remaining two teams could break through, it depended on their official play during the round robin.

Looking at Group C where GH was located, it was called the death group not because of how strong the other teams were. It was because they were too weak that it was even. They weren’t afraid of the huge gap in strength. It was because the level was too close that they were afraid. Apart from GH who was expected to basically have a spot in the quarter-finals, the position of second in Group C could be called unpredictable.

Out of the remaining teams, the one who could win this last chance was completely unknown. There were the two extreme existences of Group B and Group C so the result of Groups A and D undoubtedly didn’t have much suspense.

In any case, the final grouping was definitely a good thing for GH.

“Great, there is no need to worry about internal friction with the other brother teams in the group stage.” Jian Ye was usually very extroverted but he still had the softness of a healing support. “Now we are fighting together in the World Competition. We are in the same boat as the other teams of the same division. It would be really hard to bear if we had to fight head-on at the beginning.”

Chen Yushen was the voice of reason and gave a reminder, “We might still meet later.”

Jian Ye choked up and the scar on his face shook slightly. “Well, one day late is a day later.”

Lin Yan gave everyone a copy of the information in his hand. “Take a look at this. I have a small understanding of the situation of the other teams in our group. I have screened out the most critical parts, focusing on the basic attributes of each player. In terms of hard power, if there are no accidents then we should crush them.”

Bi Yaohua looked at the large pile of information in his hand and his voice trembled. “Coach… these are the most critical… parts?”

Lin Yan glanced at him. “Didn’t you hear me. I said ‘if there are no accidents’. However, if an accident occurs in the group stage, haha…”

Bi Yaohua felt a chill go down his spine. He hurriedly looked at the information and stopped talking.

Lin Yan saw that the players were still conscious of it and didn’t say anything else to provide pressure. He agreed with the so-called ‘early qualifying’ that was going around on the Internet but he didn’t like to be too lax before a match.

In the e-sports arena, anything was possible. Therefore, rather than underestimate the enemy, he was more willing to let the players maintain an appropriate sense of tension every time before going onto the field. The training tasks should continue to be arranged. Thus, two days passed before it finally ushered in the official state of the group stage.

Group C was arranged for the afternoon of the second day. The group stage adopted a double loop format and in the first round, GH met with a team from the North American division. Everyone in GH was shocked by the overly warm screams on the way to the stage. They sat in their respective zone and still couldn’t recover for a long time.

Bi Yaohua clicked his tongue with amazement. “Fuck, are we sure that we are in South Korea? The cheers alone made me think I had returned to the domestic finals!”

“Hey? Isn’t it around the same weight?” Jian Ye checked the volume of his headphones. “The fans are so enthusiastic. They have traveled all the way to South Korea to cheer for us so we can’t let them down.”

Chen Yushen declared, “Just crush it.”

Gu Luo smiled and replied, “Yes, I’ll blow up the middle lane directly.”

Lin Yan listened to the conversation from behind and reminded them, “How many times have I said it? Don’t underestimate the enemy.”

Jing Yuanzhou chimed in. “Listen to the coach’s words.”

The voice channel was silent for a moment before they replied in unison, “We know…”

It was GH’s first battle on the world stage. In front of absolute strength, there were really no accidents. The group stage was a BO1. The opposing VC team from North America failed to find a breakthrough point for GH in the game.

The moment the game started, it was a one-sided crushing situation. From the early stage to the middle stage and then…

VC couldn’t hold on until the later stage when their lineup was more advantageous.

This was the first time that GH, the new team, had officially emerged on the world stage. Before this, the foreign media and teams knew to some extent that the second seeded team from the China division was able to beat PAY, LDF and other strong teams but they hadn’t expected GH to truly be so strong.

The North American VC might not be a top-tier team but they definitely weren’t weak. They weren’t the type of team that couldn’t perform at all when encountering a strong opponent. There might be many variables in a BO1 but to be beaten into such a tragic situation by the opposing GH team, it was really… outrageous!

So in just two days after the first round of the group matches were over, mixed in with the media reports of the duels in Group B, the name of the GH team undoubtedly became the most watched existence among the world’s hottest players.

At the same time, the Win team who also appeared in the World Competition with a new look was inevitably brought up again for comparison. The efficiency of various medias was truly very fast. In just half a day, a six pointed star comparison map of the data of the players of the GH team and Win teams were circulated online. This meant that two teams who weren’t in the same group at all inexplicably started a cross-group battle.

The next day, the second round of the competition officially began. The GH team beat the opponent again and the MVP Bi Yaohua participated in the post-match interview.

The host of the World Competition obviously liked to engage in things more than the host domestically. He opened his mouth and asked for Bi Yaohua’s opinion on the online comparison incident.

Bi Yaohua looked at the camera and smiled slightly. “Win? Their side-laner is the stinky newcomer who bragged about coming to our country to play in the rankings but was finally beaten back home? With all due respect, this isn’t the first time that they used the heat of our China division. I am unclear about their strength but their mouths really worked hard. I have to accept that.

The host, “……”

This footage was spread to every corner of the world and the domestic e-sports circle was laughing like crazy.

[666. The Trash Talk King can actually say that other people’s mouths work hard. Is this the end of the world?]

[Haha, this Korean team is keen to rub our hype but it’s fine.]

[There is really nothing wrong with these words. It obviously has nothing to do with them but after the first round of the group match, they ran out and tied themselves up.]

[Isn’t this solid proof that GH is currently the top star in the World Competition? I’m laughing to death. It is the same in our China division.]

[Seriously, every time I watch the Go Home team play, I always feel that they are wearing boy group clothes, not team uniforms.]

[A show is a real show. Haven’t you found that every team that wanted to send the Go Home team home was finally sent home by the Go Home team? So the Go Home team deserves its name, right?]

[Brother in front, I forbid a matryoshka doll.]

[Hey, am I the only one who wants to see Win eat defeat? Last time, they came to the national server and now they still have the face to come out and pretend. Can they compare with our Go Home team?]

[Indeed, the real and fake monkey kings are clear. Isn’t it okay for the officials to arrange a fight earlier? It is really annoying to see them brag every day.]

[Let me tell you a joke. Nilay really thinks he can fight 50:50 against Titans.]

The online discussion was boiling while the focus of everyone’s attention, the GH team was fully engaged in active preparations. There was only one round left in the group stage. After basically locking onto the qualifying spot, Lin Yan shifted the focus of his research to the next quarter-finals.

Apart from the fierce confrontation in Group B, the other two groups had already been decided. The only thing that would have an impact on the quarter-finals was the final ranking of first and second place in each group.

GH was determined to be first in Group C so the most important thing to pay attention to was the result of the Three VS Win match in Group D. Out of these two teams, the defeated team would be second in Group D and they would be GH’s first opponent in the quarter-finals.

The third round of the group stage officially started and the qualifying lists for Groups A and B were produced first. The result of Group B, the highly anticipated death stage finally came out. There were three strong teams. Once the result of their victory and losses were tallied, LDF fell short by one point and finished third in their group. They failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. It had already been confirmed earlier that Luni was going to retire so everyone in LDF broke down into tears that night.

GH and LDF were staying in the same hotel. They could see the fan group outside the hotel door and their mood was more or less affected. This direct result was shown in the next match. All the players played extremely fiercely on the field. They didn’t show any mercy and handed in a perfect answer for the group stage.

On the night after the match, all the members gathered in the lounge to watch the final round of Group D.

Bi Yaohua didn’t forget to do an interview. “Who do you want to win this match?”

There was almost no pause as everyone gave an unsurprising answer. “Three.”

Obviously, the elimination of LDF prematurely made everyone even more unwilling to experience a civil war in the quarter-finals. There was also another factor. They were too eager to send those dogs Win home by hand. They were really worried thinking about it. They were afraid that the fool Nilay would be eliminated by other teams and go home before meeting them.

Lin Yan clapped his hands and gave a reminder. “Don’t guess. Let’s watch the game.”

He might be keen to fight against Win but as a coach, he needed to extract as much data as possible from the strong competition between the two teams.

On the screen, Three started to play against Win. It was also the last match during the group stage. The match lasted for more than 50 minutes and Three won the final victory. Bi Yaohua saw the prompt about Wuhoo being MVP on the screen and as a fellow shooter, he couldn’t help sympathizing with Wuhoo’s wrists. “It is just the group stage… Three is going too hard.”

Gu Luo also expressed some concern. “Is Wuhoo’s hand okay?”

Jian Ye also sighed. “Seriously, there is no need to be like this… really no need.”

They might not have spared Wuhoo’s hands in the finals of the autumn competition but that was out of respect for the professional arena, not because they didn’t care about his injury.

After the group stage officially started, it could be seen that Three used their substitute shooter during the matches against other teams. This was obviously to set aside more rest time for Wuhoo. Yet in today’s match against Win, they chose to send Wuhoo to the field to ensure they finished in the top spot. The determination to win was clear.

As Jian Ye said, Three didn’t seem to have a reason to win this match. Yet from another point of view, it was true that they had to win. Obviously, it wasn’t just GH stimulated by LDF’s elimination.

Jing Yuanzhou’s eyes were still on the computer screen as he calmly explained, “Three should be like us. They don’t want a civil war in advance in the quarter-finals.”

“I should really thank Wuhoo for the effort.” Lin Yan closed the notebook in his hands and looked around without a smile. “Congratulations to everyone in advance. In the next match, we can finally beat Win in the quarter-finals as we wished.”

CG 10K event

Proofreader: Nao

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