Chapter 694: First Summer Transfer
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: GravityTales
Although these results were officially announced after the finals, the outcome had already been decided and known weeks ago. Everyone had already been discussing it for a while now, especially with one of the relegated teams being a former powerhouse. Relegated teams rarely attracted this much attention. Only the fans of that team would be grieved.
After everything had been decided, Excellent Era gave a public statement. While the eyes of everyone were focused on the champions, Excellent Era wanted to give their fans a little bit of hope.
Club Excellent Era’s boss, Tao Xuan, personally accepted an interview. In the interview, he said that, although Team Excellent Era had been relegated, it was far from being over, especially after seeing this year’s finals. From Samsara, he ascertained that his choices for the players in the team were correct. This was an era, which required stars, and that his team had a star as brilliant as Zhou Zekai.
“Are you talking about Sun Xiang?”The interviewer could easily guess who Tao Xuan was talking about. Sun Xiang was a G.o.d-level player and his appearance was quite good too. He had everything Zhou Zekai possessed and he also wasn’t as quiet as Zhou Zekai. If he continue to grow, he would be worth even more than Zhou Zekai. From Tao Xuan’s words, it seemed like he was very confident of this.
With a popular player like Su Mucheng on the team, Excellent Era wasn’t any stranger to promoting a player’s business value. It could be seen from Tao Xuan’s att.i.tude that although Su Mucheng was outstanding, she still couldn’t compare to Zhou Zekai.
No one would argue about such a notion. In a compet.i.tive environment, victory was still the main factor. Beauty was beauty, but the audience wasn’t watching the compet.i.tive scene to look at pretty girls. Zhou Zekai’s stunning performance pumped up the players. Appearance was just a little flower to top things off. Su Mucheng wasn’t a bad player. If her skill was garbage, no matter how beautiful she was, it wouldn’t have been possible for her to be so popular. The pro scene wasn’t such a place, where one could eat just based on their looks. Even if one were promoted as someone who was skilled, one’s performance on stage would reveal everything anyways.
Since one’s performance on stage was the main factor, the content of the match mattered too. It’s like in football, how the forward always brought more attention than the rear guard. The performance in a match, the playstyle, and the importance of the match all decided a player’s popularity. From this point of view, Zhou Zekai stood out the most.
In Tao Xuan’s eyes, Su Mucheng wasn’t someone who could reach that level. Her performance on stage wasn’t outstanding enough. Her popularity would at best stay the same. It would be good if it didn’t decline. As for Sun Xiang, he was someone who could stand next to Zhou Zekai. He was young. He had drive. He had good looks. His potential was limitless. Zhou Zekai’s success was a living example, which seemed to be a stimulant for Tao Xuan, who dared to announce it to the media.
His praise for Samsara’s success didn’t indicate his love for the team. It was simply because they were proof that his way of thinking about the team was correct. Praising Samsara only allowed the fans to know: even though we were eliminated this season, by following the correct path, we’ll rapidly grow. Look at this season’s champions Samsara. That will be us in the future. They have Zhou Zekai. We have Sun Xiang!
“However, from how this season went, it doesn’t seem like Sun Xiang and Team Excellent Era are fitting together too well.” The interviewer obviously wouldn’t blindly flatter Tao Xuan. He still had to be incisive when he needed to be.
However, Tao Xuan remained calm when faced with such an embarra.s.sing question. He admitted that there had been problems between Sun Xiang and Team Excellent Era, otherwise, they wouldn’t have been relegated, but he once again emphasized that Team Excellent Era had great aspirations and that things needed to be looked at from the perspective of the future. Their previous glory was now part of the past. The team needed to turn a new leaf. As for how they were going to deal with the issues between Sun Xiang and Team Excellent Era, Tao Xuan delightedly threw out a huge bomb: Team Thunderclap’s captain, All Star, and Master Tactician Xiao s.h.i.+qin would be transferring to Team Excellent Era next season.
“I don’t think I need to explain Xiao s.h.i.+qing’s achievements do I? I believe that he’ll be able to beautifully incorporate every one of Team Excellent Era’s members into his tactics.” Tao Xuan confidently expressed.
This was definitely a huge bomb dropped.
Xiao s.h.i.+qin had already announced his departure from Team Thunderclap in the playoffs. Many people guessed that he would be transferring to Team Excellent Era. It was very reasonable. However, this had just been a guess. Team Excellent Era was simply one of many possibilities. Although it was logical, Team Excellent Era had been relegated, which was a very vulnerable weakness. Would an All Star like Xiao s.h.i.+qin still want to join a team that needed to go through the Challenger League next year?
Team Excellent Era had now confirmed it. The Glory Pro Alliance’s summer transfer window started from July 1st to August 31st. It was still June right now, but the season was already over. Xiao s.h.i.+qin had stated his intentions earlier and Tao Xuan had released the news. Although it didn’t conform to the rules exactly, no one really minded.
Tao Xuan was also anxious. Their team would not be partic.i.p.ating in the regular season next year. They would certainly lose a lot of popularity. He had to do everything he could so that the fans wouldn’t give up on them. Announcing Xiao s.h.i.+qin’s transfer early was a good move.
Because everyone knew Xiao s.h.i.+qin wasn’t transferring to Team Excellent Era to play in the Challenger league, but was instead thinking about the future. He would sacrifice a season, return to the Pro Alliance with a stronger Team Excellent Era, and win the champions.h.i.+ps. If even an All Star like Xiao s.h.i.+qin thought highly of Team Excellent Era’s future, wouldn’t others also be patient? Tao Xuan’s message was mainly used for this effect.
The first transfer for the summer had already been announced. This sort of news was certainly delightful news for the fans during the break.
After the finals ended, the official break period for the teams began. This was only a break for some people. For the owners, managers, logistics, team captain, etc, it wasn’t a vacation.
In order to prepare for the upcoming season, every team would still be operating. Whether it was player transfers, character transfers, or equipment upgrades, all of these were the main tasks during the summer. The diligent players would even return to practicing after a short rest. There might not be any matches to play, but they would still play in the game, a.s.sisting their Clubs in killing wild bosses.
Ye Xiu obviously knew about this situation. This was all voluntary for the players though. The Clubs wouldn’t require it. Conquering Clouds, Radiant, and Parade didn’t make it into the playoffs, so their break had started earlier. However, none of their pro players were willing to use this break to contribute to the team, which made Ye Xiu quite sad. Helping out in the game during their break was more of an old player habit. In the early days of the Alliance, pro players weren’t solely responsible for the matches that they played in. In-game activities such as killing bosses for materials and other forms of compet.i.tio, were tasks that pro players frequently partic.i.p.ated in.
As for the later generation players, they only needed to focus on practicing and preparing for their matches. The in-game tasks were given to a separate specialized game department in the Club. As a result, the number of pro players who helped out in game during the break became fewer and fewer. Those three teams had already been on a one month break, yet none of their players had the conscious to help out their guilds in game. Ye Xiu felt like there wasn’t any hope.
After a fierce showing between Blue Brook Guild and Samsara, the fans gradually calmed down and the game became peaceful again. s.n.a.t.c.hing bosses was something that always needed to be done, but this time, everyone knew a new opponent had come: G.o.d Ye Qiu and his four guild alliance.
Last week, everyone was busy fighting with each other, so they never actually faced them, but now, everyone would be facing this new challenge. The guild core members were all somewhat uneasy. Their opponent was no small fry.
Early Monday morning, three wild bosses sp.a.w.ned across the Heavenly Domain. The four guild alliance made an impressive showing, but weren’t able to take any of these three bosses in the end. However, this was because G.o.d Ye Qiu wasn’t there. The four guilds were relying on their own abilities to fight. It was a big difference without G.o.d Ye Qiu’s leaders.h.i.+p and support.
Later in the morning, Ye Xiu’s group logged on. Loulan Slash and the other guild leaders were eagerly awaiting for him to come online. Even though different players could cycle through the guild characters, in their group, Ye Xiu himself was important, not his character. When Ye Xiu wasn’t online, they could only pray that no bosses sp.a.w.ned. Last night, three had sp.a.w.ned. The four guild alliance had attempted to contest them, but they failed. The top guilds were on their utmost guard against them. All of the top guilds seemed to be together too in this, as if the four guild alliance was their number one enemy.
It had to be said that this was because of Ye Xiu’s terror. After knowing that Ye Xiu was behind this, the top guilds couldn’t help but gather together in fear. It wasn’t like before, where they would discuss with each other for a long time before coming to a conclusion .
Now, two words came out in their discussion group: “HE’S HERE!” The enemy Ye Xiu had arrived.
Another two words: “BE CAREFUL!!” And with this, an alliance was formed.
The four guilds’ attack didn’t go well for them, so the four guild leaders revised their sleep schedule to match Ye Xiu’s. In the morning, they sighed: “Sure enough, G.o.d Ye Qiu is very important. Without him, our four guilds are nothing!”
Because of G.o.d Ye Qiu’s addition, they became the target of everyone, so the difficulty in s.n.a.t.c.hing bosses changed. This was something that they had failed to realize.