Time flies, and no matter how well the Qingbei team prepared, their first match after the New Year arrived as scheduled.

The regular season is a double round-robin home-and-away series. A total of 18 teams participate, with the top 12 advancing to the playoffs.

The Qingbei team is currently ranked 15th, while the Jiang team is ranked 2nd. The huge gap in rankings makes this match seem to have little suspense, and it shouldn't attract much attention.

Three hours before the start of the match, Qingbei team, as is customary, announced its starting lineup on its official account.

In less than an hour, the hashtags for Qingbei team's Lu Yu and Jiang team's Weng Pei were trending on social media, and the comment section was bustling with activity.

-I've never seen anything like this before!-

- Little Fish is the first to go. -

- Lu Yu is finally going to play; Qingbei team is desperate, they're just trying anything.

Former teammates from the golden generation of the national team meet again, a true test of their strength.

-Are you kidding me? Lu Yu hasn't appeared in the main competition for almost two years, what makes her comparable to Weng Pei?

- Team Jiang is too strong, the result of the game is not in doubt, I just want to see how Daiyu makes a fool of himself-

- The person upstairs is obviously biased; they're jumping to conclusions before even having a chance to fight.

- 15th to 2nd, what's there to say? -

-Weng Pei returned from the Olympic qualifiers in a sorry state, and her mentality was affected. It's really hard to say what the outcome will be.

- Who's talking nonsense upstairs? If it weren't for Weng Pei, we wouldn't have even qualified for the Olympics.

-The Chinese team's overall performance in the Olympic qualifiers was poor. Am I wrong to say that? Can't your idol even mention it?

- You guys keep arguing, I'm just enjoying the sweet moments. Someone took a picture of Jiao Yuyin in the parking lot of the Qingbei team's competition venue; his back view is so handsome!

- ...CP fans, stop stirring things up in the competition discussion area, get out. -

The commentary booth was just as exciting as the heated debates in the commentary section.

Today's commentary team includes host Liu Du, former national team coach Feng Xu, and retired former captain of the national women's basketball team, Meng Xiaotong.

Half an hour before the match started, before the players from both teams had even entered the field, the commentators had already created an atmosphere of former teammates competing against each other, making the match incredibly exciting.

Host Liu Du said with an exaggerated expression, "The noise level in the venue is so high that the three of us might have to stand on the commentary platform to match the exciting atmosphere today."

Liu Du's words drew laughter from the audience in the venue.

"Jiang team has a lot of supporters. This is Qingbei team's home stadium. I think the cheers from both sides are evenly matched," former captain Meng Xiaotong chimed in at the right moment.

Feng Xu chimed in, "The starting lineup for the Qingbei team was just announced recently, so it's impossible to buy tickets at the last minute. Otherwise, Lu Yu's supporters would probably have snapped up all the tickets early on. After all, this is Lu Yu's first game after a long hiatus, and many people have been looking forward to this day for a long time."

"Friendly reminder, don't trust scalped tickets. Look, the stadium is completely full. If you weren't a sponsor of the Qingbei team, you wouldn't be able to get in even if you tried your hardest." Liu Du, as always, used humor to lighten the mood of the commentary.

Meng Xiaotong has a good sense of humor, saying, "You're implying Tengyue, and I have evidence."

The broadcast camera switched to the front row of the audience area supporting the Qingbei team, where Jiao Yuyin's profile appeared on screen.

"ah--"

The roar from the crowd immediately rose two decibels.

Liu Du said with a smile, "The director is really good at creating entertaining content. I believe that the audience, like me, is full of anticipation for this match."

"I don't think Team Jiang has made any personnel changes; their lineup remains the same as the first half of the regular season. Team Qingbei has replaced their point guard with Lu Yu, and they've also changed their shooting guard to a newcomer, Chu Feiyu. This is Chu Feiyu's first time on the national league stage." Feng Xu turned the topic back to the starting lineups of both teams.

Liu Du glanced at the information on the commentary desk and said, "Jiang has always played fast-paced and time-based offense. Once Weng Pei gets the ball, she can put a lot of pressure on the outside players."

Meng Xiaotong chimed in: "Weng Pei is probably the only guard in the league right now who can both dribble the ball across half-court and make a jump shot. Rather than calling her a shooting guard, she's practically half of Jiang's point guard."

"A combo guard." Feng Xu has a thorough understanding of basketball tactics and techniques. "This Olympic qualifying tournament has also shown us that other countries are trying to use players who can play multiple roles in women's basketball games. In modern basketball, this is very evident in men's basketball games, where positional distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred and tactical arrangements are countless."

Meng Xiaotong explained using her own experience: "When we first learned basketball as kids, we didn't usually distinguish between specific positions; at most, we were called forwards or guards. It's only when we participate in official games that we make detailed position distinctions based on each person's physical condition and playing style. Basketball is developing very rapidly now, and if a player on the court can perform the tasks of multiple positions, the difficulty of the opponent's defensive tactics will increase iteratively."

"Back to basics," Liu Du summarized with a smile. "Presumably, after the Olympic qualifiers, the national team will make adjustments to its future tactical arrangements, so fans should remain calm."

This was the first official match after the Olympic qualifiers, and the host and commentators naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to offer some explanation for the poor performance in the Olympic qualifiers.

Feng Xu clearly understood Liu Du's meaning and said, "The fact that national team head coach Zeng Ling chose Luo Yan and Weng Pei to build the team system shows that Coach Zeng has prepared for a style of play where one player can play multiple positions. Luo Yan is the only center who can also play power forward, and Weng Pei is the representative of combo guards. A shooting guard who can organize the offense is very formidable."

Meng Xiaotong nodded and said, "Qingbei team has undergone a major reshuffle of its guards, presumably because they have found a tactic to counter Weng Pei's high-intensity outside shooting."

Liu Du was full of passion: "With the 15th-ranked team facing the 2nd-ranked team in the league, will Jiang continue their dominance on the perimeter or will they be defeated by Qingbei's new tactics? Let's wait and see."

...