In the group stage, teams play one Bo1 match per day, with a different opponent each day, for a total of three days. In the second round, teams play three matches per day, spanning just one day.
In the first round, POG had relatively ample time to prepare and won all three games. Gu Yang's attitude was always very arrogant, and he didn't take the three teams seriously at all.
On the contrary, when it came time to prepare for the second round, Gu Yang attached great importance to it.
Xu Qing wondered: "Didn't they say these were minor issues?"
"You know shit!" Gu Yang was furious, even attempting to use big data to analyze the rank records of the other three teams over the past two weeks. After his outburst, he still found time to explain to Xu Qing, "Before, no one took us seriously, and we played seriously. Now that they're starting to take us seriously, you're getting cocky. It's going to be very difficult for us, you know?"
Zhou Yao: "I'm not bloated, only Xu Qing is bloated."
Xu Qing was so angry that he slammed the table and stood up: "I don't have any!! There's nothing to eat here and I'm already thinner!!"
Lin Yanqiu blushed: "I'm not talking about physical expansion."
Fang Butao echoed, "The most obvious point is that you're starting to look down on the LCK now."
"No!" Xu Qing retorted subconsciously, but then he realized that he seemed a little inflated.
But it’s not that I look down on LCK, but I do look down on the LCK’s third seed a little bit, after all, POG won.
However, BO1 is a competition system with the most obvious uncertainty, which is suitable for surprise attacks and unexpected situations.
The pressure in BO3 and BO5 isn't that great, as I'll think if I lose this game, there's still the next one, so it's okay. But in BO1, it's easy to panic once I'm behind.
Therefore, many strong teams also failed in BO1.
Fang Butao wanted to lighten the mood, so he held up the remote control and pretended to be cheerful, changing the subject: "Today is the second round of GGB's group. Are you watching the game?"
Gu Yueshuang: "No, just tell us the result after the fight. Let's go back and watch the recording. Didn't they say they were all bloated during today's training?"
Lin Yanqiu: "Let's arrange a training match with a strong team."
Gu Yang shook his head: "You should adjust your mindset first."
Ever since they won the third seed of LCK, they started receiving invitations to training matches from teams in various regions, all of which were to check out their background.
If both sides want to test each other's strengths, neither will bring out their best tricks, so Gu Yang will choose to take on training matches.
——And it is usually scheduled in the evening, but not now.
After three consecutive wins in the first round, POG became a hot commodity in the training match market, and teams that had previously looked down on them also began to look for them to play training matches.
Gu Yang patted Fang Butao on the back and signaled him to project the game video.
He said: "If you can find the same momentum as at the beginning of the spring season and criticize yourself and your teammates, you will see how many problems you can find."
The training room was silent.
Seeing that they all looked serious and didn't dare to make a sound, Fang Butao quietly adjusted the projector and stood aside, waiting for them to make any requests at any time.
Gu Yang picked through a pile of match videos. "How about this? We won't watch the rookie teams anymore. You guys probably don't take them seriously. Scrutiny isn't necessary either. Let's pick a mid-level team. How about the second seed from Europe?"
The rookie team refers to the team that climbed up from the qualifying round. Their record is completely opposite to POG. They have lost all three games so far, and no one is optimistic about them anymore.
Xu Qing muttered quietly: "Didn't we all win?"
Zhou Yao gently bumped his hand and whispered a reminder: "You still say you're not bloated?"
Xu Qing stopped talking.
Gu Yang didn't look at them or say anything, he just quietly turned on the video and let them watch it themselves.
We didn't have a level 1 team fight in this game, so there was nothing much to say about the normal laning phase in the early stages.
Gu Yang didn't drag the progress bar, probably to give them time to discuss and think.
Xu Qing was completely baffled, but he still boldly asked, "Because we always lost inexplicably in the Spring Split, we were so critical... But now we're winning, why do we have to review them like this?"
Their passionate all-night review of the spring season can be said to be nitpicking. Someone with a sensitive heart might be directly criticized to the point of retirement.
Gu Yueshuang, who had experienced excessive review, said, "It can be considered as a precautionary measure."
——After all, she liked to find fault with herself when she won the competition in the past to avoid becoming arrogant.
But after I won more, I no longer had this almost pathological nitpicking because I got used to it.
Is this considered a kind of expansion?
Gu Yueshuang didn't know.
Seeing the tense atmosphere, Zhou Yao pulled out his phone and suggested, "Wait a moment, Coach. Let's order takeout and discuss whether this review is necessary. Can we wait until the takeout arrives to review it?"
"Okay." Gu Yang said without any expression. He paused and pulled Fang Butao out. "I'll give you some space."
After all, if he and Fang Butao were both there, these kids might not be able to say some things, or might not dare to say them.
As soon as the two of them left, everyone was visibly more relaxed.
Gu Yueshuang wondered, "You guys are so angry but dare not speak out?"
Xu Qing waved his hand. "Not really, it's just... well, I don't think it's necessary. We kept losing in the Spring Split, so of course we had to find the reasons. But now that we're not losing, why are we still revisiting it so lamely?"
Lin Yanqiu: "Will the takeaway take half an hour to arrive? We can quickly go over this game."
Zhou Yao looked at the "out of delivery range" notification on his mobile food delivery app and fell silent. He asked, "Can I order food from Korea? How do I order?"
Everyone: “…”
Oh, I forgot this is not in China.
Gu Yueshuang: "Let's go out and buy some, and take Brother Hei for a walk..."
She stopped talking abruptly.
Oh, I forgot there is no Hei Ge here.
Everyone fell silent again.
Everyone had an inexplicable sense of melancholy.
Lin Yanqiu stood up and said, "Let's go out for a walk. It'll be good for a change of mood."
Gu Yueshuang followed him out cheerfully: "Bathing in the sun makes me feel good~"
Yang Lin hesitated for a long time, and finally made up his mind and whispered, "Actually, I do feel a bit inflated."
As soon as these words came out, six pairs of eyes were staring at him.
He is the only player in POG who has never played in the World Championship and can be regarded as a bystander.
Gu Yueshuang strode over and said, "Don't be afraid, just say whatever you want to say, I will protect you."
Yang Lin scratched his head, not knowing what to say.
Lin Yanqiu spoke for him, saying, "Do you feel that after the first round, you'll start to think, 'LCK is just so-so.'"
Yang Lin nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, that's right. After this match, I haven't taken Rank and the competition seriously anymore..."
The more he spoke, the lower his voice became, for fear of offending these seniors.
Everyone looked at each other. Lin Yanqiu had some idea in mind, but no one dared to say it out loud.
Isn’t this true?
Although most of the world championships in the past went to the LCK region, and they were praised by others as being so great, but after actually playing, they didn’t feel that scary, so it’s not that bad.
Gu Yueshuang lowered her head in silence for three seconds. When she looked up again, her eyes seemed to be glowing. She looked excited: "I understand!"
Everyone: “?”
Gu Yueshuang pushed everyone out and said, "Let's go, let's go eat. I want to eat the army stew. After we finish eating, we'll come back and review it."
Everyone looked confused: "What?"
Lin Yanqiu walked out first: "I'm going to find the coach and Brother Tao."
Gu Yueshuang explained to everyone: "This is similar to the story of the little horse crossing the river. You've all heard it, right?"
Xu Qing: "Of course you know. I used this as baby powder when I was a kid."
Zhou Yao's face was filled with black lines: "That's Lao Ma Ruhe... Huang Can Can, right?"
"Yes, yes, you have used it too?"
"What a mess..." Gu Yueshuang waved away the air in front of her, "Back to the old horse... Pah! The little horse crossed the river. Everyone said that the river was deep and the water was fast. We also crossed a river like that, and all we could think of was 'That's it?'"
Everyone nodded in agreement and listened to her story attentively.
Gu Yueshuang continued, "The problem is, the river we crossed isn't the same river they're talking about. We take it for granted that all rivers are similar, as if crossing this one will make it easy for us to cross all rivers."
Xu Qing scratched the skin under his eyes, feeling a little guilty: "It's not that swollen..."
Gu Yueshuang: "To put it another way, we caught the low tide and jumped over it. What if we encountered a high tide?"
Everyone: “…”
It’s over. I don’t understand.
Seeing they were all a bit bewildered, Gu Yueshuang changed her explanation to something more understandable: "They didn't prepare very seriously when we played against them before. Emm... Let's put it this way, our pre-match preparations for playing against weaker teams and stronger teams in the regular season are different, you all know that. They might also have only watched our finals. Once they prepare seriously, their intensity might not be the same."
"Well, if you had said that earlier, wouldn't I have understood?"
Xu Qing patted her shoulder, and then realized that this person in front of him could not be a friend. He quickly took three steps back and shouted "I'm sorry!"
Gu Yueshuang: “?”
Lin Yanqiu happened to see this scene when he brought Gu Yang and Fang Butao back, wondering, "What happened?"
Gu Yueshuang was bewildered: "I don't know, maybe he's apologizing for his arrogance?"
Xu Qing took a big step and came behind Zhou Yao: "Brother, protect me!"
Zhou Yao: “…”
Gu Yang showed them the time, with a look of despair on his face: "It's three o'clock in the afternoon, what are you going to eat? Didn't you have enough for lunch?"
He originally wanted to sneak out to smoke a cigarette, but he was caught by Lin Yanqiu before he could light it up, so he could only follow reluctantly.
Gu Yueshuang said confidently, "Do I have to choose a time to eat? Shouldn't we have some sense of ceremony and eat a good meal before we set off?"
Gu Yang was curious: "What results did you come up with?"
Gu Yueshuang thought for a moment and said, "Don't review the game, let's play a training match, and then we can review the training match after the game."
Gu Yang: "No, I have to let you know how thrilling it was when I was watching the game backstage."
Everyone: “?”
Fang Butao: "It's true. Backstage I was afraid he would rush up and beat you up."
“…”
Everyone looked at Gu Yang, then at the girl with extraordinary strength, Gu Yueshuang, and thought to themselves that you two are truly worthy of being father and daughter.
Gu Yueshuang calmly replied, "Alright, let's play a practice match first, and then compare the practice match with the match video. That way we'll know if we've become too arrogant—or maybe we're just bad at it."
Gu Yang: "...I can see that you just want to play a training match."
Having said that, he still went to contact other teams for training matches.
Gu Yueshuang was still picky: "I want to be the favorite to win."
Gu Yang was so angry that he wanted to hit someone: "Where can I find a hot topic for you?!"
Their training matches basically need to be booked one day in advance. If you want to make an appointment at the last minute, it is not easy to make one unless the opponent happens to be stood up.
Gu Yueshuang added fuel to the fire: "If all else fails, then FJ or GGB will also work. At least they know the ins and outs of the opponent and dare to fight freely."
Gu Yang was furious. What did he mean by "okay"? They'd already booked it in advance, okay?
Gu Yang confirmed again: "Are you guys going to play a training match this afternoon? It might be their lunchtime when we get back from eating."
Gu Yueshuang took out her phone and decided to contact him herself: "As expected, it's still the trouble maker, right? Who's more popular, GGB or FJ?"
Xu Qing: "...? You're my good brother whenever I need you?"
Gu Yueshuang said to the two children in the team, "We need to make rational use of the tools. Have you learned to fly?"
Lu Minghao and Yang Lin: "...I've given up on studying."
Then they looked at Lin Yanqiu for help. In the past, at this time, Lin Yanqiu would come out and tell her not to lead the children astray.
Under their expectant gazes, Lin Yanqiu slowly spoke: "Learn something. It will be useful in the future."
Lu Minghao and Yang Lin: “???”
Captain Lin, you have changed!
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