Chapter 109 The Golden Age
Jiangning, Silko Hotel.
Xu Xiaofei woke up very early. He was too excited and a little attached to his bed, so he didn't get a good rest last night.
The team leader criticized him.
The bearded leader, who spoke with a mutton-like voice, said that today's game was very important and that people at the US headquarters were watching the broadcast. If Xu Xiaofei lost his temper, he would lose his job with a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan.
These words scared Xu Xiaofei.
Don’t!
It's hard to find a job nowadays, and there's no way I'd give up a job like this that comes with a base salary of $100,000 and extra bonuses for winning a competition.
After experiencing the life of a professional player, Xu Xiaofei didn't want to go back to the dark and cramped rental house and live a hard life relying on live streaming to make a living every day.
He quickly told the bearded man that he was in good shape and would definitely win today's game!
"It would be better if this were the case..."
Although the bearded team leader was unhappy, he did not say anything else. Instead, he called the technical experts and maintenance technicians nearby and held a pre-match seminar.
Xu Xiaofei also attended the meeting.
He was originally a game anchor of "Star Emperor", an unknown little anchor.
Two months ago, a staff member from Intel's marketing department approached him and asked if he would like to become a registered professional player in the "Golden Age" league.
What is the Golden Age?
Xu Xiaofei, who went to work as a screwdriver in an electronics factory right after graduating from junior high school, didn't understand what the other party was saying, but with a job in front of him offering a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan and an extra bonus, he had no reason to refuse.
So he joined Intel's official team and became a professional e-sports player numbered 029, "Golden Age".
For two months, he trained diligently every day and communicated with technical experts and engineers sent by Intel to discuss various tactics and DIY solutions.
Environment changes a person.
In the past, Xu Xiaofei couldn't even reinstall the system. But now, he can tell the name of every component in the computer host, as well as the product specifications and grades.
The Golden Age is the professional league of the game "Star Emperor"!
PC hardware manufacturers and suppliers from all over the world have formed teams to compete for the final championship.
This event is very special! The special thing about it is that in addition to testing the players' skills, it also tests the technical strength of each team.
For example, Intel...
The Intel team that Xu Xiaofei belongs to specially sent two engineers from the United States with a box of highly confidential hardware to escort Xu Xiaofei for the Jiangning station.
In fact, there is more than one player in the team, Xu Xiaofei. Intel is wealthy and directly signed three players.
But the other two people are not as strong as Xu Xiaofei in overall strength, so they are naturally not worthy of using "confidential level" hardware.
In terms of tactical positioning, the duty of those two teammates is to "die".
Using Tian Ji's horse racing method, letting his teammates kill or cripple the powerful opponents, Xu Xiaofei was able to take advantage of the situation and win easily.
"How do you kill or maim your opponent?"
“It’s very simple!”
An engineer from the US headquarters explained: "In order to win the competition, everyone's drivers are adjusted to be more aggressive, and the hardware is not stable enough in the laboratory."
Everyone has studied the competition rules of the Golden Age.
8K resolution, ultimate image quality! Texture effects are all maxed out...
In this harsh competition environment, in order to ensure that everything goes well, each team will bring out their best skills.
The driver can be as aggressive as you want! As long as you can win, it doesn't matter even if you have to change a set of accessories after a game. Winning is the most important thing, and no one cares about hardware wear and tear.
"The cruel truth is that without 24GB of video memory, you are not even eligible to participate in the competition."
The bearded leader smiled bitterly and said, “8K resolution is so special. If it weren’t for the technical support from headquarters, I’m afraid we wouldn’t be eligible to sign up for the competition.”
The ability to support 8K resolution and starting with 24G video memory is the threshold for the "Golden Age" league, and is also the only criterion for registering to participate.
In fact, the headquarters has no idea either.
What Intel prepared for the Jiangning competition can only be said to have barely reached the threshold, but compared with other teams, it is probably still a little bit behind.
Especially the drive...
The instruction from the headquarters was to use the Jiangning station to test the commercial feasibility of the independent display technology and to raise its reputation at the same time. There were no requirements for the competition results, just don't come last.
Of course, the instructions given by headquarters cannot be understood literally.
The bearded coach also knows that winning the championship is a very difficult thing, and his minimum requirement for results is to reach the semi-finals.
To do this, they need tactics.
The so-called tactic is to use inferior horses to collide with other people's superior horses, playing the trick of burning both sides together. If you drag one horse down, you won't lose, but if you drag two or even three down, you will make a lot of money...
"clear!"
After learning about their respective division of labor, Xu Xiaofei and his teammates nodded in unison.
After the tactical seminar, the bearded team leader took the players, software and hardware engineers, and maintenance technicians to the competition venue.
Today's game was very exciting.
Not only was the venue filled with audiences, there were also online broadcasts from domestic and international platforms such as Douyuhu, Pilipilili, and Laoshutai, as well as UP hosts, bloggers, and media representatives from various digital circles.
It was the first time that Xu Xiaofei saw so many people, which made him a little nervous.
However, his nervousness disappeared immediately after he saw two engineers behind him debugging the host.
He is not fighting alone! He has a professional team behind him, with powerful software and hardware synergy, unparalleled hardware performance, and laboratory technology.
That's it, how could he lose?
Xu Xiaofei, who was full of confidence, quickly sat down with his teammates in front of the Herman Miller ergonomic chair and Sansang 8K monitor.
"Fuck, that's too rich, right?"
"A broken chair is more expensive than my computer. I am really crying..."
"You only noticed that the chairs are Herman Miller, but didn't you notice that the monitor is Sansang's top-end 8K monitor?"
"Just saw it, the price is impressive!"
Netizens who watched the live broadcast of the game were quickly shocked by the ergonomic chairs under the players and the Sansang 8K monitor.
What kind of competition is this?
Isn't this just a professional e-sports competition for a niche game? How can they be so rich? "Sponsorship, all sponsorship!"
If Chen Ba could see the comments from netizens, he would definitely say modestly that this was not bought by him, and he would not buy these empty things!
The ergonomic chairs, monitors, and even the entire venue's network services were all provided by the sponsors...
That’s right!
In places that no one can see, Huazi also sponsored this "Golden Age" league, providing full-time network communication and event broadcasting services.
Of course, expensive ergonomic chairs and 8K monitors are just appetizers.
When all the teams gathered and moved their respective "DIY" consoles to the center of the venue, the netizens in front of the screen were completely stunned.
Is this a computer host?
A huge black mass, the size of a double-door refrigerator, you tell me it's a computer host? I'd believe it if you said it was a server! What are those people doing around the host, wearing protective gear and holding large and small cans? Why is there a warning sign in the live broadcast room that says "Professional operation, do not imitate"?
The audience was extremely confused.
Isn't it a DIY console? Why is there a warning saying "Professional operation, do not imitate"? They can't even see what's inside the console, let alone what these people are doing and how to imitate?
The audience watching the live broadcast on the Internet could not see it clearly because of the compression of the live broadcast quality and the shooting distance. But the audience sitting in the venue, especially the front row, could see it clearly.
Liquid nitrogen! That's liquid nitrogen!
This thing won't explode, right?
The audience who had bought front-row seats and were very excited about it suddenly regretted not buying back-row tickets after watching the engineers adding liquid nitrogen.
Being so close to the host, what if the computer can't handle it and explodes? That shouldn't happen, right? Just when everyone was comforting themselves that liquid nitrogen cooling was abstract but not that scary, several staff members came in with fire extinguishers.
Audience: “…”
Okay, okay, let's play it this way, right? No matter how worried and scared the audience in the front row were, the first game of the Golden Era Jiangning Station finally started.
Intel vs. Ju Baojia! Xu Xiaofei, the trump card, cannot be used now, so the bearded man arranged another teammate to play.
Both sides chose the Winged Supreme and the Longicorn Supreme, and a stunning battle broke out in the ultimate 8K image quality.
In the end, the contestant sent by Intel was unfortunately defeated, and thick smoke came out of the computer. Engineers rushed forward to check and repair it.
0-1 start!
The bearded man had a very unhappy expression on his face, as if he had not expected to be beaten like this in the first game.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
Ju Baojia is not strong either...
Xu Xiaofei glanced at the bearded man's gloomy face and felt the heavy pressure on his shoulders.
Although his teammates did not use the laboratory technology of the headquarters, they only used the unreleased modified video memory version of 4090Ti.
But this configuration is not bad.
As a result, they still failed to defeat Ju Baojia, so the next game was very suspenseful. You know, there are two strong opponents, Renshuo and AMD, in the future! It’s okay to defeat Renshuo...
According to the information they have, it should be the 4090Ti Pro version with modified video memory and frequency.
AMD is different!
This team is hailed as the favorite to win the championship. God knows what kind of laboratory technology they have hidden, but it can't be the 7900 series.
This is solid information.
The modified or enhanced version of the 7900 series may be used by other teams at most, but AMD has its own "hidden backup energy" and will definitely use undisclosed new cards.
"None of them are kind!"
Xu Xiaofei watched two games from the audience, and as expected, the console was smoking and the CPU or graphics card core was damaged.
The winners aren’t much better.
It can be said that the hardware loss for these three games alone, converted into RMB, would be at least 100,000 yuan.
In other words, he spent all his monthly salary on just three games... This isn't a game; it's clearly a waste of money!
Soon, the Intel team entered the second round of the game, this time against AMD, the team they least wanted to meet.
"come on!"
Teammates and the bearded man all cheered Xu Xiaofei on, saying that they must not lose this game again.
If he continues to lose, Big Beard will receive a transatlantic call from the US headquarters. By then, not only Xu Xiaofei will be in trouble, but he may also lose his job...
Can't lose this job!
Xu Xiaofei took a deep breath, nodded, put on white noise headphones, and concentrated on the game.
The opponent chose an unpopular Black Turtle Supreme!
Not wanting to think about what conspiracy or trickery he had, Xu Xiaofei, who was extremely confident in himself, chose the one he was best at, the Emperor of Changye.
That's right, Glass Cannon! Why did he win the favor of the Intel team? Why did he get a high salary of 100,000 a month? Why did he squeeze out his teammates and become the core thigh of the Intel team?
The answer lies here…
He is the player who is best at using the Long Night Emperor since the launch of "Star Emperor", and is also known as the "Long Night's Unique Skills".
When other people play the Long Night Emperor, their win rate is usually less than 40%, but his is 90%!
What's wrong with the glass cannon? The more a character dances on the edge of a knife, the more miracles he can create. Anyone who underestimates the damage-inflicting ability of the Emperor of the Night will eventually die in his hands.
Among them there are many Immortal Emperors on the road to becoming immortals!
At that time, he was the only player on the road to becoming an immortal who reached the level of Immortal King with the help of 2060S.
"You only have ten chances!"
Thinking of what the Intel engineer said to him on the way here, Xu Xiaofei felt more confident.
The ultimate sublimation, ten moves are enough! No matter what black technology or powerful hardware the opponent has, he will be killed within ten moves.
"3, 2, 1..."
As the countdown came to an end, both sides simultaneously began to reach their climax.
The ultimate sublimation under the ultimate picture quality of 8K resolution is still too powerful. Xu Xiaofei knows that time is limited and he only has ten moves.
So he no longer hesitated, and started with a deadly move that included the imperial weapon vision and secret technique.
The screen was filled with black smoke. The Emperor Changye was like an assassin in the shadows. He slapped out with one palm, and the health of the Supreme Black Turtle dropped a large level instantly.
"It hurts so much?"
The opponent probably rarely encountered the Emperor of Long Night and underestimated the damage of the Emperor of Long Night at full status, thinking that the Supreme Black Turtle could withstand it with his shield.
As a result, the shield was broken at the first touch.
The damage is too high, and Xu Xiaofei's character proficiency is also high. Not only are his combos extremely smooth, but his body movements in dodging skills are also very good.
Originally, he chose the Black Turtle Supreme because he wanted to drag the game to the end, until the opponent's host started smoking and crashed, but he didn't expect the Long Night Emperor to have such explosive damage that he was directly stunned.
Six moves!
It only took Xu Xiaofei 40 seconds to defeat this opponent who only knew how to "hide" and easily won his first victory.
This also made him feel relieved.
Luckily, this guy was stupid enough to choose the slowest moving Black Turtle Supreme to fight him. If he had chosen a Winged Supreme, his skills would have been hard to hit, and he wouldn't have won so quickly.
It was an accident! The opponent must have wanted to choose a character with high tankiness and strong shield to drag the enemy back. Drag until the enemy host can't hold on, and then the computer smokes and automatically wins.
But he didn't expect that the Intel team actually had Xu Xiaofei, a master of the Long Night Emperor's special skills...
"Okay, okay, 1-1!"
The bearded man was very excited. He not only praised Xu Xiaofei for a good job, but also told the engineers to check the host machine quickly to see if there was any hardware damage.
There are still nine games to go! They don't have many replacement parts. If they change a set of parts after each game, it will definitely not be enough.
Especially discrete graphics cards...
This thing is a secret among secrets. It is a treasure just sent from the laboratory at the headquarters. If it breaks after a fight, there will not be many replacements.
As for what model it is, no one in the team knows except the engineers at the headquarters.
Based on its performance, we can only guess that it was secretly developed by Intel to compete with the flagship independent graphics processors of its competitors.
It's not just Intel.
The hardware platforms and models used by other teams in the competition are also kept secret. They are either new laboratory technologies or undisclosed new products that are not available on the market.
Take the participating hosts of the Da Renshuo competition as an example.
Although the public data is 4090Ti, who knows how much video memory is there and what the core frequency is like?
4090Ti is just a cover.
Anyone who believes this is really stupid. This thing has been modified and overclocked to such an extent that it can still be called 4090Ti?
Maybe Huang will release a new 50 series card in a while, and the top 5090 will not be able to reach this level. After all, it is a "disposable" graphics card designed for competitions, regardless of power consumption! (End of this chapter)