Chapter 139 [Arrival]
"Finally here!"
After getting off the plane and taking a big breath of fresh air, Chu Ge slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
There is no direct flight from Pudong Airport to San Francisco. They need to transfer in HK and then fly for nearly 17 hours. It is already around 11 o'clock in the local noon when they land.
The time difference is about 15 hours.
When IG arrived in San Francisco, there were still 14 days before September 30 for them to adjust their status.
"Get your luggage, and then everyone will go through the relevant immigration procedures."
The three teams and the LPL official commentary team took the same plane to San Francisco to coordinate their hotel stays.
For IG, this is their first time arriving in the United States. Except for Rookie and the coaching staff who have experience abroad, the rest of the players smell the smoke outside for the first time.
The MSI in 2016 was held in Shanghai. RNG, which represented the LPL region at that time, did not go abroad. Now that Wang Cheng has arrived in a foreign country, he seems particularly excited.
Putting on the phone card issued to him by the Riot team, Wang Cheng immediately turned on the video and called home.
In the strange eyes of the people around him, he raised his mobile phone and shouted, "Mom, look, there are all foreigners here."
As soon as the words came out, Zhu Song's face was full of black lines.
He quickly stopped his suicide attempt.
Free America, shootings every day.
It would be a trivial matter if you were targeted and encountered a "zero dollar purchase", but it would be a bit difficult to deal with if you were targeted and killed by a newly minted male gun.
Chu Ge was not very interested.
The old terminal at San Francisco International Airport doesn't look special. It may even be old, which makes it look a little shabby.
After filling out the entry application form and completing the formalities, I could go pick up my luggage. Along the way, the official commentator came to chat with Chu Ge from time to time, leaving WeChat messages with each other.
I have to say that Project Banana has spent a lot of money this time.
The lineup of the commentary team is very luxurious.
Basically, the entire LPL commentary team has been brought to the World Championship. In addition, there are Baron Nass, PYL, Miss, Smile and White Crescent Moon to provide game commentary for domestic audiences.
This is not even half of the LPL. It basically means that all the money has been brought to the S6 Global Finals, and the entire expenses during the period were borne by the Banana Project.
If this plane is cleared, the LPL tournament officials will basically be wiped out.
Although the incidence rate of aviation accidents is the lowest among all means of transportation, if something happens to it, there is basically no chance of survival.
But it’s understandable.
The purpose of the Banana Project is to officially release promotional videos and group photos of the players and their exit ceremonies for the LPL, and create a big battle to attract all the attention of the players.
Get a lot of traffic.
By the time everything was done, it was already an hour later. Chu Ge's legs were almost weak, and he finally got on the bus with the Riot logo and headed to the hotel.
The three teams were together, and the commentators were on another bus.
The staff member responsible for receiving the players is Vincent from Riot China.
Chu Ge's impression of him still comes from the 2017 AllStar Solo finals. As a translator, he mistakenly translated Uzi's words, which led to the ambiguity that Uzi was mocking Bilson.
Although he later apologized, it still caused considerable controversy in the North American Reddit forum at the time.
However, Vincent's main job is to be a staff member responsible for player management at Riot China, and the translator was just temporarily detained, similar to the situation when the Vietnamese translator single-handedly killed Brother Shuizi.
However, at this time, many domestic players did not know Vincent very well, and only the coaching staff of EDG and IG who went to France to compete last year had some contact with him.
He is familiar to the public, and it can be traced back to the appearance of the two heroes Xia Luo in 2017. Vincent and his girlfriend are the prototype representatives of these two heroes.
besides.
It was in 2018 that King Ning posted the news on Weibo that "If you win the championship, you will get married." Vincent also posted a similar news.
But Gao Zhenning just wanted to have fun.
But Vincent played it real. After winning the championship, they took their makeup photos on a small island in Hawaii.
"Hello, friends," Vincent took the initiative to greet the three teams on the bus, "I will be fully responsible for everyone's daily activities during this period. I will directly contact your manager. Of course, if you have any needs, You can also contact me anytime. ”
After that, he took out his mobile phone.
"Please enter 4396 to join the group," Vincent raised his mobile phone, "I will post the time schedule during the competition in the group, so everyone can arrange the time in advance."
Damn it? !
Chu Ge burst out laughing.
"Why are you laughing when I ask you to join a group of people?" Ming Kai frowned.
"Nothing, nothing!"
Chu Ge suppressed a smile. I picked up my phone and entered 4396 into WeChat in front of my friends, and entered the group chat of ‘2016 LPL Global Finals Official Group Chat’.
"You little brat!"
Ming Kai rolled his eyes, looked at his daily schedule, and took the initiative to remind him, "I've been quite busy these days, so be careful to reverse the jet lag. Otherwise, if you're not in good condition, the title of Civil War Fantasy God will really be pinned on your IG." On the head.”
Chu Ge was stunned.
Then he remembered that this was what he said to Ming Kai in the summer finals, but he didn't expect that his friend would still remember it.
"Okay, brother Mingkai."
The factory director shook his head helplessly. He couldn't do anything about Chu Ge. Even though the two were not on the same team, their friendship over the years was real.
As someone who has been there.
Mingkai also specially taught Chu Ge how to overcome jet lag.
Adapting to the environment is the first hurdle before going abroad to play games. Once you are unable to adapt, you will easily become acclimatized and your body will become extremely susceptible to illness.
The venue for the group stage was the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. The hotel arranged by Riot Games was nearby, so the distance was not too far.
Since teams from other competition regions would come to the hotel in advance, when Chu Ge and the others arrived at the hotel, the team's training room had already been decorated.
The icons of the participating teams are hung at the door of each team. IG and the other two teams train next to each other, making it easy to visit at any time for training matches and exchange tactics.
Although the temporary training room is not as comfortable as the team base, it is still much better than looking for a box in an Internet cafe.
Compared with Project Banana's amateur performance in China, Riot's professional performance is much better.
At least the participating teams are not asked to find Internet cafes outside for training. The business of Wangyu Internet Cafe has not yet expanded to San Francisco!
Moreover, Internet cafes in the United States are not as common as in China.
Chu Ge is still in the same room as King Ning.
The two quickly packed up their things and ran to the hotel restaurant to take a look, only to find that the door was closed.
"Want to order takeout?"
As soon as Gao Zhenning took out his mobile phone, he suddenly realized something was wrong and sighed, "Forget it, with the speed of food delivery here, I will probably starve to death when it is delivered to the hotel."
Chu Ge spread his hands and said, "Let's go out to eat. I see there is a McDonald's nearby. Just eat some fast food."
"I don't have any cash with me. Let's go back to the room first."
Compared with the convenient and fast payment methods of mobile phones in China, the United States is actually more willing to use credit cards or cash to pay. When Zhu Xingge was in the hotel lobby, each player was given $1,000 in cash for the contestants to carry with them in case of emergencies.
As a result, the two of them walked to the lobby and suddenly realized something.
They had found a place to eat and had money, but with their English proficiency, they would probably have to use body language to make others understand when ordering a meal.
You can't just order a chicken drumstick and learn to crow like a chicken, right?
But Chu Ge was lucky.
I met an international student who liked LPL and recognized the two of them, and took the initiative to help translate to solve their language barrier.
Chu Ge asked in the IG training group.
A group of people shouted that they were hungry and asked them to pack up and go back.
As a result, King Ning and Chu Ge returned to the training room carrying hamburgers and fried chicken in large and small bags, so that these lazy people could not starve to death.
While eating, Chu Ge picked up his cell phone and browsed domestic e-sports forums to see what breaking news had happened in the past two days.
When he saw the poisonous milk list, he immediately lost his composure.
Ranked seventh?
Connotation buddy points to S7?
The people in the post bar were even more noisy.
[It makes me laugh. The top three are all Koreans. Only the factory director of LPL can show off, right? 】
[Uzi is ranked behind Bang. Do you understand the game? 】
[No one from the LMS division entered? Is it that my Wolf King Casa is not good enough, or is it that my little murloc in Ximen can’t lift the knife? 】
[Dow ranked seventh? Just kill the blue-collar top laner in the LPL league, but you still have to be educated by the LCK top laner in the World Championship? 】
[Were there still dogs barking in the qualifying match between Dow and Smeb some time ago? What do you say about this list? Smeb ranks first. Officially certified. Can those Dow÷s not pretend to be dead and compete with me? 】
[Smeb is your father, right? It’s not easy for LPL top laners to have a super top laner like Dow. Can the trolls go to the toilet and shut their mouths? 】
[Laughing to death? The poisonous milk list also made Han Za angry. Let’s see if fists have enough milk in this World Championship, or your filial piety is strong]
The scolding war almost never stopped. Once the post was blocked, he would open another one to continue the fight. Chu Ge had seen many headlines that provoked the fight.
He clicked in with a smile and clicked out with a smile.
I can only say.
It looks good, but it consumes one horse every 5cm.
After closing the domestic forum, Chu Ge took another chicken leg and took a bite. He frowned after just taking a bite.
The taste is not very similar to the domestic ones. And it's a bit too oily. If it weren't for the extra large cup of Coke to relieve the greasiness, I wouldn't be able to eat it at all.
I took another look at the ranking list of Riot vs. Teams.
The top three are ROX, SKT and EDG. As the No. 1 seed of LPL, IG is ranked fifth, and TSM, the king of training matches, is ranked higher than them.
Not only was Chu Ge not angry, but he silently gave a thumbs up.
It can only be said that apart from being poisonous, fists are also a real source of war.
Who doesn’t know that IG won the LPL Summer Championship with a crushing score of 3:0. The champion ranked behind the runner-up, which is simply ridiculous.
But Chu Ge can also understand.
IG's reputation is too small, not even as good as last year's LGD. At least they still have the S4 champion Imp on their team.
On the other hand, look at IG.
Even the influence of Rookie's Chicken Allah name only exists within the league, and the other four are not very famous.
“Pigeon, have you seen Riot’s team rankings?”
Rookie patted his teammates on the shoulder and said, "Why do you feel that we, the No. 1 seed, are so frustrated? We were labeled as the weakest in the LPL before the game even started."
"It's okay," Chu Ge chuckled. "If e-sports competitions could be won by relying on these rankings, LGD would have won the championship last year."
"Champions are created by fighting. To deal with these vain and useless things, we can only say that capitalists can play with public opinion."
If it were Gao Zhenning who asked this question, Chu Ge would laugh at him and say whether he couldn't afford it.
King Ning is definitely the kind of player with a big heart. The bigger the stage, the better he performs.
But Song Yijin is not.
As a person with future memories, Chu Ge knew very well that Song Yijin's mentality was not as good as imagined.
Otherwise, there would be no problems like forgetting to buy equipment when going out twice in a row, or having a chicken mentality problem in the fifth game of BO5.
"Do you believe that I am Qin Shihuang, or do you believe in the fist list?"
In Song Yijin's doubtful eyes, Gao Zhenning came over and chuckled, "Then I definitely believe you are Qin Shihuang, even if you don't even look at the list of fists."
IG's poor performance in last year's World Championship, coupled with Tabe's exposure of tactics despite the obstruction of European and American commentators last year, also made the outside world generally unfavorable to IG.
After all, in Riot’s list comments, IG is still described as a dark horse instead of a strong team.
From 2014 to 2016, in the past three years, the LPL league officials could not even promote their own division, let alone overseas promotion like Shit.
The neighboring LCK divisions are only willing to schedule training matches with the top teams of the LPL and are unwilling to learn more about them, let alone the European and American divisions on the other side of the ocean.
Even if they knew, would they like it?
FNC is the champion of the S1 Internet Cafe League.
The overseas promotion of the LCK division is in place, and European and American audiences have been cultivated to watch the LCK division games. Players who play well can go to the LCS to retire.
Even if they form an all-Korean class, they still have fans.
LPL officials still have a long way to go. They must at least win a championship first, so that European and American players can see that the Internet Cafe League has no gold content after all.
Although the domestic forums are very controversial about the players, except for Krdog, the team rankings are basically unanimous.
【This fist purely attracts war dogs】
[Fist has been ranked, so IG can’t return the trophy to EDG?]
[Where is the brain? They've all been bullied to the extreme. Is there any one of you guys who can challenge the Riot Games together with me? 】
[Then I have to tell the story of how my dad hacked the BG website in 01]
[Fortunate to be one of those 80,000 people! Tell me, do you want to hang the IG team logo on Riot’s official website]
[Brothers, calm down! Don’t be impulsive, it’s not too late to wait until LPL wins the championship this year before rushing forward]
[It’s just a poisonous milk list, Rox and SKT will be poisoned to death by fists this year]
King Ning explained what Qin Shihuang meant for a long time, and Broiler Chicken finally understood and bit off the chicken wing in his hand, "Then I also believe that you are Qin Shihuang."
After eating, the members of the IG training team fought back their sleepiness and continued training.
Calculated according to domestic time, it means that they are still staying up all night, and they cannot sleep no matter how sleepy they are, so they must adjust their schedule.
(End of chapter)