Gold Medal Coach - Chapter 79

Jiang Shaoyu gained a lot in the SN Club. In addition to helping the national team find the consultant Zhu Hong who was good at guerrilla warfare and encounter battles, he also obtained the player information of major clubs written by Coach Zhu himself. In addition, Xia Li also became a pending ‘assaulter’ member in his notebook.

Zhu Hong’s philosophy was very close to Jiang Shaoyu’s one. Perfect players were extremely rare. The national team didn’t require every player to be an all-round talent. Partial players could perform miraculously in certain lineups.

For example, Hua Ran and Xia Li were typical partial talents. They were particularly outstanding in a certain aspect but their comprehensive strength wasn’t high.

Jiang Shaoyu’s selection concept from the beginning was that players didn’t need to ‘copy’ each other. They should have different characteristics. He would break the traditional national team’s ‘main player and substitute’ model. In this opinion, every player could become a main player and play a role in different lineups.

He would give every player a chance to play.

It would be unlike the previous competition where many players went abroad for a ‘three day trip’ and couldn’t even touch the computers in the competition venue.

It was exactly 5:30 when they finished watching the game. Zhu Hong took the initiative to invite everyone to dinner. “Our manager isn’t here and I will be the host. Do you want to go out to dinner?”

Jiang Shaoyu said, “No need. We have to hurry and go to the high-speed rail station. We will eat there.”

Zhu Hong looked at everyone in surprise. “Are you in such a hurry? Do you need to go back to the national team tonight?”

Qi Heng joked. “We aren’t returning to the national team. Coach Jiang has now turned on the ‘king patrol’ mode and is inspecting clubs. We are going to the next club. Oh, did anyone secretly report it to you?”

Zhu Hong shook his head. “I haven’t heard any news but I don’t communicate much with the coaches of other clubs.”

It seemed the only one who reported and received the tip off were the two ‘extremely clever’ coaches of the RED and FAD teams.

Jiang Shaoyu shook hands with Zhu Hong. “Leave your WeChat. I will talk to you about a tactical consultant once I finish my work here.”

Zhu Hong added Jiang Shaoyu as a friend. Jiang Shaoyu left the SN Club with everyone and directly went to the high-speed rail station. They had dinner casually near the station.

J City where the JZ team was located wasn’t far from the SN team. It only took one and a half hours by high-speed train.

On the way, Qi Heng continued to give Jiang Shaoyu information about the teams. “JZ’s current coach is Gu Xiao. Do you remember him?”

Jiang Shaoyu nodded. “Yes, Captain Gu. Did he stay directly in his old club as a coach after retiring?”

Qi Heng laughed. “Yes. Speaking of which, Old Gu was once interviewed and joked that the player he hated most was ACE’s Wing. After all, he played charger. Every time he rushed out, he was shot in the head by you and was going to die from anger.”

Jiang Shaoyu: “……”

JZ was a veteran team established in the first season of Gun King. Gu Xiao was also a veteran player who debuted in the S1 season.

By the time Jiang Shaoyu led ACE to play in the A-grade Pro League in S3, Gu Xiao was already a very popular star player. He was the number one charger of the league and the style of play was bloody and violent. The players who were swept into a hornet’s nest by him could circle the league when lining up.

However, Jiang Shaoyu became his nemesis. Every time he competed, he was the first to be headshot by Jiang Shaoyu…

After Jiang Shaoyu retired, Gu Xiao also retired. He stayed in his old JZ Club to become the head coach and hired ACE’s charger Lao Lin to be the captain and main charger of JZ.

Lao Lin was still a newcomer back then and would call out ‘Senior’ every time he saw Gu Xiao. The two people’s bloody and violent fighting styles were very similar. Therefore, after Gu Xiao retired, he asked Lao Lin to take over the team. The transition of the JZ team’s lineup was very smooth and Lao Lin won a league championship after leading the team.

Jiang Shaoyu had complicated emotions as he remembered the domestic arena where the gods gathered in the S3 season. At that time, there was no marketing, character settings, star making and other routines. The salaries of e-sports players weren’t high and everyone fought on the field with enthusiasm. Therefore, they still retained their love for e-sports after they retired.

No matter whether it was Qi Heng, who entered the professional league and became a chairman, or Zhu Hong, who went to the new team as a coach after the team was disbanded, or Gu Xiao, who was kind to his old club and stayed to become a coach after retiring.. It was indeed not easy for these old friends to maintain the pure land of e-sports in a mixed environment.

Vice-chairman Qi tried every means to invite the big devil God Wing back to China. It was to completely change the chaotic situation in which the clubs dominated the national team and to re-create the glory of e-sports in the past.

It was already 9 o’clock at night when the group arrived at the JZ team.

The receptionist recognized Qi Heng and politely invited him in. She poured water for him and said, “Vice-chairman Qi, our manager’s wife has just given birth and he has gone home to take care of his wife. He handed over the team to Coach Gu to manage. What is going on? I will call Coach Gu over.”

Qi Heng said, “Yes, call all the people from the coaching staff and data department.”

Several people soon walked into the office. Gu Xiao enthusiastically walked up to Qi Heng and patted him on the shoulder. “Old Qi, your style has suddenly changed. What is the situation? You came to our club in the middle of the night for an inspection?”

Qi Heng smiled and pointed to Jiang Shaoyu who was sitting next to him. “Ask him.”

Only then did Gu Xiao discover Jiang Shaoyu sitting in a corner and drinking water. The young man looked as cold as he remembered. His appearance hadn’t changed much. His facial features were delicate and his slightly raised eyebrows showed a hint of aggressiveness.

Gu Xiao froze and he asked in surprise, “God Wing? What are you doing here?”

Jiang Shaoyu got up and shook his hand politely. “Coach Gu, long time no see.”

Gu Xiao instinctively asked, “Are you here to see Lao Lin?”

Jiang Shaoyu shook his head. “No, I came to the club to look around casually and see how the players train normally.”’

Qi Heng mouthed, “An inspection.”

Gu Xiao realized and patted his forehead, laughing heartily. “F*k, I almost forgot. God Wing is now the coach of the national team! The leaders are welcome to visit the club. Where do you want to go first? Should I show you around?”

Gu Xiao and Qi Heng both had straightforward personalities. The two of them were good friends back in the day and would make an appointment to drink together during the holidays. Jiang Shaoyu led ACE to play in the league and impacted the status of the major teams. There were many keyboard warriors who blackened him but these two people helped talk for him.

They were rivals but their appreciation and respect for each other wasn’t related to winning or losing or the team.

Jiang Shaoyu didn’t talk in a roundabout manner and got straight to the point. “Have you arranged a training match?”

Gu Xiao smiled. “What a coincidence! At 9:30 tonight, we made an appointment with the HW team to play a training match. It is the home team playing against the home team so that the players can find their status.”

According to the arrangements of the league, JZ and HW would only collide in the latter part of the regular season. If they played a training match now, winning or losing wouldn’t have any impact on the situation since the two teams were meeting more than a month later.

The relationship between the two teams was good. It was mainly because the captains Lao Lin and Xiao Zhou were old teammates during the ACE period. They often met for practice matches in private.

Jiang Shaoyu looked at Qi Heng and said in a low voice, “Watching this training match is equivalent to seeing the performance of the players of two teams at the same time. We don’t have to go to the HW Club.”

Qi Heng agreed. “Yes, we just need to let Qin Bo go there and get the data. There will be no situation like burying players on HW’s side. Xiao Zhou is the captain and their results have been quite stable.”

Jiang Shaoyu told Gu Xiao, “Coach Gu, take us to watch the match. Don’t tell the players that I am here with Vice-chairman Qi.”

Gu Xiao nodded. He led the two of them to the tactical analysis meeting room next door, directly logged into the administrator account and gathered everyone to prepare for the training match.

Jiang Shaoyu carefully read the information of the JZ and HW teams on the high-speed train. JZ’s tactic was to focus on the front row while Lao Lin broke through. HW also had the front row as the core. They surrounded Xiao Zhou’s assaulter to break through the defense.

They were all front-row offensive teams that were good at close combat. The role of a long-range sniper in both teams was more for cover and long-range suppression.

The two teams would definitely look good when matched up.

At 9:30 in the evening, the training match officially started.

Many side accounts soon logged into the competition room, such as ‘Lao Lin isn’t Old’ and ‘Zhou Zhou’s AK’. It was obvious who they were with one glance.

The other team members greeted each other. “Hello Captain Lin!”

“Captain Zhou, I haven’t seen you in a long time~”

”Brother Zhou, please be merciful to me later!”

The players of the two teams were very familiar with each other and the atmosphere of the practice match was lively.

They didn’t know that Coach Jiang of the national team was watching.

Lao Lin isn’t Old: Xiao Zhou, when are you coming to J City?

Zhou Zhou’s AK: I am coming on the 15th. As the host, do you want to invite us to dinner Captain Lin? [Smile.jpg]

Lao Lin isn’t Old: F*k, I was just asking casually.

Everyone: Captain Lin, please treat us! Thank you, Captain Lin!

Lao Lin isn’t Old: ???

Zhou Zhou’s AK: I want to eat hotpot, the one near your team. Thank you [Smile.jpg.]

Lao Lin didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry: Okay, it will be the old place. Let’s go eat hotpot.

A row of ‘applauding’ emojis filled the chat room.

There were still a few minutes to go before the 9:30 training match. The group of people joked with each other and had fun.

It had to be said that compared to FAD writing a good script and playing a fake match, Jiang Shaoyu found the natural and relaxed training match between JZ and HW much more interesting.

At 9:30, Jiang Shaoyu used Gu Xiao’s account to send a message: Ready to start.

Everyone pressed the ready button one after another.

Coach Xu from HW asked: Old Gu, should we go according to the flow of the game or let the bans go?”

Gu Can’t Go Home: Go according to the game.

Coach Xu was puzzled: Hey, why aren’t you using emojis today?

Gu Xiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was because God Wing, the big demon king, had taken over his account!

Jiang Shaoyu sent an emoji with an expressionless face: Let’s start [smile.jpg]

Coach Xu was very puzzled. Didn’t Old Gu usually send out a ‘haha laugh’. Today he suddenly sent a smile. How come it sent a chill down people’s backs?

In the training room of the HW team, Coach Xu said, “Just play JZ according to the regular game process. Everyone, concentrate! Xiao Zhou, you do the BP and let me take a look… if we randomly get the first hand then we will play Extreme Duel.”

In the official professional league, the game between the two coaches was also a very important link.

BP, also known as Ban/Pick. It was the disable and selection stage.

Gun King’s BP included the mode BP and map BP.

There were three modes: Endless Bloody Battle, Life and Death Explosion and Extreme Duel. The first hand (the blue square) could choose the mode of the game. The back hand (the red square) could disable three maps for this mode. Finally, the first hand chose one of the remaining maps as the game map.

The first hand had the advantage of choosing the map but they would want to cry if the map they practiced so hard on was banned by the opponent.

In the regular game, the first hand and second hand would alternate. ‘You play one game and I play one game’. This was very fair. If the previous games were tied, the final tiebreaker would have the system randomly pick the system mode and map.

Such rules made the game much more colorful and demanding.

In the game, there were 30 maps in the competition. Some maps were limited depending on the mode, while others could be used in all three modes.

Some unpopular maps that were difficult to play rarely appeared in the league while popular maps that often appeared were easy to be banned. The coaching staff could greatly impact victory or defeat due to the tactical arrangement of different maps.

This was also the reason why Jiang Shaoyu pulled Old Chang, ‘the master of hide-and-seek’ into the national team. Old Chang helped everyone practice positioning and the national team would definitely be able to annoy the opponents to death in the future on large-scale maps with complex terrain.

On the contrary, what Coach Zhu was good at was guerrilla warfare on small maps.

The national team’s coaching staff also needed talents from all walks of life to help Jiang Shaoyu develop tactics.

This round was a practice match according to the official competition process so the players on both sides were very serious.

The HW team drew the first hand and three modes popped up on the screen. Xiao Zhou picked Extreme Duel i.e. whoever got 50 heads first would win.

For the JZ team, Lao Lin sat in the captain’s seat and banned three maps in a row: Yuehu Park, Pirate Base and Guanghua Middle School.

Jiang Shaoyu looked at Gu Xiao. “You don’t want to play large maps?”

Gu Xiao replied, “Yes, we will practice large maps next week. Recently, we have been practicing the speed flow tactics on small maps.”

Jiang Shaoyu nodded and continued to watch the battle on the big screen.

The HW team selected the smallest map: Winding Corridor.

Playing a 5V5 Extreme Duel mode in a narrow map with four corridors was simply putting a group of beasts in a ‘cage’ to fight to the death.