Gold Medal Coach - Chapter 81

It was the middle of March. In the first two weeks of the regular season, Jiang Shaoyu inspected eight clubs in a row, half of which played the tricks of marketing and star making. They didn’t pay attention to the game at all. The other half were training seriously.

TNG and RED were clubs that did the star making mode and they had a lot of money for advertising, publicity and setting up players’ personalities. The entire Gun King e-sports circle was affected by them. Fans started to praise the ‘highly popular players’ and the clubs made a lot of money selling merchandise. This intensified it and after several years, it gradually brought down the atmosphere of the e-sports circle.

Fortunately, there were still many clubs in the circle who stuck to their original intention and played the game seriously. They weren’t completely rotten.

There were a total of 10 teams in the A-grade Pro League and Jiang Shaoyu had inspected eight so far. Only the last two remained. Both teams were playing on the weekend so Jiang Shaoyu stayed at the national team’s base for a few days to rest. He intended to go back next week.

For the remaining clubs, one was the BM Club, Vice-chairman Qi’s old club. The current captain, Liu Shaozhou, was the apprentice taught by Vice-chairman Qi himself. The other was the COC team, which was at the bottom of the 1st division and hovered on the verge of elimination every year.

Jiang Shaoyu took a look at the information of the COC team.This team didn’t have any particularly outstanding players and their performance was mediocre in all aspects. They were at the bottom of the A-grade League for three consecutive zones and were pushed to the pending zone to compete with the first place team of the secondary league for a place in the A-grade League.

The strange thing was that for three consecutive years, they resisted the pressure of the promotion and relegation competition and successfully retained their spot in the A-grade League. It wasn’t easy for them to struggle to survive on the edge of elimination.

Jiang Shaoyu left for COC on Tuesday.

The team was basically small and poor. There was only one training room with two rows of computers and players trained very seriously.

There were many talented and strong players in the e-sports world, but there were also many mediocre players with average talent who stayed in the game out of love.

They might not be famous and their annual salaries weren’t high enough. After retiring, they would enter a state of ‘there was no such person. However, the mediocre players stuck to their dreams and played for a few years. Even if they couldn’t win a trophy, they didn’t regret it… at least they tried hard!

Jiang Shaoyu saw the tenacious and fearless qualities in these young people.

In addition to the A-grade League, there were hundreds of players in the B-grade League and they were also sticking to it out of love.

On the other hand, in the clubs with deep pockets, star players only knew how to make money. They weren’t worthy of the words ‘professional players’ when compared to these small, transparent players who had a small salary but trained seriously.

They came out of COC and Qi Heng joked, “You didn’t steal anyone this time… ah no, there were no spoils?”

Jiang Shaoyu said, “This team is at the bottom of the A-grade League. The players are mediocre and their strength isn’t enough to enter the national team. We don’t necessarily have to choose from the A-grade Pro League when choosing people. The secondary league might also have excellent seedlings.”

Qi Heng touched his chin and agreed. “Yes, your ACE team came in from the secondary league back then. However, many teams in the secondary league are private organizations. There are no sponsor investments and most of them don’t even have official team bases. You can’t go to inspect them.”

Jiang Shaoyu nodded. “Yes, I will pay attention to the live stream of the matches of the secondary league to see if there are any outstanding players.”

COC’s result wasn’t good because the overall strength of the players was poor. But sometimes, a team that didn’t have good results didn’t necessarily mean all five players were bad. There might be one player who was really good while the others dragged them back and couldn’t keep up with the rhythm. Maybe they could find a good seedling among the players who weren’t famous and had a low salary, but insisted on playing in the secondary league.

Jiang Shaoyu thought of this and said, “Go to the last BM team this afternoon and end the inspection.”

Qi Heng nodded. “BM is my old club. I will show you the way.”

Fortunately, the BM team and COC team were in the same city. They finished dinner and moved directly to the BM team’s base by car.

BM was also a veteran team. The first captain Qi Heng led the team in S1 and S2 to win the third place twice. The S3 season was the year that BM had the highest chances of winning the championship. As a result, the ACE team led by Jiang Shaoyu killed them halfway. They became the strongest dark horse of S3 and reached all the way to the finals. In the crucial tiebreaker game, their teammates died and it was 1V1 between Jiang Shaoyu and Qi Heng. In the end, Jiang Shaoyu killed Qi Heng with a headshot and won the championship.

Qi Heng missed the championship. He also failed to win the championship in S4 and retired with regret.

It could be said that Jiang Shaoyu shattered the BM team’s chance of winning the championship. Qi Heng was able to let go of past grudges and take the initiative to invite Jiang Shaoyu to return to China as the coach of the national team. The old captain’s mind really wasn’t comparable to ordinary people.

At 8 o’clock in the evening, Qi Heng led Jiang Shaoyu into the base in a familiar manner.

Manager Meng of BM saw Qi Heng and stood up with a smile on his face. “Vice-chairman Qi, why do you have time to go back to your hometown today?”

Qi Heng turned sideways and made the introductions. “Old Meng, this is the head coach of the national team. You should remember God Wing, right?”

Manager Meng saw the thin young man following Qi Heng. Several years had passed and Jiang Shaoyu’s appearance hadn’t changed much. Old Meng stretched out his hand with a smile. “God Wing! Hello, Coach Jiang!”

Jiang Shaoyu shook his head. “Hello, Manager Meng.”

Manager Meng glanced at Yu Mingxiang and Qin Bo, who were following Jiang Shaoyu. Then he asked in a doubting manner, “The league and the national team are here together…”

Qi Heng smiled. “It is a routine inspection. Call Old Xu and the others, as well as the data expert over for a meeting.”

Manager Meng immediately cooperated to call them. A moment later, a middle-aged man in his 40s walked into the office with two assistants. His figure was slightly fat and he looked very kind and loving. The moment he saw Qi Heng, he rushed over and hugged Qi Heng. Then he looked at Jiang Shaoyu and his eyes slightly widened. “Yes… God Wing?”

Jiang Shaoyu held out his hand. “Coach Xu, long time no see.”

Coach Xu’s full name was Xu Shun. There was a joke in the circle that ‘if you pay tribute to Xu Shun before the game, the game will be very smooth.’ He was the originator of the coaching circle in the current Gun King’s e-sports circle. Ever since the S1 season, he had been in charge of the BM team for 9 years.

Jiang Shaoyu was very respectful of him. After all, he was an old-timer and it wasn’t easy to stay in this circle for nine years.

Coach Xu’s level of playing games was ridiculous. If he played by himself, he would only reach the 1000 segment. His chubby fingers always would always make mistakes when typing on the keyboard and the reaction was very slow.

He became a coach because he had a strong tactical mindset and a first-class ability to review games and find problems. This was especially the case for a defensive battle. Under his layout, BM’s defensive battle was like an iron wall that the opponent simply couldn’t break through.

Coach Xu looked at Jiang Shaoyu in surprise. “I haven’t seen you in five years, right? You haven’t changed much! After you retired, we found it a pity that we couldn’t beat you in the arena. I never thought that you would actually become my colleague, the coach of the national team!”

Jiang Shaoyu smiled slightly and said politely, “Coach Xu, our inspection this time is mainly to prepare for the selection of the players for the national team and to see the daily training of the major clubs. Can you arrange a practice match for us to watch?”

Coach Xu simply replied, “No problem! What map and mode should I choose?”

Jiang Shaoyu said, “I want to see you play the Life and Death Explosion mode and the map is random. In addition, don’t tell the players that I am here with Vice-chairman Qi. We will go to the training room next door to watch.”

The three of them walked out the door together and Coach Xu quickly arranged for a team practice match.

Qi Heng looked at Jiang Shaoyu’s serious face and couldn’t help joking, “This time, you won’t even let go of an old-timer?”

Jiang Shaoyu nodded. “Yes. In fact, Old Xu could also be invited to be the national team’s coach based on his qualifications and level. Why wasn’t he invited in previous seasons?”

Qi Heng rubbed his temples helplessly. “We did but he didn’t want to go. It was because he felt that the national team’s players were a mixed bag. He can’t control them and he doesn’t want to control them. It is thankless.”

In fact, he was too disappointed with the current situation of the national team, right?

After all, he was able to stay in the e-sports circle as a coach for nine years. He was used to strong storms and his love for e-sports was undiminished. He definitely hoped that the national team could play well. Unfortunately, the national team was mixed. The ‘star players’ from certain clubs weren’t easy to offend. If he went to be the head coach, he would only become angry every day. It was better to stay in BM with the familiar players.

Jiang Shaoyu said, “The tactical consultant doesn’t need to care about the players. Just let him be a consultant. I will personally manage the players this year.”

Jiang Shaoyu wasn’t afraid of offending people. What stars and what popularity? If they couldn’t complete the task then they would need to write a self-criticism no matter how popular.

In the blink of an eye, the training match had begun.

Coach Xu arranged the Life and Death Explosion mode. The map was Guanghua Middle School.

Life and Death Explosion mode was the most classic mode of a shooting game. The two players were divided into the police and bandits. All explosion mode maps had two fixed explosion points, A and B.

The bandits needed to destroy a certain explosion point by installing a timed bomb at point A or B. if the bomb exploded after 30 seconds, the bandits would win.

The thing the police needed to do was to protect the two explosion points, kill the bandits or defuse the bomb in time.

In the Life and Death Explosion mode, the throwing weapons were limited to five per round so as to avoid a direct bombing by one side, making the other side unable to defend.

The timed bomb had a 30 second cooldown so even if the bandits placed the bomb, the police still had time to defuse it. Of course, the bandits wouldn’t just watch them defuse the bomb. The battle between the two sides at the explosion point would become particularly intense.

There were two explosion points on the map, A and B. The tactics and strategies at the beginning of the game would be very rich. How to divide up the five people, how to defend and attack and who would carry the explosives all required the coach to arrange tactics carefully. Sometimes, the choice of the opening often affected the outcome of the game.

In particular, on the bandit side, if the teammate carrying the explosive was killed, the explosive would drop and other teammates had to run over and pick it up immediately.

This map of Guanghua Middle School was a classic map of the Life and Death Explosion mode. The two explosion points were located in the teaching building and the gymnasium.

The teaching building at point A had complex terrain and was easy to attack and difficult to defend. The gymnasium at point B had a wide view and was easy to defend and difficult to attack. There was an air corridor between the teaching building and the gymnasium, which was also a place where they would fight.

The respawn points of both the police and bandits were close to points A and B.

The commander of the 1st team, Liu Shaozhou made a decisive decision at the beginning of the match. “Split into 2 and 3. 3 people will rush at point A and the medic will follow me to point B.”

The strategy of the 2nd team was, “Collectively rush to point A and place the package as quickly as possible!”

Place the package was a term for the explosion mode, which meant to place the ‘explosive package.’

The scout carried the explosive package, switched to a dagger and rushed into the school building as quickly as possible. The other four scattered to cover his advance.

The teaching building had a front door and a back door. The birth place of the bandits was convenient to rush to the front door while the birth point of the police was convenient to rush to the back door.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides met in the teaching building. Then deafening gunshots rang out in the teaching building.

The scout player carrying the explosive package was very calm. He secretly hid behind a wall and waited for an opportunity.There was a wave of firepower in front of him. Then after his teammates made a safe passage for him, he quickly rolled over and climbed the stairs, throwing off the police’s pursuit.

In this wave of encounters in the teaching building, the police and bandits faced each other 3V5 and each side killed two people. Then the medic of the bandit team followed and quickly rescued his dead teammate.

On the voice channel, the scout of the 1st team quickly reported, “Captain, we can’t defend. The opposite side has the explosives and went up to the 3rd floor!”

Liu Shaozhou’s hearty voice came from the voice channel. “Okay, leave it to me.”

The bandits collectively rushed to point A. At this time, two people on the police side had died and the bandits had the advantage in numbers. It seemed that victory was at hand.

However, the bandit’s commander wasn’t careless. “Pay attention to the position of Captain Liu!”

The moment he finished speaking, he heard the bang of a gunshot. Then a bullet pierced through the air and directly shot through his brain!

[’Shadow’ has used the AWM-Meteor’ to kill ‘TTN’ with a headshot!]

There was the special effect of meteors crossing the sky and the bandit’s charger was killed instantly.

However, the charger had climbed to the 3rd floor to fool the sniper and their explosive was with the scout.

The medic wore a bulletproof life plate and saved people while protecting the scout teammate installing a bomb. Unfortunately, two consecutive gunshots were heard before they could get close to the explosion point.

[’Shadow’ has used the AWM-Meteor’ to kill ‘Youyou’ with a headshot!]

[’Shadow’ has used the AWM-Meteor’ to kill ‘This is a Side Account’ with a headshot!]

There were two consecutive kills. Liu Shaozhou sniped from a long distance and directly crushed the bandits.

The policemen of the 1st team were injured but survived. They saw Captain Liu reversing the situation and immediately bypassed from the rear, killing the bandits’ sniper in seconds.

In the blink of an eye, the bandits were wiped out and the police won.

Seeing this, Jiang Shaoyu praised it in a low voice. “Liu Shaozhou’s Life and Death Explosion mode really deserves its name. He defends the explosion points very stably.”

Qi Heng looked proud. “Of course. He is the apprentice I taught and he has some skills!”