Chapter 147 - Pre

translator: Oyen editor: Ciel

On the 7th day of the first lunar month, all the Mojue team members returned to the club on time. Many people also brought specialty products from their homes. Shen He in particular brought a lot of delicious food from Nanjing, and enthusiastically distributed it to his teammates. He also brought more bags of beef jerky made by his mother for his roommate Li Muran.

Qin Mo sent a message in the group, asking everyone to gather in the training room at 8:00pm. After everyone arrived at the training room, Qin Mo arranged for everyone to start training.

After three days of intensive qualifying matches, Qin Mo received news from the professional league——

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The first pre-match preparatory meeting for the first Peerless Jianghu professional league tournament was scheduled for January 28th, and would be held in Beijing. Team captains and vice-captains were invited to attend.

Qin Mo and Xiao Han booked their airplane tickets, and arrived at the designated hotel the day before the meeting. Due to the paparazzi’s harassment in the previous event, the officials decided on a suburban hotel this time. Although it was far from the city, the environment was good and quiet.

After putting away their luggage, they accepted the dinner invitation at the restaurant’s buffet, and sure enough, they saw quite a few acquaintances there.

——Lin Shuangcheng and Song Changdong were having dinner at the same table.

Song Changdong was actually here? Surprised, Qin Mo walked over to greet him. “Xiao Song?”

Hearing this familiar voice, Song Changdong immediately raised his head. Seeing Qin Mo, he returned the greeting excitedly. “Long time no see, god Mo! Please join us!”

Qin Mo sat down, wondering why he was here. “Are you Sword Song’s vice captain?”

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Song Changdong scratched his head, embarrassed. “I wasn’t intending to be at first, but Captain Lin said that my meatballs are delicious, and that I am appropriate to be a vice-captain.”

Qin Mo. “…”

What kind of stupid reason was that? Could Lin Shuangcheng be a little more reliable?

“Not bad,” Xiao Han praised. “Xiao Song, you have bought the whole Sword Song team with meatballs.”

Song Changdong blushed slightly. “God Han is joking again.”

Xiao Han patted his shoulder lightly. “I’ll get the food, you guys talk first.”

Qin Mo had thought that Lin Shuangcheng would put Song Changdong in an important position, but didn’t expect that he would promote Xiao Song to the vice-captain’s position directly. In response to Lin Shuangcheng’s smiling gaze, Qin Mo helplessly responded, “Your decision to let Xiao Song to be vice captain is not bad. Most of Sword Song’s members are newcomers, while Xiao Song has had the experience of formal training in Dragon Song’s training camp, and can help in daily training.”

“I think so too.” Ling Shuangcheng nodded in agreement.

A moment later, Xiao Han brought back some food for Qin Mo on his own initiative, all of which were Qin Mo’s favorite dishes, as well as some cakes.

The four of them ate while chatting. Not long after, another two familiar acquaintances arrived. They were Su Cheng and Xie Changming from the Interlude team. Both the martial brothers were inseparable wherever they went, causing Xie Changming to almost become his senior brother’s follower.

Su Cheng greeted them with a smile. “Hello everyone, can I sit here?”

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“En, this is Xiao Song, our Sword Song’s vice captain.” Lin Shuangcheng introduced and added. “This person is Su Cheng, the one who controls Interlude, great god of Luoying Valley sect’s guqin flow.”

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“Hello, god Su.” Song Changdong greeted him seriously.

Su Cheng laughed. “Xiao Song, how old are you?”

“I will be eighteen years old this year.” Song Changdong replied honestly.

Su Cheng suddenly felt that this honest teenager was in complete opposition to Lin Shuangcheng’s character. Lin Shuangcheng was a black-bellied smiling fox, but this Xiao Song was as simple as a blank piece of paper…

Worrying that his black history would be mentioned again, just as Xie Changming came over with the food, Qin Mo lowered his head and ate in silence.

However, this bigmouth was actually quite discreet today. Instead of joking with Qin Mo, he asked seriously. “I haven’t participated in a pre-match meeting before, what is the purpose of this meeting?”

Xiao Han, a former captain of the Miracle League, explained: “In Miracle, pre-match meetings are usually for announcing the match schedule and the team tables, so that everyone knows the opponents for the whole season in advance. However, Peerless Jianghu uses a scoring system. I guess the specific time, rules and points for each individual event should be announced tomorrow.”

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“Is god Han going to participate in every event?” Su Cheng asked.

“It hasn’t been decided yet.” Xiao Han shook his head. “We will be too busy if we participate in every event. After the competition schedule is announced, we will go back and discuss with the team.”

Su Cheng chuckled. “Don’t talk about other events, the both of you will definitely participate in the partner competition, right? Otherwise, won’t Twin Stars’ reputation be in vain?”

The straightforward Xiao Han didn’t bother concealing it. “That’s right, Xiao Mo and I will be participating in the partner competition. You two martial brothers, as well as captain Lin and Xiao Song, will probably also participate together, right?”

Su Cheng nodded in agreement. “I think among all the events, the most intense one will be the partner competition, because each major team will send its most powerful combination. For example, your Mojue’s Twin Stars, our Interlude guqin and flute ensemble, Sword Song’s long and short sword, Frost Moon’s double whip and so on, which will be very fierce in the later stage. I just don’t know how many team points the partner competition will count for?”

“Why are you in such a hurry, it won’t be announced until tomorrow’s meeting.” Lin Shuangcheng smiled.

Everyone chatted with each other enthusiastically, while Qin Mo kept his head lowered to eat. Realising this, Xie Changming could not help asking. “Why isn’t god Mo speaking?”

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“Because god Mo would hate for you to mention his black history.” Lin Shuangcheng explained.

Qin Mo glared at them, continuing his meal in silence. Within his cold gaze was the hidden meaning of ‘whoever dares to mention me will be destroyed’.

Lin Shuangcheng immediately raised his hands in surrender. “I don’t know any black history, my memory has been getting bad recently, I’ve forgotten everything.”

“I also don’t know anything.” Xie Changming immediately followed suit. “Begging for god Mo’s mercy in the competition!”

“What black history?” Su Cheng chuckled. “How can a man of integrity like god Mo have a black history?”

Lin Shuangcheng. “That’s right, that’s right, god Mo has a pure and white history, I don’t know who is talking nonsense.”

Qin Mo. “…”

These people were shameless and also incurable. Peerless Jianghu’s first generation captains all had a thick face, causing him to be somewhat worried about the league’s future.

***

After a while, Chu Jianxian and Qiu Zongping arrived for dinner. Seeing Qin Mo, they came over to greet him. Xuewei also attended this meeting and smiled at Qin Mo. “Hello, god Mo.”

Naturally, it was no good to call Qin Mo ‘brother’ in front of everyone. Qin Mo also didn’t want to expose their family relationship publicly, and just nodded to her.

Without Fire’s captain, Nie Yuzhu, also brought his vice-captain Jing Yang to greet everyone.

Martial brother and sister, Chen Jiang and He Yue, also arrived together. Everyone had met Chen Jiang at the all sect challenge arena awards ceremony last time, but this was their first time meeting He Yue. She looked smart, and had her long hair tied back in a ponytail. Obviously, she was familiar with Zhou Xuewei. Both girls sat at a table with Li Junru and An Ling from National Grace to chat over dinner.

Xie Changming was sighing. “Female players in the Peerless Jianghu league are really good looking. The four girls have their own characteristics, and sister Xuewei is the most beautiful.”

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“Why? Do you have an opinion about Xuewei?” Qin Mo stared at him coldly.

Perceiving the cold air, Xie Changming quickly waved his hand. “No, no, no, I am simply admiring her beauty!”

Qin Mo gazed at the next table. Among the four female players, Li Junru was smart and capable, An Ling was lively and lovely. He Yue was a girl with good temperament. Zhou Xuewei looked the most ladylike, but was smart and calm. Although their appearances were not eye-catching, they were fresh and natural, which was much better than the stereotyped internet celebrity faces.

After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms to rest. Since it was still early, Lin Shuangcheng planned to find someone to play Legends of the Three Kingdoms with him. He called the others in the WeChat group, and immediately received a response from many people.

There happened to be a game room in the hotel. Su Cheng, Chu Jianxin, Chen Jiang, Nie Yuzhu could play Legends of the Three Kingdoms, and went over with Lin Shuangcheng to open a table of five people for a card game match. Their vice-captains also followed to watch.

Xiao Han couldn’t play, but was curious about the game, so he pulled Qin Mo together to join in on the fun.

The role cards included the monarch, rebels, traitors, and ministers, while the hero cards included Liu Bei, Cao Cao and so on. Xiao Han found that this game was difficult to understand, while Qin Mo learned to play it after watching two games. Thinking that this game was quite interesting, Qin Mo decided to join in.

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Everyone played until 11:00pm before disbanding. This was also the last relaxing moment before the competition began.

***

At 10:00am the next morning, the captains and vice-captains of the ten officially approved professional teams went to the conference room on the 10th floor of the hotel.

Tang Ximing, chairman of the league, sat in front and turned on the large projection screen. He read out the rules of the Peerless Jianghu professional league to everyone, and asked the staff to hand the printed manuals to the captains.

The rules were basically the same as the CES esports alliance’s rules for players. It included things such as not insulting the opponent during competition, dressing neatly during competitions, and banned the usage of any unofficial software, which was considered cheating… As a former professional player, Qin Mo was very familiar with these rules. Thus, he briefly flipped through the manual before handing it to Xiao Han for safekeeping.

Next, the schedule of the first professional league was listed on the big screen——

The first individual challenge arena competition would be held from February 1st to February 28th. Players who made it to the top 32 would score a point for their team. The top 16 would score three points, the top 8 scored five points, the top 4 scored eight points, and the champion would gain a full ten points for their team. Only the highest score from each individual would be used to calculate the team’s points.

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From this, it was clear that the league obviously encouraged professional players to take part in more individual competitions. After all, it was not very difficult to reach the top 32, so they didn’t have to give up this point. As for reaching the top 8 and the top 4, it depended on the players’ own strength.

The points that could be earned from the individual matches were not high, but the prize money was really not bad. All players who participated in the competition could get the league fund subsidy, while the top four had prize money that went as high as six figures. The champion would also receive a special trophy.

The partner competition would be held from March 10th to April 15th, and each team was limited to four group registrations. In other words, the eight people in one team could be divided into four pairs to participate. The top 16 pairs would earn five points in this competition. Pairs who reached the top 8 could receive eight points, the top 4 received ten points, while the champion pair received twelve points.

From May 1st to June 1st was the KOF three-people single elimination match, which was also a rotation battle. Each side sent three players to PK in turn. After killing one person, the second person would step up to play. Whichever player was still alive in the end would win the match for their team. Each team could register up to two groups in this project, but the players could not be repeated or replaced. The top 8 teams could gain eight points, while the top four could gain ten points. The champion team would win twelve points for their team, which was one level higher than that of the individual event.

After the KOF competition, the league would take 15 days off in the middle of the year and hold a summer carnival at the same time.

The 3v3 challenge cup competition would be held from June 15th to July 15th. This event was conducted in teams, and allowed players to be replaced. Ten teams would compete in a large round-robin point game, with each victory being worth two points. If they won all nine rounds, they could earn eighteen points. At this stage, each team would definitely send out their top players, making this the second largest tournament after the professional league.

From August 1st to December 1st was the most important event of all—— the official professional league.

All members of the teams registered in the official professional league were required to participate. Players could be changed in each round, and the tactical arrangement was both flexible and changeable. The ten teams would play round-robin points matches, exchanging home and away games. A victory would net the team three points, while a loss would cause a point to be deducted. Such a point system would cause the competition in the team matches to intensify. Furthermore, some teams with poor overall strength might even have negative points after repeated deductions…

According to the schedule, there would be many small events in the first half of the year, allowing the captains to relax. However, the second half of the year would be a major test of their tactical arrangements, and they definitely couldn’t slack off.

After carefully explaining the schedule and rules, Chairman Tang opened the floor to questions. “If you have any queries, feel free to ask them now.”

Xie Changming took the initiative to raise his hand. “Chairman, since players can be swapped in the three-player and five-player competitions, will the schedule be sent to us in advance? After all, it is necessary to adjust the lineup according to the opponent, right?

“That’s right.” Chairman Tang smiled and replied, “The team schedule for the second half of the competition will be arranged according to the team points earned in the first half of the year. After the holiday in the middle of the year, the alliance will send you the schedule of the games.”

“Are the rules of the official professional league five-members team competitions consistent with that of the online game’s arena?” Lin Shuangcheng followed up with his own question.

“I will answer captain Lin’s question in detail,” Tang Ximing explained. “The online game arena has an escort mode and a secret letter mode. The official professional league will have an additional treasure hunting mode. There will be a special explanation manual for the detailed rules of each game in the league, which will be sent to you now.”

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He asked the staff next to him to help distribute the manual to everyone. The captains discussed it while reading the manual, and the conference room immediately became lively.

At this meeting, both league chairman Tang Ximing and the official planning director were present, and patiently answered the captains’ questions.

Before the end of the meeting, Chairman Tang suddenly reminded everyone. “On February 1st, the first year of the professional league will officially begin, and the opening ceremony is scheduled for January 30th. All the players of all teams must be present, so remember to dress neatly in your uniforms, and go to the big stage to say hello to the audience. It’s time for the teams that hide great gods to go public!”

As soon as he said this, Xiao Han and Qin Mo couldn’t help looking at each other.

Mojue was still concealing Zhu Qingyue and Liu Hong. When their full lineup was announced at the opening ceremony, perhaps the whole esports circle would be frightened.