Chapter 232 – Captain and Vice-Captain

The next morning, Li Cangyu had just finished washing up when he received a phone call. It was the chairman’s assistant, Sister Lin Xiaotong. Her voice was very gentle, “Cat God, do you have time now to go to the meeting room on the 14th floor? The chairman wants a meeting.”

“Oh, I’ll be right there.” Li Cangyu headed to the meeting room on the 14th floor. He was well aware that the chairman wanted to discuss the World Competition with him.

Lin Xiaotong stood at the elevator to pick him up and led him to the meeting room at the end of the hallway. The thing that surprised him was the two very familiar faces that appeared when he opened the door—Liu Chuan and Xiao Sijing.

Liu Chuan was the boss of the Dragon Song Club and shouldn’t be here. Then after seeing Xiao Sijing standing next to him, Li Cangyu immediately reacted. They must be here as executive directors of the E-Sports League.

The year that Li Cangyu transferred to Wulin happened to be the year of Liu Chuan’s return. The Canglan team led by Li Cangyu fought against Liu Chuan many times. The Seven Stars Grass team was a strong team on the Wulin side. As the first captain of the Seven Stars Grass team, Xiao Sijing was very popular in the Wulin League and the strongest enemy on Liu Chuan’s road to winning.

That was already three years ago. Later, Liu Chuan retired behind the scenes to establish the Dragon Song Club and joined the E-Sports League. Xiao Sijing was a coach after retiring before also being invited to join China’s E-Sports League.

Liu Chuan and Xiao Sijing, the two former e-sports gods were currently working at the headquarters of the league. This time, the selection of the Miracle national team must be supervised by headquarters personnel to avoid accusations of unfairness.

Both of them probably appeared here because headquarters sent them to supervise the trials.

Li Cangyu quickly figured this out and took the initiative to reach out to Xiao Sijing. “Xiao Sijing, I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Xiao Sijing shook hands with him. “Congratulations on winning the championship. I also went to watch and you played very well.”

Li Cangyu smiled. “Thank you.”

Compared to Liu Chuan’s hateful smile, Xiao Sijing’s mature and stable style seemed much more reliable. The league headquarters probably sent both of them over because they were previously e-sports players. The various systems of e-sports would be easier for them to understand.

They were talking when the door opened and Li Cangyu saw Ling Xuefeng.

“Xuefeng, you are here as well?” Li Cangyu asked with a bit of surprise.

Ling Xuefeng nodded and walked over to Li Cangyu’s side. He asked Chairman Nan “Chairman, did you ask me over to discuss the World Competition?”

Chairman Nan smiled and nodded. “Yes, let me introduce you first. These two people are Liu Chuan and Xiao Sijing, executive directors of the E-Sports League Headquarters. The league sent them to supervise the national team trials to avoid any unfairness. The two of them will also serve as referees for the trials.”

The E-Sports League governed many types of competitive games, including competitive mobile games, tablet games, computer games, etc. Wulin and Miracle were two of the biggest projects. They had the most formal leagues, the most professional players and the highest popularity.

It was normal to send people when setting up a national team.

Ling Xuefeng naturally knew Liu Chuan. He was the boss of the Dragon Song Club where the Canglan team was located. This was his first time seeing Xiao Sijing. The two men looked at each other and shook hands.

Apart from Chairman Nan and the four great gods, there were two girls in the conference room. One of them was Chairman Nan’s assistant while the other was a secretary sent by the league headquarters. The two of them sat at the conference table and opened their notebook to make a meeting record.

Chairman Nan saw everyone sitting down and kept speaking, “We will first start by deciding the vice-captain of the national team. Cat God, you won’t have a problem being the captain right?”

Li Cangyu smiled. “I recommend Ling Xuefeng to be the captain of the national team.”

Everyone turned towards him with a startled expression.

Being the captain of the national team was a great honor. Many people were eager to be the captain yet Li Cangyu wanted to give it away?

The named Ling Xuefeng immediately questioned it. “Why? You obviously have the ability and Canglan won the championship this season. This is enough for you to be the captain.”

Li Cangyu’s reason was very straightforward. “I am bad in English. I will have to deal with reporters abroad and also participate in various conferences. If I am the captain, I would have to bring a translation dictionary with me. Your English is good and you are more reliable as the captain.”

Ling Xuefeng asked, “Do you think this reason holds up?”

Li Cangyu stared at him, eyes extraordinarily serious. “I have left Miracle for three years. It will be hard for me to serve as captain of the national team as soon as I come back. You are different. You have been here for all seven years and your foundation is stable. The national team will definitely be a gathering of great people. The key is to ensure that everyone listens to the captain.  I am more suitable as the vice-captain. I can stay in the team and be responsible for arranging the training of the players.”

Ling Xuefeng gave him a look. “In fact, you are too lazy to go outside and want to train in the dormitory every day, right?”

“I was discovered by you.” Li Cangyu touched his nose and smiled. “I just want to stay home and seriously consider tactics.”

Ling Xuefeng glanced at Chairman Nan, who felt very helpless. “Cough, the World League has stipulated that the captain of the championship team will be directly appointed as captain of the national team. Old Cat, you can’t change even if you want to! To be honest, both of you have the strength to be captain but the rules are like this and it isn’t good to change them in private. Then… Captain Ling will be the vice-captain?”

Ling Xuefeng replied simply, “You don’t have to quit. How about you stay and train with the team while I deal with things like interviews?”

Li Cangyu heard this and couldn’t help smiling. “Okay. Interviews and other matters will be handed over to you. You shouldn’t feel wronged when you are the vice-captain.”

He really had the nature of a cat. Li Cangyu wanted to stay home and concentrate on the team. This was also in line with his personality. Ling Xuefeng thought of this and couldn’t help saying, “I understand what you are thinking.”

Li Cangyu was very happy. He really hated English interviews. If he said the wrong words, wouldn’t he be a joke like Xiao Han in Chinese? It was right to leave these things to Ling Xuefeng. Ling Xuefeng’s English was first-class and he was suitable to be the image of the national team.

Chairman Nan looked at the two men and felt very complicated. According to Ling Xuefeng, Li Cangyu would only be the captain in name while he was do the work of the vice-captain. Meanwhile, Ling Xuefeng was the vice-captain in name but he would be doing the captain’s work…

Did they need to do this?

Since Li Cangyu and LIng Xuefeng didn’t disagree, Chairman Nan also didn’t object. He immediately clapped and exclaimed, “That’s decided! The national team will be left to you. The division of tasks can be negotiated privately.”

The two people tacitly glanced at each other and smiled.

Chairman Nan then said, “Next is to determine the selection of the national team. I wanted to call all the captains to discuss it but I changed my mind. The more people there are, the more disagreement there will be. We might argue all day. Thus, I will leave it to the two of you to directly decide.”

This sentence was a great gift to Ling Xuefeng and Li Cangyu.

The captain and vice-captain would decide the lineup of the national team. This was equivalent to being in control of the national team’s life and death. It was enough to see Chairman Nan’s trust in both of them.

Chairman Nan gave them a copy of the World League’s notice and explained, “The latest notice from the World League states that the captains of the championship and runner-up team of the domestic leagues are automatically eligible to join the national team. Other candidates and classes will be freely determined by the country.”

“Why is it the captains of the winning and runner-up team, not the vice-captain of the championship team?” Li Cangyu asked doubtfully.

Chairman Nan explained, “It is because many countries only have captains and no vice-captains. It is only relatively large leagues like China, the United States, France and South Korea who will have vice-captains to take care of training in the team.”

Li Cangyu had a clear understanding of this point and nodded. Then he asked, “What is the maximum number of people in the national team?”

Chairman Nan answered, “The total number of people is 22. Apart from the two of you, there are 20 places that can be freely determined.”

Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng glanced at each other with surprise. They thought that the national team would be 10 people at most yet there was actually 22 spots!

Ling Xuefeng expressed his doubts. “There are so many people. Does this mean the system has changed again?” Otherwise, 10 people would be enough for a team battle and arena.

Liu Chuan finally spoke up with a smile. “I just came back from the US a few days ago. The meaning of the World League is that the scale of the first World Competition should be bigger. If there is no difference with the domestic leagues then the strength of the World Competition won’t be seen. Thus, they have added a special event to the World Competition called the Death Racing mode.”

Li Cangyu frowned. “Death Racing mode? I’ve never heard of it.”

Liu Chuan shrugged. “The World League naturally wants to use new tricks to give the audience a sense of freshness.”

Xiao Sijing’s explanation followed. “The World Competition will play three rounds per match, which will be the arena, team battle and death racing respectively. The participants in the three games can’t be repeated, which is the reason for relaxing the quota of the national team. The death racing mode will be played by five people. They will randomly refresh on the map and the first team to take 10 heads will win.”

Li Cangyu, “…”

Ling Xuefeng, “…”

Both of them were speechless. They could say that the bigwigs in the World League were very smart. This mode would definitely be exciting to play. However, 22 people was too large. Wouldn’t it be hard to control the team?

Chairman Nan smiled as he saw their complicated expressions. “You shouldn’t feel too much pressure. Let’s first confirm the lineup. The national team’s lineup needs to be comprehensively considered. How will you arrange the other 20 people?”

The league had issued a notice so they could only accept the rules and choose the most comprehensive lineup.

Xiao Sijing handed a piece of paper with information on it to the two people. “This is the result of my investigation with Liu Chuan in the past few weeks. The names, classes and characteristics of the aces of most countries are listed here. You can take a look at it.”

The two men took the material and read them. Then LIng Xuefeng said softly, “Since there are two team battles, at least two healers must be taken. There must also be at least two assassins, black magicians and white magicians to form a better cooperation. Together with our two summoners, this is already 10 places.”

Li Cangyu nodded in agreement. “We must also bring a psychic based on the information listed. The European countries have the psychic illusionist flow as a mainstream style. If we don’t bring a psychic then we will be at a disadvantage.”

“Ah, we also have to bring melee or the front row will be too weak.”

“What about archers?”

“We don’t need too much archers. Two is enough. The national team isn’t the Time team and it is impossible to play the kite flow style.”

“Should we select based on class? Or should we split it by remote and melee?”

“Let’s limit it to number of people per class. Otherwise, there is likely to be too many of one class. The final lineup should be comprehensive.”

“It makes sense. However, I also think there should be two mobile quotas so the lineup isn’t too rigid.”

“Also…”

Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng discussed arrangements for the national team. The other people couldn’t interrupt and could only watch silently from the side.

The two girls recording the meeting minutes were crying. Two great gods, can’t you speak a bit slower? You might have a tacit understanding but we can’t keep up with you!

***

A few minutes later, Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng finished discussing the lineup and showed it to Chairman Nan.

Two summoners, two black magicians, two white magicians, two hunters, two assassins, two swordsmen, two front-row tankers, two healers, two psychics, two bards and the remaining two people were free choice.

The 22 member national team lineup could be decided so quickly, showing the high efficiency when these two men worked together.

Chairman Nan asked, “What does free choice mean?”

Li Cangyu explained, “The quota is free. It isn’t limited to class and will be an open selection. Anybody with a strong ability will be selected.”

Chairman Nan nodded with satisfaction. This practice was truly reasonable or the lineup would be too rigid and some people would feel it was unfair. Freely releasing two quotas meant there everyone had a chance to compete freely.

“Do you have any opinions?” Chairman Nan asked Liu Chuan and Xiao Sijing.

Xiao Sijing replied simply, “I don’t have any opinions. Captain Ling and Cat God definitely have the best understanding of Miracle. I am only acting as the referee with Liu Chuan. You can set the lineup.”

Liu Chuan also smiled. “Yes, I think this is quite reasonable. The classes are averagely matched and the lineup is actually very comprehensive. It can respond to any opponents.”

Chairman Nan was pleased. “Okay, it is decided!”

The league sent two great gods who knew e-sports, which was better than laymen telling them how to act.

These two weren’t interested in interfering with Miracle. As Xiao Sijing said, no one knew more about this game then Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng.

The lineup that the two people formulated was certainly the most reasonable and perfect one.

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