When an Alpha is Marked by One of His Own Kind

Chapter 81

"Our heartiest congratulations to DG! They've successfully defeated BIG, and now they've won over COCO as well! That settles it! Our three teams for the world championships are set-they are BLX, WTG, and last year's world champions Team DG!"
In the Hua City stadium-

The DG fans in the audience cheered loudly enough to shake mountains. They waved their banners so excitedly that they practically started tearing them apart. On stage, the players from COCO exchanged hugs before gloomily gathering up their peripherals to start heading offstage. Their coach patted each of them on the shoulder as they passed, whispering words of encouragement in their ears.

DG's side wasn't overjoyed either.

For one thing, they were the reigning world champions. When they took the title last year, the reaction from their domestic fans was even wilder than the reaction they were receiving now. After all, that was the LPL's first world championship trophy-the entire domestic esports industry could be overjoyed for them. All those who had failed to bring home the world championship title for the LPL in the past could cheer DG on, for making their dreams come true.

For another thing...

They were last year's champions. They should have ridden that momentum into this season, but even as the former kings, they were reduced to struggling for the third spot in this year's qualifying tournaments. That was nothing to celebrate. In fact, they could only sigh over their struggles.

If DG had lost today's match against COCO, they would have been the ones who were left crushed and dispirited.

Sometimes, a team's true strength couldn't be gauged by one or two games. After all, many factors went into determining a victory-such as the state of the players, the team comp, the tactics. Players and coaches all worked together to achieve each win.

Of course, fans primarily gauged a team's strength solely by whether they won or lost. Winners were strong. Even if they used bewildering tactics or champions, they were awesome as long as they won.

Now-

Only those who played on the field knew COCO's true strength. Even though they lost and regrettably missed out on qualifying for the world championship that year, their standing in the hearts of DG's players was clear.

Team COCO had been a worthy adversary.

......

After the match, it was Qian Bao's turn to be interviewed.

Lu Zhe and the others waited backstage.

Shen Qiao lowered his head to check his messages. He had already received a few from his old teammates on BLX, who'd all watched the match DG had just played against COCO.

From Lele-

Qiao-ge, congratulations to you all! We'll see you at worlds! See you in Europe! Hahahaha!

Under that message, there was also a string of reaction memes and gifs. Some were of fireworks, some were of little characters dancing around in excitement. All sorts of celebratory images were there.

A smile reached Shen Qiao's eyes as he scrolled through them. Once he got to the bottom, he replied, See you in Europe.

The location for that year's world championship tournament had already been decided. As one of the strongest leagues, the LPL would only need to turn up starting in the group stage. Before that, a few other wildcard teams would still need to battle it out to earn their spot at worlds.

Just as Shen Qiao finished sending off that message, Lu Zhe came over to his side with the light scent of cedarwood emanating from his body. "Manager Zhou just told me there's a casual fan tournament going on next week. He'd like us both to participate, as a treat for our fans."