You've only been playing for half a year, and you've already reached the finals?

Chapter 289 You all own banks?
It was yet another long journey that spanned almost half the globe.

Because of a half-day layover during the journey, the plane finally landed at Pudong International Airport at noon on November 9th, domestic time.

It was already the third day after the final.

The 2021 China Mathematical Olympiad, or CMO, will begin on November 19th.

Mingjing has ten days to catch up on the progress lost due to the World Championship.

After EDG got off the plane and collected their luggage, they were greeted by a huge crowd of people as soon as they arrived at the arrival hall!
Countless EDG fans packed the arrival hall to the brim, creating an incredibly large and frightening scene, far larger than when they returned from MSI.

Ming Jing had anticipated this, so he wasn't flustered. He waved and greeted the group before following them through the aisle in the middle of the crowd.

At the end of the corridor were Tencent's leaders, including Jin Yibo. The leaders were in high spirits and wanted to take the EDG team to a celebration banquet.

However, Mingjing declined the suggestion.

Because his journey was not yet over, he did not have time to stay in Shanghai for long. In a few hours, he would have to take off again and fly directly to Wuhan.

Of course, this was just an excuse. After all, there were still a few hours to grab a meal; Mingjing simply didn't want to attend these kinds of dinners—they were pointless.

Anyway, Tengjing treats Mingjing like a treasure now, and will definitely prioritize Mingjing's ideas.

that's the truth.

Mingjing's talent in gaming is undoubtedly unique throughout history, and the world is always infinitely tolerant of geniuses. Tencent Esports is counting on Mingjing to lead LPL to new heights, so of course they're going along with him.

What if Mingjing gets upset and he quits his professional career and goes to university?
Mingjing already has two championships in hand, and even if he goes to university to pursue his studies, he will have a bright future. The only loss will be for LPL.

Jin Yibo didn't try to persuade him further, but just smiled and told Ming Jing to do well on the exam. Then he sent a car to take the two Ming brothers back to the EDG base.

Mingjing quickly packed his luggage back at the base. Seeing that there was still time, he simply dragged his cousin to the restaurant across from the base to eat rice noodles.

The EDG players really like eating the rice noodles from that restaurant.

The shop owner, who was also a viewer of the e-sports competition, was overjoyed to see Mingkai and Mingjing in the shop at this time. He gave them a free bowl of rice noodles and then took out his Polaroid camera, hoping to get a photo of the two of them together and their autographs.

Mingjing dislikes socializing, but he is happy to accept fans' requests. He took a simple photo with his cousin and then signed the photo.

For the shop owners, this is undoubtedly a profitable business.

With just two bowls of rice noodles, they managed to get a photo of the two legendary brothers, Ming Jing and Ming Kai.

Years later, countless fans will surely make a special pilgrimage to see this photo, bringing a steady stream of new customers to the shop.

After eating the rice noodles, the two dragged their luggage and set off again.

The plane finally landed at Tianhe Airport in the evening.

After taking three flights in one day, both my cousin and Mingjing were exhausted and just wanted to get a good night's sleep.

My cousin saw Mingjing off at the entrance of the residential area and gave him a few final words of advice.

"Just focus on the exam from now on," my cousin said with a smile. "Judging from your expression, you seem pretty confident this year."

My cousin knew that Mingjing had made it into the top 15 in the country last year. Although he was admitted to Peking University through a special admission program, he was still a little short of the top six and couldn't make it to the end.

"We've put in a lot of effort this year," Ming Jing said with a smile, "but we're not really that confident. After all, it's quite difficult."

“No problem.” Mingkai patted his cousin on the shoulder. “You’re number one in the world at gaming, so what’s so difficult about getting into the top six in the country for math? It’s not like you’re in the top six in the world.”

Ming Jing thought to himself that the top six in the country are basically at the level of world champions, and that these two industries are the same thing, but he just smiled and nodded, then watched his cousin get into the car and drive away.

This time, Mingjing didn't go to school; instead, he stayed home to study.

The school's pace of classes is a bit too slow and cannot meet Mingjing's needs.

Ming Jing continued to study with Song Xuan via video call, just as before, only for longer periods, almost the same schedule and intensity as school classes.

Ming Jing thought he would be a bit rusty after stopping practice for half a month, but when he actually started practicing, he didn't feel any lag, and his problem-solving approach was still "smooth and flowing".

The phrase "smooth and flowing" refers to being able to solve the problem within the allotted time.

Generally speaking, if you can answer a challenging question at the International Olympic level within three hours, you're considered to have succeeded.

In the past few days of practicing questions, Mingjing has not been able to get 100% correct, but he has been able to get about 80-90% right.

With Song Xuan's help, Ming Jing was able to quickly master even the most difficult questions he couldn't answer.

However, with a clear thought process and a question type that is relevant to his major, Mingjing can even finish it in just over an hour!
Even Song Xuan couldn't compare.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Song Xuan never hesitated to praise Ming Jing. "You can't tell at all that he had stopped training for a while."

"It's alright," Ming Jing said with a smile. "This question is relevant to my major."

Mingjing's greatest strength is calculation; his calculation ability is absolutely unmatched, even compared to other competition students.

After all, Ming Jing was constantly making high-intensity calculations while playing games, calculating various damage, distance, and cooldowns. While others relied on intuition to guess, Ming Jing relied on calculations. Therefore, his calculation ability did not become rusty; on the contrary, it became more and more agile as he played games.

However, in IMO-level math competitions, the amount of calculation is usually not that great; these types of problems rely more on problem-solving strategies.

However, the problem in front of us is quite exceptional. It is a rare calculation problem that requires expanding the expression again and again, and integrating all the numbers and symbols on the page into the last number.

Although Ming Jing's problem-solving approach was not as clear as Song Xuan's, his computational advantage was perfectly demonstrated when writing about problems with a large amount of calculation, and his pen flew like lightning.

This excellent performance not only put Ming Jing at ease, but also reassured Song Xuan a little.

"This level is about right," Song Xuan said confidently.

"That's hard to say," Ming Jing said with a smile. "Keep practicing."

The selection of national team members is not based solely on results, but rather on rankings.

Ultimately, Ming Jing could only score 80-90% of the points.

In the national training team, everyone is first or second in their province, and there are several who can write all the answers correctly. He is currently on the verge of sixth place. If the competition is fierce, Ming Jing could be eliminated at any time.

Amidst the busy calculations, time flew by and it was the weekend. Mingjing even invited Wang Hao out for a meal.

Wang Hao was very excited to see Ming Jing and talked non-stop about what he had recently encountered in ranked matches.

"Bro, let me tell you, the Master promotion series I played a few days ago was absolutely awesome! I came back from 0-2 down to win 3-2! In the third game, I ran into an incredibly overpowered Slark who killed over 20 people in one game and carried me to victory!"

Ming Jing, who had just won the S-series championship, listened to Wang Hao recount his passionate experiences in the Master Ranked Tournament and simply nodded with a smile.

But I still had some doubts.

Is the Masters qualifying tournament difficult?

Ming Jing debuted as a master, and then made rapid progress after entering the youth training camp, fighting his way to the top of the national server. He has never been blocked in the promotion matches in his life, so he really doesn't understand the hardships Wang Hao went through.

However, it must be said that although Wang Hao is only a master, he has made contributions to the LPL.

After all, it was he who brought Mingjing into the industry.
Without his divine pull that day, which drew Mingjing into the League of Legends rabbit hole, LPL might not have won those two championships. Going back even further, perhaps we should also thank TES in S10; if they hadn't defeated their opponents in the Mid-Season Cup, Mingjing wouldn't have become interested in the game.

Rounding up, JackeyLove also deserves credit for these two championships.

Ming Jing was lost in his own thoughts when he suddenly heard Wang Hao say excitedly, "Do you know who this little fishman is? I found out later."

Ming Jing raised an eyebrow: "Who is it?"

"Mango fish!"

"Who?"

"Mango Fish, the number one Fizz player in the Chinese server, don't you know him?"

"I really don't know him."

Mingjing speaks the truth.

Wang Hao suddenly felt that talking about League of Legends with Ming Jing was a bit humiliating, so he simply changed the subject.

"The competition is in a few days," Wang Hao said. "Are you participating in this exam?"

Upon hearing this, Ming Jing raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'll participate. I came back specifically to prepare for the exam."

This time it was Wang Hao's turn to be surprised. "You haven't studied much this year. Did you even understand the exam? You were just playing around, weren't you?"

“You don’t understand,” Ming Jing sneered. “I’m aiming for the top six.”

"Don't talk nonsense." Wang Hao's Wuhan accent was spot-on, and he was obviously not convinced. "You've been away competing for a year, where would you find the time to practice coding problems?"

Wang Hao, of course, didn't believe it. You see, he was different from Ming Jing. After being eliminated from the national team last year, Wang Hao had really worked hard for a whole year.

Unfortunately, the results were not ideal. After a year of hard work, he did not make much progress, and the top six remained a distant dream.

That's how math is; those who can learn it understand it after hearing it once, while those who can't learn it waste a year of study.

He tried for a year but had little chance.

If Ming Jing could win the FMVP award and still make it into the top six at the same time, Wang Hao might as well just quit!

Ming Jing remained silent with a smile, saying, "You'll know after you finish the CMO exam."

Hearing Ming Jing's confident words, Wang Hao felt a sense of unease.

This guy seems to be serious.
For the next few days, Mingjing remained immersed in intensive study.

Wang Hao also entered the final sprint, and both of them needed to maintain sharp problem-solving skills as much as possible under the huge amount of exercises.

Fortunately, after another year of study, both of them are now firmly in the top 60 of the national server. CMO is just the initial screening of 450 to 60, so neither of them is under too much pressure.

Besides the impending math competition, the e-sports world is also experiencing a period of undercurrents.

With the champion crowned, the S11 winter transfer window has entered its preparatory stage.

With LPL winning four consecutive championships, its status as the top region has become increasingly secure, and countless Korean players have expressed interest in playing in China, adding considerable uncertainty to this year's transfer period.

On Mingjing's side, his cousin had already spoken with Mingjing on behalf of the club.

Ming Jing certainly has no intention of leaving EDG, but he has one condition: that the starting lineup must be retained this year.

Ming Jing has a great group of teammates this year, and of course he doesn't want to lose any of them.

This request isn't particularly difficult, it just requires a significant amount of financial resources.

Normally, after just completing a golden journey with a dominant performance, preserving the roster shouldn't be too difficult, since no one would want to mess with a champion.

The problem is that EDG's lineup is already quite expensive, with Mingjing alone costing over 20 million. After completing the Golden Road, the value of all five players will inevitably skyrocket.

This will put Mr. Zhu's wallet to the test.

Fortunately, the salary cap system that the league is preparing for has not yet been officially launched, so EDG does not need to pay luxury tax, which is still a problem that can be solved by spending money.

So it shouldn't be a big problem.

"Once the transfer window opens, you'll definitely get a lot of contact from people, and the offers won't be low, but don't worry about that for now. EDG will definitely meet your requirements, so there's absolutely no need for you to transfer."

My cousin was clearly afraid that Mingjing would be kidnapped, and he gave him a lot of warnings.

"Don't worry," Ming Jing said with a smile, "I know what I'm doing."

Before we knew it, it was August 16th.

With three days left until the CMO Mathematics Competition, the transfer period has officially begun.

On the morning of the transfer window, Mingjing's father's phone was ringing off the hook.

Even though the whole world understands that Phi and EDG are deeply intertwined and would never be separated under normal circumstances, it doesn't stop people from various clubs from calling to inquire about prices and give it a try.

What if it succeeds?

Owning Phi is like owning a champion!
While Dad was overwhelmed by the barrage of phone calls, he was also increasingly shocked.

Because he also learned how outrageous his son had become.

Last year it was only a little over ten million, and at most a little over twenty million.

How come the starting price is already 20 million this year?
JDG, with its deep pockets, even offered 30 million at one point!

This clearly gave Lao Ming quite a shock.
Are you all bankers? Why are you giving away so much money?
Interestingly, this time the invitations weren't just from LPL teams.

G2 from Europe, C9 from North America, and even HLE from South Korea all sent invitations to Mingjing, and the contract fees they offered were all over 30 million RMB.

The deep-pocketed C9 even commanded a high price of nearly 40 million yuan per year!

The World Championships will be held in the United States next year, and it's clear that Americans really want to win a championship on their home turf.

However, Mingjing will certainly not consider invitations from other regions, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, his only choice will be EDG.

That very evening, my cousin arrived at Mingjing's house.

My mom was quite enthusiastic and cooked a whole table of dishes.

My cousin greeted Mingjing's family and said that we could talk about important matters after dinner.

But before dinner, his cousin brought Mingjing some news.

On the first day of the transfer window, Scout officially confirmed his departure from the team.

(End of this chapter)