LPL History

Chapter 174 A Surge of Money During the Transfer Window: Zhou Li Schemes to Lay a New Plan
Strawberry and Smile exchanged a glance.

Only one thought popped into my mind.

Their boss, King, was incredibly prescient.

Sitting at the desk right now is none other than Zhou Li, the jungler from the second team they were just discussing.

Before they could even voice their concerns, the boss had already found the right people for them!

What does this mean?
This shows that the boss has been paying close attention to the team's situation!
With a boss like that, how can WE not make a comeback?

Zhou Li saw Strawberry and Smile, and greeted them with a smile.

After all, the two of them were old acquaintances to him.

Seeing Zhou Li's friendly attitude, Wei Xiao felt even more joyful.

Indeed, Zhou Li must be overjoyed to be transferred from the second team to the first team.

However, now that the boss had made his decision, he couldn't be too enthusiastic.

This is the team management guide that Ruofeng left for Xiaowei before leaving the team.

Looking back, the reason WE has ended up where it is today is because they were too enthusiastic about Mingkai, Curly, and even that damn woman Abu who joined later.

The more enthusiastic these people are, the more easily they become arrogant.

If Abu and Mingkai had been suppressed back then, things probably wouldn't have gotten to this point.

"Zhou Li has arrived. We just happened to be talking about you, and we wanted to..."

Strawberry, who hadn't received any instruction from Ruofeng, was about to blurt out a welcome, but was nudged by a smile with her elbow, signaling the other person to shut up.

Under Strawberry's questioning gaze, she smiled faintly and said:
"Zhou Li, right? We just happened to see your match video. You've been quite popular lately. You definitely have some skill."

He paused for a moment, a restrained smile appearing on his face.

"Boss, are you planning to transfer Zhou Li to Team One?"

King was taken aback by Wei Xiao's words. Just as he was about to speak, Wei Xiao continued:
"The first team is actually quite complete right now. Shan Ni Ruo has performed quite well after a season of getting to know us. If we were to make a substitution now... However, Zhou Li could come to the first team first and rotate with Shan Ni Ruo as a substitute. I think he has a lot of potential."

As the smiling voice faded, a suffocating atmosphere filled the office.

Strawberry's eyes were filled with confusion.

He was the one who was praising Zhou Li to the skies in private just now, so why is he all smiles and acting all different now that Zhou Li is right in front of him?

King's face was extremely embarrassed. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he quickly said:

"What are you talking about? Mr. Zhou came to talk to me about cooperation, about the rotation of substitutes for the first and second teams."

Upon hearing King's words, Wei Xiao froze on the spot, looking bewildered.

"Huh? Wasn't he supposed to be on our team?"

And what does this week mean?
How did an eighteen-year-old kid become the "boss" in King's mouth?

Before Wei Xiao could react, she saw King smile and say to Zhou Li:
"Mr. Zhou, there might be a small misunderstanding, please don't mind it."

Zhou Li smiled and waved his hand:

"It's alright, we're all brothers."

King glanced helplessly at Strawberry and Smile:
What's the matter between you two?

Strawberry and Smile felt a bit dazed at that moment.

Judging from King's attitude toward Zhou Li, and considering what he just said, how could they possibly reveal their true purpose for coming here?

Seeing that the two remained silent, King then ordered them to leave.

"If there's nothing important, let's talk about it later. I'll finish talking with Mr. Zhou first."

He hadn't expected that the jungler on his second team was actually a rich kid.

This kid came to me tonight and immediately asked me to discuss a business deal worth tens of millions.

King initially thought the kid had gone mad, until he saw the other person's account balance and realized he had almost offended Edward Zhu again.

The cooperation that Zhou Li wanted to discuss with him was very simple: he wanted to acquire the personnel management rights of WE.A through equity investment.

In fact, Zhou Li had considered buying WE.A directly.

However, now that WE.A has been promoted to LPL, buying WE.A is equivalent to spending money to buy an LPL slot, and the players also need to be purchased separately.

In 2014, League of Legends became a global phenomenon.

The price of LPL slots has also risen accordingly.

In 2013, he spent several million to buy Royal Club, along with its players.

However, in 2014, this amount began to skyrocket.

According to Zhou Li's calculations, although the LPL has not yet reached the point where hundreds of millions of yuan are needed to buy a slot, even if the promotion and relegation system still exists, based on the amount EDG spent to buy Royal Club's second team's LPL slot before the Lunar New Year, it would still cost at least tens of millions of yuan.

Although Zhou Li now has the ability, it is still a bit painful to spend so much money all at once.

Moreover, after S3, Zhou Li also felt that managing a club was too tiring.

However, if WE.A is not taken under control, with the current abilities of WE.A's players, they may still achieve some results in the LPL, but they will be absolutely uncompetitive in the World Championship.

Keep in mind that in this year's World Championship, he will be facing the Samsung Twins, with Samsung White being hailed as the strongest team in the history of the World Championship.

Therefore, WE.A needs to be strengthened.

Moreover, Zhou Li knew that the first batch of Korean players would be entering the LPL this summer.

He needs to take action as soon as possible during the off-season.
-
IG e-sports club.

Zhu Kai looked at PDD in front of him and said sadly, "Brother Piao, are you really not going to play for another year?"

PDD glanced at Zhu Kai, too lazy to even reply, and simply sent out the edited Weibo post.

I'll eventually have to retire. I think I've reached the point where I can't improve anymore, so I'd better leave the opportunities to younger people. The older generation will always be surpassed by the younger generation. (*)

IG's performance in the first half of this year was actually quite good.

First, they narrowly defeated WE in the Demacia Cup to win their first Demacia Cup championship.

They then made it to the finals in the Spring Split, but unfortunately lost to LPL newcomer EDG.

PDD's forward-thinking has always been far ahead of the curve. Just like how he always managed to avoid every crisis in his streaming career, this time he may have also sensed that the LPL was undergoing a huge transformation, and decisively chose to retire.

Seeing PDD's decisiveness, Zhu Kai sighed helplessly.

He wasn't here to express his feelings about brotherhood.

XiaoXiao retired at the beginning of this year, and now PDD has retired as well. Two of IG's veterans have left at once, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to him, a fan who relied on connections to get by in the club.

When IG completes its personnel restructuring and the club undergoes changes, I don't know if I, as a fan, will still be able to survive.

Just as Zhu Kai was feeling hopeless about his future, an IG staff member came over.

"Zhu Kai, someone is looking for you outside."
-
Lu Benwei slept until three o'clock.

When I opened my eyes again, I found that the sky had fallen.

UZI sent him more than a dozen messages on his phone.

After the S3 World Championship, Lu Benwei and Lucky chose to retire.

Tabe, the support player, also went to the SPG team to become a coach.

Meanwhile, top laner Shenchao was assigned to the second team by boss Tianci and went to North America to explore overseas markets.

Of the original Royal Club members, only UZI remained in the blink of an eye.

Faced with the intense competition in the LPL, UZI played jungle and mid lane for Royal Never Give Up in order to avoid relegation.

Overwhelmed by the pressure, UZI thought of his old teammate Lu Benwei and asked him to make a comeback to help him.

In response to the puppy's request, Lu Benwei said:
"Your rank is too low. I'll come back and help you once you reach number one in the national server." (*)

UZI remembered this unintentional remark.

Now, Lu Benwei is looking at the message on his phone, which is a screenshot of UZI's achievement of being the number one player in the Chinese server, along with his excited words.

"I'm number one in the Chinese server now, come back and help me!! Let's try to reach the World Championship again this summer!"

Upon seeing UZI's message, Lu Benwei squinted and replied.

"Wow, I was just kidding, bro." (*)

After replying to UZI, Lu Benwei put down his phone and went to sleep.

But just as he was about to drift off to sleep, his phone started vibrating incessantly again.

Lu Benwei picked up his phone, feeling somewhat annoyed by UZI's persistent chatter.

But when he opened his phone, he found that the person who sent him the message was not Xiaogou, but Xiaoshou, the team leader of WE's second team.

The two didn't have much interaction; they were just friends who happened to be in the same circle.

Why is the team leader of WE's second team sending me a message?
Lu Benwei paused for a moment, and immediately made a guess in his mind.

"Wow, are they also begging me to make a comeback? So many people are eyeing my skills, Lu Benwei? Hehehe..."

He opened the message.

"White, do you have Tabe's contact information?"

Tabe left Royal Never Give Up at the beginning of the year and became a coach for SPG.

However, after a fierce spring, this team failed to even qualify for the LSPL Summer Split. Subsequently, due to unpaid salaries, SPG's League of Legends division was disbanded.
-
Snake Esports Club.

Flandre and Crystal are dreaming about a bright future.

At the beginning of this year, they won the championship in the TGA City Heroes Championship Spring Grand Prix and successfully advanced to the LSPL Class A professional league.

"Bro, is it possible for us to double jump and get directly into the LPL after the Summer Split?"

Hearing Crystal's words, Holy Gun chuckled and said:

"I feel that our strength is not a problem."

He wasn't blindly confident.

After all, in the TGA City Heroes Championship, Saint Gun Bro and Crystal Bro were practically dominating, killing their opponents like bots.

His top 50 ranking in the Korean server also gave Flandre enough confidence.

Crystal sighed:

"Let's fight our way into the LPL, brothers!!"

Crystal's words were resounding and full of hope and longing for the future.

Just then, Flandre's phone rang.

He answered the phone, his expression shifting several times. Meeting Crystal's curious gaze, he spoke with slight embarrassment:

"Brother, we might have to meet again at the summit."

(End of this chapter)