Chapter 49 – Lineup Planning

Li Cangyu and Zhang Jueming took a taxi to the location of the Dragon Song Club.

Li Cangyu hadn’t wanted to go back so early but Zhang Jueming was coincidentally in Changsha and the progress of the team was unexpectedly smooth. He decided to go back to China and discuss with Liu Chuan about the next details.

The club’s headquarters was located in a large office building on the outskirts of Changsha. Once the two of them entered the door, they saw a row of cool and elegant cursive characters spelling out: Dragon Song E-sports Club.

The font was flamboyant and it was said that Liu Chuan personally wrote it when he built his team.

The large characters hung behind the front desk, next to the dragon totem logo of the club. The bright and large hall looked very stylish.

The Dragon Song Club’s manager, Liu Chuan was actually a rich second generation. His mother was a well known businesswoman and his family’s assets were over 100 million yuan. The admirable thing was that he didn’t rely on his family’s financial support and earned a sum of money on his own. He used these funds to create this club by hand.

The year that Li Cangyu’s FTD team was disbanded happened to be the year that Liu Chuan created the Dragon Song Club. The two of them met while leveling in the game. Later, Liu Chuan led his team all the way to the finals to win the championship. Li Cangyu had transferred to Wulin but didn’t get any good results.

The Dragon Song Club developed extremely rapidly in just a few years. Its popularity rose steadily, causing advertisements, endorsements and sponsorships to roll in The club’s decorations today looked very great.

After retiring, Liu Chuan handed over the captain’s position to Wu Zewen. Now he managed the club and was also an executive director in the China E-sports League. He also paid attention to the trends in the domestic and international e-sports circles. He always looked at the long-term and as soon as he heard about the Miracle World Competition, he took advantage of this opportunity to expand the scale of the Dragon Song Club into Miracle.

The Canglan team disbanding at this time and Li Cangyu’s joining was timely for LIu Chuan.

There was no one better to lead a team in Miracle then Cat God!

The cooperation between the two teams was very enjoyable. Liu Chuan handed over full responsibility of the team to Li Cangyu without disturbing him. This time, Li Cangyu wanted to handle the contracts for Xie Shurong and Zhang Jueming, as well as the development plan of the team. He wanted to have a good talk with Liu Chuan.

***

Li Cangyu greeted Liu Chuan on Q before leaving the house. Once the two people arrived at the club, the door opened for them. They walked towards the inner manager’s office and Li Cangyu knocked on the door. A voice was heard from inside saying, “Come in!”

The door opened to reveal a large desk in the middle of the spacious office. There was a high-end desktop computer as well as soft leather sofas with a coffee table next to it, clearly for guests. The right side had a large bookcase that occupied the wall. There weren’t many books on it. Instead, there were boxes of arranged data and hundreds of CDs neatly placed.

The man sitting at the desk looked young. He was wearing a simple short-sleeved shirt and slacks while smiling casually. Standing next to him was a man wearing glasses. The man wearing a white shirt, slim trousers and glasses looked more like a scholar than a e-sports player.

Zhang Jueming had also heard of the two great gods of the Dragon Song Club. The one sitting at the desk should be the manager Liu Chuan and the ‘academic’ layer should be the current captain of the Wulin team, Wu Zewen, who was famous in the e-sports circle.

“Sit down.” Liu Chuan saw Li Cangyu enter end immediately stood up, bringing them to the sofa before asking, “Cat God, this is the Zhang Jueming you told me about?”

“Yes, he promised to join the team so I brought him over to sign the contract.” Li Cangyu explained.

Zhang Jueming took the initiative to hold out his hand. “It is nice to meet you Boss.”

Liu Chuan smiled and shook hands with him. “Cat God has told me about your situation. I have always respected old players. You won’t regret coming back to help Cat God. You gave yourself a chance and this time we will directly rush towards the championship.”

Zhang Jueming laughed, “I also think so!”

“Zewen, take out the contract.” Liu Chuan looked at the man beside him. Wu Zewen immediately found the contract and handed it to Zhang Jueming. He pushed up his glasses and said seriously, “This was just drawn up last night. If you aren’t satisfied with any of the conditions then you can talk with the boss again.”

Zhang Jueming carefully looked over the contract and found that his treatment was really good.

The salary was twice as high as his studio and… in addition to the fixed salary, the players would get additional income such as competition bonuses, team advertising, tickets to matches and even profits from live programs!

Many team managers wouldn’t give the tickets and peripheral sales profits to the players. This was why Dragon Song was so popular.

If he wasn’t satisfied with such conditions then he would be too picky.

Zhang Jueming handed the contract back and said, “No problem. The conditions are much better than I thought!”

This man was straightforward and casually said the truth.

Liu Chuan replied, “If there’s no problem then shall we sign the contract first?”

“Okay!” Zhang Jueming picked up a pen and signed his name on the contract.

His writing was unrestrained, just like his nature.

Liu Chuan had a very good impression of Zhang Jueming. Compared to those who secretly acted behind the scenes, this type of person was best to get along with. Since this was a player recommended by Cat God, Liu Chuan was too lazy to ask about the level of this person. He believed in Cat God’s eyes.

Once the contract was signed, Liu Chuan sat down with the two people on the sofas.

Wu Zewen poured them two cups of water and handed them a thick data booklet.

“What is this?” The confused Li Cangyu opened the booklet.

Liu Chuan smiled and explained. “Zewen has been idle these days so he helped organize the information of the top eight teams in the Miracle League. Take a look first.”

Wu Zewen, the captain of the Dragon Song team, had a science background. He had a lot of experience with organizing and summarizing data. Li Cangyu had a lot of contact with Wu Zewen many times while playing in the Wulin League and was very impressed with his ability to collect and analyze data.

Today they belonged to the same club and because they were in different leagues, there was no conflict of interest. This type of data sharing would definitely be a great help to Li Cangyu.

Sure enough, the information compiled by the genius was different. It showed the information of all players in the top eight teams in great detail. Through some intuitive data, they could see the current status of many players.

Li Cangyu glanced over it. The most stable player in the sixth season was Ling Xuefeng, followed by Su Guangmo and Tan Shitian. They were the Three Pillars of today’s Miracle League and captains of three major teams.

The three great gods were ranked in the first echelon and the players in the second echelon weren’t much weaker.

For example, Wind Colour’s vice-captain Yan Ruiwen was the strongest black magician in the league. Flying Feathers’ vice-captain Yu Pingsheng was the strongest berserker. There was also Time’s vice-captain Cheng Wei, Pure Cleansing’s captain Zhu Qingyue, Ghost Spirits’ Lou Zhang combination and so on… These players along could fight with Captain Ling, Captain Su and Captain Tan.

The Miracle League had many clouds, showing that the overall strength of the first division had improved a lot compared to the first season of the league.

Li Cangyu was very confident but he had to face so many strong opponents after returning to Miracle. The pressure on his shoulders wasn’t small.

After carefully reading the data, Li Cangyu said, “Ling Xuefeng and Su Guangmo are both old players who have played for several years. Tan Shitian just took over as captain last season and his performance is surprising. It seems that Captain Xu’s vision is very great.”

“Tan Shitian, I also know this person. He is the genius from the Huaxia Club’s training camp. Once Xu Luo retired and Tan Shitian took over as the captain of Time, he is the most powerful one among the new generation of Miracle. Moreover, I watched the match between Wind Colour and Time last week. Xiao Cheng played slightly abnormally but Tan Shitian was able to hold on.” Liu Chuan commented seriously.

“He is indeed amazing.” Li Cangyu said, “I left Miracle when Xu Luo was still captain. Xu Luo’s retirement didn’t have the slightest effect on Time’s result. This proves that Tan Shitian is equally excellent as captain.”

“If we want to sweep through Miracle then Wind Colour, Flying Feathers and Time will be the hardest nuts to chew on?” Zhang Jueming stated.

“The three teams have the strongest overall strength but the other teams aren’t weak.” Li Cangyu seriously analyzed, “There are eight giants of the Miracle League. Wind Colour depends on the dual summoner control and the black magician suppression, Time has the white magician control and the elf archer’s remote outputs and Flying Feathers has the melee swordsmen. Then there is Pure Cleansing’s psychic illusions, the Ghost Spirits Lou Zhang combination of the strongest assassins, the Cheetah team has their traps, Red Fox has multiple white magicians and Terminator is a combination of black and white magic. These teams each have their own characteristics.”

Li Cangyu used a few simple words to point out the core lineup of the eight teams in the league. It was obvious that he also worked hard.

Liu Chuan looked at him with appreciation. “What about Cat God?”

Li Cangyu said, “At present, our team has a paladin, swordsman, healer, summoner and white magician auxiliary. There are five confirmed players. I would like to find a black magician, an assassin and a hunter.”

Liu Chuan summarized it. “You have a front row of defense, a back row of main attackers and an assassin and hunter for when it is necessary?”

Liu Chuan used to be an e-sports player and he knew the game modes and lineup configurations very well. There were no obstacles when communicating and he was different from the bosses who acted arrogant despite knowing nothing.

“I think this is the best choice.” Li Cangyu explained, “When I first started the new district, I didn’t expect to meet Xie Shurong. His current strength isn’t inferior to Su Guangmo and his joining made me change my thoughts. Xiao Gu is from the Dragon Song’s training camp and his talent is very prominent. After some training, he could keep up with A’Shu’s rhythm. Our team’s front row is guaranteed with those two. The biggest feature of A’Shu is his fast burst of attacks so our team will take the fast attacking route.”

“This is good. A strong offensive is actually a type of defense.” Liu Chuan agreed. “The back row has you and Bai Xuan. The team’s survivability and output will be guaranteed with your own partnership.”

“That’s right.” Li Cangyu was very confident about this. “Old Zhang’s white magic can also help us during a fierce battle. If used at the critical moment, our output will double and wouldn’t be wasted. For the rest of them time, I will look for an assassin, hunter and black magician. I will switch them based on different opponents.”

Zhang Jueming was amazed the more he heard. Cat God’s tactical ability was truly deserving of his reputation!

They hadn’t even started playing in the league yet and he was already thinking about the team’s lineup. It was really farsighted.

As he said, Xie Shurong and Xiao Gu being the melee front row and Cat God and Bai Xuan’s being in the rear meant the team’s defense, survival and output was basically guaranteed. If mobile hunter and assassins were found then there would be a greater impact on the team. As for the black magician… it should be to control the white magicians of Time and Red Fox?

He was too thoughtful and came up with a professional configuration that targeted the eight strong teams of the league. They had a chance to win and not by crushed by a team’s lineup.

It was wise of him to follow such a captain!

Zhang Jueming clenched his fist with excitement.

Liu Chuan handed the Miracle team to Li Cangyu so he naturally didn’t have any doubts about Li Cangyu’s decision. He thought up to here and said, “I think this type of combination is good. The specific members configuration will be left up to you. If you can’t find good teammates in the game and need to dig someone out from another team, we will discuss it later.”

“Okay.”

Li Cangyu had just entered the only game when he met A’Shu, followed by Old Zhang. Five players were decided in less than a month. This speed was really amazing. Liu Chuan was very pleased with the progress of Li Cangyu’s team and smiled. “Perhaps your luck has arrived? This world competition might be waiting for Cat God to show your power!

Li Cangyu also laughed. “Perhaps the world competition blew out a lot of masters into the public. Miracle’s new district is very lively and I could meet A’Shu and Old Zhang. My luck is also very good.”

Liu Chuan stood up and said, “I’ll show you around the club first before inviting you out to dinner. I must welcome Zhang Jueming to the Dragon Song Club.”

Zhang Jueming replied, “Boss is too polite!”

Liu Chuan smiled. “You’re welcome, there is no need to be too polite. What do you want to eat?”

Li Cangyu looked at Zhang Jueming and said seriously, “Let’s go eat boiled fish.”

Zhang Jueming, “…”

Couldn’t he eat anything else?

However, Zhang Jueming could only bite the bullet after seeing Cat God’s eyes. “Okay!”