The two reporters had come especially to conduct interviews for the Challenger League. They had more or less done their homework. Team Excellent Era was naturally one of the most important pieces of their homework. The team's owner, Tao Xuan, didn't appear in public too often, but the two still immediately recognized him.
"Boss Xuan!" The two were pleasantly surprised.
"Hello." Tao Xuan nodded his head and greeted them. Then, he started asking about Team Happy's situation: "You just said that there was no Ye Qiu among the list of registered players in Team Happy?"
"Yeah, take a look..." The reporter took out his phone. The final name list was displayed on the phone's screen. Tao Xuan glanced suspiciously at him.
This reporter seemed a bit unnatural, but what could he do? They hadn't gotten this information underhandedly. At that time, the two had been running over here with Cao Guangcheng. In fact, the final name list had just been released on the Glory website's Challenger League page.
From the list of names on the screen, Tao Xuan clearly saw that the name of the player behind Team Happy's Lord Grim was Ye Xiu.
Ye Qiu and Ye Xiu had a difference of one letter, but for an official competition, which examined the identities of the players very strictly, this tiny difference was huge.
Tao Xuan glanced at Cui Li and couldn't help but look at Su Mucheng too. His intuition told him that Su Mucheng definitely knew what was going on, but he didn't think he would get anything out of her. In fact, not letting Su Mucheng play was something that he didn't want to talk about either.
Excellent Era's group of people left the hotel. As a powerhouse, lining up and waiting for a taxi would be too lowly. Club Excellent Era had already arranged a vehicle for them. Their boss, Tao Xuan, didn't arrange anything specifically for himself and also got on the luxurious bus together with the other players. Esport Home's three reporters followed Excellent Era's people onto the bus as well, but they soon discovered that their main targets, Excellent Era's boss and manager, didn't have any open seats. The three tactfully found an open seat in the back to sit down.
Afterwards, those two reporters smiled exuberantly as they looked for interview targets. Cao Guangcheng glanced coldly at them and sneered.
Those two didn't have any experience as team reporters.
Team reporters had much more time and many more opportunities to interview a player compared to normal reporters, so there was no need to chase after targets and bombard them with questions.
Great team reporters would try to become members of the team, thus allowing them to know the true face of each of their players. Their interactions with each other would be like friends chatting. They would use their eyes and ears to look for interesting material among the countless trifling details. Then, they would use that to supplement their writing to produce an article that could not be done by another reporter in terms of content and perspective.
But these two were grabbing players as if they were conducting interviews. That was too inappropriate. True, all of Team Excellent Era was here, but did they plan on doing eight interviews in one trip? It wasn't that simple. If they wanted to conduct an interview, then even as team reporters, they had to follow the standard procedure and request permission from the clubs first.
Two reporters excitedly went around in a circle, and soon realized that the players from Excellent Era weren't happy with them. Unfortunately, the two still didn't know what they had done wrong. They went back to their seats and grumbled to themselves in fear. They snuck a glance at Cao Guangcheng and saw that he didn't seem to know what a rare opportunity it was right now. He was sitting with so many newsworthy people around him, and yet he was actually leaning against the window and dozing off.
The two reporters didn't dare to randomly look for players again. They could only strain their ears and try to listen to what the Excellent Era players were chatting about. However, the bus was completely silent. Only boss Tao Xuan and Cui Li, who sat together, were chatting about something. However, the two didn't dare to move closer to eavesdrop.
"There's actually no Ye Qiu….." After Tao Xuan sat down, he spoke to Cui Li.
Cui Li also took out his cellphone and went online to check. Not only did he look at Lord Grim, he also checked everyone in Happy. There was no Ye Qiu, but... what was going on with the Berserker at the bottom of the list?
"Sun Zheping!" Tao Xuan had only seen Lord Grim on that reporter's cellphone. He hadn't scroll down. When he looked at the list on Cui Li's phone, he was dumbfounded.
He had been in the scene since the beginning of the Alliance. How could he forget Sun Zheping's name?
"Why did he end up on their team?" Tao Xuan couldn't understand.
Cui Li didn't know either. He only knew that this addition would only make Team Happy even more terrifying. Was Team Excellent Era's chances of beating Team Happy still 100%? Cui Li wondered, but he didn't dare to say anything out loud.
"Let's put that aside for now. What's going on with Ye Qiu?" Tao Xuan was puzzled. After exposing Ye Qiu for forming Team Happy to Esports Home confirming that Team Happy had no Ye Qiu in their roster, they had discussed this matter not just once. In the end, they always believed that when the offline matches came, Ye Qiu would have to join them. As for Ye Xiu, it was probably some random person that they found. In any case, the online matches weren't supervised, so there was no evidence that Ye Qiu was the one secretly controlling Lord Grim. There was nothing they could do about that.
Why would they go so far as to find a Ye Xiu? In Excellent Era's eyes, it was so that Happy wouldn't be exposed to the public. If that happened, the pressure from the fans would be too great, but in the offline matches, the organizers checked identities very strictly. Only the real person himself could come. Who would have thought that in the offline tournament, Ye Xiu would still be Ye Xiu. Was Ye Qiu not going to be appearing on stage?
To Excellent Era, this should have been very good news, but neither Tao Xuan nor Cui Li could smile. Their intuition told them that this wasn't good news. There should be a scheme somewhere hidden in here.
"It looks like we'll need to personally pay him a visit." Tao Xuan said.
When they arrived at the designated hotel provided by the Challenger League, the Excellent Era players needed to go to the reception desk and sign in. At this moment, there weren't any other participating players left in the hotel lobby, so Excellent Era didn't receive too much attention.
"Did Team Happy's Ye Qiu arrive yet?" After signing in, Cui Li immediately got right to the point and asked an Alliance employee.
"No." The employee shook his head. He wouldn't recognize Ye Qiu, but he was the person responsible for signing players into the hotel; he hadn't seen the name Ye Qiu appear yet. In fact, there was also quite a big discussion going on among the employees in private!
"Then what about this Ye Xiu? Which room was he in?" Cui Li asked.
"Team Happy was allotted Section A 7th Floor Rooms 721-726. We don't know which room he's in exactly." The employee answered.
"Okay, thanks." Cui Li didn't ask further and returned to tell Tao Xuan. Cao Guangcheng was neither close nor far away. He had a general understanding of what was going on and was also astonished. Soon afterwards, Tao Xuan and Cui Li went towards the Section A elevators. It wasn't convenient for Cao Guangcheng to follow them. He could only follow the Excellent Era players back and get on the bus. The other two Esports Home reporters were feeling awkward. Should they go on the bus or not? Excellent Era didn't invite them. If they went on the bus, they would still be sitting quietly in the back like they had been before. Even if they went to the hotel, there might not be any interview opportunities either…...
No! It's still better to go!
The two discussed with each other for a bit. If they didn't go, they might not be able to get any piece of the big fish. When the time came, Cao Guangcheng's article would definitely be related to Excellent Era. If they wrote about other teams, how could they vie for the front page?
They had to get on the bus. They even changed their hotels to live together with Excellent Era! The two came to a decision and then immediately pretended to laugh as they boarded the bus.
"How brave!" Cao Guangcheng guessed their intentions and gave them a thumbs-up in praise.
The two knew that he was mocking them. They didn't answer back. After boarding the bus, they found seats and didn't dare to worm their way closer to the players.
Cao Guangcheng sat in the middle of the bus. He was wondering about what was up with Ye Qiu too. That kid Chang Xian had been following Team Happy the entire time. Maybe he knew something?
Even though he felt that the teams besides Excellent Era were beneath him, his reporter's intuition told him that he should ask Chang Xian. He immediately took out his phone and made a call. He was familiar with Excellent Era. From the top to the bottom, he was basically a member of Excellent Era. He didn't feel any qualms about doing this.
When he got off the bus and started dialing, Cao Guangcheng saw a person get out of a car in front of the hotel main entrance. This person seemed very familiar.
"Who's that?" Cao Guangcheng looked from a different angle. He moved closer two steps and suddenly recognized him.
This was the Alliance's chairman, Feng Xianjun!
Getting an interview with such a powerful person was even more difficult.
A team reporter like him had many opportunities to meet, chat, and even be on friendly terms with a team's owner. He might even have the possibility of requesting an interview. However, a team reporter didn't have the status to request an interview with the Alliance's chairman, Feng Xianjun. Only the editor in chief of Esports Home had the appropriate status. Usually, getting a reply to one or two questions at a press conference was enough to feel blissful.
Those two idiots were only fixed on Excellent Era and missed such a grand character! Cao Guangcheng laughed inwardly at his two colleagues. He stopped caring about his phone call and immediately walked over.
Feng Xianjun's group had three people. When they arrived at the lobby, the Alliance employees obviously recognized their big boss and got up.
Cao Guangcheng moved closer and easily overheard their conversation. The first thing he heard was: "Where is Team Happy staying?"
"Section A 7th Floor Rooms 721-725." The employee replied.
Cao Guangcheng was shocked.
It looked like the Alliance's chairman had come here for Happy? How capable was Happy? Wasn't Happy just another team that would be eliminated in the offline tournament? Was that worthy of being noticed by the Alliance's chairman? Even if this team had the halo of Ye Qiu surrounding it, that still wasn't enough, no? Cao Guangcheng was completely at a loss.