mousepad-d2 Chapter 3: Eating at the Same Table
Chapter 3: Eating at the Same Table
"IG actually contacted me for an interview!"
Chen Song stared at his phone, stunned for several seconds.
In his opinion, it was very unexpected!
Even though he didn't know much about the IG club, he knew that they were the champions of last year's League of Legends World Championship and the only LPL team to win the World Championship.
As the champion team, their coaching staff, player configuration, training system, and other aspects must all be of top-notch quality.
A club like this should have no shortage of tactical analysts, yet they actually invited me for an interview.
This is great news!
Following the location sent in the text message, Chen Song found several routes on his phone, splurged on a taxi using the reimbursement from EDG, and headed there.
In his past life, he was always chauffeured around by a private car, but these past few job interviews on the subway have left him feeling extremely uncomfortable due to the crowded conditions.
On the way, Chen Song also took out his phone to go online and learn about the IG club.
IG eSports Club was founded in August 2011 by Wang Sicong.
It is one of the oldest esports clubs in the LPL, with numerous game divisions. Among them, the League of Legends division won the S8 World Championship in 2018, becoming the first LPL region team to win an S-series championship.
……
After reading the club's introduction, Chen Song began to study the players' information and video replays of the recent matches.
"Since we're the champion team, we have to offer something truly hardcore to attract them."
I need to show IG how I differ from other tactical analysts.
Chen Song had specifically looked up Wang Sicong's personal information beforehand and discovered that he had brought about a disruptive change to the entire e-sports industry.
This is undoubtedly very good news for him!
If you're looking to watch match replays, the S9 Spring Split is the top choice.
In terms of performance, IG was extremely dominant in the regular season of the S9 Spring Split, ranking first with an impressive record of 14 wins and 1 loss.
They continued their winning streak in the playoffs, sweeping JDG 3-0 in the finals to claim the Spring Split championship.
However, this seemingly invincible team experienced ups and downs in the MSI group stage, ultimately finishing fourth with a record of 9 wins and 6 losses, barely making it into the knockout stage.
In the semifinals, they suffered a shocking 1-3 defeat to TL, unfortunately ending their run in the top four.
Chen Song watched the replays of the IG vs. TL match closely and figured out the reason.
……
Caoyang Road.
Chen Song looked toward the building marked "Kintetsu".
"This should be it."
Chen Song stepped into the IG club.
The young woman at the front desk had clearly already received the notification. She looked up at him and then gave a formulaic smile: "Mr. Chen Song? This way, please. The interview is in the tactics room on the second floor."
There was an indescribable smell in the hallway.
A huge poster of the S8 championship hung on the wall, showing Rookie holding the trophy and crying his eyes out, while TheShy stood beside him, laughing like a child.
Chen Song withdrew his gaze and followed the young woman at the front desk.
The door to the tactical room on the second floor was half open, and he could hear people talking inside. Their voices weren't loud, but their tone was deep.
Chen Song raised his hand and knocked on the door.
"Come in!"
The speaker was a man sitting in the center of the long table. Chen Song recognized the face; it was Su Xiaoluo, the manager of IG, known in the industry as "God Su".
At this moment, Su Xiaoluo was holding a printed contract in her hand; the resume was so thin it could be used as a fan.
Su Xiaoluo didn't get up, but simply raised her chin: "Sit."
Chen Song pulled out a chair and sat down, his gaze quickly sweeping across the room.
Su Xiaoluo was sitting quietly to her right with a handsome man.
Mafa, a meritorious coach of IG and one of the core members of the S8 championship team, should now be considered a coaching assistant.
A notebook lay open in front of him, filled with Korean characters and numbers.
In the deepest corner, there was a swivel chair with its back to the door. The back of the chair was very high, revealing only a little bit of the top of one's head.
Su Xiaolu noticed Chen Song's gaze, but instead of explaining, she simply placed her resume on the desk in front of her and said, "I've looked at your resume. There's nothing to ask. I'll just tell you about the current situation."
His voice was devoid of any emotion: "MIS lost 1-3 to TL in the semifinals. You must already know about our current coaching staff. Mafa has to balance the draft and training, and Dingbo just came in and is still getting used to the first team's playstyle, so we are short-handed."
He paused, then unconsciously tapped his fingers twice on the table.
"But the lack of people is not the same as the lack of useless people."
Su Xiaoluo finally raised her head and looked directly at Chen Song: "So I want to know, what can you bring to IG?"
The room was silent for two seconds.
Just as Chen Song was about to speak, Su Xiaoluo suddenly pushed a tablet towards him. On the screen was a video folder with the filename: 【2019-05-17_postmatch.mov】
"This is a replay of our fourth game against TL. Can you analyze it?"
Chen Song glanced down at the file name, then looked up and met Su Xiaoluo's gaze.
"No need, I already watched the replay of that game eight times before I came."
Su Xiaoluo's eyebrows twitched slightly.
Mafa suddenly spoke up.
His Chinese had a noticeable accent, and he emphasized each word, but he pronounced each word extremely clearly:
"Eight times? Then let me ask you, if there's a fifth game, and TL picks Lux, Skarner, Kennen, Kai'Sa, and Galio, and we have two more picks left, what would you choose?"
He picked up a black marker from the table, turned around, and started writing on the whiteboard.
[IG has selected: Ryze, Lee Sin, Syndra, Xayah, Rakan]
[TL's picks: Kennen, Skarner, Lux, Kai'Sa, Galio]
After he finished writing, he pushed the marker in front of Chen Song. The cap was off, and the marker rolled half a circle on the table.
"30 seconds!"
Chen Song did not take the pen.
He didn't even look at the whiteboard.
Because of that lineup, I had seen too many similar draft traps in my coaching career before I transmigrated.
IG thought they had the answer to the meta, but in reality, all five positions were filled with individualistic champions. There was no truly reliable initiator, nor a frontline that could withstand the combined attack of Skarner and Kennen.
Ryze vs. Kennen: Although the laning phase is even, Ryze's range is too short in team fights.
Lee Sin can invade early game against Skarner, but once Skarner gets tanky items, Lee Sin's effectiveness becomes incomparable.
Syndra can pressure Lux in lane, but once Lux reaches level six and uses Skarner's double control chain, Syndra becomes very uncomfortable.
With this lineup, they've already lost by three points just by picking it.
Chen Song finally reached out, picked up the marker, but instead of writing on the whiteboard, he screwed the cap on and gently placed it back on the table.
"If it were me, I definitely wouldn't pick Ryze. Instead, I'd pick a front-line champion who can keep out the double engage of Skarner and Kennen. I can tell from picking Syndra that you guys want Rookie to have a lane advantage, but you've forgotten that TL isn't a lane-focused team; they're a teamfight team. And the lineup you wrote can't beat TL in teamfights."
Su Xiaoluo stopped tapping the table and suddenly looked up: "So you mean the coaching staff's draft picks were all wrong?"
"Not entirely." Chen Song shook his head: "The problem is the direction. You've been thinking about how to crush TL in lane, but TL isn't afraid of you crushing them in lane at all. What they're afraid of is you picking a lineup that can drag the game into the late game even better than theirs, forcing them to play a more strategic game with you."
"IG's weakness has always been their macro play since S8. At MSI, TL exposed this weakness in the most brutal way. They didn't need to compete with IG in terms of mechanics; they just needed to drag IG into their rhythm, and IG would fall into disarray on their own."
Mafa lowered his head and quickly scribbled a few words in his notebook.
Su Xiaolu remained silent as well.
"Go on," Su Xiaoluo finally spoke, "If you were a tactical analyst right now, and the Summer Split is about to start, what would be the first thing you do?"
Chen Song took a deep breath.
"The first thing."
Chen Song paused for a moment: "Let TheShy and Ning sit at the same table to eat."
The room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear the whiteboard marker fall to the floor.
No, no one dropped a pen.
It was that swivel chair with its back to you that suddenly moved.