God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 14

When Ai Qing and her sister arrived at the stadium, they were assaulted by a multitude of ad banners.

Her sister had never watched an official competition.   She suddenly sighed after seeing all the men and women esports fans, holding little flags, animatedly talking with each other, “I finally understand why you fell for Solo before.  They’re just like movie stars, with millions of crazy fans…...and they’re all so tech savvy.”

This was the first time she had come to watch a competition as a spectator since she retired.

She was also shocked by the size of the crowd.

It just so happened that today’s event was Warcraft, so indeed they have arrived for the most popular event.

Nowadays in all the international competitions, the seed players from China and Korea basically represented the highest level in the world.  Therefore, the preliminary match in China benefitted all esports fans.  Who wasn’t overjoyed to watch a world level competition right in front of one’s door?  Fortunately, 97 gave them two tickets when he heard that they were planning to watch the game……

The two weaved their way through the crowd.  Before they reached the gate, there were several esport players walking by.  Fans enthusiastically greeted them as they came by.

She turned to size them up, they were all unfamiliar faces.

No wonder people said that the country had been very prosperous in the last two years.  In the past, this kind of treatment were reserved only for the few top players.

“97! 97!”

Soon there were several young girls shouted.

Ai Qing finally heard a name she knew.  She tilted her head and saw 97’s baby face with a full smile.  Hum.  A 178 cm tall big boy with a baby face…...he seemed to have heard his name and turn around politely, and saw the twin sisters right away.  “You here?  Let’s go in together.”

After he finished speaking, there were immediate outburst of envy and jealousy.

Ai Qing was amused and grabbed her sister to walk over to the gate.  97 went in first after showing his name tag.  When Ai Qing also came up to him, he was like he had just remembered something.  “Have you seen Dt and Grunt?”

“No, we just got here too.”  she shook her head and followed him into the lobby.  “Aren’t you staying in the same room with them?”

“Not the same room.”  97 made a helpless face.  “I got up late and went to knock on their door, but there’s no response.  I assumed they are here already.”

97 made a gesture for “gone” with two fingers after saying and walked into the backstage.

Her sister was listening attentively.  After he had left, she inquired further, “Will they be late?  If you run into a traffic jam for a competition like this, what do you do?”

“What can you do.”  Ai Qing took up the tickets and looked for the numbers of the seats.  “If a sprinter was late for the match, would you let all the others wait on the track?  Certainly, he’ll be disqualified.”

They came in a little late as most people were already seated.

When they finally located their seats, the sponsor was already making a speech on stage.  Introductions for all the players followed.  Ai Qing glanced over the big screen, and, to her surprise, found out that Grunt, 97, and Dt were all playing Warcraft…… “What an infight.”  She sighed lighted.  “Even if they are qualified at Guangzhou, they will still have to fight to the end at the national final.”

“What are you saying?”  Her sister was still searching for Grunt in the players section.

“What I’m saying is that your Grunt and his two good friends are all in the same event.”

Her sister responded with an ‘Oh’.

She didn’t react.  She seemed to be having an internal debate and then said, “So, who do you think will win?”  Ai Qing looked at the grouping chart.  “It’s hard to say.  I only saw Dt play a match before, and that was not in a real competition.”

“Not in a competition?  What match was that?”

“It was Solo who gathered some world top ranking players to play a scrimmage with him once.”

Her sister said another ‘Oh’, and thought for a while with frowned eyebrows.

“Can I pray that Dt has a bad case of diarrhea?  That sounds very mean.”

……

“Whatever.”