While Gao Ran was preparing for the ESL main event, Ye Jianing also returned to China after a semester.
Half of the three years of study have passed in an instant.
Although they were on vacation, Gao Ran and Ye Jianing obviously didn't have much time to fall in love.
Gao Ran did not participate in the national e-sports competition and some small competitions, but he was still practicing hard.
During this time, the country is playing a national e-sports competition, and South Korea is also playing a GSL league.
During the critical period of the group stage, many professional players also found Gao Ran, Hope and Gao Ran to practice.
Gao Ran is not a person who doesn't know how to refuse. He directly refused training invitations for some players who he felt had no training significance for him.
The main training opponents are Cure, Lu Bu and Stats.
The stronger players don't have much chance to train together, and there's no point in training the Protoss players with high-intensity training.
The process of practicing with Gao Ran cannot be brought into their other games. Players like Maru and Rogue are all players that cannot be booked, and the same goes for Byun.
Gao Ran still likes to practice with these three people: Cure, Lu Bu, and Stats.
Because the three of them are all players with extremely strong basic skills, Gao Ran can also improve himself by practicing with them.
The national e-sports competition has begun, and Dream's two little brothers have successfully entered the main competition, starting their first offline experience.
The regular season of the Golden League is all online, only the playoffs are offline, and Dream does not enter offline.
In e-sports competitions, the gap between online and offline is very big. Fox, who has always had a relatively good mentality in the past, was not able to perform well offline, but Jq, who dared to fight and fought hard, but was more reckless, got better and better as he played.
Defeated Rocket in the quarterfinals.
Miraculously reached the top 4.
Unfortunately, we lost to Time in the semi-finals.
Time's dominance in this event is unquestionable. It has won three championships in the past four years, and only Koran won the championship the year he debuted.
In the end, Fox16***q4 was strong.
The offline experience of the national e-sports competition can also help the two newcomers adapt to the ESL arena in advance.
When they arrived at the ESL arena, they faced more powerful and unfamiliar enemies, and the environment they were in was even more tense.
While they were looking forward to it, they also felt a little guilty.
My own strength is still somewhat lacking.
The European and American divisions have been crowded with strong players in the past two years. Even the auditions are full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. The competition must be extremely difficult to win.
…
While Gao Ran was preparing for ESL during this period, he also conducted exclusive interviews with several sponsors.
So even if there is no competition, Gao Ran's exposure is still not low.
And because Gao Ran entered the interstellar industry, the number of people online in the game StarCraft 2 has increased significantly!
It’s not that all Gao Ran fans started playing this game, but the exposure brought by Gao Ran made many people realize this game and see its charm.
The viewing experience of StarCraft games is the best among all e-sports games.
The operations and scenes during head-to-head combat in the arena are also very attractive to young people who have never been exposed to this game.
When the game StarCraft first became popular, it was more than ten years ago. It is normal for young people today not to understand it.
As long as it is a fun game, it will not be buried as long as it is exposed.
Brother Huang and Brother Sun also revealed during the live broadcast that the StarCraft data of the Chinese server has been greatly improved.
Not only is Blizzard looking for them to discuss sponsoring domestic leagues, there are also many sponsors who want to launch some brand-sponsored games.
It can be said that StarCraft 2 is on the road to destruction because one person gained a new life.
For the old people like Brother Huang and Brother Sun who have been supporting the domestic StarCraft to prevent it from falling, StarCraft can always exist and they can continue to explain it.
If you can always see domestic players participating and have hope, this is already a new life.
Does a game have to be as popular globally as LOL and Glory to be considered a good game and to inspire them?
Absolutely not.
Like Brother Huang and Brother Sun, they dedicated half their lives to the game StarCraft.
I definitely don’t want to witness the demise of StarCraft.
If this game is really outdated, they will be relieved, but no matter from the operation, graphics or gameplay, they know that this game is definitely not outdated.
Although Gao Ran has only been back for two or three months, the situation has improved significantly.
I even heard that a big club is planning to set up a StarCraft branch.
At least there won't be a situation where even the team league teams can't gather together.
…
Shortly after Ye Jianing returned to the United States, Gao Ran also embarked on a journey to Montreal with two teammates.
Montreal is a city located in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second largest city in Canada and hosts StarCraft competitions almost every year.
After landing, although I was very tired, I still got to appreciate the style of Montreal.
There is no excessive commercialization here. There are many Gothic churches throughout the city, and it is also known as the romantic capital of North America.
The climate here is also very cool at the end of June, not as hot as in China.
The competition venue is not small, and there are still a lot of people watching StarCraft competitions in Europe and the United States.
And because the competition atmosphere is relatively good, they have always been willing to host StarCraft and CSGO competitions.
However, the venue will still be open only when it reaches the top 16 knockout rounds.
Before the top 16, including the auditions, everyone was awakened in the second hall of the venue.
This second hall is like a huge Internet cafe. Every seat in each row is separated by partitions, and there are almost 200 seats.
This place is also open for professional players of StarCraft 2 to practice at all times.
The auditions and the top 32 rounds are also held here.
The auditions will start in three days. The competition format is the same as that of the domestic qualifiers, a double-elimination tournament. If you lose two games, you will go home.
There are only three players participating in the Chinese division: Jq, Fox and Time.
Two other Chinese players, Gao Ran and Rocket, have already entered the top 32 ahead of schedule.
The audition lasts for two days...
The group stage begins on the third day. The 32 players will be divided into groups of 4 and divided into 8 groups for a double-elimination match. The competition will use BO3, and the two players with the best results in each group will advance.
Finally, there is the final stage in the venue. Six players will compete in a single-elimination knockout match. Before the final, BO5 will be used and the final will be BO7.
In fact, the competition system is relatively clear.
Gao Ran just needs to wait for the top 32 groups.
For this ESL Montreal competition, almost all the top players in the world are here.
The favorites to win the championship are still the talented teenagers from the European Division, but in China and South Korea, everyone knows that the emergence of Gao Ran will definitely disturb ESL.
