p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The day that the rankings and betting odds were released, was the same day that the Chinese teams flew to Seoul. All competing teams wanted to arrive as soon as possible so ZGDX, CK and YKCB were on the same flight. During the 4-hour trip, many team members used their seat back entertainment screens or mobile devices to watch analyst commentary about the upcoming matches./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Sports Newscasters from stations around the world were covering the biggest eSports tournament on the planet. However, the most respected and best staffed news cast team was the one from ESPN. The five-man panel consisted of a Host, and three English-speaking commentators from Korea, China, and Germany. The fourth spot was reserved for a rotating set of guests./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Gentlemen…let's get down to business," said the charamastic host. The deep bass tones of his voice reverberated pleasantly through his microphone. "We'll start by calling out some basics. The single elimination format is very different from the 2 out of 3 match structure played in the National tournaments. How does this format impact the teams?" he asked the panelists./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""It definitely adds presssure to each team," said today's guest analyst. He was the VP of Game Design at NetEase; the company that developed Onmyoji. "Teams have to be prepared and confident with their coordination and strategies. Personally, I love this structure because it makes things so much more exciting for the spectators; especially, in a competition with this many teams."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Yeah, I'm also a real fan of this format," agreed the Korean analyst. "Instead of hundreds of games, we just have to watch 30 over the space of 3 weeks."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Plus," chimed in the Chinese analyst, "the teams only play on Saturday and Sunday which gives them 5 days to recuperate and plan for the next round."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""It's my favorite competition of the year," said the German analyst as he smiled broadly. "Teams have to be on the top of their game from the /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"onset/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;". There's no comeback match. If your team is not prepared from the first second, then your team is gone."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""And since we are talking about the teams now. Let's move on to predictions," declared the host./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Undoubtedly, Team TAT remains the favorite," said the German commentator. "They've won this event 3 times, with back-to-back wins last year and the previous year."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ah Tai is an extremely capable player, but he's an even better leader," extolled the Chinese analyst. "He's the driving force that unites this team and pushes them to victory."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The host challenged that statement. "TAT made a position change at the close of the season. Do you think that will negatively affect their chances for a repeat win?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Xu Tailun is now TAT's starting jungler," said the Korean analyst. /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;""I know that he's controversial in China, but in Korea, there's no problem with him. I watched a few of their training sessions over the last few weeks, and I have to say that I think TAT is stronger than ever with Tailun on the team."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The other analysts nodded in agreement with that statement. Courtesy of TAT's tendency to release their training videos to the public, each person in the room had watched TAT's efficient, ruthless decimation of their sparing opponents./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""We shouldn't overlook Team Morimoto from Japan or Team Hollzenbruch from Germany," said the Japanese analyst. "Both challenged TAT in the finals over the last 2 years, and both are returning with the exact same lineup of players."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Well, now that we've discussed the dominant teams, let's discuss the teams on the other end of the specturm," said the host. "There's a lot of chatter about the rankings and odds assigned to ZGGX. What are your thoughts?" he asked the other four./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The Korean analyst responded first. "I think those numbers are absolutely fair. Listen, you've gotta understand who that team is," and he started ticking off their faults using his fingers. "There's only 1 team member with World Championship competition experience. They're allowing a rookie to play on the primary team, and their management team has zero experience at Worlds."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Yeah, I have to agree," said the analyst from China. "Not only are they allowing a rookie to play on the primary team, but they're the only team in competition history – outside of the first competition ever held – to do so. It's an extremely risky decision."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Shocking, really," said the Korean analyst./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""But there is a proverbial elephant in the room," countered the host. "Tong Yao is the first woman to ever play in the World Championship. How much do you think her gender weighed into the ranking decision?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"All five men guffawed and blustered for a few seconds as if that was the most preposterous question asked by humankind in the last decade./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Listen, I'm sure that Tong Yao is a nice person," said the German dismissively. "But there is too much talk about her gender. In no way, is anything that's happened with the Selection Committee related to her gender."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""That's right," said the Chinese one. "At this level, ZGDX is simply not competitive on paper."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""On the other hand, ZGDX /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"is/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;" the Chinese National Champion and Tong Yao played some of those matches," replied the Host. "Do you think those things are being overlooked?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The guest analyst decided to speak up. "I was talking to CEO Ding Lei and a couple of the top Developers at NetEase about that, and they said they felt that there was a lot of drama in Chinese League this season. And most of that 'drama'…was centered on Tong Yao. There's legitimate speculation that her drama caused distractions that helped ZGDX win."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"All men nodded vigorously in assent before they moved on to analyzing the next teams./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"As Tong Yao listened, she decided that ESPN's commentary echoed the commentary on most of the other sports channels; ESPN's claims were a little less lurid in their gender bias, but only by a little. However, if the goal of these detractions was to make Tong Yao feel small and unworthy, then the detractors had utterly failed because Tong Yao was becoming angrier by the minute./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"I'm just a distraction? I'm an unskilled rookie?, /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;"she fumed privately. /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"What about my records as one of the top Onmyoji players on the Chinese server?! What about my MVP wins against top teams?!/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Are you angry?" asked the man by her side who had been pretending to sleep./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Hmph!" she replied to Lu Si Cheng./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Then let's make them eat their words in 3 days," and he squeezed her hand gently./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"When the Chinese teams arrived at the tournament approved hotel, the media barrage continued. As Security ushered them to the elevators, she heard reporters calling her name./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Tong Yao, do you think that you're a role model or a distraction?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ms. Yao, what are your thoughts about Ah Tai's latest comments about you and Team ZGDX?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Then the elevators closed and the noise from the reporters was replaced by tense silence. As she looked around the elevator at her teammates, she could tell that each was lost in his own thoughts./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"When they entered the boys' suite, she turned on the TV just in time to catch a portion of Ah Tai's interview./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ah Tai. Congratulations, Team TAT is the odds-on favorite to repeat as World champs. What are your thoughts about Team ZGDX's controversial low ranking and difficult schedule?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""The only controversy is that people think that there's controversy," he replied smugly. "ZGDX's publicity stunt worked in the Chinese League. But, let's face it, the Chinese league has always been second rate on the world scene. From what I can see, that won't change this year or anytime soon."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Click. Someone turned off the TV./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Why are you watching this crazy stuff?" asked an annoyed Lu Si Cheng./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Carrot fuel," she replied curtly./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Before he could reply, Ming-sha interrupted. "Alright, everyone. /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;"Gather round to discuss this week's itinerary and our tournament strategy. We've been knocked around these last few hours, however an important part of winning is having a winning mindset. We can't and /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"we/span span style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"won't/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;" let these people take that from us!"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000; min-height: 13.8px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Sports Newscasters from stations around the world were covering the biggest eSports tournament on the planet. However, the most respected and best staffed news cast team was the one from ESPN. The five-man panel consisted of a Host, and three English-speaking commentators from Korea, China, and Germany. The fourth spot was reserved for a rotating set of guests./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Gentlemen…let's get down to business," said the charamastic host. The deep bass tones of his voice reverberated pleasantly through his microphone. "We'll start by calling out some basics. The single elimination format is very different from the 2 out of 3 match structure played in the National tournaments. How does this format impact the teams?" he asked the panelists./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""It definitely adds presssure to each team," said today's guest analyst. He was the VP of Game Design at NetEase; the company that developed Onmyoji. "Teams have to be prepared and confident with their coordination and strategies. Personally, I love this structure because it makes things so much more exciting for the spectators; especially, in a competition with this many teams."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Yeah, I'm also a real fan of this format," agreed the Korean analyst. "Instead of hundreds of games, we just have to watch 30 over the space of 3 weeks."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Plus," chimed in the Chinese analyst, "the teams only play on Saturday and Sunday which gives them 5 days to recuperate and plan for the next round."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""It's my favorite competition of the year," said the German analyst as he smiled broadly. "Teams have to be on the top of their game from the /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"onset/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;". There's no comeback match. If your team is not prepared from the first second, then your team is gone."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""And since we are talking about the teams now. Let's move on to predictions," declared the host./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Undoubtedly, Team TAT remains the favorite," said the German commentator. "They've won this event 3 times, with back-to-back wins last year and the previous year."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ah Tai is an extremely capable player, but he's an even better leader," extolled the Chinese analyst. "He's the driving force that unites this team and pushes them to victory."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The host challenged that statement. "TAT made a position change at the close of the season. Do you think that will negatively affect their chances for a repeat win?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Xu Tailun is now TAT's starting jungler," said the Korean analyst. /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;""I know that he's controversial in China, but in Korea, there's no problem with him. I watched a few of their training sessions over the last few weeks, and I have to say that I think TAT is stronger than ever with Tailun on the team."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The other analysts nodded in agreement with that statement. Courtesy of TAT's tendency to release their training videos to the public, each person in the room had watched TAT's efficient, ruthless decimation of their sparing opponents./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""We shouldn't overlook Team Morimoto from Japan or Team Hollzenbruch from Germany," said the Japanese analyst. "Both challenged TAT in the finals over the last 2 years, and both are returning with the exact same lineup of players."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Well, now that we've discussed the dominant teams, let's discuss the teams on the other end of the specturm," said the host. "There's a lot of chatter about the rankings and odds assigned to ZGGX. What are your thoughts?" he asked the other four./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The Korean analyst responded first. "I think those numbers are absolutely fair. Listen, you've gotta understand who that team is," and he started ticking off their faults using his fingers. "There's only 1 team member with World Championship competition experience. They're allowing a rookie to play on the primary team, and their management team has zero experience at Worlds."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Yeah, I have to agree," said the analyst from China. "Not only are they allowing a rookie to play on the primary team, but they're the only team in competition history – outside of the first competition ever held – to do so. It's an extremely risky decision."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Shocking, really," said the Korean analyst./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""But there is a proverbial elephant in the room," countered the host. "Tong Yao is the first woman to ever play in the World Championship. How much do you think her gender weighed into the ranking decision?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"All five men guffawed and blustered for a few seconds as if that was the most preposterous question asked by humankind in the last decade./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Listen, I'm sure that Tong Yao is a nice person," said the German dismissively. "But there is too much talk about her gender. In no way, is anything that's happened with the Selection Committee related to her gender."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""That's right," said the Chinese one. "At this level, ZGDX is simply not competitive on paper."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""On the other hand, ZGDX /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"is/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;" the Chinese National Champion and Tong Yao played some of those matches," replied the Host. "Do you think those things are being overlooked?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"The guest analyst decided to speak up. "I was talking to CEO Ding Lei and a couple of the top Developers at NetEase about that, and they said they felt that there was a lot of drama in Chinese League this season. And most of that 'drama'…was centered on Tong Yao. There's legitimate speculation that her drama caused distractions that helped ZGDX win."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"All men nodded vigorously in assent before they moved on to analyzing the next teams./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"As Tong Yao listened, she decided that ESPN's commentary echoed the commentary on most of the other sports channels; ESPN's claims were a little less lurid in their gender bias, but only by a little. However, if the goal of these detractions was to make Tong Yao feel small and unworthy, then the detractors had utterly failed because Tong Yao was becoming angrier by the minute./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"I'm just a distraction? I'm an unskilled rookie?, /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;"she fumed privately. /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"What about my records as one of the top Onmyoji players on the Chinese server?! What about my MVP wins against top teams?!/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Are you angry?" asked the man by her side who had been pretending to sleep./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Hmph!" she replied to Lu Si Cheng./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Then let's make them eat their words in 3 days," and he squeezed her hand gently./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"When the Chinese teams arrived at the tournament approved hotel, the media barrage continued. As Security ushered them to the elevators, she heard reporters calling her name./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Tong Yao, do you think that you're a role model or a distraction?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ms. Yao, what are your thoughts about Ah Tai's latest comments about you and Team ZGDX?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Then the elevators closed and the noise from the reporters was replaced by tense silence. As she looked around the elevator at her teammates, she could tell that each was lost in his own thoughts./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"When they entered the boys' suite, she turned on the TV just in time to catch a portion of Ah Tai's interview./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Ah Tai. Congratulations, Team TAT is the odds-on favorite to repeat as World champs. What are your thoughts about Team ZGDX's controversial low ranking and difficult schedule?"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""The only controversy is that people think that there's controversy," he replied smugly. "ZGDX's publicity stunt worked in the Chinese League. But, let's face it, the Chinese league has always been second rate on the world scene. From what I can see, that won't change this year or anytime soon."/span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Click. Someone turned off the TV./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Why are you watching this crazy stuff?" asked an annoyed Lu Si Cheng./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;""Carrot fuel," she replied curtly./span/p
p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.7px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-kerning: none;"Before he could reply, Ming-sha interrupted. "Alright, everyone. /spanspan style="font-kerning: none;"Gather round to discuss this week's itinerary and our tournament strategy. We've been knocked around these last few hours, however an important part of winning is having a winning mindset. We can't and /spanspan style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"we/span span style="font-family: Helvetica-Oblique; font-style: italic; font-kerning: none;"won't/spanspan style="font-kerning: none;" let these people take that from us!"/span/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-kerning: auto; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; font-feature-settings: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000; min-height: 13.8px;" /p