Not long after, the players from IG and Se7en who were seated near them were attracted by the sudden noise .
Seeing how everyone gave him a knowing smile after taking a look at their phones, Liu Zilang who was distressed instantly felt that he had made a huge mistake when he took the microphone from GodV that afternoon!
The next day, in the afternoon .
Liu Zilang’s team, as well as the two other teams, left their hotel to head toward California’s Colt Arena .
While they were there to attend interviews arranged by the media the day prior, they were heading there on that day for the tournament .
Since the tournament venue was near their hotel, they arrived at their destination in less than half an hour by car .
At that time, there were roughly 2 more hours before the tournament began . Nevertheless, the venue was flooded with people who were trying to get into the arena .
Long queues were seen at the entrances whereby passionate western fans brought handmade signboards with them to support their favorite teams . Some of them had even painted their faces with their favorite team’s logo .
While the crowd comprised of mostly western spectators, there were also quite a number of Hua Xia exchange students .
Apart from vehicles that were allowed to go in and out of Colt Arena, the roads around it were blocked from use . Thus, drivers needed to use another route if they were not heading into the arena .
Among the members of 4AM, Long Shenjue and Cpt had no experience in international tournaments . Therefore, when they saw the crowd outside the arena, Long Shenjue gasped . “Tsk, tsk! The westerners are making it such a huge event .
“Anyhow, Tencent from China is still the one leading . ”
Liu Zilang chuckled and then said, “It’s a world tournament after all . Of course, they have to make it huge to maintain their reputation . ”
“It won’t be on Tucao… will it?” Cpt asked softly .
Upon hearing him, everyone else was startled . GodV smacked Cpt’s head and then laughed at him . “What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about losing already?”
“It won’t, it won’t . ” On the other hand, Liu Zilang shook his head as he giggled .
The few of them became relaxed after chatting with each other and laughing . Not long after, they entered the arena through a passage specially arranged for players .
Once they arrived at the resting room, Liu Zilang retrieved a keyboard that had been placed in a dustproof bag .
When GodV saw this, he became curious . Hence, he asked, “Is that the ‘piano keyboard’ Guru Qiu was talking about?”
Right away, the other 4AM members gathered around him as well . Since they were all professional players, they were no strangers to “custom-made keyboards” .
Even so, it was normal for them to be curious .
A keyboard was neither a rare martial art book nor a divine weapon . Since Liu Zilang had brought it, he was fine with showing it to others .
After noticing their curious looks, he quickly removed the dustproof bag .
What came into view was a dark metallic keyboard that had a rather rustic look . All the keys on the keyboard were either black or white in color . They gave off the mysterious feeling of Hua Xia’s Yin and Yang .
Long Shenjue could not help but reach his fat fingers out and then press one of the keys carefully .
“Da!”
A clear sound was heard .
It sounded like the perfect alignment of gears inside a certain refined device used during the era of steam locomotives .
At once, Long Shenjue expressed his astonishment, “It sounds… so awesome!”
All of a sudden, Aluka recalled something as he asked, “Oh right, I heard that every key on the keyboard makes a different sound . That’s why it’s called the ‘piano keyboard’ . Is it true?”
The moment Liu Zilang heard Aluka’s question, he swept his fingers across the keyboard .
On the spur of the moment, dissimilar sounds were heard as if pearls of different sizes had been gently dropped onto a jade plate .
Afterward, Liu Zilang shook his head and then explained with a smile, “That’s exaggerating . It’s just that every key has slightly different tones, it’s far from a piano . ”
When the other 4AM players heard his “serious” explanation, they were speechless .
‘Why the f*ck did you compare your keyboard to a piano then!’
While they were conversing, a staff member knocked on their door . It turned out that all the computers were ready for use, thus they were asked to go over to input their settings .
At the front stage, there was a clear contrast between the scene inside and outside of the arena .
Looking at the seats that were fully occupied, many players from teams that were new to such a huge scene began to feel overwhelmed .
Fortunately, 4AM had Liu Zilang and GodV . Not only did they not feel nervous at all but they were also fired up .
Perhaps at one point in their professional careers, they realized that they had been working hard for such a moment on stage .
The two of them quickly calmed their teammates .
With that, they walked onto the stage steadily amidst the enthusiastic cheers from passionate spectators and headed toward the player zone that was decorated like a plane cabin .
The seats were divided according to their regions .
Other than 4AM, IG, and Se7en, other teams that had also been categorized under the Asian region included ACE from Korea, Gold from Southeast Asia, and AHQ from Taiwan .
Each row was meant for two teams, hence the six teams occupied three rows .
Furthermore, the competition employed the rule that eliminated players had to leave the stage .
With that, spectators from both the arena and live streaming channels were able to have a clearer view of the comprehensive strength of each region through the number of players left in each seating area .
In addition to that, unlike the number of players from the Asian division, the European and American division was like an insurmountable mountain .
Therefore, since they knew where their opponents were seated, the teams from the Asian division appeared to be in more harmony .
On the contrary, in the player zone of the European and American divisions .
Between strong teams like Liquid and Faze, they treated each other as their biggest rivals .
Thus, the atmosphere was clearly less friendly and the players seemed as if they were ready to jump at each other’s throats .
Of course, that was not entirely the case .
For instance, in the South American division player zone where four teams were seated at .
Due to the freaks from SKK, the other players in that division were aware of the gap between them .
The gap was so big that even in PUBG where luck played a bigger factor in the game, they could almost neglect the existence of luck .
Hence, teams like Solomid and Ghost were not looking forward to competing against them at all . They only hoped that they would not encounter SKK which they regarded as their bane .
Conversely, Shroud from C9 crossed his legs as he sat with his hands placed on his knees .
He looked as if he was totally unbothered and was even joking together with SKK’s Captain Carl .
Around 15 minutes later, all the players were notified through their headphones that the tournament would begin in five minutes . At that time, they were confirming their peripheral settings .
Furthermore, by then, the players were basically done adjusting their settings and had no problems anymore .
Before long, three people appeared on the commentary platform for the Hua Xia division .
One was a familiar face, Su Changming while one was Lord Rong who had commentated on the intramural seeding match at the University of Jianghai .
The last one was a guy with glasses who looked decorous but his nose gave the biggest impression .
When GodV looked up and saw that person on the commentary platform, he was dumbfounded .
“Eh? Why is he here to commentate?”