Chapter 622 - The Boss’s Support
Tao Xuan, who was sitting in front of his computer, laughed out loud. He could empathize with how Ye Qiu was feeling right now. Anyone could imagine how much pressure a brand new team would face upon encountering a powerhouse like Excellent Era. For Tao Xuan, participating in the Challenger League truly wasn’t anything to be happy about, but he was feeling a bit excited seeing how much worry it gave Ye Qiu.
Tao Xuan didn’t know when it started, but he had become more and more annoyed at how seriously Ye Qiu dedicated himself to Glory. In the end, wasn’t this just a game? What was more important than having fun? But Ye Qiu was extremely passionate and persistent on winning. Whenever he did something, it would always be with victory in mind. Anything unrelated would always be treated with indifference.
Having a passion for victory wasn’t a bad thing in itself. From a business perspective, someone with a personality was easier to work with than someone without a personality. However, Ye Qiu refused to cooperate on the business end of things. Because both sides had signed a long-term contract early on, when they wrote up the contract, they hadn’t thought too far into the future, so the contract didn’t have any clauses or terms on cooperating on the business side. It wasn’t his fault for being too careless. How could he have imagined that anyone would refuse a win-win cooperation?
As the Glory Alliance rapidly developed, the ace players of the teams brought numerous benefits to their respective Clubs. The more Tao Xuan saw these benefits pass by him, the more he couldn’t sit still. Even though he had a prolific money tree like Su Mucheng, the more he felt the benefits of having Su Mucheng helping the business end, the more he loathed how Ye Qiu refused to cooperate with him.
Ye Qiu was Excellent Era’s ace. He was the king who founded their dominating dynasty. In his hands, he held the famed Battle God One Autumn Leaf and was awarded Best Partners with the extremely popular Su Mucheng for several years in a row. Ye Qiu was like an enormous gold mine that couldn’t be mined. Year after year, day after day passed. It didn’t seem like this gold mine would ever be able to be mined. Tao Xuan finally couldn’t bear it anymore. If Ye Qiu wouldn’t cooperate, why not throw him away?
Tao Xuan had thought of doing so a long time ago, but he never made the order because no one could succeed him. He didn’t need just anyone who could play a Battle Mage. One Autumn Leaf was a top character in Glory and required a top-tier God to play it in order for it to have any value.
Correct. Tao Xuan always considered things with business in mind. He also wanted Ye Qiu to see that after cooperating together, the character and the player would push each other towards new heights. He hoped that Ye Qiu would feel regret towards refusing a cooperation. He hoped that Ye Qiu would admit that he was wrong.
Although there were many Battle Mage players in the Alliance, none of them fit Tao Xuan’s requirements. Finding a successor for Ye Qiu’s One Autumn Leaf was easier said than done. He could only continue waiting until he saw Sun Xiang appear. This youth had talent, boundless future, mastery over the Battle Mage class, and didn’t have a God-level character. Sun Xiang was, without a doubt, a fitting successor.
The old being replaced by the new was something that teams often had to deal with, but no Club owner was as impatient as Tao Xuan. He had tolerated Ye Qiu for too many years and a talent like Sun Xiang would quickly be taken by another team. Excellent Era no longer had complete dominance over the league like they used to in the past. They were just one of the powerhouses now.
Tao Xuan not only wanted Sun Xiang to come, but he wanted him to take over immediately. He wished he could instantly kick Ye Qiu out.
These were Tao Xuan’s true thoughts. If he could have done so without any terrible consequences, he would have done so immediately, but there was nothing he could do. Ye Qiu’s prestige was just too high. He was still bringing his team to the top. If he suddenly had a successor without even deciding to retire yet and was treated so roughly, the Club would be criticized harshly. Tao Xuan place a great amount of importance on the Club’s business. The support of the fans was extremely important. After all, no matter how smoothly a business operated, their needed to be supporters to provide the income. Tao Xuan needed to be careful not to offend the fans.
After thinking it over, even if he gently transferred Ye Qiu away, he would come across a lot of obstacles. The fans definitely wouldn’t be able to accept it and Tao Xuan wouldn’t be happy with the transfer either. No one knew better than him how capable Ye Qiu was. If he transferred Ye Qiu away, Ye Qiu would become a powerful enemy. The other teams would be laughing at his decision. Thus, the best result would be if Ye Qiu retired permanently.
Tao Xuan understood this point, so he had made plans long ago.
As the owner of a team, he had a lot of work to do. Simply speaking, for a team to run smoothly, the coordination between every department had to be extremely tight. And any cooperation between himself and the team’s senior, even if it was just his attitude towards him, could have huge consequences.
For example, it was widely known in Team Tyranny that once, Han Wenqing was lecturing a team member, when he was interrupted by the boss’s phone call. Han Wenqing shouted at the boss and hung up.
Did this mean that Han Wenqing had more authority than the boss? Or that the boss was actually scared of Han Wenqing?
Of course not. A part of it was just Han Wenqing’s personality. Another part of it was that the boss acted according to his personality. Han Wenqing had immediately picked up the phone, even in this special situation. This minute action showed how much trust he had in the boss.
Many people saw it as a reflection of Han Wenqing’s tyranny, but in reality, this was the boss’ respect for his team’s captain.
Trust and respect.
The boss and players needed this type of relationship. In particular, the team captain required the boss’ strong support. A difference in views could harm the team captain’s authority over the team because the players knew who the team truly belonged to, who decided their futures, and who gave them their wages. If the boss didn’t support the team captain, the team captain would have difficulty being respected by the team.
After Tao Xuan decided to give up on Ye Qiu, he quietly weakened Ye Qiu’s authority in the team. It would be hard to avoid Excellent Era’s records from being affected. Tao Xuan anticipated it would delince. After all, nothing good would come without sacrifice. In order to make a chance, their records would waver. If their records wavered, the fans support for Ye Qiu would also waver. It would make things easier for them to accept his leave.
Once Sun Xiang stormed the scene, Tao Xuan finally saw the person he needed and finally put his plans into actions starting in the eighth season. All sorts of issues arose in the team and their record declined drastically. The fans openly complained as Tao Xuan quickly signed an agreement to transfer Sun Xiang over to Excellent Era that winter.
However, Tao Xuan hadn’t imagined that the team’s record would drop so badly. He had underestimated Ye Qiu’s importance to the team, but the more it was like this, he more he despised Ye Qiu. In his eyes, Ye Qiu was not their team’s core, but their team’s tyrant. He was a tumor that needed to be removed.
Thus, he went along with his original plans. He transferred Sun Xiang over that winter and forced Ye Qiu to retire. Even though the fans were sad, their support for Team Excellent Era didn’t change too drastically just because of a single change.
Tao Xuan relaxed. The worst hadn’t happened, making him feel like he had passed a huge block. He was still worried about Su Mucheng though. When he decided to kick out Ye Qiu, Tao Xuan had already accepted that he might need to give up on Su Mucheng as well. After all, his tolerance for Ye Qiu had reached its limits. Su Mucheng would cause him to waver over his decision to kick Ye Qiu out of the team and rebuild the team anew.
Tao Xuan originally thought everything would progress as he had expected, but the team’s records actually dropped to the bottom. This was something that truly shocked him. He was at a loss towards the team. As the boss, he knew a lot of things, but there were also a lot of things that he didn’t know.
His enmity towards Ye Qiu had ended when he kicked Ye Qiu out of the team, but he didn’t think that Liu Hao would have an even deeper enmity than him towards Ye Qiu. Liu Hao chasing after Ye Qiu had affected his performance and led to a disastrous loss for Excellent Era. Afterwards, Liu Hao quickly adjusted and the team gradually stabilized, but after Ye Qiu left, he still didn’t give up. He wanted to try again and created a huge storm in the tenth server. His existence caused no end to trouble for the Clubs. He even caused a commotion amongst the pro players.
If it was just Huang Shaotian or Wang Jiexi running to the game to fight Ye Qiu, it wouldn’t make a difference, but Excellent Era’s enmity towards Ye Qiu ran deep! As soon as there was a chance, Liu Hao wanted to fight and even brought Sun Xiang into the mess. Then, he called over the entire main roster. The first time, Liu Hao’s condition had been affected. The next time, the entire team’s condition had been affected. This season, Excellent Era hadn’t been doing well to begin with. Now that their condition declined even further, their record plummeted even faster. Sun Xiang had trouble recovering from the blow. He was like a toothless old tiger who couldn’t bring about any energy.
At the end of the season, the team directly dropped into relegations and the players panicked. Relegations were always a catastrophe for any team. No one wanted to be on a sinking ship, so their morale completely died. Tao Xuan was unable to turn around the situation. In the end, he could only prepare for their relegations and trust that this crisis would pass them by.
Getting relegated definitely wasn’t within Tao Xuan’s predictions. He wasn’t happy at all about this result. And everything was because of Ye Qiu.
If it wasn’t for him, how could things have ended up like this?
Lord Grim? Did you really think you could start over from scratch? Tao Xuan sneered, seeing the changed name on QQ. That instant, he suddenly felt like participating in the Challenger League wasn’t too bad. Even though their image would certainly take a hit, personally eliminating Ye Qiu would certainly be a sight to see. At this time, Tao Xuan finally saw the other side reply: “Are you scared of me?”