Thursday, December 22nd.
Modu Airport.
Zhao Xuming and the team leaders and players of the other two clubs are waiting for the flight.
The time for the ioi global finals has been finalized. It will officially start on December 31st, which is the Saturday of next week, and will last until the end of January for a period of one month.
The competition format is similar to GOG's Global Invitational Tournament, with sixteen teams and four groups, divided into two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage.
In terms of schedule, the focus matches of the group stage and knockout rounds are basically arranged on weekends and statutory holidays, while less important matches and rest days are arranged on working days as much as possible.
Although the arrangement is not particularly perfect, it is still relatively reasonable.
However, due to the time difference, the viewing experience of domestic audiences is relatively poor. Taking the group stage as an example, the domestic viewing time is from 3 o'clock in the morning to 12 noon the next day. , highlighting a cultivator.
After all, it is held in Los Angeles, and there is no way around the timing.
Zhitou Company will only provide hotels, meals and accommodation the day before the start of the competition, and will provide them until the team is eliminated.
So most of the poorer clubs arrive at the hotels arranged near the competition venue only one or two days before the start of the game.
In order to allow the two domestic clubs to play training matches with European and American teams in advance and adapt to the local environment, Zhao Xuming decided to go there more than a week in advance and stay in the hotel arranged by Zhitou Company.
The air tickets and food and accommodation expenses for this week were fully reimbursed by Longyu Group.
There are 20 people in total. The two clubs have five players plus team leaders and coaches, a total of 14 people. In addition, Longyu Group is also accompanied by six staff members including Zhao Xuming.
Zhao Xuming went to Los Angeles purely to take this opportunity to go out and play and watch the ioi competition. After all, the work of the ioi operation and cooperation department of Longyu Group in the next period of time is mainly to use the ioi World Championship for promotion. , promotion, it is justifiable for him to go to Los Angeles.
After arriving in Los Angeles, in addition to settling the players of the two clubs, Zhao Xuming will also visit and communicate with other colleagues from the ioi Operations Cooperation Department at the headquarters of Zhidou Company.
A group of 20 people were waiting at the airport.
Currently, only a few cities in China, such as Imperial Capital and Magic Capital, can fly directly to Los Angeles, and the fares are relatively expensive. Most other cities require connecting flights. Although the fare is relatively cheap, the entire journey will take much longer.
Zhao Xuming did not choose a cheaper transfer route, but chose a relatively small and expensive direct flight, which only took about 13 hours.
Zhao Xuming is still a little proud. After all, the air tickets are reimbursed by Longyu Group. For these clubs, it is relatively generous to choose direct flights.
Most of the players in these clubs are teenagers addicted to the Internet. They have basically never been abroad or seen much of the world. Zhao Xuming feels that his sincerity is already very good.
As for seats, Zhao Xuming, as an executive of Longyu Group, could of course choose business class when traveling for official business, but after careful consideration, he chose economy class.
It’s not that he saves money for the company, it’s mainly because it doesn’t look good.
Because there are a large number of people this time, it is really too expensive for all 20 people to fly in business class. After all, the price of business class air tickets is three times that of economy class. If all are reimbursed, it will cost an additional three to four hundred thousand. , somewhat substandard.
And Zhao Xuming was too embarrassed to take the business class himself and let people like the club take the economy class, so he had to aggrieve himself.
Of course the leaders and players of these two clubs don't care about this. Longyu Group is already very good at reimbursing direct flights, but asking people to spend three times the money to fly business class is a bit excessive.
What’s more, Mr. Zhao himself is also flying in economy class.
There was still a long time before boarding the plane. Zhao Xuming was chatting with the leaders of the two clubs and briefly introduced the arrangements after arriving in Los Angeles.
“The hotel arranged by Zhidou Company this time is the Courtyard by Marriott, which is about 200 meters near the competition venue. It can be reached on foot and is very convenient.”
“The environment of the hotel I didn’t say anything, it’s very good, everything is there anyway.”
“After we get there, we will go directly to the hotel to check in. You can come to me for reimbursement of hotel expenses before the start of the game. , everyone will check out and check in again, and stay in the room arranged by Zhidou Company."
"Our company has assigned a translator. Then the two team leaders will work hard and follow ours. Let’s go with the translator to find nearby Internet cafes and restaurants to see where it’s more suitable to train and eat.”
“Although the finger company will also arrange training rooms and accommodation, it must be the day before the game. Once it’s officially in place, we have to rely on ourselves this week.”
Zhao Xuming explained some details, and the two team leaders nodded frequently.
Other team members were also a little excited, and some of the team members were a little nervous as it was their first time to fly.
Zhao Xuming was chatting with the two team leaders when he suddenly heard footsteps in the distance. < /p>
"One, two, three! Great, here's another one."
Zhao Xuming couldn't help but be stunned for a moment. When he turned his head to look, he was stunned for an instant.
Isn’t this the FV club?
Why are there so many people!
At this time, about thirty people were standing together to take pictures, and those in the front row were holding the FV club flag. The five main players stand at the front, Zhao XumingRecognized immediately.
I saw two photographers each holding long guns and short cannons and taking random pictures of everyone, and there was also a cameraman who was holding a camera to record the whole process.
Zhao Xuming soon saw more familiar faces in the crowd, including Ding Gan, Wu Yue, Manager Lu, and members of the SUG club.
Zhao Xuming fell into confusion.
What is going on?
Since these people are already here, it means that they are also here to take a plane. Since they are taking a plane, they must be flying to Los Angeles.
But even everyone in the FV Club has to fly to Los Angeles. Only seven or eight people can survive, right?
Why are there so many people?
Why are the people from the SUG club here?
Zhao Xuming originally thought that he had players from two clubs, and the team was already very large. But when he looked at FV Club, one club crushed him in terms of numbers!
Zhao Xuming was a little confused about the situation for a while. This unexpected encounter was completely unexpected.
Wu Yue, who had just finished taking photos, also saw Zhao Xuming who was waiting for the flight.
Wu Yue was also a little surprised. Although he didn't have a good attitude towards Zhao Xuming, the two sides were looking at each other at this time. It would be too much to pretend not to see him.
So Wu Yue immediately stepped forward and greeted Zhao Xuming.
"Mr. Zhao! I didn't expect to meet you here. What a coincidence."
Zhao Xuming reluctantly smiled and stood up: "Mr. Wu, you also want to Taking this flight to Los Angeles?"
Wu Yue nodded: "Yes, Mr. Zhao? Oh, isn't this a coincidence?"
"But this is normal. It's more appropriate in terms of time, and we can be regarded as heroes who have the same vision."
Although Min Jingchao and Ye Zhizhou live in Wuyue, the two clubs FV and SUG are both. We are in Shanghai, and there are no direct flights from Jingzhou to Los Angeles, so we still choose to depart from Shanghai.
Taking into account various factors such as takeoff and landing time, schedule, flight seats, ticket price, etc., this flight is the most suitable, so Wu Yue and Zhao Xuming happened to meet together.
This encounter was a little awkward.
Because Zhao Xuming deliberately did not take the FV Club to Los Angeles, and both parties knew this.
In this situation, Zhao Xuming had no choice but to say nothing about it and pretend to be polite: "Mr. Wu, it's still some time before boarding the plane. Let's find a place to sit first." "
Wu Yue smiled: "Okay, I don't have to worry about this, Mr. Zhao."
After the greetings, Wu Yue called to the others accompanying him: "Come on, everyone, follow me. Let’s find a place to rest.”
What surprised Zhao Xuming was that Wu Yue and others did not sit down.In the rest area next to them, but walked straight into the VIP lounge a little further away.
A string of question marks instantly floated over Zhao Xuming’s head.
What's going on?
The VIP lounge is specially designed to provide waiting services for business class passengers or high-end members. It has various supporting services such as TV, newspapers, magazines, snacks and drinks, and can provide flight changes, seat changes, etc. The service is provided by a company, and everything is a single leather sofa, which is much more comfortable than the hard row seats in the rest area!
Zhao Xuming was even more shocked when he saw that all thirty people went in, including the cameraman who was following behind.
What does it mean?
Is it possible that these thirty people all booked business class?
Zhao Xuming knows the price of air tickets very well. Economy class is about 10,000, while business class is close to 30,000. These 30 people all booked business class, which cost 600,000 more than economy class!
That’s outrageous!
Zhao Xuming quickly rejected this idea.
Why would FV Club be willing to spend an extra 600,000 yuan to fly? This is simply unreasonable!
Well, he probably paid to enter the VIP lounge to rest in order to show off in front of us!
Zhao Xuming knows very well that although these business class lounges claim to be for business class or high-end members, they can also be entered by paying a fee. The price is 100 yuan per person.
If this is the case, the price for 30 people is actually only 3,000 yuan, which is not bad.
Zhao Xuming thought that he could spend 2,000 yuan to install this thing, but then he thought about it and thought that the plane was not delayed and would take off in a while. It was really unnecessary to spend this money.
It’s better to just pretend that nothing happened.
After being interrupted by Wu Yue and others, Zhao Xuming was no longer in the mood to chat with the club leader. Everyone was scrolling through their phones and waiting silently.
For some reason, Zhao Xuming still couldn't help but picture the scene in the VIP lounge in his mind.
The environment is quiet and no one is noisy. You can sit on the comfortable single leather sofa and read magazines and movies. There is unlimited supply of free snacks and drinks...
The more I think about it, the more I feel. A bit lemony.
Zhao Xuming checked his watch frequently. Fortunately, he was about to board the plane.
Everyone came to the boarding gate and waited in line.
This direct flight to Los Angeles is a large passenger plane that can seat nearly 500 people. It is divided into upper and lower floors, so there are more people queuing up.
Zhao Xuming and others got up early, stood relatively forward in the team, and waited patiently.
Seeing that the queue was getting longer and longer, but Wu Yue and others did not come out of the VIP lounge, Zhao Xuming became more and more suspicious.
What's going on?
Are they not in a hurry to line up, or...
Finally, Wu Yue and Ding Gan led more than 30 people from the VIP rest roomThey came out of the room, but they did not line up at the end of the queue, but went straight to another boarding gate.
Under the attentive reception of the flight attendants, Wu Yue and others traveled smoothly.
Looking at the long queue here, it forms a sharp contrast.
Zhao Xuming and the team leaders and players of the two clubs watched helplessly as Wu Yue and others began to board the plane, while their queue was as slow as a turtle crawling.
This large passenger plane is divided into upper and lower floors, with two independent boarding gates. No matter whether you are boarding or disembarking, there will be no interference with each other. Business class is on the upper floor and economy class is on the bottom. There is no need to queue for business class.
Zhao Xuming: "..."
Looking at the backs of Wu Yue, Ding Gan and others, he silently shut himself up.