SK eats hot pot grilled meat to celebrate the victory, giving all five love disciples a perfect score

On the evening of May 8, the 2022 KPL (Glory of Kings Professional League) Spring Finals adopted the online mode, and Wuhan eStarPro kept a clean sheet for the Chongqing Wolves with lightning speed. After the opponent's crystal was pointed out in the fourth set, the eStar lads bounced up from their chairs, and everyone raised their prepared banners to cheer and enjoy the victory.

eStar head coach Song Jize (ID: SK) did not appear in the scene of the celebration, because of the epidemic, he has not been to the base for more than a month to participate in the training work. Although he was imprisoned at home, he never missed the team's training, competition and review. Leading the team to win the Silver Dragon Cup again, Song Jize's joy overflowed into words: "This time winning the championship is the happiest, because we have experienced many difficulties and many twists and turns in the spring race, so it is more gratifying to be able to win the championship." ”

Because of the impact of the epidemic, Song Jize (ID: SK) can only command the team online. Photo/ KPL King glory pro league Weibo

Internal and external troubles

On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year this year, along with the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival, the KPL Spring Tournament began, and the opening match was played by eStar against Guangzhou TTG. With the halo of the 2021 KPL Fall Tournament and the Challenger Cup "two consecutive championships", eStar has received more attention and expectations this season.

At the beginning of the spring race, Song Jize was keenly aware of the problems faced by eStar. In the previous autumn and Challengers Cup, the team went too smoothly, winning two trophies in a row with only one defeat. Therefore, after being interrupted by Chongqing Wolves in the first round of the regular season, all kinds of doubts and singing voices kept coming.

In addition, as a regular visitor to group S, eStar has also become the object of research, learning and imitation by other teams in the league. This also forced eStar to constantly innovate the system and improve the team's play style to deal with the rapid growth of opponents around it.

The external troubles have not yet been solved, and the internal worries have reappeared.

At the turn of the second and third rounds of the regular season, Song Jize could only stay at home because of the epidemic. Unable to go to the base for offline training work, all the processes had to be transferred to the online, and the players of eStar started an "online lesson" through video software. Training and review is quite good, although the network signal often has delays, but the overall problem is not big.

For Song Jize and his apprentices, the biggest challenge was the BP (pull selection) during the game. Sometimes, the network in Song Jize's home is not good, and his instructions are issued for several seconds before the team members can receive them. "I remember once telling them to choose a 'slingshot', waiting for four or five seconds to pass it, and their selection time was one or two seconds left, and they almost came out with a random hero." In order to solve this problem, Song Jize can only shorten the thinking time of BP as much as possible.

There are three cameras in the eStar training room, which are the "eyes" of Song Jize to supervise the life and training status of the team members. "Just like Tan Ran (Sun Linwei), I have found him lying down after playing training games many times, and I will suddenly say a word (through the camera) and scare him." Although Song Jize said this in a joking tone, it also reflected the problem that eStar faced in this situation: the head coach was out of reach, and the players who had lost their main backbone were a little flustered and a little slack.

Song Jize (ID: SK) led wuhan eStarPro to achieve three consecutive championships. Infographic/Wuhan eStarPro Club Weibo

Open the knot

The ups and downs in the players' status were quickly reflected in the results. In the third round of the regular season, after being kept a clean sheet by Foshan GK, eStar was "double killed" by XYG and Wolves. At the critical juncture of the upcoming playoffs, eStar holds a three-game losing streak and doesn't know where to go.

The team was in a sluggish state, and online communication was difficult, and Song Jize was anxious. After the game against XYG, the always good-tempered man got angry and beat several of his players to death. The reaction of liu tianhao (ID: Yi Zheng), a developmental road runner, impressed him the most, and the tall boy couldn't help but cry.

Because of his radical playing style, he was regarded as a breakthrough for the team, and Liu Tianhao has been carrying great pressure on his body. Song Jize knew this. "In fact, like Tan Ran, Hua Hai (Luo Siyuan), Qing Rong (Huang Yaoqin) and Ziyang (Xiangyang), all four of them are more confident, and Yi Zheng is very decadent because he is influenced by some sounds from the outside world." Therefore, in this year's spring competition, among the five main players, he is the most attentive to Liu Tianhao. After not being able to go to the base for training, Song Jize not only called Liu Tianhao every day, but also instructed the assistant teachers and analysts to observe his daily behavior and emotional changes, and to provide psychological counseling for the symptoms.

Liu Tianhao did not live up to Song Jize's expectations, and after crying bitterly, he was the first to stand up and speak his heart to his teammates. "He said we couldn't do this anymore, he felt like he couldn't go back anymore, he could only fight forward." Seeing the situation, the others also opened their mouths, and the five young men opened their hearts and chatted. In the process of the team members communicating, Song Jize did not speak again, but only listened quietly at the other end of the screen.

After this in-depth communication, everyone opened their hearts. Liu Tianhao was no longer afraid of his head and tail, no longer worried about being scolded, and the whole team twisted into a rope again. Opening the playoffs in a fearless manner, eStar sent old rivals GK and Wolves into the losers group and grabbed the first ticket to the Finals.

Looking back at the twists and turns and tribulations encountered in the regular season stage, Song Jize believes that it is a very crucial link on the team's road to winning the championship. He said: "After the defeat, we sat down and talked together, and the players communicated with each other and became more united and friendly. Moreover, this also exercises their mentality, and they are more mature and stable. ”

Song Jize (ID: SK, first from right) led the team to participate in the 2021 King of Glory Annual Awards Ceremony. Infographic/Wuhan eStarPro Club Weibo

Deliver on your promises

Song Jize revealed that before the start of this final, he predicted that the overall score might be 4-0, but he did not expect that the speed would be so fast. The data shows that without counting the BP time, the eStar four-game match took a total of 54 minutes and 08 seconds, breaking the record for the shortest duration of the finals.

For the performance of the beloved disciples, Song Jize did not hesitate to praise, bluntly saying that he scored full marks, "They are very powerful, and they also play our eStar style, especially the boy who wears glasses (frankly), giving the opponent a lot of pressure." ”

At the beginning of 2021, Song Jize took over the eStar coaching whip. During the autumn transfer period, the whole team was almost overturned and rebuilt. In addition to the wild player Luo Siyuan (ID: Huahai) is still in the lineup, the team's main lineup has changed blood. Leading this "new team" that was not optimistic at first, Song Jize fulfilled the promise he made when he joined the team: to establish the eStar dynasty.

Winning three consecutive championships in one year and successfully winning the KPL championship, Song Jize not only helped eStar equal Wolves' record of six crowns, but also made up for the regret of not leading BA Black Pineapple to lift the Silver Dragon Cup in 2018. He said that at eStar he found the feeling of being in BA, "it was the feeling of home." ”

After the game, he was not able to enjoy the joy of victory with everyone at the base, which made Song Jize feel sorry. He was ready to celebrate briefly at home, "Tonight eat something good, make a hot pot barbecue, that's all, after all, you can't go downstairs yet." He also looked forward to rushing out of the house as soon as he unsealed and going to meet the large troops.

With the Spring Finals coming to an end, the Summer Race is just around the corner. In the offseason, Song Jize can't sit idle, and his work will focus on enriching the team, "like forming a second team, including continuing to dig up some youth training seedlings." As soon as the conversation turned, he mentioned the five love disciples again, "I will also try to go online to give our team of five cubs some pressure." ”

Beijing News reporter Zhao Xue

Edited by Zhang Yunfeng

Proofreading By Chen Diyan