The Suzhou Tianba team won the first championship in the team's history. Photo: PEL Peace Elite Pro League
After four days, the 2023 PEL (Peace Elite Professional League) Spring Finals ended on the evening of April 22 at the Hangzhou Esports Center, and Suzhou Tianba Team became the biggest winner - the team was crowned the overall champion of the Spring Tournament and won the PMWI World Invitational ticket, the team's raider Zhang Tianyu (ID: Tianyu) was elected FMVP (Most Valuable Player in the Finals), and young player Yan Haiyang (ID: Hai) was also named the best rookie of the season.
Before the end of the last island map, Tianba locked the overall championship in advance, and Huang Jiaming in the lounge couldn't help but burst into tears. As a coach, after coming to the club in the second half of last year, he led the players all the way to the first championship in the team's history, and the moment of winning the championship, he couldn't help but have mixed feelings, "It's really more exciting than me (playing) to win the championship." ”
Frequent mistakes in training are fined
When he saw Huang Jiaming in the team lounge, his mood had calmed down a lot, and he was chatting with his parents beside him. In this year's spring final, Huang Jiaming's parents specially rushed to Hangzhou from their hometown to watch the game for a few days. Why did you bring your family to the scene? Huang Jiaming said that there is a feeling that this season, there may be a champion.
However, if he goes back to when he first took over Tianba, or even in the regular season of this spring, he did not have much confidence to say this.
Recalling the situation when he first led the team last year, Huang Jiaming felt angry and funny. He was impressed by a conversation during the resumption, "After the first game of the first week [last summer], I asked the players the simplest question, 'When you first fought, where was the next lap?'" They replied to me and said, 'Circle? ’”
Problems such as the player's thin foundation and poor operational awareness abound. Therefore, since last year's summer competition, Huang Jiaming required the players to have four rows after the training game every day, although many times the "40 kills" goal cannot be completed, but in the eyes of the coach, the most important thing is to cultivate the players' internal awareness. Sometimes, Huang Jiaming will also play with the simulator, and with the coach present, the attitude of the players will be more serious.
Deducting money is a plot that is often staged in the training room of Tianba. If someone repeatedly drops points or frequently makes low-level mistakes, captain Liu Jinshan (ID: field) will take the lead in fining them, and the collected money will be used to buy drinks for everyone.
"Because their personal basic skills are not solid, they can only be enforced in training." Huang Jiaming believes that in the process of a team climbing from low to high, some coercive measures must be adopted. "If you're a very stable team and the players themselves don't have much of a problem, then this is not necessary. But if you're going to compete with these stars, you have to bring yourself up. Huang Jiaming said.
As for tactics, Huang Jiaming self-evaluated that the individual ability of the players in the team is not the top in the league, and he asked everyone to pay attention to coordination and fight in a way that fights more and less. "Until now, they have carefully planned every wave of battles and can think of what they practice during training matches. Including as soon as the circle comes out, the conductor will say very clearly, and the other three people also know what to do, and they can already fully clarify the goal. Obviously feeling the growth of the team, Huang Jiaming felt very gratified.
Huang Jiaming (second from right) communicates with the team during the game. Photo: PEL Peace Elite Pro League
The players have characteristics and minor problems
In the regular season of this spring, Tianba's results were not outstanding, and he did not win any weekly championship awards. In the second week closest to the weekly championship trophy, they are just 4 points away from first place Jiangsu KONE.
Huang Jiaming revealed that the team has been making adjustments internally, and the state is not particularly stable. In particular, the fact that the second week was only one step away from the championship had a certain impact on the mentality of him and the players, which also led to the team's poor performance in the following weeks. "So adjustments have been made, whether it is tactical arrangements or personnel changes." Huang Jiaming said.
In the eyes of the coach, the four main players in the team have their own characteristics.
Captain Liu Jinshan is Huang Jiaming's most optimistic, as a commander is self-evident, but also shoulder the heavy responsibility of leading the team forward. At this point, Liu Jinshan lived up to the trust of the coach. His only minor downside is that he is occasionally in a bit of a hurry. However, to say that the easiest to "rush" is the assaulter Zhang Tianyu, which also leads to his frequent "sudden death" due to impatience. Huang Jiaming admitted that for this reason, he once wanted to sell Zhang Tianyu, "because he had too many small problems." I couldn't see him in the summer finals, and his name was always gray. "To solve the problem, Huang Jiaming asked Zhang Tianyu to listen to the command, and Liu Jinshan hit wherever he pointed.
Sniper Liu Bo (ID: Ydd) is more introverted and tends to be silent after making mistakes. Huang Jiaming gave him the task of enlivening the atmosphere when the atmosphere in the team was not good. As for the newcomer Yan Haiyang, the biggest problem is also in the communication with his teammates, "He has also been scolded by me, such as driving badly, not being able to hear his teammates talking, and there are many minor problems." But to get to this day is definitely indispensable to his efforts, in the future, there are still a lot of basic things to learn. ”
It was these four players who had some "minor problems" in their own way, experienced the ups and downs of the regular season, played with form and confidence in the first week of the playoffs, and Tianba became one of the first five teams to advance to the finals.
The story always goes up and down, just like Tianba's performance in the spring race.
After advancing in the first week of the playoffs, the team took a short holiday. Coupled with the fact that there are still several teams vying for a place in the finals in the second week, there is not much time for Tianba to play training matches. As soon as normal training resumed, all the problems became apparent. That night, Huang Jiaming, who has always been strict, went to the balcony alone after watching the training match, and looked at the sky in silence. The staff of the club came up and advised him not to get angry. The finals are imminent, and all Huang Jiaming can do is to bring up the training and make the players tighten.
Zhang Tianyu (center) was named the Most Valuable Player in the Grand Final. Photo: PEL Peace Elite Pro League
"We are number one"
On April 19, the 2023 PEL Spring Tournament Finals kicked off at the Hangzhou E-sports Center, which was the first large-scale e-sports event held at the Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports competition venue after the opening year. For Huang Jiaming, Liu Jinshan and the rest of the team, it was a big test.
In the finals stage, Tianba still chose to implement the strategy of the playoffs: "The first two laps, if you cut us, we will take our time, if you don't cut us, we will take three or four laps of the opportunity." Although there were still mistakes in the course of the game, Huang Jiaming believes that everyone has executed 90%. In the competition of the last map on the third match day, the players dared to fight and win the "chicken eating game", which made Huang Jiaming particularly satisfied.
At the end of the third matchday, Tianba was at the top of the standings with a total of 175 points. At this time, Beijing WBG, which is in second place, holds 169 points and is looking at the tiger. That night, Huang Jiaming, Liu Jinshan and the team manager did not sleep well.
Since you are sitting first, then hold this position. On the last match day, when everyone around said that they did not play a point slowly, Huang Jiaming said to the players with certainty before going on stage: "It has come to this point, there is no need to lie to yourself, we are the first, we have to be overwhelming." ”
With the encouragement of the coach, the Tianba players played fiercely on the field. Although he failed to win a single victory, with a number of stable points, Tianba finally won the first championship in team history with 226 points and pocketed 5 million yuan in championship bonus. Zhang Tianyu, who won 43 eliminations, is far ahead in the elimination list and also won the title of FMVP.
"Two of them weren't satisfied, and as soon as I went up I asked them, 'Are you starting to reward yourself again?' Huang Jiaming said that on the last match day, the desert map of the second game and the island map of the fifth game, the four people did not play very well, first the score led to the total destruction of the team, and then the distance between the players was not grasped well, "Go to the point, four people are like four teams, that will take two points, I am more dissatisfied." ”
In the end, Tianba still had the last laugh. In the last game of the island map, Tianba, who was eliminated in the later stage, locked the championship in advance, Huang Jiaming was so excited in the lounge that he burst into tears, and the coaches around him who were familiar with him gathered around to congratulate him, "It's really more excited than me (playing) to win the championship." ”
Winning the Spring Final Championship, Tianba also qualified for this year's PMWI World Invitational Tournament. The international arena is a new and challenging stage for Tianba. Huang Jiaming revealed that recently, the team will take a long vacation and wait for the May Day holiday to end before putting in new preparations. As for the PMWI later, he will first go to the coach of the team who has played in the world championship before to learn some experience. Huang Jiaming said: "The goal is definitely to go to the top three, but there will definitely be twists and turns in the middle. The players are all going out to play for the first time, and I won't be particularly demanding, so let's see how far I can play. ”
Beijing News reporter Zhao Xue
Edited by Zhang Yunfeng
Proofreader Zhao Lin