This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 125 - 109: Golden Era
Jiangning, Hillco Hotel.
Xu Xiaofei woke up very early, too excited and restless. Plus, he wasn’t used to the bed, so he didn’t sleep well last night.
The team manager criticized him.
With a mutton-scented voice, the big-bearded manager said today’s match was very important, and the United States headquarters was also watching the broadcast. If Xu Xiaofei failed during the game, he would lose his job with a monthly salary of 100,000.
These words scared Xu Xiaofei.
No way!
Finding a job isn’t easy now, especially one with a base salary of 100,000, plus extra bonuses for winning matches; there’s no way he can lose it.
After experiencing the life of a professional player, Xu Xiaofei didn’t want to return to the dark, cramped rental apartment and live off gaming for a living.
He quickly assured the big-bearded manager that he was in great shape and would surely win today’s match!
"It better be..."
Although the big-bearded manager was displeased, he said no more and instead summoned the technical experts and maintenance technicians for a pre-match discussion.
Xu Xiaofei also attended the meeting.
Originally, he was a little-known live streamer for the game "Star Emperor".
Two months ago, staff from Intel’s marketing department approached him, asking if he was willing to become a registered professional player for the "Golden Era" league.
What is Golden Era?
Xu Xiaofei, who went straight to an electronics factory to screw in bolts after middle school graduation, didn’t understand what they were asking, but a job with a monthly salary of 100,000 plus extra bonuses was hard to turn down.
So, he joined the official Intel Team and became the 029th registered professional esports player of the "Golden Era".
Over the past two months, he trained diligently every day and discussed various tactics and DIY plans with the technical experts and engineers from Intel.
The environment can change a person.
The old Xu Xiaofei didn’t even know how to reinstall an operating system. But now, he could name every component inside a computer and its specifications and grades.
Golden Era is the professional league for the "Star Emperor" game!
PC hardware manufacturers and suppliers from around the world formed teams to compete for the ultimate championship glory.
This event is very special!
Its distinguishing factor is that, besides testing the players’ skills, it also tests the technical strengths of each team.
For example, Intel...
Xu Xiaofei’s Intel Team specially dispatched two engineers with a case of highly classified hardware from the United States to support Xu Xiaofei for this Jiangning Station.
Actually, Xu Xiaofei wasn’t the only player on the team; Intel, being so affluent, had signed on three players directly.
However, the other two weren’t as strong as Xu Xiaofei and therefore weren’t worthy of using the "classified-level" hardware.
Strategically, the roles of these teammates were to "offer themselves up."
Adopting the strategy of using lower-tier players against opponents’ top-tier players, letting teammates take down or weaken formidable opponents, Xu Xiaofei would hold back and win with ease.
"How to take down or weaken opponents?"
"It’s simple!"
The engineer from the United States headquarters explained, "To win matches, everyone’s drivers will be tuned aggressively, and the hardware they’re using are experimental and not quite stable."
Golden Era’s match rules have been studied by everyone.
8K resolution with ultimate graphics quality!
Every texture and special effect set to maximum...
In such a stringent competitive environment, to ensure nothing goes wrong, each team would bring their most skilled techniques.
The more aggressive the driver, the better!
As long as we can win, it doesn’t matter if we swap out components after each match. Winning is most important; nobody cares about hardware degradation.
"A harsh reality is that without 24G of VRAM, you don’t even qualify to enter the competition." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
The big-bearded manager laughed bitterly, "8K resolution is too unique. Without the headquarters’ technical support, we probably wouldn’t have been eligible to register."
Being able to handle 8K resolution and starting with 24G VRAM is the threshold for the "Golden Era" league, the only standard for registration.
In fact, even the headquarters is uncertain.
What Intel prepared for this Jiangning Station only barely meets the threshold, but compared to other teams, it’s still lagging a bit.
Especially the driver...
The instructions from headquarters are to use Jiangning Station to test the feasibility of commercializing the discrete graphics technology and gain some fame; results aren’t required, just don’t come last.
Of course, the instructions from headquarters shouldn’t be taken literally.
The big-bearded manager also knows that winning the championship is tough. His baseline requirement for results is to reach the semifinals at least.
For this, they need tactics.
The so-called tactics are to use lower-tier players to clash with others’ top-tier players, using the strategy of mutual ruin. Dragging one down is not a loss; dragging two or even three is a huge gain...
"Got it!"
After understanding their roles, Xu Xiaofei and his teammates nodded in unison.
After the tactical meeting, the big-bearded manager led the players, hardware and software engineers, and maintenance technicians to the competition venue.
Today’s match is bustling.
The audience seats were packed, plus there were online broadcasts on platforms like Doufish, Thunderbolt, Mouse TV, and many domestic and international platforms, as well as digital influencers, bloggers, and media representatives.
It was the first time Xu Xiaofei saw so many people, which made him a little nervous.
But this nervousness instantly vanished when he saw the two engineers behind him debugging the mainframes.
