The establishment of the Capital Gymnasium, along with the assembly of professional commentary and live broadcast teams, injected the final soul and momentum into the first league of legends National City Hero Championship, a finely tuned machine.
All the preliminary preparations, public opinion groundwork, and player expectations converged on a gate about to open: the tournament registration channel.
The official announcement had already informed everyone of the exact registration start time through all channels.
The night before registration, countless players with dreams tossed and turned, repeatedly checking their team rosters, confirming their network environment, and eagerly preparing, like soldiers awaiting a charge.
On major gaming forums and communities, discussion threads about the registration process, team confirmation posts, and various "blessing" and "good luck" posts flooded the screens, and the air was thick with the tension and excitement of an impending battle.
At Riot Games' headquarters, in front of the monitoring big screen in the data center, Qin Feng, Xiao Zhang, Li Ming, Zhao Dong, and other core members were all present, and the technical team was on high alert.
Although multiple rounds of stress tests and capacity expansion preparations had been carried out, no one dared to take it lightly in the face of the unknown flood.
The time pointed to exactly 10:00 AM, the official start of registration.
"Open the channel!" Qin Feng gave the order.
The technical director hit the enter key.
Almost at the same instant, the curve representing server requests on the monitoring screen, like a rocket ignited, soared wildly upwards at an almost vertical angle!
Green data streams refreshed like a waterfall, dazzling the eyes.
"Report! Instantaneous access volume exceeds 500,000!"
"Concurrent requests for the registration page exceed 100,000!"
"Database write peak reaches 80% of design capacity!"
The technicians reported the data nervously, their voices trembling slightly, a mix of tension and excitement.
Despite early estimates, the energy that erupted in that instant still exceeded everyone's expectations.
This was not just cold data.
Behind the data were real scenes from every corner of the country:
In a university dormitory in the Northeast, the five members of the "Dawn" team, led by Li Hao, gathered around a computer, holding their breath.
The moment the page refreshed, Captain Li Hao quickly clicked his mouse, rapidly filling in the team information they had already prepared: team name "Dawn," member IDs, corresponding positions, division (East China), city (specific city)...
"Submit! Submission successful!" Seeing the "Registration successful, please wait for review" prompt pop up on the screen, the five excitedly high-fived, as if they had taken the first step towards their dream stage.
In the private room of the internet cafe frequented by the "Broken Army" team, who had won the Thunder Championship in South China, Han Feng operated steadily.
Their team information had long been entered into a document; copy, paste, confirm, submit, all in one go.
The entire process was calm and swift, displaying confidence in their determination to win.
After successful registration, he didn't celebrate much, only nodding to his teammates: "Just the first step, training continues."
In a small city in the Northwest, several young people who had just finished work and were from different units met at an internet cafe.
They formed the "Frontier Wolf Smoke" team, and this was their first time participating in an official competition.
When filling out the information, they even double-checked repeatedly due to unfamiliarity with the rules, and finally, with mutual encouragement, solemnly clicked the submit button.
For them, merely participating was already a victory.
In an ordinary family in East China, the "Gemini" team, composed of a pair of twin brothers, their cousin, and two classmates, was also nervously registering.
Their mother watched curiously from the side; although she didn't quite understand, she still brought them fruit and reminded them: "Have fun, and watch your eyes."
Countless other players scattered across various regions poured into the registration system through official designated partner platform entrances.
There were "God Teams" temporarily formed by veteran high-ranked solo queue players, "Internet Cafe Five-Stacks" old teams with tacit cooperation, "University Alliances" formed by dormitories, and even "Leisure and Wellness Teams" purely for experiencing the competition atmosphere...
Just one hour after registration opened, the number of valid registered teams counted by the official backend exceeded 10,000!
This meant that at least 50,000 players officially embarked on this journey of national supremacy in the first instance!
Within one day, the cumulative number of registered teams reached 38,000!
Three days later, this number soared past 80,000!
Until the last moment the registration channel closed, the final number settled at a figure that shocked the entire industry: 127,643 valid registered teams!
Over 600,000 players participated!
This number not only set a historical record for the number of registered teams in Chinese esports events, but it was also unprecedented on a global scale!
It was like a clap of thunder, resounding in the ears of those who still had doubts about esports, proclaiming in the most intuitive way the unparalleled mass appeal and vigorous vitality contained within this emerging field.
On official forums and social media, screenshots of "successful registration" posted by players flew like snowflakes.
"Registration successful!'Soaring Cloud Team,' let's go!"
"Our'Sunset Red' team is here too! Participation is what matters!"
"Over 120,000 teams... the competition is too fierce!"
"Already looking forward to the online qualifiers!"
Behind the massive registration data lay immense operational pressure.
The review team needed to individually verify the account information, authenticity of ranks (to prevent boosting or fake registrations), and compliance of team member composition for over 600,000 players.
The technical team needed to ensure that the online competition platform could withstand the load from tens of thousands of simultaneous qualifying matches in the initial stage.
The referee team needed to formulate detailed online competition invigilation rules to address potential disputes.
"The pressure is immense, but it's a happy problem," Zhao Dong remarked, looking at the final report.
His event operations team had already begun to operate like precise gears at high speed, assigning divisions, generating massive match tables, and scheduling online competition dates.
Qin Feng stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of his office, looking down at the city.
Outside, the sun was bright, and in his heart surged a passion even hotter than the sun.
127,643 teams—this was not just a number; these were over 600,000 hearts beating for esports, over 600,000 souls eager to prove themselves on Summoners Rift.
Starting from a wealthy heir's whimsical idea, with his memories beyond his time and his all-in audacity, he painstakingly created league of legends from scratch, launched it into the market, ignited a craze, built its world, perfected its ecosystem, and now, successfully ignited this competitive storm sweeping across the nation.
This marked that league of legends had completely transcended the category of a "game," truly becoming a phenomenon, a platform, a living world capable of carrying the dreams of countless young people.
"The qualifiers begin, the spark is lit," Qin Feng murmured to himself, the vast sky outside reflected in his eyes.
"Next, it's the true test of the strong.
Who can break through from these over 127,000 teams and climb the steps to the Capital Gymnasium?"
An unprecedented and incredibly brutal esports gold rush officially kicked off its bloody and glorious prelude.