Chapter 1196: The Most Challenging
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
At any other time, Chen Guo would have just about died laughing from seeing these reporters harassed like this. But now, she didn't feel like laughing at all, only crying. From the very first second she sat on this stage, she was trying very hard to control herself and prevent the tears from falling.
The rules of the Alliance didn't extend to a team's boss, so Chen Guo could have skipped all of the pre- and post-match press conferences. But now, she sat here, next to Tang Rou, because she wanted to be with Tang Rou, because she knew that Tang Rou was making a very difficult decision.
Chen Guo felt like she was good for nothing. She had wanted to sit up here to give Tang Rou support, only to find that she herself was the weakest. She couldn't be calm like Ye Xiu and Fang Rui, or steadfast like Tang Rou. Hold back the tears… this was all she could manage to do.
The 1v3 promise had caused an uproar in the outside world, and within Happy, it had also been a topic that everyone treated with caution. After the end of the press conference where she had made the announcement, the absolutely rational An Wenyi had said frankly that Tang Rou's actions were irresponsible to the extreme.
Tang Rou hadn't retorted, and afterwards, she spent her days and nights in intense training. Everyone saw this, and so An Wenyi temporarily refrained from expressing his opinion any further. After all, the five rounds hadn't been fought yet, perhaps Tang Rou could really pull it off. As her teammate, at a time like this, An Wenyi went along with the others and chose to encourage her and cheer her on.
35 days passed, five rounds finished, and in the end Tang Rou hadn't been able to do it. In the prep room after the match, An Wenyi didn't rush to say anything, but everyone could see from his eyes just how dissatisfied he was.
And then, Tang Rou apologized, for her earlier irresponsibility. And then, she announced her decision: revoking her promise, and continuing to play.
Everyone was stunned, especially the most dissatisfied An Wenyi. Now, this rational player viewed Tang Rou's decision as even more inconceivable.
Everyone knew the pressure she would have to bear from a decision like this.
The irresponsible Tang Rou now used this sort of method to take responsibility for her team. Why couldn't she just soften up a bit, admit some weakness?
An Wenyi couldn't understand. He just knew that if it were him, he never would have thought of this self-destructive tough method.
The prep room was quiet.
Why wasn't anyone dissuading her? An Wenyi looked at Captain Ye Xiu, at Boss Chen Guo, at his other teammates, but no one said anything. Was it because no one recognized the severity of this problem? That certainly wasn't the case. The current silence precisely demonstrated just how shocking and frightening Tang Rou's decision here was.
But no one stood up to say anything. Had everyone lost their reason? An Wenyi wanted to step forward, wanted to logically analyze the most appropriate way to address this situation. But, he couldn't open his mouth. How to address this? An Wenyi thought that she should just lower her head to the reporters, admit that her earlier words were improper, and earnestly request that everyone agree to let her withdraw her improper promise.
An Wenyi could clearly see that those reporters weren't actually very interested in forcing a player to retire, as that would generate animosity towards themselves. They were looking forward to this kind of scene, her lowering her head. With that, they could paint themselves as saviors leading a player to the correct way.
Was that what had to happen?
In his mind, An Wenyi imagined Tang Rou's voice quietly begging forgiveness, and he saw those gleeful, arrogant, puffed up faces. After that, those guys would of course generously accept Tang Rou.
"Fuck!" The rational An Wenyi actually swore, harshly kicking a locker. This was just so fucking disgusting! An Wenyi found that he couldn't find it in himself to persuade Tang Rou to act any differently than she had.
"Then… that's that!" Ye Xiu said.
"Ye Xiu, come out here for a second." Boss Chen Guo suddenly walked out of the prep room and called out to Ye Xiu.
"Hm?" Ye Xiu followed her out.
Just when Tang Rou made her decision, a terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in Chen Guo's mind.
Given Tang Rou's personality, it wasn't too hard to understand her making such a tough answer and taking greater pressure upon herself. And so, Chen Guo suddenly thought of Ye Xiu. That guy, maybe he anticipated early on that Tang Rou couldn't 1v3 within five rounds. The five round limit was his taking advantage of the situation to throw her into a trap.
Because he had very clearly expressed before that Tang Rou's dedication to Glory wasn't stable. Her interest came from the challenge, so it was possible that one day, when she reached a certain height and there were no more challenges to interest her, she would lose her interest in Glory. At that time, this added to her life attitude of a casual rich girl, what would be her resulting attitude? Would she directly quit Glory, just like she had quit music? Or would she aimlessly continue along, just because she was part of the team? Neither outcome was one that Happy wanted to see. So this time, Ye Xiu threw Tang Rou into a trap, putting her in shackles and forcing her to endlessly fight?
"You woman, you're really too scary!" Ye Xiu was shocked after hearing Chen Guo's blunt questioning.
"It's not like that?" Chen Guo said.
"Of course not."
Chen Guo sighed in relief. She didn't know where this thought had come from either, perhaps because she had watched Ye Xiu for a while now, and his normal way of doing things was often rather cold and indifferent. But Chen Guo would not tolerate his orchestrating this kind of plan to the teammates at his side. Hearing his refutation, Chen Guo was relieved.
"But now, she…"
"She'll suffer an enormous amount of pressure. This is really her personality, always choosing the most difficult and the most challenging," said Ye Xiu.
Tang Rou chose the most difficult way to face this. Then what about Chen Guo herself? She couldn't retreat. As a team, no matter what, they should always support and accept every single member of the team. Today, she stood here with Tang Rou, with whom she was the closest, but if it were any other member of Happy, she would do the same.
With these beliefs, Chen Guo calmly faced the reporters who raged around her. Even if she couldn't control her tears, she would be Tang Rou's most firm supporter, the most firm supporter of every single player on Team Happy. Just like that.
Insane! Happy's people are all insane.
This Tang Rou didn't consider her own image at all, and Happy's boss didn't consider the effect of such a player on the team's image as a whole. There were clearly problems with the thought process of this team's operations, big problems.
Don't they understand these principles? It seemed that they did, but they acted like this anyway. Tang Rou was willing to bear the public pressure, and Happy's boss? Even under these conditions, she emphasized her thanks toward Tang Rou for making such a difficult decision for the team.
How could there be a team like this, how could there be a player like this!
The reporters were completely resentful of Happy and Tang Rou, who didn't fit their expectations at all. When the winners of today's match, Tiny Herb, came out for their press conference, the reporters were still alight with an anger that couldn't immediately be extinguished.
They carelessly finished with their congratulations toward the winning party and immediately asked the Tiny Herb players for their thoughts on Happy's actions today.
"Oh?" Hearing that Tang Rou made such an announcement, the Tiny Herb players who attended this press conference, Wang Jiexi, Gao Yingjie, and Liu Xiaobie, found it very surprising.
But soon enough, Wang Jiexi nodded his head. "She would do something like that!" Wang Jiexi couldn't help but think of their time in the tenth server, when defeating Tang Rou was a matter of seconds for him. Even a beginner could tell the enormous disparity of skill that existed between them. But despite such a frightening disparity, Wang Jiexi could only defeat Tang Rou's character and not her fighting spirit. As Tang Rou became more clearly aware of this disparity, Wang Jiexi sensed only an increased excitement from her.
From then, Wang Jiexi knew what kind of person this was. And then later there was the Challenger League, when Tang Rou once again refused Tiny Herb's invitation, Wang Jiexi took another step in understanding how different Tang Rou was from the crowd.
Understanding how different she was from the crowd and then looking at the things these reporters were chattering about, even Wang Jiexi felt that they were laughable.
The reporters clearly felt that Tang Rou breaking her word like this and destroying her self-image would prevent her from continuing to exist in the Alliance, that she would have no more future.
"No powerhouse team would want a player with such a bad reputation ruining their image."
Wang Jiexi heard this sound, spoken with confidence.
It was true, these words are very reasonable. But the problem was, the "future" of which you speak is entirely different from the future in Tang Rou's eyes. This player, different from the rest, is absolutely not walking the normal, expected path of a pro player.
Powerhouse team?
This person had already rejected Tiny Herb twice now, a rejection with no hesitation or leeway. It was evident that Tiny Herb had nothing that attracted her. The so-called powerhouse team was nothing in her eyes.
These group of players that Ye Xiu found all had their quirks and defects, but they were all extremely reliable people! Thinking about this, Wang Jiexi discovered that he subconsciously admired them. But facing the reporters' questions, he sensibly evaded.
"Well, perhaps there's some reason she won't honor her commitment! I'm not too sure, so I can't very well say anything," Wang Jiexi said.
"Then what do you think about Fang Rui saying that he could take on eight of you?" One reporter also dragged this statement over.
To this, Wang Jiexi just smiled a little. "I look forward to our next battle."
To think that trash talk like this would provoke some reaction from Wang Jiexi, the reporters found that they were too naive. And from Wang Jiexi, they couldn't find any interesting topic to discuss. They could only turn their attacks to the other two from Tiny Herb. Tang Rou's actions once again became the focus of their questions.
"I'm pretty happy she didn't quit. I look forward to battling her again." Liu Xiaobie only looked at the result, not the process.
"No matter what, her courage and determination is worth learning," Gao Yingjie said.
Society's morals were degenerating day by day!
The reporters lamented. They couldn't even hear strong condemnation of Tang Rou from Tiny Herb's players?
Chapter 1197: Consequences
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The storm caused by the 1v3 didn't pass after the end of the competition. It could be said that for the reporters, the real excitement was only just starting.
Several reporters, Ruan Cheng at the lead, were enraged to the core by Tang Rou's attitude, and they immediately began to write all sorts of articles condemning her. Esports Time, the publication for which Ruan Cheng wrote, was a bimonthly publication, so there was still a week before the next edition's release. He couldn't wait that long, and impatiently posted on his personal blog to begin a crusade against her, calling this whole thing a scandal and provoking a big reaction. The other major media outlets also reported on this matter, attacking from various angles.
But amidst all this, quite a few reporters gave understanding toward Tang Rou. Chang Xian, for example, clearly stood on Tang Rou's side, looking down upon Ruan Cheng and all those other reporters. But the problem was, the company he worked for, Esports Home, had strict requirements of its subordinate reporters. Articles from invited reporters could have the warning "this does not represent the views of this publication" attached, but articles from their own reporters faced constraints.
It wasn't that Esports Home couldn't have a position, but this time, Tang Rou's actions were extremely controversial. Destroying one's prior commitment like this was impossible to put in a good light. Up through now, Esports Home emphasized their impartiality in the circle, so for this situation, the conclusion of their discussion didn't express a clear position, and they played a bit for both sides. With this, Chang Xian's article expressing clear support for Happy and Tang Rou naturally wasn't suitable and was shot down by the editor-in-chief three times. Chang Xian was a passionate young person. After all this hassle, he was tempted to just quit this and not write, but then he thought, if he did that, then wouldn't the voices supporting Happy and Tang Rou become even weaker?
So Chang Xian dug through numerous articles written by his seniors, studying them to learn how to guide an opinion under these kind of circumstances so that when touching upon both sides at the conclusion, there would be a subtle leaning toward one side. These sort of games couldn't hide from the experienced editor-in-chief, but as long as it wasn't too obvious, a slight bias wasn't a big problem. After all, a robotic article with no position would appear to lack judgment and influence.
On one hand, Esports Home placed strict limitations on their own articles, but on the other hand, they used this topic to draw many eyes. Esports Home invited two pieces from outsiders, one was the article posted by Ruan Cheng to his personal blog, and for the other, they found the famed commentator Cha Xiaoxia.
Ruan Cheng's position was obvious. As for Cha Xiaoxia, that was someone who already publicly declared himself a Happy fanboy. This sort of commentator generally wouldn't be invited to write about a team of which he was a fan, but now Esports Home specifically invited him, undoubtedly to counter Ruan Cheng's position.
Cha Xiaoxia didn't disappoint. He was warm and understanding toward Tang Rou, while cold and mocking towards Ruan Cheng and his people.
There were all sorts of voices, but overall, the indisputable truth of breaking one's word generated mostly negative discussions of Tang Rou. Esports Home's Chang Xian tried to express a vague position, Cha Xiaoxia flew a clear banner in her support, and a few others expressed understanding of her actions, but in the end they couldn't gain the upper hand. In the end, even they had to admit that Tang Rou's behavior was improper in some areas. They could only express their understanding, but they couldn't describe her as completely faultless or justified.
Amidst the storm of criticism, real consequences quickly appeared. Various businesses who had taken an interest in Tang Rou all withdrew their intentions of making a deal. Even some sponsors who had already signed contracts with Happy expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with Tang Rou's speech, putting a heavy question mark on the potential of future cooperation. Happy… Because they were just entering the Alliance, not many sponsors would directly sign a long contract with them. The standard was a one-year contract, and then depending on their performance and results this year, they would make further plans. And now, this negative attention was not something that the sponsors liked.
And then, the Alliance paid attention to this storm as well, and with "improper words and actions" as their reason, they gave Happy and Tang Rou a fine. The Alliance was very sensitive about matters of image. After all, in the beginning, video games were called "electronic heroin." Even though public perception had greatly improved, the Alliance didn't dare let their guard down.
Even though all of this had been somewhat expected, the ferocity of it all surprised Chen Guo. Especially the fine from the Alliance, it was like adding oil to the fire, making the condemning voices grow even louder.
What a pain!
Chen Guo was in low spirits. But when she arrived at the training room, she saw Ye Xiu and Wei Chen sitting in front of a computer in serious discussion.
That's good, they haven't been affected by this. Chen Guo was glad, and her admiration of the mental strength of these old veterans increased. With their fearless attitude toward attacks, the spirits of the others will stabilize quickly. A team really needed this sort of guiding compass presence!
As she thought this, Chen Guo walked over toward them to listen to what they were discussing.
"Tsk tsk tsk, these dumbasses, do they not do any background research before writing this stuff?" Wei Chen was saying.
"That sort of info probably isn't publicly available! More importantly, they don't have that sort of imagination!" Ye Xiu lamented.
"Well, that's true… Hey this… This one's pretty harsh," said Wei Chen.
"That's what I call poison!" Ye Xiu said.
"They really don't know how to spell death!"
"Forget the small shrimp, but the bigger fish are definitely done for," Ye Xiu said.
"The first one to be taken care of will definitely be Ruan Cheng," Wei Chen said confidently.
"He's really doing this diligently," said Ye Xiu.
"He'll probably lose his job immediately?"
"Who knows!"
"Think he'll be directly killed?" Wei Chen said.
"That's probably an exaggeration!" said Ye Xiu. "We're talking about a proper businessman here."
"But this is his own daughter! For her to be attacked like this, even killing wouldn't be enough to resolve the hate."
"I think it'd probably just be…"
"Ahem!!!" Chen Guo loudly coughed, angrily interrupting this shameless discussion. And here she was thinking that they were discussing some serious topic, only to find that they were just dreaming about what kind of powerful retaliation Tang Rou's background could help her execute.
"Boss is here?" Wei Chen turned his head and casually greeted her before going back to cheerfully look at those articles and discussions about Tang Rou.
"I came to see what you two were busy with over here!" Chen Guo said.
"Oh, Little Tang's really being attacked! How do you think her old man will help teach these guys a lesson?" Wei Chen actually tried to drag Chen Guo into the discussion as well.
"Shame on you! Little Tang already said that she was taking this upon herself, when has she ever used her background to get something?" Chen Guo said.
"You can't put it like that. We all know Little Tang's domineering attitude, but this must be taking a toll on her dad's heart! He has to take care of a few of them as a warning, don't you think?" Wei Chen said, particularly confident.
With that, Chen Guo couldn't find any rebuttal. She could only believe that Tang Rou absolutely would not turn back and beg her family to save her, but like Wei Chen said, even if Tang Rou didn't need it, the Tang family might act anyway.
Just as she was hesitating, the door behind her opened and Tang Rou walked in, talking to someone on the phone.
"Yes, I'm fine, don't worry about me, just leave it!"
She hung up the phone, and the other three in the room looked at each other. This phone call sounded like it was from Tang Rou's family, and was probably about this situation. What was the Tang family going to do?
Looking at the three people who were in a daze, Tang Rou waved her phone. "My dad's also worried about this!"
"What'd the old man say?" Wei Chen asked, filled with respect. "Bankrupt Esports Time first?"
"The new edition of Esports Time hasn't even come out yet!" Ye Xiu said.
"Even if you can't chase the monk, you still have to tear down the monastery," said Wei Chen.
"What nonsense is this!" Chen Guo said.
Just as she said this, her cell phone rang. Chen Guo answered, still with a hint of anger in her voice. "Yes?!"
"Is this Boss Chen?" A male voice spoke on the other end.
"Yes, who's this?" Chen Guo checked the phone number on the screen, but it was an unknown number.
"This is Tang Shusen," the other person said.
"Hm?" Chen Guo quickly thought about this name, it seemed a bit familiar!
"I apologize for the trouble Tang Rou has caused you. My daughter's personality is just like that, very strong!" the caller said.
OH!
Chen Guo's heart skipped a beat. Only now did she react to who this was, and she immediately answered, "Mr. Tang, sir, please don't talk like that, we…"
"Ahhhh!" Tang Rou evidently figured out who the caller was from Chen Guo's words and attitude, and she rushed forward and snatched away Chen Guo's phone.
"Dad, what are you doing!" Tang Rou said loudly, her face revealing an extremely rare expression of embarrassment.
They couldn't hear what the caller said, but Tang Rou answered, flustered, "I know, I'll take care of it myself. You go to your meeting!"
"Yes, alright."
"How many times have I said it, my class is called Battle Mage, Battle Mage! Battle God is a title, it's referring to one especially powerful character in this class."
"Yes yes, the player controlling it is more important, you're right."
"Yes, he's in our team now."
"Yes, the unspecialized Lord Grim. You know a lot about this!"
"Talk about what! You guys don't speak the same language." Tang Rou shouted.
Ye Xiu and the other two looked at each other. Listening to that, it seemed that Tang Rou's father had researched Glory, and even wanted to talk for a bit with God Ye Xiu?
"Dad, please stop making such a fuss, if you can't beat Frost Forest then let Secretary Wang find you a guide."
Sweat! The three others wiped at their sweat. This level of skill was really a bit low.
"I can beat it!"
"I can't carry you! You're in the eleventh server. Even if my character returned to the normal server, I can only go to the tenth server, so we wouldn't be together."
"No no, don't come over, if I have time I'll make a character over there and find you, okay! We need to start practice, I'm hanging up now."
"Yes yes, see you!" Tang Rou finally hung up the phone. She let out a long breath, and then looked at the other three, embarrassment still showing on her face.
"Uh… He recently also got a Glory account, and he plays it sometimes in his spare time," Tang Rou explained helplessly.
"I could hear." Ye Xiu nodded.
"What's his account name? I can give Wu Chen a heads up, take care of him a bit?" Chen Guo tried to be serious.
"If he wants to be an experience baby, then just leave him to me!" Wei Chen said with all the air of someone trying to curry favor.
"Can we please just start practice?" Tang Rou was almost crying.
Chapter 1198: The Observation Period Ends
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The discussion about Tang Rou continued to be omnipresent, but in the end there was no mysterious power that intervened and stopped all of it. Her father gave her true non-interfering support and freedom. Even when something like this happened, he didn't instantly stand up to protect her.
Tang Rou, facing all of this expected criticism, didn't defend herself. She didn't expect or hope for any understanding. She withdrew and just dove even further into Glory.
Compared to Tang Rou, Happy's current situation didn't look too good,either. The criticism the team received was secondary; more important was Happy's score on the points ranking after eight rounds.
There were 38 rounds in a season, eight rounds meant that over one-fifth had passed. Happy currently had 31 points, ranked at 14th place.
For a new team that just joined the Alliance, a score like this perhaps wasn't bad. Team Miracle, who had also just joined this season, only had 21 points and was ranked 18th. Last year's new team Heavenly Swords only had 25 points, two places behind Happy.
But Happy wouldn't be satisfied with this kind of point score or ranking because only they knew that their goal to win the championships in their first year absolutely was not just a shameless piece of trash talk.
If they wanted to win the championships, they first had to ensure they made it to the playoffs.
And right now, Happy had 31 points after 8 rounds, average 3.875 points per round.
"Let's look at last season's final point rankings." During Happy's team meeting, Ye Xiu analyzed the current situation in the League for everyone.
"Last season, in eighth place was Hundred Blossoms, with a final score of 190 points, averaging 5 points per round. But last season, because of the game update, many teams' scores went down. If we look at Season 8, Team 301 Degrees in eighth place had 214 points, averaging 5.63 per round. And then looking at our season now, after eight rounds, the seventh and eighth place Tyranny and Hundred Blossoms each have 47 points, which is an average 5.875 points per match. Compared to previous seasons, the situation in the Alliance this season appears to be harsher.
"If we use the current scores after 8 rounds as the standard, a match average of 5.875 means 223 points after 38 rounds. This could very well be the threshold for entering playoffs this season. Right now, we only have 31 points. Subtracting 31 from 223, in the next 30 rounds, we'll need an average of 6.41 points per round to reach that threshold.
"The situation is grim! 6.41 points isn't very easy to get. As soon as we lose a team competition, that means there's no way to get 6.41 points for that round. What then? That means we'll have to make it up through other rounds. So, our goal for each round absolutely should not just be 6.41 points, we need 7, 8, or even more points, in order to guarantee that we raise our score.
"The end of eight rounds marks a line. From the statistics of previous seasons, we can see that in the beginning rounds of a season, most of the teams prioritize remaining cautious, observing each other, learning more about the situation, and testing each other. There aren't too many unexpected surprises in battle. But after around the eighth or tenth round, they're done sounding each other out, so the teams begin to individually target specific areas to work hard, and that's when the real chaotic fighting begins. The Rookie Block, powerhouse teams capsizing in the gutter, many players' conditions inexplicably decreasing, in reality, these aren't without cause. It's because after the early period of observation, all of the teams start putting real effort in. Whoever plays their moves better will have the last laugh. If competition only compared aces and God-level characters, then wouldn't the champions be decided as soon as the team rosters were revealed for the season?
"Let's work hard, and welcome the chaotic fighting to come! We will be the ones laughing until the end!"
After the situation was analyzed and understood, they began discussing their battle plans for their opponent in the next round.
In the ninth round, Happy would be playing an away game against the other team that had debuted this year, Team Miracle.
The end of eight rounds meant that Miracle had already played eight matches. And in these matches, what kind of of impression did they leave on their opponents? Ye Xiu began to take them apart in his analysis.
Glory Pro Alliance Season 10 Round 9 was on the evening of November 1st, and this day was also the release date of the new edition of the bimonthly Esports Time. Esports Time's position and opinions were expressed much more clearly than Esports Home's were. It was relying on this kind of style that they managed to claim their spot of territory in the area of esports media reporting. And Ruan Cheng, as a head writer for Esports Time, took thorough advantage of the resources at his disposal. The big topic for this edition of Esports Time was exposing Tang Rou's conduct.
Ruan Cheng named this incident the biggest scandal in Glory history and described it in all sorts of flamboyant, unrestrained language. Many of her performances in the eight rounds to date were carved as proof that she was human scum.
An angelic appearance, a dirty heart…
Ruan Cheng's words were extreme. After Chen Guo received this edition, she swiftly destroyed it. It brought down spirits too much, and besides, they still had a match tonight. And although Ruan Cheng thoroughly attacked Tang Rou, he didn't discover her family situation, which almost made Chen Guo anticipate the Tang family standing up and giving Ruan Cheng a scare. This guy was just too despicable.
That night, the match was held at Team Miracle's home stadium in City M. This team that purchased its players for only 5000 yuan didn't appear to be a particularly wealthy team. Like Happy's, they rented their home stadium. City M wasn't home to any other Glory teams, so this stadium naturally didn't originally have the specialized holographic Glory projection technology. However, the amount of resources a team possessed was an important criterion considered by the Alliance when approving a new team to join. Teams that applied didn't get the same financial support from the Alliance that teams like Happy that won the Challenger League did. But Miracle was able to successfully pass the checks and enter the Alliance, which then led people to believe that this team wasn't particularly short on money.
The projection technology in Miracle's home stadium was impressive. At this time, before the match began, the host was accompanying the projection to introduce the players and characters of two teams.
After eight rounds, many teams found a strong sense of deja vu in Miracle's roster: Excellent Era!
Of course, this wasn't just because they had three players from Excellent Era, but also because of the class composition of this team.
Aside from the Elementalist, the Striker, and the Sharpshooter, who were the former Excellent Era players, the first-string players of this team were a Battle Mage, a Launcher, a Spellblade, and a Cleric.
This was entirely the same as the roster of the old Excellent Era. What was different was that old Excellent Era had Battle Mage, Launcher, and Spellblade as their core, while the current Miracle had these three classes as the orbiting moons, and the transferred players from Excellent Era, He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze became the central axes.
Among them, He Ming became Miracle's captain. This former sixth player in Excellent Era probably never would have thought that he'd have the chance to lead a team himself. But Team Miracle? To be honest, leading a team like this, He Ming didn't feel particularly well-off. Meeting Shen Jian and Wang Ze here was a sort of consolation, a reassurance that at least he wasn't the only person to be met with such misfortune.
At Excellent Era, these three had just been teammates, but after they all fell and landed here, their relationship became much closer. These three would group together to wallow in their misfortune together, sometimes talking about the good old days they spent in the powerhouse that was Excellent Era. As of now, their other former teammates had all scattered. These three admired Liu Hao and Guo Yang, who had managed to enter Wind Howl and now had a certain position in that team. Especially Liu Hao, who had now become part of their main roster, and had performed quite well in the past eight rounds. Wind Howl, who had managed to obtain him through a free transfer, all felt that they got a great deal from this.
Aside from this, the Cleric player Zhang Jiaxing had gone with Xiao Shiqin to Thunderclap and was also doing very well there. This season, Thunderclap was playing more and more smoothly. They were actually ranked second on the current leaderboard with 61 points, losing only to Samsara and were earning lots of attention.
As for Sun Xiang, that genius-level being, He Ming and the others didn't bother to envy his fortune at Team Samsara. Looking around, it seems that the three of them had drawn the shortest straw.
The three were all depressed about landing in Miracle, but they didn't dare neglect this team. In this weak team, if they were careless and became relegated, then their futures would become even more awkward and uncertain. And so, these three players worked quite hard in Miracle. Right now, they were in 18th place with 21 points, with a solid lead above Bright Green and Seaside. They even beat Void in an away game 7 to 3, one of the rare upsets in the first eight rounds.
And this round, their opponent, Happy…
He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze had complicated mixed feelings toward Happy. Things were a bit simpler for He Ming, as he had already left Excellent Era during the season that the team was relegated, and he hadn't experienced the sweeping pain when Excellent Era fell to Happy in the Challenger League. Looking at Happy, the only complicated feelings were toward his former captain Ye Xiu and former teammate Su Mucheng. As for Shen Jian and Wang Ze, who had experienced the Challenger League, Happy could be said to be the chief culprit of their current miserable situation. If there had been no Happy, then perhaps Excellent Era would currently be a big player, lifting high its three All-Stars and shining brightly in the playoff tier.
"We cannot lose this match!" October 27th, during a small meeting between the three of them five days before their match, Shen Jian declared.
But He Ming and Wang Ze didn't say anything. That person in Happy's roster was a shadow upon them.
"That… won't be too easy…" Wang Ze hesitated for a moment, but said it. In the current leaderboard, Happy had a lead of ten points above them. Pro players wouldn't feel that a match outcome was decided because of a point difference. For Wang Ze, the scary thing was still that person. In front of that person, he felt that he had no way of relaxing his hands and feet, that any of his movements would be thoroughly scrutinized and seen through.
"Right now, they're bruised and battered. It's a perfect chance for us to earn points," Shen Jian said.
He Ming and Wang Ze froze, and then suddenly understood.
That's right! That Tang Rou in Happy had really stirred up a lot of trouble this time. If she'd been in the old Excellent Era, she probably would have already been kicked out, and even if not, she'd be buried and hidden. Happy was currently in a rough time, and these waves wouldn't calm down again so quickly. November 1st was the ninth round and also the release date of the new edition of Esports Time. There would definitely be articles about this.
Let them see the articles during the day, then battle them at night. This rhythm was quite excellent!
Chapter 1199: Team Miracle’s Sacrificial Pawn
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Team Miracle's home stadium.
After the two teams were introduced, the players on both sides entered the venue and met in the center of the stage, shaking each other's hands and greeting each other warmly. It looked as if their relationship was friendly and joyous.
He Ming was Team Miracle's captain. He gave a most amicable greeting towards his former captain Ye Xiu, particularly showing his concern for the recent 1v3 controversy.
"That guy Ruan Cheng is too outrageous!" He Ming said indignantly. "He's talking nonsense again in today's issue of the Esports Time. He really is unbearable. Did you guys see it? If you guys haven't, I have one here. It's truly infuriating."
He Ming held a copy of today's issue of the Esports Time and promptly took it out with who knew what motives. He directly opened the conversation with an article about Happy, asking in a concerned manner about Ye Xiu and the rest of Happy's opinions.
Ye Xiu didn't brush away his good intentions. Even though he had already seen the article, he still took it.
"Is one copy good enough? I've got more, if you guys need more!" He Ming said. The members of Team Miracle seemed to have all conjured up a copy in their hands.
"Team Miracle really likes to read! What a good practice," Ye Xiu said.
"You're too kind," He Ming said modestly.
"Just one copy is enough. You guys can keep the rest!" Ye Xiu smiled.
"Hey! There's no need to be polite between us! Take them take them." He Ming signaled Team Miracle's players to hand over their copies of the Esports Time to everyone in Happy. After handing the copies over, they didn't give Happy an opportunity to refuse. He Ming led Team Miracle down from the stage, while waving towards Ye Xiu. "See you in the match."
"See you in the match…" Ye Xiu waved his hand and then led Team Happy back to their seats.
On Miracle's side, the group was stealthily glancing towards Happy's side.
"They're reading it! They're reading it!"" someone yelled out excitedly. Quite a few people from Happy were taking a look at the Esports Time paper that they had shoved into their hands.
"Hehe…" He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze looked at each other and chuckled as if they had won.
The official match soon started. The first competition would be the individual competition. The players to be sent out by the two teams appeared on the large screens in the stadium.
Happy would be sending out Wei Chen, Warlock Windward Formation.
The three bros in Team Miracle whispering in each other's ears suddenly froze. Hadn't Ye Xiu always gone up first? Why'd they change it up today? Their Team Miracle had sent up their Spellblade Xiang Yuanwei. Of their six players in the individual rounds, he was their weakest. Team Miracle's plan had been employing the principle of Tian Ji's Horse Race, throwing their weakest to face Ye Xiu. How could they have known the other side would suddenly switch up the order?
Wei Chen?
This player could be considered an elderly person in the competitive scene. He had appeared an extremely limited number of times this season. Why was he sent out against their Team Miracle? Was this contempt?
He Ming and his two bros were furious. After all, they had once been part of a powerhouse. Even though they had fallen, they weren't about to let others stomp on them as they pleased.
"Yuanwei!" He Ming called out to Yuanwei, "Play fast! Fight fiercely!"
"Okay," Xiang Yuanwei nodded his head. He had originally been their throwaway piece. As the time drew near, he stepped onto the stage.
He Ming and the others had been planning on giving up this fight, so they hadn't put a lot of thought into it. They just listened to whatever Xiang Yuanwei wanted for a map and didn't object to it.
The map was Sky Garden.
The terrain wasn't complicated, but it was an exceptionally beautiful map. Spellblades had a lot of flashy moves, so they would sometimes reap surprising results from this map. Xiang Yuanwei didn't seem to have given up despite being a throwaway piece. He still put in quite some thought into choosing a map.
The match began. The two characters moved towards the center from their starting corners.
Xiang Yuanwei listened to his captain's advice. He didn't play any fancy tricks and quickly went forward to take the initiative. As for Wei Chen, he pretended to charge forward wildly for a short distance, then amidst the crowd's boos, he shamelessly hid inside a thicket of flowers. But it seemed that he still felt like it wasn't enough cover, so he had his character lie flat on his stomach. The large screen cut to Windward Formation's viewpoint. He was carefully looking around from the cracks between the flowers like an evil ghost.
The boos from the crowd intensified.
Team Miracle wasn't very popular, but they still had fans. In these moments, they obviously had to give their support to the home team. Wei Chen's despicable ambush was immediately condemned by them. Everyone hated how the referee didn't just directly red card the guy away for such dirtiness. Happy had previous history for this! The crowd impatiently hoped to see this scene again.
Happy had a previous offense before, so the referee really was paying close attention to them, his demands more strict. The referee saw Wei Chen setting up an ambush and subconsciously started checking the time.
Xiang Yuanwei's Spellblade rushed forward, but the thicket of flowers chosen by Wei Chen was too thick. Xiang Yuanwei rotated his Spellblade Halis's viewpoint left and right, passing over Windward Formation's hiding spot several times, but he failed to notice him. The crowd was feeling even more anxious than the player.
1v1 maps weren't very big. Sky Garden didn't have complicated terrain. Since he couldn't find his target, he had Halis raise his sword in the air.
Fire Wave Sword!
A wave of raging flames rolled forth, leaving scorch marks everywhere in its path. The frail flowers and grass were instantly burned by the Fire Wave Sword and turned into ash.
After this sword came another.
Earthquake Sword!
The magic waves from the sword intent raised up the earth, uprooting the grass and flowers, lifting them up and then pressing down. Even though it wasn't as clean as Fire Wave Sword, it would still be obvious if anyone was hiding there.
But Windward Formation was still nowhere to be found.
Halis turned around and pointed the tip of his sword in a different direction.
Xiang Yuanwei wasn't throwing around his skills randomly. His wave swords always aimed at areas lush with flowers and grass, letting him cover a wide range of possible hiding locations. Just from these two wave swords, it could be seen that this player was quite familiar with this map.
The third wave sword was aimed directly at Windward Formation's hiding spot.
Ice Wave Formation!
A wave of ice surged forth, freezing any plant it touched. The next wave of ice shattered these frozen plants, sprinkling ice crystals onto the ground.
Windward Formation still isn't going to move?
Everyone looked towards Wei Chen's Warlock. Sure enough, this time, he could not sit at ease any longer. Windward Formation scrambled to dodge, rolling backwards in an extremely ugly manner.
Ice Wave Sword had a limited range. With this backwards roll, he was able to escape from the wave sword's range while also staying hidden.
Too crafty!
Everyone thought to themselves. However, Xiang Yuanwei wasn't just using these wave swords to scout out the area. Whenever he released a wave sword, his viewpoint spun quickly, observing the movements of the grass and wind at every location. The moment his Ice Wave Sword came out, Xiang Yuanwei noticed a rustle from the flower thicket at the end of the ice wave.
Xiang Yuanwei was the weakest in Team Miracle. In the past eight rounds, he had only appeared once in the team competition. However, just because he was weak didn't mean he didn't work hard. Even if he was just a sacrificial pawn, he would still try his best, choosing his best map. It didn't matter who his opponent was. He would strive to win.
Seeing a rustle from the thicket of flowers, Xiang Yuanwei didn't wait for Ice Wave Sword to finish and immediately moved towards in that direction.
Electric Wave Formation!
After Windward Formation rolled out of the way of Ice Wave Sword, he just happened to be within the formation's range. The ball of electricity shot out lightning, automatically chasing after Windward Formation, who was still hiding in a bush. The lightning shot through his body, the flash sweeping away the surrounding flowers. Windward Formation, who had been lying in ambush, was completely revealed. He cut a sorry figure, pressed onto the ground by the lightning. The crowd instantly erupted into cheers and laughter.
Too awesome!
Seeing someone so shameless in such a sorry state was too satisfying!
The crowd's emotions reached a high point, but Xiang Yuanwei wasn't happy just because of this. He wanted to win, and it was still too early to tell. It was just an Electric Wave Formation, not a serious blow.
What was important was that he had finally located his opponent's position. Xiang Yuanwei had Halis rush forward, brandishing the shortsword in his hand.
Storm Wave Sword!
This wave sword was the fastest among all wave swords. A powerful whirlwind roared out from Halis's sword, ripping apart any plants in its path. By the time these shredded plants drifted down, who knew how far away the Storm Wave Sword's sword intent would be at.
Trapped by the Electric Wave Formation, Windward Formation was unable to dodge this extremely fast attack. The Storm Wave Sword didn't seem to be striking him; it just looked as if it flitted by him like the wind. But immediately afterwards, numerous thin arrows of blood shot out from Windward Formation's body.
After these two skills, Halis was finally in position. Spellblades kiting around the target at the farthest range possible wasn't a good choice because the speed of wave swords wasn't very fast. If they were too far away, the opponent could easily dodge it. Thus, compared to their skill's attack range, Spellblades needed to fight at a slightly closer range. As for exactly how much closer, that depended on the player's hand speed and fighting style.
Xiang Yuanwei's most comfortable and favorite distance was at two-thirds of his wave swords' range. At this moment, his Halis had finally reached this position.
Earthquake Sword!
This low-level skill had a short cooldown, allowing him to use it once again. At a distance of two-thirds, dodging this attack would require faster reaction speed and hand speed, and these just happened to be what old generals lacked.
"He's playing well!!" Down from the stage, Team Miracle's unfortunate three were grouped together in a very good mood. Even though Xiang Yuanwei was their sacrificial pawn, it didn't mean they had no hopes for him. Seeing that he was playing well, these three saw this lower skilled player in a new light.
"Sending such an old guy onto the stage, what is Ye Xiu thinking!" Shen Jian sighed.
"Probably to stabilize the situation? Old generals are better at dealing with pressure, after all!" He Ming had been thinking about the meaning behind Wei Chen being sent out the entire time.
"But in the end, he's going to lose?" Shen Jian laughed.
"Our Team Miracle isn't that easy to bully!" He Ming was quite excited. When things were going well, he was very willing to be in character, viewing himself as a glorious member of Team Miracle.
But at this moment, the situation suddenly changed.
Xiang Yuanwei had just gotten into his favorite distance and was about to have Halis continue his onslaught, when he was suddenly engulfed by a plume of purple fire.
Warlock skill: Shadow Flames!