Chapter 1252: Hot-Blooded Dodgeball
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Do as promised? He said he'd throw the match, so he threw the match?
As expected, the crowd once again erupted with boos, but Song Qiying's expression right now was a bit subtle. He reacted very quickly - his eyes swiveled to the player area just offstage, where Happy's players were gathered.
If talking about doing as promised, wasn't there a player from Happy that was the biggest joke in history?
Happy's Tang Rou, after failing to complete her promise of a 1v3, didn't follow through and quit Glory!
But when Ye Xiu said "do as promised," he promised to throw the match, and then threw the match…
Throwing a match truly wasn't anything pretty. Even on the All-Star stage when most people weren't putting in their full effort, it was rare for anyone to throw a match as obviously and bluntly as Ye Xiu had. He'd even used a "GG."
Do as promised, but he'd promised to throw a match. Ye Xiu's words, were they supposed to be ironic?
Aside from Song Qiying, it seemed that most people for now hadn't thought of Tang Rou. Right now, the Tyranny fans' aggro toward Ye Xiu was very stable. Even though the Rookie Challenge had entirely ended now, they were still targeting their fire to send Ye Xiu off the stage. This Day 1 of the All-Star Weekend, no matter how you looked at it, seemed to be designed for Tyranny fans. First was that strong commemoration of Tyranny's Captain Han Wenqing weathering ten years of Glory, which let the Tyranny fans shed a tear. And then, it became focused on the primary target of Tyranny fans' hatred, Ye Xiu, as all of the rookies lined up to challenge him.
Even though Ye Xiu had pulled off the unprecedented circumstances of "GG" and "1v2," it had to be said that this year's All-Star Weekend Day 1 was still quite exciting.
Typically, there were no formal press conferences planned for the All-Star Weekend. The reporters stationed by various media organizations had their own designated seating area, but only the media groups with partnerships had the chance to enter and directly interact with players. This included the Esports Channel that was in charge of the television broadcast, as well as the most authoritative Esports Home. But most of their time in the stadium was just spent watching. Only when there was a suitable opportunity would they search for players to exchange a few words. No one anticipated a formal interview at a setting like this, and no one would try to get one.
Today? The reporters were of course gathering the opinions of the players of the various teams, their opinions of the ten-year Han Wenqing, their opinions of the rookies lining up for their challenge, and their opinions of Ye Xiu, who was so fed up that he used a "GG."
The topics wouldn't be very serious. It was the All-Star Weekend, it was all in good fun. Even things like GG or throwing matches, only someone with a waterlogged brain would use that as ammunition for an attack. To be honest, the reporters quite welcomed these unexpected situations that Ye Xiu caused. They were a bit tired of writing the same thing about the respecting the old and loving the young when it came to the Rookie Challenge.
After a few performance events planned by the organizers, Day 1 of the All-Star Weekend officially came to a close. The pair of death rivals, Han Wenqing and Ye Xiu, became the stars of this day. Han Wenqing's ten years of persistence left behind strong emotions; Ye Xiu's seven consecutive rookie challenges left behind chaos.
Some older Glory players couldn't help but reminisce, this wasn't even the first time Ye Xiu had experienced all seven rookies wanting to challenge him.
But that time, Ye Xiu had honestly and straightforwardly played seven matches with those rookies. It had been nothing like the ridiculous scene today.
The older the ginger, the spicier it was. Ye Xiu alone demonstrated this point most vividly.
"You're really something…" As the pro players mingled after the conclusion of the event, a number of players came to jokingly complain to Ye Xiu in the backstage passageways.
Thrown among this crowd, Chen Guo really felt like a dazzled fan. Once upon a time, these figures were all high and mighty, but now, they were all gathered right beside her, and everyone was really very ordinary. Just from this setting, it was impossible to tell how fierce were the characters that these players controlled in the world of Glory.
Li Xun, the Void Assassin who loved one-hit kills, was currently complaining to Royal Style's Tian Sen about his toothache. It looked like Tian Sen gave him a phone number, recommending some dentist.
Chu Yunxiu, Misty Rain's captain and the idol of female players, was accusing Zhang Xinjie, originally from City X, of giving her a bad recommendation. The hot and sour rice noodles from a food street he had recommended to her didn't taste good at all.
"Too sour!" Chu Yunxiu said, baring her teeth as though she could still taste them.
"You probably put in too much vinegar!" said Zhang Xinjie, very serious.
"How much are you supposed to put in?" Chu Yunxiu asked.
"Seven-tenths of a spoon. Just use the little plastic spoon that comes with it," Zhang Xinjie said.
Spoon? Who used a spoon to add vinegar? And seven-tenths?
Chu Yunxiu bore her teeth again and directly abandoned Zhang Xinjie to look for her close friend Su Mucheng.
Miracle's Guo Shao and Tyranny's Song Qiying, those two youths somehow ended up together. Amidst the crowd of seniors, the two were holding a quiet discussion, occasionally shooting glances toward Happy's players, stopping at Ye Xiu. It looked like these two were currently studying how to knock over the mountain that was Ye Xiu.
Chen Guo discovered that only the discussions among rookies tended to revolve around Glory. The older players tended to talk about much more mundane topics.
301's Yang Cong and Tiny Herb's Wang Jiexi were talking about recent housing prices.
Jiang Botao and Xu Bin were talking about European soccer.
Tang Hao was complaining to Zou Yuan about the weather in City N. He was originally in Hundred Blossoms, and City K was his home; only after transferring to Wind Howl did he have to move to the city they were in, City N. It had now been almost two years, but it looked like he still didn't much like his new city.
Such ordinary topics allowed Chen Guo to truly feel that these… were all very much real, living, breathing creatures.
In the long passageway, the players didn't rest. They directly walked outside of the stadium, and then naturally said their goodbyes to each other, all going to their own team vehicles to head to the hotels where they were staying. Some teams were staying at the same hotels, and so the players instantly started mixing together and hitching rides randomly, continuing the topics they hadn't finished chatting about.
Compared to normal matchdays, the atmosphere was much more relaxed between all of the players. Chen Guo could feel this clearly.
The All-Star Weekend was really a good event! Amidst it all, Chen Guo smiled.
The second day of the All-Star Weekend soon arrived. Compared to Day 1, Day 2's events were bit more enriching, and there was some interaction with the live audience. They would choose some audience members to participate in the events alongside the pro players.
The first event would involve pitting Glory characters against each other in mini-games. In these past years, the All-Star Weekend would use MODs specially developed by the Glory creators. It was common that afterwards, they would become available within the normal Glory game, enhancing and diversifying the content of the game.
And what was this year's mini-game? The All-Star Weekend had already made a public preview. First up was Hot-Blooded Dodgeball!
It was called dodgeball, but in reality, it didn't strictly follow the typical rules of dodgeball. From the information that had been officially released, this game was more like the folk game sandbag toss.
The rules were as follows: the participating teams would send three players onstage, and two teams would be pitted against each other at a time. Each team would take one turn defending and one turn attacking. The final victory was determined by how long the turn lasted. For this event, there would be eight participating teams, five of them professional, and the other three made from randomly-selected audience members.
The players from the five participating pro teams quickly gathered onstage. The audience saw that they were players from Samsara, Thunderclap, Tiny Herb, Miracle, and Happy.
These five teams were selected with some care. Samsara was the team with the vast lead, Thunderclap had demonstrated unexpectedly strong team performances, Tiny Herb hadn't lost a single group arena yet, and Happy and Miracle were the two new teams in the Alliance that were doing unexpectedly well. These five teams were all attention-grabbing teams.
There were only players from these five teams…
From Samsara was Vice-captain Jiang Botao leading Assassin Wu Qi and Blade Master Du Ming.
Thunderclap had Captain Xiao Shiqin himself on the roster, leading Elementalist Dai Yanqi and the Sharpshooter that transferred from Misty Rain, Lu Yining.
Tiny Herb had Gao Yingjie, Liu Xiaobie, and Zhou Yebai.
Miracle had Shen Jian, Guo Shao, and Battle Mage Jia Xing.
As for Happy, there was Wei Chen, Steamed Bun, and… the player who had yet to appear onstage this season, someone whose first appearance would be in the fun atmosphere of All-Stars: Luo Ji.
It was his first time on such a large stage, and Luo Ji was clearly a bit terrified. Even though he knew that this was just a game, but he couldn't help but be nervous. As he stood onstage, he had no idea what to do with his hands and feet.
"Pull yourself together, you have me here!" Steamed Bun said to him, patting his own chest.
Having teammates beside him did allow some of Luo Ji's nervousness to dissipate. For the first time ever, Luo Ji thought that having Steamed Bun next to him was pretty nice.
There weren't a lot of All-Star level players participating in this event. This was also a way of purposefully making this more lowkey. For one, it gave other pro players a chance to participate in the excitement, and for another, it saved the highest-level show of the All-Star Weekend for Day 3, with the All-Star Competition.
The pro players went onstage, and then it was time to select audience members, one two three four five six seven eight nine, nine lucky audience members were chosen. Each was asked which team they supported, which players they liked and so on, which took up a bit of time. Fortunately, all of them had at least some understanding of Glory.
Next, the lucky audience members were randomly sorted into three teams, and the system began to randomly assign teams against each other.
Even though it was a never-before-seen playing mechanism in Glory, the pro players had their base level of skill, so it was very unlikely that they would be defeated by some ordinary players. For a pro vs ordinary team matchup, the outcome was basically set. But there was one extra pro team, plus since the matchups were randomized, it wasn't guaranteed that three pro teams would face the audience teams.
Indeed, in the end two audience teams were paired against each other, and Tiny Herb was matched against the third. The other four pro teams were matched against each other, two and two.
"Hehe, looks like Samsara's win streak ends here." When interviewed by the host, Happy's Wei Chen saw their upcoming opponent and spoke with full confidence.
Happy's opponent: Team Samsara.
Chapter 1253: The Decider
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Happy. Samsara.
One was a new team that had made their way through the Challenger League, the other was the two-time defending champion. At the start of the season, no one would have imagined that these two teams would become rivals - the opening match seemed to prove this point. Team Happy had lost to Team Samsara 0-10, a score that couldn't get any worse, and started their season with a stumble.
Afterwards, Happy became more and more terrifying. Starting from Round 9, they stopped losing, slaughtering their opponents with a record matching Samsara's.
Six 10-0s.
Even though the total point difference between the two teams was a large 34 points, if one only looked at Round 9 through Round 17, Happy had won even more points than Samsara.
Happy was completely in form now!
Everyone believed this. After all, Happy was a new team. New teams always needed an adjustment period. A rocky start was actually very logical. After getting past this difficult period of adaptation, Happy finally soared into the skies.
The problems that the outside world had helped analyze for Happy were now cleanly resolved.
For the issue of Fang Rui's class change, after finding his own path, his dirty Qi Master style was becoming more and more mature.
For the issue of the team's unfamiliarity with an unspecialized, Happy's players had adapted very well, far faster than people had expected. From the very start, people seemed to have disregarded how good Happy was at adapting to this new class.
The rookies Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, and Luo Ji, didn't need to be mentioned. When they first came into contact with Glory, Lord Grim quickly appeared by their side. Perhaps in their minds, Glory originally had 25 classes, not 24. And among these 25 was the unspecialized. From the very start, the unspecialized problem didn't exist for them.
As for Su Mucheng, as a pro player, an unspecialized hadn't been seen in many years, and she needed time to get familiar with this class. However, Su Mucheng was a player who understood Ye Xiu well, so compared to anyone else, she had an advantage in adapting to Ye Xiu's Lord Grim.
As for Fang Rui, he didn't have the same level of connection as Su Mucheng did with Ye Xiu, but Fang Rui just happened to be undergoing a class change. He coincidentally was also getting used to a new class. During his process of destruction into construction, he brought Lord Grim into his new system without any extra trouble, so he was able to fit in with Lord Grim much faster than the average pro player.
For the same reason, when Qiao Yifan got into contact with Lord Grim, he happened to be changing classes too, so his story was the same as Fang Rui's.
Wei Chen had ten years of Glory experience and An Wenyi was a healer, who had more of an observant role. As a result, getting familiar with Lord Grim was fast for them as well. Mo Fan was someone who had never coordinated with anyone before, so for him, he became familiar in another form of a destruction into construction process.
Everyone in Team Happy coincidentally had this and that advantage in familiarizing themselves with an unspecialized, so after practicing hard and accumulating experience in matches, the team took form very quickly. The more Happy played, the smoother everything became.
There was one point that could not be overlooked either. Happy's schedule at the start of the season had been quite the devil. Samsara, Tyranny, Blue Rain, Tiny Herb, these four powerhouses had matched against Happy in the first eight rounds. Happy's poor win record was partly because of this reason.
In any case, the current Happy was the most prominent team since the past nine rounds. Their current ranking was fifth… a strong contender for the playoffs.
Yes, a strong contender...
A team with three All-Stars.
A team placed fifth on the point rankings.
Saying they were a strong team wasn't unreasonable. No one felt like it was a notion difficult to accept.
If they were a strong team, then they had the qualifications to challenge Samsara.
However… on the All-Stars stage? In this fun competition? Happy wanted to end Samsara's win streak?
This had to be a joke!
How could anything here count?
The crowd started laughing. They regarded Wei Chen's serious words as a joke.
Thinking of how Ye Xiu was in Happy, the home crowd obviously didn't bear much good will towards Happy. Amidst the laughter, there were quite a few boos thrown towards Wei Chen as well.
"Haha, it looks like the crowd's already feeling pressured in place of Samsara," Wei Chen laughed.
The boos became even louder.
"It looks like they're really nervous!" Steamed Bun said in confusion. "Isn't this Tyranny's home stadium though? Why are they feeling afraid for Samsara?"
Afraid?
Tyranny's fans went into a frenzy. Sure enough, no one by Ye Xiu's side was a good person. Is he actually challenging us?
The boos even drowned out the host's voice.
"DESTROY THEM!!" Someone even yelled out.
"Thanks!" Steamed Bun waved in the direction of that voice. "Relax, we'll definitely do it!"
"FUCK, I WAS SAYING DESTROY GUYS!!" Tyranny's fans were going crazy, but they looked at one another. How could they get these words through to them?
The host wasn't planning on just letting them continue playing around and started interviewing the next person.
"You plan on deciding it here?" Samsara's Jiang Botao moved towards Happy's three players and started chatting with them.
"Are you scared?" Wei Chen looked at him disdainfully.
"Hahaha," Jiang Botao laughed but didn't say anything. Next to him, Wu Qi and Du Ming walked up without any intentions of retreating. Even though this was All-Stars, a fun competition, if someone wanted to play for real, then they wouldn't back down. Samsara was the defending champions. Their title wasn't going to be snatched so easily with just a few words. Wei Chen's attitude made the two feel very displeased.
"There's no hurry." Wei Chen looked at those two. "We'll know the answer soon."
Wei Chen exuded extraordinary confidence. Samsara's three saw this confidence and felt a little doubtful. The fun mini-games were newly-created things that had never been revealed prior to the All-Stars Weekend. No one knew what they were, so where did the other side's unwavering confidence come from?
Could there be something in the game similar to this competition, and this guy happened to be a master at it?
The three guessed. Pro players were becoming more and more detached from the online game. To them, Glory was becoming more and more like a pure fighting game. Did the online game have something like this? The three weren't sure.
Sparks had started flying between Happy and Samsara, which was undoubtedly exciting for the viewers. One could never have too much drama. After the host interviewed each side, Hot-Blooded Dodgeball began. First up was Tiny Herb and the lucky audience team. The commentator on the broadcast took the information he had and introduced the mini-game in detail so that the viewers would have a better time watching. As for the host, he also had to explain the responsibilities of the players participating in this mini-game.
The rules were practically the same as normal dodgeball. In a confined area, one side would use a sandbag to attack, while the other side would defend. If a sandbag hit a character, the character would be knocked out of the field. But if the defender caught the sandbag, the defender would need to be hit an extra time to be knocked out. If an ally was already knocked out, the defender could also choose to revive the ally.
As for how to use a sandbag?
On stage, Tiny Herb and the lucky audience team loaded into the map and discovered that their characters had two new skills, Sandbag Toss and Sandbag Catch. After everyone tried them out, they quickly grasped how to use them.
The match officially started. Tiny Herb attacked, while the lucky audience team defended. If a sandbag hit, the target would be eliminated. It was equivalent to an instant kill. If viewed from a combat perspective, it vastly decreased the amount of time needed for a turn. As a result, after just a minute, the three lucky audience members were wiped out. The viewers could all see that Tiny Herb hadn't been too merciless and had held back.
Next, the lucky audience team attacked, while Tiny Herb defended. The three Tiny Herb players didn't catch any sandbag and only dodged. After dodging for around how long the last turn took, they let the other side hit them to end their turn. Because of the wide disparity in skill, everyone could see that in this mini-game, if the pro players played seriously, the audience team's turn to attack might never end.
With Tiny Herb's victory, the other contestants also got a better understanding of the mini-game.
The following match was between the two audience teams. Since the two teams were more evenly-matched, this confrontation was a lot more intense than the previous round. After lots of laughs, a winner was decided after the two turns.
Next was Happy versus Samsara. After drawing ballots, Samsara would be attacking first, while Happy would be defending.
After watching the first four teams fight, the on-stage players now had their own thoughts and ideas for this mini-game. The characters loaded into the map. The attacking Samsara stood at the corners of the map, forming an equilateral triangle, while Happy stood in the middle at the very center of the map. These positions were just their starting locations. After loading into the map, they could freely move around. In the match between the two audience teams, those six players ran around crazily until it was all a huge mess. The viewers weren't familiar with their characters and in fact, the players themselves weren't familiar with their own teammates, so enemies treating each other as allies and allies treating other as enemies had happened more than once.
This sort of situation probably wouldn't happen with these two pro teams.
When the match started, there was an indicator showing who first had the sandbag. Right now, it was in the hands of Du Ming's Blade Master, Moon-Luring Frost.
However, the sandbag wasn't thrown just like that. A sword light flashed, and Du Ming had Moon-Luring Frost open a path with Triple Slash.
The All-Star mini-games would never block anything the game originally had, so every single mini-game had this element in it: killing! It was always a method to win. But the problem was that in this mini-game, if a sandbag hit, the target would be instantly knocked out. Killing required calculating both damage dealt and health remaining, so it was more trouble than it was worth.
No one thought that Du Ming was going in with intentions to kill his opponent. Triple Slash was simply a way to close the distance. With less distance between them, it would be easier to hit the target. The logic was very simple.
Chapter 1254: Airborne Sandbag
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Du Ming's target was the person who had looked down on them earlier, Wei Chen. Sword light flew, and Moon-Luring Frost rapidly closed the distance between him and Windward Formation. He raised his other hand and threw a sandbag.
The sandbag's speed and distance depended entirely on the player's skill. How could a pro player lack that? The sandbag was like a shadow as it shot towards Windward Formation.
Pu!
Hit!
Du Ming felt delighted. You arrogant bastard, I got rid of you in just three seconds. But before he could laugh, he looked closer and saw that Windward Formation hadn't been hit.
A small flying dragon had flown in front of Windward Formation who knew when. His sandbag had hit this small flying dragon. It was undoubtedly Luo Ji who had summoned this small flying dragon. However, according to the mini-game's settings, the sandbag was a godly killing weapon. When the sandbag hit, the small flying dragon was instantly knocked outside of the battlefield just like a player character.
"Nice job," Wei Chen praised Luo Ji. Luo Ji didn't have time to be happy though, as his nervous heart was about to leap out of his throat. When the match started, Wei Chen immediately told him to summon a creature to block an attack. Such a heavy responsibility gave Luo Ji huge amounts of pressure. He feared that he wouldn't be able to control it properly or not accurately enough. If his block missed, wouldn't it be Wei Chen being knocked out of the field?
Fortunately, he succeeded, but he was more relieved than happy. Seeing that his small flying dragon had been knocked out, Luo Ji wanted to summon another one but when he checked his skills, he discovered that he couldn't use them. His character was Silenced.
Luo Ji immediately understood. A Summoner's creatures couldn't be used as an endless supply of shields in this mini-game. If a summon was hit by a sandbag, it would be locked and unable to be summoned again.
If I catch a sandbag, will I be able to use the summon again? Luo Ji thought to himself. But he also knew that in this mini-game, if he caught a sandbag, it didn't make sense to use it on getting the summon back.
The sandbag thrown at the small flying dragon dropped towards the ground. It wouldn't automatically return to the attacker's hands; the attacker had to pick it up himself. Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost was the closest to it. He hurried to grab it, but just before the sandbag hit the ground, a hand moved underneath the sandbag and caught it.
"Hahaha," Wei Chen laughed. Before a sandbag landed on the ground, it could be caught without question. As a result, Happy was able to pick one up, and the three players now had an extra life.
The rules stated that after catching a sandbag, within three seconds, the sandbag needed to be thrown away for an attacker to pick up. This was worthy of being exploited. Wei Chen looked at the other three's positions and found a gap, which was just behind Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost. He shouted "Catch" and Windward Formation chucked it.
Du Ming immediately had Moon-Luring Frost turn around. On the other hand, Wu Qi's Assassin, Cruel Silence, also rushed towards it to hurry and catch it. But when the two sprinted for it, they realized that there was no sandbag.
"Whoops, sorry. I dropped it on the ground." Wei Chen laughed honestly. The sandbag had slipped out of Windward Formation's hands, falling straight down onto Windward Formation's feet.
The crowd erupted into thunderous boos. The viewers lashed out at Wei Chen's shamelessness one after the other. Wei Chen didn't care though. Happy's three characters had started moving away long before the sandbag hit the ground. For them, the farther they were away from the sandbags, the better.
Du Ming coughed blood as his Moon-Luring Frost turned around to pick up the sandbag. Wu Qi furiously had his Cruel Silence chase after him.
"Stay organized and maintain good positioning. Reduce their space and deal with them one by one," Jiang Botao yelled out. This mini-game looked easy, but in reality, there was a lot of strategy involved. The triangle starting position was a balanced way of positioning. How to move afterwards depended on the situation. Keeping up a constant stream of attacks was very important, so the three had to constantly be communicating. After Du Ming threw the sandbag, not only did the opponents play a dirty trick on them, even without that, just the small flying dragon blocking the sandbag and then forcing the attackers to run to pick it up was a serious interruption towards their offense. When throwing a sandbag, the path of the throw should be such that another attacker could catch the sandbag and continue attacking. This was the key to this mini-game for the attackers. Whether it was dodgeball, throwing sandbags, or this mini-game, this was always the strategy.
Seeing Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost pick up the sandbag, Jiang Botao immediately had his Empty Waves move in an attempt to form a link with Moon-Luring Frost's position. Who would have thought that before he could take more than a few steps, he would hear Du Ming curse loudly. When he turned around to look, he saw a Hexagram Prison trapping Moon-Luring Frost.
"You youngsters have got to open your eyes wider," Wei Chen sighed.
"Senior's methods are truly brilliant," Jiang Botao praised sincerely.
"Oh? You child, you really know how to talk!" Wei Chen laughed.
Jiang Botao also laughed, but his hands hadn't stopped moving.
Ice Wave Sword!
Ice crystals spread, quickly moving towards Happy's three characters. Ice element skills with a chance of lowering movement speed could undoubtedly be effective at crucial moments.
"We were having such a good chat and then you suddenly launch a sneak attack. Kids these days are truly too shameless," Wei Chen said as his Windward Formation dodged to the side.
"Senior, good joke." Jiang Botao wasn't affected by Wei Chen's trash talk. His Ice Wave Sword didn't hit, so he swung his sword again with a Fire Wave.
Fire blazed. Jiang Botao wanted to use this attack to restrict the opponent's movement options, but he didn't expect someone to just directly run through the fire waves and charge towards him.
Powerful Knee Strike!
Steamed Bun Invasion leaped up and his knee came crashing towards Empty Waves.
Sigh, a miscalculation!
Jiang Botao instantly realized that a purely offensive skill like Fire Wave Sword might be the least useful skills in this mini-game. With the threat of a one hit kill sandbag, who could care about this sort of damage? Happy's Steamed Bun decisively chose to ignore this damage and charged straight through these fire waves. This sort of scene was simply too rare. Jiang Botao wasn't able to react in time, and Empty Wave's Powerful Knee Strike slammed into him.
Wu Qi had understood Jiang Botao's intentions, and his Cruel Silence positioned himself with Empty Waves. They were just waiting for Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost to break free from Hexagram Prison. How could he have known Empty Waves would be sent flying away. For a moment, Wu Qi didn't know what to do. Everyone was still somewhat unfamiliar with this sort of mini-game.
"Hold them!" At this moment, Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost had finally broken from from Hexagram Prison. He shouted towards Wu Qi, telling him to form a pincer together.
Happy were doing their utmost to avoid the sandbag from Moon-Luring Frost. The three characters stopped grouping up and dispersed in different directions. Not only did they have to dodge Moon-Luring Frost, they needed to evade Cruel Silence as well. Jiang Botao saw Happy's movements and knew the other side also knew the key to this game. The attackers carrying sandbags were the most threatening characters, but the defenders could not just ignore the attackers without one. Sandbags could be passed around.
"Catch!" Du Ming shouted and tossed a sandbag into the air. Wei Chen, who was in front of Du Ming, had Windward Formation dodge, but how could he have known the sandbag would be thrown so off target...
This wasn't a direct attack, but an assist!
Jiang Botao's Empty Waves remained calm and collected and went into an extremely good position. Du Ming learned from Wei Chen's cheap trick and returned the favor with a shout of his own. The sandbag was instead passed to Empty Waves. From Jiang Botao's position to Moon-Luring Frost throw, it was hard to know what Samsara was planning, but in an instant, they suddenly sped up. After Empty Waves caught the sandbag, his hands didn't stop moving. He threw the sandbag, not at the opponent directly in front of him, but towards Concealed Light to the side of him.
Luo Ji turned pale with fright. He mashed his keys in a fluster and was able to dodge it, but when he turned around, he saw that Cruel Silence had unexpectedly used Shining Cut to instantly reach his rear. Cruel Silence extended his hands, catching Empty Wave's sandbag, and threw the sandbag.
Hit!
This time, it was a hit. Samsara's sudden acceleration had caught Luo Ji off guard. This sandbag struck Concealed Light squarely.
However, at the start of the match, Wei Chen's Windward Formation was able to catch a sandbag, giving Happy an extra life. As a result, this hit didn't knock Concealed Light off the stage. Samsara's offense wasn't over yet though. The instant Cruel Silence threw this sandbag, he rushed forward ferociously ready to pick up the sandbag.
If a sandbag successfully hit a character, the defenders would not be able to pick it up. Luo Ji could only have his Concealed Light run from that sandbag. However, how could a Summoner's movement speed compare to an Assassin's? By the time Cruel Silence snatched the sandbag, Concealed Light had only taken a few steps. Wu Qi showed no mercy. His Cruel Silence raised his arm, ready to throw the sandbag, when suddenly, a figure flashed in front of him, slamming a brick into Cruel Silence's face.
Wu Qi saw his screen instantly turn dark. This brick had blocked his view, and at this distance, how could he have any time to dodge? Pu! The brick struck Cruel Silence, making Wu Qi's heart thump. He had already been in a throwing animation. There was no time to cancel it, yet he still wanted to dodge the brick. In a fluster, that sandbag ended up being thrown, gently and without any force behind it, hitting nothing but air.
"I kindly accept this offering!" Wei Chen laughed. Windward Formation stepped forward to pick it up.
"Not happening!!" Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost rushed forward, but since he was behind Windward Formation, he wouldn't be able to reach it in time. Moon-Luring Frost leaped into the air, the tip of his sword trembling.
Curving Wind Form.
Moon-Luring Frost used the new Level 75 skill. Sword qi moved in reverse, pulling in the sandbag towards Moon-Luring Frost.
"Smart kid, looks like you're quite creative!" Wei Chen's Windward Formation saw his prize flying away and continued to trash talk as his Windward Formation pointed his Death's Hand into the air.
Chapter 1255: Point Blank
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Soul Slice!
A purple light flashed from Death's Hand, sending out several slashes towards the airborne sandbag.
Du Ming was startled. He didn't dare wait for the sandbag to arrive and moved his Moon-Luring Frost forward hurriedly to grab it. Even if he couldn't get it, he definitely couldn't let someone from Happy catch it.
But no matter his fast his movement speed was, it couldn't compare to a skill's. Du Ming looked at Soul Slice's trajectory and made a prediction. Moon-Luring Frost headed directly towards Soul Slice's direction, but the Soul Slice unexpectedly missed the sandbag.
It didn't hit?
The sandbag pulled by Curving Wind Form's sword energy didn't pull the sandbag back very fast. For a pro player, hitting a target at such a speed shouldn't be anything difficult. However, Windward Formation's Soul Slice actually missed. Was it a mistake, or was it... intentional?
"Ah, is this mouse broken?" Du Ming heard Wei Chen complain. He hastily had Moon-Luring Frost turn around and saw a black shadow leap up faster than he could react. The sandbag disappeared into the air along with this black shadow.
Du Ming had Moon-Luring Frost send out a slash in a fluster, but it missed. That black shadow's movements were quick and nimble. After snatching the sandbag, it ran towards Happy's Summoner, Concealed Light, who took the sandbag from the spirit cat's mouth.
From the system notification, everyone could see that this retrieval was considered effective. Happy had gained another life.
Du Ming, who had just fallen for the trick, was both furious and ashamed. Moon-Luring Frost raised his sword, ready to charge towards Windward Formation.
"Calm down! It's just a minigame," Jiang Botao shouted.
Yes, it was just a minigame. It was supposed to be a casual minigame filled with laughs. But Wei Chen's confidence after Happy picked Samsara was truly quite infuriating. Samsara's three players wanted to give this old guy a slap to his face, but from the looks of it, the old guy's skill at this game was deeper than theirs. Who said young people were easier at adapting to new things? Right now, this old guy was relying on his experience and after just two rounds of observation, he had quickly found the trick to this minigame.
"Du Ming, directly attack them. Give the sandbag to me and Wu Qi," Jiang Botao decided. It looked like beating Happy purely in a contest of their understanding of this minigame wouldn't be easy. He decided that they should display Samsara's strength, using attacks to restrict them while using sandbags to kill.
"Okay!" Du Ming welcomed this decision and replied bluntly.
On Happy's side, Luo Ji's Concealed Light held onto the sandbag for three seconds before throwing it towards a location inconvenient for Samsara. In the meantime, the three from Happy began preparing themselves for Samsara's next wave of attacks. But this time, Samsara had clearly calmed down. Jiang Botao and Du Ming positioned themselves to restrict Happy, but they didn't hastily start attacking. They waited for Wu Qi's Assassin to pick up the sandbag before calmly searching for an opportunity.
"Pretend to attack Windward Formation!" Jiang Botao commanded. As expected, Samsara's ability to carry out orders was outstanding. Before he even finished his words, Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost moved towards Windward Formation with a Triple Slash. Cruel Silence circled around to the side with a sandbag in his hands. Their teamwork was quite steady. Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost rushed forward, but he didn't attack. He simply stood there in a defensive position, stopping Windward Formation from approaching.
Restricting the opponent's movement space meant limiting the opponent's ability to dodge. Forcefully breaking through was an unwise move in this minigame. The sandbag was an instant kill weapon. It wasn't possible for a defender to win a direct fight against an attacker.
Sure enough, Wei Chen didn't make this unwise move. As soon as he saw Moon-Luring Frost block his path forward, he immediately turned. Cruel Silence had reached his side, but Wei Chen acted like he didn't see him.
Is he baiting us again? Jiang Botao observed Happy's movements. His Empty Waves was also shrinking their movement space, coordinating with Cruel Silence to continue pressuring Windward Formation.
However, these were all facades. From the very start, Jiang Botao had indicated that this was a fakeout, acting as cover for their true target. As for who this true target was, Jiang Botao still hadn't decided. Perhaps it was in fact Windward Formation. Everything depended on how Happy reacted to their pressure.
"Press forward!" Jiang Botao ordered again. Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost directly launched an attack at Windward Formation. As expected, as the defender, Wei Chen wasn't willing to get into a tangle with the attacker. Windward Formation retreated again.
"You punks, what are you doing, chasing relentlessly after this senior?" Wei Chen had Windward Formation dodge as he spouted trash talk.
"It's all because senior is too threatening!" Jiang Botao said.
"You baby, you really know how to talk! Hahaha!" Wei Chen once again praised Jiang Botao. Last time, Jiang Botao responded with a merciless attack. What about this time? This time, there was none. Jiang Botao suddenly turned diagonally. Empty Waves had originally been trying to block Windward Formation's retreat path, but this sudden turn completely changed his intent.
Ice Wave Sword!
This skill could not be ignored. An ice wave swept over murderously. Its target: Concealed Light.
"Good kid! So you were threatening the east to attack the west!" Wei Chen shouted. Windward Formation turned around to try and rescue Concealed Light, but Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost stopped him. He didn't attack. He simply cut off the path between Windward Formation and Concealed Light.
Cruel Silence suddenly sped up. He sent out a Shining Cut and activated Swift Movement. In an instant, the distance between himself and Concealed Light closed. Then, Shadow Clone Technique!
This instant movement Ninja skill was a skill practically every Night Walker class learned. For the final stretch of Cruel Silence's dash, he used this skill to instantly appear in front of Concealed Light. This sudden acceleration had caught Luo Ji unprepared last time, and this time was no different. He had just dodged Empty Wave's Ice Wave Sword and didn't expect an Assassin to suddenly appear before him in the blink of an eye with a sandback ready. At point blank, how could this sandbag be dodged? It was impossible!
Hit!
Cruel Silence's sandbag hit Concealed Light, instantly wiping out the extra life that they had just earned not long ago. As the sandbag fell, Luo Ji wanted Concealed Light to hurry and get away, but this time, Jiang Botao had predicted his intentions. In this sandbag minigame, whether the defenders caught it or the defenders were hit, the attacker's offense would be interrupted. Thus, just thinking about striking the target wasn't enough. Apart from hitting the target, the attackers needed to consider how to reach the next step in their offense. After hitting Concealed Light, the sandbag was caught in his hands before it fell to the ground. Concealed Light tried to run, but he was blocked by Empty Waves. By the time he tried moving in a different direction, he was too late. Cruel Silence once again threw the sandbag at point blank range. Concealed Light was hit once again and was cleanly knocked off the stage this time.
Fast. Everything had happened too fast. Wei Chen and Steamed Bun didn't have time to respond before Concealed Light was eliminated. Just this minigame alone show just terrifying the champion team's explosiveness was.
However, the offense from Samsara wasn't done yet. Two point blank sandbags and Cruel Silence caught both of them before they fell to the ground. Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost ran towards Windward Formation. Wei Chen immediately realized what he wanted to do, but facing this sort of charge, the defenders seemed powerless. They couldn't stop to fight with their opponents. Their only choice was to run away and dodge.
Windward Formation sprinted back, but Moon-Luring Frost pursued him faster, closing in with a Triple Slash. Cruel Silence then passed his sandbag to Moon-Luring Frost. Shadow Steps!
Moon-Luring Frost didn't immediately throw his sandbag, instead using Shadow Steps. Five Moon-Luring Frosts instantly flickered into existence, each holding a sandbag. Without pausing, not giving Wei Chen any time to figure out which one was real, the five Moon-Luring Frosts threw their sandbags at the same time.
"That's too shameless!!" Wei Chen cried out in grief. The five sandbags flew at him, sealing off all of Windward Formation's escape options. Of the five, four were fake, but Wei Chen didn't know which one was real, so he could only pray.
Left!
Windward Formation stepped to the left. A sandbag hit him but disappeared.
Wei Chen let out a sigh of relief. However, it wasn't over yet. While he was figuring out if the sandbag that him was real or fake, Moon-Luring Frost acted again. A sword light flashed out, Sword Draw, aimed towards the previously thrown sandbag.
Du Ming obviously knew which of the sandbags was real. The Sword Draw didn't slice apart the sandbag. It carried the sandbag along with it towards Windward Formation.
"Punk… how crafty!" Wei Chen sighed. The sandbag was considered a throw too, and Windward Formation was eliminated.
The closely linked attacks knocked out two of Happy's players in the blink of an eye. The crowd was dumbstruck. Even Steamed Bun was having trouble keeping up.
"What's going on? How'd you guys suddenly disappear?" Steamed Bun was puzzled as he looked at the eliminated Windward Formation and Concealed Light.
"Chance!" Jiang Botao shouted. Du Ming's Moon-Luring Frost shot forward. He picked up a sandbag and twisted his body, throwing the sandbag like a meteor towards Steamed Bun Invasion, who was looking away.
Pai!
The sandbag was stopped. A Brick had crashed into the sandbag, swatting it down. Du Ming was dumbfounded. He hadn't thought Steamed Bun would suddenly regain his senses and then throw a Brick that actually intercepted the meteor-like sandbag.
"This is no fun!" Steamed Bun said. "Why don't we have a real fight?"
Chapter 1256: A Class Composition Fit for Dodgeball
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
"A real fight?" Jiang Botao laughed, "1v3 us? That's going to be very difficult!"
"Bring it on!" Steamed Bun yelled.
"Vice captain, he's stalling for time!" Du Ming saw that Jiang Botao seemed to want to play along with this guy, so he hastily gave him a reminder.
"This match is just for fun. Why worry so much? Let's just play with him! Could it be you think it'll take us a long time to beat him 3v1?" Jiang Botao asked.
"Of course not!" Du Ming's spirits rose.
"Let's go!" Wu Qi called out. His Cruel Silence rushed out.
"We're coming!" Jiang Botao said.
"I've been waiting for a long time now," Steamed Bun said calmly. For a moment, the Brawler Steamed Bun Invasion had the faint aura of a great scholar around him. Facing a 1v3, he didn't back down a single step and stood his ground proudly. But in the next moment, Steamed Bun Invasion was lying flat on the ground. He had turned into a corpse that was on his way out of the stage.
Everyone's mouths were wide open.
They couldn't understand. What was going on in Bao Rongxing's mind? Why would he disgrace himself? They just couldn't understand!
Is he stupid? Everyone thought so.
"Haha, what a pity, I lost!" Steamed Bun was very upset.
"DId you actually think you could win?" Luo Ji couldn't help but ask.
"Whether I lose or win, as long as I fight bravely, I'll never have any regrets," Steamed Bun said.
"Can someone take care of him?" Luo Ji seemed to be possessed by Mo Fan, his face expressionless.
"Alright, next up, it's our turn to attack. We're gonna fight fast and end this fast." Wei Chen said to his two juniors.
"Fight!" Steamed Bun shouted.
"..." Luo Ji.
The attackers and defenders switched roles. Happy on the offense, Samsara on the defense.
The opening was the same. It was just that this time, the ones standing at the corners of the triangle were Happy's three characters. The sandbag was in Windward Formation's hand.
"If we keep catching sandbags endessly, won't this game go on forever?" Du Ming said.
"We just need to beat their time," Wu Qi siad.
"We can do it!" Jiang Botao said. Even though they didn't really care too much, it was still better to be the winner than the loser.
The match started. Jiang Botao immediately spun 360 degrees, observing Happy's movements.
The three from Happy were moving into offensive positions. Samsara also moved, while paying attention to Windward Formation's sandbag. Wei Chen was cunning. They had personally experienced it. With the sandbag in his hands, they felt like he definitely had a surprise waiting for them.
"Watch me!" Wei Chen suddenly roared and swung his arms.
Samsara immediately dodged, but the sandbag wasn't thrown towards them.
"This again!" Du Ming said. He turned around and saw the sandbag in Steamed Bun Invasion's hands. However, Steamed Bun Invasion wasn't in a good attacking position. Was he going to pass again?
Samsara moved, wary of Happy's next pass.
But there was no pass. The sandbag fell into Steamed Bun Invasion's hands, and then Happy's three characters gathered together.
What are they doing?
Jiang Botao couldn't understand. In this minigame, the attacking side carried more threat when they split apart and formed links with each other. If all three attackers crowded together, what was the difference between three people and one?
Could they be planning on charging at us together?
Just when they were thinking this, Windward Formation and Concealed Light started casting.
Concealed Light summoned creatures, while Windward Formation cast… Death's Door!
No one had ever heard of someone casting such a slow skill out in the open like this.
However, the threat of Death's Door was truly huge. Samsara couldn't ignore it. Jiang Botao's Empty Waves rushed forward. He swung his sword, sending out an Earth Wave Sword in an attempt to interrupt Windward Formation.
But then, Steamed Bun Invasion jumped out from the side, blocking this Earth Wave Sword.
The attack obviously dealt damage, but Steamed Bun Invasion didn't seem to care. He held the sandbag in his left hand and a Brick in his right hand as he sprinted madly towards Empty Waves.
Jiang Botao could only choose to run away. Who would dare to fight against someone who possessed the ultimate killing weapon, the sandbag?
But Windward Formation's Death's Hand had to be interrupted! Jiang Botao was being chased by Steamed Bun, so he had no chance to. He could only give the task to Du Ming and Wu Qi. However, by this time, Concealed Light had summoned quite a few creatures. His summons didn't rush out, instead providing cover for Windward Formation.
Jiang Botao suddenly realized the problem. At the same time, he also realized that in this minigame, some classes had advantages over others.
For example, Blade Masters and Assassins, two classes with powerful offensive capabilities, lost a lot of their threat in this minigame. No matter how strong your attacks were, how could they compare to an instant kill weapon?
The biggest threats in this minigame were control skills.
Warlocks were control experts, and Summoners who summoned creatures on the field were also very troublesome. His summons took up space, reducing the amount of room for the defenders to maneuver around, and this space was needed for defenders to dodge the sandbags.
A Warlock and a Summoner. Jiang Botao discovered that these two classes were most effective at exploiting the instant kill sandbags.
Not good!
Jiang Botao already had a bad feeling. Even though Du Ming's and Wu Qi's efforts forced Windward Formation to give up his Death's Door, it also lured the two into the summon's encirclement.
Kill kill kill!
Sword and dagger danced in the air. Du Ming also realized that the situation was looking very bad, so he directly used the high-level skill, Formless Phantom Blade. Sword light quickly cut down the summons in a flurry. However, Concealed Light was constantly summoning more, not caring at all about his mana or his skill cooldowns because this wasn't a normal fight. As the attackers, they had instant kill weapons. As long as they had a single opening, they could instantly kill the opponent.
Using Formless Phantom Blade in this situation?
This decision was a bit careless!
A high-level skill like Formless Phantom Blade had a long ending lag, a large opening for the attackers to take advantage of. In this minigame, an opening like this could be fatal!
But the skill had already been used, and it was too late for Jiang Botao to warn him. He could only watch as Moon-Luring Frost slaughter the area around him and then when the final slash came out, Moon-Luring Frost became stuck in ending lag.
Steamed Bun leaped out at this moment. Jiang Botao predicted this would happen, but there was nothing he could do to stop him. As for Wu Qi? Wu Qi was helpless too because Windward Formation was fighting him. A Warlock's control skills could not be ignored in this minigame.
Pai, the sandbag easily hit Moon-Luring Frost. Everyone could only watch helplessly.
Moon-Luring Frost was eliminated. Concealed Light's army of summons started swarming around Wu Qi's Cruel Silence. The sandbag that fell to the ground was also picked up by him and soon passed over to Steamed Bun Invasion.
Jiang Botoa clearly understood Happy's strategy now. A Warlock with control skills, a Summoner with summons, and a Brawler with the sandbag. All three characters were major threats, which could not be said for Samsara. He could throw out an Earth Wave Sword, but Steamed Bun could just directly take the attack. On the other hand, if a Warlock's Binding Curse or Control Curse came his way, he didn't dare eat it.
The threat that all three members of Happy possessed when attacking was something that Samsara's three couldn't achieve. If it was real fight like Steamed Bun said, Samsara might have the advantage, but in this minigame, Jiang Botao felt powerless when it was Happy's turn to attack.
Cruel Silence was trapped by the army of summons. Then, Windward Formation used a Control Curse to CC him. Jiang Botao was being chased by Steamed Bun and couldn't save him. As soon as Steamed Bun saw that a target had been CCed, Steamed Bun Invasion's sandbag was thrown. Cruel Silence was unable to move due to Windward Formation's Control Curse and the sandbag hit him square in the forehead.
Two Samsara players had been eliminated. Happy's offense wasn't as fast and nimble as Samsara's, but it made the defending side feel completely powerless.
Jiang Botao checked the time. There was already no hope of winning.
"How about a real fight?" He laughed, learning from Steamed Bun last round.
"Sure!" Steamed Bun jumped out.
"Okay, Steamed Bun hand me the sandbag. Go!" Wei Chen said.
JIang Botao's heart thumped. Why did he feel like this arrangement didn't seem safe?
"Relax!" Wei Chen said, "I'll definitely sneak attack you."
Jiang Botao was speechless. The guy wasn't even trying to hide his intentions.
Steamed Bun Invasion charged forward and started fighting with Jiang Botao's Spellblade. Sure enough, Wei Chen kept his promise. Windward Formation was on the side, constantly harassing Jiang Botao. When an opportunity arrived where the attack couldn't be dodged, he threw the sandbag along with a skill.
"Okay, go die!" Wei Chen said. The sandbag hit, and Jiang Botao was eliminated.
In the end, Happy used less time, so they won.
"Samsara's win streak has finally ended!" Wei Chen exclaimed delightedly.
"Senior, you really…" Jiang Botao forced a smile. He was an expert at talking to others, but he didn't know what to say right now.
The first round of Hot-Blooded Dodgeball finished, and the four teams once again drew ballots for their next opponent. Just like Jiang Botao realized, in this minigame, Happy's class composition held an overwhelming advantage. The other pro teams, Tiny Herb and Miracle, couldn't compete. Happy won the next two rounds easily and ended up as the winners of Hot-Blooded Dodgeball.
"Champions!" Wei Chen declared loudly.
"Do we get a trophy?" Steamed Bun asked the host excitedly.
"This… I don't think so…" the host was sweating. It was just a minigame. A trophy?
"If there's no trophy, then a medal?" Steamed Bun asked.
"I don't think so either…"
"Prize?" Steamed Bun was still asking.
"Uh, that… Thank you to our nine audience members, and thank you to the fifteen players from our five pro teams for giving us a wonderful performance. Thank you!" The host took the lead and applauded, shooing away Happy down from the stage.
Chapter 1257: Things Remain, But The People Change
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The Hot-Blooded Dodgeball competition came to a close. There were a lot of participants, and the elimination was turn-by-turn, so this one minigame replaced the three minigames of previous All-Stars. However, having just this one event would have been somewhat monotonous, so afterwards there was also a three-legged race event.
It could be seen from this that Tyranny, hosting this year's All-Stars, wanted to emphasize the subject of teamwork. Whether it was Hot-Blooded Dodgeball or Three-Legged Race, they all required exceptional teamwork and cooperation.
However, the famed All-Star pairings with which everyone was familiar still didn't appear in these minigames. Everyone knew that this excitement would be left until the final day. As they watched these fun events, the anticipation for Day 3 only grew.
After the Three-Legged Race was the Player vs Pro event, in which the hosting team would send out a pro player to accept challenges from the crowd. Tyranny sent out a player that had only just appeared in their roster last season, an older rookie, Qin Muyun.
This older rookie who fought alongside Tyranny's Four Heavenly Kings used to have a very faint presence. It wasn't until the playoffs that people realized that this player also had unusual battle ability. His presence was faint only because his use on the battlefield wasn't easily captured in summary statistics. This expert at positioning used his position to contain or restrict his opponents, which couldn't be recorded in statistics.
Qin Muyun took his place, Tyranny's Captain Han Wenqing went onstage to select the players. There were many Tyranny fans in the crowd, so of course this was a very exciting thing.
Qin Muyun's victories were of course guaranteed. But for the ordinary players that lost, their heads were filled with fog. During battle, they had all experienced an indescribable feeling of being bound. What was up with that? None of them understood. Qin Muyun's playstyle, which relied on positioning to launch offensives, was so high-level that it far surpassed what ordinary players could recognize. They might know that something like this was going on, but in real battle, they couldn't detect the intentions of each movement of Qin Muyun's Negative Nine Degrees.
"Such an outstanding player, how was he discovered so late?" Blue Rain's Captain Yu Wenzhou mused. He wasn't the only pro player with such thoughts; all of the teams were discussing Qin Muyun's performance. Even when fighting ordinary players, his style was fully apparent. For the pros, once they understood where Qin Muyun's talents lay, it was easier to grasp his plans on the field. But even though that was the case, if their attention wavered just a bit, they could still overlook him.
Suppression that relied on positioning - there was the feeling of some silent drowning. Qin Muyun had already earned a lot of attention, but his presence on the battlefield was still as faint as ever.
The lucky audience members happily walked onstage, lost, walked offstage in a daze, and Day 2 of the All-Star Weekend came to a close. The audience members left in satisfaction, and began to anticipate Day 3 of All-Stars, and the event that was the highlight of the weekend: the All-Star Competition.
What would the teams be? Which players would they see fight side-by-side? Which players would they see clash?
Any kind of dream team or dream confrontation could become reality in the All-Star Weekend. Carrying their hopes, everyone welcomed the arrival of Day 3 of All-Stars.
The atmosphere was extremely raucous; everyone was swept along by the excitement. The host was clearly aware of the crowd's mood, so he didn't try to tease everyone's appetite. One by one, the 24 All-Star players were introduced and welcomed onstage.
The excited crowd gave their cheers and shouts to all of the All-Stars. Of course, the ones who earned the loudest cheers were the players of Tyranny. When Captain Han Wenqing went onstage, the cheers were like the roaring of a tsunami wave. It was difficult to believe that this player had only been ranked 12th this year for All-Stars. The power of the home stadium made it seem like Han Wenqing was the number one superstar of Glory. From this it could be seen that although Han Wenqing's total popularity had decreased greatly, in Tyranny, he was still the immovable number one.
Opposite to everyone else was Ye Xiu. When he appeared, the Tyranny fans sent him not applause but merciless booing. This was the All-Star stage, not Tyranny's home game, so this sort of behavior was rather rude. But there was nothing that could be done. The hatred that Tyranny fans had toward Ye Xiu simply ran too deep. Last season, when there had been neither Ye Xiu nor Excellent Era, the Tyranny fans had really been a little lonely. No matter how strong Samsara was, even if they defeated Tyranny in the end, in the eyes of the fans they still weren't the biggest enemy. The archenemy was still Excellent Era, was still Ye Xiu.
Excellent Era was no longer here, but Ye Xiu had returned, so the hate was more focused. Tyranny's fans would never conceal their emotions. The setting didn't matter. If they saw Ye Xiu, they booed. This was law, iron law.
Among the 24 players, only Ye Xiu received such a brutal treatment. Although Su Mucheng was also from Excellent Era, the grudge that Tyranny had toward Excellent Era and Ye Xiu stemmed from the very beginning, with Excellent Era's three consecutive championship wins. Su Mucheng joined Excellent Era the year that Tyranny finally defeated Excellent Era, when their spirits were high. So, subtly, they didn't have much negative feeling toward Su Mucheng, since she had joined when Tyranny came to victory. All of the aggro was focused on Ye Xiu alone.
The other players all had their own feelings as they watched this person receive a completely different treatment than the rest of them.
This person had left the pro circle for a year and a half, and then he returned, and then he immediately stood on this stage that symbolized the very pinnacle of Glory players. Aside from Zhou Zekai, not a single player was more popular than him. This was indeed a powerful comeback.
Ye Xiu also looked at everyone on this stage. After leaving for a year and a half, the array of faces before him had gained some unfamiliar, and lost some familiar.
Of the opponents that had tangled with him for many years now, many of them had already left. Some were gone for good, others were currently sitting offstage.
Zhang Jiale, Lin Jingyan, Sun Zheping… And those that might be sitting in front of their televisions right now, Zhao Yang, Deng Fusheng…
Perhaps they would never stand on this most beautiful stage again. And what about himself? How much longer could he himself stand here?
Looking at Han Wenqing, Ye Xiu had mixed feelings. Standing on this stage now, there was now no longer a single player that had debuted in Season 2. But the two of them Season 1 debuts still stubbornly clung to their places here.
Him at number two. Han Wenqing at number twelve.
Not bad, Ye Xiu thought. But looking at the top ten All-Stars, the presence of the new generation was only growing stronger and stronger.
Zhou Zekai from Season 5 comfortably held the spot of number one, while Jiang Botao and Yu Feng from Season 6, along with Sun Xiang and Tang Hao from Season 7, were all in the top 10. Aside from them, there were three players from the famed Season 4 Golden Generation. Then, it was just Wang Jiexi from Season 3.
There weren't too many left from Season 3, either…
Ye Xiu counted, and realized that of the players from Season 3, aside from Wang Jiexi, there was only Yang Cong. And this time he was ranked 24th, barely catching the last train. Behind him, a crowd of newer players were eyeing this position. Perhaps as soon as next year, he would vanish from this leaderboard.
Things remain, but the people change…
Seeing all of these new young faces before him, Ye Xiu couldn't help but feel the vicissitudes of life. The onstage host was currently interviewing one by one the players that came onstage, and finally it was Ye Xiu's turn.
"God Ye Xiu made a strong comeback this year, coming onto this stage at second place. What are your current feelings?" The host was even more excited than Ye Xiu as he posed this question.
"Oh, I'm used to this," Ye Xiu said.
Don't even mention the crowd. Even some of the other All-Star players onstage booed at Ye Xiu.
The host also hesitated for a moment before continuing his questions. "Does God Ye Xiu have anyone he's looking forward to partnering with, or fighting against?"
Ye Xiu glanced at the other twenty-plus players, and continued to respond calmly. "I don't really care."
"Hahaha, God Ye Xiu is really… extremely calm!" the host said.
"Because I'm used to this!" Ye Xiu said.
His words came back to the same point… The host could only helplessly proceed to the next player.
The one after Ye Xiu was of course Zhou Zekai. The interviews proceeded in order according to the All-Star rankings.
"Little Zhou once again was voted to number one in the All-Star rankings. What are your current feelings?" The host didn't refer to Zhou Zekai as "God," but as "Little Zhou," evoking a feeling of familiarity.
"Does he even need to say? He's also used to this!" While Zhou Zekai was still pondering how to respond, Ye Xiu already helped him answer.
Zhou Zekai looked at Ye Xiu blankly, and in the end didn't say anything.
"Uh, this…" The host felt awkward. Maybe Zhou Zekai really was used to it, but only you would say it directly with that kind of attitude!
Zhou Zekai didn't look like he was about to say anything more, so the host could only continue to the next question, still the same one that had been repeated many times already: "Little Zhou, do you have any players you're looking forward to partnering with?"
"Partner with who? Samsara's sent four players here! Are you going to split them up?" Ye Xiu said.
"God Ye… can you… stop talking?" The host nobly suppressed the urge to blow up at him.
"Oh oh, you guys chat, you guys chat," said Ye Xiu.
Chat? What chat? Who could chat with Zhou Zekai? The host held the microphone and looked at Zhou Zekai. Seeing that after a very long pause he still didn't move his mouth, the host quickly repeated the question. "Have you thought it through? Who are you hoping to partner with?"
"Uh…" Zhou Zekai finally opened his mouth. "Our team… has four."
"Hahahaha!" Ye Xiu laughed like crazy. Gritting his teeth, the host ultimately restrained himself and didn't ask any more questions. Originally, the number two and number one should have had longer interviews, as befit their higher popularity. But now…
"Alright, now let us see the teams for this year's All-Star Competition," the host said, his face expressionless.