Chapter 1270: The Most Experienced Player
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
This concluded the official events of the All-Star Weekend. Although the audience felt that it was very fulfilling, when they checked the time, they suddenly felt like they hadn't gotten enough. Wasn't it kind of a shame that the high point of the three day event ended that quickly?
But the winners had already been determined, and the players of Teams A and B had already walked out of the player booths. They didn't go offstage, but mingled amongst each other. For this sort of performative match, most people didn't care too much about victory. Otherwise, how would there be that scenario of everyone crowding around to watch two people 1v1 each other.
But only most people didn't care. There were always people who did care, very much.
Tang Hao…
When he came out of the player booth, his face was pale. In the Rookie Challenge of Season 8 All-Star Weekend, Tang Hao defeated Lin Jingyan. This battle could be considered the battle that established him as a God, cementing his position as a top player. But in this All-Star Weekend, in the team competition, he had been beaten down so pathetically.
The images of the battle flashed through his mind. In front of him, the God-level players of all the other teams were all relaxed and chatting with each other, but Tang Hao just couldn't relax.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept a loss. But how come his loss was so ugly, so pathetic? The cheers of the crowd seemed like mocking laughter to Tang Hao.
The players didn't immediately come offstage, but a reporter from the esports channels carried his camera and flew toward the stage. This team competition ended too quickly, far out of their expectations, entirely disrupting their planned program schedule. They'd purposely left an extra large block of time empty for the All-Star event, since they didn't want time restrictions to disrupt the broadcast of this once-year special event. But in the end, the team competition was over in five minutes. Fortunately in the last battle of the group arena, Zhang Xinjie with that Cleric PK had used up a good deal of time, otherwise this All-Star Competition would have ended even earlier.
Sending a reporter onstage now was so that they could do some live interviews, use up a bit more of the broadcast time.
These interviews hadn't been planned in advance, but these God-level players were used to being chased by reporters for interviews. Today's competition hadn't posed much of a burden, anyway, so most of them weren't in any low spirits. The reporter that rushed onstage immediately saw Zhang Xinjie and Wu Yuce discussing something together, and he headed toward them first.
"Hello, vice-captains!" the reporter greeted.
These two paused in their conversation and looked at him.
"Are you discussing that group arena battle from just earlier?" the reporter asked.
"Yes," Zhang Xinjie nodded.
"What do you two think?"
"If it hadn't been stopped, I should have had a slight health advantage at the end and I should have won," said Zhang Xinjie.
"That's only in your planned, ideal conditions," Wu Yuce immediately retorted. It looked like the two of them had been discussing the question of who would have won that battle.
"The plans would have become reality," Zhang Xinjie said.
"You never know what will happen in a battle," said Wu Yuce.
"I'd try my hardest to minimize the unexpected," said Zhang Xinjie.
"Hard to say." Wu Yuce shook his head.
"Perhaps we should give it another try," Zhang Xinjie said.
"Forget it… I'm not too interested in that kind of battle," Wu Yuce said. He'd already avoided having to play out such a dull battle, of course he didn't want to repeat it. After all, it would never happen again.
Zhang Xinjie didn't press either. He only shook his head in regret, seeming quite unsatisfied with his inability to verify the result.
To the side, the reporter didn't interject. He simply recorded all of this to the camera as is. Let everyone experience the unaltered interactions of the Gods after a match. Seeing that these two didn't have any more to say, the reporter began to search for a new target. Those who had had strong performances in the match would of course attract him more easily.
Wang Jiexi!
The reporter's eyes brightened. Wang Jiexi seemed to be giving a lesson to Tiny Herb player Gao Yingjie, and the reporter immediately rushed forward.
"Use your best, most comfortable, most familiar method to perform, that's enough," said Wang Jiexi.
"But Captain, what you've been using all this time, is that your best, most comfortable, most familiar method?" Gao Yingjie suddenly asked.
Wang Jiexi was silent for a while, and then he shook his head. "That is why I hope that you can. Have more confidence, don't be easily shaken. You're more suited to this team than I am. Believe in yourself!"
Seeing Gao Yingjie nod, the reporter took this chance to interject.
"Hello, both of you," he greeted.
"Captain Wang's performance in this team battle really gave us quite a shock! We never would have expected you to suddenly revive your old style. Are you planning to go back to your style again?" the reporter asked.
"Of course not," Wang Jiexi smiled, and then looked at the stage and player booths behind him. "It's good enough to be able to relax here."
"Maybe if Tiny Herb had the Magician, they could earn even better results?" the reporter said.
Wang Jiexi continued to smile, but he didn't say anything. The reporter knew that he was rejecting this view, he just didn't say so out loud. The Magician Wang Jiexi hadn't won anything for Tiny Herb, but after he changed, Tiny Herb had obtained two championships. The person in front of him knew a hundred times better than him what style suited Tiny Herb better, and his own opinion was just himself trying to be smart. As he thought about this, the reporter looked at Gao Yingjie, and asked, "Then what about Little Gao? Will we have a chance to see him become a magician?" This time, the reporter was asking with a joking tone.
"Maybe! If it's on this stage." Gao Yingjie was now better at dealing with the media, and he answered the question quite well. He hadn't rejected the possibility entirely, but he said "on this stage." Yes, on the All-Star stage, what wasn't possible?
After obtaining another conversation, the reporter turned his head, saw Ye Xiu not too far away, and quickly rushed up to him. This God's performance was also very strong, and he rarely accepted interviews. Even though he didn't reject them completely after his return, he was still very low-key. Whatever he could avoid, he would try to avoid, and it was no easy feat to obtain a live interview.
"God Ye Xiu!" The reporter saw that Ye Xiu wasn't talking to anyone right now, and charged forward.
"Hm?" Ye Xiu looked at the reporter.
"The team competition was incredibly exciting. Was it your plan to leave the Cleric out of the team competition?" the reporter asked. This is what they had guessed offstage, because earlier they'd seen that argument at Team B, with Ye Xiu apparently at the center. They didn't know that was Team B trying to pick the most energy-saving arrangement, but looking at the final line-up, they thought that it was possibly Ye Xiu's idea to put the Cleric in the group arena, causing everyone to oppose him.
"Of course not!" But Ye Xiu answered with this. "I just gave a random suggestion."
"Hahaha…" The reporter laughed dryly. When Ye Xiu said "of course not," he had actually thought there were some other hidden factors at play, but in the end, it really was just this.
"Why would you propose such a suggestion?" the reporter then asked.
"Obviously so we could have a more exciting and aggressive battle!" Ye Xiu said, very seriously.
Instantly, the nearby Team B players who heard this all looked at him.
This guy, he could really talk! When they'd made this plan, everyone liked this arrangement only because it would allow the match to finish faster!
"Haha, the battle really was very exciting. There were a lot of highlights!" the reporter said.
"Well, of course. After all, everyone here is an outstanding player," Ye Xiu said.
"And you? How would you evaluate yourself?"
"Me? I'm probably the most experienced player here in this circle, right?" Ye Xiu said.
The interview was broadcast on television, but it was also shown on the display screens in the stadium. Tyranny fans obviously had no kind feelings toward Ye Xiu, but they did have to have a reason to boo him. They couldn't find any points to complain about with his earlier, very standard answers to the reporter's questions. But with these words, Tyranny's fans were instantly upset.
You're the most experienced player? At least add a "one of the" okay! Over there is our Captain Han! A player from the first generation just like you! No, technically, he's even more experienced than you! You still have a year and half gap in the middle!
The stadium came alive with boos, which prompted the reporter. Looking at the players around him, quite a few people were looking this way after hearing this answer. The reporter immediately asked, "Then what about Tyranny's Captain Han Wenqing?"
"Old Han? He can't compete with me!" Ye Xiu said, brimming with confidence.
The booing increased. Even the gathered Gods had "you jerk can't you stop bragging" expressions as they continued to watch.
"Why is that? You're both players from the first generation, and Captain Han Wenqing…"
"Has he played in the Challenger League?" Ye Xiu directly interrupted the reporter with his explanation.
Silence.
Played in the Challenger League? Fuck, you're counting that a experience? Everyone was shocked, but if they were really talking from this standpoint, then indeed, Han Wenqing's experience was slightly inferior. But everyone was glad not to have that sort of experience. Playing in the Challenger League, that absolutely wasn't a joyful experience for a top-tier God, but this guy actually made treasure out of this trash, counting this as part of his accumulated experience. Is there anyone else like you shamelessly increasing their own level like this?
BOOOO!
This time, it wasn't just the Tyranny fans. The rest of the audience, even some of the players offstage, the Gods onstage, they were all booing Ye Xiu.
Ye Xiu smiled bitterly, waving his hand as he said to the reporter, "They're just jealous."
Jealous your ass! The reporter felt unwell, and even the cameraman had shaken unstably. The reporter chuckled awkwardly. He felt like his head had crashed, and he couldn't think of what direction to go next with the interview.
Fortunately, from the shock Ye Xiu had provoked, he'd picked out a target.
Han Wenqing, the captain of Team Tyranny Han Wenqing, the boss of this area, the one who "lost to" Ye Xiu in experience because he hadn't played in the Challenger League.
"Captain Han, regarding Ye Xiu's words just now… Do you object?" the reporter asked, rather directly. After all, the two of them had been death enemies for ten years.
"His accomplishments in the Challenger League are indeed worthy of pride," said Han Wenqing.
Chapter 1271: All-Star Armory
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Han Wenqing's answer surprised the reporters somewhat. These bitter enemies of ten years had never yielded to each other on stage, but their relationship off-stage wasn't quite what the reporters had imagined it to be.
The mutual respect between heroes? The reporters weren't too interested in such a dry topic, but when Han Wenqing said that Ye Xiu's results in the Challenger League were worthy of pride, thinking about it a little, he was right. Leading a team full of players who had been scraped together from god-knows-where at the last minute, he had defeated Excellent Era and emerged victorious from the Challenger League. Why wouldn't such miraculous results be something to be proud of?
In that case, to say it was a fruitful experience was in fact completely correct?
The reporters thought about it and suddenly realized that Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing seemed to resonate on some kind of level, could it be because they were both practical and realistic people?
Practical and realistic?
When this phrase popped up in their minds, the reporters all shuddered. Calling Han Wenqing practical and realistic was fine, but Ye Xiu? The reporters refused to entertain this notion any further, they were completely unwilling to accept such an idea.
The All Star Weekend was hosted at Tyranny's stadium, but in the All-Star Competition on the last day, Tyranny's two players didn't have too prominent a role. Zhang Xinjie's Cleric was sent off to fight in the group arena, while Han Wenqing was the second to be eliminated from the team competition. As such, the fans of Team Tyranny, who were onsite, were a little dissatisfied. In the All-Star Weekend, most of the time, everyone would do their best to bolster the reputation of the host team's players, letting them perform more beautifully and becoming the MVP of the All-Star Competition. But this time, the title of All-Star Competition MVP was instead stolen away by Wang Jiexi. The Magician style that he showed off during the competition had defeated Tang Hao and Sun Xiang in quick succession, and he was unquestionably the most brilliant star in the competition.
In sharp contrast to his beautiful performance was Tang Hao's miserable one. Evidently, in this All-Star Competition, it was impossible for everyone to be happy and satisfied. Even so, the curtains finally fell on this event.
The teams each regrouped and went home, and the media wantonly reported on the various magnificent scenes produced over these three days. But to the pro players, these three days were simply not worth focusing on, because this event and the true goal that they were pursuing were completely unrelated.
As everyone returned home, each team immediately started preparing for Round 18 of the regular season.
In Round 18, the intense matches of strong teams facing each other were everywhere.
The home and away teams respectively were as such; Team Tiny Herb against Team Misty Rain, Team Blue Rain against Team Void, Team Tyranny against Team Hundred Blossoms, Team Samsara against Team Thunderclap, and finally Team Happy against Team Wind Howl.
This kind of round presented a truly difficult decision for the broadcasters, and after weighing their decisions over and over again, they finally decided to show the match between Team Samsara and Team Thunderclap. Thunderclap's performance in the team competitions this season had been discussed with great enthusiasm, but Samsara? They were far too strong, making everyone somewhat numb to their formidable strength. Team Samsara had won every single one of their 17 rounds, an achievement even more exceptional than Team Thunderclap's.
Team Thunderclap's consecutive victories in the team competition were unfortunately halted in Round 16 by Team Happy. Even so, people didn't lose faith in Thunderclap because of this. When this team that relied on precise execution of their strategies met Samsara's lineup with 4 All-Stars, what kind of a battle would ensue? This match was thus selected to be the one broadcasted live, as it would evidently attract more than enough viewers.
The players were busily preparing for their upcoming matches and the television stations were busy selecting which match to broadcast, but the big team's managements were currently collating the opinions of the team members, carefully considering whether or not any adjustments needed to be made in the winter transfer window. What about the Alliance? After this All-Star weekend, they had released a new list: the All-Star Armory.
No matter whether it was in-game or in the pro scene, of all the equipment on a character, the one that drew the most attention was without a doubt the weapon. And now, the Alliance had compiled a list of all the weapons of each character in the pro circle, letting players vote in order to decide on this "All-Star Armory".
To those in the know, this was probably in order to do a survey before making products based on these weapons, but no matter what, the players were undoubtedly excited about this. The moment the list came out, the votes poured in non-stop, and the Alliance made a new rule: the Armory rankings would reset every month, and the results would be tallied at the end of the year.
After a few days, the All-Star Armory had already seen some clear distinctions in its rankings. The weapon in first place was the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella of Team Happy's Lord Grim.
The Silver lettering showed that this was a piece of self-made equipment, but having a Level 70 weapon on the list was exceedingly irksome. Glory's update had been around for a year already, and weapons were always the number one priority of equipment research. To this date, the number of self-made weapons that hadn't reached level 75 was exceedingly small, not to mention the number one rank in the All-Star Armory.
It couldn't be helped; the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's novelty was far too eye-catching. In the All-Star voting, Ye Xiu was ranked lower than Zhou Zekai, but in this Armory, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had outranked Cloud Piercer's Wildfire and Shattered Frost by a few ranks.
This result had made many people exceptionally gloomy.
It was just as those in the know had said, this All-Star Armory could be said to be a survey of the players' interest in weapon-based merchandise, but now, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella's popularity had far exceeded that of other weapons, making the merchandise manufacturers very jittery.
Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, it wouldn't be enough to just make an umbrella and call it a day. The biggest characteristic of the weapon was its transformations, if it didn't transform, how could this weapon be popular?
This kind of thing that could transform, dismantle, and reform could be created in-game by ignoring some of the rules of science here and there. But to make it a real piece of merchandise and fully replicate its transforming ability, how much meticulous design and planning would be required? How complicated would the assembly of such a product be? How long would it take to manufacture? Finally, how much would it cost to make?
A high cost of production would mean a high price tag. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella would have a price tag far more demonic than other merchandise, and it was so demonic that those professionals who understood the market for merchandise all felt that this was too crazy.
The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella could not be fully replicated, but not fully replicating it would definitely impact sales, making many people feel very regretful.
This Ye Xiu, why was he always such a pain? In the past, he hadn't allowed Excellent Era to make too much of a profit off of merchandise based on him. Now, he had easily created an extremely popular and famous weapon, but at the end of the day, it was unreplicatable. This guy, was he deliberately suffocating these businesses? All of those in the business who had known Ye Xiu in the past were now bitterly complaining inside. But no matter what, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was extremely popular. Making two or three of the forms was something worth trying out, and so the producers of this weapon merchandise took the initiative to get in touch with Happy.
These matters were all handled by Chen Guo. Over the past half a year, she had gotten familiar with managing the team, allowing Ye Xiu to single-mindedly focus on the competitive aspect, so he wouldn't have to expend too much effort on other things. At present, aside from these collaborations, the winter transfer window opening was also something that would create a lot of work for the teams.
Team Happy's line of thinking during this transfer window was very simple; don't buy and dont' sell. In effect, they wouldn't take part. But while not buying would allow them to avoid a few disturbances, not selling couldn't stop other teams from making inquiries.
With the impressive results that Happy had, their value of their members had also seen a significant increase. On top of that, they were a grassroots team new to the Alliance. After half a year of interaction, everyone knew that Happy's financial prowess wasn't anything impressive, and that their conditions were a little more arduous. As such, in a lot of people's eyes, Happy was like a poor child holding a brick of gold. While they couldn't snatch the entire thing away, they could spend some money to take at a least a chunk of it, right?
Qiao Yifan, Steamed Bun, Mo Fan and even Ye Xiu had all been given offers by various people. But at the end of the day, the buyers all ran into a wall and had no choice but to turn back. Chen Guo didn't show the slightest intention of letting go of any of their players, making everyone unable to see a hope in negotiating a deal.
Very quickly, on the 10th of January, Round 18 would begin. In the past ten days, there were some teams that had closed some deals, but the winter transfer window was always a small event. A transfer in core players, like in season eight, where Excellent Era managed to dig out Sun Xiang, was very rare.
In this season, some teams had stable results, while others were more unstable, but seemingly no team had a big enough conflict between their core players and normal players that they needed to use the winter transfer window to resolve it. The teams with the greatest rumors of making a transfer were Team Misty Rain and Team Wind Howl. Team Misty Rain's new playstyle this season had not created any breakthroughs for them thus far, and with 86 points, they sat at tenth place in the rankings, which was their worst results in the past few years. In a situation where their playstyle had yet to bear fruit after half a season, many people guessed that Team Misty Rain would make some adjustments to their roster.
As for Team Wind Howl, they had accumulated 112 points and sat at sixth place, which was a seemingly decent result, but it fell short of their expectations. They were a team that was aiming for the championship title, but this season, they had lost most of their matches against strong teams, causing them to begin to doubt themselves somewhat.
Upon Fang Rui's departure, the position of second-in-command had fallen to Liu Hao, who had willingly transferred in, which had somewhat disrupted the structure of Wind Howl's core. The Criminal Duo of a Brawler and Thief was what they had relied on for many years, and after Fang Rui's departure, they hadn't given up on their Thief, instead spending money to invite Team Blue Rain's Thief Player, Lin Feng, giving him the All-Star character, Doubtful Demon.
But at the end of the day, Liu Hao's Spellblade had taken a higher position, even snatching a place in the All-Star rankings, making his standing in the team very clear. And Lin Feng? He held an All-Star account in his hands, but was still far from making the list of All-Stars. In comparison with Hundred Blossoms, Zou Yuan had relied purely on the fans attachment to his account, but he still managed to send himself and Dazzling Hundred Blossoms into All-Stars. It was evident that Lin Feng's performance was not particularly outstanding, although Doubful Demon's standing was far inferior to that of Dazzling Hundred Blossom's.
Would Team Wind Howl make any adjustments to their roster? Everyone was making their own conjectures, and some fans even appealed for them to ask Fang Rui to come back. But this kind of idea could only be a fanboy's wishful thinking. Fang Rui went to Team Happy, even going so far as to put in the effort to change classes. Now, when his class change had finally begun to show results, and when Happy was still a step higher than Wind Howl in rank, they wanted him to go back to Wind Howl and revert to playing a Thief? These people, they were probably counting on Fang Rui to have some kind of undying love for Wind Howl...
Would such a situation occur?
Surprisingly, there were really reporters who went online to ask Fang Rui this question.
"I will go back," Fang Rui replied.
The reporter was completely stunned, then ecstatic, this news was truly too explosive. Fang Rui, he was actually willing to return to Wind Howl?
"On the 10th of January, I will return," Fang Rui even gave a concrete timing afterwards.
When the reporter looked at it, he suddenly understood, Fang Rui would return, but as an opponent, although…
"Great Fang Rui, the 10th of January is Happy's home game!" the reporter reminded him.
"Is it? How stupid of me, what a waste of my beautiful lines! After playing at All-Stars, I can't even count now!" Fang Rui shouted.