Chapter 920 - A New Branch of All Stars
"Oh? How’d it go?" Ye Xiu’s reply revealed that he didn’t watch Heavenly Sword’s match. The matches had just ended. If you watched the stream, then you would be watching the most popular match. Heavenly Sword’s match didn’t belong in that category.
"Perfect win!!!!" Lou Guanning couldn’t suppress his excitement.
"Oh, how amazing!" Ye Xiu praised sincerely. A perfect win wasn’t easy to achieve, even if it was a match between a top-tier team and a low-tier team. There were too many factors that determined the outcome of every match. Gods performing poorly or coming across unexpected accidents could always happen.
A perfect win didn’t necessarily mean that team’s strength was vastly superior, but there was no need to doubt that the players on the winning team performed exceptionally well.
"Hahaha, it feels too great." Lou Guanning had become more and more professional. A perfect win didn’t make him believe that his team had become a salted fish that turned over. However, he still took pleasure in the boost of morale that had been brought by it.
"Keep working hard. If you can keep up that performance, you’ll certainly be noticed." Ye Xiu said.
Speaking of which, because Heavenly Swords had promoted themselves too ferociously before, the expectations placed on them had been too high for them to meet. Before the season began, the predictions placing them at tenth was the greatest proof of these expectations. However, it turned out that Heavenly Sword’s actual strength was all talk and no action. They kept on wavering around the relegation zone. They weren’t any different from the other new teams that joined every season. This match gave them a grand ten points. For weak teams, which found it difficult to acquire points, but easy to lose points, it was a grand victory similar to a gift of charcoal in snowy weather. Only this kind of victory fit with Heavenly Justice’s initial claim.
"Yes yes, definitely. There’s still something else, God!" Lou Guanning continued.
"What is it?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Next week is All Stars." Lou Guanning said.
"I know." Ye Xiu said.
Glory’s All Stars Weekend took place on the first weekend of the new year. This year was no exception.
This year’s All Stars will be managed by Tiny Herb. We and Tiny Herb are both in City B." Lou Guanning said.
"Yeah, I know that."
"God, are you interested in coming for a visit!" Lou Guanning came out with the main subject for this conversation.
"Oh?" Ye Xiu wasn’t sure what the intent was. Even though the 24 All Stars were the highlight of the show, in reality, it could be considered a festival for all pro players. Although no one in Heavenly Swords would be voted in as an All Star, they would certainly appear at the All Stars Weekend event.
"Hahaha, we can all have a good time together! If there’s time, you can come over to our Heavenly Swords and give us some pointers." Lou Guanning said.
"Oh, so it’s like that? Let me ask my boss!" Ye Xiu said.
"Your entire team can come. Everyone is invited!" Lou Guanning said boldly.
"Sure sure sure, thanks!" Ye Xiu wasn’t too polite because he knew that this type of invitation was a trivial matter for Lou Guanning. If he was too polite, it might seem like he was treating him as an outsider rather than a friend.
Immediately afterwards, he told everyone in Happy about this.
"All Stars? Boring." Wei Chen snorted disdainfully at first. It was mainly to show that he was once famous in the scene. An event that numerous players hoped to participate in wasn’t something he cared much about anymore.
Mo Fan was even less so. When he heard Ye Xiu talk about All Stars, he didn’t even lift his head.
Wu Chen had never been chosen as an All Star, but he had once been a pro player, so he had participated in the All Stars before. He wasn’t too interested as a spectator. If he wanted to watch, the stream was good enough.
Qiao Yifan may be invisible, but he had been with Tiny Herb for a year. He had seen the big stage before and had also participated in the All Stars Rookie Challenge. The current him was also improving steadily. He didn’t feel too strongly about a fun event like All Stars.
As for Tang Rou, she had gpme last year and even went on stage. She had a deep impression of it, but it was just a deep impression. With Tang Rou’s personality, how could she be too interested in an event, where being showy was more important than real combat.
Then, there was Chen Guo and Steamed Bun.
Chen Guo was a standard Glory fan. If she had time, she would buy a ticket to join in on the fun. How could she refuse this kind of opportunity?
Steamed Bun? No one knew if he understood what was going on. He simply rubbed his chin and mumbled: "All Stars? That sounds exciting."
From this, it was very obvious who would be going and who wouldn’t.
But because Chen Guo wanted to go, Tang Rou was dragged along. Chen Guo even wanted to invite Su Mucheng to come.
Excellent Era’s All Stars hadn’t been forgotten by fans, but because they were part of a relegated team, they didn’t even have the qualifications for an invitation to All Stars, let alone getting voted to participate.
Being unable to participate in the All Stars Weekend was humiliating for Excellent Era, but even if they were invited to go, Excellent Era would still feel humiliated. It was simply emphasizing their special status as a relegated team. What was the difference between that and a slap to their face?
In the end, what remained unseen was deemed clean. During All Stars, Excellent Era was completely sealed off. Su Mucheng was still a member of Excellent Era, so it wasn’t convenient for her to just leave.
As a result, Ye Xiu, Steamed Bun, Chen Guo, and Tang Rou journeyed to City B. Lou Ji resided in City T, which was fairly close to City B. He said that if he had the chance to, he would also attend.
An Wenyi actually wanted to go very badly, but as a university student, January meant that final exams were imminent. An Wenyi wasn’t a genius like Luo Ji. Practicing Glory every day used up a lot of his time. Only cramming in the following few days would allow him to pass his exams. Without any guarantees for a pro career, how could the calm and rational An Wenyi so easily abandon his studies? As for if he could really become a pro, no one needed to worry about what choice he would make.
Happy’s schedule next weekend was planned out. As for the pro scene, they began making preparations for All Stars.
The polls to select the 24 All Stars had begun. It could be found in the game and on the website. The only thing needed to vote was a Glory account card. Each card was limited to one vote. The polls had opened as soon as the opening match of the season began. The players that used their votes didn’t use this opening match as a reference. Instead, they picked their All Stars based on the latter half of the previous season and the playoffs. As a result, the All Star rankings corresponded with what players thought of a pro that year.
When this year concluded and the first day of the new year began, the polls would be closed. The 24 All Stars chosen didn’t need to be announced. Players could just look at the rankings and check.
Usually, the company would put out a promotional video for the 24 All Stars as fast as possible. This year was no exception. On 1/1, the first day of the new year, the promotional All Stars video quietly appeared on the Glory website. Players spread the news.
Zhou Zekai stood at first place without any contest. After Samsara became the champions last summer, everyone pretty much predicted this outcome. The popularity of Samsara’s vice-captain Jiang Botao also shot up too. He was fifth in the polls, beating out numerous Gods.
In second, third, and fourth was Huang Shaotian, Wang Jiexi, and Han Wenqing, the residing Gods of the three powerhouses. Their fame and popularity practically guaranteed their status as All Stars until they retired.
At sixth place was the ace player of Team Wind Howl: Tang Hao.
Tang Hao’s vote count wasn’t too far from the ones ahead of him, but he wasn’t a champion like Jiang Botain or a fan-favorite like Huang Shaotian, Wang Jiexi, or Han Wenqing. As a player that had just transferred in over the summer, while Tang Hao won numerous new fans from his new team, he also lost a lot of his fans from his former team. Even so, by relying on his incredible performance in the latter half of last season, he won the support of more and more players and officially rose to the ranks of the Gods.
After Tang Hao, it was the two Master Tacticians in the Alliance, Blue Rain’s Yu Wenzhou and Tyranny’s Zhang Xinjie. Although the two played critical roles in their teams, because the two weren’t flashy attackers, their popularity was always much lower. It was similar to how the forward was always more popular than the backfielders in football.
These two were the dividing line. The votes for the All Stars after them had a lot fewer votes. Those who could become All Stars could be named Gods, but there were differences in the popularity between Gods. Among the remaining All Stars, many were frequent visitors to the All Stars, but they were still missing something in comparison to the top Gods.
Among these All Stars, the most discussed player was Zhang Jiale.
After coming back to the Alliance a year later, this God had been affected by his year of absence. In addition, Zhang Jiale joining Team Tyranny had been extremely controversial. There were still posts talking bad about him in the forums. Zhang Jiale’s popularity was greatly impacted, even if he still used the famous Spitfire, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. His popularity wasn’t the same as it had been last year. He went from a top God on the rankings to the middle of the pack. However, it was only in terms of popularity. His decision to join Team Tyranny had been proved correct through the team’s matches. After a year of absence, he quickly became comfortable with the competitive environment with the help of his experienced teammates. The current Zhang Jiale didn’t seem to be any different from when he had retired. His decision to retire was once again criticized angrily, but it didn’t affect him at all.
Amid both praise and criticism, Zhang Jiale steadily advanced forward. During the summer, Tyranny had undergone a huge transformation. The team fought together for about a year and was currently in first place. They were on their way towards having the greatest regular season in all of Glory history. They already made history with four of their players being among the 24 All Stars. This had never happened before in Glory history.
However, these four were long-time All Stars. Apart from Zhang Jiale, there was nothing new about the other three. Everyone was more interested in the new faces among this year’s All Stars.