Chapter 299: 299
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Compared to character level, skills could directly increase one's combat prowess .
Hao Tian sent out skills one after another and chased his opponent to the edge of the arena platform .
Hong!
Suddenly, Star Chess released a burst of energy from his body, causing a shockwave of flame to break Hao Tian's series of attacks .
"Star Chess has used Energy Burst!" exclaimed the commentator .
There were three ways to win in these fights . One could either directly defeat one's opponent, have one's opponent surrender, or force them off the platform . Star Chess was already forced to the edge and had no choice to but to activate his Energy Burst .
However, the next moment, Hao Tian also used his Energy Burst, and as if a raging wild bull, he rushed at Star Chess and threw a heavy punch that broke through Star Chess' defense and landed right on his chest .
Boom!
The muffled sound of the impact rang out!
Star Chess lost his footing, fell off the platform, and crashed onto the ground, causing clouds of dust to rise up .
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"The winner is Hao Tian!" announced the commentator in a booming voice .
"He won!" the spectators screamed in excitement, and Hao Tian's fans all stood up and cheered for him .
The screams from tens of thousands of people flooded the arena like a tsunami!
Star Chess was led off the center with eyes full of regret . Although this opening fight was held more for the sake of showmanship, and neither of the pro player would be disqualified regardless of the result, it was still a great chance to gain popularity . Winning under the eyes of tens of thousands of people was the best way to prove one's reputation . But now that he had lost, most of the spotlight was on Hao Tian, unlike he had planned .
But it was what it was . Since he had lost fair and square, although Star Chess was unhappy, he still suppressed his emotions .
Red Phoenix bent her waist and walked onto the center of the platform with a smile . "Thanks to both of the pro players for bringing to us such a high level fight . Master Star Chess, you unfortunately lost . Do you have anything you would like to say?"
Star Chess collecting himself and forced out a smile . "It was an enjoyable fight . I got to witness how strong the young man is . He has a lot of potential . People like him will be able to take on my generation's torch and fight for glory on the international stage…"
This was obviously just a formality . By using formal language and constantly mentioning the 'young' and 'older' players, Star Chess was secretly emphasizing the fact that he was a veteran .
"Thank you for your thoughts . "
Red Phoenix turned to Hao Tian and said, "Master Hao Tian, do you have anything you would like to say?"
Hao Tian stretched his hand for the microphone . Red Phoenix was glad as she thought that Hao Tian was finally going to say something and quickly passed him her microphone .
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Hao Tian stared at Star Chess for a while expressionlessly .
"Are you only here to earn some pocket change or something?"
He then dropped the mic and left without another word . He evidently did not care about keeping up small talk with Star Chess at all .
Star Chess's expression turned ugly, and veins were almost popping out of his head . He gritted his teeth .
How could he say something in front of so many spectators‽ Star Chess was furious .
The audience in the arena was instantly sent into an uproar, and Red Phoenix hurriedly tried to smooth things out .
…
"Kid's got character . I like it," Han Xiao said as he smirked .
He remembered Hao Tian from the past . This fellow did not bother with the bullsh*t that came with being a pro, and he hated being under the spotlight . He focused on training himself all the time and was very professional and righteous . In other words, a combination of a gaming nerd and a simpleton .
Han Xiao's requirement when looking for players to cultivate was basically just how popular and how much potential the player had in his past life . It was not that he looked down on noobs or anything, but pros simply offered him a better return as they could utilize his resources to a better effect .
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With the current resources at his disposal, Han Xiao could easily cultivate a player to a point where they were invincible among the current players . However, he did not do this as it was not beneficial in the long run . All the benefits that Han Xiao had been providing Frenzied Sword and the others with were more or less logical compared to the current players' level .
Although the current players had weak attributes, this did not mean that they were bad at controlling their characters . With that in mind, Han Xiao could still learn a lot from the players . Despite how overpowered he currently was on Planet Aquamarine, the new techniques that he had learned from the players would prove useful in future fights .
Countering various abilities, performing countermeasures in emergencies, movement control, overall macro… and so on were all part of professional tournaments .
Players all developed in their own ways, and watching all the different powers clash against each other was one of the interesting aspects of these fights . For example, although Hao Tian did not have Star Chess's [Ground Stomp], he was able to use other trump cards . Being able to utilize this variety of skills to their full capacity and even combine them in fights was what differentiated pros from regular players .
Moreover, being able to develop oneself properly also counted as a strength . Take boxing as an example . If Person A worked hard every day to train himself, while person B slacks off all day long, naturally, A would have a physical advantage over B in a fight . Or maybe A had better connections and could find a teacher to teach him new moves, while B could only train by himself . There was no rule that said A had to stop and wait for B to catch up .
This logic could also be applied to players . Be it farming monsters, complete missions, or looting for better equipment, no matter how prepared one was, in an actual fight, it would all come down to one's performance . Maybe due to his lack of practice, B would get pummeled by A the whole fight . But just before B was about to lose, he might catch on to a mistake A made and turn the round with a one hit KO . Something like this was extremely common in tournaments .
Competitions would often produce with unexpected results, and this was what made it all so interesting .
The chance for Han Xiao to venture off into the stars would not come for another four or five months . As this was right in the middle of the tournament season, Han Xiao planned to take this time to look for more potential lackeys . For him, players were currently the most valuable resource on the entire planet .
After the ceremony, the arena started off the regular matches . All ten battle platforms had one referee, and all had ongoing matches at the same time . There were about ten thousand players who had registered for the tournament, and they were all currently going through the first elimination round . Each match was fairly straightforward and only took around ten minutes on average .
Only when the elimination stage entered the final rounds would the tournament slow down, giving time for the players to be introduced one by one .
As Frenzied Sword and Bun-hit-dog's matches were held on a different day, Han Xiao got bored and went to the forums after switching between several fights .
There were a lot of players who were excitedly discussing about the opening fight . Hao Tian's performance invited a lot of praise, and Long Sky Club also released their official message, congratulating Hao Tian for seizing victory in the opening fight .
…
A few days later…
Players were eliminated one after another, and the audience's excitement was higher than ever . Han Xiao was also rejoicing from this .
Aside from selling merchandise, creating more tools, and training with Hila, he spent most of his free time watching the fights . He mainly paid attention to the team battles where two teams would try to fight each other to the last man on a random map . Each team was allowed to send in six players .
Pugilist, Esper, and Mechanic . These three classes had drastically different combat styles and allowed for a large variety of team combinations and skill chaining . Moreover, taking into account of terrain differences, team battles were much more entertaining to watch than the individual battles .
The more common teams were composed of a main tank, melee attacker, ranged attacker, and someone in charge of crowd control . The specific numbers for each role would differ depending on the team's tactics .
Pugilist was naturally the most popular class for the main tanks .
Espers, on the other hand, were more of a jack of all trades . Due to their varying abilities, Espers could take on both melee and ranged roles in a fight .
Mechanics played the role of the main attacker and dealt outburst damage under their teammate's protection .