Chapter 1235: Calm Individual Rounds
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Commentating Happy’s matches is truly filled with opportunities and challenges! Pan Lin sighed endlessly. There never seemed to be a lack of topics, and it was always full of traps.
Of course, this time, it wasn’t Happy’s fault. Mi Xiuyuan was from Thunderclap. However, Thunderclap’s opponent was Happy, so Pan Lin’s first thought was to focus on Happy. Fortunately, Pan Lin’s remark had only been a hopeful guess, not a serious analysis, so it didn’t result in too embarrassing of a situation. Pan Lin could already feel a premonition creeping into his heart though.
The broadcast still gave Mi Xiuyuan more than enough camera time.
Losing an individual round in less than a minute was very embarrassing for a pro player. But when the cameras locked onto Mi Xiuyuan, he looked calm. After he returned to his seat, the entire Thunderclap team even stood up and clapped their hands to welcome him. Dai Yanqi even rubbed Mi Xiuyuan’s head roughly as if she were a big sis, despite only being a third year rookie.
“It looks like… Thunderclap gave up on beating Ye Xiu, so they just sent up a rookie to gain some experience,” Li Yibo carefully observed for a while before speaking up.
“Uh, I don’t know how much experience a less than one minute loss is going to bring to a player,” Pan Lin said. His words carried a slight sting to it. He clearly wasn’t happy with Thunderclap’s methodology. As for whether he was unhappy with Thunderclap’s arrangements, or because Mi Xiuyuan didn’t turn out to be a secret weapon, no one knew.
The match continued. Su Mucheng went after Ye Xiu, while Thunderclap’s Fang Xue went after Mi Xiuyuan. Fang Xue was also an Assassin. In the end, he was no match for Su Mucheng, and Happy won yet another point.
2-0. The crowd riled up. Cries for another 10-0 started echoing around the stadium.
But in the third match, Thunderclap unexpectedly sent Xiao Shiqin, while Happy sent Mo Fan.
Xiao Shiqin was famed as a Master Tactician, but his 1v1 skills weren’t weak. In Thunderclap, he was often the anchor for the group arena, but in today’s match, he came out in the individual competition. What arrangements had Thunderclap made?
“Xiao Shiqin vs Mo Fan… these two have actually fought before in the Challenger League. At that time, it was in the group arena. Xiao Shiqin performed spectacularly that round, winning the group arena with a 1v3. Let’s see how their rematch is going to turn out,” Pan Lin set the backdrop for the match.
The atmosphere that Pan Lin had drawn out for this match didn’t end up appearing. Xiao Shiqin won with a steady lead against Mo Fan.
Pan Lin and Li Yibo didn’t know what to say. The match was so dull. What should have happened, happened. That was all there was to it.
The emotions of the loser weren’t as calm as the match.
As Mo Fan walked down from the stage, he didn’t have that usual expressionless face. His gaze had stopped on Xiao Shiqin. A clear pondering expression showed.
After losing twice to the same person, Mo Fan was searching for where the issue lay. Even if there was a difference in strength, competition wasn’t just about strength, it was about utilizing that strength.
Seeing Mo Fan’s attentive expression, Ye Xiu didn’t say anything. Once you reached a certain level, improving depended more on yourself. After all, the only person who truly understands you is you yourself. Other people could only help give and clear the clouds.
How to beat Xiao Shiqin?
If Ye Xiu could instruct him on how to do it with just a few words, then pro players would be of little value.
With the individual competition finished, Happy led 2 to 1. A 10-0 was impossible now, and the crowd appeared somewhat downcast. Happy’s fans had been spoiled too much by Happy’s crazy performances recently. If it wasn’t a 10-0, they couldn’t feel satisfied. Despite not being a powerhouse, Happy’s fans had the same expectations as powerhouses.
For the following group arena, Pan Lin and Li Yibo both believed that Happy had an advantage. After all, Thunderclap’s players weren’t very top notch. Happy at the very least had Fang Rui as the anchor. In addition, while Tang Rou’s image may have been destroyed, her explosiveness hadn’t.
“If nothing surprising comes, Happy’s chances should be fairly high,” Li Yibo’s cautiousness had already reached this point. He was too afraid to even use the word winning, only saying their “chances should be fairly high.” Fairly high chances didn’t mean he thought Happy would definitely win. Li Yibo was truly quite crafty.
But in the group arena, no surprises came and Happy won.
Pan Lin announced this expected outcome and discovered that he unexpectedly felt a bit bored.
What’s going on? Am I too used to being slapped by Happy? Am I masochist? Taking advantage of the long break between the team competition and group arena, Pan Lin did a deep self reflection.
In the meanwhile, the two teams were preparing for the following team competition.
“Something feels off,” said Fang Rui.
“What is it,” Ye Xiu said.
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling,” Fang Rui said.
“This senior also feels like something’s off. It’s too calm,” Wei Chen said.
“It won’t be for the team competition,” Ye Xiu said.
“Are you saying they’ve been saving up their strength?” Wei Chen asked.
“Maybe not saving up strength, but in the individual rounds, their strength wasn’t very impressive. However, to be so calm despite losing so many points means that they must be incomparably confident in the team competition.” Ye Xiu said.
“Confidence in themselves? Could that actually be the reason for their dominance in the team competition?” Fang Rui had evidently seen Xiao Shiqin’s interview response about Thunderclap’s performance this season.
“Without confidence, there will be a lot of choices that you’ll be too afraid to make. The more confident you are, the more options you’ll have, and the more variations there will be,” Ye Xiu said.
“Are you talking about Xiao Shiqin? He’s always been confident, huh,” Fang Rui said.
“His confidence now isn’t just in himself,” Ye Xiu said.
Fang Rui was starting to understand. The others were as well. Everyone subconsciously turned their heads to look at Thunderclap. It turned out that Thunderclap was also looking at them. The two sides made eye contact, and Xiao Shiqin gave them a friendly wave.
“This match is really lacking the gunpowder…” This scene had also been grasped by the cameras, but the broadcast was currently playing ads, so Pan Lin could only say this to himself in private. If his mics were on, saying these words definitely wouldn’t be good. He would have to comment on the friendly and peaceful relations between the two teams.
“This match isn’t going to be easy. Everyone, focus. Let’s start things slow,” Ye Xiu said.
He obviously studied all of his opponents, studying the styles of the players and the team’s tactical styles. However, Thunderclap, this strong team competition team, was truly difficult to deal with.
Thunderclap was not like Samsara. Samsara’s overwhelming momentum was inseparable from the strength of the individual players. The image of the Battle God One Autumn Leaf was slowly being transformed. On Samsara, One Autumn Leaf was no longer that unrivalled “one”. There was another “one” beside him, Cloud Piercer.
Many people had been worried about compatibility issues between Sun Xiang and Samsara, but their worries never turned into a reality. And as a result, Samsara’s incredible win record came about. Sun Xiang and Zhou Zekai were titled as the “Two No.1s” this season. Two number ones pointed that the two best players had number one characters to go along with them.
Possessing this powerful duo, Samsara was able to achieve this perfect win record. But Thunderclap? The individual rounds showed that their players weren’t top of the pack. However, their team competition record had 14 wins. Why? Tactics!
Thunderclap had always relied on tactics to win. However, their tactics had never brought them to such formidable heights. According to the current public opinions, if Thunderclap could continue their team competition win record, then the Four Master Tacticians should be changed. Xiao Shiqin should be taken out and given an even greater title.
After all, Ye Xiu, Yu Wenzhou, and Zhang Xinjie, whether it was now or before, the chips held in their hands were quite a bit stronger than Xiao Shiqin’s. Their teams were similar to Samsara. All of them possessed top individual players.
It was like a chef cooking food.
Ye Xiu, Yu Wenzhou, and Zhang Xinjie had fresh high-quality ingredients and had the skill to turn those ingredients into wonderful dishes.
But Xiao Shiqin was someone who could take mediocre ingredients and turn them into just as, or perhaps even more delicious dishes. If one looked at it from this perspective, it was obvious who was superior.
When these words came out, many agreed with this opinion. However, someone soon pointed out: Last season, in the Challenger League, Ye Xiu had taken rotten food and then beat Xiao Shiqin, who had outstanding Excellent Era ingredients. What did that mean?
As a result, the other side took this season and brought out Xiao Shiqin’s matches against Yu Wenzhou and Zhang Xinjie. Thunderclap had won those team competitions. This was also a solid argument.
The only remaining uncertainty was Ye Xiu.
This time, the ingredients in Ye Xiu’s hands were far better than his ingredients back in the Challenger League. The rookies had grown. Su Mucheng and Fang Rui had joined. The team now had two All Star characters, and the other characters had improved significantly as well.
On the other hand, Thunderclap’s roster dimmed in comparison to Su Mucheng and Fang Rui. Their characters were more in line with the gradual step by step improvement from not-so-wealthy teams.
Ye Xiu’s ingredients had vastly improved, while XIao Shiqin’s ingredients had diminished in quality compared to Excellent Era. This time, what would the confrontation between the two sides be like?
The start of the match was approaching, and the commentators focused their discussion of this round’s team competition on this fight between two Master Tacticians.
Whoever won would become the existence above the Four Master Tacticians.
Pan Lin didn’t directly say these words, but many people thought of it. Everyone’s eyes were focused on the screen as the match began.
