Chapter 505 – To Relegations
The web game had its own liveliness, while the pro league had its own news.
Excellent Era had always been the center of attention. After all, they were a seasoned and well-known team in the Alliance. Before this season, they had always been contenders for the champion spot. However, this season, the characters being paid attention to were different. From the beginning of the season, Excellent Era was very unstable. Their captain and ace player changed halfway through the season and the team seemed to be on the rise again. However, a few weeks earlier, vice captain Liu Hao had a disastrous performance and the team was in complete disarray. Their last two performances were so bad that their defeats would go down in the history books.
The press and newspaper once again used the headlines that they had been using throughout the season: What Happened to Excellent Era???
This time, they added additional words in their headlines: What Is Actually Going on with Excellent Era???
Excellent Era’s public relation team appeared helpless in the face of this historical disaster. Their fans were tired of their empty promises and wanted results instead of empty talk. Before it happened, they would never stop making their dissatisfaction known.
In Excellent Era’s inter-team meeting, the manager could sense that something wasn’t right.
Despite his shouting, his only response to it were the dead expressions on the team. Sun Xiang, Liu Hao, Shen Jian… All of the main players appeared to be out of it.
The worried looks on their faces were not for the team, but for their own futures. Right now, Excellent Era was a sinking ship and the people that were supposed to be the fixers of the ships were thinking about matters after the ship had sunk.
The sight that played out before him frightened the manager. The poor performance during the first half of the season could be brushed aside as a period of transitioning, but what about now? He didn’t know how the situation had gone out of hand so quickly and he had no solution to it…
Pacing back and forth unsure of what to do, the manager decided to conclude the meeting. He hadn’t achieved the outcome that he had hoped would happen through this meeting. The only thing he obtained through the meeting was knowledge on how grave the situation looked. He had no choice but to pull out his phone, “Boss….”
Although in-game players paid attention to the pro scene, the game wouldn’t be directly affected by news from the pro scene. Dungeons, missions, and PK’s between players continued regardless. The disastrous performance of Excellent Era, however, was a disgrace in the eyes of their fans as well as a subject of ridicule for their opponents.
Chen Yehui managed the in-game guild. The pro team’s poor performances had nothing to do with him. However, as a core member of the club, he could clearly feel the heavy atmosphere within the club.
What happened to Liu Hao and his companions last time? Chen Yehui couldn’t muster the courage to ask. He came across Liu Hao several times since then, but Liu Hao always seemed to have something else in his mind and walked past him without noticing him.
He Ming, Shen Jian, Zhang Jiaxing…
Everyone he encountered looked like they were troubled. As for Sun Xiang, according to the information that Chen Yehui had gathered, it was said that he had isolated himself in his room and only came out for training and meal times.
With the situation being so serious, Chen Yehui didn’t dare to do anything rash. He came to the conclusion that going back to the game and completing his responsibilities was the safest way to go.
Progress in the game remained the same as before. The bounties placed on Lord Grim and Deception didn’t seem to affect them.
The leaders of the big guilds understood that even though there were a lot of names on their wanted list, 6 out of 7 of them were just dummies. Lord Grim. Their only target was Lord Grim. This was precisely the reason that they reacted to news regarding Lord Grim while ignoring the rest.
But what about Lord Grim? They had received a lot of information about him in these past few days, but they still hadn’t managed to catch a glimpse of him. They weren’t even sure if the information that they received were real or just to pull their legs. Later, the guilds required reports to confirm the target and keep the target in sight until they arrived. But when they thought about it, who was it they were supposed to keep in sight? Ye Qiu! Three guilds had allied together and sent out over a hundred players to lock down Wilderness Town. Even so, Ye Qiu had still been able to escape from their eyes. How could a single player keep him in sight for so long? It would only possible if Ye Qiu didn’t care and intentionally let someone pursue him.
Would Ye Qiu be so careless with his current circumstances? Clearly not. For the past few days, Lord Grim was nowhere to be seen despite being online. The intelligence received by the big guilds decreased by the day. After the initial hype, not many were actually willing to try their luck in low level zones.
Was this another wasted effort? Each club-backed guild was puzzled. Why couldn’t they defeat Lord Grim even when such a strong weapon, the renminbi, was employed.
One week passed in the blink of an eye and a new round of the weekly pro matches began. Other than the Glory fans that cared about the top 8, the number of fans that were concerned that their teams would be disqualified increased as well.
In terms of the long-term competition system of the professional league, doing horribly in a game or two wouldn’t decide the overall situation. The two teams that usually got relegated were usually teams that that had been at the back of the pack due to their lack of actual strength. But for the first half of the current season, Excellent Era had dropped low because of their continuous bad performances. A few good matches came after switching ace players, but the collapse that followed right after made many feel that Excellent Era had returned to the bottom. A contender for relegations was back!
If Excellent Era actually got relegated, it would not be a small matter.
With only 8 seasons, the development of Glory’s competitive scene was still considered quite short. The rise and fall of a powerhouse hadn’t occurred in history yet, but in this season, Excellent Era might just fulfill that role. Could the champions who once led to the creation of the first empire in the history of Glory be trying to change the history of Glory again, but this time in the completely opposite direction?
Reports from the mass media were full of such sarcasm. Even though they were no longer as invincible as back in their days as reigning champions for three years, Excellent Era was still a strong competitor. However, they had suddenly plunged into the possibility of relegation without any warning as if to surprise the masses.
Excellent Era’s rivals took pleasure in their misfortune, while their supporters were ridden with anxiety. Their next match began with much attention to it. Excellent Era would be the away team facing against Samsara.
Samsara had been the host of the All Star Weekend, but unfortunately, their team didn’t show anything very outstanding. Despite that, their morale were exceptionally high after the All Star Weekend. Excellent Era was demoralized after their disastrous last match and was unlucky to face such a team with high spirits, but it was also a chance for them.
If they were going to defeat Samsara, they would need to pay tremendous effort to do so. Btut if they managed to defeat them, it would be very strong evidence that their strength hadn’t faded.
Could Excellent Era make it? The fans of Excellent Era weren’t the only ones paying attention to this match. Even Happy Internet Cafe was broadcasting this match. Chen Guo’s current policy was to stream important matches, so she didn’t avoid Excellent Era on purpose. This match would without a doubt be one of the the most important matches of the season.
Happy Internet Cafe was once again full of customers, but the atmosphere was very heavy. There might be neutral fans watching the match elsewhere, but at this specific location, almost all of the audience members were Excellent Era supporters who were watching with sweat covering their palms. There were no cheers when the match started, no shouts of approval for their favorite players. Everyone was silently and anxiously paying attention to the match.
Su Mucheng won the first individual match, bringing everyone’s spirits up.
In the second match, vice captain Liu Hao managed to win too and the atmosphere in Happy Internet Cafe suddenly livened up.
Even Chen Guo let out a breath that she had been holding in. Her wish to see Excellent Era fail miserably faded after seeing Ye Xiu’s dejected expression. She suddenly began to hope that Excellent Era could make a comeback.
Without a doubt, Chen Guo was a typical fangirl. Su Mucheng was still a member of Excellent Era! If Excellent Era fell into disarray, wouldn’t Su Mucheng be affected as well? Just imagining this made Chen Guo hope that Excellent Era would deliver.
Chen Guo stole a glance at Ye Xiu, who was smoking at the doorway. The guy was expressionless, as if the 2 wins were nothing to him.
Excellent Era lost the third round. The Internet Cafe was filled with sighs of regret, but the atmosphere was way better than it had been when the match first started. At least the place was getting more lively.
The group arena competition that followed was like a heavy rain, drenching the audience’s morale heavily. There was only one player that took part in the team knockout tournament from Samsara’s side, Zhou Zekai.
1v3!
Zhou Zekai scoring a 1v3 in the team knockout tournament with his stylish Sharpshooter may have been dazzling, but nobody was in the mood to appreciate his magnificent skills. Most of them wanted to eat Zhou Zekai alive.
At this grave moment, a cheer emanated from amongst the crowd, “Awesome!”
The cheer could only be towards Zhou Zekai. The crowd looked for the source of the voice with fury in their eyes. The owner of the voice was luckily a beautiful girl. If it were a guy, the emergency services would be needing to take a field trip to Happy Internet Cafe.
The atmosphere of the internet cafe regressed immediately to a state similar to when the game had first started. The team competition started with great anxiety amongst the audience. Lasting for 30 minutes, the match was just of moderate length, but it caused Excellent Era fans to wince with pain.
Defeated. Once again, they had suffered defeat.
2 : 8 was the final score, with only a difference of one point compared to their last match. Although not as disgusting as their last match, Excellent Era’s team remained in low spirits, retaining their horrible performance. This was made obvious by the team competition.
“F*ck!” The air in Happy Internet Cafe was filled with strings of curses.
