The King's Avatar

Hype for the playoffs spread like wildfire. As the most intense competition of every season, this was a huge way to rake in money for the Alliance. The teams that failed to enter the playoffs could only watch the happenings with envy. They wouldn’t be receive a piece of the pie for broadcasting the playoffs, ticket revenue, advertising, etc.

These were the concerns of the Club owners and managers. For the pro players, the playoffs was the highest stage obtainable and the place where they could attain the greatest glory.

As for the spectators, the playoffs was a time to enjoy high level competition. Glory wasn’t so popular that there would be discussions about it all over the streets, but in the Internet Cafe, Glory forums, Glory global chat, and guild chats, the places where Glory players gathered, the playoffs was undoubtedly the hottest topic. Everyone passionately discussed who they thought would take the championships.

From the online polls, Blue Rain, Samsara, and Tiny Herb were the most favored teams. Tyranny was a bit less favored. As for the four other teams, the meager amount of support they received was due to their zealous fans. After all, no one could give a convincing argument for why any of these four teams would be the winner.

Who would be the champion? The members of Team Happy were calmer in comparison to the public. Ye Xiu and Wei Chen had been a part of the pro scene before. Both of them were experienced players too. They had already adapted to their current circumstances. Since they weren’t participating in the playoffs, why would they be excited? The two calmly analyzed the weaknesses and strengths of each participating team.

As for the other three, after Chen Guo turned her back on Excellent Era, she invested her support into Team Happy instead. She didn’t really care who became the champion. As for Tang Rou and Steamed Bun, they hadn’t played long enough to favor any of the teams. Now that they were a part of a team, they obviously didn’t have any favorites.

While people outside were discussing this question fervently, even as an aspiring pro team, Team Happy appeared a bit too calm.

On the other hand, they were much more interested in Excellent Era. After all, they were an approaching reality. However, this reality put a huge amount of pressure on them.

After Excellent Era got relegated, they calmly placated their fans. They had clearly prepared for everything long beforehand. They definitely had detailed plans for how to maintain their competitive state and return to the Alliance. Ye Xiu and the rest of the team knew that Excellent Era would be a fierce boss in the Challenger League, but even Ye Xiu, who had once been the captain of Excellent Era for seven years, didn’t know how much they would progress. Because he knew that, ever since his departure, Excellent Era had gone through bold and decisive changes. That team would never be the same team that he had once struggled for, so of course he wouldn’t know how it had changed.

“We won’t be so unlucky as to meet Excellent Era in the first round, right? That would be a joke.” In these past two days, Wei Chen often cracked these types of jokes to scare everyone.

“How about you shut your mouth!!” Ye Xiu often replied in this way. Everyone could tell that the usually calm Ye Xiu felt somewhat nervous towards Wei Chen’s jokes. This sort of possibility was theoretically possible. If it actually happened, the Challenger League would no longer be the start of their dreams, but rather the end.

With the team’s current strength, they didn’t need to worry about normal player teams, but in comparison to a professional team like Excellent Era, the difference between them wasn’t small. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun were still far from being a pro player’s match! Their characters didn’t need to be mentioned. Both of their characters were still in the tenth server. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had a Silver weapon, but it was only Level 50 right now. Wei Chen’s Death Hand was also only Level 60. Even if they upgraded their two Silver weapons to max level, how could two Silver weapons compare to Excellent Era’s characters? A God-level character like One Autumn Leaf had a full set of Silver equipment!

The disparity between their characters was even larger than the disparity between players.

Both teams would be participating in the Challenger League, but the Challenger League only had one winner. This meant that, as long as neither of the two were eliminated early on, they would inevitably meet. In this case, meeting them early on would be much worse than meeting them later. In fact, the later they met, the better. Happy would have more time to improve, whether that be the players themselves or the characters.

Fortunately, this was a special feature of an eSport competition like Glory. The characters could grow as the season progressed. For example, if the character found a skill book in the game, the character could use it immediately. The character could also switch out his or her old equipment for better equipment.

For Ye Xiu, he wouldn’t be able to return to the pro scene until next year August. This period of time was enough for the team members and characters to grow, because even if they were participating in the Challenger League, they could also run back to the game and obtain more materials and equipment. When they entered the pro scene, their team would have definitely have improved significantly compared to their initial stage. Even after joining the pro scene, they could still grow while competing, because the regular season lasted a long time. A single match wouldn’t determine their team’s fate. Even if they encountered an incredibly difficult team in the beginning of the season, they still had a huge amount of time to improve. Perhaps by the end of the season, they would be able to enter the playoffs, and at that time, their strength might not lose out to any other team.

However, in the Challenger League, a single match could decide your fate. A powerful team like Excellent Era completely messed up Ye Xiu’s current plans. Right now, he needed to hurry and build up the team so that it would be strong enough to contest against such a formidable opponent. If Wei Chen’s joke became a reality and they met Excellent Era in the first round, in accordance with the Challenger League’s schedule, the first match would begin in September. The amount of time that Ye Xiu had originally planned to use to build up the team had now been reduced significantly. How could he not be anxious?

“Do you think Excellent Era has some dirty trick up their sleeves? From the looks of it, they have quite some enmity with you. If they were to play some trick behind our back and sabotage the competition arrangements with their connections, what would we do if they had our team fight against them in the first match?” The more Wei Chen spoke, the fiercer he became. The probability of this happening used to be infinitesimally small, but now he described a situation where the probability would be 100%.

“If that happens, I’ll go across the street and break their glass.” Ye Xiu wasn’t in a good mood.

“I’m just saying!” Wei Chen knew that he was poking at a sore spot, but he justified himself: “If they did that, they might not entirely be letting their emotions affect their decisions. You definitely make them worry as an opponent. They’ll also regard you as a formidable opponent in the Challenger League. They know about your situation and they know that time is of huge importance to our team. In order to ensure their victory, it isn’t completely impossible that they would mess with the rules in order to fight your team on the first round, no? You’ve been a part of Excellent Era for seven years. Does Excellent Era have the power to do that? You should be much more clear on such matters than me.”

When Wei Chen finished talking, he looked at Ye Xiu in anticipation, as if he were waiting for Ye Xiu to give him a precise answer. Ye Xiu immediately understood after seeing his expression. Wei Chen wasn’t any less worried than him. Wei Chen intentionally said these scary things to irritate him and also to make himself numb to the possibility. That way, his emotions wouldn’t be affected as much. He and Ye Xiu were clear that, even if they faced Excellent Era at the very end of the Challenger League, Excellent Era would still be an extremely difficult opponent for them.

Their opponents were a powerful force with eight years of accumulated resources and experiences. As for them? Since Ye Xiu’s departure from Excellent Era, it had only been half a year. His second best player was a middle-aged player, who had been retired for almost six years. The characters in his possession couldn’t even compare to most in-game experts. And they wanted to challenge Excellent Era? Don’t say that it would be a miracle! Even the author is getting tired of using this word!

After understanding Wei Chen’s intentions, Ye Xiu felt deeply moved. He didn’t answer with a biting remark like he usually did. Instead, he replied in a serious tone: “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Wei Chen didn’t want to believe it either.

“Of course I don’t know. If they actually did that sort of shady business, of course not many would know about it.” Ye Xiu said.

“F*ck, I just want you to make a prediction. You should understand Excellent Era’s owner and manager and the current environment in the pro scene. Just analyze the possibility of it happening.” Wei Chen said.

Everyone in the practice room stopped what they were doing and looked at Ye Xiu, but Ye Xiu just stared at the ceiling and didn’t say anything for a long time.

“You don’t dare be certain, so it’s still a possibility, no?” Wei Chen said.

“Fine! I’ll help ask for you!” Ye Xiu suddenly straightened his back.

“Ask who?” Wei Chen was puzzled. He saw Ye Xiu open up QQ and in the team category, he clicked on a person’s name.

“Who’s this?” Wei Chen walked over. This person’s QQ name was in English. He definitely didn’t know who this person was.

“Excellent Era’s boss.” Ye Xiu said as he typed in a message: “I never thought we would actually be opponents.”

“F*ck f*ck f*ck! You just directly ran over to ask him? What if he hadn’t thought of it and now you reminded of it?” Wei Chen said.

“If he hadn’t thought of it, he still wouldn’t do it even if I reminded him. If he had planned on doing it, whether or not I remind him about it, he would still do it.” Ye Xiu said.

Wei Chen repeated his words and then cursed: “Are you saying a tongue twister?”

The other side on QQ suddenly lit up and replied: “It’s a bitter rivalry too.”

“Do you think we’ll meet in the first round?” Ye Xiu replied.

After a short pause, Wei Chen stared at the screen with wide eyes. After a while, the other side replied: “Ha ha, are you scared?”