The King's Avatar

Anyone with eyes could see that, in this loss for Blue Rain, Yu Wenzhou’s tactics were very reasonable, and Huang Shaotian’s Blademaster, as always, waited patiently for an opportunity to attack. It was Lu Hanwen’s Flowing Clouds that had been over eager to engage. He had said Huang Shaotian’s Troubling Rain was too far from him, becoming a little out of sync, but the reason for this lack of synchronization was because his Flowing Clouds had ran off too quickly. He failed to coordinate with the rest of the team.

A veteran like Wang Jiexi wouldn’t not notice this mistake. Tiny Herb immediately came on with a sudden wave of attacks. Three people went to cut off any reinforcements while the two Witches, Vaccaria and Kind Tree, mounted a vicious offense. Blue Rain was just a tad too slow, resulting in Lu Hanwen getting wiped out by this wave of attacks. They fell into a passive role, and eventually lost the fight.

In the end, at the post-match press conference, Team Blue Rain didn’t take the mistake seriously at all, jokingly pushing the blame around. The mistake that caused their loss was just vaguely touched upon before being passed over . This was one of the ways they would protect Lu Hanwen, but it was also something that showed how big the heart of the youngest member of the Alliance had.

Even Team Tiny Herb’s Wang Jiexi didn’t mention the mistake Lu Hanwen made in the press conference, but instead praised his composure afterwards, openly declaring that this was something all pro gamers could learn from him.

Even at Happy, Lu Hanwen became an exemplar to learn from.

”It seems that the old are losing to the young in keeping their composure*!” It was only after seeing Wang Jiexi’s praise for Lu Hanwen that Ye Xiu started to lament loudly.

”You bastard, who’re you talking about, huh!” The words instantly provoked someone to jump up ready to fight.

Wei Chen, of course it was him that Ye Xiu was referring to, because he had been rather touchy recently. It was because of none other than the fact that they were already in their fifth round of the Challenger League. There were only eight hundred teams left. After this point, there would only be four hundred. Happy and Excellent Era were, of course, still within these four hundred and the chances of them meeting now was far higher than it had been back when there were more than ten thousand teams. So, Wei Chen became uneasy. For Happy, it was too early in the game for them to face Excellent Era.

Seeing how composed the 14 year old Lu Hanwen was, Ye Xiu wouldn’t miss such a great chance to poke fun at Wei Chen. This was especially effective, too. After jumping up in a rage when realizing who Ye Xiu was talking about, he immediately decided that he couldn’t lose to this youngster who was his junior. With an expression like gathering storm clouds, he sat down on one side to compose his emotions.

Lu Hanwen’s mental fortitude became something people admired even more than his technical skill. More and more people were admitting that he really was an impressive kid.

Another who had hit the Rookie’s Block hard like Lu Hanwen was Team Wind Howl. It wasn’t a certain person who had hit a block, but rather their entire team. They might have taken a strong lead in the beginning of the season, but starting from the eighth round, their scores began to fluctuate. After getting their then lowest score of 4 points in the eighth round, they managed to score a measly 2 points for the ninth and tenth rounds. As for the eleventh round, they only managed to earn 5 points.

Tang Hao was without a doubt a god-level player. In the early stages of assimilating into this team that revolved around a Brawler, the results had been very impressive. However, after several rounds, some of the problems in their teamwork gradually began to show, and the experienced powerhouses easily began to step on this tail that they had managed to grab. Team Wind Howl was unable to adjust within these four rounds, instantly slipping from the upper echelons of the ranking ladder.　Under the same circumstances, the veterans of Glory managed to become a shining exemplar for everyone in their line of work.

Team Tyranny, round after round of stable point earning, stood at the top of the rankings. Also having new team members and a new team, Team Tyranny seemed to have no problems getting used to it. After eleven rounds, what everyone was talking about was no longer if Tyranny could manage to keep their place, but if their good, stable performance could break the record that Team Excellent Era had set in the second season with a total of 314 points, and an average of 8.26 points per match, in the regular season. Currently with 97 points in 11 rounds, Team Tyranny’s chances of beating this record seemed good.　

As for Team Hundred Blossoms, who also had quite a few eyes on them, finally managed to reach the sweet moment after bitter defeat. After a disappointing beginning, they finally managed to find their feet. The new Blossom Duo slowly matured, especially Zou Yuan. Handling his new Spitfire character Blooming Blossoms, he managed to enter a peak state of performance. This made people think Zou Yuan’s use of the god-level account Dazzling Hundred Blossoms after Zhang Jiale’s retirement wasn’t such a fruitless decision. After obtaining a character tailored to his own style, Zou Yuan’s performance improved with each passing day. With him, Team Hundred Blossoms also managed to struggle out of the swamp of relegation, steadily climbing up in the ranks.

Speaking of that, there was another team that had been continuously at the bottom that had to be mentioned: Heavenly Swords.

Heavenly Swords was in the same situation as Happy. With thinner foundations, their strength was unimpressive, but it also meant that they had plenty of room for improvement. With Lou Guanning taking a hold of Everlasting’s assets, Team Heavenly Sword’s strength improved by leaps and bounds. The original 20 pieces of silver equipment had increased to 41. Though many of them didn’t really match, or would even be better for a different class, everything that could improve their character’s strength was equipped. In addition, their research team that Ye Xiu wasn’t even familiar with was obviously putting in a lot more effort into the development of silver equipment. In every round, it seemed that the characters of Heavenly Swords had different equipment on.

With the continuous improvement of their strength, their scores were also seeing an improvement. In the eleventh round, which had just finished, Team Heavenly Swords received 301 Degrees on their home field and managed to take a 7 to 3 victory. This was the first time they managed to gain over half the points in a round, and stepped out of the relegation zone. They’re opponent in that round was Team 301 Degrees, which was a mid-tier team with a fairly stable performance. Occasionally, they would even step foot into the playoffs for a quick while. However, after their Knight player, Xu Bin, left during the summer, their performance had been constantly slipping. The all-star Assassin, Captain Yang Cong, seemed to be having trouble keeping the team afloat on his own.

With a passive and inelegant style, Xu Bin, who had held the title of ”Grind King”, never had much popularity even among the fans of his own team. It was only after his departure that his importance became evident. However, it was too late for the fans to regret now. Xu Bin’s talent was fully being utilized in Tiny Herb now, having accepted the all-star Knight account Angelica. The success of Tiny Herb’s Double Witch tactic was in large part assured by Xu Bin’s efforts.　All the drama happening in the ninth season made the Glory fans very happy. Yet after the 18th of November, the Monday of the next week, Glory officially announced another oncoming change that shook the entire Glory circle.

This year’s anniversary of Glory’s launch would, as always, signify the opening of a new server, the eleventh one, but there would also be a massive update added to the game. The level limits, that had not been touched in three years, was going to be increased to level 75. There would be new stories, new skills, new equipment, and even new maps...

For those who enjoyed the online game, this was amazing news. However, for those currently in the Pro League, this huge change would bring about unpredictable consequences. The already rather lively ninth season would become even more confusing.

For the characters in Pro Teams, increasing their level to 75 wasn’t a problem at all. However, the changes in stats, skills, and equipment would lead to huge adjustments in strategy and playstyles. This would need to be figured out as they continued to play. The seemingly stable situation of the ninth season might collapse into chaos once more.

Pro teams, of course, didn’t like these sorts of changes. However, since Glory’s competitive scene was inseparable from the online game, they couldn’t escape such changes. However, it was a little too disgusting that they would implement these adjustments, not in the summer holidays, but a third of the way through the regular season. Between matches, they not only had to rush to level up, but also had to research and test out new skills and new equipment. If they were a little slow about it, then they might be left behind in the competitive scene. This season was fated to be a very busy one.　Even so, the experienced veterans weren’t unfamiliar with this situation. Glory had only stopped quite long at level 70, but the updates from level 50, 55, 60, 65. and then 70 came one after another.

The Pro League was only in its ninth season. Of the eight seasons prior, three years had been at level 70, and the five years before that experienced an annual period of chaos with each new update. After the notice of the newest update came out, the veterans, who had been fighting since that era, all reminisced about those wild years.

Glory may have stopped at level 70 for the past three years, but who would believe that it wouldn’t renew its limits? So, even though there hadn’t been an update after hitting level 70 until now, all the Pro Teams had long since been preparing for this moment. At the very least, they had to stock up on all sorts of materials for silver equipment. As soon as the level 75 update came out, they immediately began researching new materials and charged over to level up their silver equipment.

Following the announcement of the update, the Alliance also made an announcement: on the week of the update, the fourteenth round of the League would be delayed by a week.

This was, of course, to prepare for the update and to allow all the pro teams extra time to adjust. At the same time, the Challenger League would also pause for a week.

And it was this notice that made storm clouds gather once more over the now-clear skies above Wei Chen’s head.

It was apparent that this wasn’t a good thing for Happy. Team Excellent Era had long since made preparations for an update like this, and had stocked up on materials over the years, but Team Happy didn’t! All of Happy’s material were carefully and specifically obtained by Ye Xiu. They couldn’t afford the cost in materials from failure. Under this circumstance, Happy couldn’t afford to charge into the unknown that was level 75!