The King's Avatar

The weekend passed by quickly, and the Pro League continued to attract a lot of attention. However, Challenger League’s offline tournament entered its most crucial time, so in this week’s Monday Esports Home, there was an additional half a page.

The suspense in Group A and D had ended after the fourth round. The two pro teams, Jade Dynasty and Excellent Era, had locked into first place in groups. The teams that had reached second place in groups stood out as well.

However, Group B and C entered into a greater state of chaos in the fourth round. In terms of suspense, Group C’s matches were decent. All five teams still had a chance of making it to next round. Real suspense was when one would need to go through the matches in the last round in order to determine who would win. As for Group B? Although there was a chance for all three of the teams, Happy needed to snatch over eight points from Team Mysterious Fantasy this round. Quite a lot of people believed that Happy had no hope. On the forums, players that looked down on Happy finally found a topic to express themselves, so there were all kinds of ricidules being flung around. As for people who put their hopes in Happy, they constantly brought out the evidence that Happy had swept away Everlasting to prove the former’s possibilities. However, their voice was weaker compared to the ridicule.

In the Esports Home issue on Monday, there were two complete reports that specifically analysed Group B’s situation for the readers. In this round, Team Mysterious Fantasy only needed to get two points to get by safe and sound. If they got one more point, they could kick Happy away. They had a greater psychological advantage, so the two believed Team Mysterious Fantasy had higher chances of winning. However, the Esports Home represented the country, not of a certain region, so they couldn’t show too much of their personal preferences. Contrary to this, the regional evening reports for Team Mysterious Fantasy gave a positive report on the team’s excellent situation. They didn’t even try to hide their genuine praises and expectations.

While in City H, where Happy was located, the media had previously praised Excellent Era highly. If Excellent Era had stayed in the Pro League this season, then the media would definitely give more positive compliments towards such an eye-catching team in the Challenger League coming from their city. Unfortunately, Excellent Era happened to join Challenger League this season, so the two teams became opponents who had to fight to the death. Furthermore, Happy challenged Excellent Era when it came up, so this situation was hard for the media in City H. When Happy and Excellent Era were compared, it was obvious that no one would think of them being equals. However, before the both sides even have a chance to clash, Happy was already stuck in a dangerous position of being eliminated. The media from City H could finally speak up for the local team. However, what they said was nothing new. What the media could find was the fact that Happy had beat Everlasting. With this as evidence, they hoped that Happy could perform a miracle once more.

”Miracle?” When Ye Xiu saw this word constantly pop up in the report, he laughed. ”They’re using this word already! What word would they use when we beat Excellent Era. I’m pretty worried for them!”

”Hahaha...” Chen Guo laughed dryly. The past few days had been hard on her. She was anxious and worried in every way possible. Especially after seeing Ye Xiu’s confident plan of not including a healer Chen Guo wouldn’t be herself if she could stay calm. Although she knew that Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had a bit of skill in healing, but just having level 20 and under healer skills didn’t mean he could take up the healing responsibilities of a real Cleric or Paladin. Chen Guo was worried over making such a bold strategic move at such a crucial moment. Chen Guo feared that they would slip up like when Ye Xiu decided not to join the team match in the round against Team Trader.

However, the morale within the whole team was pretty good for the past few days. Chen Guo didn’t want to speak out her concerns and create an unexpected change of mood. Even though the day of competition had arrived, Ye Xiu still had the mood to mock the words in the report. Chen Guo couldn’t find any way to be at ease.

”Alright, call on everyone to set off!” Ye Xiu got up and exited through the door. This was followed by the sound of a door opening and locking in the corridor. Team Happy set out.

In this last round, the stadium for this offline match was much more packed compared to the previous rounds. After going through some random interviews, it was found that many of the audiences in the stadium came to watch the match between Happy and Mysterious Fantasy.

”I’m not a fan of Mysterious Fantasy, but I’m definitely not a fan of Happy. I hope Mysterious Fantasy can get three points this round, so Happy can just f*ck off!”

This was the majority of the responses from the random interviews. However, at the same time, everyone found that a new banner appeared on site: Welcome back, Ye Xiu!

Now that Ye Xiu’s Ye Qiu matter had been cleared up, nothing went out of hand under the protection of the league. It was said that Ye Qiu was a name Ye Xiu came up with when he joined the competitive scene, just like a stage name. As for now, he finally returned by using his actual name.

The final confirmation of his identity verified the hot news of ”God’s return”. The influence of the first God on the competitive scene was obviously immense. His action of creating a team to fight to the death against Excellent Era in Challenger League attracted a lot of resentment from many Excellent Era fans. However, there were still a lot of players who liked this God, but felt nothing towards Excellent Era. Many of these fans were extremely welcome towards God’s return.

There were even fans from other teams who started to try to help their team recruit Ye Xiu. Although it was wishful thinking, they called for God to join their team. There was an increase in all kinds of analysis having to do with ”Reasons Ye Qiu should join XX team” online.

Among all this, there was one tragic Tyranny fan. He cried out for Ye Xiu to join Tyranny so that the most extravagant team in the history of Glory could be formed. However, he received attacks from Tyranny’s diehard fans. It was evident that, as a loyal fan of Tyranny, Ye Qiu was the most hated pro player in Glory. The diehard fans even seriously threatened Tyranny that if they recruited Ye Qiu, they would boycott all of Tyranny’s future competition as a form of protest. It was as if Ye Qiu joining Team Tyranny was already a reality…...

As a result, at the site of Challenger League, supporters of God Ye Qiu gradually gathered. This was the most relieving thing for Chen Guo to see for the past few days.

At the same time, Sun Zheping appearing in Team Happy also attracted a lot of attention, especially fans of Team Hundred Blossoms. There were all kinds of astonishment and awe. The journalists contacted Team Hundred Blossoms. However, the clubs expressed that they didn’t know about Sun Zheping’s return. They also didn’t express any intentions of contacting Sun Zheping at the moment. This meant that the future of Hundred Blossoms still revolved around Yu Feng as the ace.

Surrounding news and events continued to emerge, but for Happy, their current match was what mattered most. The round between Team Happy and Team Mysterious Fantasy would be played live on the side. This was a match in the offline tournament that had things to watch for.

The competition started at eight o’clock sharp. Since there were seven other matches going on at the same time, they couldn’t put too much of their focus on one particular match. The match between Happy and Mysterious Fantasy wasn’t able to get more part on screen. It was obvious that they wouldn’t announce the list of the contestants’ names whom were playing. After all, there were eight matches going on the same time, they wouldn’t be able to broadcast them all.

The list was shown through the electronic screen. As for Happy, first up was Sun Zheping.

This created a stir in the stadium. After all, for an old Glory fan, this name held brilliant radiance.

”Finally going on stage?” Zhang Yiwei spoke. His face was filled with confidence, and he turned his head to see the members of Happy. The seats for the two competing teams in the match were quite close, so they could interact directly with each other.

”There are still a lot of ”finally” moments to come. Take it easy on that word.” Ye Xiu said.

”Haha, I’ll be looking forward to it.” Zhang Yiwei laughed. The first player from Mysterious Fantasy was also announced at the same time: Fang Daxu. He was a Knight player who had been in Mysterious Fantasy’s roster for the last two seasons. When Mysterious Fantasy was eliminated, he didn’t receive invitations from any other teams. It could be seen that his skills weren’t too outstanding.

The two player entered into the match, and started to load in their characters. Zhang Yiwei turned his head to look at Ye Xiu. ”Is Sun Zheping’s hand injury alright?”

”What do you think?” Ye Xiu said.

”I say he should use it more cautiously.” Zhang Yiwei said.

Chen Guo was alarmed when she heard this. He even knew about this? Could there be traitors on the team?! However, Ye Xiu remained cool. He laughed and didn’t reply. He knew that although Zhang Yiwei wasn’t an outstanding player, he had been in the circle for quite some time, so was experienced and had knowledge. Sun Zheping’s condition wasn’t hard to guess, but he wasn’t able to confirm about it. Ye Xiu wouldn’t let him worm that fact out.

”This matchup is quite good.” Zhang Yiwei laughed.

”Seems like you’ve done your research!” Ye Xiu said. Teams wouldn’t normally reveal the player’s playing order before hand. As a result, guessing the opponent’s order, and making targeted arrangements was one branch of study in a match. Judging from Zhang Yiwei’s look and expression, it seemed like he guessed that Happy would send Sun Zheping to play first.

”You guys are in a hurry to snatch the points. If Sun Zheping doesn’t play, then there would be no point for him to be in your team. If there’s pressure from his hand injury, it’s better if he plays earlier. Then, he would be able to rest for a bit longer before he plays in the team match.” Zhang Yiwei said.

Chen Guo was startled, why would the opponent know all of these? Is it really from guessing?

”So you sent a Knight on stage. It seems like you are planning to drag on the fight?” Ye Xiu said.

Zhang Yiwei laughed without speaking, and focused his gaze on the competition’s screen. The two characters had finished loading. Both sides pressed ready and were about to be loaded into the map.

There were no home and away games, so they were no home and away teams. The maps in the offline tournament were all chosen by the league. All of the maps were made specifically for competitive Glory. No team would have the chance to practice with it beforehand, so it was relatively fair. The map would also be used for the other matches. This was confirmed and announced on the first day of the competition, so people could download the maps. From that moment onwards, every team would train with the map they would use.

The two loaded characters started to head towards the map’s center. Since Sun Zheping was a God, the broadcast commentator would definitely emphasize mentioning and introducing him. The commentary introduced his previous glory, playstyle, and achievements, while feeling pleased. It was much easier to broadcast a match with professional players because they had stories and content to talk about. Contrastingly, he could only dully explain the match for the teams made of online players. There were no spice to it.

The two characters met before the commentator could finish introducing Sun Zheping’s background. He could only stop hurriedly, and pay attention to the match.

”Oh, the two sides have met.”

”Seems like Mysterious Fantasy’s Fang Daxu is putting out a defensive stance, and prepared to strike back.”

”Sun Zheping is fighting straight on.”

”Wow! A big move! He started with a big move the moment the fight started. This confidence is worthy of a former God!”

”Combo! Oh, it’s linked up beautifully. It seems that despite not fighting in competitions for so many years, Sun Zheping didn’t lose any of his abilities.”

”Fang Daxu is at an absolute disadvantage!”

”A wave of combo with twelve hits! Although the hits weren’t heavy, the damage output is very impressive. It’s concise and practical! Eh...”

”The attacks have connected, here comes another wave... the one from before was a fake combo, so the combos were disconnected according to the system’s calculations. However, the attacks still connected. Fang Daxu must be having a hard time, isn’t he?”

”Fang Daxu’s situation is very passive!”

”Fang Daxu should hurry up and come up with an idea.”

”Fang Daxu’s situation is dangerous...”

”Fang Daxu...”

”Dead...”

”Uh... Let’s continue to talk about player Sun Zheping’s situation after the matches...” The commentator started to sweat. He didn’t even have another chance to continue to talk about Sun Zheping’s past because the round had ended.