Chapter 1010: Excellent Era’s Rookie
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
"Team Excellent Era's second player for this match is now heading for the stage. I believe many of you are unfamiliar with this pro player. His name is Qiu Fei, and was promoted from Team Excellent Era's training camp just this season. The team underwent large adjustments during the time of its elimination this summer. Three core players left the team with Xiao Shiqin joining. In addition to that, Qiu Fei was selected to join the front lines from the training camp." Pan Lin introduced the Excellent Era player upon his debut.
"Yes, if we add on the fact that Ye Qiu retired last winter, and the addition of Sun Xiang, Excellent Era changed almost all of their core members within the last year and a half." Li Yibo said.
"Yeah, especially their captain Ye Qiu, and vice captain Liu Hao. These two core player left. Then there's also He Ming, the member who appeared mostly as the sixth player in the matches. He and Liu Hao were traded for Xiao Shiqin, and joined Team Thunderclap. There was also Guo Yang, who joined Team Wind Howl last summer." Pan Lin introduced Excellent Era's trades.
"Mm, all the players that left Excellent Era are doing well this year." Li Yibo spoke.
"Indeed, they are now part of the main rosters of their respective teams. Team Wind Howl, which Guo Yang joined, also went through some large adjustments throughout the year. There's the addition of Tang Hao, the new ace, and Zhao Yuzhe, last season's Best Rookie, as the main roster's pillars. With the addition of a capable player like Guo Yang, Team Wind Howl's performance this season has been outstanding. We can say that the team has risen to the top of the the league, no?" Pan Lin said.
"Yes, for Team Wind Howl, they no longer have to think about whether they can make it to playoffs. They should be considering how they can make it to the finals." Li Yibo said.
"Liu Hao and He Ming have also been very good after joining Team Thunderclap. Team Thunderclap was very close to squeezing into the finals in the first half of the season. However, after the Glory's update in the winter season, Team Thunderclap took a hit to their placings and are currently slipping behind."
"That's unavoidable for updates like these." Li Yibo said.
"True, as for Qiu Fei, he's a rookie found by Excellent Era after all those outstanding players left the team." Pan Lin rounded back to what was currently happening.
"There's a lot of strong rookies this season!" Li Yibo sighed.
"Yes, like Lu Hanwen of Blue Rain and Gao Yingjie of Tiny Herb. Both of their performances this season have been outstanding, so much so that they even played at All Stars."
"I've noticed something interesting. The classes of Lu Hanwen, Gao Yingjie, and Qiu Fei coincidentally all match the class of their team's ace players."
"Yes... They will all become the future of their team as well as the league's."
"However, compared to Lu Hanwen and Gao Yingjie, who have experienced the matches from the league, Qiu Fei can only fight in the Challenger League this season!"
"Although he's played a few matches... uh, this might seem disrespectful towards Excellent Era's opponents, but I've got to say: the level of the opponents in the Challenger League aren't really a good judge of Excellent Era's level."
"That's true." Li Yibo agreed.
"That's why for Qiu Fei, this is the first challenge he's ever truly faced!" Pan Lin said.
"This is a pretty big one too. His first opponent is Ye Qiu."
"Yes, is there anyone else on this planet who knows Battle Mages better than Ye Qiu?" Pan Lin said.
"Keep it low, there are also a lot of outstanding pro players internationally." Li Yibo laughed.
"Alright…..." His words from before were only a form of hype, so he didn't try to argue back. He continued to talk about the highlight player, Qiu Fei: "If Excellent Era nurtured this player with the intention of making him the successor, then the first player he would have succeed would be Ye Qiu!"
"Obviously."
"Then when Ye Qiu was still part of Excellent Era, he would have taught Qiu Fei through words and example. The both of them might be familiar with each other." Pan Lin said.
"But Ye Xiu has changed classes since, and no one has ever seen this type of character before in the pro scene. No one would dare to say they are familiar with his class." Li Yibo said.
"But with Ye Qiu's familiarity with the Battle Mage, he wouldn't simply forget about it after changing classes! If it were like that, this match will be even harder for Qiu Fei." Pan Lin said.
"That's not entirely true," Li Yibo laughed, "Ye Qiu knows about the Battle Mage, but that doesn't mean he knows the player. The Qiu Fei that he knew was the Qiu Fei from one and a half years ago. Young players like Qiu Fei won't be in a set shape in all areas, so no one can predict his growth. If Ye Qiu is trying to understand him by sticking up with the past, then I believe Qiu Fei will definitely give him a surprise this match. There must be a reason for Team Excellent Era to arrange such a young player to fight this round. I think it might be based on this mindset."
Pan Lin was truly convinced by Li Yibo's thinking: "You are right."
"Alright, Qiu Fei has already entered the competition area, the match is about to start!"
When Ye Xiu started to appear on stage, the topics of the commentator increased. After the appearance of Qiu Fei, the two echoed each other and talked nonstop. Now that the match official started, Pan Lin's spirit also rose. He personally looked forward to such a showdown.
"The current screen is now showing information about Qiu Fei's character, Combat Form. Team Excellent Era is worthy of possessing the Battle God, One Autumn Leaf. Qiu Fei's Combat Form also has good equipment. His character has ten pieces of Silver equipment. This is comparable with many of the top God characters! The character's stats are also outstanding. 1314 Strength and 1310 Intelligence. Qiu Fei's Combat Form inherited One Autumn Leaf's style, where the Strength and Intelligence are relatively balanced."
"Haha, when I saw that data, I was also shocked! Those stats are even higher than One Autumn Leaf's!"
"Hahaha, it seems like you must have forgotten for a moment, that it's the Level 75 generation. You were probably comparing this data with One Autumn Leaf's data from the Level 70 generation."
"I was. It's a habit gained from commentating for a few years, so I wasn't able to adjust my mind at the time." Li Yibo said.
"I hope that, after this match, whether it's Combat Form or One Autumn Leaf, both will eave a new impression in your mind. Alright, the match has officially started. The map is still Dockside Town, and both characters have appeared at the spawn point, what will they do?"
"Oh! None of them are moving strategically! Neither of them are moving strategically, whether it's Ye Qiu's….. Sorry, he now goes by Ye Xiu, whether it's Ye Xiu's Lord Grim or Qiu Fei's Combat Form, neither of them are moving strategically. Both of them are heading straight for the center of the map." Pan Lin shouted.
"Mm, what Qiu Fei did was correct. Even if he could give Ye Qiu, uh... Ye Xiu a lot of unknown moves, in terms of tactics, I think it would be best if he didn't try to surprise Ye Xiu." Li Yibo said.
"You're right."
"As for Ye Xiu, if this were the first round of the group arena, he would have carried out some form of tactics, but after Xiao Shiqin continuously fought three people from Happy, the morale is in dire need of an increase. They would need a person to stand out and fight resolutely, then defeat them directly. This would be a way to boost morale. After all, the group arena isn't everything, there's still the team competition afterwards. If Happy is in fear of Excellent Era's grandeur, then they will definitely lose. The most urgent matter for Ye Xiu is to save Team Happy's morale."
"That's right. Okay, both of them have now gotten closer to the center of the map. They should be opponents that are familiar with each other, and they might still have the bond of teacher and student. However, they didn't exchange any words and headed straight towards the center to fight. There are still around 40 units of space between them, so they will meet soon."
"30 units! Oh! He attacks! Ye Xiu launched the first attack. Lord Grim is running while firing his gun." Pan Lin shouted.
"Lord Grim's Silver weapon is very interesting and can change into various kinds of forms. As far as we know, it already includes the weapons of the six main classes. This is why Ye Xiu can control Lord Grim to easily use all the skills an unspecialized can use among the six main classes. A lot of newer players might not know too much about the unspecialized class. This playstyle was popular for a certain amount of time in the early days of Glory. However, the main problem was changing weapons to use skills. As everyone knows, many of the skills in Glory can only be used with the corresponding weapon of that class, so an unspecialized would have to change his weapon constantly in order to continue using skills of all the classes. Putting the matter of how complicated and often he would have to change his weapon aside, the cooldown between changing weapons also needed to be taken into consideration. This would confine the options the unspecialized could take. However, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in Lord Grim's hand perfectly solves all of those problems. The various forms of transformation his umbrella undertakes doesn't seem to have any cooldown. It could be said that this weapon is specifically designed for an unspecialized character. Okay…...we can save this topic for later, so let's watch the match for now." Li Yibo saw that the two had already clashed in the match, so he stopped with his introduction on the information.
"Qiu Fei controlled Combat Form to dodge Lord Grim's previous fire. Lord Grim didn't use a kiting method despite having the advantage of a greater attacking distance. He still continued to rush straight at Combat Form."
"Combat Form attacks and starts with Falling Flower Palm!"
"Lord Grim moves and successfully dodges!"
"Oh! There's a small detail here..."
"Tyrant's Destruction!!!" Pan Lin's yell cut off Li Yibo's attempt to explain. Li Yibo was helpless because the fight was intense from the very start. He didn't have the chance to take advantage of what happened to give some high-level explanations.
"Lord Grim blocked it! This is the Blade Master's Guard! Combat Form's Falling Flower Palm was connected very suddenly with Tyrant's Destruction. Lord Grim had no way to dodge, so he could only use Guard to catch it." Pan Lin cried.