Chapter 1138: Keep Our Spots and Become the Champions
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Happy was becoming more and more prosperous by the day. The season hadn't started yet, but the transfers, both accounts and players, were eye-catching enough already. The Pro Alliance and the Glory game company were even more worried than Happy. Let alone new rising teams in the Alliance, most teams didn't get such treatment!
No team was willing to lag behind Happy. Everyone was doing their best to find ways to improve. Team Wind Howl, who had been the backdrop behind Fang Rui's transfer, was currently having a headache about what to do with Doubtful Demon. Team Wind Howl displayed quite the benevolence towards Fang Rui's transfer. Even though they would rather offer him as a package with Doubtful Demon, in the end, they didn't make things difficult for Fang Rui if he wanted to leave alone and let it pass. But as a result, dealing with Doubtful Demon became much more complicated.
They no longer had a Thief player. Doubtful Demon clearly needed to be sold. If not, leaving him there in the team but not using him was just waiting for it to depreciate. Understanding this point, the crafty teams in the Alliance wouldn't be impatient to act. They were planning on patiently waiting. When the time came, they would go and negotiate with a lower price.
For a moment, it was as if no one wanted Doubtful Demon.
Just when the teams were patiently waiting for the right moment, the sudden news of another transfer disrupted their plan.
Team Blue Rain's Lin Feng had been transferred to Team Wind Howl for 3.2 million.
The Glory circle was completely stunned.
From the price of 3.2 million, it could be seen that Lin Feng wasn't a top-tier player, but he was a Thief player.
Team Wind Howl sent away Fang Rui and decided to abandon the Thief's dirty playing style. Suddenly, they invited Lin Feng? What were they doing? Could it be that they wanted to raise Doubtul Demon's price, so they intentionally mystified the situation?
Quite a few people thought of this possibility, but they also felt it was too ridiculous to believe. But not long afterwards, several skillful people analyzed the background behind this transfer.
It was true that Thieves were very suitable for playing dirty, but that didn't mean that was the only style they could play. As for Wind Howl, they may have given up on dirty play, but that didn't mean that they had given up on Thieves.
As a result, the master of playing dirty, Fang Rui, may have left, but it was ambiguous if the Thief, Doubtful Demon, would leave.
When Wind Howl saw that selling Doubtful Demon wasn't going well, they gave their answer: Doubtful Demon would not be leaving.
Because of Lin Feng.
Lin Feng was a substitute on Team Blue Rain. He had a few opportunities to appear on stage, but his position wasn't as stable as the core members. Even so, he had his own style. His Thief didn't play dirty. Team Blue Rain wasn't suited for playing dirty.
As a result, he grabbed the attention of Team Wind Howl. The dirty Doubtful Demon was gone. A new Doubtful Demon had risen. In the press conference for Lin Feng's addition to the team, it wasn't hard to see Team Wind Howl's hopes for the new Doubtful Demon.
Up until now, Team Wind Howl's lineup for the new season seemed to have surfaced. After two summers, this team had replaced their Criminal Partners. Their Brawler and Thief were still there, but their players were different. It would be hard to say if the old criminal air around the team would appear again.
After Lin Feng transferred, another mid-level transfer came out.
Lu Yining, Team Misty Rain's Sharpshooter, the Best Sixth Player. The sixth player was oftentimes the main sub in the team competition. The sixth player would sometimes be the person that would turn the situation around. However, at other times, the sixth player wouldn't appear on stage because their team's main five players smoothly defeated the opponents without the need for a sixth player.
In any case, he was a skilled player. Lu Yining's transfer price of 4.6 million proved this point.
In the end, Lu Yining transferred to Team Thunderclap. It was hard not to pay attention to this team.
Team Thunderclap had been hard-pressed money for many years. Over their many years of existence, their biggest transfer was to get back their former core character, Life Extinguisher, from Excellent Era. It truly made people speechless.
A 4.6 million transfer might not mean too much to some of the powerhouses, but for Team Thunderclap, it was no small sum of money. It looked like this team had quite the ambition this new season. Was it because of Xiao Shiqin's and Life Extinguisher's return? Had Xiao Shiqin found new growth from Excellent Era's defeat?
Misty Rain sold their Sharpshooter player entirely for the beautiful sisters Shu Keyi and Shu Kexin to take position. They obviously didn't need to find any replacements. Adjustments had been made to the beautiful sisters' characters, which had been displayed last season. It looked like the new season would be their time to shine.
Apart from that, various teams had a few transfers to fix up some minor patches. There were a few retirements and a few rookies selected for promotion. Overall, besides the huge changes from Excellent Era's disbandment, Fang Rui was the only core player to transfer. The other teams followed their usual path and firmly walked along it. Doubt? Wavering? Each year had two transfer windows. In reality, these windows were for teams to patch these up. Perhaps an issue popped up during the course of the season, but by the time the transfer window ended, the majority of teams would fix these and start walking again. They might be going at different paces, but every team was advancing forward.
Two months passed by in a flash. On 9/1, the transfer window closed. It also happened to be Monday, so the Esports Home gave a summary of this summer's transfers. There wasn't anything extremely shocking, but every team was moving towards a more steady direction. The transfer window had closed and the new season was about to begin. Each team began announcing their goals.
The powerhouses naturally talked about winning the championships. They had the confidence and the strength to back their words. The vast majority of teams could only aim for the playoffs as their goal. They felt too embarrassed to claim that they would become the champions. As for the bottom-tier teams, their goal was to keep their spots. Even though not much attention was paid to them, they definitely had to achieve it.
As for Happy?
Keep our spot and become the champions! Ye Xiu posted on his Weibo.
The following two comments were two orderly pair of ellipses! For a moment, everyone was speechless. They had heard of the saying: "With second secured, strive for first", but keep our spot and become the champions? The two goals spoken were like the difference between heaven and earth. How could you say that?
As soon as Ye Xiu posted this Weibo, the players on the weak teams started livening up.
"Haha, then our goal will also be to keep our spots and become the champions!" Team Heavenly Sword's Lou Guanning was the team's boss, captain, and core player. Even if he didn't have any spectacular achievements, he was already destined to be a legend in the history of Glory. He suddenly changed his Team Heavenly Sword's goal.
Soon afterwards, Parade and Radiant also changed their goals for fun.
Seconded!
Seconded +1!
Keep our spots and become the champions. This slogan suddenly became the most popular slogan this new season. The powerhouses wanted to cry. Striving to become the champions was supposed to be a grandiose and magnificent goal! With all these people inappropriately making a mess out of things, their goals no longer gave off the same feeling.
In reality, the teams truly aiming to keep their spots didn't have the heart to joke around.
Parade and Radiant shouldn't have much trouble keeping their spots, but they also didn't have much hope for making it to the playoffs. They were the kind that lacked pressure but also lacked motivation, so they could happily joke around.
But according to one person, while these later teams might just be joking, was Happy joking? Placing the two extremely disparate goals of keeping their spots and being the champions together might be a sign of the uneasiness in the depths of their heart.
"Yeah, even I can't tell if Happy is strong or weak. It's too scary." Ye Xiu unexpectedly replied to this person.
"Ah… God Ye Qiu has noticed me! He replied back. Ah ah ah ah…" This person suddenly dissolved. He was a Ye Xiu fan in the end.
"F*ck, this Weibo commenter is pathetic!"
"Commenter, stand up!"
"Commenter, what happened!"
There were a few who cared about the question of Happy's strength.
"I think we'll know the answer soon!" The Pro Alliance's official Weibo actually gave a reply. At the same time, the official Weibo released the new season's schedule for the first match. The Samsara vs Happy match was highlighted.
Team Samsara, last season's champions. As per convention, the reigning champions would be arranged to play a newly joined team to show the disparity between them. And this newly joined team would be the one invited into the Alliance. However, that was just an unwritten tradition, not an established rule. As a result, this season, the reigning champions would be facing Happy, the team that had advanced their way through the Challenger League.
Team Miracle felt like crying!
Truthfully speaking, the invited teams would usually be favored more than the Challenger League team because the teams that came from the Challenger League were usually the ones relegated from the previous seasons and then revived. Those teams weren't fresh at all. Only these invited teams would be truly new teams. However, Happy was an exception this time. They became the first truly new team that had successfully made their way through the Challenger League. Thus, it was a tragedy for the invited team this time. How could the attention towards them be higher than the attention towards Happy? In the end, the opportunity to have the first match with the reigning champions was given to Happy.
Team Miracle wasn't so delusional to think that they could make a name for themselves by beating the reigning champions. However, it had always been a form of care from the Alliance towards the new team. It looked like the love was being given to Happy though. It was as if Team Miracle was stuck in their stepmother's home. Even more unfortunate for them was that Team Miracle mainly consisted of Team Excellent Era's old players. Being reduced to a new team and being beaten by Happy were not without a relationship. How could they not be having complicated feelings towards them.
Samsara versus Happy might be the Alliance's most hyped welcoming match for a new team. How would this match turn out? From the pro circle to the player circle to the media to the masses, the discussion lasted for days up until 9/5 when the first match took place. The result: Team Samsara swept Team Happy with a clean 10 to 0.