Chapter 1141: Which Match to Watch?
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
In the eyes of the pro teams, Happy was a troublesome existence. In the past, when had they ever needed to spend so much effort studying a new Alliance team? Those teams on the border of relegations were no different than cheerleader teams in the eyes of the powerhouses. However, for Happy, they felt uneasy not taking them seriously. Fortunately, matches were played one by one. Over the entire season, each team would at most bump into Happy twice. The teams scheduled far from Happy weren't in a rush. On the other hand, the teams scheduled closer to Happy were rather worried such as Team Hundred Blossoms, who would be playing Happy next.
Team Hundred Blossoms had made it to the playoffs last season and even gave quite the trouble to Team Tyranny. After waving goodbye to Blood and Blossoms, their team became better and better. Yu Feng, the new generation's number one Berserker stood firm in Team Hundred Blossoms. His strength had erased Sun Zheping's influence to some extent. Along with the passing of time, Team Hundred Blossoms had been rather indifferent about encountering Sun Zheping, at least, they hadn't been as nervous as facing Happy.
Because Hundred Blossoms was a team on the fringe of the playoff level, it was very possible that a slight slip would lead to their playoff spot being taken, so in their view, Happy was an especially worrisome opponent. The difference in points this round might determine which of the two teams would be making into the playoffs.
However, no matter how diligent they might be, there were only two real matches of Happy to look at. In their match against Excellent Era, Happy had displayed closely interlinked and masterful strategic planning, but against Samsara, before Happy could even get their tactics going, Samsara had scattered them.
"Samsara is even stronger this season!" Team Hundred Blossom's Cleric, Mo Chuchen, said.
But soon afterwards, under the gazes of everyone else in the team, Mo Chuchen shifted topics in a fluster: "Focus on Happy, focus on Happy."
Yes, he had mistaken what was important here. But the problem was that there really wasn't much to see from Happy this match. Happy hadn't been able to display any of their tactics before collapsing.
In the post-match press conference, Happy threw the word "rustiness" left and right, leading to a complete collapse of the reporters. But from Team Hundred Blossom's careful analysis, they felt like this rustiness might really be the truth?
Samsara had won two consecutive championships. Their strength didn't need to be questioned. Their team was an aggressive team, especially after the addition of Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf. With such strong attackers, their tempo only quickened. As a result, when Happy ran into Samsara, from their performance in the team competition, they indeed had been overwhelmed by Samsara's fast pace. Happy's decisions were always a half beat too slow. Even though they tried hard to make adjustments to their tactical rhythm, by the time they finished adjusting, Samsara was already on the next beat.
After all, Samsara was different than Excellent Era. Excellent Era was a team that Ye Xiu understood all too well. When fighting against Excellent Era, his tactics were clearly targeted towards them. Excellent Era had also been crushing noobs in the Challenger League for an entire year, so they had somewhat fallen from the pace of the pro scene. How could they compare to the reigning champions?
Happy needed to adapt to the pace of the pro matches. For Hundred Blossoms, this was undoubtedly good news. Thus, the general direction of this upcoming match was more or less confirmed now.
Fight fast!
Hundred Blossom's players reached a consensus. As for the specifics, each team had their own class compositions and styles. For the following week, they would be undergoing targeted practice for utilizing this playstyle. This was the pro scene. This was a pro match. How each battle played out depended on the opponents.
The week passed quickly. The second round of the league had begun.
In this round, there were two important matches. The first was between Team Happy and Team Hundred Blossoms. Everyone had been discussing how strong Happy was exactly over the course of the week.
The other match was between Team Thunderclap and Team Void. After Xiao Shiqin returned to Thunderclap, there had been a few more adjustments made during the summer transfer window, revealing the team's newfound ambition. As for Void, their dual Ghostblades were legendary, but this duo always gave people a feeling that these two weren't able to support the general picture. However, people saw room for growth from Void, not from transfers but from the interior.
Last season, Blue Rain's rookie Lu Hanwen shined. In his first year in the Alliance, he had been chosen as an All-Star. Another star was rising. In the end, the Best Rookie went unsurprisingly to Lu Hanwen. However, was this decision truly without controversy? For Team Void's fans, that was absolutely not the case.
Last season, a formidable rookie had appeared in their team too. An Exorcist: Ge Caijie.
Ge Caijie was 19 this year. No matter how it was looked at, he was at an age brimming with youth. However, placed among pro players in an competitive scene getting younger and younger, compared to the 15 year old Lu Hanwen, the 19 year old Ge Caijie was immediately labelled with traits such as mature and staid, words that didn't suit youths.
Ge Caijie was indeed a serious person with an air of a great general. Alongside Glory's famous Ghostblade duo, he displayed a terror never before seen in a rookie. His performance was always consistent. Even though the Ghostblade duo was still the core of Team Void, the air of a leading role appeared around him. This wasn't him trying to overtake his seniors. It was simply his playstyle. He was someone with the potential to become the core of a team, a person that could carry the team's banner.
Everyone had always been waiting for a good helper to the Ghostblade duo, but right now, a youth, who sometimes made the Ghostblade duo change from leads to support, had appeared. The two seniors seemed to have no disagreements towards him. And whenever team Void's Ge Caijie performed spectacularly, they always obtained good results.
For this type of player, even if he didn't grow to become the core of a team, he would still be a great general in a team. It was just a pity that his seriousness made him different than Lu Hanwen, who was brimming with energy and passion. The attention towards him was far less. Team Void had always been lamenting at this injustice. In the selection for Best Rookie, Lu Hanwen snatched away the majority of the votes, leaving a huge gap between the second place Ge Caijie.
This didn't affect Ge Caijie though. Another summer had passed and he became even more mature. Last season, he had been the new rookie of the team and now he had already come a player that Team Void couldn't lack. The opening round of the league further proved this point.
In the opening round, Team Void fought against Team 301 in a bitter battle. In this round, Ge Caijie had been crucial to the points won by Team Void. He had won a point in the individual competition. In the team copetition, Team 301 took the initiative, but he stood firm and led the team for a counterattack, resulting in a huge victory..
In the post-match press conference, Team 301's captain, Yang Cong, praised Ge Caijie. He even said that Ge Caijie reminded him of Wang Jiexi despite their playstyles being entirely different. Afterwards, Team 301's All-Star Grappler Li Yihui, who had once been a part of Team Tiny Herb but had been traded for Team 301's Xu Bin, also expressed his approval towards his captain's praise for Ge Caijie.
Team Thunderclap versus Team Void was the match chosen to be broadcast. Even though everyone's curiosity towards Happy hadn't been erased, the broadcast could only choose a single match. They couldn't only broadcast Happy's matches this season, no?
On 9/12, the second round of the Glory Professional League's tenth season started. The viewers tuning into watch saw Team Void's stadium as scheduled. But the commentator Pan Lin seemed to be even more uneasy than anyone else.
"Hello friends, this is the second round of the Glory Professional League's tenth season, Thunderclap versus Void. The players on both sides have entered the stadium. First up will be the individual competition, of course. And at the same time, there's another important match between Hundred Blossoms and Happy, which is taking place in City H. I'm sure everyone knows that after Excellent Era was defeated in the Challenger League last season, their boss Tao Xuan sold practically all of Excellent Era's assets. Many people probably thought that Excellent Era's competitive stadium was a part of these assets, but in reality, Excellent Era's stadium used to be called Xiaoshan Gymnasium, a public gymnasium in City H. When the Glory Professional League was established, the competition soon needed this type of venue, so Excellent Era rented it for long-term use. Later on, the name was changed to the Excellent Era Stadium. The lease was suspended ahead of time and the stadium has returned to the original Xiaoshan Gymnasium. Right now, Happy is temporarily leasing it for their stadium. In truth, this isn't surprising! This is the only venue in City H with the conditions to display Glory's projection technology!"
"Ahem!" A cough interrupted Pan Lin's introduction. After a pause, Pan Lin realized that he was currently commentating the match between Thunderclap and Void, but after only a short introduction, he had suddenly shifted focus to Happy. The director had told him to give updates on the situation between Happy and Hundred Blossoms. It would be enough to just say a few words when a result came out. He wasn't supposed to go too far though!
"Let's get back to the scene." Pan Lin immediately pulled the subject back from Xiaoshan Gymnasium. His old partner Li Yibo gave a loud laugh: "It looks like our Little Pan has quite the interest in the match between Hundred Blossom and Happy!"
"Uh, we'll be giving updates on that match from time to time." Pan Lin said.
"Okay, the match between Thunderclap and Void will be starting soon. First up is the individual competition. The first two players to come up will be… Thunderclap's Dai Yanqi and Void's Li Xun!" Pan Lin started focusing on the present match.
And at the same time, standing inside the venue renamed to "Xiaoshan Gymnasium", Ye Xiu let out a deep sigh.
Even though the name had changed, the venue itself hadn't. The only addition to it was equipment for the projection technology.
I'm back. A year and eight months to stand back here. My name has changed. My character has changed. But my will to compete will never change.
"I'll be going." Ye Xiu called out to his teammates and stepped towards the stage.
"Dai Yanqi has open fired! For now, Li Xun is unable to approach and is moving around. A beautiful Air Jump! He jumped backwards in midair to dodge the magic coming at him! Ah! Happy sent out Ye Xiu as their first player!!"
The viewers tuning into the match were listening to Pan Lin commentating the intense battle between Elemenalist and Assassin, when a piece of news about Happy suddenly popped up out of nowhere.