Chapter 845: A 1.4 Unit of Difference In Cast Range
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Wei Chen’s name only stunned Wang Jiexi because he questioned Wei Chen’s age. The two had never met each other before, so Wang Jiexi didn’t think too much about it. However, the significance of Wei Chen’s name was very different for Team Blue Rain.
The latest weekly eSports paper was laid on the table. All of Team Blue Rain gathered around to look at it, but no one stopped them, because everyone was lost in thought.
For Team Blue Rain, even young fellows who had a large age difference with Wei Chen like Lu Hanwen, had heard of Wei Chen’s name. Wei Chen was a part of Team Blue Rain’s history, and established the foundation of Team Blue Rain. The two Gods of Blue Rain had ties with Wei Chen.
Captain Yu Wenzhou had inherited the character Swoksaar, which was a character Wei Chen brought from the online circle to professional circle. Although he left, his character stayed and became an important member of the shining generation of stars.
Moreover, Huang Shaotian was discovered by their first captain Wei Chen and brought into Team Blue Rain’s training camp to be trained as an official pro player. Speaking of which, his relationship with Wei Chen was even more complicated. It could be said that if it wasn’t for Wei Chen, they wouldn’t have had the Huang Shaotian they had today.
"Why did Boss Wei go there?" Judging by how Huang Shaotian addressed Wei Chen, the other players could tell Wei Chen had a special position in his heart. To address someone as "boss" showed respect without creating too much distance. Neither the current captain of Team Blue Rain, Yu Wenzhou, nor the second captain, Fang Shijing, were addressed in such a way.
"Could he have contacted Ye Qiu after Ye Qiu retired? Did Ye Qiu invite him to join him in his return to the scene?" Yu Wenzhou predicted. They had little information, but Yu Wenzhou was certain that it was related to Ye Qiu.
"Were those two friends?" Huang Shaotian asked in return.
Yu Wenzhou was startled. At that time, both Huang Shaotian and him weren’t official players yet, they had only been newbies in Team Blue Rain’s training camp. It was the early stages of the Pro League, so the Club wasn’t as regulated as it was now. The difference in status between the pro team and training camp was not so obvious. Everyone was like a family, so even though they weren’t in the system, both Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian were pretty clear about the team’s situation at the time.
"In my opinion, not only was he not friends, he hated Ye Qiu to the bones. I remember that we were eliminated in the season one playoffs by Excellent Era. After that match, Boss Wei cursed Ye Qiu for about half an hour, right?" Huang Shaotian recalled.
"I think that happened." Yu Wenzhou nodded.
"And now you’re telling me that those two have ganged up together?" Huang Shaotian asked.
"It’s probably because... he also felt unresigned." Yu Wenzhou sighed.
Huang Shaotian was at a loss for words. When Wei Chen retired, it was quite pitiful. Team Blue Rain had a serious slip in their performance in the season two, and he wasn’t able to bring out the skills he should’ve had into play, so many people thought he was getting old. In addition, he unexpectedly lost to Yu Wenzhou three times in a row in the team’s training camp. Even though a match where the senior gives advice to the newbies shouldn’t be taken seriously, Yu Wenzhou wasn’t someone like Huang Shaotian, who was confirmed to become their future ace player. At that time, he was regarded as a member who didn’t have any talent.
It was inevitable that such a loss would bring about various kinds of rumors in the club. This was why Wei Chen decisively retired at the end of that season. From that moment onwards, he no longer stayed in contact with the pro scene and vanished without trace. But now, six years had passed, it came to everyone’s surprise that Wei Chen’s name would appear on the eSports weekly news. Could it be that he spent those six years cut off from the world just to practice hard?
"I must see Boss Wei’s current skill level!" Huang Shaotian was the first to leave the crowd and looked for a computer to search up Team Happy’s matches. It wasn’t likely for Team Blue Rain to check on the Challenger League.
When Huang Shaotian left, everyone followed along. Yu Wenzhou watched from the back. They still had an official match tonight! It wasn’t good that everyone was focused on the gossip. But if he forcibly stopped everyone from paying attention to the gossip, it might produce the opposite result, as everyone will find it difficult to concentrate. This was why he didn’t stop them and allowed everyone to join in the fun. As for Yu Wenzhou himself, he quietly stood on the side while he watched Huang Shaotian use the computer.
"I’ve got it!" Huang Shaotian was swift with his actions, and he soon found the recording of the match between Team Happy and Team Everlasting. There were too many teams at the early stages of the Challenger League, so the authorities wouldn’t record and organise the videos. What Huang Shaotian found was by searching for VODs posted online by the spectators.
The video included the entire first round of the competition. Huang Shaotian originally wanted to find the fight with Wei Chen’s Warlock, but in the first match’s first round, he noticed the character: Steamed Bun Invasion. He knew this guy! Wasn’t this the idiot who asked him for his horoscope? Huang Shaotian immediately took interest, so he didn’t move and just watched the match.
After watching for a while, the players of Team Blue Rain, including Huang Shaotian, showed surprise. After they inspected further, Huang Shaotian was the first to confirm, and immediately laughed out loud. "He’s an idiot as expected! He couldn’t even find the way, hahahaha, so stupid."
When everyone listened, they casted sidelong glances at Huang Shaotian one by one. A player asked at once. "Huang Shao, you know this person?"
"Cough, why would I know an idiot like this guy." Huang Shaotian hurriedly fast-forwarded the match. However, Huang Shaotian personally wanted to see if Steamed Bun Invasion had any moves in the end, so he fast-forwarded and played, fast-forwarded and played. This happened until the very end, when Steamed Bun Invasion was actually beaten to death like that.
"F*ck!" Huang Shaotian cursed.
The other players casted sidelong glances once again, as they thought, what on earth was he doing?
One Inch Ash was the player for the second round.
"That’s the guy from Team Tiny Herb." Someone immediately recognised him, it was mentioned on the report after all! To have a player that originated from Team Tiny Herb was rather eye-catching.
As a result, Huang Shaotian didn’t fast-forward the match, while everyone appreciated Qiao Yifan’s performance. Huang Shaotian’s comment in the end was: "Both sides are very professional huh."
Everyone immediately understood. All the spectators with the bird’s eye view would definitely know about Qiao Yifan’s arrangement. But Team Everlasting’s player still fell for it, which meant that none of the other teammates had warned him. Achieving this under the regulations in the Challenger League meant that the team demonstrated good sportsmanship. But on the other hand, even if one was warned, he needed to dodge it on his own. Otherwise, if a player predicted everything through warnings, it would draw out a lot of suspicion. The opponent had the right to report and send a recorded video of the match to come to a trial. If it was too obvious, was discovered, and failed to pass through the trial, the team would be punished accordingly.
After this match, following Team Blue Rain’s expectations, Wei Chen’s Windward Formation finally went on stage.
Windward Formation’s opponent was coincidently Leopold, the Warlock from Team Everlasting. One’s fundamentals would show most prominently when fighting against another of the same class.
The spectators were all pro players of Team Blue Rain. Was it necessary to say who they were leaning towards? No one hoped for Leopold to do well from the very start. The results also met their expectations. Windward Formation was basically able to deal with Leopold however he wanted.
"Tsk tsk tsk, too cruel, he’s totally playing with him! Boss Wei is still so... like that!" Huang Shaotian said.
Everyone straightened their ears! Among the players of Team Blue Rain present, only Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian had directly been in contact with Wei Chen. It was needless to say that they hoped to get gossip out of their captain. Even though Huang Shaotian was about to reveal some information, he blocked out the keyword. Where did his usual, endless, talkative character go?
Due to Huang Shaotian’s personality, despite being the ace player in the team, everyone was accustomed to him, so someone immediately pointed out the crucial point. "He’s still so what? What is ‘that’?"
"Cough!" Huang Shaotian coughed deeply and didn’t reply.
Everyone watched Windward Formation completely torture Leopold in laughter, and no one really took the match seriously. Only Yu Wenzhou watched attentively and interrupted. "Windward Formation had a clear advantage in his casting distance! Take a look at his equipment."
Everyone present was no amateur, they just didn’t notice. When their captain said so, they soon realised as well.
They could also check a character’s equipment through the replay. When Huang Shaotian shifted his mouse forward, the first equipment was Silver. The stats of the Silver equipment was hidden, so they couldn’t see it. But Huang Shaotian was surprised and cried out loud. "Not bad! There’s Silver equipment!"
They continued to check the other equipment. Every player present was paying attention to see if there were any equipment for casting distance until they reached the weapon.
"Hey, the weapon is also Silver!" Huang Shaotian was surprised.
"It seems like it comes from this weapon." Yu Wenzhou said. He was obviously incomparably familiar towards Warlocks.
"This casting distance..." When Huang Shaotian started to pay attention, his skills in observation and judgement were rather astonishing. "It’s two units less than Swoksaar’s isn’t it."
"But his other equips are inferior!" Yu Wenzhou said.
Huang Shaotian understood what he meant. The weapon was not the only equipment that could increase the casting distance. Compared to what Windward Formation had at the moment, there was a lot of space for improvement. It was needless to imagine how much Windward Formation’s casting distance would increase if Windward Formation had Swoksaar’s equipment because it could be calculated. After all, Windward Formation’s set of equipment mainly consisted of orange equipments, which there were stats for. In fact, if one were to mix and match equipment like this, it was very easy to expose the stats on a piece of Silver equipment. Huang Shaotian had a rough idea of the stats of Windward Formation’s Silver equipment. He believed that Yu Wenzhou would only be clearer.
"It would be 1.4 units farther!"
Exchanging Swoksaar’s equipment was only what Huang Shaotian imagined. But Yu Wenzhou was able to directly come up with the results.
This would mean that if Windward Formation kept his Silver weapon but exchanged everything else with Swoksaar’s equipment, his casting distance would exceed the Alliance’s number one Warlock by 1.4 units.
This 1.4 difference in casting distance could be a deadly advantage that determined life and death in a high-level match.
This was a true Death’s Hand!