Chapter 126: Chapter 125: Spoiler Commentary
While the machines were still being tested, Chen Mo and Zhang Yang continued chatting.
“To be honest, this is my first time meeting Mr Chen Mo. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Geez, I’m flattered. I’ve also heard plenty about Mr Zhang Yang, in particular in Chinese commentary community. If you claimed first, n.o.body would claim second!” said Chen Mo.
Zhang Yang was shocked, “Huh?”
The chat was filled with laughter, he must’ve said it backwards!
Chen Mo continued, “I actually really look up to Mr Zhang Yang. If I had to rate you, I’d give you ten!”
Zhang Yang waved his hands, “Geez, that’s too much! I’m not worthy of that!”
Chen Mo continued, “As for the remaining nine hundred and ninety nine…”
Zhang Yang was caught off guard, “Huh? Out of a thousand?”
The viewers didn’t expect Chen Mo would be so funny! How did a commentary team turn into a comic pair!
Chen Mo looked at Zhang Yang and said, “I can tell that you learn maths from your PE teacher.”
“Huh?”
“Ten plus nine hundred and ninety-nine is one thousand and nine no?” corrected Chen Mo.
Zhang Yang was speechless, “Geez, you set me up!”
The viewers were all laughing, this Chen Mo guy is such a troublemaker!
Zhang Yang was converted into a fan after being surprised at how entertaining Chen Mo was! How could he have been someone who had never done any commentary, he could become a comedian with this amount of talent!
Chen Mo continued, “To be honest, I wanted to join this compet.i.tion as a compet.i.tor.”
“Really? Why did you choose to join as a commentator then?” asked Zhang Yang.
“Well, when I asked the officials, they asked me to play ranked to see where I placed,” explained Chen Mo.
“Well, then show them what you’ve got!”
“But in the end, the officials were really emotional and told me that I was too good, much better than Goph! Even that S-G.o.d from before wouldn’t be able to beat you! You’re nine million times better than him!”
“Huh, how did they get that number with all that zeroes following.”
“But the officials told me that there were two things preventing my development in game.”
“Which two things?”
“My left hand and my right hand.”
Zhang Yang was speechless, “That means you’re garbage at the game and not made to play these kinds of games! The hand-speed requirement of this game is really high!
The viewers hadn’t stopped laughing. It had only been ten minutes and Chen Mo had made five or so gags which had been non-stop. Who knows how he came up with these!
“Hahaha, Chen Mo’s a comedian!”
“I’ve never seen a videogame designer who had such good speaking skills!”
“Woah, who could tell this was the guy who made Warcraft!”
“On the basis of Chen Mo’s jokes today, I won’t be mailing him any razor blades anymore.”
“This is a comedian who accidentally became a videogame designer!”
The preparations were eventually complete.
“Alright, our players are done preparing, hold on to your seats as the games are about to start!”
The chat didn’t want that to happen.
“Don’t start it yet! I want to watch Chen Mo’s comedy show!”
“Five more minutes of this please!”
“My goodness, it’s the first time I wished there were more testing!”
It didn’t take long before the compet.i.tion started.
Undead vs Orcs, poth players had fairly high ranks as it was an invitational afterall. All the players that were picked by the tournament officials were high ranked players.
Zhang Yang introduced the players, the locations and the setup of the map.
Zhang Yang also played Warcraft which was why he had a good understanding of the basics, he wouldn’t be able to cast the tournament otherwise. His main objective was to control the flow or to guide the conversations, give overviews of the match, and all the a.n.a.lysis would be left for Chen Mo.
After the introductions, Zhang Yang asked, “Mr Chen Mo, what do you think of the strategies the players are going for?”
“The players are going by the book so far, the Death Knight hara.s.sed the Blademaster for a bit, slowing down his progression to level two. But the Blademaster can farm the 331 camp now, which would give him better experience.
As Chen Mo finished, the Blademaster ran towards the 331[1] camp.
“Death Knight secured this 533 camp. At the top of the ladder, the most common strategy is to secure as much as possible early. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the items are as the players can sell bad ones. The key part was denying it for your opponent.”
“Blademaster has two circles, so he wasn’t too lucky. It would be perfect for the first ten minutes if he got Gloves of Haste or Blades of Attack. But if the Orcs get +6 Agility on Blademaster, the game would heavily favour the Orcs.[2]
“The fights right now are pretty intense. This Crypt Fiend with Frost Armor should probably back off now, yep, it’s running away now. Run around the trees then cast death coil to heal it up. Yep, this should mean that the Undead won the exchange.
Chen Mo continued to explain the situation as the match went on. Zhang Yang was shocked to discover that he couldn’t interject!
Chen Mo wasn’t speaking too fast or too slow, having a good control over the tempo of his words. His a.n.a.lysis was also incredibly in depth, in particular he knew the strategies of the players really well. Anytime Chen Mo said there was something the players would do, the players would do exactly as he said!
And sometimes he even found time to crack jokes.
The viewers were shocked as Chen Mo’s commentary far exceeded their expectations.
“Oh man, spoiler commentary? It feels like he sees the match two minutes into the future.”
“Why does it feel like the players are listening to Chen Mo’s order? They’d do everything Chen Mo says!”
“The thought process is very clear and full of reason, he can even tell the players’ intent!”
“This is amazing! Who knew there were so many considerations behind one decision!”
The audience discovered that the commentary was more enjoyable than the compet.i.tion!
The players played as best as they could, but in the end, the Orcs’ Blademaster was killed instantly followed by a GG. The match was taken by the Undead.
Chen Mo concluded, “I think it was entirely even from the early to mid game. It was down to the Orcs being unable to kill the Undead, and when they failed to take over mines in the mid-game, losing two towers in the process. Of course, the Orc player also had a few mechanical mistakes…
“And I think that the Orc player is lacking a bit afraid of fighting, as the Blademaster is one of the best early game heroes, but never killed too many Undead units when it was at its strongest.
When Chen Mo finished his conclusion, there were some unhappy viewers in chat.
“He said it wasn’t bad at the start, but what did he say afterwards? The Orcs made mechanical mistakes? This is an RTS game, and all the players are top ten in the ladder. It’s alright to say that they messed up strategically, but how can he say so sternly that they didn’t execute well?”
“Yeah, I wanna ask what rank Chen Mo is, how dare he say that they made mechanical mistakes!”
“This doesn’t feel right, there should be an upper limit for the executing in an RTS game. How could someone watch over dozens of units? I don’t think its a mechanical mistake.”
“Of course Chen Mo could tell from the perspective of an observer, but what would happen if he was the one playing? I’d want to see him prove it!”
“He’s calling the Orcs bad? These are all top tier players, do you think it’s played by noobs?”
Evidently there were playing viewers that are fans of the ORc player. They would’ve felt nice after watching their player lose, but it was salt on wounds to see Chen Mo criticise the player they were supporting.
TL note: [1] I think this refers to the level of the units in the camp
[2] Various items in Warcraft that give the Heroes bonuses, Agility basically makes the Blademaster stronger