"Heh, Little Han, you"re still too green."This was the last message Wei Chen left in the group arena chat, something that was enough to make all Glory players spit blood.
If even Han Wenqing was still too green, then was there even anyone who could be considered a veteran? That boast was just completely illogical.
However, this was Happy"s home stadium. As Happy fans, this was something they could totally laugh about.
However, for Tyranny fans it was frustrating. They wouldn"t fear losing, but losing to a guy like this was absolutely disgusting, especially when the one who lost was their most respected captain, Han Wenqing.
No one would blame Han Wenqing for this loss. They had seen his usual courage and determination. It was this opponent; he was too sly, too tricky, too shameless...
Perhaps, on some level, this kind of opponent was the bane of Han Wenqing"s straightforward style!
The group arena had ended, and the two players walked out of their booths simultaneously. Wei Chen, of course, wore a face full of joy, waving at the crowd while shamelessly making a whole lap around the stadium. Even the wild jeers when he pa.s.sed by the stands for the guest team fans didn"t dampen his smile. In fact, his smile just grew and he was even more enthusiastic in his waving.
The security were restless, as if prepared to face a monster. These were Tyranny fans they were talking about. Was this guy looking to get killed, provoking the Tyranny fans like that? They hurriedly arranged for more people over here while they sent people to try and talk Wei Chen down from his celebrating.
Wei Chen didn"t give them any trouble, finishing his rounds and returning to the Happy player bench. Happy"s members had stood to welcome their hero back.
"Sit, sit, please, sit," Wei Chen energetically waved his hands at them.
Everyone laughed. None of them said anything about the way he was behaving because they all knew how important this victory was to Wei Chen, how hard he worked for it.
"It"s all up to you guys now," Wei Chen then said. Next up was the team compet.i.tion and he wasn"t in the lineup.
"Don"t worry," Ye Xiu nodded at him.
"Huff…" Wei Chen exhaled heavily and looked back at the screen.
Everything he had accomplished, the victory he had earned, it was all clearly recorded there. This might not be the most spectacular victory he had claimed, but it was definitely the most satisfying. Time wouldn"t let him remain in this moment, but he knew he would never forget any of this.
With the group arena at an end, Happy had a one point lead. The effect of their victory on their morale was significant though realistically speaking, a lead of one point was negligible in the team compet.i.tion.
Neither team returned to their battle prep rooms, making their arrangements for the team compet.i.tion right then and there.
The match was only just beginning!
The two teams made surprisingly synchronized pep talks. For Happy, it was mostly reminding everyone that they shouldn"t drop their guard due to their lead from the group arena. For Tyranny, it was about not letting the group arena results get them down. However, the gist of both was the same: a one point lead was nothing.
Both teams were solemn. After boasting for a while, Wei Chen tactfully quietened down, a.n.a.lysing their path of action in the team compet.i.tion seriously with the others.
Time flew by, and the referee was already on the outskirts of the stage, staring at his watch and getting ready to call the teams to the stage.
Team Tyranny, with a one point disadvantage, rose from their seats first and headed for the stage without needing prompting from the referee.
Han Wenqing, Lin Jingyan, Zhang Jiale, Qin Muyun, Zhang Xinjie, and sixth player Bai Yanfei.
This was the formation that Tyranny used last season to charge into the championships, as well as what people viewed as their core formation. It was just that Han Wenqing, Lin Jingyan and Zhang Jiale were on rotation this season and with the addition of their new little general Song Qiying, this formation rarely appeared. It didn"t even appear in the first round of the playoffs.
Yet now, against Happy, in their first away game, Tyranny used the formation they had used to aim for the championships last season.
Tyranny"s fans started clapping, screaming, cheering their team on.
And on Happy"s side? Captain Ye Xiu merely glanced over nonchalantly when the cheering started before turning back and continuing to speak.
However, the match was about to start, so Ye Xiu finished his pep talk with a few last sentences.
"Let"s go!" With that, Team Happy"s players also stood.
Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Tang Rou, An Wenyi, none of them were unexpected, but the last player...
"Who is this?" Pan Lin inquired in the broadcast, hesitant.
"Luo Ji? Happy is putting Luo Ji?" Pan Lin said, shocked.
Luo Ji… The name felt foreign on his tongue because he rarely ever had to say this name in the broadcast.
In the regular season, Happy rarely sent Luo Ji up. It was only near the end of the season that he saw more match time.
However, Luo Ji was different from Wei Chen. Wei Chen"s sudden partic.i.p.ation at the end of the regular season was clearly to help him adjust his state in preparation for the playoffs. But what about Luo Ji? Luo Ji was a rookie, a young player. His partic.i.p.ation was, everyone guessed, a form of acquiring battle experience while the circ.u.mstances allowed it.
From these few few matches, everyone could see that Luo Ji was special, but he wasn"t particularly skilled yet.
Perhaps he was a player with potential, with a future ahead of him, but right now, he needed more time to grow.
That"s what everyone thought.
However, Luo Ji had appeared in the second round of the playoffs, in the roster for Happy and Tyranny"s team compet.i.tion.
"Is there some mistake?" Pan Lin wasn"t sure if he should believe his eyes. What if Luo Ji just so happened to stand up?
But it wasn"t so.
The team lineups were already being displayed on the big screen. Not only was Luo Ji"s name among them, it was in the starting five as well. Happy had arranged for Tang Rou to be the sixth player.
It wasn"t possible that this was just a chance for a rookie to acquire battle experience, not here in the playoffs. On this battlefield, there was no holding back.
Then, could it be that Luo Ji was a weapon that Happy planned on using against Tyranny?
Discussions erupted in the venue and online. Pan Lin once again asked for Li Yibo to give his professional a.n.a.lysis. In the end, Li Yibo managed to avoid a proper explanation by explaining Luo Ji"s playstyle.
The two sides lined up, facing each other on the stage.
The first to shake hands were, naturally, the two captains.
Rivals of ten years. The two had faced each other in all four finals of the first four seasons. It was also on this stage that their paths became intimately entwined, pitted against one another.
In the next seasons, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the two teams didn"t clash. Excellent Era began their fall from grace, and Han Wenqing, too, began to fall. Everything spoke to them, telling them that their era had ended. Professional Glory had entered a new era of those that came after.
Then, in season eight, Ye Xiu retired, bidding this stage farewell, and Han Wenqing became the only first generation player that was still struggling through this battlefield.
That season, Team Tyranny was quickly eliminated from the playoffs. The people sighed wistfully,witnessing the end of an era.
Who would"ve thought that in the ninth season Team Tyranny would invite a bunch of veterans and stand once more at the highest stage of Glory.
Then, in the tenth season, Ye Xiu led his very own team back into the league.
Now, these two once again were shaking hands on this very stage where their rivalry grew.
Had that era returned?
Seeing this scene, some older fans of Glory found their minds wandering. The battles between these two, it was the memories of that past era! Everyone thought that era had ended, but how come these two were meeting here once more?
"You"ve improved!" Ye Xiu said, shaking Han Wenqing"s hand. They were rivals, but perhaps it was he that understood the one standing in front of him the most. Once upon a time, Ye Xiu had put his everything into defeating this man. He was familiar with Han Wenqing"s awareness, mechanics, methods, and he would be the first to notice the slightest change.
"Your unspecialized isn"t bad either," Han Wenqing replied. He had changed, but he definitely hadn"t changed nearly as much as this guy. In the resolution of his pro career, he had given up on his best and most familiar Battle Mage for the strange cla.s.s known as the unspecialized. However, Han Wenqing understood more than anyone how the unspecialized might suit Ye Xiu so, because like Ye Xiu knew him, he also knew Ye Xiu.
Glory Textbook, this t.i.tle was no exaggeration, he was more knowledgeable than one could imagine.
"It"s not too late to surrender," Ye Xiu said.
"Are you talking to me?" Han Wenqing"s reply was cold. Surrender? That word didn"t exist in his dictionary.
Ye Xiu chuckled, but said no more, shaking hands with each of Tyranny"s members one by one. Zhang Xinjie, Zhang Jiale, Lin Jingyan… these were old opponents that he couldn"t be more familiar with. The so-called "that era" wasn"t something created by just the two of them. Countless people had already left this battlefield, but who knew if they were watching the ones who were still fighting for Glory from whatever corner of the world they were in.
The players of the two teams headed towards their booths, their characters loading into the map. Some of these characters were more than familiar to the public, but some had only appeared beginning this season. Perhaps, compared to the players, these characters would be better at preserving the legacy of Glory. When the day came that Ye Xiu, Han Wenqing, Zhang Jiale and the others left this battlefield for good, the characters that they once used would continue to carry everything they had left behind.
The second round of the playoffs, Happy"s home game against Tyranny, let the team compet.i.tion, begin!