Chapter 1383: Regular Season Awards
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The regular season finally came to a close.
At the Round 38 post-match press conferences, the teams that managed to get into the playoffs were asked questions on how they planned to face the playoffs. Each team’s response was rather reserved, at most expressing their determination. No one expanded on it too much.
The first round of the playoffs was set to beginning on June 14, the start of the new week. The playoffs would open with Samsara versus Hundred Blossoms. After resting for a mere eight days, the two teams would once again meet on the battlefield.
Eight days, no team would really spend these eight days resting and relaxing.
After confirming their opponents for the first round, each team entered a high tension state of preparations. It wasn’t just the teams that grew busier. The Alliance, the media, and sponsors were all rus.h.i.+ng to make arrangements for this season’s climax.
The reporters sent out by different media outlets hoped to obtain the situations of each team’s preparations. Some teams would use this as a chance to set a smokescreen. The war that was the playoffs had started ever since Round 38 ended, from on the stage to outside the stage, from mental fort.i.tude to mechanics and strategies. This war wasn’t just one on the battlefield.
Happy, because of their unique origins, had plenty of people keeping an eye on them. However, the day after the last round, Happy announced that they were going into isolated training. Even the Esports Home reporter Chang Xian, who was the closest to them, was sent away politely.
They weren’t the only ones though. Happy’s opponent for the first round, Blue Rain, had also closed itself from the outside world. Their PR gave the media a few courtesy words that were common in the playoffs.
The other six teams didn’t seem to treating this as solemnly as Happy and Blue Rain.
Samsara openly expressed their determination and confidence in accomplis.h.i.+ng a consecutive three champions.h.i.+ps.
Tyranny kept a low profile like they had the entire season, not revealing anything.
Tiny Herb’s roster had undergone great change since their two champions.h.i.+ps, and captain w.a.n.g Jiexi expressed his hopes for Tiny Herb’s future. Thunderclap’s captain Xiao s.h.i.+qin mentioned the awkward situation of how Thunderclap had never succeeded in advancing to the second round of the playoffs. This time, he expressed his hope that they would breakthrough. “We’ve gotten here, and we only have one goal: the champions.h.i.+p!” Xiao s.h.i.+qin displayed an ambition that Thunderclap hadn’t dared display all season. 301 Degrees had only managed to charge into the playoffs with Bai Shu’s arrival in the latter half of the season. They might not have a high point score, but the combative power they had displayed in the latter half of the season was nothing to joke about. Thus, Team 301 Degrees was very confident about the playoffs. “This is a completely new 301 Degrees,” was what 301 Degrees expressed in their interview.
In eighth, Hundred Blossoms who had narrowly beaten Wind Howl by one point, first expressed, self-mockingly, that they really were quite lucky. “The playoffs is a new beginning. We won’t waste this rare fortune.” When Hundred Blossoms talked about luck, it would always make people sigh over it, but now they kept talking about their fortune and good luck; their att.i.tude was most certainly very enthusiastic.
Let’s wish them a good luck in the playoffs.
All the reports on the teams were, in the end, about such words. After that, there were a.n.a.lyses and predictions for each team flooding in. Team Samsara was undoubtedly the one people had the highest hopes for. They had managed to leave everyone in the dust in the regular season. Even the Four Heavenly Kings of Tyranny in Season 9 hadn’t given such a dominating performance.
All sorts of reports, all sorts of comments, all sorts of debates.
The matches hadn’t even begun and the normal players were all in a tizzy, all talking about their reasons and opinions.
The esports sites had also began all kinds of polls, to calculate each each’s support ratio.
On June 8, six days before the beginning of the playoffs, the Alliance announced the rewards for the regular season.
King of Dueling, Happy’s Ye Xiu.
Arena Star, Samsara’s Sun Xiang.
One Hit One Kill, Samsara’s Zhou Zekai.
These three were calculated purely through statistical data with no subjectivity. The final results weren’t anything that could be argued over anyways. There were people who’d pick out needles in the haystack and even complain that Ye Xiu’s flawless record was built on a G.o.d, of all players, playing in the individual compet.i.tion. These people who were just looking for trouble had nothing they could actually use against a record like this. The occasional nitpicker would be ganged up on and insulted into submission.
After the three statistically calculated awards, it was time for the other awards decided by the Alliance. Since different people had different opinions, these awards would elicit an intense debate each year. This year followed that trend, and the argument was the most intense yet because the Best Rookie went to Tang Rou.
The Alliance, in the end, decided to respect the fact that this was a compet.i.tion of skill. Speaking solely in regards to performance, Tang Rou, a core member of Team Happy, held an impressive record of group arena wins and admirable performance in the team compet.i.tion. No other rookie in the tenth season had a chance against Tang Rou for this award. The most impactful statement on her report was: a player that has managed to smash through Rookie’s Block 1 with her fierce determination.
Unfortunately, Tang Rou’s conduct had many people viewing her in a different manner. They were all more willing to point out her flaws and magnify them, using them to make her seem unskilled.
Of course, Tang Rou’s performance wasn’t flawless, and under such nitpicking, people could find flaws everywhere. After these flaws were magnified, Tang Rou was nothing more than a pretty face who couldn’t do accomplish anything, according to some. Unfortunately for them, Tang Rou’s performance clearly rebuked that. Even if they had ignored her strengths, her victories were recorded and noted.
Tang Rou had broken through Rookie’s Block without faltering.
This was a spectacular achievement for a rookie, yet those nitpickers completely neglected to consider it.
In these ten years since the alliance had been created, only two people had managed to break through Rookie’s Block before without faltering: w.a.n.g Jiexi and Sun Xiang. Both were top G.o.ds now. After that, last season’s Tyranny’s rookie, Qin Muyun had managed to play a stable hand through his debuting season. However, in Tyranny’s team, the four G.o.ds had drawn a lot of attention and s.n.a.t.c.hed a lot of data. Qin Muyun’s statistical data wasn’t all that impressive, low profile to the point where people didn’t even think any fluctuations in his data were noteworthy. In addition to his rather wallflower like presence, he escaped most people’s attention.
This was to the point where, when the alliance was writing up the report on their choice of Best Rookie, they only mentioned w.a.n.g Jiexi and Sun Xiang for players who had broken through Rookie’s Block and completely ignored Qin Muyun.
However, this was enough to prove how impressive Tang Rou’s performance had been this season.
Because of this impressive performance, the Alliance couldn’t not give Tang Rou this award for something like “conduct”. From a compet.i.tive perspective, this definitely wouldn’t be fair. Best Rookie: Happy’s Tang Rou.
That was the Alliance’s final decision, and they weren’t surprised by the uproar that it created. However, Tang Rou’s powerful performance gave them the confidence that she’d live up to the award she was given.
Compared to this Best Rookie, the other awards had some objections, but it wasn’t nearly as intense.
Best Sixth Player went to Blue Rain’s Song Xiao.
Most Improved was Hundred Blossom’s Zou Yuan.
Best Partners, in the end, was given to Team Samsara’s new striking duo, Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang.
MVP, Happy’s Ye Xiu.
With the unspecialized character Lord Grim and his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, he had managed a spectacular thirty-seven consecutive individual compet.i.tion wins and led a new team like Happy to the playoffs.
Ye Xiu’s return to the Alliance had brought yet another never before seen record.
Samsara’s strength, after two consecutive champions.h.i.+ps, was something everyone was used to now. In contrast, the lack of it would be uncharacteristic and disappointing. Naturally, everyone’s expectations rose. As for Happy, a new team like them reaching such heights was downright weird. What did one mean by “valuable”? This was valuable. It was because of his existence that Happy reached such heights. This display of value was the best explanation for the choice of MVP.
A fourth time!
That was when people realized that Ye Xiu had broken yet another record with this award.
Three-time MVP was a record belonging to Ye Xiu. No one would’ve guessed that after so many years, he would win it again.
Four-time MVP, and the Glory Pro League had only had ten seasons so far.
Behind Ye Xiu, it was the Season 8 and Season 9 MVP Zhou Zekai.
Then, there was Season 7’s w.a.n.g Jiexi, Season 6’s Huang Shaotian, Season 5’s Zhang Jiale and Season 4’s Han Wenqing. These names, at the top of Glory, had only gained such an achievement once each. The four of them added together was equal to one of Ye Xiu. The true king has returned!
This was what many thought, seeing the number of this greatest regular season award that Ye Xiu had won.
In the prep time for the playoffs, the regular season achievements had caused a small uproar, but this was something everyone was used to already. The regular season awards were distributed at around this time every year, and every year, there would be objections.
However, such an intense argument over a rookie was something completely new. The Alliance had been prepared, clearly stating the reasons for Tang Rou’s award in an interview, but many still wouldn’t accept it and continued to argue over it. However, they couldn’t do much except argue, because they couldn’t change the Alliance’s decision.
The award winners would all be personally informed by the Alliance. Chen Guo was exceptionally excited over Ye Xiu’s and Tang Rou’s awards, while in the face of the other awards, Chen Guo became an irrational nitpicker.
For example, for Best Sixth Player, Chen Guo thought Tang Rou performanced well and was often fielded as sixth player, so she was definitely worthy of this award.
For example, Most Improved, Chen Guo didn’t care that Qiao Yifan only began playing official matches this year, saying that he had shown great improvement since he was in Tiny Herb, so he should get the award. Fang Rui had successfully switched cla.s.ses, which was an improvement as well, so he should get the award as well.
For example, for Best Partners, Chen Guo had only ever and would only ever accept Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng as best, no debate.
“It should all be ours!” In the end, Chen Guo was very unsatisfied with the Alliance’s choices.