Chapter 13 Match He practically stuck who he wanted on his forehead…
They trained according to the BO3 (Best of 3) format. In BO1, the humans didn’t have a ban slot against the boss, resulting in the fixed drama of being slaughtered by Huzhong Ying. After banning Huzhong Ying in BO2, Si Yan picked the meta-dominant Cengwei (Layered Dimension). In BO3, he picked Xuenv. After changing their playstyle, the effects were immediate. From being completely suppressed initially, to having room to push and pull in BO2 and BO3, and even fighting for an advantage.
The human team’s dejected spirit finally dissipated a bit, though they still didn’t have much confidence.
A shotcaller who switched positions halfway, kiting that fluctuated between god-like and ghost-like, rescuing that guaranteed the unhook but not survival—this was Si Yan’s evaluation of them. Moreover, his ability to capitalize on mistakes was too strong. If any link had a slight problem, they would be directly packaged and sent away.
As the captain, Li Qingming worried so much his hair was falling out. It wasn’t until the Gaoxiao Bei officially began that he realized: once away from Si Yan’s umbrella, it actually wasn’t raining outside at all.
Fighting all the way from the qualifiers to the finals, the human team played with ease. They never again experienced the suffocating feeling of being choked by a demon’s grip like when playing against Si Yan.
The finals happened to be held in A Shi. While waiting in the staging area, the few of them chatted about this matter again. Si Yan had originally indeed prepared himself to take the heat. He rubbed his nose awkwardly. “Well, you see, I thought it was because you guys were bad.”
Only after becoming familiar with him did Li Qingming dare to joke around with him. He grabbed a throw pillow nearby and smashed it over.
At the SG club, Bleach received a message from the manager. Upon arriving at the meeting room, he found everyone was there.
The manager, the coach, Demo who had just gone to the second team, the starting Rescue Kim, and the starting Support Onemo.
Bleach scanned the room, found a seat, and sat down. He asked: “Brother Zhao, where’s Swen?”
The manager, referred to as Brother Zhao, was half-leaning on the conference table. He took out the remote control and pulled up the live broadcast of the Gaoxiao Bei finals. The BO1 pick/ban phase had just ended. “Shaonian Xianfeng Dui” still chose to let the humans take the field first.
He answered in passing: “Him? He took a leave of absence.” It seemed he bought a ticket and rushed to Nan County. He didn’t know what he was going there to do. The manager recalled for a moment but couldn’t think of a reason, so his attention returned to the match.
“How rare. Even Swen takes leaves of absence.” Bleach nodded, clicking his tongue in wonder. After all, the model worker Swen had always been the ultimate grinder. After sighing, his gaze finally fell on the large screen in front. Seeing the number of online viewers, his brow twitched slightly. “Is the Gaoxiao Bei this popular this year?”
Kim had the fastest internet speed on the team, surfing the forums every day, so he naturally knew the reason. He explained: “Because NK and ‘juice’, two internet celebrities, are both on this team. You know NK, the one who came as a guest commentator before. I hadn’t really heard of ‘juice’ before, but he blew up a few days ago by rushing the leaderboards at rocket speed. He should have a pretty good relationship with NK.”
His gaze then turned to Demo, teasing: “You should know, his mechanics are very similar to your idol’s.”
Demo used to be a fan of Nine. To a large extent, his going pro was influenced by Nine. However, that stopped before Nine forfeited the match. Afterwards, he dropped his fandom and turned into a hater. Deep love brings deep resentment; he directly transformed into an epic-tier vengeful wraith anti-fan.
As for whether he was a true hater or a fake one, only he himself knew.
The team often used this matter to joke with him. Sure enough, Demo viciously ground his teeth, glaring at Kim with a fierce light in his eyes. “Say it again and I’ll bite you!”
“Alright, stop messing around. The match has started. Calling you all here today is to look at the players.”
They hadn’t watched much of the qualifiers. Therefore, when ‘juice’ locked in Huayishi, a few of them were somewhat surprised.
It wasn’t just them who were surprised; the netizens were also surprised.
As the grand finals with the highest popularity, the bullet screen was filled with [???].
[Ever since playing with Luanma ge, it’s like Guozhi ge got possessed. All day long he only knows how to pick these frail and weak characters.]
[What do you mean frail and weak? How are our Soft Supports weak? Our playstyle requires brains, okay? Don’t throw away your brain every day just knowing how to play ob.]
[Mainly it doesn’t fit Guozhi ge‘s style. He originally took the macho man route.]
[Yes, I can testify. Guozhi ge‘s Gongchengshi is super macho!]
Halfway through the match, most fans who couldn’t understand the gameplay were still complaining about why ‘juice’ didn’t dare to make plays anymore. After all, fans came wanting to see exciting confrontations, and Guozhi ge was famous on the internet for daring to fight and take risks. Right now, they were somewhat disappointed.
As a boss player, Bleach had a sharper sensitivity to the big picture. He nodded approvingly. “Not bad. Their team’s shotcaller is very agile.”
Right after he praised them, the human team’s situation instantly reversed due to a major mistake.
The team composition their human team chose was originally one that could only play with a tailwind advantage. Once a teammate made a mistake, no one could stand out and be a hero.
Turn the tide? Bleach had an inexplicable intuition that ‘juice’ should be able to do it. Unfortunately, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice. His Huayishi didn’t have skills that could forcefully recover the situation.
After a few back-and-forths at the end, they still only successfully escaped with one person. The first half of BO1 ended with a score of 1:3.
The human team stepped off the stage. Li Qingming blamed himself and slapped his own hand. A red mark instantly appeared on the back of his hand, showing he truly didn’t go easy on himself. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have led the chase towards Huayishi during that wave.”
Mu Jiu had clearly told him to leave, but he kept thinking he could still survive, insisting on rotating according to his own line of thought.
Si Yan directly tossed his jacket into Li Qingming’s arms. “What’s the rush? Wait here, this young master will win it back for you.”
Saying this, he walked up to the staging area looking extremely arrogant. Li Qingming watched his back with teary eyes; he looked like a god!
In the second half of BO1, Si Yan picked Huzhong Ying and didn’t disappoint, achieving a four-kill. Winning the first game with a total score of 6:3.
After watching, Bleach rolled his eyes twice and turned to the manager. “Oh right, I forgot to ask who you wanted us to watch. You’re not planning to have NK come over and replace me, are you? Don’t do it, Brother Zhao!”
Brother Zhao gave the back of his head a slap. “Are you sick or am I sick? Watch ‘juice’!”
Bleach was exactly at his peak condition, and the meta also suited him. What would he recruit another boss player to watch the water dispenser for? Of course he was recruiting for the human team.
Shi Wen said he wanted to recruit an ob, then said to look at the Gaoxiao Bei, and then duo-queued with ‘juice’. He practically stuck who he wanted on his forehead, yet he stubbornly refused to admit it himself.
Hearing this, Onemo’s brows furrowed slightly. He truly didn’t expect the manager had his eye on ‘juice’.
He didn’t read the forums much. After BO2 finished, both sides were tied. Judging solely by today’s performance, ‘juice’s’ Support play could only be considered average, and their character pools highly overlapped.
As a top-tier all-around Support in the league, he naturally wasn’t afraid to compete with ‘juice’ for the position. But with his skill level, having him come directly to the first team wasn’t something he could approve of.
“What’s the Captain’s intention?” Onemo asked.
Translator’s Notes:
- Cengwei (层维): Layered Dimension.
- Xuenv (雪女): Snow Woman.
- Huzhong Ying (湖中影): Shadow in the Lake.
- BO1, BO2, BO3: Best of 1, Best of 2, Best of 3. Refers to the first, second, and third matches in a series.
- Watch the water dispenser: Sports slang for being a benchwarmer who never gets to play.
- Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice (巧妇难为无米之炊): An idiom meaning that without the necessary tools or resources, even the most capable person cannot accomplish a task.
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