The King's Avatar

They had waited with high hopes for the chance to push Lord Grim off the map, but all that happened was that their own side lost another powerful general. Zou Yuan and Zhou Guangyi were agonized. It wasn’t even one defeat, it was a combo. Just after Endless Forest’s icon grayed out, Zhu Xiaoping’s Summoner Wind Carving fell as well.

For one person to last this long against Su Mucheng and Qiao Yifan was quite a feat; Zhu Xiaoping already proved himself a worthy Summoner. But he didn’t have the ability to both stall and defeat two players at once. In all of Glory’s history, there had never been such a powerful Summoner before.

In the team competition, Happy’s roster was still whole and perfect, while Hundred Blossoms had already lost four players.

At this moment, Zou Yuan and Zhou Guangyi stopped moving. Under these conditions, was there any point in continuing fighting? They lost this match, completely and thoroughly. 1 to 9 wasn’t a total sweep, but it wasn’t far off, either.

Zou Yuan and Zhou Guangyi didn’t say anything to each other. They just stopped at the same time, and it was clear that they were in agreement.

”GG”

”GG”

Each player sent a ”GG,” and then Bright Blossoms and Cold Seasons withdrew from the battle. Happy officially won the battle. The roar of the crowd was like thunder - this was a huge victory, 9 to 1!

Happy’s team competition players walked out of the player booths together to greet the audience, and the stadium reached a new high of excitement.

Hundred Blossoms’ players walked out as well. As the losers, it was best for them if they left this stage quickly, but they still had to follow some customs. Hundred Blossoms politely acknowledged the applause they received from the crowd, and with the spirit of ”friendship first, competition second,” they spoke to their opponents.

”Congratulations, you played well.” Yu Feng took the initiative to congratulate Happy’s players, displaying Hundred Blossom’s grace.

”Haha, continue to work hard,” Ye Xiu said casually as he shook hands with Yu Feng. After hearing this, Yu Feng was a bit depressed. What do you mean, ”continue to work hard”? That made it sound like Hundred Blossoms’ only goal was to surpass Happy.

”Haha, you too.” Yu Feng forced a chuckle, then led Hundred Blossoms offstage. They met up with the rest of their teammates, and immediately left through the player tunnel. It was the winner’s stage, let the winner enjoy it!

The Alliance mandated that pro players must attend the post-match press conference of every match. To the losers of the match, this was another torture to endure. Reporters were merciless, always rubbing salt into their wounds. Hundred Blossoms knew that this conference would be particularly excruciating, so aside from their captain and vice captain, they sent out their veteran player, Zhang Wei.

”It’s a shame that Hundred Blossoms lost this match. Could you talk about some of your thoughts?” The opening question was rather ordinary.

”Our team members all worked hard, but unfortunately the opponent played better.” Hundred Blossoms Captain Yu Feng also gave a very standard answer.

”Did you at all predict that you would be crushed by Happy like this? Please forgive my usage of the word ”crushed,” but judging from the final point score, the match was incredibly one-sided.” A harsh question followed, deliberately attacking the Hundred Blossoms players.

”This outcome was unexpected for everyone, and I admit that we never thought this could have happened. But I don’t believe that Hundred Blossoms was crushed. We won one point in the individual round, and we had the upper-hand for part of the group arena. As for the team round, maps like Broken River that have instant-kill points will often lead to a result that seems very skewed. The points are only the result, but looking at the process, I truly cannot see where Hundred Blossoms was crushed.” Yu Feng didn’t reveal any anger, but he replied sharply to this question.

”Captain Yu, what do you think about Team Happy’s Tang Rou?” Immediately, another reporter asked a pointed question to counterattack. Tang Rou certainly wasn’t a name that Yu Feng would be happy to hear right now. It was another knife to the wound.

”She’s very skilled,” Yu Feng replied. ”She will become an outstanding pro player.”

”Could you be more specific? For example, outstanding in what way?” Someone asked.

”To win a 1v2 in the group arena and help the team earn the overall victory, isn’t that enough to show her outstandingness?” Yu Feng clearly saw the reporter’s purpose in asking about Tang Rou. He had lost to a rookie, which was truly shameful, but he wouldn’t try to hide. He had the courage to face any challenge directly because he was the captain and core of Hundred Blossoms. He had to be able to shoulder any difficulties that Hundred Blossoms had.

”Then what about Hundred Blossoms’ Zeng Xinran? This was his first time playing in this season, but both the result and the process were unsatisfactory.” For comparison, another reporter brought up the rookie on Hundred Blossoms’ side, Zeng Xinran. In the entire match, aside from Mo Fan, who had committed a foul and was disqualified from the game, Zeng Xinran’s performance was the most abysmal. This was the incontestable truth.

”It was his first official match ever, so he was inevitably nervous. It takes a while to get used to the professional scene, but he will be able to display his ability,” said Yu Feng.

After that, there were more questions targeting specific details about the match. The good thing was that Hundred Blossoms was prepared for this, and the players they sent out for this conference were all experienced in this area. Finally, they made it through the questioning.

”I’d like to ask the three Hundred Blossoms players, after this match, could you talk about your opinion of Team Happy?” At the very end of the press conference, Chang Xian from the City H branch of Esports Home had the opportunity to ask the final question.

”For this question, I don’t think we each need to say our own opinions. Our view of Happy is unanimous.” From Hundred Blossoms, Zhang Wei was the one to answer. ”Regarding their roster, they have three All-Star players - I don’t think I need to say any more about that. Regarding their characters, aside from their two All-Star characters, the Silver equipment on their other characters is enough to make an opponent hesitate. During the transition stage after the game update, level 75 Orange equipment narrowed the gap between the smaller teams and the powerhouses. We were stuck for too long at level 70, so we need to take another look at the so-called gap between all of the teams. With this situation, combined with Happy’s status, I think it’s safe to say that Happy is the strongest new team in the history of the Alliance!”

Zhang Wei’s answer brought forth even more questions that the reporters wanted to ask, but after answering this final question, Hundred Blossoms’ three players ignored the reporters’ shouted questions and abruptly left the press conference. Afterwards, it was Happy’s turn to come out: Ye Xiu, Fang Rui, and of course the shining star of this match, Tang Rou.

The press conference opened with the typical congratulations and question about their thoughts on this match.

”Hundred Blossoms also worked hard, but we played better.” Ye Xiu’s answer was essentially the exact same as Yu Feng’s, just switching around the pronouns. The reporters didn’t care much; no one really hoped to gain anything out of this question. In post-match press conferences, this question was essentially a ”hello.”

After the greetings, the reporters immediately went to Tang Rou. The team battle hadn’t at all distracted from her astonishing 1v2 performance in the group arena.

”An exciting victory, a grand reversal!” The reporters gave their praises without restraint. ”What are your thoughts on this thrilling performance? How would you judge your own performance?”

”I hope that I can still do better,” Tang Rou said, smiling.

”Still… do better? Are you referring… to a 1v3?” The reporters were in shock.

”Of course.” Tang Rou continued to smile.

The reporters’ feelings were mixed. Some approved of Tang Rou’s courage and confidence, while others immediately turned against her. After managing a 1v2, this rookie knew no modesty and immediately entertained delusions of a 1v3? This was just too arrogant! With these thoughts, these reporters took another look at Tang Rou onstage and felt that she was just like those typical self-righteous pretty girls that often showed up in novels and television.

This was the Glory competitive scene. Being pretty wasn’t worth anything. Many of the gazes on Tang Rou were now hostile and disdainful, even those who had previously chased Tang Rou with their praise.

”God Fang Rui also performed very well today, could you talk to us about it?” a reporter asked.

”It was just so-so,” said Fang Rui. ”A little worse than I had expected.”

”What were you expecting?” someone asked.

”To sweep the group arena?” Fang Rui said, but he didn’t wait for the hostile glares before immediately adding, ”Haha, I’m just kidding. I did want to take some more of Yu Feng’s health in the second round of the group arena, but sadly I couldn’t pull it off.”

”Oh, then regarding the second player to come out in the group arena, Mo Fan, what do you think about his performance? Was he too nervous about his first time playing onstage?” a reporter asked.

”That was entirely Ye Xiu’s fault!” Fang Rui’s face immediately twisted in grief and indignation.

”Ah? What do you mean?” Everyone was suddenly interested, and they all looked at Ye Xiu.

”It was my fault,” Ye Xiu said, also wearing a bitter expression. ”I didn’t clearly explain to him the competition rules.”

”Clearly explain? You didn’t explain at all!” Fang Rui said.

”I saw that he was looking at them himself!” Ye Xiu said.

”What use is looking at them himself! Are the rules that easy to digest? You need to properly teach him how to exploit the loopholes in the rules.”

”You shut your mouth, is exploiting loopholes and whatnot something that a respectable pro player should do?”

”But there will always be a few sneaky players that do this. To defeat their sneaky tricks, you first have to understand how they’ll be sneaky!” said Fang Rui.

After hearing this, the reporters instantly became excited, all turning toward Fang Rui.

”By ’sneaky players,’ who are you referring to?” the reporters asked.

”That was just an example, a general reference,” Fang Rui said.

The reporters were disappointed, but they still felt that Fang Rui was targeting someone specific. Quite a few people were already racking their brains for a player that Fang Rui didn’t get along with. Meanwhile, others continued to seize this time to ask questions.

”In today’s team competition, we saw that once again, Happy’s healer didn’t serve any big purpose. Is this because his skill level still isn’t at the professional level, so Happy has to rely on these strategies that don’t rely on a healer?” someone asked.

”That’s nonsense,” said Ye Xiu. ”He didn’t serve any purpose? How was Blossoming Chaos taken down in one wave? If we were missing a single person, we couldn’t have pulled it off.”

”Zhang Wei of Hundred Blossoms named you the strongest new team in history. What do you think about that?”

”He praises us too highly. Zhang Wei is truly too honest,” Ye Xiu said.