The King's Avatar

Saturday was match day. On Sunday, all sorts of discussion on Saturday’s matches could be seen in the various Glory forums, although most of these discussions were focused on the players. The news reports, on the other hand, were either impartial descriptions of the how the match went, or remarks from interviews. The truly professional analysis generally required a day to fully digest the previous day’s matches. The most reputable Esports Home would only start reporting any detailed analysis in their Monday issue.

On Monday, Chen Guo hurried to buy a copy of the Esports Home weekly issue. But when she took a glance at it, she was slightly disappointed. The Esports Home’s praise for Happy wasn’t as earth-shattering as she had imagined.

Tang Rou’s outstanding performance in the group arena had received positive evaluations, but Steamed Bun’s performance in the individual competition and Mo Fan’s send off in the group arena had not been neglected by the respected media group. Chen Guo still felt her spirits stir when she saw the high praise for Happy’s performance in the team competition though, which particularly lauded the team’s coordination in killing Blossoming Chaos in one go. The Esports Home called it a classic textbook example. This description couldn’t help but make people think of the Glory Textbook, Ye Xiu. Sure enough, while the popular comments on the forums didn’t talk much about Ye Xiu relatively speaking, the praise for Ye Xiu by Esports Home was no less than their praise for Tang Rou. Even the class-changed Fang Rui received quite the commendation.

The news related to the match were mostly done by City H’s reporter Chang Xian. However, the professional analysis had been done by several special analysts. To be a part of an organization as respected as Esports Home, these analysts weren’t just people who talked big. Their analyses were very on point.

One of Chen Guo’s favorite parts about the Esports Home was their point evaluations for every player in the highlight match. This section was usually done by specialists too. But the analyst was different and the style was different. The writer could write more freely as well, so this section was quite popular.

From the broadcast of the second round, the highlight match was Team Thunderclap versus Team Void. However, the good thing about print media was that they could look at things in retrospect. As a result, they picked the Team Happy versus Team Hundred Blossoms as the highlight match.

Chen Guo quickly flipped to this section in glee. Sure enough, it was in the style she liked.　

Individual competition, Ye Xiu versus Zeng Xinran.　　

Ye Xiu 5 points. Zeng Xinran -4 points.

Yes, this section was sometimes just this unconventional. Points were usually given from 0 to 10, but the writer actually gave Zeng Xinran negative four points. The writer’s disgust for Zeng Xingran’s performance could clearly be seen. The short commentary on it wrote: Team Hundred Blossom’s Zeng Xinran played his first ever match. Through this match, he told us one thing: he was here. Apart from that, he also told God Ye Xiu one thing: it doesn’t matter if your hands are rusty. Against some opponents, you could cut your hands off and still win. Zeng Xingran is a rookie though, so I’ll be more lenient. Instead of -5 points, I give him a -4! As for God Ye Xiu, without a worthy opponent, there’s not much for him to show off, so 5 points!

It was quite a biting remark, even referencing Ye Xiu’s ”rustiness.” Chen Guo very rudely let out a laugh and checked the name of the writer for this point evaluation.

As expected, it was Zuo Chenrui. Chen Guo was no stranger to this name. He was famous for his sharp and unkind words. His evaluations were very subjective, not conforming with Esports Home’s reputation. These point evaluations were clearly marked out as ”special commentary that did not represent the newspaper’s views,” making it the one place where Zuo Chenrui could shine in the Esports Home. And as it turned out, his exaggerated and sharp remarks became the most popular parts of this section.

As for Chen Guo, she rather liked this person’s commentary because they were often very funny.

After Ye Xiu and Zeng Xinran was Steamed Bun and Zhang Wei’s battle.　

Bao Rongxin 10 to 0, Zhang Wei 5.

Chen Guo laughed again just from this evaluation of Steamed Bun.

The puzzling rookie Bao Rongxing has a mind that no one can comprehend. Perhaps he doesn’t even know what he’s doing himself. For the first half, he receives full marks. He utterly dominated Zhang Wei. For the second half, his incomprehensible feebleness proves my bewilderment for him. Zhang Wei 5 points, facing 10 points, can only be crushed. But facing 0 points, it becomes the other way around! Bao Rongxing receives 10 to 0 points. His loss is because his performance didn’t go the reverse from 0 to 10 points.

Evil! How evil!

Zuo Chenrui was just like this. He spared no efforts in ridiculing someone. If you weren’t mentioned much, then that’s pretty much praise for you. The mockery towards Hundred Blossoms was rather light. Those familiar with Zuo Chenrui knew that he was a Blue Rain fan. His negative bias towards Tiny Herb was truly deep. When the Esports Home did a points evaluation for a Tiny Herb match, they definitely didn’t dare have him do it.

After these two rounds was Su Mucheng’s and Zou Yuan’s match.　　

Zou Yuan wanted to fight with Su Mucheng in a direct confrontation, but he took the wrong turn and ended up being completely suppressed. Zou Yuan’s attempt to directly eliminate Su Mucheng’s suppression ended up in failure. To put it simply, Zou Yuan underestimated Su Mucheng. In terms of technique, experience, and awareness, Su Mucheng is not any worse than Zou Yuan. On the other hand, her good looks surpass Zou Yuan 10000 times. Such a dominating victory makes complete sense. Su Mucheng’s performance is a beautiful 10/10, her looks 10000/10. Zou Yuan’s performance is a 5/10, his looks… forget about it, I won’t attach a point value to him. I’ll just say it’s on the poorer side!

After that was the group arena.

Fang Rui did a good job. His simple trick worked again and again. It has to be said that even though this master of playing dirty has changed classes, his ability to dig holes is still as high as ever. But his inexperience with his class can clearly be seen. His methods for digging holes isn’t rich enough. In the second half of the match, he was forced into a direct confrontation with Zhou Guangyi. Fortunately, he dug a deep enough hole earlier, so he didn’t fall. The round ended in this way. Fang Rui 6 points. But his Qigong Blast against Yu Feng deserves a 10. (10+6)/2 gives him a total of 8 points.

Zhou Guangyi was pretty much dancing around in Fang Rui’s palms. If Fang Rui was still a Thief, Zhou Guangyi might have lost in an even uglier fashion, or perhaps he might have done better because he understands Fang Rui’s Thief better. I’m inclined to think the former, so Zhou Guangyi gets 2 points.

Yu Feng should have been able to take down Fang Rui without losing much health, but that Qigong Blast proved that he miscalculated against Fang Rui, 2 points. In the next round, he stood heroically in the center of the map, a well-deserved 5 points, but he won just like that by standing there, so only 5 points. In the third round, he met Happy’s rookie head-on, but was blown out. Yu Feng made the same mistake as Zou Yuan: he underestimated his opponent. But compared to Zou Yuan, as an All-Star, he had the qualifications to look down on a rookie. Thanks to Yu Feng’s negligence, we were gifted a spectacular 1v2. As such, he deserves another 2 points. 2+5+2=9 points? That doesn’t seem right. Oh, I forgot, Yu Feng played a total of three rounds, so we have to divide by 3, 3 points. Speaking of which, if I didn’t say anything, would people have noticed that Yu Feng played three battles, also playing a 1v2?

There’s not much to be said for Mo Fan. He’s Happy response towards Hundred Blossom’s rookie, Zeng Xinran. Zeng Xinran said he was here, so Mo Fan said he was also here. I have to give him two points though, because without him, there wouldn’t have been that beautiful 1v2.

Zhu Xiaoping, as a Summoner who is said to hold back 2 or 3 people with his 1, was blown out by the enemy. Still, we can’t say that’s Wind Carving’s fault. Zhu Xiaoping, 3 points.

Tang Rou beating Yu Feng, 10 points! Beating Zhu Xiaoping, 10 points! Looks, 10000 points. There’s no need for any explanation.

For the most spectacular performance by Tang Rou, Zuo Chenrui only said a few short words, proving that he loved to mock people but was too lazy to give praise.

For the final team competition, Zuo Chenrui continued with his subjective evaluations. He started off by firing shots at Yu Feng’s early send off. It looked like the Team Blue Rain fan Zuo Chenrui had quite the opinion of Yu Feng, who had abandoned Team Blue Rain.

”What’s making you so happy?” Everyone had arrived at the Internet cafe and was ready to begin their new week’s practice, only to see Chen Guo laughing uncontrollably.

Chen Guo gave the paper to everyone. Everyone was familiar with Esports Home. They knew that there was nothing really that funny to look at besides that section.　　

Sure enough, it was that section. And looking at the writer, everyone understood.

”Who’s he going at this time?” Fang Rui took the paper and started reading it.

The player being ridiculed certainly wouldn’t be laughing, but to others, reading Zuo Chenrui’s remarks were quite fun.

”Hehe, hehe, hehe…” Fang Rui took the newspaper, looked over Zuo Chenrui’s commentary, and soon started laughing.

”Hey, he was quite nice to me.” Fang Rui was surprised when he saw the group arena evaluation of him. ”Let’s see what he wrote about Little Tang.” He continued reading. Since this guy very rarely praised anyone, a lot of people would be curious to see his views on someone who had performed exceptionally.

”Tsk tsk, to make Zuo Chenrui not give any explanation for his evaluation, Little Tang, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you,” Fang Rui said to Tang Rou after reading over it.

”Really?” Tang Rou would also read over the Glory analysis in the papers, but she was mainly doing it to learn. She searched for material she needed in a targeted manner. Someone like Zuo Chenrui, who was extremely subjective and wrote exaggerated remarks, wasn’t inside Tang Rou’s study list, so she didn’t know much about him.

”He’s always been quite nice to girls. Have you ever seen him go all out to tear at a female player?” Ye Xiu said.

”This…” Fang Rui thought about it. It really had never happened before. He checked today’s paper again and read over Su Mucheng’s evaluation. Sure enough, Zuo Chenrui’s usual style wasn’t there.

”This guy actually has a bottom line, huh. I never noticed,” Fang Rui said.　　

”Even though he exaggerates a bit, his evaluations can sometimes be very on point. If not, did you really think the Esports Home would have him someone as irresponsible as him writing just to make jokes?” Ye Xiu said.

”True.” Fang Rui nodded his head in seriousness, while reading the paper aloud: ”’His Qigong Blast against Yu Feng deserves a 10.’ This guy’s evaluation is truly on point.”