The King's Avatar

The match quickly began. The map that Ye Xiu chose with the home team advantage was once again a simple and straightforward one. The strategy that he chose was to fight head on. This was quite surprising as an old general’s strongest weapon was experience. Choosing a map that contained a lot of complexities would be advantageous for him. But not Ye Xiu. Armed with the unspecialized, he would always pick a map that allowed him to play aggressively. And up until now, no one had been able to stand up to his aggression.

In this match against Happy, Samsara had not chosen to specifically counter this arrangement. As Li Yibo said, sending out Jiang Botao first was a very ordinary, comfortable arrangement for Samsara.

When the characters loaded and saw the simple map, there was nothing else to do but to charge forward!

”Senior, you can’t keep winning! You have to leave us juniors something to aim to surpass!” Jiang Botao started chatting with Ye Xiu over the public chat. The Alliance had stressed that use of the voice chat was being discussed, but they had yet to reach a decision. For now, everything remained unchanged. This rule was not actually that important for the Alliance in terms of gameplay. Why did the Alliance ban voice chat in the beginning? It was for easier broadcasting. The players could not talk and had to use text to chat, making it easier for the viewers to see their communications and strategies. There was no other intention besides this. If the players used voice chat, then the broadcasters wouldn’t have it as easy. Further, if they split the voice chat into a public one and two more, one for each team, then how do they decide which voice chat to tune in at any given time? Opening voice chat would allow the players to communicate fully, but the viewer’s experience would not be the same as before, where they could catch every small detail in the communications.

The current scene was a great example. Everyone loved seeing the banter between players. If it were voice chat and the broadcaster had to switch the sound around, a lot would be missed.

In the end, the Alliance was currently still in discussions with the broadcasters with no outcome yet. For now, everyone was still using text to communicate in this match.

”Well of course!” on this side, Ye Xiu actually went and agreed with Jiang Botao. Everyone was surprised, but a second message followed quickly: ”That’s why I didn’t play in Round 1! No matter how well I do, my win streak can only reach 37. See, I left you a whole round’s worth to surpass!”

”Just play…” Jiang Botao wasn’t really trash talking. He liked to chat a little with others. But now, he really couldn’t keep chatting after what Ye Xiu said.

”Why don’t you give Senior a hand? Perhaps just type GG?” Ye Xiu pressed on.

”Senior, please stop joking around,” Jiang Botao said.

”It’s not like it makes a difference in the outcome!” Ye Xiu continued.

”Regardless, I should at least give it a shot!” Jiang Botao wasn’t affected by Ye Xiu’s taunting. He still chatted as if this was a regular conversation.

The two characters met after these few words. Ye Xiu did not control Lord Grim use his long-ranged attacks hurriedly. He allowed the characters to continue to get closer. Just as he was about to step into the enemy Spellblade’s attack range, Lord Grim suddenly accelerated!

Movement skill!

This had already become a signature move of the unspecialized Lord Grim. It seemed that Ye Xiu didn’t plan to play cat and mouse with his opponent at a mid- to long-range; rather, he planned to get up close to deal with his opponent. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had always played like this. He had never kited his opponent, not even when equipped with plenty of mid- to long-range methods of attack, or against an opponent who could only attack at close range. He always fought aggressively for the initiative and used any means possible to seize it.

A Shining Cut flashed out, and Lord Grim raced forward several units in an instant. Jiang Botao already saw through Ye Xiu’s intentions, and Empty Waves retreated back. He leapt backwards while the Silver shortsword Divine Chain glinted. An Earthquake Sword rolled forth!

Jiang Botao, the vice captain of Samsara, had gained increasing popularity by the year as Samsara won back to back championships. But his technical skill and style did not really have any uniqueness to it like many other players did. His play was very ordinary, neither unexpected nor low-key. Games would finish seemingly very naturally.

In other words, Jiang Botao’s matches didn’t have waves of highs and lows where large portions of health were traded. The damage would accumulate steadily, and he would eventually win by slowly accumulating small advantages. It didn’t matter whether those who lost to him were ahead or behind during the match, they would always come out of it feeling like they lost by ”that much”. However, regardless of how little ”that much” was, a loss was still a loss in the end.

At first, people were of the opinion that Jiang Botao had frighteningly accurate calculations. However, they gradually realised this was not the case. It was more accurate to say that he did not let a single detail slip.

Jiang Botao was that type of meticulous player, whether it was in the individual or team competitions. He would consider and deal with any possibility that would arise in battle. Because of this, it was very hard for anyone to score a high combo against him. Jiang Botao was seemingly a counter to Ye Xiu in this regard: Ye Xiu’s unspecialized focused on an unbroken combo in a one on one.

Lord Grim charged forth aggressively before his eyes, but Jiang Botao was well prepared. Empty Waves had already leapt back and used an Earthquake Sword as Lord Grim activated his movement skills.

In this moment, it looked as if Lord Grim’s Shining Cut wasn’t closing the distance, but rather pushing him to headbutt the Earthquake Sword. No time to dodge? Most ordinary players would feel this way; however, for a pro player, there was room to dodge even though the two skills were fairly fast.

Left?

Or right?

Jiang Botao was fixated on Lord Grim’s every move. Empty Waves took up another stance after his jump backwards, ready to send out another Wave Sword as soon as Lord Grim dodged.

Turns out, it was neither left nor right. Lord Grim still charged forth, but his shoulders forcefully lurched forward.

Reinforced Iron Bones!

Ye Xiu chose not to dodge. Rather, he forcefully had Lord Grim activate this Striker skill. An increased defence would lessen the damage taken. For a skill like Earthquake Sword that swept away the target, however, the most troublesome thing about Reinforced Iron Bones was the Super Armor status that it grants.

Even so, Reinforced Iron Bones couldn’t stop Empty Waves from sending out more attacks. However, this unexpected move from Ye Xiu still ended up making Jiang Botao hesitate for an instant. Jiang Botao was still paying all his attention to the left and right sides of his attack.

As the Silver weapon Divine Chain was raised for another attack, Lord Grim’s hands already sent an object flying.

Puff!

It was only a soft sound, but thick, purple smoke quickly spread and engulfed the area. Lord Grim slipped out of Jiang Botao’s field of view in a blink.

Ninja Tool: Smoke Bomb!

Jiang Botao froze.

Under the cover of the thick smoke, he had no idea about Lord Grim’s position.

The thick smoke continued to spread. Were there any flow currents that seemed irregular?

Jiang Botao observed closely. If a character moved within the smoke, it would definitely disrupt its natural spread. Traces of movement could be spotted like this.

But, there weren’t any!

No movement?

Impossible! Under this cover, why would Ye Xiu not attack? Then there was only one possibility!

Jiang Botao ’s right hand swiped the mouse and his left hand flew across the keyboard. Empty Waves turned, stepped back and Divine Chain slashed outwards. Wave Wheel Slasher!

Lord Grim would suddenly appear behind him with a Shadow Clone Technique.

That was Jiang Botao’s prediction.

Thus, Wave Wheel Slasher was unleashed, with intention to immobilize the opponent with sword waves. The purple smoke swirled and a part of it dissipated, but it didn’t find a target. Lord Grim was nowhere to be seen.

Jiang Botao knew at this moment: This is bad…

A spurt of blood flew out from Empty Waves’ neck. Lord Grim did indeed appear next to him and mercilessly delivered a Cut-Throat.

Did he use Shadow Clone Technique or some other movement skill? That was no longer important. Jiang Botao only knew that Ye Xiu used a timing difference perfectly. He completely predicted Jiang Botao’s reaction.

Following the Cut-Throat, the short blade in Lord Grim’s hand flicked again. The Assassin knock-up skill, Leaping Blade, sent Empty Waves into their air.

Falling Light Blade!

However, Empty Waves barely left the ground when he used this Swordsman low-level skill, and suddenly plummeted.

But…

Gore Cross!

Two perpendicular lines of blood appeared on Empty Waves’ back. He avoided being sent into the air, but Lord Grim continued his attack and didn’t dodge. This skill was chained so quickly that Empty Waves wouldn’t have had a chance to completely get airborne. Jiang Botao’s quick reaction seemed like it was playing right into Ye Xiu’s hands.

The combo began.

”Guess what combo I can reach?” Ye Xiu actually took the time to throw out a message. Obviously, this was targeted towards the fact that Jiang Botao was rarely on the receiving end of a high combo.

”I don’t think it will be that high,” and Jiang Botao actually replied. Under these circumstances, he was still in the mood to chat.

”Yeah, seems like the combo was just a dream,” when Ye Xiu sent this message, the combo reset to zero.

However, this did not mean Jiang Botao had a chance to escape. Ye Xiu’s unspecialized Lord Grim only aimed for the combo effect, and not the combo statistic.

Fake Combo! His attacks continued to chain beautifully one after another.

”It really is difficult to deal with!” Jiang Botao sighed.

”A little too many details right?” Ye Xiu replied.

”Yeah… way too many.” Jiang Botao had a headache.

Jiang Botao could counter Ye Xiu to an extent? It looked like this was the wrong call. In reality, Ye Xiu’s unspecialized countered Jiang Botao. There were too many skills, too many ways to chain skills, and overall too many variations. If Jiang Botao really wanted consider every detail, his rhythm beginning from his thought process would be slow by a beat. Jiang Botao’s brain had no way fully keep up with the amount of details for this opponent.

Jiang Botao fell.

Even though there were many struggles in the process, it didn’t affect the final result.

”Next time, send someone else up,” Ye Xiu smiled. He acknowledged the amount of trouble Jiang Botao had while facing him.

”Is there still a next time?” Jiang Botao was confused. The two teams have already met twice this season. The individual competition was done for them, so when would next time be?

”Oh, if you guys don’t make the playoffs, then I guess there’s no next time,” Ye Xiu said.

This bold presumption of Samsara not making the playoffs again left everyone speechless.