The King's Avatar

Ye Xiu’s declaration at the press conference didn’t dispel many people’s doubts. Stubbornly insisting on using someone, who was universally regarded as having subpar skill, received all sorts of criticism. The forums, in particular, had lots of nonsense like An Wenyi was Chen Guo’s sugar daddy, and he could not be kicked because of the boss’s authority. Numerous people actually accepted this conjecture, quite a few were even Happy’s fans.

Fortunately, the reporters weren’t so unreasonable and only criticized Happy’s obstinacy.

”Happy’s future this season is looking quite good, but perhaps it will end because of their stubbornness!”

A few media stations reported in this way because the transfer window had closed after this round and Happy truly had no intentions of recruiting a better healer. An Wenyi was the only person they could rely on now. Healers were different from other classes. There were usually no substitutes for them. Cries of mourning could be heard all around Happy. Even many of Happy’s supporters complained about their team’s stubbornness. Rumors without boundary started to spread further and further.

The only voice that could thoroughly dispel these doubts was a strong performance, but...

”Don’t be anxious. This isn’t something that can be resolved in a match or two.” Early in the morning, Ye Xiu got up and found An Wenyi practicing since who knew when.

”The entire team needs time to get used to this new way of playing. It wasn’t just you that made mistakes against Samsara. The team didn’t protect you well enough either,” Ye Xiu said.

”You’re not consoling me, are you?” An Wenyi asked.　　

”I always say it how it is,” Ye Xiu said.

”I believe you,” An Wenyi nodded his head. Ye Xiu was truthful to the extent that he could infuriate others.

”Continue to work on your reaction speed. It’ll always be helpful. And then practice and play together with the team to work on our synergy,” Ye Xiu said.

”Maybe we can go back to how we played in the past…” An Wenyi said these words, thinking with the team in mind. He was a bit scared of holding back the team from winning just so that he could become a qualified Cleric.

”That style of play isn’t sustainable. Even that slow Li Yibo is starting to smell out the traps inside. Do you believe that the likes of Yu Wenzhou, Zhang Xinjie, Wang Jiexi wouldn’t be able to? We need to think about the long term. Starting from now on, we need to think about playoffs,” Ye Xiu said.

”Playoffs?”

”I don’t think we’ll decline so far as to fall out of top eight,” Ye Xiu said.　

After Round 20, the fluctuations on the rankings were miniscule. Only four teams had changes. 　　

Royal Style beat Radiant 7-3, and Miracle lost to Tyranny 1-9. As a result, two of these teams switched places on the rankings. At the moment, Royal Style was in 12th, while Miracle was in 13th.

Apart from that, there was Team 301 and Team Void. These two teams confronted each other directly. In the end, Team 301 won 9-1 versus Team Void. And in this match, the player Bai Shu, who Team 301 had dug out from who knows where during the transfer window, triggered quite a discussion.

The unknown newcomer displayed extremely high technical skill, and what was even more astonishing was that he seemed to have plenty of competitive experience.

A nobody having exceptional technique could perhaps be explained by bitter closed door training, but rich competitive experience wasn’t something that could be obtained in seclusion. The Glory online game couldn’t bring about this sort of high-level experience either.

Where did this Bai Shu come from?

Finally, Team 301 gave the answer to this mystery by revealing his identity. This guy was also a pro player, but he wasn’t a domestic player. He was a Chinese pro player from England’s Glory Super League.

This was… foreign help?

The pro circle was astonished. It obviously wasn’t only China that had a Glory competitive scene. Glory was a popular global game, and many countries had formed their own leagues. It was just that up until now, each country had their own competitive formats. The scene was still young too, so there hadn’t been any across-border interactions yet. At most, it would just be a few videos of other pro matches appearing on the Internet. The international scene had unfamiliar players, equipment descriptions that they couldn’t understand, and it didn’t offer anything that they couldn’t see in their own country, so it naturally didn’t have much of an impact.

But this time, Team 301 officially broke the communication barrier and recruited a pro player from outside of the country.

Bai Shu quickly received numerous interview invites from several media outlets. In the end, the one who came out on top was Esports Home, the country’s highest authority in esports.

Bai Shu’s unknown history was finally revealed through the interview. There was nothing crazy about him. He had been a student studying abroad and liked to play Glory during his free time. He was quite talented, so his skill level quickly improved. After making a name for himself in the Glory community, he attracted the attention of pro teams and was recruited. He already had nearly four years of competitive experience. Team 301 expanded their search for talents to outside of the country and brought Bai Shu back to China.

The Glory news reporters weren’t as clueless towards the international scene like many normal players. England’s Glory Super League had the highest level of competition in the European region, and Bai Shu had been a core member of one of the top teams there. His skill wouldn’t lose to top player in China. From the results of the Round 20 match, many people believed that Bai Shu was at an All-Star level.　

These were just words, though. He needed to prove it with action.

How bad was Happy’s An Wenyi? How good was 301’s Bai Shu? For a moment, these two topics became the most popular topics in the Glory competitive scene, and a match that would put them to the test had finally arrived.

Round 21. Happy had an away game against Hundred Blossoms, while 301 had a home game against Tyranny. This time, there wasn’t too much debate from the broadcast for which match to show. Team 301 versus Team Tyranny was picked. Everyone was very curious about this international player.

Bai Shu’s performance didn’t disappoint. In their match against Tyranny, Team 301 won 8-2. Bai Shu’s performance in the team competition was even more praiseworthy. In this match, Team 301’s captain Yang Cong once again used Life-Risking Strike to OHKO the opposing side’s healer. Tyranny’s healer was on a completely different level than Happy’s An Wenyi though.

An Wenyi was considered the Alliance’s worst healer, while Zhang Xinjie was considered Glory’s best healer. Zhang Xinjie had the experienced generals Han Wenqing, Zhang Jiale, and Lin Jingyan surrounding him, yet under Bai Shu’s brilliant cover, Yang Cong was able to land a fatal blow.

The monk from the foreign lands had quite the skill! On the other hand, the domestic healer looked quite shameful. Happy ended up losing to Hundred Blossoms 4-6.

In the individual competition, Ye Xiu once again stood undefeated. Happy also won the group arena. However, in the team competition, their healer once again failed them, which led to their defeat.

The dissatisfaction of the fans rose even higher. But apart from complaining about it, there was nothing else they could do. The transfer window had passed, so no matter how terrible An Wenyi may be, Happy could only keep using him, unless they decided not to use a healer in the team.

The gloomy Happy fans didn’t lack passion, giving all sorts of advice to Happy, but no matter how it was spun, it always came back to asking Happy to switch healers. Enlightened by Team 301, their search started expanding outside of the Alliance. An unknown but enthusiastic fan had gathered numerous matches showcasing healers from the international scene and then sent all of them to Happy’s public mailbox for Happy to survey.

Chen Guo was helpless. She could only give another official team announcement expressing the team’s faith in An Wenyi. She also hoped the fans could understand and be patient for a better future.

When the announcement came out, it persuaded a few, but there would always be stubborn fans. Happy’s statement once again gave rise to all sorts of rumors. Possibilities such as An Wenyi being the boss’s sugar daddy was no longer enough to satisfy them.

Including Happy’s loss to Team 301 in Round 19, this was their third consecutive loss. However, just like last time, the rankings barely changed at all. No one really cared whether Conquering Clouds and Radiant, the 17th and 18th place teams, moved up or down. The other change was Void, who lost to Thunderclap 3-7, being overtaken by Misty Rain, who won 7-3 against Royal Style. However, these two teams were 20 points away from the playoffs zone. Apart from them, Team 301 was closing in onto the playoffs zone. After beating Happy in Round 19, Bai Shu joined their team. Ever since that round, Happy had lost three in a row, while 301 had won three in a row. The distance between 301 and the eighth place Wind Howl had shrunk to 13 points.

Team 301 looked to be making a strong comeback in the second half of the season. Their captain Yang Cong stepping back and their new player becoming a part of the main roster had changed Team 301’s tactical style. Yang Cong seemed addicted to Life-Risking Strike at the moment. Team 301 might just make it their main playstyle. As for Bai Shu, everyone was still very curious about how much more potential he had left to show.

As for Happy’s current predicament, besides their loyal fans, no one else truly worried for them. On the other hand, people like Ruan Cheng had found a gold mine. Their disgust towards Tang Rou had spread to the entirety of Team Happy. They couldn’t find anything to criticize Tang Rou for at the moment, so they just brought her team into the mess.

In the new issue of the Esports Time, Ruan Cheng attacked Happy ferociously. However, his timing was poor. In Round 22, Happy would be facing Radiant. For the current Happy, a small mishap like this wasn’t enough to a team like Radiant to upset them. After three consecutive losses, Happy made a resounding comeback with a 10-0, a loud slap in the face to people like Ruan Cheng.

Ruan Cheng wanted to cry but no tears came out. What could he do? Esports Time was released biweekly, so they couldn’t publish immediate reports. When his article came out, Round 22 had ended. Ruan Cheng’s criticism towards Happy received all sorts of condemnation from the community due to Happy’s 10-0 victory.

Are you blind?

Countless Happy fans cursed angrily at Esports Time, at Ruan Cheng.