The King's Avatar

Song Xiao finally stopped conducting guerilla warfare and prepared to engage in a direct confrontation. However, it was Ye Xiu who refused to cooperate. Ye Xiu started conducting guerrilla warfare instead, continuing the tedious pace of the match.

“Shouldn’t Ye Xiu be trying to hurry and end it. Why’s he dragging things…” Pan Lin said.

“He holds the initiative by being the one dragging the match. In terms of energy, it’s more relaxing for him. If he fought with Song Xiao directly, it would be a contest of reaction speed and mechanics. For Ye Xiu, who’s already played for ten or so minutes, keeping up the speed and precision required for the overwhelming blitz of an unspecialized is difficult and tiresome. Blue Rain’s intention to tire out Ye Xiu in the group arena is already very obvious. Ye Xiu isn’t going to let them have their way…” Li Yibo said.

“But if he plays conservatively, it’ll be rather hard for him to beat Song Xiao…” Pan Lin said.

“That’s what it seems like…” Li Yibo had noticed Ye Xiu’s sneak attack attempts. He was playing just like how Song Xiao did. He never went in too deep. As soon as the situation seemed slightly unfavorable, he would immediately retreat. He wouldn’t brute force it. As a result, the damage dealt by both sides was extremely low. When Song Xiao held the initiative, he two sides had fought for 5 minutes, yet had only taken down 10% of each other’s health. Ye Xiu held the initiative now, but it was no better than the previous game of hide-and-seek.

“Even if he keeps this up, he’ll still get tired!” Pan Lin said. This playstyle put less of a burden on Ye Xiu, but if the match went on long enough, exhaustion would still slowly build up.

“Yes… Song Xiao is aware of this point too,” Li Yibo said.

Song Xiao had been surprised by Ye Xiu’s sudden retreat from a direct confrontation, but after realizing Ye Xiu’s intentions, he calmed down. He had no intentions of reversing the situation. He calmly put on a defensive posture and carefully dealt with Ye Xiu’s attacks. If Ye Xiu wanted to run, he would let him. He was in no hurry to chase after him. However, he couldn’t let him run around too freely, so he would occasionally put some pressure on him. The intensity of the match needed to be maintained to a certain extent. If not, Ye Xiu could just find a spot to sleep, and Song Xiao wouldn’t know. How would that tire out Ye Xiu?

“Coach Li, this is attacking by defending!” Pan Lin said.

Song Xiao’s sturdy defense made it so that Ye Xiu wasn’t getting much from his multiple sneak attacks. If this scenario repeated enough times, Ye Xiu would still get tired.

“Ye Xiu still holds the initiative though. I presume he probably has a plan in mind,” Li Yibo said.

Time passed minute by minute. The stalemate continued for another ten minutes. The second round of the group arena had already taken over ten minutes. Including the first round against Yu Wenzhou, Ye Xiu had been playing for nearly twenty minutes…

“Ye Xiu is… picking up a rock and smashing his own foot with it!” Pan Lin sighed. From his perspective, Ye Xiu’s decision was incorrect. Did he not think Song Xiao could be so tenacious? But Song Xiao is famous for being clutch! He never dropped the ball in the playoffs. Ye Xiu was waiting for him to make a mistake, yet ten minutes had passed, and he had nothing to show for it. His repeated attacks had only grinded down 20% of Receding Tide’s health. On the other hand, under Song Xiao’s persistent pressure, Lord Grim had lost 15% of his health.

Song Xiao was very satisfied with this outcome. Not only had he achieved the original strategic goal, if these trades continued, this match would easily be his.

17 minutes…

Song Xiao looked at the time. This 1v1 had unexpectedly gone on for so long. And at this pace, playing until 20 minutes wouldn’t be a problem. 20 minutes! Song Xiao almost felt that it was inconceivable. Before today, he had never thought it was possible for a 1v1 to last 20 minutes.

For such a long match, no matter if it was an intense match or not, just playing a competitive match for this long must be tiring, no? He was just defending, and he was feeling somewhat tired. And Ye Xiu? How long was he planning on continuing this stalemate? He was probably riding a tiger that he couldn’t get off. He probably didn’t think that he could defend for this long without exposing any openings.

Mr. Clutch. The nickname hadn’t come about for no reason. No matter how important of a responsibility he was given, he never dropped the ball.

It didn’t matter if it became 20 minutes, 25 minutes, or even 30 minutes! As long as Ye Xiu could still play, then Song Xiao could as well!

Song Xiao didn’t relax and focused even harder. But by concentrating, he suddenly realized that he had missed something.

This isn’t right… why would I need to suddenly focus even harder? I’ve always been focused! There’s no reason to step it up a notch. Could it be that just before, he had become lax?

“Hey, how long are you going to keep this up?” At this moment, a message from Ye Xiu suddenly popped up.

“As long as you want!” Song Xiao replied.

“Really? But unfortunately, I can’t accompany you the entire way through,” Ye Xiu said.

What? Song Xiao was startled. Had Ye Xiu given up? Was he going to type GG?

“One last time! I’m coming!”

The moment the message came out, Lord Grim rushed out. Song Xiao reacted fast, and Receding Tides immediately moved to receive him.

Is he planning on putting up one last fight? The likelihood of Ye Xiu directly going GG was small. From Ye Xiu’s actions, it seemed that he had finally realized he couldn’t continue dragging things, so he was planning on ending it as soon as possible?

A pity! You only made this decision now. Even so, I won’t let you have your way so easily!

Song Xiao had a plan in mind long ago. When he had prepared to fight Ye Xiu directly, he had no intentions of ending it quickly. His ultimate reason for standing here in this match was to drag things. Whether it was through hit-and-runs or through direct fights, he would do his best to drag this match. Right now, Ye Xiu wanted to settle it, but Song Xiao wasn’t going to let him end it so easily. He would continue defending tenaciously for as long as he could.

Come!

Song Xiao prepared himself. Suddenly, a light appeared in his sights. Sword light!

This fast?

Song Xiao was startled. He hadn’t been mentally prepared for an attack this fast.

Roll!

Song Xiao instinctively rolled. Receding Tides immediately rolled backwards, but soon afterwards, Receding Tides spun around into the air.

What happened?

Song Xiao was dumbstruck.

The attack had come out faster than he had expected. He had planned on making a counterattack after the roll, but before he could even finish the roll, he was launched into the air.

“Ye Xiu has suddenly launched an all-out offensive! Only two attacks, and he’s broken through Song Xiao’s defenses! What’s going on?” Pan Lin was dumbfounded. He almost couldn’t believe what was happening in front of his eyes.

Eleven minutes. An entire eleven minutes.

During these eleven minutes, Ye Xiu had launched who knew how many of these attacks, but every time he did so, Song Xiao would block them all. Then, Ye Xiu would retreat. The scenario would repeat itself, and it just looked like Ye Xiu was helpless.

But this time… how did he suddenly break through Song Xiao’s defenses?

“Take a look at this,” Li Yibo suddenly said. A smaller screen appeared on the broadcast. This smaller screen didn’t show a replay, but rather a graph. The curve went from high to low and then stayed low for a long time before a sudden spike.

“This was Ye Xiu’s APM during these 11 minutes,” Li Yibo said.

“How low!” Pan Lin noticed the long length of time. It was a valley that lasted seven minutes. And before hitting this valley, there was a gradual downward drop.

40!

An APM of 40 appeared in a pro match. And this APM had lasted for 7 minutes.

No matter how effective each action was, 40 APM was nowhere near enough in a pro match. Someone with such a low hand speed should have been eliminated long ago, yet he had unexpectedly lasted 7 minutes with an APM of 40.

What was his opponent doing in these 7 minutes?

Everyone knew the answer. During these 7 minutes, Song Xiao had been defending earnestly, defending against an opponent with an APM of 40.

“How did it turn out like this?” Despite seeing the data, Pan Lin couldn’t believe it. They had been watching from an omniscient view, how come they hadn’t noticed Ye Xiu sandbagging to such a degree?

“Song Xiao’s been completely tricked,” Li Yibo said.

“In the first four minutes, it could be said that Ye Xiu had injected an anaesthesia into him. Using these four minutes, he had gradually lowered the intensity of his attacks, making small but careful adjustments to his pace such that Song Xiao wouldn’t notice. After these four minutes, Lord Grim’s attacks became much more terse than before. However, Song Xiao had been maintaining his 100% to defend the entire time… He had assumed he had been tiring out Ye Xiu, but he hadn’t noticed that Ye Xiu had actually been sandbagging the entire time. He was the one tiring himself out…” Li Yibo said.

“You can do that?” Even though Li Yibo explained it clearly, Pan Lin felt that it was inconceivable. However, when he thought about it again more closely, Ye Xiu hadn’t tricked just Song Xiao, but the viewers watching as well.

Sandbagging…

To think this phrase could be used to describe a pro match. And in a 1v1 too, a sandbagging that lasted 7 minutes.

Pan Lin didn’t know what to say. He watched as the match proceeded. Lord Grim’s onslaught had sent Receding Tides into a complete mess. When the first attack had struck, Pan Lin had initially thought that Song Xiao had reacted a bit slow and believed it was because Ye Xiu had distracted him with his message. He thought that Song Xiao would quickly recover. But now he knew, the reason Song Xiao had reacted slowly was because Ye Xiu had been conditioning Song Xiao for the past seven minutes. The sudden acceleration was too abrupt for Song Xiao to react in time. Song Xiao hadn’t been sandbagging those eleven minutes. He had been focusing the entire time; he was tired…

“But I don’t think Ye Xiu can win,” Li Yibo suddenly said.

“Why not?”

“His mana. Lord Grim doesn’t have enough mana, “Li Yibo said, “But Ye Xiu’s already done everything he could. He didn’t let Blue Rain’s strategy tire him out and dealt as much damage as he could to Receding Tides. Afterwards, he’ll be leaving an exhausted Song Xiao for his team’s next player… Ye Xiu is truly terrifying.”