"Argh, argh, argh!" James screamed internally, hoping to slow down his opponent's transformation speed while anticipating the arrival of his own hero.
But that was impossible. The enemy's Watch Tower successfully transformed before his hero emerged from the Altar.
Then, this Watch Tower began attacking the little elves mining in the gold mine.
The Watch Tower's attack power was fatal to the little elves. Moreover, a Watch Tower from The Frozen Throne had even higher attack power than in Reign of Chaos. Just two attacks could take down a fragile little elf. Thus, James could only watch helplessly as one of his precious workers died at the hands of the Watch Tower. He hastily pulled the remaining little elves out of the gold mine.
However, before these little elves could escape the attack range, one was still taken down by the Watch Tower. James had lost two valuable workers.
What was even worse was that this Watch Tower started attacking the World Tree, aiming to destroy James's home directly.
Fortunately, at this moment, James's first hero, the Forest Guardian, commonly known as Old Deer, finally emerged from the base.
Then, the Forest Guardian straightforwardly learned the Force of Nature skill and summoned three Treants at once. Together with Old Deer, they attacked the Watch Tower.
James's thought was to destroy this defensive tower as quickly as possible. The combined attack power of the three Treants and Old Deer could wear down a third of the Watch Tower's health. Since Treants were summoned units, their death incurred no economic loss. Coupled with the subsequent production of Elven Archers, they could take down these damned defensive towers.
But James forgot that workers could repair defensive towers, and they could repair one defensive tower simultaneously.
So, James soon despaired as he discovered that his Old Deer's attacks were meaningless against the Watch Tower. The speed at which it chipped away at the health was slower than the speed at which the workers repaired it.
And the opponent was very cunning. His Watch Tower didn't attack the Treants; instead, it specifically targeted Old Deer, depleting its health.
Old Deer was actually a very fragile hero, let alone being at level one with no equipment. The Watch Tower's attacks were rapidly draining its health bar, forcing it to retreat to a nearby Moon Well to heal.
But at this moment, he only had one Moon Well. After one healing, the water in the Moon Well ran dry.
"No, I must take down those three workers!" James finally realized that his true target should not be the defensive towers, but the workers within them. Only by eliminating the workers could the opponent stop repairing the defensive towers.
But the problem was that Huang He had already considered this. Therefore, the three defensive towers formed a tight encirclement, tightly surrounding the three workers at the center. Unless James could find a way to destroy one defensive tower and create an opening, he could not attack the workers protected by the defensive towers.
This created a damned paradox: to take down the defensive towers, one had to kill the repairing workers.
But to kill the repairing workers, one had to first take down a defensive tower. This almost drove James to collapse.
At this moment, James deeply regretted why his Old Deer's first learned skill was Force of Nature instead of Entangling Roots.
Because Entangling Roots was a magical skill that could attack through defensive towers, and one skill could drain most of a worker's health. With a few auto-attacks from Old Deer, he could take down a worker.
But now that he had learned Force of Nature, he couldn't use magical skills to attack workers. Relying on Old Deer's auto-attacks alone… to be honest, by the time Old Deer killed a worker, he would probably be killed too.
"It seems I have to wait for the Elven Archers to come out before we can take down the workers!" James thought, and then he could only retreat from the attack range of these defensive towers, and watch helplessly as his opponent's two defensive towers attacked his World Tree.
But he couldn't even repair because any unit that approached the Watch Tower's attack range would be subjected to a volley of fire.
Finally, the first Elven Archer emerged from the Ancient of War. Because Elven Archers dealt piercing damage, their attack power against Watch Towers was high. So, James changed his strategy and decided to take a risk, using his hero as a meat shield to attract the Watch Tower's attacks, and then cooperate with the Treants and Elven Archers to take down one defensive tower.
As a result, as soon as his troops approached this Watch Tower, the Watch Tower immediately switched its target to the just-born Elven Archer. Two shots critically damaged this Elven Archer. Frightened, James quickly pulled it back to heal.
Just as James was preparing to gather more Elven Archers, his opponent had already accumulated enough resources for a second Watch Tower, and another defensive tower entered the upgrade state.
"It's over!" Despair appeared on James's face because the damage from two defensive towers was unbearable. When James tried to produce more Elven Archers, he found that his gold had run out.
James then remembered that his gold mine had stopped working. The little elves couldn't mine, and he had lost his source of gold.
At this moment, James surprisingly saw two Militia running over with their small legs, holding sickles and axes, with honest expressions as if to tell James that they were just here to help with the infrastructure.
What bad intentions could workers have!
"Relocate!" James could only resort to his last resort, which was to move. Anyway, the Elven World Tree could move. At worst, he could move out of the defensive tower's attack range and find another expansion to settle.
This was not a wrong move, but the World Tree's movement speed was extremely slow, basically comparable to a turtle.
At the same time, the opponent's hero, the Human Archmage, arrived with a Water Elemental, specifically targeting his only two pathetic Elven Archers. Even if he was left with only half his health, he still wanted to eliminate James's only two combat units.
So, before his World Tree reached the next gold mine location, he saw that at that gold mine location, two defensive towers that had not yet transformed into Watch Towers were already waiting for him.
"F..." James could no longer bear such torment. He decisively typed "gg" and quit the game.
"Alas, young man, you are still too inexperienced!" Huang He rubbed his nose and stretched. The battle had lasted less than five minutes so far. He hadn't produced a single unit, relying only on a group of workers to overwhelm the North American number one. This feeling was quite exhilarating!
After James, the North American master, was defeated and left in disarray, the remaining two American players became fearful and terrified of the monstrous Huang He. They could only unleash 80% of their strength.
Conversely, Huang He grew stronger with each battle, eventually defeating the remaining two American players. Finally, as he stood up from his chair and stretched his arms wide again, America could no longer field a sixth player for the competition. At this point, all the Chinese players in the audience rushed forward, grabbed their Huang He, their boss Huang, lifted him into the air, and tossed him up.
"You dare to throw me? I'll deduct your wages when we get back!" Huang He said angrily, and the crowd playfully put him down.
Of course, some people said sourly, "Boss, you're being too unfair. You've defeated everyone on the other side. It seems we just came here to cheer for you!"
"Increased wages upon return!" Huang He declared.
"Long live!" Huang He was tossed into the air again. By then, all the American players had retreated. Only Allen Adhan came over, shook Huang He's hand with a wry smile, congratulated him, and left the venue with a grim expression after the entire competition program concluded.
It was bad enough that the American team was defeated by one person, but it was a one-person sweep by an amateur player. They didn't know how they would face people back home.
In later historical records, this day was known as the darkest day for American esports. The five strongest players in America were defeated by an amateur player from China, a wealthy individual playing as a hobby. This caused countless American players watching the live broadcast to suffer immensely, with some even breaking down in tears. It was truly tragic.
Of the five players participating in this competition, apart from James, the other four disappeared from the esports world and returned to being ordinary game players.
In contrast to the despair of the Americans, China was filled with extreme joy.
It was truly a victory, a resounding and exhilarating victory.
Many Chinese people had initially expected a tough battle, and even if China won, it might have taken until dusk, with all five players competing.
Who would have thought that China would only field one player and achieve the epic feat of a one-person sweep, sending all the Americans home? The American players didn't even attend the award ceremony; only Allen Adhan remained, holding up the front with a wry smile.
Damn, it felt incredibly satisfying.
Moreover, it was Huang He, an entrepreneur and an amateur player, who achieved the one-person sweep. His skill level was certainly not comparable to these top professional players.
If Huang He could achieve a one-person sweep, wouldn't that mean the remaining four players could each achieve a one-person sweep? China's strength in esports completely crushed America. Let's see who would shamelessly say that Americans surpassed Chinese people in all aspects, when America couldn't even produce someone who could defeat their amateur player.
Of course, among professional players, everyone knew that Boss Huang actually possessed professional-level skills and was by no means an amateur player.
Also, James was genuinely strong, but he was unable to display his full potential and was completely outmaneuvered by Huang He's insidious, malicious, and relentless tactics.
They imagined themselves in James's situation. Unless they knew from the start that the opponent would send three workers to build defensive towers, they would also be doomed to lose, with no chance of winning.
But regardless, the Chinese compatriots were ecstatic, and Huang He once again became a hero in the hearts of all citizens.
More importantly, with this victory, esports left a good impression on many ordinary people and parents, allowing esports to develop faster in China and laying a solid foundation.