The news of Huang He stepping onto the battlefield for a match indeed shocked many. Huang He was no ordinary person; he was a nationally recognized firefighting hero and a business magnate. Now, he was a professional player?
This was too surreal!
Before the televised match, people touched their foreheads and started calling their friends, urging them to witness Mr. Huang's performance in the competition.
This wasn't even the most astonishing part. The real shocker was among the titans of the business world.
In Shenzhen, Brother Xiao Ma, at this very moment, was diligently typing code in front of his computer. Yes, our esteemed Tengda boss, Brother Xiao Ma, was personally writing code when he received the news of Huang He's participation.
"He actually has the mood to compete!" Brother Xiao Ma looked at the news, then at the code on his computer screen. His heart sank, and he tossed his mouse aside.
Forget it, he'd just watch the match.
In Hangzhou, Brother Lao Ma was rallying his team when he also received the news of Huang He playing games.
"If he were playing Tai Chi, I'd respect him more. But games? Forget it!" Brother Lao Ma sighed and continued to pump up his team.
In Shanghai, Shi Zhu was playing with a newly acquired plastic figurine when he received the news of Huang He personally taking the stage.
"Could the esports market be very lucrative too?" Shi Zhu pondered for a moment. He didn't play games or watch game competitions before. But now that Huang He was personally stepping in as an esports player, Shi Zhu felt he might have stumbled upon a brand new frontier.
He immediately put down the plastic figurine and gathered everyone in his company to watch the live broadcast of this match.
Similar situations were occurring around many business magnates across the country. While most of them dismissed it, some put aside their affairs, harboring various thoughts, and began watching the live broadcast of the match.
And so, under this intense attention, the competition finally began.
However, it didn't start directly with the matches but with a drawing ceremony.
This competition was called the Sino-US Challenge Match, and its rules would naturally follow a challenge format: one defender, multiple attackers.
First, both sides would draw lots to determine the order of their players. Then, they would begin the matches. The winner of the first round would remain on the stage to battle the second-round opponent.
As long as one person kept winning, they could stay on the stage until all opponents were defeated.
In simple terms, if one person was strong enough, they could defeat all the opponents on the other side. This rule was decided by the Americans. It was said that Allen Adhan, after studying both sides' play styles, believed that the overall strength of the American team was inferior to the Chinese team. However, the American team had one exceptionally strong individual player.
The remaining four teammates were less skilled than the Chinese team. This was akin to the American team having a Lu Bu, while the other four were Pan Fengs. And the Chinese team had the Five Tiger Generals.
Therefore, if the American team's Lu Bu could achieve a 1v5, defeating Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, and Zhao Yun one by one in 1v1 situations, then victory would belong to the American team.
It was with this idea that the American team proposed the challenge match format, and Mr. Huang felt that his team was full of Lu Bus and had nothing to fear, so he agreed.
Alright, back to the matter at hand. The drawing ceremony officially began, with each side sending a representative to draw lots.
The American representative was Allen Adhan, and the Chinese representative was Leng Zhimeng.
Originally, this representative should have been our Mr. Huang. Unfortunately, since Mr. Huang was now a player, Leng Zhimeng had to draw the lots.
In front of the two drawing representatives were small drawing boxes, each containing five plastic balls. Opening the plastic balls would reveal a card with a name written on it.
Whoever's name was drawn first would be the first to compete. The five balls in the drawing boxes were placed by the opposing side to prevent cheating.
Leng Zhimeng placed her hand into the drawing box for the first time and quickly stirred the small balls inside. After a good ten seconds, she drew out the first plastic ball.
Then, under everyone's expectant gaze, she very cleanly opened the plastic ball and took out Huang He's name.
Excellent, it seemed our player Huang He would be the first to enter the arena.
"It's over!" Upon seeing this, a host couldn't help but blurt out, then quickly realized his mistake and covered his mouth. He then smiled and said, "I hope Mr. Huang doesn't dislike me when he sees this!"
"It's fine. Actually, this is a good thing for player Huang He. The later one appears, the greater the pressure. If the match doesn't go well, the heavy burden will fall on player Huang He, which is very unfair to Huang He, who is a temporary substitute."
"So, I think appearing first is a good thing for player Huang He. This way, he can be free of any burden quickly. And regardless of winning or losing the first match, none of us will have any burden!"
Well, this host certainly knows how to speak.
When there's no hope, there's no burden.
Indeed, although many viewers grumbled when they saw this, they didn't curse Huang He. Instead, they cursed Leng Zhimeng for her bad luck in the draw, which resulted in an immediate 0:1 start.
Meanwhile, the business magnates who had tuned in for the match breathed a sigh of relief. They estimated that they would only need to watch for about forty to fifty minutes before they could leave, thus saving them a significant amount of time.
Huang He, Mr. Huang himself, also looked at Leng Zhimeng with a bewildered expression, then reluctantly sat on the player's bench. The opposing player smiled and sat opposite Huang He.
"Looks like I'll get an easy win!" the player said with a grin.
"What?" Huang He shrugged his shoulders, completely unable to understand what the other person was saying.
As there were no Ban/Pick restrictions, the match started quickly. Huang He chose his most proficient race, Humans, and began to operate diligently.
Since his opponent was one of America's strongest professional players, Huang He didn't dare to play any fancy tricks. He honestly set up his base, established a defensive formation, and rapidly farmed experience to level up.
But the opponent was different. Having already known Huang He's identity, these American professional players saw Huang He as a pampered capitalist with no real skill, just cannon fodder. They believed that as long as they quickly took him down, victory would be theirs with ease.
Therefore, the player was somewhat careless from the start, leading to a few minor operational errors. As a result, after three minutes, he only had a 12-population army. Normally, by this time, he should have had a 14-population army.
However, he didn't care. He led his army directly forward, intending to engage Huang He at the entrance of his base. He planned to use his superior operational skills to overwhelm all of Huang He's forces in one go.
Then, he discovered that he was met with a 16-population Human army, and the Riflemen had even upgraded their attack power by one level.
"It's fine, my micro can completely outplay him!" Although the player felt the opponent had more troops, he was a professional player with strong micro. A 12-population army against a 16-population army was a piece of cake.
Then, the two sides clashed, engaging in a not-so-spectacular battle.
The American player was then surprised to find that while Huang He's micro wasn't the absolute best, it was still at the level of the top 100 players (in America). The skill gap between them wasn't that significant.
In such a situation, the outcome of a 12-population army fighting a 16-population army was predetermined.
Thus, despite the American player's all-out effort in micro, he was still defeated by Huang He's army. Even more infuriating was that Huang He found a scroll of teleportation while fighting, preventing the American player from retreating even if he wanted to. In the end, his 12-population army was completely wiped out, while Huang He still had 8-population units remaining, with more troops constantly being produced behind them.
As a result, Huang He simply pushed all the way to the American player's base. He didn't even upgrade to Tier 2. Instead, he built three Barracks and started mass-producing troops, pressuring the opponent's base. In less than 12 minutes from the start, the American player's base was crushed by Huang He.
"gg!" The American player dejectedly typed these two English words, then almost fell off his chair. The audience in front of their televisions looked at Huang He in shock, wondering if they had misread. Was the winning yellow team actually the American player? Otherwise, how could Huang He have defeated a professional player?
"It seems the American player was too overconfident!" The host was stunned for a moment before starting his commentary. "From the battle just now, player Huang He's micro was still inferior to the opponent's. But he shouldn't have pushed with all his troops to attack the opponent's base so early. Such an action is simply too overconfident, and his defeat is naturally understandable!"
"Heh, it's not the American player's fault. After all, even we didn't expect player Huang He to have such strength, catching the opponent off guard. However, I believe the second player from their side will not make the same mistake. He will definitely not let player Huang He win so easily!" the host said confidently.
Then, amidst everyone's anticipation, the second match began.
The map for this second match was randomly chosen as TM, a map that was very advantageous for Humans. This was because it was easy to expand on this map, and once Humans opened up their economy, they were invincible.
At the same time, as Huang He's opponent, the second American player was actually less skilled than the first player. After seeing the first player's defeat, this player decided to learn from the experience and adopt a steady, methodical approach, waiting until after 12 minutes when his race's units entered their strong phase to engage the opponent.
As a result, by the time 12 minutes passed and the two sides began to engage, the American player did indeed gain an advantage in the battle. However, Huang He retreated promptly, losing only a few units.
Then, the opponent discovered Huang He's secondary base and began to destroy it. But Huang He's secondary base had three defensive towers, and Huang He kept harassing from outside, making the base destruction very difficult. When he finally managed to destroy the three defensive towers, he suddenly realized that Huang He already had a Tier 2 army of over 100 population.
His own army was only 80 population. The subsequent battle was self-evident. Once the Human army had a numerical advantage and employed a versatile strategy, it was very difficult to lose.
Thus, the American player chose to retreat, wanting to regroup and fight again. However, Huang He's forces pursued him relentlessly, and soon, even Tier 3 units appeared. When the American player saw Griffins in the sky and Knights in swarms on the ground, he lost all confidence and typed "gg."
"How many expansions did you open?" the player asked helplessly after the match ended.
"Not many, just four secondary bases!" Huang He replied honestly.