Seeing Sun Xiang head towards the competition seat like that, the pro players were all stunned.

It wasn't that they had any great doubts about the choice of player, but… the referee hadn't yet announced the final lineup for both sides, and yet Samsara, Sun Xiang had actually walked to the competition seat already?

This was an exposure.

Because of the randomness of the playoffs' third-round matches, the players who took the stage were arranged on the spot. In this way, going on first or going on later had the suspicion of being like rock-paper-scissors, where going second had an advantage. The competition system naturally didn't allow such loopholes to appear, so the normal procedure was for both sides to first report their players for the match, and then the referee would confirm and announce them through the large electronic screen on the scene. After that, the players would take the stage and the referee would verify their identity.

The normal procedure was like this, purely to build up the atmosphere of the scene, often announcing the lineup when the players took the stage. In fact, the players participating had already been officially determined before this. Otherwise, if one team stood up a player first, the other side would look and think, oh, it's this person, then we'll send this person up…

And at this time, Sun Xiang exposed just this kind of problem. At this time, Happy really hadn't made their report yet, but he had already walked towards the competition seat. Then, it wouldn't be against the rules for Happy to make targeted arrangements against Sun Xiang's appearance, but rather a great advantage.

What about Samsara's side? They were already unable to change anything, Jiang Botao had already completed the reporting of the starting player with the referee.

This was a huge oversight! This guy Sun Xiang, in such a crucial match, had made such a low-level mistake even before the official match began?

Pro players were familiar with the competition system and sensitive to the rules, so they immediately noticed that Sun Xiang's actions were not quite right, but ordinary viewers didn't have such professional sensitivity. At this time, they were still applauding and cheering wildly for Sun Xiang's appearance!

Could it be that this was a conspiracy?

Seeing that the Samsara players on the stage didn't react to Sun Xiang's actions, the pro players couldn't help but think this again. It would be one thing if Sun Xiang was just confused, but it was impossible for everyone in Samsara to not realize this problem, right? But to say this was a conspiracy, their reaction didn't seem like it at all. They should at least pretend to be annoyed by Sun Xiang's actions, right? And then suddenly change players after Happy made targeted arrangements. Sun Xiang would just take a stroll on the stage, which wouldn't break any rules.

This was the situation they should have been trying to design in this area, but Samsara's team didn't seem like it at all. Happy's team didn't have much of a reaction either. Ye Xiu went to the referee and reported his team's first player to take the stage, and then headed towards the competition seat.

Happy's first player was indeed Ye Xiu. Even with the early exposure of Samsara's starting lineup, it was still the arrangement that everyone could easily think of. After that, Sun Xiang and Ye Xiu entered the competition seats one after another.

Magnanimous, confident!

Samsara displayed the demeanor of a champion team, not engaging in the off-court maneuvering that everyone expected. They sent out their starting player in a dignified manner and walked into the competition seat generously.

No conspiracy.

Really no conspiracy?

"No conspiracy is the conspiracy," Blue Rain's Yu Wenzhou suddenly said.

"Or rather, if you think there's no conspiracy, then there's no conspiracy; if you think it's a conspiracy, then the conspiracy has arrived," he added.

Xiao Shiqin nodded, Wang Jiexi also nodded, Zhang Xinjie didn't comment, but none of them said anything more.

More people were confused, and after trying hard to think, they finally turned the corner slightly, feeling that their brains were not working well enough.

"How dirty…" Those who could understand the twists and turns in this were all sighing in their hearts. At this time, the referee announced that the first match of the final decisive round of the individual competition had officially begun.

Map loading, characters entering.

A slightly winding, narrow canyon, oriented north-south. Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf spawned at the north entrance of the canyon, while Lord Grim was at the south entrance.

Behind the two characters was usually the boundary of the map, and at this time, the television broadcast specially gave a close-up of the two characters' backs.

Blocking the two characters' so-called "map boundary" was actually a military camp set up by two groups of NPCs. At the entrance stood a wooden sign with large characters clearly written on it: Military restricted area, trespassers die!

The spectators immediately understood that the boundary of this map was like a cliff, an abyss, a scene where characters would suffer damage upon entering. This type of boundary setting was not new in Glory battle maps, and in this map, it was just a setting made in this way.

But would this kind of scene be a dead end like a cliff or abyss, where there was no chance of survival once you fell? No one knew. It was impossible to try it out in such an important match. If you were going to try it, you would find a way to send the opponent's character in to try. At this time, after Ye Xiu and Sun Xiang discovered such a setting behind them, they immediately made their respective characters stay far away.

Afterwards, Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf steadily moved forward. Although Ye Xiu could let Lord Grim use the ninja blade form of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella to climb, his handling at this time was exactly the same as Sun Xiang's. He also made Lord Grim steadily move forward.

The two players' opening moves were almost exactly the same. Then, one character went from north to south, and the other went from south to north, looking around the same way, looking left and right the same way. If it weren't for the fact that their equipment was completely different, it would almost be impossible to tell who was who.

Finally, the two characters gradually approached the center. There were no twists and turns here, and the two quickly saw their opponent walking towards them.

Both sides' movements immediately became cautious.

No detours, no detours. The so-called narrow road encounter was a direct collision without any avoidance.

Approaching, step by step.

Lord Grim's attack could reach far, and he had already entered the range he could attack from, but Ye Xiu didn't launch an attack easily. He just maintained this rhythm, letting Lord Grim move forward step by step.

Sun Xiang's side wouldn't launch an attack either. Battle Mages were characters that needed a certain degree of close combat to fully display their combat strength. However, as the distance narrowed, he gradually had a choice, such as the Dragon Breaks the Ranks, which could break through the distance between the two characters in one hit, but Sun Xiang remained still.

Not only did they not attack, but immediately afterwards, as if they had agreed, they suddenly moved to the left and right, starting to move diagonally.

The vertical distance was about to be erased, but the two suddenly made their characters move diagonally, pulling the distance open again in the horizontal direction.

Were these two planning to let each other pass and continue to figure out the map?

Seeing this scene, many people subconsciously began to think this way. But the pro players knew that such reconnaissance was not very necessary. If it was for the off-court players, they had the same God's perspective as the audience. They shared information on reconnaissance in the match. So, the Happy players had learned about the half of the canyon that Lord Grim had not yet set foot in through Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf's perspective. The only one who knew nothing was Ye Xiu himself.

Similarly, Sun Xiang was currently familiar with half of the map, while the other half was still unfamiliar to him.

Under such circumstances, would they let each other pass and continue to understand the unknown half of the map?

No pro player would have such harmonious and friendly thoughts. At this moment, for the opponents on the field, this half-understood, half-unfamiliar situation was precisely their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, at the moment of encountering each other, what they had in mind should be to force the opponent into the half of the map that they were familiar with and the opponent was unfamiliar with to determine the victory.

So both of them stayed put, so the two characters got closer and closer. They were both looking for such an opportunity to bring the other party to the half of the map behind them.

But neither of them found it, because both of them were equally careful, equally cautious, and equally flawless. This made their actions seem extremely tacit, but in fact, neither of them had forgotten that the other was their opponent. They were paying attention to their opponent's actions, just looking for an opportunity. Once they discovered a flaw, once they found an opportunity, they would not hesitate to destroy this tacit understanding.

The vertical distance had been completely erased to zero, but the horizontal distance had been pulled open by six character positions due to the two characters' diagonal movements. Both characters had their backs to the mountain wall, no longer looking around, but focusing wholeheartedly on the opponent in front of them.

Movement stopped, confrontation.

A distance of six character positions meant that Lord Grim had too many skills that could attack the opponent, and for One Autumn Leaf, this was also a distance where he could launch a preemptive attack. Because of the length of their weapons, Battle Mages had a longer attack distance than fists, swords, and the like.

But the two still didn't move, just confronting each other like this. There was no operation, and the hand speed statistics were all zero at this moment. The two hand speed curves flowed slowly from the statistics displayed on the large electronic screen without any undulation.

One second, two seconds…

There was no consumption of operation, but it didn't mean that no energy was being spent at this time. Both of them were highly focused. The rhythm was no longer slow, but completely stopped. No one knew who would launch the attack first. Everyone only knew that it was difficult to break the balance under such a static confrontation. After all, the game was different from reality. As long as there was no operation, the characters could maintain this posture for many years without any problems. And once an operation was performed, a flaw might appear. How to perfectly break such an absolute static? There were many experts on the sidelines, but they were all at a loss.

No one had thought that these two people could confront each other to such an extent. In order to avoid openings and eliminate flaws, they constantly simplified, reduced operations, and lowered speed.

Finally, they reached their limit, reached the end.

No operation, no flaws.

This was no longer just a situation, but a state, a state that only professional experts could understand.

Breaking it from the inside was difficult. The external cause was generally only one: the referee intervened because the "player was not acting." But in fact, this confrontation was by no means inaction, but inability to act. There was no operation, but in fact, there was constant confrontation. This was a mental confrontation. If the referee really broke it because of "inaction," it would be a bit of a loss of beauty. Fortunately, today's map happened to have another external cause besides the referee.

Event refreshed!