Chapter 1 The Last Time

The last time Team Thunder lost a team competition was in the ninth round, away against Royal Wind. After that, they had a magnificent six-round winning streak. As a result, their golden form was broken again in the sixteenth round. Their opponent was Happy, who had defeated Xiao Shiqin once in last year's Challenger League finals.

In that final, Happy's tactical designs against Excellent Era were exceptionally brilliant. Within the Glory circle, it was generally believed that Ye Xiu, as a tactical master, was more experienced than Xiao Shiqin. However, Xiao Shiqin seemed to have organized some心得 (xinde, insights) after that defeat. Returning to Thunder, he led Thunder, with only the priest player Zhang Jiaxing, who followed him from Excellent Era, as the only change, on a new journey, achieving amazing results.

It was impossible for Xiao Shiqin not to feel a little proud. With such outstanding results, it was only natural to feel a bit elated. Xiao Shiqin was more confident than before, but this time, he fell squarely in front of the opponent he had just lost to.

After the match, when shaking hands with Ye Xiu to express his respects, Xiao Shiqin's expression was complex. He still felt some frustration. He believed that his efforts in Excellent Era over the past year were by no means wasted. In that decline, he learned a lot and grew a lot. However, after growing and improving, he found that he still couldn't beat the person in front of him. This feeling was truly unpleasant.

"Keep up the good work next time!" Ye Xiu patted him on the shoulder, as if encouraging some newcomer.

Xiao Shiqin smiled wryly. He was certainly not a newcomer. He was someone with great prestige and status in this circle, but the person in front of him was more experienced, had more honors, and had defeated him twice in a row. When he said such words, how could Xiao Shiqin respond?

He could only smile wryly like this, watching the other party walk away steadily. Then, another hand shook his, and then patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Keep up the good work next time."

Xiao Shiqin was dumbfounded. This Su Mucheng had never acted so strangely when they were teammates in Excellent Era! Was her mood so different after following Ye Xiu?

Before he could say anything, Su Mucheng had already flashed away. As a result, another hand grabbed him, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Keep up the good work!"

Fang Rui! Judging by seniority, he was still this kid's senior! He was actually putting on airs. Xiao Shiqin glared at Fang Rui, but Fang Rui ignored him decisively and walked away with his head held high.

"Young man, you still need to work hard!" Then, a more ostentatious voice encouraged him again, skipping the handshake and patting him on the shoulder as soon as he came up.

"We're not the Blue Rain youngsters." The person said.

Blue Rain youngsters... Blue Rain did have a youngster, but Xiao Shiqin knew that in front of this person, Blue Rain youngsters referred to more than just Lu Hanwen. Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian, two rising stars in the alliance, might really be youngsters in front of this person.

Former Blue Rain captain, Wei Chen. Xiao Shiqin had nothing to say to the person who was most qualified to call Blue Rain players youngsters.

Four consecutive encouragements, this blatant mockery, Xiao Shiqin was really starting to feel overwhelmed.

Was it going to happen again?

Xiao Shiqin pushed up his glasses, preparing to unleash some killing intent, but the young man who walked up to him this time had a very respectful tone: "Thank you for your guidance, senior."

"Ah?" This sudden change in style made Xiao Shiqin a little overwhelmed. The person in front of him was Happy's sixth player in this match, Qiao Yifan.

"You're welcome..." With such respect, how could Xiao Shiqin possibly make any sarcastic remarks?

The last one, An Wenyi, was Happy's weakness in Xiao Shiqin's eyes. Thunder's tactical design in this match was almost entirely aimed at him. This person probably had a lot of aggro, right? Xiao Shiqin thought to himself, already prepared to parry. He couldn't lose his momentum against a mere rookie.

As a result, when An Wenyi walked past him, he simply reached out his hand in a normal manner, shook hands, nodded in greeting, showed no unusual expression at all, and then left.

The post-match greetings between the two teams' players ended here. Happy retreated to celebrate their victory, while Xiao Shiqin stood on the field, looking at the hands that had been shaken repeatedly, and finally patted his own shoulder: "You have to work harder, Xiao Shiqin!"

At the post-match press conference, looking at the eager expressions on the faces of those below the stage, Xiao Shiqin knew that today's situation would not be easy.

He had received so much praise throughout the season, he shouldn't be incapable of facing this embarrassing situation, right?

He had to work hard! Xiao Shiqin braced himself, sat up straight, and greeted the media.

The results of the sixteen round's ten matches came out one after another. Those who liked to do statistics quickly noticed a phenomenon. In the ninth round, when Thunder lost the team competition, there were five 10-0 brutal scores. And this time, in the sixteenth round, when Thunder lost the team competition again, there were four 10-0 scores in one round of matches.

Was Thunder's team competition a weather vane for 10-0 outbreaks? A bored person gave Thunder's team competition such a title.

Looking at the other four 10-0 scores, they were obtained by Samsara, Tyranny, Blue Rain, and Howling respectively. Among them, Blue Rain and Howling were teams that had been performing poorly recently. This round's 10-0 was a straightforward response to some of the doubts. And Samsara, after gaining this 10-0, finally took the lead in the 10-0 competition with Happy. They now had six 10-0 scores, one more than Happy.

In addition, Hundred Blossoms, Void, Misty Rain, Tiny Herb, and Wonderful all won in this round. This round of matches was also a great victory for the home teams. All ten matches were won by the home teams, and the results were very close to the paper strength understood by the players, with no accidents or upsets: if Happy's victory over Thunder didn't count as an upset.

At this point, Happy moved up another place in the standings, rising to fifth with 107 points. And their opponent, Thunder, was the only team in the top ten of the standings that lost in this round. The other nine teams all gained a lot of points, and Thunder dropped two places at once, from fourth to sixth, with 105 points. And the team that rose to fourth place was Blue Rain, who achieved a 10-0 victory in this round. Tyranny and Tiny Herb had the same score after this round, with Tyranny ranking second due to their advantage in wins, and Tiny Herb ranking third.

The debate over whether Tyranny was no longer viable seemed to have not yet dissipated, but they had quietly climbed to second place. Samsara was too strong this season, leading the way alone to the point that people almost ignored their existence. The competition that people were focusing on was among the other teams besides Samsara. As a result, Tyranny, which had been stumbling and lacking the dominance of last season in people's minds, had returned to second place, second only to Samsara, when the season was about to pass the halfway point?

How exactly did Tyranny catch up? It seemed that at some point, everyone was still worried about whether they could win a post-season spot, but now they were ranked second in the standings?

What was Tyranny's performance?

Everyone found that their minds were blank. Their impression of Tyranny seemed to be stuck in the period when they started rotating players and their results were stumbling. Did anyone notice when they started steadily gaining points? They had quietly climbed to second place without making a sound. This calmness made many people suddenly feel a chill down their spines. These old generals of Tyranny were indeed not at the point where they should be ignored!

Although the rankings of the top eight fluctuated, the overall list did not change. Howling and Hundred Blossoms firmly held the seventh and eighth positions. Void was chasing hard from behind, but they were still 5 points behind Hundred Blossoms, who were in eighth place. Misty Rain and 301 Below were at 82 points and 81 points respectively, both of which were double digits away from the playoff zone.

In the lower half of the standings after the top ten, the more surprising team was Wonderful. After sixteen rounds, this team was ranked 13th. For a team that had just entered the alliance, this result was quite outstanding. The Justice Alliance team, which was highly anticipated last season, did not even perform as well as Wonderful in the same period. Everyone praised the Wonderful team, but seemed to have forgotten that the other new team this season was squatting in the playoff zone! It was clear that people's perception had completely stopped treating Happy as a new team. With Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui, these well-known all-star level players, people could not accept the setting of treating Happy as a new team.

This round of matches ended at the end of the year. The Christmas event, the New Year event, and the All-Star Weekend on the first weekend of the New Year were all just around the corner. The summer game event was officially called the Carnival, but in fact, for the entire Glory circle, these two weeks across the year were the real Carnival. Whether it was players or professional players.

The annual Christmas event, which gave out a lot of gifts, was still to be held in the online game. Ye Xiu had participated in this event for two consecutive years, and both times he had reaped great rewards. But this year was different from the past. Christmas was on Wednesday, and there was still the seventeenth round of professional matches to play on Friday. The activities in the online game were mainly left to the guild led by Wu Chen to participate in. If the professional players were interested, it wouldn't hurt to play as a supporting role, but if they put in too much effort, it could disrupt their state in the competition.

Competitive state was not only present in Glory e-sports, but also in any kind of project.

Competitive state usually changed periodically. In any project, there were methods to artificially adjust and maintain the athlete's state through training. Different projects and different athletes might have different changes in competitive state. Some people might only have one peak in their competitive state in a year, while others might have two or three. This required a professional team to help everyone adjust and control it scientifically and systematically. In a competition system like Glory, the teams aiming for the championship should undoubtedly detonate the players' best state in the playoffs.

Ye Xiu was a Glory textbook, which was true, but that referred to the skills and tactical level of various Glory professions. He really couldn't control things like competitive state, which depended on each person's level, personality, profession, and even the regulation ability of the nervous system. Such talents were not only lacking in Happy, but also in the entire Glory circle. After all, the Glory League was only a ten-year-old event, and how to adjust the state of Glory players was something that each family was exploring and researching.