Chapter 38 The End of the Regular Season

The regular season finally ended.

At the post-match press conference after the 38th round, the teams that made it into the playoffs were naturally asked relevant questions. The teams' answers were cautious, mostly just expressing their determination, and no one talked too much.

The playoffs were scheduled to begin on June 14th, the start of a new week, with Hundred Blossoms hosting Samsara to kick off the playoffs. The two would face each other again after an eight-day break.

Eight days, no team would truly relax during these eight days.

After confirming their first-round opponent in the playoffs, various preparations would begin in full swing. And it wasn't just the teams that were busy preparing for the playoffs. The league, major media outlets, and sponsors were all arranging their respective tasks for the season's final climax.

Reporters from multiple media outlets hoped to get information on each team's preparations before the playoffs, and some teams would take this opportunity to intentionally release some smoke bombs to the outside world. The competition for the playoffs had already begun the moment the 38th round of the match ended, from off the field to on the field, from psychology to tactics, this competition was not just about fighting and killing on the field.

Because of their special background, Happy also received a lot of attention. However, the day after the last round of the match, Happy announced that they would conduct a closed-door training session, and even Chang Xian, a reporter from Esports Home who had a good relationship with them, was politely advised to return.

Coincidentally, Happy's first-round opponent, Blue Rain, also closed off the captain's preparation status, only having the news spokesperson shout some cliché phrases that were often used in the playoffs to the media.

The other six teams didn't seem as solemn as Happy and Blue Rain.

Samsara generously expressed their determination and confidence in completing a three-peat.

Tyranny's attitude was low-key, just like their regular season, continuing to be inconspicuous.

Compared to when they won two championships, the lineup of Tiny Herb had changed a lot, and Captain Wang Jiexi expressed his expectations for the current Tiny Herb.

Thunderclap's captain, Xiao Shiqin, mentioned Thunderclap's embarrassment of failing to break through the first round several times in the playoffs before, and this time he hoped to lead Thunderclap to make a breakthrough. "Having reached this point, there can only be one goal, the championship!" Xiao Shiqin said in an interview, expressing the ambition that Thunderclap had not clearly shown throughout the entire season.

301, which had surged in the second half of the season due to Bai Shu's arrival, squeezed into the playoffs. Although their points were not high, their combat power in the second half of the season was not bad. Therefore, 301 was full of confidence in the playoffs. "This is a brand new 301 team," 301 said in an interview.

Hundred Blossoms, ranked eighth, barely squeezed into the playoffs by defeating Howling by one point, first talked about their good luck in a self-deprecating tone. "The playoffs are a new beginning, and we won't waste this rare good luck." When Hundred Blossoms talked about luck, it always made people sigh, but now they themselves were constantly mentioning "good luck" and "good luck," and their attitude couldn't be more positive.

Wishing them good results in the playoffs.

Reports about each team all ended with such conclusions. Subsequently, analyses and predictions about each team began to emerge in large numbers. Samsara was undoubtedly still the most favored, and their dominant performance in the regular season was too impressive. Even Tyranny, with the gathering of the Four Heavenly Kings in the ninth season and high morale, had not shown such a strong dominance.

Various reports, various comments, various debates.

Before the match even started, the player community was already吵闹哄哄 (chǎo nào hōng hōng - noisy and chaotic), arguing over their respective reasons and opinions.

Various esports portals also opened various voting channels to count the support rate for each team.

On June 8th, six days before the playoffs started, the league announced the final awards for the regular season.

King of Solos, Happy's Ye Xiu;

Star of Last Man Standing, Samsara's Sun Xiang;

One Hit Kill, Samsara's Zhou Zekai.

These three items were completely based on technical statistics, without reference to any subjective emotions, so the final result was naturally not worth arguing about. There were also nitpickers who, even with Ye Xiu's impeccable record, had to nitpick about how the大神 (dà shén - pro player) should have played individual matches. Such intentional fault-finding had no market at all in the face of such a formidable record, and those who held this view were attacked by the crowd and sprayed beyond recognition.

After the three statistical awards, there were various awards selected by the league, and because of different subjective views, these awards had always caused some controversy over the years. And this year was still the same rhythm, and the controversy was arguably the highest in history. Because the Best Rookie was: Happy's Tang Rou.

The league ultimately chose to respect the competitive nature itself. Judging by her performance on the field, Tang Rou had the opportunity to be a starter in Happy, an excellent win rate in the individual competition, and her performance in the team competition was also remarkable. Looking at the rookies in the tenth season, no rookie could compare to Tang Rou's performance. A particularly powerful sentence in the evaluation report was: "A player who broke through the rookie wall with a strong performance."

The so-called doubts about Tang Rou's character made too many people look at her from a different perspective. People were more willing to find her shortcomings and then criticize them in order to belittle Tang Rou's level.

Of course, Tang Rou was far from perfect, and under such critical eyes, many flaws could be found in all aspects. And when these flaws were magnified, Tang Rou had been completely portrayed as a vase with only beauty and nothing else in the mouths of many people.

However, corresponding to this was Tang Rou's outstanding performance on the field. Even if her advantages were automatically filtered out a lot, the victories were clearly recorded time and time again.

Tang Rou broke through the rookie wall.

This rare thing for a rookie was ignored by people in those excessive slanders.

Looking at the league over the past decade, only two rookies have broken through the rookie wall with a strong attitude: Wang Jiexi and Sun Xiang, both of whom are top-notch一流 (yī liú - first-class)大神 (dà shén - pro player). After that, Qin Muyun, a player from Tyranny last season, also maintained stability unnoticed in his rookie season. However, in the Tyranny team, the performance of the four大神级 (dà shén jí - god-level) players took away too much attention and刷走 (shuā zǒu - brushed away) too much data. Qin Muyun's data was not exciting, even so low-key that people felt that even if there were ups and downs, it could be ignored. Coupled with his thin sense of presence, his stability was completely ignored by many people.

Even when the league was preparing the evaluation report on the best rookie, only Wang Jiexi and Sun Xiang were mentioned as players who broke through the rookie wall, and Qin Muyun was not mentioned.

However, this was enough to show what an extraordinary season Tang Rou had actually played.

It was precisely because of this extraordinary performance that the league could not deduct the award that should have belonged to Tang Rou because of so-called "character" reasons. From a purely competitive point of view, this was absolutely unfair.

Best Rookie: Happy's Tang Rou.

The league finally locked in this award, and they also expected the subsequent storm of controversy. However, Tang Rou had a convincing enough performance to give them the confidence to support this award here.

Compared to this best rookie, even if other subjectively selected awards had controversy, they did not have such a big momentum.

Best Sixth Man, won by Song Xiao of Blue Rain.

Most Improved Player, Zou Yuan of Hundred Blossoms.

The Best Combination was finally awarded to the pair of strong new partners from Samsara, the combination of Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang.

Most Valuable Player, Happy's Ye Xiu.

The unspecialized character Lord Grim with the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, the brilliant 37-round winning streak in individual matches, led Happy, a new team, directly into the playoffs.

Ye Xiu's return to the league immediately brought the league one unprecedented thing after another.

Samsara's strength was taken for granted after two consecutive championships. If they didn't do this, people would find it abnormal, and the requirements for Samsara would naturally become higher. And Happy, such a new team that had just entered the league, was too surprising to reach such a height in the end. What is value? This is value. Because of his existence, Happy has such a height. This kind of value embodiment is simply the most powerful interpretation of the six words "Most Valuable Player."

Fourth time!

Immediately, people discovered that with this award given to Ye Xiu, another record of the Glory League was refreshed.

Three times Most Valuable Player, this record originally belonged to Ye Xiu. No one expected that this guy would win the award again after many years.

Four times Most Valuable Player, and the professional league has only been around for ten seasons.

Behind Ye Xiu was Zhou Zekai, who was rated continuously in the eighth and ninth seasons.

After that, Wang Jiexi in the seventh season, Huang Shaotian in the sixth season, Zhang Jiale in the fifth season, and Han Wenqing in the fourth season, these names listed at the top of Glory, had only won this title once. The four of them together were only worth one Ye Xiu.

This is a true king's return!

Seeing Ye Xiu take this most important regular season award into his pocket, many people thought so.

The preparation period for the playoffs caused some waves due to the awarding of the regular season awards, but this was already a rhythm that everyone was used to. Each regular season award was announced around this time, and there would be controversy every year.

However, it was unheard of for a rookie to cause such a big quarrel. When interviewed, the league was well-prepared to explain the reasons for Tang Rou's selection, but there were still many people who were not convinced and wanted to talk about this and that. It's a pity that they can only talk about it. The league's decision is not something they can change.

The teams of the award-winning players would receive personal notifications from the league. Chen Guo was extremely excited about Tang Rou and Ye Xiu winning awards. Then, faced with other awards, Chen Guo also transformed into an unreasonable nitpicker.

For example, Chen Guo believed that Tang Rou often appeared as the sixth man and performed very well, so she was very qualified for the Best Sixth Man award.

For example, for the Most Improved Player award, Chen Guo ignored that Qiao Yifan was only playing official matches for the first time this season, and believed that he had greatly improved compared to when he was in Tiny Herb, so he should be awarded the award; Fang Rui's successful transformation was also an improvement, so he should also be awarded the award.

For example, for the Best Combination award, Chen Guo believed that Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng were always the best, no explanation needed.

"It should all be ours!" Chen Guo was also very dissatisfied with the results of the league's selection.