Chapter 10 Season Ten, Round Three

Season Ten, three rounds completed.

Samsara, with 28 points, topped the leaderboard. Blue Rain and Tiny Herb followed closely in second and third place with 27 points each. Howling Wind, with 26 points, ranked fourth. Based on the current standings, these four teams formed the leading group. Behind them, Misty Rain was in fifth place with 22 points. Thunderclap secured the sixth spot with 21 points, showing considerable promise at the start of the season. Void held seventh place. After a mediocre performance in the first two rounds, they displayed their dominance in the third round, completely defeating Seaside and earning 10 points, placing them seventh with 20 points. Tyranny was eighth with 19 points, undoubtedly showing the most regression compared to the previous season.

Outside the playoff zone, the scores decreased significantly. 301 Degrees was ninth with 14 points, Royal Style tenth with 13 points, and Heroic, Excellent Era, and Hundred Blossoms were tied for eleventh to thirteenth with 12 points each. It was a complex situation for the three teams to have the same score. Typically, teams are ranked alphabetically unless two teams have a head-to-head record, in which case the winner is ranked higher. However, with these three teams tied, Hundred Blossoms would normally be first alphabetically, but they had a head-to-head record with Excellent Era and should be ranked after them. Excellent Era, alphabetically, should be below Heroic.

These three conditions were impossible to satisfy simultaneously, so only two could be met. Hundred Blossoms' alphabetical advantage was sadly canceled, making them the bottom of the three. Of course, this was only the middle of the season and not too critical. If the situation remained unresolved by the end of the season, tiebreaker matches would be held, as alphabetical order couldn't be used to determine the final rankings.

Following Hundred Blossoms, the lower-ranked teams were unsurprisingly huddled together. At the bottom of the table in the relegation zone, Seaside continued their losing streak, earning zero points in the last two rounds, stubbornly holding onto last place with 2 points. Bountiful Tree was second to last with 5 points, but above Miracle, who also had 5 points, due to their alphabetical advantage.

The leaderboard standings were being reported and analyzed, and the situations that emerged in the third round were also spreading rapidly.

Excellent Era, Excellent Era again!

The third round clearly had a major showdown between Samsara and Tyranny, but how could Excellent Era, facing such an unremarkable opponent like Team Radiance, still occupy so much media space?

Tang Rou, who had just achieved a one-versus-two victory in the previous round and was incredibly impressive, suffered a particularly crushing defeat this round?

After the crushing defeat, she boldly declared that she would achieve a one-versus-three victory within five rounds? And if she couldn't, she would retire from the professional scene?

Wow, this girl is so domineering!

Wow, this girl is so arrogant!

Wow, this girl is so bold!

Wow, this girl is so conceited!

The second round was a brilliant victory, the third round was an embarrassing defeat, but in both rounds, Tang Rou was the most talked-about individual. As Wei Chen said, whether good or bad, Tang Rou was currently receiving a great deal of attention. After her one-versus-two victory in the second round, many media outlets wanted to interview her. After her disastrous defeat in the third round, even more wanted to interview her.

Seeing Tang Rou so popular, many immediately began to claim, "It's a publicity stunt, definitely a publicity stunt."

Ruan Cheng, the reporter from *Esports Times* who had challenged Tang Rou at the press conference and made her utter her arrogant declaration, wrote an article in the magazine, stating at length that it was nothing more than a farce. Even if Tang Rou made such a vow, what could she do? No one had the right to force her to leave the professional scene. As long as she was thick-skinned enough to withstand the pressure of public opinion, she could come up with a classic excuse, such as "I can't give up my love for Glory," or "For the fans who love me, I'm willing to endure everything," and so on. As a pretty girl with undeniable looks, she could certainly win considerable support.

Ruan Cheng's article caused a large response after it was published. *Esports Times*'s influence in print media was only slightly less than *Esports Home*'s *Electronic Sports Weekly*.

Those familiar with the inner workings of the industry immediately understood that Ruan Cheng was completely targeting Tang Rou. The real purpose of his words was to block Tang Rou's retreat. With his prediction, if Tang Rou dared to fight back, she would be seen as shamelessly irredeemable and would face even more criticism and condemnation. It was hard to imagine what kind of person could continue to survive under such public pressure.

After this article, many media outlets contacted Excellent Era in various ways, hoping that Tang Rou could come forward and say something. However, Excellent Era blocked them all. Tang Rou seemed to have disappeared, offering no response to any accusations, criticisms, support, or praise.

In these days, Tang Rou was training herself madly.

The problem that Tang Rou showed in the match against Radiance was exactly what Ye Xiu was most worried about.

First, the lack of challenge in the match failed to stimulate her, preventing her from fully displaying her strength. This psychological problem could not be described with precise or quantifiable concepts, but it was a real issue in Tang Rou's personality. In the game, she could still win those unchallenging battles because the difference in strength was too great. But in the professional scene, there wasn't such a huge gap. Tang Rou couldn't help but focus when facing a half-health Radiance player, but it was indeed a different state than when she faced Yu Feng and Zhu Xiaoping in a one-on-one situation. In addition, Radiance specifically developed a targeted strategy against Tang Rou, referring to the key points of Xiao Shiqin's match against her in the Challenger League. In the end, the half-health Radiance player defeated the full-health Tang Rou.

In the team competition, Tang Rou felt guilty for losing the individual competition and especially wanted to secure a victory. This feeling ignited her fighting spirit, leading to Ye Xiu's second concern: burning too brightly, to the point where she completely lost control of her state.

Both of these points stemmed from personality issues, and reshaping someone's personality was undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to heaven. These states were unconsciously triggered or suppressed.

In the end, the only way to solve the problem was to improve her technical skills.

Just like in the game, even if she couldn't display her full strength, she could still defeat her opponents, relying on her solid technical skills.

Understanding this, Tang Rou paid attention to her mentality and began to intensify her training.

Morning, afternoon, and evening, besides eating, sleeping, and doing necessary physical activities, Tang Rou began to train relentlessly around the clock.

"Is this okay?" Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu with some concern.

"Young people always benefit from more training. The only question is whether there's enough motivation to keep you going," Ye Xiu said.

"So you deliberately gave her a goal of completing a one-versus-three in five matches to motivate her to maintain high-intensity training?" Chen Guo said.

"No... I was afraid that she would get carried away and achieve it in the next match, which would be really difficult to handle," Ye Xiu said with a wry smile.

"In that case, why didn't you just say more, even ten matches would have been fine!" Chen Guo said.

"If I said too much, what do you think she would do with her personality?" Ye Xiu said.

"Reduce it to the number of matches she thought was reasonable..." Chen Guo said.

"So, if I said too much and she said, 'I don't need that many, I'll do it in one match,' how do I handle that?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Okay..." Chen Guo conceded.

"What if, I mean, what if she can't do it?" Chen Guo looked at Tang Rou's figure diligently working at the computer and asked Ye Xiu quietly.

"Hmm..." Ye Xiu said.

"What does hmm mean?" Chen Guo was frustrated, but Ye Xiu stopped talking and just stared at Tang Rou's operations on the computer like her. This guy was starting to act profound again, Chen Guo thought angrily.

Tang Rou was solving her personal problems, and Excellent Era also had problems to solve. In the battle against Radiance, losing the individual competition could be attributed to Tang Rou's personal reasons, but the defeat in the team competition couldn't be entirely blamed on individuals. A team is a whole, and when any part malfunctions, the other parts have the responsibility and obligation to share the burden. In the match against Radiance, it had to be said that Excellent Era didn't do a good job of this. Even though they had Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui on their team, the three all-star players failed to adjust the team's rhythm when Tang Rou was disconnected, allowing Radiance to seize the opportunity and launch a fierce attack.

Three all-stars, facing Team Radiance, couldn't maintain the situation at this time. It sounded unbelievable, but the fact was that these three all-stars in Excellent Era had very serious compatibility issues.

The compatibility between Fang Rui and his transformed Qi Master character, Hai Wu Liang, was a given. In addition to that, he was partnering with Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng for the first time, and they needed to adapt to each other's rhythm and understand each other's habits. Even Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng, who had excellent chemistry and had even won the Best Partner award, urgently needed to adjust in a real high-level competition.

It wasn't that the year-long hiatus had made the two of them rusty, but that Ye Xiu had changed his class.

The unspecialized class, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, and the unpredictable skill combinations made all the players in the league feel a headache and unable to keep up with its complex changes.

And this "all the players in the league" included Su Mucheng and Fang Rui.

They were neither full-class masters nor had they ever partnered with an unspecialized player like the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. The situation they faced was actually the same as their opponents. The only difference was that they were facing the difficulty of mastering the rhythm of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella unspecialized, which prevented them from forming a truly tacit and powerful cooperation with Ye Xiu.

In the first round, the issue wasn't highlighted due to Samsara's strong sweep.

In the second round, they used the Broken River map and basically didn't have any real head-on team battles with Hundred Blossoms.

In the third round, facing the aggressive Team Radiance, Tang Rou was disconnected, and the three all-stars suddenly had serious problems with accurately coordinating and cooperating with each other.

Lord Grim, before hurting the enemy, first stabbed Excellent Era's team coordination hard.

"It seems we also need to strengthen our training," Ye Xiu said after carefully reviewing the team match with Radiance.

"Yeah!" Su Mucheng's expression was exceptionally firm. How could she not achieve a tacit understanding with Ye Xiu?

"Damn it, to keep up with the changing rhythm of 120 short cooldown skills, my golden right hand seems to be screaming in agony," Fang Rui said.