The last time Thunderclap lost in a team competition was in the away game against Royal Style in Round 9. After that, they won six rounds in a row, but in Round 16, their golden body was broken again. Their opponent was Happy, who had defeated Xiao Shiqin in last year's Challenger League finals.
In that finals, Happy's strategy against Excellent Era was exceptionally brilliant. Everyone in the Glory circle believed that as a Master Tactician, Ye Xiu was still more experienced than Xiao Shiqin. But Xiao Shiqin seemed to have sorted out his thoughts after that loss. He returned to Thunderclap, and apart from the Cleric player Zhang Jiaxing, who had followed him from Excellent Era, he embarked on a new journey with Thunderclap, achieving astonishing results.
It was impossible for Xiao Shiqin to say that he wasn't proud at all. With such outstanding results, it was normal for him to be in high spirits. Xiao Shiqin was more confident than before, but this time, he had fallen in front of the opponent he had just lost to.
After the match, when he shook hands with Ye Xiu, Xiao Shiqin's expression was complicated. He still felt a little defeated. He believed that his hard work in Excellent Era over the past year couldn't be considered a waste. In that kind of depression, he had learned a lot and grown a lot. But after growing and improving, he realized that he still couldn't beat the person in front of him. This kind of feeling wasn't pleasant at all.
"Keep working hard next time!" Ye Xiu patted him on the shoulder as if encouraging a newbie.
Xiao Shiqin smiled bitterly. Of course, he wasn't a newbie. He was someone with a lot of prestige and status in this circle. But the person in front of him had more experience than him, had more glory, and had beaten him twice in a row. How could Xiao Shiqin respond to such words?
He could only smile bitterly as he watched the other person walk away. Then, another hand shook his and patted him on the shoulder. "Next time, try harder."
Xiao Shiqin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This Su Mucheng, when they were teammates in the Excellent Era, he had never seen her like this! Did she feel completely different after following Ye Xiu?
Before he could say anything, Su Mucheng had already dodged. However, another hand grabbed him and patted him on the shoulder. "Keep working hard!"
Fang Rui! In terms of age, he was still this brat's senior! He was actually putting on airs. Xiao Shiqin glared at Fang Rui, but was decisively ignored by Fang Rui and walked away arrogantly.
"Young man, you still need to work hard!" As a result, an even more showy voice started to encourage him again. The person didn't even bother to shake his hand. Instead, the person came up and patted him on the shoulder.
"We're not like those brats from Blue Rain," the person said.
Blue Rain brat … Blue Rain had a brat, but Xiao Shiqin knew that in front of this person, the Blue Rain brat wasn't just referring to Lu Hanwen. Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian, two major figures of the Alliance, were like the sun at midday, but in front of this person, they really were like little ghosts.
Blue Rain's former captain, Wei Chen. He was the most qualified person to call a Blue Rain player a brat. Xiao Shiqin had nothing to say.
After four consecutive encouragements, this blatant mockery, Xiao Shiqin really couldn't take it anymore.
Do you want to do it again?
Xiao Shiqin adjusted his glasses and prepared to unleash a bit of killing intent. However, this time, the youth in front of him said in a very respectful tone, "Thank you for your guidance, senior."
"Ah?" This sudden change in style made Xiao Shiqin a bit uncomfortable. The person in front of him was Happy's sixth player, Qiao Yifan.
"You're welcome …" With this kind of respect, how could Xiao Shiqin mock him?
The last player, An Wenyi, was Happy's weakness in Xiao Shiqin's eyes. Team Thunder's strategy this match was practically all aimed at him. This person's aggro would probably be very high, right? Xiao Shiqin thought to himself. He was already prepared to defend himself. He was just a rookie, so he couldn't lose in terms of momentum.
In the end, when An Wenyi walked past him, he just casually extended his hand, shook his hand, and nodded his head in greeting. He didn't show any strange expression and then left.
The greetings between the two teams after the match also came to an end. Happy left to celebrate their victory. Xiao Shiqin stared blankly on the field. He looked at the hand that had been shaken again and again. In the end, he also patted his shoulder. "You still have to work harder, Xiao Shiqin!"
In the post-match press conference, Xiao Shiqin looked at the impatient expressions below the stage. He knew that today's lineup wouldn't be too good.
He had received too much praise along the way this season. This kind of awkward situation, it shouldn't be that he couldn't face it anymore, right?
He had to work hard! Xiao Shiqin pulled himself together, sat up straight, and greeted the media's greetings.
The results of the ten matches in the sixteenth round came out one after another. Those who liked to do statistics quickly found a phenomenon. In the ninth round, when Thunder lost the team competition, there were five 10-0 scores. And this time, in the sixteenth round, when Thunder lost the team competition again, there were four 10-0 scores in this round.
Was Thunder's team competition the wind vane for the 10-0 explosion? Bored people gave Thunder this kind of title for the team competition.
Looking at the four 10-0 scores, they were obtained by Samsara, Tyranny, Blue Rain, and Wind Howl. Among them, Blue Rain and Wind Howl were both teams that hadn't performed well recently. The 10-0 scores in this round were a clean answer to some of the doubtful voices. As for Samsara, after obtaining this 10-0 score, they finally took a step ahead of Happy's 10-0 scores. Currently, they had six 10-0 scores, one more than Happy.
As for the others, Hundred Blossoms, Void, Misty Rain, Micrograss, and Miracle had all won this round. This round was also a huge victory for the home team. In all ten matches, the home team had won all of them. And the wins and losses were very close to what the players understood on paper. There were no surprises or upsets, if Happy's win over Thunder wasn't a surprise.
At this point, Happy had moved up another spot on the rankings, from 107 points to fifth place. And their opponent, Thunder, was the only team in the top ten that had lost this round. The other nine teams didn't have low points either. Thunder had dropped two places, from fourth to sixth, with 105 points. And the team that had moved up to fourth place was Blue Rain, who had obtained a perfect 10-0 victory this round. Tyranny and Micrograss had the same points after this round. Tyranny was second, and Micrograss was third.
The debate over whether Tyranny was dead or not hadn't died down yet, but they had actually quietly climbed up to second place. Samsara had been too strong this season. Leading by themselves had almost made people forget about their existence. Everyone's attention was on the other teams besides Samsara. But in the end, Team Tyranny, who had stumbled and lost all of their previous season's dominance, had returned to second place just after Samsara halfway through the season?
How had Tyranny caught up? It seemed like at some point, everyone was still worried about whether or not they would be able to get a spot in the playoffs. But now, they were second on the rankings?
What was Tyranny's performance?
Everyone realized that their minds were blank. Their impression of Tyranny seemed to have stopped at the beginning of their rotation, when their results had been stumbling. When did they start steadily seizing points? Had anyone noticed? Without batting an eyelid, they had quietly climbed to second place. This sort of calmness made many people suddenly feel a chill run down their backs. As expected, Tyranny's old generals hadn't reached the point where they could be ignored!
Although the top eight had moved, the overall rankings hadn't changed. Wind Howl and Hundred Blossoms sat firmly in seventh and eighth place. Team Void was hot on their heels, but they were still five points behind eighth place Hundred Blossoms. Below them were Misty Rain and 301, one with 82 and one with 81 points. They were both in the double digits behind the playoffs.
In the bottom half of the rankings after the top ten, the more surprising team was Team Miracle. After sixteen rounds, this team was ranked 13th. For a team that had just entered the Alliance, this kind of result was quite outstanding. Last season's highly anticipated Team Heavenly Swords didn't even perform as well as Miracle. Everyone was praising Team Miracle, but they seemed to have forgotten that this season's other new team was squatting in the post-season competition zone! It could be seen that in people's minds, Happy was no longer a new team. With Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui, these well-known All Star level players, and Happy as a new team, no one could accept this kind of setting.
After this round of matches, it was already 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 game's summer activities were officially called a carnival, but in reality, for the entire Glory circle, these two weeks before the New Year were the real carnival. Whether it was the players or the pro players, it was the same.
Every year, the Christmas event of giving out gifts would be held in-game as usual. Ye Xiu had participated in this event for two years in a row, and both times, he had reaped great rewards. But this year was different. Christmas was on a Wednesday, and on Friday, there was still a seventeenth round of pro matches to play. The in-game activities were mainly left to Wu Chen's guild to participate in. If the pro players were interested, there was no harm in participating, but if they put too much effort into it, it could mess up their own competitive state.
Competitive state wasn't something that only existed in Glory. Every type of player had their own competitive state.
Competitive state would often change periodically. In any type of competition, there would be ways to adjust and maintain a player's competitive state through training. Different types of competition, different types of players, the changes in competitive state could be different. Some people might only reach their peak competitive state once a year, while others might reach it two or three times. This required a professional team to scientifically and systematically help each person adjust and control their competitive state. For Glory's competitive system, the teams aiming for the championship would undoubtedly push their players to their peak in the playoffs.
Ye Xiu was the textbook of Glory, but that only referred to the techniques and tactics of each class. Competitive state depended on a person's skill level, personality, class, and even their nervous system's ability to adjust. He had no way of controlling it in detail. Let alone Happy, the entire Glory circle lacked this sort of talent. After all, the Glory Alliance was only a competition that had been around for ten years. Everyone was still trying to figure out how to adjust a player's competitive state.
Happy temporarily had such a high-end department unconditionally. Ye Xiu could only rely on his many years of experience and intuition. Happy's recent strength was also a bit unexpected. They … had they entered their competitive state too quickly, too early? (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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