Team Happy had already finished what should have been the most lively Christmas Eve program so early in the morning. After that, there was no holiday for Christmas. They still had to do what they needed to do, and the matches they needed to play still had to be played. Ye Xiu originally wanted to remind everyone to stay calm for the upcoming matches, but after seeing their opponents this week, he couldn't bring himself to say it.
December 27th, Round 17. Happy's opponent was Team Bright Green.
After sixteen rounds, Team Bright Green, who had 30 points and was second to last, was 14 points behind the 18th place team. Together with Team Seaside, Team Bright Green was viewed as a team that would be eliminated early.
With such a terrible record, Ye Xiu felt that talking about being cautious was a bit excessive. Even though the Alliance was known to have no weak teams, and examples of strong teams failing miserably could be found everywhere, as a playoff team, it was enough to show the proper attitude towards a relegated team. Talking about being cautious might cause the team members to distrust them.
As a result, Ye Xiu didn't say too much. He just prepared for battle as usual. Facing their opponents, he arranged his tactics. He didn't underestimate them, but he also didn't place too much importance on them.
Happy, who was in top form, didn't fail against Team Bright Green. In their away game, they won a grand 10 to 0, once again catching up to Samsara's perfect record. Samsara lost an individual round against Conquering Clouds in their away game, but ended up winning 9 to 1. That was a perfect 10 to 0 victory in six rounds.
At the same time, Tyranny, Blue Rain, and Wind Howl all won their away games by large margins. Team Tiny Herb, on the other hand, had unexpectedly lost. In this round, they had fought against Team Heavenly Swords in the same city. If the number of fans for the home and away games wasn't limited, Tiny Herb might have been able to suppress Heavenly Swords. However, in a Glory match, the home and away game advantage wasn't just the support of the fans. The right to choose the map was more important.
In this round, Heavenly Swords kept losing after winning the individual round, but in the team competition, they bounced back and won against Micrograss, winning the overall score 6 to 4.
It was such a small victory, but it made the brothers of Heavenly Swords go crazy. This was the first time since they entered the pro scene that they had won against a truly strong team!
Not too long ago, when they were still in the team stage, the rich second generation of Heavenly Swords had dreamt of becoming the Pro Champions. It was Ye Xiu who helped them recognize reality. As a result, when they entered the Alliance, they started off cautiously, and as expected, they discovered the difference between reality and their ideals. Pro Champions? This was really too far away for them.
Heavenly Swords collected their thoughts and carefully advanced. This seemed to be the most appropriate method for their current situation. But in the end, how could Heavenly Swords be satisfied with just lingering outside the relegation zone?
As for the grand idea of winning the championship, they had only carefully hidden it away. They had not completely erased it. They were not the kind of people who would be mediocre after recognizing reality.
They continued to work hard, but with the structure of their team, it was destined that they would not be able to strengthen their strength through reinforcements. They could only strengthen their characters. Other than that, they had to train hard.
But this season, Heavenly Swords' results still didn't improve. Although the members of Heavenly Swords had fantasies, they weren't arrogant people. In this situation, it was hard for them not to doubt themselves. They felt that their strength in Glory was only at this level. Could they achieve a higher goal?
But at this moment, they had astonishingly defeated Team Micrograss.
It was a small victory, but it ignited an answer in their hearts: we can!
No matter what the reason was, if they were able to win this round, they might be able to win a second round or a third round. However, when they accumulated enough victories, who could say that the goal that they buried deep in their hearts could not be realized?
"God, don't you think so?"
This glorious and uplifting victory for Heavenly Swords made Lou Guanning specially contact Happy.
"Yes, that's right. Keep up the good work!" Ye Xiu replied.
"Okay, you guys too. I'll say it in advance. Happy New Year!" Lou Guanning shouted.
Yes, it was the New Year.
The seventeenth round ended on December 27th. The following week was the Pro Alliance's winter break. There would be a round of suspension, but the annual All-Star Weekend would be held at the end of next week.
The All-Star voting had already entered its final countdown. The Alliance was tallying the votes, the fans were paying attention, and even the pro players were talking about it.
Zhou Zekai had been in the lead ever since the voting channel opened. No one could shake his position. No one was hoping for a miracle anymore.
But in second place, Ye Xiu, was Ye Xiu!
Ye Xiu, who had defeated Excellent Era in the Challenger League and claimed that "I'm back," had earned enough publicity in the first half of the year. When the channel opened, some of Ye Xiu's old fans and a few people who just wanted to join in the fun gave him their votes, pushing him into the 24th place on the leaderboard.
Then, at the beginning of the season, apart from beating Hundred Blossoms, Happy didn't dare to lose to anyone. But after losing to Micrograss in Round 8, Happy rose to prominence and won like crazy, winning 10 to 0 constantly. The storm swept through the entire Alliance.
Some conspiracy theorists even suspected that Happy was purposely holding back at the beginning of the season so that he could explode with his true strength and take advantage of the chaos. The contrast between before and after was too exaggerated.
As for Ye Xiu, starting from the second round, he had been undefeated in the 1v1s, continuing to this day.
Even though such a strong player didn't fight in the group arena and instead continued to set records in the 1v1s, there were some people who criticized him, but this small discussion couldn't shake his true record. Ye Xiu's records were very strong. Happy, led by Ye Xiu, had very strong records, which caused his votes on the All-Star leaderboards to continue to rise. Old players and new players all began to pay attention to this legendary player. Was he preparing to build another legend this time? Up until now, he had already left his name in the 1v1s record, and he was still setting new records, setting new records by himself …
Up until Round 17, Ye Xiu's record hadn't stopped, and neither had Happy's winning streak. And then … there was no then for now. The next match would be next year, and the year-end All-Star voting would end here. Happy, who hadn't participated in last season's Pro League and didn't have the halo of a champion, was naturally at a disadvantage in this voting. However, Happy's participation in the Challenger League was significant enough. His final opponent, Excellent Era, had the strength of a playoff-level player. And Happy's victory over Excellent Era, creating a miracle, brought about an enormous amount of miraculous effects. Ye Xiu was also a player with a reputation and foundation in the Glory circle. Even though he had been gone for a year and a half, his return was strong enough. It wasn't surprising that he had a spot in the All-Star leaderboards.
But his return was strong, and his return was still strong. His votes couldn't be stopped. Right now, it was nearing the end of the voting. It didn't seem like there was any hope of catching up to Zhou Zekai, but second place looked quite secure. This was because right behind him was Team Thunder's captain, Xiao Shiqin. Relying on his unexpected results this season and his failure in Excellent Era for the first half of the year, his return was very strong, crushing many big names.
Originally, it was hard to say who would have more votes, but on Round 16 on December 20th, the two teams directly faced each other. Thunder was defeated by Happy 9 to 1, so the answer was obvious. For many players who didn't have a fixed fan base, voting was based on performance. Happy's victory over Thunder meant that Ye Xiu was stronger than Xiao Shiqin. And so, after that day, the neutral votes that were wavering between the two made their choice. The increase in votes between the two was clearly higher. The second and third places were probably decided like this.
Fourth place was Micrograss's captain, Wang Jiexi. Fifth place was Blue Rain's Huang Shaotian. Sixth place was Samsara's player, and it was a new addition, Sun Xiang.
Samsara's strength made people numb, but this numbness didn't cause people to ignore them. Cloud Piercer, One Leaf Of Autumn, this new duo had attracted an explosive amount of attention from the very beginning. This was a combination of two God-level characters, old and new. Just this topic alone could be discussed for many days. And then there was Samsara's perfect record …
Yes, perfect.
Seventeen rounds had been played, and Samsara had won seventeen rounds. They hadn't even tied once.
Victory belonged to every member of Samsara, but among these people, there would always be someone who shined even brighter.
Zhou Zekai was the first. Sun Xiang was the second … and then there was Jiang Botao, Samsara's vice-captain, whose value had long been recognized. He was ranked ninth.
Samsara had already taken three out of the top ten All-Stars. And their Grappler, Lu Boyuan, was currently ranked twentieth. The former Grappler, Micrograss' Li Yihui, gradually lost his former fame after transferring to 301 Degrees. This year, he still wasn't able to enter the All-Stars.
Four All-Stars! Samsara's lineup was truly dazzling. Compared to Team Tyranny, who had four All-Stars last season? Now, there were only two left. Zhang Xinjie, ranked seventh. And captain Han Wenqing, for the first time in his career, fell out of the top ten, ranked twelfth.
In reality, Team Tyranny was currently ranked second. It was just that their ranking had come so quietly. In the All-Stars voting, it was easier for people to pay attention to the strong performances. Team Tyranny had rotated their roster this season. Even captain Han Wenqing's votes had dropped greatly. Zhang Jiale and Lin Jingyan had finally slipped out of the rankings.
New and old?
Unfortunately, it was very rare for rookies to rise to the top of the All-Stars rankings. Last season, Gao Yingjie and Lu Hanwen both made it into the rankings, which was extremely rare. But after the novelty wore off, the two's rankings this season weren't as high as last year's.
Originally, there had been Tang Rou among the rookies, but unfortunately, after the 1v3 incident, she had completely fallen out of the rankings. Let alone the 24 All-Stars, she couldn't even be found in the top hundred.
Apart from Ye Xiu, Xiao Shiqin, Sun Xiang, and Su Mucheng, these four names that had returned from the Challenger League, there was one rookie who had made it into the All-Stars this year, but he wasn't from the Alliance.
Team Wind Howl, Liu Hao. (To be continued. If you like this work, you're welcome to come to qidian.com to vote. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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