In Team Blue Rain's home match, where even their own fans were disheartened, Wind Howl's attendance was less than 70%. Quite a few fans had gathered outside the stadium, refusing to go in and watch, to express their dissatisfaction with Wind Howl's current situation.
But on that very night, Wind Howl won the individual competition, the group arena, and then the team competition. They won 8-2 against the current second-place Team Blue Rain.
"There are many factors that can affect a match's outcome. Doing the right thing at the right time is the most effective way to win. Wind Howl's offense was very strong tonight, but our defensive performance wasn't satisfactory, "Team Blue Rain's captain, Yu Wenzhou, commented on this match in the post-match press conference.
The reporters in the audience had a clear view of the match. Even though Wind Howl was at a low point, making their fans disheartened, their team's morale hadn't faltered. No matter how bad their performance was, their desire to win was very clear.
Yu Wenzhou's comment summed it up very well.
If victory required doing the right thing at the right time, then Wind Howl had always found the wrong time to do the wrong thing.
And this time? In this round's team competition, Wind Howl had actually chosen an extremely crude playstyle. After the five players started the match, the sixth player immediately replaced the Cleric, forming an all-attack formation with no healer. Then, they began a 1v1 against Blue Rain.
This type of playstyle was extremely rare in the high-end pro scene, where tactics were becoming more and more plentiful. After Wind Howl's 1v1 formation was completed, Blue Rain's team was instantly sliced apart. Apart from the healer, Yu Wenzhou's weakness in 1v1 made it even more difficult for Blue Rain to deal with this sliced apart situation. In the end, they weren't able to form an effective teamwork again, and in the end, they lost in the team competition.
The right thing to do at the right time …
The reporters chewed on Yu Wenzhou's seemingly polite post-match speech, but they felt that the meaning was already very clear, and that there was no need to comment any further.
And then, the main characters of the victory, Team Wind Howl … The long-awaited victory that toppled a powerhouse allowed them to hold their heads high, valiant and heroic in the press conference.
"The league has only just begun," they said in a low voice.
Alright …
The reporters looked at the rankings after Round 27. Wind Howl was still outside of the playoffs, but they were only eight points away from the top eight. However, the problem was that he couldn't see any sign of the top eight dropping the ball.
One place ahead of Wind Howl was none other than Team 301, who had risen up powerfully after the winter transfer window. In this round, they had defeated Heavenly Swords 8-2 in their away game, obtaining ten consecutive victories. The attention-grabbing Life-Risking Strike didn't appear in this match, but this meant that Team 301 didn't have only one way to win. They will judge the situation and choose the necessary method. Captain Yang Cong was not so inflexible. After changing his style, he would definitely become an Assassin. He could also use the warrior-style charging and breaking through enemy lines as long as the team required it.
Team 301 wasn't a one-trick pony. Everyone was aware of this.
With the rise of Team 301, it was Wind Howl who had squeezed their way out of the top eight. Now, Wind Howl was the one chasing after them. The reporters looked at the match schedule. A good show was coming. Round 28 was a direct confrontation between these two teams. Team Wind Howl would be facing Team 301 in their home game.
This really was a matter of life and death.
There were still eleven rounds left in the regular season. An eight point difference wasn't small, but it wasn't large either. If they wanted to make a comeback in one round, a direct confrontation was an opportunity. If they won 9-1, they could catch up. If they won 10-0, they could directly make a comeback.
However, Team Wind Howl, who had already disappointed everyone to the extreme, couldn't compare to Team 301, who had won ten rounds in a row, with their victory over Blue Rain.
However, Team Wind Howl's players had the tenacity to swim against the current. The more the outside world looked down on them, the more they focused on the match.
March 28th, the day before Round 28 of the Pro Alliance. Every team would usually announce their lineups for the match on this day.
"What? Me? "
Team Happy. When the roster was announced, the loudest voice came from the computer on their conference table.
Luo Ji, ever since joining Happy, had only appeared in an official match since the Challenger League. His contributions to Happy were more like that of a technical staff member, not a team player.
However, Luo Ji was Happy's registered player. There was no doubt about that. Although he was often absent from the team because he couldn't give up on his studies, every match day, whether it was an away game or a home game, Luo Ji would always rush to the stadium to meet up with everyone.
He hadn't appeared on stage before, but from watching and interacting with the match up close, Luo Ji was no longer the noob of the past. His insight and experience were all extraordinary. As for his skill level, he naturally had his own considerations. Happy, even Wei Chen basically didn't have a chance to appear on stage. For him, being able to sit on the sidelines was enough. Maybe if he trained for another year or so, he would be able to fight for a chance to appear on stage?
Luo Ji thought this way, but he didn't think that Ye Xiu would actually send him on stage at the crucial moment of the season.
"Do you want to play in the individual competition or the group arena?" Ye Xiu asked.
"I-I-I …" Luo Ji stammered for a long time, but couldn't say anything. Sending him on stage was already surprising enough, but he could actually choose how he would appear on stage? This … was probably a little reward and encouragement for him this season, right?
"There are still eleven rounds left. You should come and accumulate some real battle experience," Ye Xiu said.
Luo Ji was a specially recruited student from an elite university. His IQ was unquestionable. He quickly analyzed the logic behind Ye Xiu's words.
In his opinion, there were only eleven rounds left. If Happy's lead was extraordinary, like Samsara's, then letting a few rookies go on stage to play in a few unimportant matches towards the end of the season was very normal. But now, Happy was in sixth place with 178 points, 4 points ahead of seventh place Hundred Blossoms and 12 points ahead of eighth place 301 Degrees. Wind Howl, on the other hand, had a larger lead of 20 points.
But even if Happy didn't fall out of the top eight, falling to eighth place wasn't a good situation either. Based on the current trend of the regular season, there was no doubt that Samsara would be first. According to the playoff matchup rules, the eighth place team would clash with the first place team Samsara in the first round … Everyone should want to avoid such a strong opponent if possible. If they really couldn't avoid it, for example, if they met in the finals, then they'd go all out, right?
Happy wasn't at the point where he could let go and train rookies, but at this time, Ye Xiu was sending him on stage. This seemed to mean that Ye Xiu valued his usefulness, and wasn't giving him garbage time to gain experience!
But Ye Xiu's words also said that these eleven rounds were for him to accumulate real battle experience. Could it be that the stage he wanted him to display his usefulness on was the playoffs?
Luo Ji was clearly sitting in his seat, but at this moment, he felt his legs turn to jelly.
Accumulating a bit of experience in these eleven rounds, and then he had to display his usefulness in the playoffs, where one mistake could cause a year's worth of effort to go down the drain?
"Is this … alright?" Luo Ji did not voice out all the thoughts in his head, only voicing out what was in his heart.
"You've worked hard for a long time. It's time to go on stage and experience it," Ye Xiu said.
"But my skill level …" Luo Ji hesitated.
"Your skill level has already reached the point where you need real battle experience to improve. Real battle experience will tell you how to choose. This kind of awareness needs to be cultivated by yourself. Telling you won't make you feel much," Ye Xiu said.
"You can tell me first. I'll pay more attention," Luo Ji said.
"Don't pay too much attention to the details," Ye Xiu said.
"Say it, say it. If you say it, I'll definitely understand it more clearly," Luo Ji said.
"I already said it!"
"Ah? You mean don't pay attention to the details? " Luo Ji was stunned. He thought Ye Xiu was ridiculing him, telling him not to pay attention to the details like "listen first and then pay attention."
"Yes. Look, you don't feel much, right?" Ye Xiu said.
The bloody truth made Luo Ji very speechless. He really couldn't feel much from this sentence.
"Or rather, pay more attention to the details that you need to pay attention to," Ye Xiu added another sentence for him.
"Pay attention to the details?" Luo Ji really did have a high IQ. He was very good at drawing inferences.
"Yes," Ye Xiu said.
"I'll pay attention." Luo Ji nodded and didn't say anything else. Because he realized that this was indeed an awareness that could only be cultivated through real battle experience. And when he thought about his current situation, paying attention to the details was indeed his habit and style. It was because of this that he was able to come up with such a detailed strategy. But on a PK field, the more you paid attention to, the more you had to worry about. In addition, Summoners were incomparably complicated, so the more he fought, the more flustered he would become.
Ye Xiu told him to pay attention to the details, not because he wanted him to ignore the details, but because he wanted him to find the most valuable details that could help him defeat his opponent and then use them to their fullest potential. If he could do this, his character wouldn't be so flustered. Luo Ji knew that he wasn't a hand speed expert. It was impossible for him to control a bunch of summons in an extremely complicated battle situation.
Paying attention to the details was indeed something he needed to grasp if he wanted to improve at this stage. Ye Xiu must have seen that his skills had improved to this stage, so he started to arrange for him to improve in real battle, right?
But … there were only eleven rounds left.
Even if he fought one round per round, and even arranged for him to fight in the team competition, would he be able to improve enough to perform well in the playoffs?
Luo Ji still had doubts about this question. Chen Guo also felt that it didn't make sense.
"Can Luo Ji do it?" After the pre-battle meeting ended, Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu.
"Don't forget, he has a high IQ!" Ye Xiu said.
= = =
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