The regular season was finally over.
In the post-match press conference after Round 38, the teams that had made it into the playoffs were all asked a few questions. Each team's answers were more cautious, mostly expressing their determination. No one talked too much about it.
The playoffs were set to begin on June 14th, the start of a new week. Hundred Blossoms' home game against Samsara would kick off the playoffs. After eight days of rest, the two teams would face each other again.
Eight days. No team would truly take these eight days to relax.
After confirming their opponents for the first round of the playoffs, all sorts of preparations would begin. And it wasn't just the teams that were busy preparing for the playoffs. The Alliance, the major media outlets, and the sponsors were all preparing for the final climax of the season.
Many media outlets sent out reporters in hopes of obtaining information on each team's preparations for the playoffs. Some teams also took this opportunity to release some smoke bombs to the outside world. The competition for the playoffs had begun the instant Round 38 ended. From outside the field to inside the field, from psychology to tactics, this competition wasn't just about fighting and killing on the field.
Happy. Because of their special background, many people paid attention to them. However, the day after the last match, Happy announced that they would be going into closed training. Even Esports Home's reporter Chang Xian, who had a good relationship with them, was politely persuaded to return.
Happy's opponent for the first round, Team Blue Rain, was also closed off from their captain's preparations. Only their spokesperson shouted a few phrases that were often used in the playoffs.
The other six teams didn't seem to be as serious as Happy and Blue Rain.
Team Samsara generously and boldly expressed their determination and confidence in winning three consecutive championships.
Team Tyranny's attitude was low key. Just like their regular season, they continued to not reveal themselves.
Micrograss's lineup had changed greatly compared to their two championships. Their captain, Wang Jiexi, expressed his expectations for Micrograss.
Team Thunder's captain, Xiao Shiqin, mentioned Thunder's awkwardness of not being able to break through the first round of the playoffs. This time, he hoped to lead Thunder to a breakthrough. "Now that we've come this far, we can only have one goal, and that is to become the champion!" During the interview, Xiao Shiqin revealed the ambition that Team Thunder had not clearly displayed throughout the entire season.
Due to Bai Shu's arrival in the second half of the season, Team 301 had surged forward and entered the playoffs. Although his points were not high, the combat strength he displayed in the second half of the journey was not bad. Thus, 301 Degrees was full of confidence for the playoffs. "This is a brand new 301 Degrees Squadron," 301 Degrees said in an interview.
Team Hundred Blossoms, in eighth place and barely beating Wind Howl by one point, first talked about their good luck with a self-deprecating tone. "The playoffs are a new beginning. We won't waste this rare good luck." When Hundred Blossoms talked about luck, it always made people sigh, but now, it was them who kept mentioning "good luck", "good luck", their attitude couldn't be described as not positive.
I wish them good luck in the playoffs.
Every report related to every battle team would end up with such a conclusion. After that, analysis and predictions of the various teams began to appear in large quantities. Team Samsara was still, without a doubt, the most favored team. Their performance in the regular season had been too domineering. Even Tyranny, who had gathered the Four Heavenly Kings in Season 9, hadn't displayed such a dominating performance.
All sorts of reports, all sorts of comments, all sorts of debates.
The matches hadn't even started yet, but the player community was already in an uproar, each giving their own reasons and opinions.
All sorts of eSports portals had opened up all sorts of voting channels to calculate the support rate of each team.
On the 8th of June, there were still six days before the start of the playoffs. On that day, the Alliance announced the final awards for the regular season.
King of 1v1, Happy Ye Xiu;
Star of the Arena, Samsara Sun Xiang;
One Leaf Kill, Samsara Zhou Zekai.
These three awards were all calculated based on skill, not taking into account any subjective feelings, so the final results were naturally not worth much debate. Only those who were nitpicking would say something like Ye Xiu's impeccable record would say a few words about how a God played in the individual competition. In the face of such a fearsome record, there was no market for these kinds of nitpickers. Occasionally, there would be people who held such views, but they would all be attacked by the crowd, scolding them until they were black and blue all over.
After the three awards were calculated, it was time for the Alliance to announce the various awards. Because of the different opinions, these awards had always been controversial. This year was still the same, and the amount of debate was the highest in history. Because of the Best Rookie: Happy Tang Rou.
In the end, the Alliance chose to respect the truth of the competition. But in terms of on-stage performance, Tang Rou had the opportunity to play as a main player in Happy. She had an outstanding win rate in the group arena, and her performance in the team competition was also commendable. Looking at all the rookies in Season 10, there was no rookie that could compare to Tang Rou's performance. In the evaluation report, there was a particularly powerful sentence: the player who broke through the Rookie's Wall with a strong performance.
The doubts about Tang Rou's so-called character made too many people look at her in a different way. People were more willing to find her shortcomings and criticize her, so as to belittle Tang Rou's level.
Of course, Tang Rou was far from perfect. Under such critical eyes, many flaws could be found in all aspects. And these flaws were magnified. Tang Rou had been completely molded into a vase with nothing but beauty in the eyes of many people.
However, in contrast, Tang Rou's outstanding performance on the field. Even though many of her strengths had been automatically filtered out, her victories were clearly recorded one after another.
Tang Rou broke through the Rookie's Wall.
This was a rare and precious thing for a rookie, but it was ignored by people in the excessive slandering.
In the past ten years of the Alliance, only two rookies had broken through the Rookie's Wall with a strong performance. Wang Jiexi and Sun Xiang. Both of them were first-rate Gods with top-notch skills. After that, last season's Tyranny's player, Qin Muyun, also quietly maintained a stable performance in his rookie season. But in Team Tyranny, the performances of the four God-level players stole too much attention and swept away too much data. Qin Muyun's data was not spectacular. It was so low-key that people felt that even if there were ups and downs, they could be ignored. In addition, his faint presence and stability made it so that he did not enter the eyes of many people.
Even when the Alliance made the Best Rookie selection report, the players who broke through the Rookie's Wall only mentioned Wang Jiexi and Sun Xiang. They did not mention Qin Muyun.
However, this was enough to show just how amazing Tang Rou had been this season.
It was because of this extraordinary performance that the Alliance could not take away this award that should have belonged to Tang Rou because of her so-called "character". From a purely competitive perspective, this was absolutely unfair.
Best Rookie: Happy Tang Rou.
In the end, the Alliance decided on this award. They had expected the storm of controversy that followed. However, Tang Rou's convincing performance gave them the confidence to support this award.
Compared to this Best Rookie, even if there were other subjective awards that were controversial, they did not have as much momentum.
Best Sixth Player went to Team Blue Rain's Song Xiao.
Most Improved Player went to Team Hundred Blossoms' Zou Yuan.
Best Duo went to Team Samsara's new duo, Zhou Zekai and Sun Xiang.
Most Valuable Player went to Happy Ye Xiu.
The unspecialized character Lord Grim, who had the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, had won 37 consecutive rounds in the individual competition, leading a new team like Happy directly into the playoffs.
Ye Xiu's return to the Alliance brought unprecedented news to the Alliance.
After two consecutive championships, everyone was used to Samsara's strength. If they didn't do this, people would think that they were abnormal, and the expectations for Samsara naturally became higher. And Happy, a new team that had just entered the Alliance, had finally reached such heights. This was too shocking. What was value? This was his value. It was because of his existence that Happy was able to reach such heights. This kind of display of value was simply the most powerful interpretation of the words "most valuable player".
The fourth time!
Soon after, people realized that with this award given to Ye Xiu, another Glory Alliance record was broken.
Three Most Valuable Player awards, this record originally belonged to Ye Xiu. No one would have thought that after so many years, this guy would actually win this award again.
Four Most Valuable Player awards, and the Alliance had only been around for ten seasons.
Behind Ye Xiu was Zhou Zekai, who had won consecutive awards in Season 8 and Season 9.
Behind him were Wang Jiexi from Season 7, Huang Shaotian from Season 6, Zhang Jiale from Season 5, and Han Wenqing from Season 4. These top names in Glory had only won this award once. These four added together were only equal to Ye Xiu.
This was the true return of the king!
Quite a few people had the same thought as they watched Ye Xiu take the most important regular season award into his own pocket.
Because of the regular season awards, there were some waves in the preparation for the playoffs, but this was a rhythm that everyone was used to. Every regular season award was announced around this time, and every year, there would be disputes.
However, arguing like this over a rookie was unheard of. The Alliance clearly explained the reason Tang Rou had won the award, but in the end, there were still many people who weren't convinced and brought up this and that. Unfortunately, they could only talk about it. The Alliance's decision wasn't something they could change.
The winning team would be personally notified by the Alliance. Chen Guo was very excited that Tang Rou and Ye Xiu had won the award. Then, when it came to the other awards, Chen Guo became an unreasonable troublemaker.
For example, Best Sixth Player. Chen Guo believed that Tang Rou often played as the sixth player. Her performance was very good, so she was very qualified.
For example, Most Improved Player. Chen Guo ignored the fact that this was Qiao Yifan's first official match this season. She believed that he had improved a lot since Micrograss, so he should win the award. Fang Rui's successful transition was also an improvement, so he should also win the award.
For example, Best Duo. Chen Guo knew that Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng would always be best, so there was no need to explain.
"It should all be ours!" Chen Guo was also very dissatisfied with the Alliance's results.
= = =
It's two o 'clock … Go to sleep first. We'll explode tomorrow! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you're welcome to come to qidian.com to vote. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
