The fans who’d previously collapsed because Close wasn’t playing jungler all came back to life on the spot and transformed into shrieking chickens.
“Aaaahhhh! The great demon king is so handsome!”
“This invincible control, the great demon king is actually so well suited for the top lane!”
“The flying warrior is so handsome, so handsome! Elegant, free, and easy, yet also enigmatic. That’s our Close!”
FTW’s operations department were all staring at the scrolling comments and Weibo reviews.
Sure enough, Lu Feng had spoken correctly…
As long as he was strong enough, the fans would be able to accept it.
Using this kind of start to announce a change in direction was smart.
Unlike all the onlookers, Chen Feng, who was beneath the stage, had been constantly watching the match without looking away for a second.
The coach was the sixth person in a team. He didn’t join the battlefield, but he was still an important part of the team.
Not only did he have to deploy the right heroes and make good arrangements during the BP segment, his heart was also tied to the five people in the team while they competed on the stage.
Nobody knew them better than Chen Feng did, and nobody understood this team better than Chen Feng did.
––It was new and raw. Even if they were full of vigor and passion, they were still hovering anxiously on the edge of a cliff.
Who would dare to think that this was the first competition they’d played together after switching lanes?
They hadn’t trained for it, and they hadn’t even queued for ranked games together as a team. But they’d gone up to engage in a major match anyway.
And it was a game where they were fighting for their teammate’s honor!
Thanks to Little Lunatic Wei’s ability to incite the team, the entire team didn’t seem to feel any pressure at all, and everyone was putting in their best efforts to win.
But what if the battle situation led to their defeat?
The pressure that had been covered up by their passion would all then well up to the surface.
Being afraid to lose was the most deadly mindset.
In this game, FTW was shouldering Bai Cai’s past, the two million yuan promise, and also carrying the burden of having the first time the team switched positions broadcast across the world!
Would their mentality remain stable after they realized this?!
Chen Feng was the sixth member of the team, yet also a bystander. He could see this hidden danger beneath the passion.
They couldn’t lose. They could only win.
That was pressure as big as the sky!
Chen Feng didn’t dare to mention any of these things. He didn’t even dare to bring it up with Lu Feng.
Lu Feng was FTW’s head, but he was also one of their starters.
Discussing this with him before the match would have only affected his mentality.
No matter how determined a person was, they would still be affected by emotions.
Even if it was an effect as light as the flap of a butterfly’s wings, the consequences were still immeasurable.
The arrow was already nocked on the string. Chen Feng couldn’t say any of this and could only let them carry this kind of heated passion onto the battlefield.
But, he was worried.
He was afraid that once OD had gained the advantage, the FTW that had calmed down from their initial frenzy would start to grow worried––
If they lost, what would happen to Bai Cai?
If they lost, what would happen to Wei Xiao, who’d put down two million?
If they lost, what would the fans, who had a massive amount of opinions about switching positions, do?
Once they started thinking about this, could they still manage to play steadily?!
Chen Feng was so nervous that he was biting his thumbnails, and even sitting still was difficult.
Tang Chen, who was sitting next to him, saw this and laughed at him, “What are you scared of? They can do it.”
Chen Feng ignored him: He really envied this big fool who could laugh during any kind of situation!
FTW’s rhythm flowed smoothly in the early stages. Once Wei Xiao obtained the advantage, he would pursue vigorously and attack fiercely.
The immortal thief and medicine warlock’s cooperation was on point.
The immortal thief was a mid-stage hero. After its farming snowballed, and it became powerful ahead of time, it would be able to force the power thief into seclusion.
Not to mention that there was a medicine warlock there to supplement damage and give heals. It was really enough to frustrate OD’s shaman to death. It couldn’t protect the power thief, yet if it didn’t even try, then the power thief’s health would collapse directly.
Seeing how OD’s situation continued to deteriorate, Zhou Xingfei said fiercely, “Support, go follow the bottom lane!”
They couldn’t lose; he definitely couldn’t lose to a Chinese team that was already on its way downhill!
OD hadn’t made it into the top eight of the global competition last year, but it was still a very good team, much better than the FTW that had done a round trip back home.
They could be considered a seed team for the European competition zone and weren’t a weak team that could be crushed so casually.
FTW’s actions at the start of the game had taken them by surprise, and Wei Xiao, Lu Feng, and Bai Cai’s invasion of their jungle area had caused them to lose their rhythm. After that, Zhou Xingfei had been targeted like crazy, causing their momentum to continue to deteriorate.
However, in the professional arena, there were countless reversals.
So what if they had a big early stage advantage? Any professional player who could go up and play in the arena all had the belief that they could eventually launch a desperate counterattack!
The OD team quickly calmed down. The suggestions that Zhou Xingfei gave were also very reliable.
His power thief was already useless, and having the support position follow him was no longer meaningful. Since Wei Xiao and Bai Cai were targeting him, then let them continue doing so!
OD’s top lane couldn’t suppress Close, but there were opportunities to be found in the mid-lane and bottom lane.
OD’s captain said, “Don’t be scared. FTW’s mid-lane is a newcomer, he’s a breakthrough point!”
OD’s mid-laner: “Understood.”
Chen Feng, who was beneath the stage, could already see the signs, “OD’s come back to their senses.”
His voice had just fallen when a fight broke out in the middle lane.
Ning Zhehan’s ice mage was a control type mage. It was slightly weaker when it came to damage, but as long as its prejudgment was accurate enough, it could play out extremely effectively.
Zhou Xingfei went to support the mid-lane. Ning Zhehan accurately placed a skill on the ground and was actually able to freeze OD’s fire mage and Zhou Xingfei at the same time.
He was delighted and sent a set of damage skills over, wanting to kill the two of them.
Unfortunately, it was a trap.
Zhou Xingfei was frozen, but the fire mage was able to break his control skill with his passive ability. He was only frozen for a moment, and then he sent a set of high burst damage skills right at Ning Zhehan’s body.
Ning Zhehan reacted very quickly. He knew that there was a chance that the fire mage would break out of his control, so his positioning was relatively far back. However, he’d never thought that the fire mage would be so daring and use flash to get right up to his face before attacking him with all his skills.
Mages were all squishy. Ning Zhehan couldn’t hold up at all and died on the spot!
The screen would darken after a hero died. Ning Zhehan was stunned for a moment, and his hands trembled.
How strong…
This fire mage…
They both played the mid-lane position. Ning Zhehan was absolutely certain that he couldn’t do the same thing.
Operating a fire mage wasn’t difficult, but there was a delay before the skills landed. It was very difficult to use a set of skills to land such a precise strike…
Because Ning Zhehan had died, one of the middle lane towers fell. FTW’s instantly lost half of the advantage they’d gained from the first half of the game.
Off-stage, Chen Feng cursed quietly, “F*ck!”
Whatever they were afraid of would happen. Those bastards from OD had indeed started to target Ning Zhehan.
Ning Zhehan’s heart was chilled.
After losing the mid-lane tower, FTW’s jungle area was no longer protected. It was an extremely serious mistake.
It was because of him…
Wei Xiao’s voice transmitted over from the headset, “Little Ning, your prejudgement is pretty good.”
Ning Zhehan was stunned.
Wei Xiao had already cleared out his own jungle area and didn’t give OD any opportunity to invade. He continued, “You froze two of them in one go, amazing! Wait for me to come support you!”
Although Ning Zhehan had been killed by OD’s fire mage, he had indeed managed to control two people…
Ning Zhehan’s plummeting emotions instantly lifted back up, “Yeah!”
Wei Xiao crouched in the mid-lane grass patch and egged Ning Zhehan on, “Go and tempt him.”
Ning Zhehan’s movements were cautious and timid without the tower’s protection behind him.
Wei Xiao evaluated, “Not bad, not bad, your pitiful attitude really makes it look like you’re in need of a beating.”
Ning Zhehan: “……………………”
Bai Cai couldn’t help but scold him, “You damn…”
Wei Xiao: “They’re here!”
His movements were even faster than his own words, and he launched himself at OD’s fire mage’s face almost instantaneously.
The fire mage was startled, but his hand moved extremely quickly as he tossed his control skill onto Wei Xiao’s body.
Wei Xiao: “Ice mage!”
Ning Zhehan discovered that his hands acted faster than his brain. He’d already frozen the fire mage in place very precisely.
The fire mage’s passive ability to remove control effects was random and couldn’t be triggered every time.
So…
The ice mage’s ultimate move sent a long blue dragon charging over. It drilled out a huge hole in the fire mage’s small body.
The system announced, the ice mage killed the fire mage!
Wei Xiao: “Nice!”
There were goosebumps all over Ning Zhehan’s arms from excitement, and his fighting spirit soared once again, “Yeah!”
What was there to be scared of? So what if the fire mage was better? He had frozen him in place, and he had killed him! His skills were very accurate too!
Off-stage, Chen Feng froze for a moment.
Tang Chen laughed loudly, “I told you you were worrying for nothing.”
“……”
Mother Hen Chen still couldn’t relax, “Don’t be happy so soon. OD’s marksman has finished developing.”
This was the real hidden danger.
Regardless of how FTW was currently doing, there were inherent disadvantages to FTW’s line-up.
The flying warrior’s damage wouldn’t be able to keep up in the later stages. Fortunately, OD’s top-laner had been hammered into uselessness a long time ago.
The immortal thief and medicine warlock’s damage was significant, but after OD’s giant shaman built up its tankiness, they wouldn’t be able to touch OD’s gold hunter.
Yue Wenle’s storm hunter was played well, but he hadn’t been able to put pressure on the gold hunter in the early stages and could now only wait for death in the later stages.
FTW’s line-up tended towards the early stages, while OD had a late stage line-up.
This European seed team had sacrificed their team’s toolman power thief and turned their bottom lane gold hunter into their core.
30 minutes into the game, FTW fans began to get nervous.
OD began to stick together as a team, and it was clear that FTW couldn’t fight group battles.
The storm hunter’s DPS wasn’t high enough, while OD would be able to deal explosive damage as long as they were able to circle around and protect their daddy gold hunter!
There were several skirmishes between both sides, which all ended in FTW’s retreat.
Close: “Ambush.”
When faced with this kind of situation, they had to calm down and find an opportunity to target the gold hunter on his own, killing him in one go. Only then would they be able to win a group fight!
And at this time, as long as they were able to win a group fight, they would have won the game.
Wei Xiao said, “The captain and I will ambush the gold hunter. Old Bai, you go with Old Yue.”
There was nothing wrong with this arrangement. The flying warrior and immortal thief were extremely mobile. As long as the two of them were able to ambush the gold hunter and burst him down, FTW would be able to win the game!
But…
OD had clearly seen through their intentions.
They protected the gold hunter like crazy, using the giant shaman’s huge body to protect the gold hunter completely. They didn’t give the other side even the tiniest opportunity to attack.
With such heavy protection, it was very difficult for the flying warrior and the immortal thief to find any opportunities for an ambush. If they rushed in, they would die.
If the game continued to drag on like this, FTW would have no chance of winning.
Right now, it was just the gold hunter who’d finished developing. Once the farm rate sped up even further, FTW wouldn’t be able to beat OD at all.
The scrolling comments started to grow negative again, “Can this Quiet do it or not? If my Close was the one playing the immortal thief, he would’ve killed the gold hunter a long time ago!”
“It’s just a gold hunter. Yet a jungler who’d developed so well isn’t able to cut him down?”
“If you can’t kill the c-position, what’s the point in being a jungler.”
“Like I said, there’s a problem with FTW’s line-up. What’s the point in picking the medicine warlock? Isn’t this just exposing a bunch of weaknesses? So what if they’re fierce in the early stages? The medicine warlock is too squishy and can’t even control anyone. I really want to see how they plan to deal with the gold hunter.”
It had to be said, the audience had indeed pointed out FTW’s current dilemma.
What should they do…
Wei Xiao was just about to speak up when Bai Cai suddenly said, “I’ll go.”
Wei Xiao froze.
Close asked, “Can you do it.”
Bai Cai: “Yes.”
Wei Xiao woke up, “Are you going to f*cking…”
Bai Cai: “The rest is up to you guys.”
He finished speaking, and the medicine warlock charged in.
The commentators were surprised, “This…”
Commentator B raised his voice subconsciously, “It’s God Yan’s heartbeat style play!”
Commentator A: “Can he do it?”
Commentator B: “Whether or not he can do it will depend on how White plays his medicine warlock!”
Yan Jiang was an expert with the medicine warlock, and he’d played a wonderful scene in last year’s world finals.
At the time, Y1’s predicament had been similar to FTW’s. L&P’s late stage line-up had started fighting back, and their double c-position damage was strong enough to explode. Y1’s line-up that was relatively squishier was unable to find an opportunity to fight back.
Later, it was Yan Jiang’s Medicine warlock, a support type hero, who’d pierced through L&P’s nest!
The medicine warlock had two forms, and there was a cooldown time when they switched. However, as long as the skills and basic attacks were linked together well, it could lessen or completely clear the cooldown time. That meant that as long as a player’s hand speed could keep up, they could switch constantly between the two forms, and eight skills could be released continuously as long as they didn’t run out of energy.
What did that mean?
It meant that the medicine warlock could heal and deal damage frantically at the same time.
Although their energy bar would eventually empty out, this period of time was enough for them to slaughter out a bloody path!
The flying warrior and immortal thief couldn’t hold on, but the medicine warlock could give it a try!
Why was it called the heartbeat style?
Because it really made one’s heart pound!
Rushing at the enemy meant that they would take a face full of damage. The medicine warlock was quite squishy, and its health bar could drop to the bottom at any time. However, because it was charging in on its own, all of the healing and health recovering skills could be piled up on its own body and didn’t have to be shared with other teammates, so the health bar would plummet, then rise back up again.
This kind of thrilling ups and downs was enough to make one’s heart explode!
What made it more demanding was that they had to switch to their damage dealing form while healing in order to deal damage.
In order to prevent being controlled, the medicine warlock also had to seize the right timing to use the skill that removed control states!
The requirement for hand speed…
Not to mention a support player, even a core player who had to execute amazing maneuvers on a regular basis would have to think twice about whether or not they could do it.
However, in the 2021 global finals, Yan Jiang’s medicine warlock had used this wave of maneuvering and completely broken any hope L&P had of turning the tables!
What professional player didn’t dream of turning the tables?
So what if they were a support player.
A support player could also tear into the enemy’s throat!
Bai Cai’s eyes were serious, and his fingers flew quickly across the keyboard. This hand speed that had been trained up by following Little Lunatic Wei around played out effectively at this time: his health dropped, and his skills caught up to heal him; OD forcibly controlled him, and he opened up his immunity skill just in time, finally making it close to the gold hunter!
This was already the third time he’d switched forms. The medicine warlock that had switched from light to dark now wrapped a set of skills around the gold hunter like a chain. In the next moment, black fog burst out. It was the medicine warlock’s ultimate move, called––heaven’s punishment.
The black blade that fell down from the sky pierced OD’s sparkling, golden marksman!
Almost at exactly the same moment when the gold hunter fell, Bai Cai also died.
However…
He’d succeeded!
He’d killed the opponent’s marksman with a support hero. He’d really made a killing with this move!
Wei Xiao could be heard in his headset, “Attack! Fellow brothers, step on Old Bai’s corpse and charge!”
Bai Cai, whose heartbeat had sped up, “……”
Motherf*cker!
The gold hunter fell, and OD was routed.
Wei Xiao’s immortal thief led the ice mage and storm hunter to attack from the front. Close circled around the back and killed OD’s fire mage.
All that was left was a broken power thief and the half useless blood warrior, who both had expressions full of despair.
It didn’t matter how tanky the giant shaman was. When faced with this kind of siege, it could only squeal and topple to the ground in regret!
FTW’s aura was magnificent and powerful. The four of them rushed all the way to OD’s base and shattered their resurrection crystal.
Victory!
FTW won!
And they’d won in such a wonderful way!
The fans in the livestream were all ecstatic, “Holy shit, Bai Cai’s medicine warlock…”
“Although it’s a distance away from God Yan’s medicine warlock, he still did it!”
“Is this the Brother Vegetable that I know?”
“Amazing, amazing, FTW really stood out today!”
Mother Hen Chen’s breath had caught in his throat.
Goddam, the heartbeat play.
This was like the f*cking heart attack play!
Watching it could give people a heart attack!
After setting down the headset, Wei Xiao spoke to Bai Cai, “Pretty good, Brother Bai.”
Bai Cai forced himself to calm down, “Not bad, right.”
Wei Xiao turned his head towards Lu Feng and reported, “Captain, Brother Cai is trying to act cool!”
The corner of Lu Feng’s lips rose up slightly, “It’s fine, the hotel has a lightning rod.”
Ning Zhehan and Yue Wenle burst out in impolite laughter.
Those who put on a cool act would be struck by lightning, but there was a lightning rod, so it was okay. Amazing.
Bai Cai: “???”
Captain, don’t cooperate with this little beast!
Compared with FTW’s euphoria, OD was in a low mood. It was especially the case for Zhou Xingfei whose expression was extremely ugly.
Wei Xiao put on his team jacket and headed towards the stage in the middle.
The host was about to hold a routine interview, but nobody had expected that Zhou Xingfei wouldn’t even look back as he headed straight off-stage.
Wei Xiao raised his voice, “Zhou Xingfei, where’s the apology.”
He spoke in a lazy tone, but his voice spread out throughout the room.
The players who’d been immersed in the game had all come back to their senses. Not only those in the hall, but those who were outside watching on the live broadcast all perked up their ears.
Apology?
What was going on!
Zhou Xingfei sneered and didn’t turn back as he walked away.
What kind of apology did he owe? He’d just said those words casually. Who wanted to apologize to Bai Cai.
Wei Xiao had expected that he would cheat a long time ago.
So… he pressed a button in his pocket, and a recording played out throughout the hall––
“If you lose, you have to apologize to White for tricking him into terminating his contract.”
“Fine!”
The ‘fine’ that Zhou Xingfei had tossed down loudly stirred up an uproar across the entire network.
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