The King's Avatar

All attacks began from positioning, and positioning came from choosing a position and moving there. Harassing an opponent and limiting their freedom to move was equal to interfering with the foundations of an opponent's offensive. This reasoning was very simple.

Ye Xiu had fully analyzed the problem at hand already, but Mo Fan clearly hadn't realized the key to resolving his current situation. Mo Fan, having specialized in scrap-picking, had honed the skills and awareness required for scrap-picking to an amazing degree. However, his other abilities fell short. After joining Happy, he relied on self-teaching due to his loner personality. Now, he was a registered pro player. His abilities were special in their own way, but Mo Fan was still greatly lacking a lot of theoretical knowledge.

In addition, Qin Muyun specialized in this sort of foundational skill, which was something easily dismissed by others. No reports had ever highlighted this ability of his. Ye Xiu and the others had also never noticed during their limited preparations. It was only now, at the match itself, that they noticed.

He's so hard to deal with, I can't shake him off!

Mo Fan currently had that vague idea. The reason why he was hard to deal with and impossible to shake off eluded him, and he didn't even think to try and find it.

His thought process was rather simple, just to run and shake him off. Deception kept running, but Negative Nine Degrees was like a personal satellite, always following him and suppressing him with bullets.

"This idiot!" Chen Guo watched anxiously. Mo Fan was currently just challenging Qin Muyun to a contest of movement. If Ye Xiu dared to say that Qin Muyun would be unbeatable at such a competition, then it was clear how large the gap was between the two. If they continued like this, would Deception be defeated by Qin Muyun with this amount of health?

Tang Rou had been defeated in the first round and, to her, this was a huge disappointment, because her goal was to accomplish a 1v3. However, in the group arena, leaving the opponent with 11% health left wasn't bad. However, Happy's second player didn't seem to have any way of dealing with this remaining 11%, and that was no good at all.

"Calm down. He's not as stupid as you think," Ye Xiu said, watching the match.

"What?" Chen Guo didn't understand.

"He's saving his skills," Ye Xiu said.

"Hm? What does he want to do?" Chen Guo didn't bother guessing and asked directly.

Her answer came in the form of a sudden change in action from Mo Fan.

Attack! A full frontal assault!

Ninjas were designed as a rogue-style class, talented at ambushing and assassinating. Currently, he was acting more like a main DPS, using brute force.

Smoke Bomb, Substitution Technique, Shadow Clone Technique, Storm Shuriken!

One Ninja tool, one disruption skill, one disruption plus movement technique, one projectile. Finding an opportunity, Deception unleashed four consecutive skills. Negative Nine Degrees' movements were still not disrupted. Mo Fan had never noticed that it was Negative Nine Degrees' movements that were causing him trouble,, but the purpose of these four skills wasn't to disrupt his movements.

These four skills were just to create an opening.

Ninja Arts: Shadow Dance!

The four skills were just to create a chance for this powerful skill.

Deception quickly leapt to Negative Nine Degrees' side. Negative Nine Degrees moved about the encirclement. His precise choice of pathing and positioning were just starting points while on the offensive, but when on the defensive, they were sometimes everything. Negative Nine Degrees was actually able to dart out of the encirclement.

However, it had cost him. His health had fallen even further.

Deception's offensive didn't end there. Attack, attack, attack, relentlessly attack.

The health of both sides were dropping. Deception's might be depleting faster, but Negative Nine Degrees had started with less health.

"What a dumb method!" Ye Xiu exclaimed.

"Hm?" Chen Guo didn't understand.

"He's copying Little Tang," Ye Xiu explained.

Chen Guo started, and then, when she looked back, she realized something.

Qin Muyun was still that Qin Muyun. When he had fought Tang Rou, he might have won, but it cost him almost 90 percent of his health. It was clear that facing Tang Rou's style was still very stressful for him.

Mo Fan couldn't find where the problem lay, but he had watched the previous match. He knew that with this way, he could lower the opponent's health. Thus, after saving up his skills, he launched a fierce offensive. He might have not be as intense as Tang Rou, but Negative Nine Degrees didn't have much health left anyways.

So this was the dumb method… As Chen Guo thought to herself, she glanced at Tang Rou who was next to them. Was Ye Xiu's analysis of how Mo Fan should deal with Qin Muyun for Tang Rou to hear?

In the end, Mo Fan won, but Deception had lost almost half of his health. Compared to Qin Muyun's 11 percent, Happy had still lost.

Tyranny's second player Bai Yanfei stepped into the arena.

As a member of Tyranny, you had to be at least a little tyrannical. Bai Yanfei's Elementalist really shouldn't be called Rota, but Cannon Tower*.

Elementalists didn't have as good of an attack range as Launchers, but when discussing AoE, magic won against technology. Out of all the light, dark, fire and ice elements, the character Rota focused on AoE skills. When he charged into the middle of the map and didn't see Deception, he just unleashed a barrage of attacks onto the map and blasted Deception out of his hiding place before blasting him to death...

Rota didn't use up much health, but Happy was already at their last player, Steamed Bun. On the field, Steamed Bun had performed admirably, but in the end, he was unable to complete a 1v2. In the Group Arena, Tyranny had won back two points.

The Tyranny fans now really had something to be excited about. They organized their cheers, once again defeating Happy's home advantage. Next, was the all important team competition. The overwhelming cheers lasted until the lineup for the team competition was announced.

Happy: Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Qiao Yifan, An Wenyi, Tang Rou.

This lineup seemed to be Happy's best lineup. Currently, it was the fourth round and Team Happy hadn't sent out any other players.

Tyranny: Zhang Xinjie, Lin Jingyan, Zhang Jiale, Qin Muyun, Song Qiying, Bai Yanfei.

No Han Wenqing!

When the lineup for Tyranny was announced, the audience was in uproar, including Tyranny's own fans.

Switching people in and out for the team competition was a common sight, but core players were very rarely switched out. They were core players because they were irreplaceable in the team. The entire team's strategy revolved around them.

But now, Team Tyranny's lineup didn't include their captain of ten years. In the post-match interview after round three, they did say that they were going to introduce some rotation, but no one would have thought it would start from their captain, Han Wenqing.

They had switched in Song Qiying, who played the same class as Han Wenqing. He might have fallen in the individual competition, but he did rather well. He was one rookie that people would be keeping an eye on.

Discussions arose. Was Tyranny already transitioning between a new and old core player?

If even Han Wenqing was beginning to back down, then what about Zhang Jiale? Or Lin Jingyan?

The entire stadium was filled with whispers as the players met center stage to shake hands.

"How come Old Han isn't playing? He afraid?" Ye Xiu asked with a smile.

"Rotation," Zhang Xinjie replied briefly. Anything he could say had to be true, had to be fact.

"Even core players are being rotated?" Ye Xiu voiced the crux of the problem. Rotation was normal, but rotating out core players was only done when it was necessary. It wasn't normal.

"It's none of your business!" Zhang Jiale retorted. Zhang Xinjie didn't say anything else, silently nodding in agreement to Zhang Jiale's words. Since it was none of their business, there was no need to explain.

"Fine, let's fight then!" Ye Xiu didn't bother to continue the conversation. The members of each team got in place. In the end, Happy, even after their week of specialized training, wasn't able to defeat Tyranny's experienced players. With Tyranny's Master Tactician's flawless planning, Happy wasn't able to cause any upsets. In the team competition, Tyranny won against Happy, gaining another five points. After losing all three points in the individual competition, Tyranny won the group arena and team competition, turning the tides and winning Happy 7 to 3.

There was no need to talk of how excited Tyranny's fans were. As for Happy, disappointment was inevitable, but their spirits weren't all that low, since after all, Happy's loss wasn't too ugly. The only awkward aspect was that Tang Rou, who had said she would complete a 1v3, had been defeated in the very first round. However… Tang Rou wasn't very well liked among Happy's fans either recently. Most people didn't mind seeing her fail. Not many people would feel sorry about this.

In the post-match interview, most of the questions were about the 1v3, as expected. Tyranny replied with the attitude they always had and showed their support to Tang Rou's promise. This answer clearly wasn't something the media wanted. Currently, very few media outlets were on Tang Rou's side. The more mockery they could get from other team, the better.

In Happy's press conference, Tang Rou didn't attend, but they couldn't escape these sorts of questions. However, the reporters really stood no chance against the few that attended. Especially that Wei Chen, who didn't even play during today's match, spewed out words at the press conference he somehow got to attend. The questions surrounding the 1v3 had been somehow swerved off topic to the Alliance of the past. He had rambled for ten minutes and the reporters were all at a loss...

Happy and Tyranny's match had its spectacular moments, but nothing that could really be written about. It was Tyranny, with their rookie replacing their core player captain in their team competition, that became the center of discussion.

The most popular match of the round, Blue Rain versus Samsara, had finished by then as well. Blue Rain, challenging Samsara in an away game, didn't manage to halt Samsara's momentum in the end. The final score was set at 3 to 7. Blue Rain had gained a point in the individual competition and two points in the group arena.

In these two consecutive rounds, one home game, one away, both against the powerhouses of the Alliance, Samsara had truly been tested and passed these tests. Who could stop Samsara's advance? This became a hot new topic. Tyranny had fallen, Blue Rain had fallen. Who was next? Tiny Herb? Or Wind Howl?