Chapter 256.1: Over the ten plus years of Glory, how many people had been left unreconciled over this?!
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translator: xiin
editor: apricot
** Park Guizhi now changed to Park Kyu-ji
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The storm hunter was going to be the jungler.
As a matter of fact, the storm hunter could indeed play the jungler position.
The skills could all be used quickly, it had high attack power in the early stages, and it also had enough movement skills. It was quite efficient when it came to running across the entire map.
More importantly, the storm hunter was very suitable for ganking. It could catch people and hunt them down. As long as it was able to build up its farm as quickly as possible to put together the equipment it needed, even taking down the tanky and fleshy top laner talents wouldn't be a problem!
Wei Xiao went through this line-up in his mind again and again, and the more he thought about it, the more feasible he felt it was.
Now, it would depend on how Pro played it and how Y1 would counter it!
Pro had launched its ultimate move for the match point game, leaving the entire global audience in a state of both happiness and excitement.
Who cared whether they won or lost? Those who played well would always have the last word.
Pro's four protecting one system had been criticized for a long time. Although no one could deny the strength of the other four players in Pro, it had to be said that Kim Sung-hyun was too dazzling and mentioning Pro was almost equivalent to mentioning Kim Sung-hyun, making him even more prominent than Close had been to FTW back then.
After all, FTW had never managed any achievements in global events. As time went on, people only remembered Close and forgot about FTW.
It was different for Pro. They had entered the global four for three consecutive years and caught people's attention as they were sufficiently brilliant globally. Additionally, they were really able to play with the four protecting one system, which left people unable to criticize them too strongly.
Anyone who drew attention would be scolded. Their routines had remained unchanged for three years, and they had always stopped short of the championship. This gave the haters something to hold onto, and they flamed the team until they were beaten up all over.
They said things like: Kim Sung-hyun should go play the singles competition, why play the team competition?
They said: Li Heran was old and should retire instead of wasting a spot on the team.
They said, Park Kyu-ji should just get lost if he couldn't play jungler; was Korea that short on junglers?
As long as they didn't win the championship, the scolding would never stop. It didn't matter how many domestic championships they won, or how many times they broke into the global top four.
In e-sports, only that last crown mattered.
This year, Pro had finally come up with new tactics and routines. They were also struggling for change and looking for a breakthrough with their marksman line-up!
There was no doubting that everyone was looking forward to their performance, and the commentators were also analyzing the possibilities in this routine.
As they analyzed back and forth, the disadvantages were also obvious.
Would the storm hunter's jungling be smooth?
Was Li Heran's soul warlock reliable?
Could Park Kyu-ji resist the other side's marksman in the lane?
Pro knew the advantages and disadvantages of this line-up better than anyone else. They were now hoping that the surprise resulting from their line-up would show some results.
As expected, the soul warlock went out and followed the storm hunter, and the speed at which they cleared the jungle was very gratifying. In Kim Sung-hyun's hands, the highly flexible storm hunter was able to give full play to the talent's ability in order to save time and effort.
At the end of the day, he'd started off as a marksman. Kim Sung-hyun could be considered the number one in the world when it came to 'haggling over every penny'.
If he could be any faster, then he wouldn't procrastinate; he would keep his skills cycling and never waste them. He maximized the most efficient way to clear the jungle, and when he was done, he unwaveringly went and pounced on the bottom lane.
When the storm hunter stepped on raindrops and dropped down, Y1's marksman, Pig, was unable to react in time.
The soul warlock arrived first. Li Heran predicted Pig's movements, and knocked him away perfectly.
The death knight charged over abruptly in its light form and smashed a set of skills down. Then the storm hunter pierced raindrops with its arrows and scored a critical hit on Pig.
There was no need to mention that there was no one else near God Pig; even if Yan Jiang had been there, he wouldn't have been able to protect him in this wave of attacks.
Pro took First Blood!
Pro, who'd been suppressed by Y1 for a full three matches, was finally able to feel a sense of long-awaited happiness.
Who said that Pro had no early stages? Who said that Kim Sung-hyun could only cling desperately to life to develop, and who said that the marksman could only rule the court in the later stages?
God Kim was using his strength to play the storm hunter and educate others!
After killing Pig, the storm hunter didn't slow down at all. He invaded Y1's top jungle zone and started snowballing resources and piling them up.
It could be seen that Y1 had been caught off guard in this round.
When faced with Pro, who had a new line-up, it was like Y1 was playing against a new team that they still needed time to get familiar and adapt to.
It didn't mean they were overwhelmed, but they did need to find a breakthrough point and reverse the situation.
Wei Xiao was so engrossed he barely blinked, and his thoughts turned rapidly.
This game had not only let him learn new tactics, but had also allowed him to discover Y1's weaknesses.
Sure enough, there was no such thing as a flawless team. Y1, which was as strong as an iron barrel, still had something they weren't good at.
It was just that Yan Jiang was too good at camouflage and had covered up their shortcomings tightly so that others could only see a veneer of indestructibility.
It was good that they had shortcomings.
Wei Xiao wasn't about to let go of the slightest opportunity.
Lu Feng was also focused intently on the game, staring at the situation in the field without blinking.
He could see what Wei Xiao noticed, and anything Wei Xiao thought of, he could also think of as well.
There was no such thing as indestructibility, only persisting continuously in order to break through.
Yan Jiang's strength was due to an accumulation of experience built up over endless days and nights.
A support style soul warlock had its own key nodes at level six. Li Heran's soul warlock showed a different play style from that of Y1 and FTW.
Wei Xiao used his soul warlock to fight in the jungle, relying on his own all-around skills. No matter who he attached to, he would be able to deal DPS that was more than just the sum of one plus one, and his ganking level was first-class.
Yan Jiang's soul warlock was similar to Wei Xiao's, but he paid more attention to assisting his teammates and making up damage while giving his teammates the best environment in which to deal DPS.
Li Heran wasn't like that. In this match, he was another storm hunter!
After level six, he attached himself to the storm hunter directly, and his interface was completely replaced with the storm hunter's skills. Together with Kim Sung-hyun, they covered the whole canyon with raindrops, like stars in the sky.
The former world's number one ADC, singles champion, and strongest marksman who once ruled over half of Glory, who hadn't been seen in a long time.
He retired due to injury, and his star fell.
This legend from the past became a joke, but today's Li Heran was no longer Pro's support, and no longer the veteran who was dragging his ailing body along as he reluctantly continued to fight. In fact, he was no longer Pro's so-called weakness.
Right now, his eyes were calm and composed, his fingers flew over the keyboard, and the storm hunters killed people wantonly all over the canyon.
A real pair of storm hunters, flying true through the rain. They were the real kings of rain!
Did anyone still remember who the first person to fly in the rain was?
Did anyone still remember who made the storm hunter famous all over the world?
Did anyone still remember who the first storm hunter champion skin belonged to?!
Li Heran!
Not only did this scene bring tears to the eyes of fans in South Korea, it also affected the audience from other competition zones.
The current Close, and the previous Li Heran.
Over the ten plus years of Glory, how many people had been left unreconciled over this?!
Y1, who was getting beaten up by the two storm hunters, recovered its rhythm in the mid and later stages.
Yan Jiang adjusted his team tactics and began to work on their operations.
They couldn't win in lane ganking and were retaliated against when they tried to launch ambushes. There was high risk involved in snatching the dragon and jungle zones, so the optimal solution was to fight with guerrilla warfare and win through operations.
The storm hunter had a fatal weakness, which was that it was weak in the later stages.
Most marksmen were weak in the early stages and strong in the later stages. The storm hunter was different; it was strong in the early stages, but it weakened gradually in the later stage.
As a talent that had difficulties participating in team fights, it was easy for them to have the tables turned against them in later stage team fights.
Although Pro had two storm hunters and might be able to deal enough damage in team fights, this pair of storm hunters was essentially a single person. As long as Kim Sung-hyun died, both storm hunters would be gone.
Wei Xiao sighed lightly, "It seems that Captain Yan has found a way to deal with it."
Lu Feng: "Not necessarily."
Wei Xiao tilted his head and looked at him.
Lu Feng also looked at him, saying silently: Just wait.
Wei Xiao's eyes curved with his smile and he took advantage of everyone's line of sight to blow him a kiss.
Lu Feng: "......"
He remained focused on the game and only pinched a certain Little Xiao under the table lightly.
Y1 really did recover their rhythm in the middle and later stages, taking advantage of their line-up that allowed them to forcibly start up team fights. Adding on Pig, who was able to deal more and more DPS with Yan Jiang escorting him the whole way, the storm hunters' disadvantages of limited range and squishiness undoubtedly began to reveal themselves.
Just as Wei Xiao had thought, once Yan Jiang's skills were able to reach Kim Sung-hyun, two people would die at the same time.
It was difficult for the soul warlock to protect the storm hunter. Unless they were able to attack together and kill the other party, then they would get killed in seconds.
However, Y1 had already figured out their routine. As long as they were able to catch the storm hunter, they would definitely start a group fight and focus fire. No matter how high their DPS was, two people wouldn't be enough to kill three or four others within two seconds.
Like that, Pro's advantage was destroyed by Y1!
The audience watched on, anxious and afraid that Y1 would end the game in this way, and afraid that a line-up as good as Pro's would end up smashed. They were even more worried that the double storm hunter that had only started to perform with much difficulty would disappear once again.
To everyone's surprise...
Li Heran came down from Kim Sung-hyun's body. The soul warlock, which had followed the storm hunter for the whole match, left him.
What was going on?
Was Pro giving up?
Were they admitting defeat?
The entire audience exploded in excitement!
The soul warlock attached itself to the mid-laner medicine warlock. With the acceleration buff that had whirlwind-like special effects, Pro rushed to the gold dragon pit like they'd just used a collective flash.
They'd guessed that Y1 was fighting the dragon and hadn't hesitated to start a group fight.
This was the last round of team fighting!
If they won, then Pro could retain hope that they would still be able to play in another decisive match. If they lost this fight, then it would be equivalent to Pro burying themselves in the semifinals.
The commentators were anxious. "Will the storm hunter be able to deal enough damage? Using the storm hunter in a team fight..." They were referring to the fact that there was a high chance that something would go wrong.
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Chapter 256.2: Let loose and fight!
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translator: xiin
editor: apricot
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Wei Xiao's eyes brightened and his lips curved as he watched the live broadcast.
Who said that Pro only had the storm hunter.
Park Kyu-ji used his heavy blade to start the team fight, and the attack swept out, sending Yan Jiang flying from where he was blocking the way at the front.
An opportunity!
Raindrops flew all over the sky. The agile and light figure stepped on raindrops, flying into the crowd. Y1 quickly focused fire on Kim Sung-hyun, but there were now two medicine warlocks behind him.
The squishy storm hunter's health dropped to rock bottom with a whoosh, but it was then forcibly lifted up again.
Critically injured! Full health!
Critically injured again!
And his health was back!
In Glory, there would be a scarlet border flashing around the screen if a character was seriously injured. There was no way to imagine what Kim Sung-hyun's screen looked like, with the scarlet fading and reappearing time and again...
Amidst such special effects, he still managed to accurately operate the storm hunter, avoid damage, deal DPS, and kill Quas and Pig!
What kind of ability, skill, and absolute trust in his teammates was required to achieve such an effect?
Quas fell!
Piglet was killed!
God Hai also failed to escape from the hunter's rain arrows.
Park Kyu-ji tried his best to hold down Yan Jiang, creating enough opportunities for Kim Sung-hyun, Li Heran, and UU to go around the back and cut down the c-positions, playing out a perfect combo that shocked everyone!
They won the team fight!
Pro won the fourth match!
When Victory lit up for the Pro side, everyone in the audience gave them a warm round of applause.
In the FTW conference room, Wei Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.
Little Ning burst out into passionate tears. "Wuwuwu..."
Brother Cai choked up as well. "Pro..."
They couldn't speak, but the bitterness they felt in their hearts could be understood by everyone in the conference room.
Pro didn't only consist of Kim Sung-hyun. Pro didn't only have a marksman.
In this game, they were able to win against Y1 by showing strong cooperation within the entire team.
The haters scolded Pro and Kim Sung-hyun for being dominant on his own. They scolded them for not knowing how to play anything other than their four protecting one system.
For so many years, Pro had always adhered to the same system, all their progress tracked along this same path.
Similarly, they were different from last year's FTW. They weren't like the old FTW who could only rely on Close.
Kim Sung-hyun's brilliance had always been given to him by his teammates.
To this day, Pro's achievements had always been won through five people working together.
The four protecting one line-up was the one that depended the most on tacit understanding between teammates!
Absolute trust, complete trust.
They had to let go of their pride and conceit, and protect wholeheartedly. That was the real Pro!
2:2. Finally, they managed to usher in the match point game.
The audience, who had originally thought that Y1 would win with a big advantage, started switching sides one after another. They felt that this year's Pro was very promising.
Fans who had originally hoped that Pro would win against Y1, then lose to FTW, also began to panic. This year's Pro was different. Even just considering this new system, would FTW be able to break through it?
If FTW wanted to win the championship, sure enough, there were wolves up front and tigers chasing behind them. None of these big brothers were easy to mess with!
BP for the decisive match began without delay.
This year's teams had already whetted everyone's appetite. They even felt that a BO5 game wasn't enough, and started imagining how great it would be if it was BO7.
The scrolling comments in the live broadcast room: "Haha. Firstly, Glory would need to come up with more talents."
"The full-game BP in BO5 is already enough to make the coaching teams go bald. If they come up with a BO7, do you want to see all the coaches in Glory collectively standing on the roof?"
"Five matches aren't enough, I want to watch them play seven matches!"
"I can't imagine how they'll play the seventh match with full-game BP..."
"Maybe the benched talents would be able to return to the field!"
"Ha, just say that it'll be like noobs pecking at each other directly."
"That's not necessarily the case. Don't underestimate this year's top four. I always feel as if they've got so many routines up their sleeves."
Regardless of what happens in the scrolling comments, the competition committee wasn't about to change the competition system again.
A BO5 game could already last for nearly five hours. A BO7 game wouldn't end up testing the players' talent pool but rather their physical fitness!
Playing a high intensity game for seven hours?
Who would be able to hold on!
It was fortunate that Wei Xiao didn't see the scrolling comments. If he did, then he would definitely howl, "Close can; Close's physical endurance is invincible!"
Well, the great demon king's physical endurance was really invincible.
Wei Little Xiao had an absolute right to speak about it in all aspects.
Getting back to business; many Pro supporters felt a chill in their hearts when the line-up for the decisive match came out.
Y1 had too many different line-ups.
They played the soul warlock so well that everyone had forgotten where their real strength lay.
Captain Yan's medicine warlock.
This was the system that Y1 used to target Pro to death.
The fact that the medicine warlock was only taken out in the decisive match was enough to show just how much the emergence of the soul warlock had enhanced Y1.
Kim Sung-hyun closed his eyes briefly when he saw Yan Jiang's medicine warlock.
Li Heran: "Let loose and fight."
Kim Sung-hyun opened his eyes again and breathed in lightly. "Mm."
Let loose and fight.
In the final game, no matter whether they won or lost, Pro's aura was undefeatable!
Kim Sung-hyun had taken the gun launcher, which was a relatively flexible and explosive marksman in order to avoid the medicine warlock trading its life for his.
Li Heran also took the giant shaman so he could block steadily in the frontlines and protect his teammates.
Y1's formation was even more stable. The divine warrior top-laner could resist damage and start team fights. The spirit mage in the mid-lane and storm hunter in the bottom lane were all strong in-your-face assault talents meant to target Kim Sung-hyun. Coupled with the medicine warlock support, everyone was already feeling heartache for Kim Sung-hyun even before the game began.
In this decisive match, Y1 was bound to pressure Kim Sung-hyun to death.
The fifth match was unexpectedly calm. Neither side made any trouble before level six, and they continued to develop peacefully even after they had their ultimate moves. Small scale collisions were a bit touch and go, but First Blood never broke out.
Such calm left people holding their breath, and the feeling only became more intense over time.
It was too tense. Everyone knew that this was the calm before the storm, and everyone knew that this was gunpowder before a spark. Everyone knew that once a fight broke out, it would be a bloody battle of life and death!
There were waves surging under the calm. The ten people on the field who'd been fighting for more than four hours still maintained their state of absolute concentration.
There were no mistakes in operation, no mistakes in game consciousness, and no fatigue showed in their state of being.
The exceptional quality of top-tier players was fully evident in these moments.
At the fifteen minute mark, First Blood broke out in the mid-lane.
The person to win the first kill was Park Kyu-ji!
It was Pro!
And the one who gave out First Blood was actually Yan Jiang!
This scene surprised everyone, but it also made everyone more nervous.
Park Kyu-ji getting First Blood was of little significance to Pro, because Park Kyu-ji had always been a blue-collar jungler king who operated on minimal resources.
Yan Jiang giving out First Blood caused little harm to Y1. Having him die in battle would be more cost-effective than Hai dying, for example.
It seemed that Pro had the advantage, but in fact, Y1 had broken down the top lane defense tower.
Sure enough...
Captain Yan's head wasn't that easy to collect. How could they take it without paying some kind of price?
The situation was becoming more and more murky. It was difficult to distinguish each side's advantages and disadvantages. No one could be sure who would win or lose until the last minute.
The FTW conference room was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping could be heard.
Everyone was watching the game intently. They had also played decisive matches before, but their last match with L&P was by no means like this match between Pro and Y1.
They had fought strongly until the end, regardless of loss or victory.
Over here, they were planning strategies, operating, and calculating everything in sight.
It was hard to say what was going well or not; the only thing that remained constant was the tense mood in the air.
One bad move in this chess game could cause them to lose the whole game.
This kind of atmosphere where no one dared to breathe was even more of a drain on their mentality!
Finally... Pro took action after the gun launcher finished three full pieces of equipment.
They were the ones who sounded the battle horn, but Y1 responded fearlessly.
One wave of fighting, two waves, three waves.
The early calm paved the way for the madness in the later stages.
From twenty two minutes onwards, the two sides fought endlessly in team fights.
Constant fighting, endless killing, and a constant exchange of firepower.
You take this wave, and I remain stable for the next. You force a team fight in the dragon pit, and I pick up the fight...
Such intensive back and forth fighting made the audience lose track of time, forget reality, and only remember the brilliant battle taking place in the holographic projection.
The special effects that covered the sky, and the fierce sound of gunfire and other system sound effects all seemed hot-blooded and full of passion.
In the last wave, when God Yan's unique heartbeat play appeared in the holographic projection, everyone had a premonition that the end was coming.
The medicine warlock who couldn't be stopped, who couldn't be killed, the stealer of light who couldn't be sanctioned.
When the announcement that Yan Jiang had killed Kim Sung-hyun rang out, everyone held their breath.
It was a rout that caused a landslide-like collapse.
The two old teammates from the Team of Gods fell at the same time.
But their outcome was very different--
Y1 was like a beast that had escaped its chains, pouncing frantically on Pro and instantly tearing at their throats.
Pro, unable to cope, retreated urgently, but they were chased to their base by Y1 and were ultimately all killed.
The game was over.
Wei Xiao leaned back in his e-sports chair, his fingers trembling imperceptibly.
Lu Feng got up, his eyes drooping slightly. "Rest early."
Y1 was now shortlisted for the global finals, and the holder of the other spot would be announced tomorrow.
FTW vs EVE.
Who would be able to obtain this final ticket to the championship stage?!
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Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Xie He looked out at the nightscape outside the window. Not even the slightest bit of light fell into the depths of his dark eyes.
A romantic and elegant female voice sounded out from behind him. "Can you really win the championship with this kind of faith?"