Glory [e-sports]

Wei Xiao was too lazy to explain.

Explaining was like covering up, and what he would be covering up was the truth.

He had indeed used nine light arcs, even though he didn’t actually know how he’d done it.

The first wave of banned talents was finished. It was time to start choosing talents.

FTW didn’t ban the immortal warlock, but RR had banned it themselves.

Wei Xiao: “Little Ning, they’re scared that you’ll use it.”

Ning Zhehan: “I… How can my immortal warlock compare with Moon God’s?”

Wei Xiao: “Be a bit more confident. Where’d your confidence go?”

Ning Zhehan: “……”

The entire team was amused. Chen Feng glared at him, “That’s enough from you.”

With this brat here, even a problem as big as the sky didn’t seem that big!

As soon as the news of Close temporarily leaving the team was released after the opening game, the fans would probably lose it completely.

And it would be interesting when they went back to rewatch the opening game––holy shit, your captain is about to leave, but you guys can still laugh?

Should it be said that FTW was unconcerned, or should it be said that they were very unconcerned?

When he thought about it like that, Chen Feng felt that it was a little funny.

“Come on,” He turned his attention back to the BP process, “What do you want to use?”

Everyone named their own heroes, but when Lu Feng spoke up, it made silence spread out across their headsets.

“I’ll use the shadow thief.”

Chen Feng paused for a moment, “You’re going to play jungler?”

The position each player would play in each round of a formal competition had to be submitted before the start of the game and couldn’t be changed on the spot. Of course, it didn’t matter for the opening game, since they didn’t have to follow the rules so strictly for an entertainment game.

Wei Xiao: “Alright, captain, you want to play jungler? I can go to the top lane!”

This was Lu Feng’s first game in the domestic regular season, and it might also be the last. If he wanted to use the shadow thief to give his fans a display, it would be pretty good!

Lu Feng shook his head, “Not playing jungler.”

Wei Xiao: “Eh?”

Lu Feng even made it a point to repeat deliberately, “I don’t like playing jungler.”

Everyone understood what he meant when he said this.

The team chat wasn’t a private chat channel, and if it wasn’t dealt with well, it might cause malicious speculation.

Lu Feng had changed from playing jungler to the top lane, and even now, there were still people who hated on Quiet, saying that he’d snatched away Close’s position.

Lu Feng was saying these things to defend Quiet and also clarify the situation for him.

Wei Xiao’s heart thumped, and his mouth turned bratty, “So it turns out you don’t like me.”

Brother Cai: “……”

Lu Feng: “……”

Without waiting for the others to express their silence, Wei Xiao continued talking, “I’m a jungler. You actually don’t like me.”

Queen Chen was getting angry, “Wei Xiao.”

Wei Xiao: “Eh!”

Chen Feng: “Say another word of nonsense, and I’ll get you a holy priest for your jungler position.”

Wei Xiao was shocked, “I was wrong, I’m sorry, please forgive me!”

Chen Feng snorted coldly and asked Lu Feng, “You’re going to use the shadow thief for the top lane?”

Lu Feng: “Going to give it a try.”

Chen Feng: “Fine.”

Wei Xiao couldn’t hold back, “Then, I’ll use the power thief?” The power thief was a little tankier, and he could ‘support’ the captain.

Chen Feng stared at him.

Wei Xiao quickly shut up and made a zipping up motion at his mouth, “We’ll do everything according to the coach’s words, I’ll play whatever you choose.”

It had to be said that Wei Little Xiao was very good at coaxing people.

Chen Feng only maintained his cold expression for three seconds, and then broke down, “Use the immortal thief.”

Wei Xiao’s eyes opened wide, “This… is it suitable?”

Chen Feng: “Is it that you don’t believe in yourself, or that you don’t believe in your captain?”

In the game, it just happened to be Wei Xiao’s turn to pick a talent. He instantly picked the immortal thief, then said a sentence that was as immature and lame as could be, “Alright, then! Two thieves coming into the world, going up against the heavens and the earth!” It almost rhymed.

Even without mentioning how much the FTW’s internal team chat could make their ears ache, their choice in heroes had also blown up the whole venue.

“What does this mean?”

“Who’s using the shadow thief, who’s using the immortal thief, who’s playing jungler?”

These three soul searching questions had obviously knocked everyone out.

At first, when FTW took the shadow thief, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, Quiet had just shown everyone nine light arcs, and it was normal to have him show it off again in a formal arena. Everyone was looking forward to it.

They couldn’t hear the team chat, and they didn’t know that it was Close who wanted to use the shadow thief.

If they knew, the live stream studio would’ve blown up long ago.

The two sides picked a round of talents, and there were no surprises until Wei Xiao, who was the last one in FTW, picked out the immortal thief.

The scrolling comments were also confused, “Um… did Quiet’s hand slip?”

During the BP section, each player would choose talents according to their randomized position in the BP link, and it wasn’t necessarily the talent they would be playing themselves.

After the entire BP ended, they would be given 30 seconds to adjust talents.

Based on the situation they could see, they’d chosen two jungler talents in one game. No matter how they adjusted it, it was clearly… not quite right!

“They can’t have really made such a low level mistake, right?”

“F*ck, could this be FTW’s new routine?”

The CP fans mixed in, “Oh my god, is the double jungler CP real???”

“It’s locked in and can’t be changed, aren’t they just teasing the audience like this!”

“Shocked, shocked, quickly tell me who is using the shadow thief, and who is using the immortal thief. Who is playing top lane, and who is the jungler?”

Nobody had ever expected that although Close and Quiet were only two people, they were still able to make the audience think so much and speculate so many things.

The commentators were also very excited. They used more professional language and a sharper angle to analyze FTW’s unconventional routine!

The 30 seconds of adjustment time ended, and their line-up was confirmed!

FTW: Shadow thief, Immortal thief, Light mage, Elemental shaman, Frost hunter.

RR: Death knight, Berserker thief, Spirit mage, Holy priest, White hunter.

Nobody had time to analyze the line-up anymore. Their eyes and hearts were all filled with––

“Close is the one playing the shadow thief!”

“Close is going to use the shadow thief to play in the top lane!”

“Holy shit, the shadow thief can be used for the top lane?!”

“My goose bumps are all popping out, the great demon king is really too bold.”

“Thinking about it carefully… the top lane is a place with infinite possibilities!”

“Looking forward to it, looking forward to it, this ticket price is damned worth it!”

The opening game was being watched by countless people, and various teams were also very curious about it.

2021 was an extraordinary year for the China competition zone.

With the rise of the new generation, those who’d performed well during the winter training camp had all handed in beautifully written exam results, giving the audience in China a feeling of unlimited expectations.

There was always the feeling that there was new hope for China this year.

There was always the feeling that they could expect more from China this year.

There was always the feeling that the China competition zone, which had been in a slump for several years, would regain its glory!

With this belief, all eyes were on the first match of this new season.

They wanted to see what kind of sparks would fly out when the two teams at the top of the China competition zone collided!

Needless to mention, FTW had always been a pure jungler core team.

Regardless of whether it was during the Close era, or after Quiet had entered the stage, they always used the jungler as the core to light up fires everywhere.

RR was different. Their biggest core was Moonlit.

Moonlit was a mid-laner, and there weren’t many teams who used mid-laners as their core. For example, the most famous one was EVE, where Xie He as their mid-laner could carry the entire arena.

Money was RR’s jungler. This player’s most famous attribute was that he had money, but they all had to admit that he was the soul of RR.

If he hadn’t gone to RR, this team would be a bottom of the class team with no achievements.

After Money had joined the team, the Moonlit who’d still been ‘wandering’ around on the international servers had caught his eye. Money ignored his team’s opposition and forcibly pulled the inexperienced Moonlit to the youth training camp. After practicing with him for less than a month, Money brought Moonlit back to RR and made him into their starting mid-laner.

At the time, nobody had been optimistic about Moonlit, because Asleep and Eurostar, who were from the same period, were much better than he was.

However, Money was only interested in Moonlit and coaxed him endlessly to join RR.

As it turned out, Mo Hui had a good eye, and Moonlit was indeed the most suited for RR.

A team that lacked a pillar needed a ‘piercing thorn’ like Moonlit who could hamstring the enemy more than anything else!

RR’s play style was something that FTW had also studied.

Their strongest play style was their mid-jungler linkage, which was Money and Moonlit’s cooperation.

Chen Feng told Ning Zhehan, “Be careful, they’ll definitely try to get you in the first wave.”

Ning Zhehan: “Got it!”

Chen Feng then looked at Wei Xiao.

Wei Xiao spoke up first, “Little Ning, I may have to wrong you in this game.”

Timid Ning’s heart thudded: What-what was the situation?

Wei Xiao stared at the shadow thief on the screen and said, “I’m going to go and explode their top lane with the captain.”

He spoke this sentence very calmly, but it had a very great impact on Ning Zhehan.

There wasn’t anyone in the new generation who didn’t worship Close, and there was nobody who didn’t look forward to seeing his shadow thief.

As soon as he thought about how this might be the captain’s only game during the regular season…

Ning Zhehan spoke solemnly, “Don’t worry about me!”

Play happily, show off to the fullest extent, and he would try his hardest to defend the mid-lane!

Wei Xiao: “In that case, I won’t be polite.”

In this game, he wanted to be with Close. He wanted to see what a jungler who matched Close looked like, and he wanted to have the whole world know what FTW’s top-jungler linkage was like!

Lu Feng: “Let’s go, red buff first.”

Wei Xiao stared at the screen, “Okay.”

The red buff they were referring to wasn’t FTW’s red jungler buff, it was the other side’s red jungler area!

If they didn’t go into their enemy’s jungle right at the start of the game, how could they blow up the entire field!

The audience had god’s perspective and could see things very clearly––

“They went, they went, the shadow thief and the immortal thief charged straight into RR’s red jungle zone together.”

“It’s really true that you see more the longer you live. Having a shadow thief and an immortal thief in the same team can even be seen in a professional competition setting.”

“Seriously, is the shadow thief now able to play in the top lane?”

“Nobody’s used it before.”

“That’s because Close’s shadow thief is too ingrained in everyone’s cognition!”

Yes…

Close’s shadow thief was basically tied with the jungler position.

Everyone who saw the shadow thief would think of playing jungler. It wasn’t just the audience; even countless players had this idea fixed in their minds.

However, the Close who’d taken the shadow thief and shown them miracles was taking the shadow thief to play in the top lane!

“RR also started with the red buff. Mo Hui took his support with him and cleared out the three stone men.”

“This positioning, they’re about to step into their field of vision.”

“Moonlit and Ning Zhehan are exchanging health in the mid-lane.”

“The spirit mage is clearing soldiers slowly, and Ning Zhehan’s light mage can delay him!”

“A fight at level one, FTW’s top-jungler against RR’s jungler-support!”

The commentators were very reserved, but the audience was already in high spirits.

“Aahhhh, great demon king’s shadow thief!”

“It’s too handsome, I can’t do it, I have 80,000 filters for Close’s shadow thief.”

“To be honest, I feel that Captain Mo has gone too far…”

“The kind where Moon-moon won’t be able to save him even if he followed.”

“The immortal thief is moving!”

Under normal circumstances, RR’s support would follow Money. After they cleared the soldier line, they would start to go to the top and bottom lanes to start ganking. However, today’s RR had arranged for their support to follow Money in order to defend against the two thieves entering their jungle at the start of the game.

RR’s support was very clever, and he had put vision in the right place with his keen perception.

Unfortunately, he’d underestimated the two power of the two thieves.

Wei Xiao had leveled up his first skill, a movement skill. The first section was for movement, the second one took him straight into their face, and the third one reinforced a set of ordinary attacks for an explosive amount of damage.

And then there was Close’s shadow thief. He used his passive to sneak into the grass, and when RR’s support went to defend against the immortal thief, his skill landed right on Money.

Money: “Laozi is going to open the door and throw money away!”

Moonlit: “I won’t be sending you off.”

Money gave himself extra sound effects, “Ah… er… plop… thump…”

Besieged by the two thieves, Money successfully contributed the super valuable first blood.

RR’s support player was also very cruel, and he was merciless in selling off his own captain. Seeing that Money had no way to turn the tables, he’d run away swiftly, arriving at the mid-lane in the blink of an eye.

Wei Xiao sensed it, and reminded Ning Zhehan, “Be careful, Moonlit’s going to go for you.”

Captain Mo had died, and Moonlit definitely wouldn’t be reconciled. Their support player had obviously arrived at the mid-lane in order to help Moonlit control Ning Zhehan.

Ning Zhehan: “Got it!”

Lu Feng and Wei Xiao quickly divided up RR’s jungle zone between them.

Wei Xiao said, “Captain, I’m going to the lower field area.”

Lu Feng: “Mm.”

As Wei Xiao had expected, Moonlit had taken his support to give Ning Zhehan a wave of pressure.

But Little Ning reacted quickly enough, handing over his flash just in time and managing to survive with a sliver of health.

FTW had taken a huge advantage at the start of this game!

They’d taken First Blood, snatched up half of the other side’s jungle, and their farm was now 1000 gold ahead!

RR’s team chat.

Money tsked, “So fierce. It’s no wonder that Old Fu said that the current FTW is like a group of mad dogs.”

Moonlit: “Then we’ll let them see who’s crazier.”

Money was amused, “You want to screw Close?”

Moonlit asked back, “Who doesn’t want to screw Close?”

The author has something to say:

Wei Xiao: ??? [flipping the table in anger] Do you all think I’m dead?!