Chapter 191.2: System Announcement–– First Blood!
When the game officials released the posters, the passionate fans sent Feng-Xiao straight up into that day’s hot search.
The passersby felt their eyes hurt when they saw it. “Your Glory circle’s badass. How come their appearance value has soared up again?!”
“Close is really handsome. There’s no help for it, I want to try playing this game again. As soon as I think about how such a good looking little brother’s playing it, I can’t help myself!”
“Who is Wei Xiao?”
“FTW’s new jungler, his ID is Quiet!”
“He’s really good looking. It’s rare to find someone who can look so natural when they’re standing beside Close.”
“What do you mean, natural? They’re clearly a pair!”
“Ahhhhh, my Feng-Xiao darlings, Mama loves you both ahhhhh!”
“FTW can do it. If they can’t win the championship, they can still go out and make their debut as a boy group.”
“???”
“Upstairs, shut up. Our FTW will definitely be the champion this year!”
The venue for the semi-finals couldn’t be compared with that of the regular season and playoffs.
After all, it was a competition between the top four, and the competition committee attached great importance to it. They’d rented a venue that could fit several tens of thousands of people and also installed a holographic projector.
Wei Xiao was quite curious. “What will they do with the holographic projector?”
Xiang Liu explained it to him, “They’ll project the battle in the canyon to the whole venue.”
Wei Xiao was surprised. “That’s so awesome!”
He wanted to see it! He didn’t even want to play anymore!
Chen Feng saw through what he was thinking at a glance and said, “The projection will only expose more flaws, and players’ mistakes will be infinitely magnified.”
Brother Cai: “!”
Wei Xiao’s perspective was always different. “In that case, won’t the nine light arcs look even more explosive?”
Chen Feng: “…………”
Lu Feng replied, “Mm.”
In the next second, Wei Xiao was annoyed again. “They won’t let the shadow thief out!”
So angry! He really wanted to know what nine light arcs looked like on a holographic projection.
Lu Feng: “There’ll be a chance for it.”
Wei Xiao thought about it and realized, “That’s right, there’s no BP in the singles!”
Lu Feng: “Yes.”
Wei Xiao’s eyes curved. “When the time comes, you use the shadow thief so that I can see nine light arcs at the scene.”
Lu Feng indulged him, “Okay.”
Chen Feng: “………………”
Do the two of you even care about me as a coach!
Well, as a coach, I also would recommend Lu Feng use the shadow thief in the singles competition.
After the host said a whole host of things, and the promotional video was also played at the scene, the two teams entered the stage.
Generally, the team’s top-lane player would enter first. As soon as Close stepped out of the entrance and even before the lights could shine down on him, the screams in the venue had already boiled up like heat waves, each wave of sound louder than the previous one.
When Little Ning, who was to be the second to appear, heard the applause and cheering, and he grew a little nervous. Brother Cai spoke from where he was standing behind him, “It’s okay.”
Little Ning breathed in lightly, then nodded hard. “Yes!”
It was okay. They’d made enough preparations, and they’d made a lot of progress. They would surely win beautifully today!
Ning Zhehan breathed in again, then walked out into the bright lights.
This was the first time he’d ever come to such a venue, and the first time he’d been faced with such tremendous applause. It was also the first time he’d faced such an important event.
The national semi-finals…
They had to win it in order to enter the finals.
They couldn’t lose.
Little Ning clenched his fists and stood beside their captain.
After that came Bai Cai and Yue Wenle, and finally, Wei Xiao.
Wei Xiao’s gutsiness was vividly on display at these kinds of occasions. It was his first time facing this kind of scene, and his first time experiencing such a grand event, but Wei Xiao felt no tension at all and could even wave his hand while showing off a sunny smile.
The fans shouted his name and were even more enthusiastic in response.
The championship’s unique battle song rang out. The five players from FTW bowed, and the old fans in the live broadcast filled up the scrolling comments crazily.
Although this was a standard arrangement, the order in which the players appeared still touched them.
The first to come on stage was Close––the man who opened up a new era for FTW.
The last to come on stage was Quiet––the strongest dark horse in FTW’s powerful, new era.
It was an unintentional arrangement, but it provided fans with the best answer.
This year’s FTW was bringing hope to everyone.
When 3U came out, fans from the other side also started shouting.
Their top-laner Xuan Long was already an old player. He came out of the entrance very naturally and his smile was bright.
After that came Li Chun, their mid-laner. He was a little like Ning Zhehan, and although he’d experienced more than Li Chun, his character was still somewhat childish and restrained. He smiled subtly at everyone.
Then came their support player Cong Yi. The cheers from 3U’s fans reached a new peak when he came out, shouting ‘God Yi’ loudly one after another. Cong Yi waved to everyone, his expression gentle and polite.
3U’s marksman was also an old player. He’d already played for four or five seasons, displaying his stunning talent along the way. He’d only joined 3U last year, and his name was Wen Wei. His appearance was quite ordinary; he was a little chubby, and he looked steady and reliable.
The last to come on stage was their jungler Asleep. He was also 3U’s captain.
Asleep was one of the players most well-deserved to be called a star player in China this year.
3U’s team uniform was dark gray, and it brought out a different kind of aura when Asleep wore it. His short hair reached his ears, and the dark black of his hair set off his complexion in a way that made it appear even more pale. His handsome facial features appeared extra attractive because of his silence.
He stood quietly on the dazzling stage, and there was a unique sense of world weariness about him that made the fans fall for him.
The players all came out, bowed to the audience, and then the battle began.
The host’s voice was crisp and lively, “The first BO5 game of the China competition zone’s semi-finals has officially begun!”
The audience gave a warm round of applause.
The referees came up onto the stage and checked over the players’ information, looked over their peripherals, and the players started debugging their headsets and machines.
Finally, the game server was set up, and they entered the BP stage.
The contestants couldn’t see what was going on on the stage, but they vaguely heard the audience’s screams.
Wei Xiao was very excited. “It must be because the holographic projection is too beautiful!”
Bai Cai had originally been a nervous vegetable, and now… his mood had collapsed!
Little Ning burst out laughing. “That should be it.”
Wei Xiao sighed. “Unfortunately, we can’t see anything from here.”
The players really couldn’t see anything, but the audience was very happy.
Holographic projection technology had been maturing more and more. Now, it could project the entire canyon into the venue, and the audience could see a 3D picture directly without having to wear 3D glasses.
As soon as the game entered the BP segment, they could see the projected heroes standing on the screen one by one, just like seeing real people.
Both teams began to ban and select heroes, and the projection on the stage changed as they switched their selections. The audience was so dazzled that they didn’t have attention to spare on analyzing the line-up.
The commentators were able to stay more professional, and they attempted to draw the audience’s attention back to the game. “As expected, 3U banned the shadow thief.”
“Of course, Close’s shadow thief has to be shown respect.”
“Speaking of which, can Quiet brush out nine light arcs however he likes?”
“Hard to say.”
“I don’t feel that it’s necessary for him to waste time on it. No one will ever let the shadow thief out.”
“It can still be used during the doubles competition.”
“There’s still Close in the doubles competition, and Quiet doesn’t need to take the shadow thief.”
Their discussion aligned with many of the fans’ ideas.
Practicing the nine light arcs was time-consuming and of little use, and it was really unnecessary.
No one would release the shadow thief to FTW in the team competition, and there was Close in the doubles. Quiet should focus on improving his skill with other talents.
The audience was quite regretful. “I want to see the nine light arcs…”
“Will we be able to see the nine light arcs under the holographic projection in this lifetime?”
“The singles competition! There might even be ten light arcs!”
“But we have to wait for a long time before the singles…”
The BP segment between both sides ended amidst this discussion from the commentators and the audience.
FTW and 3U were old acquaintances and were very familiar with each other’s routines. It was hard for them to mess with each other in the BP segment.
On FTW’s side, Lu Feng took the death knight, Wei Xiao took the immortal thief, Ning Zhehan took the fire mage, Bai Cai took the storm priest who had been a little unpopular this season, and Yue Wenle took the night druid.
3U wasn’t polite with their line-up, either. Xuan Long snatched up the berserker warrior, Asleep took the hidden thief, Li Chun took the ice mage, Cong Yi took the light priest, and Wen Wei took the fire launcher.
Death knight vs berserker warrior.
Immortal thief vs hidden thief.
Fire mage vs ice mage.
Storm priest vs light priest.
Night druid vs fire launcher.
Judging from the line-up, both sides had their own advantages and disadvantages. How the match turned out would depend on their on the spot performances.
The commentator analyzed the early and later stages of the line-up as the game finished loading. The entire canyon spread out in front of the audience.
Even if they’d already been psychologically prepared for the holographic projection, the audience still grew very enthusiastic when they saw this scene!
“It’s like watching a big animated movie!”
“The immortal thief is so handsome ahhhhh, with the holographic projection, every hair seems to float like that of an immortal’s. I’ll love the immortal thief for ten thousand years!”
“The death knight is explosively handsome, too. Close switched to the heavy form at the start; this figure, these bone wings, this magical armor, I’m dead, and I need Close to kiss me before I can be revived.”
“Upstairs, dream on!”
“Pull the person upstairs out and chop them to death!”
The audience in the live broadcast room were all acting like this, and the live audience was even more dazzled.
They cleared their jungle, clashed in the lanes.
Neither side entered the opposing side’s jungle, and they’d originally thought that it would be a smooth start, but unexpectedly, after one and a half minutes––
“The death knight and berserker warrior started fighting!”
“The berserker warrior has an advantage before level six.”
“The death knight has stacked up a lot of magic marks. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough skill points and the magic marks are useless.”
“The two of them are losing health very quickly. I never knew that Xuan Long was so fierce.”
“They’re at half health, but Close doesn’t show any intention of retreating at all.”
“Neither Asleep nor Wei Xiao have gone up to provide support!”
“This…”
System Announcement––
First Blood!
FTW.Close killed 3U.Dragon.