Chapter 83.1: Close deserved all the glory in the world.
The BP for both sides ended and the line-up was determined.
FTW: Blood warrior, power thief, fire mage, giant shaman, gold hunter.
OD: Flying warrior, immortal thief, ice mage, earth priest, gunslinger.
Obviously, FTW had directly taken the same line-up that OD had used last time when they fought. Every talent was exactly the same; it was a perfect recreation.
In comparison, OD’s side hadn’t been able to do the same. Their top-lane, mid-lane and jungler heroes were the same ones FTW had used last time, but their marksman and support talents had been changed.
Back then, Bai Cai’s medicine warlock had been strong enough to turn the tables with a dazzling performance.
This time, OD’s support player didn’t dare to take the medicine warlock. It wasn’t a support talent that just anyone could play, and it was even less likely that just anyone could win with it.
OD’s line-up this time had taken FTW’s line-up advantages from last time and made up for their shortcomings. The line-up was stronger than the previous FTW line-up.
There was a lot of sighing in the live broadcast studio:
“OD really can’t do it. FTW’s already attacking them so directly. What the hell are they scared for.”
“They’ve been using the talent restraint excuse to wash themselves white for half a month, and FTW has now given them a chance. Why don’t they hurry up and redo it completely?”
“Wash, keep washing. Use a line-up that’s even stronger than FTW’s line-up last time. It’ll be fun to watch when they lose.”
“There’s really a problem with this water army that OD purchased. Weren’t they worried that they might encounter FTW in the prize pool competition?”
“They’re probably anxious. Zhou Xingfei’s now infamous and eager to wash himself white.”
“The prize pool competition isn’t a round robin system. After a round of games, maybe Zhou Xingfei thought that FTW would have been eliminated.”
“Yeah, sitting around and waiting for OD to eliminate FTW.”
“The irony in the previous message is great.”
The audience weren’t fools. Anyone who used their brains a little could understand what Zhou Xingfei was trying to do.
Over ten days ago, he’d been hammered over the head by FTW until he was bleeding, and the most humiliating thing was the apology––it was solid proof that he’d harmed Bai Cai before, and he couldn’t clean up his reputation.
In order to save face, he drew the focus of the conversation to the game and said that he’d lost wrongly and unfairly due to OD’s weak line-up.
Zhou Xingfei felt that the next game between OD and FTW would be during the global competition. By then, the wave of interest would be over, and OD, who would’ve gone through an entire season in Europe, would absolutely be able to surpass FTW.
In e-sports, being a loser was the greatest sin.
As long as he won, he would have the absolute right to speak!
However…
FTW grew faster than he’d expected, easily winning the 12 into 6 round in the prize pool competition, and then encountering OD in the 6 into 3 round.
Watching FTW choose talents, Zhou Xingfei’s teammates said, “Since FTW is using our line-up, we’ll take theirs!”
Zhou Xingfei was still cowering. He didn’t want to lose; he absolutely didn’t want to lose a second time.
So, he said, “Let’s not take them seriously. Our goal is the 10 million.”
These words were spoken with inspiring righteousness, and their coach agreed, “Don’t be impulsive. Since they don’t want to win, we won’t be polite, and we will win the game!”
Zhou Xingfei gritted his teeth, “Yes!”
Was FTW motivated?
Didn’t FTW want the 10 million?
Wei Xiao wanted it so much he was about to go crazy!
He’d never taken money so seriously in his life!
At the start of the game, the power thief lay in ambush in the middle of the map.
Commentator A: “Is FTW taking First Blood at the start of the game?”
“OD’s ice mage is really weak in the early stages. If the power thief is able to catch him, the fire mage’s high explosive damage will likely kill him.”
“Quiet hasn’t played much with the power thief, right? Playing it really relies on one’s feel for the hero.”
“Especially when it comes to the first skill’s ground stab. Predicting the enemy’s position is very important.”
“It landed!”
On the big screen, the power thief crouching in the grass threw out a ground stab just as the ice mage came out to clear the lane soldiers.
This skill was the power thief’s core skill. Once an enemy was stabbed, vines would be generated beneath their feet. The bewitched hero would lose control and head towards the power thief.
Wei Xiao: “Little Ning!”
Ning Zhehan had long been waiting for this opportunity, “Got it!”
The fire mage used its first skill, shooting out nine fireballs in three lines.
Bang, bang, bang!
At least six of the fireballs hit the ice mage!
Fireball damage would stack. The more fireballs hit, the more damage they would cause. The frail and weak ice mage’s little body instantly lost all its health.
Wei Xiao stabbed his blade in at just the right time, “Take the kill.”
Ning Zhehan didn’t bother being polite and used a basic attack to take away the ice mage’s life.
FTW was off to a great start!
And it was the relatively weak mid-lane mage who’d taken First Blood!
The scrolling comments were filled up with a large stretch of ‘6666’.
“Quiet is pretty good. The damage dealt by that last knife attack was controlled well.”
“I thought he would take First Blood. I thought this brat would try to snatch up farm even with a power thief.”
“At the end, the fire mage was bouncing and jumping as it took a kill with a basic attack. Inexplicably sweet.”
“Yingyingying, I also want a power thief like that who gives me kills.”
“FTW’s entire team is so easy to ship, I can do Wei-Ning, too!”
In the team chat, Wei Xiao laughed briefly, “Captain, do you want to take a pentakill.”
Lu Feng: “Hm?”
Wei Xiao thought about the first time he’d played as a proper accompanying player. The captain had used the ID LU and played a fire mage, bouncing and jumping around the map, acting well-behaved and cute, putting on a wonderful performance as a newbie.
At the time, Wei Xiao had sent him a pentakill, then said some very cliché words of romance.
This time, Wei Xiao looked at Ning Zhehan’s fire mage and thought of the boss’s fire mage.
He was done for.
They were playing in a competition, but his heart had already begun to jump around.
Lu Feng didn’t have the same rich imagination as he did and only thought that he wanted to play around again.
The more Wei Xiao thought about it, the more exciting he felt it was, “In the entire winter training competition, nobody else has taken a pentakill, right?”
Brother Cai: “Nope.”
During the 15 days of winter training, there were three points competition games every night, but because of the change in rules, powerful teams could only play four times.
After FTW used up their chances, L&P and Pro also lost the opportunity to play.
In the professional arena, it wasn’t that easy to take a pentakill.
No matter how bad the players’ abilities were, they were still all professional players. Even in a situation where one side overwhelmed the other side, it wasn’t easy to get a pentakill.
Across the entire prize pool competition, nobody had ever won a pentakill.
Wei Xiao wanted to give one to Lu Feng.
Close deserved all the glory in the world.
Wei Xiao stared at the screen, and his side profile was unprecedentedly serious.
“What did the FTW team say? Why is Quiet so serious?”
“Ahhhh, I love Wei Xiao’s face, he’s so sweet it melts my heart when he smiles, but when he’s not smiling, it’s so explosively alpha. How could there be a little brother like this who can be both sweet and salty.”
“I’m a little flustered. Our FTW has an advantage, right? Why is he so serious?”
“It can’t really be considered an advantage. Although they managed to get a First Blood from the mid-lane, they tossed away a small portion of their jungle zone. OD’s still stable.”
Unfortunately, the winter competition team chats hadn’t been released to the public, and the audience didn’t know what was going on in FTW’s team chat.
After the training camp was completely over and the special cuts edition was released, Quiet would probably gain a few new titles.
Something like ‘Glory’s trash talk king’, ‘Glory’s flirting god’, ‘Glory’s wildest jungler king’, and other such titles would be strung up on the hot search.
The power thief was a completely different system and playstyle from the shadow thief, hidden thief, and immortal thief.
It was to the point where there were teams who tried to find different ways to play, using the power thief in the support position. This was enough to explain the power thief’s attributes.
It was tanky, its DPS was a little worse than others, but it had strong functionality.
The power thief had an advantage over the other thief talents, which was that it didn’t require a lot of farm.
The bonus that equipment gave the power thief was far less than that of its ‘compatriots’. A piece of completed gear could make an immortal thief change from being a younger brother to a father, but for a power thief, it would only lift it up from being a younger brother to the eldest brother. The difference wasn’t very significant, and at the same time, it wouldn’t drag its team members down without the equipment.
So, most power thief players would let other players in the team take the farmed resources.
For example, Pro. If Park Guizhi took the power thief, then the resources of the entire jungle zone were basically all given to Kim Sung-hyun.
Feeding one’s own core DPS player until they were full and satisfied would mean that the power thief had already demonstrated huge value.
Wei Xiao’s character was that of a typical c-position.
He dared to charge in, dared to fight, dared to lead the rhythm of the game. At the same time, his skills passed the standard, he made very few mistakes, and could afford to show off.
He was hot blooded and passionate, but also reliable and able to bear pressure. Looking through the entirety of Glory, the players who had this kind of temperament all supported the team on their shoulders and stood very high up.
However, this type of player also had one fatal flaw, which was, conceit.
They were used to taking themselves as the core, used to fighting for farm, and used to having all their teammates support them. So, they couldn’t use this kind of functional talent spec hero.
How Wei Xiao would turn out in the future was difficult to predict, but at the very least, his style right now hadn’t yet been set in stone.
His power thief was very ‘humble’.