Chapter 1042: Box Tactics
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
"They're actually using Screen Cannon..." Li Yibo's words rushed out in a breath of surprise upon realizing what Team Happy was doing, but then wasn't sure what else to say. He had a strange feeling. From the performance the two teams had displayed today, overall, Happy was more like Excellent Era while Excellent Era… Excellent Era didn't really seem like much of anything.
That's right. The current Excellent Era wasn't the same Excellent Era that it used to be anymore. In the current team, only the ace character One Autumn Leaf and Cleric Woven Shadows were from the original roster. The rest of the characters had all been switched out.
Originally, everyone saw Excellent Era as a team with three All-Star players. However, from the current team build, it was clear that Su Mucheng's Launcher had lost her place on the team.
Was this a tactical decision? It didn't seem certain.
Though the Shadow Play was a very good way to make up for Sun Xiang's shortcomings while utilizing his ability to the fullest, in the Screen Cannon strategy that Excellent Era once employed, Launchers gave the best coordination and support, and that was Su Mucheng's most striking characteristic as a player.
Was it that they didn't know how to coordinate after switching aces? Pro players weren't dumb. They had to determine if that strategy would still be employed and if the team still needed her support and coordination.
Starting from the latter half of the last season, it was clear that Su Mucheng and Dancing Rain's role in the team had clearly changed. She and Sun Xiang's One Autumn Leaf never gained the title of Best Partner that they had always received before. She had become an independent offensive player. As for this season, since there were no pro matches to play, what little that made up the Challenger League wasn't enough to make Excellent Era's new methods apparent.
With Xiao Shiqin's Mechanic and Shen Jian's Striker, the Excellent Era of today held no trace of the original Team Excellent Era.
On the contrary, it was Happy, despite having completely different classes from the original Excellent Era, whose performance elicited a warm familiarity in the hearts of many Excellent Era fans with this strategy they were using.
Li Yibo had no words. Excellent Era's fans were at a loss, too.
A team rebuilding their style from scratch wasn't enough to scare their fans away. However, when they realized that their opponent was so similar to the original team they were loyal to, the fans couldn't help but feel quite uncertain.
Now, the two were personally strangling each other to death. Seeing the tactics that were most familiar to them suppressing the very team that they supported, the feelings Excellent Era's fans were in turmoil.
They were watching helplessly as their Team Excellent Era was torn apart while Happy was throwing around all of their most familiar tactics.
"Screen Cannon… and Ye Xiu stalling Qiu Fei and Sun Xiang. This ace player oriented style that belongs to powerhouses…" Pan Lin was detailing the tactics and strategies used by Happy.
"You've missed one: Tang Rou is stalling Xiao Shiqin," Li Yibo brought up.
"Ah… This is…" Pan Lin hesitated for a moment. "Box-1?"
"That's right, it's Box-1," Li Yibo confirmed with confidence.
The so-called "Box-1" was when a member of the team was sent to stall and harass a key member of the opposing team. That member would no longer be responsible for coordinating with the rest of the team. They only had one task, which was to prevent the target player from coordinating with the rest of their team. So long as this was accomplished, then this "Box-1" would be considered successful. It didn't matter if the player couldn't kill the opponent because "Box-1" targeted a player crucial to the opposing team. Through isolating that player from the opposing team, that team's formation would take a tremendous hit. That was the true tactical intent of "Box-1".
Using "Box-1" against a Master Tactician like Xiao Shiqin was extremely difficult. However, it was a good thing that Team Happy's goal wasn't to remove or isolate Xiao Shiqin, but to stall for time. Just like how Ye Xiu was fighting one on two. In reality, he stood very little chance against the combination of Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei and could only keep being pushed back. However, what he gained was time. This was what caused Zhang Jiaxing, head raised in hope, to despair. At this rate, he'd be killed!
Xiao Shiqin was desperate, but he couldn't find any breakthrough points. All his hope was placed on Excellent Era's sixth member, Wang Ze.
The sixth player would automatically be switched in upon a player's death. They could choose which support zone to switch in from. The reason Happy could switch out Little Cold Hands for Steamed Bun Invasion to maximize DPS was because this area was close to a support zone. Wang Ze's Sharpshooter should be here any time now.
Gunshot!
Wang Ze's Sharpshooter came just as Xiao Shiqin predicted. He appeared where Wu Chen's Dawn Rifle was, so his first attack was aimed at Dawn Rifle. This caused a great disturbance in Happy's Screen Cannon. Plus, Wang Ze's class was coincidentally a Sharpshooter. His attack range wasn't as good as Launchers, but he didn't have as much trouble as the melee classes. Due to the gunfire aimed at him, Dawn Rifle's tempo was messed up. His talent was average, so using a Screen Cannon under this focused fire was hard for him to maintain.
"Rescue the Cleric!" Xiao Shiqin hurriedly sent out the order.
Even without the Screen Cannon in the way, Sun Xiang and Qiu Fei couldn't get past Ye Xiu so easily, and nor could Shao Xiqin throw Tang Rou off. After so long, the healing skills Zhang Jiaxing's Woven Shadows could use were all on cooldown, and he couldn't really do anything. He was too busy dodging attacks. All he could do was await support. Out of the three sides on Excellent Era, if any one side could break through, then the situation could be salvaged. Right now, it seemed that the newcomer Wang Ze was their best chance.
The sixth member couldn't watch the match from an omniscient point of view, so in reality, he was the most confused person. His only knowledge of the situation came from what he could glean from the messages in the chat. The players on the field didn't really have any time to communicate the situation to the sixth player, who would appear on the field at an uncertain time. Usually, the first order given to the sixth player was to tell them which support zone they should switch in from upon a player's death.
Entering the match then rushing over from the support zone, the first of Happy's characters Wang Ze saw was Dawn Rifle, so he quickly began to attack as he looked over the situation.
Without looking he would have no idea, but now that he saw what was going on, he was shocked. His own team was scattered and their Cleric was being beaten up, unprotected, and in a dire situation.
Wang Ze was just thinking he should probably go rescue Woven Shadows first when Xiao Shiqin gave the order. Naturally, he unhesitantly threw Dawn Rifle to the side to charge into the fray.
Yet that was when Wu Chen decided he wasn't having that and Dawn Rifle began to attack Wang Ze's Sharpshooter wildly, even closing in to block him with his body.
Launchers didn't have that many melee skills like Sharpshooters did, so closing in on a Sharpshooter meant nothing good for them. However, was he at a disadvantage now? Of course not. Wang Ze just wanted to get him off his tail as fast as possible, but Wu Chen didn't care, clinging to the Sharpshooter with all his might.
That's right. He was a very ordinary, even closer to a below-average pro player. After his own team had disbanded, he had lost his source of bread and butter. He wasn't young anymore and he wasn't very skilled. Which real team would take him? The only teams that would were grassroots teams that couldn't even attract pro players!
Yet a grassroots team really had came.
Happy had eliminated them from the Challenger League and was the perpetrator of their disbandment. This team that he should hate was the one that had sent him an invite.
Wu Chen accepted. He couldn't bear leaving Glory so soon. It was just that, after joining to Happy, his main job was no longer to be a player that competed in matches. That, for him, was somewhat disappointing. Though his skill wasn't at the cream of the crop level, the eagerness pros held towards competing wasn't measured by skill level.
It was a good thing that Happy had registered him in the Challenger League, which made him hopeful for another chance. He hoped to compete onstage more, but he had never thought that Happy would leave the grandest stage of the Challenger League to him. When Ye Xiu had told him he was going up for the finals of the Challenger League, he could barely believe his ears. After confirming things, he naturally had a few doubts. Because even though Happy might've been a grassroots team, Wu Chen knew that his skill wasn't anything special among the members of this grassroots team. Even disregarding God Ye Qiu, the other newbies had potential that was better relied on.
Why me?
Wu Chen had questioned and Ye Xiu had replied honestly: because you're a Launcher.
So it was because of his class.
This sort of reason would disappoint most people. Everyone hoped that others would notice their talent, but not Wu Chen. Talent? After being a part of the Glory circle for so long, he knew how much talent he had. With his talent alone, he wouldn't be given the chance to appear on this sort of stage at all.
Because of his class. This reason wasn't anything wonderful, but it was satisfactory enough for him. Wu Chen thanked the class he had stuck with and loved for giving him such a chance in the end. Wu Chen knew with clarity that this match would probably be the last time he ever appeared in an official match and this stage was probably the largest he could ever get.
The finals of the Challenger League opponent? Excellent Era!
Wu Chen had been excited and nervous. For this match, he had went and trained with all his might, doing everything he could to accomplish what was required of him. Ye Xiu had already clearly informed him of what the team needed him to do, and he had trained according to these needs. Finally, the matchday had arrived.
His had performed… alright, right?
Until today, the careful and precise Wu Chen had been satisfied with his performance. Now, all they had to do was kill Excellent Era's Cleric and then they would've completely tilted the scales of victory for this match. Yet, it was at such a crucial moment that Excellent Era's sixth player had arrived and tried to break through the area he was in to save their Cleric.
No! I won't allow this to happen!
Wu Chen, who had been careful the entire match, seemed to completely lose all rationality in that moment. He used a fighting style that should never appear on a Launcher and stuck to this Sharpshooter like gum. His mind had mostly blanked. All he knew was that he had to stop this person to assure victory in this match.
"Wu Chen… this… this…" Wu Chen, a player who should've been easy to see through for Li Yibo, was now someone whose actions had made Li Yibo speechless. His current actions weren't something that was for show; it was ugly; it had no skill to it.
"Is this… Box-2?" Pan Lin suddenly asked.
"Box-2?" Li Yibo was stunned. Ok… from some perspectives, this could be counted as a Box-2, but Wu Chen's performance really was rather "two"*. Yet Wang Ze's Sharpshooter really had been stalled by him.
"It's over," Li Yibo sighed, shaking his head. Team Excellent Era, Zhang Jiaxing's Cleric, Woven Shadows, had been eliminated from the match.
Translator's Thoughts
Nomyummi Nomyummi
TN: *Two, in Chinese, is a way of saying stupidly incomprehensible. - Jouissance