Chapter 1145: Launcher versus Spitfire (1)
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The five second countdown passed quickly. This match was undoubtedly the first highlight of today's battle. Two All-Star players, two All-Star characters. Although Zou Yuan's status as an All-Star was partly fueled by the emotions of Hundred Blossoms fans, after one season, his ability was beginning to gain attention and recognition, and he himself steadily gained confidence.
The match began, and Zou Yuan had his Spitfire Bright Blossoms rush towards the center of the map.
Blood and Blossoms.
Team Hundred Blossoms had wanted to recreate this duo. But it was a shame, for this world had only one Zhang Jiale, and only one Sun Zheping, and therefore only one Blood and Blossoms.
Recreating this pairing was Hundred Blossoms' dream, or at least the blueprint that they drew out for their fans. But in reality, Zou Yuan had his own style, and Yu Feng wasn't very much like Sun Zheping. No matter what, it would be impossible for these two to completely mimic the partnership between Zhang Jiale and Sun Zheping. But, so what? The inimitable wasn't necessarily the strongest. From the start, Yu Feng hadn't been very interested in recreating their style anyway. He had come from Blue Rain, a team aiming for the championship win, because he wanted to build an era that was entirely his. He certainly wasn't here to be a copy of anyone else.
During the first half of last season, they had attempted to recreate Blood and Blossoms, but Hundred Blossoms' performance hadn't been very good. Afterwards, Yu Feng and Zou Yuan made adjustments. They coordinated with one another in a more comfortable way based off their personal habits and personal styles. Hundred Blossoms' immediately performance went up.
Now, neither of them would become confused. They would use their own style to surpass their seniors and establish a partnership that was entirely their own. Even though the outside world still called them Blood and Blossoms, they believed that they would eventually earn a name that was entirely their own.
Carrying this belief, Zou Yuan and Hundred Blossoms greeted the new season together.
In the first round, they encountered Heavenly Swords, and with them one of the previous creators of Blood and Blossoms, Sun Zheping. In that match, Sun Zheping won one point in the individual round, and although his opponent was neither Zou Yuan nor Yu Feng, the world still made the comparison between junior and senior. Heavenly Swords lost overall, but Sun Zheping's one point stood out, and later discussions painted him as if he were the victor.
These sort of irresponsible remarks left Zou Yuan feeling helpless. All he could do was focus and battle well.
I must win this point beautifully. This was the goal that Zou Yuan set for himself. He knew that the opponent he was about to face was no pushover, but the greater the difficulty, the greater the value of this point.
Bright Blossoms quickly reached the center of the map, and Zou Yuan saw Dancing Rain rapidly approaching from the other side of the map.
Dancing Rain was absolutely an All-Star character, but after her return to the league, everyone discovered that Dancing Rain hadn't grown as much as expected of such an All-Star character. For most teams, their All-Star characters were the focus of their upgrades after the level cap was raised. After Happy upgraded Boundless Sea's Silver weapon Mirror Moon to level 75, every All-Star character's weapon was level 75. As for their other Silver equipment, that varied between teams and depended on their conditions.
But although Dancing Rain was an extremely qualified character, an All-Star Launcher, her current equipment was somewhat lacking. Her weapon Devouring Sun was the only Silver equipment she had. It was clear that while she was in Excellent Era, after the Level 75 update, Dancing Rain hadn't had an important place in their upgrading plans. Of course, another reason was that Excellent Era's materials gathering hadn't progressed very smoothly during that time.
Now, comparing these All-Stars just by their equipment, Bright Blossoms was in much better shape. This account was wearing five Level 75 equipment, which was considered very good.
In terms of characters, Hundred Blossoms had the upper hand.
What about player condition? Su Mucheng had gone a whole year without playing any pro matches, while Zou Yuan had improved his technique, awareness, and temperament over the course of the past year. In terms of condition, it seemed that Hundred Blossoms held the upper hand here as well.
This was the analysis conducted by Hundred Blossoms on Su Mucheng and Dancing Rain. Now in this confrontation, Zou Yuan was completely confident. He didn't make any move to avoid her, and prepared to meet her head on.
He might not have moved strategically, but when Su Mucheng saw Bright Blossoms, she was the one to change direction.
Zou Yuan was confident, but not arrogant. Seeing Su Mucheng's careful avoidance, he didn't rush forward. The map for this battle consisted of narrow streets, and in theory it didn't really suit long-ranged classes, because there were simply too many ways to find cover from an attack. But both players were Gunners here, so there wasn't any advantage to be had here. It couldn't be forgotten that this was Happy's home game, they were the ones to choose the map, and Su Mucheng was no rookie, having more experience than even Zou Yuan. She chose this map, so she must have some plan. Her current maneuvering must be to take advantage of the special characteristics of this map. So, Zou Yuan didn't rush forward. He studied his surroundings, and after studying the paths he could take, he chose to circle around to intercept her.
But right when Bright Blossoms changed directions, quote a commotion arose from the audience. From their omniscient view, the audience saw the full picture of what was going on. Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain, after changing paths, wasn't trying to move around in a roundabout way, but instead chose to stand and wait in that position. After Bright Blossoms decided to circle around, Dancing Rain emerged again, and came around behind Bright Blossoms.
Glory wasn't Counterstrike, there was no chance of a one-hit knockout. But in a battle between experts, the first to attack had a high chance of seizing the initiative for the entire battle. In the current situation, Su Mucheng undoubtedly had the advantage. Dancing Rain quietly crept around behind Bright Blossoms, and began to launch an attack at his exposed back.
But who would have thought, at this moment Zou Yuan's Bright Blossoms suddenly stopped moving, and just stood there in that narrow street, as though in deep thought. The audience couldn't see anything from the projection, but onscreen, where they were displaying Bright Blossoms' camera view, everyone suddenly saw that from Bright Blossom's currently slightly-diagonal position, he could see both in front and behind him. Zou Yuan hadn't neglected his back, he had made preparations for two possibilities.
With this method, he hadn't really seized any opportunities, but at least he wouldn't let his opponent have an easy time. He wanted to pull this battle back to a face-to-face confrontation, which, in a way, reflected Zou Yuan's confidence.
Of course, Su Mucheng had no way of predicting all of Zou Yuan's plans. She circled around, and as soon as she appeared, Zou Yuan saw her out of the edge of his vision. Su Mucheng saw that Bright Blossoms was just standing there as though he had gone offline, so she didn't move to dodge or hide, and immediately fired an attack.
The sneak attack didn't work, and the two were now directly throwing attacks at each other. The battle was progressing the way Zou Yuan had hoped it would. He readjusted this focus and prepared for a good direct fight. But Bright Blossoms had barely managed to take two steps forward. He hadn't even fired his first shot, when Dancing Rain's powerful smothering attack arrived. Zou Yuan had no choice but to first evade the attack, but with this evasion, he immediately lost the initiative.
Even a Launcher's normal attacks carried an AoE effect, not a single one was a point attack, and so all their attacks were AoE, the only difference was the extent of the area of effect. .
As a result, Zou Yuan discovered that he had made a mistake. He had picked this position so that Bright Blossoms could see both sides, but it was too narrow here. When the Launcher attack here, Zou Yuan suddenly found that he had no way of dodging.
This position...
Zou Yuan finally realized how disadvantageous this position was for him. For the Launcher, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
It was impossible to go forward, so his only choice was to control Bright Blossoms to retreat backward, which would be a difficult task. Of the 24 classes in Glory, the Launcher had the largest attack range, and Dancing Rain was an All-Star character. In Excellent Era, she would often have to use a Screen Cannon strategy to coordinate, and so her equipment boosted her attack range even further. And now he wanted to try to increase the distance and escape her range, but how could it be that easy?
Zou Yuan of course couldn't rely just on movement to escape. Under the rain of bullets, Bright Blossoms ate the damage and tossed out two grenades.
One of the grenades instantly exploded. The screens displaying the match to the audience turned a flashing white.
It was a Flash Bullet, and Dancing Rain was clearly affected. That flashing white screen was her current camera view.
But, the attacks didn't stop...
In these conditions, Dancing Rain was still using her heavy cannon, spitting out dense blasts in front of her. Bright Blossoms' other grenade was a Smoke Bullet, and the smoke was already roiling in the air. But not even the Flash Bullet was enough to stop Su Mucheng's attacks, would the reduced vision caused by the smoke be an obstacle for her?
It didn't seem so...
Dancing Rain was engulfed in the smoke, but her footsteps didn't stop, nor did her attacks. To attack here, she didn't even need to see. Flash Bullet, Smoke Bullet, these things became meaningless.
The audience was stunned. What kind of skill did it take to be able to fight blind like this?
Immediately, sound of applause rose from the audience. Of course, Zou Yuan obviously couldn't hear. He had come into the match filled with confidence, but now he was already a little planicked. From the audience's perspective, neither of his grenades had affected Dancing Rain's attacks at all. But Zou Yuan, in game, could see more clearly, and he knew that Su Mucheng's attacks had changed. The instant her vision was blocked, her attacks became even stronger, even fiercer. The area affected by her attacks instantly became even larger. In such a condition, she actually gained an even greater initiative.
But Zou Yuan wasn't prepared to lose just like this. Ever since he had built up his confidence, his playstyle had became tougher. Flash Bullet, Smoke Bullet, these skills could be used to create a turning point, and Zou Yuan wasn't about to let them go to waste. Su Mucheng wasn't affected by her loss of vision, so he could add some more attacks to cause trouble for her.
Bright Blossoms didn't retreat and counterattacked.