Chapter 1258: All-Star Team Division
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
The high point was finally here, and the entire stadium thrummed with excitement.
To be honest, the question of who would face off against each other wasn't especially interesting. After all, there were so many rounds of competition, and the confrontations between different teams could be seen in the normal League matches.
What was most important about All-Stars were the team rosters! Those players normally scattered among all the various teams would only have this once-a-year chance to fight alongside each other. The audience deeply loved to watch this sort of matchmaking.
Which people would be pushed together in this All-Star Competition? Everyone present lifted their heads to stare unblinking at the display screen in the stadium. The team divisions were only revealed right before the match; even the All-Stars themselves didn't know beforehand.
First, Team A.
Zhou Zekai, Sun Xiang, Jiang Botao, Lu Boyuan, four names appeared on the screen, followed by their account names.
It was Team Samsara. The All-Star team divisions would never separate members of the same team.
Samsara had four All-Stars, which was currently a unique distinction. No other team could match them in number of All-Stars. Blue Rain and Tiny Herb only had three each. Which team's players would be assigned to match Samsara's four?
Everyone's gazes turned to the right half of the display screen. Team B's roster was still empty.
The screen began to flash!
Several lines of player and account names tumbled and appeared before everyone's eyes. And everyone was utterly dumbstruck.
Han Wenqing, Zhang Xinjie, Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng.
!!!!
????
Tyranny's two, and Happy's two, combined into four to match Samsara's four. But the issue wasn't the player number, the issue was, Tyranny and Happy, how come they were paired together?
No one expected that this roster reveal would, instead of proceeding step by step, reach a high point right at the beginning. The live audience was stunned, and then there was an uproar.
Han Wenqing, Ye Xiu?
These two people would be fighting next to each other?
Countless people felt that their brains were about to short-circuit. Something that they felt would absolutely never happen for all eternity became reality at this All-Stars. In previous years, in order to maintain the competitiveness of the All-Star Competition, death-enemies like Han Wenqing and Ye Xiu, Tyranny and Excellent Era, would definitely be assigned to opposing teams. But this time, with Tyranny hosting this All-Star competition, they actually pulled Ye Xiu into their roster, making him stand beside Han Wenqing as a teammate.
This… this was truly a bold move!
But to many diehard Tyranny fans, this arrangement was unacceptable, and shouts of protest actually erupted in the stadium. The hosts, that was to say Team Tyranny, certainly had a hand in this arrangement, but Tyranny fans didn't want to blindly go along with this. Ye Xiu was the archnemesis, forever the archnemesis, how could they just change that?
Those that maintained this view were a few diehard fans. But more people felt that this arrangement seemed very interesting. What kind of awkward battle would result when these two opponents of ten years were standing beside each other? It seemed like many people were already beginning to anticipate, and the various emotions in the crowd were beginning to diffuse.
Afterwards, not many people paid attention when Blue Rain's Yu Wenzhou, Huang Shaotian, and Lu Hanwen were assigned to Team A, while Tiny Herb's Wang Jiexi, Xu Bin, and Gao Yingjie were sent to Team B. This arrangement was very ordinary; for many All-Stars now, these two teams would be split onto different teams. For one, these two teams had history between them, and for another, this allowed Team A and Team B to be relatively balanced in power. If both Blue Rain and Tiny Herb were sent to the same team, the balance would become very skewed. No matter what, A and B had to be around the same strength.
After Blue Rain and Tiny Herb, Wind Howl's Tang Hao and Liu Hao joined Team A, while Hundred Blossoms' Yu Feng and Zou Yuan joined Team B. This arrangement was again to increase the conflict. Tang Hao came from Hundred Blossoms, Liu Hao was former teammates with Ye Xiu. Their pasts now stood with Team B. And for Hundred Blossoms, Yu Feng was formerly in Blue Rain, and therefore was sent to Team B.
After seeing this arrangement, many people lamented that Happy's Fang Rui and Tyranny's Zhang Jiale and Lin Jingyan hadn't been voted onto All-Stars. Otherwise, this team division alone would be an even more complex mess in a boiling pot.
Zhang Jiale would be standing alongside Hundred Blossoms' revival of the Blood and Blossoms pairing. Fang Rui, newly changed to Qi Master, would reunite with his former Criminal Partner Lin Jingyan, the two of them taking their revenge against the Wind Howl that had abandoned them…
So many thrilling points to watch, but because these three players had failed to make it into All-Stars, this sight could not be witnessed. The audience could only sigh about how regrettable it was.
After the players of these two teams were assigned, Void's Ghost Duo Li Xuan and Wu Yuce were sent to Team A, while Misty Rain's Chu Yunxiu and Li Hua entered Team B.
Then, there were only two people left. Xiao Shiqin went to Team A, Yang Cong to Team B.
Looking at the final rosters of the two teams, the most exciting was still that moment at the beginning. Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing would be battling together? Even now, the crowd was still discussing this topic, ignoring all of the rest.
After the rosters were revealed, the 24 All-Stars had already split into two separate lines.
The exciting points to watch existed only in the hearts of the viewers. For the pros, in reality, they all agreed with Ye Xiu's answer to the interview question "who are you looking forward to partnering with": don't really care.
Two teams of 12 players. Following the normal match rules, it was just enough for every player to appear once. After the rosters were decided, Teams A and B separated to their respective temporary prep areas, which were specially prepared for this event. In this moment, they were two teams.
"Alright, now the teams are in their places. After letting them make some preparations, the All-Star Competition will begin in just a moment," the host shouted passionately.
"Coach Li, what kind of lineups do you think each team will arrange?" All-Star Weekend was always broadcast on television, and for the high-level confrontation that was the All-Star Competition, commentator Pan Lin and honored guest Li Yibo were also present for the live broadcast.
"Hm… Every year, there's always one crucial point in the team division, and that is… which team has the healer," said Li Yibo.
"Very true. For a few years in a row now, there's been only one healer voted into All-Stars, Zhang Xinjie."
"Correct. Team A is facing a situation where they don't have a healer, so for the team competition, they'll want to have a lineup with strong explosive power. Only then will they have a chance at suppressing Team B's healer advantage. For Team B, as long as they have a steady team that can thoroughly take advantage of their healer, then their chances of victory will certainly be higher than Team A's. As for the individual and group rounds, it'll just be the leftover players performing." Li Yibo said a whole lot, explosive and steady, but in the end he didn't name a single name. Naming names was very dangerous! He didn't want to be faceslapped because of an inaccurate prediction, and so he had to speak in very general terms for something like predicting lineup.
Li Yibo's answer was vague and crafty, and of course Pan Lin wouldn't try to break it. He simply said a "you're right," and then the two of them looked at the display screen together.
"Huh? Did some kind of argument break out over at Team B?" Pan Lin suddenly yelled. "Director, director."
The camera could zoom in and focus on Team B, but there were no microphones over there to pick up sound.
"Can anyone go over there to see what's going on?" Pan Lin called.
"Is it an argument between Ye Xiu and Han Wenqing?" Li Yibo studied the camera view. Seeing that the heart of the conflict appeared to be Ye Xiu, he instantly thought of this possibility. But when he looked closer, it didn't look like Han Wenqing was arguing with him, it looked like… everyone was targeting Ye Xiu.
"You want to save yourself the trouble and fight in an individual round? Too naive, stand aside," Tiny Herb's Wang Jiexi was saying to Ye Xiu.
"This brother has sixteen consecutive individual wins! I'll give us a head start, get us a solid point, suppress their arrogance. This is such a logical and clever arrangement, how is this naive! Big-Eyed Wang, explain it to me!" Ye Xiu argued back.
Tiny Herb's other two players shrunk back. They of course knew their captain had this nickname, but how many people would dare to use it directly? They stole glances at their captain, wondering what his reaction would be.
Wang Jiexi didn't seem to have much of a reaction. He merely looked at everyone, and then said, "We'll vote. Those who agree with this guy playing an individual, raise your hands."
"What vote! Is your Tiny Herb governed by a voting system?" Ye Xiu said.
Everyone shrunk back again. The conflict between these two was a truly a battle between gods! Those like Xu Bin, Yu Feng, Zou Yuan, these players had all debuted much later. Although they were also All-Stars, in the face of this seniority and qualification, they instantly felt they were still shorter by a head. They didn't have the bravery to go and break up the fight. But even as everyone shrunk back, they stole glances at Han Wenqing, who did have the status to enter this battle of gods.
"What's all this fuss for!" But, surprisingly, the first one to interrupt and scold them was actually Chu Yunxiu.
"I'll go first for individual!" Chu Yunxiu shouted.
"There are three spots, what are you rushing for? I'll go first, you go second!" Ye Xiu said.
"Alright, agreed!" Chu Yunxiu gave a strong nod.
"And then Mucheng," Ye Xiu said, making sure to pick from his own team first.
"If all three of you went to the team competition, that would really be an excellent arrangement," said Wang Jiexi.
"And then leave the individual slots to you?" Ye Xiu said.
"Our Tiny Herb… has a very good group arena record." Wang Jiexi's fox tail was finally exposed. They talked and they talked, but in the end they were all just too lazy to perform in the most tiring team competition, and so they scurried toward the shorter and simpler individual battles. Ye Xiu just very plainly tried to snatch the desirable spots for himself, while Wang Jiexi wanted to stuff the team competition spots full, and then he could just smoothly enter the individual battles.
Ye Xiu stared at him, silent for a few seconds, and then turned his head to look at everyone else. "With that, isn't the lineup set? Everyone else go in the team competition, isn't that just enough?"
"Everyone else" would be Tyranny's two, Hundred Blossoms' two, Misty Rain's Li Hua, and 301's Yang Cong.
"Let's discuss the lineups!" Tyranny's Zhang Xinjie calmly opened his mouth, as though he hadn't heard any of the heated discussion just now.