FG won the first game of the match without much suspense.
Halftime, FG lounge.
“You played well.”
Su Yueyao looked at the game data she recorded during the previous game, continuing: “In the next game, continue keeping an eye on the bottom lane. Their main damage is FIRE; don’t let him develop too much in the early game, and pay attention to their midlaner and jungler visiting. Cut off their source of support.” After a pause, she repeated her warning: “Then there’s PINK. Kill him whenever you can. Don’t give him a chance to develop. It would also be best if he doesn’t get any assists.”
Hearing her words, RUN clicked his tongue and said with a laugh: “As expected of Lord Su, whose reputation precedes her cruelty even to her own nephew.”
“Shut up,” Su Yueyao said, raising her hand to stop him. “You guys are here to win. Does it have anything to do with cruelty?”
WIZARD laughed, shrugging in response. Rubbing the back of his neck, he asked, “Targeting him like this isn’t an issue, it’s just the preliminaries, anyway.”
“I know that kid,” Su Yueyao said, waving their concerns off indifferently. “He can withstand anything, so what’s the problem? If you manage to break him, I’ll treat him to a big dinner tonight.”
“I just think it’s ruthless,” CHUN, FG’s AD, said, recalling something from the past while sipping his tea. “The last time I saw PINK, he was laying on the floor of our training room, doing his homework, and now he’s actually playing on the same stage as me.”1NGL this made me Feel Some Feelings
“The best we can do is to play well, and to be aware of our own abilities. But I’ve never experienced getting targeted so heavily, but at least we’ve learned that people who play too boldly can just as easily become ATMs,” RUN said, leaning close to Su Yueyao to look over the data as well. “But still, he actually dealt a lot of damage despite all of that. We weren’t able to cripple him completely.” Confused, he asked, “Lord Su, why were you willing to give this young man to Wildfire?”
They were both supports. After the game, RUN’s feelings about Zuo Tao were deeper than the others’; it was intuitive. If they hadn’t put such pressure on him constantly and had they allowed him to develop in the middle and late stages of the game, Wildfire wouldn’t have fallen into such a passive situation.
What surprised him the most was that Zuo Tao’s reaction time was fast. In the end, he was able to hold his own and even take a kill before he died, which wasn’t something RUN expected.
It was obvious that he lacked systematic training, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to make such a huge advantage.
Su Yueyao looked up at him. “Otherwise, should I have taken him here to replace you?”
“Never mind,” RUN answered, shaking his head, quickly giving up his sympathy. “As his senior in the support industry, I’ve decided to continue teaching him how to behave.”
Soon, the second game began.
Zuo Tao stopped by the bathroom to wash his face with cold water before getting back on stage. Then, he raised his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. From the moment he stepped off the stage, he kept replaying the last game in his mind.
Not only was he impulsive, he also underestimated their enemies. Whenever he met FG members in ranked games in the past, they mostly played solo or duo; with random players in the mix, it was relatively easier to fight against them.
But once they played together as a team, their tacit understanding gave them a huge advantage.
Especially RUN, who knew how to cooperate and who could easily make up for his teammates when they fell out of form. Compared to him, Zuo Tao felt for the first time that he was like a mindless machine, inflexible and unable to bring any benefit to his teammates.
“After a short break, both teams are now back on stage,” Commentator A announced after both teams finally sat at their respective tables. “Now, let us welcome the second showdown between Wildfire and FG.”
Following the commentators’ introductions, the banning phase of the second game began and ended just as quickly. The situation this time was much different from the first game; except this time, an extra ban slot on FG’s side was reserved for Houhu E’ming, proving that they were still remaining cautious about Song Shihan.
Fortunately, Song Shihan had a deep enough hero pool even with the bans dedicated to him. After a short discussion with Jiang Ming, he chose an AD hero with a relatively higher movement speed, which would raise his survivability in the game.
Wang Qiu still chose to take the Archmage while Si Zheng changed to a tankier hero. CAT chose the hero that she was most comfortable with: the Black Cat.
But when it came to choosing their support, Jiang Ming hesitated. He studied the opposing lineup and fell into thought.
Ignoring the heroes that he had been known to play for longest, Zuo Tao moved the mouse and scrolled further down. “Coach, I want to try Yeyao for this game.”
The voice chat sat in stunned silence, before Wang Qiu broke it with a question: “Yeyao? Taozi, are you serious? This is a hero that can’t deal damage.”
Yeyao plays a healer in the game, bringing along control and acceleration skills. His ultimate restores health to all allies within his range; the only problem was that his magic power output was pitifully low. Even with a complete magic build in the late game, the damage he causes is small, and the best he could do was assist teammates by poking the enemies.
“En,” Zuo Tao answered, nodding in response. “As long as we can win, that’s all that matters. Moreover, the opposing lineup has high damage, so having Yeyao will at least be a layer of protection.
Compared to showing off his abilities, Zuo Tao was more afraid of losing, even more so of losing while having Song Shihan in the same team.
He didn’t want Song Shihan to think that he was a useless support in a team of strong players.
After years of gaming, Zuo Tao had reached a certain level of understanding of game mechanics. Analyzing the current lineup, Yeyao was certainly the wisest choice; but the problem was that Jiang Ming has never seen Zuo Tao play with nanny2Again, the colloquial term for “heal” in CN gaming is “milk”, so healers are called nannies or wetnurses (basically people who feed babies milk) supports like Yeyao.
Their performance in the last game was, overall, bad. They suffered a loss during the first clash, and with the disadvantage, the gap widened until the late game. Jiang Ming had checked the situation online and was overwhelmed by the negative comments, feeling heartbroken.
He was a little worried that Zuo Tao’s choice to bring out Yeyao in this game was influenced by online comments.
“Are you sure you can do it?”
Song Shihan’s voice sounded in the team chat. Zuo Tao’s gaze flicked to him for a moment but his voice was firm: “I can do it.”
“En,” Song Shihan said, “Then make your choice, and stay with me in the early game.”
Zuo Tao, startled, looked at Song Shihan. The man looked calm; even after losing the first game, he didn’t lose composure, remaining as calm as ever, just sitting there without saying anything. It was more than enough to reassure the team’s hearts.
“En,” Zuo Tao finally answered, taking a deep breath as he felt his mood stabilizing. He whispered, “I will definitely play well.”
Ten seconds later —
Seeing Zuo Tao choose Yeyao for the match, the commentary table erupted into discussion. Commentator C, surprised, asked, “Why did PINK choose Yeyao?”
Yeyao appearing in a professional match wasn’t surprising. What was strange was Zuo Tao, who had only ever played damage support, chose to bring him out.
Commentator B: “Has PINK ever played Yeyao?”
“Yeyao is actually a pretty good support,” Commentator A explained, “if used properly, he can crowd control his opponent to death.” Recalling something, Commentator A said, “Speaking of Yeyao, I can’t help but think, didn’t ZZ the streamer use Yeyao to make a name for himself?”
“Something like that happened?” Commentator B asked.
“En, it happened a few years ago,” Commentator A reminisced, “You can look for it online if you want. God Han was also there. After that, ZZ played Yeyao for a long time, successfully making the hero a popular choice for a while. Even RUN’s use of Yeyao has traces of ZZ in his gameplay.”
Meanwhile, the comments —
【I’m a ZZ fan, and yeah, something like that did happen. But ZZ’s such a technical player, it wouldn’t be easy for even fans to copy his technique, right?】
【These two sure are interesting. ZZ livestreamed using PINK’s elf, and now PINK is pulling ZZ’s Yeyao in a competition. Is this considered an interaction?】
【They don’t know each other in real life, do they?】
【Who knows? Let’s just focus on the game. I hope my son does better. He was completely miserable last game…】
After finalizing the lineup, the game finally started.
In the FG voice chat —
RUN sneered. “How dare PINK choose Yeyao right in front of me?”
WIZARD: “Don’t be careless.”
RUN chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve played Yeyao so much I’m bad at him.”
FG is considered a powerhouse for a reason. Having learned his lesson, Zuo Tao made sure to position himself carefully, making sure to hide behind his teammates while playing the role of nanny. Only when necessary did he move to the front to tank damage.
Probably because of his choice, FG turned their pressure on Wang Qiu during team fights.
In the chaos, noticing Wang Qiu’s healthbar disappearing, Zuo Tao quickly used his skill to heal him while avoiding the opposing mage’s skills. Wang Qiu immediately seized the opportunity for a counterattack, successfully killing the opponent mage.3I am beginning to feel bad for FG’s mage; not only do we still not know his IGN at this point when we know his entire team’s, but he keeps getting sacrificed to Wildfire lol
Wang Qiu was left dazed after taking the first blood of the game, retreating somewhere safe before recalling to the base. He said: “I’m not used to Taozi not being out to hurt me. That life-saving heal, I am completely touched. I thought I was really gonna die.”
Zuo Tao did not respond, his eyes glued on his screen.
Yeyao was notorious for having skills that were difficult to direct, but once they hit an enemy, skills immediately come off cooldown. RUN obviously wasn’t expecting him to successfully hit his target in one shot. He was about to retreat when the newly-refreshed control skill fell on him.
CAT saw her opportunity, moving closer to deal with damage. Song Shihan arrived just in time to deal the final hit, successfully getting the kill.
RUN: …
Excited, Commentator A said: “Beautiful! Two kills in the early game, with PINK making great contributions to both. He moved quite wonderfully; how did he predict where RUN was going to go?”
“I’ve watched PINK’s games, and you could say his prediction is top-notch,” Commentator C answered. “FG was a little careless here, and Yeyao’s crowd control is still a pain.”
Wildfire played steadily throughout the game, giving CAT priority in the following clashes. After taking down the baron, the five of them marched together down the midlane to destroy the inner tower.
The second game was reaching its conclusion.
The second dragon spawned, 35 minutes in. CAT and Si Zheng engaged WIZARD and RUN in the dragon pit. Zuo Tao, who had developed well as they reached the late stages of the game, gave them vision in the jungle before camping in the bushes. Ten seconds later, CAT successfully stole the dragon, her health critically low. WIZARD saw his chance and rushed forward. Zuo Tao, who had been waiting, saw him move and flashed towards him as far as he could go, sending all his crowd control skills to immobilize WIZARD while healing his own teammates and avoiding fatal damage.
Song Shihan and Wang Qiu were quick to back him up, using all their skills to deal damage, successfully taking WIZARD down for a double kill.
With the dragon’s buff, their minions received a huge bonus. Song Shihan, who had already completed his items, basically killed anyone who he met while Zuo Tao chased him to nurse him back to health. Close to the 40-minute mark, they successfully destroyed FG’s base crystal.
Zuo Tao refused to relax even after the screen flashed their victory. He moved his wrist, looking at his own data. As expected, he dealt the worst damage in the game, not even reaching 10,000 points.
Not to mention everyone else watching, Zuo Tao, who used to play support heroes to compete with his teammates for the MVP title in ranked games, was not used to seeing such numbers.
Moreover, it had been a while since he last used a hero like Yeyao, and he felt rusty as he played. Others may not feel the same, but he knew himself well. In the mid-game, had he been just a little bit faster, he could have saved Si Zheng.
Since the preliminaries was a best of 3, the third game soon started.
FG banned Yeyao immediately, perhaps because of a shadow from their last game. Zuo Tao didn’t pay the ban much attention. He won with Yeyao in the last game largely by surprise. If he used Yeyao again in this match, he might not win.
Zuo Tao stared at the hero selection screen, his mouse subconsciously hovering on Xuwu, which was one of his best heroes.
Noticing his movements, Jiang Ming glanced at Song Shihan for a moment before saying, “Xuwu is an all-rounder. If you want to take him, take him.” He was already contemplating telling Song Shihan to take a more dominant AD, but before he could speak, Song Shihan had already pre-selected the Ice Emperor.
Jiang Ming: …
If it was at all possible, he was certain that at that moment, question marks were visibly flying around his head. He even suspected he must be hallucinating.
It wasn’t just him. The rest of the team were just as shocked. Wang Qiu, choking, braved: “Uh… Captain, are you serious?”
Song Shihan remained calm, twisting the cap from his bottle and taking a sip of water. “En.”
“Captain, Ice King isn’t a strong hero,” Zuo Tao said, just as surprised that Song Shihan would pre-select such a hero. “Aside from having a bit more crowd control, his damage output is weaker than other ADs.”
“Right?” Wang Qiu agreed. “We can’t gamble like this.”
Of course Song Shihan knew all of this already, but he remained calm. “It’s no problem. I’ll take care of poking. I’ll just play it safe until we trigger the passive.”
Unless they manage to trigger the Ice King’s passive, then they will have to rely on playing safe. The Ice King was indeed weak as an AD; although he had crowd control skills, his overall damage depended too much on coordination with Xuwu.
Jiang Ming recalled back to when Zuo Tao first joined Wildfire. Song Shihan clearly disdained Ice King back then, but look at him now, pre-selecting the Ice King in the preliminaries as if there was a chance it would get stolen from them.
Compared to the rest of the team’s nerves, Song Shihan was much more casual about it. “Would you like to try?”
Jiang Ming gritted his teeth but decided to let them do what they wanted. “Forget it. If you want to try, give it a try.”
On the other hand, Commentator A felt like he was choking. “Uh… is… is FIRE really intending to pick Ice King? Is he joking?”
“He’s probably just teasing PINK,” Commentator B reassured, “I’m guessing God Han is planning to win this game with an AD that has a strong kiting ability, because…”
Before he could finish speaking, Song Shihan locked Ice King.
【Uh… Ice King??? Could it be possible, just a little, that God Han has forgotten that this is a competition, not a casual match? Aaaaaaaaaaaaah】
【HELP I CAN’T BREATHE】
【OP, don’t panic. FIRE has never had any problems in his career, so I’m sure his choice will soon make sense.】
【Trivia: Xuwu’s passive probability increased from 1% to 3% this patch. That means there’s a chance to trigger their passive at least once in a game, right?】
【Botlane gay combo /grimace.jpg】
【I would still like to warn Wildfire fans that if you bet on dogs, you’ll die…】
【I never would have even dreamed of seeing FIRE use Ice King one day, it seems my world is slowly turning magical…】
Song Shihan followed through with what he said. With no casualties on either side after the level 1 team clash, he even managed to gain a sliver of an advantage. Thirteen minutes into the game, cooperating with Zuo Tao’s Xuwu, he even got a double kill on the bottom lane.
Compared to the other lanes, though, their advantage in the bottom lane was insignificant. FG had immediately turned tactics to suppress the middle lane, quickly pushing the first two towers.
WIZARD: “Leave them alone in the bottom lane. If they can’t trigger their passive, they’ll be useless.”
The game reached the 29-minute mark. Both the middle and top lanes had collapsed, and their inner turret had also been destroyed. Just like that, Wildfire was once more pushed into a disadvantageous position.
From the start of the game until now, Zuo Tao’s passive skills haven’t been used once.
“What a pity,” Commentator A said, “although God Han was amazing in this game, Ice King truly is too weak a hero, and Wildfire is already having a hard enough time.”
“Might be simple bad luck,” Commentator B sighed. “It has been 30 minutes, and Xuwu’s passive hasn’t once been triggered.”
【It really is a pity, mostly because Ice King is so weak. This hero was released for entertainment purposes, so isn’t it really atypical for him to be brought out to a competitive match?】
【Even if it’s just the preliminaries, it’s not good if he just lets himself go like this, right?】
【Even PINK has pushed Xuwu to its absolute limit, but still no dice.】
【Lost, of course they’ll lose. What on earth was I even expecting? I actually thought they’d pull another miracle…】
Zuo Tao bit his lip, eyes straying towards his greyed-out skill boxes, his heart restless. Paying attention to FG, keeping up with the rhythm, waiting for his available skills’ cooldown, clearing minions… it was all making him want to smash his keyboard.
33 minutes. FG rushed down the midlane with the baron buff towards Wildfire’s base. Only Song Shihan, Zuo Tao, and CAT were still standing to defend, and the outcome was almost certain.
Seeing FG getting closer, Zuo Tao’s heart jumped to his throat. Hurry up, he screamed in his mind, hurry up! Quickly!!!
“PINK,” he heard. Song Shihan, noticing Zuo Tao’s restlessness, calmly cleared the minions approaching their base. “Calm down.”
Zuo Tao: “I…”
He stopped talking. FG was working together to destroy their tower. Right as they were about to deal the finishing blow, the passive skills that were greyed-out the entire game suddenly lit up.
His heart stopped.
“I—” Zuo Tao’s voice filled with excitement, his eyes lit up: “My passive!”
The big screen reflected Xuwu’s ethereal figure, which, little by little, flew towards the Ice King through the marching minions. The second the two figures united, the Ice King leapt into the air. On the ground where he once stood, ice rose; and an ice-blue sword condensed and appeared in the Ice King’s hands.
The moment Xuwu disappeared, a voice rang out —
“For supreme glory, I shall transform into the sword in your hand, even if it means returning to nothingness.”
After the ultimate sacrifice, Xuwu transformed into a frost sword that flew to the Ice King’s hand. At that moment, the 5-second absolute immunity activated. Song Shihan immediately used Ice King to clear all super soldiers by the base.
Along with the 100% attack bonus, the situation immediately took a turn!
No one expected that Zuo Tao would be able to trigger his passive at the very last minute. KNIGHT and RUN, who were frozen at the front, were too late to run. The Ice King leapt forward towards them, killing them instantly in their half-frozen state.
Seeing the change, FG’s midlaner immediately turned around to flee. Wang Qiu had already respawned and was able to block him, allowing the Ice King to successfully use the HP bar disappearing technique on him.
【TRIPLE KILL!!!】
“Three kills, God Han has three kills!!!” Commentator A shouted excitedly. “WIZARD and CHUN are running, can God Han catch up?”
CAT, having bought a resurrection defense item, teleported to right behind the two fleeing enemies, successfully buying Song Shihan 2 seconds to catch up.
The Ice King had a coldness skill that slowed them both by 80%, and soon, CHUN fell to the Ice King’s sword.
【QUADRA KILL!!!】
“A comeback, it’s a complete reversal of the wind!!!” Commentator B shouted, “I’m having goosebumps, God Han, you’re awesome!!!!”
The completion of the sacrifice meant that Zuo Tao’s vision followed Song Shihan’s. Looking at the Frost Sword in the Ice King’s hand, his own palms sweat uncontrollably due to pure excitement.
His mood, just like a rollercoaster, immediately soared to new heights after the lowness, making him feel like he was drifting.
He did it…
He finally did it.
At the last moments of the damage immunity countdown, Song Shihan’s flash went off cooldown. He used it and, with the Frost Sword’s damage, went for WIZARD’s head. Seeing as he couldn’t escape, he simply turned around to fight back; Song Shihan faced him head-on, successfully zeroing his health bar before he could deal any damage, completing five kills.
The in-game broadcast voice spread through the entire venue —
【PENTA KILL!!!】
Wang Qiu: “AHHHHHHHH I want to get up, I want to sing, I want to dance!!!”
Si Zheng’s answering voice was hoarse. “Awesome. Just awesome!”
CAT simply used an emote, before rushing down to the FG base after she respawned.
Zuo Tao’s fingers, resting on the keyboard, trembled uncontrollably as he watched the king on the screen, still wearing an armor made of black ice. He felt like there was an electric current running up and down his entire body.
Amidst the chaos and clamor around him, Zuo Tao controlled himself, about to say something as well when Song Shihan’s voice, a smile audible in his words, was heard through the team’s voice chat:
“PINK, thank you for the kills.”
![You’re Causing Chaos Again [e-sports]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1sMqC2JNjIep8Ov.jpg "You’re Causing Chaos Again [e-sports]")
