Published at 25th of March 2019 10:34 pm

Chapter 1168: The Best Choice

Steamed Bun had a lot of problems in the second half of the match, so they allocated a lot of time for review until the discussion finally quieted down. After that was the battle between Su Mucheng and Zou Yuan.

Even though it was a victory, and even though Su Mucheng was already a high-level player, they didn't skip this match. No matter how good a player was, there would always be mistakes that exposed flaws during battle. Reviewing matches wasn't just to help improve the person whose battle they were studying, it let everyone learn lessons. At the same time, they could further study the opponent. Thus, no matter whom they fought against, whether they won or lost, review was always beneficial.

Reviewing Su Mucheng's battle was much easier and much lighter than reviewing Steamed Bun's. While watching the replay, Su Mucheng herself was able to notice many things about her fighting, and she would then bring them up with everyone to discuss.

After the individual round was the group arena, and first up was the battle between Fang Rui and Zhou Guangyi. Wei Chen pushed up his sleeves, but it was unclear what he planned to do.

The battle began.

Zhou Guangyi's Cold Seasons reached the center of the map, but Fang Rui's Boundless Sea wasn't there, so he began to look for him, all the way until the two returned to the center and began to fight.

"You played around too much in the beginning," Wei Chen said coldly.

"We know each other too well, I had to make him think a bit more," Fang Rui said.

"If he hadn't had doubts in his heart, your cooldown method never would've worked," said Wei Chen.

"Right." Fang Rui nodded.

In the VOD, Fang Rui was having Boundless Sea play the cooldown method, showing the moment he qi blasted Cold Seasons.

"Not decisive enough!" Wei Chen sighed.

"Me or him?" Fang Rui asked.

"Him," Wei Chen said.

"Well, of course," said Fang Rui. "This is the value of my playing around earlier."

"It's impressive enough that it worked once, but it actually worked twice," Wei Chen said.

"You guys don't understand the depth of this match," Fang Rui said.

Wei Chen made a disdainful face, but he didn't retort, because Fang Rui spoke the truth. This battle was between two players that understood each other very well. It was more of a psychological contest than one of technical skill. Battles like this couldn't be learned, not even by the most skilled players. Without that personal relationship, you couldn't play these sorts of mental traps. And then, the technical skill was another level on top of the psychological warfare.

You couldn't follow normal logic when looking at such a match. In the end, they just found some non-psychological points to look at, and they soon moved on.

After that was another one of Fang Rui's battles, now against Yu Feng. In the eyes of the specialists, there were three highlights of the Happy vs Hundred Blossoms match. First was Fang Rui's final Qigong Blast in this battle, next was of course Tang Rou's 1v2, and finally in the team battle when they took down Yu Feng's Blossoming Chaos.

Hundred Blossoms' Captain Yu Feng was named the most tragic character of this match. In all three of the highlights, he was the victim. Boundless Sea's Qigong Blast landed on the body of his Blossoming Chaos, Tang Rou's 1v2 began by killing him, and he was the one who had been so dramatically killed in the team round…

One mischievous Glory player created a montage of these three highlights, set it to the music of "Why Am I Always The One Who Gets Hurt," and posted the video online, where it quickly went viral.

Ye Xiu of course didn't show this silly video. He selected the proper battle recording and the scene began to unfold before them.

"Too slow!" The recording had barely begun when Wei Chen suddenly let out this shout, startling everyone in the room, even Luo Ji in the laptop screen.

"Much too slow," Wei Chen continued. "Every second after a battle begins is extremely valuable. If you don't get in the right mindset as fast as you can, any small ripple can become the reason for defeat."

In the VOD, Fang Rui's Boundless Sea hesitated for about three seconds after the match began before he started moving.

Everyone stared blankly at Wei Chen. What he said about "every second after a battle begins" was inaccurate reasoning, even an idiot could tell he was nitpicking. But to everyone's surprise, Fang Rui actually nodded in agreement. "You're right. If not for that three second delay, Yu Feng and I would have met under slightly different conditions, and I might have been able to take the advantage."

Everyone continued to stare blankly. Those three seconds of hesitation really affected the entire progression of the battle? Wei Chen wasn't just nitpicking, he actually made a good point?

In the next moment, Fang Rui turned his head to look at Wei Chen. "Didn't I tell you this after the match that day?"

"Mm, I was worried you'd forget, so I'm reminding you," Wei Chen said, nodding.

The sound of one cough after another filled the room. Even just hearing this, everyone felt awkward, but Wei Chen was as calm as ever.

Only Ye Xiu was unaffected. He continued to watch the onscreen maneuvering, zooming out the camera view until both sides were visible, and then he began to zoom in again, finally pausing on one scene.

"Yeah, right here." Fang Rui pointed on the screen. "If I hadn't hesitated for those three seconds, then I could've reached that fork there at two o'clock. From there, if I could lure Blossoming Chaos in, then the situation could have been much better."

"Here?" Ye Xiu used the mouse to circle the position.

"Right," Fang Rui nodded.

"Hm, right here…" Ye Xiu directly switched to a map of Life-Seeking Path and began to study it.

"What if Yu Feng circled around in the ten o'clock direction?" Su Mucheng asked.

"With his speed, he couldn't catch up, I… Oh!" Fang Rui slapped his forehead. "I'm using Boundless Sea right now, not Demon Subduer."

"So he still could've gotten you," said Su Mucheng.

"Yeah…" Fang Rui nodded, but he was still studying the map intently, trying to think of another way.

"What about here!" Ye Xiu circled another position on the map.

"There, if Yu Feng took the path to the right, they would meet face to face. If prepared, Fang Rui could still maintain three steps of distance, but that's still in the attack range of a Berserker. Whether or not he could actually break through and attack would depend on the exact conditions." Wei Chen now began to give serious analysis.

"But even if he broke through, wouldn't the distance to the next fork be enough to escape?" said Su Mucheng.

"If Qi Flowing Cloud were activated, yeah." This time Fang Rui didn't mistake the character.

"What if Yu Feng used Triple Slash?" said Su Mucheng.

"He'd have to predict my move first," Fang Rui said.

The rookies listened quietly. For this kind of discussion, they would sometimes speak up, but most of the time their views and awareness couldn't keep up. Every time they went through this review and study, everyone would notice many things. The ones fighting were Fang Rui and Yu Feng, but they could imagine putting themselves and their own characters in one of those positions, and figure out how they would act in such a situation. Through analysis, they could reach an analogous answer. Boundless Sea could activate Qi Flowing Cloud, Berserker could use Triple Slash, and other classes would have their own ways of boosting their movement speed here.

Just looking at a three-second hesitation brought forth analysis of so many potential changes. But everyone also understood that all of these situations had to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. The important thing wasn't being early or late by three seconds, the important thing was realizing and studying these changes. This was the significance of this review.

There wasn't too much to look at in Fang Rui's battle against Yu Feng, so in the end it finished quite quickly.

And then it was Mo Fan against Yu Feng. Everyone knew the results of this match, and there shouldn't have been much to review. But Ye Xiu still played the recording of this match. Everyone couldn't help but glance at Mo Fan, but this guy was as expressionless as ever. Only Qiao Yifan, who was sitting next to him, noticed how he was clenching his fists under the table.

Qiao Yifan was a bit worried. He didn't know what Ye Xiu was thinking. Was he purposely trying to humiliate and provoke Mo Fan by replaying this match? That… didn't seem too good, Qiao Yifan thought.

No one spoke. The recording quietly played, the screen splitting in half to show each character. Soon, Yu Feng's Blossoming Chaos reached the center of the map, and Mo Fan's Deception arrived soon after, hiding to the side.

"You chose a good position." Ye Xiu finally opened his mouth.

Everyone nodded. Mo Fan, with his background of scrap-picking, was extremely skilled in choosing advantageous positions, no worse than any pro player.

"But sometimes, the best position isn't actually very good," said Ye Xiu.

Everyone startled a bit, and there was confusion in Mo Fan's eyes.

"Because, when facing the best players, you aren't the only one who knows the best position." As Ye Xiu spoke, he switched the camera view to Yu Feng. "Blossoming Chaos' position looks very random, but in reality, he's carefully positioned a distance away from all possible ambush points. No matter where the opponent tries to launch a sneak attack from, he has enough space to deal with it."

Ye Xiu snatched up the esports newspaper issue on the table and waved it around. "Zuo Chenrui said that Yu Feng stood heroically and that was worth 5 points. That wasn't entirely mockery, his positioning was indeed excellent.

"Let's look at his use of his camera view." Ye Xiu switched the recording to Yu Feng's camera view. The display followed Yu Feng's control over his view as he turned.

"Do you see it?" Ye Xiu pointed to a position on the screen, right where Deception was currently hiding.

"The best position you had chosen was also where he was the most prepared for an attack," said Ye Xiu. "If you tried to attack from here, it would be very difficult for you to get seize an opportunity."

So that was the reason… As expected of senior! Qiao Yifan was sincerely happy. Earlier, he was truly a little worried that Ye Xiu's goal had just been to shame Mo Fan. If that had been the case, he really would have been disappointed in him. But now, he saw that Ye Xiu was giving genuine feedback and advice on Mo Fan's pitifully lacking performance in this match.

It was just a choice of position, but Ye Xiu used this to emphasize to Mo Fan what was different about the professional stage.

In this domain, anyone can have the same background and knowledge as you. The best choice might actually be the worst because everyone knows it's the best choice. As a player who likes to use sneak attacks, it's crucial that you understand this point…

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