Published at 25th of March 2019 9:37 pm

Chapter 432: The Experts Behind the Scenes

Chen Yehui stood to one side and watched carefully with the other two. However, with a pro player like Liu Hao here, the three knew that they didn’t have the qualifications to express their opinions, so they stayed silent. On the other side, Liu Hao had watched until about halfway through, when he suddenly grabbed his phone and sent a text.

As he put down the phone, he rewound the recording back to the beginning and then began to contemplate.

Chen Yehui and the other two looked at one another, but didn’t say anything. Not long afterward, the room to the door was pushed open. The three turned their heads and saw He Ming and Wang Ze walk in. They had seen Chen Yehui call for them and then they went over the videos together.

“Watch this match.” Liu Hao told the two who had walked in.

“Chasing Haze?” He Ming asked.

“First look.” Liu Hao said and then watched the match again from the beginning.

The room fell silent. Liu Hao wasn’t wearing headphones, so the match didn’t have sound. Everyone watched the screen quietly. Once the recording reached a certain spot, He Ming’s and Wang Ze’s expression changed. Chen Yehui and the other two knew that they wouldn’t be able to figure out much from the match, so they weren’t nearly as focused as the three pro players. From time to time, they would glance to see the expression of the three pros. They quickly caught the reason for their change in expression. In the match, it was the moment that the Blade Master exposed an opening and began being comboed to death by the Launcher.

When the match ended, Liu Hao turned around. First, he gave He Ming and Wang Ze an eye before looking at the other three: “Who fought this match?”

“I fought it… ” the Blade Master player replied.

“Do you know where you made a mistake?” Liu Hao asked.

Everyone understood what he was trying to get at because there had been a clear momentum shift during the match. In the beginning, the two sides had been extremely even and it seemed like it would be a battle of attrition. But the tides suddenly turned, and so it had turned out like this. The mistake was obviously pointing toward the moment the tides turned.

However, the Blade Master player shook his head, expressing that he didn’t know.

“The balance of power in the beginning was only a facade. It seemed like a dirty style of fighting, but it actually isn’t. This is a control style. When you find an opportunity, you seize it and turn it into an instant kill. If you don’t understand, you should know who Huang Shaotian is, right? He represents the control style of playing. Of course, it’d be going a bit too far to compare this Launcher with Huang Shaotian. Huang Shaotian’s playing is much better.” Liu Hao said.

This player used a Blade Master, so even if he didn’t like Huang Shaotian, there was no way that he would be a stranger to him. If you wanted to become a Blade Master expert, studying Huang Shaotian was a must. When he heard Liu Hao mention this God, he immediately understood. For a player at his level, he wouldn’t be unfamiliar with different types of playing styles. He might not be able to realize it, but once an expert pointed it out, he could use it to look and could see some things.

“Where’s the other Launcher one?” Liu Hao asked.

The next match was naturally the one against the Sharpshooter. That player immediately came out and pointed at the recording. Liu Hao opened it and everyone began to quietly watch again. Chen Yehui and the other two would glance at the expression of the three pro players from time to time. They couldn’t get much from watching the matches, but they could see quite a bit from the changes in their expressions.

This match was even quicker than the last one. After watching it, the three pro players looked at one another. This time, Liu Hao didn’t speak and looked at Wang Ze to explain.

Wang Ze was a Sharpshooter player, so after seeing Liu Hao’s intentions, he immediately spoke: “Compared to the last match, his play style is smarter.”

Chen Yehui and the other two didn’t dare interrupt and just listened carefully.

“He had mainly been waiting for an opportunity to arise in the last match, but for this one, he took the initiative to create it.” Wang Ze said.

“This has to do with the opponent.” He Ming added, “The previous opponent was a mainly close-range Blade Master. The Launcher has the range advantage, so if he maintained a distance and fought, the Blade Master would certainly begin to lose his patience. Waiting was a good choice. But for this match, his opponent was a Sharpshooter. Sharpshooters don’t have as much range as Launchers, but it’s only a slight difference. It isn’t easy to grasp that difference. As a result, waiting would make him fall from an active position to a passive position, so this time, he took the initiative and created his own opportunity. His decision was correct as well.”

“That’s right.” Liu Hao nodded his head at the two’s analysis, “But the problem is that the two sides have a clear strength gap. Don’t you think that his meticulous planning and playing, depending on the different classes, feels a bit strange?”

“This… maybe he’s just being cautious or perhaps it’s a type of attitude.” He Ming said.

Liu Hao didn’t say anything and didn’t look at any other match recording. Instead, he went online and took out the match between Chasing Haze and Poplar Beach.

“In this match, Chasing Haze was being played by Ye Qiu.” Chen Yehui said.

“Yes. You’ve said this. However, you can’t ascertain that Ye Qiu really was the one sitting behind the screen controlling Chasing Haze, right?” Liu Hao said.

“Yes… ” Chen Yehui nodded his head.

This match progressed a bit quicker. The two sides didn’t really fight much before Poplar Beach was exploded to death. However, after hearing Liu Hao’s control play style, everyone looked and immediately felt that this match was a prime example of the control play style, except that during this match, there were too many opportunities. Chasing Haze didn’t even wait or try to create an opportunity. She simply fought a few exchanges with her opponent and then seized an opportunity that arose and won from there.

“How does this match compare with those two?” Liu Hao said.

“It’s more precise. You could even say that each step was done perfectly.” They had actually discussed this match long ago.

“There’s no way that Ye Qiu is unfamiliar with a Launcher’s control playstyle. Don’t forget that he raised Su Mucheng up by himself. Su Mucheng’s playstyle is another paragon of the control style, though her play style leans more towards synergizing with the team. She isn’t normally a main aggressor, so this type of style isn’t usually seen when she’s in a duel.” Liu Hao said.

“Are you saying that this was all done by Ye Qiu?” He Ming said.

“No… I’m saying that this type of Launcher style is representative of Ye Qiu’s school of thought.” Liu Hao said, “There must be someone else besides Ye Qiu controlling Chasing Haze. Did you forget that day?”

That day was pointing to the day when the three pros had run to the Heavenly Domain, confident that they would kill Lord Grim. But their two-player duo had scared them off. They had even thought that the Launcher was Su Mucheng.

“There have already been many people who have played on this Chasing Haze.” Liu Hao said, “The true owner of this character is the one that had been in Excellent Dynasty. The one that participated in the All Star Weekend. She’s only a normal player.”

“Yes, she’s Happy’s boss. We asked about it.” the two immediately said. The fact that Chasing Haze was Chen Guo’s account wasn’t something hard to find out about. The two didn’t even need to ask around at Happy Internet Cafe. They had heard Ma Chenyi mention it.

“There’s no need to talk about the true owner. What we want to know is who else the other controller is. Of course, it’s possible that it’s Ye Qiu… ” Liu Hao pointed at the video and said, “But it could also be someone else.”

“That’s right… We also saw that person!” the two Sweepers immediately said.

“What type of person is he?” Liu Hao asked.

The two were suddenly speechless because their appearances were very ordinary. They didn’t have any special air to them.

“Let’s look at the others for now!” Liu Hao felt that this question wasn’t the main point. After closing the online video, he opened up another match recording.

This match was the match between the Assassin and the Blade Master. It was one that went blow for blow, until the scene was splattered with blood. However, after ten seconds, the three pro players quickly changed their view on this because, after ten seconds, it was no longer a close fight, but rather a massacre.

“This is… a shameless style!” He Ming wasn’t sure, but his tone of voice also had a little hate to it.

The shameless style was something they all knew about. It was usually used by classes with more defense and health. To put it simply, it was an ‘I have more defense and more health, so if we just trade blows, you lose’ style. A player like He Ming who used an Elementalist with paper defense clearly wasn’t suited for this type of style. In addition, it was a style that he hated very much.

The reason He Ming wasn’t sure was because the character attacking shamelessly was an Assassin. Assassins were a class with low defense and health, too, so the style didn’t fit the class.

“Which match is this?” Liu Hao asked the two.

“This is my second match. Wait, no, for me, it was my third match. However, the first match was just against a normal player. I recorded it, but it wasn’t anything of value, so I didn’t save it.” the Blade Master said.

“I don’t think you can consider this match as a shameless style. It’s just because he was certain of his skill that he relied on winning with just brute force.” Liu Hao said.

“Where’s the other match against this guy?” Liu Hao understood the situation. There were four unknown experts and the two brothers in front of him had both fought against each of them for a total of eight matches.

The Sharpshooter pointed to that recording. Everyone watched it. It was quite rough! This Assassin completely ignored the Sharpshooter’s attacks and just brute forced his way to victory. This was his confidence that as long as he closed in, he would be able to defeat the opponent. He wasn’t concerned about the Sharpshooter’s close combat ability and wasn’t concerned that the opponent had the skill to escape.

“The person’s real strength… is hard to determine. He’s not fighting against someone close to his skill… ” Liu Hao said.

I just hope that the other two don’t play like this… ” He Ming said.

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