"Starting to use Divine Coin, I wonder which troops both sides will recruit!"
"Yeah, what I'm most curious about is whether these troops will also come out of that tiny Divine Altar!"
The audience whispered amongst themselves, while the two contestants inside the UFO began their great battle.
Sky, using Orcs for the first time in a match, after a slight hesitation, actually exchanged all 30 Divine Coins for a total of 6 Tier 2 units, the Wolf Riders, each costing 5 Divine Coins.
Guapi, also using Humans for the first time in a match, exchanged his Divine Coins without a second thought for 5 Footmen, 5 Riflemen, two Priests, and three Sorceresses.
"Wow, it seems Sky wants to give up on directly acquiring base equipment and go to sneak attack the opponent's lair! Otherwise, he wouldn't have such an extreme troop composition of 6 Wolf Riders. This is clearly an attempt to utilize the Wolf Riders' high mobility and double damage against buildings to destroy Guapi's base with an early one-wave attack," one commentator stated after seeing Sky's troop composition.
"Exactly. Conversely, Guapi is honestly trying to compete for the base equipment. After all, his chosen lineup is the standard Human versatile tactic. This composition is unbeatable in early game skirmishes. As long as the micro is good, no one can gain an advantage against this lineup!" another commentator said.
"But this lineup is too cumbersome. Footmen and Riflemen are both slow-moving units. If they really go to the center of the map to contest base equipment, and at that time, the Wolf Riders have already reached their doorstep. With the damage capability of 6 Wolf Riders against buildings, it would take less than 20 seconds to destroy the entire main base, dealing a devastating blow to Guapi's economy!"
"Indeed, even if Guapi's troops return to defend, he can immediately return to his own base with a Town Portal Scroll, so there's no need to worry about being trapped at home and unable to leave."
"As expected, the older the ginger, the spicier. Sky is already a level ahead of Guapi in terms of tactics and strategy. It all depends on whether Guapi can guess Sky's strategic intent. If he ambushes near his base in advance and intercepts the Wolf Riders when they appear, it would be fortunate if three of those six Wolf Riders make it back. After all, Wolf Riders are known for their low health, and a Town Portal Scroll in Warcraft 4 requires a full 10 seconds of channeling time, enough for Guapi to surround and kill them."
These two commentators are indeed quite professional, having immediately identified the strategic intentions of these two professional players.
Just as this commentator said, Sky, who summoned the Blademaster as his starting hero, even emptied his meager gold reserves, sacrificing unit production speed, and went to his own shop to purchase a Speed Scroll.
He then immediately used it, and the Wolf Riders, with unimaginable speed, charged towards the Divine Monsters at the center of the map. However, showing no intention of stopping, they entered the shadows through a side path on the left, heading towards the opponent's main base.
While the players were engaged in their cybernetic battles, the live audience and those watching on television unconsciously shifted their gaze to the actual map.
After Sky chose to recruit 6 Wolf Riders and the Blademaster as his starting hero, the audience stared intently at the real-life Divine Altar, wanting to see if Wolf Riders would emerge from it like the peasants at the main base.
As expected, they were overthinking it. The Divine Altar in reality was not as exaggerated in size as the main base; it was only about 1/4 the size. It simply couldn't accommodate too many people hiding inside, especially Wolf Riders, who seemed to come with their own mounts.
However, the audience wasn't disappointed because from the dark areas of the real-life map, 6 Wolf Riders and a Blademaster indeed emerged. This Blademaster was clearly a meticulously dressed cosplayer, with a very similar physique and makeup, earning a score of around 80 out of 100.
But the 6 Wolf Riders that followed were somewhat comical. Although the upper body makeup of these Wolf Riders was done quite well, their lower bodies, the most crucial part, the mount wolf, left the audience speechless.
Because these wolves were simply plush toys attached to their clothes. While they appeared to be riding a wolf under their feet, they were actually moving on their own legs.
But this was understandable. After all, you couldn't really have a wolf mount beneath you. And finding a bicycle or motorcycle to pretend to be a wolf would be extremely difficult to control.
Not to mention, it would be extremely dangerous. What if they injured the surrounding onlookers? And what if the motorcycle fell over halfway?
Therefore, it was better to run on two legs to impersonate a wolf.
Thus, the troop composed of seven cosplayers began to move at high speed across the map, heading towards the opponent's base. It's worth noting that during this movement, the cosplayers generally maintained the troops' movement paths from the game. Although there were significant differences in the details, the general route was correct, and the arrival time at the base was also similar.
After all, they were directing their movements via earphones, so it was normal for their reactions not to be that fast. In fact, the fact that these cosplayers could find the correct movement routes based on the earphone instructions was already quite remarkable.
These Wolf Riders arrived at Guapi's doorstep at an extremely fast speed. As expected, the base was completely empty, with not a single soldier in sight. These Wolf Riders immediately charged in, heading straight for the main base, intending to destroy the opponent's most important building first and deliver the killing blow.
Of course, the attacks of these Wolf Riders in reality were very comical; they were just tapping on the base buildings with their plastic weapons. Naturally, they couldn't actually destroy the base.
But soon, the audience noticed that a panel on the building, which they initially thought was purely decorative, suddenly lit up with a red health bar.
It turned out to be a digital display that could show the health bar of the building.
Given the terrifying attack power of 6 Wolf Riders and a Blademaster against buildings, it was estimated that it would take about 14 seconds to destroy the entire main base. This speed was undeniably fast.
But to the surprise of all the audience, as soon as these Wolf Riders reached the vicinity of the main base, after just one attack, they suddenly stopped. Then, beams of white light struck these Wolf Riders, and the sound of Town Portal Scrolls activating echoed.
In the game, the Blademaster also immediately used his Town Portal Scroll, and all 6 Wolf Riders entered the town portal state simultaneously.
Was Sky foolish?
After such a successful surprise attack, they only attacked once before returning?
Sky was not foolish, because a few seconds later, 15 cosplayers dressed as Footmen, Riflemen, and both male and female Sorceresses emerged from the shadows, directly blocking the base's exit.
Well, compared to the Orc units, the Human units were indeed very exquisitely cosplayed. As long as they held armor, trench coats, firearms, beautiful wizard robes, and staffs, they could achieve a perfect restoration.
Although Sky discovered this very promptly and retreated quickly, one Wolf Rider was ultimately killed by the Human forces. This Wolf Rider in the real-life map directly fell down and then carefully slipped into the black area surrounding the map, becoming a vanished corpse. The other five Wolf Riders also disappeared into the darkness, but it's unknown if they used electric scooters behind the stage and quickly returned to their own main base.
"Damn, this Guapi actually guessed Sky's strategy and didn't go to contest the base equipment at all. Instead, he ambushed near his own base and went to block Sky's retreat,"
"Yeah, but Sky is too amazing. How did he discover he was ambushed? You know, there was a full 5-second gap between him using the Town Portal Scroll and the enemy troops revealing themselves from the darkness. If he hadn't saved those 5 seconds, at least three Wolf Riders would have died!" the audience exclaimed, praising the combat awareness of both Sky and Guapi.
Later, in a post-match interview, Sky stated that the reason he was able to discover something was wrong and return 5 seconds in advance was that he noticed that in response to his attack, the opponent's peasants did not hurry back to the base to repair it but were still calmly mining.
According to Sky, if all the peasants were gathered to repair the base, it would take more than 25 seconds to destroy the base. Although the extra 10 seconds might not be enough to wait for the main troops to return from the center of the map for rescue, it was still a glimmer of hope that he had to strive for.
This was something Sky would naturally do after playing Humans.
However, the opponent wasn't coming to repair and was calmly mining instead, which indicated that the opponent had absolute confidence in protecting their main base from being lost.
Thus, apart from the opponent's main force ambushing near the base, there was no other explanation. So Sky retreated immediately, without any delay.
Although Sky had reacted as quickly as possible, he still lost one Wolf Rider.
In fact, it didn't matter whether the Wolf Rider died or not, because the melee combat ability of Wolf Riders was very poor, and they were no match for the Human versatile units.
Guapi also understood this, ignoring the base equipment entirely. Instead, he led his troops, along with newly produced units, directly towards Sky's main base.
Although Sky resisted desperately, he was still continuously suppressed by the Human versatile units. Moreover, these units specifically targeted peasants rather than buildings. Consequently, more than half of Sky's peasants were killed, his economy completely collapsed, and he directly conceded the game, admitting his defeat.
The first match of the Jiangnan Cup finals ended with the defeat of two-time champion Sky.