Chapter 118 All-Stars

The Thunder's formidable team competition had become a strong guarantee for their position on the leaderboard. They currently had 90 points, the same as Blue Rain. Because their matches against each other ended in a draw, the final ranking was determined by the alphabet, placing Blue Rain second and Thunder third.

Meanwhile, the leading Samsara had 113 points, their dominance so overwhelming that it discouraged any desire to catch up.

The 13th round of matches concluded, followed by December, the month when the annual All-Star voting began and ended.

The initial votes were mostly based on performances from the previous season, especially the strong players from the playoffs, who received a lot of favor. Later, as the new season progressed, an amazing performance in even one or two matches could trigger a surge in votes.

Tang Rou was the best example of this.

As a rookie entering the league, she was quickly propelled into the All-Star lineup after a brilliant one-versus-two in the second round. Of course, her beautiful appearance also added to her votes.

However, after the one-versus-three incident and her subsequent refusal to honor her promise, Tang Rou's popularity plummeted. How much support could she expect when even her own fans disliked her? Tang Rou's name was instantly removed from the list of All-Star nominees, which had been growing daily.

Currently, Zhou Zekai still topped the list. His victory in last year's playoffs and Samsara's dominant lead this season were largely due to his performance. His leading position in the voting was undisputed.

Compared to last year, the biggest change on the list was the return of some names, mainly the three All-Stars who had left for Excellent Era. All three had loyal fans, and they were immediately pushed onto the list. In addition to the unconditional support from these loyal fans, their performances this season also played a role.

Xiao Shiqin had become the most dazzling of the three. Everyone knew how much credit Xiao Shiqin deserved for the Thunder team's surprising results so far. Although he wasn't a performance-based core like Zhou Zekai or Sun Xiang, the aura of such outstanding results made Xiao Shiqin's tactical brilliance shine with immense appeal, attracting a large number of fans. Xiao Shiqin was currently third in the All-Star voting, much higher than when he was first selected.

Su Mucheng and Sun Xiang were both ranked in the teens. The combination of loyal fans and strong performances kept them from rising or falling too much.

But the one who was rising the fastest was another returning name. No, strictly speaking, the name hadn't returned; it was the person who had returned.

Ye Xiu, not to mention his past popularity, was already worthy of attention and being pushed onto the list solely based on his ongoing 12-game winning streak. As the winning streak grew longer, Ye Xiu's vote count also increased. Adding to that the recent strong performance of Happy, Ye Xiu was currently sixth in the voting and was continuing to charge forward. The recent craze for unspecialized characters in Glory showed the extent of his influence. The game developers were even forced to add hard prompts in the game, reminding players who hadn't changed classes by level 20 about the increasing difficulty of survival. They also indirectly reminded everyone not to imitate a certain person, because that person was special, a unique talent with a special custom-made weapon.

Despite this, players' enthusiasm was still unstoppable. Many players were tinkering with the equipment editor, trying to create a Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, which even caused the price of level 5 equipment materials to rise.

Some people returned to the voting list, while others were inevitably squeezed out.

Happy had one such person. Fang Rui's class change left his original Thief supporters at a loss. The Qigong Master players, although seeing him holding the All-Star Qigong Master character Boundless Sea, well... his performance as a Qigong Master so far hadn't been convincing. As for the recent Qigong Master tactics of crawling on the ground, even fewer Qigong Master players found it appealing.

Also dropping out of the voting list was Zou Yuan of Hundred Blossoms. This All-Star, who had been voted in almost entirely out of spite for two consecutive years, was being squeezed out due to intense competition, just as he was finally displaying true strength.

Also squeezed out of the list was Tian Sen of Wind Howl.

Sweeping Monk, this once top-tier God-level character, who had been on the All-Star list since its inception, regardless of who controlled it, finally disappeared from the top 20 for the first time due to the team's poor performance over the years.

Tian Sen, the current main player of Sweeping Monk, was also very helpless about this. He had been fighting year after year, but the team had never improved, remaining stuck in the middle. The growing number of competitors had finally pushed them off the altar.

The absence of Tian Sen and Sweeping Monk caused some sighs.

Another veteran was squeezed out of the voting list: Lin Jingyan of Tyranny. This longtime All-Star had finally lost his place.

Tyranny's failure to win the championship last season initially garnered a lot of sympathy. When the voting channel opened this season, the votes for Tyranny's players surged. However, once that wave passed and the new season's performances began to play a decisive role, the vote growth for the veterans who had started rotating and playing less frequently began to slow down. Tyranny's captain, Han Wenqing, was still in a stable position, but Lin Jingyan had already fallen out, and Zhang Jiale was currently ranked 23rd and was also in danger. There was a high probability that he would be replaced after December. Outside the list, a bunch of names were eyeing the positions, and the vote difference wasn't big. A surge in votes from an explosive performance could surpass them.

Overall, the changes in the voting list weren't that significant.

The return of Xiao Shiqin, Su Mucheng, Sun Xiang, and Ye Xiu wasn't surprising. Compared to the rookies Lu Hanwen and Gao Yingjie entering the list last year, the current list this season didn't have that kind of fresh blood. Tang Rou originally had the strength to do so. Based on her explosive performance in the second round and her performance since then, she was a very powerful rookie. Unfortunately, the damage to her image after the one-versus-three incident naturally made her unpopular in such voting.

The league was currently facing a dilemma. All-Star voting was just for fun. On-field performance could stimulate vote growth, but it wasn't the only deciding factor. However, the various awards that the league organized each year were based entirely on the players' actual performance that season, with data being the primary factor.

From a technical and tactical perspective, Tang Rou was undoubtedly the best rookie this season. However, the league felt a lot of pressure at the thought of awarding such an unpopular player the Best Rookie award. There were still more than half of the matches to go before these awards were announced, but some people had already started worrying about it, which showed that Tang Rou's performance was still outstanding among the rookies.

December, as the final month of All-Star voting, meant that the rankings at the beginning of December couldn't be used as any reference. More and more players would save their votes until December, until the voting channel was about to close, after thoroughly reviewing all the performances.

Would anyone make a strong surge and get on the list in December? This was a highlight of the league in December. In the past, December also had another highlight: the winter transfer window. That was because there weren't as many league teams back then. Matches started in September, and December was the halfway point, so the mid-season transfer period was set in December. Now, the league's January schedule was usually a bit short of the halfway point. After discussing it for several seasons, the league finally officially decided in the tenth season to move the winter transfer window to January.

In comparison, the opening of a new server in Glory Online had almost no impact on the pro teams. Only the online game guild departments of the major clubs were busy, and they had to organize their forces before December to enter the new server to compete for resources and promote their clubs.

Happy now had a formal online game guild department. After developing for nearly half a year, its personnel organization had also stabilized. And the new server was crucial for a newly established guild like Happy. After all, in a new server with a zero starting point, there was a greater chance of competing for an advantage. In the old server and in the Realm of Gods, Happy was still a pursuer.

After careful organization, Wu Chen solemnly submitted a list of personnel prepared to go to the new server to Chen Guo. The generous boss Chen knew that the new server work was very important, and with a wave of her hand, she gave the new server personnel an extra bonus in advance.

The online game guild department was currently quite strong, and Happy's technical development department had also expanded slightly. Technical personnel were hard to find, but which major team didn't have its share of family secrets? Some personnel changes, involving the technical development department, sometimes resulted in departures.

After Chen Guo failed to find satisfactory candidates through her own recruitment, she began to pay attention to this area. As the saying goes, efforts pay off. In November, Thunder made a small adjustment, and a technical department employee resigned for personal reasons. Chen Guo quickly launched an attack, but unfortunately, the person's personal reason was that they wanted to return to their hometown to work. City H was unfortunately not their hometown. Chen Guo couldn't meet this condition, and finally, she watched helplessly as this technical talent returned to their hometown City K and joined the Hundred Blossoms team.

The second time was a personnel change in Wind Howl. Two technical department personnel resigned one after another. Chen Guo first inquired to confirm that there was no "want to return home" reason, and then personally went to City B to meet with the people in person.

Chen Guo's actions this time were really swift. Excellent Era, who were also in City B with Wind Howl, had already started negotiations, but one of them had already been persuaded and signed by Chen Guo. For the one who was already secured, Lou Guanin was of course fine with not tearing face and playing tricks, but the only one left didn't want to be humble with Happy. With a wave of the checkbook, he simply smashed it down decisively. After Chen Guo learned about it, she didn't say anything. She was satisfied with being able to secure one, and she only hoped that this person wouldn't harbor any emotions in their work after learning that they had missed Excellent Era's high pay in the future.

So far, Wang Sen, the new technical department member who had been working at Happy for ten days, was still very steadfast.