Chapter 1 The Imminent Melee

The condemnation of Tang Rou continued to pour in like a tidal wave, yet no mysterious force intervened to stop it. Her father gave her genuine, hands-off support and freedom, and even with this happening, he didn't immediately stand up to protect her.

As for Tang Rou, she didn't argue or explain these criticisms she expected. She didn't expect to be understood. Tang Rou began to live a secluded life, focusing even more on Glory.

Compared to Tang Rou, Happy's situation wasn't much better. The criticisms and accusations they received were secondary; what truly mattered was Happy's score situation after eight rounds.

The entire season consisted of 38 rounds of matches. Eight rounds meant a fifth of the season was already over. Happy currently had 31 points, ranking 14th.

For a new team entering the alliance, such a score and ranking might not be bad. The new team Miracle of the same period only had 21 points, ranking 18th. Last year's new team,义斩 (Yi Zhan), only had 25 points and was two places behind Happy.

But Happy was clearly not satisfied with such a score and ranking, because only they knew best that winning the championship in the first year wasn't just empty trash talk.

To win the championship, the first thing to ensure was to enter the playoffs.

And now, Happy had 31 points in 8 rounds, an average of 3.875 points per round.

"Let's take a look at last season's final standings." At Happy's team meeting, Ye Xiu analyzed the current league situation for everyone.

"Last season, Hundred Blossoms, which occupied eighth place in the standings, had a final score of 190 points, averaging exactly 5 points per round. However, last season, due to a major system update, many teams' results fluctuated to some extent. If we look back at the eighth season, the 301 team, which ranked eighth at that time, had a final score as high as 214 points, averaging 5.63 points per round. Looking at our season, after eight rounds, the seventh and eighth-ranked Tyranny and Hundred Blossoms teams both have 47 points, averaging as high as 5.875 points per round. This season's league situation seems to be even more demanding than the previous two seasons."

"If we use the current scores after eight rounds as the standard, an average of 5.875 points per round translates to approximately 223 points in 38 rounds, which is likely to be the threshold for entering the playoffs this season. We currently only have 31 points. Subtracting 31 points from 223 points, we need to average 6.41 points per round in the next 30 matches."

"The situation is very severe! Don't think it's easy to get 6.41 points. As long as we lose the team competition, it means that we definitely can't get 6.41 points in that round. What should we do? We can only make up for it in other rounds. Therefore, the goal we should focus on in each match should never be just 6.41 points. We need 7 points, 8 points, or even more points to ensure the improvement of our results."

"Eight rounds marks a watershed. From the statistical data of previous seasons, we can see that in the early stages of each season, most teams tend to be cautious, observing, probing, and testing each other. The battle situation is relatively free of surprises. But after eight to ten rounds, the testing phase ends, and each team will begin to exert their strength in a targeted manner. The real melee will begin at this time. The rookie wall for new players, the top teams falling into the gutter, and the inexplicable disappearance of some players' form are not without reason. It's because after the initial observation and probing, each team begins to make their moves. Whoever uses their moves well will be the one who truly laughs last. If it's just a comparison of big names and god-level characters, wouldn't the championship be decided before the season even starts, just by showing the team rosters?"

"Come on, let's welcome the upcoming melee! We must be the ones laughing in the end!"

With the situation analysis clear, it was time for the pre-battle meeting for the next opponent.

In the ninth round, Happy's away challenge would be against Miracle, the team that entered the alliance at the same time as them.

Eight rounds meant that Miracle had already played eight matches. What information would Miracle provide to other opponents in these eight matches? Ye Xiu began to analyze it meticulously.

The ninth round of the tenth season of the Glory Professional Alliance was held on the evening of November 1st, which also happened to be the publication date of the semi-monthly magazine "Esports Times". "Esports Times" was much more distinct in expressing its positions and views than "Esports Home". It was with this style that they occupied half of the professional media market in esports. Ruan Cheng, as the leading writer of "Esports Times", naturally made full use of his resources. A major feature in this issue of "Esports Times" was exposing Tang Rou's behavior.

The incident that Ruan Cheng called the biggest scandal in Glory history was described by him with all sorts of flamboyant language. Many of Tang Rou's performances in the eight matches were meticulously crafted into ironclad evidence that she was a disgrace to humanity.

An angel's face, a dirty heart...

Ruan Cheng's wording was extremely harsh. Chen Guo destroyed this issue of the magazine as soon as she got it because it was too devastating to her mood, especially with a match tonight. However, despite Ruan Cheng's deliberate criticism of Tang Rou, he still hadn't investigated her family background, which made Chen Guo look forward to the rhythm of Tang Rou's family background being exposed and scaring Ruan Cheng to tears. This person was truly hateful.

That night, the match was held at Miracle's home stadium in M City. This team, which haggled over the price of players down to 5,000 yuan, didn't seem to be a team with particularly deep pockets. Like Happy, their home venue was also solved through renting. M City didn't have any other Glory teams, and the venue naturally didn't have a holographic projection system specifically designed for Glory matches, which was an important indicator for the league to examine new team applications. Applying to become a team wasn't like Happy, which had won through the Challenger League and would receive support from the league. The fact that Miracle could pass the review so beautifully and be approved for admission into the league made people think that this team might not be particularly strapped for cash.

The projection effect at Miracle's home stadium was quite good. Right now, before the match, the host was coordinating with the holographic projection to introduce the players and characters of both teams.

After eight rounds, many teams found a very strong sense of déjà vu from Miracle's lineup: Excellent Era!

This was not only because they had three players from Excellent Era, but also because of the professional composition of their team.

After the Elementalist, Striker, and Sharpshooter who were formerly from Excellent Era, the first-line characters who often played were Battle Mage, Launcher, Spellblade, and a Cleric as their healer.

This was exactly the professional lineup of the former Excellent Era. The only difference was that the core mid-axis professions of the former Excellent Era were Battle Mage, Launcher, and Spellblade, while now, in Miracle, these three mid-axis professions had become satellites surrounding the three former Excellent Era players, He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze, who had been transferred to become the core of the team.

Among them, He Ming became the captain of Miracle. This player, who often served as the sixth player in Excellent Era, probably never thought he would have the opportunity to lead a team. However, Miracle? To be honest, this team leader didn't give He Ming much happiness. Meeting Shen Jian and Wang Ze here was a comfort to him, making him feel that at least he wasn't the only one who was so unlucky.

The three of them were just teammates with a so-so relationship in Excellent Era back then, but their friendship had deepened a lot after falling on hard times. When the three unlucky guys got together, they would often chat about their days in the former powerhouse Excellent Era. Now that their former teammates had disintegrated, the three envied Liu Hao and Guo Yang, who had managed to get into Wind Howl. These two now had a certain position in Wind Howl, especially Liu Hao, who had squeezed into the main lineup. His performance in the eight rounds was quite good, making Wind Howl, which got him for free, feel like they had picked up a bargain.

In addition, the Cleric player Zhang Jiaxing, who went to Thunder with Xiao Shiqin, was also doing quite well. Thunder was getting smoother and smoother this season. After eight rounds, they were surprisingly ranked second in the standings with 61 points, second only to Samsara, which attracted various attention.

As for Sun Xiang, such a genius-level figure, the three of He Ming tactfully didn't bother to envy his happiness in Samsara.

Looking at it, it was clear that the three of them were the unluckiest.

Joining Miracle made the three of them feel depressed, but they didn't dare to be too negligent. If this weak team accidentally dropped out of the league, then the future of the three of them would be even more embarrassing and uncertain. So the three of them worked hard in Miracle. Currently ranked 18th with 21 points, they were still much better than the last two teams, Mighty Wind and Seaside, who were at the bottom. They even defeated Void 7-3 on the road, which was one of the rare upsets in the first eight rounds.

And this round, their opponent, Happy...

He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze were filled with mixed feelings. Their feelings for Happy were too complicated. He Ming's was a bit simpler, after all, he had already left Excellent Era in the season when they were relegated. He didn't experience the pain of Excellent Era being swept away by Happy in the Challenger League. His feelings for Happy were just complicated thoughts about his former captain Ye Xiu and teammate Su Mucheng. As for Shen Jian and Wang Ze, they had both experienced the Challenger League. Happy could be said to be the culprit that led them to this situation. If there was no Happy, Excellent Era might still be holding high the banner of a three-All-Star lineup and basking in the sun in the playoffs.

"We can't lose this round!" On October 27th, during a small gathering of the three of them five days ago, Shen Jian said.

He Ming and Wang Ze didn't speak. The person in Happy's lineup was a shadow for them.

"This... won't be easy..." Wang Ze hesitated for a moment before speaking. Happy was currently leading them by 10 points in the standings. Professional players, of course, wouldn't think that the outcome was already decided just because of the point difference. For Wang Ze, what was terrifying was still that person. In front of that person, he felt that he couldn't let go at all. Any move he made would be seen through by him.

"They're in a mess right now. It's a good time for us to take points," Shen Jian said.

He Ming and Wang Ze were stunned, then suddenly realized.

That's right! Tang Rou of Happy had caused a big mess this time. If this had happened in the past in Excellent Era, she might have already been sent away, or frozen if they couldn't send her away. Happy was having a hard time right now, and it seemed that this storm wouldn't calm down so quickly. November 1st was the ninth round of matches, and it was also the publication date of "Esports Times", so there would definitely be related articles.

Letting them read the articles during the day and competing against them at night, this rhythm was quite good!