Chapter 1 Team Competition Map,望月森林

As soon as the map name appeared, commentators Pan Lin and Li Yibo immediately began their introductions.

Wangyue Forest, though named for its forest, the forest is actually the boundary of the map. The actual scene is a small village surrounded by the forest. The village is rich in content, but the layout is relatively simple, not like a town map with its streets and alleys. There are only four main areas of buildings in the entire village.

In the southwest corner is a blacksmith shop, in the northeast a general store, in the southeast a warehouse with a lookout tower, and in the northwest a residential area with many houses built on trees, connected by吊桥 (diàoqiáo, suspension bridges) between the trees.

Outside the buildings, there's a pond in the south, not too large in size; in the north is the village altar, the most open and boundless area in the entire village. In addition, some shady trees are distributed throughout the village, not forming a forest, but providing cover and obstacles.

Overall, this isn't a map for a head-on clash. In a big scene like the playoffs, few teams would choose a simple map. Everyone wants to maximize the map advantage, racking their brains to choose a map that suits their team's elements.

After Pan Lin and Li Yibo introduced the map, they naturally had to analyze what home-field advantages Happy had on this map. This topic was undoubtedly more difficult than introducing the map, so Pan Lin mostly played the questioner, handing over the right to speak to Li Yibo. Li Yibo bit the bullet and analyzed, throwing in a "haha" every few sentences to hide his lack of confidence.

The match loaded during the two's introductions and officially began.

Happy refreshed in the southwest corner, surrounded by trees on three sides, with the northeast direction open. At the end of the view, the blacksmith shop could be seen. Tyranny, naturally, was on the diagonal opposite to Happy, refreshing in the northeast direction. The refresh point was the same as the southwest corner refresh point, surrounded by trees on three sides, with the southwest side open, revealing the general store.

The two teams set off along the only direction. Before long, a rippling lake appeared on the east side of Happy's team, and on the west side of Tyranny's team, the solemn and empty altar slowly unfolded.

As the home team, Happy's actions were naturally pre-planned. With the lake visible, the direction was chosen. Happy's entire team ultimately moved northwest, heading towards the residential area.

After having an optional direction, Tyranny's team immediately slowed down their overall movement.

As the away team, being less familiar with the map than the home team, slowing down the pace was very common. But for the Tyranny team to be so cautious and slow in this situation was extremely rare.

On one hand, it could be seen that the Tyranny team really valued Happy; on the other hand, it also showed that Tyranny wasn't just Han Wenqing adjusting, but that the entire team, under the guidance of their core captain, was changing their usual rhythm.

Li Yibo was, after all, from Tyranny, and he noticed this adjustment very keenly, and he spoke about it with great confidence. As for Happy's home-field advantage on this map, and the intention of choosing Luo Ji for this match, he just glossed over it for now...

The two teams moved separately, not seeing each other, creating a feeling of the calm before the storm. Happy's team acted decisively, and many entered the residential area, hiding without hesitation. In the end, only Ye Xiu's Lord Grim remained, not entering the residential area, but cutting towards the altar along the road.

Everyone was stunned.

Because the cautious Tyranny, after some deliberation, ultimately headed towards the altar. And Li Yibo on the television broadcast was saying that in this situation, the open altar would allow Tyranny to temporarily have no map pressure.

But just as he was talking about Tyranny, Ye Xiu was even more decisive than Tyranny, arriving at the altar first.

So when the Tyranny team advanced towards this side, Lord Grim's figure soon appeared in their sight.

Ka ka ka!

Gunfire immediately rang out from Tyranny's side, with Zhang Jiale being the most active, already starting to reload Blossom Valley.

Han Wenqing, who always charged forward first, was now facing his longtime rival and remained calm. Not only did he not immediately charge, but he also stopped.

Confrontation, five against one, was actually a confrontation. Tyranny didn't immediately swarm them.

"Tyranny is behaving quite cautiously and calmly," Pan Lin said, emphasizing the word "quite."

"What's wrong, no one coming?" Seeing that Tyranny wasn't moving, someone who was also very familiar with the Tyranny team immediately mocked.

But with Tyranny's old general lineup, plus their familiarity with Ye Xiu's temperament, no one paid attention to this mockery. The five members of Tyranny did their own thing. Zhang Jiale and Qin Muyun, the two gunners, had already dispersed to the left and right flanks, expanding their vision to scout while also forming attack angles on Lord Grim. Han Wenqing, Lin Jingyan, and Zhang Xinjie formed an inverted triangle, with Desert Dust and Dark Forest at the front, and Zhang Xinjie's Immovable Rock at the rear, slowly advancing.

Instead of swarming up with the force of splitting mountains and rocks as they used to, they slowly unfolded their formation, revealing a tenacious perseverance of dripping water wearing away stone. Tyranny's changes were really making them unrecognizable.

Ye Xiu didn't continue with the trash talk, and Lord Grim retreated.

He had no choice but to retreat.

Tyranny spread out their formation, looking like just a few simple position changes, but in Ye Xiu's eyes, he could immediately see that Tyranny's formation could affect a significant area on both ends of the attack, and it could retract freely, instantly concentrating in the center to launch Tyranny's most skilled frontal assault.

"Not bad."

Just a few position changes earned Ye Xiu a word of praise. It was because he could see that this formation had finally allowed Zhang Xinjie's talent to be fully utilized. His style, which had always been somewhat incompatible with Tyranny's temperament, had begun to perfectly integrate into it after a series of adjustments by Tyranny.

One of the four tactical masterminds, Zhang Xinjie.

Zhang Xinjie, who won the championship as a starter in his first season in the league.

His abilities haven't been fully developed yet!

Ye Xiu retreated.

Without making any attempts, he chose to have Lord Grim retreat.

Decisive, straightforward, but leaving the hesitation to Tyranny.

Lord Grim faced them alone, of course not to take on all five. Happy naturally had some sort of plan, and anyone could guess that.

Tyranny wasn't familiar enough with the map, so they couldn't judge what kind of ambush Happy could set up. Zhang Jiale and Qin Muyun's characters scouted the left and right flanks, confirming that there was no possibility of a pincer attack. The rear was the path Tyranny had just taken, and based on the time from the start of the match until now, it was temporarily impossible for them to be flanked.

In this case, the ambush that Ye Xiu had revealed by showing himself alone must be behind him. Now that he was decisively retreating, Tyranny would inevitably fall into an ambush if they advanced. But if they didn't advance, continuing to drag on and stalemate would give Happy time to complete their flanking maneuver.

The terrain on the left and right sides had been confirmed by Zhang Jiale and Qin Muyun. The altar was deliberately flat, but around the altar, there were quite a few places to set up an ambush. The altar wasn't very big either, and forming an ambush by using the surrounding cover was very threatening.

Tyranny wasn't moving, so would Happy take advantage of the situation to complete this encirclement?

No one could truly see through the two teams' true intentions. Everyone could only know what they saw before their eyes.

Tyranny didn't move, and neither did Happy.

Tyranny didn't chase, so Ye Xiu didn't let Lord Grim continue to retreat. The four members of Happy who were lying in wait in the residential area also didn't move.

These two rivals of ten years met, but didn't immediately spark the intense fire that everyone expected. The two sides were carefully testing each other. They knew each other so well that they shouldn't need to test each other like this. They already knew each other inside and out.

It was just that now, Ye Xiu had a completely new team lineup, and Han Wenqing, while adhering to his unyielding toughness for several years, was also leading his team to try to be more flexible.

Two players in the late stages of their careers, two rivals who had competed for ten years, were still tirelessly seeking breakthroughs in this final stage.

It was precisely because of this that they seemed so cautious at this moment. They all wanted to see through the other's current state before presenting themselves rashly.

Ye Xiu didn't retreat, Han Wenqing didn't advance, and after a standoff of about half a minute, Tyranny suddenly moved their entire team diagonally forward to their ten o'clock direction.

This movement was as swift as a gust of wind, and Tyranny's specialty in strong breakthroughs was on full display at this moment. While adjusting themselves, they hadn't given up the most formidable weapon they had always relied on.

But Ye Xiu was used to this most formidable weapon, and didn't even bat an eye. Instead, he smiled slightly as he watched them pounce ferociously.

"Don't rush blindly, we're not surrounding you," Ye Xiu said in the team channel.

He couldn't possibly fail to see Tyranny's intention. The standoff was deliberately giving Happy time to deploy, and then suddenly erupting halfway through, taking them down one by one when Happy's encirclement was about to be completed but not quite.

"Yes, you can definitely see that," Zhang Xinjie replied in the channel.

"Then what are you thinking about?" Ye Xiu said.

"Positioning," Zhang Xinjie replied.

Ye Xiu paused slightly. Looking at the position of Tyranny's entire team at this moment, they were outside the altar, with a wide road behind them, allowing them to advance or retreat. There were forests on the left and right to protect them, which was much better than being exposed naked in the middle of the altar.

Li Yibo's analysis was the same, but many people didn't quite agree after listening.

Was that all?

Everyone was thinking.

Was it necessary to make the atmosphere so heavy just for this one positioning? Tyranny had been moving casually in this direction before. Could Ye Xiu's Lord Grim alone stop them from charging up?

Everyone else might think so, but Ye Xiu wouldn't.

This was indeed a simple choice, but the simple choice revealed Tyranny's style and temperament.

If the former Tyranny team was centered around the style of their captain Han Wenqing, then in their tenth year, the Tyranny team's style and temperament had finally begun to shift towards their vice-captain, Zhang Xinjie.