Chapter 3 The Third Round of the Individual Competition

The third round of the individual competition was about to begin, with both characters loading into the match.

In fact, as Wei Chen said, this match, in theory, was dispensable for both sides. This one point would not affect the final result. However, professional competitions are never as simple as arithmetic. This point indeed had no impact on the result, but the outcome of this match could very likely affect the direction of the subsequent matches.

Having won two consecutive matches in the individual competition, Xingxin's morale was undoubtedly high. And what about Xuanqi? Having been defeated in two consecutive matches in an extreme manner, their morale had suffered a considerable blow, which Zhang Yiwei's feigned nonchalance could not completely resolve.

This match would determine the direction of both sides' morale, and no one dared to take it lightly.

The characters loaded in quickly. Wei Chen's Wind Howl was undoubtedly the most prominent character in this Challenger League. Although Team Jia Shi had One Autumn Leaf, Extinguisher, and Dancing Rain, players were already accustomed to the power of these all-star-level characters. But what about Wind Howl? This suddenly emerged character was actually equipped with eight pieces of Silver equipment! Looking at the professional circle, many teams' substitute or rotation characters didn't even have such gorgeous equipment!

Team Xuanqi was a top-tier weak team in the professional circle. Not to mention rotation characters, even their main characters didn't have eight pieces of Silver equipment. Facing Wind Howl at this time only made Team Xuanqi's characters seem like grassroots.

The broadcast commentator was introducing the two sides' players with such jokes.

"Alright, the match has begun. In the previous two matches, Team Xingxin ended the match in surprising ways. Will this match bring us any more surprises? Player Wei Chen, I think players with a longer Glory history won't be too unfamiliar with him. He was the first captain of Team Blue Rain. The current number one Warlock character in the Alliance, Soarer, was actually created and brought into the Alliance by him. Players who have watched his matches will surely have some impression of him, because he is a... um... a very individualistic player. Now, let's enjoy this match together."

"Kid, bring it on!"

At the start of the match, Wei Chen simply typed a message in the public channel, and then remained motionless. Wind Howl seemed to have no intention of actively moving forward, and was just waiting for the opponent to come over.

The Xuanqi player didn't know this, and thought it was just an ordinary taunt, controlling his character to advance at full speed. But after rushing halfway, he still didn't see Wind Howl, and that's when he realized something was wrong.

Under normal circumstances, the two sides should have met in the center of the map by now! Why wasn't the opponent's character there?

Not good!

The Xuanqi player's character was a Sharpshooter, and he turned around nimbly, raised his dual guns, and carefully aimed around.

The audience was waiting for him to rush to Wind Howl's spawn point and start fighting, but who knew that after walking halfway, this guy started showing off himself? Everyone was stunned at first, and then after realizing the meaning of his actions, the audience suddenly burst into laughter.

This scene clearly illustrated that every match in the professional competition was not just about accumulating points. This player was obviously influenced by the previous match. Seeing that his opponent was nowhere to be seen after walking halfway, he immediately assumed that the opponent had adopted the same tactic as Deception in the previous match, and quickly began to be vigilant of his surroundings.

And so, after looking around behind him and not finding anything, this guy further expanded his search radius, not rushing forward, but started turning around in place.

The audience laughed again, but after laughing, they felt a little tired. How long was this guy going to be suspicious?

The laughter of the audience made the Xuanqi team extremely embarrassed, but they couldn't remind the participating player, and could only continue to watch this Sharpshooter turn around everywhere on the map with a red face, just not going to where Wind Howl was.

"Hehe, kid, do you think you can find me by running around like this?" At this time, a sentence from Wei Chen suddenly appeared in the channel.

The audience was immediately in an uproar. This guy, theoretically, shouldn't know what his opponent was doing. However, he stood still in place, and after so long, the opponent still hadn't appeared. It wasn't difficult to guess that the opponent was circling around without coming directly. As a result, this guy took the opportunity to pretend, wasn't that too opportunistic?

As a result, the Xuanqi player became even more uneasy and started looking for Wind Howl even more frantically.

What about Wind Howl? He finally moved, but instead of walking out to fight, he walked behind a large rock near his spawn point, and then silently squatted down.

Shameless! This was too shameless!

Such behavior was not explicitly prohibited by the rules, but professional players cherished their image. Every match was watched by so many players, and under such scrutiny, no one was embarrassed to do such a thing. This was no longer the Shameless style, but really shameless.

Even the broadcast commentator felt powerless after witnessing Wind Howl's actions. In order to do a good job of commentating on this match, he would prepare in advance, and of course, he had to understand the background of players like Wei Chen who had a history. However, due to the limited time, he only managed to find some written materials about Wei Chen.

No bottom line, unscrupulous...

In the materials, he saw nothing but such wording, which was not convenient to directly say on television, so in the end, he summarized it as being extremely individualistic. And now, he finally saw with his own eyes in the match what he described as individualistic, and he couldn't make any comments about it.

So the whole match proceeded in silence. Wei Chen's Wind Howl hid behind the rock without moving, and the Xuanqi's Sharpshooter continued to be suspicious and thought that the opponent was following him around. The commentator was out of words, the audience was speechless. Was this a match or a farce? Seeing Wei Chen's occasional teasing in the public channel, Xuanqi suddenly regretted it. Perhaps Wei Chen's suggestion at the beginning to let them directly forfeit was a good idea?

In such a scene, the opponent was relaxed and comfortable, not embarrassed at all to hide in the corner. And their players were suspicious, scaring themselves and working hard in the field. After the initial amusement and embarrassment, the Xuanqi players gradually felt some sympathy and some sadness. They would rather lose this match than see their teammates work so hard and embarrassingly on the field.

Zhang Yiwei felt the team's feelings. He turned around and gave a few instructions to a Xuanqi player.

"Forfeit?" Tang Xing was surprised to hear the coach's decision. Although just now, he had the thought that it would be better to forfeit this match, but it was just a thought. And now, the coach was actually going to put it into practice.

Tang Xing was the captain of the Xuanqi team. The professional alliance does not yet recognize the identity of coaches. Many powers are held by the team's captain, but their coach cannot enjoy them in principle. For example, right now, if they want to forfeit, in addition to the players on the field, only the captain has the right to make this decision off the field. So the captain can only negotiate with the referee. If Zhang Yiwei, with the identity of a coach, goes to the referee and says that Xuanqi will forfeit this match, he will definitely be ignored.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tang Xing hesitated. Although the captain had this power, this was after all an individual match, and the player on the field had not given up yet. It was inevitable that his decision would hurt the player who was working hard.

"Let's do it this way!" Zhang Yiwei's attitude was firm.

What he wanted was not the victory of this match, because this point was never important. What Zhang Yiwei wanted was to use this match to win back some morale for his players. But now, the player on the field was being teased, while the opponent was waiting at ease. If they continued, the chances of losing were high, and such a result would only further damage morale. Although winning in this situation could even greatly boost the morale of the whole team, Zhang Yiwei didn't want to gamble on this risk. Because he had realized that giving up this match could also make the whole team feel relieved. This match was really too suffocating and too depressing to watch.

"Okay..." The coach was supreme in the Xuanqi team. Tang Xing had no choice but to respect Zhang Yiwei's decision and started walking towards the competition stage.

During the match, no one was allowed to enter the competition venue. Tang Xing approached, and a referee immediately stopped him. Tang Xing then stated his intention. The referee was stunned for a moment, and then asked Tang Xing for final confirmation. After receiving Tang Xing's clear answer, the referee returned to the field and went directly to the Xuanqi player's competition seat.

Tang Xing didn't return to his seat. He wanted to pick up their player here. He believed that this decision would definitely disappoint the opponent very much, and he had to do his best to comfort him.

Then, the referee went to the Xuanqi player's competition seat and announced this matter. This match, without any contact between the two sides, ended with the Xuanqi player leaving the match, and Xingxin was declared the winner.

"Huh?" Wei Chen, who was still hiding behind the rock and thinking about the next trash talk, suddenly saw the system notification of the opponent leaving the match. He was puzzled. In professional matches, it sometimes happened that one side felt the situation was set and gracefully conceded defeat and left the battle. But in this match, the two sides hadn't even met yet, and one side had directly conceded?

Wei Chen walked out of the competition seat and saw the Xuanqi players leaving the field. He also walked down the field with a puzzled expression, and looked at the Xuanqi players, saying, "Only now do you know to forfeit, what were you doing earlier?"

How would I know you'd be so shameless!

The Xuanqi team's players complained in their hearts, looking at Wei Chen with various unfriendly expressions. However, Xuanqi's withdrawal in this match did indeed make everyone feel a lot more relaxed, as Zhang Yiwei had expected. Except for the player who was forfeited, who was now sitting in a corner with a lost expression, wondering what he was thinking. Captain Tang Xing was sitting next to him, trying his best to comfort him. Then everyone heard Wei Chen return to the Xingxin's player seat, and the first thing he said was: "How was it? Did I play well?"