Chapter 42

The first round of the playoffs' final four cast a shadow over the Batian Team, who had consistently been touted as the favorites to win the championship. The previous season's champion, Samsara Team, however, took a solid step on their road to defending the title with a strong performance.

Soon, the second round of the final four began. Batian and Samsara welcomed Tiny Herb and Howling respectively to their home arenas.

After the individual competition, Batian Team won 5 to 3.

The veterans would never be defeated by a single loss. They had experienced too much success and failure. Victory and defeat would only be used as motivation to move forward.

The veterans performed strongly in the individual competition, and the match ended completely when veteran Han Wenqing, the fourth player, took the stage.

In the team competition that followed, Yuan Boqing became the focus. What kind of performance would this man, who had faintly displayed the demeanor of a healing god in the previous round, have in this match?

In this game, Yuan Boqing once again used the Cleric, Dong Chong Xia Cao (Cordyceps).

Logically speaking, away games are usually played more conservatively and cautiously. It would seem that Guardian Angel would be more suitable for this style, but Tiny Herb still chose the Cleric.

This seemed to be an attitude. Tiny Herb did not seem to want to go to a third game. They hoped to take the final victory in this away game. They would still play more decisively in the team competition, right?

Everyone thought so, but Batian didn't seem to care.

Were they being negligent again?

Of course not, they were just continuing to act according to their own rhythm, without being constrained by the opponent's tactical changes at all.

They would pay attention to Yuan Boqing's Cleric this time, but not too much. Because they were very clear that Yuan Boqing would not be the core of Tiny Herb after all. Even if the real healing god, Fang Shiqian, was on the field, the core of Tiny Herb Team would always be someone else.

Wang Jiexi, Wang Bu Liu Xing (Wandering Unrest)!

This was the real core of Tiny Herb. Don't even think that the veterans of Batian would not be able to figure out this priority.

As soon as the match started, Batian launched a fierce attack directly. Under the cover of Zhang Jiale's Hundred Blossoms style, Han Wenqing's Damo Guyan (Desert Smoke) had already flashed into the enemy's formation.

Zhang Jiale integrated into Batian extremely quickly and smoothly. Some people said that this might be because Batian's Han Wenqing had similarities in style to Zhang Jiale's former partner, Sun Zheping, so Zhang Jiale easily found resonance on the field.

Whenever there was a slight flaw, another figure would immediately appear to cover it.

Leng Anlei (Cold Dark Thunder), Lin Jingyan's Leng Anlei. In terms of fame, Lin Jingyan might be the weakest of the four Batian gods. In terms of strength, he was also the most obvious to decline and had been surpassed by the younger generation. In Batian, he was no longer a tactical core, and he played more freely. When there was Zhang Jiale's Hundred Blossoms style to cover him, he would hide inside and throw a few black bricks. When Han Wenqing's Damo Guyan could not free up his hands, he could also transform into an overbearing strong attacker. The characteristics of the Rogue class adapting to various styles were vividly displayed by Lin Jingyan, an old hand who had been immersed in this class for many years.

Batian launched a fierce attack. They would no longer neglect any point of Tiny Herb, but they would never lose their own style. The rhythm must always be in their own hands, otherwise they would only be led by the nose by their opponents. Batian took the initiative from the beginning, accumulated advantages, and moved towards victory step by step. Their tactical master, Zhang Xinjie, meticulously watched every point on the battlefield. Like a machine, he always maintained the fewest mistakes in the league. Such a healer was definitely the most solid backing for everyone.

Victory!

Batian finally took back a victory on their home field.

And Yuan Boqing's performance on the field, which had attracted the most attention before the game, was also very excellent, but this time he was no longer a surprise to Batian. For a group of people who had experience fighting against Fang Shiqian, Yuan Boqing was not an unsolvable existence for them.

At the post-match press conference, Tiny Herb's captain, Wang Jiexi, said something very cliché, but it was indeed a true reflection of this game: "We played very well, but the opponents were even better."

Just like the two teams' clashes in the regular season, neither side made any major mistakes. The whole game did not have any particularly clear turning points that affected the outcome. Everyone played their own game, back and forth, accumulating advantages, until finally, Tiny Herb fell, and Batian stood still.

Tiny Herb and Batian were tied at one to one. They needed a third deciding game under the new format. It would be at Batian's venue, but they would no longer have the right to choose the map.

In the other round of the final four, Samsara welcomed Howling to their home arena.

Having lost their home advantage first, Howling was obviously a bit chaotic in this round. Although captain Tang Hao had made a strong statement after the previous loss, the lack of playoff experience in the Howling Team was still completely exposed in this game. They were completely unlike the veterans of Batian, who could actively face defeat and would not lose their composure at all. The young Howling, after losing their home game, showed hesitation in the away game challenge, reflecting their tactical indecision everywhere.

The Howling Team in the regular season was always moving forward, fearless, and full of vigor. But in the playoffs, they were afraid. Because the playoff format was different, a loss in one game would cause all their efforts throughout the year to be in vain. And now, they were standing at such a crossroads. Victory would allow them to retain a chance of survival; failure would mean the end of everything.

This kind of psychological pressure was something they had never experienced in the regular season. In the first round of the playoffs, they had played smoothly, defeating Misty Rain in two rounds and entering the final four. Until the first battle of the final four, they lost to Samsara at home. Howling suddenly fell into a very difficult situation.

The tremendous pressure finally caused the Howling players to lose their composure. Even if there were experienced players like Fang Rui in the team, they could not save the whole team. Fang Rui was not the leader of this team, and his specialty, the猥琐流 (weisuo liu - dirty playstyle), was not very good at boosting the morale of the whole team.

The second round ended in a disastrous defeat for Howling. Samsara proudly advanced to the finals, while Howling? After being eye-catching throughout the season, this final ending was somewhat cowardly. This made those players who couldn't stand Tang Hao's arrogant attitude gloat.

However, Howling was still young after all. Whether it was Tang Hao or Zhao Yuzhe, they still had plenty of time to continue striving for what they wanted. It all depended on whether they could learn something from this failure.

After two rounds of the final four, Samsara had already entered the finals, while Tiny Herb and Batian still needed another game to determine the winner.

Three days later, the decisive game between the two teams began at Batian's home, on an unfamiliar map. From the individual competition, both sides played relatively cautiously. In the end, they fought to the last player of both teams. In the end, Tiny Herb won 5 to 4, taking the lead first.

Taking a one-point lead into the team competition could be considered a bit of an advantage. But in the team competition, Tiny Herb, who was in the lead, seemed to be even more careful and cautious than Batian.

On an unfamiliar map, neither side was in a hurry to start the battle. The characters of both sides were scattered, but not without contact, on the map, as if they wanted to figure out the situation of the whole map first.

Two minutes later, the two sides had not yet made contact, but the positions of the two teams had changed. All the people from Tiny Herb had run to Batian's half of the zone, while the people from Batian had gone to Tiny Herb's starting half. Both sides continued to explore the map.

The first contact finally happened at this time.

It was just a contact, not an outbreak, because this contact was relatively dirty. Batian's Lin Jingyan saw Tiny Herb's Dong Chong Xia Cao (Cordyceps) while wandering around, and very quickly hid Leng Anlei (Cold Dark Thunder). Then, instead of immediately looking for an opportunity to attack, he began to follow carefully. At the same time, information was constantly sent to the team channel. Batian Team began to have tactical actions. All the characters began to obviously shrink towards the position of Dong Chong Xia Cao.

But the audience who had an overview of the whole map could see that even if Batian completed this contraction, they could only be considered to have seized the initiative. It would probably not be so easy to take Dong Chong Xia Cao away in one wave. Because the characters of Tiny Herb were not freely scattered on the map. There was a response between them. As soon as one person sent a message, the characters of their own players would appear within the range of cooperation within a few seconds.

But Batian was not impatient. The characters of their players arrived one by one, but no one immediately rushed to attack. They were still adjusting even when all five people had arrived.

Tiny Herb's possible response was completely within their expectations! Their deployment at this time was to restrain this response. In front of these veterans, if there were no loopholes, they would try to create them. And now that such an opportunity had appeared, they would firmly grasp it. Everything had to be prepared to the most perfect moment before taking action.

Such an adjustment without direct confrontation was very boring and tedious to watch on the field. But as long as the audience had a little Glory knowledge, they could feel the tension in this situation at this time.

Should they take action?

Could they take action?

Were they not going to take action yet?

Countless people felt that the time was ripe again and again, but the facts told them again and again that these Batian veterans were calmer and more patient than them. With these three people, plus the tactical master Zhang Xinjie, who was known for his rigor, was Batian really going to make the deployment foolproof?

There would never be absolute infallibility on the competition field. What Zhang Xinjie hoped for was to reduce the possibility of accidents.

"Go!" A command was issued in the team channel.

Bang, a sniper rifle rang. Qin Muyun had been aiming for a while, and finally received the instruction and fired this shot.

With a gunshot, his figure was already exposed. But once the battle began, everyone would be exposed. Batian's deployment was aimed at the scene after everyone was exposed. Five characters had already charged up together.