Chapter 1 The Official Start

Pan Lin and Li Yibo carried on with their usual routine. As the match loaded, they immediately searched for information on the chosen map after seeing the home team's selection and introduced it to the players. An uninformed viewer might actually believe that the commentators and guests were omniscient, familiar with every map.

The map was Void Sand Sea.

Its overall shape resembled a rhombus. The two teams spawned at the north and south ends, the terrain basically symmetrical. In the center was an oasis, to the east of the oasis were ancient city ruins, and to the west was a sand valley. The entire map had diverse terrain and rich elements, allowing for many different tactics. It was a map that required a lot of adaptability.

Amidst Pan Lin and Li Yibo's hurried introductions, both sides finished loading. Each team had five characters, totaling ten, spawned at the north and south ends of the map.

The broadcast quickly gave a shot of the Happy team, because according to the regular season's broadcast experience, Happy often used a tactic of immediately switching in their sixth player upon entering the arena, catching their opponents off guard. Happy had specially arranged for Blue Rain's old captain, Wei Chen, to be their sixth player in this match, giving him the feeling of a secret weapon. Even the program director was concerned about whether Wei Chen would immediately come on stage.

However, Happy did not make any substitutions. The five characters immediately rushed out of their spawn point after the match began.

"Happy is very decisive, it seems they had a plan early on! On the other hand, Blue Rain seems a little hesitant," Pan Lin said.

"Hehe, you can't really say they're hesitant. Blue Rain has always been one to strike after the opponent makes a move! Plus, they're playing away," Li Yibo said.

"Alright, Blue Rain is moving now. They're not rushing straight ahead, but advancing on the left flank. That means they're heading towards the ancient city ruins," Pan Lin introduced.

At the start, the home team rushed straight ahead, while the away team took a detour, which was a bit of a role reversal. Generally, teams playing away are relatively unfamiliar with the map, and rashly using tactics that rely on the terrain can easily play into the opponent's hands. Away teams usually prefer head-on confrontations. Fighting in an open area is equivalent to negating the opponent's familiarity with the map. But how could the home team so easily let their opponents have their way? In individual or team arena matches, there might be teams that simply choose a concise map and fight head-on like Ye Xiu. But in team competitions, teams rarely do that. When used well, the map makes it easier to achieve combat efficiency in team matches.

"Blue Rain isn't moving very fast!" Pan Lin noticed. Blue Rain was moving towards the east, but the movement was very slow.

"They seem to be studying the map," Li Yibo said, watching Blue Rain's characters' movements.

Because it was the beginning of the match, it was impossible for Happy to suddenly appear right in front of them. So Blue Rain's characters were standing relatively scattered, and it was impossible to see any strict tactical requirements. Everyone seemed to be moving freely. The director continuously switched to the first-person perspective of several Blue Rain players, making it clear that everyone was looking around. The overall movement was in a general direction, but each character was actually divided into an area. It was like a race where each person had their own lane, unrelated to each other.

Afterward, there was a lot of communication in Blue Rain's team channel, allowing everyone to more directly understand that Blue Rain was surveying the map.

"Blue Rain probably wants to temporarily open up an area that they are relatively familiar with on this away map, and then lure Happy over to fight there, in order to offset their home-field advantage as much as possible," Li Yibo said.

"Hmm, isn't this the way that team often uses?" Pan Lin seemed to remember something.

"That's right. Team Thunder often uses this method when playing away," Li Yibo said.

"But they can't just choose any area, right?" Pan Lin said.

"Of course not, the home team definitely wouldn't agree if you chose an open area. So the choice of battlefield is also a great art!" Li Yibo said.

"Blue Rain seems to be speeding up," Pan Lin suddenly noticed.

"It seems they aren't very satisfied with this area!" Li Yibo said.

This information was actually reflected in Blue Rain's team channel information, which was why Li Yibo was so confident in drawing conclusions.

Blue Rain, not satisfied with the area near the starting refresh point, continued to advance. As time went on, the two sides were likely to collide. However, Blue Rain unknowingly formed a tactical formation in the process. The player audience only realized at a certain moment that Blue Rain was no longer in the loose state they were in at the beginning.

The transformation was so unnoticeable, it showed that Blue Rain had reached a point of perfection in executing tactical changes.

The team continued to move along the northeast edge, and gradually the oasis in the middle and the ancient city ruins in the west became visible in front of them. The figures of Happy's characters also appeared in the oasis area at this time.

"Pay attention to concealment," Yu Wenzhou said in the channel. The Blue Rain team quickly entered a state of stealthy action. Movements like flipping, rolling, and crawling were used extensively, searching for opportunities to observe their opponents without exposing their own characters.

Blue Rain didn't just head straight towards Happy, but continued with their tactical thinking, leading the team into the ancient city ruins.

The ancient city ruins were full of broken walls and ruins, providing various places for cover and ambushes.

"This works," Huang Shaotian said, rotating his view and looking around.

"Everyone take a look, Shaotian, you keep an eye on that side," Yu Wenzhou said.

"How about I go say hello?" Huang Shaotian said.

"Do you have a way to get close? Let Zheng Xuan go instead!" Yu Wenzhou said.

"I'm relying on it, it's so troublesome, forget it!" Zheng Xuan immediately showed his lack of fighting spirit.

"Can't do it?" Yu Wenzhou said.

"The pressure is on! But if you want me to go, I'll go," Zheng Xuan said.

Yu Wenzhou smiled, knowing that Zheng Xuan was expressing his absolute obedience to the captain. This guy had always been like this. His lack of fighting spirit meant that he had almost no initiative, and basically needed to be pushed forward by others. For example, right now, he would definitely not volunteer like Huang Shaotian, but if Yu Wenzhou really gave the order, he would try his best to complete it.

"Forget it, you're watching the terrain, Shaotian, go keep an eye on that side, try not to be noticed," Yu Wenzhou said.

"I'm just afraid they'll expose too many flaws, and I won't be able to resist it," Huang Shaotian said, rubbing his fists and setting off, looking like it was a big deal, but it was actually just letting him keep watch.

There wasn't much content in Happy's channel, but Blue Rain's channel had a lot of communication. The audience already understood their intentions. The Happy fans in the home stadium inevitably became anxious, but they couldn't tell the players on the field, so they could only vent their anger by booing the Blue Rain fans in the away stands.

Huang Shaotian's Yu Ye Sheng Fan temporarily separated from the team, left the ancient city ruins, and continued to move in a "crawling" manner, approaching the location of Happy's team that he had seen earlier. However, before he had gone far, he saw Happy's team also heading towards the ancient city ruins.

"They're coming over," Huang Shaotian quickly sent a message, "I'll stall them, you guys hurry."

"Received," the team replied.

So Huang Shaotian's Yu Ye Sheng Fan immediately stopped hiding and stood out in the open.

Boom boom boom!

Artillery fire immediately flew towards him.

"I went to Su Mucheng, without even saying hello?" Huang Shaotian shouted.

However, he was basically still on the edge of the Gunner's range, and the attack was not enough to pose a threat to him. Yu Ye Sheng Fan dodged very easily.

"You have something to say even without saying hello, wouldn't you go on and on if I did say hello?" Ye Xiu replied, but Happy suddenly sped up at this time. Even the short-legged Cleric was left behind, and the other attacking characters pounced forward.

Eh?

Huang Shaotian's eyes lit up. This was a great opportunity! These guys actually abandoned the Cleric. How wonderful would it be to slip through this gap and sneak attack the Cleric?

The terrain next to him was what Blue Rain had walked through before. Huang Shaotian had some understanding of it, and immediately let Yu Ye Sheng Fan flash to the side to hide. His so-called delay was certainly not to rush up and fight with Happy. That would certainly delay them, but he would probably be stuck there. The cost of this delay would probably be a bit too high.

Delaying still had to be done tactically, making it impossible for the opponent to figure out his intentions.

For example, Huang Shaotian's Yu Ye Sheng Fan suddenly disappeared to the side. Could Happy ignore his existence? Of course not. This opportunist might rush out and take a bite if he saw a flaw, and this bite would often be very fatal.

Huang Shaotian knew that his style was no longer a secret, and that the opponent knew enough about him, so he used this to make Happy pay more attention to his disappearance.

"Huang Shaotian, are you just leaving like that? Then we won't see you off!" As a result, he saw Ye Xiu say this in the public channel.

"I'm not leaving, I'm following you!" Huang Shaotian said. He really didn't just have Yu Ye Sheng Fan find a place to hide. Ye Xiu wasn't that easy to deal with. He wouldn't be able to attract him without creating some real threats.

"Is that so? Then you have to follow closely, don't get lost when all your people are killed!" Ye Xiu said.

"No, no, I've played this map over eight hundred times, I'm very familiar with it, I can find my way even with my eyes closed. Do you know where I am now? Haha!"

"Isn't it right here?" Ye Xiu said, and Jun Mo Xiao appeared in front of Yu Ye Sheng Fan.

"More than eight hundred times? Very familiar?" Ye Xiu sent a cold-smile emoticon.

Huang Shaotian knew that something was wrong. The other party had completely seen through his intentions and deduced the route he had chosen. Of course, they wouldn't come over and fight him one-on-one. They were going to encircle and annihilate him here!

However, that's exactly what he wanted!

If he didn't reveal such a flaw, how could he attract the entire Happy team! Huang Shaotian was also smirking, but only in his heart.