FOG [e-sports]

Chapter 93

Chapter 93:

The best of five game officially started.

In the second half of the regular season, Saint played beautifully and wonderfully in every game. The fans were very confident. Before the game, the cheers of Saint’s fans almost crushed NSN’s. The commentators were also very optimistic about Saint. The match had just started but the commentators had already praised each member of Team Saint from head to toe. The director also displayed a vote prediction by the game players and Saint was predicted to win with over 70% of the votes.

Most people were optimistic about Saint. But looking carefully at the expressions of the players on the stage right now, Saint’s expression was grave while NSN’s players looked more relaxed.

At the beginning of the season, Wawa had studied with Yu Sui and was fascinated by his assassin-type play. During the regular season, he was also very erratic. Most of the time, he imitated Yu Sui’s routines. However, because he was became a monk late in life, whether in terms of personal ability or teamwork, neither of those aspects could keep up. As a result NSN ate some losses. When the two teams met during the regular season, Saint was specifically targeting Wawa. Saint borrowed a little bit of the tactics they had used when playing against Yu Sui’s team before and had all four of their players rush up instead of leaving their sniper in the back row. Every time they clashed, without even a second’s thought, they would go in for the medic. It didn’t matter if they’d lose the greater part of their health in the attack; they would just rely on Angel Sword’s milktank abilities afterwards. Then, relying on the Angel Sword, this blood bank, they would cut down NSN’s front row strikers. There were times, when Wawa barely had time to see the person clearly before he was killed once again. In the second half of the game, Wawa was like a frightened bird, he would subconsciously hide whenever he encountered anyone. He made more and more mistakes in the later stage and Saint completely controlled the rhythm of the game.

The commentators also discussed before the start of the game and felt that Wawa might once again become a weak point for NSN. However, as soon as the game started, contrary to everyone’s expectations, Wawa completely abandoned his ups and downs during the regular season. He had completely cast aside the assassin-medic play he had practiced for more than half a season and followed closely behind Gu Gan as an invisible nurse. Not to mention, appearing on the front row, he didn’t even show his head at all. Saint launched attacks several times to find Wawa and cause trouble. But no matter how they positioned themselves, they weren’t able see hide nor hair of Wawa.

It wasn’t only Wawa’s style of play that had changed. NSN had also gave up on their habitual tactic of having Wawa go with Gu Gan to the front row. They had their other striker, Xinran, stay by his side the entire game, clearing the fog. NSN’s two strikers and medic formed a team together. They no longer rushed to clear the fog. They were playing a defensive game and no longer gave Saint any chance to kill their medic.

In the stadium seats, Shi Luo whispered, “You really shouldn’t expose so much in the regular season...”

“Look at Old A.” Yu Sui whispered, “Look at his position.”

There were two strikers in a team. Rarely were they like Shi Luo and Chen Huo, whose personal abilities were basically of the same level, enabling them to advance with simultaneous force throughout the entire way. In other teams, among the two strikers, there would always be one who’s a bit stronger; such as Gu Gan in NSN; such as Old A in Saint.

In the game, every time the two parties exchange fire in the fog, it was a matter as quick as the flash of flint. It can be over in less than ten seconds when they were playing to the very limit of their abilities. During the first seconds of their initial clash, no one could afford even a second of delay. Who was able to destroy the opponent’s shield and deal real damage at the earliest was of vital importance. The response speed and operation ability demanded of the strikers were extremely high. Therefore, the striker with the better personal skills will usually take on the role of main output every time the two sides battled each other. This striker would also be the one the medic would prioritize protecting. Ordinarily, for Saint, Old A will always grab the output position with the maximum point of view whenever Saint encounters a battle. Their other striker will automatically adjust his position to help Old A plug up any holes. However, today, the two swapped positions.

Old A changed his position to that of supporting striker.

But even in the back position, Old A’s operation wasn’t quite able to keep up. In the first battle, Xinran only had a sliver of blood remaining, but Old A failed make that last shot hit. Xinran went around behind Wawa and used him to block the incoming bullets on his way to hide behind the bunker, allowing him to keep his head.

Shi Luo whispered, “There’s no problem with his ability to respond. He can keep up every time and knows what he should do as a support. But his accuracy can’t keep up. Just now there were eight shots in a row, only one shot, just one more shot and Xinran would have been dead.”

The striker’s bullets were fired in bursts. Even if they don’t move during bursts, they will need to continually adjust to match the target’s angle. Their operations needed to be accurate to the decimal point. They couldn’t be off even by the tiniest bit. Old A’s accuracy during several waves of sudden advance wasn’t quite able to keep up.

“His operation can’t keep up with his consciousness.” Yu Sui looked at the screen in the game, “It’s probably...”

Yu Sui trailed off but Shi Luo knew. It was injury.

If players were extremely high-precision machineries, strikers received the greatest degree of wear and tear.

In each game, shooting 30 shots was already considered a lot for a sniper. But for strikers, it was common to fire five to six hundred bullets.

Shi Luo felt very handsome when he first played striker. Every time he shot, he flicked the mouse sharply and he would empty an entire cartridge with the entire pull of his right arm. The maximum output of either team was one whole cartridge. Each side strove for the highest percentage hit rate within the shortest burst of fire. If my percentage of hits is higher than yours, my group will destroy you, and if yours is higher than mine, your group will destroy me.

Cool was cool but and the striker position was the most tiring in the whole game.

That Old A could reach twenty-five years old playing striker, was already enough to break records.

The Old A’s operation had deteriorated since the regular season. This deterioration wasn’t small. Saint obviously knew this better than anyone. After all, they were a veteran team. Seeing that they couldn’t fight with NSN head on, they quickly adjusted their strategy and began to withdraw and stand on the defensive. They made a feint to the east and attacked to the west and stealthily cleared out the fog. They no longer targeted Wawa and even began to automatically avoid NSN.

However, NSN didn’t go along with Saint’s rhythm. Saint stopped advancing and Gu Gan and Wawa began to advance forward. The two sides of the map were cleared in a runabout manner; they weren’t as fast as clearing out a straight line. Saint could only passively harass Gu Gan while clearing the map. The situation slowly became passive. When the two sides had just gnawed a little way, NSN had already cleared half the distance from the center of the map.

Saint’s sniper no longer tried to suppress from the rear. At this moment, he couldn’t suppress them no matter what he did. Even if he delayed them, he could only be swallowed bit by bit. Saint sent both strikers to the side of the map. The sniper and the medic held the mid-line. They stalled NSN’s offensive by constantly giving heads away. However, their loss during the early stages was too great. At this moment, whether it was clearing out a small path or delaying the time to consume NSN’s economy, it was useless. The were barely able to hold out for ten minutes. All of Saint’s fronts couldn’t hold against NSN’s firepower and NSN won the first game.

Before the game, everyone was generally optimistic about Saint. After the first game was taken away, even the commentators were also a little confused. When they recovered from their surprise, they resumed their game review. During the break, the director panned over to Yu Sui and Shi Luo. In the shot, Shi Luo had his head bowed, letting Yu Sui look at his right hand. Shi Luo instinctively withdrew his hand after the camera cut over. But Yu Sui calmly squeezed Shi Luo’s wrist and pulled the cuff of his long-sleeved jacket for him.

The break time soon finished and the director switched the camera back to the game interface.

The second game began.

Saint adjusted their strategy again and returned to their regular tactics in the early stage. The sniper controlled the back and the three other players in the front row were careful as they dealt with NSN head-on. They no longer tried to sneak around the side but their head-on play was much more careful than during the previous game. Old A still took on the support position.

There were two waves of frontal battles and both times, neither side lost any players. Saint’s Old A got his shield broken and NSN’s Xinran lost one-third of his blood. Both side were considered about even.

The commentators weren’t as perceptive as professional players and they didn’t notice the problem of with Old A’s condition. The commentator said directly. “Today, A-Shen’s game seems to be...a bit conservative.”

The other commentator hesitated and said, “Yes. Him suddenly switching to the support position was something we did not expect before the game and we expected even less that the support striker would be the first to lose his shield. If he had dodged that attack just now, Saint would actually have the advantage. It was Saint who broke down Xinran’s shield first. They can completely continue forward, but A-Shen’s condition isn’t right. Saint didn’t dare to go charge forward immediately. At first, Saint was standing their ground but now Gu Gan used their retreat to put down a purification dish.”

Shi Luo frowned slightly, “This commentator...I’m sure Old A is already being sprayed in the forums.”

“There’s something more to this game.” Yu Sui said slowly, “Look at Angel Sword.”

Shi Luo turned his gaze to Angel Sword. The photon shield on Old A was broken. He should have patched Old A by now, but he didn’t. Looking at the sniper Saint left at the back, his body was completely bare, he didn’t even have an initial shield.

Shi Luo’s eyes moved, and he whispered, “They learned from us...”

“A desperate move. They’re going to stake everything and try their best not to consume any of their own economy and consume NSN alive.” Yu Sui said softly, “With Angel Sword on their team, they’re actually more suited for this tactic than us.”

With Angel Sword the blood bank, they will inevitably be entangled with NSN for longer and the longer it was, the more resources NSN will consume to fight with them.

Before Yu Sui finished his words, Saint charged at NSN and immediately retreated after pretending to attack.

NSN’s first reaction was that Saint had given up the frontal fight like the previous game and had gone to both sides of the map to secretly clear the poisonous fog. ROD, at the back row, moved to look at the situation on either side of their home map. Saint seemed to have expected it. With no sniper watching their front line, Saint struck and took away Xinran’s head. At the same time, Old A followed and Gu Gan took away his head.

“Oh, that would have given Saint a big advantage. If A Shen could have avoided that wave, it would have been perfect. He didn’t even have a shield on him so he shouldn’t have been so aggressive.” The commentator said regretfully, “Did Saint not have enough time to replenish his shield? That shouldn’t be the case.”

Shi Luo let out a sigh and said in a low voice, “I want to go up and explain.”

The commentators can’t hear the players’ voice and they weren’t professional players either. Sometimes they couldn’t understand the true intentions behind the players’ actions. Yu Sui had gotten used to it a long time ago, “As long as there they’re able to drag this game out, there’s still hope. Gu Gan’s okay but it’s too easy to send heads to Xinran. He can’t withstand this kind of tactic.”

Xinran was young and specialized at playing very aggressively. It was all too easy for their opponents to bait him into attacking and naturally, he consumes a lot more economy. Saint also grasped this point. During the next wave of attack, Old A once again charged at Xinran, personally sending Xinran his head.

The commentator naturally couldn’t help saying, “Old A’s attack...he shouldn’t rush! His teammates didn’t keep up. He went up to put the purification dish in a hurry and got his head taken away again.”

Yu Sui said, “Okay, Xinran has gotten a kill. Now, he can upgrade his accessories and consume more.”

Saint’s play was very shrewd. After sending a few waves of attack, they started to mix the truth with the lies and sneak to the sides of the map to secretly clear up the fog. Old A and the other striker each took one side. If there was any movement on the map, naturally, NSN’s sniper at the back, ROD, would find out about it. Gu Gan went to protect at the very first moment and time was delayed once again.

Saint appeared like they had exhausted their abilities, trying in the middle and trying on both sides. From beginning to end, they took a beating and they managed to drag the game for twenty more minutes.

When NSN’s resources were more than half consumed, they also realized the problem and they refused to be dragged in any longer. They started to focus their attack at in the middle of the map. Saint also gave up the act. Both sides officially started tearing into each other. NSN chased and attacked Saint. Saint wound their way around, avoiding them at every turn. The game took thirty-five minutes.

A large area of the fog to Saint’s resurrection stone hadn’t been cleared. NSN’s economy was basically exhausted. Without any suspense, Saint took the second game and the score was tied again.

Shi Luo frowned tightly, “This routine...against a team like NSN, this sort of tactic can only be played once at most.”

Yu Sui was more sensible, “Originally, it was only a method to catch them off guard. Being able to get a game off of it was good enough.”

At the beginning of the third game, NSN was obviously prepared. This time, no matter how Saint baited them, they didn’t rush ahead prematurely. The delivered a sure and steady full-frontal offensive. NSN had also seen that there was something wrong with Old A’s condition. Just like Saint when Saint had targeted Wawa before, now, they were targeting Old A all the way. With their consistent performance, they won the game and got the match point.

Old A wasn’t actually playing that badly but even if he didn’t panic and didn’t commit any mistakes, since he was targeted from start to finish, he still seemed to die at the barest touch. It looked like he wasn’t playing and that he couldn’t display any skills.

When the third game was about to end, the commentators had directly named Old A as Saint’s weak link.

The people over at Free’s base were already awake and were probably also watching the game. In Free’s group chat, they kept cursing the commentators for being clueless laymen. They insulted the forum sprayers for their stupidity, cursed Saint’s high-level officials for not protecting the players and explaining Old A’s actual situation in advance.

Chen Huo couldn’t help spitting out in anger, “Brainless morons. They don’t know how to protect their old players. One look and I can already tell that Old A’s playing with an injury. Are they blind?”

Zhou Huo, who had listened to Chen Huo and Old Qiao’s explanation, also said in the group, “Saint’s management should just resign. It’s like they didn’t even come up with a plan to respond to public opinion.”

Chen Huo yelled in the group. “Shi Luo! Aren’t you in the stadium? Go! Go up to the commentator! Blast those commentators for me!”

Shi Luo glanced at the group chat, but didn’t speak.

Yu Sui said calmly, “If it were me, I wouldn’t say anything either.”

Shi Luo had already understood. He was quiet for a while and said, “Saint didn’t dare say anything. One, because they weren’t sure that Old A really wouldn’t be able to fight today but they didn’t expect that he would really get to this point, and for another... based on Angel Sword and their temperament, they mustn’t have wanted to reveal too much before the game, which would put too much emotional pressure on NSN.”

Yu Sui said slowly, “Being unable to fight is his own business. He doesn’t need others’ pity. There’s nothing shameful about a proper and honest loss.”

The fourth game started. The second game had really taken too long and it took a lot out of Old A. In the fourth game, Old A’s performance was so bad that it was almost unbearable to look at. Ten minutes in, NSN was already steamrolling over them.

By the fifteen minute mark, when Saint had almost no hope of turning the situation around, Angel Sword, who had maintained peak performance all throughout, seemed to have suddenly gotten confused.

The commentator couldn’t believe it. “What is Angel Sword doing? He isn’t protecting anyone and instead he’s just protecting Old A? This was already hopeless and he’s still going to play like this? This...If they lose this round again, they’re really gonna lose! Angel Sword! Wake up!!!”

The Angel Sword’s performance was impressive but there seems to be no-one else in his eyes. From start to end, he only looked at Old A. Even when he himself had no shield, he would rather put one up for Old A. When Old A was under fire, he would block the attack for Old A. When Old A was able to play, he would charge ahead and serve as cover for Old A. At the cost of instantly being riddled with bullets by Gu Gan, Angel Sword managed to get Old A his first head in this match.

When Old A took his first head, the director cut the camera to Old A. Old A was dazed and then he smiled.

At the same time, Angel Sword swiftly rushed out of the resurrection stone at the very first moment he resurrected and set the last shield on Old A.

“F*ck it.” Shi Luo’s eyes were red. He gritted his teeth, “Are all you medics like this in your very core?”

Yu Sui smiled.

Three minutes later, Saint was completely exhausted and their resurrection stone was destroyed by NSN.

At the same moment, Saint’s four players took off their headphones. Except for Old A who was smiling, the other three were crying. The youngest member of the team was so choked with sobs, he was almost unable to stand up.

Shi Luo’s prediction before the game wasn’t wrong. After four rounds, whether it was Angel Sword or the other two Saint players, all of them had fought desperately and did their absolute best to carry Old A even just a step further.

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