The players took their seats one by one.
Although the keyboard peripherals were not their own, since it was just an exhibition match, everyone didn’t care much about the feel of the keys.
JW was on the left, CC was on the right.
Each of the ten players logged into the accounts prepared by the organizers and entered the match room.
“Alright, next, please lock in your positions according to the draw results from earlier,” the female host reminded, “and then please start selecting heroes randomly.”
In the WOC match room, there are many available match modes, and random hero selection mode is one of them.
Hao Qianyi rubbed his hands together, blowing on them for luck. He drew the 2nd position and, as a tank player primarily in the 3rd position, he prayed to random a bruiser or tank hero.
“Mammy mammy hong bala bala little magic fairy! Let’s see my luck as a god!” He tapped the random selection button on the screen.
“Fluttering petals.” The beautiful Flower Goddess floated out of a rose, wearing a pink dress made of flowers, with light wings fluttering behind her.
Jiang Min: “…”
Honestly, the Flower Goddess is usually played in the mid lane, and he’s never studied how to play her.
Because the Flower Goddess is a soft support, focused on protecting the carries, she doesn’t have much hard crowd control abilities and doesn’t have the potential to be played in the mid lane.
Hao Qianyi’s soul was almost departing: “Oh my, Flower Goddess in mid? Am I supposed to tank with her?”
Wei Yabo drew the 3rd position but randomly got the 1st position hero, Raptor.
“Alright, alright! I’ll just treat the 3rd as the 1st!” Wei Yabo exclaimed excitedly.
The 3rd and 1st positions have many similarities, both requiring farming during the laning phase, and the 3rd position also usually roams with the 4th.
Wei Yafeng, as the 1st position, randomly got the Elemental Sprite.
He was dumbfounded.
He’s a pure support in the 5th position, skilled in supporting heroes. He has never played heroes like the Elemental Sprite before!
“I’m not as strong as Sugar God, this hero almost made me quit when I first started playing WOC! Sugar God, help me!”
Jiang Min: “…I think I can’t help you…”
Because he “had extraordinary luck” and drew one of the few heroes among over a hundred in WOC that he’s basically never played before, the Doom Hammer.
This hero, besides being bulky, also has quite tricky skills.
Burning his own life to attack others, one careless move left him with only 1 HP, and then he was taken out instantly.
Is that all? Who’s going to tell him how to play the 4th position? How to roam and control the pace?
Leaning back on his gaming chair, Yu Hao said, “It’s okay, Sugar, leave it to me.”
He clicked on random.
As a 5th position player, he ended up with one of the most difficult heroes to operate in all of WOC, the Gemini Brothers – Baphalios.
This hero is hardly used in both ranked games and competitions.
Because controlling him means controlling two heroes, the difficulty level is extremely high, almost unbearable, making people want to dive into the designer’s head to see what he was thinking when he designed this hero.
Baphalios consists of a pair of inseparable twins, one accustomed to the day, and the other active in the night.
There’s a connection between the twins, and when they’re connected, they use a set of skills together. However, when they act separately, they’re completely two separate heroes.
Baphalios Night moves faster during the game’s nighttime, with a passive for critical strikes, essentially an assassin hero.
Baphalios Day moves faster during the game’s daytime, and is a mage hero with attack and control skills.
Players operating Baphalios need to constantly switch screens and pay attention to both sides when the twins are separated. This multi-operational hero feels very awkward for those who are not good at it.
When Hao Qianyi saw that Yu Hao had randomly selected Baphalios, he let out a cry of despair, “Ah ah ah! It’s over, it’s over! Even the captain’s hero is so random! We’re doomed!”
Although OVO also had random selections, their luck seemed better than JW’s, with their selected heroes being more conventional.
Especially Yu Hao, who got Deathbringer, the Grim Reaper Hunter, at the 1st position, feeling delighted.
Yu Hao, on the other hand, showed no signs of concern, and even had a hint of excitement.
In theory, with this random lineup, winning against OVO would be strange, but Yu Hao seemed very confident.
Jiang Min looked at him, “Yu Hao, have you played this hero before?”
Yu Hao teased, “You’ll see when we get into the game.”
The exhibition match officially began.
JJ’s live broadcast in collaboration with Z-Lo was also well-prepared. They even invited the WPL official commentators Ruby and Lack, who weren’t on duty that day, to provide remote commentary in the broadcast room. The commentary was also synchronized and played live at the venue.
Ruby: “The lineups on both sides seem to have some unexpected situations due to the random selection.”
Lack: “That’s right, but according to our event rules, after the positions are drawn, no matter what hero you get, you must play in the designated position. For example, JW’s player Cypress, although he drew the well-known hero, the Tyrant, at the 1st position, he still has to play at the 3rd position with Sugar God’s Doom Hammer on the blue side.”
Ruby: “I remember Sugar God has never played Doom Hammer before. In fact, the probability of this hero appearing should be only a few tenths of a percent, right? I recall a long time ago, a team in the European league EUL used it.”
Lack: “JW Captain Honor’s hero is also quite unexpected, it’s actually the Twin Brother, Bapharion, a hero with difficulty comparable to their Maple player’s randomly selected Elemental Spirit. Let’s wait and see what kind of performance Honor will have with this hero!”
Ruby: “On the other hand, OVO’s lineup, also random, seems much more normal. Especially for Sugar God, who got the 1st position and the great core, Death God Hunter. From the lineup perspective, it seems like they’ve formed a wave of pressure on JW.”
The game begins.
With a disadvantaged lineup, JW didn’t attempt level one fights and prepared to play defensively to farm first.
Wei Yabai and Jiang Min went top, Yu Hao and Wei Yafeng went bot, and Hao Qianyi went mid.
In WOC, heroes can block the path of minions.
In other words, to get your minions closer to the defense tower, many people choose to block the minions in front to delay the encounter with the opposing minions.
Although Hao Qianyi is a 3rd position player, he usually likes to play as if he’s the 2nd position when playing ranked matches, so he is extremely confident in his 2nd position.
Of course, that was before he got the hero Flower God.
The poor little mouse felt helpless and anxious at the exit of the mid-high ground barracks, waiting for the minions to appear while considering how to survive the matchup against the extremely normal 2nd position Fire Mage on the other side.
Even though it was just an exhibition match, the outcome didn’t matter much.
But the little mouse was very certain that if they lost the exhibition match because of him, Captain Yu would definitely beat him up.
“Sugar God, how’s your Doom Hammer?” Wei Yabai was very familiar with the Tyrant hero, which he often used in competitions, but he wasn’t sure about his partner, Jiang Min’s situation.
“Emmm….” Jiang Min remained silent.
Wei Yabai instantly understood, “Alright, Sugar God, just stand next to me and leech experience, don’t give the enemy a chance.”
“…Okay.”
In the bot lane, Wei Yafeng and Yu Hao faced Alexander.
He played this Elemental Spirit like crap, how could he be the 1st position?
Yu Hao’s Bapharion, the Twin Brother, hadn’t even come online yet, but he had already disconnected the Twin Link. Night from the twins had already entered the jungle, while Day continued to move towards the lane.
Wei Yafeng was quite pleased.
The captain understood the routine of the 5th position well. In the early game, he would go to the jungle to place some wards to give the team a vision advantage.
However, reality proved him wrong. Bapharion, Night hadn’t even inserted a single ward and went straight to the mid lane, near the area between the first and second towers on the enemy’s side.
Hao Qianyi was deeply moved when he saw this.
Did the captain know that his mid lane matchup would be tough, so he came to camp and help him in advance? Even though the level 1 Bapharion seemed useless, but this sincere teammate bond, love it!
However, reality quickly slapped him in the face.
The enemy’s 2nd position Fire Mage seemed to feel that there was no need to block minions when facing a pure support hero like Flower God, so he casually waited under the mid lane tower for his own minions to arrive.
Bapharion, Night, lurked in the woods for a while, and a neat row of red-named minions approached.
The commentators were also paying attention to the mid lane situation.
Ruby: “Is Honor placing Bapharion, Night in this position to suppress the Fire Mage?”
Lack: “JW’s mid lane is Flower God, indeed at a natural disadvantage against the Fire Mage, so it’s understandable for Honor to come help mid.”
Ruby: “Okay, the minions are here, and Night is revealed! He cast [Dark Devour] skill, followed by [Lunar Eclipse]!”
Lack: “…Honor just stole the minions!”
Hao Qianyi was stunned.
“Oops, Captain, what’s wrong with you? I’m the mid laner! Those are my minions! Why did you steal my minions?”
Yu Hao replied coldly, “Focus on your lane, don’t drag us down.”
Then he left.
Bapharion’s twins share health and mana when connected, but when separated, they have separate health and mana bars. If one of the twins dies, the other will die 3 minutes later.
Twins, born and die together.
Hao Qianyi was furious: “Captain, you stole my first wave of minions! How am I supposed to lane properly?”
The JJ official live chat was filled with laughter.
【Hahaha, Yu Hao openly stole Little Mouse’s minion wave】
【For exhibition matches, we love to see some fun antics】
【Joy is the priority, victory is secondary!】
【Poor Little Mouse, how will he lane against the Fire Mage now?】
【Yu Hao is dominating the lane! Why would he go steal minions from the mid laner as a 5th position?】【Hahaha, did none of you notice Sugar God’s health? It’s basically hugging the bottom line, hahaha】
The director switched the scene to the top lane.
The task of the top lane duo, positions 3 and 4, is to restrain the enemy’s carry’s growth.
Although Jiang Min rarely plays as position 4, he understands this principle.
Sometimes, positions 3 and 4 even use their lives to limit the enemy’s carry.
And Jiang Min, with his Doomhammer, fully demonstrated this point to the audience.
———-
The scene shifted to the bottom lane, where Wei Yafeng truly doesn’t know how to play Elemental Spirit. Not only did he waste his skills, but he also didn’t understand how to immediately switch to another elemental form after the cooldown of one form’s skill and continue fighting. The bottom lane can be said to be entirely supported by Yu Hao.
On the day when the Twin Sons, Baphalios, were selected, everyone thought that Team JW, especially Yu Hao, would surely embarrass themselves. It was speculated that he might even achieve the worst performance of his career. However, among the five members of JW, apart from Wei Yabo, who got his main hero, the Velociraptor, Yu Hao played the best.
In the mid-lane, Hao Qianyi’s Flower God was suppressed under the tower by the Fire Mage, while the top lane Velociraptor was developing reasonably well, but Jiang Min’s Doomhammer was struggling.
Jiang Min had low proficiency with this hero. Although he had a wide array of heroes that he excelled at, known as his “unique skills,” this hero he had played only once or twice didn’t count among them. Therefore, he always struggled to manage the life-burning aspect of the Doomhammer.
It was either insufficient burning, resulting in inadequate damage, and an inability to disturb the opponents, or burning too much, leaving him with only 1 HP and instantly taken down by Yu Shen’s Death Hunter with a basic attack.
Cen Yu felt embarrassed for killing him and typed on the public chat: 【Sorry Sugar God, I didn’t mean to QAQ】
Jiang Min: 【…】
Looking at his record of 0-5-0, he felt helpless.
“Top lane, hold on, I’m coming.” Yu Hao’s voice echoed in the team voice chat. “Yabo, go sell a wave, lure them out!”
“Okay!” Wei Yabo, who had played the role of “bait” countless times in competitions, skillfully used a Stomp to jump forward. Jiang Min’s Doomhammer, having just respawned and returned to the lane, also rushed over.
Seeing the Velociraptor leaping up, Cen Yu immediately threw a Death Trap, trying to trap them. The performer for OVO’s exhibition match in position 5 was originally the position 3, Fat Hotpot. He randomly got the Elf Archer as his hero.
OVO’s choice of sending two marksmen to the top lane was also a tricky move, but compared to JW’s bizarre lineup, it was still somewhat normal.
Wei Yabo, as the position 1, had a very graceful movement.
For a position 1, apart from the ability to farm effectively, the ability to take a beating online was also crucial. They couldn’t just get beaten up without retaliating; otherwise, they would never be able to develop.
Therefore, amid countless histories of being beaten up, Wei Yabo’s positioning skills improved.
He flexibly dodged Cen Yu’s Death Trap with the Velociraptor, evading the Elf Archer’s Sky-Piercing Arrow, pretending to retreat.
The Death Hunter and Elf Archer had no intention of letting go of the chance to kill JW’s position 3 Velociraptor. They chased after him as he retreated from the tower.
At this moment, a person suddenly rushed out of the woods.
The Twin Sons, Baphalios, had arrived.
Day first cast Frost Earth, pinning OVO’s two marksmen in place, then quickly used Flash to teleport backward a distance.
Night struck.
Ultimate Skill: **Darkness Envelopes**.
Blinds enemies and increases own critical damage.
Although Yu Hao and Wei Yafeng were supposed to be in the bottom lane, nominally in the 5th position, there was no rule saying that the 5th position couldn’t farm minions. Therefore, unable to bear watching Wei Yafeng’s Elementalist anymore, Yu Hao seized control of the lane. Additionally, as he had always been a player who farmed minions in one lane with one twin while the other roamed the jungle, his economy soared, even keeping up comfortably with Cen Yu’s smooth farming.
With good economy, Baphalios’ equipment was almost complete, especially the critical strike items, which increased critical strike chance. Coupled with his ultimate skill, it allowed the night twin to deal impressive damage.
After unleashing a full combo of skills, Cen Yu’s health was reduced by half.
In game design, marksmen are generally squishy.
The Elf Archer immediately tried to retreat after abandoning his teammate, but was stunned in place by the Velociraptor’s Stomp, while Jiang Min’s Doomhammer cast Cataclysm from above, trapping the two marksmen in a small area. The burning area prevented them from stepping out.
This provided an excellent environment for the night twin to output damage.
However, Cen Yu and Fat Hotpot were not about to give up. They continued to throw their various skills at the squishy night twin.
Yu Hao controlled the night twin to quickly eliminate Cen Yu, then dodged Fat Hotpot’s control skill with a reverse Flash.
With the disappearance of Cataclysm, Fat Hotpot immediately retreated into the tower.
Because he knew, the night twin was also squishy.
The night twin’s health was already at its lowest, and drawing him under the tower would cost him his life.
If the night died, the day twin would die three minutes later.
Trading 2 for 1 was at least better than 2 for 0.
As expected, the night twin chased after him, swiftly eliminating Fat Hotpot’s Elf Archer.
Fat Hotpot stared at the black-and-white screen, heart pounding. Dear defense tower! It must take Yu Hao down!
Just as the tower’s attack was about to hit the night twin, Yu Hao decisively activated the twin link.
The night twin was quickly pulled back to the side of the day twin.
The twin link had a maximum range, and when activated beyond this range, it would center around one twin chosen by the player and pull the other twin back.
Yu Hao had a good grasp of this distance.
He withdrew the day twin to a safe distance from the tower, then smoothly harvested two kills with the night twin before withdrawing.
A 0 for 2 exchange, this wave was not a loss.
Lack: “Honor is amazing this time! I never expected the rarely seen twin sons, Baphalios, to be used so effectively by Honor!”
Ruby was also surprised: “We know Honor players on the field to be roamers, focusing on helping teammates establish advantages and control, and had never realized that Honor could operate such a flashy hero!”
The barrage was also boiling.
【Mom, I want to learn Baphalios twin sons from Yu Hao!】
【After this wave, there will probably be a lot of people picking Baphalios on the national server】
【Pick Baphalios? Prepare to get wrecked in ranked! Not everyone can adapt to dual operation and screen switching, let alone the fact that the skills are different after the twin sons separate】
【I love Yu Hao! I used to quite like this player, but now I love him even more!】
【I’m now a fan of Yu Hao!】
【So why doesn’t JW let Yu Hao play mid?】
This question had been asked to Yu Hao before.
The answer Yu Hao gave was that he preferred the feeling of controlling the entire field.
And being the roaming 4th position that provides team control and support in team fights between lanes is his favorite position.
However, even though Yu Hao’s Baphalios twins were so impressive that they dazzled people, JW couldn’t resist the disadvantage brought by the snake skin lineup.
In the end, the exhibition match ended with OVO’s victory.
OVO even went through a mock handshake segment.
When Cen Yu approached Jiang Min, he smiled like a 200-pound child: “Sugar God! Can I get your friend request now? Please add me!”
Yu Hao remained expressionless.
Tsk, even if you get the friend request, you want a ride? Dream on!
After the game, both teams’ ten players once again came for the post-match interviews.
“The question goes to Honor from JW. Even though JW lost this exhibition match, Honor’s performance was outstanding. We have a question for Honor,” the male host said, handing the microphone to OVO’s team captain, Cen Yu.
“Happiness, in short, it’s very happy,” Cen Yu said contentedly.
“In this exhibition match, although JW lost, Honor’s performance was very impressive. We have a question for Honor,” the male host continued, “I saw a lot of people confessing their feelings for you in the live chat. How do you feel about being so popular?”
Yu Hao took the microphone and said seriously, “I used to be quite popular.”
The male host asked, “And now?”
Yu Hao replied, “Now I’m even more popular.”
The male host chuckled, “Alright then! That concludes our interview segment. Thank you to the players from both teams for participating in our event!”
Zuo Luo’s dad’s event finally ended successfully.
Under the protection of on-site security, the teams left the stage and headed to the location of the club’s vehicles.
Along the way, enthusiastic fans almost swarmed them.
When they returned to the car, everyone felt a wave of exhaustion.
Having played a BO3 match and then immediately participating in the exhibition match, they felt physically drained.
One by one, the players collapsed into their chairs.
“Kids, you’ve worked hard today!” Shen Qi said with a smile. “There shouldn’t be any more events like this for the rest of the season. Even if there are, I’ll decline.”
Hao Qianyi looked up at him, “Huh? Decline? Brother Qi, have you changed your mind?”
Shen Qi replied, “I know you guys work hard usually. I couldn’t turn down this one from Zuo Luo. From now on, as long as you ensure the duration of the livestreams, leave the rest of the business to me. Focus on playing games and take good rest when you have the time.”
Although Shen Qi loves money, deep down, he cares about the players.
The club is not a charity, and an esports club cannot rely solely on the owner’s support.
Otherwise, once the funding chain breaks, it will face a change in ownership or even closure. CC is a living example of this.
JW is wealthy, but there’s no guarantee that one day, Boss Ji won’t suddenly withdraw funding. After all, this club wasn’t solely established by Ji Xiu Yan.
Shen Qi usually flatters the boss, but he’s uncertain about how much emotion Boss Ji has invested in this club, especially since Boss Ji has only been here for about two years.
As a manager, he shoulders not only his personal work but also the entire club’s operation and livelihood.
Therefore, he can’t rely too much on Boss Ji’s financial injection.
He must make the team self-sufficient to ensure long-term development.
Currently, the main source of income for the team comes from sponsorship fees from wealthy sponsors and the sale of official merchandise. Establishing youth training is also an attempt by Shen Qi to diversify income sources, and having abundant funding for the club has always been Shen Qi’s wish.
He has been continuously striving to achieve this goal.
On the way back to the base, Jiang Min couldn’t stop yawning.
“Tangtang, are you really going to add Yu Shen as a friend?” Yu Hao, sitting next to him, asked.
“Yeah. Keeping promises after losing a match is only fair,” Jiang Min replied.
“Can you add him using a less active account?”
“Why?” Jiang Min asked.
“I don’t want you to play with him,” Yu Hao said.
Jiang Min has always found Yu Hao somewhat strange, especially in the way he treats Jiang Min compared to others when playing together.
“Xiao Yu, why don’t you like me playing with others in duo queue?” Jiang Min asked directly.
Yu Hao didn’t expect Jiang Min to be so straightforward.
If he were to speak bluntly, Jiang Min would probably be shocked.
Moreover, this wasn’t the right occasion.
However, he couldn’t come up with a decent excuse for a moment.
“Well…” Yu Hao looked into Jiang Min’s eyes, trying to come up with a random reason from his mind.
Unexpectedly, Hao Qianyi suddenly exclaimed from the front row.
“Oh crap! CC is being investigated by the league!”
—–
Author’s Note: Yu Xiaoyu actually has very strong personal skills, and there will be many moments when he shines later~
Regarding the fake match, it also exists in reality. Durian is not meant to symbolize anything, just an attempt to depict the diverse world of esports~
Oh no, everyone hasn’t been playing with me in the comments section recently QAQ
Did I mess up in my writing? _(:з」∠)_
1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ️”
