Did The Captain Catch Up With The Coach Today [Esports] Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Hero League does not have two heroes with exactly the same skills, but it has many heroes with similar playstyles.

All Assassins—Overlord Blade, Phantom Assassin, Bamboo Swordsman, and Time Tracker—each have their own distinct way of playing.

Overlord Blade, once his ultimate is activated, enhances his basic attacks, making every strike an “Overlord Slash,” allowing him to function as a sustained damage melee ADC.

Phantom Assassin has long reach and can play poke.

Bamboo Swordsman’s displacement skills refresh quickly, making him unmatched in pursuit.

Time Tracker, after marking a target, gains an output bonus against that target, making him suitable for focused targeting.

As for heroes with similar playstyles, taking Overlord Blade as an example, Moon Shadow Spider has a very similar playstyle.

Moon Shadow Spider’s first skill has a fast cooldown, almost usable as a basic attack, giving her better sustained output capability than Overlord Blade, and she can also function as a melee ADC.

The difference is that Overlord Blade is more extreme and violent, while Moon Shadow Spider is more balanced and stable.

The hero Full Moon Wolf is positioned between Overlord Blade and Moon Shadow Spider.

In terms of violence, his first skill’s three-hit combo deals damage comparable to the Overlord Slash; as long as he has a slight economic advantage, output is not a concern.

In terms of balance, he doesn’t become helpless after using his “Overlord Slash” before his ultimate, like Overlord Blade; he still has the basic attack enhancement provided by “Full Moon Strike.”

The multi-stage damage ensures continuous lifesteal during the output process.

As for the ultimates.

Overlord Blade’s ultimate violently upgrades his basic attack to the Overlord Slash, making him two completely different heroes before and after activation—the difference between a cripple and a god-slaying weapon.

Moon Shadow Spider’s ultimate adds magic damage to her attacks, also improving her sustained output for a period, but it’s not as violent as Overlord Blade’s—it’s icing on the cake.

Full Moon Wolf’s ultimate increases attack speed.

Seeing Wei Xiao pick Full Moon Wolf, Wen Shi Yu immediately understood—he was going for a massacre.

For someone who can dominate the competitive scene with Overlord Blade, Moon Shadow Spider and Full Moon Wolf will not disappoint.

Wei Xiao hadn’t used Full Moon Wolf in previous matches, nor did he use him much in ranked play, but this didn’t mean he couldn’t play him; it only meant he didn’t rate Full Moon Wolf’s appearance highly.

Fortunately, Wen Shi Yu also valued aesthetics and bought a decent skin for every hero capable of Jungling. So, when he handed the account to Wei Xiao, it unexpectedly broadened his hero pool.

Not playing the hero type he excels at because they aren’t good-looking enough—that might be acceptable for a casual player, but for an E-sports Player? Who would believe it?

But Wei Xiao truly is like that.

While pursuing victory, he maintains his individuality and uses absolute strength to balance the contradiction between the two.

Many times, Wen Shi Yu feels that the heroes Wei Xiao controls are alive, flesh and blood, with thoughts and emotions. Watching him walk away after eliminating a target, one can almost see the smug curve of his lips through the screen.

And indeed, Wei Xiao’s lips were currently curved.

“Ah what? I went in, I instantly killed them, what’s there to talk about?”

If he had a tail, it would definitely be wagging right now.

“Awesome, awesome.” Lu Yang originally worried about being ganked and crushed, but now he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the opponents. “How are the opponents supposed to play now? They probably won’t even dare to farm the lane, right?”

“Don’t get cocky.” Tang Li couldn’t help but pour cold water on them, but he had to admit that Wei Xiao’s gank was beautiful.

He even felt that even if he and Lu Yang hadn’t followed up, Wei Xiao could have solo-killed the enemy ADC and Support, or at least the ADC was guaranteed dead.

“The Wolf is still strong,” he said.

“Was the Wolf buffed this season?” Qin Jin Yao suddenly asked.

“Indeed, because a new skin was released. Look, the one Wei Team is using now,” Zhou Miao Miao said. “When it was available for pre-order, I was still hesitating, and then I heard Wen Ge’s phone ‘ding,’ and he sent another wave of money to the official developers.”

“Pfft—cough, cough.” Wei Xiao couldn’t help but laugh out loud, quickly coughing twice to cover it up.

How to put it—Wen Shi Yu usually looks so serious that people don’t know how to approach him, but some of his small actions are incredibly cute.

Wei Xiao finished clearing the bottom side jungle and ganked bottom lane again. This time, KCD was prepared, and their Jungler was already hiding nearby.

However, Wei Xiao anticipated their anticipation, having Tang Li throw a skill into the bush, successfully hitting KCD’s Jungler and exposing his position.

Wei Xiao immediately pounced into the bush, and the “Fierce Wolf Claw” three-hit combo instantly shredded most of Scythe Blade’s health!

Scythe Blade countered with a crowd control skill, but Tang Li timely activated a shield to block his subsequent damage. At the same time, Lu Yang used Thorn Whip to hook Scythe Blade, dragging him out of the bush, and beat him up!

Scythe Blade originally planned to flash away after controlling Wei Xiao. After all, they were already at a disadvantage, their position was exposed, and they couldn’t possibly win the team fight after losing the initiative.

But being hooked by Lu Yang caused him to miss the perfect opportunity to escape.

After Wei Xiao recovered from the control, a simple basic attack secured the kill.

[System] Full Moon Wolf, First Kill!

[System] Enemy Scythe Blade has been slain!

At this point, if KCD’s ADC and Support had chosen to retreat without looking back, they would have survived.

But they repeated their team’s most fatal mistake—indecisive decision-making.

As the saying goes, hesitation leads to defeat.

The moment they hesitated, when Tang Li’s Soul-Summoning Bell tanked the tower damage, and Wei Xiao’s level 6 Full Moon Wolf activated his ultimate and charged into the tower, everything was too late.

[System] Full Moon Wolf, Double Kill!

[System] Enemy Undying Soul has been slain!

[System] Full Moon Wolf, Triple Kill!

[System] Enemy Abyssal Gaze has been slain!

This time, Wei Xiao killed the Support first, because it didn’t matter who he killed; no one could escape, and he killed whoever was closest to him.

“Scythe Blade was exposed and instantly killed by Full Moon Wolf. The Support dives the tower, teammates follow up, a burst of damage, FHM gets a Triple Kill! Oh dear… KCD suffered a huge loss here, directly allowing Full Moon Wolf to snowball!” Wu Ya finished commentating on the team fight and couldn’t help but sigh for KCD. “Bottom lane should have retreated the moment the Jungler’s position was exposed. The previous gank already proved that the defense tower couldn’t protect them. Why are they still hiding under the tower this time? I can’t quite understand losing these two kills.”

“KCD is still playing too conservatively this match,” Xue Xiao commented. “The Jungler’s aggression is too low; his economy simply can’t keep up with Full Moon Wolf.”

“And it’s clear that KCD’s Jungler doesn’t want to confront Full Moon Wolf directly, but the problem is, you have three Assassins. Are you still planning to drag the game out?” Wu Ya questioned.

KCD certainly didn’t plan to drag the game out, but…

“I can’t deal with this Wolf. What should I do?” KCD’s Jungler asked.

High aggression requires an environment for aggression. With the opposing Jungler being so ridiculous, should he, as the allied Jungler, even try to track him?

If he doesn’t track him, the opponent can gank whoever they want, turning the match into a hunting ground.

If he does track him, he risks getting himself killed.

KCD’s Captain fell into a long silence.

Now that both top and bottom lanes had died, they were economically behind. The only hope for reversing the situation was the MID laner.

Their MID laner was capable of carrying, playing Phantom Assassin and fighting Zhou Miao Miao’s Void Star Mark to a draw; neither could gain an advantage over the other.

But… they were currently at a disadvantage, so a draw in the mid-lane was still a loss.

If they sent the Jungler to help MID, it would draw Full Moon Wolf to MID as well.

If they had the MID laner roam, the opposing MID laner, Void Star Mark, would also roam, and then it would be uncertain who would gank whom.

Full Moon Wolf, Void Star Mark—two nuclear bombs no one wanted to face.

KCD’s Captain was stuck and could only say the standard line: “Don’t team fight yet, play safe and farm.”

The last time they felt this desperate was during the match against WI. As a team focused on an ADC core, they were suppressed by the opposing ADC and saw no hope of turning the tide.

In this game, logic told him that if they wanted to turn the tide, they needed to find a breakthrough now. The longer they dragged it out, the smaller their win rate would be, but where was this breakthrough?

Were they wrong? Should they not have used a composition FHM excels at against FHM?

But it wasn’t entirely a composition issue.

The opposing MID laner’s Void Star Mark had clearly improved significantly, and Wei Xiao’s Full Moon Wolf had caught them completely off guard.

Ultimately, they underestimated the speed at which this team was growing.

—FHM was no longer the FHM they played against in scrims.

KCD’s Captain told them to play safe and farm, and KCD’s Jungler automatically translated that into not ganking for now and focusing on clearing camps.

However, after he resurrected and sneaked into the bottom side jungle, he found the entire bottom side jungle empty!

He rushed to the top side jungle, and the entire top side jungle was empty too!

A string of colorful Chinese curses immediately erupted in KCD’s voice chat!

Finally, at the six-minute mark, KCD’s Captain felt they couldn’t continue like this and decided to gamble: “Team fight bottom lane! MID come down to support, Top look for the right moment to use your ultimate, Jungler enter late. If we win this fight, we push directly. If we lose, GG.”

The rest of KCD felt uneasy, thinking their damage wasn’t high enough yet, but they also knew that if they didn’t make a decision soon, they wouldn’t have another chance, so they all agreed.

Thus, the MID laner recalled to buy equipment, no longer held the mid-lane, and rushed straight to the bottom lane after leaving the fountain. The Jungler also arrived at the bottom lane bush early.

Zhou Miao Miao scouted forward, confirmed the opposing MID laner had recalled, and stopped controlling the lane. After clearing a wave of minions, he pushed the tower, thinking it wouldn’t be too late to recall and buy equipment after taking the tower.

Wei Xiao originally wanted to gank MID, but by the time he arrived, the opposing MID laner had already gone back, so he helped Zhou Miao Miao push the tower instead.

The result was that immediately after they pushed the mid-lane Tier 1 tower, they saw the opposing MID laner, Phantom Assassin, appear in the bottom lane, catching Lu Yang and Tang Li completely off guard!

The opposing Top laner, Bamboo Swordsman, followed by activating his ultimate and rushing to the bottom lane. The opposing Support led the tower dive, with the ADC, MID, and Top following up, and the Jungler also charged out of the bush!

“Holy crap, so many people! They all came!” Lu Yang was startled. His Thorn Whip had already been severely damaged by Phantom Assassin. He made a risky movement to dodge Bamboo Swordsman’s displacement, but he was still only one step away from death.

Tang Li silently gave him a shield, and then his ultimate, “Soul-Summoning Bell,” extended his life.

Lu Yang relied on the “Soul-Summoning Bell” to withstand one fatal blow, and during this process, he stacked the required number of thorns to activate his ultimate, “Thorn Dance.”

“Hold on, I’m coming!” Wei Xiao rushed down immediately.

Zhou Miao Miao also ignored recalling and used displacement skills to hurry over.

However, in this moment of extreme urgency, Lu Yang activated his ultimate—Thorn Dance!

The Thorn Maiden began a frantic waltz under the tower. The two whips made of thorns spun with her body, becoming a tornado that tore everything apart!

The enemy Support, Undying Soul, who had tanked two hits from the tower, was the first victim. Before dying, he used his fastest hand speed to grant his undying ultimate to his own ADC.

[System] Thorn Whip, First Kill!

[System] Enemy Undying Soul has been slain!

With the Support dead, the defense tower began attacking the MID laner.

The enemy MID laner, Phantom Assassin, had already lost a third of his health while ganking Thorn Whip. Now, after taking damage from his ultimate, he was finished off by a single tower shot.

[System] Thorn Whip, Double Kill!

[System] Enemy Phantom Assassin has been slain!

The enemy Top laner, Bamboo Swordsman, tanked Thorn Whip’s ultimate, killed Tang Li’s Soul-Summoning Bell, and then immediately flashed away to dodge the tower damage, attempting to escape.

However, Zhou Miao Miao’s Void Star Mark arrived and immediately threw a Star Rift, killing him and simultaneously leaving the enemy ADC, Abyssal Gaze, who had lost his damage immunity, critically wounded.

[System] Void Star Mark, First Kill!

[System] Enemy Bamboo Swordsman has been slain!

Lu Yang’s ultimate ended. He had no flash and was killed by the enemy ADC.

But immediately after, Zhou Miao Miao used Meteor Shower to avenge him.

[System] Void Star Mark, Double Kill!

[System] Enemy Abyssal Gaze has been slain!

While Zhou Miao Miao was casting Meteor Shower, Scythe Blade used a displacement skill to stick to his face, controlling him and unleashing a combo!

Zhou Miao Miao flashed away at critical health, but it was useless. Scythe Blade activated his ultimate, “Death Curse,” and Void Star Mark instantly fell.

But after Scythe Blade used all his skills, he was just a target. Wei Xiao controlled his Full Moon Wolf to pounce, not even needing to activate his ultimate. One “Fierce Claw” instantly killed him!

[System] Full Moon Wolf, First Kill!

[System] Enemy Scythe Blade has been slain!

[System] Enemy heroes wiped out!

[System] Victory is in sight!

KCD went all-in on a team fight and successfully… got wiped out.

FHM lost three members, but the ADC, who KCD viewed as the target of this raid, secured a Double Kill before dying!

Tragedy turned into dark humor, and KCD’s Captain laughed out loud: “GG.”

What kind of genius designer created such an eccentric ADC as Thorn Whip?