Did The Captain Catch Up With The Coach Today [Esports] Chapter 13
byChapter 13
Every match will end faster than the last!
How confident does a person have to be to say something like that?
That’s not confidence, that’s narcissism.
But for some reason, looking at the smile on Wei Xiao’s face, Wen Shi Yu’s heart rate accelerated.
Wait, is this right?
Wen Shi Yu hurriedly shifted his gaze away from Wei Xiao’s face.
Fortunately, after Wei Xiao finished speaking, he looked back at his screen and didn’t notice his momentary embarrassment.
Entering the battlefield, Qin Jin Yao had just finished eating two waves of minions and leveled up to 3 when Wei Xiao called him to the bottom lane.
Qin Jin Yao immediately teleported himself to the minion line in the bottom lane. At the same time, Wei Xiao launched an attack from a position near the enemy defense tower!
Lu Qing Yang and Tang Li flashed forward to keep pace. The four of them dove the tower together, pinning the DIE Marksman and Support under the tower and killing them both. It was as brutal as a sudden tsunami or a howling hurricane!
The DIE Marksman looked at his “corpse” being repeatedly crushed by four people and couldn’t help but gasp: “Hiss—this is too brutal! How are we supposed to play?”
Having experienced the feeling of being rubbed into the ground by Wei Xiao in the previous match, he already had a premonition of defeat after dying once in this match.
When only facing the enemy Marksman and Support, they could still retreat to the tower, but when facing a siege of four people, the defense tower was useless.
The Support thought for a moment and asked the Top Laner: “Can the top lane solo push?”
“I’m pushing, I’m pushing!” To speed up the lane push, the Top Laner didn’t hesitate to use all his skills on the minions.
However, just as he was about to reach the FHM defense tower, Qin Jin Yao returned to the top lane in time, clearing the minion wave with two quick strikes and blocking him outside the defense tower’s protection range.
An Assassin Top Laner might not have much advantage 1v1 against a Tank, but in terms of clearing minions, they were definitely much faster.
Assassins are the gods of split-pushing! If a Tank doesn’t participate in team fights, picking them is pointless!
The DIE Top Laner retreated while saying: “No, I can’t push through. I should have picked a Fighter.”
“No, we need a Tank for late-game team fights with this composition. Picking a Tank is fine, the problem is…” The Support stopped halfway, realizing the issue himself.
The problem was—would they even reach the late game?
Wei Xiao’s core strategy was the same as the previous match: pin down the DIE Marksman. If they weren’t pinned down, they would be pinned down until death!
But unlike the previous match, he no longer did it alone; he called his teammates to join him.
After clearing his own bottom jungle, he cooperated with his bottom lane to kill the opposing bottom lane once.
After clearing the enemy’s bottom jungle, he called the MID down, launching a surprise attack from both sides of the enemy defense tower, diving the tower to kill the opposing bottom lane again.
Then he cleared his own bottom jungle and killed them again.
Then he went to clear the enemy’s bottom jungle and killed an enemy Jungler along the way.
The bushes in both bottom jungle areas were practically trampled bald by Wei Xiao, while the monsters in both top jungle areas hadn’t even seen Wei Xiao’s face. An outsider might think the map was cut along a different diagonal line.
“Is this Jungler living in the bottom lane?” The DIE Marksman was annoyed by the constant ganks.
Usually, complaining that a Jungler is living in a certain lane means the Jungler ignores the overall situation and tempo, only ganking one lane.
It might be habit, technical limitations, a good relationship with a teammate in that lane, or a grudge against an opponent in that lane.
But Wei Xiao was truly living in the bottom lane!
And he was living in the bottom lane strategically.
He didn’t lose any gold or kills, and the game tempo was completely under control!
In less than 7 minutes, DIE’s bottom lane Tier 1 tower was destroyed.
Then Wei Xiao ignored the top and middle lanes and led the bottom lane straight to the core!
At 10 minutes, DIE’s bottom lane Tier 2 tower was also destroyed!
DIE, in a fit of anger… surrendered.
It took 11 minutes, which was indeed earlier than the previous surrender.
FHM cheered loudly, their morale greatly boosted!
Zhou Miao Miao: “The top eight isn’t that impressive after all!”
Qin Jin Yao: “They’re even worse than KPI!”
Wei Xiao: “True, much worse than KPI. At least KPI doesn’t surrender!”
“Have you forgotten the loss in the first match so quickly?” Wen Shi Yu had to pour cold water on them, afraid they were getting too arrogant.
But the effect was counterproductive?
Lu Qing Yang: “Exposing their core strategy in the first match shows that not only are their players weak, but their coach is also incompetent!”
Tang Li: “And they played it publicly. Did they lose the Invitational and now don’t even want to win the League?”
“Who knows.” Wen Shi Yu was also curious why DIE chose to play the first match publicly. But thanks to DIE, other teams probably thought FHM only had individual skill, no strategy, and that their MID was a troll.
The truth was that since it was an unofficial match, Wen Shi Yu was too lazy to spend too much time and energy systematically analyzing DIE’s tactics and style for his team. He also didn’t want to expose the secret that Zhou Miao Miao could use an Assassin in the middle lane to crush most Mages.
Moreover, Wei Xiao had only recently joined the team, and Wen Shi Yu wanted to give him some time to explore on his own.
After the third game, DIE took a while to review.
In the fourth game, they did hold out a little longer, surrendering at 20 minutes after FHM secured the Elder Dragon.
Wen Shi Yu seized the opportunity to tease Wei Xiao: “Every match ends faster than the last?”
Wei Xiao coughed: “Mistake, mistake.”
He looked guilty, making anyone who didn’t know better think FHM had lost this match.
However, since the second game, the DIE Marksman had never managed to recover, and the Goddess of Victory stood firmly on FHM’s side, never looking at DIE again.
After all five games were finished, DIE quickly said goodbye and left the room.
On FHM’s side, Wen Shi Yu led the team to briefly review the key moments of the five matches, pointing out both the good and the bad.
The good: “This gank was good. Everyone cooperated well. Marksman-core teams fear being sandwiched in the bottom lane the most. We can use this strategy against teams with strong Marksmen.”
The bad: “Tang Li, as a Support, you need to be aware of tanking the tower. Don’t always let Qin Jin Yao do it; he’s an Assassin. Jin Yao, you know you’re playing an Assassin, right? Next time, don’t rush in. Wait for your teammates to initiate the fight. Same for Lu Qing Yang, don’t rush in if your ultimate is not ready. If you die before using your ultimate, our team fight loss is huge. Miao Miao, it’s good that you can use combos, but don’t rely on them too much. The ultimate doesn’t necessarily have to deal damage; it can also be used to escape when you are low on health. How a hero’s skills are used does not depend on how the combo is chained, but on the player’s current needs.”
After speaking, there was silence.
Wei Xiao looked at him expectantly, and when he confirmed Wen Shi Yu was finished, he raised a finger in surprise and pointed at himself: “What about me?”
Why was he the only one who didn’t get any feedback?
Wen Shi Yu looked at him and raised an eyebrow: “Do you think you played poorly?”
“Me? I think I played pretty well, normal performance?”
“Then where do you think you still need to adjust?” Wen Shi Yu continued to ask.
Wei Xiao thought seriously for a moment, then hesitated: “None?”
He wanted to be humble in front of Wen Shi Yu, but he genuinely felt he played very well.
Even in the first game, he didn’t feel there was any problem with his performance; he just didn’t know enough about his teammates and opponents. Getting to know them better would solve the problem.
He finished speaking, waiting for Wen Shi Yu to lecture him. However, Wen Shi Yu chuckled lightly and said: “If you can’t even say it, what am I supposed to say? No matter how demanding I am, I can’t nitpick.”
It took Wei Xiao two seconds to realize he had been praised, and a firework exploded in his heart.
“Yeah, Wei Team played flawlessly. Otherwise, how could we have won so easily?” Zhou Miao Miao also started calling Wei Xiao ‘Wei Team’.
“You don’t understand. Is Wei Team asking for criticism? He clearly just wants to talk more with his idol.” Tang Li understood completely!
Wei Xiao coughed, his eyes fixed on Wen Shi Yu, proving that Tang Li’s words were true.
That’s right, he just wanted guidance from his idol.
Even though he knew his performance was flawless, Wen Shi Yu had guided everyone else but him, which made him feel like something was missing.
Wen Shi Yu had never heard such an outrageous request in his life… but he did have something he needed to say: “Your only problem is that you are too arrogant. Hold back a little in the League.”
“I can’t hold back at all. Anything else?” Wei Xiao blinked.
Wen Shi Yu: “…”
Could you respond any more directly?
Forget it.
Wen Shi Yu glanced at him and then brought up the main topic: “I have registered you all for the League. Since this is our first time participating, we have to start from the qualifiers. The qualifiers are a knockout system, BO1, one game determines the winner. Win and advance, lose and go home. That means we cannot lose a single match.”
Hearing this, everyone in FHM sat up straight.
Although they now felt they absolutely couldn’t lose if they met DIE again, the fact that they lost the first game was real, and hearing “cannot lose a single match” put a lot of pressure on them.
Wen Shi Yu paused, then continued: “So, to be safe, Zhou Miao Miao and Lu Qing Yang are not allowed to mess around in the knockout stage. Starting tomorrow, while Miao Miao continues to practice Xing Guang, she should also play a few games with Xue Xiao. Lu Qing Yang should pick Hai Tun or Hai Ou. The three lanes can fail to gain an advantage, but they absolutely cannot fall into a disadvantage. As for everything else, leave it to Wei Xiao.”
Xue Xiao is a poke Mage, responsible for sustained damage. She is easy to pick up, has a high floor and a low ceiling. Zhou Miao Miao had played her twice and found her easy. In the second game, she even managed to get the highest damage output and MVP.
Her strength is average, so no one will ban her or pick her in the League. Zhou Miao Miao is 100% guaranteed to get her, which sets a minimum standard for her in-game performance.
In other words, she is for safety.
Hai Tun and Hai Ou are standard sustained damage Marksmen. Their output relies on basic attacks, and their survival relies on positioning. Lu Qing Yang plays them adequately; he won’t be amazing, but he definitely won’t be a liability.
Four reliable laners, plus a strong Jungler who can create an advantage early on—this configuration might not guarantee a win against a top-eight team, but it is more than enough to beat other teams.
Zhou Miao Miao and Lu Qing Yang both agreed, having no objection to Wen Shi Yu’s arrangements.
Wen Shi Yu then looked at Qin Jin Yao. As soon as their eyes met, Qin Jin Yao spoke as if he had been electrocuted: “I only play Assassins.”
He was determined not to play a Tank.
“Did I say anything?” Wen Shi Yu didn’t bother with him, then looked at Wei Xiao. “Are you nervous?”
“Why?” Wei Xiao countered.
The word ‘nervous’ didn’t exist in his dictionary!
“You are the captain, the shot caller, and the core of FHM,” Wen Shi Yu said, stopping there without elaborating.
Wei Xiao raised his hand and touched his nose, starting to feel a little nervous.
But nervousness didn’t stop him from showing off: “Perfect. This makes it easier for me to carry. If you want to win, just listen to me!”
“Mhm, I’ll leave it to you then.” Wen Shi Yu walked past Wei Xiao, pressed his shoulder, and then turned to walk towards the sofa. “Continue training.”
The touch was brief, but even after his hand left, a tingling sensation lingered on Wei Xiao’s shoulder.
Wei Xiao pursed his lips, feeling an unbearable itch in his heart, as if a feather had landed there.
He stared blankly at his screen for a while, then slowly curled his lips into a smile.
With him in the game and Wen Shi Yu outside of it, they absolutely could not lose this knockout stage!