Did The Captain Catch Up With The Coach Today [Esports] Chapter 7
byChapter 7
“What the heck? Solo kill?” Qin Jin Yao was the most surprised, because he was far away on the top lane and hadn’t paid much attention to the mini-map, focusing most of his attention on his lane opponent while Wei Xiao was in the bottom jungle.
Then, while he was laning, the system notification suddenly popped up: Blade Shadow Dancer has been slain, Overlord Blade claims First Blood! He simply couldn’t believe his eyes!
The other teammates who had noticed Wei Xiao invading the jungle were equally shocked!
“Awesome!” Zhou Miao Miao praised. “As expected of the World Server Rank 1 Overlord Blade!”
“Holy cow, that’s Fei Yu!” Lu Qing Yang was so surprised he missed a minion, thankfully Tang Li reacted quickly and used a basic attack to secure it for him.
Fei Yu, the Jungler for KPI. KPI was a jungle-centric team, so Fei Yu’s value was self-evident.
Although Wei Xiao claimed to be the World Server Rank 1 Jungler, that ranking was achieved in Solo Queue and lacked league achievements. Only he himself recognized it; the public did not.
In the eyes of the public, after Wen Shi Yu, the number one Jungler in Hero League was Fei Yu.
But now, this number one Jungler had been solo-killed by Wei Xiao!
The KPI voice chat was dead silent. Fei Yu, having died so disgracefully, didn’t utter a word until he respawned.
He was not only the core player of KPI but also the shot caller.
With him silent, his teammates couldn’t figure out their next move.
The bottom lane duo hesitated for a moment before finally deciding to check the jungle. However, the jungle was empty, and the jungle monsters were all alive and well.
In the end, the two of them wandered around the jungle, failed to catch anyone, and allowed the enemy bottom lane to freeze a wave of minions.
Wei Xiao’s style was extremely aggressive but not reckless at all. After killing the Jungler, he saw the enemy Marksman and Support approaching, decisively gave up on the jungle invasion, and made a swift escape.
His own Support, Tang Li, asked if he needed help. This time, he answered: “No need. Focus on your lane, I’ll come back when I hit level 3.”
Tang Li and Lu Qing Yang both agreed, feeling strange internally—why did it feel like the personality of Brother Unfinished Business had changed? He seemed less aloof?
They were, of course, delighted by this change!
A powerful but aloof teammate was good, but a powerful and not-aloof teammate was like adding flowers to embroidery—even better!
There were still two camps left in his own bottom jungle, but Wei Xiao ignored them, heading first to the top jungle to grab the buffs and clear the camps, leveling up to 3. Then, he ganked the top lane.
Jungling had various formulas, and various high-level players shared efficient clearing routes in their live streams, but Wei Xiao never bothered with them.
Whether it was Jungler or any other position, what was the most important thing for dealing damage? Gold!
Jungle monsters were gold, minion waves were gold, and kills were also gold.
It wasn’t that the position called “Jungler” absolutely had to farm jungle camps; it was about going wherever the gold was.
The reason Wei Xiao dutifully cleared all the camps in the top jungle was purely because the top lane hadn’t set up yet.
The moment the top lane was set up, and the enemy Top Laner crossed the line, he charged forward with his blade drawn!
He pressed W to activate “Overlord Body,” reducing damage taken and increasing the damage of “One-Shot Kill.”
He pressed E “Overlord Charge,” gaining movement speed and increasing the damage of “One-Shot Kill.”
Then, riding right up to the enemy Top Laner’s face, “One-Shot Kill”!
[System Notification] Overlord Blade, a kill!
[System Notification] Enemy Bloodthirsty Baron has been slain!
I stood up, one-shot him, what more is there to say!
“Holy cow, that damage!” Qin Jin Yao was stunned.
Why hadn’t he realized Overlord Blade’s damage was so terrifying before? How did this guy adjust his pre-match preparation?
“Good baiting,” Wei Xiao complimented, heading straight for the river resource on the top side.
Qin Jin Yao quickly followed him, not mentioning that his baiting was at the instruction of Coach Wen Shi Yu.
After all, this wasn’t a formal match. If Wei Xiao could drop trash talk in-game, what was wrong with Wen Shi Yu giving in-game guidance?
“Jin Yao, reduce your health a bit and lure him over.”
Upon hearing this instruction, Qin Jin Yao was initially unconvinced. Asking him to self-harm? Why!
But because this match directly related to the fate of a top Jungler, he ultimately complied.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he lured the opponent over, Wei Xiao came up and instantly cleaved him with one strike, even recognizing that he was deliberately baiting and not making a mistake!
He truly deserved to be the Jungler that Wen Shi Yu fell in love with at first sight.
“Bro, if you need me, just call, I’m on standby!” Qin Jin Yao said while helping Wei Xiao chip away at the resource’s health.
Wei Xiao replied with an “Oh” and didn’t stand on ceremony: “After we finish the resource, follow me to hide behind the tower. We’ll ambush the Top Laner first, then chase the Jungler.”
“Got it, I’ll listen to you!” Qin Jin Yao was very obedient.
Wen Shi Yu’s lips twitched.
If only this little brat were even three-tenths as compliant during the post-game review.
Wei Xiao took the resource but didn’t use it, instead taking Qin Jin Yao to hide in the brush behind the enemy Tier 1 tower.
Before long, the revived enemy Top Laner arrived. The two rushed him, blades flashing, and hacked him to death in a flurry of strikes!
Assassins rely on burst damage. Bloodthirsty Baron, as a Top Laner who relies on outputting damage to heal and absorb damage, didn’t have a large base health pool. Thus, facing a surprise attack from two Assassins simultaneously, he was completely helpless.
“We were played,” the KPI Top Laner frowned and said.
This sentence had two meanings. First, they were ambushed just now. Second, during the ban/pick phase, the opponent first locked in Bamboo Swordsman and only picked Overlord Blade at the very end. Before Wei Xiao locked in Overlord Blade, everyone on the KPI side thought Bamboo Swordsman was the Jungler. Who would have thought he was the Top Laner?
Assassin Top Laners—Hero League never lacked people trying unconventional strategies, but professional players doing this truly caught KPI off guard.
What was the deal with this team?
They initially thought it was a scrub team and didn’t take the match seriously, but now, the more they played, the more they felt something was wrong.
KPI’s Jungler, Fei Yu, was currently in the top jungle. He had planned to assist the Top Laner if he was ambushed, but he didn’t expect the Top Laner to die so quickly. Now, let alone providing assistance, he couldn’t even guarantee his own safety.
Retreat and surrender the jungle? Or call the MID over and fight them?
In a split-second decision, he chose the latter: “Hu Die, come assist!”
KPI’s MID, Hu Die, was playing Deep Sea Siren this match. Deep Sea Siren had high health and defense, low damage, but a lot of crowd control. If the control landed well, they might have a chance!
Deep Sea Siren arrived, but Zhou Miao Miao’s Blazing Feather also followed!
Wei Xiao retreated to create distance, waiting for his cooldowns.
Qin Jin Yao rode right up to Blade Shadow Dancer’s face, exchanging a few blows, with both sides taking damage.
Deep Sea Siren threw a bubble at Qin Jin Yao’s Bamboo Swordsman, and Qin Jin Yao decisively used Flash to escape.
Zhou Miao Miao’s Blazing Feather joined the fray, performing a stunning dance. It didn’t deal much damage to Deep Sea Siren but severely wounded Blade Shadow Dancer.
Good opportunity! Wei Xiao seized the moment, using an “Overlord Charge” to chase down the attempting-to-flee Blade Shadow Dancer, followed by a plain, unremarkable strike—
[System Notification] Overlord Blade, Double Kill!
[System Notification] Enemy Blade Shadow Dancer has been slain!
With the Jungler dead, the momentum was gone. Deep Sea Siren used Flash to escape toward the mid lane.
However, she was isolated and alone. The three members of FHM swarmed her, pinning her down and beating her mercilessly!
Finally, Wei Xiao used the refreshed “One-Shot Kill” to end the fight!
[System Notification] Overlord Blade, Triple Kill!
[System Notification] Enemy Deep Sea Siren has been slain!
At this point in the match, 5-0. Wei Xiao’s Overlord Blade had claimed all 5 kills, establishing a massive gold lead.
After clearing out KPI’s jungle, he returned to the top lane to use the resource, helping Qin Jin Yao push down the Tier 1 tower, heavily tipping the scales of victory toward FHM!
Then, he recalled to buy equipment.
The KPI side was speechless watching the one-sided situation.
Having dominated the Hero League battlefield for so many years, it had been a long time since they had played such a severely disadvantaged game.
Jungle-centric teams were suited for the early game. In league matches, they were usually the ones holding all the advantages and crushing the opposition. Now, they were being crushed in return by a scrub team whose name they hadn’t even heard of.
Would they lose this match?
KPI didn’t know.
They were only thankful that their coach wasn’t around when they played this game, or they would surely be chewed out mercilessly.
However, spectating was allowed in both Solo Queue and normal matches.
They were using their professional accounts, and their friends lists included E-sports Players, high-level players, and fans.
The two teams couldn’t see the number of spectators, but the spectators could.
When the match started, the spectator count was 31. Now, it had reached 152 and continued to rise.
Spectators were allowed to send bullet comments, and almost everyone who clicked into the match couldn’t help but send a question mark.
[?]
[What’s going on?]
[Where did FHM come from?]
[Is KPI throwing?]
[Wait, is the red team’s Jungler the Solo Queue Rank 1 guy?]
[Holy cow, Boss Unfinished!]
[Using Overlord Blade in a professional match? That’s too Overlord!]
[Help! KPI isn’t going to lose, is it?]
More and more people watched, and the discussion grew fiercer, causing the match’s ranking in “Hot Streams” to rise like a rocket, ultimately attracting even more spectators.
A busybody who was halfway through spectating went to the dedicated Hero League forum and yelled: [Disaster! KPI is being crushed by a newly emerged team! Lost 5 kills in 5 minutes!]
Now, what was originally a match that wasn’t even Solo Queue suddenly became impossible to ignore.
In just a few minutes, the spectator count broke a thousand.
At the ten-minute mark, the spectator count reached five thousand.
Once Wei Xiao gained a gold advantage, he wouldn’t give his opponents a chance to turn the tide. He led Qin Jin Yao from the top lane to the mid lane, then brought Zhou Miao Miao along to the bottom lane. The top, mid, and jungle linked up, killing wherever they went.
Ten minutes in, the bottom river resource hadn’t been taken yet, but KPI’s three Tier 1 towers only had one bottom tower remaining, and it was barely hanging on by a thread of health.
KPI’s Jungler, Fei Yu, had to adjust his strategy almost every minute, but no matter the strategy, it was instantly cut short by Wei Xiao’s Overlord Blade. This tempo was completely unmanageable!
Finally, he couldn’t hold back—
[All] KPI-flyfish (Blade Shadow Dancer): You rely entirely on a random Jungler to carry you. Aren’t you FHM guys embarrassed?
His intention was to mock FHM, but unexpectedly, the FHM members were not provoked. Instead, they happily mocked him back.
[All] FHM-jinyao (Bamboo Swordsman): Jealous?
[All] FHM-miao (Blazing Feather): Wow, you’re being crushed by a random Jungler. Aren’t you embarrassed?
[All] FHM-qingyang (Thorn Whip): We are indeed quite embarrassed by how many kills you’re feeding us. Stop, we’re getting too full.
[All] FHM-li (Soul Bell): Neither Marksman has bought penetration yet, and someone is already tilting?
“Hahahaha!” Wei Xiao had also intended to type a taunt back, but now he was laughing so hard he couldn’t type. “Why is everyone so articulate?”
“Coach said, we can’t lose on momentum!” Zhou Miao Miao responded. “So what if it’s KPI? We’d fight WI just the same! After all, our goal is the championship!”