Glory [e-sports]

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Nine light arcs burst out in the canyon, the gorgeous light shocking everyone present.

Even though everyone knew that the special effects for nine light arcs was extraordinary, actually seeing it still made them suck in a breath.

There must be a Close fan in Glory’s development team. The championship skin was so beautiful!

The commentators seized this opportunity to quickly praise and exaggerate, saving the strange atmosphere that had taken over the doubles match.

In the canyon, Kim Sung-hyun’s squishy frost hunter seemed to have seen the scythe of death.

The range of the light arcs was too wide, and Kim Sung-hyun had no way to hide. Fortunately, Li Heran was as steady as a rock, smashing down a set of totems that was barely enough to heal Kim Sung-hyun.

The contestants all stared fixedly at the scene, and their thoughts were all focused on…

If they were a shadow thief, would they be able to do this?

If they were the frost hunter, would they be able to retreat in time to minimize the damage?

If they were the shaman, would they be able to have that kind of hand speed and brain, throwing down such a complicated set of totem moves around the frost hunter?

Oh, if they were the divine warrior, they could definitely be as dazed as he was right now.

It was difficult for the commentators to say anything too substantive, but it didn’t keep each team from analyzing amongst themselves in low voices.

On the L&P side, Yuan Ze said, “So, this is why I said that Lu Feng isn’t suited for doubles.”

At this point, everyone understood the meaning behind his words.

The mechanism behind the doubles match had doomed Lu Feng to be unsuitable for them.

As it was mentioned before, doubles was different from singles and 5v5.

It was too unique. This kind of solitude where two people were twisted together to form a rope was not the same as one person’s awesomeness.

In a 5v5, certain players’ individual strengths might be higher than the team’s average level, but this generally wouldn’t be a problem. Instead, that person would become the core, a trump card and the pillar that the entire team relied on.

For example, Pro’s Kim Sung-hyun. Because of his strong personal strength, the team took the route of four protecting one, and everyone cooperated with him in order to win the game with ease.

It was different with doubles. There were only two people. If one of them was too outstanding, the other would feel a great psychological pressure.

Doubles matches weren’t as clear as a 5v5 in terms of responsibilities, about which hero went on what lane and which position they needed to fill. 5v5 had a clear division of labor where if everyone tried their best to do their job well, half the game was already won.

It wasn’t so clear in a doubles match. The mechanism behind doubles ensured that it would be fast paced, where both sides came up to exchange health. The smaller jungle area on both sides was a place where conflict would break out, and just like in the singles games, those who rolled up their sleeves and fought would be king.

The difference was that in the singles game, one only had to rush in on their own, but in doubles, it was two people.

In a situation where there was no cooperation, it would be like fighting one against two.

Sadly, fighting one against two in a doubles match wouldn’t be enough to win the game.

So, the one who couldn’t keep up would feel a strong sense of frustration, as though they were redundant, dragging their feet, and therefore become the root cause for losing the game.

This type of psychological pressure was just the beginning of the vicious cycle.

Seeing that they were lagging behind, they would try their best to keep up, but the more they wanted to catch up, the less they were able to do so.

This wasn’t something they could make up for with instructions over a headset.

The shadow thief focused on finding an opportunity to release a series of moves, but this opening often only lasted 0.1 seconds. Communicating by voice wasn’t fast enough to convey this tacit understanding.

Like this, their mentality would gradually collapse.

Yuan Ze glanced at the divine warrior on the screen and said, “That’s why I said, don’t play doubles with Close.”

Four years ago, they had their first doubles match.

Yuan Ze had already seen Close’s strength. He wanted to suppress this talented kid, but instead. he was the one who was suppressed.

At the time, he’d used a death knight, and Close had used a berserker thief.

Relatively speaking, a berserker thief was very good at cooperation. Yet as a result, Yuan Ze’s death knight followed behind him the whole time. When he finally caught up, it was either that Close had already cut down his opponent, or that the other party had already run off. Due to the death knight’s lack of DPS, the rhythm of the game was broken.

After playing for one game, Yuan Ze cursed, “Close, do you understand how to f*cking cooperate?!”

The 16 or 17 year old teenager lowered his eyes, “Sorry.”

Yuan Ze hadn’t yet become an old bastard at the time. After scolding him, he felt that he’d been too much and softened his tone, “Don’t rush in alone, wait for me.”

Close: “Okay.”

So, in the second match, the berserker thief was obviously slower, obviously waiting for the death knight. It waited for him to reach the designated position before rushing forward.

However, while he might wait for the death knight, their opponents wouldn’t wait.

This was an obvious opportunity to escape. The other side wasn’t stupid; how could they stand there waiting to be beat up?

So…

Yuan Ze: “F*ck!”

If it was like this, they might as well not cooperate!

It was a sense of suffocation that couldn’t be verbalized, an unspeakable pain, almost like being trampled onto the ground and ridiculed.

In this life, Yuan Ze hated geniuses the most. After this incident, he hated geniuses even more.

The birth of this kind of creature was just for the sake of ridiculing normal human beings!

Yuan Ze refused to fight with him again no matter what. Later on, the other three people in the team also gave up, and his mentality calmed down again.

It wasn’t their fault.

It was just that Close was too special.

His individual combat ability was like a bug, and it wasn’t suitable for cooperation with teammates!

The coaching team sighed, “This kind of talent… it’s hard to find one in a hundred years. Forget it, let’s focus on the singles and 5v5.”

Who would’ve dared think that in 5v5, all the starters in FTW, who were all so proud and arrogant that they wished they could challenge the heavens, all tried their best to cooperate with Close?!

To hell with only liking to play in the early stages. With this kind of rhythm, they had no other choice!

They could barely make it work with 5v5, but it was really too difficult for doubles.

Asking Close to cooperate a little was something they all felt too ashamed to ask for; shit, asking a newbie to stop and wait for them? What about their dignity!?

But to let Close let loose and do whatever he wanted? Then they were the ones who became redundant in the doubles matches. It was even more shameful!

So…

To hell with doubles.

It was definitely that Close was unsuited.

If even they were unable to cooperate with him, then there was absolutely nobody in the entire Glory circle who could.

To this end, Yuan Ze also made a statement, “If there’s anyone who can cooperate with Close in doubles, I will stream eating shit twice!”

Now look, even Wei Xiao couldn’t do it.

There was another reason that FTW had thoroughly given up on doubles.

It was that they couldn’t win.

No matter how good Close was, no matter how dominant he was, he couldn’t win the game.

The mechanism for the doubles competition was very fair.

For example, Kim Sung-hyun and Li Heran were a pair. The frost hunter dealt damage, and the shaman fed him heals. In the later stage, when the shadow thief’s set of skills attacked them, the frost hunter might end up with no health, but it wouldn’t fall to the ground.

The shaman could put down a resurrection totem at the last moment, and the two of them would stand up again in an instant.

If the totems could be matched up well, and a totem that doubled attack speed was dropped, they could kill a shadow thief, who had no cooldowns left, with just a few arrows.

Under normal circumstances, the divine warrior should follow up and connect the skills at the moment that the shadow thief finished dealing damage, interrupting the resurrection totem and ensuring that their opponent died completely, without a chance to turn the tables.

Unfortunately, the divine warrior tried its best to rush over, only to meet the deadly arrows of a frost hunter at full health.

This was the disconnect.

In a doubles match without cooperation, they could only lose.

The two players could show off their moves all they liked, but it was simply offering up their heads separately.

This was also the reason why Kim Sung-hyun was unwilling to play doubles with Close.

These f*cking ups and downs were bad for his heart!

He had to watch as his health bar emptied out, had to tell himself to be steady and quickly deal damage…

Once was alright, but it was like this every single time. Even if he won, he wasn’t happy about it!

It was because it wasn’t his strength that won the game, but the doubles mechanism itself.

Thinking about it that way made it even more disgusting.

Defeat!

There was no doubt about it. Wei Xiao and Lu Feng lost the doubles match.

Lu Feng took off his headset and looked at Wei Xiao.

Wei Xiao was in a stunned daze.

Lu Feng spoke lightly, “The team games won’t be like this. In the future, we won’t play…”

Wei Xiao dropped the headset and turned his head to look at him. His eyes seemed to be burning, “This is what Yuan Ze meant when he said that you can’t play doubles?”

Lu Feng: “…….”

Wei Xiao didn’t suppress his voice at all, “You’re explosively strong, okay!”

Kim Sung-hyun, who’d just won the game and came over to shake hands as well as comfort the poor, pitiful little rookie of FTW, who’d just heard these words, “???”

Wei Xiao spoke excitedly, “Old Dog Yuan’s words really can’t be trusted. He just didn’t want me to play doubles with you on purpose, how could he be such a dog. He just doesn’t want people to be happy!”

The three words ‘Old Dog Yuan’ were words that Kim Sung-hyun empathized with deeply, but the words that came after…

Kim Sung-hyun really wanted to help that old dog explain: You’ve misunderstood him. Although Old Yuan is seldom misunderstood, you’ve really gotten it wrong this time!

Wei Xiao was still very excited. Previously, he’d only thought that soloing with Lu Feng was very exciting. He’d never ever thought that doubles matches would be this thrilling.

It turned out… this shadow thief made his scalp numb when it was his opponent, but it made him shiver when it was his teammate!

Stimulating, it was too stimulating!

This obvious power gap, this visible strength, this natural gap that stood in front of his eyes, all poked perfectly at his heart that was eager to catch up.

It was too amazing.

Sure enough, Close was always able to surprise him.

Wei Xiao, who wasn’t quite so interested in 5v5, was now completely burning with passion due to this doubles match.

He wanted to play 5v5, he wanted to be teammates with Close. He wanted to watch his sword swing in all directions, and he wanted to sweep down everything in their path with him!

No way, he couldn’t stand it!

Just now, he’d been shocked during the entire doubles match and hadn’t fully experienced it.

Wei Xiao noticed Kim Sung-hyun and immediately said, “Again!”

The God Kim who was already unable to maintain his lofty, cold flower appearance, “!”

Wei Xiao looked at the time and said, “There’s still time. God Kim, let’s play another game. Just now…”

Someone held him by the collar. Wei Xiao: “Eh…”

He turned around and saw his own captain.

There was no expression on Lu Feng’s face, but the bright light was reflected in his eyes, like a bonfire in a cold winter night, “Let’s go.”

There was a slight uptick in his tone.

How could Wei Xiao be willing? He begged, “It’s not solo, it’s a doubles match. It’s a doubles match with God Kim and God Ran!”

Lu Feng: “It’s already finished.”

Wei Xiao: “Let’s have another game. Everyone probably wasn’t able to see clearly, and God Kim hasn’t fought enough, right? God Kim…”

He tried desperately to hint at Kim Sung-hyun.

Kim Sung-hyun: “……”

Sorry, he’d fought enough, definitely, completely enough!

“Cough…” The host who was inexplicably a little redundant came over, “Congratulations…”

Kim Sung-hyun hurriedly accepted the microphone, thanked his opponents, thanked his team, thanked the competition committee, all in one go.

After saying all that, he didn’t even give the host the opportunity to give her summarizing speech, pulling Li Heran with him as he ran off quickly.

Wei Xiao: “Sigh…”

Don’t go!

The host was really scared of these players who didn’t play cards according to common sense and hurriedly said, “Thank you Pro and FTW for the wonderful match. And now, Glory 2021’s Winter Training officially begins!”

With these words, it was impossible to continue fighting. Wei Xiao was very unwilling as he was ‘carried’ off-stage by his captain.

They passed by L&P on the way back to their seats, and Wei Xiao replied to him with, “I don’t regret it.”

Yuan Ze: “……”

Wei Xiao lowered his voice and said firmly, “I will keep up with him, and I don’t need him to stop and wait for me.”

It was a simple sentence, but it stabbed accurately at Yuan Ze.

Yuan Ze froze for a moment, then curved his lips and smiled––

Keep up with him.

Don’t need him to stop and wait.

What arrogant hubris, little asshole.

Something none of us were able to achieve, do you think you can do it?!

Gary only vaguely heard it, “Wha? Keep who… wait for who?”

Yuan Ze tilted his head and looked at his own big fool, “Gary.”

Old G: “Ah?”

Yuan Ze: “Do you want to win the championship?”

Old G: “Yes!”

Yuan Ze patted him on the shoulder and smiled like a fox, “Go and trade FTW’s Quiet into our team, and our win this year will be guaranteed.”

Gary, who didn’t want to be an ‘exchange player’, “???”

Yuan Ze turned to look at the group from FTW.

Wei Xiao’s face was unabashedly excited, and it wasn’t clear what he was chattering about with his teammates.

Lu Feng, who’d been in a low mood before going up onto the stage, no longer had the same haze over his eyebrows, and his cold eyes were lit up with sparks.

Yuan Ze sighed softly––

They would have contenders for this year’s global finals.

Facts proved that all of Chen Feng’s worries had been superfluous!

Sure enough, he still didn’t understand Little Lunatic Wei enough. He shouldn’t use the psychology of normal players to guess at what this little lunatic would do!

After losing the doubles and being suppressed by his own teammate throughout the entire process, Quiet, who the entire audience thought would be miserable, wasn’t depressed at all after stepping down. Instead…

Wei Xiao: “Coach, help me review the game when we go back!”

Chen Feng: “……”

Are you f*cking human?

Wei Xiao: “I feel like I got it a little in the last wave, but my hands couldn’t keep up with my brain. Sure enough, I’m still not familiar enough with the divine warrior.”

Chen Feng, as a coach, hadn’t even watched the second half of the match carefully!

Wei Xiao: “The divine warrior has its advantages. If I had used the divine move before the captain started his combo…”

He hadn’t finished his words yet when Lu Feng pressed down on the top of his head, “We’re going back.”

Wei Xiao’s attention was immediately drawn to him, “When we go back, let’s…”

Lu Feng strode forward, “Rest.”

Wei Xiao followed behind him, “It’s not solo, it’s doubles. If God Kim doesn’t want to fight, we can look for Asleep. They…”

Lu Feng stopped.

Wei Xiao also stopped. “Captain?”

Lu Feng looked back at him, “You…”

Wei Xiao’s gaze didn’t flinch in the slightest. His pair of eyes was pure and warm, filled with a vigorous heat that went straight into a person’s heart.

Lu Feng felt that his heart had been scalded and lowered his gaze, “… Don’t you feel aggrieved.”

This was the knot in Lu Feng’s heart, and the fundamental reason why he was reluctant to play doubles.

––Aggrieved.

Everyone who’d cooperated with him in doubles games felt aggrieved.

He wanted to cooperate with them, but they felt aggrieved.

He wanted to win the game, but they felt even more aggrieved.

They were clearly teammates, and it was clearly a battlefield for two people, but Lu Feng had never felt that there was someone beside him.

He didn’t want to push anyone away, and he didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

But when he looked back, there was always nobody behind him.

Glory was a team game.

Close had done whatever it took to buy FTW.

However, it was a team that had never belonged to him.

Wei Xiao blinked, “Aggrieved?”

Lu Feng knew that Wei Xiao didn’t feel aggrieved, but he wanted to ask.

This was the first time in four years that he’d asked this question.

And the answer he received was the youth’s bright smile.

“… I feel quite aggrieved.” Wei Xiao hinted at him like crazy, “Because you won’t accompany me to play a second match!”

Aaaahhhh, Close was too good at leaving one hanging, he could never get enough!

xiin: WX, i love you, you’re going to fix all the wounds on my baby Close’s heart~