Chapter 1290: Who counters who?


    Trantor: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi


    The match quickly began. The map that Ye Xiu chose with the home team advantage was once again a simple and straightforward one. The strategy that he chose was to fight head on. This was quite surprising as an old general’s strongest weapon was experience. Choosing a map that contained a lot ofplexities would be advantageous for him. But not Ye Xiu. Armed with the unspecialized, he would always pick a map that allowed him to y aggressively. And up until now, no one had been able to stand up to his aggression.


    In this match against Happy, Samsara had not chosen to specifically counter this arrangement. As Li Yibo said, sending out Jiang Botao first was a very ordinary,fortable arrangement for Samsara.


    When the characters loaded and saw the simple map, there was nothing else to do but to charge forward!


    "Senior, you can’t keep winning! You have to leave us juniors something to aim to surpass!" Jiang Botao started chatting with Ye Xiu over the public chat. The Alliance had stressed that use of the voice chat was being discussed, but they had yet to reach a decision. For now, everything remained unchanged. This rule was not actually that important for the Alliance in terms of gamey. Why did the Alliance ban voice chat in the beginning? It was for easier broadcasting. The yers could not talk and had to use text to chat, making it easier for the viewers to see theirmunications and strategies. There was no other intention besides this. If the yers used voice chat, then the broadcasters wouldn’t have it as easy. Further, if they split the voice chat into a public one and two more, one for each team, then how do they decide which voice chat to tune in at any given time? Opening voice chat would allow the yers tomunicate fully, but the viewer’s experience would not be the same as before, where they could catch every small detail in themunications.


    The current scene was a great example. Everyone loved seeing the banter between yers. If it were voice chat and the broadcaster had to switch the sound around, a lot would be missed.


    In the end, the Alliance was currently still in discussions with the broadcasters with no oue yet. For now, everyone was still using text tomunicate in this match.


    "Well of course!" on this side, Ye Xiu actually went and agreed with Jiang Botao. Everyone was surprised, but a second message followed quickly: "That’s why I didn’t y in Round 1! No matter how well I do, my win streak can only reach 37. See, I left you a whole round’s worth to surpass!"


    "Just y..." Jiang Botao wasn’t really trash talking. He liked to chat a little with others. But now, he really couldn’t keep chatting after what Ye Xiu said.


    "Why don’t you give Senior a hand? Perhaps just type GG?" Ye Xiu pressed on.


    "Senior, please stop joking around," Jiang Botao said.


    "It’s not like it makes a difference in the oue!" Ye Xiu continued.


    "Regardless, I should at least give it a shot!" Jiang Botao wasn’t affected by Ye Xiu’s taunting. He still chatted as if this was a regr conversation.


    The two characters met after these few words. Ye Xiu did not control Lord Grim use his long-ranged attacks hurriedly. He allowed the characters to continue to get closer. Just as he was about to step into the enemy Spellde’s attack range, Lord Grim suddenly elerated!


    Movement skill!


    This had already be a signature move of the unspecialized Lord Grim. It seemed that Ye Xiu didn’t n to y cat and mouse with his opponent at a mid- to long-range; rather, he nned to get up close to deal with his opponent. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had always yed like this. He had never kited his opponent, not even when equipped with plenty of mid- to long-range methods of attack, or against an opponent who could only attack at close range. He always fought aggressively for the initiative and used any means possible to seize it.


    A Shining Cut shed out, and Lord Grim raced forward several units in an instant. Jiang Botao already saw through Ye Xiu’s intentions, and Empty Waves retreated back. He leapt backwards while the Silver shortsword Divine Chain glinted. An Earthquake Sword rolled forth!


    Jiang Botao, the vice captain of Samsara, had gained increasing poprity by the year as Samsara won back to back championships. But his technical skill and style did not really have any uniqueness to it like many other yers did. His y was very ordinary, neither unexpected nor low-key. Games would finish seemingly very naturally.


    In other words, Jiang Botao’s matches didn’t have waves of highs and lows whererge portions of health were traded. The damage would umte steadily, and he would eventually win by slowly umting small advantages. It didn’t matter whether those who lost to him were ahead or behind during the match, they would alwayse out of it feeling like they lost by "that much". However, regardless of how little "that much" was, a loss was still a loss in the end.


    At first, people were of the opinion that Jiang Botao had frighteningly urate calctions. However, they gradually realised this was not the case. It was more urate to say that he did not let a single detail slip.


    Jiang Botao was that type of meticulous yer, whether it was in the individual or teampetitions. He would consider and deal with any possibility that would arise in battle. Because of this, it was very hard for anyone to score a highbo against him. Jiang Botao was seemingly a counter to Ye Xiu in this regard: Ye Xiu’s unspecialized focused on an unbrokenbo in a one on one.


    Lord Grim charged forth aggressively before his eyes, but Jiang Botao was well prepared. Empty Waves had already leapt back and used an Earthquake Sword as Lord Grim activated his movement skills.


    In this moment, it looked as if Lord Grim’s Shining Cut wasn’t closing the distance, but rather pushing him to headbutt the Earthquake Sword. No time to dodge? Most ordinary yers would feel this way; however, for a pro yer, there was room to dodge even though the two skills were fairly fast.


    Left?


    Or right?


    Jiang Botao was fixated on Lord Grim’s every move. Empty Waves took up another stance after his jump backwards, ready to send out another Wave Sword as soon as Lord Grim dodged.


    Turns out, it was neither left nor right. Lord Grim still charged forth, but his shoulders forcefully lurched forward.


    Reinforced Iron Bones!


    Ye Xiu chose not to dodge. Rather, he forcefully had Lord Grim activate this Striker skill. An increased defence would lessen the damage taken. For a skill like Earthquake Sword that swept away the target, however, the most troublesome thing about Reinforced Iron Bones was the Super Armor status that it grants.


    Even so, Reinforced Iron Bones couldn’t stop Empty Waves from sending out more attacks. However, this unexpected move from Ye Xiu still ended up making Jiang Botao hesitate for an instant. Jiang Botao was still paying all his attention to the left and right sides of his attack.


    As the Silver weapon Divine Chain was raised for another attack, Lord Grim’s hands already sent an object flying.


    Puff!


    It was only a soft sound, but thick, purple smoke quickly spread and engulfed the area. Lord Grim slipped out of Jiang Botao’s field of view in a blink.


    Ninja Tool: Smoke Bomb!


    Jiang Botao froze.


    Under the cover of the thick smoke, he had no idea about Lord Grim’s position.


    The thick smoke continued to spread. Were there any flow currents that seemed irregr?


    Jiang Botao observed closely. If a character moved within the smoke, it would definitely disrupt its natural spread. Traces of movement could be spotted like this.


    But, there weren’t any!


    No movement?


    Impossible! Under this cover, why would Ye Xiu not attack? Then there was only one possibility!


    Jiang Botao ’s right hand swiped the mouse and his left hand flew across the keyboard. Empty Waves turned, stepped back and Divine Chain shed outwards. Wave Wheel sher!


    Lord Grim would suddenly appear behind him with a Shadow Clone Technique.


    That was Jiang Botao’s prediction.


    Thus, Wave Wheel sher was unleashed, with intention to immobilize the opponent with sword waves. The purple smoke swirled and a part of it dissipated, but it didn’t find a target. Lord Grim was nowhere to be seen.


    Jiang Botao knew at this moment: This is bad...


    A spurt of blood flew out from Empty Waves’ neck. Lord Grim did indeed appear next to him and mercilessly delivered a Cut-Throat.


    Did he use Shadow Clone Technique or some other movement skill? That was no longer important. Jiang Botao only knew that Ye Xiu used a timing difference perfectly. Hepletely predicted Jiang Botao’s reaction.


    Following the Cut-Throat, the short de in Lord Grim’s hand flicked again. The Assassin knock-up skill, Leaping de, sent Empty Waves into their air.


    Falling Light de!


    However, Empty Waves barely left the ground when he used this Swordsman low-level skill, and suddenly plummeted.


    But...


    Gore Cross!


    Two perpendicr lines of blood appeared on Empty Waves’ back. He avoided being sent into the air, but Lord Grim continued his attack and didn’t dodge. This skill was chained so quickly that Empty Waves wouldn’t have had a chance topletely get airborne. Jiang Botao’s quick reaction seemed like it was ying right into Ye Xiu’s hands.


    Thebo began.


    "Guess whatbo I can reach?" Ye Xiu actually took the time to throw out a message. Obviously, this was targeted towards the fact that Jiang Botao was rarely on the receiving end of a highbo.


    "I don’t think it will be that high," and Jiang Botao actually replied. Under these circumstances, he was still in the mood to chat.


    "Yeah, seems like thebo was just a dream," when Ye Xiu sent this message, thebo reset to zero.


    However, this did not mean Jiang Botao had a chance to escape. Ye Xiu’s unspecialized Lord Grim only aimed for thebo effect, and not thebo statistic.


    Fake Combo! His attacks continued to chain beautifully one after another.


    "It really is difficult to deal with!" Jiang Botao sighed.


    "A little too many details right?" Ye Xiu replied.


    "Yeah... way too many." Jiang Botao had a headache.


    Jiang Botao could counter Ye Xiu to an extent? It looked like this was the wrong call. In reality, Ye Xiu’s unspecialized countered Jiang Botao. There were too many skills, too many ways to chain skills, and overall too many variations. If Jiang Botao really wanted consider every detail, his rhythm beginning from his thought process would be slow by a beat. Jiang Botao’s brain had no way fully keep up with the amount of details for this opponent.


    Jiang Botao fell.


    Even though there were many struggles in the process, it didn’t affect the final result.


    "Next time, send someone else up," Ye Xiu smiled. He acknowledged the amount of trouble Jiang Botao had while facing him.


    "Is there still a next time?" Jiang Botao was confused. The two teams have already met twice this season. The individualpetition was done for them, so when would next time be?


    "Oh, if you guys don’t make the yoffs, then I guess there’s no next time," Ye Xiu said.


    This bold presumption of Samsara not making the yoffs again left everyone speechless.