Chapter 72 (The last part is a fragment and doesn't translate directly. It likely refers to a specific act or situation.)
HYG's daily training schedule is exceptionally heavy. The league once compiled statistics on the daily training hours of each team during a recreational event, and HYG ranked first with a terrifying average of over 12 hours. As a result, for so long, apart from former vice-carry soso, the team has had almost no scandals or negative news.
In Milk's words, after a day of training, you're practically dead; who's in the mood for romance?
The team's training matches are concentrated in the afternoon, while the time after dinner is for review and individual training.
HYG's main training targets are currently the top teams in different regions. Apart from CG, they have played several rounds with almost all of them.
According to the analyst who arranged the scrimmages, CG has not responded to any of their scrimmages invitations since yux joined HYG. After hearing the whole story, Mike sneered and said that it didn't matter whether they were there or not, and that they didn't need to ask them for scrimmages anymore.
In mid-July, ROE released a version update, which mainly changed some resource points in long-range maps, significantly extending the overall game duration.
The extended gameplay puts a great strain on the commander, as it's a game where one wrong move can easily lead to a series of mistakes.
On the afternoon of the third day after the new version was released, HYG and NJ played a terrible training match. In the three games that were not completed, the opponent took the lead in the first 15 minutes. Of the three games that were completed, only one was won, and that was only due to Yux's lucky play.
The moment the respawn point was destroyed, before the game even ended, Rock pushed off with both feet, turned to the side, and questioned Lemon beside him: "At 32 minutes, I already said I was low on health and needed to heal, so why did you still go up and engage the enemy? Once you started, everything collapsed."
Lemon was silent for a moment, then retorted without backing down: "I signaled to start beforehand, it's your own fault for not maintaining your health."
"The situation on the field can change in an instant. I can't predict when the opponent will suddenly engage me. Since you saw my health drop and heard me say that I can't engage right now, shouldn't you stop immediately?"
The two started arguing back and forth, and by the time Nan Zhiyi returned after washing her hands, a fierce battle had broken out in the training room.
Rock stood up, his face flushed and neck bulging. His tall stature exuded an imposing aura: "Wasn't it you who took the blame for our loss to NJ last week? How long have you been in the team? There have always been communication problems. How many times has Brother Mike told you to change? Have you ever seriously thought about it?"
Lemon remained seated, her gaze lowered: "If you really can't accept me, then let the team replace me."
Rock: "Why do you always say to replace someone every time this comes up? I'm telling you to make changes, not to leave. Why can't you listen to what we're saying? Let's communicate. You're the commander. If you don't speak up, and nobody else does, how are we supposed to play the game?"
You Xin sat in a different row from them, and since the content of the argument had nothing to do with him, he was now completely uninvolved.
"Alright, alright, let's talk this out. Duan Hao, sit down first." Milk, with his hands behind his head, tried to mediate the fight, but then he caught a glimpse of Nan Zhiyi entering the room. "How about this, you two let the coach talk to you and see who's really in the wrong."
Mike had a stomach attack today and went to the hospital for an emergency IV drip, leaving Nam Ji-yi to supervise their training match alone.
Nan Zhiyi had no choice but to take a deep breath and put down the water glass she had just picked up.
Arguments due to communication problems are extremely common within teams. Although the team he led in the cup competition was relatively well-behaved and communication was smooth, with no similar issues arising, in league teams, players tend to have more independent ideas, and once a dispute starts, it can escalate into a major conflict.
At this point, a coach with authority becomes crucial, playing a role in persuading both sides and making a final decision.
If the coach's game skills and understanding are low, and he is unable to convince the players or set the general direction for the team's efforts, the team will only become more and more chaotic in terms of communication. When they enter the main competition, they will play like headless flies.
Nan Zhiyi walked to Rock's position first: "Let me watch the recording from earlier. Show me the spectator view, yours, and Lemon's, and then tell me what you all think."
After the three video clips were played, both sides repeated the content of their argument.
Nan Zhiyi thought quietly for a while.
He had one hand behind his back and the other tapping on the screen: "Here."
“You’ve already given the signal, and Rock’s positioning isn’t a big problem. It’s just that the enemy’s strategy is to focus fire on you first. His health has dropped to 1/3, so there’s no longer any condition to engage.” He told Lemon, “Although we had planned to engage before, the tank communicated with you and couldn’t engage. At this point, you should have changed your decision, right? If you keep forcing it, it will become a 3v4, and our lineup has no chance of winning.”
Upon hearing this, Rock was about to break into a victorious smile when Nan Zhiyi turned to him and said, "And you, Rock."
"Let's rewind one minute. You were the one who signaled the assembly, right? From what I can tell, Lemon wasn't originally planning to have the team assemble at this time." He said, glancing at Lemon. "Wasn't that right?"
Lemon gave a very soft "hmm".
"The commander felt it was a bad time to regroup, but you gave the signal, so he listened to your command, which led to what happened next," Nan Zhiyi summarized. "Regrouping at that time, with the terrain being unfavorable, would almost certainly have resulted in you being focused down by the enemy and losing health."
Rock: "I think this is the time to fight—"
“You think you can win, but your teammates don’t. Rock, your problem with taking command is serious. If Lemon calls for a retreat at this point, you won’t retreat with him, right? You want the commander to consider your situation, so you have to give him command first. Don’t always think that he should play according to your ideas. If you continue like this, the game will become more and more chaotic. That’s the root of the problem.”
After Nan Zhiyi finished speaking, Lemon, who had been constantly tugging at her fingers, suddenly relaxed.
“…Oh.” After a long pause, Rock responded sullenly, “Yes, Yi-ge, I feel like you’re right.”
"Hmm? Right." Nan Zhiyi looked at the three HYG players in front of her. "If you want him to communicate with you, the first thing you can't do is take over his command. That's the key to the problem now."
As he spoke, he glanced at You Xin to the side, as if he wanted to say something, but then looked away.
Rock scratched the back of his head: "Okay, I got it."
Milk should also reply: "I'll be more careful in the future."
Nan Zhiyi looked at Lemon again.
Lemon moved her lips, and after a long pause, she looked up and said, "I will change the communication problem."
"Okay, it's good that everyone has realized their problems." In the past, Nan Zhiyi would have smiled and told everyone to go and rest, but today he still had a stern face. "Let's go eat first. Tonight I'll see if I can arrange to play two or three more games with other teams. Still this map."
The sound of wheels scraping against the ground filled the training room. The three of them got up and left the room in a scattered manner.
You Xin also got up. He took two steps toward Nan Zhiyi, and was about to speak when she suddenly turned around and fell forward, her whole body limply sticking to him.
You Xin paused for a moment.
Nan Zhiyi rested her head on his shoulder, all her imposing aura gone. She slightly raised her eyes and asked, "Was I being serious just now?"
"That's good." You Xin couldn't help but laugh. He brushed a strand of hair from the other person's forehead with his hand. "You need to be able to keep them in check in this situation."
"I was so scared, and Mike wasn't here. I'm not usually the one scolding them," Nan Zhiyi muttered, then paused and added, "It's a good thing you were here. You're more obedient."
"Actually, I wanted to praise you, but I was afraid that if the three of them heard it, they would feel it was unfair and that I was biased towards you... Ugh! This is such a hassle."
You Xin almost laughed, and replied, "It's nothing."
Even when under a lot of pressure, Nan Zhiyi rarely shows her vulnerable side, let alone clings to him and acts cute like this.
He agreed verbally, but immediately dismissed the idea of leaving right away, deciding to stay in the training room for another ten minutes to savor this hard-won precious moment—and then he heard a "bang".
You Xin looked up and met the gaze of Old Xu, who was standing at the door with a water bottle rolling around at his feet.
Old Xu looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He was clutching his chest with one hand, pointing at them with the other, his mouth open, but he couldn't utter a word for a long time.
He looked at Shangyou Xin, but the latter not only showed no remorse, but instead raised the corners of his mouth and smiled slightly at him.
Old Xu's vision went black for a moment.
...Who was it that assured him they could distinguish between work and personal time?! And isn't he right here in the training room right now?!
Thinking of this person's usual methods of slowly boiling a frog, Lao Xu suddenly felt a chill and realized that he really needed to talk to the operations team and ask them to take some time to come up with an emergency plan.
-
After dinner, it was time for another round of training.
The analyst informed us that no suitable teams could be booked for tonight. So the team members split up and each completed their individual training plans.
Since losing to NJ last week, the team has been arguing about communication issues. Poor team synergy is not a problem that can be solved in a short time, and the players' constant worry will only increase the pressure. So, Nan Zhiyi made a plan for them, requiring everyone to reach the top 100 in the ladder in the near future, using an easily achievable and quantifiable goal to distract them.
You Xin didn't seem to care much about the plan. After a ranked match ended, his rank on the screen was particularly striking: 11th place.
Standing behind him were Milk and Rock, who had also just finished playing and were now full of admiration.
"It's so good to be young," Milk said enviously.
"That's really energetic," Rock remarked.
"You two, eight thousand, nine thousand? Have you no shame?" Mike, who had just returned from the hospital and still had an IV bandage on his hand, sternly began to shoo them away. "Learn from Yux!!"
"Will we be in the top ten after this round?" Nan Zhiyi asked, peeking out from the side. Just then, You Xin started another round.
"More or less," You Xin said.
The ranked matches use random maps, and this match was on the [Ruins].
The pick screen is entirely anonymous. You Xin was assigned to the 3rd position and his pre-selected main DPS role. At this point, the player in the 2nd position ahead of him asked: "Can I switch to the 3rd position?"
You Xin naturally didn't want to change, and lit up the [High Priest] he would choose next.
After waiting a while and not receiving a reply, 2L typed a question mark in the chat box: 【? 】
You Xin still did not answer.
However, when it came time for the two to pick their skins, he was still choosing when he suddenly heard a "ding" sound—
2L locked in the profession he had chosen first.
Nan Zhiyi frowned slightly. You Xin didn't say anything, but simply changed his class to Alchemist. Such chaotic situations frequently occurred in ranked matches; if one had to pay attention to every single one, they'd probably be sulking every day for a week.
However, after the game entered the loading phase and both players' IDs were revealed, You Xin's expression darkened slightly.
【2L Alchemist】
【CG.Xww】
“This person…” Nan Zhiyi couldn’t help but speak up from the side. Xww really learned CG’s moves thoroughly, stealing other people’s positions outside the game and stealing other people’s professions inside the game.
"Ignore him," You Xin said.
He skillfully controlled his character, quickly clearing all of his team's resources in five minutes, and within ten minutes, his equipment was basically complete, giving him a 900 gold lead over the opponent. He then immediately secured three kills in the resource group.
In stark contrast, xww was repeatedly caught out by the opponent, and his KDA had reached 0-5-1 by the 20-minute mark.
So, the next time the character was resurrected, the other players in the game noticed that the High Priest's portrait remained at the resurrection point and didn't move.
xww has gone offline.
The game ended after 34 minutes. You Xin stood up and pulled his chair back. Rock, who was behind him, heard the noise and turned around to ask, "How did it go? Made it into the top ten?"
"We lost," You Xin said. "Someone went AFK."
Rock hates nothing more than someone slacking off in ranked matches. He got angry as soon as he heard that, got up and went over to check: "Which idiot is this? Let me see—oh my god, xww?!"
Coincidentally, HYG's second match this week is against CG.
This is the first head-to-head confrontation between the two sides since Yux joined the team.
"What's this idiot trying to do? Like to slack off, huh? Report him with your pro account!" Rock said, snatching Youxin's mouse and promptly reporting CG.Xww. "Just you wait, your fans always spectate your ranked games, this idiot's going to be in trouble soon!"
Rock was right. Early that morning, major esports marketing accounts had already started releasing Yux's gameplay footage, with captions like "[CG's two main DPS characters clash in ranked matches, first grabbing a pro role and then giving up?!]", and within just a few tens of minutes, the hashtag topped the game's trending search list.
Although Yux wasn't streaming at the time, based on their positions in the game and the classes they chose, it's not hard to guess what happened during the pick phase.
HYG just lost a game last week, and Yux's fans were hesitant to criticize their teammate, who had a long history of honors and even a championship. They were holding back their anger, so they directly posted nearly three thousand comments criticizing Yux on his Weibo.
The league has many penalties for negative gameplay, ranging from a 1-2 game suspension to a fine of 10,000 yuan.
Unexpectedly, the next day, CG released a statement on its official Weibo account: "[Last night, player xww went AFK during the match at 20:46. The club has confirmed that xww suffered a sudden drop in blood sugar and was forced to terminate the game due to his poor health. We apologize to the players affected.]"
Below, some mischievous fans were adding fuel to the fire with comments like: "They're playing someone else on Friday, are they hoping to get the other team's main carry banned? Do they think they can only beat them in a 4v3 situation?"
When Nan Zhiyi saw the statement, she almost laughed in anger: "Low blood sugar? 8 PM? xww?"
He took out his phone and started searching: "XWW's weight is almost 200 pounds, right?!"
With shoes on, xww's height barely exceeds 1.7 meters. Since joining the league's first team, his weight has skyrocketed, and he's heading further and further down the path of becoming a cube. Normally, he has a rosy complexion and a strong voice, showing no signs of hypoglycemia whatsoever.
“Over one hundred and eighty,” You Xin chimed in. “I checked it on the official website before.”
"I originally wanted to post a Weibo to criticize him, but I felt that I didn't have any grudge against him, so I didn't mention him."
He said, then gave a cold laugh: "We probably have it now."
-
The match against CG will be held at 8 PM on Friday.
The previous BO3 ended quickly, so the match started earlier at 7 PM.
As usual, Mike took the stage to draft the game, and the tall head coach, with a furrowed brow, paced back and forth in front of the camera.
However, once he stepped off the stage and returned to the spectator room, his first words were: "I didn't do a good job."
Indeed, as he said. CG's coaching staff seemed to know their tactics inside and out. Even though the two sides had never played a scrim, the other side seemed to know their training situation very well and had guessed their lineup in advance, so they immediately pulled out a counter lineup.
41 minutes later, the first game ended, with CG leading 1-0.
The cheers from the CG fans in the audience were deafening. The stands were packed for today's highly anticipated match, with fans from both sides making up about half the audience. The pre-match cheers were incredibly enthusiastic, the rivalry off the field just as intense as on the field.
After the team returned, Mike started scratching his head in the rest room. Milk comforted his teammates, saying, "What are you afraid of? It's just a best-of-one game. Anyone could win or lose."
The next match will begin in ten minutes. Nan Zhiyi mentally assessed the current situation: CG somehow obtained their training match information. Although she didn't know how much information they had, the opponent's understanding of them was certainly greater than their understanding of each other. The team was almost in a situation where the enemy was in the dark and they were in the light.
Ten minutes is not enough time for Mike to quickly come up with four perfect lineups for the remaining four maps.
He bit his lip. An idea slowly took shape in his mind.
Nan Zhiyi looked up and happened to meet You Xin's gaze, who was looking at him.
You Xin nodded to him.
Nan Zhiyi took a deep breath.
"I'll play in the next match," he said to everyone in the training room.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com