Team One entered the private room, while Team Two opened five computers in the main hall near the private room.

Logically, Team Two should have gone in to watch the match, but Zhang Yuan was worried that the H4 Club members might feel it was unfair, with Team Two observing and directing Team One, so he didn’t let Team Two go in to watch.

For fairness, Team Leader Su suggested that both team leaders enter to observe the match, watch silently without giving commands.

Zhang Yuan readily agreed.

Team Leader Su had a little scheme in mind. Seeing the other side’s lineup, complete with a coach and a special tactical instructor, if they allowed Coach Li and Instructor Ma to enter and give on-site commands, how could they possibly compete?

Among these people, Team Leader Zhang seemed to be the one who understood the game the least, so letting him in wouldn’t make much difference.

So, Ma Yang and Li Yaling both waited outside.

Huang Wang turned on the computer and asked the other team members, “Should we play ranked games, or create a custom game?”

Generally speaking, they should play ranked games, since the training match would definitely take longer than a single ranked game. By the time they finished their ranked game, the training match would be over.

However, Old Zhou looked at the internet café’s computers with some disdain, “Let’s do a custom game. The computer configuration doesn’t look very good. If we play ranked, I’m afraid we’ll lose points.”

Huang Wang thought about it and realized that seemed to be the case.

He couldn’t help worrying about Team One, after all, the café’s computers couldn’t compare with ROF’s, and he wasn’t sure if Jiang Huan’s group could adapt to them.

Ma Yang was feeling somewhat bored. He had originally wanted to go in and watch the match, but unfortunately, his special identity as “Instructor Ma” had alerted Team Leader Su.

He could only watch Team Two’s members practicing in custom games.

Meanwhile, Coach Yaling was unconsciously exercising her arms and wrists.

Not having time to work out during this trip to Shanghai was quite painful for her, but it was work after all, and there wasn’t much she could do about it. Now with nothing to do, she could at least move around a bit, which was better than nothing.

Twenty minutes later.

Team Two’s custom practice was just getting into a good rhythm.

During their daily, unwavering custom practice sessions, these team members had developed an effective training method.

At first, everyone thought it was meaningless and just played randomly, but gradually they began to consciously analyze data and repeatedly use skills to strengthen muscle memory. Now they would repeatedly practice each skill of every hero.

After getting used to this monotonous practice, twenty minutes was just halfway through.

However, at this moment, the door to the private room opened.

Zhang Yuan walked out with a bewildered look on his face.

Huang Wang was startled, “Did the match pause? Did someone disconnect?”

It had only been twenty minutes, and including the ban/pick phase, the actual gameplay was probably just fifteen minutes. It should have been the height of the mid-game battle.

What did it mean to come out now?

However, the door to the adjacent private room also opened, and Team Leader Su walked out with an equally bewildered expression, just in time to see Coach Yaling exercising.

Team Leader Su’s expression changed involuntarily.

Why was the opposing coach making such movements?

Was this… a show of intimidation?

Indeed, these visitors were not friendly!

Zhang Yuan and Team Leader Su looked at each other, neither knowing what to say.

They had been completely pushed over in less than fifteen minutes!

All three lanes collapsed, the jungler was farming, and they hadn’t even taken Baron before directly pushing to destroy the base.

Actually, if the DGE Club had fountain-camped, the match time could have been extended, but Jiang Huan was clearly a steady player who had the utmost respect for his enemies, so he went all out for a quick victory.

As a result, both team leaders were stunned.

Zhang Yuan was puzzled—the opponents were also professional players. Although their team hadn’t been formed for long, they were all selected from the Challenger and Grandmaster ranks. How could they crumble so easily?

Team Leader Su was equally puzzled—indeed, were his players fake Challengers and Grandmasters? Had he been deceived?

How could they have no ability to fight back at all?

Even among Challengers, the differences could be vast.

Teams that dominated in the secondary leagues became mere experience fodder when they reached the top league arenas, getting stylishly crushed. A team of five Challengers, without good tactics and coordination, could only take a beating when facing a regular army.

Zhang Yuan had said from the beginning that Team One’s players should give it their all.

So Jiang Huan used all his strategies, and H4’s players had never seen these in high-level ranked games. They felt like their entire understanding of the game had been overturned. Starting with a 0-5 deficit and losing the entire jungle, they quickly lost their fighting spirit. They put up some symbolic resistance later, but it all became garbage time.

In the end, the kill score was 0-14, and that was with Team One not trying to rack up kills but aiming for a quick finish.

Zhang Yuan didn’t know what to say. He could hardly say, “Sorry, our players were too harsh, I’ll tell them to go easy next time,” could he?

Team Leader Su coughed awkwardly a couple of times, “Team Leader Zhang, the gap between our teams seems a bit too large. After all, our club has only been formed recently. To ensure training effectiveness, why don’t… your side switch to Team Two?”

Team Leader Su had figured it out—the opposing Team One’s five players were simply inhuman. The gap was so large that there was no point in having a training match. Continuing would not only fail to provide any training benefit but would also crush his players’ confidence and make them question their life choices.

But Team Two…

They looked physically much more solid than Team One, so their skill level should be much lower, right?

Zhang Yuan had the same thought and nodded in agreement, “Good, Huang Wang, take your keyboards and mice, and go replace Team One.”

Huang Wang was also confused. Even if the other side was losing, they shouldn’t have been pushed over in just fifteen minutes, right?

Jiang Huan had been too merciless! He didn’t show any mercy at all.

You should have realized halfway through that the other side’s level wasn’t as good as yours. Why did you still go all out? You should at least give the other side some face.

Seeing DGE’s Team Two beginning to pack up their gear, Team Leader Su hurriedly returned to the private room.

He was going to urgently formulate tactics and boost morale.

Huang Wang was about to enter the private room when Zhang Yuan held him back.

“Um, Team One seems to have been a bit harsh. If you beat the other side too badly, they might not want to practice with us anymore, and our trip would be wasted. It might also be a bit embarrassing for them.”

“I’m not saying you should deliberately let them win, just try to play more steadily and drag out the time a bit, understand?”

Huang Wang thumped his chest, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it!”

Team One and Team Two switched places, the private room door closed, but this time Zhang Yuan didn’t go in to watch.

Ma Yang was a bit curious, “You’re not going in to watch?”

Zhang Yuan silently shook his head, “It was too brutal, too inhumane, I really couldn’t bear to watch…”

This made Ma Yang even more interested, “Really? I want to see!”

Zhang Yuan quickly held him back, “No, let’s just watch the recording back at the hotel.”

If “Instructor Ma” went in, he would be suspected by the other side.

Team One’s members also started practicing in custom games.

Ten minutes passed.

Half an hour passed.

Fifty minutes passed…

Zhang Yuan looked at his watch, tempted to enter the private room and ask what was going on.

Could it be that the match had a bug and was paused?

Why was it taking so long?

As he watched from outside, the private room door opened, and Huang Wang walked out.

Zhang Yuan quickly asked, “How did it go?”

Huang Wang thumped his chest, “All good! This time the duration was long enough!”

He lowered his voice and said, “Every time we gained an advantage, we would deliberately throw, bringing both sides back to the same starting line to continue. Unfortunately, in the last team fight, their coordination had a serious error. By accident, we instinctively scored an ace without losing anyone. We couldn’t keep up the act, so we had to push to the end.”

Zhang Yuan blinked in confusion. It sounded reasonable, but something felt off…

The door to H4 Club’s private room also opened, and three players queued up to rush to the café’s bathroom.

The other two players leaned powerlessly against their computer chairs, as if their bodies had been completely drained.

In contrast, Huang Wang’s group was still energetic and lively, showing their physical advantages.

Team Leader Su’s expression wasn’t much better than his players’.

If the last game was a sudden death, this game was death by a thousand cuts…

Every time the opponents took the lead, they would use their poor acting skills to throw, bringing the economy back to even.

But the act was too obvious, almost turning the game into a turn-based one!

More humiliating than being wiped out is knowing that in the next wave the opponent will mercilessly wipe you out, in the next one they’ll show mercy, and in the one after that they’ll mercilessly wipe you out again…

But there was nothing they could do!

H4’s players discovered this pattern early on, and as players with dignity, they naturally chose to resist desperately when the opponents played seriously.

However, after resisting several times, they found that whether they resisted or not, the results seemed to make no difference…

More tragic than a quick death was being toyed with like a plaything…

It was infuriating!

The key was that every time the opponents showed mercy, both sides’ economy and equipment were even, but they still couldn’t win.

This created a sense of fatalistic helplessness.

If the first match was lost too quickly and everyone was quite confused, this match dragged on too long, and everyone recognized the gap between them and their opponents.

Especially during the prolonged battle, H4’s players were already mentally foggy. By the end, their operations had completely deteriorated, which was why Huang Wang and his team instinctively scored an ace without thinking.

Both sides were somewhat embarrassed.

Seeing Team Leader Su’s expression, Zhang Yuan instantly realized what had happened.

The acting was too poor, and the other side had seen through it!

Worse than having no emotional intelligence is thinking you have it…

But Huang Wang couldn’t be blamed. These were all internet-addicted youths—how could they be expected to have emotional intelligence?

If they had emotional intelligence, would they have killed Mr. Ma with a score of 0-28?

Team Leader Su was a bit dejected. “Team Leader Zhang, do you… have a third team?”

A question that struck at the soul.

He was also helpless. With their team’s level, they couldn’t tell which was better between Team One and Team Two. Either way, it was stylish humiliation.

The gap was too large, and there was no training effect at all!

For DGE’s people, dominating weaker opponents too much could lead to skill regression; for H4’s people, being constantly dominated wouldn’t improve their skills but would instead destroy the players’ confidence.

The question about a “third team” really stumped Zhang Yuan.

He remained silent for a long time, looked at Ma Yang, and suggested, “How about… Instructor Ma, you get in the game?”

To weigh down the team members, to balance the strength of both sides?

Previously, Zhang Yuan thought Ma Yang’s presence was useless.

Now it seemed that Mr. Ma was a crucial weight on the balance of power between the two sides!