At this moment, in Zhao Xuming’s eyes, Pei Qian’s image became infinitely tall, even making people involuntarily feel fear.
Zhao Xuming was very clear about Team FV’s level before.
During the domestic qualifiers, although this team successfully secured the number one seed spot, they still stumbled through all ten matches to get it. Compared to other domestic teams, their strength could only be described as neck and neck.
In just over a month, how did Team FV go from the pecking order of qualifiers to killing gods and blocking Buddhas at the world championship?
These five players weren’t weak to begin with, but to say they could suddenly enlighten themselves and inexplicably improve their individual skills by a huge margin during the world championship? That was absolutely impossible.
Team FV’s such massive transformation must be because of the coaching team behind them, and this coaching team was arranged by Mr. Pei!
The coaching team took some tactics from GOG, modified them a bit, and directly dominated the IOI World Finals. This is enough to show that GOG designers’ game understanding is higher than IOI designers’.
And Mr. Pei wasn’t just Tenda’s boss, he was also Tenda’s top game producer. He had many classic works; GOG was just one of his many games.
Thinking about it this way, Mr. Pei’s game understanding and gaming achievements might be several levels higher than Team FV’s coaching team!
Thinking about it like this, Mr. Pei didn’t even personally take action – he just sent a few of his people to handle the IOI World Finals. How terrifying must his game understanding be?
Zhao Xuming involuntarily shivered, feeling this matter couldn’t be pondered further. The more he thought about it, the more desperate he felt.
Since being responsible for IOI’s Chinese server operations, Zhao Xuming had always been dealing with Cretien. Cretien was a designer at Finger Company, so his game understanding should already be quite high, but Zhao Xuming could still vaguely sense that Cretien’s game understanding couldn’t compare to Mr. Pei’s. He was always a step behind, constantly being led by the nose by Mr. Pei.
Zhao Xuming suddenly had a strong premonition of doom. It seemed today’s script had already been arranged by Mr. Pei – FV would win 3:0.
This ominous premonition enveloped him, making him involuntarily feel a chill down his back. He wrapped his suit jacket tighter around himself.
But the competition wasn’t over yet. Zhao Xuming could only continue watching with a stiff upper lip.
…
At the same time, the “culprit” Pei Qian was anxiously staring at his tiny phone screen.
Compared to the lively atmosphere at the venue and the giant screen, the phone screen was pitifully small.
But Pei Qian’s mood was indeed similar to Zhao Xuming’s – both were anxious but without any good solutions.
Pei Qian really wanted to ask: Why is this Team FRY so weak!
Giving up jungle creeps, giving up towers, giving up dragons, giving up resources… Why don’t you just give up your main base too!
The lack of entertainment value in the match was secondary. The key was, if you keep giving up like this, how are you going to win!
Clearly Team FRY was hesitating. They felt if they delayed a bit more, waited a bit more, as long as Team FV exposed a weakness, they’d have a chance to seize it and turn the situation around.
But Team FV was playing too meticulously. Dense wards filled Team FRY’s jungle. Every time FRY wanted to rush out and find opportunities, Team FV would very skillfully kite away, making Team FRY’s intentions completely futile.
Before, it was Team FRY who wanted to split push, but now it became Team FV split pushing. Three bruisers surrounded Ezlo Demolisher on the front line. With the slightest carelessness, a tower would be gone. Meanwhile, Hurricane Warrior was extremely graceful, farming minions and jungle creeps in the side lane, living an extremely comfortable life.
Finally, Team FRY couldn’t hold back either. Blade Falcon directly used their ultimate, forcibly ganking Hurricane Warrior who was split pushing in the side lane!
But Hurricane Warrior, who had been farming resources in split pushing until full, was no longer the weak chicken from the start of the game. This was originally one of the heroes with the strongest dueling ability, plus good equipment. After symbolically retreating a bit to bait the enemy deeper, he directly jumped up and started pounding on Blade Falcon!
The moment FRY’s top and mid went to gank Hurricane Warrior, FV’s four members immediately grouped up to push. In front of the well-developed Ezlo Demolisher, defense towers were like paper – they crumbled at the slightest touch!
FRY’s members still hesitated about defending the tower, only to be engaged by Molten Treant. FV’s four instantly pressed forward. Facing the huge economic advantage, FRY’s three tower defenders had no solution and were quickly killed one by one, only trading for FV’s support Molten Treant.
On the other side, Hurricane Warrior also traded with Blade Falcon before dying. FRY’s top laner with low HP chose to recall, but also couldn’t 1v3, could only watch anxiously from the fountain as Team FV, led by Ezlo Demolisher, directly pushed through in one wave!
The final kill count was 3:4. Team FV only had one more kill but pulled ahead with a massive economic lead, winning the match.
…
Players from both teams exited the stage.
Team FV’s players all looked rather calm, without much excitement, as this was only the first game after all.
Moreover, after both team compositions were locked in, Coach Zhou had actually emphasized some key points of this game in an extremely short time, so the players already had sufficient mental preparation and weren’t surprised at all by how the entire game developed.
Since the match followed the script, there was nothing to get excited about winning.
In contrast, Team FRY’s players looked serious and on edge.
What was scary wasn’t losing, but losing so helplessly!
When the composition was selected, whether coach or players all felt it was winnable. However, when the game actually started, the script didn’t develop as they expected at all.
This was a huge mental blow to all players!
Both teams returned to their break rooms and began planning their tactics.
The camera returned to the analysis desk. Except for David, all the other commentators’ faces didn’t look good, trying to cover their embarrassment with smiles.
Especially that pro player who said FRY would win 3:0 – his face now looked most awkward.
“What a surprising match, uh… even until the end the total kill count didn’t reach double digits, because both sides were more engaged in tactical play rather than constantly fighting…”
Although these commentators all had professional qualities, they were really feeling powerless about this match. They couldn’t spin it anymore.
Because Team FRY kept giving up resources from start to finish. After giving up everything, the match ended with one team fight. It was like a movie – everything before was build-up, then suddenly when it seemed about to reach the climax, it was over!
But they still had to hype it up. After all, this was the finals. If the audience felt the match wasn’t good, that would be a big problem.
They had to praise both teams as strong teams with hardly any mistakes, so they could produce such a “wonderful” match.
The commentators supporting Team FRY analyzed reasons for FRY’s failure.
“I feel Team FRY didn’t show their true level. Maybe they were nervous about the finals stage and were holding back. I hope they can adjust quickly.”
“Indeed, this isn’t the FRY I know.”
“I think this match had a lot of luck. When Blade Falcon flew to bot lane, they were perfectly shut down by the opponent and their tower lost a lot of HP. If that team decision had been thought through more, this match’s result might have been different.”
“I think there were some BP issues too. FRY mistakenly thought since FV already had two top laners they wouldn’t grab Molten Treant, so they took the bot lane combo, resulting in all usable top laners being taken. This victory for FV shows they clearly know how to execute global flow. Maybe if FRY tried a different strategy, they wouldn’t have been as passive as in game one…”
The commentators unknowingly all leaned toward FRY’s side.
Actually, if the first match had multiple back-and-forth turns, these commentators would definitely praise both sides. But FV won too smoothly, so the commentators couldn’t help but worry about Team FRY.
If FV cleanly took it 3:0, would this finals have any entertainment value?
…
The camera showed footage of both teams’ break rooms.
On Team FV’s side, players all sat quietly, listening to Coach Zhou explain tactics. Every single one had extremely focused expressions.
In contrast, on Team FRY’s side, players’ expressions varied – some confused, some agitated. Others seemed to want to say something, but with the coach explaining tactics, they swallowed their words.
Clearly everyone had different thoughts about the loss in game one.
FRY’s coach held a piece of paper. Though the camera didn’t intentionally focus on it, glimpses revealed five neat rows of champion portraits – these were compositions Team FV had used in previous matches.
These compositions had absolutely nothing in common – impossible to target!
What was worse, each composition seemed to be in an extremely awkward position: target them? Seemed unnecessary. Don’t target them? If they picked it, you wouldn’t know how to win.
Being stuck between two bad options was the most frustrating.
After looking several times, FRY’s coach angrily crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it aside.
What’s the use of looking!
Since there’s no way to target them, then don’t target! Better focus on executing our own strategies!
FRY’s coach had no confidence in his heart either, but as the team’s backbone, he could only comfort the players with a stiff upper lip.
“The last match was where they were prepared while we fell a bit behind tactically. Everyone don’t take it too seriously.”
“This kind of trump card, they can obviously only use once. Next comes the test of pure skill!”
“I believe everyone won’t lose to them in terms of pure skill, so everyone must maintain composure.”
“This time we’re on red side. Let them first pick, then we’ll leave the last position to counter.”
“I believe in everyone’s pure skill. Last game’s composition was a bit countered, now it’s our turn to counter them. Everyone, let’s go!”