After the host commentator finished warming up the audience, he passed the conversation to the professional player to begin his analysis of FV team’s draft picks.
The professional player on the official commentary desk confidently stated: “FV team has been mainly using two tactical setups recently. One centers around Blade of Wings for global map control, while the other focuses on Chaos Doom for teamfights. These heroes have been popular since the World Championship, and despite minor nerfs, they remain favorites among many teams.”
“Let’s see which hero FV picks first, and we’ll be able to determine their composition for this match.”
“Oh… the opponent banned Blade of Wings.”
“This hero is core to the global control strategy and its function is irreplaceable, so FV will likely first-pick Chaos Doom for their teamfight composition.”
“Um… the opponent banned Chaos Doom too.”
“In that case…”
The professional player froze up.
These opponents were really not giving him any face!
He had prepared extensively, with tons of content about both tactical compositions, their hero selection strategies, and in-game tactics. Once the match started, he was ready to impress all viewers with his prophetic commentary style.
But now both core heroes were banned? Seriously?
If they hadn’t been banned, FV team would likely have chosen one of these two strategies, even while keeping some tactics hidden. But now, everything was thrown into chaos!
Seeing the professional player stumble, the host commentator quickly stepped in: “It seems the opponent has done thorough preparation and studied FV team deeply! How will FV respond to this situation? I think they might need to unveil a new strategy.”
The broadcast had already switched to the game screen, so there was no camera on the commentary desk. The host nudged the professional player with his elbow, signaling him to recover from this minor setback and continue commentating.
The professional player quickly regained his composure.
He thought to himself that FV had been alternating between these two strategies, and if he could see through their playstyle, the opposing coaching staff obviously could too.
He just hadn’t expected the opponents to neither pick these heroes themselves nor develop counter-strategies, but instead to simply ban them outright, which caught him off guard.
Despite having their regular heroes banned, FV team remained calm and locked in Storm Swordsman, the hero that earned MVP in the third match of the finals.
The professional player on the commentary desk immediately perked up.
Professor, I know this one!
Isn’t this the strategy paired with Ghost Blacksmith to dominate the jungle and mid lane creeps for economic pressure?
Many professional players had studied this strategy after the World Championship, so he had plenty to comment on.
“FV has first-picked Storm Swordsman, and they’re clearly planning to pick Ghost Blacksmith next to recreate that pentakill moment from the World Championship finals!”
However, before he could finish speaking, he saw the opponent had already snatched Ghost Blacksmith.
The professional player’s mouth hung slightly open as he fell silent once again.
How was he supposed to commentate on this?!
—
Meanwhile, at the Tuwi Live streaming commentary desk.
The host was equally surprised when he saw the opponent lock in Ghost Blacksmith.
“It seems the opponent came well-prepared for today’s match, countering FV at every turn in the draft. They knew about the Storm Swordsman and Ghost Blacksmith system and decided to grab Ghost Blacksmith for themselves.”
“This is bad news for FV team, as Storm Swordsman is relatively weak in the jungle. Without Ghost Blacksmith providing additional experience and gold, if targeted by the opponent, it could potentially lead to collapse across all three lanes. What do you two think about this draft?”
The two players from FV’s second team weren’t thrown off at all, as if everything was proceeding exactly as they had expected.
“This situation is definitely within FV team’s calculations.”
“This strategy was already used at Worlds, so everyone knows about it. The best way to secure both heroes is either by picking them both as purple side, or with blue side’s second and third picks. Since FV first-picked on blue side, it means they aren’t afraid of the opponent taking Ghost Blacksmith.”
“The counter is actually quite simple. Since the opponent picked Ghost Blacksmith, they can only play it in the bottom lane, which puts them at a natural disadvantage in that matchup. As long as FV secures lane priority in top and mid lanes and sets up proper vision, they can protect Storm Swordsman’s jungle…”
The two analysts took turns explaining FV team’s likely response strategy.
They concluded with: “Of course, this approach only works when you have better laners in all three lanes, and you need to accurately predict the opponent’s jungle pathing to successfully avoid early jungle confrontations. Whether this strategy succeeds depends on both teams’ vision control and level one team fight arrangements…”
—
Back at the official platform, the commentators could only speculate based on subsequent hero selections.
“I think FV team might have found a replacement for Ghost Blacksmith in this strategy, so they’re testing the composition’s strength.”
“It’s also possible that due to Storm Swordsman’s recent slight buff to growth attack damage, FV’s jungler, who specializes in this hero, believes it can now be viable in professional play even without Ghost Blacksmith…”
All three commentators were clueless about FV team’s exact intentions and could only guess.
Although the professional player was far more knowledgeable than the other two commentators, that was limited to what he actually knew.
For well-established strategies, he had plenty to say, including early vision control, composition arrangements, and various details he could discuss effortlessly.
But for a strategy he didn’t understand? What could he say?
He could only guess, and while his guesses were more professional than those of the other commentators, they were still miles away from FV team’s actual plan.
—
In the audience, Zhao Xuming frowned.
He could tell the professional player handling commentary was off his game. Though constantly analyzing the draft picks, he seemed to be shooting in the dark, relying purely on guesswork.
Zhao hurriedly opened Tuwi Live’s stream and put on headphones to listen carefully.
The more he listened, the more his heart sank.
The explanation from Tuwi Live was completely different from the official commentary, and the game was developing exactly as Tuwi Live’s commentators had predicted!
Looking at the danmu (scrolling comments) in both streaming rooms, they showed completely different reactions.
“Showing their true colors?”
“I thought the official platform’s game understanding had improved after the last match, but it turns out the questions were just too simple then…”
“When faced with FV team’s advanced tactics, the official commentators are useless.”
“No wonder this guy’s professional career wasn’t great. His analysis sounds impressive but is completely wrong. How could he not get destroyed as a pro?”
“The difference is huge. Don’t waste time—just go watch Tuwi Live…”
In Tuwi Live’s streaming room, the comments were uniformly praising them as “professional” and “amazing,” while the official stream’s comments had devolved into “confidently incorrect” and “just making things up…”
The contrast between the two streaming rooms’ comments was stark.
Although the viewer count across various streaming platforms was artificially inflated and didn’t show obvious declines, Tuwi Live’s rapidly growing audience numbers told the whole story…
Tuwi Live’s numbers were genuine, never fabricated.
Clearly, the official commentary’s stellar performance in the first match had attracted many viewers and generated considerable buzz. But after they were exposed, all those inflated numbers disappeared.
People realized the professionalism of the official commentary was entirely unpredictable—sometimes excellent, sometimes completely inadequate.
This was a focal match where commentary quality directly impacted the viewing experience, so many viewers naturally migrated back to Tuwi Live.
The discussion wasn’t limited to the two streaming platforms—forums were buzzing with comments too.
“It seems FV team really is in a league of their own. They can casually deploy strategies that fool even other professional players.”
“ICL’s level just can’t compare to GPL. Think about it: Tuwi Live’s commentary team is just a random assortment of GPL staff with commentators directly from FV’s second team—basically an improvised operation. Yet they completely outshined ICL’s carefully prepared official commentary team!”
“They may have updated with real-time data functionality, but what good are these numbers alone? You still need professional commentators to explain the data to make it compelling.”
“Does every random employee at Tenda Group have such deep game understanding?”
“Well, Mr. Pei genuinely puts his heart into making games, and his own game understanding is top-tier. With such leadership, how could his employees not be excellent?”
“Indeed, the entire Tenda Group seems full of hidden talents—probably not a single mediocre person among them, everyone with maxed-out game understanding.”
“While Longyu Group is a gaming company, their main purpose isn’t developing games but making money. The difference in mindset determines the difference in game understanding. Fair assessment, right?”
“Speaking facts, honestly.”
“Forget it, from now on I’ll just watch all these game matches on Tuwi Live—their game understanding is guaranteed. The other platforms just can’t compete.”
Zhao Xuming grew increasingly frustrated as he read.
What the hell is all this?!
Talk about the match if you’re going to talk about the match. How did this escalate to claiming there’s a “mindset gap” between Longyu Group and Tenda Group?
Aren’t people reading too much into this?
And what’s with “from now on I’ll watch all game matches on Tuwi Live”?
Zhao was furious. He had carefully prepared for this key match to restore the official commentary’s lost face, but his plans had completely backfired!
Not only had they lost all the viewers they’d gained from the previous match, but they’d lost even more!