Chapter 206

Chapter 206 – Devil Training

The season’s top four was soon announced on the professional league’s official website. The website also opened a poll for who would win the championship on the live broadcast platform.  The Wind Colour team performed well this season and the number of people who thought they would win was 30%. Flying Feathers and Ghost Spirits each had 25% and Canglan was at the bottom with only 20%.

A reporter interviewed the captain of other teams. Tan Shitian’s answer was quite different from the result of the vote. “The support rate of passersby is low because there are too many newcomers in the team.  Newcomers do have the potential to have a bad influence on the game. However, once a newcomer breaks through their own bottleneck, they will become a weapon to catch others off guard.”

“Captain Tan, does this mean you are optimistic about the Canglan team?”

Tan Shitian smiled and replied, “They can enter the top four. The strength difference shouldn’t be too big and everyone has the possibility of winning. It depends on how well they all play.”

His sentence was nonsense but it was also the least offensive words.

Cheng Wei saw the interview in the dormitory and couldn’t help saying, “I still feel that Canglan is likely to win the championship.”

Tan Shitian looked back and saw a trace of seriousness. He couldn’t help asking, “Why? You like Cat God so you will support him unconditionally?”

“I’m not that shallow!” Cheng Wei immediately retorted. “I just think that you were right in the interview. Canglan has many combinations for the arena and the rules of the playoffs are different from the regular reason. Canglan can win many points by relying on the arena. In the team battles, Cat God’s tactical level is good and he can send out a targeted lineup.”

Tan Shitian hadn’t expected this guy to grow up and actually analyze tactics. He saw Cheng Wei’s serious expression and couldn’t help smiling. “Yes, I think so as well. The key is the tactical arrangements.”

***

The teams that didn’t enter the playoffs could easily discuss who would win the championship. For the four teams in the playoffs, they will busy with the final sprint training.

In Canglan’s training room, Li Cangyu brought all the players together and started to systematically analyze the next opponents, Ghost Spirits.

This team was founded in the first season by the old captain Mo Quan. Together with Time’s old captain Xu Luo, Flying Feathers’ old captain Song Yang, Ling Xuefeng and Li Cangyu, they were called the Five Gods. Mo Quan was the person who pioneered the assassin flow tactics in Miracle but the Ghost Spirits members didn’t have too much force and they couldn’t get the trophy before Li Cangyu retired.

The turning point was the third season. That year, Mo Quan discovered the talented Lou Zhang brothers and trained the intelligent and sensitive Lou Wushuang to be the successor of the next generation.

After Captain Mo retired, the Lou Zhang combination led Ghost Spirits through a difficult journey in the league. In the third season, Cheng Wei and Xie Shurong were the brightest and the Lou Zhang combination was obscured, not winning any awards.

After Li Cangyu left Miracle, he only remembered the brothers had a very good relationship and were inseparable. A tall person who was always smiling would shout ‘Brother’ towards Lou Wushuang, like he still hadn’t grown up.

Unexpected, shortly after Li Cangyu’s departures, the Lou Zhang brothers started to exert their strength and their cooperation became more tacit. The Ghost Spirits team’s assassination flow tactics matured and they won the championship in the fourth season!

The Lou Zhang combination became the signature partnership of the Miracle League.

The championship of the fifth season was taken away by the new captain Tan Shitian and the sixth season was won by Wind Colour. The Ghost Spirits performed in an outstanding manner in the seventh season and had the strength to compete for the championship.

In their two confrontations in the regular season, Canglan couldn’t take advantage of Ghost Spirits and could only win one game at home. It was no wonder why the audience didn’t think Canglan would win.

Still, the rules of the playoffs were different. Li Cangyu pointed to the big screen to explain it in detail. “The regular season has the home and away matches set in advance. The away team will go to the city where the home team is located. The playoffs are different. All teams are fixed in this year’s host city of Beijing. The first game will draw lots to determine who will be the home side, then it will switch in the second game. It adopts the B05 system.”

In other words, the home side still had the right to select the mode and the map. If Ghost Spirits was the home side in the first game, the second game would have Canglan as the home team, then the third game would have Ghost Spirits as the home team and the fourth game was Canglan. If the first four games ended up with a score of 2:2, a random tiebreaker would be played for the fifth game.

There were two more games than the regular season and the home and away sides were exchanged. This would avoid the situation where the away side was crushed.

The four teenagers listened to the captain’s explanation and finally understood the playoffs system. Gu Siming raised his hand and asked, “In other words, if Ghost Spirits wins at home in the first game then we can score in the second game?”

Li Cangyu nodded, “Yes, the home side can freely choose the game mode and map. The captains on both sides also have a chance to temporarily adjust the lineup based on the circumstances of each game.”

Xiao Han felt doubts. “Doesn’t the list have to be determined in advance?”

Li Cangyu smiled. “No. The home team has the advantage of the mode and map selection. The away team can adjust the members to deal with it. In other words, I will send people to fight after seeing their lineup.”

Xiao Han couldn’t help feeling relieved after hearing this. The rules of the playoffs were much better than the regular season. The first team had an advantage but the away team wouldn’t be too passive and could send people to target the lineup.

Li Cangyu saw that there were no questions and continued, “The tactics of Ghost Spirits is actually very simple. They are assassins. The assassins will aim at the core players and set fire to kill them. They will first establish a numbers advantage and then break the enemies one by one.”

“I think that everyone isn’t a stranger to the captain Lou Wushuang and the vice-captain Zhang Shaohui. They are cousins who grew up together. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the level of their understanding is at the top among the gods in the league.”

“Apart from the Lou Zhang brothers, Ghost Spirits has four assassins, a paladin and a blood kin sacrifice. Like Wind Colour, the healer chosen by their team is a blood kin sacrifice. The amount of healing isn’t as strong as the priest but there are more negative statuses. They can cooperate with their teammates to carry out attacks.”

Li Cangyu placed the information of Ghost Spirits’ eight players on the big screen. “Ghost Spirits is a very aggressive teams. Four assassins move together and there will often be a burst of output to take away a head. They rarely play defensive battles. When encountering difficult opponents, they might stealth and guerilla attack. The maps used are dense forest maps and dimly lit maps for assassins to lurk in.”

In the regular season, Ghost Spirits was like a sharp and frightening dagger. The dagger passed you and blood splashed. Many strong teams in the Miracle League had been killed by them.

A very aggressive team was hard to deal with. If Canglan played a defensive battle then it would be easy to be attacked by the other side. Not to mention, they were invisible and hard to prevent. It was also hard to face them because many teams couldn’t attack as fast as the assassins who had the highest agility among melee classes.

Can’t resist and can’t fight, what should they do?

Zhuo Hang couldn’t help asking, “Cat God, is there a way to deal with it?”

Li Cangyu looked over at him. “That’s why it is up to you.”

Zhuo Hang’s eyes widened with surprise. “Me?”

“What is the thing that stealth assassins are most afraid of?” Li Cangyu asked.

Zhuo Hang suddenly realized. “The hunter’s traps!”

“That’s right.” Li Cangyu glanced at him appreciatively. “Assassins must be invisible in order to avoid our frontal group attacks and group control. They must find ways to sneak around but they can’t get close if our backs are full of traps.”

The four teenagers had a ‘Cat God, how are you so smart?’ expression on their faces.

Bai Xuan saw this familiar scene and couldn’t help smiling. “Moreover, Xiao Zhuo has rarely participated in team battles in the regular season. They might be unexpected results if he is sent to the team battles in the playoffs.”

“This is the truth.” Li Cangyu paused and stared at Zhuo Hang. “The biggest problem is that Zhuo Hang hasn’t played with us many times. The time limit is one week. Zhuo Hang, are you confident in being able to keep up with the rhythm of the entire team?”

Zhuo Hang nodded confidently. “No problem!”

Li Xiaojiang stuttered, “Zhuo Hang, certainly, no problem. My movement is slow. His hand speed is actually very, very fast.”

Xiaojiang’s sentences were true. Zhuo Hang usually cooperated with Li Xiaojiang and would deliberately slow down his speed to match Xiaojiang’s rhythm. In terms of hand speed, he didn’t lose to Gu Siming or Xiao Han.

Li Cangyu saw his confident expression and patted him on the shoulder. “Okay. I will train your separately in the next week and force your explosive power to the maximum. Be prepared.

Zhuo Hang didn’t look worried about the upcoming abuse. Instead, his face was full of excitement. “I know!”

Li Cangyu continued, “Many views and professional players feel that Canglan is stronger in the arena and our home games in the players will definitely be the arena. Lou Wushuang might believe this. In fact, we aren’t only strong in the arena. We don’t need to rely on the arena because if we do, we will lost if the last random game is a team battle.”

“Thus, we must take the momentum from the first match! I want to tell everyone that Canglan isn’t only strong in the arena. We are also very strong in team battles!”

Li Cangyu’s words were powerful. The whole team’s blood was mobilized and everyone immediately clapped. The four teenagers even felt that the championship trophy was beckoning to them.

Then after the excitement, Li Cangyu unceremoniously said, “The next step is a week of devil training. The four of you, come with me.”

The four people followed Li Cangyu and he had them sit down. Then he started from the first person.

“Xiao Gu and Xiao Li need to strengthen their ability to resist stress. Ah Shu and Old Zhang will try to kill you at the fastest speed. The two of you have to find a way to live…”

“Xiao Han needs to train your short-term explosive ability. You will go against our league’s most durable healer, Bai Xuan and see how long it takes to kill him. If you can’t kill him then one chicken leg will be reduced for dinner.”

Xiao Han muttered, “…Eh?”

Li Cangyu wasn’t polite. “Don’t you understand?”

Xiao Han lowered his head. “Yes.”

Tonight’s chicken leg would definitely be out of the picture. Vice-Captain Bai was super strong and Xiao Han really couldn’t kill him!

The last person remaining was Zhuo Hang and Li Cangyu would personally guide him. “Xiao Zhuo, you have the awareness and your hand speed can also reach the standard. I want you to strengthen your training in grasping the various map terrains.  Apart from trapping skills, a truly good hunter must learn to combine different terrains to maximize the role of traps.”

Zhuo Hang immediately gripped his mouse with excitement. “Okay!”

“Start training!”

The eight people grouped up as Li Cangyu ordered and entered the custom arena rooms to start the training.

Li Xiaojiang and Gu Siming were chased by Xie Shurong while Old Zhang added various negative statuses. The two people were chased and after a few minutes, Li Xiaojiang died first.

On Xiao Han’s side, he entered stealth and erupted with a set of moves to decrease the vice-captain’s blood to 50% only for Bai Xuan to be full of blood again. Xiao Han silently turned and walked away. After waiting for his next chance, he unleashed another set of moves only for Vice-Captain Bai to once again be full of blood.

Xiao Han, “…”

At this moment, he felt the aggressiveness that the outputs of other teams must’ve felt towards Bai Xuan. He wanted to directly reach through the computer and pinch the smiling milk dad!

Zhuo Hang’s side was the worst. Li Cangyu called various pets and he was too busy to set traps, let alone control Cat God. Even Cat God’s pets bullied him…

***

After a day of abuse, the four teenagers stared and drooled as they watched the chicken legs.

In the end, Bai Xuan had a soft heart and secretly gave each person half a chicken leg. Li Cangyu closed one eye and let everyone go back to rest to prepare for the next day’s training.

The result was that the four people didn’t rush back to the dormitory after dinner. They consciously stayed in the training room to continue practicing, as if practicing for a while at night would make them more powerful tomorrow.

Li Cangyu saw the warm yellow lights of the training room and couldn’t help smiling.

Bai Xuan asked, “Do you think one week of training will be effective?”

Li Cangyu nodded. “Their foundations are very solid and there is some awareness. Of course, it is best if they can break through the bottleneck. Today, I tried me best to suppress Zhuo Hang. You should’ve also felt how sharp Xiao Han’s attacks are… if they practice for a few more days, it will definitely have an effect. I believe in them.”

Bai Xuan couldn’t help smiling. Just as the four kittens had always believed in the big cat, the big cat also believed in the four teenagers.

He hoped they would really grow in the playoffs!