Chapter 60

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For a time, the South Korean team captain’s countenance was somewhat unpleasant as he stood in front of Yao Sen.

The arena’s dazzling lights lit every player’s face, allowing a perfect glimpse of their expressions. The audience filled the oval-shaped seating area, cameras were positioned in every nook and cranny, the host and commentators were warming up, and cheers and shouts of encouragement in a variety of languages could be heard continually.

This was Titans’s second time facing the South Korean team, who were also the first team they drew in the second stage.

When you think about it, the South Koreans had already lost twice to the Titans, once in the Asian regionals and then in the qualifiers a few days before. Having been matched up with Titans right at the start of the second stage, the atmosphere around the South Korean team seemed rather heavy.

Meanwhile, Yao Sen was incredibly relaxed. At present, it was time for the pre-match handshake; Yao Sen stood in front of the South Korean captain and looked at him with a smile. As the two men shook hands, the atmosphere was quite harmonious—so long as you ignored the grave expression the South Korean captain was sporting.

After shaking hands, the two teams went their separate ways to take their seats on the elevated platforms.

The S-shaped elevated platform arena was gorgeously designed. As they walked across it, they could greet the fans who were seated in the VIP area. Wang Yuxi smiled as he waved at Titans’s cheering fans, then turned his head to furtively whisper to Bai Yue: “South Korea’s captain is so fierce, man.”

Bai Yue gave him a sidelong glance. “Haven’t you been watching a lot of Korean dramas? Why don’t you go and trash talk them a little?”

“Oppa, saranghaeyo!” Wang Yuxi deliberately winked and directed a finger heart towards Bai Yue. “What do you think? Was that intimidating enough?”

“……”

“I only know these two words!”

“……Lao-Wang, promise me, stop acting up before a game. Focus.”

The four of them took their seats, which then rose to a height of about eight metres in the air in the curved arena. A sweeping glance around gave them a clear glimpse of the densely packed audience.

Wang Yuxi sucked in a gulp of cold air. “Damn, I’m actually kinda scared. What the hell am I gonna do?”

Yao Sen: “Let’s take this in three rounds, shall we?”

Wang Yuxi: “……Music to my ears!”

Bai Yue: “Our lord captain, what of our strategy?”

“Formation B. Lao-Wang, Lao-Bai, maintain your HPs. Lao-Song and I will hang back and defend our rear,” Yao Sen answered resolutely. “Their captain’s a pretty formidable sniper. Lao Song, pay attention. Look for opportunities to ambush him first.”

The other three chorused: “OK.”

Titans typically used Formation B, with an emphasis on offence and certain players seeking to retain as much of their HP as possible in preparation for late game, when the number of players would have dropped.

The single-elimination round was longer, with best-of-five matches that put the players’ focus and mental fortitude to the test. After the Titans took two games in a row, the South Korean team’s impatience was palpable, which directly led to a grave lapse in judgement by its players in the third game.

During a match, an opponent’s blunder provided the other with a rare opportunity. The Titans capitalised on their opportunity and defeated the South Korean team once again, winning their first round and showcasing a pretty decent opening match.

There was virtually nothing that could boost morale more than an opening-match victory; as the host proclaimed Titans’ win, the fans cried out each of their names, as well as the Titans’ slogan, and the overhead lights beamed down on everyone’s blazing spirits.

Yao Sen couldn’t deny that he wanted to spend more time on this stage, so he did his best to stay for a bit longer.

On the field, Yao Sen had a habit of kissing the team badge on his uniform as long as they won. Following Titans’s opening-match victory, Yao Sen indulged in his habit under the spotlights once more, and the moment was captured by countless cameras.

In a later interview, the match’s commentator, a former professional star player from the United States, stated that this scene left a lasting impression on him, smiling as he remarked, “This young man was born for the arena.”

After the first round of matches, the sixteen teams were divided into two brackets: the winners’ and losers’ bracket. The double-elimination method was brutal and mentally taxing for both teams and players, and for the eight teams that lost in round one, their next match would immediately determine their fate.

Noah’s Ark was able to make it into the winning group. When Yao Sen got off the field, he heard that the French team Noah played against was so overly friendly that they changed the after-game handshake to a cheek kiss. Perhaps because the little French brother felt that Shao Han’s looks embodied eastern ascetic beauty, he grasped Shao Han’s hand and cheek-kissed him a few more times.

The league had a social media account for the purpose of recording interesting anecdotes from the competition; after round one, Titans’s captain’s “team badge kiss” as well as Noah’s Ark and the French team’s cheek kiss were posted on the account, which was quickly reposted by domestic esports media.

@Esports Addict Little Star: [photo] [photo] [GIF] [GIF] The league’s official twitter account posted these! God Sen’s badge kiss … The translations for the captions are “A sexy young man” and “Fiery passion” (let’s look into this) The foreign geges and meimeis’ comments underneath were all “He is soooooo sexy!”, LMAO the foreign media can’t resist God Sen’s charms!! And Xiao Zuo! Everyone else only was only cheek-kissed twice, but that French No. 2 little brother cheek-kissed him FOUR TIMES!! Xiao Zuo’s shy and lost expression is sooooooo adorable!!!

[God Sen, tone down your charm a little!!!!]

[Sen ge’s appearance on the arena is my most favourite thing ever, he’s seriously unmatched]

[Which member of God Sen’s fandom hacked into the league’s official account?]

[Xiao Zuo is so cuteee!!! I really wanna give him a smooch!!]

[Shao ge’s expression hahahahahahahahahaha I’m dying]

[Shao ge: I’m shy, stay away!]

[Watch out, French brother!!]

[God Sen’s triple combo warning: Head shot, leg shot, sniper shot (doge)]

After seeing the incident online, Yao Sen’s entire body was washed with jealousy. In his mind, he had already devised 800 strategies to defeat the French team.

In the first round, NL fell to the losers’ bracket, which, to outsiders, seemed like a tremendous setback for a new team to start off with. The second stage, however, was not like the first; there was no reprieve for the losing teams, and maintaining a winning streak in the losers’ bracket, which was equally populated with strong teams, was something no team dared to promise.

Round two began at 8 pm, with the match-ups released an hour before the match. With a few hours left before the match started, Titans and Noah’s Ark returned to the hotel to rest.

The moment Yao Sen got back, he dragged Shao Han to his room and kissed him under the covers for a good while. Shao Han was blushing and gasping for air by the end of it, aware that Yao Sen was most likely jealous due to the cheek kiss.

Yao Sen: “This won’t do, you have to kiss me back on your own initiative.”

Unable to reason with Yao Sen right this second, Shao Han wrapped his arms around Yao Sen’s neck and craned his head to kiss him on the lips, which was returned rather heatedly, causing his body to experience something called fiery passion.

In truth, when Shao Han saw how popular the photo of Yao Sen kissing his team badge was on the internet, he felt a pang of jealousy.

“…I’m jealous too.” Shao Han lowered his eyes, fixing his gaze on the crook of Yao Sen’s neck. He slowly said, “What do you plan to do about that?”

Distracted by the vague trace of coquettish cuteness in Shao Han’s cool voice, Yao Sen immediately dropped his Asia champion airs and transformed into a muddle-headed ruler, chuckling as he said, “I’m at your full disposal, of course.”

Shao Han buried himself under the covers for a while before saying in a muffled voice, “Don’t think that I’m being petty.”

Shao Han was like this—after a rare bout of acting coquettish, he would immediately withdraw. Yao Sen couldn’t resist planting another kiss on Shao Han’s cheek. Hugging Shao Han’s waist, he closed his eyes and smiled softly. “How could I?”

To express his greeting to the Titans crowd, Jiang Yang had brought tasty food and beverages to the hotel, but when he saw that everyone was present except for the captain, he questioned, “Where’s the captain? I’ll go get him and we can eat these together.”

“He’s in his room,” Wang Yuxi answered. “Don’t bother. Your sis-in-law is in there too.”

“……” Jiang Yang fell silent for a pause. “I brought some for sis-in-law’s team too. I’ll send them over.”

With the bag in his hands, Jiang Yang exited the suite. The Noah’s Ark members were staying on the same floor, and he only had to cross the corridor to get there. As he stepped out, the door to one of the other team’s rooms opened, and a person walked out.

Jiang Yang casually looked up, only to see that the person who came out was none other than NL’s captain, Cheng Rui. He brushed past Jiang Yang with an indifferent expression, looking straight ahead.

Jiang Yang frowned slightly.

To tell the truth, Jiang Yang had watched plenty of NL’s matches, beginning from the qualifiers, and he had paid special attention to their captain’s performance.

Every player was bound to have their own distinct playstyle, and oftentimes, a team member’s style had long been integrated into regular training and competitions, allowing for a glance into the subtleties.

The reason he paid so much attention to NL was because, if you looked closely at their matches, you would be able to see a reflection of Titans in their every move, from their strategies to their overall tempo, from their attack and defence patterns to their players’ positioning.

Although NL may have deliberately held back in their matches and Jiang Yang wasn’t entirely certain, he had a gut feeling that this team was copying Titans.

First and foremost was Cheng Rui. His strength was inconsistent—he could play extremely explosively and defeat a powerful opponent one second, then lose to a mediocre one the next.

His playstyle was uncannily identical to Yao Sen’s, from something as major as regular attack patterns to something as minor as Yao Sen’s trivial operating habits that had no impact on the game—he had it all.

For someone to imitate Yao Sen to such an extent—it was evident that he had been trained to purely mimic him, and it was a level that Titans’s own members may not even be able to achieve. Although emulating star players was nothing new, this horrific manner of copying could make one feel both terrified and disgusted.

Jiang Yang had always despised and looked down upon such utilitarian and result-oriented acts; a match was a match, if a team relied on these tricks to win, it was simply an insult to the team that was defeated.

Right this second, Titans were waiting for the evening’s round two match-ups. They had already played against a handful of the winning group’s eight teams, and their chances of success were significantly better if they encountered them again.

Shao Han was with Yao Sen in his room when the results came out. Noah’s opponent was Australia, who had finished fifth in the previous competition and were a much stronger overall team than them.

When the results came out, Shao Han was in Yao Sen’s room with him. Noah’s opponent was Australia, a team that had finished fifth in the last competition and were a far stronger overall team than them.

Shao Han’s eyes moved down the list, located Titans, and saw that the team they would be facing was—

Odin.

☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter 59 | TOC | Chapter 61

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