The fans whod previously collapsed because Close wasnt playing jungler all came back to life on the spot and transformed into shrieking chickens.
Aaaahhhh! The great demon king is so handsome!
This invincible control, the great demon king is actually so well suited for the top lane!
The flying warrior is so handsome, so handsome! Elegant, free, and easy, yet also enigmatic. Thats our Close!
FTWs operations department were all staring at the scrolling comments and Weibo reviews.
Sure enough, Lu Feng had spoken correctly
As long as he was strong enough, the fans would be able to accept it.
Using this kind of start to announce a change in direction was smart.
Unlike all the onlookers, Chen Feng, who was beneath the stage, had been constantly watching the match without looking away for a second.
The coach was the sixth person in a team. He didnt join the battlefield, but he was still an important part of the team.
Not only did he have to deploy the right heroes and make good arrangements during the BP segment, his heart was also tied to the five people in the team while they competed on the stage.
Nobody knew them better than Chen Feng did, and nobody understood this team better than Chen Feng did.
It was new and raw. Even if they were full of vigor and passion, they were still hovering anxiously on the edge of a cliff.
Who would dare to think that this was the first competition theyd played together after switching lanes?
They hadnt trained for it, and they hadnt even queued for ranked games together as a team. But theyd gone up to engage in a major match anyway.
And it was a game where they were fighting for their teammates honor!
Thanks to Little Lunatic Weis ability to incite the team, the entire team didnt seem to feel any pressure at all, and everyone was putting in their best efforts to win.
But what if the battle situation led to their defeat?
The pressure that had been covered up by their passion would all then well up to the surface.
Being afraid to lose was the most deadly mindset.
In this game, FTW was shouldering Bai Cais past, the two million yuan promise, and also carrying the burden of having the first time the team switched positions broadcast across the world!
Would their mentality remain stable after they realized this?!
Chen Feng was the sixth member of the team, yet also a bystander. He could see this hidden danger beneath the passion.
They couldnt lose. They could only win.
That was pressure as big as the sky!
Chen Feng didnt dare to mention any of these things. He didnt even dare to bring it up with Lu Feng.
Lu Feng was FTWs head, but he was also one of their starters.
Discussing this with him before the match would have only affected his mentality.
No matter how determined a person was, they would still be affected by emotions.
Even if it was an effect as light as the flap of a butterflys wings, the consequences were still immeasurable.
The arrow was already nocked on the string. Chen Feng couldnt say any of this and could only let them carry this kind of heated passion onto the battlefield.
But, he was worried.
He was afraid that once OD had gained the advantage, the FTW that had calmed down from their initial frenzy would start to grow worried
If they lost, what would happen to Bai Cai?
If they lost, what would happen to Wei Xiao, whod put down two million?
If they lost, what would the fans, who had a massive amount of opinions about switching positions, do?
Once they started thinking about this, could they still manage to play steadily?!
Chen Feng was so nervous that he was biting his thumbnails, and even sitting still was difficult.
Tang Chen, who was sitting next to him, saw this and laughed at him, What are you scared of? They can do it.
Chen Feng ignored him: He really envied this big fool who could laugh during any kind of situation!
FTWs rhythm flowed smoothly in the early stages. Once Wei Xiao obtained the advantage, he would pursue vigorously and attack fiercely.
The immortal thief and medicine warlocks cooperation was on point.
The immortal thief was a mid-stage hero. After its farming snowballed, and it became powerful ahead of time, it would be able to force the power thief into seclusion.
Not to mention that there was a medicine warlock there to supplement damage and give heals. It was really enough to frustrate ODs shaman to death. It couldnt protect the power thief, yet if it didnt even try, then the power thiefs health would collapse directly.
Seeing how ODs situation continued to deteriorate, Zhou Xingfei said fiercely, Support, go follow the bottom lane!
They couldnt lose; he definitely couldnt lose to a Chinese team that was already on its way downhill!
OD hadnt made it into the top eight of the global competition last year, but it was still a very good team, much better than the FTW that had done a round trip back home.
They could be considered a seed team for the European competition zone and werent a weak team that could be crushed so casually.
FTWs actions at the start of the game had taken them by surprise, and Wei Xiao, Lu Feng, and Bai Cais invasion of their jungle area had caused them to lose their rhythm. After that, Zhou Xingfei had been targeted like crazy, causing their momentum to continue to deteriorate.
However, in the professional arena, there were countless reversals.
So what if they had a big early stage advantage? Any professional player who could go up and play in the arena all had the belief that they could eventually launch a desperate counterattack!
The OD team quickly calmed down. The suggestions that Zhou Xingfei gave were also very reliable.
His power thief was already useless, and having the support position follow him was no longer meaningful. Since Wei Xiao and Bai Cai were targeting him, then let them continue doing so!
ODs top lane couldnt suppress Close, but there were opportunities to be found in the mid-lane and bottom lane.
ODs captain said, Dont be scared. FTWs mid-lane is a newcomer, hes a breakthrough point!
ODs mid-laner: Understood.
Chen Feng, who was beneath the stage, could already see the signs, ODs come back to their senses.
His voice had just fallen when a fight broke out in the middle lane.
Ning Zhehans ice mage was a control type mage. It was slightly weaker when it came to damage, but as long as its prejudgment was accurate enough, it could play out extremely effectively.
Zhou Xingfei went to support the mid-lane. Ning Zhehan accurately placed a skill on the ground and was actually able to freeze ODs fire mage and Zhou Xingfei at the same time.
He was delighted and sent a set of damage skills over, wanting to kill the two of them.
Unfortunately, it was a trap.
Zhou Xingfei was frozen, but the fire mage was able to break his control skill with his passive ability. He was only frozen for a moment, and then he sent a set of high burst damage skills right at Ning Zhehans body.
Ning Zhehan reacted very quickly. He knew that there was a chance that the fire mage would break out of his control, so his positioning was relatively far back. However, hed never thought that the fire mage would be so daring and use flash to get right up to his face before attacking him with all his skills.
Mages were all squishy. Ning Zhehan couldnt hold up at all and died on the spot!
The screen would darken after a hero died. Ning Zhehan was stunned for a moment, and his hands trembled.
How strong
This fire mage
They both played the mid-lane position. Ning Zhehan was absolutely certain that he couldnt do the same thing.
Operating a fire mage wasnt difficult, but there was a delay before the skills landed. It was very difficult to use a set of skills to land such a precise strike
Because Ning Zhehan had died, one of the middle lane towers fell. FTWs instantly lost half of the advantage theyd gained from the first half of the game.
Off-stage, Chen Feng cursed quietly, F*ck!
Whatever they were afraid of would happen. Those bastards from OD had indeed started to target Ning Zhehan.
Ning Zhehans heart was chilled.
After losing the mid-lane tower, FTWs jungle area was no longer protected. It was an extremely serious mistake.
It was because of him
Wei Xiaos voice transmitted over from the headset, Little Ning, your prejudgement is pretty good.
Ning Zhehan was stunned.
Wei Xiao had already cleared out his own jungle area and didnt give OD any opportunity to invade. He continued, You froze two of them in one go, amazing! Wait for me to come support you!
Although Ning Zhehan had been killed by ODs fire mage, he had indeed managed to control two people
Ning Zhehans plummeting emotions instantly lifted back up, Yeah!
Wei Xiao crouched in the mid-lane grass patch and egged Ning Zhehan on, Go and tempt him.
Ning Zhehans movements were cautious and timid without the towers protection behind him.
Wei Xiao evaluated, Not bad, not bad, your pitiful attitude really makes it look like youre in need of a beating.
Ning Zhehan:
Bai Cai couldnt help but scold him, You damn
Wei Xiao: Theyre here!
His movements were even faster than his own words, and he launched himself at ODs fire mages face almost instantaneously.
The fire mage was startled, but his hand moved extremely quickly as he tossed his control skill onto Wei Xiaos body.
Wei Xiao: Ice mage!
Ning Zhehan discovered that his hands acted faster than his brain. Hed already frozen the fire mage in place very precisely.
The fire mages passive ability to remove control effects was random and couldnt be triggered every time.
So
The ice mages ultimate move sent a long blue dragon charging over. It drilled out a huge hole in the fire mages small body.
The system announced, the ice mage killed the fire mage!
Wei Xiao: Nice!
There were goosebumps all over Ning Zhehans arms from excitement, and his fighting spirit soared once again, Yeah!
What was there to be scared of? So what if the fire mage was better? He had frozen him in place, and he had killed him! His skills were very accurate too!
Off-stage, Chen Feng froze for a moment.
Tang Chen laughed loudly, I told you you were worrying for nothing.
Mother Hen Chen still couldnt relax, Dont be happy so soon. ODs marksman has finished developing.
This was the real hidden danger.
Regardless of how FTW was currently doing, there were inherent disadvantages to FTWs line-up.
The flying warriors damage wouldnt be able to keep up in the later stages. Fortunately, ODs top-laner had been hammered into uselessness a long time ago.
The immortal thief and medicine warlocks damage was significant, but after ODs giant shaman built up its tankiness, they wouldnt be able to touch ODs gold hunter.
Yue Wenles storm hunter was played well, but he hadnt been able to put pressure on the gold hunter in the early stages and could now only wait for death in the later stages.
FTWs line-up tended towards the early stages, while OD had a late stage line-up.
This European seed team had sacrificed their teams toolman power thief and turned their bottom lane gold hunter into their core.
30 minutes into the game, FTW fans began to get nervous.
OD began to stick together as a team, and it was clear that FTW couldnt fight group battles.
The storm hunters DPS wasnt high enough, while OD would be able to deal explosive damage as long as they were able to circle around and protect their daddy gold hunter!
There were several skirmishes between both sides, which all ended in FTWs retreat.
Close: Ambush.
When faced with this kind of situation, they had to calm down and find an opportunity to target the gold hunter on his own, killing him in one go. Only then would they be able to win a group fight!
And at this time, as long as they were able to win a group fight, they would have won the game.
Wei Xiao said, The captain and I will ambush the gold hunter. Old Bai, you go with Old Yue.
There was nothing wrong with this arrangement. The flying warrior and immortal thief were extremely mobile. As long as the two of them were able to ambush the gold hunter and burst him down, FTW would be able to win the game!
But
OD had clearly seen through their intentions.
They protected the gold hunter like crazy, using the giant shamans huge body to protect the gold hunter completely. They didnt give the other side even the tiniest opportunity to attack.
With such heavy protection, it was very difficult for the flying warrior and the immortal thief to find any opportunities for an ambush. If they rushed in, they would die.
If the game continued to drag on like this, FTW would have no chance of winning.
Right now, it was just the gold hunter whod finished developing. Once the farm rate sped up even further, FTW wouldnt be able to beat OD at all.
The scrolling comments started to grow negative again, Can this Quiet do it or not? If my Close was the one playing the immortal thief, he wouldve killed the gold hunter a long time ago!
Its just a gold hunter. Yet a jungler whod developed so well isnt able to cut him down?
If you cant kill the c-position, whats the point in being a jungler.
Like I said, theres a problem with FTWs line-up. Whats the point in picking the medicine warlock? Isnt this just exposing a bunch of weaknesses? So what if theyre fierce in the early stages? The medicine warlock is too squishy and cant even control anyone. I really want to see how they plan to deal with the gold hunter.
It had to be said, the audience had indeed pointed out FTWs current dilemma.
What should they do
Wei Xiao was just about to speak up when Bai Cai suddenly said, Ill go.
Wei Xiao froze.
Close asked, Can you do it.
Bai Cai: Yes.
Wei Xiao woke up, Are you going to f*cking
Bai Cai: The rest is up to you guys.
He finished speaking, and the medicine warlock charged in.
The commentators were surprised, This
Commentator B raised his voice subconsciously, Its God Yans heartbeat style play!
Commentator A: Can he do it?
Commentator B: Whether or not he can do it will depend on how White plays his medicine warlock!
Yan Jiang was an expert with the medicine warlock, and hed played a wonderful scene in last years world finals.
At the time, Y1s predicament had been similar to FTWs. L&Ps late stage line-up had started fighting back, and their double c-position damage was strong enough to explode. Y1s line-up that was relatively squishier was unable to find an opportunity to fight back.
Later, it was Yan Jiangs Medicine warlock, a support type hero, whod pierced through L&Ps nest!
The medicine warlock had two forms, and there was a cooldown time when they switched. However, as long as the skills and basic attacks were linked together well, it could lessen or completely clear the cooldown time. That meant that as long as a players hand speed could keep up, they could switch constantly between the two forms, and eight skills could be released continuously as long as they didnt run out of energy.
What did that mean?
It meant that the medicine warlock could heal and deal damage frantically at the same time.
Although their energy bar would eventually empty out, this period of time was enough for them to slaughter out a bloody path!
The flying warrior and immortal thief couldnt hold on, but the medicine warlock could give it a try!
Why was it called the heartbeat style?
Because it really made ones heart pound!
Rushing at the enemy meant that they would take a face full of damage. The medicine warlock was quite squishy, and its health bar could drop to the bottom at any time. However, because it was charging in on its own, all of the healing and health recovering skills could be piled up on its own body and didnt have to be shared with other teammates, so the health bar would plummet, then rise back up again.
This kind of thrilling ups and downs was enough to make ones heart explode!
What made it more demanding was that they had to switch to their damage dealing form while healing in order to deal damage.
In order to prevent being controlled, the medicine warlock also had to seize the right timing to use the skill that removed control states!
The requirement for hand speed
Not to mention a support player, even a core player who had to execute amazing maneuvers on a regular basis would have to think twice about whether or not they could do it.
However, in the 2021 global finals, Yan Jiangs medicine warlock had used this wave of maneuvering and completely broken any hope L&P had of turning the tables!
What professional player didnt dream of turning the tables?
So what if they were a support player.
A support player could also tear into the enemys throat!
Bai Cais eyes were serious, and his fingers flew quickly across the keyboard. This hand speed that had been trained up by following Little Lunatic Wei around played out effectively at this time: his health dropped, and his skills caught up to heal him; OD forcibly controlled him, and he opened up his immunity skill just in time, finally making it close to the gold hunter!
This was already the third time hed switched forms. The medicine warlock that had switched from light to dark now wrapped a set of skills around the gold hunter like a chain. In the next moment, black fog burst out. It was the medicine warlocks ultimate move, calledheavens punishment.
The black blade that fell down from the sky pierced ODs sparkling, golden marksman!
Almost at exactly the same moment when the gold hunter fell, Bai Cai also died.
However
Hed succeeded!
Hed killed the opponents marksman with a support hero. Hed really made a killing with this move!
Wei Xiao could be heard in his headset, Attack! Fellow brothers, step on Old Bais corpse and charge!
Bai Cai, whose heartbeat had sped up,
Motherf*cker!
The gold hunter fell, and OD was routed.
Wei Xiaos immortal thief led the ice mage and storm hunter to attack from the front. Close circled around the back and killed ODs fire mage.
All that was left was a broken power thief and the half useless blood warrior, who both had expressions full of despair.
It didnt matter how tanky the giant shaman was. When faced with this kind of siege, it could only squeal and topple to the ground in regret!
FTWs aura was magnificent and powerful. The four of them rushed all the way to ODs base and shattered their resurrection crystal.
Victory!
FTW won!
And theyd won in such a wonderful way!
The fans in the livestream were all ecstatic, Holy shit, Bai Cais medicine warlock
Although its a distance away from God Yans medicine warlock, he still did it!
Is this the Brother Vegetable that I know?
Amazing, amazing, FTW really stood out today!
Mother Hen Chens breath had caught in his throat.
Goddam, the heartbeat play.
This was like the f*cking heart attack play!
Watching it could give people a heart attack!
After setting down the headset, Wei Xiao spoke to Bai Cai, Pretty good, Brother Bai.
Bai Cai forced himself to calm down, Not bad, right.
Wei Xiao turned his head towards Lu Feng and reported, Captain, Brother Cai is trying to act cool!
The corner of Lu Fengs lips rose up slightly, Its fine, the hotel has a lightning rod.
Ning Zhehan and Yue Wenle burst out in impolite laughter.
Those who put on a cool act would be struck by lightning, but there was a lightning rod, so it was okay. Amazing.
Bai Cai: ???
Captain, dont cooperate with this little beast!
Compared with FTWs euphoria, OD was in a low mood. It was especially the case for Zhou Xingfei whose expression was extremely ugly.
Wei Xiao put on his team jacket and headed towards the stage in the middle.
The host was about to hold a routine interview, but nobody had expected that Zhou Xingfei wouldnt even look back as he headed straight off-stage.
Wei Xiao raised his voice, Zhou Xingfei, wheres the apology.
He spoke in a lazy tone, but his voice spread out throughout the room.
The players whod been immersed in the game had all come back to their senses. Not only those in the hall, but those who were outside watching on the live broadcast all perked up their ears.
Apology?
What was going on!
Zhou Xingfei sneered and didnt turn back as he walked away.
What kind of apology did he owe? Hed just said those words casually. Who wanted to apologize to Bai Cai.
Wei Xiao had expected that he would cheat a long time ago.
So he pressed a button in his pocket, and a recording played out throughout the hall
If you lose, you have to apologize to White for tricking him into terminating his contract.
Fine!
The fine that Zhou Xingfei had tossed down loudly stirred up an uproar across the entire network.