The last time Thunderclap had failed in the team competition was during their away game against Royal Style in Round 9. After that, they went on a beautiful six round win streak, but in Round 16 their golden statue cracked again. And this time, their opponent was none other than the team Xiao Shiqin had already lost to last year in the finals of the Challenger League, Team Happy.

In that match, Happy had used lots of unusually exciting tactics against Excellent Era. In the Glory world, it was generally agreed that as Master Tacticians, Ye Xiu was still a bit more shrewd and ruthless. But after losing that battle, it seemed as though Xiao Shiqin had gained something. He returned to Thunderclap, which hadn't changed aside from the addition of the Cleric Zhang Jiaxing from Excellent Era, and he had obtained startling results for his team.

It was impossible for Xiao Shiqin not to be at least a little pleased. Such outstanding results would naturally bring high spirits. Xiao Shiqin now had more self-confidence than before. But this time, he once again fell before the opponents who had just recently defeated him.

When he shook hands with Ye Xiu after the match, Xiao Shiqin's emotions were complicated, and he was certainly a little frustrated. He felt that his year at Excellent Era hadn't been a waste, for in those depths, he had learned a lot and grown a lot. But after growing and improving, he found that he still had no way of defeating this person before him. No one could find happiness in such a situation.

"Keep working hard next time!" Ye Xiu patted his shoulder, as though encouraging some rookie.

Xiao Shiqin smiled bitterly. Of course, he was no rookie, he was someone with prestige and reputation in this circle. But this person in front of him had more qualifications than him, had more honors, and had defeated him twice in a row. When Ye Xiu said something like that, how could Xiao Shiqin respond?

He could only smile bitterly like this and watch as the other walked aside. And then, another hand shook his, and patted his shoulder, and said, "Keep working hard next time."

Xiao Shiqin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This Su Mucheng hadn't been like this during their time at Excellent Era together! After being with Ye Xiu, she had really changed a lot, hadn't she?

She hadn't even waited for him to say anything before vanishing, and another person shook Xiao Shiqin's hand, and patted his shoulder, and said, "Keep working hard!"

Fang Rui! By year, Xiao Shiqin was actually the senior of this kid, yet even he was going along with this act! Xiao Shiqin glared at Fang Rui, but Fang Rui cleanly ignored him and was all puffed up as he walked away.

"Kid, you gotta keep working hard!" After that, a more boastful voice reached his ear with this encouragement. This person skipped the handshake entirely and directly went to pat him on the shoulder.

"We're not like those little Blue Rain brats," the person said.

Little Blue Rain brats Blue Rain did have a little brat, but Xiao Shiqin knew, in front of this person, "little Blue Rain brat" referred to more than just Lu Hanwen. Yu Wenzhou, Huang Shaotian, two major players in the Alliance, were really just little brats in this person's eyes.

Blue Rain's former captain, Wei Chen. The person with the most status to call the Blue Rain players little brats. Xiao Shiqin could say nothing to him.

After enduring four consecutive encouragements, this blatant ridicule, Xiao Shiqin really couldn't stand it much longer.

Was there more?

Xiao Shiqin adjusted his glasses and prepared to unleash some killer intent, but the youth who walked in front of him now was very respectful in tone.

"Thank you Senior for your teachings."

"Ah?" This sudden change of style caught him completely off guard. This person in front of him now was Happy's sixth player for this match, Qiao Yifan.

"You're welcome" Facing this kind of respect, there was no way Xiao Shiqin could insert any mockery in his response.

The last one, An Wenyi, the weak point in Xiao Shiqin's eyes. This match, Thunderclap's strategies almost entirely targeted him. He must have a lot of resentment right now, no? As Xiao Shiqin thought this, he was already bracing himself. This was just a rookie, he couldn't lose in dignity.

But when An Wenyi came up to him, the rookie just extended his hand very ordinarily, shook hands, and nodded his head in acknowledgement. Without revealing any unusual expressions, An Wenyi departed.

The players of both teams finished their polite greetings just like that, and Happy's players gathered together and left, basking in victory. Xiao Shiqin was left onstage. He stared at the hand he had just used for the handshakes, and in the end he used it to pat his own shoulder. "You still need to work even harder, Xiao Shiqin!" he told himself.

During the post-match press conference, seeing those eager expressions of the reporters overflowing the space, Xiao Shiqin knew that this upcoming battle today wouldn't be a good one.

During this season so far, they had received too much phrase. But he should still be able to deal with an awkward situation like this!

He had to work hard! Xiao Shiqin lifted his chin, sat straight in his chair, and welcomed the media's interrogation.

The results of Round 16 of Season 10 continued to release, and those who liked statistics quickly found a pattern. In Round 9, the round where Thunderclap lost the team competition, there were five 10-0 swept matches. And this time, in Round 16, when Thunderclap once again lost the team competition, four 10-0 sweeps appeared this round.

Was Thunderclap's performance in the team round a weather vane for powerful 10-0 showings? The bored gave this title to Thunderclap's team competitions.

Looking at the four 10-0's, they were earned by Samsara, Tyranny, Blue Rain, and Wind Howl. Among them, Blue Rain and Wind Howl's performances had been lagging recently, but their 10-0 scores this round were a clean answer to those voices of doubt. And Samsara, after after achieving this 10-0, finally took the lead over Happy in terms of 10-0 match count. Right now, they had six 10-0 matches, one more than Happy.

Aside from them, Hundred Blossoms, Void, Misty Rain, Tiny Herb, and Miracle all achieved victory. This round had been a huge victory for the home teams - among all ten matches, it had been the home team who had won, and the victories were very close to what was predicted by comparing the teams' strengths on paper. There had been no surprises or unexpected outcomes, if one didn't count Happy's victory over Thunderclap as a surprise.

With this, Happy's ranking increased by one on the leaderboard. With 107 points, they were now in fifth place. And the team they had defeated, Thunderclap, was the only team among the current top ten that had lost during this round. Because the other teams had all gathered a sizable number of points this round, Thunderclap instantly slid down two places, from fourth to sixth, with 105 points. And the team that now rose to fourth was a team that had swept 10-0 this round, Blue Rain. Tyranny and Tiny Herb had the same number of points this round, but Tyranny had defeated Tiny Herb in their match, so Tyranny was second, and Tiny Herb third.

Even as the debate continued over whether or not Tyranny was still strong enough, the team had actually quietly climbed up to second place. Samsara was truly too strong this season, leading by such a large margin that people overlooked their presence. The conflict that people paid attention to was that between all of the teams aside from Samsara. People still held the impression that Tyranny was stumbling had nothing of the dominating strength they had shown last season, but just as the season was about to reach the halfway point, they had returned to their place second only to Samsara?

How in the world had Tyranny chased them up here? Even as everyone was still worrying over whether or not they could even secure a playoff spot, now they were actually second place on the leaderboard?

What was Tyranny's performance?

Everyone discovered that their minds were empty. Their impressions of Tyranny had apparently stopped at when they had begun their rotations. After that period of stumbling performances, they had begun to steadily obtain points. Had anyone noticed? Without drawing attention, they had already quietly risen to second place. This sort of cool and calm performance sent chills down everyone's spines. These old generals in Tyranny still couldn't be overlooked!

Although the rankings among the top 8 had changed, it was still the same eight teams. Wind Howl and Hundred Blossoms were sitting steadily at seventh and eighth place, respectively. Void was chasing them ferociously, but they were still five points behind the eighth place Hundred Blossoms. Below them were Misty Rain and 301, with 82 and 81 points. The gap between them and the playoff zone was in the double digits.

Behind the top 10, among the teams in the lower half, the team that surprised everyone was Miracle. After sixteen rounds of play, this team was at 13th place. For a team that had just joined the Alliance, such a performance was extremely outstanding. As of now, they were even higher up than Heavenly Justice, who had garnered such high hopes last season. Everyone praised Miracle, but it seemed like they had forgotten, the other new team this season was solidly in the playoff zone! But no one thought of Happy as some new team. They had Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, these All-Star level players with whom everyone was familiar. No one could continue to view them as some new team.

After this round, the end of the year was upon them. The Christmas event, the New Year event, and the first weekend of the new year, the All-Star Weekend, they were all rapidly approaching. The in-game event during summer break had been officially named Carnival, but for those in the Glory circle, whether pro or ordinary player, these two weeks crossing the end of the year made up the true valuable carnival.

Every year, the Christmas event that rewarded wonderful presents took place in-game. Ye Xiu had participated in this event for two consecutive years, with great profits. But this year wasn't like previous years. Christmas Day was a Wednesday, and on Friday they still had a professional match to play. The in-game event mainly had to be left to Wu Chen, leading the guild to participate. If pro players were interested, there was nothing stopping them from helping out, but if they spent too much energy there, it could ruin their condition for their match.

Competitive condition, this wasn't just something that existed in the competitive Glory scene. Any sort of competitor for any event had to maintain their condition for competition.

Generally, one's competitive condition would vary cyclically through the weeks. For any sort of event, competitors relied on practice to adjust and maintain their condition. With different events and different competitors, the changes in condition might be different. Some people might only reach their peak condition once a year, and others might reach it two or three times. This required specialized team scientific systems to help every person achieve some control. For Glory, the teams that were aiming for the championship needed their players to reach their full explosive potential during the playoffs.

Ye Xiu was the Glory Textbook, true, but that referred to his knowledge of the techniques of the various classes and the strategies within the game. As for competitive condition, which depended on an individual's skill, personality, skill, and even psychological strength, he truly had no solid grasp of it.

Happy didn't have anyone with such specialized knowledge; the Glory circle as a whole lacked such talents. After all, the Glory Alliance was a competition only ten years old, and everyone was still studying and researching how to best adjust the conditions of the Glory players.

For now, Happy had no way of having such a high-level department, and could only rely on Ye Xiu's intuition from years of accumulated experience to make judgments. And Happy's recent strong performance was unexpected even for him. They had they entered their peak condition too quickly, too early?