China VS USA (Decisive Match)
Chapter 356 – China VS USA (Decisive Match)
The score on the big screen turned to 2:2, meaning both sides had to play the fifth tiebreaker game.
According to the rules of the league, the game mode and map would be randomly selected by the system. There was no distinction between home and away, which also guaranteed the absolute fairness of the game.
The five minute intermission passed quickly and Li Cangyu and Noah headed to the command seats again. The referee pressed the random generator button and the mode and maps started to scroll quickly on the big screen.
The audience held their breath nervously. After 10 seconds of counting down, the randomly selected game mode and map finally settled in the middle of the screen.
-The arena, Moonlight Forest!
This result surprised the domestic audience. In the previous four games, there were three death racing and one economic warfare. The probability of the system’s choice was related to this and the final decider was an arena game.
The Moonlight Forest map had a special meaning for many people. This was the name of the new district opened all over the world last year.
It was the opening of the Moonlight Forest district that brought the First World Competition into everyone’s eyes. Li Cangyu took advantage of this situation to return and met strong teammates such as Xiao Han, Zhang Jueming, Zhuo Hang, Xiao Han and Li Xiaojiang in the new district. The Canglan team completed the reorganization and won the seventh season, become the domestic champions.
Now the World Competition’s deciding game randomly became the Moonlight Forest map. It seemed like a coincidence and like destiny. The story started with Moonlight Forest and ended in Moonlight Forest.
Moonlight Forest was the birthplace of the elves in the Miracle game. The plants in the forest were silver and the tall trees and leaves blended together, while many silver-white sports flew through the air. The colour of the map was very bright but it had the cleanliness and tranquility of paradise.
This map wasn’t very difficult and often appeared in leagues around the world. The netizens were very familiar with it. The map was square and the refresh points of both sides were diagonal in the upper left and lower right corners. The distance to the middle of the map was exactly equal.
The simple map removed environmental factors and allowed both sides to go head to head, showing the real strength of a team.
In the deciding game, the panoramic view of the map was shown before the lineup selection. This allowed both parties time to think. After the map finished showing, both captains had to submit the lineup list at the same time.
This was a great test of the commander’s tactical arrangements. In addition to ensuring their own lineup was foolproof, they had to beware of the targeted lineup the other side might send.
Li Cangyu and Noah thought for a long time. Once the map preview finished, the two sides didn’t move. It was only after the countdown was approximately one minute that the two captains submitted the list of players to the referee.
The commanders returned and the referee showed the first pairing on the big screen.
The American team sent the archer Thomas and the black magician Noah.
The Chinese team sent the archer Tan Shitian and the hunter Zhuo Hang!
This combination completely confused the domestic audience. Cat God was known as the ‘combination demolisher’ in the domestic league, often forcing other teams to split apart their key combination. Now in the World Competition, he still wanted to break apart a combination? He sent Tan Shitian and Zhuo Hang instead of Tan Cheng?
In this regard, Kou Hongyi smiled and explained, "In fact, Tan Shitian and Zhuo Hang have known each other for a while and often privately partner together. Their relationship is very good! Their understanding is high! Their relationship is actually…" Kou Hongyi’s careless spilling of the truth was stopped by Yu Bing’s expression and he immediately coughed to stop the topic.
Yu Bing calmly said, "The first pair from the US team is the archer and black magician. This is obviously aiming at the Tan Cheng
Many viewers were interested in Kou Hongyi’s unfinished sentence and started to speculate. [Tan Shitian and Zhuo Hang have a good personal relationship? I can’t see it.] [Time’s captain and Canglan’s newcomer can’t play together. How can there be a personal relationship? What exactly is the relationship between them?] [Are they cousins or something?] [It doesn’t look like it at all!]
The audience’s gossip soul was burning but no one guessed that Zhuo Hang was actually related to Tan Shitian and Su Guangmo. He was the real lowest generation of the league.
Cheng Wei was a bit unhappy about not playing and hung his head without talking. Tan Shitian whispered into his ears, "I would like to partner with you but we have been working with each other for so long and our style has been studied by the US team. Cat God is doing this to ruin the US team’s plan."
Cheng Wei understood these truths and there was no need for an explanation. However, he felt warm after hearing Tan Shitian’s words and quickly recovered his good mood. He smiled and scratched his head, "I’m not so stingy. I don’t own you and you don’t need to ask me to partner with someone else. Take your nephew and play!"
Tan Shitian thought in his heart, ‘I don’t own you? I am afraid you are uncomfortable which was why I wanted to explain.’
Even so, he saw Cheng Wei’s happy appearance and Tan Shitian knew this heartless guy didn’t think so much. He smiled and patted Cheng Wei’s hand before calling Zhuo Hang, "Xiao Zhuo, let’s go."
"Yes!" Zhuo Hang followed Tan Shitian while smiling at Cheng Wei in a friendly manner, seemingly saying, ‘Rest assured, I won’t rob your partner. We are only a temporary combination.’
Cheng Wei saw Zhuo Hang’s eyes and his cheeks inexplicable became hot. He had to remove his gaze and ran to Li Cangyu. "Cat God, do you think they can win?"
Li Cangyu replied calmly, "Not necessarily but at least they won’t be targeted too badly. Noah probably thought I would send the Tan Cheng combination in the beginning so he sent an archer and black magician."
Noah’s fixed partner was actually a white magician but now he paired up with the archer Thomas. He broke up the main partnerships of the US team to target the Tan Cheng combination.
Black and white magician restrained each other and Noah’s black magician would have a great advantage against the white magician. It wasn’t necessarily the same against a hunter. Zhuo Hang was very good at using the terrain to place traps and as a newcomer, Tan Shitian often guided him. He could be considered a part of Zhuo Hang’s growth and their tacit understanding wasn’t bad.
***
The contestants of both sides sat in their seats and the map countdown ended. Tan Zhuo refreshed in the upper left corner of the map while the US players appeared in the lower right corner. The four of them quickly moved towards the middle of the map.
There was an open space in the middle of Moonlight Forest which was surrounded by eight towering trees. The branches and leaves of the trees intertwined, forming an octagonal chain.
Attacking the opponent while detouring between the big trees would test a player’s reaction speed and skills.
Hunters were the most flexible class in Miracle. They could use traps to attack the opponent in close proximity while controlling long-distance opponents with traps. Their closer and far range attacks meant a hunter can act alone in the wild. However, the elves generally had weak defenses and in a group battle with more than two people, they could be easily killed if they didn’t have strong teammates.
The combination of Zhuo Hang and Tan Shitian was absolutely first-class in terms of flexibility. Both of them were elves and could use Flying Feather Steps to move fast. Less than half a minute after the game started, they arrived in the middle region.
Zhuo Hang hid behind a tree and laid traps around him while Tan Shitian stood in front.
Within a few seconds, the two US players also arrived.
Thomas saw Tan Shitian and unceremoniously used Seize Life Shot. Tan Shitian used Flying Feather Steps to evade and Thomas hurriedly chased him. Another Rapid Shot struck Tan Shitian’s back but this time Tan Shitian didn’t hide. His blood suddenly dropped to 80%.
Compared to Thomas’ straightforward nature, the US captain Noah was very calm. He saw that the hunter wasn’t there and didn’t hurry to start. Instead, he moved around the trees and looked for Zhuo Hang.
As a result, he just moved around the tree and stepped into Zhuo Hang’s trap.
Zhuo Hang was very clever. He guessed that the other party was coming to him and arranged a bunch of traps in advance. The moment Noah moved, Zhuo Hang used the big move Trap Blast!
There were several consecutive loud bangs and Zhuo Hang’s chain traps exploded. The scene was particularly spectacular.
The smoke in the air dissipated and Noah lost 60% blood in one breath!
Yu Bing praised, "The technique in Zhuo Hang’s trap layout is becoming more skilled. This wave of explosions is really beautiful."
Kou Hongyi laughed. "Noah literally stepped into a minefield!"
Noah was a bit surprised. He didn’t expect the young player of the Chinese team to use the terrain trap layout method so cleverly. He accidentally fell into it once but this didn’t mean he would fall for it a second time.
After receiving the wave of trap damage, Noah’s expression was still calm as he used Dark Fear.
Zhuo Hang wanted to open the distance using Flying Feather Steps but Noah’s reaction was very fast and he was controlled by the group control skill. Then Noah followed up with five layers of Death Curse and Shadow Winding.
The negative states were enough to make Zhuo Hang lose a lot of blood and the amount of damage wasn’t lower than the big trap outbreak. Noah, the captain of the US team, experienced many major competitions and could handle all types of situations without panicking.
At the end of the fear time, Zhuo Hang used Flying Feather Steps to bypass the big tree in front of him. In his vision, he could see a fierce battle between Thomas and Tan Shitian and Zhuo Hang immediately used the Silence Trap.
He had the terrible attacker Noah behind him but he still took the time to cooperate with Tan Shitian.
This practice warmed Li Cangyu’s heart. An excellent professional player didn’t only care about themselves. They watched the paths around them and protected themselves while helping their teammates.
The free Xiao Zhuo helped Tan Shitian while being chased by a world-class master. This proved that the young boy under the age of 18 had enough courage and confidence to stand with Tan Shitian and Su Guangmo, whom he always admired, in the deciding game of the World Competition!