The King's Avatar 《全职高手》- Episode 5: A One Person Game?

The King's Avatar 《全职高手》- Episode 5: A One Person Game?

So many things happened this episode @_@
We get information on 3 new professional teams, watch a bit of a professional match and kick some annoying people's butts. We hang out with Cold Night and his 'buddy' and visit goblins again.

Not a single player game

It's late at night in Qingdao, the clouds hang low in an overcast sky but May's Wind, lit up like a lanterns is clearly visible through the gloom. In a darkened hallway in the office of team Tyranny the only light comes from the entrance to the gymnasium.

A man finishes a nighttime exercise session and pauses for a drink. From outside two voices gossip about how the captain of team Samsara, Zhou Zekai will be taking another commercial because he's the best looking player in the professional GLORY league. They laugh how there was no way their captain, was ever going to be asked to star in one cause he 'too scary'. Said Captain, Han Wenqing walks out of the gym (Ooopsie) and tell the two outside to keep their voices down, it's late (in a tone that makes you want to give him your wallet).

Han Wenqing - Captain of Team Tyranny

Turning Han Wenqing finds Zhang Xinjie, the Vice Captain of Tyranny walking up to him with a clipboard full of files. It's apparently exactly 15 min and 28 secs before Zhang Xinjie has to go to bed... but he had just enough time to analyse some data on Excellent Dynasty. The record they set for Frost Forest is apparently the highest across all 10 GLORY servers and the team believes that 'Ye Qiu' was the one behind it. Han Wenqing flips through the files and angrily replies that if it really was 'Ye Qiu's' then he's 'slipping'.

Zhang Xinjie - Vice Captain of Team Tyranny

Back in Joyce Flourish Internet Cafe, Ye Xiu is chatting with Cold Night who is wigging out over Excellent Era's record - did God Ye join Excellent Dynasty or something!? Ye Xiu quickly denies that he's in Excellent Dynasty but yes it is an impressive record. The team that made it must have included at least 3 professional players. Cold Night despairs but Ye Xiu is more than confident, it's only the Frost Forest after all (a low level dungeon), he'll go gather a team and Cold Night can prepare equipment for them (i.e. find weapons).

Taking a break from gaming Tang Rou comes over to check how things are going. She's curious about this record. Ye Xiu knows exactly what this she is thinking. Yes you can solo a dungeon raid, but to break a record you'll need a team.

Cold Night messages back that he's found someone who can join the raid and asks Lord Grim to give him the class combination of the rest of the team. Eyeing his friends list Ye Xiu decides on a Battle Mage, a Brawler and after a small pause, a Launcher. Chen Guo who had been hanging around the two immediately assumes that Ye Xiu wanted her to help with the raid. Ye Xiu distracts her by bringing up Excellent Era's match with team 301 in the championships that'll be happening tomorrow night.

How official matches work in the professional GLORY league. 
Each match contains three parts. The first part is 3 rounds of 1v1 battles, each win gives the team 1 point. Second part is a round robin battle. Each team sends out 3 members and do 1v1 battles, the winner stays in the ring and takes on the next opponent. The team with the last standing member wins. This part gives the winning team 2 points. Teams cannot used the same players for part1 and 2 of the match. The last part is a 5v5 team battle. Winning this gives the team 5 points. The team with more points wins the match. Due to the rule of no repeated players in section 1 and 2, professional teams need at least 6 players on their main roster. Most teams have 9 to 11 players. At the moment there's 20 teams in the GLORY professional league.


Chen Guo streams GLORY matches in the cafe (nice business move)

The next evening when Ye Xiu wakes up, Excellent Era and team 301's match was in full swing. The internet cafe is packed with local Excellent Era fans. On screen One Autumn Leaf, controlled by Sun Xiang is engaged in battle with Tide (a Knight), controlled by Xu Bin the Vice Captain of Team 301.

The battle has been going for a while and the crowd jeers as Tide dodges another attack from One Autumn Leaf and dashes off instead of counter attacking. The commentators sigh how this tactic was typical of the Grind King a title Xu Bin has earned for himself in the professional circuit (Xu Bin often draws out the battles). However no matter how much Tide grinds the commentators continue, it'll not be enough to stop Sun Xiang from winning 1 against 3 (they're in the second part of the match). This draws Ye Xiu's interest. Beside him Chen Guo explains that earlier Sun Xiang had easily killed team 301's Captain Yang Cong then quickly finish off a new member who came up next and is now onto his 3rd opponent, Xu Bin.

The commentators speculate that Sun Xiang's skills may already be on par with some of the God level players such as Troubling Rain's controller Huang Shaotian and Desert Dust's controller Han Wenqing seeing as they were the only other players to have pulled off a 1v3 this current season. The crowd get more and more excited as Sun Xiang dominates the battlefield shouting "Battle God" over and over again. How quickly the world moves on... After a moment of watching Ye Xiu quietly tells Chen Guo that Excellent Era was going to loose. Chen Guo as usual does not believe him.


On screen Sun Xiang finally finishes off Xu Bin and the crowd goes wild (oh no even Chen Guo calls Sun Xiang 'Battle God'). Chen Guo takes it as proof that Excellent Era was back in the running again. Ye Xiu sighs and explains that loosing this part of the match was team 301's strategy. Chen Guo does not understand so Ye Xiu analyses the events for her.

Team 301's Captain Yang Cong has fast and delicate mechanics, this allowed him to easily bring up Sun Xiang's hand speed during their bout. Next, team 301's new player quickly lost, rousing Sun Xiang's arrogance, making him over confident. Then they sent in Xu Bin the Grind King. The longer Xu Bin drew out their battle the angrier Sun Xiang became which further sped up his apm. By the time Sun Xiang won, his apm was out of control which will affect his ability to work with the rest of his team. This is ultimately what'll cause Excellent Era to loose the final team fight (not to mention that maintaining high apm is also tiring and can cause hand cramps). Chen Guo is unsure, Sun Xiang's abilities are very strong after all. True, Ye Xiu agrees, but GLORY was never a single player game. Having no more heart to watch such a depressing match Ye Xiu heads out for a smoke.


On the live stream, the team battle starts after short break. Excellent Era was in high spirits and charged forward with One Autumn Leaf taking the lead. However he was quickly entangled by Xu Bin's Tide and the two get stuck in close quarter melee combat. From afar a rain of cannon ball fire lands near Tide and the crowd cheers as Dancing Rain controlled by Su Mucheng provides long range support for One Autumn Leaf. This doesn't last long as Dancing Rain is ambushed by Yang Cong's Scene Killer (an Assassin). Dancing Rain is team 301's real target! Scene Killer closes in on Dancing Rain and continues with close-range attacks. This is is very dangerous for Launchers but there is no one who could come help, One Autumn Leaf is still caught up with Tide. Excellent Era's team work was practically non existent and is completely on the defense. Just as the battle reaches nail biting point the power cuts out much to everyone's disappointment (including me! Arg this was what happened in the novel too >_>). The matches' outcome however was already clear.

Character ID: Dancing Rain 沐雨橙风
Class: Launcher
Pro Team: Excellent Era

载驰载驱,沐雨栉风。
Swiftly galloping horses, rumbling chariots, 
bathed in rain and hair combed by wind.
-- From the first poem in "Three Poems written at Li Yang", Three Kingdoms, Cao Pi (aha!)
JY: She changed the poem a little to put her name in it, but still how they decided on Dancing Rain I'm not sure. 

Later that night having lost their match Liu Hao wanders drunk down the streets propped up by Chen Yehui. Liu Hao raves that Sun Xiang was a piece of crap. All that bullshit about 1v3 and they still lost. Chen Yehui ass-kisses most pathetically and says that Brother Hao should have been made Captain instead and that there's much he'd need to rely on Liu Hao for for the Guild. No problem replies Liu Hao, just the Frost Forest, a small matter  (so Excellent Dynasty really did get pro players for their record). Stopping outside Joyce Flourish Internet Cafe they found it curiously empty.

JY: Chen Yehui is Excellent Dynasty's overall guild leader.

The two head inside and Chen Yehui spots Ye Xiu manning the reception desk almost immediately. Liu Hao was too drunk to notice, instead he starts hitting on Tang Rou and gets offended when she fails to recognize him, pathetic (Tang Rou doesn't pay attention to the professional gaming scene so she know absolutely nothing about it). Chen Yehui tugs on Liu Hao's arm and he finally notices Ye Xiu. Old grudges surge to the surface and Liu Hao starts talking down to Ye Xiu. Apparently back when Ye Xiu was Captain he never gave Liu Hao a promotion and often lectured him. Now that Ye Xiu has left the team Liu Hao was finally promoted to Vice Captain.



Ye Xiu wasn't the least bit intimidated, instead he asks if Liu Hao has been doing his job as Vice Captain. When Sun Xiang was fighting the 1v3 did he notice anything? Did he have a plan or strategy for the team fight? While Sun Xiang is the Captain, he is a new member. As Vice Captain and a veteran member Liu Hao had failed his team. Ye Xiu gives Liu Hao one last piece of advice, since he has clawed his way into the position then work hard. Pointing to a notice forbidding drunk people on premise, Ye Xiu asks the two to leave the internet cafe. Liu Hao leaves in a huff vowing he'd get Ye Xiu back for this. Not bothered much by someone as stupid as Liu Hao and Ye Xiu tells Tang Rou to change classes and come to the Frost Forest dungeon.

JY: OOOh we finally see Gentle/Soft Mist :D!
Character ID: Gentle Mist 寒烟柔
Class: Battle Mage
Guild: None

Outside the Frost Forest Dungeon Cold Night introduces a Tyrannical Ambition guild member called Crowd Lover (an Elementalist) to Lord Grim. This was the guy Cold Night found for the raid.

Character ID: Crowd Lover 爱凑热闹
Class: Elementalist
Guild: Tyrannical Ambition

Shortly afterwards, Steamed Bun Invasion arrives and runs up to the group. Cold Night is stumped, isn't that the noob who likes to throw bricks? Cold Night looses his cool, Excellent Dynasty used three professional players and you bring a noob!? Gentle Mist laughs, she finds it funny how people in GLORY often spoke in such a dumb manner (JY: she's a girl after my own heart, exactly what I said when I first started playing MMOs). Cold Night felt like he was stuck by lightning, omg another newbie... Brother Grim can you please be a bit more serious about this!

Then raiding party's last member shows up. Through the drifting snow a female Launcher walks up to the team. Cold Night groans, another girl!? and Lord Grim calls him out for being sexist. Cold Night mumbles that there aren't that many girl players who are good. In this case Cold Night doesn't know how wrong he is. This female Launcher is non other than Su Mucheng. This is her side account Cleansing Mist, made specially for server 10. Cleansing Mist stops before Lord Grim and stares wistfully down at the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella held in his hands. For a while it seems there was only the two of them in this icy world.

Tangent: Of the top Dota2 and LoL teams there really
aren't any girls... it's sad. Hoping to see more girl
gamers in the future!

Character ID: Cleansing Mist 风梳烟沐
Class: Launcher
Guild: None

看波面,垂杨蘸绿。最好是,风梳烟沐。
See the rippling water, weeping willows dipped in green.
The best is still the combing wind and cleaning mist.
-- from "Watching the Flowers Return", Song Dynasty, Zhao Yanduan

JY: Note, the avatars in the donghua were made to look like the players who play them probably to avoid confusion with the huge cast (and also probably due to budget concerns). In actual fact, the avatar would look very far off from what the players actually look like. So that's why no one knows Cleansing Mist is actually Su Mucheng here.

Off to the side Cold Night carefully whispers to Crowd Lover and calls him "Guild Leader". The player behind Crowd Lover is not just a normal guild member, he's actually the Guild Leader of the entire Tyrannical Ambition guild! (Omg another smurf account). He had come from the Heavenly Domain especially to evaluate Lord Grim's ability. 

JY: Crowd Lover's player's name is Jiang You. His main account in Heavenly Domain is called Wandering Peak

The group enters the dungeon to start a training run and Crowd Lover is soon impressed by the apms of the new players that Lord Grim brought. The battle is even more savage this time round - instead of only Lord Grim pulling aggro everyone aggro pulled and killed mobs at the same time (so everyone was Tank and DPS at the same time). This move is no longer One Wave Rush, this is One Wave Push!

Since this was their first practice run, Lord Grim spends much of his time looking out for the two new players and instructing them. Gentle Mist is not gentle at all, she's a very aggressive and eager player. As for Steamed Bun Invasion he's still doing whatever he pleases and is not quite on the same wave length as everyone else. The group practice movement maneuvers and timings to gather mobs and quickly discover their individual and group limitations. Crowd Lover is both amazed and stunned by the groups aggressiveness but as they progress further into the dungeon he gets excited by the prospect that they might actually break the record.

Kicking ass!

Off by the side Cleansing Mist is doing perfectly fine on her own gathering another mob of goblins. Knocking and kicking goblins aside and sending them towards the main crowd using delivery gun - continually shoot the target and send it flying in the direction you want. Crowd Lover is surprised even more, "delivery gun" is a pro technique! Mouthing Cleansing Mists name to himself Crowd Lover wonders if she could actually be Su Mucheng! (沐(mu) - to bathe, this character is the 'mu' Su Mucheng's name and is also in Cleansing Mist).

Moving away from dungeon, somewhere out in the real world, we see an old photo of Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng and a blond haired boy smiling and standing in front of Excellent Era's office. Before a computer Su Mucheng taps happily away on the keyboard while smashing her way through the Frost Forest.

Oh who's that?

Ha! Bonus scene!

Early morning, the sun shines on the rippling waters of West Lake. Su Mucheng is still sleeping, her phone rings, it's from Ye Xiu. Snucking it under her covers she jumps awake as soon as she hears Ye Xiu's voice. Ye Xiu asks her if she can help him with a dungeon raid. Su Mucheng smiles, it's a good day.

T_T I was sleeping yo!


Comment

Did you guys catch all the names and who remembers Liu Hao and Chen Yehui? XD hahaha.

Han Wenqing did not seem to like 'Ye Qiu' that much. Team Tyranny's two biggest players have appeared I wonder what they'll be like 0_0. Oh and team Samsara who seem to be doing TV adds? XD

We've only just seen a tiny snippet of a professional match. Tip of the iceberg so to speak of the kind of things that go on behind the scenes in professional matches. As the saying goes non-experts watch for the excitement while the experts watch for the ropes.

Seeing how badly Excellent Era has deteriorated must have been difficult (stupid Liu Hao). Ye Xiu was the one who basically built up Excellent Era from scratch all those years ago. While there's a lot of bad blood between them now, it's not something people can let go of so easily.

Btw the novel and manga had a section on Su Mucheng's fight in the match against 301. Su Mucheng's fight was awesome and she showed off all of the Launcher class's skills.

These guild are sneaky. Looks like Team Tyranny is doing their own investigations too. I hope Crowd Lover doesn't try anything.

Novel Tracking: Chapter 97, however the characters Ye Xiu and team is practicing with is different. In the novel they practiced with Little Moon Moon and gang.