1364 An Extremely Stressful Team Competition

At the brink of disaster, without anywhere else to retreat to, Team Hundred Blossoms finally showed astonishing fighting strength during the group arena. Amongst them, the most praiseworthy performance came from their Assassin player, Zhou Guangyi. He had played exceptionally well, narrowly completing a 1v2. After such a beautiful opening, the following two players didn't waste the opportunity, finally securing a valuable 2 points for Team Hundred Blossoms in the group arena, somewhat stabilizing the cliff that they were on.

But the news that arrived from other matches made Hundred Blossom's situation as dire as before.

301 was entering the team competition with an absolute lead of 5 to 0, already putting themselves ahead of Hundred Blossoms by two points. It looked like they wouldn't have too much trouble securing victory in the team competition, meaning that 301 had secured a full 10 points in this round.

Thunderclap, after seizing 2 points in the individual competition, now suffered against Samsara's strong retaliation, with the score already changing to 2 to 3 in favour of Samsara. Still, Thunderclap was ahead of Hundred Blossoms by 7 points. Even if they were to lose the upcoming team competition, Hundred Blossoms couldn't rely solely on beating Tyranny in the team competition to surpass them.

The other match was the one that Hundred Blossoms had pinned the most of their hopes on. Team Wind Howl was only ahead of them by 3 points, so of course, Hundred Blossoms was hoping that the gap wouldn't increase, or even for them to simply overtake Wind Howl in one move. In the end, after their initial victory in the first individual round, the retaliation that Happy received was even more dramatic than the one against Thunderclap. Team Wind Howl won round after round, with the score after the group arena tallying up to be 1 to 4. Happy with 1 point, and Wind Howl with 4.

If Happy was ahead of Hundred Blossoms by 7 points, and Thunderclap was ahead by 5 points, no matter what the end result of the round was, Hundred Blossoms had no way of surpassing either of these two teams. Unexpectedly, their end result in this round had already been decided halfway through the competition. Ninth place, it could only be ninth place, with no chance whatsoever of entering the top eight. The last round would be their final chance to make it into the top eight, but it was an away game against Samsara, the most difficult opportunity of them all. And in order to have a chance of seizing this opportunity, they had to first defeat Tyranny in the team competition of this round.

They had easily taken back two points in a brilliant performance in the group arena, but after hearing such bad news from other matches, the morale of the members of Hundred Blossoms began to wane. 

"That makes things easier." Unexpectedly, their captain, Yu Feng, had become more relaxed. "We only have one road to take, without any other choices. Let's put in all our effort and try to make it! No matter what, we won't have any regrets."

No matter what, we won't have any regrets!

As the members of Hundred Blossoms thought about it, their gazes gradually became more resolute. They needed to win this round, so they would fight with no fear. Who cared who their opponents were?

"Hundred Blossoms' current situation isn't good, no matter how the match plays out, they're definitely going to be in ninth place." Pan Lin and Li Yibo took advantage of the break in the match to comment about the circumstances for Team Hundred Blossoms.

"That's true, but in the last round, Hundred Blossoms will still have a chance. However, they have to win the upcoming team competition first," Li Yibo said.

"Mm, if Hundred Blossoms wins the team competition, they'll have 237 points." Pan Lin looked at the team rankings and calculated, "If Thunderclap loses the team competition to Samsara, they'll only have 239 points, and they'll be ahead of Hundred Blossoms by 2 points; if Team 301 wins the team competition against Seaside and takes 10 points, they'll also be at 239 points, ahead of Hundred Blossoms by 2 points. As for the match we're currently broadcasting, if Wind Howl wins in the team competition, Happy will only be ahead of Hundred Blossoms by 2 points; and if Happy wins, then Wind Howl will have the same number of points as Hundred Blossoms. Hundred Blossoms still has an obvious opportunity to make it into the top 8."

"No matter who wins or loses in the current match between Wind Howl and Happy, one team will be left behind, becoming the target for Hundred Blossoms to surpass," Li Yibo said.

"I'm sure that they've already heard the news from the other matches during this break, so they should be very clear of the circumstances that they're facing," Pan Lin said.

"In this round, both teams are shouldering a lot of pressure. But if they lose this round, they'll face even more pressure in the next round. Wind Howl will face Tiny Herb in the last round, and Happy will face 301. Neither match will be easy for them to deal with," Li Yibo said.

"Looking at it, Wind Howl has taken 4 consecutive points in the individual rounds, so their morale should be very high, and they have the benefit of being the home team. On the other hand, after their initial victory, Happy has lost 4 points in a row, so they need to collect themselves quickly!" Pan Lin said.

"Yes, that's right. While these two teams are evidently in a much better state than Hundred Blossoms, they're still not too far from the edge of the cliff. Whoever loses will move a few steps closer to that cliff, where Hundred Blossoms is desperately trying to claw their way back in. It could very well be that Hundred Blossoms comes back, while one of these teams makes an exit," Li Yibo said, putting his fists on the edge of the table to illustrate what he meant.

"Let's wait and see which team can better stabilize their state of mind at this crucial time!" Pan Lin said.

"Mm, the team competition is about to begin," Li Yibo replied.

"Let's return to the current match," Pan Lin said, as the camera moved away from the commentator's booth and back to the arena. At the same time, a bird's-eye shot overlooked the player benches for each team, where the players were huddled in a circle, obviously making crucial preparations for the match ahead.

In the arena, the referee walked to the side of the stage, stretching his hand out to indicate that the competitors from the two teams should prepare to go onstage. One by one, the names of the players from each side who would be appearing in the team competition flashed on the large screen in the stadium.

"Fuck!" Pan Lin suddenly cried out, before immediately covering his mouth, but it was already too late. During this whole season, he had been walking on the blade's edge with the issue of repeatedly swearing, and Pan Lin had put in a great amount of effort to control his repeated urges to curse out loud. Unfortunately, in the second-to-last round, his willpower finally cracked, and he was unable to refrain from swearing. In an instant, his cursing was transmitted to the ears of every single viewer. He could practically already see his bonus for that month flying out of his pocket.

"Happy is really too bold!" Li Yibo was really quite considerate, knowing that Pan Lin's sudden swearing wasn't very appropriate, so he hurriedly spoke up, doing his best to cover it up a bit.

"Yeah…" Pan Lin was still somewhat unable to calm himself after his mistake.

"In a match as crucial as this, Ye Xiu still isn't going up in the team competition?" Li Yibo continued to stare in surprise at the names of the players who were competing in the team competition. Team Happy: Fang Rui, Su Mucheng, Tang Rou, Luo Ji, An Wenyi, Mo Fan.

Not only was Ye Xiu not going up, Luo Ji, a rookie who had only played in a few rounds, was unexpectedly appearing in the team competition roster during such an important match.

"What on earth is Happy thinking!" Pan Lin exploded.

"Could it be that Ye Xiu has really run into some kind of problem?" This time, Li Yibo really couldn't stop himself from making a conjecture. Even though Ye Xiu had continued his unblemished record in the individual competition, he'd already rested for 4 whole rounds when it came to the team competition. Normally, if a player didn't appear for 4 rounds, most people wouldn't think that they were rotating their roster, they would think that the player had been cut from the main roster entirely.

But how could Happy possibly cut Ye Xiu?

"Could he have suffered an injury that prevents him from playing for a long period of time? Like Sun Zheping?" Pan Lin wondered. Until today, Sun Zheping had only played in the individual competition for Team Heavenly Swords. It was no secret that he couldn't take on a greater burden due to his hand injury. Ye Xiu only appearing in the individual competition for four rounds in a row really did have a few similarities to Sun Zheping's situation!

No matter whether he was resting, or if it was some kind of deliberate feint, Ye Xiu not appearing in such a crucial competition really didn't conform to common sense.

But no matter how surprised everyone was, Happy could only have these 6 players who were taking the field. At this time, they were lined up in the middle of the stage next to Wind Howl's 6 players, taking in the look of astonishment on their faces. Evidently, Ye Xiu not appearing in this round was something that no one had expected, not even Team Wind Howl.

After shaking hands and exchanging greetings, the two sides made their way to the player booths. As they walked away, some of Wind Howl's players turned their heads in suspicion, as if Ye Xiu was mixed into that group of 6, waiting to catch them off guard. 

"Don't bother thinking about what the other side is doing, it's irrelevant to us. We'll mark their players, the same thing as usual," their captain, Tang Hao, said to the rest of his team.

"Understood." Wind Howl's players nodded their heads, but at this time, their vice-captain, Liu Hao, was staring at Happy's player bench, away from the stage. He was staring at Ye Xiu.

Having being easily beaten into submission during the individual competition, Liu Hao was on the verge of collapse, but he was really too good at hiding his true feelings. After he came out of the player booths, he wore a look of defeat without despair, apologizing to his teammates, encouraging the next player, leaving no room for anyone to say anything much to him.

Only he knew that deep inside, he wasn't as calm and collected as he looked.

He was about to go insane. He simply couldn't accept the reality that he had been so easily dispatched by Ye Xiu.

He wanted revenge. He needed revenge.

The opportunity was right in front of him, the team competition. In the team competition, they would face each other again. And in the team competition, where Wind Howl wanted each person to mark an opposing player, Liu Hao's mark was indeed Ye Xiu.

Liu Hao had clenched his teeth, waiting for this moment the entire time. But in the end, Ye Xiu didn't appear.

In such a crucial, important match, Ye Xiu actually decided not to play in the team competition.

The energy that Liu Hao had been building up for the whole of the first half of the competition immediately turned to sullenness.

He desperately wanted to take down Ye Xiu, but from the very start, Ye Xiu paid no mind to him. When he should take the stage, he went up, and when he wanted to rest, he would rest. Just because Liu Hao was on the other team, would he have to go up in the team competition to take the reins? Regrettably, Liu Hao never had this sort of worthiness, and Ye Xiu never had such intentions.

Ye Xiu didn't appear, so Liu Hao's mark changed. His new mark: Luo Ji.

This was the natural substitute, since Ye Xiu hadn't appeared in the match. Wind Howl had no intention of rearranging each person's mark once again. But Liu Hao wasn't in a good mood, immediately becoming furious with the player that he had to target during the match.

It was actually that noob?

Liu Hao felt as if he was being scorned. Deep down inside, he knew that there was no such thing, it was just a natural result of Happy's players being swapped. But even then, he couldn't get rid of the feeling that they were looking down on him.

"Let's beat them!" Tang Hao roared.

"Yes!" The players shouted back.

The competition began.