Prelude — 9

Prelude: Chapter 9

Solo was the first one to look back at Dt. “What’s the matter?”

Dt also turned his head back to stare at the computer screen. “Just remembered that someone had told me that if I chose Warcraft as my event, you would be the opponent whom I don’t want to face the most.”

It was last night when they sat on the stairs in the middle of the night and had casually carried the conversation.

Solo smiled lightly and took a look at Ai Qing. “Likewise, likewise.”

There were no live broadcast on the big screen, no on-site play by play by international commentators, but this was truly a platinum-level battle.

Thanks to Solo, those Koreans didn’t mind being watched by onlookers.

Or one could say that for these gamers, once they are into the game, how many onlookers were there was no longer their concern. To these ace players, opportunities to come across other matching opponents were rare. Naturally, they were utterly focused……Ai Qing walked over behind Solo. His fingers on the left hand hadn’t paused even for a second; a perfect keyboard operation.

Ultimate talent on keyboard operation, that’s the praise he received most often in recent years.

“God, if there is an APM count, I swear, Solo’s has passed 400 for sure.” The young girl behind was almost breathless. “Mian Bao, you think it’s reached 400? Has it?”

Mian Bao was also quite shaken by what he saw. “It should……have.”

Ai Qing pursed up her lips, her heart was unexpectedly racing, too.

APM. Action Per Minute.

This is the most favorite statistics of Warcraft fans[1]: the amount of keyboard operations per minute.

Of all the competitive video games, only Starcraft and Warcraft have this kind of harsh operation requirement.

All the master players basically maintain around 300 to 400 APM throughout the game. In other words, on average, they will give 300 to 400 commands per minute through the keyboard…… that was the sounds from those five players’ keyboards, sometimes loud sometimes low. On the screen, there were fierce battles already in some areas. Even for people who, like her, didn’t play Warcraft often could feel the excitement.

She had watched Solo mentioned in some interviews that he trains 15-16 hours a day without any interruption. He always drills the agility of his left hand whenever possible. He has said that he’s not a talented gamer, and made it up by practicing everyday to maintain his skill.

……

The young girl, with her hands over her heart, couldn’t control her emotions. “In a video of Solo’s WCG World Final game last year, there’s a moment when his APM surpassed 1100. That’s the statistic; 1100 commands per minute……” Ai Qing was listening to her attentively. Without any warning, on the screen, there came an encircled fighting out of nowhere.

The young girl suddenly covered her mouth. “Solo……”

Solo finally couldn’t help but laughed. “Not yet 1000.”

Ai Qing slowly exhaled and intuitively turned to look at Dt.

But before she could see clearly of his operation, she heard a slight noise abruptly. One of the Koreans across had dropped the mouse. With hands on the back of his head, he exclaimed to Dt using rather awkward Chinese, “You are great!”

Everyone looked at Dt amazed.

What kind of bizarre strategy that can kick a player out of the game without making any fuss?