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At 7 p.m, the last match of Group A officially started.

"Good evening to all our viewers here, welcome to the Ya'an Esports Center! This is the live venue of the second round and fifth week of the regular season in the Official Gods War Pro League. The match between Tianhuan and Luoshendian would decide the final ranking in Group A!"

"Moving on, let us introduce the players on both teams..."

The two commentators quickly introduced everyone.

In the soundproofed room, everyone made use of the time they had to set up their computer. Coach Lin was standing behind everyone with a notebook in his hand.

All the players in Tianhuan didn't look the slightest bit nervous and even Cheng Xing who usually had a tense look on his face during matches also smiled in a relaxed manner. They already won four matches so even if they lost this time, they would still be promoted. Thus, the players felt no pressure at all.

"Both teams are ready, let's start the picks and bans stage of the first round!"

The game interface appeared on the big screens. Luoshendian was randomly assigned to play as the blue team in the first round and received the first ban.

Their first ban went straight to the Blessed Priest. This support was a part of Tianhuan's tactic used to create a difference in speed, as well as being the key to their team comp with a highly mobile Illusionist. Banning him would be equivalent to throwing away two of Tianhuan's comps.

Coach Lin countered by banning a support, the Radiant Shield. The opponent team followed up by sealing the Abyssal Lord away. Coach Lin then banned another support, the Six-Winged Angel. The Six-Winged Angel was a support with hard control skills that can use seal to cause a player to be rooted to their spot without being able to move around.

"In this season, Tianhuan would usually ban supports in the first phase of picks and bans to alleviate the pressure on the bottom lane. In contrast, other teams would no longer continuously ban jungle heroes when playing against Tianhuan now."

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"That's right. When everyone played against Tianhuan in the past, they would only ban the jungle heroes in a frenzy. However, they started targeting the support, mid laner, and top laner in this season... because everyone realized that it isn't possible to ban all the jungle heroes. Shuoyue would still be able to let the mid laner develop steadily when playing a support jungler. Once a kill-oriented assassin mage like the Abyssal Lord developed fully, they would be unstoppable!"

"Let us look at the first pick both sides had decided on."

Luoshendian chose the Black Dragon Knight for the top laner. This was the practice known as 'using picks to replace bans'. Qin Yizhu, didn't you like this hero very much? I won't ban it but if I take it first, you still won't be able to take it all the same.

When it was Tianhuan's turn, the first and second pick directly took the Wind Nymph for marksman and Spirit of the Deer for support.

Both commentators looked at each other in surprise. "They actually took this pair!"

"The Spirit of the Deer is a very fragile support, but his ability to protect his allies is extremely strong. He can jump on his teammates and grant them an immunity shield."

"However, the Spirit of the Deer is unable to initiate team fights and his crowd control skill consists only of slowing debuffs. If that is the case, Tianhuan's tankiness on the front line may not be enough. A comp that's too fragile isn't good in team fights.

Luoshendian's second and third picks chose the Forest Envoy and the Warlock of Poison. The logic behind choosing this pair was for the Warlock to be built with attack speed equipment and heap stacks of poison on the opponents while the Forest Envoy would be in charge of replenishing health. The opponents would continuously lose health while the health on their side would continuously be restored. This would result in a war of attrition, and they would be able to beat their opponents back to base frequently, starting a snowball that will eventually establish an economic advantage.

Tianhuan's third pick was the Holy Knight to tank damage.

Both teams only chose the top and bottom lane heroes in the first phase. They left the mid and jungle heroes for the second phase.

Luoshendian's coach banned the Stealthy Rogue and the Brawler without hesitation. One was essential for a jungler core and the other can be played as a support jungler. Lin Feng then banned the Destruction Mage and the Great Witch of the North Sea, both artillery mages.

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"Many meta heroes for the mid lane and jungle have been banned!"

"This is when we'll see how deep the jungler and mid laner pools on both teams are."

As Luoshendian was the blue team, they locked in the Frost Goddess first. When it was Tianhuan's turn, the fourth and fifth pick locked in the Sun Mage and Sword God!

"The Sun Mage!"

"Lieyang actually took a close-combat mage? Is this for the front line?"

"Tianhuan's support isn't a tank this time so if the mid laner runs a close-combat mage, he'll be able to initiate team fights. On the other hand, the jungle hero Sword God is more versatile but is extremely difficult to play. He needs to be fast enough to stack passive by clearing camps and it is very easy to self-destruct!"

"That's right. This hero is very unstable. His movements can be very flexible, stacking five layers of passive and swiftly kill the opponents' heroes, but if he can't get the required stacks in time, then he will just be giving free kills away to the opponents' side."

Luoshendian's coach frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Lock in the Demon Executioner to counter the Sword God."

The Demon Executioner was a jungle hero with the farthest long-ranged attacks. He can hunt down and kill enemies from a faraway distance and unleash his ult and pursue enemies. The Sword God is very flexible and if a jungler with short-ranged attacks is chosen, it will never be able to reach the Sword God. Running the Demon Executioner would be perfect in restraining this hero.

The coach paused, then said, "We'll focus on their jungle this round. Don't let Chi Shuo develop!"

The game began.

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As expected, Luoshendian swiftly invaded their jungle and stole Chi Shuo's blue buff. The Sword God was as fragile as paper in the early-game and this bout couldn't be played at all. Chi Shuo directly gave up on the blue buff and went after the red buff quickly instead.

When they started the game by invading the jungle, they tacitly split up into two teams and went different ways. Three went to the top half of the jungle to invade Tianhuan's blue while the remaining two went to the bottom half to defend their own blue. As a result, Luoshendian took three of the opening buffs while Chi Shuo only got one.

"Starting the game with three buffs, what an advantage for Luoshendian!"

"Yes, Luoshendian's jungler is currently one level higher than Shuoyue. The mid lane's river crab may go to them too."

As soon as he spoke, Luoshendian's jungler stole the mid lane's river crab with a smite. His level is now two levels higher than Chi Shuo's.

Tianhuan was already at a disadvantage at the start.

But the economic difference between them was far from enough to affect their situation as the difference was only between the junglers. As long as no one dies, the economy of their mid laner, marksman, and top laner wasn't far from their opponents.

When the first minor dragon spawned, Chi Shuo was only Level 4 whereas the enemy jungler had already hit Level 6.

Ye Shaoyang asked, "Are we still going for the minor dragon?"

Chi Shuo simply said, "Leave it, I'll go invade the opponents' red."

The result of leaving the minor dragon free caused the economic difference between the two teams to get bigger.

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The two commentators were a little anxious. "Team Luoshendian's gold is leading by 1000 and the jungler has 500 more gold than their enemy jungler!"

"If Tianhuan continues going like this, their economic differences would only become greater and greater!"

Chi Shuo calculated the exact time the buff would respawn and went to steal the opponents' red.

After claiming the minor dragon, the opponents immediately grouped up and began pushing the bottom tower.

The Demon Executioner placed a 'tracker' on Cheng Xing and the Warlock of Poison immediately followed up by shooting poisonous arrows at him continuously. Three layers of poison were stacked on Cheng Xing in an instant and he decisively flashed away. They couldn't afford to have any more deaths at this time.

As Cheng Xing had cleared most of the minions before heading back to base, Luoshendian took the remaining minion along and only managed to deal a small amount of damage to Tianhuan's defensive tower. Meanwhile, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang took this chance to invade the opponents' top half jungle area and recovered some of their losses.

Both sides developed steadily, until Luoshendian launched an organized attack on Chi Shuo's blue buff once again.

At this moment, Chi Shuo had already reached Level 6. Ye Shaoyang had also reached Level 6 early on.

Chi Shuo left a ping asking to assemble in the jungle.

A 3v3 group fight commenced in the jungle.

Luoshendian's economy was greater than Tianhuan so naturally, they played very well. The Black Dragon Knight directly unleashed his ult, the Black Dragon's Roar, and aimed it at Chi Shuo. The Demon Executioner followed up and immobilized him, beating Chi Shuo down to low health!

Right then, Chi Shuo's body emitted a golden glow——the Holy Knight had used his 'cover' skill.

The Holy Knight is a defensive tank. When the Holy Knight activates his 'cover' skill, he can 'tank damage received in place of his teammate for the next three seconds'. In other words, the skills that are casted on Chi Shuo would all be transferred to Old Qin.

Although the Holy Knight's health kept dropping rapidly, Chi Shuo managed to keep himself alive.

Ye Shaoyang who was on the side waiting for an opportunity suddenly dashed over with an E skill. The huge wheels in his hands directly hit the Frost Goddess who was hiding in the bushes!

Luoshendian's mid laner had been hiding there all along, preparing to use his freeze skill, but was suddenly ganked by Ye Shaoyang. His reaction was extremely quick as he hurriedly flashed away to escape.

He turned around and used a W skill to unleash Deep Ice, wanting to freeze Ye Shaoyang. However, Ye Shaoyang skillfully sidestepped and avoided the freeze.

The golden wheels rotated rapidly, giving a golden glow around the Frost Goddess.

As one of the few close-combat mages in Gods War, the Sun Mage was as aggressive as a fighter. He will get close to his opponent and use his wheels to attack them. Each time the basic attacks with his wheels hit the opponent, he gains one stack to his attack speed. With his 'Gift of the Sun' mark on the Frost Goddess quickly increasing to 5 stacks and his passive crit rate fully stacked as well, every basic attack from the Sun Mage dropped the health of the paper-thin Frost Goddess by a big margin.

Seeing that the Frost Goddess was being chased by Ye Shaoyang while being beaten down to critically low health, the faraway Chi Shuo used his movement skill three times consecutively to dash over and take her head with his ult.

——First Blood!

——[Tianhuan-Shuoyue (Sword God) killed LSD-Feifei (Frost Goddess)!]

Another message popped out on the screen almost at the same time.

——[LSD-Luoshen (Demon Executioner) killed Tianhuan-Zhuhuo (Holy Knight)!]

Old Qin helped Chi Shuo tank the damage just now and was rapidly brought down to low health. The two Luoshendian players then teamed up to kill him.

They exchanged one-for-one in this bout, with one player dying on both sides. It wasn't a loss at all to Tianhuan as Chi Shuo who had been constantly suppressed finally got a kill and the one he killed was the enemy mid laner. Ye Shaoyang can make use of this opportunity to develop a snowball to his advantage.

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Luoshendian didn't manage to take down their blue and could only helplessly retreat.

Chi Shuo's gold gradually increased, and the results of Luoshendian focusing on the jungle meant that Cheng Xing had leveled up very comfortably in the bottom lane as no one came to gank him. Happiness is such a sudden thing indeed!

During this period of time, he had been studying the movements of Xie Weiyu's Wind Nymph and was extremely familiar with the hero now. Although the Warlock of Poison can stack poison, he can still hold his ground as long as he pays attention to his movements and avoids getting shot by the arrows.

When his health dropped by half, he would return and continue to fight firmly and steadily.

For Cheng Xing who hadn't even died once, he had already built the core of his attack speed equipment 12 minutes into the game.

Meanwhile, Luoshendian had tried to counter jungle three times in a row but was beaten into retreat by Ye Shaoyang, Chi Shuo, and Qin Yizhu working together. Old Qin was killed twice but he prioritized withstanding pressure in this game so it didn't matter that he was killed twice. The key point here was that the enemy mid laner had also been killed twice by Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo!

The Frost Goddess was originally a bulky hero and didn't have much movement skills. Ye Shaoyang rushed up to her fiercely to attack her.

Golden wheels surrounded the Frost Goddess, and she completely couldn't take on the aggressive close-combat mage. She also had to worry about the jungler who was waiting on the side for the right moment to get the last hit in.

Luoshendian realized something was wrong and immediately changed plans, "Gank the marksman instead! The Wind Nymph has finished leveling up!"

However, it was too late for them to gank Cheng Xing now, as Tianhuan's mid laner and jungler were also coming to assist the bottom lane!

A 4v4 team fight commenced in the bottom lane. It seemed like Tianhuan was more fragile and on the losing end, but——

Qu Jiang's Spirit of the Deer suddenly jumped directly onto Ye Shaoyang's Sun Mage.

Ye Shaoyang flashed into the fray. With the giant golden wheels in his hands, he charged in the direction of the Warlock of Poison. Luoshendian wanted to immobilize him but when the Spirit of the Deer is supporting his teammates, he can grant an immunity shield onto them while replenishing their health. Furthermore, he can also increase their crit rate.

The buffs that this kind of 'soft support' had was equivalent to having an extra gear.

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Ye Shaoyang charged inside with the support, swiftly breaking up Luoshendian's formation. The Warlock of Poison was beaten down to critically low health. He wanted to turn around to escape, but Chi Shuo's Sword God had already stacked several layers of passive from clearing camps in the jungle earlier.

The swordsman clad in white was as elegant as an immortal and rapidly moved over from afar. He took the Warlock of Poison's head with an ult and instantly returned to where he originally came from.

This was a true 'come and go without leaving a trace'!

On the other side, Luoshendian's mid laner and jungler teamed up to kill the marksman. Cheng Xing avoided the Frost Goddess's control skill by making leaps and when the Demon Executioner wanted to kill him, Cheng Xing activated 'storm' mode and swiftly leaped away towards the tower. He was as nimble as a frolicking rabbit.

The two chased Cheng Xing for a very long time but failed to kill him. Instead, they were crippled by him from a long distance!

Ye Shaoyang continued bringing Qu Jiang along to kill the enemy mid laner. Chi Shuo stacked his passive to the max once again and rushed over to attack the Frost Goddess and brought her down to low health, assisting Ye Shaoyang in taking her head.

The Demon Executioner retreated from the jungle helplessly.

Tianhuan managed to kill two players during the 4v4 in the bottom lane, successfully defending themselves against Luoshendian's attack.

Both commentators said excitedly, "Tianhuan's comp is indeed very interesting! On the surface, it seems as though the support which is the Spirit of the Deer was to be used to protect the marksman but in reality, we only realized when the team fight started that it was actually meant for the mid laner!"

"That's right, the support directly jumped onto the mid laner, resulting in him being able to charge into the fray without a single care. This is the ferocity of close-combat mages!"

"And even if the marksman Wind Nymph didn't have a support protecting him, it wouldn't be easy for him to die as long as he moves around nimbly! It's the same for the jungler, Sword God, too. It isn't easy to gank him as he has many movement skills."

"Tianhuan's core this round isn't the jungler or the marksman, but the mid laner and support initiating the team fights instead!"

This was the confusing thing about the comp. The Sword God was an extremely annoying jungler so Luoshendian's plan of invading the jungle once the game started was in fact, not wrong at all. But they failed to realize that Tianhuan's team fight initiator was actually the mid laner and the player that the support was truly protecting was also the mid laner!

Ye Shaoyang clashed everywhere with Qu Jiang. If Luoshendian doesn't come up with a way to kill him soon, their entire back line would be killed by him. But if they really do gank him, then both the Sword God and Wind Nymph who are extremely flexible damage dealers would be able to deal explosive damages without any worries.

Luoshendian's captain felt an impending headache. He realized that towards the end, their team fight lacked strength even if they had an economic advantage over the other team. Luoshendian's comp was too cumbersome whereas Tianhuan's comp was very flexible.

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A 5v5 team fight over the first grand dragon commenced.

Ye Shaoyang's Sun Mage started the fight fiercely once again. Relying on Qu Jiang's protection, he directly leaped into the opponents' side with the immunity shield. He unleashed his ult, the 'Fiery Brilliance', causing the sparkling golden wheels to sweep around just like a hurricane, stunning all the enemies it crossed paths with!

Qin Yizhu followed up closely and leaped over. He unleashed his ult, the 'Divine Protection', and helped tank Ye Shaoyang's damage for him.

With Qu Jiang's shield protection and Old Qin tanking the damage, Ye Shaoyang could charge right in boldly and break up the opponents' formation instantly. Needless to say, the fragile Frost Goddess was also instantly killed by him with just a single combo!

The other players in Luoshendian hurriedly went to gank Ye Shaoyang. Old Qin who was tanking damage went down first, followed by the shield on Ye Shaoyang. The enemy support immediately threw out a control skill and immobilized Ye Shaoyang on the spot.

Ye Shaoyang who played the mage as a fighter finally stopped, not being able to move at all.

However... all of them went to gank Ye Shaoyang, leaving Cheng Xing alone!

Little Xing was moving around the periphery wildly, jumping while shooting. In the blink of an eye, he crippled Luoshendian's front line. Chi Shuo had also stacked his passive early on and launched a long-distance attack——

Both master and apprentice used to train together often, so their tacit understanding was also very high. Chi Shuo used his ult to take down the enemy marksman and followed up with a Q skill to stun the enemy jungler.

Cheng Xing immediately aimed at the enemy jungler accurately and shot two arrows. Chi Shuo's Q skill was able to continue stunning the enemy mid laner, causing Cheng Xing to hurriedly aim at the mid laner too and shoot two arrows.

——[Tianhuan-Shuoyue (Sword God) killed LSD-Xiaoyin (Warlock of Poison)!]

——[Tianhuan-Fanxing (Wind Nymph) killed LSD-Luoshen (Demon Executioner)!]

——[Tianhuan-Fanxing (Wind Nymph) killed LSD-Yuzhou (Black Dragon Knight)!]

Only Qin Yizhu and Ye Shaoyang had been killed on Tianhuan's side while four players from Luoshendian had been killed , leaving only their support behind.

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Ye Shaoyang went in to initiate a team fight while Chi Shuo and Cheng Xing moved in quickly from the periphery to clear waves. The flexible comp Tianhuan used, which is to let the 'close-combat mage' be the initiator, caused Luoshendian to collapse.

"Congratulations to Tianhuan for winning the first game!"

"The MVP for this game is Tianhuan's Lieyang! He continuously initiated the fights beautifully and directly broke up the opponents' formations. Although he's clearly a mage, he was more like a fighter instead. This is the frightening thing about the Sun Mage!"

"There are, of course, several other players in Tianhuan who performed very well. Like how Old Qin managed to tank damage for other players in time, Qu Jiang's support, as well as Captain Chi and Little Xing securing kills on the outside, it can be seen that the overall cooperation of Tianhuan is even more in-sync and stronger than the last match!"

"That's right. Little Xing accounted for 40% of the damage in team fights!"

Coach Lin who was sitting below the stage watched this scene and his eyes couldn't help but sting a little.

The comp they just used needed the tacit cooperation between all five players and not just rely on Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang to set the rhythm.

But it could be seen that the five of them were becoming more and more in-sync.

Especially in that last bout for the grand dragon, the five of them were like a strand of rope wrung together. Old Qin helped Ye Shaoyang tank the damage from the ult at the perfect timing, Qu Jiang caught up with Ye Shaoyang's speed and initiated a fight together, while Cheng Xing and Chi Shuo hid faraway first waiting for the opponents' key skills to be on cooldown before they cooperated to clear everything in their path.

The five players in Tianhuan were just like interlocking gears that fit perfectly and operated smoothly together

They defeated Luoshendian with just one team fight! This is truly an outstanding team!

This wasn't just relying on Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang to set the rhythm. Everyone managed to perform to the best of their abilities and even Cheng Xing, who used to be Tianhuan's weakness, chose a marksman with flexible movements.

Lin Feng had truly underestimated Little Xing before and constantly let Qu Jiang stick to him to protect him, which in turn, had limited the speed of Qu Jiang's progress. Actually, Qu Jiang's support could have tried out different plans and ideas instead of just sticking to being Cheng Xing's attendant.

For example, Qu Jiang followed Ye Shaoyang to initiate a team fight in this game and the results were surprisingly great. Coach Lin finally and truly realized from today's game——this season's Tianhuan had the strength to compete for the domestic championships.

It's been long since they went to the world championships. This year, they definitely have to enter and take a look for themselves!