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Those with 20 stars and above in the emperor rank in the international server are the cream of the crop and are all the alt accounts of professional players in various regions, so it was perfectly normal to run into a professional team. It's just that they didn't know which masters they would chance upon for this game.

TL/n: Master player.

The B&P stage will start very soon.

Ye Shaoyang who had the first pick spoke in the voice channel, "Anyone wants to choose a hero?"

Zhao Xin'an who had the third pick sent a message requesting for help: Please help me get the Vampiric Duke. Games played - 15. Win rate - 100%.

Xiao Zhao's fighter is still very strong. Vampiric Duke is a classic hero that can tank, attack, and kill ADCs. He has very strong life steal after using his ult and if the operational skills are good enough, it's capable of 1v2 and even 1v3.

TL/n: Or generally, heroes that hide behind (tanks).

Ye Shaoyang helped him lock in the top lane hero.

The opponents' first and second picker directly locked in Master Machinist and Machine Gun Huntsman—a bottom lane tower-pushing duo.

When it was their turn to choose, Sean chose the Great Witch of the North Sea.

Ye Shaoyang continued asking, "Xiao Yu, which marksman are you planning to choose?"

Xie Weiyu thought about it for a little, then said, "I'll just take the Wind Nymph."

"What about Captain Chi?" Ye Shaoyang asked Chi Shuo.

"I'll choose the Brawler as a support jungler." Chi Shuo said.

"Alright, then I'll choose a tank support to cooperate with your choices." Ye Shaoyang said.

He locked in the Radiant Shield as the third pick. Radiant Shield is a hero that can help block damage with their shield while also using it to stun enemies and initiate team fights. It's a support that has great defensive ability and is tanky.

The lineups on both sides were quickly selected and it was heroes that were more commonly seen in ranked matches.

On their side, they had the Radiant Shield who is a tank as support, the Vampiric Duke who is a very fierce fighter in the top lane, the Brawler as a jungler that can control the rhythm, the Great Witch of the North Sea that can deal great amounts of burst damage in the mid lane, and the Wind Nymph who is a flexible and agile marksman.

With the lineup they had chosen, it wouldn't be a problem even if they had to face a team from the professional league. They had a comprehensive lineup and economic distribution would also be more reasonable. Although it was said that Chi Shuo would be commanding this game, Captain Chi was a man of few words, so Ye Shaoyang was responsible for livening up the atmosphere and discussing the heroes they should choose with the others. That way, they'll have better cooperation.

The opponents' lineup was similarly excellent. They had the Master Machinist and Machine Gun Huntsman which was a commonly seen powerful bottom lane tower-pushing duo in the bottom lane, the Destruction Mage with long-ranged high damage attacks in the mid lane, the King of Fighters in the jungle, and in the top lane, they had the Black Dragon Knight that can play in the style of a support and give up a wave to play in the jungle or mid lane instead.

Both sides' lineups have different points of focus.

Their focus is on developing Sean's mid lane, Xie Weiyu's marksman, and Zhao Xin'an's top lane while Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang played supporting roles in this game.

The opponents' side will focus on the development of the mid lane, jungle, and marksman.

The game interface continued to load quickly.

When Ye Shaoyang clicked on the player display window to take a look, he noticed that the opponents' mid laner was called 'Xixi' while the jungler was called 'King'. Account names in the international server can be repeated but there will only be one person who dared to call themselves 'King' in Emperor rank 20 stars and above.

It was clear that Zhao Xin'an had also thought of this and exclaimed in shock, "Fuck, the opponent can't be ATB's Choi Hyuk, right?!"

Choi Hyuk's registered ID in the Korean division was also King, and he was known as the 'Jungler King'.

In the knockout stage of the S9 world championships last year, ATB of the Korean division defeated Jingzhe. They then proceeded to win all their matches until the finals and finally won the S9 world championship.

TL/n: Round of 8 aka quarterfinals.

Choi Hyuk was also given the title of FMVP (Finals Most Valuable Player) in the S9 world championships.

ATB's mid/jungle duo Choi Hyuk and Park Wonseok had been blown out of proportion by the internet and named as the world's number one mid laner and jungler. They also had quite a number of Chinese fans who addressed them as 'Emperor Hyuk' and 'God Seok'.

There were even some people who have said things like 'mid laners like Fangfang and Captain Zhou pretend to be all that only in the Chinese division, but they're all little brothers in the presence of my God Seok!' and 'You're comparing Chi Shuo to Emperor Hyuk? This is simply disgracing Emperor Hyuk, he's unworthy'.

There were some netizens that belittled their own country's players and called them worthless just because the Chinese division failed to win the world championships. It was a common practice of black fans to put other international players on a pedestal while belittling their own.

After the world championship ended last year, criticisms and comments like that could be seen everywhere, almost to the point of being overwhelming.

They didn't expect a casual game of ranked would lead to them being matched to this kind of boss just because their side's hidden points were too high.

It's a shame that Chi Shuo didn't run a jungler core this match and Ye Shaoyang also didn't choose the mid laner role, so they were unable to face them head-on.

Everyone was live broadcasting right now, so Ye Shaoyang must be careful with his words.

Chi Shuo and him both fell silent simultaneously. Deep down, they were very clear about one thing——if there comes a day that Tianhuan enters the world championship, the Korean division's so-called Emperor Hyuk and God Seok would be their strongest opponents.

Sean remembered who they were talking about and said, "Choi Hyuk, the captain of the team that won the championship last year?"

"That's right! There's a high chance that Xixi is Park Wonseok, as the two of them often duo-queue together!" Zhao Xin'an said, then looked at the remaining three IDs closely.

"Fortunately, the other three most likely aren't their teammates and were randomly matched to them. I don't recognize these few. Sean, are you familiar with them?"

Sean looked closely at the ID on the player display window too and he looked as if he had suddenly remembered something.

"The bottom lane's marksman and support are players from the Amants team from the European division! Their IDs in the international server is this, I remember it now."

Xie Weiyu: "..."

This is too horrifying. Ye Shaoyang simply pulled him in to play a ranked match, so how could the opponents allocated to them all be world-class bosses!

Choi Hyuk + Park Wonseok is the world-class mid/jungle duo; with the marksman and support from one of the teams in the European division in the bottom lane, isn't this game's environment too hard for him to survive? Would he even be able to survive for more than a few seconds? Should he go back and write a book called "The Discussion of Surviving as a Marksman"?

Ye Shaoyang comforted him, "Xiao Yu, don't be afraid. I'll protect you."

Xie Weiyu: "Mn."

Although Ye Shaoyang debuted later than Xie Weiyu and just started playing professionally, he was older than Xie Weiyu. Xie Weiyu was only 19 this year and thus, Ye Shaoyang treated him as a little brother and calling him 'Xiao Yu' was very easy for him.

If they were directly matched to the entire ATB team, there would be no way for them to play this game. However, the players on the opponents' side were also randomly matched and they might have difficulty communicating with each other due to language differences as one was in the Korean division while the other was in the European division.

Meanwhile on their end, they could just communicate directly.

Hence, it's not set in stone who will win or lose in this game.

Originally, everyone came to play with a casual attitude but now, they all became serious.

The bullet comments area in some of the player's broadcasts reached the limit.

[Xiao Bai, good luck! Go crack the head of that Korean mid laner open!]

[What are you guys thinking? Xiao Bai is playing support this round, is he supposed to crack the other mid laner's head open with his shield?]

[This is the first time seeing Xiao Bai play support, our Xiao Bai's support will definitely be fierce, probably the kind that would jump on the opponent's face!]

The bullet comments on Xie Weiyu's side were completely different.

[Xiao Yu, die lesser today.]

[This game is too difficult, the opponents are the mid/jungle duo from the team that won the world championship!]

[I'll be looking to see how many times Xie Weiyu will die in this game. Don't end it with a 0-10, it's shameful.]

Xie Weiyu turned off the bullet commenting so that peacefulness will return.

The game interface had already been loaded and Chi Shuo, being the commander, swiftly made arrangements for them. "Mid laner will go support the top lane and jungler will be ganking in the bottom lane. We'll break through from the outer lanes first."

Directly pushing from mid lane is risky. Building up the economy from the outer lanes was a common strategy when playing with strong teams in matches. Zhao Xin'an and Sean are teammates so with them on the top lane and Chi Shuo helping the bottom lane, their side lanes won't collapse easily.

"Okay, let's use more of the communication pings to communicate." Zhao Xin'an simply said.

Ye Shaoyang and Xie Weiyu started clearing minions in the bottom lane.

Chi Shuo started the round by going after the red buff and brought it to low health.

"Marksman, come and get the red buff."

Although Ye Shaoyang and Xie Weiyu had a close relationship with the former always calling the latter 'Xiao Yu' which made Chi Shuo felt a little jealous inside, as a professional player, he would never let his emotions get in the way of their ranked matches. He would also never intervene in Ye Shaoyang making friends. This was a demeanor he still had.

Giving the red buff to the marksman would lessen Xie Weiyu's pressure during face off later.

Xie Weiyu went over and got the last hit in to take down the red buff and said politely, "Thank you, Captain Chi."

Chi Shuo gave him a soft acknowledgement and turned to go after the blue buff. At this moment, Zhao Xin'an suddenly said in rage, "Shit, the enemies are stealing our blue, I'll go interfere with them!"

"There are three enemies!" Sean exclaimed.

Ye Shaoyang quickly rushed into the enemy's jungle and established visibility by it while Chi Shuo tacitly followed over by sneaking in from the riverside. Together with Ye Shaoyang, they swiftly took the enemy's blue buff. Zhao Xin'an and Sean pretended to go after the blue buff and interfered with the efficiency of the enemies stealing their blue buff, then quickly withdrew.

This round of cooperation resulted in Chi Shuo taking the enemy's blue buff, so there wasn't really a loss even if their blue buff was stolen by the enemy too.

The river crab in the mid lane spawned and Sean gave an alert ping. The enemy's mid laner and jungler came to fight the first river crab as expected.

Chi Shuo rushed over to fight for the river crab too and both sides engaged in a 2v2 for a while. Choi Hyuk and Park Wonseok were teammates while Chi Shuo and Sean were cooperating for the first time, which meant that they will definitely not be as in-sync as their opponents. The enemy jungler seized the chance and took down the first river crab.

In the bottom lane, Ye Shaoyang was scoping out the jungle while protecting Xie Weiyu as he levels up.

As Xie Weiyu managed to get the red buff at the start of the game, it was relatively easier for him to face off enemies. Ye Shaoyang believed that Xiao Yu wouldn't get killed that easily so he left him alone from time to time to scope out the woods and establish vision.

When a support protects the marksman, it doesn't mean they always have to be by the marksman's side. Establishing vision is very important. If the enemy jungler hid out in the woods that you hadn't scope and suddenly made an ambush, the marksman would definitely not be able to take it with his fragile body!

As Ye Shaoyang had scoped out the lower half of the map, Xie Weiyu was able to develop steadily without needing to worry about enemy invasion. He even cooperated with Ye Shaoyang to take down a river crab, which caused his level to be one level higher than the enemy marksman.

The enemy jungler has reached Level 6.

Sean gave out a signal: "The enemy mid laner is missing."

Chi Shuo immediately rushed to the bottom lane while giving out a signal: "I'm on my way."

Ye Shaoyang: "Okay."

Just as Chi Shuo got to the scene, the enemy jungler suddenly jumped out and landed a hit on Xie Weiyu!

The King of Fighters have a strong crowd control ability and can stun multiple players with a hit. For him to still be able to hit Xie Weiyu accurately when Xie Weiyu was so nimble really proves that he's a world-class jungler with a strong judgment.

Xie Weiyu cleansed himself to get rid of the crowd control and retreated back into the tower, while Ye Shaoyang raised his shield at the same time——

The enemy mid laner followed over as expected and released a python-like black mist, with the attack aimed at Xie Weiyu's chest!

Ye Shaoyang's shield managed to block the black mist just in time. The enemy jungler wanted to continue chasing but was blocked by Ye Shaoyang who was holding the shield.

Chi Shuo arrived and used a Q skill to stun the enemy jungler.

Xie Weiyu quickly retreated back into his tower again and shot two arrows at the enemy jungler's King of Fighters.

The King of Fighters was beaten down to low health and upon realizing he wouldn't be able to kill Xie Weiyu in this wave, he swiftly turned and retreated.

It was a 4v3 that went down in the bottom lane, but Xie Weiyu had managed to hold onto his life and returned to the base with low health owing to Ye Shaoyang blocking most of the damage with his shield, Xie Weiyu managing to cleanse himself quickly, and Chi Shuo's timely support.

At the same time, the top lane managed to get the upper hand in the fight.

As the opponents' side had 4 players fighting in the bottom lane, it would mean that a 2v1 could be fought at the top lane.

Zhao Xin'an had taken down the river crab in the early game and now, he had hit Level 6. He directly used his ult and dashed through the walls and into the tower to take the opponent down. He brought down the opponent's Black Dragon Knight to low health.

Sean assisted from the side and successfully beat down the enemy with a QW combo, after which they both retreated separately.

First Blood!

Sean had taken a kill.

"Beautiful!" Ye Shaoyang praised.

"It was Captain Chi who had arranged it well," Sean said humbly.

The bottom lane had a 4v3 to resist the pressure while the top lane had a 2v1 to establish an advantage.

Chi Shuo's tactical arrangement was indeed effective in the first wave of support. That's because he knew that the enemy jungler would definitely come to gank the marksman and even if Sean went to the bottom lane, he might not be able to kill the enemy mid laner. If that's the case, then why not set a gap between the teams starting from the top lane first?

Although Zhao Xin'an didn't want to praise Chi Shuo, he had to admit that Chi Shuo's ability to look at the overall situation was indeed pretty amazing. If it was him, he might have let Sean go to the bottom lane for a 4v4.

At the base of South Korea's ATB.

Choi Hyuk frowned and said, "Which division are the opponent players from? They have good awareness."

"There's usually more players from the Chinese district at 10 pm." Park Wonseok said.

Choi Hyuk felt a little unconvinced, "I've never seen these IDs before."

"They rarely play on the international server. The most popular one on that server would be Zhouzhou."

Zhou Jiawen had been killed so many times by them on the international server that it was uncountable.

It's been said that Zhouzhou was the best mid laner in the Chinese district? He's just that.

Choi Hyuk raised his eyebrows and said, "Continue ganking in the bottom lane."

"I hadn't reached Level 6 just now. I'll kill off their marksman in the next wave." Park Wonseok said.

The Wind Nymph was a hero that, if not hindered from leveling up in the early game, would become very agile in team fights once he had finished developing in the late game. If he wasn't killed, he would be able to drift around everywhere and deal tons of damage.

In the first wave, Choi Hyuk thought that with Park Wonseok, their mid/jungle duo would be enough to kill off the enemy marksman. He rushed in too quickly and his teammates in the bottom lane failed to keep up with their rhythm, which caused their attack to fail.

But there's no rush. They will let the enemy marksman know very soon what exactly a world-class mid/jungle duo is.