On the evening of returning to the base, Coach Lin gathered everyone for a meeting to carefully analyze next week's opponent.
Although Huowen didn't have as long a history as old teams like Tianhuan and Jingzhe, they had never missed the playoffs since their establishment and were a team with very stable results. Zhou Jiawen's addition had further raised the team's strength by a level.
Coach Lin said, "Huowen Team's core is Captain Zhou, but before Zhouzhou joined Huowen, their team always had a carry jungler lineup. Therefore, the jungler's strength is also very strong."
Hearing this, Cheng Xing couldn't help saying, "That's right! When I was duo-queuing with Brother Qu on the international server, I was killed by A'Yan many times!"
Ye Shaoyang also remembered this name—Yan Yan, Huowen Team's jungler. He usually liked to practice heroes by solo queuing on the national server, and countless domestic marksmen had died under his butcher's knife.
Before Zhou Jiawen joined Huowen Team, A'Yan was the absolute core of Huowen. However, Zhou Jiawen had international-level strength, was handsome, and his graceful personality attracted countless fans, quickly overshadowing the veteran player A'Yan. Later, when Huowen Team was mentioned, the first person fans thought of was Captain Zhou.
A'Yan didn't mind his limelight being stolen. It was said that he and Captain Zhou had a very good private relationship. His strength was actually that of a first-tier jungler in the country, so dealing with Huowen Team couldn't just focus on the mid laner.
Chi Shuo said, "Huowen also plays mid-jungle linkage, but their mid-jungle linkage takes the mid laner as the core, with the jungler following the mid laner's rhythm."
Coach Lin nodded and said, "Exactly. A'Yan's playstyle is a bit like the shadow striker tactic in football matches. His position during team fights is between the top laner and the mid laner. As the mid laner's 'shadow', he transfers and changes quickly according to the situation on the field. His biggest role is to assist the mid laner in attacking and protecting the mid laner's retreat. Therefore, Huowen Team's jungler will often appear in the mid lane."
Ye Shaoyang understood, "It seems there is also a strong tacit understanding between A'Yan and Captain Zhou."
Coach Lin said, "Yes, so playing against Huowen is equivalent to a head-on PK of mid-jungle linkage, depending on whose rhythm is stronger. The pressure on the bot lane isn't very big. Huowen's marksman's strength can only be said to be average."
Hearing this, Cheng Xing breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, before he could finish sighing, he heard Coach Lin say, "However, Huowen's team fight coordination is stronger than ours. This team is very good at position warfare systems. The position warfare centered on the Goddess of Flame is very difficult to crack."
Ye Shaoyang had watched all the match recordings from last season. Huowen's position warfare system was indeed very formidable.
With the Goddess of Flame spreading fire circles, the Trap Hunter filling the area with traps, and the Artilleryman throwing shells from a distance, opponents would be crippled by them before they could even get close. Then they would push steadily, take down defense towers, and occupy the jungle inch by inch.
Coach Lin looked at Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo: "To crack Huowen's position warfare system, only you two can join hands to forcefully kill Captain Zhou. But Captain Zhou is heavily protected; you may not be able to cut him down. If it doesn't work, I'll ban the Goddess of Flame."
Ye Shaoyang lowered his head in thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "I thought of another way."
Everyone looked at him in unison.
He twirled the pen in his hand and smiled, saying, "Walk the opponent's path, leaving the opponent with no path to walk—we snatch the position warfare system Huowen Team likes and use it ourselves. I can play Goddess of Flame too."
Everyone: "..."
That works too!
For the next week, everyone entered a tense pre-match training session. Since they had to prepare a completely new lineup, the 5 members of the main team played disadvantage games against the kids from the 2nd team every day. Starting with an economic deficit of several thousand, every game was particularly difficult to play. After getting used to playing disadvantage games, advantage games were won very easily.
On Thursday, Coach Lin arranged a training match with an S-group team from the European division to test the results of this period's practice, find out the problems existing among the players, and then conduct targeted special training.
In the blink of an eye, it was Friday, and everyone flew to Rongcheng together.
After the first week of matches, the current standings of Group S were Beimu 2:1 Moon Shadow, Tianhuan 2:1 Jingzhe, Huowen 2:1 Ice Soul. Tianhuan, Huowen, and Beimu had exactly the same number of wins and net score, tied in ranking.
The strength of the teams in Group S wasn't very different. Often, A beat B, B beat C, but C could beat A. Sometimes matches depended on some luck.
On Friday night, after arriving at the hotel and finishing the meeting, Cheng Xing suddenly took out a Grand Dragon doll from his backpack, placed it on the table, put his palms together, and worshipped seriously: "Please bless us to take the Grand Dragon smoothly in tomorrow's match, and absolutely don't let the dragon be stolen."
Ye Shaoyang joked on the side: "You should buy three incense sticks to light up, and offer it a plate of fruit."
Cheng Xing blushed and said: "I'm not worshipping ancestors."
Chi Shuo glanced at his silly apprentice and said lightly: "Let's go, back to sleep. Xiao Xing, don't let your imagination run wild."
Everyone got up and left Cheng Xing's room together.
The next day, everyone slept in and didn't get up until noon.
At 6 p.m., all members of Tianhuan arrived at the match venue.
The schedule for this week was Beimu vs. Ice Soul at 7 p.m., and Tianhuan vs. Huowen at 9 p.m. There were fans of four teams at the scene, and various support light signs and posters made it very lively.
Tianhuan arrived at the scene early and went to the backstage viewing area to watch the match, just in time to understand the other opponents in Group S in advance.
At 7 p.m. sharp, the match between Beimu and Ice Soul officially started.
Ice Soul, this team, didn't have particularly dazzling star players, but they had Chen Qianhua, the number one support with the strongest macro view in the league. Their team fight coordination was very impressive. However, Beimu had no weaknesses in all three lanes. Before Ice Soul could farm to the late game for team fights, the siblings Zhao Xin'an and Zhao Xinping had already pushed down their outer towers.
In the mid lane, Sean could also suppress the opposing mid laner and even solo-killed the opponent once. As a result, Ice Soul didn't drag it to the late game; the match was ended in the mid-game. It was like this for two consecutive games. In the end, Beimu defeated Ice Soul 2:0.
Originally, Ye Shaoyang thought today would drag into a bladder game (long game), but as a result, the match started at 7 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m., much earlier than everyone expected.
In the backstage viewing area, seeing this, Coach Lin couldn't help frowning: "Ice Soul losing this week isn't good news for us because they will definitely adjust their tactics after going back. When we meet Ice Soul again next week, we won't be able to end the match by crushing the top and bot lanes in the early game anymore."
Chi Shuo said: "Xiao Chen is a very resilient player. They lost so quickly today mainly because Beimu chose a double side lane system. Zhao Xinping rushed up to forcefully kill the marksman, causing their bot lane to have poor growth and be unable to fight team battles at all."
Ye Shaoyang couldn't help saying: "Sister Zhao Xinping's playstyle is really fierce."
Cheng Xing whispered: "She is a female Alpha; she has super many fanboys and fangirls who like her."
Coach Lin said with a headache: "Dealing with Beimu's double side lanes is also a problem. We'll study it later."
For the opponents in Group S, Jingzhe was already resolved 2:1, and today they had to fight Huowen. For the remaining Moon Shadow, they had fought in Group A before and understood each other fairly well; Ice Soul and Beimu were both big Bosses.
Previously in Group B, fighting small monsters was particularly easy. In Group S, every step was difficult.
But Coach Lin wasn't worried at all.
Anyway, Tianhuan was guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, and there was still plenty of time left for everyone. Winning or losing in the group stage wasn't important. It was enough to adjust the team to the most perfect state before the playoffs began.
At 9 p.m., the match between Tianhuan and Huowen officially started.
In the first game BP, Tianhuan on the Blue side had priority ban/pick. Coach Lin still banned the support [Radiant Shield] who had strong initiation in the bot lane. The first one Huowen banned was the jungler [Spirit Realm Snow Bird].
Many netizens couldn't understand this BP, sending question marks in the live stream room one after another. The two commentators also looked at each other: "What does this mean? Banning Spirit Realm Snow Bird?"
Only the coaches of major teams understood—Huowen was preparing for a rainy day, banning the Flying Duo combination!
Sunshine and Moonlight's international server identities had been exposed. Huowen was worried that Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang would pick the Flying Duo this game, so they simply banned it for you—you two want to fly together? Don't fly, let's fight properly on the ground!
With Spirit Realm Snow Bird banned, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang's Flying Duo couldn't be brought out for now.
Coach Lin was very calm and continued to ban bot lane supports.
Huowen's second ban slot was given to Chi Shuo's [Stealth Rogue]. First, to prevent Chi Shuo from flanking to instant-kill Zhou Jiawen, and second, to prevent Chi Shuo from going invisible to steal towers!
That game against Jingzhe, stealing towers to turn the tables in a huge disadvantage, was indeed dreadful.
The two commentators laughed: "Today's BP is all targeting the jungle position. Captain Chi is enjoying VIP treatment again."
"Yes, Spirit Realm Snow Bird, Stealth Rogue, two carry junglers banned."
"Then, what hero will Tianhuan pick first?"
At this time, all members of Beimu who had just finished their match also stayed at the scene to watch. Seeing this, Zhao Xin'an couldn't help saying: "Abyssal Lord is let out. Will Little White pick Abyssal Lord for another pentakill?"
Zhao Xinping said calmly: "Impossible. Getting a pentakill against an S-group team, unless the opponent's team fight collapses."
Sean touched his chin thoughtfully: "Lieyang has a deep hero pool; he won't necessarily pick a mid laner first. I think they should pick a marksman first, their marksman position is relatively weak."
As soon as his voice fell, he saw Tianhuan's first pick on the Blue side locking in [Goddess of Flame] directly.
Sean: "…"
Zhao Xin'an: "…"
A group of people were stunned in unison.
Zhao Xinping said lightly: "He indeed has guts, daring to pick Goddess of Flame in front of Zhou Jiawen."
The two commentators looked at each other: "This… Goddess of Flame is Captain Zhou's signature hero. Tianhuan snatching Goddess of Flame first is to crack Huowen's position warfare system, right?"
Zhou Jiawen looked calm.
Heroes were there for anyone to pick. There was no rule that a certain hero was contracted by a certain player. Ye Shaoyang picking Goddess of Flame was obviously to dismantle their position warfare.
Huowen's coach said: "Let's not play position warfare this game then, let's take a mid-jungle linkage."
Zhou Jiawen said: "Mn, I'll take the counter [Goddess of Destiny] to kill him."
[Goddess of Flame]'s fire circle could burn mana, causing those who touched the fire circle to continuously lose mana and be unable to cast skills. However, [Goddess of Destiny] had no mana bar and wasn't afraid of being burned by fire at all. Plus, [Goddess of Destiny] had strong burst and could instant-kill the opposing mid laner with a combo—this was a typical hero counter.
A'Yan said: "I'll take [Fighter] to coordinate with Little Zhou."
Huowen locked [Goddess of Destiny] and [Fighter] in the 1st and 2nd slots.
It was Tianhuan's turn for the 2nd and 3rd picks. To the audience's surprise, Tianhuan instantly locked two heroes—
[Artilleryman] [Trap Hunter]!
Audience: "???"
[Grass, isn't this Huowen's position warfare lineup?]
[Did I see wrong? The left side is Tianhuan, right? Tianhuan took Huowen's favorite system?]
[Is this, walking the opponent's path, leaving the opponent with no path to walk?]
The two commentators laughed: "Tianhuan took Huowen's position warfare system. This is getting fun."
"Exactly. Goddess of Flame, Trap Hunter, Artilleryman, a classic position warfare combination. Tianhuan picking Goddess of Flame in the 1st slot wasn't to dismantle the opponent's system, but because they wanted to use it themselves!"
"Is this—using your lineup to beat you? Using magic to defeat magic?"
This BP thinking was indeed unexpected.
However, it could also be seen that Tianhuan had prepared for this match for a long time.
Zhou Jiawen smiled and said: "This must be Ye Shaoyang's idea, right? When Tianhuan's Coach Lin played us before, he always banned [Goddess of Flame]. This season they are very stubborn. Meeting Jingzhe, they didn't ban [Cobra King]; meeting us, they didn't ban [Goddess of Flame] but tried to find a way to crack it."
The key to Tianhuan's style change lay in the mid laner Ye Shaoyang.
This was a player who was very bold and would attempt innovation and breakthroughs.
Meeting a powerful system and banning it so it couldn't be released? That was the old Tianhuan. This season, Tianhuan liked to be stubborn and confront people head-on, trying to crack the opponent's strongest system. Such courage was worthy of affirmation.
Zhou Jiawen sat up straight, his gaze looking at the computer very calm: "Don't be careless. Although they chose the position warfare we are good at this game, the lineup is one thing, and the playstyle is another—they definitely studied new playstyles privately and won't directly copy our routine. Observe carefully later, send more signals to communicate."
Teammates said in unison: "Received."