The King's Avatar Chapter 1137-1138

Chapter 1137: Happy the Dark Horse

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Having accepted an exclusive interview, Fang Rui naturally wouldn’t call the reporters over and just mess with them. After making his jokes, he answered the questions seriously, from personal to team, and explained his reasons for changing classes.

In the following issue of the Esports Home, Chang Xian’s exclusive interview naturally made the headlines. This exclusive interview with Fang Rui took the chance to introduce Team Happy’s team structure and future plans after the actual interview. This thorough analysis even caught the attention of the pro scene. After reading it, many of the pros suddenly realized that Team Happy’s current class combination had many possibilities to it.

Just considering Fang Rui’s shocking addition, what class was Fang Rui’s most familiar partner? A Brawler! Coincidentally, there happened to be a Brawler in Happy’s line up as well. Even though Fang Rui had switched classes to a Qi Master, this didn’t mean his familiarity with working with a Brawler would vanish.

Then, consider Fang Rui’s class switch. The Qi Master had been Ye Xiu’s most reliable ally when he had built Excellent Era’s dynasty. After that, the Qi Master had consistently been a core class in Excellent Era’s line up. Ye Xiu was very familiar with working with Qi Masters, and Su Mucheng wouldn’t be alien to it either.

In addition, Team Excellent Era’s ace had been a Battle Mage. Coincidentally, Happy also had one. It wasn’t hard to imagine that Excellent Era’s traditional strategies would all be realized once more in Happy.

After this analysis, everyone finally realized how agreeable Fang Rui’s arrangement to transfer to Happy was, as well as how the arrival of a Qi Master would unite Happy. Now, Fang Rui and his Qi Master seemed like Happy’s tactical core, connecting all the pro characters.

But even if he achieved such an effect, he still wasn’t the core of Happy. Who was the core? Even an idiot would know it was Ye Xiu. And what class was Ye Xiu? Unspecialized! There was very little high end research done on this class, so no one was certain what role it played in the team competition. This was the foundation on which Happy was built, but it was also the most mysterious. Though Ye Xiu and Lord Grim had appeared quite early on, the people in the pro scene were simply curious. Who would have thought to start researching an unspecialized so soon?

But now, Ye Xiu really did return, bringing his unspecialized and a team that didn’t seem weak at all.

If there was anyone that still looked down on Happy before, then they had to change their minds after Fang Rui’s transfer. Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui. This was a team with three All-Star level players. If this wasn’t worthy of careful consideration, then what kind of team was?

Naturally, Happy’s characters would be a little weaker, their facilities wouldn’t be as well established, and their finances would also be a little tighter. However, no one dared underestimate them in a match. With three top players, no one would disregard them as a threat.

Grassroots?

A grassroots team with three All-Star level players? No one could continue calling them such. Were they a dark horse? Would Happy be a dark horse in this season? Just like last season’s Heavenly Swords?

No… Not even Heavenly Swords was so dark. That was mostly blown out of proportion on purpose. The discussion that arose around them had garnered them more attention from the people. With more attention, there were also higher expectations. Their darkness had been from public opinion.

As for Happy? With three All-Stars, no one dared to say that they weren’t a dark horse!

All the Glory-related forums, all the experts and noobs in the scene, even the pro scene, were discussing what sort of impact Happy might have on this season. Happy had suddenly become much more imposing in comparison to when they had fought in the Challenger League. All this came from Fang Rui’s arrival, from Happy’s daring in completing such a significant transfer.

This was an attitude, an attitude of the players and of the team.

An All-Star player held Happy in high regard and joined Happy.

Happy dared to spend this money on an All-Star character, an All-Star player.

Happy’s goal was the championship title?

There weren’t many people laughing now. A team with three All-Stars was a strong team in the eyes of normal players, a team that had a right to fight for the championships. Those who were rational were still considering Happy’s flaws from different perspectives, but most people had gotten carried away by their excitement over Fang Rui’s transfer.

Happy, champions!

There were people who really did dare yell this sort of slogan. Before now, even Seven Fields and the others, who had been loyal since they had met Ye Xiu in the tenth server, had been too embarrassed to face Happy’s goal of winning the championships.

But now, any random Glory player could methodically explain how powerful Happy was to you.

With this transfer, Happy gained the spotlight once more. That was when the Glory game company and the Pro Alliance came knocking. They wanted to begin issuing Team Happy merchandise such as character models, Happy style accounts, etc.. The rights to the creation and sale of these products would given to a third party upon joining the Alliance, so they didn’t have to worry about finding someone to work with. As for the profit, all teams would gain the same percentage of the revenue generated. There was little that the team actually had to do. They just had to provide their appearance and then do well in competitions, gain popularity and promote the sales of their merchandise.

In the preliminary plans of the Alliance and the game company, someone as popular as Su Mucheng wouldn’t be missing. Even last season, when she had gone to the Challenger League with the rest of Excellent Era, merchandise regarding her and her Dancing Rain were still popular. Now that Dancing Rain had come to Happy with Su Mucheng, the two coming together as a package was a good thing for the merchandise company. For example, the hottest merchandise were character models with Dancing Rain’s equipment as a Launcher and Su Mucheng’s actual figure and appearance.

In comparison, Chu Yunxiu and Misty Rain were in an awkward situation. The player was a lady but the character was a guy, so they couldn’t merge the two together. Thus, in the end, they could only sell Misty Rain’s character model. As for the player model, those weren’t as popular. Everyone preferred the epic appearance of the character model.

No one had noticed this situation at first, but by the time they did, teams like Team Misty Rain were rather depressed. With the high status gained by being in the pro scene and the mutual benefits gained along with the game company, asking to get the character’s sex and appearance changed wouldn’t do anything to the balance of the game. However, Misty Rain had been a guy for so long. Everyone was used to it already. If they suddenly changed his sex, then their fans probably wouldn’t be able to accept that, so Misty Rain could only endure it. But this time, after acknowledging the strength of the twin sisters that Misty Rain had contracted, they decided that they would make sure to not make the same mistake and contacted the game company to change the sex of the two characters while they still had a little influence.

Since this change wasn’t a gamechanger, the normal players didn’t mind the pro scene having this special benefit. In their eyes, it was a good thing for them to align the sex of the character with the player, especially with two beautiful ladies playing two guys.

For Happy, Su Mucheng and Dancing Rain were good to go, then there was Tang Rou and Soft Mist. With her beauty and grace, she was perfect and the Alliance. The game company viewed her as a treasure, finding a talented team to create a model of Soft Mist with Tang Rou’s appearance. Then, they just had to hope that Tang Rou would be able to play well and gain fame. After all, this was a competitive scene.

For Happy, they had wanted to create three different models and account cards. Su Mucheng and Tang Rou were good, now there was Ye Xiu, who was an entirely different problem.

Originally, their hopes for Ye Xiu were even higher than Su Mucheng and Tang Rou. This was a top tier expert that had hidden himself away for all these years. Now that he was willing to show himself, the Alliance and game company wanted to take this chance. But when it came to collecting the materials, the game company was close to crying.

Glory had been designed by them. This, naturally, included the equipment available, and Lord Grim’s mix and match equipment could even cause the game company to be lost in wonder. What sort of talent did you have to have to manage to find such an ugly combination of equips! When designing the game, they naturally wouldn’t make ugly equipment. The equipment would be perfect and beautiful or have some sort of uniqueness to it that left a lasting impression. However, why was Lord Grim’s set so uncomfortable to look at? In that moment, the game company had a thought to cheat and modify Lord Grim’s equipment design and make this mix and match a better sight to look at. But it was only a thought. This sort of change would have too big of an effect. Although the design didn’t affect the stats and technically wasn’t a game changer, if they made the equipment look good on Lord Grim, what would they do if the equipment looked terrible when someone else wore it?

In the end, it was Lord Grim’s abnormal class choice that made his equipment diverge from the beauty of the game.

Experts had observed Lord Grim’s current design for a long time, discussed it for a long time, but they all shook their heads in the end and admitted defeat.

The Alliance was depressed, the game company was depressed, but they refused to give up on thinking of a way to profit, coming up with another idea. They were going to make a commemorative version of One Autumn Leaf. Yes, that One Autumn Leaf, one with Ye Xiu’s appearance. That would probably make up for many people’s disappointment, right?

Would it really? Soon enough, someone voiced this doubt.

It wouldn’t be hard to make this combination right now. Although One Autumn Leaf already belonged to Samsara, they just had to split some of the profits with Samsara and Happy. The problem was that One Autumn Leaf simply didn’t have Ye Xiu’s appearance, but the model was already very popular. The commemorative version would be simply adding in Ye Xiu’s face.

Models were based primarily on the impressive designs of the characters. Adding in the player’s appearance was just to show their love. The Excellent Era One Autumn Leaf had garnered a lot of buyers already and was just lacking Ye Xiu’s face. Would adding his face really make any difference? After careful consideration, they hesitated. After all, as players of this competitive scene, their value never lay in their faces.

Why was this Ye Xiu always so troublesome!

The Pro Alliance and Glory game company felt like they were going to cry.

Chapter 1138: Keep Our Spots and Become the Champions

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Happy was becoming more and more prosperous by the day. The season hadn’t started yet, but the transfers, both accounts and players, were eye-catching enough already. The Pro Alliance and the Glory game company were even more worried than Happy. Let alone new rising teams in the Alliance, most teams didn’t get such treatment!

No team was willing to lag behind Happy. Everyone was doing their best to find ways to improve. Team Wind Howl, who had been the backdrop behind Fang Rui’s transfer, was currently having a headache about what to do with Doubtful Demon. Team Wind Howl displayed quite the benevolence towards Fang Rui’s transfer. Even though they would rather offer him as a package with Doubtful Demon, in the end, they didn’t make things difficult for Fang Rui if he wanted to leave alone and let it pass. But as a result, dealing with Doubtful Demon became much more complicated.

They no longer had a Thief player. Doubtful Demon clearly needed to be sold. If not, leaving him there in the team but not using him was just waiting for it to depreciate. Understanding this point, the crafty teams in the Alliance wouldn’t be impatient to act. They were planning on patiently waiting. When the time came, they would go and negotiate with a lower price.

For a moment, it was as if no one wanted Doubtful Demon.

Just when the teams were patiently waiting for the right moment, the sudden news of another transfer disrupted their plan.

Team Blue Rain’s Lin Feng had been transferred to Team Wind Howl for 3.2 million.

The Glory circle was completely stunned.

From the price of 3.2 million, it could be seen that Lin Feng wasn’t a top-tier player, but he was a Thief player.

Team Wind Howl sent away Fang Rui and decided to abandon the Thief’s dirty playing style. Suddenly, they invited Lin Feng? What were they doing? Could it be that they wanted to raise Doubtul Demon’s price, so they intentionally mystified the situation?

Quite a few people thought of this possibility, but they also felt it was too ridiculous to believe. But not long afterwards, several skillful people analyzed the background behind this transfer.

It was true that Thieves were very suitable for playing dirty, but that didn’t mean that was the only style they could play. As for Wind Howl, they may have given up on dirty play, but that didn’t mean that they had given up on Thieves.

As a result, the master of playing dirty, Fang Rui, may have left, but it was ambiguous if the Thief, Doubtful Demon, would leave.

When Wind Howl saw that selling Doubtful Demon wasn’t going well, they gave their answer: Doubtful Demon would not be leaving.

Because of Lin Feng.

Lin Feng was a substitute on Team Blue Rain. He had a few opportunities to appear on stage, but his position wasn’t as stable as the core members. Even so, he had his own style. His Thief didn’t play dirty. Team Blue Rain wasn’t suited for playing dirty.

As a result, he grabbed the attention of Team Wind Howl. The dirty Doubtful Demon was gone. A new Doubtful Demon had risen. In the press conference for Lin Feng’s addition to the team, it wasn’t hard to see Team Wind Howl’s hopes for the new Doubtful Demon.

Up until now, Team Wind Howl’s lineup for the new season seemed to have surfaced. After two summers, this team had replaced their Criminal Partners. Their Brawler and Thief were still there, but their players were different. It would be hard to say if the old criminal air around the team would appear again.

After Lin Feng transferred, another mid-level transfer came out.

Lu Yining, Team Misty Rain’s Sharpshooter, the Best Sixth Player. The sixth player was oftentimes the main sub in the team competition. The sixth player would sometimes be the person that would turn the situation around. However, at other times, the sixth player wouldn’t appear on stage because their team’s main five players smoothly defeated the opponents without the need for a sixth player.

In any case, he was a skilled player. Lu Yining’s transfer price of 4.6 million proved this point.

In the end, Lu Yining transferred to Team Thunderclap. It was hard not to pay attention to this team.

Team Thunderclap had been hard-pressed money for many years. Over their many years of existence, their biggest transfer was to get back their former core character, Life Extinguisher, from Excellent Era. It truly made people speechless.

A 4.6 million transfer might not mean too much to some of the powerhouses, but for Team Thunderclap, it was no small sum of money. It looked like this team had quite the ambition this new season. Was it because of Xiao Shiqin’s and Life Extinguisher’s return? Had Xiao Shiqin found new growth from Excellent Era’s defeat?

Misty Rain sold their Sharpshooter player entirely for the beautiful sisters Shu Keyi and Shu Kexin to take position. They obviously didn’t need to find any replacements. Adjustments had been made to the beautiful sisters’ characters, which had been displayed last season. It looked like the new season would be their time to shine.

Apart from that, various teams had a few transfers to fix up some minor patches. There were a few retirements and a few rookies selected for promotion. Overall, besides the huge changes from Excellent Era’s disbandment, Fang Rui was the only core player to transfer. The other teams followed their usual path and firmly walked along it. Doubt? Wavering? Each year had two transfer windows. In reality, these windows were for teams to patch these up. Perhaps an issue popped up during the course of the season, but by the time the transfer window ended, the majority of teams would fix these and start walking again. They might be going at different paces, but every team was advancing forward.

Two months passed by in a flash. On 9/1, the transfer window closed. It also happened to be Monday, so the Esports Home gave a summary of this summer’s transfers. There wasn’t anything extremely shocking, but every team was moving towards a more steady direction. The transfer window had closed and the new season was about to begin. Each team began announcing their goals.

The powerhouses naturally talked about winning the championships. They had the confidence and the strength to back their words. The vast majority of teams could only aim for the playoffs as their goal. They felt too embarrassed to claim that they would become the champions. As for the bottom-tier teams, their goal was to keep their spots. Even though not much attention was paid to them, they definitely had to achieve it.

As for Happy?

Keep our spot and become the champions! Ye Xiu posted on his Weibo.

The following two comments were two orderly pair of ellipses! For a moment, everyone was speechless. They had heard of the saying: “With second secured, strive for first”, but keep our spot and become the champions? The two goals spoken were like the difference between heaven and earth. How could you say that?

As soon as Ye Xiu posted this Weibo, the players on the weak teams started livening up.

“Haha, then our goal will also be to keep our spots and become the champions!” Team Heavenly Sword’s Lou Guanning was the team’s boss, captain, and core player. Even if he didn’t have any spectacular achievements, he was already destined to be a legend in the history of Glory. He suddenly changed his Team Heavenly Sword’s goal.

Soon afterwards, Parade and Radiant also changed their goals for fun.

Seconded!

Seconded +1!

Keep our spots and become the champions. This slogan suddenly became the most popular slogan this new season. The powerhouses wanted to cry. Striving to become the champions was supposed to be a grandiose and magnificent goal! With all these people inappropriately making a mess out of things, their goals no longer gave off the same feeling.

In reality, the teams truly aiming to keep their spots didn’t have the heart to joke around.

Parade and Radiant shouldn’t have much trouble keeping their spots, but they also didn’t have much hope for making it to the playoffs. They were the kind that lacked pressure but also lacked motivation, so they could happily joke around.

But according to one person, while these later teams might just be joking, was Happy joking? Placing the two extremely disparate goals of keeping their spots and being the champions together might be a sign of the uneasiness in the depths of their heart.

“Yeah, even I can’t tell if Happy is strong or weak. It’s too scary.” Ye Xiu unexpectedly replied to this person.

“Ah… God Ye Qiu has noticed me! He replied back. Ah ah ah ah…” This person suddenly dissolved. He was a Ye Xiu fan in the end.

“F*ck, this Weibo commenter is pathetic!”

“Commenter, stand up!”

“Commenter, what happened!”

There were a few who cared about the question of Happy’s strength.

“I think we’ll know the answer soon!” The Pro Alliance’s official Weibo actually gave a reply. At the same time, the official Weibo released the new season’s schedule for the first match. The Samsara vs Happy match was highlighted.

Team Samsara, last season’s champions. As per convention, the reigning champions would be arranged to play a newly joined team to show the disparity between them. And this newly joined team would be the one invited into the Alliance. However, that was just an unwritten tradition, not an established rule. As a result, this season, the reigning champions would be facing Happy, the team that had advanced their way through the Challenger League.

Team Miracle felt like crying!

Truthfully speaking, the invited teams would usually be favored more than the Challenger League team because the teams that came from the Challenger League were usually the ones relegated from the previous seasons and then revived. Those teams weren’t fresh at all. Only these invited teams would be truly new teams. However, Happy was an exception this time. They became the first truly new team that had successfully made their way through the Challenger League. Thus, it was a tragedy for the invited team this time. How could the attention towards them be higher than the attention towards Happy? In the end, the opportunity to have the first match with the reigning champions was given to Happy.

Team Miracle wasn’t so delusional to think that they could make a name for themselves by beating the reigning champions. However, it had always been a form of care from the Alliance towards the new team. It looked like the love was being given to Happy though. It was as if Team Miracle was stuck in their stepmother’s home. Even more unfortunate for them was that Team Miracle mainly consisted of Team Excellent Era’s old players. Being reduced to a new team and being beaten by Happy were not without a relationship. How could they not be having complicated feelings towards them.

Samsara versus Happy might be the Alliance’s most hyped welcoming match for a new team. How would this match turn out? From the pro circle to the player circle to the media to the masses, the discussion lasted for days up until 9/5 when the first match took place. The result: Team Samsara swept Team Happy with a clean 10 to 0.