ARML CH55

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo played from 7:40 AM to 9:40 AM, winning four consecutive games with the Double Flight combination.

Chi Shuo leaned back in his esports chair, rubbed his temples, and asked, “It’s almost 10 o’clock, are you going back to start your stream?”

Ye Shaoyang replied, “If I stream every day, will it affect training?”

“No, the team’s training hours are in the afternoon and evening. Getting up early in the morning to play ranked is already considered extra training.” Chi Shuo removed his hand from his temple, looked at Ye Shaoyang, and said gently, “You don’t need to push yourself too hard. Concentrate on practicing for 2 hours in the morning, and use the rest of the time to relax.”

Ye Shaoyang thought it made sense. Playing ranked on the international server with Chi Shuo was actually very draining; he had to be fully concentrated and couldn’t slack off for even a second to keep up with Chi Shuo’s tempo. If he engaged in such high-intensity training all day, his brain wouldn’t be able to take it.

Training also required a balance of work and rest. Thinking of this, Ye Shaoyang stood up, preparing to return to his dorm.

Just as the two were about to turn and leave, they bumped into Lin Feng, who was yawning as he arrived at the training room. Seeing Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo’s computers on, Coach Lin was momentarily stunned: “Are you two up this early to train?”

Ye Shaoyang said, “My schedule has been quite regular lately, I get up at 7 AM. Captain Chi also woke up early, so we went to the international server to play a few ranked matches and practice the flight combination.”

Lin Feng quickly walked over to the computer: “Come, come, let me see the replay.”

Chi Shuo opened the VOD of their recent ranked matches. Lin Feng fast-forwarded at double speed, skipping the other random teammates and only watching the instances where Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang coordinated to gank. After watching, he wore an expression of disbelief. He remained silent for a long time before muttering, “You two have only known each other for a few days, and you’re already this in sync?”

Ye Shaoyang joked, “Maybe we just naturally get along well?”

Chi Shuo: “…”

What are you saying? An Omega and an Alpha naturally getting along well? Chi Shuo coughed lightly and embarrassedly averted his gaze.

Coach Lin was also startled by Ye Shaoyang’s “bold statement.” He cast a suspicious glance at the two of them, only to find Ye Shaoyang’s gaze completely candid, showing absolutely no sign of a guilty conscience—it seemed Shaoyang was just speaking straightforwardly. By “getting along well,” he meant working well together in matches, with no other implications.

Coach Lin gathered his thoughts and said seriously, “The flight combination is very difficult to coordinate. This playstyle is rather extreme. If you bring it out in a match, do you have the confidence to crush the opponents?”

The coach asking this was clearly considering team strategy.

Two-man coordination is different from five-man coordination. Their flight combination could crush casual matches, but encountering a professional team with five players coordinating seamlessly wouldn’t guarantee they could suppress the opponents; they might even crash and burn.

Ye Shaoyang pondered for a moment and said, “Playing against average teams should be fine, but this combination is too squishy and fears AoE and hard CC. If we encounter an enemy support, top laner, or mid-laner with strong crowd control, we’ll have to weigh our options.”

Chi Shuo nodded in agreement, “Yes, whether we can bring it out in a match still needs further integration with the team. We can’t become disjointed from Old Qin, Qu Jiang, and the others either.”

Coach Lin said gratifyingly, “Alright, you guys keep practicing it for now. During the second phase of team integration training, we can build a team fight composition around your flight combination. Additionally, practice other mid-jungle combinations more often, so we’ll have more options to choose from later.”

The two nodded simultaneously: “Understood.”

Chi Shuo paused and said, “Then Shaoyang and I will head back to the dorm first and come back at 1 PM.”

Coach Lin watched the two leave, then turned back to look at the computer screen—he hadn’t expected that just a few days after Ye Shaoyang joined the Tianhuan team, he would be able to coordinate so seamlessly with Chi Shuo.

It was quite amazing when you thought about it. Chi Shuo had known Fang Zhengqing for 4 years; they had been friends since their youth camp days, yet playing matches on the same team, they truly had zero synergy to speak of, their thought processes completely opposite. Chi Shuo had worked with Qu Jiang for 3 years; although they had cultivated a certain level of synergy, Qu Jiang sometimes couldn’t keep up with Chi Shuo’s tempo.

Yet Ye Shaoyang could keep up. No wonder Chi Shuo was so adamant about having Ye Shaoyang join Tianhuan. Sometimes, whether two players can synergize well truly depends on fate. Perhaps Ye Shaoyang really is the “best teammate” Chi Shuo spoke of?!

The more Coach Lin thought about it, the more excited he became—next season, Tianhuan’s mid-jungle synergy combination will return to the arena! He had severely underestimated Ye Shaoyang. Instead of having Ye Shaoyang practice heroes step-by-step, it was better to directly have him practice combinations with Chi Shuo!

Shaoyang’s gaming talent was a rare sight, and his speed in picking up new heroes was extremely fast. Therefore, perhaps the training process could also be accelerated? Coach Lin glanced at the training schedule on the desk, picked up a pen, and swiftly modified a few lines.

After returning to his bedroom, Ye Shaoyang turned on his stream exactly at 10 AM. Many netizens were waiting for him. Sister Mu directly sent him a ranked invitation.

Ye Shaoyang entered the room and found Brother Xiao Wei was also there.

Xiao Wei asked directly: “Has Xiao Bai been very busy lately? I haven’t seen you stream at night.” Ye Shaoyang replied: “Yeah, I found a job recently.”

He didn’t explicitly say what the job was, but hearing this, the netizens in the stream were not happy— [You’re actually not a full-time game streamer?] [Poor Xiao Bai has to find a job to raise his cat. Can’t the gifts we send support you and the kitty?] [Don’t go to work! The viewers will support you, just play ranked every day and be an educational streamer for us!] [Quickly, everyone start gifting!]

Another pile of gifts flew out from the bottom left corner.

Ye Shaoyang hurriedly stopped them: “Everyone, there’s no need to send gifts. I am indeed not a full-time game streamer, but from now on, I will still come to see everyone at a fixed time every day from 10 AM to 12 PM.”

Mumu smiled and said: “Then let’s duo-queue ranked in the mornings just like before.” Ye Shaoyang replied: “No problem.”

Yao Mu was inherently an early-to-bed, early-to-rise female streamer, her schedule matching Ye Shaoyang’s. Xiao Wei sometimes came online in the morning, sometimes streamed in the middle of the night; his schedule was very casual. But as long as he woke up in the morning, he would have Mumu invite him. The three of them having played ranked together for so long, they were becoming increasingly familiar with each other and had added each other on WeChat.

After going offline at noon, Mumu took the initiative to send Ye Shaoyang a WeChat message: “Xiao Bai, Whale Live has an annual new streamer ceremony every December. All streamers who debuted within the year will PK together. Netizens vote, and whoever takes first place will receive massive promotion and publicity from the website. You’re going to participate in this event, right?”

Streamer voting PKs—Ye Shaoyang had heard of such events in his past life too. Taking first place as a streamer was a huge face-saver, hence why many streamers secretly used smurf accounts to artificially inflate their votes.

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, “I think I’ll sit this one out.”

Mumu sent two surprised emojis: “Why? Those streamers who debuted in the first half of the year, Brother Yu, Mengmeng Xiong, have already started preparing for the new streamer ceremony these past few days. Your stats can easily crush them. Isn’t it a pity not to participate?”

Ye Shaoyang had never compared himself to those tier-two streamers. His goal had never been to be a popular streamer either. He was already a professional player for the Tianhuan team. If he participated, even if he took first place, once his identity was exposed later, some people would deem it unfair, thinking the Tianhuan club was pulling strings behind the scenes to inflate his votes and help him build hype.

Why bother? Just for that little bit of money and fame.

His fame, he would earn it himself through playing matches!

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Thank you for caring, Sister Mu, I just don’t want to wade into these muddy waters. The PK for the new streamer leaderboard will definitely be fierce. All those fan wars, canvassing for votes, inflating votes—it’s too exhausting.”

Looking at this message, Mumu remained silent for a long time. The annual new rookie leaderboard that new streamers cared about the most, was actually dispensable to Xiao Bai? Did he really see through it all so clearly, or was there another reason?

Recalling him mentioning finding a job, Mumu was startled and joked, “That job you mentioned finding earlier, could it be a team approached you and you went to be a professional player?”

Ye Shaoyang sent a smiley face: “Sister Mu guessed correctly ^_^”

Ye Shaoyang added: “As for which specific team, it’s hard to say before the official announcement. When we meet in the arena later, Sister Mu, as an official caster, please show some mercy with your words if I do something stupid and feed during a match.”

Mumu: “…”

He really did become a professional player. No wonder he wasn’t participating in the new streamer leaderboard PK! Yao Mu couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. She already felt Xiao Bai was exceptionally incredible at the game. Although she and Xiao Wei were top-tier streamers, their game sense was genuinely inferior to Xiao Bai’s in many situations. This was also why the two of them were willing to play ranked with Xiao Bai.

Now it seems, a team truly did have an eye for talent and poached Xiao Bai to play professionally.

Mumu said: “That’s wonderful! Don’t worry, I’m familiar with most of the casters and commentators. I’ll have them blow some rainbow farts for you when the time comes. You better play well in your matches, otherwise I’d be too embarrassed to praise you.”

Ye Shaoyang: “That’s for sure.” Mumu: “Let’s play ranked together again when we have time. Hurry up and go train with peace of mind, good luck.” Ye Shaoyang: “Bye bye Sister Mu~”

Ye Shaoyang closed the chat window. He believed Yao Mu wouldn’t go spouting nonsense everywhere. After all, as a resident caster officially invited, she also needed to maintain her reputation. If word got out that she was a loose-lipped loudspeaker, it wouldn’t be good for her either.

Besides, the news of Xiao Bai signing with a team had probably already spread throughout the professional circle. It’s just that no one expected he would sign with Tianhuan.

At 12:30 PM, Ye Shaoyang arrived at the cafeteria for lunch. The teammates were all there. Qu Jiang took the initiative to carry his tray and sit next to him, leaning in curiously to ask, “How’s your synergy with Captain Chi going? Did you win or lose your ranked matches?”

Ye Shaoyang replied, “Not bad, we won mostly. What about you guys?” Qu Jiang sighed softly, “Sigh, Xiao Xing and I kept losing last night.”

Seeing Cheng Xing sitting relatively far away, Ye Shaoyang lowered his voice, “Is Xiao Xing playing too aggressively?”

Qu Jiang looked at him in surprise, “How did you know?”

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, “It’s easy to tell. This kid has a rather impulsive personality and easily gets hot-headed during matches. If he wants to dive in and feed, I’m guessing you wouldn’t be able to stop him either.”

Qu Jiang nodded with a bitter face, “Yes, I can’t stop him. It’s mentally exhausting.”

Ye Shaoyang said, “That’s probably why the coaching staff had you play support to keep an eye on him, right? You’re the most stable player in Tianhuan, and only you can stabilize the bottom lane during matches. Otherwise, Cheng Xing would drag the bottom lane into collapse.”

Qu Jiang was very happy to be praised and said with a smile, “Really? I think so too. I’ll watch over Cheng Xing closely and make sure he feeds a few less kills in the future.”

Ye Shaoyang: “…” He found Qu Jiang to be a bit adorkable, and his temper was far too good.

The conflict he imagined would arise after joining Tianhuan between the former mid-laner and current mid-laner simply didn’t exist. Qu Jiang was extremely accepting of switching from mid-lane to support.

Ye Shaoyang breathed a sigh of relief internally and said, “Let’s all take our time building synergy. Captain Chi and I are also cultivating our tacit understanding. When we have combined team training next month, our top, mid, and bottom lanes will still need to unify our tempo.”

Qu Jiang nodded seriously, “En, Captain Chi will unify the shotcalling then, and I’ll also help you keep an eye on the vision in the mid-lane.”

The rookies of the second team were burying their heads in their food at a nearby table, but out of the corners of their eyes, they were stealing glances over here. They originally thought it would be awkward when Qu Jiang and Ye Shaoyang met, but as a result, these two were chatting away with smiles on their faces, even leaning in close to whisper?

Cheng Xing whispered, “They must be badmouthing me, otherwise why would my ears be burning so much.” Xie Xiaotian said, “Did you feed too many kills? Brother Qu is probably complaining about you to Brother Yang.” Cheng Xing’s face turned red to the tips of his ears, “I was just playing with more passion!” Xie Xiaotian wasn’t polite at all, “A passionate 0-5?” Cheng Xing: “…”

The marksman who went 0-5 in ranked last night was quickly dragged away by the coach for some individual education. Consequently, Cheng Xing was much more obedient. The coach told him to follow Qu Jiang’s tempo. If Qu Jiang didn’t ping to attack, he wouldn’t attack. The two of them slowly cultivated their synergy.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo also altered their training schedule; Coach Lin accelerated their process of practicing combinations.

After the Double Flight combination, the next one he had them practice was a combination that had appeared in the arena in the early years and had since nearly gone extinct—the Black and White combination.

In games, the pairing of black + white is a very common occurrence. In Gods’ War, there are also two heroes who happen to be one black and one white.

The mid-laner [White Fox King] has two forms to switch between: fox form and human form. In fox form, he can summon four little foxes to assist him in combat. He belongs to the summoner-type mages, with very high attack power but very low defense, making him easy to kill. His mechanics are extremely complex. In human form, he has an AoE fear crowd-control skill called “Demon Fox Descent”; a well-placed ultimate can control an entire area.

The jungler [Black Wolf King] also has wolf form and human form to switch between. He is the assassin with the highest agility stat, possessing multiple dashes and formidable assault capabilities. The moment he transforms, he is guaranteed a critical hit. And when the Black Wolf kills an opponent, the transformation ultimate refreshes immediately. In wolf form, he can leap over walls; in human form, he can pounce and bite enemies from a distance to activate hunting mode. This is a 5-star difficulty “execution-type jungler.”

When the Black and White combination first launched in S3, it was all the rage for a time.

But everyone quickly discovered that while this combination looked formidable, it was extremely prone to crashing and burning, with a terrifyingly low win rate!

—It was too hard to execute, hard enough to make you pull your hair out!

Once the White Fox summons his little underlings, it requires four-line macro-management, with fingers flying across the mouse and keyboard. As a result, the four little foxes, far from killing anyone, run around like headless flies, completely uncontrollable. After transforming into human form, although he becomes a highly attractive handsome guy with white ears and a white tail, unfortunately, the human form White Fox is just a wooden dummy, waiting to die after casting his ultimate.

As for the Black Wolf King… is this a hero us hand-handicapped players are worthy of playing?

Leaping over walls in wolf form, if not controlled well, turns into crashing into the wall and feeding; the long-distance pounce and hunt in human form often results in pouncing on empty air; not to mention the transformation status refreshing after killing a target. Transforming back and forth, even the player themselves gets confused.

Therefore, the Black Wolf King and White Fox King—this “theoretically very strong” summoner mage + assault assassin combination—was rarely brought out by anyone in actual combat.

It was very unstable, far too easy to crash and burn in actual combat, and practically never seen in ranked matches. If someone picked it, their teammates’ mentality would instantly collapse.

Coach Lin said, “In our China region, there is only one player who can proficiently control [White Fox King].” Ye Shaoyang understood, “Is it Fang Zhengqing?” Fang Zhengqing’s signature hero [Cobra King] is also a summoner-type mage. He seems to have a special preference for the summoner class.

Coach Lin nodded, “Correct, but Fang Zhengqing’s [White Fox King] usually isn’t paired with a [Black Wolf King] jungler because their team’s jungler can’t play this kind of complex execution hero. You and Chi Shuo, your hand speeds and reactions are both very fast, and you have a certain level of synergy. Perhaps you can try this Black and White combination?”

The Black Wolf and White Fox, a combination that had long gone extinct in the arena… Perhaps, in the hands of Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang, it could radiate brilliance once again.