Chapter 108: International Players

High-ranked matches above 20 stars on the international server were filled with smurfs of professional players from various regions. Bumping into a professional stack was normal, though one never knew which gods they would encounter in this particular game.

The BP (Ban/Pick) phase started quickly.

Ye Shaoyang was in the 1st slot and asked in the voice chat, “Does anyone want me to grab a hero for them?”

Zhao Xin’an in the 3rd slot sent a request: “Please help me pick [Vampire Duke], played 15 times, 100% win rate.”

Little Zhao’s warrior side-lane play was still very strong. [Vampire Duke] was a classic top-lane hero who could tank and fight, as well as dive the backline. After activating his ultimate, his basic attacks would heal him. With enough mechanical skill, he could fight 1v2 or even 1v3.
Ye Shaoyang secured the top laner for him.

The enemy’s 1st and 2nd slots instantly locked in the bot lane tower-pushing duo [Mechanical Expert] and [Machine Gun Hunter].

It was our turn again. Sean in the 2nd slot picked the mid-laner [Kraken of the North Sea].

Ye Shaoyang continued to ask, “Xiao Yu, what marksman are you taking?”

Xie Weiyu thought for a moment and said, “I’ll just take [Wind Spirit].”

Ye Shaoyang asked, “What about Captain Chi?”

Chi Shuo said, “I’ll take [Fighter] and play as a utility jungler.”

Ye Shaoyang said, “Alright, then I’ll take a tankier support to coordinate with you guys.”
He locked in [Radiant Shield] in the 3rd slot. He could raise his shield to block damage for teammates or use it to stun enemies and force engagements. It was a support with strong protective capabilities and a very tanky body.

Both sides’ lineups were quickly finalized; all were common heroes in ranked play.

Our support [Radiant Shield] was a meat shield tank, the top laner [Vampire Duke] was a fierce fighting warrior, the jungler [Fighter] was a utility pick with crowd control, the mid-laner [Kraken of the North Sea] had explosive damage, and the marksman [Wind Spirit] had flexible positioning.

The lineup they selected would be perfectly fine even in a professional league match. It was comprehensive and balanced, with a reasonable distribution of economy. Although Chi Shuo was shotcalling this game, he spoke too little, so Ye Shaoyang took charge of livening up the atmosphere and communicating about the lineup in advance, which would facilitate better coordination.

The enemy lineup was equally excellent: the bot lane [Mechanical Expert] and [Machine Gun Hunter] were a common tower-pushing combo; the mid lane [World-Ending Mage] was a long-range artillery; the jungler [King of Fighters] was a carry jungler; and the top laner [Black Dragon Knight] leaned towards a utility playstyle, able to yield some resources to the jungler and mid-laner.

The focus of the two lineups was different.
On our side, Sean’s mid-laner, Xie Weiyu’s marksman, and Zhao Xin’an’s top laner were the three points that needed farm. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang actively took on utility roles for this game.
On the opposite side, the mid-laner, jungler, and marksman were the three carry points.

The match interface loaded quickly.
Ye Shaoyang opened the in-game scoreboard and saw that the enemy mid-laner was named “XIXI” and the jungler was named “KING.” Names could be duplicated on the international server, but there would only be one person daring enough to call themselves KING above 20 stars.

Zhao Xin’an obviously thought of this too and said in shock, “Holy crap, is the opponent Choi Hyuk from Korea’s ATB?!”

Choi Hyuk, whose registered ID in the Korean region was also KING, was known as the “King of the Jungle.”
In last year’s S9 World Championship quarterfinals, the Korean team ATB defeated China’s Jingzhe, then went on a winning streak to the grand finals and took the S9 World Championship title.
Choi Hyuk was also named the FMVP (Finals Most Valuable Player) of the S9 World Championship.

ATB’s mid-jungle duo, Choi Hyuk and Park Won-seok, were touted online as the world’s number one mid-jungle pair. Even in China, they had quite a few fans who respectfully addressed them as “Emperor He” and “God Seok.”

Some people even said: “Mid-laners like Fang Fang and Captain Zhou only show off in the Chinese region; in front of my God Seok, they’re all little brothers!” “Comparing Chi Shuo to Emperor He? That’s an insult to Emperor He; he’s not worthy.”
Some netizens, because the Chinese region failed to win the world championship, would devalue their own country’s players to nothing while elevating foreign players. Belittling domestic players was standard operation for anti-fans…

After the World Championship ended last year, such comments were everywhere.
Unexpectedly, in a random ranked game today, because our hidden MMR was too high, they actually matched against this pair of BOSSes.
Unfortunately, Chi Shuo didn’t pick a carry jungler this game, and Ye Shaoyang didn’t pick a mid-laner, so they couldn’t clash with them head-on.

Everyone was streaming, so Ye Shaoyang couldn’t speak recklessly.
He and Chi Shuo fell silent simultaneously. They knew very well in their hearts—if one day Tianhuan made it to the World Championship, the so-called Emperor He and God Seok of the Korean region would be their most formidable opponents.

Sean remembered this person and said, “Choi Hyuk, the captain of last year’s World Champion team?”

Zhao Xin’an said, “That’s right! That XIXI is very likely Park Won-seok; the two of them often duo-queue!” He carefully looked at the other three IDs and said, “Luckily, the other three shouldn’t be their teammates; they were probably randomly matched in. I don’t recognize these guys. Sean, are you familiar with them?”

Sean looked closely at the IDs on the scoreboard, as if suddenly recalling something, and said, “The bot lane is the marksman and support from Team Amants of the European region! I remember now; these are their IDs on the international server.”

Xie Weiyu: “…”
So terrifying. Ye Shaoyang pulls him for a ranked game, and they match against nothing but world-class BOSSes!
Choi Hyuk + Park Won-seok, a world-class mid-jungle duo; bot lane is the marksman and support of a top-tier European team. Isn’t my survival environment this game a bit too difficult? Can I live for a few more seconds? Should I go back and write a book called “On the Survival of a Marksman”?

Ye Shaoyang comforted him, “Xiao Yu, don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”

Xie Weiyu: “Mn mn.”

Although Ye Shaoyang debuted later than Xie Weiyu and had just started playing matches, he was older than Xie Weiyu. Xiao Yu was only 19 now. Ye Shaoyang saw him as a younger brother, so calling him “Xiao Yu” came naturally.

If they had matched against the full ATB team, this game would be unplayable. But the opponents were also randomly matched; the Korean and European players spoke different languages, unlike their side which could communicate directly via voice chat.
So in this game, it wasn’t certain who would win or lose.

Everyone had originally planned to play casually, but now, everyone got serious.
The bullet screens in the players’ live streams were exploding.

[Xiao Bai fighting! Destroy the Korean mid-laner!]

[What are you guys thinking? Xiao Bai is support this game; is he going to hit the enemy mid-laner’s head with his shield?]

[First time seeing Xiao Bai play support. Our Xiao Bai’s support will definitely be fierce, the kind that jumps right into the enemy’s face!]

The style of comments in Xie Weiyu’s stream was completely different.

[Xiao Yu, try to die less.]

 [This game is too hard; the opponent is the mid-jungle of the World Champion team!]

[You 5 are a ragtag bunch; you’ll definitely get hammered.]

 [I’m just watching to see how many times Xie Weiyu dies this game. Don’t go 0-10; that would be humiliating.]

Xie Weiyu turned off the bullet screen to preserve his peace of mind.

The match interface loaded. As the shotcaller, Chi Shuo quickly deployed the strategy: “Mid-laner support top, jungler gank bot. Breakthrough from the side lanes first.”

Pushing mid directly was prone to accidents. Snowballing economy from the side lanes was a common practice against strong teams. Zhao Xin’an and Sean were teammates; if they played top, and Chi Shuo went to help bot, neither side lane would collapse easily.

Zhao Xin’an said decisively, “Okay, communicate with pings often.”

Ye Shaoyang and Xie Weiyu went to lane to clear minions.
Chi Shuo started Red this game. He beat the buff to critical health and said, “Marksman, come take Red.”

Although Ye Shaoyang and Xie Weiyu were close, calling each other “Xiao Yu” intimately, causing Chi Shuo to feel a little jealous, as a professional player, he never let emotions affect him in a ranked match. He wouldn’t interfere with Ye Shaoyang’s friendships; he had at least that much class.

Giving the Red Buff to the marksman would make Xie Weiyu’s laning pressure much lighter.

Xie Weiyu went over and took the Red Buff with a basic attack, saying politely, “Thank you, Captain Chi.”

Chi Shuo gave a “Mn” and turned to take Blue. Just then, Zhao Xin’an suddenly said irritably, “Fuck fuck fuck, they’re counter-jungling Blue. I’ll go disturb them!”

Sean said, “There are 3 of them!”

Ye Shaoyang immediately went to the enemy jungle to scout for vision. Chi Shuo tacitly sneaked over from the river and, following Ye Shaoyang, quickly stole the enemy’s Blue Buff. Our Zhao Xin’an and Sean pretended to defend the Blue, interfering with the enemy’s efficiency, then quickly retreated.
With this coordination, Chi Shuo took the enemy’s Blue, so losing our own Blue buff wasn’t a loss.

The mid-lane river crab spawned. Sean pinged mid. As expected, the enemy mid-jungle came to contest the first crab.
Chi Shuo rushed over to contest. The two sides fought 2v2 for a while. The opponents, Choi Hyuk and Park Won-seok, were fixed teammates, while Chi Shuo and Sean were coordinating for the first time and certainly lacked the opponent’s synergy. The enemy jungler seized the opportunity to steal the crab.

Bot lane. Ye Shaoyang protected Xie Weiyu’s farm while scouting vision.

Because he got Red at the start, Xie Weiyu’s laning was relatively easy. Ye Shaoyang trusted that Xiao Yu wouldn’t be killed easily, so he occasionally walked away to check bushes and place vision.

Support protecting the marksman didn’t mean sticking to the marksman’s side constantly. Vision was crucial. If the enemy jungler camped in an unchecked bush and ambush, the marksman’s fragile body definitely couldn’t tank it!

Because Ye Shaoyang had checked all the vision in the lower half of the map, Xie Weiyu farmed very safely. He even coordinated with Ye Shaoyang to steal a small river crab, putting him 1 level higher than the enemy marksman.

The enemy jungler quickly hit level 6.

Sean pinged: “Mid laner MISS.”

Chi Shuo immediately headed bot, pinging simultaneously: “On my way.”

Ye Shaoyang: “Received.”

Just as Chi Shuo arrived at the scene, the enemy jungler suddenly leaped from a distance, punching Xie Weiyu!

The [King of Fighters] jungler had a strong hard crowd control; punching someone into a wall could stun a whole group. Xie Weiyu’s positioning was already flexible enough, but he still got caught. Choi Hyuk was indeed a world-class jungler; his prediction ability was extremely strong.

Xie Weiyu instantly used Cleanse and rolled back under the tower. Ye Shaoyang raised his shield at the same time—
The enemy mid-laner followed up as expected, releasing a black mist like a python striking at Xie Weiyu’s chest!

Ye Shaoyang’s shield blocked the mist perfectly. The enemy jungler wanted to continue the chase but was blocked by Ye Shaoyang holding the shield.

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

Xie Weiyu quickly fled under the tower, firing two arrows back at the enemy jungler [King of Fighters].
The King of Fighters was beaten to low health. Realizing he couldn’t get the kill this wave, he turned and retreated.

It was a 4v3 in the bot lane, but because Ye Shaoyang blocked the key damage with his shield, Xie Weiyu used Cleanse fast enough, and Chi Shuo’s support was timely, Xie Weiyu managed to save his life and recalled with low health.

Meanwhile, an advantage was gained in the top lane.

With 4 enemies bot, it meant the top lane could play 2v1.
Zhao Xin’an had secured the river crab early on and just hit level 6. He activated his vampire ultimate and tower-dived, beating the enemy [Black Dragon Knight] to critical health.
Sean followed up with damage, executing a crisp QW combo to secure the kill. The two split up and retreated.

——First Blood!
Sean took first blood.

Ye Shaoyang praised, “Beautiful!”
Sean said gentlemanly, “Captain Chi’s arrangement was good.”

Bot lane withstood the pressure in a 3v4, while Top lane established an advantage in a 2v1.
Chi Shuo’s tactical arrangement for the opening lane support really worked. He knew the enemy mid-jungle would definitely come down to gank the marksman in the first wave. Even if Sean had come bot, they might not have been able to kill the enemy mid-jungle.
It was better to open a breach in the top lane first.

Although Zhao Xin’an didn’t want to praise Chi Shuo, he had to admit that Chi Shuo’s macro sense was indeed powerful. If it were him, he might have told Sean to go bot for a 4v4.

Korea, ATB Team Base.
Choi Hyuk frowned. “Which region are these opponents from? Their game sense is not bad.”

Park Won-seok said, “It’s 10 PM. There should be more players from the China region at this time.”

Choi Hyuk was puzzled. “I haven’t seen these IDs before.”

Park Won-seok said, “They rarely come to the international server. The most famous one on the international server is zhouzhou.”

Zhou Jiawen had been killed by them countless times on the international server.
Heard zhouzhou is the strongest mid-laner in the China region? He’s nothing special.

Choi Hyuk raised an eyebrow. “Keep ganking bot.”
Park Won-seok said, “I wasn’t level 6 just now. Next wave, let’s go kill their marksman.”

The [Wind Spirit] was a point that, if not restricted early, would be very slippery in team fights once farmed up. If they couldn’t catch him, he could drift around dealing tons of damage.

In the first mid-jungle rotation, Choi Hyuk thought he and Park Won-seok could kill the enemy marksman alone. He rushed in too fast, and his bot lane teammates couldn’t keep up with their rhythm. As a result, the enemy support blocked the key damage with a shield, preventing a successful kill.

But no rush. They would soon let the enemy marksman know what world-class mid-jungle synergy looked like.