Ye Shaoyang spent the entire day playing ranked with [Frost Goddess]. In ranked matches above King 50 stars, winning a game could add over 500 hero power. If he lost but secured the losing team’s MVP, the deducted power was less than 50. His [Frost Goddess] win rate consistently remained at 80%, so his hero power increased extremely fast.

For the next two days, he also played ranked using [Frost Goddess] every day. By Wednesday midnight, his [Frost Goddess] had already reached 10,000 hero power.

The netizens watching his stream were endlessly impressed by his speed in grinding hero power. Many netizens were stuck in the Diamond tier, unable to climb, with their hero power maxing out around 3,000. Winning some and losing some, they couldn’t improve no matter what. Let alone a national server badge, they might not even get a city ranking. However, in just two short days, the streamer Xiao Bai played dozens of ranked matches with an over 80% win rate, reaching 10,000!

[Are we even playing the same game?]

[Streamer, are you human? Oh wait, you’re a cat. Meow-aliens are indeed awesome at playing games!]

[Why does Xiao Bai cast combos as fast as a tentacle monster? While I look like I’m hand-handicapped?]

[My brain tells me: You’ve got it. My hands tell me: No, you don’t.]

The viewers in the stream spammed the chat every day. Some wild big spenders also appeared on the streamer Xiao Bai’s gift leaderboard. Many netizens who tipped thousands or tens of thousands requested to add the streamer on WeChat.

Although Ye Shaoyang was very popular, up until now, he hadn’t created an official fan group. Seeing the chat flooded with requests to add him as a friend, Qin Rui eagerly suggested, “Brother, you can create a few WeChat groups and pull the fans in. I see other streamers doing this. Many streamers even have fixed times to help their viewers climb the ranks.”

Ye Shaoyang thought about it and nodded in agreement. “I don’t know how to mess with these things, how about you do it for me.”

Qin Rui immediately opened a new WeChat account and changed the announcement in Xiao Bai’s stream to: “Viewers VIP-3 and above can add WeChat XXXX to be invited to Xiao Bai’s fan group.”

Many netizens immediately added Qin Rui’s account. Some people even bought stream membership cards to reach VIP-3, with some directly renewing for a whole year.

Qin Rui opened one group, it filled up, he opened another… In the blink of an eye, over a dozen groups were entirely full. Qin Rui said excitedly, “Brother, you’re so popular!”

Ye Shaoyang was also pulled into the fan groups by Xiao Rui. He changed his nickname to “Streamer Xiao Bai” and popped up to greet everyone: “Thank you all for your support. I’m busy pushing for national rankings recently, so I don’t have time to help you climb. Once I get 8 national server badges, I’ll see how things are and maybe take everyone to play ranked.”

The group members were dumbfounded— [8 national server badges?]

[Xiao Bai, are you serious? [Pupil Earthquake.jpg]]

[Holy crap, did I follow a monster?]

[Seems like I invested in a potential stock? Xiao Bai, take me to climb the ranks when you’re free later~]

[I remember the Whale Platform’s top streamer, Xiao Wei, only has 4 national badges, right? Xiao Bai wants to get 8?]

[Xiao Wei just got another one these past two days; he currently has 5 national badges, all for marksman heroes.]

[Streamer, keep it up and surpass Xiao Wei! We believe in you!]

There were too many people in the group, and the chat scrolled dazzlingly fast, along with a bunch of emojis. Ye Shaoyang let Xiao Rui help him manage the fan groups while he continued to stream.

At the same time, in a group called “Streamer Alliance”—

[Streamer Universe]: Holy crap, this rookie is so arrogant!

[Streamer Universe]: [Screenshot.jpg]

The screenshot was exactly what Ye Shaoyang had just said in his group. [Once I get 8 national server badges, I’ll see how things are and maybe take everyone to play ranked.] There was also a comment from a fan saying: [Streamer, keep it up and surpass Xiao Wei!]

This message immediately caused a sensation, and many people popped up to discuss it— [Streamer Rainforest]: What’s the deal with this Xiao Bai? He actually dares to challenge our Brother Wei’s position? [Weiwei]: Seems like a new rookie that popped up on the Whale Platform recently. I saw him on the new streamer leaderboard. [Mengmeng Xiong]: He talks too big. Does he think the national rankings are his backyard, he can just take whatever he wants? [Streamer Mickey]: @Brother Yu, isn’t this the guy who stole your National Rank One [Illusionist]? [Brother Yu]: …

Brother Yu got angry just thinking about it. On Monday, the system sent him a notification. Although his [Illusionist] had 12,000 hero power, because his average post-match rating was lower than Xiao Bai’s, he was pushed down to National Rank Two.

Although the top ten in the national server all display a “national badge” in the top left corner, only the first place gets the golden trophy badge. The second place gets a silver trophy.

[Illusionist] was the signature hero that made Brother Yu famous. He spent a long time grinding its hero power to the max. As a result, he had only held the National Rank One title for a little over a month, barely even warming up the seat, and he was already pushed down?

Brother Yu had already cursed Xiao Bai from head to toe several times in private. He felt that this Xiao Bai was specifically targeting him. Whether it was the mocking “Thank you for letting me win ^_^” in that ranked match or stealing his National Rank One [Illusionist] later, why did he have to latch onto him and make trouble for him?!

Brother Yu typed with a cold sneer— [Brother Yu]: Just an ignorant rookie who doesn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth. [Brother Yu]: I can’t even be bothered to argue with him. [Brother Yu]: Putting a cat on the stream, he really knows how to hype himself up. Many people in his stream aren’t even there to watch him play games, but to watch the cat. [Brother Yu]: He really has no bottom line when it comes to hyping himself. [Streamer Mickey]: Damn, you can do that? [Streamer Mickey]: First time seeing a game streamer broadcast a cat! This guy is ruthless in his attempts to climb the ladder! [Streamer Mickey]: I saw him pushing for the [Frost Goddess] national badge these past few days. If I recall correctly, @[Mengmeng Xiong] took the National Rank One for [Frost Goddess], right? [Mengmeng Xiong]: … [Mengmeng Xiong]: Took it a long time ago. I haven’t played this hero much recently. [Streamer Mickey]: This rookie seems to have quite the ambition. Is he planning to push for first place in the annual new streamer review this December? [Brother Yu]: Give me a break. With his small fan base, if he can get first place, I’ll eat my keyboard on stream!

Just as everyone was heatedly discussing, a rather out-of-place voice suddenly popped up. [Mumu]: Are you guys talking about the streamer Xiao Bai? [Mumu]: His cat is pretty cute~

Soon, another person popped up.

[Streamer Xiao Wei]: Sister Mu, invite me to play ranked tonight, be my support.

[Streamer Xiao Wei]: I’ve been losing in ranked constantly lately. I’ve lost so much my underwear is about to fall off, fuck.

[Mumu]: No ranked tonight, playing Peak Tournament.

[Streamer Xiao Wei]: Oh right, Peak Tournament opens on Wednesday. I almost forgot about that!

[Streamer Xiao Wei]: I’ll go play Peak Tournament to push my rank tonight.

This group was a mixed bag, with game streamers from all major platforms. There were over 500 members. The top male and female streamers from Whale Live, both with over ten million fans, were actually drawn out. Everyone immediately popped up to greet the two top streamers.

But strangely, the two of them didn’t seem to want to join in cursing Xiao Bai. Instead, they seemed to be changing the subject?

At midnight, the exact time when night-owl game streamers were most active, the group’s topic shifted, and everyone started discussing the Peak Tournament. Meanwhile, Ye Shaoyang was already asleep.

Waking up the next morning, the game login screen suddenly started updating—[Version 9.3.16 Update Package 1.02G, currently automatically downloading the update package for you, please wait].

Such a massive update package? Ye Shaoyang immediately opened the update announcement.

The update contents included skin optimizations, skill effect optimizations, and a whole bunch of complex event quests rewarding gold coins and skin exchange vouchers. In his past life, Ye Shaoyang would just glance at these events and skip them. His focus had always been on playing matches and practicing heroes; he found these things troublesome.

However, one announcement caught his attention—

After the Wednesday version update, the new season’s “Peak Tournament” will open across all servers.

The rules for the Peak Tournament were different from ranked matches. It opened during a fixed time slot every night from 8 PM to 12 AM. Only players in the Supreme King tier could register to participate. Teaming up was forbidden; all players entered the arena individually, and matchmaking was completely random across all servers. Everyone started at the 1000 point tier. Winning added points, losing deducted points, and a cross-server Peak Tournament ranking would be generated weekly.

The official announcement provided a table detailing the specific hero power bonuses and point addition/deduction rules.

Ye Shaoyang carefully studied the table and discovered that the Peak Tournament increased hero power even faster! If he could reach the 2000+ point tier, the hero power gained from winning one game would be much higher than playing ranked! This was because the hero power gained in the Peak Tournament was multiplied by a coefficient; the higher the tier, the higher the coefficient.

This was easy to understand. Killing 10 newbies in the Bronze tier was completely different in difficulty from killing 10 experts in a high tier of the Peak Tournament. Therefore, the higher the tier of the match, the more hero power was gained from winning a game.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy to climb past the 2000 point tier.

After today’s version update, this season’s Peak Tournament officially opened. All players in the King tier could register, which meant that all King tier players across all servers were standing on the same starting line.

Ye Shaoyang couldn’t help but feel a little excited.

The Peak Tournament would be much stricter than regular ranked matches. Because teaming up was forbidden, there wouldn’t be combos like close friends, couples, or besties. Newbies who usually didn’t play well and needed “friends to carry them” rarely participated in these matches to torture themselves. Furthermore, since the matches used a point system, flaming, role stealing, and AFKing would be relatively reduced.

It could be said that the Peak Tournament was more like a fair, universal competition.

Compared to national server badges, the weekly national Peak Tournament rankings attracted the attention of major clubs much more.

For national server badges, one had to click on a specific hero to check the rankings. But the champion of the Peak Tournament would be displayed directly on the homepage simply by opening the Peak Tournament panel.

If the name [Xiao Bai] was engraved on the champion leaderboard of the Peak Tournament, wouldn’t that better prove his strength? Thinking of this, Ye Shaoyang immediately changed his stream title to “8 PM Peak Tournament Rank Push.”

Seeing the stream title change, the fan groups instantly exploded.

[Xiao Bai is going to play the Peak Tournament?]

[The Peak Tournament at the beginning of the season is exceptionally terrifying, there are countless monsters and demons!]

[Everyone starts from the 1000 point tier, there are many experts. Streamer, it might be better to wait a few days. After those experts climb past 1500, you can start from 1000; it will be much easier.]

[Yeah, the Peak Tournament just opened today, the 1000 point tier tonight is probably going to be a bloodbath!]

Because the registration requirement for the Peak Tournament was the “Supreme King” tier, the threshold was very high. At the beginning of the season, everyone was in the 1000 point tier. Even world-class professional players like Chi Shuo and Fang Zhengqing playing the Peak Tournament would have to slowly climb up from the 1000 point tier. This meant that the 1000 point tier at the start of the season was a true “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Ye Shaoyang wasn’t afraid of this situation filled with experts. On the contrary, carving a bloody path out of a Peak Tournament teeming with experts was much more meaningful than simply getting a national server badge, and it would better hone his skills. Moreover, playing the Peak Tournament and getting a national server badge didn’t conflict. The hero power added in the Peak Tournament would be even higher.

After the version update finished, Ye Shaoyang practiced heroes in the bot training camp for half an hour, then started streaming ranked exactly at 10 AM. When he went offline at 12 PM, his [Frost Goddess] hero power had reached 12,000. Although the system hadn’t issued an announcement yet, his average post-match rating was above 15 (out of a perfect 16). The National Rank One for this hero was destined to be his.

He checked the leaderboards. The previous National Rank One for [Frost Goddess] was held by a streamer named [Mengmeng Xiong]. Snatching someone else’s National Rank One like this would definitely offend some game streamers.

But there was no helping it; this was something he had to do. Besides, the hero power rankings were also a fair competition. If you couldn’t hold onto National Rank One, it only proved your skills were inferior to others.

He didn’t stream in the afternoon. Instead, according to his previous plan, he continued watching professional league VODs. After dinner, Ye Shaoyang washed his face and sat back down at his computer at 7:45 PM.

With 15 minutes left until the Peak Tournament, he went to the training camp to practice heroes. The moment the clock struck 8 PM, he noticed the [Peak Tournament] icon in the top left corner of the screen light up. Opening it, a prompt box popped up—[Season 9.3 Peak Tournament has opened. Do you wish to register?]

Ye Shaoyang clicked register.

[Your current Peak Tournament tier is: 1000 points]

[Win a match: +20 points, Lose a match: -20 points]

[At the end of the season settlement, players in the Peak Tournament 2000+ point tier will receive 100,000 gold coins and a Peak Tournament exclusive skin; all players ranked in the top 100 nationwide will be rewarded 10,000 vouchers; the top 10 will be rewarded season-exclusive merchandise and a custom honorary trophy]

With such generous rewards, there would definitely be many players participating in the Peak Tournament.

Ye Shaoyang closed the prompt pop-up and clicked the “Start Peak Tournament” button right in the center of the screen.

[Currently finding teammates and opponents for you]

[Match found, please prepare]

Ye Shaoyang clicked into the match lobby and discovered that the Peak Tournament had one more Ban spot than regular ranked matches. In regular ranked, both sides banned 2 heroes each; in the Peak Tournament, both sides banned 3 heroes each, resulting in a total of 6 heroes being locked in the dark room. Of course, the professional league banned 4 heroes per side, locking 8 heroes in the dark room, which tested a player’s hero pool even more.

Due to the “anonymity system,” the team list only displayed: Player 1, Player 2…

He was [Player 5].

At the very bottom in the 5th slot, the last one to choose a hero.

Just as Ye Shaoyang was about to type “I’ll go mid,” his teammate directly banned [Abyssal Lord]. Of course, banning a newly released hero was understandable. Many people were unfamiliar with new heroes.

Following closely, the opponent banned [Illusionist]. A one-shot burst hero like [Illusionist] could easily create a suppressive effect in the early game, constantly snowballing and rapidly ending the match, resulting in a very poor gaming experience for the losing team.

Then, his teammate banned [Frost Goddess].

Ye Shaoyang didn’t understand why this teammate banned [Frost Goddess]. Perhaps they had just encountered a rather freakish [Frost Goddess] in ranked and were frozen into a psychological shadow?

The netizens in Xiao Bai’s stream were dying of laughter—

[Xiao Bai is so pitiful, all three heroes he knows how to play were banned!]

[[Abyssal Lord], [Illusionist], [Frost Goddess], did they peek at Xiao Bai’s hero pool?]

[Xiao Bai, they definitely sensed the murderous aura coming from [Player 5] and specifically banned your heroes.]

[Hahaha, the teammate is a spy sent by the enemy, only banning heroes [Player 5] is good at.]

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

With his teammates banning his three national server heroes, Ye Shaoyang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. When he entered the match just now, he seemed to have forgotten to set the “Proficient Heroes” column.

Fortunately, to play ranked, he had grinded the proficiency of all 6 Goddesses up to 100. With [Frost Goddess] banned, he could just play something else.