ARML CH99

On the night of March 25th, Ye Shaoyang logged into Weibo and found tens of thousands of birthday wishes in his private messages and comment section. His registration information had been submitted to the officials, so his birthday was displayed on his Weibo profile.

Some fans had even made promotional videos for him, extracting all of Ye Shaoyang’s kill clips from the 5 Group B matches, paired with hot-blooded music and the title “Great Demon King Mid-Laner”… Watching this video full of triple kills and pentakills, it really did look like a Great Demon King bullying little kids.

[Happy birthday to our Great Demon King Lieyang!]

[I’m so happy to have discovered Yangyang in this year’s league. You are my favorite professional player ^_^]

[Happy birthday Yangyang, I’ve memorized this day. We’ll celebrate all your future birthdays with you, keep it up!]

[With such a great rookie performance, I believe you can make history!]

Looking at the fans building comment threads to send their blessings, Ye Shaoyang felt a warmth in his heart. He used his new smartphone to post a message: “Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. The happiest thing this year was joining Tianhuan, becoming a professional player, and meeting all of you lovely people. I’ll continue to work hard in this new year of my life, striving not to disappoint everyone’s expectations of me ^_^”

As soon as this message was posted, countless fans left comments wishing him a happy birthday.

The topic #Happy Birthday Tianhuan Lieyang# was quickly pushed onto the hot search list.

Chi Shuo immediately shared his Weibo post: “Happy birthday. With you in Tianhuan, we are also very happy.”

Consequently, Chi Shuo’s fans also learned it was Ye Shaoyang’s birthday and flocked to leave their blessings.

Many stream viewers tipped gifts to Ye Shaoyang in his broadcast room. The top male and female streamers of Whale Platform, Xiaowei and Mumu, also came to tip him, propelling Ye Shaoyang’s stream to the top of the gift leaderboard.

A trending topic and the top spot on the gift leaderboard—this birthday was truly celebrated with prestige!

At the same time, in the #Sun and Moon Shine Together# Super Topic Square.

Sharp-eyed sisters noticed that Ye Shaoyang had changed his phone for his new Weibo post, and Chi Shuo had also changed his for his recent post. They immediately took screenshots and posted them in the topic section.

[Yangyang and Yueyue changed their phones at the same time!]

Clicking in to look, everyone saw that indeed, when Ye Shaoyang posted yesterday, the bottom left corner read “from TC-X30,” a popular phone from two years ago priced under 5000. But today, the bottom left corner read “from HM-V40pro Soft-Light Gold.”

It was the same for Chi Shuo. A few days ago, when he shared a post, his phone was still a flagship model from last year. Today, sharing Ye Shaoyang’s post, his phone had also changed to “from HM-V40pro Quicksand Silver.”

[Holy crap! This phone costs 25,000, right? HM’s newest foldable model?]

[Changing phones at the same time, could it be that HM sponsored Team Tianhuan?]

[Sisters upstairs, definitely not. Look, Shuihuo and Xingxing also posted, and their phones didn’t change. Only Yueyue and Yangyang changed their phones.]

[Could it be a birthday gift from Yueyue to Yangyang?]

[That’s a possibility!]

[Yangyang using the passionate and vibrant gold, Yueyue using the low-key and restrained silver—matching couple colors, a perfect fit!]

[Ahhh, couple phones, so sweet, I’m shipping this so hard!]

CP fans loved picking out sweet moments from details. Since everyone was just amusing themselves within their own circle and not harassing the individuals involved, no one bothered them. Even Jingzhe had a “Square and Round Territory” CP super topic for Fangfang and Yuanyuan, and no one bothered them either.

The detail of Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo changing phones simultaneously was discovered by CP fans first.

During lunch the next day, their teammates also noticed.

Seeing Ye Shaoyang take out a new phone, Cheng Xing couldn’t help but say: “Brother Yang, you changed your phone? This phone is very expensive, right? I remember it costs over ten thousand.”

Chi Shuo was sitting next to him and, hearing this, whispered: “Shaoyang and I went to buy it together.”

He didn’t mention it was a birthday gift. After all, he gave Ye Shaoyang something worth tens of thousands, while the other teammates gave small, meaningful gifts ranging from a few hundred to a thousand.

The most important aspect of a birthday gift was the sentiment; there was no need to compare.

It was enough that Shaoyang knew.

Ye Shaoyang glanced at Chi Shuo, instantly understanding his intention, and smiled: “A few days ago, Xiao Bai knocked my phone onto the floor and cracked the screen. Captain Chi also needed a new phone, so we went to buy new ones.”

The other teammates also came over to examine their phones.

Old Qin sighed: “I couldn’t bear to buy such an expensive phone. I’ve been using mine for four years.”

Qu Jiang teased him: “You’ve already entered early retirement, a senior citizen phone is enough for you.”

Old Qin scratched his head: “What’s wrong with saving money for retirement!”

He was very frugal with his expenses, but he never shortchanged himself when it came to food, buying snacks by the box.

Just then, Coach Lin Feng walked over.

Everyone’s phones simultaneously beeped with a group chat notification. Carrying a tray, Lin Feng sat down at the table, looked at everyone, and said: “The league has released the match schedule. I’ve sent it to the group chat, everyone take a look.”

The second phase of the matches officially began in April and concluded on May 7th.

The schedule was tighter than the first round. No major team had a bye week; match days ran from Thursday to Sunday, with three matches scheduled per day on weekends. After the 5-week group stage, the promotion/relegation matches would take place.

Tianhuan’s match schedule in Group A gave Lin Feng a headache.

April 4th, Sunday 7:00 PM: Tianhuan VS Yueying;

April 10th, Saturday 3:00 PM: Tianhuan VS CYC;

April 17th, Saturday 3:00 PM: Tianhuan VS Jixuan;

April 24th, Saturday 3:00 PM: Tianhuan VS Xueying;

May 2nd, Sunday 7:00 PM: Tianhuan VS Luoshendian.

In the first week of May, the second phase group stage would conclude, making the match between Tianhuan and Luoshendian the final battle. The weekend of May 8th and 9th would host the promotion/relegation matches. After those, all of Group B would be eliminated, while the remaining Group A and Group S teams would battle for playoff spots in the third round.

After reading it, Qu Jiang couldn’t help but complain: “This schedule of ours—fighting a BOSS right at the start, weaker opponents in the middle, and ending with another BOSS battle?”

Qin Yizhu gave a thumbs-up: “A precise summary!”

Tianhuan’s first opponent in Group A was Yueying, and their last was Luoshendian. Both were teams relegated from Group S and quarter-finalists from last season—they truly deserved the title of Group A BOSSes.

Starting with a BOSS and ending with a BOSS?

The league’s schedule was clearly not a random draw, but a deliberate arrangement to build suspense.

Because only 2 teams from Group A could advance to Group S this round.

Based on paper strength, there was a high probability it would be two out of three: Tianhuan, Yueying, and Luoshendian.

Cheng Xing noticed another crucial point: “This round, all our matches are either on Sunday night or Saturday afternoon. There are no Thursday or Friday matches?”

Coach Lin said: “There are more viewers on weekends, so of course, they schedule highly popular teams to guarantee viewership ratings. Initially, our Tianhuan wasn’t favored, so our Group B matches were scheduled on weekdays. Now it’s different; our popularity has bounced back, and our strength has been recognized. It’s completely normal for all our matches this round to be on weekends.”

Tianhuan had a match every week, leaving almost no time for rest and adjustment.

Under the high-intensity pressure of consecutive matches, the players’ mentality was crucial. Sometimes, losing one match and having a mental breakdown could lead to a losing streak.

After lunch, everyone intensely gathered in the conference room for a meeting.

Previously, because their next opponent hadn’t been determined, they couldn’t conduct targeted training, simply playing casually with the Team 2 kids every day to maintain their mechanics and competitive state.

Now that the opponents were revealed, the coaching staff definitely had to prepare compositions to counter them.

During this time, the Tianhuan coaching staff led by Lin Feng had already studied the data and playstyles of all Group A opponents. After confirming their next opponent was Yueying, they immediately brought out the compositions they had prepared.

Lin Feng opened the PPT and said earnestly: “Team Yueying is also an old rival, everyone should be familiar with them. They’ve had roster changes this season, with Xie Weiyu replacing their original marksman after transferring. Our coaching staff studied them carefully and discovered that their playstyle in the first phase in Group S was quite different from last season.”

Lin Feng extracted video clips from Yueying’s matches in the first phase and played them on the large screen, explaining to everyone: “Xu Zhuo is the top laner with the strongest pressure-resistance capabilities in the professional league. He excels at tank and fighter heroes, often surviving and escaping even when fighting 1v2 or 1v3. He likes to pick split-pushing heroes with strong survivability, crazily split-pushing to play the macro game. If the opponents send 2 people to gank him, they simply can’t kill him; if they send 3 people, Yueying’s main team fight will turn into a numbers advantage, easily crushing the opponents.”

Lin Feng looked at Chi Shuo: “Captain Chi should know this best.”

Chi Shuo nodded: “Mhm, Old Xu is indeed difficult to deal with.”

For such a side lane split-pusher with outstanding individual ability, if you try to gank him, you might not kill him, and sending too many people will likely cause your main team fight to collapse; but if you don’t gank him… he’ll split-push right through your top lane!

Chi Shuo said: “With Xie Weiyu joining this season, they’ve pushed their macro playstyle to the extreme. Xu Zhuo split-pushes top lane, Xie Weiyu and the support crazily push towers in the bottom lane, while the mid lane picks a utility player to absorb pressure and roam with the jungler.”

Lin Feng said: “Through analyzing Yueying’s 5 consecutive Group S matches, we found that there is a 70% probability their jungler’s first roam at level 6 will be to help the top lane.”

Ye Shaoyang understood: “Yueying plays around the top lane? Top-jungle synergy?”

Lin Feng replied: “Yes, after all, their top laner is extremely outstanding. As long as the jungler helps once, kills the enemy top laner, and establishes an economic advantage, Xu Zhuo can rapidly push through the top lane.”

“As for the bottom lane, with Xie Weiyu joining, their strength has noticeably increased. Xie Weiyu is the most cautious marksman in the league. Up to now, Yueying has played 12 games in Group S, and Xie Weiyu’s death count is less than 24.”

That was Group S, a group of world-class players.

Beimu’s Zhao Xin’an, who was fierce at diving the backline; Jingzhe’s Fang Zhengqing, who had strong solo kill potential; Huowen’s Zhou Jiawen, who could one-shot squishies with an ultimate—under the immense threat of so many players, Xie Weiyu’s average deaths per game was only 2. For a squishy marksman, this record was already exceptionally outstanding.

Ye Shaoyang asked doubtfully: “Yueying’s top lane is very strong, and their bottom lane with Xie Weiyu is also very strong, so how did they get eliminated from Group S?”

Lin Feng smiled slightly and said: “This is the key point—their top and bottom lane players haven’t played together for long, their tacit understanding isn’t there yet, their split-pushing tempo isn’t synchronized, and they easily become disjointed in team fights. They lost two crucial team fights in Group S previously, placing fifth and getting relegated to Group A.”

For Group S opponents, Yueying’s disjointed team fights were indeed fatal enough.

However, in Group A, Yueying was still very formidable because Tianhuan’s team fights could also become disjointed!

Cheng Xing laning against Xie Weiyu would be under great pressure, and Qin Yizhu laning against Xu Zhuo would face even more. Both the top and bottom lanes could end up suppressed… Lin Feng directed his gaze at Ye Shaoyang: “Against Yueying, our coaching staff’s idea is mid-jungle synergy, using the mid lane as our breakthrough point!”

Ye Shaoyang thought the same: rapidly break through the mid lane, liberate the mid-laner, and utilize their flexible roaming characteristic to support the top and bottom lanes and relieve pressure for teammates. This was the best method.

If the mid-laner was restricted, relying purely on Chi Shuo to support wouldn’t be enough. If Chi Shuo and Qin Yizhu teamed up against Xu Zhuo, Xu Zhuo would summon his own jungler to help, and a 2v2 wouldn’t necessarily force Xu Zhuo back.

But with Ye Shaoyang joining, even if the enemy mid-laner also went, a 3v3 outcome would be entirely different.

Chi Shuo looked at Ye Shaoyang and said softly: “Xu Zhuo is the hardest top laner to kill in the entire league. We might not be able to kill him; we just need to force him back to base and not let him split-push freely.”

Ye Shaoyang nodded: “Understood.”

At the same time, at Team Yueying’s base.

Xu Zhuo leaned back in his chair and smiled: “I didn’t expect to bump into an old friend right in the first match.”

Xie Weiyu sat beside him, writing and drawing with his head down. During every meeting, Xie Weiyu would take a notebook with a cyan-green cover to take notes, as focused as if attending a lecture.

Xu Zhuo curiously glanced sideways at him, noticing the boy’s handwriting was very neat, like a printed font, noting down all the key points the coach had just explained.

Yueying’s coach said: “Tianhuan this season is different from before. In the past, when we played Tianhuan, we would crazily invade the jungle to suppress Chi Shuo’s farming. But this season, Chi Shuo isn’t playing jungle carries; he’s playing utility to protect the mid-laner. Their core this season is the mid-laner. Therefore, after discussion, the coaching staff decided that for our match against Tianhuan—”

“We will do everything to completely crush their mid lane!”