Chapter 86: I Want Sydney's Jiaoyang~

It was still the small Training Room at the Paris Hotel, and it was still just An Wenxin and Jiaoyang.

Even the time was the same: three o'clock in the morning!

"I'm sorry, I've kept you up late again."

The Dota 2 Major was starting in two days, and the fact that Jiaoyang was still staying up late to watch a match with her made An Wenxin feel a bit apologetic.

"I want to watch it myself; I have to see my teammates finish their match, right—"

An Wenxin asked with some confusion: "Are you not optimistic about VG?"

Jiaoyang replied candidly: "From a spectator's perspective, yes."

However, looking at the comments online, everyone was very satisfied with the state of the Qiyou brothers and Kaze, and quite a few people felt that this was how the team should normally look.

Especially since their opponents had openly praised Advent, which showed just how strong VG was now.

"Why?" An Wenxin pressed.

"Because they were playing against MVP."

If there was anyone who hoped most for VG to return to their previous lineup, it would only be the MVP captain, HSK.

After being soundly defeated by Jiaoyang once, he began a thorough reflection—what exactly was the reason for their failure?

Why was their tactical approach blown open? Why was their aim inferior to the opposition?

The answer popped out the moment he asked it—Ori!

This guy who suddenly appeared had disrupted their original plan!

It made all the research he had done on VG for months go to waste; Advent didn't execute the original tactics, and Kaze...

... had an extra Sniper to share the pressure, and the sleeping AumaN and ZhokiNg were kept alive by this guy until they woke up.

If not for Ori, MVP would have crushed VG on map two long ago; there would be no talk of a comeback!

"Damn it! How do we counter this Ori?!"

Just as HSK was at his wit's end, the team's Coach, Jin, ran over excitedly.

"Haicheng (HSK), good news, good news!"

HSK looked at Jin's grinning mouth and frowned—what good news could there be?

"This Ori is also a Dota 2 player; he's going to play in the Major and won't be going to IEM Sydney!"

HSK widened his eyes, and once he fully understood the news, he hugged the Coach tightly, so happy that tears were about to burst out.

Heaven knows how much pressure he was under; MVP hadn't had results for years, and after the old batch left, he was the only one left to shoulder the burden.

The club heard that Riot seemed to have a new shooter project, so they were thinking about quickly shutting down the struggling CS Division; after all, compared to Riot's tournament system, Valve's laissez-faire tournament model had no commercial appeal at all.

The last time they lost to VG, management had called him in for a talk; fortunately, Tyloo did their job and didn't win against VG, otherwise, they would have lost their qualification for the EPL East Asia Division.

At that point, the entire department would have been disbanded.

It could be said that HSK was currently carrying the livelihoods of his brothers as he moved forward.

And this Ori, who was blocking his path, was like a nightmare to him; thinking about being swept out of the upcoming Asian tournaments by him made him have nightmares every night.

Now that he heard the first hurdle—the S-tier tournament IEM Sydney—was passed without him even having to prepare, how could he not be in a good mood?

"Who is the person replacing him?" HSK asked, out of caution.

"It's Freeman!"

HSK relaxed completely; MVP's research on the old VG was, if not mastered, at least etched into their hearts.

Even if he didn't let his teammates practice, HSK was confident about this match.

May 2, 2019, IEM Sydney, Lower Bracket Elimination Round 2, VG vs. MVP.

HSK sat in the player seat, looking at the members of VG, and after confirming that it was Freeman sitting in the seat, he let out a sigh of relief.

Last night, he dreamed that Ori had flown to Sydney and replaced Freeman just as the match was about to end in a 2:0 victory for MVP.

【Line 40 is a continuation of line 39】

Then MVP was crushed, the CS Division was disbanded, and he had to join a new project as a coach, his future uncertain.

Fortunately, it was all just a dream!

The match was even simpler than he had imagined; AumaN's entry fragging might work against Australian third-tier teams, but against them, who knew his every move, he only served to draw fire.

And while ZhokiNg performed okay, he didn't erupt with the same strength as his previous one-versus-three.

As for Advent, he was at his wit's end, not at all like the last match where he could flexibly replicate his opponent's tactics.

The only tricky one was Kaze; this guy was like a madman, unwilling to lose no matter what, and even though there was no hope left, he still dragged the match out for another half hour.

Fortunately, the opponent's Freeman was like a sleepwalker, completely detached from the rest of the team.

As a Free Agent, he wasn't as good as AumaN, and his entry fragging was even less worthy of comparison to Jiaoyang; playing against him was like giving away free kills.

In the end, MVP took down VG with a 2:0 score; as long as they won one more round, they would break into the top four and advance to the arena!

Therefore, during the handshake, several players were especially friendly to Freeman, and Freeman didn't appear all that dejected.

In Paris, France, the two of them stayed up all night watching the entire match.

The time had reached 6:00 AM, and a light, drizzling rain began to fall outside the window.

"Drizzle again."

Seeing the final result, An Wenxin wasn't too dejected; Jiaoyang had already provided a heads-up, and the progress of the match had unfolded just as he said it would.

Aside from feeling a bit of pity for Kaze, she was able to accept it.

"Paris weather is just like this; it would be strange if it rained heavily instead." Jiaoyang stretched.

An Wenxin wanted a sunny new day; gloomy weather always made her feel like something bad was going to happen.

To ease the unease in her heart, she looked at the bullet comments.

【Kaze burned out, what kind of tactics is Advent using! The opponent saw through it at a glance————】

【Why don't you mention that Freeman is feeding every round?】

【Freeman is definitely match-fixing! Look at how sad kaze looks, then look at him, he looks like he's about to laugh.】

【My heart aches for kaze.】

【How is KrDog smiling while shaking hands with Freeman?!!】

【Holy shit, do you guys still remember the news about him transferring to Tyloo soon?】

【Damn it, he actually dares to match-fix like this?】

As soon as the stats display segment arrived, Freeman's eye-catching 0.33 rating immediately drew everyone's attention.

This was even more exaggerated than advent's 0.41, putting him dead last and marking the worst performance of his professional career.

【Even if it's not match-fixing, this record of his makes him a war criminal.】

【Damn, I really feel like I could get a higher rating than him if I played.】

【If Jiaoyang came, he'd really win, right? 1.71 is like 5 times 0.33, isn't it?】

【It's a guaranteed win! Last time when vG was in such bad shape, God Jiao still saved them. This time, with the three brothers from Qiyou and kaze in such good form, there's no reason to lose.】

【Holy shit, if Brother Jiao isn't doing well in Dota 2, he should just roll back and focus on playing CS; I really feel he's better than that shitty Middle player of his.】

【They really should have let Jiaoyang come to Sydney, and just let rOtk fill in on the Dota 2 side. Since the Middle lane is getting crushed anyway, the result should be about the same.】

For a moment, the chat stream sparked a trend of reminiscing about Jiaoyang, which made An Wenxin laugh and feel much better.

"Jiaoyang, you have so many fans."

An Wenxin pointed her slender index finger at the screen, which was overflowing with comments saying, 【I want Sydney's Jiao~】

"Pfft—"

The mouthful of water Jiaoyang had just taken sprayed directly onto the floor, and he choked, coughing twice.

Looking at the innocent-looking An Wenxin, his expression became somewhat complicated for a moment.

Forget it, I won't explain.

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