Does Love At First Sight Exist In E-sport

CHAPTER 20

Ch.20 – Does Love at First Sight Exist in Esports?

Yao Sen received a number of gifts on his birthday, including Nintendo’s latest game console from Bai Yue and Song Mingzhe, a new livestreaming mic and soundcard from Wang Yuxi, a down jacket from a very sincere Zhou Ziyu–and of course, the running shoes that Yao Sen wished he could wear a hundred thousand times over.

In the third week of November, they would be entering the second phase of their individual training.

In October, Coach Gou arranged for the five team members to focus on training to overcome their individual weaknesses, while November’s training regimen included tactical training tailored to the main and support roles.

Zhou Ziyu’s training was already quite effective. According to his roommate, Zhou Ziyu went to bed in the wee hours of the morning every day in his first two weeks of joining the main team, tossing and turning under his blanket watching training videos of the main team’s players and summarizing attack patterns and support gameplay. His current performance as a support had grown steadier, and it wouldn’t be long before he’d be able to assume his responsibility as an individual team member.

Before starting the second phase, Coach Gou pulled up the list of top 20 players in the last six years based on individual match points and team match points. The ranking was based on WCAD’s default system calculations; the assaults by their hit rate, and supports by an overall evaluation of their performance in each match.

Although these numbers weren’t absolutely accurate, they were at least much more impartial and objective than the various man-made analyses out there. However, these figures employed the same results from this year’s major regionals’s cut-off. By next year’s WCAD, each player’s progress might be beyond measure.

This was the first time the five players were exposed to these blunt numbers so systematically, and it was also the first time they were able to directly sense the gap between their global rankings and those of other top players.

At 90.5, Yao Sen’s overall strength was ranked fourth in the world, with third place going to the all familiar, one time domestic legend, Caesar aka Lu Kaizhi at 91.8. Second place went to the vice-captain of USA powerhouse Lincoln LC at 93.2. Last but not least, at first place; the captain of Switzerland powerhouse Odin, with a combat strength of a whopping 95.1.

The difference between the few players ranked above and below Yao Sen weren’t at all big, with the gap between Yao Sen and the world’s No. 5, a North American player, being only 0.2 points.

Wang Yuxi ranked ninth in the world with his 87.4 points, while Cobra’s current captain ranked eighth. Shao Han and Noah’s captain Lin Lan tied for eleventh at 85.9.

Meanwhile, on the support side, the first ranked player was a German player with their 95.2 points. The second was a member of the American Lincoln team. Another North American seed was third, while the vice captain of the Swiss Odin team and Bai Yue followed closely behind in fourth and fifth.

Song Mingzhe ranked ninth. Additionally, Cobra and Noah’s Ark members also appeared in the top 20.

Coach Gou hacked everyone into pieces all at once and mercilessly pointed out the differences between them and other teams. After his analysis, Coach Gou didn’t forget to remind them that this was only the strength evaluation at the end of the five major regional world competitions this year; the teams’ data stopped at the end of last year’s Asia regionals. Right now, it was likely that that list had different numbers altogether, and the end result didn’t necessarily stay the same.

After the meeting ended, Coach Gou left the information with the group so they could take a closer look.

Wang Yuxi pinched the list and looked at it for what seemed like half a day before protesting, “I understand their purpose… but why does this list have to include every players’ height?! Gaming doesn’t rely on height, isn’t everybody equally tall when they’re sitting on chairs?!”