eSports Not Streaming — Chapter 15

Team China

World Cup

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Before the games reached the sub-group that China was placed into, the currently ongoing games for the World Cup didn’t garner too much attention. This was firstly, due to the difference in time zones, and secondly, a lot of these countries’ representative teams didn’t have any well-known players that attracted attention.

As for Yun Yun, he woke up at six in the morning, sat in front of his computer and waited for Team China’s first match.

These days he would free up some time during his morning shooting practice to watch some recordings of games within China, starting from the more famous first-rate pro-gaming teams, he slowly went through them until he got to some of the more well-known entertainment clubs who had a higher success rate, the teams that garnered louder cheers from the audience. He noticed that they all had different battle formations and tactics.

So to speak, DeGR, Laur, and other pro-gaming teams have completely different fighting styles.

DeGR was a team that played by the rules in games, they’re known to take out the strongest version of their heroes, their Genji can take down four kills when he unsheathes his sword, their McCree takes headshots after headshot with every bullet, their individual damage position heroes display exemplary results, and would frequently be praised by commentators.

Laur played fast paced games, in this match they would play as double tank, double carry, and double support, and in the next it would become three support, one tank, and two carries. Symmetra, Junkrat, Bastion, and even Torbjorn, would become the basic lineup of their team compositions. Kang Ming had never praised them nor showed his support for them, he even looks forward to seeing them total their car of tomfoolery.

As for the other pro-gaming teams, they all played like it was a ranked match, no matter if they went with a conventional composition or if they decided to go down an unconventional road, they would frequently be oppressed by the other team due to various mistakes in their teamwork, or releasing their ultimate skills messily. Today, a certain team may have the potential to become the new rising star, but the next day they could be pressed to the ground by another team of new rising stars.

This was an obvious difference, for every team that has fought against DeGR or Laur, all of their games looked like it was another ranked match between diamond ranked players against grandmasters, there would forever be a large gap of the masters ranking dividing the two.

Even if they were Str.7 and RTK, these pro-gaming teams that were also first-rate, after having rearranged their team members, they had fallen far, far behind the other two pro-gaming teams.

And now, the really formidable DeGR and the highly adaptable Laur have temporarily formed a team together as Team China, and stepped onto the path of competing in the World Cup.

They’re going against Brazil.

In the special intro animation of the World Cup, you could see the members of Team China, as they displayed an odd scene of them holding onto their own shoulders and backs, moving their arms about in sync. Those more experienced would easily recognise that this was a unique dance move that belonged to the cute rabbit dance¹.

The World Cup really knows to have fun.

– Read this at wuliaotranslations.wordpress.com –

The six people did appear to be liked what he’s heard of them, all three of the heroes provided in their selection pool were attack heroes.

This wasn’t the first time Yun Yun had heard Kang Ming’s voice, but this was the first time he’s realised that this person’s pronunciation and intonations were far more accurate and standardised than when he was streaming.

Especially when compared to his partner, Dong Yue, Kang Ming seemed even more like a language teacher, the bite of his N’s and L’s were distinguished clearly.

The World Cup only streamed directly from the original, and didn’t have the image of the Chinese commentators overlaid on top, everyone watched as the two English commentators invited by the World Cup talked among themselves, but the voice that they heard belonged to Kang Ming and Dong Yue instead.

“According to my experiences from commentating, since the map chosen by the authorities for the first round will be Eichenwalde, then Symmetra should be Team China’s first pick, since Symmetra was always their basic lineup for most of Laur’s games in this map.”

Dong Yue spoke from the side, “Based on what I know, in Team China, only the Laur members have actual experience playing as front-line and support in games. In the case of DeGR, every time they’ve played in this map, they’ve always used a 2/2/2 composition, which is two tanks, two supports and two carries. I’m suddenly looking forward to Team China’s composition, whether they would take Laur’s formation as the standard or DeGR.”

“Then you’ll have to see if Laur and DeGR decide to draw lots or snatch red envelopes² in order to decide whether they’re going with Symmetra or 2/2/2.”

Yun Yun heard these words, and was instantly stunned into disbelief, the stream didn’t show Kang Ming’s expression, but the comment barrage was already filled with a whole flood of “meow meow meow³” memes to express their question marks.

Dong Yue said, “You must’ve gotten some kind of insider information again.”

“The difficulty of Team China’s game against Team Brazil, may be more relaxing than the two teams usual practice games, at least from what I understand, the decision of which position Laur’s members take during their practice matches are usually dependent on Lao Zhou’s mood, they’d either snatch red envelopes, or draw lots.”

“Last time I can guarantee that XD took the big hammer⁴ because he didn’t manage to snatch a red packet,” “NIN had it worst, a good reliable Genji became Mercy thanks to the lot he drew,” “DeGR members are so strict and rigid, they would definitely look down on Laur’s team of mentally challenged idiots,” “Why don’t they just play dice at this rate.”

And after Kang Ming saw that comment, he agreed with it, “Thanks for the suggestion to play dice, I’ll pass that on to Lao Zhou.”

“What do you think they should do if they threw out the same numbers?” Dong Yue asked.

“Bigger numbers play as tank, numbers in the middle carry and the smallest play support. As for the ones who have the same numbers, they can go according to the number they threw out itself, and play as twin attacks, front lines or supports together⁵. For them, it makes no difference how many heroes of the same position they have, they frequently play with a composition as weird as having three front-liners and a single support after all. Well then, let’s get into the competition’s stream right now.”

“Huh,” Dong Yue grew quiet as he looked at the team composition, “This is my first time seeing DeGr’s Fenglei take Reinhardt.”

Kang Ming stared at the row of odd heroes that appeared next to Symmetra’s silhouette, and spoke as if it were a matter of fact, “It looks like DeGR lost to Laur.”

XD took McCree, and he was the only carry in the team.

On the other hand, the Brazil team played by the rules, and had double tank, double support and double carry heroes.

This match at Eichenwalde, was similar to every game that DeGR and Laur have played within the country, which was one-sidedly, mercilessly oppressing the other team.

A single NIN’s Symmetra guarded the entrance of the bridge, even if the opponent’s Genji flew in, they would immediately be sleep darted by Ana. And then even if the Genji’s teammate Reinhardt came over to provide cover, he would immediately receive the torturous electro-therapy from Symmetra’s sentry turrets from the other end of the bridge.

Team Brazil had been thoroughly blocked off at point of attack at the mouth of the bridge, and had even successfully helped NIN’s Symmetra grind out an ultimate.

The old buildings of Eichenwalde were overridden with vines, the checkpoints are all empty and spacious rooms and cornering passageways, there could be ambushes hidden almost anywhere that you could overlook. NIN had hidden Symmetra’s most important skill, the teleporter, behind the checkpoint where no one would notice, if they couldn’t infiltrate deep into the enemy lines, they couldn’t possibly flank them to dismantle the teleporter.

After trying and failing to penetrate through the main entrance multiple times, the opponents composition changed to four flying type heroes.

D.va, Winston, Pharah, and Mercy, each of those heroes could easily make their way across that first line of defense, even if Moon’s Ana wanted to take out someone, they would instantly be solidly blocked by D.va’s shield.

Between the four heroes, they made it across the mouth of the bridge where Symmetra guarded, and Winston deployed a barrier projector at Symmetra’s sentry turret, ensuring the safe entry of Lucio and Ana who followed behind, into the checkpoint.

At this moment, Symmetra’s plan of defense had thoroughly failed, both opposing teams began crossing fire at the checkpoint.

Dong Yue’s talking sped up, when the battle gets intense, the commentators voice would often change along with it.

“Team Brazil’s flying hero duo have immediately took dominion over the skies, Winston’s barrier projector has blocked off Symmetra’s attacks, there’s a fierce battle over the checkpoint, Moon’s Ana managed to dart Mercy! Pharah was headshot by XD, but wasn’t successfully eliminated, the battlefields are still raging… Team Brazil’s Ana has fallen first!”

The observer watching from McCree’s perspective could see that he was standing in a narrow room to hide his silhouette, he raised his head and shot out a bullet, instantly taking away the Pharah at critical health, Moon’s Ana threw out a biotic grenade that splattered a gust of purple that inhibited the opponents from healing, Fenglei’s Reinhardt had been eliminated by Winston while chasing down D.va.

“NIN’s teleporter has finally played its part as an important game changer, Aaron’s Zarya has returned to the battlefield, despite the beautiful play from Team Brazil’s four flying heroes, they still could not take the checkpoint.”

Who held the advantage on the battlefield was obvious, even if they had a group of four flying heroes rushing into the checkpoint, when faced off against China’s offensive abilities, they were still unable to make quick work of their opponents.

“So then that was the end of the first round, this is tragic news for Team Brazil, but as for Team China this is an undeniable sign of their absolute advantage.” Dong Yue made his judgement in the gap between rounds.

The stream of the World Cup switched to a camera focused on the members of Team China, these youthful faces, three of them began flashing peace signs towards the camera, this sort of cute and aegyo⁶-inducing pose received a flurry of praises from the comment barrage. And as for the other three, they just raised their head and gave a quick glance at the camera then turned their attention back to the monitor.

Yun Yun couldn’t control his laughter at their simple display of ‘Okay, got it.’ The battle style of the team really reflected the personalities of the members themselves, even if the commentators didn’t name and introduce these players, it was really easy for him to tell between the troublemaking Laur and the steady DeGR.

“It seems like everyone’s expressions are rather relaxed.” Kang Ming looked at the row of familiar faces, and one of them even purposely held their head in their hands, doing aegyo to annoy him, “But if any accidents happen on Team China’s side, please place the blame on Laur, it has nothing to do with DeGR.”

“Aiyo Kang Ming’s starting to show his love tough love,” “I’m envious of Laur receiving attention,” “A series of Lao Zhou’s team is my team,” the comment barrage happily ridiculed the commentator, and as for the clueless Yun Yun, had only just realised that the relationship between Laurent and Kang Ming was apparently far better than he thought.

However, things like “accidents”, in this obvious disparity of strength between the two teams, was impossible.

From the moment the second round of offense began, Yun Yun was able to clearly see Team China’s game plan: kill.

They wouldn’t waste time outside the main entrance to allow their opponents a free grind for their ultimates, all of members straight up sped up to attack, instantly shattering the formation of the defending team, dragging the team fight into the checkpoint, declaring war out in the open.

Even under circumstances where their health had dropped to critical levels, the members of Team China would still never retreat, they simply launched relentless attacks⁷, using a violent and inhumane momentum, bringing along the biotic bomb thrown out by Ana from behind them, they simply reaped the McCree at full health.

This was an extremely shocking scene, the observer was currently watching from the perspective of Brazil’s McCree, and then suddenly noticed a Reinhardt who had killed his way over towards him, blatantly ignoring the threat of McCree’s pistol, his huge hulking body blocked off the entire camera, swinging his hammer back and forth, he single-handedly eliminated McCree under the assault.

“Beautiful!” Even the commentators were influenced into passionate praises, “Fenglei’s Reinhardt at critical health received Ana’s hard work supporting, and straight away hammered their main carry to death, now they held absolute advantage at 4 versus 6… triple kill! XD’s McCree has a triple kill!”

After settling the last Zarya still struggling on the battlefield, Team China had once again held down the checkpoint without any delays.

Victory!

An aggressive Reinhardt, a Lucio who pestered relentlessly⁸, a Genji who landed headshots with shurikens at close range, a Symmetra who passionately flanked the enemy team, a McCree with eerily strategic positioning, Ana who was deeply immersed into providing damage⁹, and the Zarya who grinded out speedy ultimates.

Team China had won this match without breaking a sweat, Yun Yun really believed Kang Ming’s words of snatching red envelopes and drawing lots, because that Reinhardt, was the most close-ranged hammer-happy Reinhardt that Yun Yun has ever seen.¹⁰

The most interesting thing was that, after Fenglei had finally raised his shield with much difficulty, drawing the favour of the observer, when the camera suddenly went upwards and you could see the entire situation of the battlefield from an overhead view, and realised—there was no one behind him.

His teammates had self-consciously distanced themselves out of his range, looking for reliable cover, they never even considered needing the protection of his shield.

“Don’t worry, friends, you don’t have a shield.”¹¹ Kang Ming read the comment barrage’s curses, causing Dong Yue to break into laughter, “I believe after Moon went through the harrowing experience of being easily headshot by the enemy McCree, they will definitely not let Fenglei take Reinhardt again in the next match.”

“Not even if he lost at snatching red envelopes.”

Everyone had been immersed into cheering for the Team China who appeared to be invincible, domineeringly pushing Brazil in the game, and successfully completing the game with their constant oppression.

Exactly as expected.

The comment barrage were filled with joyful song and dance, the praises for their OP¹² Team China were endless, even some of the passing by viewers who didn’t understand anything began asking, “If we’re this OP can we just go straight to the finals?”

“Stop tooting your trumpets, Team China is nothing when faced against the Gun God McGrath.”

“Is there meaning in bringing ST’s gun god over to compare in Overwatch?”

“The Gun God is in Team America, do all of you live in the mountains¹³?”

Yun Yun who had been staring at their lines of arguing had suddenly felt like he had saw wrong.

Gun God McGrath.

Yun Yun only knew one gun god, and one McGrath.

That was once his way of life.

– Read this at wuliaotranslations.wordpress.com –

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Translator’s notes:
I love the difference between Laur and DeGR, they’re hilarious! I can’t wait to see more of them.

Lots of love and thanks to KV! Without them we wouldn’t have this wall of footnotes, and this update wouldn’t be out today!

Footnotes:
1. 兔子舞 (tu zi wu): Rabbit dance. It’s a popular dance among kids in China, you can search it up on YouTube but I’m not… too sure which one it is… ;;

2. 抢红包 (qiang hong bao): Literally snatch red envelopes, but it means to have a lucky draw. But I’m sure its easy to infer so I kept it more literal.

3. 喵喵喵 (miao miao miao): Lit. meow, an expression pack that describes confusion, like question marks!

4. 大锤子 (da chui zi): Big hammer, humourously used to mean Reinhardt because of the large hammer he holds.

5. If the explanation wasn’t good enough in the text, here’s the wordy version:

There are six players in a team, so it’s plausible they’ll play with one or two dices. Assuming it’s one dice, the two biggest numbers play tank, the following two play carry, and the smallest two play as support.
If they end up with uneven results, say, they rolled a 6, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, based on the numbers themselves, 6-5 would be tank, 4-3 carry, and 2-1 support. In this case, 6 is the only tank, 4, 4, 3 will play carries, and 2, 2 are supports.

Honestly, breaking it down like this makes me want to try this out myself too, lmao. Hope that helped 🙂

6. Original text was 卖萌 (mai meng), I’ve seen it translated as selling meng, but I thought aegyo was more universal nowadays. It just means to act cute, you should google aegyo to get a hint of what it’s like.

7. 骑脸 (qi lian): Lit. to ride on your face. Means to constantly harass at sight, as long as they see you you’ll be constantly beaten to death whenever you’re seen, to the point where they’re constantly riding (tea-bagging: the act of squatting on enemy dead bodies in game to assert dominance) your face.

8. Again, riding ones face.

9. “…an Ana immersed into providing damage…”
Since Ana is a support type hero, they’re not suppose to deal more damage to the enemy players than actual damage position/carry heroes. But although they’re not supposed to, doesn’t mean they can’t! It’s just very unconventional, and can often cause teams to throw games if they’re not healing when they’re supposed to.

10. Reinhardt being a tank, is supposed to provide cover for teammates since they have higher health points, and they usually have less offensive attacks then carries, but they should avoid rushing at enemies without his ultimate. As you can guess… Fenglei was playing Reinhardt like he’s a carry just with an extra shield, haha.

11. “Don’t worry friends, you don’t have a shield.”
Giving Fenglei the tank hero was equivalent to them not having a tank hero at all. 😀

12. 贼强 (zei qiang): The English equivalent would be OP, overpowered, an internet slang for a character/player that is too strong.

13. “你们是山里人吗？”: Lit. are you people from the mountains? To mean people who are not aware of current issues, like a frog in the well, or to live under a rock.

Translated by: Yasu
Edited by: KV
Published: 2021/2/2

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yasu