I do not claim to be a professional translator. I only use some means, edit it and posted it. There may be inconsistencies from the other translation to this. Feel free to correct me if there is a sentence that does not make sense to you. 

 

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The double-elimination tournament has officially begun.

In the first round, it's the Z City-M City line.

Bu Nana and Lao Kai were very cautious and jumped out at the beginning. After landing, they avoided others and drove to S City.

Yu Yang and Xinba went to the nuclear power plant as expected.

In the Chinese commentary box, the Chinese commentator A exclaimed, "To be honest, I don't think Youth and Xinba are suitable for the nuclear power plant. This combination is a bit strange, with a big difference in individual abilities. And Xinba's play style is more conservative, similar to HOG's Kay. It's a bit difficult for him to compete with Youth for this kind of major resource point."

"It's hard to say," commentator B said, "They've been playing together for several months, so they should have figured out their own strategies."

Commentator A still didn't have high expectations for this team, saying, "It's better to be cautious in the early stage."

Before he could finish his sentence, the director cut to Yu Yang, who had already landed at high speed. Xinba, on the other hand, opened his parachute after jumping out of the plane and floated in the air, obviously acting as a scout for Yu Yang.

"I told you, they must have their own ideas after working together for so long," commentator B chuckled, "These two rookies are participating in the world tournament for the first time, and I hope they can achieve relatively good results."

The director then switched to the championship favorite team FREE, and the commentator started analyzing the game.

Backstage, Lai Hua complained, "Why haven't they shown Lao Kai's perspective yet?"

"Not a championship favorite team, nor a star player. What perspective do you want them to give you?" He Xiaoxu said indifferently, "Haven't you noticed? It's been almost ten minutes into the game, and the Chinese team only has us with one perspective. Oh, now it's switched to Zhou Yaba. Poor Knights, they're almost nonexistent."

Qi Zui didn't care about this and closely watched Yu Yang and Xin Ba. He asked, "When did they start playing like this?"

"They started a long time ago," Lai Hua stared at the screen, "Xinba requested it himself...Hey, what's wrong with TGC? How did they suddenly get wiped out?"

TGC's Zhou Feng's team was very confident, jumping to the city area at the start. The other group jumped to Y City, but they were taken out by the FREE team as soon as they landed. The tsunami team in the city area met the Avengers team and was beaten 2v1. Now, only Zhou Feng was left.

"What the hell is this fantasy beginning?" He Xiaoxu was stunned. Although HOG had fought with TGC because of sponsorships and other past grudges, they were all Chinese teams competing overseas. No one wanted their own district's team to lose so early. He Xiaoxu leaned in to take a closer look, unbelievably saying, "Until now, only four people have died, and TGC has lost three?"

"It's just the first game, hard to say," Lai Hua didn't pay much attention and still pinned his hopes on Bu Nana and Lao Kai. He cursed under his breath, "Fuck, why aren't they switching perspectives...why aren't they switching perspectives..."

Bu Nana and Lao Kai didn't disappoint Lai Hua's expectations. In the first game, their team ranked fourth and their points ranked fifth.

The performance of Bu Nana and Lao Kai's team was not particularly good but compared horizontally...

The Knights' Hua Luo's team ranked sixth, and the other group ranked thirty-two.

Yu Yang and Xinba ranked sixteenth.

TGC was the worst, with Zhou Feng's group ranking seventeenth, and the other group ranking fortieth.

After the Busan Asian Invitational Tournament, the weakness of domestic duo matches was once again exposed.

He Xiaoxu patted Lai Hua's shoulder and said, "We knew this would happen a long time ago, it's normal."

"I thought TGC could make a comeback," Lai Hua sighed, "but they got publicly executed again."

"It's still okay. Bu Nana and Lao Kai are lucky this time, they got three consecutive circles of fate," He Xiaoxu pretended to be strong, "There is still a great hope."

In the second game, Bu Nana and Lao Kai were knocked out by He Xiaoxu's poison milk outside the top ten.

At the end of the second game, Bu Nana and Lao Kai were ranked eleventh, while Yu Yang and Xinba were ranked fifteenth.

The situation of the two teams in TGC remained bleak, with Zhou Feng's team falling by one place, and the other team still at the bottom.

He Xiaoxu looked miserable, "I don't understand... Can't you guys practice doubles when you have nothing to do? Although there is no prize money... On the first day of the competition, the ranking is not important, but it's really frustrating and affects our mood."

"It's hard to arrange a domestic practice match for doubles. Without that training foundation, how can we achieve good results?" Lai Hua knew that Bu Nana's team was beyond their reach and his mentality had also become calm, "Forget it, it's just five games a day, we'll finish the games and be done with it."

The third game began.

Bu Nana and Lao Kai continued to play conservatively in the jungle, while Yu Yang and Xinba went to Gangda Factory.

Yu Yang and Xinba's score was pulled far apart, so it was almost impossible to catch up now. But from the camera, their expressions were quite natural and there was no major fluctuation.

It wasn't surprising for Yu Yang, but it was quite rare for Xinba to remain so calm.

"They must be treating doubles as warm-up matches." Qi Zui took a sip of water, "Have you noticed? They are no longer selecting points strategically... They are selecting points based on our usual routes in the fourth team."

He Xiaoxu dryly said, "Should I praise their good mentality?"

"Otherwise, their explosive mentality will affect tomorrow's most important fourth round match?"

The director happened to switch the camera to the two bottom-ranked players in the TGC team, their faces gray and defeated, with cold sweat on their foreheads.

Lai Hua nodded and said, "They tried to compete for a higher ranking in the first two rounds, but realized it wasn't working and switched back to their fourth-round strategy to maintain their momentum...Very good, Youth and Xinba have matured a lot."

After the third round, Bu Nana and Lao Kai regained their seventh-place ranking, while Yu Yang, Xinba, and other members of the TGC team moved up to the thirteenth place.

TGC continued to underperform, but when no one was paying attention, the Knights' Hua Luo's team ranking was steadily improving, and by the end of this round, they had climbed up to the fourth place.

Finally, the director switched the camera to Hua Luo's  team.

He Xiaoxu did some mental arithmetic and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this is only the third time their entire team has been on-camera...Damn it, other teams have been on camera seven or eight times already, right?"

Lai Hua sighed, "They weren't popular in the beginning, so why give them camera time now?"

He Xiaoxu had been bullied by sponsors recently and had become somewhat insolent. "Regardless, they are an experienced team. Can't they give them a little bit of camera time?"

"No." Qi Zui put down his phone and said indifferently, "Weakness is original sin."

He Xiaoxu rolled his eyes, "E-sports is so ruthless..."

"How else can we motivate you to fight hard?" Lai Hua squinted his eyes, listening to the English commentary on the broadcast, and asked Qi Zui, "What are these foreigners talking about?"

"Mid-game interviews." Qi Zui provided them with real-time translations, "They are interviewing the top three teams, currently interviewing the Free team in first place, whose captain is from the Avengers team, ranked second in the Poison Milk rankings. They should be very scheming and dangerous in the Poison Milk rankings..."

"Stop." Although He Xiaoxu's English wasn't as good as Qi Zui's, he could still understand it. He looked at Qi Zui with mixed feelings, "Can't you be more professional and provide a translation without personal emotions? When did they say they were scheming and dangerous?"

The interview had nothing to do with HOG, and Qi Zui was already too lazy to translate. Upon hearing this, he continued to play with his phone, saying, "I don't care if you listen or not."

"No, no, no, I'm listening," Lai Hua warned and glared at He Xiaoxu. "This is all valuable intel. Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand."

He Xiaoxu rolled his eyes and stopped talking.

Qi Zui lazily continued to translate.

After hearing something, Qi Zui paused and couldn't help but laugh.

Lai Hua asked him what was so funny.

"Youth is too impressive...," Qi Zui laughed. "The third-ranked Team Gem isn't afraid of the Knights, but they are particularly nervous about Youth and Xinba's points."

Lai Hua laughed. "As long as the game isn't over, Youth has unlimited potential. Do you think I'm just joking?"

Qi Zui smiled.

The fourth round of the match began.

Commentator A analyzed, "Currently, the top three teams are Free, Avengers, and Gem, unfortunately, there are no teams from our Chinese region."

Commentator B nodded, "As expected, the domestic scene doesn't value duo queues and practices too little. But there is still hope. Based on our past experience, teams that start out conservatively and lower in the rankings sometimes suddenly rise up to challenge unconventional playstyles after the halfway point of the competition."

Commentator A chuckled. "Commonly known as the troublemaker."

Commentator A continued, "But there are also exceptions, such as Youth, who can maintain their form even when they know they have no hope of placing."

"It's said that he once said, 'If we can't get third, then fourth is good enough. If we can't get fourth, then we'll go for fifth.' Youth's attitude is really interesting. He's very young but has a stable mentality... and a strong desire to maintain the team's ranking." Commentator B smiled. "Is he really the heir to Drunk?"

Commentators A and B shared a knowing smile and nodded. "After all, he's from HOG."

As the commentators said, Yu Yang and Xinba did not give up in this round either. After the fourth round of the match, they had chased their way up to the eleventh position.

In the current rankings, the Knights team still ranked fourth in the domestic scene, while Bu Nana's team ranked sixth, Youth and Xinba ranked eleventh, and TGC Zhou Feng's team ranked fourteenth.

The three teams with four squads in the weak link competition slowly closed the gap and barely maintained the honor of the domestic region.

Especially the Knights team.

The camera focused more and more on them. Hua Luo and his teammates had a serious expression, obviously unwilling to remain in fourth place for too long.

In the fifth and final round, to everyone's surprise, the third-ranked Gem landed and encountered the Thai War God team.

Qi Zu's corner of the mouth twitched slightly: "I think I remember them."

It was the team he praised as "braindead" at the Busan tournament.

He Xiaoxu asked eagerly, "How are they? How are they?"

Qi Zu couldn't describe it in one word: "The Thai team is reckless, they don't care about life and death, and they'll fight without thinking... They are just rookies without brains, but they are so fearless that they even fight without guns."

Lai Hua nodded, "Yes, they are extremely unskilled, but they are too reckless, which is also troublesome... They got the guns first! I don't know how this round will turn out..."

"After the game, they might as well join a political party," Qi Zu muttered, "The Thai team is going to make a contribution."

As Qi Zu said, when the Thai team, the War Gods, saw Gem from a distance, they rushed over without hesitation. The first person swept more than 20 times without hitting a single shot, but miraculously hit the target with the next shot. The second person followed closely behind, using his teammate as a human shield and firing a burst of bullets, killing a member of the Gem team.

"Come on!" Lai Hua couldn't help but shout, "Get the other one too."

Unfortunately, the Thai team was only able to kill one member of the Gem team with a 2 vs 1 situation. The other member of Gem team rushed over and quickly sniped two members of the Thai team from upstairs.

The straightforward and honest Thai team finished the battle in just ten minutes and started innocently watching the game.

He Xiaoxu couldn't help laughing until his stomach hurt.

Qi Zui sighed, "Really, if I lose, I'll give the Thai team a banner as a gift after the game."

"Don't talk nonsense," Lai Hua looked at the score, "It's hard to say now... after all, Gem still has one person left. What if he starts chasing after the top rankings?"

But thanks to the Thai team, the small water city suddenly turned into a hundred-person group battle due to their senseless shooting, and people from R city and nearby heard the gunshots and came to join in the killing.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.¹ The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind - all about calculating others, but not knowing that someone else is calculating themselves.

Gem was the last person who couldn't make it out of the Water City and was directly pinned down and killed by several teams.

At the same time, whether it was a coincidence or not, the Knights and the second-ranked Avengers encountered each other. The battle between the two teams would determine their positions as second and third. Outside the arena, the Knights' fans were shouting frantically.

One minute later, the Knights lived up to expectations, losing one team member but successfully wiping out the Avengers.

On the first day of the World Invitation Tournament's doubles event, the Knight team from the Chinese division won the silver medal, while the HOG team finished fifth and eighth respectively.

At the awards ceremony, everyone was too excited to speak properly. After a year of continuous decline and being the least likely to win, the Knight team won a trophy at an international event after sixteen months.

"I-I'm sorry..."

In the underground garage, Qi Zui, who was dozing off in the car, opened his eyes at the sound of the voice.

Yu Yang was listening to the cheers and shouts coming from the Knight team's car in the distance, holding a cigarette box, and his mind was full of details about the game. He couldn't lift his head and said, "We...we didn't win any awards."

Lai Hua wanted to study the tactics of the strong teams again and went backstage with the staff to copy the game videos to prepare for reviewing them back at the hotel. The only people left in the car were Qi Zui and Yu Yang.

Qi Zui wanted to say that we were almost impossible to win a trophy in the doubles event, but he hesitated and changed the subject, "We didn't win any awards, so what do we do?"

"Practice..." Yu Yang whispered, "The Knights came prepared, and we could tell in the first round...they practiced hard in doubles, harder than us."

Qi Zui suppressed the urge to raise the corners of his mouth and asked, "Is that it then?"

Yu Yang raised his head and didn't react too much, "Then..."

Qi Zui changed to a more comfortable position and asked, "As the owner and coach, should I punish you for losing the game?"

Yu Yang was stunned, and his ears turned red.

"Do you not want me to punish you?" Qi Zui retorted. "Then what are you apologizing for?"

Yu Yang hesitated, then spoke softly, "Punish me... but what kind of punishment?"

Qi Zui smiled and looked at Yu Yang, quickly and easily saying, "Prostate massage once, let me find the location."

Yu Yang instantly wished he could crawl under the car.

Qi Zui laughed out loud.

"Keep track of it, settle accounts after the tournament." Qi Zui took the cigarette box from Yu Yang's hand and threw it aside. "If we can't make it to the top six tomorrow, there will be further punishment."

Yu Yang still had a trace of clarity in his mind and raised his head to ask, "Top, top 6?"

Qi Zui nodded, his mouth slightly curved. "Give me a foundation of the top 6, and I guarantee that I can perform well the day after tomorrow."