The match ended after seventeen minutes.
Zou Zhuo typed GG as he stared at his Deathknight die with disbelief.
(GG stands for good game, usually by the loser first, praising how well their opponent played. This was usually done out of respect, with no negative connotations.)
At the end-screen, Zou Zhuo scratched his head out of confusion. He didnât quite understand how he was beaten, and just felt like he lost in every single aspect.
His opponent didnât do anything special either, going with the usual Blademaster +2. However, this felt completely different to the other matches Zou Zhuo played previously. He was on his backfoot the entire match, and felt that the game was never in his favour.
Moreover, he would lose small things here and there and would never manage to gain them back.
Zou Zhuo thought that the game lasted twenty or so minutes, only to discover at the end of the game that it only lasted seventeen minutes.
The spectators were also in shock.
âWhat happened? Fatty lost?â
â... It only lasted seventeen minutes!â
âHow did he win? I didnât notice anything out of place from the orc player. It feels like he just kept harassing and steamrolled fattyâs units during the last battle.â
âMy goodness, I donât understand anything in this battle among titans!â
âAnother round?â asked Chen Mo.
Zou Zhuo scratched his head, âI wasnât quite in the zone the last round, letâs go again!â
Chen Mo nodded, âAlright.â
They started playing another round.
Zou Zhuo was much more careful this time around, giving his full focus. He also managed to find out that Chen Mo was playing Night Elves this time using a scout.
âRelax, relax. Thereâs no way he could play all the races right?â
Zou Zhuo steadily killed neutral creeps, but this time he was met with Chen Moâs Demon Hunter. Although it couldnât go invisible like the Blademaster, he had mana burn. Every Time he saw the Demon Hunter on the screen his mana would get burned then it would run away. He couldnât catch up to him using his Deathknight at all, and there wasnât much else he could do.
After a few more mana burns, the Deathknight had no mana and couldnât heal itself even if he wanted to.
Zou Zhuo was now so irritated that he couldnât train units without worrying about the Demon Hunter. It either would come out of nowhere to hit his Crypt Fiends, end up killing Acolytes in his base.
Zou Zhuo called GG after twenty minutes.
It was just as before, there werenât any special strategies with nothing out of line, but Zou Zhuo still lost for some reason.
He just couldnât beat him!
âGoing for more?â asked Chen Mo.
Zou Zhuo shook his head violently, âNo more! That level of skill isnât normal. Whatâs your elo?â
Chen Mo replied, âMe? I havenât even finished my placements.â
Zou Zhuo laughed, âStop kidding, how could you be playing at this level before completing your placements? Are you playing on a smurf?â
Chen Mo realised that it wasnât too out of line to assume that.
Zou Zhuo said, âAdd me as your friend, Iâll consult you for strategies in the future.â
Chen Mo nodded, âSure.â
After adding each other as friends, Zou Zhuo said, âBy the way, do you want to join my Warcraft group? Thereâs a few highly skilled players in there. I wonât be able to beat you, but you might meet someone who would give you a challenge there.â
Chen Mo declined after some thought, âForget about it, thatâs too much work. Maybe next time.â
Zou Zhuo didnât push any further as every single high skilled player he knew wasnât super friendly.
âAlright, Iâll go back to playing ranked games, â Chen Mo bid Zou Zhuo farewell and continued to play his placements.
Chen Mo didnât plan to play too seriously anyways, but this Zou Zhuo guy wasnât a challenge at all! The others thought that Chen Mo was playing seriously, but Chen Mo played quite normally, and merely outmatched his opponent technically and by knowledge.
Strategies like mine rush[1], tower rush, cyclone spam, raider rush, lich and crypt field spam, summons rush that were commonplace in Chen Moâs previous world were nowhere to be seen!
Chen Mo felt bored bullying noobs, and considered that he should give the RTS players a little hint to spice things up.
Whatever, Iâll decide after the placements.
Chen Mo entered another placement match.
â
Zou Zhuo started his replay against Chen Mo within his group.
Zzz (Zou Zhuo): âI just met a god in this internet cafe and got my butt handed to me...â
There were a few other high skill players in that group, so Zou Zhuo was only just above average, hence why the message didnât get too much attention and he has actually been made fun of.
âWow, Z-god getting bullied at an internet cafe tournament, how sad.â
âYeah, I thought you were the self proclaimed Fates Internet Cafe killer. So did you end up meeting someone tough?â
âHahaha, I wanna watch Z-god getting bullied.â
Zou Zhuo was speechless. Whatâs wrong with these people? Laughing at my mishaps?
You guys should come try, itâs not that Iâm bad, the opponent is insane!
Zou Zhuo looked around within the group and found the usually quiet Kaiser.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
â@Kiaser K-god, could you take a look at these replays? Iâve looked at them for so long and still havenât figured out how I lost. It feels like I just lost mechanically. But I thought my mechanics were decent? Is the skill gap that big?â
No replies.
Zou Zhuo was a bit butthurt but it couldnât be helped as Kaiser was hard to reach and was quite quiet in the group. Moreover, it was normal that he wasnât online when he wasnât streaming.
It didnât take long before someone watched the replay between Zou Zhuo and Chen Mo.
âWhat? I just watched Zzzâs match, were you playing at 80% hp? @Zzzâ
Zou Zhuo was speechless, âNo, itâs 100%.â
âWhy does your Crypt Fiend look like itâs made of paper, the Blademaster one hits all of them.â
Zou Zhuo: âI donât know either!â
âWhy was it Undead vs Orc in the first and Undead vs Night Elves in the second? Are they two different people?â
Zou Zhuo replied, âItâs the same guy, he beat me twice playing random!â
âWhat the, youâre joking right? Were you playing seriously? These were so one-sided.â
Zou Zhuo replied, âYou think I wasnât playing serious? I gave it everything I had!â
âWell, I donât know then.â
A few other players looked at Zou Zhuoâs replays, but none of them could tell how he lost either. As both parties were using normal tactics and were basically mirroring each otherâs movements, Zou Zhuo always lost horribly.
It just wasnât the same watching replays compared to watching in person, it was even harder to tell in replays how fast the players were moving from replays. There were many players that were worse than Zou Zhuo, so what could they tell from the replay?
All they could tell was that Zou Zhou has a huge army! Zou Zhuo is attacking! Zou Zhuo has the upper hand! Zou Zhuo GGâd!
There wasnât much Zou Zhuo could do as most of the better players were always quiet, and the frequent users werenât usually that good.
Alright, Iâll probably have to wait for K-godâs reply.