Chapter 685: Commemoration

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: GravityTales

After the commentator introduced the champions of each season, he pushed this season’s champions, Team Samsara, into the spotlight.

The players on Team Samsara were already celebrating amongst themselves as they walked onto the stage.

The award ceremony began directly after the match ended. For Samsara, the only flaw in this near perfect scene was that this wasn’t their home stadium, so the applause and cheers weren’t as loud. Team Blue Rain’s fans still gave a polite applause, but they couldn’t empathize with Team Samsara’s joy nor did they want to.

As a result, the congratulations for Team Samsara seemed subdued. This was also a form of respect towards the home stadium audience. Every time the champion was named in their away stadium, it would always be done in this way. The true celebration ceremony would take place, when they returned to their home city.

But no matter the situation, the award ceremony still needed to take place. At this moment in time, the stage didn’t belong to Team Blue Rain, but rather the entire Alliance. Team Samsara was the main character and the atmosphere on stage belonged to Team Samsara as well. No one would talk too much about Team Blue Rain’s loss. As for Team Blue Rain, they stood quietly off stage. They could choose to leave and rest, but all of Team Blue Rain stood neatly in order off the stage.

“Tsk tsk tsk tsk......” Ye Xiu felt very moved by this scene.

“It’s a good thing Yu Wenzhou replaced you as the team captain. Team Blue Rain’s changed so much. If you had been the one leading the team, eighty percent of the team would probably be standing together off stage, pointing their middle fingers at Team Samsara, no?” Ye Xiu said to Wei Chen.

“Tch......” Wei Chen replied weakly. Ye Xiu glanced at him and noticed that while Wei Chen’s expression appeared calm, he could tell that he wasn’t very happy. Wei Chen had come from Team Blue Rain, so he still favored one team in this confrontation. He obviously wouldn’t favor Team Samsara, even though they had spent twenty million RMB for his guide. He used to be Team Blue Rain’s former team captain. He used to be someone who cherished Team Blue Rain more than anyone else. Even if he wouldn’t admit it with his own mouth. Even if he said his reason for playing in Blue Brook Guild after retiring was just for the stat points. Even if he once lost to Yu Wenzhou and retired because of it.

Ye Xiu didn’t say anything more. On stream, the Professional Alliance’s chairman Feng Xianjun marched vigorously on stage. He took the microphone and officially announced Team Samsara as the season eight champions of Glory to all of the audience as well as the stream.

Afterwards, every player in Team Samsara received specific rewards: a champion mouse and a champion keyboard. These were specially made with large gold letterings with the words Season 8 Champions. Because of the special meaning attached to these items, most wouldn’t sell these for money. Every Team Samsara player received one with excited expressions on their faces.

Afterwards, the championship cup was awarded to Team Samsara. Feng Xianjun personally handed it to Team Samsara’s Zhou Zekai.

This was an away game. Zhou Zekai was also a quiet person. The Team Blue Rain fans laughed a little, when they watched him hold up the championship cup into the air. Feng Xianjun appeared to be very kind and gentle. He seemed to be saying something to Zhou Zekai. These whispers wouldn’t be picked up by the stream. They only saw that Zhou Zekai was still nervously smiling, even when he was conferred the award by the chairman. He only said a few words as usual.

Or perhaps he knew that the audience wasn’t very interested in this scene, so he wanted to hurry past this step and save time.

The commentator and guest were in front of everyone though. They obviously didn’t need to share the same feelings as the home stadium. They laughed loudly and chatted happily. Seeing that the award ceremony was about to be over, Li Yibo humorously expressed: Perhaps it was because the majority of people in the home stadium wanted the home team to be the champions or perhaps it was because Zhou Zekai liked to win in away games so that there wouldn’t be too many moments, where he needed to speak.

“Ha ha, you’re right. If this was at their home stadium, I don’t think he’d be able to go off stage so easily. Who knows how many people would have forced him to say something.”

Even though the second round of the finals was short, it ended in a thorough manner. The streaming platforms and advertising companies might feel a bit dissatisfied, but there was no need to let the fans and audience know of that. The audience members, who bought tickets to watch this match, would also receive an appropriate compensation, but none of this was important.

The stream had already begun showing Team Samsara’s path to becoming champions starting from the regular season to the playoffs to the finals. A beautiful highlight montage was displayed. This had been prepared beforehand for both Team Samsara and Team Blue Rain. However, since Team Samsara had become champions, the only highlight montage shown would be Team Samsara’s.

“To think Team Samsara actually swept Team Blue Rain 3-0 in the individual competition. I don’t think many people could have predicted that would happen.” The commentator’s and honored guest’s work wasn’t overy et. The finals may have ended at the individual competition, but their schedule time slot still had a lot of time remaining. The commentator and guest could only find stuff to say until it was over. This wasn’t anything new to them, except this time, they needed to do so for a long period of time.

“Yes, Team Samsara was able to win because their players performed outstandingly, but don’t ignore the fact that the deciding factor for Team Samsara winning the individual competition was their strategic player arrangement......” Li Yibo had wanted to say this right after the finals ended, but at that time, there wasn’t any room for any analysis. Li Yibo waited for a long time and now he finally had the chance to reveal his insight.

“You’re right. I don’t think Team Blue Rain thought Team Samsara would be so bold and place so much importance on the individual competition.” The commentator said.

“The weakness that Team Blue Rain has in their potential line-ups for the individual competition and group arena must have affected Team Samsara’s decisiveness.” Li Yibo said.

“Oh?” The commentator was a bit puzzled, but he quickly understood and followed up: “You’re saying that Team Blue Rain’s captain, All Star, and Master Tactician, Yu Wenzhou, often don’tparticipate in the individual competition or the group arena. And we also know that their first-string players, who participate in these competitions, are often the ones that make up the six-player team in the team competition. The healer classes often don’t appear in the other events. This means that in Team Blue Rain, two of their six first-string players won’t appear in the individual competition or the group arena.”

“Thus, it is truly difficult for Team Blue Rain. They don’t have another strong player to participate in those two events. I don’t think any good player in the Alliance would want to only appear in the individual competition.” Li Yibo said.

“Yes. And no matter how good a player is, it isn’t possible for them to replace Yu Wenzhou or a healer like Xu Jingxi.

“In the end, Team Blue Rain suffered because of the competitive format!” Li Yibo said.

“It seems like Team Blue Rain needs to find some way to deal with this problem.” The commentator said.

“Do they need to though?” Li Yibo smiled.

“They don’t?” The commentator was puzzled. Isn’t that what you were saying? Is that not what you mean? However, seeing Li Yibo’s smile, he suddenly realized: “Oh, I heard that next season, the playoffs format will be changing.”

“Yes, even though we don’t know what it is exactly yet, but they’ve been working on it for a year now. I think that’s enough time for the Alliance to think up a good format that will keep the playoffs competitive and suspenseful.” Li Yibo said.

“But the competitive format in the regular season won’t change, right?” The commentator said.

“Ha ha, this isn’t a problem for Team Blue Rain in the regular season. Their standings in the regular season is more than enough to prove it.” Li Yibo said.

“That’s true. Team Blue Rain led the regular season the entire time. They came into the playoffs as number one in the regular season.”

“Ha ha, this time’s finals might have been short, but I feel like it’s enough to call it a match that will be remembered.” Li Yibo said.

“Yes. After all, it’s the first time a finals has finished early.” The commentator said, “And with the change in format next year, it’ll be the last time as well.”

“And this time, it showed the importance of strategy in arranging which players to send out for which competition. Team Samsara relied on their bravery and drive to beat Team Blue Rain. I think this is a perfect commemoration for the last time this competitive format will be used.” Li Yibo said.

“You’re all too right.”

It has to be said that Li Yibo was truly experienced in this line of work now. A finals, which had ended early, lost a lot of potential revenue, and disappointed countless people, was described as a finals to be remembered. His analysis and reasoning for it was completely sound too.

“I believe that this year’s finals will remain as a match to be remembered for years to come, especially for those out there, who have been watching the Alliance since the beginning. It will certainly be a lasting memory.” The commentator gave a brief summary. And at this moment, the break given to the two teams was over and the press conference began. The stream switched over to the press conference.

Even though Team Samsara had displayed a dominating victory, off stage, Zhou Zekai was as taciturn as ever. It was too hard to hate him though. Team Blue Rain didn’t forget themselves either. As the losers, Yu Wenzhou had to give his apologies. He never covered up his weaknesses and blamed his own weakness for giving trouble to the team. Li Yibo’s analysis was reasonable. Yu Wenzhou talked about this issue a lot.

Team Blue rain’s ace player, Huang Shaotian, didn’t have an opportunity to appear on stage today. His gloominess could clearly be seen on him. When the reporters asked if he wanted to say something, he rolled his eyes and gave a response that others found hard to believe that it came from his mouth.

“I don’t want to say anything.” Huang Shaotian said.