All-Round Mid Laner

Chapter 112.1: Group A Leaderboard

After the training match ended, Cheng Xing immersed himself in practicing heroes again.

There were many marksman heroes. He had previously always followed master in playing jungler and after switching to the marksman, he picked heroes that were often used in competitions to practice. His hero pool wasn’t deep enough and he can’t hold a candle to all-rounded players like Ye Shaoyang.

Although being carried to victory was pretty nice, he can’t possibly wait to be carried to victory every game, right?

Moreover, today’s training match with Korea’s TIP made him realize something even clearer——In future matches with strong teams, he may become Tianhuan’s weakness and become the opponents’ breakthrough point!

He doesn’t want to hold everyone back.

Ye Shaoyang and Cheng Xing’s seats were right next to each other. When he turned to the side, he saw that the youth’s face was extremely serious, his gaze fixated on the computer screen.

On the computer screen was the display of the training mode. Cheng Xing was currently practicing how to farm minions and his techniques. He was also secretly practicing marksman heroes that weren’t frequently used in the league.

The corner of Ye Shaoyang’s mouth uncontrollably curved up lightly. He liked Chi Shuo’s apprentice very much and he was very hardworking too. Before the season started, he had been jointly abused by Ye Shaoyand and Chi Shuo everyday and had died at least a few hundred times. The ‘100 Ways of Dying by Cheng Xing’ edited by Qu Jiang already had a sequel and became a series.

As the number of times he was abused increased, his mental state also became stronger and stronger. When he was first killed, his eyes would get red and he would look like he was about to cry. Now, he would immediately fight back energetically even after getting killed, just like an undying cockroach.

Cheng Xing had always been silently improving.

It’s just that Tianhuan’s mid laner and jungler was too strong and covered his brilliance.

Ye Shaoyang saw him training seriously, then said, “There’s no point in training alone. I’ll join you for training in the evening.”

Cheng Xing looked back at him, stunned for a moment.

“Yang-ge, you want to go 1v1 with me?”

“I’ll go 1v1 with you using the mid laner. Try using different skills and see what ways you can use to hide from the mid lane.” Ye Shaoyang said.

Previously, their trainings were all Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo with Qu Jiang and Cheng Xing playing 2v2. It would imitate the scene of a mid/jungle duo ganking the bottom lane in competitions. Ye Shaoyang and Cheng Xing had never trained 1v1 but in fact, 1v1 can allow improvements on details regarding many techniques.

For example, in a situation without the support’s protection, how exactly can they avoid the Destruction Mage’s six blades of black mist? How can they get away from the ult of the Great Witch of the North Sea that could engulf players?

Once they familiarize themselves with all these details and trained sufficiently, it wouldn’t be as easy for the enemy mid laner to kill off Cheng Xing with an ult in future matches at the very least.

This was how Ye Shaoyang used to abuse his marksman back in the GD team.

In the end, the marksman of the GD team was shaped into the ‘World’s Hardest to Gank Marksman’.

Marksmen must have the ability to protect themselves and escape, instead of relying wholly on the support’s protection. This was because the support still had to establish vision and help out the team. He can’t possibly only stare at one player.

There are times where the support even had to initiate fights. When that happens, the marksman can only pray that he has enough blessings.

Cheng Xing’s eyes shone, “Okay, Yang-ge shall accompany me to train in the evening!”

That night, Ye Shaoyang opened the PK training mode. He chose various mid lane heroes when playing 1v1 with Cheng Xing, and would even patiently explain, “The Destruction Mage’s black mists come in an arc. When he unleashes his ult, don’t move further away from him. Move towards him instead so that when escaping, the black mists would just slip past you.”

“The Great Witch of the North Sea’s ult requires a casting time of 0.3 seconds. Mid laners with strong game senses would be able to predict your movements and use their ult accordingly. You should think about how to hide from it when you’re in a situation where you can’t use your flash.”

The settings in the training mode can be adjusted at any time. Ye Shaoyang and Cheng Xing were PK in the mid lane and when they died, they would immediately get up and continue. Mid laners equipped with a full set of gear could instantly kill a marksman. In a team fight, regardless of whether it was an artillery or assassin mage, both are great threats to a marksman’s survival.

Cheng Xing tried all ways to avoid Ye Shaoyang’s skills. It was initially hard for him to avoid at first, but after dying many times and under Ye Shaoyang’s patient guidance, he managed to put his experience to good use.

Ye Shaoyang patiently gave Cheng Xing pointers during the games and would even purposely give in to Cheng Xing and let him evade from his skills. Cheng Xing’s reaction was extremely fast and he became more and more agile. His survival rate when facing Ye Shaoyang’s ult also gradually increased.

Seeing this scene, Chi Shuo felt very complicated.

Ye Shaoyang was just like a captain. He didn’t feel like a newcomer at all. Sometimes he would even suspect that maybe Shaoyang… was a hidden expert that was deliberately pretending to be a newcomer?

But no matter how he checked Ye Shaoyang’s background, it stated that he came into contact with gaming only last year and was a newcomer without any competitive experience. Just simply using the excuse of having a ‘big heart’ doesn’t cover the fact that his story has a lot of holes.

Chi Shuo also didn’t want to directly ask him about it. Perhaps in the future after they’ve gotten together and Ye Shaoyang trusts him enough, he’ll ask him about his origins. Maybe the answer he’ll be given will be different then?

There was no need to get to the bottom of this matter as of now.

Chi Shuo suppressed the doubts he had temporarily and let Ye Shaoyang continue helping his apprentice.

Going forward, all five players in Tianhuan would play training matches with Team Two every afternoon and practice their comps. In the evening, Ye Shaoyang would PK with Cheng Xing alone using the training mode.

Cheng Xing used to learn jungling from Chi Shuo in the past so he knew all the jungle heroes very well. However, he still didn’t have a profound understanding towards mid laners and thus, there were many instances where he had been killed by enemy mid laners during team fights.

The results of Ye Shaoyang giving him special 1-on-1 training was especially good.

Ye Shaoyang helped Cheng Xing get a good grasp on how mid lane heroes are able to kill players and he even demonstrated to him patiently the differences between the skills released under the effects of different skins.

For example, the skill released by the Destruction Mage’s legendary skin are six cool black skulls; once it was changed to the limited edition Christmas-themed skin, it will turn into red bombshells, causing visual errors. A player has to adapt to the different skill effects released by all kinds of skins so that they can prevent themselves from getting confused and be unable to see clearly.

Every professional player has a skin they prefer and changing it can cause a change in the skill effect and color. It can seem like a small matter that doesn’t affect much but in competitions, the outcome of the match could change even by the most subtle differences.

In a blink of an eye, a week passed. Tianhuan and CYC met again in Group A.

TL/n: First part of second sponsored chapter by Chxrrr! Thank you!