172: Chapter 172 Falling Behind Again

"I hope A Shui Team can regroup and give us an exciting match."

"Indeed, the first game was certainly a bit one-sided, but I believe A Shui Team's true strength is far beyond this."

With the commentators' voices ringing out, the laning phase for the second game began once more.

This time, the players of A Shui Team completely abandoned the cautious playstyle of the previous game, aggressively pressuring and poking from the very start of the laning phase.

Anyone with a sharp eye could tell that they were aiming for a lane kill.

Top Laner Zz1tai even pulled out his ultimate trump card, Gangplank.

"Many viewers might not be aware, but over the past two days, A Shui Team has held practice matches with quite a few other teams, winning the majority of them."

Seeing Zz1tai pick Gangplank, Colonel Guan's tone couldn't help but become a bit more excited.

You have to realize that over these past two days, they had been paying close attention to the practice match results of both teams.

"In practice matches, whenever Zz1tai brings out Gangplank, he basically dominates the lane, getting kills with every shot. It seems A Shui Team is prepared to go all out this game."

"Perhaps there was some nervousness in the first game, but nervousness can no longer be used as an excuse for the second."

Meanwhile, inside the game.

Because the members of A Shui Team had changed their playstyle, all three lanes were very aggressive. Their initial momentum did indeed make Uzi Team somewhat worried, causing them to avoid fighting.

A Shui Team also took a comprehensive lead in minion kills and gold.

But you have to understand, in the game of league of legends, the stronger your desire to kill, the easier it is to be solo-killed by your opponent in the lane.

Within just a few minutes, the members of Uzi Team had familiarized themselves with A-Shui and his team's playstyle. Instead of continuing to avoid combat, they began to meet them head-on.

With a lure in the top lane, Zz1tai was quickly tricked into overextending and was instantly caught and killed by the Jungler.

Returning to the lane, without Flash, he saw the opponent's Top Laner with low health and tried to force a kill to regain his advantage, only to be solo-killed again.

He returned to the lane again, only to be camped and killed once more. He had died three times in three minutes.

And it wasn't just the top lane; because of their excessive desire for kills, operational errors appeared in every lane. The mid laner was solo-killed, and the bottom lane was even killed in a double lane kill.

The situation collapsed even faster than in the previous game!

In just eighteen minutes, the opposing team grouped up as five, forced a tower dive, wiped them out, and pushed through to end the game.

This time, A Shui Team only managed to kill two people on the opposing side!

"I didn't expect the second game to end so quickly."

"Indeed. The players of A Shui Team made too many mistakes this game. It's obvious that they were affected by the loss in the previous game; they wanted to gain an advantage in the laning phase, but it only made things harder."

"If this continues, I'm afraid this match will really end in a 3-0 sweep."

"Exactly, but I know many viewers came for the skin treasure chest. As long as they play all five games, they can get an extra chest. So, I will support A Shui Team in the upcoming matches, hoping they can persevere and give the audience one more treasure chest."

"Although it's difficult, I believe A Shui Team's true strength hasn't been fully unleashed yet."

Amidst the commentators' words, accompanied by a screen full of mocking comments and remarks that the match was dull and esports was meaningless.

The players from both teams left the stage again and entered the rest corridor.

Liu Yang, who had watched the entire match, was already waiting there for them, and the players coming off the stage looked even worse than they had after the previous game.

On the other side, Uzi and his teammates, preparing to enter another rest corridor, saw Liu Yang and, without hesitation, cast their gazes toward him, deliberately mocking him loudly.

"Yo, isn't this the so-called coach? What, here to help your team get a taxi?"

"You hire a coach to play a game? Should I call you idiots, or should I call you idiots?"

"Stop playing games, go back to playing in the mud. Even playing ranked games puts more pressure on me than playing against you guys."

"Don't be sad. Even finishing last place gets you a 100,000 yuan prize."

With that, accompanied by laughter, Uzi and the others walked into the lounge corridor.

Clenching his fists, Liu Yang, who was not far away, frowned and led his team into their lounge.

But as soon as they sat down, Fatty couldn't help but speak, his voice trembling slightly.

"The gap in strength is too big."

"No matter how we play, we can't beat them."

Zz1tai, sitting to the side, also mocked himself.

"I was getting kills with every shot in practice matches, but once I got on stage, I was just slaughtered like a pig."

Even the team captain, A-Shui, began to feel a lack of confidence.

He looked up at Liu Yang, doubt about the team's strength emerging in his eyes.

"Coach, do we really have the skill level of a fifth-place team?"

"Could it be that we're actually at the bottom level? Langchao Group specifically invited us to play the Opening Match; they must be regretting it now."

"I took a look at the audience when I came off stage; it seems the founder of Langchao Group was in the first row."

Listening to his team members, Liu Yang knew he had to say something.

If this was truly their mindset, they really wouldn't get far in this third round of the tournament.

Meanwhile, perhaps wanting to give himself something to do to get his brain working.

After saying those words, A-Shui looked toward the computer screen on the side.

"Let's review the replay first; perhaps we can find some opportunities."

The others heard this and also looked toward the screen, but everyone looked ashen-faced, with no hope visible in their eyes at all.

If they could say the first game was lost because of nervousness, then after the three-lane collapse in the second game, they couldn't find any reasons or excuses anymore.

But watching the others' actions, Liu Yang stepped forward and directly turned off the computer screen on the side.

During this break, he didn't intend to let the team review the replay because he knew that the problem with A-Shui and the others wasn't in the game itself; the key was that their mindset and state had been affected too heavily.

"Are you just giving up?"

His voice rose a few notches.

"Talking about how you can't beat them, not even having a shred of fighting spirit left—if that's the case, there's no need to play the third game. I'll go tell the organizers we forfeit right now."

"It's just losing two small games, and you've become like this. Ask yourselves, are you truly willing to accept this?"

"Do you really think the opposing team is stronger than you? I watched the match very carefully. If you can stabilize your mindset and avoid operational errors, our skill level is not inferior to theirs!"

"To win, it's just a matter of chasing them down for three games. Is winning three small games in a row really that hard? In the first and second rounds, we created a record of ten small games won in a row; this is only three!"

"You choose: either put aside the previous two games, regroup your mindset, and we chase them down for three games, or I go forfeit right now and we don't play the last game."

"It's your choice."

Liu Yang's tone was very serious; he wasn't joking at all.

The others had known and understood Liu Yang for so long that they knew if he said it, he would really do it.

Moreover, for as long as they had known him, this was the first time they had seen Liu Yang so angry, his tone filled with frustration at their lack of improvement.

You have to realize, during the competition, to prevent outside comments from affecting their mindset, they hadn't looked at their phones until now, but they were very clear that Liu Yang must know what the outside world was saying about them at this moment.

And this evaluation surely didn't have many good words; it had likely reached the level of being berated by the entire internet.

Facing the insults of countless viewers, the pressure Liu Yang was bearing was undoubtedly far greater than theirs. Yet, in this situation, he stood up with unwavering determination, and there wasn't a hint of doubt toward them in his eyes.

Were they really going to just give up?

Everyone looked up at Liu Yang, a certain look of determination slowly emerging in their eyes.

That's right, it's just a game, it's only being watched by tens of millions of people. Let's do it. Forfeit? Never in this life would they forfeit!

"Whatever you say, we cannot forfeit."

"Exactly, I actually don't think they are that strong; it's just that we made too many mistakes."

"I refuse to believe that I'm such trash as a Top Laner!"

Seeing everyone's gaze, Liu Yang also took a deep breath.

"Good, that's the sentence I was waiting for."

After saying this, he lowered his head, gathered everyone together, and then spoke.

"Actually, it's not that I haven't prepared a final tactic."

"I've observed these two games, and Uzi's importance is even more exaggerated than we anticipated before the match; he has almost become the biggest core of a 'protect the one' strategy."

"As long as we take him out, we have a high probability of winning the match."

"So for this third game, we need to start setting things up from the early game!"

After saying this, Liu Yang looked toward the Jungler, Clearlove, and spoke slowly.

"This time."

"We're ganking the bottom lane at level two!"