Make up

The SSQ vs. North America match quickly began.

The audience seats were full, and the live viewership was only slightly lower than the All-Star Game’s opening ceremony.

“National Team One has already been shut out by the European team. Please, please, God Wen, don’t give up your starting position again. At least let us win one match in the All-Star Game, okay!”

“SSQ vs. North America, that’s something to look forward to.”

At the start, the North American team indeed used their original tactics, with four players flexibly spread out.

SSQ had already determined a counter-strategy for this tactic: strong breakthrough.

Ming Xu, flanked by three teammates, pushed into point A, and indeed, they pushed very aggressively.

However, the enemy retreated and delayed planting the bomb.

Time passed by minute by minute.

The SSQ team scurried around like headless chickens; enemies would run away when they saw them.

With only ten seconds left, the opponent planted the bomb.

At this point, the CT side (Counter-Terrorist force) no longer had time to defuse the bomb, and the North American team won this round.

The audience seats were filled with boos, sighs, and loud complaints.

“They didn’t push hard enough; they were completely led by the enemy’s rhythm.”

“Ultimately, I still think it’s a skill issue… To this day, only Pretty can suppress the North American system. Even when the European team comes, they can go fifty-fifty.”

“Their playstyle is currently unbeatable. The North American team consistently ranks third because their maps have never been removed from the BAN list (ban/pick). If they could use this playstyle in the finals, the championship would be theirs.”

Second round.

SSQ clearly learned from the previous round’s experience, increasing their map-sweeping speed and breakthrough firepower.

However, due to a mistake midway, an assaulter chased an enemy sniper too far, causing the team to be cut off in the middle.

The enemy directly came and killed the entire SSQ team, and Ming Xu didn’t even get to fire a shot this round.

2:0, the North American team won directly.

SSQ’s KDA was devastating.

The opponents were the world’s third strongest team.

They had expected to lose, but hadn’t expected to lose so miserably—their tactics, freshly developed, had already been declared bankrupt before they could even be tested on the international stage.

SSQ’s waiting room was filled with a low atmosphere.

Su Wei scrolled through the topic section.

As expected, it was filled with abuse.

“Tactics are fine, it’s really a skill issue.”

“The assaulter on the team is too bad.”

“The tactical thinking is good; I think it can be strengthened further.”

‘Tactics.’

‘Wait, tactics?’

Su Wei’s mind inevitably brought up the young man’s words before the match.

‘If you play like this, you will lose.’

‘How could it be a tactical problem?’

‘The opponent’s roster is flexible, so they chose to push aggressively. What’s wrong with that?’

Su Wei forcibly suppressed this thought.

At that instant, she almost uncontrollably wanted to find Xue Wei’s contact information.

‘What if he… really has a solution?’

“Buddy, the match is tomorrow, and I finally get to see you.”

When Xue Wei returned to his room, Wanshi was chewing on a chocolate bar and casually tossed him a pack.

Xue Wei reached out to take it, seeing the room filled with takeout boxes.

The three EGT members hadn’t left the room for two consecutive days, constantly playing training matches.

Xue Wei said: “I went to watch the match.”

“Any thoughts?” Zhao Xiaoyi came over to look at his notebook, but saw only some hard-to-understand position diagrams drawn on it.

“Tomorrow we face the European team first, then SSQ. Against Europe, let’s just play recklessly; we can’t win anyway.”

“We can win,” Xue Wei said, biting his chocolate bar, seriously.

Wanshi glanced at him.

These days, they had learned not to mock Xue Wei—because they discovered this guy was a naive idealist.

In other words, ‘chuunibyou person, chuunibyou soul’.

Quite cute.

Sometimes even somewhat reliable.

“Tell us, how do we win?” Wanshi casually leaned closer.

“The European team played against National Team One yesterday using the assaulter system they’ve been practicing recently,” Xue Wei said. “Everyone is treating these as training matches, so they won’t repeatedly use the same tactic, because that would be a waste of training opportunities.”

“Makes sense,” Dangdang said, “National Team One’s main sniper-centric playstyle. They would naturally use an assaulter lineup to counter it. So what about us? What value do we have for them to target?”

“We are a practice squad; our results aren’t good, but they won’t pass up this training match opportunity,” Xue Wei said. “Because they have a second system they’re training, which they haven’t used yet.”

“What system?”

“It’s the system the North American team used against SSQ this morning: the flexible four-player playstyle.”

Xue Wei flipped through his notebook: “This lineup actually doesn’t demand much from the opponent. Their focus is on evasion, tactical movement, and information exchange among the four players. The European team has recently been learning this playstyle, and they will definitely use the same tactics against us.”

“So, how do we play?” Wanshi became interested, his questions growing more urgent.

Xue Wei closed his small notebook and said seriously: “Play exactly as I say.”

Soon, the next day arrived.

All the EGT members had a good night’s sleep.

At 8:30 AM, everyone woke up and put on their team uniforms.

The EGT uniforms were actually very nice, blue and white colors, very vibrant and youthful.

Xue Wei didn’t have a team uniform; they found the former captain’s uniform for him.

The production crew came to do their makeup.

The makeup artist saw Xue Wei and was about to reach out to lift his mask, but saw the young man in front of her flinch backwards.

She smiled: “How can I do your makeup if you don’t take off your mask?”

“I don’t wear makeup,” Xue Wei clearly regarded his mask as life itself, “Your venue is very dry. I’ll feel uncomfortable.”

The director waved his hand: “Deal with it. Get your makeup done first. You can’t wear a mask on the stage, can you?”

Xue Wei then sat down for the makeup artist.

Three minutes later, Xue Wei started bleeding from his nose.

Xue Wei’s eyes were dark and clear, without any ripples: “My body is quite fragile.”

Makeup artist:

Director:

‘There really are people this fragile.’

“What’s wrong? Can’t apply makeup.”

A man’s deep voice came from outside.

The general director whispered: “A little practice squad member said the air is too dry, and he’s bleeding from the nose, so he can’t get makeup on.”

Xue Wei held a tissue to his nose, opening his dark eyes, and saw Wen Man walk in from the makeup room doorway, glancing at him.

“Keep your mask on. Tell them to send humidifiers over this afternoon. Also put humidifiers on the stage,” Wen Man said, “You look fine without makeup anyway. Just leave it.”

Xue Wei glanced at him.

Wen Man’s gaze wasn’t on him; he didn’t know who he was talking about.

“Why is Captain Wen here?” Zhao Xiaoyi whispered to Dangdang on the other side, “To watch the fun?”

“Don’t know.”

They were getting their makeup done here, and Wen Man was sitting on a sofa on the other side, flipping through a magazine.

He was also wearing the national team uniform today, with a coach’s badge hanging, a red ID card tied with a sapphire blue cord.

National Team One and National Team Two’s matches had already finished; the accompanying coaches were Alan and the head coach.

“Did Captain Wen wear a coach’s badge the other day?” Wanshi also quietly asked, “I remember him not wearing a coach’s badge the other day.”

Zhao Xiaoyi also muttered: “Right, I remember he was wearing a captain’s badge…”

“Your team doesn’t have a head coach, so I’m accompanying the team today.” Wen Man, despite the distance, seemed to know what topic they were whispering about.

He didn’t even look up, “If you prefer Coach Alan, you can switch to Alan.”

“No! Don’t switch!” Zhao Xiaoyi immediately cried out.

He instantly pulled Wanshi and Dangdang, forcing them into his camp, “We are all fans of Captain Wen! We’re so happy you can be our accompanying coach!”

“What about that little practice squad member over there?” Wen Man still looked down at his magazine, his voice indifferent, “Does he want to switch?”