Chapter 63: Mission Accomplished, Skill: Pinnacle of Perfection!

Clearlove was completely dumbfounded at this moment.

Among all people, he considered himself the one who understood Chen Yan best. But even so, he realized he had still underestimated him.

What was carrying games in solo queue compared to this? Pulling off a one-versus-five on the professional stage and chasing down the entire WE roster—that is what you call badass!

"As expected, Xiao Yan is truly my destined bond!" Clearlove's heart surged with excitement.

The rest of the EDG members were not faring much better. Chen Yan was too dominant during the match, always marching to the beat of his own drum. Being overshadowed by a rookie had naturally left them with some complicated feelings.

Yet now, all those subtle resentments had completely vanished.

This single sequence of plays had utterly blown their minds. In esports, strength always speaks the loudest. The prowess Chen Yan had displayed could no longer be viewed through the lens of a rookie.

Doll and Miller were also hyping him up frantically on the caster desk.

"A one-versus-five, we actually witnessed it today!"

"So it's not that Yasuo can't be picked, it depends entirely on who is playing him!"

"Player Chen Yan has once again proven that famous saying: there are no trash champions, only summoners who don't know how to play them."

"It's hard to imagine that he is still a rookie."

"EDG has struck gold."

"Is there a possibility—and I'm just saying a possibility—of a reverse sweep?"

The two casters practically exhausted every vocabulary word in their arsenals, sounding utterly exaggerated.

Under normal circumstances, netizens would definitely accuse them of over-hyping. But this time, every single viewer wholeheartedly agreed with Doll and Miller's praise. Some even complained that the casters lacked vocabulary, feeling their words failed to do justice to Chen Yan's legendary play.

...

This victory instantly skyrocketed EDG's morale.

Clearlove put his arm around Chen Yan, chatting and laughing with his teammates as they walked toward the backstage lounge.

Meanwhile, over on the WE side, the players looked at one another, seeing blank confusion mirrored in each other's eyes.

Wait, had their entire team just become someone else's background props?

"How... did he do that? He's a monster!"

Condi swallowed hard, still unable to process what had happened.

The five of them trudged back to the lounge in a daze. Coach Homme walked up and patted them on the shoulders. "You played well. Losing one game is nothing."

Yet, it had little effect.

Losing a game wasn't the issue; it was the suffocating feeling of being solo-handled by Chen Yan in a one-versus-five that made it hard to accept. They were all professional players. Being styled on like that by an opponent felt like having their faces rubbed in the dirt.

The crucial part was that they still couldn't figure out why the game had become so brutally difficult.

"My fault," Coach Homme said. "My draft was completely read by the opponents. Our composition was too weak in the early game, while they picked an early-game setup that was practically unsolvable, putting far too much pressure on you guys early on..."

***

Homme hadn't paid much attention to Yasuo's one-versus-five performance. Why should a Yasuo be able to take on five people? Sure, the champion had some mobility and outplay potential. But plenty of people could play Yasuo; how many could actually pull off a one-versus-five?

At the end of the day, it simply boiled down to Yasuo having a massive lead while the WE members were all under-farmed. If their item progression had been comparable, a Tristana supported by Karma and Lulu could have simply right-clicked Yasuo into the dirt.

Therefore, it was still a tactical issue.

Homme wasn't surprised that EDG had cracked his strategy; after all, they had run this exact same strategy in the previous game. The only thing that baffled him was EDG's pacing. In his view, even if EDG figured out his tactics, executing them with such suffocating tempo in an actual match should have been practically impossible—yet EDG had somehow pulled it off...

Still, there was no use dwelling on what he couldn't understand. After calming his players' mental states, Homme began pondering the draft for the next game.

***

"All the haters, come out and speak!"

In his live stream channel, iG Icon nearly bounced right out of his chair.

"Damn, Dog Yan's Yasuo is starting to smell a bit like me."

???

The live chat instantly flooded with question marks.

"Who do you think you are?"

"You look more like a stray dog on the street."

"Cold Dish, have some shame."

"Don't pretend you aren't Dog Yan's lapdog. Seeing your master win, your tail is wagging harder than anyone else's."

Seeing the chat roast him from all sorts of bizarre angles, Icon instantly triggered a defense break and started firing back at the viewers. For a moment, his stream popularity didn't drop; instead, it grew even higher.

Meanwhile, Xiaohu's live stream was rather awkward.

Xiaohu had constantly claimed that EDG would have a hard time and that Yasuo couldn't carry games—only to get his face slapped soundly. The chat was crawling with anti-fans.

"Speak up!"

"Know why you lost? This is the gap!"

"Do you even dare to pick Yasuo?"

"Wanting to watch someone else make a fool of themselves, only to realize you were the biggest clown all along."

"Dog Yan was right. You really do need to watch carefully and learn."

...

Xiaohu stared at the chat in utter silence.

His internal state was quite complex. It wasn't because the netizens were cursing at him, but rather because he was starting to doubt his own understanding of the game.

"Could it be that I was wrong, and he was right?"

Xiaohu fell into deep thought.

At the same time, he quietly clicked open a folder.

***

The folder was filled with champions he had practiced.

LeBlanc, Ryze, Syndra, Karma...

After thinking for a moment, Xiaohu added one more champion to the very end—Yasuo.

***

Scene transition.

Tabe was pouring a cup of water for Chen Yan.

"Must be thirsty."

"Are your shoulders sore? I'll get NoFe to massage them for you."

"Your hair is all messy..."

Seeing the head coach acting like a devoted attendant, the corners of everyone's mouths in the room twitched slightly.

Yet, they all understood.

Chen Yan was currently EDG's ultimate hope. Whether they could win the championship depended entirely on whether Chen Yan could maintain this terrifying form.

Almost everyone revolved around Chen Yan, leaving Scout sitting quietly in the cold periphery.

Scout stared in Chen Yan's direction, remaining silent.

"He actually pulled it off."

"Faker, if it were you, could you have done that?"

Scout felt a swirling vortex of mixed emotions inside.

He had left SKT precisely because he didn't want to live in Faker's shadow; he wanted to prove himself. Yet upon arriving at EDG, he had run into Chen Yan—and Chen Yan was leading the team to achieve things Scout himself couldn't accomplish. This left Scout feeling deeply frustrated.

Of course, no one was paying attention to Scout's minor mood swings right now.

Every single gaze was locked onto the massive screen.

Accompanied by inspiring music, Chen Yan's promotional photo flashed on display.

In the picture, Chen Yan had one hand resting behind his head, a bright, brilliant smile on his face. Standing right behind him was a Yasuo wielding a long sword.

"The physical incarnation of Yasuo!"

"I suggest displaying Karma's stats as well for a comprehensive comparison."

"Just say you want Xiye to retire."

The chat continued to explode.

However, Chen Yan paid no attention to any of it, because the sound he had been dreaming of finally echoed inside his mind.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the quest.]

[Quest Progress: 100%]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the skill reward — Pinnacle of Perfection.]

Chen Yan eagerly checked the details of the reward.

And after reading the skill's description, Chen Yan froze right on the spot.

This skill... holy crap!