They had lost weight in recent days and they had no choice but to hold on. The protracted war was a must for winners in the preliminary.
They didn't even watch online news or live games. Randy told them not to do that until the games ended. He kept their phones to avoid negative effects on their mindset.
Urchin and Wink had a steady performance. But Randy noticed that Lord Top kept progressing. As a gifted player, she would reflect on herself after each game and make progress next time. This was not obvious in the game, though, Randy knew her tactics. He realized that she was following the strategy of Team S, the current NO. 1. She even had a silent impact on other members, guiding them to follow her.
Team S was aggressive and it would immediately become dominant at the beginning, with a fast pace in attack, jungle and assistance. The mid lane would be collectively attacked soon after the bot was cleaned. Players of that team commonly finished an important game in 10 minutes. And games in earlier rounds merely took them 6 minutes. Although rivals in later rounds were much stronger, some of them still had no way with their overwhelming strategies.
Lord Top watched its videos every day. She was concerned that Team S would be their rival one day. As fewer and fewer teams survived in the contest, their survival was already out of expectation. If they met Team S in the coming rounds, it would definitely be a tough fight.
Fortunately, they hadn't met Team S until the final day when only 6 teams survived. The top 3 would be qualified for the national.
Their final rival was the Dragon Team, the No. 2 with equivalent competence of Team S.
The game was played best two out of three
On that day, there were many unforgettable memories for Randy, including Carl's satisfying smile, Lord Top's determined look, Wink's and Urchin's sincere pray and the host's cheer in surprise.
"Wow, Lord Top raided! Only a small part of crystal is left ... the Dragon Team lost! It can't be true!"
Their first round was overwhelmed by the Dragon Team. The rivals reached the crystal and probably, they then let the guard down. So they didn't notice Lord Top at first, who secretly attacked the defensive tower. Later, it was too late for them to rush back and stop her. What they could do was to attack the crystal tower. They were close to success, maybe only one more attack was needed. But Lord Top was quicker. Randy's team won the tough fight.
Then, the coach and captain of the Dragon Team looked serious. During the fifteen-minute break, they didn't leave the seats and kept talking about something, looking at Lord Top several times.
Randy realized that they were proposing strategies aimed at Lord Top.
As expected, Lord Top was surrounded at the beginning of the second round. She preferred aggressive heroes for jungle and ADC. It would be challenging for her in the latter part, if she failed to give play to her skills at the start.
With support around at the beginning, she worked under the tower. After a while, the rivals noticed that their creeps were killed by Randy.
It wasn't until then did she realized that why Randy chose the jungle at first and asked her to clean the bot. He also asked the support to work with the AD Carry.
Lord Top's performance in the first round was so eye-catching that Randy was ignored. Therefore, when Randy killed their creeps and finished the first kill in the top, the Dragon Team was wrong-footed. They focused on the bot but just killed the support. And they even chose to perish together with Lord Top.
Their wrists and fingers became less sensitive after so many games. Some players applied plasters. Since their strategy was disrupted, they ignored orders from their coach and captain and just played in their own way, surrounding the AD Carry to crack down on Lord Top. After all, ADC played a key role in teamwork.
But Randy came. He left the jungle for Lord Top and went to the Dragon Team's jungle. He also killed soldiers and disturbed rivals in the mid lane. After killing the dragon, he joined the team fight.
As the commentary said, Randy's strategy was adventurous based on his usual practice. Obviously, the jungle provided income for support. It was a challenging task for the jungle to focus on both the top and bot, increase income, kill heroes, contribute to teamwork and finally, kill the dragon. So it was regarded as the most important and difficult position. If Lord Top played jungle this time, she would be surrounded during the whole round. It was unexpected for the Dragon Team that Randy, as a support in the last round, played jungle this time.. They were confused by Randy and miscalculated.