“Ok. The view count for the live stream has updated.” The male commentator announced with a smile, “Because of the limited seating, there are only six thousand people inside this stadium. But the total number of the viewers online has just passed 28 million.”
It was an exciting number.
“The number continues to rise. Looks like the fight between last year’s champion and runner-up is attracting a lot of attention.” The female commentator added.
“Who will win this game?” Gun asked her.
“I don’t know.” Ai Qing’s answer didn’t have any ambiguity.
Gun glanced at her.
“Really.” She was serious. “But this game is based purely on my own tactics. It has nothing to do with Inin. In other words------”
This game was a competition between me and you, Dt.
“You can play StarCraft too?” Gun had to reevaluate her.
……
She glaced at Gun and waved her fist. “At least better than you, anyway.”
The reply suddenly made both of them quiet down.
It was the same conversation when they first met ten years ago. They were young and aggressive at the time. She pulled him to play a game without saying an extra word. After she shot his head squarely, the man in front of her, who was just a young adult then, was shocked. He dragged her that night into playing a total of twenty games. Each of them winning some and losing others. At last, when her eyes ached, Solo finally came to rescue her.
The same conversation reoccurred by accident today. The memory made both of them a little bit uneasy.
Gun seemed to grow fidgety and lowered his head. He pulled out a candy from his pocket to put into his mouth. He didn’t speak any more.
Two out of the four groups had already finished their match.
Only the two groups being broadcasted continued.
“Ok. The map of this round is Merry Go Round.” The male commentator looked at the large screen. “Let’s look at the recent stats for both players. Dt has only lost one game, which was the round before, in the most recent eight competitions including the competitions in other tournaments. Up to now, his win rate was 87.5%. But Inin’s recent win rate is 66.9%, not as stable as his opponent.”
“Speaking of Dt, I heard that he used to play much more wildly. Youth at its finest.” The female commentator looked at the time and began to wrap up, “But after he returned two years ago, he has become much more prudent, sticking mainly to Protoss.”
Dt crossed his fingers and stretched his arms forward. Then he set his right hand on top of his mouse.
The countdown to the third round began.
The players began to choose their race.
Suddenly, the large screen showed Protoss versus Zerg.
The audience was in an uproar.
Inin always played Terran, but he switched races. What was happening?
The large screen showed the close up of the two players. Dt suddenly looked out to the area under the stage.
Was this…...the race you liked to use?
The glance caused commotions among the fans. Nobody knew who he was looking at. After he looked back at his own computer screen again, as his closeup showed on the big screen, Dt lifted his hand to take off his baseball hat and earphones.
He always had one simple image. The baseball hat had even became his unique trademark. The sudden move elicited passionate screams from the audience..
His messy short hair made his face looked even more well defined. He put on his black earphones again.
This was…...the first time he showed his face while playing in this kind of international tournaments.
Though they had worked together in Korea, he was only supporting her at that time. He only needed to watch her lead soldiers to kill opponents. And now, they sat face to face on the battlefield and he suddenly found out that he had no knowledge at all about her style, tactics, mechanics, and unit preference.
Ai Qing wasn’t a StarCraft player.
If he guessed correctly, she was trying to use this unknown factor to face him through Inin’s hands.
Ai Qing was a little bit nervous. She took out a can of iced tea, put in the straw, and bit the straw between her teeth.
The following would be a match between you and me, Dt.
In the past two months, she was assigned by Solo to be Inin’s training partner for quite a long time. The young boy was very well immersed with her tactics. In addition, with the cramming of the past day and night, she believed Inin could represent her.
No professional player was born that way, even the genius Dt. They all needed to watch large volumes of competition videos, study their opponents, and get familiar with the coach’s styles of every club. They honed slowly.