New Rules Pt. 2

Seeing that the conversation had died down, Yu Wenzhou continued reading from the Competition Instruction Brochure. Having skimmed through the brochure before anyone else, he knew the second adjustment that was made to the competition rules. And this rule was of personal importance to him.

The rule stated: Communication between teammates would now carried out by means voice messages. However, communications with an opposing player or team will remain by means of texted messages.

Silence.

Unlike, the last adjustment that brought a lot of discussions and assumptions with it, there was complete silence after Yu Wenzhou read the rule out loud.

Everyone's mouth twisted. This... This was the true meaning of a double-edged sword.

On one hand, there was Yu Wenzhou. His APM has never been spectacular, hovering around 200 APM, the minimum for a pro player. Yet, with his abysmal APM, Yu Wenzhou was still one of the best pro players in the Pro Alliance. He was able to use short, simple sentences to produce some of the most complex and exhilarating strategies in the game. Then just imagine that his typing constraint was removed. It was obvious that as a whole the offensive and defensive ability of the team would increase. It really was something to celebrate.

On the other hand, there was Huang Shaotian. He was a well-known chatterbox, so much so that the Alliance had changed the rules in order to curb his talkative nature and give the other players some breathing space. But now the Worlds Invitational organizing committee has approved the use of voice channels for the tournament. What would happen? It was very possible that Huang Shaotian's trash talking could destabilize, not his opponents, but his teammates this time around.

Everyone pondered this in their hearts when a sigh was heard from one end of the conference room.

As everyone turned to look at him, Ye Xiu shook his head.

"Team Blue Rain. Troublesome as opponents, troublesome as teammates."

Su Mucheng giggled beside him but was one of the few that did. The rest just looked at him at disdain.

"Must you say it?" Yes, most of them were thinking the same thing but thinking and saying were two very different things. Yu Wenzhou just smiled and said nothing. Ye Xiu poking fun at him was one of the parts of their friendship and you could hardly be friends with Ye Xiu if you couldn't take his taunts and jabs.

But how could Huang Shaotian accept it so quietly.

"What? What? What? What do you mean by that? If we are not here, can you win? Can you? Can you? You can't. So watch your mouth."

Ye Xiu just smiled. "I don't like being told that I can't win by someone I've beaten before."

Su Mucheng laughed again. Everyone else hissed. Tsk, tsk, too arrogant.

The main reason for worry still remained. Would Huang Shaotian misuse the team competition channel?

He answered the unspoken question himself.

"I'm already used to the text channel. Right? Right? I'm used to it so I won't use the voice channel. I'll just leave it to the captain. I can type and talk to the others, right? I'm already used to doing that so that's what I'll do."

But was that a solution? They asked themselves again. It seemed obvious to them that the organizers wanted to reduce trash talking during the tournament seeing that it was the first of its kind. But this was Huang Shaotian. Would rules stop him?

Whatever, whatever. They would deal with it when they got there.

Yu Wenzhou continued and finally finished reading out all the guidelines set out in the Competition Instruction Brochure.

He looked around the room. "Any questions?" And as expected, there weren't any. "I'll leave the Brochure here in the conference room so whoever wants to have a look can do so." But I doubt anyone will, he added inwardly.

They now needed to discuss more important things like tactics and strategies. They had all gotten a copy of the clips and videos Ye Xiu sourced from who-knows-where and had studied it intensely. Yu Wenzhou allowed Ye Xiu to take lead of the meeting at this time. He kept his face calm and collected as he walked back to his seat but inside him, his emotions were in a whirlpool.

He had played Glory on a professional level for 6 years. He was famed as one of the four Master Tacticians and alongside Huang Shaotian, had led his team to Championship glory in Season 6. Despite his achievements, there were times where Yu Wenzhou felt a sort of... anguish at his inability.

As he sat down, he recalled one of his least favourite memories. In the last season, during the regular matches, Xiao Shiqin successfully carried out a BOX-1, pinning him down and preventing him from giving orders to the team. He couldn't type out a single word to guide his team, much less an entire sentence. They ultimately lost that team competition due to that BOX-1. Yu Wenzhou barely remembered the reply he gave the reporters at the post match press conference but he remembered clearly the frustration he felt at that moment.

Now, however, things have changed. That pitiful situation would never repeat itself. Things have changed and gotten better. Looking down at his hands, Yu Wenzhou felt hope and gratitude stirring within him. Yes, gratitude. He was thankful that he stayed with Glory long enough to see this new development.

A new rule just for him.