All-Round Mid Laner

Chi Shuo looked at the messages in the chat window and got the feeling that something was wrong.
The international server was full of top players and griefers alike, especially in the King rank at around 10 stars.
Little fish and big fish were all mixed together in one pond.
Any sort of bizarre thing could happen.

He and Ye Shaoyang were queueing as a mid/jungle duo, and Player 4 and Player 5 were also double queueing.
There was only one reason the system would have matched their two groups to the same team—the opposing team was too powerful.
On the other side, there must have been four strong players facing off against them.

Chi Shuo, Ye Shaoyang, and the other duo must have all had very high MMRs, with win rates of over 90%.

That meant the opposing team was approximately in the same boat.
There could be two duos over there as well, with fairly high win rates.

Chi Shuo guessed, “There are probably a lot of professional players on alt accounts in this game.”

Ye Shaoyang grinned and said, “Then I won't use my emoticon here, or it'll be too easy to have my cover blown.”

 

At Team Huowen's base.

Coach Li excitedly pointed at the screen.
“Leave those positions to the sun and moon, let them play their mid/jungle duo.
This is the perfect opportunity for us to see them in action!”

Zhou Jiawen was thinking the same thing, so he used an in-game command to signal that he would play marksman.

Jin Minjun, who knew just a little bit of basic Chinese, dubiously asked in the voice chat channel, “You… mid lane… give him?”

Zhou Jiawen explained, “Sun and Moon are experts.
Let's let them play mid laner and jungler.”

“Experts of your Chinese division?” Jin Minjun asked.

“No, I don't know them,” Zhou Jiawen said.
“A few days ago, Mitchell's rookies ran into them.
He sent me a recording of that game.
The two of them are very in sync.
They should be professionals.”

Hearing that, Jin Minjun became a little more spirited.
“Okay.
Then I'll play support.”

The two teams entered the picks and bans phase.

On the international server, Player 3, Player 4, and Player 5 would each get to ban one hero.

The opposing team banned the Cobra King first, and then Ye Shaoyang's turn as Player 3 came up.
He banned the Frost Goddess.
He wasn't afraid of the Frost Goddess, but when she was played by a professional, she was an extremely strong counter to summoner mages like his White Wolf King.
She could fling out her ult, and all of Ye Shaoyang's little wolf cubs would instantly die off if they ran into her range.

The other side followed up by banning the Bloodstained Assassin, sealing off one of the commonly seen junglers who could act as the core of a team.

Coach Li said, “Ban the Machine Gun Huntsman.
Seal off the tower-pushing comp.”

Zhou Jiawen obliged.

The other team banned the Flame Goddess next.

“Ban Doomhammer, the support who can initiate team fights,” Coach Li said.

Jin Minjun heard this through the voice chat channel.
He followed the coach's instructions and banned Doomhammer.

Player 1, the random passerby, was quaking in their boots—why did this picks and bans phase feel so professional?

Usually, in ranked games, everyone just randomly banned whatever they wanted to ban.
But in today's game, in the picks and bans phase alone, the two sides had swiftly banned the poison comp, burn comp, tower-pushing comp, jungler core comp, support initiate comp… five common team compositions, banned all at once!

The time to choose heroes came up.

Player 1 chose the Holy Knight and typed: [OK?]

“Okay, okay!” Coach Li called out.

Zhou Jiawen held back a laugh and said, “Player 1 is a passerby.
Probably sensed that something about the atmosphere is off.”

The opposing Player 1 and Player 2 instantly locked in the Forest Envoy and Divine Archer, a commonly seen bottom lane duo.
When Chi Shuo's turn came up, he didn't rush to pick a hero.
Instead, he signaled in their team chat that he would let Players 4 and 5 take his spot to pick their heroes first.

Coach Li mused, “It isn't good for him to pick a jungler when he's Player 2.
That makes it too easy for the enemy to counter him.
So let's pick our bottom lane duo first.
Leave the jungler pick for last.”

Ye Shaoyang also signaled that he would leave his pick to the later players, so the marksman and support in the fourth and fifth slots of their team moved up and locked in the Cannon Master and the Radiant Shield.

The opposing third and fourth players swiftly chose the Ninja and the Nightmare.

Coach Li thoughtfully mumbled, “The Ninja as their jungler? This wouldn't be Fujita from Japan's Team GOW, would it?”

“Could be,” Zhou Jiawen said.

Immediately afterwards, the new Players 4 and 5 chose the Black Wolf and the White Wolf King.

Coach Li's jaw dropped.
“Holy shit, the black/white wolf kings comp that's been gone for years?! These two aren't running a flight comp anymore, they've switched over to the wolves!”

Jin Minjun excitedly said, “This Ninja should be Fujita Naoya-sama! His ID is very familiar to me!”

Zhou Jiawen helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.
“It does look familiar.”

Coach Li muttered, “This game is practically a match from the groups stage of the world championship tournament, isn't it?”

The other team had a hapless passerby as well.
Upon being scared witness, that player choose the Bloody Knight as their hero—

I'll be tanky, and I can drain your blood.
I just don't want to die too many times.
You guys have your battle of gods elsewhere, don't come to my top lane!

The two sides confirmed their lineups.

The blue team—

Top laner, the Holy Knight.
Mid/jungle duo, the White Wolf King and the Black Wolf.
Bottom lane duo, the Radiant Shield and the Cannon Master.

The red team—

Top laner, the Bloody Knight.
Mid/jungle duo, the Nightmare and the Ninja.
Bottom lane duo, the Forest Envoy and the Divine Archer.

Judging by these lineups, it was obvious that the main battle would take place in the jungle.

The game began.
Chi Shuo instantly placed a marker on the enemy's blue buff.

The Black Wolf was fairly strong in early-game.
Most heroes only had one skill at the beginning of a game, but the Black Wolf could shapeshift right from the start.
Although the Black Wolf could only change shapes at the beginning, and didn't have access to the 'hunting mode' that was locked behind his ult, his ability to shift between two forms essentially gave him access to two skills, which made him a more flexible hero.

Ye Shaoyang knew that Chi Shuo was planning to invade the enemy jungle.
He swiftly followed along.

The bottom lane marksman and support also came along to work with them.

Matching the rhythm of your jungler in early-game was a commonly seen play style in high-level games.
The other players didn't have to rush to clear away the first lane of enemy minions, because when minions from the two sides clashed, there would be a brief respite.
Even if the players rushed back to their lanes after helping out in the jungle, there would still be time to clear the enemy minions away.

So, four professional players entered the enemy jungle and surrounded the blue buff.

They ran into the four professional players who had been waiting for them for a long time already.

Both sides froze momentarily when they saw each other.

Such an aggressive start to the game? A 4v4 in the jungle right away?

Chi Shuo hit the signal for them to attack!

A 4v4 wasn't anything to be afraid of.
It was the perfect chance for them to get a feel for one another.

The Radiant Shield swiftly erected a shield and charged forward, while the Cannon Master locked onto the enemy from afar.
Ye Shaoyang's White Wolf King and Chi Shuo's Black Wolf simultaneously launched a surprise attack—

In early-game, the White Wolf King's main strength was his Q skill, which allowed him to accumulate little wolf cubs.
Ye Shaoyang had started summoning them as soon as he left their team base.
By the time he reached the jungle, he already had three wolves.
In an instant, his cubs all attacked, pouncing directly on the enemy jungler—the Ninja!

Although everyone started out the game with weak gear, the little wolf cubs could inflict a stacking 'bleed' effect with their bites.
The enemy Ninja was inflicted with three stacks of 'bleed', causing his HP to swiftly drop below the 50% mark!

Zhou Jiawen's Cannon Master took advantage of that opportunity to fire off his cannons from a distance.
One blast blew away quite a lot of HP from their enemies.
Chi Shuo seized the perfect opportunity and leapt in from far away in human form, then instantly shifted as he attacked—

He'd originally wanted to instakill the enemy jungler.
However, the player behind the enemy Ninja was extremely smart.
After being taken down to critically low health, the Ninja instantly left a shadow double where he was standing while the hero himself disappeared.

Chi Shuo failed to get the kill on him, and instead turned to pounce at the enemy mid laner, the Nightmare—

The Nightmare was an extremely irritating hero to play against.
She possessed a skill that could inflict the 'sleep' status on an opponent.

Practically as soon as Chi Shuo moved, the Nightmare used her sleep skill and immobilized Chi Shuo in place.

Chi Shuo was sniped a few times by the distant Divine Archer.
His HP dropped quickly.
The white wolf cubs chased after the Nightmare to bite at her, but they were also quickly bloodied by the enemy.
Zhou Jiawen's cannon skill was on cooldown.
He could only hide in the back and use his basic A attacks.

After both sides threw out their skills…

A clear, twinkling song sounded out in everyone's ears.
The Forest Envoy had activated an AoE heal skill.

Chi Shuo signaled for them to retreat!

Zhou Jiawen signaled a retreat as well!

The two of them hit that command at nearly the exact same time.
Their outlook on their current situation was unanimous.

They couldn't win.

The enemy had a healer.
Although the Forest Envoy's early-game healing output was low, Ye Shaoyang's team had failed to do enough damage with that first wave of skills.
They missed out on grabbing a kill by just a bit of HP, so there was no need to stay intertwined in this battle any longer.

Chi Shuo made a very swift and decisive retreat.
He leapt over the wall in his wolf form and immediately fled.
The enemy marksman wanted to give chase, but Chi Shuo's support—the Radiant Shield—completely blocked the enemy marksman's path with that big shield.

Ye Shaoyang swiftly retreated to the middle lane as well.

The enemy Ninja was nowhere to be found.
Chi Shuo felt that something was off.
He swiftly returned to his own jungle's blue buff.

As expected, the Ninja had snuck around after taking a huge amount of damage.
He'd taken the long way through the jungle to run over and steal Chi Shuo's blue buff! Luckily, Chi Shuo discovered this ploy early on.
When he rushed over, the blue buff still had 1,500 points of health.

Chi Shuo leapt over the wall in wolf form that took a bite out of the blue buff.
Then, he instantaneously added a smite to steal the blue buff back.
Ye Shaoyang also brought his wolf cubs over to help.
The enemy Ninja realized that he was in a precarious situation, once more leaving behind a shadow double and slipping away.

Ye Shaoyang took all this in and couldn't help but remark, “The opposing jungler is extremely calm.”

“Let's level up first,” Chi Shuo said.
“We can't kill him without some control skills.”

The first invasion was a failure.
Both sides had thrown their skills at each other, then retreated.
The two junglers ultimately each got the two buffs in their own jungle.
Chi Shuo's goal in invading the enemy jungle had actually been to scope out the state of the opposing players.
Naturally, it would have been best if he could have instakilled the enemy Ninja.
If he couldn't, then they could all steadily climb up to Level 6 and wait to find the right opportunities then.

Both sides calmly developed for a while.
Chi Shuo's Black Wolf reached Level 6 very quickly.

He went down to the bottom lane, but the enemy support had placed a ward in the woods of their jungle.
As soon as the enemy support saw Chi Shuo approaching, he instantly retreated.
Chi Shuo found no opportunities to gank; he could only patiently wait for the right chance.

The enemy jungler originally wanted to gank in the middle lane, but Ye Shaoyang had an extremely keen sense of 'smell' when it came to danger.
When he noticed that the opposing mid laner, the Nightmare, had ventured just a tiny bit forward in their lane, Ye Shaoyang instantly used his flash to retreat to his own tower!

As expected, the Nightmare's sleep spell descended, but failed to immobilize Ye Shaoyang.
If he hadn't used his flash, then the Nightmare would have put him to sleep, and the Ninja would definitely have been lurking nearby, ready to leap out in an instant and take his life.

That was the importance of having a keen sense of 'smell' in games—sometimes, you could guess that the enemy jungler was stalking you based on the slightest shift in your opponent's positioning.
If you escaped in time, you could save your own life.
Hesitating for even 0.1 seconds could cause you to lose your life.

Ye Shaoyang hastily recalled to his base.

The Nightmare and the Ninja… this mid/jungle duo's main strength was their ability to instantly kill off anyone they immobilized! The Nightmare was a mage with a control skill, and the Ninja could stage ambushes.
When the two of them worked together, it wasn't just mid lane glass cannons that had to worry—they could even kill a fighter.

While Ye Shaoyang waited to recall to the base, he said to Chi Shuo, “The enemy jungler is on the middle lane.”

“Mm,” Chi Shuo acknowledged.
“Let's get ready to fight for a dragon.”

Both junglers had tried and failed to gank the enemy.
Everyone had swiftly reached Level 6 now.

Neither side would simply give up on the first minor dragon of the game, right?

Every player on the team that took down the minor dragon would be richly rewarded in economic resources.

Chi Shuo marked the spawn spot of the minor dragon.
The top laners on both teams were simple passersby, and the dragon pit was too far from them, so they didn't have any intentions of joining in on the fight.
They stayed in the top lane, throwing skills at each other.

The mid laners and bottom laners swiftly grouped up by the dragon pit.

The four players on each side took some time to get into position, then Chi Shuo hit the command—

Attack!

Jin Minjun was very aggressive.
He played his support like a fighter.
When he saw that command, he instantly flashed into the enemy's back line and swung his shield down on the enemies' heads—instantly stunning the opposing marksman!

The opposing marksman immediately used 'cleanse' to remove the status effect, then fled.

But what awaited him… was the pack of four wolf cubs that Ye Shaoyang had hidden in the woods a long time ago.

Those four cubs pounced ferociously, chomping the marksman down to his last sliver of health in an instant.

The enemy support was just about to use his ult to heal his team when Ye Shaoyang suddenly shifted into human form and used his AoE 'fear' to immobilize the enemy!

The White Wolf King's two-second 'fear' effect struck the enemy marksman and support.

Chi Shuo instantly leapt into action.
He used his long-distance jump to activate hunting mode, then took down the marksman in one blow!

First Blood!

The Black Wolf's ult came off cooldown as soon as he got a kill.
He turned into his wolf form and instantly fled over a wall, retreating for the time being and waiting for his next opportunity to strike.

That was how the Black Wolf was supposed to be played.
He moved nimbly and changed often.
After attacking, he ran.
He would always seize the right opportunities to burst onto the scene to take a kill.
He maintained a never-ending cycle of attacking and disappearing, throwing the battlefield into chaos.

After the enemy marksman's sudden death, Ye Shaoyang's side should have won this bout.

Zhou Jiawen hid out in the woods in the distance.
Just as he prepared to fire his cannon at the enemy, a sharp blade swiftly slid across his throat—a '-1200' popped up above his head, showing that he'd lost 1,200 HP in one go!

Zhou Jiawen jolted with shock.
He immediately went to use his flash, but in the next instant, he was immobilized in place the the enemy's 'sleep' spell—and in just one more flurry of blows, he was taken down.

Zhou Jiawen was silent.

Playing marksman was so draining.
Did he really deserve to be ganked by two people?!

Both sides had targeted the opposing marksman.
After each side took a kill, the fight at hand turned into a 3v3.

Jin Minjun couldn't help but mutter, “This Ninja is definitely Fujita Naoya.
He's like a nowhere ghost popping up!”

Zhou Jiawen corrected, “A ghost popping up out of nowhere.”

“Oh,” Jin Minjun acknowledged.

Jin Minjun kept his shield out, originally wanting to protect the black and white wolves as they made their escape.
However, this duo didn't seem to have any intention of retreating? Those four little wolf cubs were actually going in for a reverse flank?

And the Black Wolf had circled around.
He and the White Wolf King surrounded the dragon pit together, one coming from the woods to the left and one coming from the right.
As soon as Zhou Jiawen saw this, his eyes lit up—they looked like they were going to go head-to-head with the enemy mid/jungle duo!

Ye Shaoyang's goal was clear.
He was going to kill the other mid laner!

The Nightmare was an assassin mage with high burst potential; after immobilizing an enemy, she could kill them in an instant.
But she had a very obvious flaw as well.
After dealing one wave of damage, she would be out of skills.
Meanwhile, as long as the White Wolf King's cubs didn't die, they could continuously do damage to the enemy!

Ye Shaoyang took advantage of that fact.
After setting his wolf cubs loose on the enemy marksman, he swiftly ran over to track down the enemy mid laner.

As expected, he found the Nightmare in the woods, preparing to retreat!

Ye Shaoyang's wolf cubs lunged, inflicting the Nightmare with the 'bleed' status.
The Nightmare realized she was in a bad position.
She instantly flashed into the dragon pit, hoping to escape.
However, the Black Wolf—who had long since hidden himself there—flipped over the wall in wolf form and instantly killed her with one fierce bite!

Chi Shuo had taken a double kill!

Ye Shaoyang remained on high alert, keeping his eyes on his surroundings.
The black-clad figure of the Ninja appeared behind him, just as expected.
With one set of skills, he wiped away a huge amount of Ye Shaoyang's health! Ye Shaoyang hurriedly used his W, instantly calling his wolf cubs back to his side.

The wolves came to protect their master!

This was a command which had to be issued swiftly to ensure the wolf cubs returned at a critical moment to help tank some damage.
Ye Shaoyang's sense for danger was truly very keen.
He knew that the opposing jungler couldn't possibly sit back and watch the show after Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo teamed up to kill their mid laner.
The jungler would definitely try to think of a way to take them down.

So, Ye Shaoyang's finger had long since been prepared on the W key.
He activated that skill as soon as he sensed danger!

The Ninja swiftly killed all of Ye Shaoyang's little wolves.
Ye Shaoyang was fortunately enough to stay alive, slipping away with just a sliver of HP left.

In this fight, they'd traded one life for two kills.

Their team came away with a slight advantage; Chi Shuo had gotten a double kill.

The minor dragon was left undisturbed for the time being.
No one dared to provoke it.

The game continued.
Both sides started to push and pull again.

Zhou Jiawen realized very quickly that the bottom lane duo on the other side played very cautiously.
After the Forest Envoy equipped better gear, his healing skills became much more potent.
If they faced off directly, the Cannon Master and Radiant Shield couldn't possibly take down their enemies.

The bottom laners were gradually pressured back to their defensive tower.

Jin Minjun couldn't help but ask, “Who are the two on the other side?”

“A professional marksman and support,” Zhou Jiawen said.
“Don't know which team they're with.”

There were far too many high-level marksman/support duos on the international server.
These two had chosen the extremely common Forest Envoy and Divine Archer combo, which made it very difficult to determine who they were.

Zhou Jiawen and Jin Minjun were both world-class players, but they weren't most adept at playing the positions of marksman and support.
There was nothing remarkable about them being pressured on the bottom lane by a professional marksman/support duo on the other side.
The two of them persistently stayed under their tower, clearing minions and standing guard.

The true battle of gods was going down between the mid/jungle duos!

After being killed once, the Nightmare seemed like she wouldn't simply let that go.
She waited in the woods to stage an ambush.
The instant Ye Shaoyang appeared, she immediately flashed forward to immobilize Ye Shaoyang.
The Ninja, who had been hiding nearby, shot out and took down Ye Shaoyang in a second.

Ye Shaoyang was silent.

Why so aggressive? Going at me 2v1, like I don't have teammates!

A moment later, the respawned Ye Shaoyang called Chi Shuo over.
The two of them went to lurk around by a path the enemy jungler would have to take sooner or later.
They used their explosive speed to take down the enemy Ninja together, and they stole the enemy's red buff along the way as well.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
That was how fiercely they played.

The two sides remained locked in a constant push and pull.

In the blink of an eye, the kill-death score for both sides reached 11-11.
The game entered a stalemate.

Only the two top laners continued to face off in a 1v1.
The Black Wolf never went up to the top lane, and the Ninja never went up to the top lane.
It seemed the top laners had been… forgotten?

In truth, the two junglers had reached a silent sort of understanding.
Neither of them would go up to the top lane to bully the average passersby.

They would only target the professionals on the mid and bottom lanes!

At the fifteen-minute mark, the outer tower on the lower lane was destroyed.

At the eighteen-minute mark, Zhou Jiawen and Jin Minjun took advantage of a moment when the enemy bottom lane duo went back to their base.
They used that chance to push forward.

At the twenty-minute mark, a normal game would have been reaching its end.
However, in this game, the two sides had each only lost one tower.
The two teams silently congregated on the middle lane.

Ultimately, they remained in a deadlock for five minutes there.
The heroes continuously cleared away the minions.
No one managed to take down a tower.

This constant back and forth kept the two sides in a stalemate.
Coach Li couldn't help but say, “Our team comp is actually pretty outstanding.
We have two crowd control heroes! Their Forest Envoy is their only crowd control hero.
Their Nightmare can only immobilize one hero at a time.”

Zhou Jiawen smiled and said, “We might be able to beat them in a team fight.
It just depends on what the sun and moon are thinking.”

Elsewhere, Chi Shuo furrowed his brow.
He retreated for the time being and signaled Ye Shaoyang to circle around with him.

The two of them silently circled through the woods in sync, putting on an act of moving up to the top lane.

When the enemy top laner saw that the black and white wolves were moving up on the minimap, he was scared half to death.
He silently prayed, You guys don't come up here!

He curled up tight under his own tower, refusing to stick his head out.

Only Zhou Jiawen and Jin Minjun saw that the two of them weren't actually going up to the top lane.
Rather, they had shifted into their wolf forms and leapt over the walls where no one had placed any wards.
In a place where they couldn't be seen, they turned and circled into the enemy jungle.

Zhou Jiawen's eyes lit up.
He hit the command—

Attack!

Jin Minjun moved as soon as he saw the black and white wolves.
Although he only had around 20% of his HP left, and was guaranteed to be killed, he still decisively led the charge and rushed into the fray with an AoE crowd control skill—

The opposing support was standing near the marksman, preparing to heal him.
The two of them were standing so close together that they were instantly stunned at once.

Zhou Jiawen was nearly dead, but he still bravely took a step forward and took aim at the two of them with an ult!

His cannon launched a huge AoE attack, instantly cutting own the two stunned heroes to half health.

Ye Shaoyang, lurking nearby, instantly sent out his little wolf cubs.
The four wolves split up and snapped at the support and marksman.
In the blink of an eye, both those heroes were left with just a sliver of HP left.

Seeing that the stun effect was about to wear off, Ye Shaoyang shifted into his human form and used his AoE 'fear' skill—

The enemy was immobilized again!

Chi Shuo swiftly seized the opportunity to jump into the fight.

All the other players could only watch as a black figure hurtled forward.

The Black Wolf's movements were as fast as lightning.
He leapt in from afar and killed the support with one bite!

With the healing support still alive, Chi Shuo had no way to collect everyone's heads.
As soon as the support died—that was the Black Wolf's cue to begin slaughtering with abandon.

Zhou Jiawen's cannon and Ye Shaoyang's wolf cubs had already bloodied the enemies.
As soon as the Black Wolf entered the fight, he could get a kill and shapeshift again, then continue killing—targeting the marksman next.
After taking down the marksman, he shifted once more and went after the fleeing mid laner!

The enemy mid laner fled very quickly, but no matter how quickly she ran, she wouldn't be able to outrun a black wolf who could easily scale walls with one leap.

The Black Wolf swiftly caught up to her, taking the Nightmare's head with one swift attack.

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

Chi Shuo had taken three kills in one go!

At the same time, the opposing Ninja had also swiftly hacked the low-health Zhou Jiawen and Jin Minjun to death.
But Ye Shaoyang used his wolf cubs to protect himself, managing to stay alive.
Then, he led his cubs into battle, teaming up with Chi Shuo to chase down and slaughter the Ninja.

Two wolves, with four little cubs, sprinted through the rift, pursuing the black-clad, masked ninja.

The black-clad ninja was being chased by six wolves.
He could run until his legs fell off, and he still wouldn't be able to escape them.
Could a human ever run faster than a wolf, after all?

Finally, the Ninja resentfully fell to a leaping bite from the Black Wolf!

This tableau was enough to make Zhou Jiawen laugh and cry.

Being chased by six wolves… that was the most diabolical part of the black/white wolf kings comp.
You want to run? You wouldn't even get out the door!

Jin Minjun laughed boisterously in the voice chat.
“Fujita is going to die of anger.
Being chased and bitten, poor guy, hahaha.”

Zhou Jiawen reminded, “Don't take pleasure in the misery of others.
In future games, you'll be chased and bitten by these wolves as well.
These high-level players are definitely professionals.”

Jin Minjun's laugh suddenly got stuck in his throat.
“…oh, that's right.”

When he imagined himself being chased by those wolves, Jin Minjun couldn't laugh anymore.
He gravely asked, “Which team is practicing the black/white wolf kings? Hurry and investigate.”

Zhou Jiawen helplessly said, “Why is everyone asking me to investigate? I'm not Investigator Zhou!”

Earlier, when Mitchell had taken note of those two, he had also contacted Zhou Jiawen right away to ask if he knew them.
It was true that Zhou Jiawen had made a name for himself on the international server, but he didn't know every high-level player on the international server, right?

In this game, he and Jin Minjun actually didn't play very well.
They hadn't picked out positions that they were used to playing.

But they'd done alright in the team fight just now.
Jin Minjun had immobilized two people, and Zhou Jiawen had followed up with a huge blast from his cannon, badly wounding their enemies.
The White Wolf King had followed up with his own 'fear' skill, seamlessly immobilizing their enemies again.

They had done a beautiful job of controlling the other team.

All this was necessary to build the foundation for the Black Wolf's deadly assault.

When the two bottom lane duos clashed, their side's bottom laners had been suppressed in early-game.

But that was the nature of a game.
Oftentimes, a single victory in a team fight could change the tide of the whole game.

In that team fight just now, with help from his teammates, Chi Shuo had taken four kills in one go.

The Black Wolf's advantage soared, and he soon managed to get his optimal gear.

The enemy mid laner was actually very powerful.
However, when the opposing team was equipped with inferior gear, they had no hopes of turning things around again.
Ultimately, the game ended at the thirty-minute mark, with Chi Shuo's team winning by a narrow margin.

Before the game ended, the player [Ninja33] typed into the global chat: [Good job!]

Immediately afterwards, he added: [Professional player?]

Were they professionals?

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo looked at each other.
Then, Ye Shaoyang did his very best to resist the urge to answer with his usual emoticon.
He vaguely answered: [You're great, too~]

The other player was speechless.

After the game, upon sending a friend request, a system notification informed them that these players weren't accepting friend requests.

And upon checking out their battle records, it was quickly discovered that these wolves had hidden their battle histories.

 

At the headquarters of Team GOW in Japan, Fujita Naoya furrowed his brow deeply.
His teammate, who had played the Nightmare, said with a perplexed expression, “Captain, where did these pros come from? I've never seen them before?”

Fujita thoughtfully mused, “It's the middle of the night.
Professional players like playing ranked to practice heroes at this time.
Based on that, these are probably players from an Asian division.
Very possibly the Korean division.”

Meanwhile, Jin Minjun was saying, “Could these two be from Singapore? I heard Singapore has some pretty good teams.”

Zhou Jiawen said, “My guess is they're from the European division.
The day before yesterday, they were playing at eight in the morning, our time.
With the time difference, it would have been late at night over there.
This time, we ran into them at midnight.
And it's the middle of the day in Europe now.”

“Makes sense!” Jin Minjun exclaimed.
“Mitchell also thinks that, so these must be Europeans!”

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo, who were being categorized as all sorts of international players, would have been baffled.

Ahem.
We're just professional players who are early to bed, early to rise.