Full-time: The Strongest Sniper

In Monday's reports, Happy, who had secured the victory, was overshadowed by Wuji, completely overshadowed by last week's professional league news. If Chen Guo hadn't had a clear objective, finding her would have been a question entirely.

It's important to understand that very few people follow a professional team like Wuji, which has already been eliminated, even though they're only mentioned once a year. Furthermore, those who follow Wuji are mostly Wuji fans, meaning that probably 90% of players who see Happy hope that Happy will lose in their next match.

Most players who watch various esports news reports are clearly not there for the challenge tournament.

Last week, the third round of the professional league concluded, and the various new playstyles of the new season still left everyone feeling quite refreshed. Among them, Lu Hanwen, the rookie player of the Blue Rain team, attracted the most attention. In the match between Blue Rain and Royal Wind that ended this week, Lu Hanwen delivered a stunning performance.

In the arena battle, he played as Blue Rain's starting player and defeated two players from Royal Wind in succession. Even in the third match against Royal Wind's god-level account, Sweeping Incense, he did not lose his edge. It should be noted that as the tactical core of Royal Wind, Sweeping Incense's operator, Tian Sen, is also a very strong player.

Although he was ultimately defeated by Tian Sen, he delivered many amazing moments during the match. In fact, considering the percentage of health points lost by both sides, many people felt that if it weren't for the previous physical damage, Lu Hanwen might have even been able to defeat a god.

Lu Hanwen's performance was so outstanding that no one cared about the final score between Blue Rain and Royal Wind; all attention was focused on Lu Hanwen's arena match.

Of course, laymen only see the spectacle, while experts see the strategy. In this round of matches, Blue Rain's brand-new tactics have begun to emerge.

The Twin Swordsmen.

Huang Shaotian's Night Rain Sound and Lu Hanwen's Flowing Cloud, both swordsman characters, appeared on the team match roster at the same time. And the attacking position, which was previously held by Yu Feng, an all-star player, has now been boldly handed over to such a newcomer by Blue Rain.

While Lu Hanwen's character is certainly not weak in terms of individual attributes, and given Blue Rain's experience with Ye Yushengfan, it can be said that as long as there are enough materials, equipping Liuyun with weapons is not a problem at all. It's just that some of the qualities and additional attributes need to be changed based on the player's operation.

This is why Liu Yun's equipment cannot be completely copied from Ye Yu Sheng Fan's. Even so, Lu Hanwen's Liu Yun has ten self-made pieces of equipment, which is already on par with Ye Yu Sheng Fan in terms of equipment quantity alone.

Of the four different pieces of equipment, the one that attracts the most attention is Lu Hanwen's character's weapon.

Night Rain's weapon is the lightsaber Ice Rain, which is formed from a beam of ghostly blue light. Flowing Cloud's weapon, on the other hand, is a greatsword: Flame Shadow.

The greatsword and the lightsaber are arguably the most extreme weapons for swordsmen. One has the highest attack speed, while the other has the slowest attack speed. However, the greatsword has higher attack power and attack range than the lightsaber.

In the game's lore, swordsmen are masters of all types of swords. Therefore, swordsmen not only possess the unique passive skill of lightsaber mastery but also greatsword mastery. Other sword-wielding classes don't have lightsaber mastery but can learn mastery of other weapons. Swordsmen mostly use lightsabers due to their fast attack speed, good handling, and status as a unique weapon type. Katanas are next, but far less common than lightsabers, and their use is quite limited in the professional scene. All these weapons share one characteristic: high attack speed.

However, Lu Hanwen was an outlier. Instead of using the fast-attacking weapons available today, he chose the heavy sword, which had the slowest attack speed and focused on attack power and range.

In fact, Lu Hanwen's use of a greatsword has been a hot topic of discussion since his first day in the professional league. Initially, many players questioned it, and even recently, there were many people online making sarcastic remarks about Lu Hanwen. However, with the end of the third round of the competition, Lu Hanwen decisively silenced all those who had spoken out.

Many professional analysts in the Honor of Kings community have also pointed out that Lu Hanwen's current success is partly due to the fact that his heavy sword style is somewhat unexpected for players from other professional teams. However, as the competition continues and players from various teams study him more thoroughly, it remains to be seen how long Lu Hanwen can maintain this style of play.

This is actually something that happens every year in the early stages of a professional league: the rookie wall!
The "rookie wall" refers to the exceptionally talented players who debut in a single season and immediately become the center of attention, showcasing their extraordinary talent upon entering the league. However, this is largely due to a lack of understanding of their playstyles. As the season progresses, other teams thoroughly analyze and familiarize themselves with these strategies, causing the rookies' performances to become less impressive. This situation is known as the "rookie wall."

As a rookie player, this is the most uncertain and inexperienced period when they first debut, and each player's performance is different. Some encounter this situation and suffer greatly, becoming discouraged and gradually turning into an ordinary player in the professional league. In fact, this is quite common, after all, esports is a field that heavily relies on talent. You may be a genius among geniuses, but that's the most common starting point in this field.

Such players usually need to readjust and adapt to the competition. Their performance will be judged after they stabilize, but it is difficult for them to shine as brightly as before.

Of course, during this season of Glory, there were also rookies who completely ignored the rookie wall and instead dominated all the players in the league. Such rookies have only appeared twice in the professional league over the years, and both of them became legends in the league the following year.

They are Wang Jiexi, the captain of Team Tiny Herb who debuted in the third season, and Sun Xiang, who is no longer in the league and is now fighting alongside Team Excellent Era in the Challenger Series.

However, the two situations are somewhat different. Wang Jiexi broke through the rookie wall by sheer force, but Sun Xiang's ability to break through the rookie wall also owes some credit to his original team. After all, Sun Xiang's team at the time was at the bottom of the professional league, and the major teams were not in a hurry to study him. Even with Sun Xiang, the opposing team could not affect the rankings of the top teams.

Therefore, without much research on Sun Xiang, it was naturally easier for him to play against others. However, in the second season, with the data from the previous season and the addition of his opponent to Excellent Era, everyone suddenly took him seriously. After a season of research, it became much more difficult for Sun Xiang to play in subsequent matches.

Of course, the fact that major guilds are targeting Sun Xiang is also a way for various teams to indirectly acknowledge Sun Xiang's strength.

After all, how could someone who earns the title of "God" be weak? (End of Chapter)