# Chapter 80
Zhou Huo wasn't with the team this time, so naturally he didn't witness that scene. However, on the way back after dinner, he still found out.
The drive back to the base was a bit backed up. With nothing else to do in the car, Zhou Huo was scrolling through his phone—when he spotted the post on Weibo about Yu Sui accepting a fan's gift.
After arriving at the base and getting out of the car, Zhou Huo waved his phone at Yu Sui. "You've never accepted all those luxury gifts your fans send you, but today you actually took a doll? And it's not even from your own role."
Zhou Huo held back a laugh, lowering his voice. "You just casually took a fragger doll from a fan, tsk, tsk…"
Shi Luo pretended not to hear, whistling as he walked through the base entrance carrying his gear bag that concealed the doll.
Zhou Huo watched Yu Sui with satisfaction, sincerely sighing. "Seriously, you're the most low-maintenance batch I've ever coached. How are you this considerate? Your fans are already guessing—who are you planning to give that fragger doll to?"
"That doll is a fragger?" Chen Huo got out of the car, glanced at Yu Sui upon hearing this, utterly surprised. "For me?! I… I actually don't really like dolls."
Yu Sui turned his head, face expressionless, to look at Chen Huo. Chen Huo愣了一下 and realized it was meant for another fragger on the team. He撇嘴，"呸！不稀罕！" Pfft! Don't need it!"
"Why must you ask that and embarrass yourself?" Puppy gave his foolish brother a pitiful look. "…Now not only do the fans feel bad for you, I feel bad for you too."
Old Qiao looked at Yu Sui, then at Shi Luo's back that had already disappeared through the base entrance. A light bulb suddenly went off in his mind.
Old Qiao had an epiphany. He glanced at Chen Huo, who was still in the dark, and suddenly felt a strange sense of superiority. He patted Chen Huo on the back and entered the base.
Because of the traffic, they didn't get back to the base until eleven. Old Qiao didn't give them time to freshen up—he dragged them straight to the training room to watch today's Saint vs. NSN match.
Both teams were at peak condition. The three-game series was a grueling battle from start to finish. Old Qiao replayed all three games without skipping a single second.
Saint had developed specific tactics against NSN, but the counter-effectiveness wasn't as strong as it had been against Free. NSN didn't have particularly distinctive individual team characteristics, which actually wasn't a bad thing. They weren't going for a mediocre route either—they just executed every aspect well. Even Wawa, originally the team's weak point, didn't drop the ball. They had no overwhelming killer moves, but they also didn't give their opponents obvious angles to exploit. Saint's loss came from constantly trying to break through, always striking first, yet never managing to capitalize and getting counter-killed instead. After several rounds of this, the disadvantage accumulated. After three intense games, they lost the match by the slimmest of margins.
After reviewing all three games, Old Qiao closed his notebook. "If playoffs are at this intensity… we can't be confident either. Everyone needs to work even harder."
Yu Sui stared at the monitor, fell silent for a moment, then said, "I've wanted to say this since our match against them last time—Saint actually didn't need to…"
Yu Sui didn't continue.
Shi Luo glanced at Yu Sui, understood his meaning after a moment, and gently shook his head.
Old Qiao nodded. "Indeed, unnecessary. Not worth it."
Chen Huo caught on a second later, hesitated, but also kept quiet.
Zhou Huo was completely lost, having watched three games of another team's review. Confused, he waited for a while, but seeing that no one seemed inclined to explain, he had to ask humbly, "What do you mean? Can you guys communicate just by looking at each other now? Am I, as a non-pro player, not qualified to hear this? I've at least been here serving tea and keeping you company for hours—can you give us regular players an explanation?"
Old Qiao looked at Zhou Huo with curiosity. "You're asking the right question. I also want to know—you can't understand a single word, so why were you sitting here all night?"
"You wouldn't let the cameraman follow into the training room because you're afraid of leaking tactics, so I had to come myself." Zhou Huo held a small handheld camera, helpless. "Guys, I need to manage the team. I need content, okay?… Never mind, you all don't care about that. That's not the point. So what I want to know is—what did Saint not need to do?"
After getting Zhou Huo's promise that he would film some close-up shots of them later, Puppy slowly explained. "Yu God is too soft-hearted… He knows he's got a doom-tongue, so he doesn't want to say it out loud, but honestly, the situation is right there."
Puppy turned to Zhou Huo, spreading his hands. "Saint's been too serious lately. Unnecessary."
Zhou Huo laughed in disbelief. "Being too serious about competition is unnecessary? What kind of attitude is that? If this gets out, your fans are going to tear you apart."
"That's exactly why it can't get out." Puppy said lazily. "If you dare spread this, we'll silence you… It's not that being serious is bad—we all want to win. But you have to consider what competition you're playing and what the cost of winning will be."
Zhou Huo still didn't get it. Chen Huo impatiently cut in, "Just take that match against us last time. They had such a great strategy, had practiced those combos for so long, kept completely quiet about it beforehand, then suddenly pulled it out—wasn't it to catch us completely off guard?"
Zhou Huo dumbly nodded. "Yeah!"
"So unnecessary! They shouldn't have revealed that killer move during the regular season. It's not like they were on the brink of missing playoffs. Was it really necessary to win that one regular season match?" Chen Huo couldn't figure it out either, frowning. "At that point, they should've just played normally. Lose if they lose. Keep that great combo hidden until playoffs, semifinals or finals, then hit us with it when we least expected it!"
Zhou Huo suddenly understood, stunned. "R-Right…"
"Although by then it's a BO5 and we'll have more time to respond, a killer move is still a killer move—at minimum it can definitely take at least one game from us. If they use it against us in the first game of the finals, whether for taking a map or messing with our mental state, it would be effective. But they didn't… They had to reveal it in a meaningless regular season match. And today—" Chen Huo lifted his chin, frowning at the monitor. "This strategy against NSN definitely took a lot of thought to develop, and they used it in the regular season again. Don't even get me started on Yu Sui… I want to ask Angel Sword what he was thinking. Dump everything out—what do you have left for playoffs?"
Puppy shook his head in agreement. "Such a waste. And what I find strangest is—we can figure this out, but Saint can't? What kind of tactics is this?"
"Um…" Zhou Huo caught on. "Maybe they wanted a good regular season ranking?"
"What use is a regular season ranking?… Their ranking's stable in the top three anyway. As long as they're not in the bottom, they make playoffs. It's all the same." Shi Luo frowned. "What's wrong with losing a few games? At worst the haters flame them for a few days. Who cares?"
"Although it benefits us, I still think Saint shouldn't be playing like this." Old Qiao closed the match video, slowly saying. "Of course, it's also possible they have so many killer moves prepared that they don't mind revealing one early for us to see."
Shi Luo raised his eyes, countering, "Do we have that many exploitable weaknesses?"
Chen Huo laughed despite himself. "N-No, probably not."
"Ah, forget what they're thinking. The point is it benefits us, right? That's enough." Zhou Huo couldn't be bothered to overthink it. "Seriously… This isn't like you guys. Why are you worried about another team?"
No one answered. Old Qiao said helplessly, "Opponents on the field, but off the field… 'Friendship' sounds too gross and mushy. It's more like recognizing kindred spirits. We're all from the same region. Even as competitors, who actually wishes the other side would die? I really don't agree with their approach… Every regular season match, they're playing like it's the World Finals. As if there's no match after this one. Unnecessary."
Zhou Huo's empathy for other pro players was limited. He was more focused on his own players anyway, shrugging. "As long as it benefits us, fine. Okay okay, look at the camera. Say cheese."
Everyone was exhausted from the day and still thinking about Saint's situation. Their expressions weren't very lively—just blank faces. Zhou Huo勉强 managed to snap a few photos, and only Puppy cooperated.
It was almost two in the morning. At this hour, logging in to play wouldn't get them many rounds. Old Qiao dismissed everyone to rest. Chen Huo and Puppy left without even unpacking their gear bags, heading back to their dorms. Only Shi Luo walked off to the side to get his gear bag.
Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo. "What's wrong?"
Shi Luo lowered his head and took out the doll, setting it aside carefully. "Didn't do repetitive training today. I'll do one more session before sleeping… Don't want to get rusty."
Zhou Huo laughed. "You don't need to do this. What's with the sudden hustle?"
Shi Luo furrowed his brow. After a moment, he said, "What if Saint really is hiding several killer moves?"
Before anyone else could speak, Shi Luo took his gear bag and set up his peripherals, plugging them into his computer. "Haven't you seen what the haters are saying? That the team has one player with no competitive experience. I'm lacking experience. If he's really preparing killer moves, they're probably aimed at me… I'm only playing for an hour. Don't worry about me."
Zhou Huo couldn't stand it and was about to persuade him otherwise, but Yu Sui said, "Set an alarm for three. Get off at three."
Shi Luo nodded. "OK."
Zhou Huo stared at Yu Sui in bewilderment, completely deflated. "Fine. If you're not worried, what am I supposed to say?"
Old Qiao, who had already figured out the relationship between the two, waved his hand dismissively. "You don't need to interfere. Does respecting their rest count as caring? Not dragging them down, not interfering with their training—that's genuine concern, okay?"
Zhou Huo couldn't understand the romance between pro players. He shook his head and went to rest.
Yu Sui watched Shi Luo turn on his computer, then returned to his own dorm. He took a shower, put away his dirty clothes, dried his hair, sent a message to his parents, and dragged things out, barely waiting until three.
Yu Sui put on his jacket, pushed open the door, and headed to the training room.
Inside, Shi Luo was wearing headphones, still practicing aim in a custom server.
Normally when training together in the same room, everyone complained about each other's noise, so they all wore noise-canceling headphones. Shi Luo didn't hear Yu Sui open the door. Yu Sui closed the door behind him and went back to his dorm to play two rounds of mobile games.
After those two rounds, it was already half past three. Yu Sui went to check on the training room again. Shi Luo was still there.
For a moment, Yu Sui thought—this might be Saint's dirty tactic.
By constantly showcasing new strategies, they intimidate other teams, winning through the method of exhaustingly running his boyfriend into the ground.
If he waited any longer, it would be four. Yu Sui walked up behind Shi Luo and removed Shi Luo's headphones for him.
Shi Luo startled. "You… Haven't you slept?"
"Afraid you'd pull an all-nighter." Yu Sui held Shi Luo's headphones. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly froze. He lowered his gaze to Shi Luo's headphones.
The sound coming from the headphones was very, very soft, but Yu Sui's hearing was too good—that little bit of sound was enough for him to hear it clearly.
Shi Luo's ears flushed red. His fingers flew across the keys, quickly closing his music player. Yu Sui was quiet for a moment, then slowly asked, "Shi Shen, were you just listening to… fan-edited clips of my voice?"
Some of Yu Sui's younger fans had created their own little community. They'd edited together some of his vocal inflections and sound effects, combining them into ambiguous audio clips. Yu Sui had known about this for a while—it's just fans having fun with harmless content. He didn't mind it himself, but he never expected that Shi Luo had a copy too.
"I'm not quite sure… what the point is of you listening to secondhand audio like this." Yu Sui tried his best to hold back his laughter, speaking earnestly. "Shi Shen, if you want, I can record a personal one just for you."