That night, Chi Shuo stayed up late reviewing the material Ming Shen had given them, quickly going through recordings of matches from the European AMT team. He discovered that Romain was indeed a very strong player with an exceptionally deep hero pool. His performance during the regular season had been outstanding — multiple triple kills, quadruple kills, and MVP awards.
By comparison, Cheng Xing's performance during the regular season didn't quite measure up.
However, solo duels and team battles required completely different ways of thinking. Romain's success in team matches was largely due to his teammates — especially his Support, Kyrian, whose protection and crowd control created a comfortable output environment for him.
Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang studied until late into the night, accompanying Cheng Xing for extra practice. The three of them finally decided on a specific plan for him to try in his matches.
The rules for the World Invitational individual competition were simple: both players had access to the full hero pool and competed for their picks by reaction speed. Once a player used a hero, that hero would automatically enter a "ban pool" for that player and could not be selected again in subsequent rounds.
For example, if Player A used [Wind Elf] in the first game, then A could not use [Wind Elf] again in later games, though Player B still could — similar to a full-global BP rule in the playoffs.
Ye Shaoyang's plan essentially followed a "Tian Ji's Horse Racing" strategy: use Cheng Xing's less-favored Marksmen against the opponent's strongest hero, then use his best Marksman against the opponent's weaker picks.
Best of three — as long as he won two matches, he'd advance.
Ye Shaoyang even personally acted as his sparring partner, simulating Romain's hero pool. Cheng Xing trained earnestly, practicing straight until 2 a.m., and woke up at 8 the next morning to prepare.
Seeing the dark circles under Cheng Xing's eyes, Ye Shaoyang couldn't help but ask, "Don't tell me you didn't sleep at all last night?"
Cheng Xing scratched his head sheepishly. "I was too excited to sleep, so I just watched match replays all night. Hehe, I'll catch up on sleep after the match."
With one hour left before the match started at 9:00, Ye Shaoyang practiced a bit more with Cheng Xing to help him warm up. At precisely 8:50, Cheng Xing logged into the international server's [Individual Competition Wild Card Zone]. The system automatically matched him into the game room; his opponent's ID was indeed the one listed on the schedule — Romain.
The referee read out the rules and enabled webcam verification. Since this was an online match, all participants had to keep their cameras on during the entire session so referees could monitor them in real time and prevent any account sharing or third-party play.
Once the verification ended, the match officially began at 9:00.
In the first game, the full hero pool was open. As expected, Romain instantly locked in [Wind Elf], one of the strongest Marksmen for duels — also one of his best heroes.
Following Ye Shaoyang's strategy, Cheng Xing picked [Machine Gun Hunter].
In team games, [Machine Gun Hunter] played a significant role — quick tower pushing and fast wave clearing made it ideal in a "Siege Push" lineup with a Support. However, in a solo match, the hero was far too sluggish, lacking any movement skill and easily kited to death.
Romain was surprised to see this and couldn't help but comment to his teammates: "Is this Starlight guy trolling? Who picks Machine Gun Hunter for a solo duel?"
His teammate Vanessa looked at the information and smiled. "He's from the China Division. From what I know, their best Marksman is Rain, who got recommended for the individual competition. This Starlight must be a nobody — probably a rookie joining the Wild Card Division for fun."
Romain agreed. He rubbed his hands together, ready to go.
The 10-second countdown ended, and the map loaded.
The 1v1 map was simple — only a mid-lane, no top or bottom lanes, and no neutral monsters for farming gold, just a few bushes for ambush opportunities. Gold had to come entirely from minion waves, requiring very precise micro-control.
Victory conditions were also simple: either destroy the enemy crystal or secure three kills.
At the start, Cheng Xing stayed defensively under his tower, farming cautiously. Thanks to [Machine Gun Hunter]'s fast wave-clearing, Romain couldn't dive him right away. Both sides farmed in peace until they hit level six, when Romain suddenly popped his ultimate, dove under tower, and shot Cheng Xing a few times, instantly taking off half his health bar.
There were no health packs in this mode — no way to heal mid-fight. With no movement skills, Cheng Xing's hero was easy prey. Soon, Romain had him down to a sliver of HP, forcing him to recall.
Romain took advantage of the moment to push the tower with the minion wave.
They battled back and forth until the 10-minute mark. After completing his core items, Romain dove the tower and killed Cheng Xing, taking the outer turret. He quickly snowballed his lead — his gear outpaced Cheng Xing's by an entire item, allowing him to go in for reckless auto-attacks. Each critical hit almost one-shotted Cheng Xing's low health pool.
The first game ended at the 14-minute mark. Cheng Xing lost decisively.
During the 5-minute intermission, Ye Shaoyang analyzed, "Romain's playstyle is aggressive. Xing, focus on details next round — drag the match into the late game."
Cheng Xing nodded. "Got it!"
In the second game, Romain locked in [Sharpshooter] — another great dueling Marksman with extreme attack range. No one could reach him with basic attacks unless an Assassin managed to flank.
In Marksman duels, [Sharpshooter] could snipe from far away while the opponent couldn't reach him. Just two accurate sniper shots could leave the opponent low HP or outright dead.
Cheng Xing didn't rush to pick; after seeing Romain's choice, he locked in [Blood Princess].
This was one of Cheng Xing's best Marksmen. Her ultimate provided extreme lifesteal. Though she lacked mobility, her sustained DPS was among the top of all Marksmen, and her survivability was tremendous.
When the match began, Romain quickly sniped Cheng Xing twice, leaving him at low HP, forcing him to recall.
A few minutes later, he sniped him low again, forcing another recall.
"This rookie is too bad," Romain thought as he stared at the screen. "He can't even dodge. I'll end this quickly."
When Cheng Xing returned to the lane, however, Romain noticed his opponent had vanished into a nearby bush — playing overly cautious.
Minion waves met in the middle lane. Romain used Q to snipe and clear minions; he figured even without engaging, he could just push the turret and still win.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Romain suddenly caught a glimpse of red fabric.
Cheng Xing instantly flashed from the nearby brush, wiped out the wave, and launched a full combo on him. Because the wave was gone, the turret targeted Romain with one shot. Romain reacted quickly — using his ultimate for a quick snipe and retreating to widen the gap — but Cheng Xing popped his lifesteal ultimate and chased him down.
Romain sniped him twice, leaving him low again — but Cheng Xing healed it all back in seconds!
The [Blood Princess]'s ultimate lifesteal was as strong as a healer's recovery. At this point, Romain realized he'd walked into a trap. [Sharpshooter] excelled at long-range poke, not in close fights — and there was no way he could win a brawl against [Blood Princess]!
He'd misjudged, pushing too far forward, and now [Blood Princess] forced him back to base on low health.
From then on, Romain found the fight increasingly frustrating. Cheng Xing's first item was "Blood Arrow," [Blood Princess]' core lifesteal item, granting percentage-based life drain on every attack. Combined with her ultimate, she could return to full health in seconds. Romain's long-range snipes were useless; two shots later, she had already healed up.
On top of that, [Sharpshooter]'s ammunition count was limited, and the cooldown between sets was long — whereas Cheng Xing could constantly attack and even heal off minion waves.
It was like scratching an itch through a boot — completely pointless. Unless Romain could burst him in one combo, he couldn't win. But [Sharpshooter] wasn't a burst hero — it took time to aim, shoot, and reload. By the time he finally reloaded, Cheng Xing had built "Thorn Armor."
Thorn Armor reflected 50% of received physical damage. Normally, only Warriors and Tanks built it. A Marksman using armor instead of pure damage? Completely insane!
But Cheng Xing's logic was basically mocking him: Come on, shoot me. Each time you hit, half of it comes back at you. I can heal back up — you can't.
Romain: "…"
In the late game, [Blood Princess] became a literal monster. Two auto-attacks could restore her to full HP, and combined with Thorn Armor, she turned into a thorny cactus — impossible to damage.
Her damage was weak, sure, but so what?
She didn't need to burst him. Slowly pushing towers was enough.
Though Cheng Xing didn't manage to solo-kill Romain, his lane control was immaculate. Keeping constant wave pressure, he pushed and finally destroyed the crystal right under Romain's nose.
Seeing the golden "Victory" text flash on screen, Cheng Xing shouted excitedly, "The strategy really worked!"
Ye Shaoyang said, "Don't celebrate yet. There's still one more game."
Cheng Xing nodded hard. "Right, I'll focus on the third one!"
In the first two games, Cheng Xing always waited for Romain to pick first. In the individual competition, both players had access to all heroes simultaneously — you could either pick early for power or wait to counterpick late. Sometimes, last-second swaps were all about psychological warfare.
In the third game, Romain chose [Archer], a hero whose flaming arrows inflicted continuous burn damage. Cheng Xing counter-picked with [Snow Maiden], whose frosty arrows applied slow effects on hit.
Once the game began, Romain gradually realized he could barely land hits!
Both heroes theoretically had similar attack ranges, but [Snow Maiden]'s frost arrows constantly slowed him, making his movement sluggish like a snail. He couldn't move or chase — and naturally, in a shootout, that meant defeat.
Worse, [Snow Maiden]'s repeated hits could trigger one-second freezes. Romain was miserable, repeatedly slowed and frozen, barely able to clear minion waves.
[Snow Maiden] wasn't a common Marksman pick in competitions because of her low base damage — even with full six-item builds, her DPS lagged behind others. She was usually used in niche "control" or "strategy" lineups, not duels. But today, in 1v1, she worked wonders!
Cheng Xing grew more comfortable the longer he played. By the 10-minute mark, his quick auto-attack bursts landed three consecutive shots in one second, freezing Romain solid!
Immediately after, Cheng Xing ulted and landed critical hits, finishing off the low-health Romain in a solo kill!
Seeing the system message pop up — Starlight has slain Romain — Cheng Xing almost jumped out of his chair with excitement. His left hand flew across the rainbow keyboard, right hand moving the mouse to push the wave and destroy the outer tower.
Romain respawned, fought back, and left Cheng Xing low, but Cheng Xing instantly flashed and slowed him, escaping with a sliver of HP.
By the 15-minute mark, in the late game, [Snow Maiden]'s attack speed hit max, freezing opponents into despair. Finally, Cheng Xing froze Romain in front of his crystal and destroyed it immediately!
— Victory!
— Congratulations to Player [Starlight] for advancing to the second round of the Wild Card Tournament!
Cheng Xing jumped to his feet, shouting, "I won! I won!!!"
Ye Shaoyang smiled and patted his shoulder. "Well done."
In France's AMT team base, Romain sat dazed. "How did this happen?"
Vanessa rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Don't you think your heroes in the second and third games were countered? It feels like they studied you ahead of time — like a BP draft."
Romain had the same feeling. The first game went smoothly, but by the second and third, everything started feeling off. Scratching his head, he muttered, "Is there some mastermind behind him?"
Cheng Xing, of course, was ecstatic.
Behind him stood not one, but two strategists!
His Master was a former individual world champion — no one could match him in duel strategies, build choices, or psychological play. Brother Yang was a Marksman expert who even practiced with him personally!
Cheng Xing knew perfectly well that his personal skill level was below Romain's, but in competitive play, brute force wasn't everything — strategy mattered too, even in 1v1 fights.
How to choose heroes, how to counterbuild, how to seize the timing —
Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang had taught him all of it, which became the key to his comeback victory.
At first, he thought participating in the Wild Card division would just make him cannon fodder for experience. But after this match, Cheng Xing realized one thing—
Nothing was impossible.
His mechanics weren't bad, his awareness was decent, and his reflexes and reaction time kept up. With guidance from his Master and Brother Yang, his chances in solo matches were very real.
Maybe—just maybe—he could join his Master and Brother Yang at the World Invitational and make a name for himself too.