"What's going on???"
"What's happening?"
"Why was the match suddenly paused?"
"???????????"
"What happened? I just went to the restroom, and the match was paused when I came back?"
Amidst a flood of question marks, the camera panned towards yLs. Chen Jing, He Wang, and Qin Yu on screen all visibly froze, then curiously glanced towards where gdt was seated.
The referee entered the arena, understood the situation, and had a brief communication with both coaches. Lan Bowen, upon receiving the news, immediately went to yLs to brief them and explain the situation.
Meanwhile, the commentators also received the information: gdt's Yang Sinian's equipment had malfunctioned, and the league was dispatching technicians to fix it promptly.
The members of yLs, upon learning of the situation, appeared quite calm. They chatted and laughed amongst themselves through their headsets, clearly not taking the matter too seriously.
After the commentators analyzed the initial few minutes of the game and ran some advertisements, the match finally resumed.
Due to the recent malfunction, the resumption of the match was pushed back by approximately thirty seconds, meaning it returned to the point just before Sheng Kuang, accompanied by Chen Jing and He Wang, invaded gdt's jungle and stole the blue buff.
Previously, Sheng Kuang had successfully stolen the blue buff because gdt had no prior knowledge of his intentions. Now, with the replay, gdt was prepared. Sheng Kuang's subsequent jungle invasion not only failed to secure the blue buff but also resulted in Chen Jing sacrificing himself to Yang Sinian to ensure Sheng Kuang and He Wang's safe retreat.
yLs's dominant advantage was reversed at this moment. However, having already won two consecutive games, the outcome of this particular match didn't carry immense pressure for yLs. Thus, their mentality remained stable, and they showed no fluctuation due to gdt's counter-play.
At five minutes and thirty seconds into the game, Sheng Kuang executed a brilliant prediction in gdt's red buff area. He not only stole Yang Sinian's red buff but also managed to eliminate Yang Sinian, who was at half health.
Taking advantage of gdt's jungler being eliminated, Sheng Kuang secured the Baron, successfully shifting the momentum back into a dominant state for yLs.
As yLs's blue buff in their own jungle respawned, Sheng Kuang jumped into his blue buff area from the dragon pit. Just as he was about to start attacking it, the game was paused again.
This time, the pause wasn't as long as the first, lasting only about a minute. However, when the game resumed, the time had rolled back to before Sheng Kuang stole Yang Sinian's red buff, pushing the timeline back by nearly a minute.
Having experienced the previous blue buff incident, Sheng Kuang did not repeat his earlier brilliant prediction. Yang Sinian successfully obtained the red buff, and with the coordination of his mid and side laners, he managed to secure the Baron that Sheng Kuang had taken before the pause.
The first pause could be attributed to an unexpected coincidence. However, a second occurrence of this nature felt rather unpleasant and frustrating.
The atmosphere within yLs was noticeably less relaxed than before.
Especially after Yang Sinian secured the Baron, gaining a slight economic advantage over yLs, he began targeting Qin Yu.
After killing Qin Yu twice in a row, Qin Yu became increasingly agitated. yLs gradually fell into a more disadvantageous position. Consequently, when yLs attempted to contest the Storm Dragon at twenty minutes, Qin Yu, having died prematurely, left them with a critical lack of damage output. This led to yLs failing to secure the dragon and gdt pushing for a win.
Following the end of the third game, the fourth game began promptly.
In this game, gdt chose their strongest and most practiced composition. Perhaps influenced by the two consecutive pauses in the third game, yLs's early game performance was slightly unstable. Although they made significant efforts to adjust their state and improved their coordination as the game progressed, appearing to be returning to their peak performance, the early losses were too significant. Despite winning a team fight later on and appearing to regain some ground, the excessive loss of towers and the escalating power of super minions ultimately prevented them from defending their crystal. They lost another game, bringing the score to a tie at 2-2.
The match once again reached a match point, the final game of this series.
At this moment, the chat was buzzing intensely, with most of the messages from yLs fans expressing dissatisfaction and disbelief regarding the third game.
Before the final match commenced, the players were given some time to rest.
Lan Bowen seized this opportunity to encourage and boost the morale of the team in the resting room.
With approximately five minutes remaining before the final match began, Lan Bowen urged those who needed to use the restroom to do so, and others to return to the stage.
Except for Sheng Kuang, the others went to the restroom.
Sheng Kuang did not head to the stage immediately. Instead, he casually leaned against the wall in the corridor, his eyes downcast, contemplating the strategy for the final match while waiting for Chen Jing and the others.
Before long, someone stood before him. He assumed it was one of them returning quickly and subconsciously looked up, "Why are you so..."
Before he could finish speaking, his gaze fell upon the person in front of him.
He froze, and after two seconds, slowly straightened up. "What are you doing here?"
Han Fengyan, wearing an old luxury brand hoodie from several years ago, looked at him and said, "Brother Yu called me here."
It made sense. Besides gdt's coach, Yang Yu, it was unlikely anyone else would bring Han Fengyan backstage.
Sheng Kuang nodded. "Then go find him."
With that, Sheng Kuang stood up straight, trying to distance himself from the person in front of him as if avoiding something unpleasant.
Han Fengyan smiled. "We bumped into each other outside the hot pot restaurant last time, and I didn't get a chance to catch up. Now that we've met, shouldn't we at least say hello properly?"
Sheng Kuang glanced sideways at Han Fengyan, let out a cold, disdainful laugh, and walked directly towards the restroom.
He had only taken a few steps when Han Fengyan suddenly spoke again, "Sheng Kuang, do you still remember October?"
Sheng Kuang continued to walk forward as if he hadn't heard.
Han Fengyan continued speaking to himself, "It was his birthday a few days ago. You were busy with training and couldn't make it to see him, right? I went. Besides me, only his mother visited him. The gravestone was quite dirty, looked like no one had cleaned it for a long time. I helped clean it up. That photo of October, you chose it, didn't you? He was wearing the gdt team jersey and smiling happily. If I remember correctly, you took that photo too."
Sheng Kuang stopped in his tracks, his hand hovering in mid-air as if about to reach for the door, as if he had just remembered something.
Han Fengyan moved a few steps closer, leaning into his ear, "Do you still remember what October looked like now? Time really flies. It's been over two years in the blink of an eye. Your memory is probably fuzzy. It's okay, I took photos for you specifically..."