The players from Quan Zhen Sect knew their limits well and they did not hastily rush into battle.

Upon the battle platform, the players arranged themselves in a two-layered circular formation.

Wang Yu, Crotch Lord and Boson and two other Assassins stood on the outer circle to protect Fearless and Spring Halo who had long-ranged jobs.

Without saying, in terms of strategy and command, Fearless was a peerless commander.

The ten of them were equally balanced in the formation, each having a specific role in offense and defense. Due to the nature of the circular formation, it gave off an impervious aura to their opponents.

Purity’s original plan was to divide and conquer. She did not expect her opponent to already anticipate that move and take preventive action.

As soon as the match started, the players from Quan Zhen Sect quickly rushed towards the centre of the battle platform.

Thirteen Ji and Nian Liuyun glanced over at them and immediately lunged towards Wang Yu according to their plan.

As they were midway, there was a black circle that appeared underneath the feet of the Quan Zhen Sect members. Following that, Dark Barrier was enacted and they were safely protected.

“F*ck!”

Thirteen Ji and Nian Liuyun quickly assessed the situation and frantically retreated.

However, they were unfortunate that Wang Yu was standing in front of the formation.

This duo had spent so much effort contemplating on how to separate Wang Yu from his team but it turned out that Wang Yu had no intention to in the first place.

Wang Yu growled in a low voice, his arms barrelling forward past the boundary of Dark Barrier. With both hands, he grabbed Thirteen Ji and Nian Liuyu and slammed them backwards.

“Boom!”

The two were dragged into Dark Barrier and were rooted to the ground.

These two could not even trouble Wang Yu when they did not have their movement impaired, much less needed to be said about their current predicament.

Raising his clenched fist, two streaks of white light dissipated into nothingness. Without a span of less than a minute, Quan Zhen Sect had already scored two points.

“This…”

Seeing the tragic end of Thirteen Ji and Nian Liuyu, Purity’s team flew in a frenzy.

Damn, they did not expect that Dark Barrier could be used in such an ingenious manner.

Dark Barrier had a root effect so if anyone were to be caught in it, there was only one outcome for the player — Death!

This was the most blatant way of catching players who were unprepared off guard.

Fortunately, the duration of Dark Barrier was only 8 seconds. When the effect of the skills disappeared, a figment of a dragon materialised. Long Ze made use of this opportunity to close the distance between them.

Spring Halo sniggered as he slammed his staff into the ground, instantly creating a protective field of thorns and thistles around his team.

Under this sudden change in circumstances, Long Ze leapt and stabbed straight at Frost Blade and Crotch Lord.

Crotch Lord executed a taunt skill and Long Ze found himself forcefully drawn to his shield.

At this instant, Frost Blade raised his blade and claimed Long Ze’s life.

“Hahaha!” Fearless laughed heartily and taunted Purity, “The rest of you can come at us, if any of you is still alive after this, it will count as my loss!”

Purity heard his taunts and her emotions caused a layer of frost to cover her face.

Since Purity’s team were all Pugilists, they were all melee players.

As long as Spring Halo was in the fight, these melee class players had no way of breaching their defence. Any attacks they made would be futile.

Purity squatted in place as she collected her mental state for a brief moment. She instructed the remaining players, “All retreat for the moment, play by ear.”

As soon as they heard her instructions, the remaining Pugilists flitted to the edges of the battle platform.

Fearless continued his incessant taunts, “Do you think you are safe just because you have retreated?”

Spring Halo immediately followed up as he muttered the words Poison Nova.

“Swoosh!”

A ring of poison mist drifted throughout the platform.

Due to the small size of the battle platform, Spring Halo’s Poison Nova had an effect of a complete map AOE skill.

There was no area of the map that was safe so one by one the Pugilists succumbed to the poison. Their HP bars were trickling down by the second.

At this point, MIng Du, Yang Nuo and Ling Longmeng began their long-range barrage.

Since the Quan Zhen Sect had occupied the centre of the platform, their long-range attacks could reach anyone on the platform. There was no shelter that the Pugilists could seek that could protect them.

Furthermore, since they were already poisoned, their movement speeds were already impaired. They were a bunch of walking corpses.

The Pugilists’ main strength was their agileness and unmatched mobility.

However, this advantage was curtailed by their opponent’s strategy and they simply became moving targets.

Even Boson and Crotch Lord fired their cannons indiscriminately in the distance, causing these Pugilists to run for their lives.

These Pugilists felt extremely wronged and frustrated. They wanted a hand to hand, melee brawl with their opponents but could not even close the distance between them.

Seeing that her team was systematically taken down, Purity felt an unprecedented sense of loss that welled up in her heart.

Her initial plan was to make use of an advantageous terrain to kill the players from Quan Zhen Sect but in the end, that very fact paved the way for her loss….

If she had some long-ranged classes on her side… If she did not choose the Pugilist platform.

Purity’s mind went through many alternative outcomes of this battle but she jolted herself back to reality.

“Ai…”

The crestfallen Purity heaved a final sigh as she conceded defeat.

The final outcome of the competition was way out of people’s expectations. The audience did not expect that such a shameless team could come out victorious over Team Pugilists Don’t Cry to claim the first place in this competition.

The professional players, however, saw this outcome from a mile away. They had already identified the same weakness as Fearless had in Team Pugilists Don’t Cry.

Firstly, there was a problem in the team composition. Before any battle even started, they were already at a disadvantage because all the members were Pugilists.

Secondly, there was an attitude problem with the team. They wrongly believed that individual strength was the main determinant in the outcome of a battle.

Even if this team qualified for the professional scene, they would be annihilated in the first round.

…

There was the awards ceremony that was coming up next. The players from Quan Zhen Sect went up on the podium to collect their awards under the hum of the audience and the runner up team.

After a meaningless congratulatory speech, the host turned excitedly towards Wang Yu and asked, “Team Leader Iron Bull, did the results of this competition exceed your expectations?”

“Hm…” Wang Yu was caught off guard, “Not really… I’ve always thought that based on our strength, first place was within our grasp.”

The host, “…”