There was one point the two commentators had not explicitly mentioned, in order to save Star-Moon Team's face.
Crystal Destruction Mode leaned more toward entertainment. Its pace was somewhat slower than a normal match, making it friendlier to weaker teams.
The reason was the existence of defense towers. Every shot dealt 300 points of fixed physical bombardment damage. It could not be parried or dodged—this was the key point—and could only be endured through health and damage reduction. No Awakened could ignore it. Its output was already close to that of a marksman Lord's basic attack; it merely lacked intelligent control and could not move.
A strong team could not recklessly group all five players and push mid from the very start. Without jungle monsters serving as cannon fodder and providing BUFF effects, a mid push could easily give the weaker team an opportunity to counterattack.
Going straight for the ancient monsters would be even more likely to end in an instant disaster.
Simply put, even a strong team had to manage the game properly. They needed to seize jungle resources to widen their advantage, then look for chances to remove the enemy's defense towers and gradually expand their strategic depth. Once they had compressed the enemy to a certain extent, they could hunt ancient monsters for Soulstones and finally charge up to the high ground in one decisive push.
That was the normal way to win.
Of course, if the gap in strength was enormous—five Hero Classes grouped together against five Elites—then there was nothing wrong with directly pushing mid. But such matches lacked entertainment value and spectacle, and provided little competitive experience.
Han Xu's set equipment and Li Shuyi's Awakening Skill both needed real combat against Awakened to prove their worth and display the strength of the Grand