Chapter 462: The Situation Is Not Good
At this moment, inside the experience store.
Compared to other viewers watching the matches on streaming sites, the players in the experience store had a much better view, because the second floor of the store had a dedicated holographic projection viewing area!
With a large screen and holographic projection equipment, the viewing experience here was far superior to that of streaming websites!
The match broadcast in the experience store did not use the official streaming source, because... Chen Mo could get the streaming source himself.
Before the match began, Chen Mo specifically informed the organizers. Although this match was set up on a local area network (to minimize latency as much as possible), the relevant data generated during the match would still be transmitted to Chen Mo in real time.
This data was very minimal, after all, the entire replay file for *Warcraft* was only a few hundred kilobytes.
After obtaining this data, Chen Mo could directly reproduce the match on the *Warcraft* client and display it using the holographic projection equipment.
In the experience store, the image on the large screen had already started loading the game. There was a small screen in the lower-left corner dedicated to capturing Starlight's facial expressions.
As for Origin... it was impossible to capture its facial expressions even if they wanted to!
At the same time the match started, the holographic projection equipment also began displaying the match's visuals.
The players in the experience store had already grown impatient, and the moment the images appeared, they all erupted in cheers.
"It's starting, it's starting!"
"Wow, I'm so excited. It feels even more thrilling than watching any previous *Warcraft* match!"
"Of course, this time it's a battle between humans and artificial intelligence. The significance is completely different!"
"Shh, don't talk, watch carefully!"
Everyone was intently staring at the large screen and the holographic projection equipment, watching the opening match of this man-versus-machine showdown.
Although the game visuals on the large screen were no different from previous *Warcraft* matches, the meaning in the players' hearts was entirely distinct.
After all, the opponent was artificial intelligence!
This man-versus-machine competition was played as a Bo3, meaning best of three, to minimize the impact of luck factors on the match results as much as possible.
In these three rounds, the match maps would also be changed, all of which were popular maps in current competitions, appearing randomly.
This also gave human players a slight advantage, because the tactics used on different maps often varied greatly. For example, a tier-one tower rush could be used on small maps or large maps with close starting positions, but it was completely unusable on large maps with far starting positions.
If Origin wanted to perform at a super-high level across multiple maps, the program it was written with had to be more complex. The more maps there were, the more likely Origin's tactics and real-time calculations would encounter problems.
This was also why Origin couldn't play random races. With the current level of technology, creating such a system was difficult. These professional players were also quite eloquent, especially with a good understanding of the game. They could not only clearly explain the match situation but also throw in some jokes to amuse everyone.
Overall, the audience on site was on the human side, all hoping Starlight could secure the win.
*Warcraft* was different from Go. There were still some luck factors involved. Seeing Origin level up and get such a garbage item, the audience couldn't help but laugh.
It seemed that even artificial intelligence had its lucky and unlucky moments!
The match continued.
Both sides entered a relatively stable development phase, but minor skirmishes never ceased. Origin once again showcased its almost godlike micro-management skills, causing the audience to let out bursts of exclamations involuntarily.
Various extreme creep-jacking, extreme pulling of low-health units—it could be said that in terms of micro-management, there was nothing Origin couldn't do.
Of course, this was still after strict restrictions had been placed on its micro. If there were no restrictions at all, Origin could have all its units perform attack-moving throughout the entire match, but that would be too overpowered, too unfair, and completely lacking in fairness.
Therefore, with strict restrictions, it could only execute the highest-priority actions at any given moment, and couldn't attack-move indefinitely. But even so, the spectacle of this micro-management already completely surpassed the vast majority of human players.
On the other hand, Starlight, whether due to nervousness or other reasons, clearly didn't handle some small details of micro-management well enough. For example, after entangling the opponent's Huntress with the Keeper of the Grove, one more basic attack would have finished it off, but a confident turn-away caused the Huntress to escape.
But this was also normal. After all, Starlight was human and couldn't be flawless in micro-management. Fortunately, *Warcraft* was not like Go; it wasn't purely a battle of wits. There were also elements like fog of war and items.
Both sides' tactics were surprisingly similar. Both started with the Demon Hunter, followed by the Keeper of the Grove, and then went for a direct confrontation with Mountain Giants and Druids of the Claw. The overall direction was very alike, with only some minor differences in specific choices.
After all, after a long period of tactical development in *Warcraft*, the optimal strategy for the Night Elf mirror match had basically been set. Origin couldn't create its own tactics outside the game's mechanics; it could only use existing tactics and improve upon them.
Just like when artificial intelligence played against human chess players, it first had to consume many game records before it could slowly evolve its own tactics.
As the match progressed, the atmosphere on site began to gradually grow tense.
"This micro-management... is impressive."
"It's so hard. At the start, it felt like an even match or even a slight advantage, but the more we fight, the more it feels like we can't win."
"I can only say that Origin in an offline match is terrifying. Saving units with low health constantly. Now I know why Origin likes to use the Night Elf race—it's clearly easier to leverage micro-management advantages."
"It's tough, it's tough!"
Unlike Go, the situation in Go was more complex. Even many people who were good at Go found it difficult to determine which side had the advantage when watching top-tier man-versus-machine matches.
Just like in Chen Mo's previous life, many professional players thought AlphaGo was at a disadvantage, but according to AlphaGo's own judgment, its win rate remained above 50% throughout.
*Warcraft* was different. What was happening on the battlefield, how much population each side had, how many troops each side had, how many units died in a fight—all of this could be seen clearly.
Even some players who hadn't played *Warcraft* much could still enjoy the spectacle without being completely lost.
Therefore, the audience quickly judged the match situation: Starlight's situation was not good!
Genius remembers this site's address in one second: