The discussion about Excellent Era was still ongoing, but Excellent Era wasn't as easy to take over as Team Everlasting. Just One Leaf Of Autumn, a God-level character known as the Battle God, was worth more than the entire Team Everlasting. What's more, Excellent Era had many years of roots in the Alliance. Their own training base, their own competition venue, they had all been built during the Alliance's rapid growth. Excellent Era was already a colossus. It wasn't something that could be casually swallowed up in one go. The public opinion and the fans' attitude had reawakened its potential value. This could ignite some interest, but it also made it more difficult to buy it. If one were to evaluate all of these potential values, Excellent Era's value would only be higher.
However, what was good for the buyer right now was that the owner of Excellent Era, Tao Xuan, had been forced into a situation where he had to sell Excellent Era. Team Excellent Era, no matter in whose hands, could continue to develop into a profitable project. Only in his hands would he lose a large amount of fans and become a money-losing product.
The direction had been made clear. As for how Excellent Era's trade fair would go, that would be up to the buyer and seller to discuss. Currently, public opinion believed that Excellent Era wouldn't change owners completely. After all, the plate was too big. With such a large investment, it would take years to recoup the cost. And this was considering that Excellent Era could quickly return to the Alliance and become a contender for the championship.
But in reality, competition always had its risks. If Excellent Era had a bad year and couldn't return to the Alliance, then it would be too much to cry. Thus, public opinion believed that Excellent Era would likely split up and sell the basic hardware to lower the cost of the entire plate. This would lower the risk and allow someone to successfully take over.
No one knew how far the transaction had progressed for now. As for the post-season competition of Season 9, it was slowly approaching.
After testing the results of the Challenger League, the Alliance finally decided that the playoffs would use the headcount system used in the offline elimination rounds of the Challenger League. Furthermore, according to the opinions of many parties, the final scoring method was changed to one kill for each opponent, and then the final score of both sides would be compared to determine the winner.
Apart from that, there was another major change in the competition format. In the new playoffs, the results of the two rounds would no longer be added together to determine the winner. Instead, it was based on the results of a single match. Two out of three matches would determine the final winner. In other words, instead of two matches in the past, there was a possibility of three.
There was no doubt that this was a win-win change from both a competitive and commercial point of view. And the reason why this method could be adopted was because of the new competition system.
The old competition system was divided into three parts: individual, arena, and team. In a situation where the team accounted for the majority of the points, the outcome of the entire competition could be decided by two parts. The second part of the competition, the single elimination tournament, would lose its meaning. On the other hand, if the points of the team competition were lowered, it was possible that one side would have already won by the time the individual and arena rounds were over, and there would be no need for the team competition.
None of this was what the Alliance wanted to see. However, the new competition format was very good at avoiding the above situation. As for if the points of the two parts were tied, that could be decided through overtime, so it wasn't a problem. As a result, the two out of three match system was implemented.
Afterwards, under the Alliance's vigorous promotion, the playoffs approached step by step, and the competition once again became the main theme of the Glory scene. The eight teams in the post-season one after another appeared on stage to promote their teams. Having reached this point, any team had enough reason to look forward to that unparalleled championship trophy.
However, in the interviews, all eight teams would ask a lot of questions about Happy. Even if some of these questions had already been asked, the media still couldn't get enough of it. If someone didn't understand the situation, they would definitely think that Team Happy was a hidden boss waiting in ambush for the playoffs after reading all of these interviews. Otherwise, why would the team's name be mentioned in every interview?
"What do you think about Ye Xiu's return?" In Team Tyranny's interview, the reporters were all willing to ask Han Wenqing this question.
"I look forward to our match on stage." As an old rival, Han Wenqing's welcome for Ye Xiu was still only a fist.
"As a player who also retired and came back, do you have anything to say to Ye Xiu?" Zhang Jiale was also the focus of the interview.
"He did what I originally thought was impossible. I sincerely admire him for that," Zhang Jiale said.
"What do you think about Ye Xiu's return?" In Team Blue Rain's interview, the same question once again flashed.
"The entire Alliance's skill level will rise by a level because of this," Blue Rain's captain Yu Wenzhou said.
"But don't you think that the lack of Excellent Era will be a detriment?" A reporter asked.
"Ah, then you're worrying too much. Isn't Excellent Era's skill level also dependent on their players? But with Team Excellent Era's current situation, how could their players stay? I think that their players will definitely want to transfer. We'll definitely see them again in the Alliance. Why don't we predict where they'll go? For example, Sun Xiang, I feel like … "
"Next question." Blue Rain's press officer expressionlessly interrupted Huang Shaotian. He had done this kind of thing too many times and was completely numb to it. Take care of Huang Shaotian's feelings? What was this kind of thing? Never heard of it.
"Yeah …" In Team Samsara's interview, Zhou Zekai replied with a "yeah" when asked about Ye Xiu's return, and then fell into a long silence.
It wasn't until the atmosphere was a bit strange that he suddenly opened his mouth and added, "It'll be very difficult."
"You're saying that it'll be very difficult to deal with Ye Xiu?"
"Yes." Zhou Zekai nodded his head.
Okay, this was Zhou Zekai. To get this kind of answer was worth asking. If they wanted to know more, it would be better to ask their vice-captain Jiang Botao …
The eight teams' answers were all different. The media got what they wanted. But frankly speaking, none of the eight teams would pay attention to Ye Xiu, who they would only see next season. The battle for the Season 9 championship was about to begin, and the first match was the highly anticipated match between Tyranny and Hundred Blossoms. The first match would be held at Hundred Blossoms' home stadium. From the atmosphere in the stadium, it was clear that even now, many Hundred Blossoms players still couldn't accept the fact that Zhang Jiale had chosen Tyranny after his return.
When Zhang Jiale appeared on the stage, thunderous boos immediately sounded in the stadium.
Zhang Jiale was expressionless. This wasn't the first time he had been treated like this. During the regular season, he had been treated like this in this home stadium. This was a stadium that he had fought for many years and was incomparably familiar with.
This was the playoffs. Zhang Jiale was facing the same situation as Ye Xiu, fighting to the death with his former team.
What was his mood? Zhang Jiale had been asked this question in the pre-match interview. He didn't answer because he didn't know what his mood was either. He had once thought that he could calmly face it, but when it came to it, he realized that it wasn't as simple as he had imagined.
Amidst the boos, Zhang Jiale silently walked towards the player preparation area.
"Go to hell!" Suddenly, a roar came from the stands. A group of Hundred Blossoms fans suddenly threw down a pile of drink bottles. The life and death elimination round had further melted the fans' rationality.
Fortunately, they were quite far away, so many of them weren't very accurate. Zhang Jiale hurriedly dodged this wave of attacks. The security guards had already split into two groups. One group went to stop these fans, while the other rushed over to protect Zhang Jiale from further harm.
The troublemaking fans were all asked to leave the stadium. No matter what, these kinds of actions would be severely condemned.
Zhang Jiale silently watched as these fans were led away. Some of them continued to turn around and curse at him. Zhang Jiale sighed. Then, he felt that someone was staring at him.
Zhang Jiale turned his head to look and was startled. Then, he squeezed out an unnatural smile. "Little Le … …"
Little Le was one of Hundred Blossoms' security guards. He had been one for as long as Zhang Jiale had been there. At the same time, he was also a loyal fan of Hundred Blossoms. The entire team was quite familiar with him.
"Welcome back." Little Le walked closer, but there was no smile on his face.
Zhang Jiale was startled. Just as he was about to say something, Little Le suddenly threw a punch at him.
The stadium was instantly thrown into chaos. No one would have thought that even the security guards would make such an irrational move. Little Le was quickly subdued by his companions. During this process, he didn't resist at all. He just stared at Zhang Jiale without a trace of a smile.
"Let him go … …"
Zhang Jiale's stomach was still churning with acid, but he still managed to hold it in and said that.
The security guards clearly understood the severity of Little Le's actions, but if Zhang Jiale wasn't going to pursue the matter, then there was a lot of room to maneuver. They were clearly very protective of Little Le. When they heard Zhang Jiale say this, they immediately let go of Little Le. However, they also tightly controlled him to prevent him from doing anything rash again.
"For the championship, I have to win!" In the end, Zhang Jiale only left these seven words and then turned to leave. Tyranny's player didn't see clearly what had happened here. He only saw the security guard suddenly grab another person and guessed that something had happened. However, Zhang Jiale only shook his head and didn't say anything. Everyone knew that this match was very difficult for Zhang Jiale, so they didn't ask too much.
"Don't worry, I'm fine." After sitting in his seat for a while, Zhang Jiale suddenly spoke. Although his teammates didn't ask, he could feel their concern for him. The team was a whole, so he needed to use his attitude to dispel their concerns so that everyone could focus on the match.
"We have to win." After Zhang Jiale took a deep breath, he stood up amidst the boos in the stadium.
The live broadcast just now announced the players who were going to fight in the group arena. Tyranny's first player was Zhang Jiale.
Several minutes later, when he walked off the stage, Team Tyranny had already won two points. Zhang Jiale completed a 1v2 in the group arena, and only lost when he faced the third player.
For the championship, I have to win with determination!
With this feeling, Zhang Jiale held his head high and returned to Tyranny's player bench amidst the loud boos.
On the first day of the playoffs, Team Tyranny defeated Team Hundred Blossoms 11-7. The MVP of the day was Team Tyranny's player, Zhang Jiale. Character, Spitfire, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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