After the group matches, there was a ten day break. The elimination round would start on Friday night, May 16th. Three matches in three weeks to decide the champion of the Challenger League.
The teams that were eliminated in the group matches went home one after another. For many player teams, being able to get this far was already very satisfying. After receiving a decent amount of prize money from the Alliance, this trip was worth it. The team that left the most unsatisfied was Team Mysterious Fantasy. On the second day after the group matches ended, the media announced that Mysterious Fantasy's coach, Zhang Yiwei, had been dismissed. The reporters tried to contact him for an interview, but were rejected. Mysterious Fantasy's official statement was that after three seasons of cooperation, they felt that the coach's style wasn't suitable for the current Glory competitive scene.
Soon after, the May 9th edition of Esports Home also published this news. However, what was more important was Team Happy, who had swept Mysterious Fantasy out of the competition.
Chang Xian had already written a detailed introduction to Team Happy. Through his interactions with Team Happy, he had revised it many times. Now that Team Happy had attracted so much attention, the article that Chang Xian had been hiding for a long time finally had a chance to be officially published. Team Happy's situation had finally received a complete introduction. Apart from this, how could they not listen to the thoughts of such a popular team? In the same issue, apart from the introduction, there was also an interview between Chang Xian and Team Happy. In this issue of the weekly newspaper, Chang Xian was in the limelight. By relying on Happy, he took up half of the Challenger League page, making the other two reporters in charge of covering the Challenger League envious and jealous.
They had also focused on Happy. They had also gone to interview Happy. They had also written a few introductions to Happy. However, how could their articles compare to Chang Xian's, who considered himself as Happy's team reporter? In the end, the articles that were chosen were all Chang Xian's.
Being a team reporter for an Internet cafe grassroots team? At first, Chang Xian's actions had made the two laugh at him, but now, they couldn't laugh anymore. "Let's see how long you can be so smug!" The two of them thought viciously, and began to curse Happy to be eliminated quickly. A material that couldn't benefit them was worthless in their eyes.
As for Cao Guangcheng, he was indeed a veteran. He did not compete with Chang Xian to write something like Happy. He continued to open his topic calmly. This time, he analyzed the situation of the Team Excellent Era in light of the new competition format.
The Challenger League had entered a new phase, while this season's Pro League had also entered the end of the regular season.
May 10th, Glory Professional Alliance Season 9, Round 34, concluded. Team Tyranny, led by the four Celestial Kings, had been leading steadily from the start. Until now, they had not created any suspense in the first place of the regular season. Moreover, with their scoring efficiency, breaking the record for most points in the regular season wouldn't be a problem. However, breaking the record set by Team Excellent Era in Season 2 was impossible. That season, Team Excellent Era ended up with 276 points. The total didn't seem high, but that was because there were only 16 teams in the Alliance at that time, and there were only 30 matches in the regular season. Thus, if you wanted to compare points, you could only compare average points per match. If that was the case, then Excellent Era's 9.2 points per game in that season was incomparably abnormal. With only four matches left in the season, Tyranny had no hope of winning the championship.
However, if you could compare it to their best record, Tyranny's strength this season was obvious.
After Tyranny, the second place was last season's champions, Team Samsara. This season, they were aiming to defend their title. Even though they had been suppressed by Tyranny in the regular season, the playoffs had nothing to do with the regular season. Last year, Team Samsara had also been suppressed by Team Blue Rain in the regular season, but what about the finals? In the regular season, there were many matches and a long cycle. It was a competition of the team's stability. In the playoffs, victory was decided in one or two matches. It was a competition of explosive power.
After Team Samsara, the third, fourth, and fifth places were respectively Team Blue Rain, Team Wind Howl, and Team Micrograss. The points of these three teams were very close, so it was hard to tell who was stronger or weaker. However, Team Wind Howl hadn't even made it into the playoffs last season. This season, they had been reborn into a powerhouse that could contend with Blue Rain and Micrograss. Tang Hao's transfer was seen as one of last summer's most successful transfers.
After that, in Season 6, 7, and 8, the competition for the final three spots in the playoffs was extremely intense. Misty Rain was in sixth place. They didn't have any strong opponents in the last four matches, so their situation wasn't bad. In seventh place, Team Hundred Blossoms, they had lost too many points in the early stages. They had to wait until they regained their form before bitterly chasing after them. Their current situation couldn't help but be a bit grim. In eighth place was Team Void. The Ghostblade duo had persisted for many years. They were neither too high nor too low, as if they had reached a bottleneck. Their performance this season had been quite fluctuating. Even though they still held a spot in the playoffs, many people viewed them as one of this season's most disappointing teams. If they lost their spot in the playoffs, then this "one of" could be removed.
Would Team Void lose their spot? There was still a lot of suspense. Following closely behind them was Team 301 Degrees. They were a typical commoner team. Their players weren't the most outstanding, and their characters weren't the most powerful. However, this team's management was extremely good. The team's performance had always been stable, and they were a frequent contender in the playoffs. This season, because of Xu Bin's departure, their performance had been affected to a certain extent. Otherwise, they might have squeezed the unstable Team Void out of the rankings.
And after 301 Degrees, following closely behind them was another miracle of this season.
Radiant, Conquering Clouds, Heavenly Swords, Parade. These four teams seemed to have stuck together to advance and retreat. Right now, they were neatly divided into 10 to 13. This was definitely something that would make people's jaws drop. From the initial impression that these four teams gave people, they should have been hovering around the relegation zone. But now, they were all in the central region, and could even make a push for the playoffs at any time. As for All-Stars like Royal Style and Seaside, they were all squeezed in behind them. Originally in tenth place, Team Thunder, who had been seen as another unexpected team apart from Wind Howl, was now squeezed in.
These four teams were seen as having seized the opportunity of the game's update. However, only the elites of the Club guilds who had snatched wild bosses in the game knew why they were able to seize this opportunity. However, as the season came to an end, the focus of each team's work had shifted once again. Many players withdrew from the game and began to focus on the competition, especially Hundred Blossoms, Void, and 301 Degrees, who still had a lot of suspense. How could they dare to be careless?
Now that they were focused on the competition, Radiant's fourth team obviously wouldn't have an easy time. As a result, although it looked like they had a chance of making a push for the playoffs, in reality, these four teams were well aware that they were just waiting to reap the benefits. They were just taking advantage of the situation to steal a glance. If they wanted to succeed, they didn't have the strength to match it.
The Pro League and the Challenger League were both in full swing. However, compared to the stalemate in the Pro League, because of the difference in strength between the teams in the Challenger League, everyone's focus was still on the competition. As a result, apart from a few teams, the majority of the teams weren't under much pressure. Team Excellent Era's opponents definitely wouldn't be unable to sleep at night thinking about how to deal with Excellent Era. If they did, they would be ridiculed for worrying about nothing.
Ten days passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, it was match day. Of the four groups in the top eight, the match between Team Jade Dynasty and Team Trader was viewed as the most interesting match. In Group B, Team Trader had squeezed out a pro team. They were clearly the biggest dark horse in the offline competition. In addition, in Group B, Team Trader had shown an eye-catching performance against Team Mysterious Fantasy and Happy. In this round against the outdated Team Jade Dynasty, no one dared to say that Team Jade Dynasty was a pro team.
In the end, the dark horse's journey came to an end. In the end, the most interesting match ended peacefully. From the group arena to the team competition, Team Jade Dynasty seemed to just walk step by step. Step by step, they walked over. Just like that, Trader fell beside them.
Team Happy, Team Excellent Era, and the other matches didn't have any suspense. The player teams were easily defeated by them. As a result, in this round, if there was anything interesting to watch, it would be the match between Group C's first and Group D's second. The two teams were similar in strength. Even though the quality of the match wasn't high, it was at least lively. Unfortunately, if this kind of excitement was enough to satisfy the audience, then what was the point of professional teams existing?
Just like that, the quarterfinals ended peacefully. There wasn't anything that made people's blood boil. Even the media's coverage of this day's matches was lacking in spirit. However, thinking about the upcoming matches, everyone's spirits were roused. In the first half of the bracket, Happy and Jade Dynasty were finally going to meet. This should be a good match. As for the second half of the bracket, the players who liked Excellent Era could continue to admire their God's heroic display of crushing noobs, if they hadn't gotten tired of it yet.
"There are still two matches left!"
The morning after the match, Chen Guo woke up from her dream with a smile. The sun had already filled the room. Chen Guo continued to dream happily. Then, she looked to the side and discovered that her roommate, Tang Rou, had already disappeared.
She woke up so early?
Chen Guo muttered. She got out of bed, washed up, tidied up, and walked out of her room. The corridor was extremely quiet. Chen Guo reckoned that the others were still sleeping, so she didn't disturb them. She went downstairs to eat breakfast and then went to the Internet Cafe's practice room.
Excellent Era was still staying in a separate hotel. The Alliance had arranged for them to stay here, but it wasn't as lively as before. Today, there were only three teams left out of the nineteen teams. After being together for so long, they had Glory as a common topic. Especially since most of the players played the game, even though they were here to compete, they still became good friends. Those who were able to reach this stage in the Challenger League were definitely outstanding players. As a result, Chen Guo enthusiastically tried to recruit them to Happy.
However, since they were all outstanding players, most of them had a foundation in the game. Most of them were vague about Chen Guo's recruitment. Chen Guo had a lot of experience in the game. She understood these things very well, so she wasn't in a rush. Her Chasing Haze had added quite a few friends recently. They had agreed to meet again in the Heavenly Domain!
However, in comparison, these people were actually more interested in Ye Xiu. What surprised Chen Guo was that the previously mysterious Ye Xiu didn't seem to be hiding anything.
"What's going on?" Chen Guo asked in puzzlement.
"Nonsense. I used to be an imposter. How could I not keep a low profile?" Ye Xiu said half-jokingly.
= = =
Here's a new update! Last night, I asked for monthly votes and immediately felt everyone's enthusiasm. Thank you very much. The monthly votes can come even more fiercely. I can't miss out on double the votes! (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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