On the morning of the 25th of March, various battle reports about the competition at midnight were released.
There were three main topics that were the hottest.
One, Mountain River won the competition with their old nemesis, Heaven and Earth.
Both parties were top ten studios in the industry. Be it the winner or the loser, naturally, there was plenty of news and related interviews after the competition.
Two, Red Cherry was defeated by a dark horse.
The spokesperson from Red Cherry admitted after the competition that after losing Xu Huai Shang, they were a bit short on talent when it came to Thriller Paradise. They still had a long way to go to train a new ace, and they needed time.
Third, who exactly was [Door to Heaven]?
This was the question that most players were concerned about. However, this mysterious team did not accept any form of interview or communication, and they did not speak through any channels. This meant that the media could only rely on bullsh * t and eye-catching headlines to report on them. This made the situation of this team even more confusing.
…
On the 26th, at midnight, the matchups for the fourth round were announced.
In this round, there were 3,339 teams participating. The number of teams was still odd, so there would be one team that would not qualify, and the remaining 3,338 teams would fight each other in pairs.
In this round, other than those seeded teams, there were many teams that performed well in the first three rounds … such as [Heaven's Gate] … Their matchups had also attracted a lot of attention.
And this … was what the Dream Company hoped to see.
The 'completely random' matchups were to allow casual players to have more chances to advance and show off their skills. Currently, this plan was a success.
Compared to the previous two tournaments, in S3, there was a clear increase in the level of participation and participation of the normal players. One could imagine that when people saw teams like Gods, Red Sakura, and Heaven and Earth get eliminated one after another while grassroots teams of similar skill level to them (or at least that was what the audience thought when they watched) continued to advance, the feeling of 'I can do it too if I'm in it' would definitely soar. And this feeling was the catalyst for people to become more invested in something.
…
On the 26th of March, at 11: 55 pm.
In another five minutes, the fourth round of the Tournament for the Best would begin.
In this round, there would only be one main match, but there were two 'matchups' that needed to be mentioned.
Let's talk about the second matter first — [Hell Frontline] had a bye in this round.
This was indeed something worth mentioning, because in the first three rounds, there had never been a situation where a seeded team had a bye.
Of course, no one thought that this was shady … Since it was "completely random," it was only a matter of time before a seeded team was eliminated. Moreover, from the perspective of the majority of ordinary players, it was a good thing that a strong team had a bye. After all … whoever met them would be unlucky.
Then, let's go back to the first thing, which is the two sides of the "focal battle" — [Warring States] and [Trash Alliance].
These two teams were the teams that had made it to the finals of S2. Along with Underworld Frontline and Order, they were one of the top 4 teams of S2. Therefore, the attention that this match received was no less than the first round's match between Order and Gods.
Since S3 required the number of members to be expanded to seven, the lineups of both teams had changed.
Let's talk about Warring States first. Even though they were a foreign gaming studio, they had been in Thriller Paradise for so long, so naturally, they had quite a number of local fans. Considering that most of the male fans came for the four girls who were the main pillars of the team, Oda Ai, Koji Shin, Takeda Satoshi, and Uesugi Hitoshi had to join the team.
Other than them, Sasa Aki had to take up a spot as well. He was not only the brains of the team, he was one of the top three players in the team, so there was no reason for him to sit on the bench.
As for the remaining two spots … Sengoku Team 2's [Toyotomi Toyotomi], [Inagawa Masayoshi], [Tokugawa Tadashi], and [Houjou Kazu] were all interested in fighting for it. This was understandable since the four of them were beaten quite badly by [Trash Alliance] during S2.
However, in the end, only Imagawa Masayoshi was selected. The reason he was selected was not because he was stronger than the other members of Team Two but because his main skill was sleuthing. His addition would make the team structure more logical.
The seventh member of Warring States Team Two was Itachi Cheng. He was a newbie that had been trained by the gaming studio since S2. His position was similar to Phantom Dawn. They were both seventeen years old prodigies, and Sengoku planned to focus on training them in the future.
That was the configuration of Warring States Team Two.
Then, it was time to talk about the Trash Alliance …
The "Five Useless Tigers" from the S2 era were all present. [Swan], [King of Shadows], [Uncle Useless], [Sleepy Dreams], and [Teacher Strong] … none of them were left out.
Some might wonder why Teacher Chi, who was supposed to be there to make up the numbers, would be there this time.
To put it this way … there were two reasons. First, it was because Teacher Chi was popular. Secondly, it was because the current Teacher Xiao … could indeed be used as a 'strategic weapon'.
As mentioned before, after S2, Old He was already a god-level character in the joke world (Brother Spring, KING, Satan, Buggy the Clown, Chuck Norris, etc.) … For some reason, 99% of the players were willing to believe that he was strong, unfathomably strong.
The analysis team from the major gaming studios had very little information about Teacher Chi's power level and the characteristics of his power. The logical guesses and the sea of jokes made it hard for them to come up with an accurate conclusion.
Of course, there were people who knew better, like Feng Bujue and Phantom Dawn … but they chose to keep their mouths shut about Teacher Chi's power level. Brother Jue was one thing, but Phantom Dawn, a professional gamer, even went to the company and said things like, "Even I can't see through Teacher Chi's power level." This caused the people behind Regulation to panic.
In any case, to be able to reach Teacher Chi's level through slacking, there was nothing to criticize.
Other than that, other than the Five Useless Tigers, the two new members of the Useless Alliance were familiar faces as well.
The first one was [Flying Pegasus] … That's right, he was the one who won the S1 championship.
As everyone knew, Brother Ma was originally a player from Star Studio, and everyone knew that Star Studio was the "Arsenal" in the esports circle. Logically speaking … after winning the S1 championship, Brother Ma should have been sold at a high price.
But … the awkward thing was, no one wanted to buy him.
The reason was simple. There was a huge difference in the price between the buyer and the seller. Even though Mr. Ma had the title of champion, most of the analysis teams in the gaming studios felt that based on his actual performance, this one-track minded guy was not worth the price that [Star] offered.
As for [Star], they were not in a hurry. After all, the players that their studio signed were all young, nameless, and had potential. The contracts they used were the kind that had a short duration and low pay. Since no one wanted to buy him, they would just keep him for themselves.
Therefore, Mr. Ma stayed with Star until the end of S2. It was not until his contract was about to expire that the studio realized … something was not right. If they did not sell him soon, he would be a free man.
But at this time, it would be difficult to sell him out … Everyone knew that [Star]'s contract was extremely low in terms of basic guarantees. The only attractive part was the "transfer share" clause — this was a win-win situation for both the studio and the player, but the buyer had to be responsible for the bill.
To put it simply, Star's players had a bright future if they stayed in their own studio, but they did not have a "monetary future." The purpose of their hard work was to be "sold." Once they transferred, not only would they be able to get a high salary in their own studio, but they would also be able to receive a large sum of transfer fees and dividends.
However, Mr. Ma was a special case. When his value was at its highest, the buyer and seller could not reach a consensus on his value. So, he was delayed. When his contract was about to expire, who would spend the transfer fee to buy him? If they really wanted to sign him, they could just wait for him to terminate his contract and sign him as a free man. Anyway, Star's low-paying, short-term contracts did not have a non-compete agreement.
All in all, Flying Pegasus became one of the rare players in Star who waited until the end of their contract and automatically terminated it.
On the day his contract expired, the date of the S3 competition was very close. Most of the studio's teams had already finished polishing their lineups and signed up. Even though there were many studios that wanted to sign him, none of them could provide him with a place to participate in the competition.
At this time, the cunning Hong Hu (who had already found out about Mr. Ma's contract expiration date through his connections in the industry) extended an olive branch to Mr. Ma as a friend and successfully got a Saint for Trash Alliance. Oh, no … a Tiger General.
Finally, there was another new member of Trash Alliance that needed to be introduced — Seven Kills.
Yes, it was Seven Kills from [Blade].
This person had come to the door of his own accord, and his reason was very good … Because the studio did not intend to participate in the competition this time, and he personally wanted to fight against experts in the competition, he came out to find a team by himself after getting approval from the leader.
Trash Alliance was the first team that Seven Kills found. As a team that was more humane than utilitarian, like a homeless shelter, they let Seven Kills join after a casual discussion.
At this point, the seven members of Trash Alliance were all confirmed.
…
When the clock struck midnight, the fourth round of the competition also started.
Today, the members of Hell Frontline, who had a bye, were already waiting in the conference room the moment the competition started. They had already locked onto the live broadcast channel of Warring States and Trash Alliance.
Not only them, but the big screen in the game store was also broadcasting the competition, and there were two commentators.
The battle between these two powerhouses was like an arrow on the bow.
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