Chapter 148 Cocoon War

Time flew by, and at midnight on May 16th, the preliminary round queue for the Pinnacle Melee was officially closed.

The [Insect War] had come to an end.

May 16th was a rest day for the competition, allowing players a day to recuperate.

At dawn on the 17th, the [Cocoon War] would begin. Starting with the semi-finals, the competition would be uniformly conducted on a sleep-mode server, scheduled from 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM. Players not waiting in the login space when the competition started would be considered to have forfeited.

Every duel in the [Cocoon War] would be broadcast live. Players could watch the matches on screens in the login space or meeting rooms. Players who enjoyed excitement could also watch on the large screens in the game mall. The main screen would select a more popular match to broadcast, with two game company commentators providing analysis.

Xiao Tan's preliminary results were fairly ideal, although he didn't advance with a winning streak, instead playing all fifty matches.

Although he had achieved a nine-game winning streak and defeated professional players like Bu Tiange, just as Brother Jue had analyzed, encountering players who countered him was inevitable...

In the end, Xiao Tan's record was fixed at forty-two wins and eight losses. Anyway, according to Feng Bujue's theory, such a record was definitely enough to qualify.

Because Xiao Tan had to work overtime for a week starting on May 8th, he had already finished all the preliminary matches on the 7th. During that week of overtime, he only played one or two scripts in sleep mode each day, and basically didn't log on during the day.

During these seven or eight days, Brother Jue, Si Yu, and Bei Ling often queued for team instances together. If there were friends online, they would also invite them to reduce the probability of encountering strangers… After all, Brother Jue was now a celebrity, and he was always being asked questions by passersby.

It is worth mentioning that, just as this Pinnacle Melee was in full swing… Dream Inc. quietly launched their second game – Crazy Thinking.

Of course, it was just a demo version. Currently, players could only play practice mode against computer-simulated opponents. The versus mode had not yet been opened.

This was a card battle game, where players played the role of a "Commander," armed with a "Duel Disk" on their arm, leading their "Deck Master," and commanding monsters, traps, magic, and so on that were transformed from cards to battle.

The game could be directly switched to in the login space; after lying in the game pod and completing the neural connection, players only needed to select [Crazy Thinking] at the step [Welcome to the game login space, the following are all game projects provided by Dream Inc., please select login.]

Feng Bujue was right when he said that Dream Inc. had "big ambitions." The game pods, game helmets, and other hardware devices launched by Dream Inc. were all unique models, and all the games they launched were exclusive to their hardware. Just imagine… if one day Dream Inc.'s game pods also became compatible with other companies' games, then the hardware launched by other manufacturers would have no competitive advantage whatsoever…

…………

May 16th, still 5:00 PM.

The list of three thousand people who successfully entered the [Cocoon War] was officially announced on the homepage of the official website.

In fact, as early as an hour ago, each entrant had received an email notifying them of their advancement, and it was also highlighted in red. The system voice would also provide detailed prompts the next time they logged in.

In short, after the news was announced, it could be described as a mix of joy and sorrow.

The forum, which had gradually stabilized recently, once again set off a frenzy of posting.

Posts like "Alas… thirty-five wins really wasn't enough to advance?", "First a ten-game winning streak, then a four-game losing streak", "Are you tycoons even going to let people live?"… either bragging, or indignant, or making excuses… anyway, everyone who participated in the [Insect War] but failed to advance seemed to have a deep-seated hatred. It was as if they had either suffered unfair treatment, or occasionally performed abnormally, or had bad luck.

But as that devil—Mr. Simon—once said: Winning is winning. Losers are just that; winning means being strong.

The preliminary round format was quite reasonable, and the vast majority of truly strong players advanced. Not being able to qualify could only be blamed on oneself not being strong enough. Making excuses wouldn't change anything.

…………

At eight o'clock that evening, the rules of the [Cocoon War] were also listed in detail.

The Cocoon War is divided into five rounds. With two additional rounds of playoffs.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 17th, the first round of the [Cocoon War] begins. Three thousand players will be randomly matched one-on-one, to determine the winners' bracket and the losers' bracket, with fifteen hundred people in each.

In the losers' bracket, the thirteen hundred and eighty players with the worst preliminary results will be directly eliminated; the remaining one hundred and twenty players will enter the playoffs.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 18th, the first round of the playoffs. The one hundred and twenty players with the best preliminary results in the losers' bracket will be randomly matched one-on-one with the one hundred and twenty players with the worst preliminary results in the winners' bracket. Losers are directly eliminated.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 19th, the second round of the playoffs. The remaining one hundred and twenty players in the first round of the playoffs will have another match. The sixty players who survive the two rounds of the playoffs can join the winners' bracket.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 20th, the second round of the [Cocoon War]. The one thousand three hundred and eighty players in the winners' bracket, plus the sixty players who passed the playoffs, a total of one thousand four hundred and forty players, will be randomly matched for matches. Losers are directly eliminated.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 21st, the third round of the [Cocoon War]. Seven hundred and twenty advance to three hundred and sixty.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 22nd, the fourth round of the [Cocoon War]. Three hundred and sixty advance to one hundred and eighty.

At one o'clock in the morning on May 23rd, the fifth round of the [Cocoon War]. One hundred and eighty advance to ninety.

At this point, the [Cocoon War] stage is over, and the last ninety players remaining will be merged with ten invited players to form the top 100, entering the [Butterfly War].

Basically speaking… during this semi-final stage, if you want to go further, you can't lose a single match…

These three thousand people are all experts who have been left behind after the sifting of the sands, and I believe they also understand that every match is crucial. If you make a mistake or stumble, you can only pay the price yourself.

Of course, the format still leaves a glimmer of hope for the players.

Considering that top players may meet too early in the first round, two rounds of playoffs were set up, giving them a chance to make a comeback. At the same time, the playoffs can also test the weaker players in the winners' bracket.

In addition… there is also the concept of "performance," which is a topic of much debate. Currently, there are discussions on the forum… some players advanced with thirty-seven wins, but there are also cases where some players with the same number of wins failed to advance.

Regarding this point, Dream Inc. provided convincing data. The system will make a comprehensive assessment based on the total survival value, stamina value, combat time, and skill value acquisition of each player in the fifty preliminary matches. This assessment will also be used when deciding the playoff list. It is the basis for judging which player has a better record in the case of the same number of wins.

…………

Dawn on May 17th.

Xiao Tan logged into the game in sleep mode, preparing to welcome his first [Cocoon War] match with a nervous mood.

If the preliminary round felt much the same as an ordinary 1v1 killing game, then this semi-final… is very different.

This is broadcast live. If the randomly matched opponent is a well-known player, then this duel may even be moved to the main screen of the mall, and watched by hundreds of thousands of people with commentary from the commentators.

Xiao Tan has always been quite low-key since he was a child, and he hasn't shown his face much. At this time, it is inevitable that he will feel a little nervous.

However, these psychological stage fright reactions should be quickly ignored when the fight actually starts. Anyway, players can't see the audience or hear the commentators in the script; even if they are really selected and appear on the main screen, they won't know.

For players, they just need to focus on the battle itself.

[Important reminder: The first round of the Cocoon War is about to begin. Please prepare within -ten minutes- of game time. Transmission will begin immediately after the countdown.] The system voice sounded at fifty minutes past midnight.

After the prompt, Xiao Tan only needed to open the game menu to see the countdown displayed at the top right.