Chapter 25 The Battle Reports Arrive

On March 25th, various battle reports regarding the early morning matches were released.

The three hottest topics were:

First, [Shanhe] won against their old rivals, [Tiandi].

Both sides of the match were studios ranked in the top ten of the industry. Naturally, both the victor and the defeated revealed plenty of news and related interviews after the match.

Second, [Hongying] was miserably swept by a dark horse.

The spokesperson for [Hongying] studio also admitted after the match that after losing Xu Huai Shang, they were experiencing a talent shortage in their popular main project, *Thriller Paradise*. The road to cultivating a new ace player was long and would take time.

Third, who exactly is [Paradise’s Gate]?

This question was of greatest concern to the vast majority of players, but this mysterious team did not accept any form of interview or communication, nor did they issue any statements through any channels, leading the media to rely on fabricated nonsense and sensational headlines to report on them. This only made the team's situation even more confusing.

...

On the 26th, at midnight, the matching list for the fourth round of the competition was announced on time.

In this round, a total of 3,339 teams participated. The number of teams was still odd, so one team would still receive a bye, and the remaining 3,338 teams would fight each other.

By this round, in addition to those seed teams, many teams that had performed brilliantly in the first three rounds... such as [Paradise's Gate]... their matching situations had also become highly anticipated.

And this... was exactly what the Dream Company's operations department hoped to see.

The "completely random" matching mechanism was designed to give casual players more opportunities to advance and showcase themselves; at this stage, the project had already been a success.

Compared to the previous two competitions, in S3, the sense of participation and the degree of participation of ordinary players have been significantly improved... It is conceivable that when people see teams like [Gods], [Hongying], and [Tiandi] being eliminated one after another, while many grassroots teams with similar levels to their own (at least some viewers thought so while watching) are still advancing, the feeling of "I can do it too" will inevitably rise. And this feeling is the catalyst for inspiring people to become more invested in something.

...

March 26th, evening, 11:55 PM.

In five minutes, the fourth round of the Peak Tournament S3 will begin.

In this round, there is only one focus match, but there are two things about "matching" that need to be mentioned.

Let's talk about the second thing first—[Hell Front] received a bye in this round.

This is indeed worth mentioning, because there has never been a seed team receiving a bye in the first three rounds.

Of course, no one thinks this is a conspiracy or anything... since it's "completely random", it's only a matter of time before a seed team gets a bye. Furthermore, from the perspective of the vast majority of ordinary players, it's a good thing that a strong team gets a bye, because... whoever encounters them is unlucky.

Then, let's go back to the first thing, namely the match-up of that "focus match"—[Warring States] and [Useless Alliance].

Both of these teams made it to the S2 finals, and were among the final four teams of the S2 era, along with [Hell Front] and [Order]... So the attention this match receives is no less than that of [Order] vs. [Gods] in the first round.

Since the S3 competition system requires the number of team members to be expanded to seven, both sides have made changes to their lineups in this competition.

First, let's talk about [Warring States]. Although it's a foreign studio, it has naturally gained many local fans after entering *Thriller Paradise* for so long... Considering that most of the male fans are here for the four leading ladies, Oda Ai, Akechi Nobu, Takeda Tomo, and Uesugi Jin must be on the team.

In addition to them, Sasaki Mei will naturally also take a position. He is not only the team's strategist, but also one of the top three in the team in terms of strength. There's no reason for him to sit on the bench.

As for the remaining two spots... Toyotomi Hei, Imagawa Yoshi, Tokugawa Tada, and Hojo Kazu from the original "Warring States Second Team" all want to compete for them; this is understandable, because they were indeed crushed by [Useless Alliance] in S2, so they all have the desire to take the field personally to avenge their shame.

But, in the end, only Imagawa Yoshi was selected; the reason for his selection was not that he was stronger than the other second team members, but because he majored in scouting specialization, which would make the team's structure more reasonable after joining.

As for the player who became the seventh member of the [Warring States] team in this competition, his ID is Date Makoto... a newcomer that the studio has been cultivating since the S2 era; his positioning is somewhat similar to Gui Xiao, both are seventeen-year-old genius-type players, and [Warring States] plans to focus on cultivating him in the future.

The above is the personnel configuration of the [Warring States] team.

Next, let's talk about [Useless Alliance]...

The "Useless Five Tigers" from the S2 era are all here this time, Honghu, Zhao Ying Wang, Useless Uncle, Juan Menghuan, and Bi Laoshi... none of them are missing.

Some people may be wondering, why is Old Bi, who was originally used to "make up the numbers", here again this time?

Let's put it this way... two reasons: First, because Old Bi has good interpersonal relationships (this reason is unsolvable). Second, because today's Bi Laoshi... can indeed be used as a kind of "strategic weapon."

It was mentioned earlier that after S2, Old Bi is already a god-level figure in the joke world (other god-level figures include Chun Ge, King, Satan, Buggy the Clown, Chuck Norris, etc.)... I don't know why, but 99% of players are willing to believe that he is strong, unfathomably strong.

The analysis teams of major studios also know very little about Old Bi's strength ceiling, ability characteristics, and other information—reasonable guesses and massive jokes make it difficult for them to make accurate judgments.

Of course, there are also people who understand, such as Feng Bujue and Gui Xiao... but they both choose to remain silent about Old Bi's strength; Feng Ge is one thing, but Gui Xiao, a professional player, actually bullshits with the company, saying something like "Even I can't see through Old Bi's strength," which makes the behind-the-scenes personnel of [Order] also panic.

In short, it is already impeccable to be able to slack off in a team to the level of Old Bi...

In addition to those "Useless Five Tigers", the two new members of [Useless Alliance] are also familiar faces.

The first one is Tianma Xingkong... that's right, it's Little Ma Ge who won the S1 championship.

As everyone knows, Little Ma Ge was originally a player from [Starry Sky] studio, and everyone knows the name of [Starry Sky] as an "arsenal" in the e-sports circle. Logically speaking... after winning the S1 championship, Little Ma Ge should have been sold by them at a high price.

However... awkwardly, no one bought him.

The reason is very simple, the buying and selling parties have a big disagreement on the price; although Little Ma Ge has a championship title, most studio analysis teams believe that, judging from his actual performance, this headstrong guy is not worth the price offered by [Starry Sky].

[Starry Sky] is not in a hurry either; anyway, the players signed by their studio are all young, unknown, and have potential, and the contracts used are all short-term and low-paying. Since no one buys him, they will keep him for use.

So, Little Ma Ge stayed in [Starry Sky] all through S2, until his contract was about to expire, and the studio felt that... this situation was not right? If they didn't sell him, he would become a free agent.

But at this time, it's difficult to sell him again... Everyone knows that the contracts of [Starry Sky] are extremely low in terms of basic security, and the only attractive thing is the "transfer split" clause—a regulation that is a win-win for the studio and the players, but the buyer has to pay the bill.

Simply put, players from [Starry Sky] have a future if they stay in the studio, but no "financial future"; their goal is to "be sold"... once they transfer, they can not only go to the studio that bought them to get a high salary, but also get a considerable transfer fee bonus in one go.

However, Tianma Xingkong is a special case... When his worth was at its highest, the buying and selling parties failed to reach a consensus on his worth, so he was delayed... By the time the contract was about to expire, no sucker would spend a transfer fee to buy him, right? If they really want to sign him, they can just wait for him to terminate the contract and sign him as a free agent, right? Anyway, [Starry Sky]'s low-paying short-term contract does not come with a non-compete agreement.

To sum up, Tianma Xingkong has become an extremely rare player for [Starry Sky] in recent years who waited until the contract expired and automatically terminated the contract.

On the day his contract expired, the date of the start of the S3 competition was very close... the lineups of most studio teams had already been polished and the registration had been completed; even if many studios said they wanted to sign him, none of them could offer him a spot to play.

At this time, the cunning Honghu (who had already inquired about the date of Little Ma Ge's contract expiration through relationships in the circle) extended an olive branch to Little Ma Ge as a friend, and successfully won a Saint Seiya... no... a valiant general for [Useless Alliance].

Finally, there is another new member of the [Useless Alliance] team to introduce—Qi Sha.

Yes, it's Qi Sha from [Blade].

This guy came to the door himself, and his reason was also very sufficient... since the studio does not plan to participate in the competition this time, and he personally hopes to compete with experts in the competition, so, after being approved by the leader, he came out to find a team by himself.

[Useless Alliance] was the first team Qi Sha found... As a team with a human touch far greater than utilitarianism, a team that seemed like a shelter for the homeless, they discussed it casually and let Qi Sha join the team.

So far, the seven members of [Useless Alliance] have all been determined.

...

As the clock struck zero, the fourth round of the competition also kicked off.

Today, the [Hell Front] team members, who received a bye, were waiting in the conference room in the first second of the start of the match, and locked on the live broadcast channel of the [Warring States] and [Useless Alliance] match early.

Not only them, but also the big screen in the game store, which is also broadcasting this match at this moment, and is equipped with two commentators.

This battle between the two powerhouses is already on the verge of breaking out.