Chapter 1 A Look Back Three Days

Let's rewind time a little and focus on what happened three days prior...

At midnight on August 30th, the "Team Roster Change Request" function for the Pinnacle Melee S2 closed.

At the same moment, the specific start time and rules for the S2 "Preliminary Round Mode" were also released on the Dream Inc. website.

That night was destined to be sleepless...

As midnight approached, a large number of players were already camped out in front of their computers, with forums and web pages open, eagerly awaiting firsthand information.

And when the clock struck midnight and the relevant information was released, the forums experienced about three minutes of silence... followed by an unprecedented explosion of activity.

Even with dedicated discussion areas and the assistance of quantum computers in filtering and managing posts, the forums were in a state of near "meltdown" in the hour after midnight.

Clearly, players were very excited, very enthusiastic, and everyone had their own unique take on the detailed rules that had been announced, which they wanted to share immediately.

However, Brother Jue didn't pay attention to any of this that night. He calmly led the Hell Front's partners through two scenarios, then logged off and went to sleep.

Because... he had already anticipated the situation that would arise on the forums, so he simply chose to ignore it. The announcement was posted on the official website anyway, and he could read it tomorrow; there was no point in joining the rush.

Therefore, it wasn't until the next morning, after Feng Bujue returned from his morning exercise and had finished breakfast, that he leisurely turned on his computer and read the rules...

***

The Pinnacle Melee S2 competition was divided into three stages: the "Preliminary Round," the "Semifinal Round," and the "Final Round." The preliminary round was officially named [Gathering of Heroes], and the competition format adopted a "completely random" team battle, with overall rules similar to the practice mode—a 4v4 battle between two teams of five.

The preliminary round adopted a point system, with thirty-six matches to be completed within a fifty-day period. The scoring rules were similar to those of a soccer league: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.

At this point, some people will definitely ask, "What's a 'draw'?" Here, let's explain how "draws" occur...

Generally speaking, there are three situations that can lead to a draw.

First, if the members of both teams "mutually eliminate" or "die simultaneously" within a very short time (less than or equal to ten seconds), then regardless of the cause of this result, and regardless of which team's member caused it, the match will be considered a "draw."

For example, in a certain match, Team A has only one member left, while Team B still has three; at this time, the member of Team A rushes into the middle of the three members of Team B and self-destructs, resulting in the simultaneous death of all four, this result can be considered a draw.

But if after the explosion, a member of one side... survives for more than ten seconds after all members of the opposing team have been judged "dead," then regardless of whether he is still alive in the eleventh second, his team is considered the "winning" side.

Second, if the two teams spend a very long time in the scenario, but fail to kill all of the opposing team members, and fall into a stalemate similar to a "three-step repetition" in Chinese chess, where "whoever changes their move first will suffer"...

Under these circumstances, the system will propose a "draw agreement" to the captains of both teams. If both captains agree, the game will end in a draw. But if one side disagrees, then the dissenting side must proactively "change their move" to break the stalemate, otherwise they will be judged as passively playing the game. Similarly, if both sides disagree, then both sides must "change their move."

Third, although the probability is extremely low, there is another possibility of a draw... namely, situations involving atomic bombs or the like. That is, if "both players are simultaneously wiped out by a large-scale destructive attack from a third party in the scenario," that also counts as a draw.

But to be honest, creating such a situation is probably more difficult than winning...

***

Okay... let's talk about draws for now, and continue with the competition format.

As a game, forcing players to do something on time every day for such a long period of fifty days... will undoubtedly create psychological pressure and a certain degree of resentment. Therefore, Dream Inc. adopted a strategy similar to that of the S1 preliminary round, using the rule of "completing n matches within n days" to allow players to allocate their time relatively freely.

In the S2 preliminary round, "incomplete" teams can only play one match per calendar day. Matches that start before midnight and continue into the next day will be considered played on the "previous day."

Teams that have already completed all thirty-six matches are no longer subject to the above rule. These teams can play as many matches as they want in a day, but they will not receive any points regardless of whether they win or lose. However, if they win, they will receive a clear reward equivalent to that of a "Nightmare Difficulty Team Mode."

Dream Inc. added this setting mainly to prevent teams from being unable to complete the preliminary round before the deadline due to "not being able to find an opponent." For example... some teams are still one match short on the last night, and there are not many similar teams in the queue system at this time, so they have to wait a long time to get in... To avoid this situation, Dream Inc. uses reward rules to encourage those "already completed" teams to continue to stay in the queue and act as opponents for those "not yet completed" teams.

For the former, this is a surefire win. Winning... can not only get rich rewards, but also prevent a team that may pose a threat to them in the future from getting points; losing... is simply wasting some game time, like playing a practice match.

And for the latter, regardless of whether the team they encounter is a completed team or not, they have to fight to win, so there is no difference.

Of course... even so, some teams will inevitably be unable to complete the preliminary round within fifty days for various reasons. Dream Inc. has also thought of countermeasures for this. After the fifty-day period, they will choose a time to give those teams that have completed thirty-five matches a chance to play an extra round together. If the number of these teams is odd, then a GM team will be sent to make up the number (the actual situation later was even, so the GM team did not appear).

But if you haven't even played thirty-five matches in fifty days, then sorry, it seems your team lacks the ability to complete the preliminary round, and you can't blame others for not being able to enter the Semifinal Round.

***

Next, let's talk about how the matches are ranked.

After all the matches in the preliminary round are completely over, the system will select the top 256 teams with the most points from the "completed teams" to enter the Semifinal Round.

If there is a tie in points, the system will look at the "minor points," that is, who has more "wins"; if even the number of wins is the same, it will calculate the difference between the number of deaths on our side and the number of deaths on the enemy's side in the valid thirty-six matches; and if even this data is the same... the system will calculate the percentage of survival value lost in each match.

In short, the ranking must be reasonable and justified. To avoid being eliminated in the event of a tie in points, the way is to carefully play every match and do every detail well. Maybe these accumulated details... can allow your team to squeeze out others to advance.

***

Next, let's look at the prizes.

There are a total of 256 teams that pass the preliminary round, but only the top 100 teams can get prizes.

As for the content of the prizes, it has also been mentioned in the previous text, namely:

Top 100 - Each member of the team will receive 1,000,000 game coins and a limited edition T-shirt.

Top 50 - Each member of the team will receive two random Superior-grade equipment items corresponding to their level, as well as a forty-eight-hour limited-time experience opportunity for the new version of *Thriller Paradise*, "Twilight of the Gods."

Top 10 - Team members who have not reached the maximum level will be immediately promoted to the maximum level, and each member will receive one Perfect-grade equipment item.

It is worth mentioning that the announcement on August 30 specifically pointed out... the prizes for this preliminary round can be "stacked."

That is to say, the top 50 teams can not only get the prizes in their own tier, but also the prizes in the "top 100" tier. And the top 10 teams can get all three tiers of rewards mentioned above.

This arrangement... will undoubtedly raise the competition in the preliminary round to a level that can be called brutal, and this... is exactly the situation that Dream Inc. most wants to see.

The game company wants the players to go all out in every match, even those teams that queue up again after completing the preliminary round will work hard to suppress the points of other incomplete teams.

***

The last thing to talk about... is the competition time.

According to the news released on August 30, the matching system for [Gathering of Heroes] will open at zero o'clock on September 5 and close at zero o'clock on October 25. During these fifty calendar days, players can join the queue at any time.

Of course, in the first thirty-six days, all teams can only queue up for one match per day at most. If you want to play two matches in a row, you can consider queuing up close to midnight, so that the first match will basically end the next day.

***

Overall, these rules are all reasonable and logical, and basically within Feng Bujue's expectations.

In the short term, there is not much that needs to be planned. According to Brother Jue's estimation, as long as his Hell Front team plays according to the rhythm of the practice mode, entering the Semifinal Round is a sure thing.

As for the rules of the Semifinal Round, Dream Inc. has not yet announced them, but judging from the number of teams advancing from the preliminary round, it is not difficult to guess that the Semifinal Round will adopt an elimination system.

Feng Bujue speculated... if there are no surprises, the Semifinal Round should be four (to determine the top sixteen) to five (to determine the top eight) rounds. The possibility of three rounds is also there, but thirty-two teams entering the final seems a bit too many.

And how far the Hell Front team can go in S2 depends on this Semifinal Round... which is also the main stage for Feng Bujue to display his analysis and planning skills.

Under the point system, the teams that can stay in the Semifinal Round are by no means ordinary, so the possibility of strong teams meeting is extremely high. If the Semifinal Round is really a "one-match elimination system" with no way out, then these few rounds of matches... may be more dangerous and difficult than the final...