Chapter 1 Twenty-first of March

March twenty-first was undoubtedly a busy day for those working in the gaming industry.

The first round of Peak Brawl S3 saw 13,352 matches kicking off simultaneously. Even disregarding the more lopsided contests between non-professional teams, there were still almost too many battle reports to keep up with.

Of course, the biggest news grabbing headlines was the clash between [Gods] and [Order].

There were numerous reportable and noteworthy aspects to this match, with one of the hottest topics being: who can stop [Devourer Ghost]?

While the masses had many different answers to this question, it was clear that..."Feng Bujue" was the most frequently mentioned.

It was unclear when it happened, but Brother Jue had become a kind of "special solution" that people immediately thought of when faced with various "unsolvable problems."

How to fold a piece of paper more than seven times? Let Feng Bujue try.

How to divide a prime number by a natural number other than 1? Let Feng Bujue try.

How to defeat Devourer Ghost? It looks like we can only let Feng Bujue try.

It could be said that Brother Jue's actions in Thriller Paradise over the past year had now borne fruit. Whether this "popularity" was good or bad, it at least indicated that he had the makings of a king in the "Candidate Game."

...

March twenty-second, midnight.

The S3 second-round match list was published on the official website on time.

As in the first round, the match-ups of the seeded teams were closely watched.

However, this round did not feature a showdown between [Order] and [Gods]. The strong teams that players could name, and those with first-tier star players, were all separated in the second round.

Nevertheless, the watchability and attention remained high because... in the first round, many teams composed of "folk experts" showed very amazing strength, which was enough to threaten those professional strong teams.

Therefore, in the twenty-four hours after the list was announced, whether it was the data analysis team of professional studios, or the think tanks of those non-professional teams, all were frantically studying the first-round match videos of their opponents... the real "intelligence war" officially started from this round.

...

March twenty-third, midnight, the second round of S3 began.

There were 13,353 teams participating in this round, of which 13,352 teams will engage in duels, and the remaining one team will get a bye; in addition to the team that gets a bye to advance directly, the remaining teams will still be halved... after the competition, 6676 teams will be eliminated.

[Hell Frontline]'s opponent this time was called [Controversy League], a team made up of seven "former professional players."

In a sense, the two teams were destined, because these "former professional players" were all former generals of Shi Dao Studio.

Speaking of Shi Dao, the company has indeed had a lot of problems these days...

A few months ago, Shi Dao's boss suddenly "disappeared" one night. A few days later, their studio was found by various relevant departments. After a short week of "investigation," Shi Dao ended up being seized and closed down.

Don't underestimate this game studio. The breadth of the chain of interests involved behind it is really eye-opening. During that time, almost every day there was breaking news about Shi Dao - some said they colluded with illegal pharmaceutical groups, some said they colluded with smuggling groups, and some even said they were associated with some kind of gambling organization in urban legends... Some of this news was true and some was false. Even the people inside were confused.

In short, the investigation and disposal of Shi Dao by various departments were extremely efficient, and the matter was basically completed in two weeks; the online revelations did not last too long. After all, "netizens only have less than a week of memory," and people's attention quickly turned to other fresher hot topics.

After that, many people in Shi Dao's management completely disappeared from the public's sight, and they will never have the opportunity to return to the game industry.

And those players who came out of Shi Dao also had a hard time... Originally, their strength was relatively average, and they could only be a blue-collar worker in a first-tier studio. Once Shi Dao fell, the experience of staying there became a dark history; other studios would not spend extra public relations fees to recruit a few blue-collar players. It's better to use newcomers than to use them.

As a result, most of these former Shi Dao players directly announced their retirement and became "former professional players," and then devoted themselves to the live broadcast industry.

Currently, the [Controversy League] team that [Hell Frontline] is facing is composed of seven streamers who used to stay in Shi Dao.

Although they are "former professional players" and the characters they use were re-trained after Shi Dao was seized, as the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. The game level and competition experience of these seven people are undoubtedly at a professional level.

In addition, because they crushed their opponents three to zero in the first round of the competition, they did not expose too much information in terms of intelligence, which can be said to be a very tricky team.

Again, long story short...

In the first three games of this round, Brother Jue arranged—

"Vanguard Battle": [Xu Huai Shang]

"Middle Guard Battle": [Si Yu Ruo Li], [Shi Shang Hua Jian].

"Lieutenant General Battle": [Feng Bujue]

...such a lineup.

In less than fifteen minutes, [Hell Frontline] quickly swept their opponents with a three-to-zero advantage and successfully advanced to the third round.

By the way...ten minutes of these fifteen minutes were intermissions.

...

In this way, the second round of the competition ended in a warm but not intense atmosphere.

All the seeded teams can be said to have advanced without any surprises or risks. There was no unexpected upset situation, nor the kind of explosive point that occurred in the first round when two strong teams competed.

However, in the matches of those non-seeded teams, several teams of casual players...or, some ordinary players with outstanding performance...have attracted the attention of all walks of life.

After two rounds of battles, those hidden "masters," which ones are one-trick ponies, and which ones are truly strong with stable strength, are almost showing clues.

By the early hours of the twenty-fourth, the matching list for the third round of the competition was announced.

Finally, a showdown that can be called a "focus battle" appeared again.

This time, there are two matches worth noting—

The first match, [Heaven and Earth] vs [Mountains and Rivers]... This is a grudge match between two veteran first-tier studios.

The second match, [Red Sakura] vs [Gates of Paradise]... The former, after losing the absolute trump card [Xu Huai Shang], still maintained a sweeping score and advanced to the third round. Their new trump card that they are currently focusing on cultivating is also highly anticipated; the latter is a team composed of casual players. [Gates of Paradise] also swept all the way to advance, and the four players who have appeared in the team so far have shown professional-level... even dominant combat power, which has made them a dark horse with great potential in the eyes of many people.