Chapter 10 The Calm Before the Storm

March 27th, morning.

As the fourth round of the competition concluded, battle reports from all sides emerged one after another.

The focal battle between [Warring States] and [Loser Alliance] was undoubtedly the primary subject of various reports, while other seeded teams, having advanced without much trouble, did not receive as much attention.

Of course, as in previous rounds, when the new match list was released at midnight the next day, people's attention shifted to the new round's lineup.

...

A total of 1670 teams participated in the fifth round of the Peak Brawl S3 competition. For the first time since the start of the competition, the number of participating teams reached an even number, which meant… no teams had a bye in this round; all teams had to rely on victory to advance.

However, this round also lacked a "focal battle," as no encounters between two strong teams occurred.

In fact… from this round onward, for a full five rounds, there were no collisions between strong teams, nor did any upsets occur.

These five uneventful rounds became a carnival for casual players.

Apart from those teams unfortunate enough to encounter seeded teams, the battles between various folk masters were quite exciting. Unlike the victories and defeats between the top-tier teams, the matches between ordinary players had a different flavor… such as "low-level mistakes," "coordination errors," "turning a favorable situation into an unfavorable one through recklessness," "outlandish tactics," "bizarre formations," "outlandish tactics encountering bizarre tactics," "bizarre formations encountering bizarre formations," and "low-end mutual attacks evolving into high-end stalemates"—a series of situations rarely seen in professional matches occurred frequently in the matches between casual players.

If the "strong versus strong" showdowns between seeded teams were likened to the NBA Finals, then these matches with "unclear lower limits" and "any bizarre situation possible" were roughly the "mysterious showdowns" you would see when you ran to a free street court on a weekend. In the NBA Finals, you only see professional athletes, but on a street court, you might encounter anyone… like the Excuse Guy, the Apology Guy, the Awkward Chat Guy, the Pose Striking Guy, the All Show No Go Guy, the Player-Coach Guy, the Loudly Calling Fouls Guy, the Never Shoots Never Passes Guy, the Only Shoots Threes Despite Being Tall Guy, the Thinks He Can Dunk But Can't Guy, and the Mysterious Old Man Who Dominates the Court, etc… There's always one you've encountered, or maybe it's you.

A bit of a digression…

In short, such matches are also very entertaining to watch.

...

When there are things to write, it's long; when there's nothing to write, it's short.

Although there were no matches in these five rounds that needed to be written about in detail, the process of elimination still needs to be explained.

At the end of the fifth round, 835 teams had advanced.

In the sixth round, because the number of participating teams returned to an odd number, one team had a bye, and the remaining 834 teams were halved again.

In the seventh round, 418 teams fought each other, with no byes.

In the eighth round, 209 teams participated, one team had a bye, and the remaining 208 teams eliminated half.

In the ninth round, a total of 105 teams participated, with one team having a bye.

Thus, by the tenth round of S3, there were a total of 53 teams remaining, with professional teams and teams composed of casual players each accounting for about 50%… and this was exactly the situation that Dream Inc. had hoped for when designing the competition system.

Even though S3 had not yet determined the final champion, from a business operation perspective, the "no preliminary round, fully random competition system" adopted by this competition had achieved unprecedented success.

Whether it was player participation, the popularity of related topics, or the direct or indirect revenue inside and outside the game… all aspects of the data were encouraging. To date, S3 had surpassed the sum of S1 and S2 in terms of user satisfaction and economic benefits, and the employees of Dream Inc. could basically celebrate in advance.

Of course, players didn't care about these things.

At this stage, what players cared most about was naturally… which team would reach the peak of S3.

...

On April 7th, the day the tenth round match list was announced, Dream Inc. unexpectedly updated an announcement on its official website: "To celebrate the first anniversary of Thriller Paradise's public beta, all items in the online store will be sold at 50% off, for seven days."

Everyone had seen promotions, but this kind of "sudden attack" promotion was truly rare. Previously, some players had wondered… why didn't Thriller Paradise have a first-anniversary event or something? Could it be that the game company itself had forgotten about it?

As a result, players were greeted with such a "discount when we say discount" scene, as if the game company was saying to the vast number of players in a very perfunctory tone: "This kind of day is nothing to celebrate, but since you still remember it, we'll give you some discounts for now."

Ambiguous meaning…

...

At midnight on April 8th, the tenth round of the competition started on time.

Perhaps it was because no strong teams had met in the previous five rounds, or perhaps it was because the number of teams was indeed smaller now.

Anyway, for some reasons based on probability that I don't quite understand and am too lazy to explain in detail… in this tenth round, "strong versus strong" encounters erupted like a geyser.

First, [Loser Alliance] faced [Hyotei]… Yes, the "Hyotei Host Club" led by [Atobe Keigo] was now a newly emerging first-tier studio. This time, they had easily eliminated three second-tier studio teams on their way to advancing; from their actual performance, [Hyotei]'s combat strength was indeed not to be underestimated.

Secondly, there was the battle between [Order] and [Star Crest].

Although [Star Crest] had lost a major force with the departure of Xiao Ma Ge, they were still a studio whose purpose was to "cultivate star players and sell them." It was difficult to gather seven first-rate experts, but gathering seven newcomers with first-rate potential was a cinch… plus the luck factor in this competition, it was not surprising that they could reach this round.

However… encountering [Order] in this round, their luck was probably running out.

Then, there was the duel between [Jianghu] and [Wind and Cloud]. As a first-tier studio that I had never mentioned in the previous text but did exist, [Wind and Cloud]'s appearance was destined to be brief. For you readers, who would win this match… was obvious at a glance, but for the audience in the novel, it was still a fairly interesting match.

As for other studio teams similar to [Wind and Cloud], although there were a few of them that encountered each other in this round, unfortunately… they had little interaction with the main characters of this book, so there was no need for me to list their names one by one.

Next, let's talk about [Hell Front]…

In this round, Jue Ge's team's opponents were [Shanhe]. From an overall strength perspective, [Hell Front]'s advantage was still relatively obvious… but the opponent was, after all, a veteran first-tier strong team, not the kind of team that could be swept away by simply arranging a lineup, so they needed to deal with it carefully.

Moreover, [Qiu Feng Se] and [Mocha Su] in the [Shanhe] team were both candidates being bet on, so this would also be a direct confrontation between candidates.

Finally… in this round full of various highlights and points for ridicule, there was one more noteworthy thing—[Gates of Heaven] had a bye.