Chapter 1 Aftermath

Following [Mountains and Rivers], [Jianghu] became the second top-tier professional team to fall to [Hell Frontline].

At the same time, they were the tenth team to be swept by [Hell Frontline].

Putting aside the "bye round," Brother Jue and his teammates defeated every opponent they encountered in these eleven rounds with a score of three to zero; among the fourteen remaining teams, only two teams still maintain this "zero-loss" record: one is [Hell Frontline], and the other is [Gates of Heaven].

Interestingly, both of these teams are civilian teams without a studio background…

After the eleventh round, although the Peak Battle s3 competition still had several rounds to go, it was already quite clear which teams had the makings of a champion.

[Order], [Loser Alliance], [Gates of Heaven], and [Hell Frontline] were far superior to the other teams in terms of combat power ceiling, roster depth, and performance on the road to promotion… If nothing unexpected happened, the champion would definitely be born among them.

Therefore, for the remaining ten teams of players, the next "random match" became very important… In theory, if the four powerhouses encountered each other in the next two rounds, at least one runner-up could be born from the remaining ten teams.

However, things did not develop in the direction they had hoped…

At midnight on April 14th, the match list for the twelfth round of s3 was announced: a total of 14 teams participated in this round, and because it was an even number, no team had a bye round in this round, and all teams would compete; and the random result showed that the four teams with the highest voices for winning the championship… did not encounter each other.

Although the probability of this situation occurring was not low enough to be "obviously fake," some social platforms still saw arguments similar to "the organizers secretly manipulating the matches."

Of course, such unfounded guesses with no connection to any interests did not cause much of a stir; compared to the big messes that Thriller Paradise had gradually created over the past year of operation, this was nothing…

Thus, the twelfth round passed in such a hot but unsurprising atmosphere.

After this round, the top 7 of s3 were born, and these seven teams were:

[Order], the number one studio in the professional gaming circle recognized today; [Loser Alliance], an alliance composed of a group of uncontracted professional players and unemployed people; [Mochi], an old studio that had achieved many brilliant results but is now gradually retreating to the second tier; [Black Eight Miracle], a strong team composed of seven casual players with considerable strength; [We Didn't Cheat], a team formed by seven popular game streamers; [Gates of Heaven], the biggest dark horse in this competition; and [Hell Frontline], which is difficult to describe but does not seem to need much introduction.

According to the rules, in the thirteenth round of the competition, one team will have a bye round, and the other six teams will eliminate half, thus determining the final four.

However, in the early morning of April 16th, when the match list for this round should have been announced, Dream Company created another problem…

They did not update the match results on the official website on time, but instead released an announcement—[Notice on Additional Rule Settings for the Peak Battle s3].

Just based on the title, 95% of the players had already exploded before clicking on the article link; because the title revealed a strong sense of a dark curtain, and it was the kind that could not be darker.

Almost everyone made such a judgment before reading the article: "Dream Company must want to send those four seeded teams into the final four, but if there are only seven teams, if the result of the four strong teams avoiding each other again appears, it will be obviously fake. If they do this, players will definitely suspect that all the previous random results were artificially manipulated… Therefore, Dream Company can only achieve their attempt by adding new mechanisms."

I have to say… the eyes of the masses are sharp, and they guessed right.

According to the announcement, the original "random match" mechanism was still retained. In fact, the match results for this round had already been listed in this announcement.

The match situation for the thirteenth round was: [Order] vs [Gates of Heaven], [Loser Alliance] vs [Mochi], [Hell Frontline] vs [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Didn't Cheat] got a bye round.

However, Dream Company added three new rule settings on this basis…

The first rule is that for teams that have had a bye round in the previous twelve rounds, each time they have a bye round, they will be considered one point behind in this round.

What does this rule mean?

First of all, [Mochi], [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Didn't Cheat], the three teams that have never had a bye round, are definitely fine.

Secondly, [Loser Alliance], which encountered a "team that forfeited after the match results came out," does not count as a bye round, so they escaped a disaster.

However, [Hell Frontline], which had a bye round in the fourth round, and [Gates of Heaven], which had a bye round in the tenth round, were equal to being one to zero behind before the start of the game under this rule.

And they… are not the worst. [Order], which had a bye round in the eighth and eleventh rounds respectively (this is why the word "again" was used when mentioning Order's bye round in chapter 1372), must start this round with a "two-point deficit."

Combining the match list… the match between [Order] vs [Gates of Heaven] in this round will be regarded as one to two at the beginning, that is, the latter will have a match point in hand at the beginning of the battle; however, the two teams still have to send out a complete seven-person lineup and start from the "vanguard battle."

And the match between [Hell Frontline] vs [Black Eight Miracle] is okay. With the strength of Brother Jue and his teammates, giving up one match will not have much impact, and it is likely that the game will end in the *Can Jiang* battle.

Next, let's look at the added second rule setting…

In the next round (the fourteenth round), each of the four teams that successfully enter the final four will be allocated a "divine artifact."

The four divine artifacts are: [The Crown], [The Holy Grail], [The Philosopher's Stone], and [The Amulet]; Regarding the origin and explanation of these four "Atari artifacts," the official also gave a video data, this video was produced by a well-known game commentary video author in the early twenty-first century, named "Looking for the Sword," the video details the origin, value, and related rumors of the four artifacts.

Of course, Dream Company will not send real things to players, they give the data version of the "four artifacts."

Dream Company claims that these four artifacts "each have a significant team Buff, and there are restraint relationships between the Buffs that are enough to reverse the outcome," but what those Buffs are will not be announced until the end of the next round of matching.

In addition, the performance of each team in this round will also determine the order and rights of allocating artifacts in the next round.

The rules are: In terms of time, the team that wins the fastest can exchange the remaining artifact that no one has chosen with the artifact in the hands of any team after the other three teams have obtained the artifact. Of course, they can also hold it without exchanging it; the second fastest winning team can choose the artifact first and assign an artifact to the third fastest team and the team with the bye round; the third fastest winning team can choose whether to exchange the artifact in their hand with the team with the bye round; as for the team with the bye round… unfortunately, they can only passively accept the assigned result.

Finally, let's talk about the third additional rule setting—the team with the bye round in this round can choose to exchange positions with any team, of course, they can also choose not to exchange and directly advance.

Seeing this, I believe everyone can guess… Yes, the members of the [We Didn't Cheat] team, the selector of the third rule, after learning the rules, discussed it briefly and decided to exchange positions with [Gates of Heaven].

From any point of view, the exchange of positions is beneficial to them.

A simple calculation shows that if they do not exchange positions in this round, the three opponents they will face in the next round will be: [Hell Frontline], [Loser Alliance], and the winner between [Order] and [Gates of Heaven]; not only are they all seeded teams, but they also have the priority allocation of artifacts… No matter how you look at it, this is a situation where there is no chance of survival.

And if they exchange positions? Then the situation will be completely different.

The members of the [We Didn't Cheat] team are relatively well-known game streamers, four of whom are former professional players, and the other three have not entered professional clubs, but they are all full-time game circle practitioners anyway, and the single game time is not comparable to amateur players; at least in the game Thriller Paradise, their level is no different from professional players, and may even be stronger.

It is not difficult to see that such a team has a high opinion of themselves and has certain ambitions; even if they do not harbor any fluke for the championship, the runner-up or something can be strived for.

So, in order to continue to win and advance, who should they exchange positions with?

Deduce by the elimination method…

If they exchange [Mochi], they will have to fight [Loser Alliance], which is basically equivalent to suicide in advance.

If they exchange [Black Eight Miracle], and start the game with a score of one to zero against [Hell Frontline], it feels very risky…

And if they exchange [Loser Alliance] or [Hell Frontline]… it is possible, because if they play against [Mochi] or [Black Eight Miracle], they have about 70% certainty that they can win. It's just… being able to win does not mean being able to sweep; when the competition has reached this point, the strength of the remaining teams will not be too bad. If someone plays a score of three to two, it will be very embarrassing…

Considering the rules of the next round, if they play five full matches in this round or the time is delayed for a long time, they may become the third fastest winning team… It is not worth the effort to end up with only a little more initiative than sticking to the bye round.

As for the "exchange [Order]" plan, it was naturally pAssed in the first place… not to mention that the situation of playing against [Gates of Heaven] with a score of one to zero at the beginning is similar to the situation of playing against [Hell Frontline], and both belong to a two-eight situation. Moreover, this move also saved the [Order] that was on the verge of collapse… For [Order], "competing with the artifact Buff in the next round being restrained by the halo" and "facing [Gates of Heaven] in this round with a match point at the beginning" are obviously more controllable in the former.

In summary, "exchanging [Gates of Heaven]" is the only and best choice for the streamers.

Once this position is exchanged, the [We Didn't Cheat] team will lead by two to zero at the beginning. As long as they win one point, they can advance, and they will still eliminate [Order] to advance… No matter what the details of the process are, if this becomes a reality, they can brag about it for a lifetime.

More importantly, starting with a score of two to zero is equivalent to saving two rounds of time; if the progress is smooth, they can not only "upset and eliminate the invincible [Order]," but also steadily obtain the artifact selection right in the next round… that is, a 100% artifact restraint advantage.

Therefore, compared with sticking to the bye round, exchanging [Gates of Heaven] is undoubtedly an excellent choice. This exchange has a high probability of exchanging a runner-up.

…………

In short, after a day of tossing, everything was settled in the early morning of the 17th.

[Loser Alliance], [Hell Frontline], and [Gates of Heaven], who were "lucky" enough to be exchanged to the bye round position, all advanced as expected.

And [Order], who had been actively preparing for the battle and protesting against the rules in the previous twenty-four hours, finally reversed the defeat with a score of three to two and got rid of the [We Didn't Cheat] team.

This was a very "ugly" game… at least in the eyes of the audience.

[Order], which has always shown people in the posture of a king, sent out all the "drunk life and dream death" in the first three matches, and let these four sacrifice a Mark Selby-style "grinding" tactic, and made all three matches a very dull and protracted battle.

There are three reasons why [Order] did this:

First, it is to seek stability… In this kind of game where people are holding three match points at the beginning, it is not too much to be stable. Anyway, the absolute advantage in hard power is still there. As long as they completely abandon the viewing and do the "stable" thing to the extreme, they can ensure the maximum winning rate.

Second, delaying time is also part of psychological warfare… The team behind the scenes of [Order] has already figured out what the members of the [We Didn't Cheat] team were planning before the game. They just grasped the opponent's mentality of "wanting to take down the match point in one go" and implemented the three words "delay," "grind," and "consume" to the end; If the time is delayed for a long time, the opponent will inevitably become impatient, and then flaws will emerge…

The third… offering such a round of competition is also a silent protest from [Order] against Dream Company; what they want to express is: "Since you use rules to make surprise attacks and pit us, then we will counter-pit the ratings and reputation of this competition."

Unfortunately, at this time, no one in Dream Company cared about these things anymore.

In the final stage of this "gambling game," the employees who have been in "cognitive interference" for a long time will be more strongly affected and restricted in their thinking… The things that the "higher-ups" don't want to pay attention to, they will naturally not consider, and the relevant concepts will not even form in their minds…