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Glory!

When the team competition was replaced by this massive word, Zhang Yiwei had completely collapsed on his seat.

Although he had seen the lack of initiative Mysterious Fantasy had during the team competition and guessed the results, with the match still ongoing, he still bore hope for a miracle in his heart. It was only until now that Zhang Yiwei’s hopes finally turned to ashes.

Excellent Era was in this season’s Challenger League, which was quite the blow for those who wanted to return to the Pro League. In truth, Mysterious Fantasy had long since been prepared for an extra year in the Challenger League. Now, however, they had been eliminated without even meeting Excellent Era. That was inexcusable. Zhang Yiwei was the true core of Team Mysterious Fantasy. In successes, he contributed the most; in failures, he couldn’t escape the responsibility; and this match had completely revealed to him how little control coaches like him had over the situation under the current rules. Zhang Yiwei felt that his future was even bleaker than Mysterious Fantasy’s.

The players of both teams came down from the stage one by one. Mysterious Fantasy’s players gathered around of their own volition, yet their coach didn’t say a word sitting there so silently, it was scary. They didn’t dare make any noise either, just standing there with their heads bowed, quietly waiting. Yet, next to them, laughter and celebration filled Happy’s player stands.

At the same time, in the audience, the few Happy fans as well as the Ye Qiu fans were cheering in excitement. In the media seating area, Chang Xian was almost jumping in joy.

”They won! Happy won, Brother Cao!!” There were quite a few reporters around them so Chang Xian stayed discrete, simply pulling on Cao Guangcheng, who sat next to him, and sharing his joy.

”Heh, not bad.” Cao Guangcheng squeezed out a smile. He was surprised that Happy had really managed to obtain such a one-sided victory and guarantee Mysterious Fantasy’s elimination. Could this Happy really pose a threat to Excellent Era?

Cao Guangcheng couldn’t help the anxiety in his heart. However, looking at his fellow reporters, he found that they were rather happy that Happy was advancing to the next round. It was just that they were happy for a different reason. Chang Xian was happy because he had feelings for Happy and hoped that this team could do better and walk further. As for the other reporters, they were hoping for a drama-filled clash between Ye Qiu and Excellent Era so none of them wanted Happy to be eliminated too early.

”10 to 0, Happy eventually defeated Mysterious Fantasy with such a huge lead. This result was probably very unexpected to most people, right? However, you have to admit that this is an appropriate conclusion to this round. Team Happy is the biggest surprise of the season for the Challenger League, and two ex-pro teams have already fell to them. Who knows what other surprises they’ll bring us in the following events? Let us wait and see!” The commentator for the broadcast was finishing up on his commentary for the match. The other seven matches had either already finished or were nearing their end.

The final rankings of each group would be decided today and on the electronic screen, facing four different directions, the rankings for each group was show on each on. Those groups that still had a chance were at their most nervous, but this had nothing to do with Mysterious Fantasy anymore. After standing around and staring at their coach for a while, they finally heard their coach speak.

”Let’s go!”

Zhang Yiwei stood, calmly calling his team over.

Admonishment? That would do nothing now. Encouragement? That could wait until after he secured his own future! They hadn’t even advanced past the group matches. Zhang Yiwei was very clear that this wouldn’t satisfy their boss. Especially since this match had exposed a lot of problems. There was a big question mark on if he could still stand with these team members in Team Mysterious Fantasy.

Team Mysterious Fantasy left silently like that and not many people noticed the departure of these failures. The audience was all watching the remaining matches while keeping an eye on the rankings. Group B was the first group to settle on its advancing teams. Happy was first and Trader was second.

The second group was Group D. Excellent Era’s first place in this group had been set in stone from the beginning and ended up with a full 40 points, showing off Excellent Era’s absolute advantage in the Challenger League. Everyone in this group could only hope for second. As the last two matches ended, Group D’s second advancing team was decided, a team called The Limit of Heat.

The third group that had its advancing teams decided was Group A. Jade Dynasty obtained first with a small lead and the second team was one called Scorching Fields.

And this team, according to the rules of the Challenger League, would be Happy’s next opponent.

Group C’s matches still hadn’t finished, but not many people cared. Their half had Excellent Era and no one believed anything that happened in this group would affect Excellent Era’s dominance.

The eight quarter finalists were all decided on this night, and the next round’s match arrangement would be automatically generated.

The following matches for the Challenger League would continue in a knockout-style best of one game with no difference in home or away. The map would be decided by the hosting party, all made by the Glory game company specially for the following games. With a match every week, the champions would be decided in three weeks. As for the competitive format, it would go by an entirely new format which would be used for the first time ever in the Challenger League offline tournament.

The new format decreased the three parts of the game to two. The individual matches would be removed, leaving only the group arena and team competition. However, the group arena would be changed from three on three to five on five.

The scoring system would be the all new headcount scoring system.

For example, if, in the group arena, someone was overwhelming enough to wipe out all five members of the other team, they would get five points. If two people managed to destroy all five, they would get four points; three people and they’d obtain three points; four people and they’d get two; five people and they’d get one. If all five people went up and weren’t able to defeat the other team, they would lose and would get no points.

The team competition would be the same. The points depended on how many people were left on your side, a point per person.

The final score would be the total of the two.

Because of the change in the scoring system, the format was all too new. After the Alliance leaked this, experts immediately began pointing out that this would lead to a revolution in Glory tactics. As opposed to simply pursuing the final victory, players needed to consider a lot more under this format. The game would become a lot more complicated and there would be much more to it. For the analysts who wouldn’t be hurting their waist when they stood and talked, they admired the new rules. However, for the actual participants, the pros, changing their habits would be something extremely annoying. So it didn’t matter if the change made things better or worse; they wouldn’t welcome it no matter what. It was just that when it made things worse, they could reasonably complain about it, but this sort of format where they couldn’t pick out any major flaws, they could only go and get used to it.

The Alliance planned to first test it out in the Challenger League to see how things went. If it was alright, they’d implement it in the Pro League playoffs. As for if the regular season needed changing or not, they’d have to do some more research.

The new competitive format wasn’t some sort of big reveal for everyone. When they started looking into it, the Alliance had gone to the clubs to see their opinions on it, as to avoid making some absurd rules and causing a riot. Being able to share this plan of theirs meant that the clubs wouldn’t have anything to say against it. As for the participants of the Challenger League, they were insignificant and powerless and could only go along with it.

Because of the addition of the headcount scoring system, the new format would be more complicated as experts had analyzed. But no matter how complicated the competition was, they could still make certain of their victory. If you won both the group arena and the team competition, then there was no need to take the headcount into account when deciding a victor.

The headcount would only be necessary if the victors of the group arena and team competition were different. Those who thought the headcount scoring system was only for deciding a victor under these circumstances were too naive. If a victor couldn’t be decided, they could add another match. The Alliance welcomed more matches for more spectators. Otherwise, why would they have two rounds? They’d just have each match be a team competition and leave it at that, simple.

Not doing that was naturally because one on one duels were an irreplaceable format that the audience loved. However, this sort of amalgamation of different match styles of the past had caused matches to end early. Especially with the appearance of such a situation in the finals of the last season, the Alliance was resolute in wanting to change this.

In theory, the same thing could happen with the new format. For example, if one team got five points in the group arena and then killed two of their opponents in the team competition, then the match would end early.

However, the probability of this happening was extremely low. In the Pro League, one versus three was already a very rare event, so while one versus five might not be impossible, the probability of something that happening couldn’t be lower. Anyways, five points, four points, even three points would be highly unlikely in the group arena. After all, the group arena was a fair, one on one sort of fight. Getting one or two points in the end should be the most common conclusion.

However, the team competition would be different. It would be easier to gain points in the team competition than the group arena because the team competition was only fair at the very beginning. When the disadvantaged side began to lose players, the gap would grow. The advantaged side keeping two or even three points would be common. Only one point would be less common in this circumstance.

Considering all these factors, the team competition wouldn’t be affected much if one team could only get one or two points in the Group Arena. That meant, with the new rules, the team competition was a heavy deciding factor. However, this was under the assumption that you didn’t let down your guard during the group arena. With each part tying to the other, the game’s competitiveness and viewership were assured, while reducing the chances of an early finish to the minimum. The Alliance was full of confidence to this new format. The eight quarter finalists of the Challenger League would be graced with the chance to be the very first to try the new format out.