Chapter 1379 Top Four
After [Shanhe], [Jianghu] became the second first-tier professional team to be defeated by [Hell Front].
At the same time, they were also the tenth team to be swept by [Hell Front].
Apart from the "bye" round, Jue Ge and his team defeated every opponent they met in the eleven rounds with a score of 3 to 0; among the remaining fourteen teams, there are only two teams that still maintain this "zero loss" record: one is [Hell Front], and the other is [Heaven's Gate].
Interestingly, both teams are civilian teams without studio backgrounds...
After the eleventh round, although there are still several rounds of the Peak Hegemony S3 game to be played, it is actually quite obvious which teams have the potential to win the championship.
[Order], [Waste Alliance], [Heaven's Gate], [Hell Front], these four teams, whether it is the upper limit of combat power, the thickness of the lineup, or the performance on the road to promotion... are far stronger than other teams; if nothing unexpected happens, the champion will definitely be born among them.
Therefore, for the players of the remaining ten teams, the next "random match" becomes very important... In theory, if the four teams meet in the next two rounds, at least one runner-up can be born among the remaining ten teams.
However, things did not develop in the direction they expected...
At midnight on April 14, the match list of the twelfth round of S3 was announced: there were 14 teams participating in this round. Because it was an even number, no team had a bye in this round, and all teams would compete; and the random results showed that the four teams with the highest chance of winning the championship... did not meet each other.
Although the probability of this happening is not so low that it looks fake, some social platforms still have similar arguments that "the organizer secretly manipulates the match."
Of course, this kind of unfounded and uninterested speculation did not cause any waves; compared with the big messes that have been poked out one after another since the horror park was put into operation for a year, this is not a big deal at all...
So, the twelfth round passed in such a hot but suspenseful atmosphere.
After this round of competition, the top 7 of S3 were born. These seven teams are:
The recognized first studio in the current professional gaming circle - [Order]; the alliance composed of a group of professional players without contracts and social idlers - [Wastewood Alliance]; the old studio that once achieved many brilliant results but is now gradually retreating to the second line - [Mochi]; the team composed of seven casual players with good strength - [Black Eight Miracle]; the team formed by seven popular game anchors - [We are not cheating]; the biggest dark horse of this competition - [Heaven's Gate]; and [Hell Frontline] which is difficult to describe but does not seem to need too much introduction.
According to the rules, in the thirteenth round of the game, one team will be bye, and the other six teams will be eliminated by half, so as to determine the top four.
However, in the early morning of April 16, when the list of matches for this round should have been announced, Dream Company made a fuss again...
They did not update the matching results on the official website on time, but released an announcement - [Notice on the subsequent rules/settings of Peak Domination S3].
Just for this title, 95% of the players were furious before they even clicked on the article link; because this title exudes a strong sense of shady dealings, and it couldn't be any shadier.
Almost everyone made this inference before reading the article: "Dream Company must want to send the four seeded teams to the semi-finals, but with only seven teams, if the four strong teams staggered, it would be a fake explosion. In this way, players will definitely suspect that all the previous random results were manipulated... So, Dream Company can only achieve their intentions by adding a new mechanism."
It must be said... the eyes of the masses are sharp, and they guessed right.
According to the announcement, the original "random matching" mechanism is still retained. In fact, the matching results of this round have been listed in this announcement.
The matchups in the 13th round are: [Order] VS [Heaven's Gate], [Waste Alliance] VS [Mochi], [Hell Front] VS [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Are Not Cheating] gets a bye.
However, Dream Company added three new rules/settings on this basis...
The first rule is that teams that had byes in the previous twelve rounds will be considered to be one point behind in this round for each bye.
What does this rule mean?
First of all, the three teams that have never had byes, [Mochi], [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Are Not Cheating], are definitely fine.
Secondly, teams like [Waste Alliance] that encountered "opponents giving up after the match results are announced" are not considered to have byes, so they escaped.
However, [Hell Front], which had a bye in the fourth round, and [Heaven's Gate], which had a bye in the tenth round, were already leading by one to zero before the start of the game under this rule.
And they...are not the worst, [Order], which had byes in the eighth and eleventh rounds respectively (this is why the word "again" was used when mentioning Order's byes in Chapter 1372), must play in this round with the attitude of "losing two points first".
Combined with the match list... the match between [Order] and [Heaven's Gate] in this round will be considered 1:2 at the beginning, that is, the latter will have the match point at the beginning; however, both teams still have to line up a complete seven-man lineup and start from the "vanguard battle".
As for the match between [Hell Front] and [Black Eight Miracle], it is not so bad. With the strength of Brother Jue and his team, giving up one game will not have much impact, and it is likely that the game will still end in the general battle.
Then, let's look at the second additional rule/setting...
In the next round (the fourteenth round), each of the four teams that successfully enter the semi-finals will be assigned an "artifact".
The four artifacts are: [Crown], [Holy Grail], [Philosopher's Stone] and [Amulet]; Regarding the origin and explanation of these four "Atari artifacts", the official also gave a video material. This video was made by a well-known game review video author in the early 21st century, named "Seeking the Sword". The video details the origin, value, and related rumors of the four artifacts.
Of course, Dream Company will not send the real thing to the 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 is a restraint relationship between the BUFFs that is enough to reverse the outcome", but what those BUFFs are will not be announced until the next round of matches is over.
In addition, the performance of each team in this round will also determine the order and rights of the distribution of artifacts in the next round.
The rules are: in terms of time, the team that wins the fastest can use the remaining artifact that no one chooses to exchange with the artifact in the hands of any team after the other three teams have obtained the artifact. Of course, they can also keep it without exchanging; the second fastest winning team can choose the artifact first and allocate an artifact to the third fastest team and the team with a bye; the third fastest winning team can choose whether to exchange the artifact in its hands with the team with a bye; as for the team with a bye... unfortunately, it can only passively accept the result of the distribution.
Finally, let's talk about the third additional rule/setting - the team with a bye 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 you can guess it... Yes, the members of the [We Are Not Cheating] team, that is, the party that chooses the third rule, decided to exchange positions with [Heaven's Gate] after learning the rules.
No matter from which angle, the exchange is beneficial to them.
Simply calculate, if they don't exchange positions this round, the three opponents they will face in the next round will be: [Hell Front], [Waste Alliance], and the winner between [Order] and [Heaven's Gate]; not only are they all seeded teams, but they also have the priority distribution of artifacts... This is a dead end no matter how you look at it.
And if they exchange positions? The situation is completely different.
The players of [We Are Not Cheating] are all well-known game anchors. Four of them are former professional players. Although the other three have never joined a professional club, they are all full-time game practitioners. The game time alone is not comparable to amateur players; at least in the game of Horror Paradise, their level is not much different from that of professional players, and they may even be stronger.
It is not difficult to see that such a team has a high self-esteem and has certain ambitions; even if they are not lucky enough to win the championship, they can indeed strive for the runner-up.
So, in order to continue to win and advance, who should they replace?
Use the elimination method to deduce...
Replacing [Mochi] means playing against [Waste Alliance], which is basically tantamount to committing suicide in advance.
Replacing [Black Eight Miracle], starting with a score of 1 to 0 to fight [Hell Frontline], it feels very daunting...
And replacing [Waste Alliance] or [Hell Frontline]... It can be possible, because if they play against [Mochi] or [Black Eight Miracle], they have about 70% chance of winning. But... winning doesn't mean we can sweep the whole team; at this point, the remaining teams can't be that bad, and if they are beaten by a score of 3 to 2, it will be embarrassing...
Considering the rules of the next round, if we play all five games in this round or the time drags on for a long time, we may become the third fastest team to win... It's not worth it to spend so much effort to get only a little more initiative than insisting on a bye.
As for the plan of "replacing [Order]", it was naturally the first one to be rejected...Not to mention that the game against [Heaven's Gate] with a score of 1 to 0 is similar to the situation against [Hell Frontline], both of which are 2:8. Moreover, this move also saved [Order], which was on the verge of death...For [Order], "playing in the next round with the aura of being countered by the artifact BUFF" and "playing against [Heaven's Gate] with a match point at the beginning of this round", the former is obviously more controllable.
In summary, "replacing [Heaven's Gate]" is the only and best choice for the anchors.
Once the position was changed, the [We Are Not Cheating] team was leading 2-0 at the start, and they only needed to win one point to advance, and they eliminated [Order] to advance... No matter what the details of the process are, if this thing becomes a fact, it can be boasted for a lifetime.
More importantly, the 2-0 start saved two rounds of time; if things went well, they would not only be able to "eliminate the arrogant [Order] unexpectedly", but also secure the right to choose the artifact in the next round... that is, a 100% artifact restraint advantage.
Therefore, compared with insisting on the bye, replacing [Heaven's Gate] is undoubtedly an excellent choice. This replacement has a high probability of replacing a runner-up.
…………
To make a long story short, after a day of tossing, everything was settled in the early morning of the 17th.
[Waste Alliance], [Hell Front], and [Heaven's Gate] who was "lucky" to be replaced in the bye position all advanced as expected.
And [Order], which had been actively preparing for the game and protesting the rules in the previous 24 hours, finally turned defeat into victory with a score of 3-2 and dealt with the [We Are Not Cheating] team.
This was a very "ugly" game... at least that's what the audience thought.
[Order], who always showed off their kingly attitude, sent out all of "Drunken Dreams" in the first three games this time, and let these four players use a set of Mark Selby-style "grinding" tactics, turning all three games into a very dull and protracted battle.
[Order] did this for three reasons:
First, it was for stability... In this kind of game where the opponent had three match points at the beginning, it was not too much to be more stable. Anyway, it was still an absolute advantage in terms of hard power. As long as the viewing experience was completely abandoned and the "stability" was done to the extreme, the winning rate could be maximized.
Secondly, delaying time is also part of psychological warfare... What the players of the [We Are Not Cheating] team were planning before the game, the team behind [Order] had already figured it out clearly. They grasped the opponent's mentality of "wanting to take 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 get impatient and then make a lot of mistakes...
Thirdly... dedicating such a round of games can be regarded as a silent protest of [Order] to Dream Company; what they want to express is: "Since you use the rules to make a surprise attack to trick us, then we will trick you into the ratings and reputation of this game."
Unfortunately, at this stage, no one in Dream Company cares about these things.
In the final stage of this "gamble", the employees who have been in "cognitive interference" for a long time will be more strongly influenced and constrained in their thinking... Naturally, they will not consider things that the "superiors" don't want to care about, and they won't even form relevant concepts in their minds...