Chapter 27 Morning, March 27th

As the fourth round of matches concluded, the various battle reports were released one after another.

The focused battle between [Warring States] and [Useless Alliance] was undoubtedly the top priority of various reports, while the other seeded teams, because they all advanced without any surprises, did not receive much attention.

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

...

A total of 1670 teams participated in the fifth round of the Peak Tournament S3. For the first time since the start of the competition, the number of participating teams came to an even number, which means... no team had a bye in this round, and all teams had to rely on victory to advance.

However, there was no "focused battle" in this round, and the situation of two strong teams meeting did not occur.

In fact... from this round onwards, for a full five rounds, there were no clashes between strong teams, and no upsets occurred.

These five uneventful rounds became a carnival for casual players.

Except for those teams that were unlucky enough to encounter seeded teams and couldn't "have fun", the battles between various folk masters were quite exciting. Unlike the victories and defeats between those top-tier strong teams, the matches between ordinary players had a different flavor... such as "low-level mistakes", "coordination errors", "leading to losing", "weird tactics", "weird formations", "weird tactics encountering weird tactics", "weird formations encountering weird formations", "low-end mutual attacks evolving into high-end tug-of-war" and a series of situations that are almost impossible to see in professional games, were endless in the matches between casual players.

If the "strong versus strong showdown" between seeded teams is compared to the NBA Finals, then this kind of match with "unclear lower limits" and "any bizarre situation can happen" is roughly what you would see when you run to a free street court on a weekend for a "mysterious showdown". In the NBA Finals, you see professional athletes, but on the street court, you may encounter anyone... like the Excuse Guy, the Apology Guy, the Awkward Chat Guy, the Pose Guy, the All Show No Go Guy, the Player-Coach Guy, the Foul-Calling Guy, the Never-Pass-or-Shoot Guy, the Only-Shoots-Threes-Despite-Height Guy, the Thinks-He-Can-Dunk-But-Can't Guy, and the Mysterious Old Man who dominates the court... you must have encountered one of them, or you are that person.

A bit off topic...

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

...

If there is a book, it is long; if there is no book, it is short.

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

After the fifth round, a total of 835 teams 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 bye.

In the eighth round, 209 teams, 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.

In this way, by the tenth round of S3, there were a total of 53 teams left, of which professional teams and teams composed of casual players accounted for about 50% each... and this was exactly the situation that Dream Corporation hoped would happen when formulating the competition system.

Even though S3 has not yet determined the final champion, from a business perspective, the "no preliminaries, fully random competition system" adopted by this competition has been an unprecedented success.

Whether it is the participation of players, the popularity of related topics, or the direct or indirect income inside and outside the game... all aspects of the data are encouraging. As of now, S3 has exceeded the sum of S1 and S2 in terms of user satisfaction and economic benefits, and Dream Corporation employees can basically celebrate in advance.

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

At this stage, what players care most about is naturally... which team will win the peak of S3.

...

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

Everyone has seen promotions, but this kind of "sudden attack" promotion is really rare. Previously, some players were wondering... why doesn't the game "Thriller Paradise" have a first-anniversary event or something? Could it be that the game company itself forgot about it?

As a result, players ushered in such a scene of "discounting when you say discount", as if the game company was saying to the vast number of players in a very perfunctory tone: "There's nothing to celebrate on this day, but since you still remember it, we'll give you some discounts for the time being."

Meaning unclear...

...

At zero o'clock on April 8th, the tenth round of matches 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 understand and am too lazy to go into detail... in this tenth round, "strong versus strong showdowns" erupted like a fountain.

First of all, [Useless Alliance] faced [Hyotei]... Yes, the "Hyotei Host Club" led by [Keigo Atobe] is now a newly emerging first-line studio, and they have easily eliminated three second-line studio teams on their way to advancement this time. Judging from the actual performance, [Hyotei]'s combat power is indeed not to be underestimated.

Secondly, there is the battle between [Order] and [Stardust].

Although [Stardust]'s loss of Little Ma was a major blow, they are, after all, a studio with the purpose of "cultivating star players and selling them out". It is difficult to gather seven first-class masters, but it is definitely easy to gather seven rookies with first-class potential... plus the luck factor in this competition, it is not surprising that they can reach this round.

However... meeting [Order] in this round, I am afraid their luck has run out.

Then, there is the duel between [Jianghu] and [Wind and Cloud]. As a first-line studio that I have never mentioned in the previous text but does exist, [Wind and Cloud]'s appearance is destined to be short-lived. For you readers, it is obvious who will win this game... but for the audience in the novel, this is still a very watchable game.

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

Next, let's talk about [Hell Front]...

In this round, Jue Ge's opponents are [Shanhe]. From the overall strength, [Hell Front]'s advantage is still relatively obvious... but the other party is also a veteran first-line strong team after all, not the kind of team that can be swept away by casually arranging a lineup, and they need to be dealt with carefully.

Furthermore, [Qiufeng Se] and [Matcha Su] in the [Shanhe] team are also candidates who have been bet on, so this will also be a direct duel between candidates.

Finally... in this round full of various highlights and talking points, there is one more thing worth mentioning - [Gate of Heaven] got a bye.