Chapter 12 S3 Top 7

After [Mountains and Rivers], [Jianghu] became the second first-rate professional team to fall to [Hell Frontline].

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

Aside from the "bye" round, Jue Ge and his team defeated every opponent they encountered in these eleven rounds with a score of three to zero. Among the fourteen teams remaining, only two teams maintained this "zero-loss" record: one was [Hell Frontline], and the other was [Gates of Heaven].

Interestingly, both of these teams were civilian teams without studio backing...

By the end of the eleventh round, although there were still several rounds left in the Pinnacle Melee S3 competition, it was already quite clear which teams had the makings of a champion.

[Order], [Trash Alliance], [Gates of Heaven], and [Hell Frontline] were far stronger than the other teams in terms of the upper limit of their combat power, the depth of their rosters, and their performance on the road to promotion. Unless something unexpected happened, the champion would inevitably emerge from among them.

Therefore, for the remaining ten teams, the upcoming "random match" became very important... In theory, if the four powerhouses were to meet each other consecutively 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 S3 Round 12 match list was announced: a total of 14 teams participated in this round. Because it was an even number, no team received a bye this round; all teams would compete. And the random results showed that the four teams with the highest voices of winning the championship… did not meet each other.

Although the probability of this situation occurring was not so low as to seem "obviously fake," some social platforms still saw arguments like "the organizers are secretly manipulating the matches."

Of course, these kinds of unfounded and unrelated speculations did not cause much of a stir. Compared to the big messes that Thriller Paradise had continuously made in the year since its operation, this was nothing at all…

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

After this round, the S3 Top 7 was born. These seven teams were:

[Order], the number one studio recognized in today's professional gaming circle; [Trash Alliance], an alliance composed of a group of professional players without contracts and unemployed individuals; [Mochi], an old studio that had achieved many brilliant results but was 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, Okay?], a team formed by seven popular game streamers; [Gates of Heaven], the biggest dark horse of this competition; and [Hell Frontline], which was difficult to describe but seemingly needed no further introduction.

According to the rules, in the thirteenth round of the competition, one team would receive a bye, and the other six teams would eliminate half, thereby determining the top four.

However, in the early hours of April 16th, when the match list for this round was supposed to be announced, Dream Inc. stirred up another mess...

They did not update the match results on the official website on time, but instead released an announcement - [Notice Regarding Additional Rule Settings for Pinnacle Melee S3].

Just from the title alone, 95% of the players had already exploded before even clicking on the article link; because this title revealed a strong sense of behind-the-scenes manipulation, and it was the kind that couldn't be any more blatant.

Almost everyone made such an inference before reading the article: "Dream Inc. must want to send those four seeded teams into the top four, but with only seven teams, if the results of the four strong teams avoiding each other again occur, it will be too fake. If they do it this way, players will definitely suspect that all previous random results were manipulated artificially... Therefore, Dream Inc. can only achieve their intentions by adding new mechanisms."

It has to be said... the eyes of the masses are discerning, and they guessed correctly.

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

The matchups for the thirteenth round were: [Order] vs [Gates of Heaven], [Trash Alliance] vs [Mochi], [Hell Frontline] vs [Black Eight Miracle], while [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] received a bye.

However, Dream Inc. added three new rule settings on this basis...

The first rule was that for teams that had received a bye in the previous twelve rounds, each time they received a bye, they would be considered to be one point behind in this round.

What did this rule mean?

First of all, [Mochi], [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?], the three teams that had never received a bye, were definitely fine.

Secondly, teams like [Trash Alliance] that encountered "opponents forfeiting after the match results came out" were not considered a bye, so they escaped this calamity.

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

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

Combining the match list... the game between [Order] vs [Gates of Heaven] this round would be considered one to two from the start, meaning that the latter would have match point from the start; however, both teams still had to field a complete seven-player lineup and start from the "vanguard battle."

As for the [Hell Frontline] vs [Black Eight Miracle] match, it was okay; with Jue Ge and his team's strength, giving up one game would not have much impact, and the game would likely end in the Lieutenant General battle.

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

In the next round (Round 14), the four teams that successfully entered the top four would each be allocated an "artifact."

The four artifacts were: [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 provided a video, which was produced by a well-known game review video creator from the early 21st century, named "Searching for the Sword." The video detailed the origins, value, and related rumors of the four artifacts.

Of course, Dream Inc. would not give real things to players; they gave data versions of the "Four Artifacts."

Dream Inc. claimed that these four artifacts "each possess a significant team buff, and there are relationships of restraint between the buffs that are sufficient to reverse the outcome of the battle," but what those buffs were would not be announced until the end of the next round's matches.

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

The rules were: in terms of time, the team that won the fastest could exchange the remaining artifact that no one selected with the artifact in the hands of any team after the other three teams had obtained their artifacts; of course, they could also choose not to exchange. The second-fastest team could choose the artifact first, and allocate one artifact each to the third-fastest team and the team with a bye. The third-fastest team could choose whether to exchange the artifact in their hands with the team with a bye. As for the team with a bye... unfortunately, they could only passively accept the results of the allocation.

Finally, let's talk about the third added rule setting - the team with a bye in this round could choose to exchange positions with any team, or they could choose not to exchange and advance directly.

Seeing this, you can probably guess... that's right, the members of the [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] team, the selectors of the third rule, after learning the rules and discussing them briefly, decided to switch positions with [Gates of Heaven].

No matter how you looked at it, the switch was beneficial to them.

With a simple calculation, if they did not switch positions this round, the three opponents they would face in the next round would be: [Hell Frontline], [Trash Alliance], and the winner between [Order] and [Gates of Heaven]; not only were they all seeded teams, but they also had the priority right to distribute the artifacts... this looked like a hopeless situation.

But what if they switched positions? The situation would be completely different.

The members of [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] were all well-known game streamers, four of whom were former professional players. Although the other three had never been in a professional club, they were all full-time game circle practitioners, and the amount of time they spent on the game was not comparable to amateur players. At least in the game Thriller Paradise, their level was no different from that of professional players, and might even be stronger.

It was not difficult to see that such a team had a high opinion of themselves and a certain amount of ambition. Even if they did not harbor any illusions about winning the championship, they could certainly strive for the runner-up position.

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

Deducting by elimination...

If they switched with [Mochi], they would have to fight the [Trash Alliance], which was basically equivalent to committing suicide in advance.

If they switched with [Black Eight Miracle], going up against [Hell Frontline] with a one-to-zero start felt very uncertain...

And if they switched with [Trash Alliance] or [Hell Frontline]... they could do it, because they had about a 70% chance of winning against [Mochi] or [Black Eight Miracle]. However... being able to win did not mean that they could sweep. With the competition having reached this stage, even the weakest of the remaining teams was not that weak. If they were defeated with a score of three to two, it would be very embarrassing...

Considering the rules for the next round, playing all five games or dragging on for a long time in this round could very well turn them into the third-fastest winning team... putting in so much effort only to get a little bit more initiative than sticking to the bye was not worth it.

As for the "switching with [Order]" plan, it was naturally pAssed over first... not to mention that going up against [Gates of Heaven] with a one-to-zero start was similar to the situation of facing [Hell Frontline], which were both two-eight matchups. Moreover, this move would also save the [Order] team, which was hanging by a thread... For [Order], "competing with the artifact buff being restrained in the next round" and "facing [Gates of Heaven] with a match point situation from the start in this round," the former was obviously more controllable.

In summary, "switching with [Gates of Heaven]" was the only and best choice for the streamers.

Once this position was switched, the [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] team would be leading two to zero from the start. As long as they won one more point, they could advance, and they would also eliminate [Order] to advance... No matter what the process details were, if this became a reality, they could brag about it for the rest of their lives.

More importantly, starting with two to zero was equivalent to saving two rounds of time. If things went smoothly, they could not only "upset and eliminate the invincible [Order]," but also steadily obtain the right to choose an artifact in the next round... that is, a 100% artifact restraint advantage.

Therefore, compared to sticking to the bye, swapping out [Gates of Heaven] was undoubtedly an excellent choice. This switch had a high probability of resulting in a runner-up position.

…………

To make a long story short, after a day of tossing and turning, everything was settled in the early hours of the 17th.

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

And [Order], who had been actively preparing for the battle and protesting the rules at the same time in the previous twenty-four hours, finally turned the tide and defeated the [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] team with a score of three to two.

This was a very "ugly" match... at least from the audience's point of view.

[Order], who had always shown themselves as kings, sent out all of "Drunk Life, Dream Death" in the first three games, and had these four unleash a Mark Selby-style "grinding" tactic, turning all three games into very dull stalemates.

There were three reasons why [Order] did this:

First, of course, was to seek stability... In a match where they were being held three match points from the start, no amount of stability was too much. Anyway, their hard power was still absolutely dominant. As long as they completely abandoned any concern for watchability and maximized the "stability" factor, they could ensure the highest win rate.

Second, delaying time was also part of the psychological warfare... The backroom team of [Order] had already figured out what the members of the [We Didn't Cheat, Okay?] team were planning before the match. They seized on 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. As time dragged on, the opponent would inevitably become impatient, and then be full of flaws...

The third reason... offering such a round of matches was also a silent protest by [Order] against Dream Inc. What they wanted to express was: "Since you use the rules to launch a sudden attack and screw us, then we will screw your ratings and reputation for this match."

Unfortunately, at this stage, no one at Dream Inc. cared about these things anymore.

In the final stage of this "gamble," the influence and constraints on the thinking of those employees who had long been under "cognitive interference" would be even stronger... Things that the "higher-ups" did not want to pay attention to, they would naturally not consider, and the relevant concepts would not even form in their minds...