After [Shanhe], [Jianghu] became the second first-line professional team to lose to [Hell Front].
At the same time, they were also the tenth team swept by [Hell Front].
Leaving aside the "bye" round, Juege and the others defeated every opponent they encountered in these eleven rounds with a score of 3-0; among the remaining 14 teams, they still maintain this There are only two teams with the "zero score" record: one is [Hell Front] and the other is [Heaven's Gate].
Interestingly, both of these teams are folk teams with no studio background...
By the end of the eleventh round, although there were still a few rounds left in the Peak Contest S3, it was actually quite obvious which teams had the title of champion.
[Order], [Waste Wood 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 there is no accident, the champion will inevitably be born among them.
Therefore, for the players of the remaining ten teams, the next "random match" becomes very important... Theoretically speaking, if the four powerful teams meet in the next two rounds, the remaining ten teams At least one runner-up can be born.
However, things did not develop in the direction they expected...
At 0:00 on April 14th, the match list for the twelfth round of S3 was announced: a total of 14 teams participated in this round, because it is an even number, there is no team bye in this round, and all teams will have a duel; and the random results show that, The four teams with the most title calls...none of them met each other.
Although the probability of this happening is not so low that "it looks fake", there are still arguments on some social platforms like "the organizer secretly manipulates the match".
Of course, this kind of unfounded and irrelevant speculation did not cause any waves; compared with the big baskets that have been poked out one after another since the operation of the horror park for a year, this is not a big deal at all …
Thus, the twelfth round passed in such a hot atmosphere without any suspense.
After this round, TO7 of S3 was born. The seven teams are:
The number one studio recognized in today's professional game circle - [Order]; an alliance formed by a group of professional players without contracts and social idlers - [Waste Wood Alliance]; has achieved many brilliant achievements but is now gradually relegated to the second-tier old-fashioned work room—[Mochi]; a strong team of seven casual players—[Black Eight Miracles]; a team of seven popular game streamers—[We didn’t cheat]; the biggest game in this competition The dark horse—[Heaven's Gate]; and the indescribable but seemingly needless introduction to [Hell Front].
According to the rules, in the thirteenth round of the competition, one team will have a bye, and half of the other six teams will be eliminated to determine the semifinals.
However, in the early hours of April 16th, when the match list for this round was supposed to be announced, Dream Company came up with another moth...
They did not update the matching results on the official website on time, but released an announcement - [Notice on the follow-up rules/settings of Peak Contest S3].
As far as this title is concerned, 95% of the players have already lost their temper before clicking on the link of the article; because this title reveals a strong sense of shadyness, and it is the kind that is too dark to be black.
Almost everyone made such an 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 there are four strong teams The staggered results would be fake, and in this way, players will definitely suspect that all the previous random results were manipulated... Therefore, Dream Company can only realize their intentions by adding new mechanisms."
I have to say... the eyes of the masses are discerning, and they guessed right.
According to the announcement, the original "random matching" mechanism is still retained. In fact, the results of this round of matching have already been listed in this announcement.
The thirteenth round of matches is: [Order] VS [Heaven's Gate], [Waste Wood Alliance] VS [Mochi], [Hell Frontline] VS [Black Miracle], and [We didn't open it] Get a bye.
However, on this basis, Dream Company added three new rules/settings...
The first rule is that a team that has had a bye in the previous 12 rounds will be considered as one point behind in this round if it has had a bye in each round.
What does this rule mean
First of all, the three teams [Mochi], [Black Eight Miracle], and [We Didn't Play], which have never had a bye, must be fine.
Secondly, a team like [Wastewood Alliance] that encountered "the opponent forfeited after the match result came out" is not considered a bye, so it escaped.
However, [Hell Front] with a bye in the fourth round and [Heaven's Gate] with a bye in the tenth round, under this rule, it is equivalent to being led 1-0 before the start of the game.
And they... are not the worst, [Order] who had byes in the eighth and eleventh rounds respectively (this is why the word "again" was used when referring to Order's bye in Chapter 1372), in this round Zhong must play with the attitude of "losing two points first".
Combined with the matching list... This round of [Order] VS [Heaven's Gate] will be regarded as a one-to-two match at the beginning, that is, the latter will hold the match point as soon as the battle starts; Arrange a complete seven-man lineup and start playing from the "Pioneer Battle".
As for the [Hell Frontline] VS [Black Eight Miracles] match, it was okay. With the strength of Brother Jue and the others, the match will not have much impact, and it is very likely that the game will end after the general battle.
Next, look at the second additional rule/setting...
In the next round (the fourteenth round), each of the four teams that successfully entered the semi-finals will be assigned an "artifact".
The four artifacts are: [Crown], [Holy Grail], [Sage's Stone] and [Amulet]; Regarding the source and explanation of these four "Atari artifacts", the official also gave a video material, This video was produced by a well-known game review video author in the early 21st century. It is called "Xunjian". This video introduces the origin, value, and related rumors of the four artifacts in detail.
Of course, Dream Company will not send the real thing to players, what they will give is the data version of the "Four Artifacts".
Dream Company claimed that these four artifacts "each have a significant effect, and there is a restraint relationship between the teams that can reverse the outcome." However, what those UFFs 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 the artifacts in the next round.
The rules are: In terms of time, the team that wins the victory as quickly as possible can exchange the unselected artifact with the artifact held by any team after the other three teams have obtained the artifact. Of course, they can also hold it without changing it; the team that wins the second fastest can choose an artifact first, and assign an artifact to the team that wins the third fastest and the team that has a bye; the team that wins the third fastest can choose The teams with the bye exchanged the artifacts in their hands; as for the team with the bye... Unfortunately, they could only passively accept the result of the distribution.
Finally, let’s talk about the third additional rule/setting—teams that have a bye in this round can choose to switch positions with any team, of course they can also choose not to switch and advance directly.
Seeing this, you must have guessed it... That's right, the members of the [We didn't cheat] team, that is, the party who chose the third rule, after learning about the rules and after a little discussion, decided to discuss with [ Heaven's Gate] changed positions.
No matter from which point of view, transposition is beneficial to them.
Simply calculate, if they don't switch positions this round, the three opponents they will face in the next round will be: [Hell Frontline], [Waste Wood Alliance], and the battle between [Order] and [Heaven's Gate] Not to mention all the seeded teams, they still have the priority to distribute artifacts... No matter how you look at it, this is a game of ten deaths and no survival.
And what if the position is changed? That situation is quite different.
The team members of [We didn't open it] are relatively well-known game anchors, four of them are former professional players, and the other three are full-time game industry practitioners, although they have never joined a professional club. The single game time is not comparable to amateur players; at least in the game of Horror Paradise, their level is no different from that of professional players, and they may even be stronger.
It is not difficult to see that such a team has high self-esteem and certain ambitions; even if they don't take chances on the championship, they can indeed fight for the runner-up.
So, who should they switch positions with in order to continue to win and advance
Use the method of elimination to deduce...
If you replace [Mochi], you have to fight [Waste Wood Alliance], which is basically tantamount to committing suicide in advance.
Replacing [Black Eight Miracle], starting with a one-to-zero start to [Hell Front], I feel very suspenseful...
As for the replacement of [Wastewood Alliance] or [Hell Frontline]... it is possible, because if they are against [Mochi] or [Black Miracle], they are about 70% sure that they can win. It's just... just because you can win doesn't mean you'll be able to sweep the game; at this point in the game, the strength of the rest of these teams can't be much worse. It would be very embarrassing if someone scored a score of 3 to 2 …
Considering the rules of the next round, if you play five games in this round or if the time drags on for a long time, it is likely to become the third fastest winning team... After so much effort, the result is only a little bit more than insisting on a bye The initiative is too worthless.
As for the plan of "replacing [Order]", it is naturally the first one to lose the ASS... Not to mention the one-to-zero start against [Heaven's Gate], which is similar to the situation against [Hell Front], both belong to Twenty-eight games. Furthermore, this move also saved [Order] whose life was hanging by a thread... For [Order], "the next round of the halo match that is defeated by the artifact UFF", and "the game that was grasped at the beginning of this round" The situation of the match point is compared with [Heaven's Gate]", obviously the former is more controllable.
To sum up, "replacing [Heaven's Gate]" is the only and best choice for anchors.
As soon as this position is changed, [We didn’t open it] The team led 2-0 at the beginning, as long as they win one point, they can advance, and they still eliminated [Order] to advance... Don’t care about the details of the process, this matter If it becomes a fact, it can be boasted for a lifetime.
What's more, the two-to-zero start is equivalent to saving two rounds of time; if things go well, they will not only be able to "upset and eliminate the mighty [Order]", but also securely win the next round. Artifact option... that is, 100% artifact restraint advantage.
Therefore, compared to insisting on the bye, it is undoubtedly an excellent choice to swap out [Heaven's Gate]. This swap has a high probability of being a runner-up.
...
To make a long story short, after a day of tossing, in the early morning of the 17th, everything was settled.
[Wastewood Alliance], [Hell Frontline], and the "lucky" [Heaven's Gate] who was replaced by the bye are all promoted as expected.
And in the previous 24 hours, while actively preparing for the battle, while protesting against the [order] of the rules, they finally turned the defeat into a 3-2 victory and settled the [We didn't cheat] team.
This is a very "ugly" game... at least in the eyes of the audience.
[Order], which has always shown itself as a king, dispatched all the "Drunken Dreams" in the first three games this time, and asked these four to resort to a set of Mark Selby-style "grinding" tactics. These three games all turned into very dull and protracted games.
[Order]There are three reasons for this:
First, it is necessary to seek stability... In this kind of game where people hold three match points at the beginning, no matter how stable it is, it is still an absolute advantage in terms of hard power. Doing this to the extreme can ensure the maximum winning rate.
Second, procrastination is also part of the psychological warfare... [We didn't cheat] what the players of the [Order] team had figured out before the game. Overwhelmed the opponent's mentality of "wanting to win the match point in one go", and carried out the three words "drag", "grind", and "consume" to the end; after a long time, the gestures will be impatient, and then full of flaws...
The third thing... dedicating such a round of competition is also a silent protest of [Order] against Dream Company; what they want to express is: "Since you use the rules to make a surprise attack on us, then we will oppose it." It's a pit for the ratings and word-of-mouth of your game."
It's a pity that at this stage, no one in Dream Company cares about these things anymore.
In the final stage of this "gamble", those employees who have been in the "cognitive interference" for a long time will be more strongly affected and shackled in their thinking... Naturally, they will not go to the things that the "superior" does not want to deal with. Consider, they don't even form a related concept in their minds...