by <unknown>
“Stage Three—Division Finals: Best of Five. Winners of each division will receive the Division Trophy! The champions, runners up, and second runners up will enter the Internationals!
“Stage Four—Internationals: Points-based. Top three of each division compete. Top 8 teams and top 16 singles enter the International Finals!
“Final Stage—International Finals: Best of Five. Competing for the World Champion!
“Division Singles and Challenge venues are as follow: Planet Winterfrost, Fissure Canyon. Planet Brighton, Floating Island College… Planet Aquamarine, Black Phantom Sanctuary Three.
“Registration for Qualifiers and Secondary League will start tomorrow. We hope all contestants can receive their wanted position.
“S1 Galaxy Pro League—officially established!”
Every player’s passion was heated no matter which planet they were on!
It was a worldwide festival!
Seeing that Sanctuary Three was the venue for Planet Aquamarine, Han Xiao heaved a sigh of relief, followed by a rush excitement. He could almost see a tsunami of customers overwhelm him.
The arena was way too suitable for Singles and Challenge, and he had opened it to the players. With such a suitable location already built, the chance of it becoming the hosting venue was very high.
Such a large festival like Pro League being held in his territory was a huge business opportunity!
The competition mode for the first season is the same as how I remembered. Because it is the first season, there are only three competition modes. It will be more varied later.
Just as I expected, it is still Qualifiers, Regulars, Division Finals, followed by International Finals. The top three of both the division finals and international finals will receive huge prizes. All the various clubs are the main contestants of the first season. The normal players can only achieve something in the Singles.
It is actually easier to become a star in the Singles. The clubs will sign some good players after they showcase their skills, and they will become pro players next season, Han Xiao thought. He had experienced it himself. As a renowned Mechanic master, he had received invitations from clubs as well, but he had rejected all of them. He did not like the hardship in team training; playing the game comfortably was more suitable for him.
Han Xiao touched his chin and pondered, I remember China’s result in the first season was normal. Was it North America or a European team that won the champion? France? Maybe Canada?
He was staying in a high building in the middle of the sanctuary at this time. He looked down and saw the atmosphere of the players changed—it became filled with excitement, anticipation, and nervousness.
And so it begins…
Han Xiao was a little excited as well.
…
The commencement of the Pro League spread like a storm; every player knew about it. The teams and pro players of all the countries were motivated. After all their preparations, finally, the worldwide competition that they were waiting for had arrived!
Chapter 294. Competition Festival (1) |
“The registration for Group Stages is open. The club has already chosen the rest of the players and rushed us back to practice our tactics. Old Hao, this is the list of the other three members and two substitutes.”
There were three people in the chat room—Hao Tian, Sleepy Winter, and Twinkle Fried Rice. They were all pro players of the Long Sky Club.
The four biggest names of China Esports—Temple of God, Long Sky, Dynasty, and Fried Eggplants with Fish. The players would always be reminded of these clubs’ achievements when they saw those names.
The big names all had their pillars, like Li Ge of Temple of God and ‘Three Chariots’ of Fried Eggplants With Fish. Hao Tian and Sleepy Winter were both senior members of Long Sky; they were known as ‘Long Sky Twin Stars’. A few young players with potential had appeared in the youth camp in recent years, in which Twinkle Fried Rice was the most favored genius player that might become the successor.
Hao Tian, Sleepy Winter, and Twinkle Fried Rice were the core players of the Long Sky team. The competition requirement this time was eight players, including substitutes, where Hao Tian was the leader without a doubt. Sleepy Winter and Twinkle Fried Rice were definitely members. The other five had been chosen in the internal competition. The winners formed Core Team One with the three core players. The second-tier players formed Team Two—that was how large clubs worked.
Hao Tian went through the list and said, “These players are all seniors and familiar faces; they will be able to find their competition mode with just a bit of practice. The contestants are fine, no need for changes.”
He was a god player who had contributed to the club for years, so his words sometimes had more authority than even the coach and the manager.
Sleepy Winter nodded and said, “The first season is very important. Let’s win it. I have looked at the competition details. There’re five stages, so it will last quite a long time. We have enough time to prepare and continue leveling up. Now is the time where the leading players are reaching almost LV 50. When the Division Finals arrive, the rest of the teams should almost be all at max level.
“The qualifiers are just the first stage. As it accepts registration from all players, the fight will be the most intense. There will be thousands of teams in one division fighting for only thirty-eight places—imagine how intense the competition will be. Because of the number of participants in the Qualifiers, it will be in the form of single match elimination. If we are unlucky and lose to a strong opponent, we will be out of the rest of the competition straight away. We have to be careful from the start.
“All of the enemies can be roughly divided into four types—normal noob players just joining for fun, high skilled normal players, strong players from clubs, and the teams from the biggest names. Our biggest opponent will be the other three biggest clubs. I estimate that three quarters of the top forty teams entering the regulars will be from clubs.”
“The group battle is ever changing, don’t underestimate any team,” Hao Tian said in a low voice.
“Old Hao, did you register for the Singles?” Sleepy Winter asked.
“Yeah.”
“I shall not go then.” Sleepy Winter shrugged his shoulders. He was very clear of Hao Tian’s skills. There was a very high chance he would get a place in the Singles and earn bonus points for the team in the Regulars. Most clubs sent their strongest player to the Singles.
As another member of the Long Sky Twin Stars, since Hao Tian had joined the Singles, he would focus on the team—division of labor.
…
At the same time, Frenzied Sword also registered for Singles. Different from a big name like Long Sky, the Jiang City Club that he was in was a small team. All the members in the club were just enough for the number of team members required. All of them were tier two players, and only Frenzied Sword had made a name for himself.
However, he was not the leader. The leader was ‘Lone Crane’, a signature player cultivated by Jiang City itself. Yet, he did not have any achievements.
Jiang City was a dying team. When they saw the potential in Frenzied Sword and signed him as a strong help, the team only became a little more alive after he joined.
However, Lone Crane did not like Frenzied Sword; he felt that Frenzied Sword threatened his position. The management regulations in the small clubs was not as developed as the big names, so it was common to put seniority first when determining positions. Before making any result, pro players were all arrogant, thinking everyone else was just trash. Frenzied Sword was lucky enough to meet this situation and was often excluded by the team.
His Singles registration was obstructed by Lone Crane many times. Lone Crane’s reason was “The team needs to retain its power; you are our ace. If you expose too much in the Singles, the others will develop tactics against us.”
The registration only passed after being approved by the superiors.
Frenzied
Sword did not favor these fools. It was a crazy dream to want to achieve anything with such a team. He had put all his hopes into the Singles. As long as he made a name for himself in the Singles, his position would be stable.
My win ratio against God Hao Tian is now four to six. He’s a top god player; since I can win 40% of the time, there should be a high chance of entering the top 64 in the Singles.
Frenzied Sword was confident in himself. He had received tons of EXP from Han Xiao’s missions. His level was ahead of most other players, and his ability levels were high too. Plus, all his equipment was limited edition from Black Phantom’s shop. Mechanical Pugilist depended a lot in equipment. Most of his equipment was blue grade, his weapon was even a purple, and its machinery type also exceeded normal player’s knowledge. It was luxurious.
The so-called limited editions were actually tailor-made machinery that Han Xiao had built for him. Han Xiao was cultivating the four of them, so he had to look after them. In fact, Frenzied Sword, Maple Moon, Hao Tian, and Bun-Hit-Dog were regarded as his apprentices.
Frenzied Sword knew very well that the reason he was so strong was all because of Black Phantom’s ‘Hidden Storyline’. Every time he thought of it, he would feel extremely glad that he had met Han Xiao during the closed beta.
I have to get a good place! Frenzied Sword encouraged himself.
…
The registration for the Qualifiers went on intensively. Various clubs made frequent movements, news articles appeared in the forums every single day, and players discussed the developments actively. It was boisterous. This was a festival; the players all looked forward to their idols’ performance in the pro scene, anticipating the battle of the highest skill level.
The players could already travel between the continents. Countless players gathered in Sanctuary Three. Sanctuary Three was the host venue for Singles. Other than the registered players, many players came to watch it live. The number of players in the city increased non-stop.
The number of participants for the Singles was the highest as most players knew that they had no chances against the professional clubs’ teams, and it was not easy to form a team. In comparison, Singles was much easier. Any one person could register. As recorded officially, every division had more than 100,000 players registered for the Singles. One could see how intense the Qualifiers would be.
The participating players were mostly older players that had joined the game in the earlier times. The new players afterward were only at level 20 or so; them joining would only be free points for the others. Some people complained that the league started too early, but their voices were buried in the sea of people very soon after.
Eight months had passed in-game since the public launch. According to the competition schedule, the Divisions would last for about half a year, and the Internationals would only start after about a year of preparation and rest. This long break was mainly to give the qualifying teams more time to improve their cooperation, which showed how important the Internationals were. Also, it was a form of hunger marketing to improve the influence of the competition.
The competition would last about two years of in-game time. The duration of the entire Version 1.0 was three and a half years. The players that could not make it for the Qualifiers could only be considered unlucky—time waits for no man.
Maple Moon did not register for the Qualifiers. She was a casual player, so she hardly paid attention to competitions and was completely ignorant of the competition mode. Thus, she decided to be a spectator peacefully. Of course, Han Xiao would not force her to join the competition. Furthermore, a Mechanic that focused on building abilities like Maple Moon had very ordinary strength in Version 1.0. Not everyone had the skills of the Great Mechanic Han.
Bun-Hit-Dog, however, contacted his streamer friends and formed a streamer team to join the competition excitedly. With Han Xiao’s experience and prediction, this streamer team would definitely just be free points. If they could join the Regulars, he would swallow ten energy crystals on the spot.
So, only three people under me will be joining the competition, Hao Tian, Frenzied Sword, and Bun-Hit-Dog… The last one can be ignored.
Han Xiao stood before the window, looked down on the crowded square and thought, Hope the two of them can get good results.
The registration stage was the brewing period of the competition; it was also the best period for him to earn a huge profit. 100,000 Singles contestants were willing to spend money and EXP for just a slight improvement.
A pleased smile appeared on Han Xiao’s face.
After heading toward to the galaxy, I won’t be able to interact with a large number of players in a short time. The EXP I earn now will all be taken into the galaxy—the more, the better.
Chapter 295. Competition Festival (2) |
The first season of Pro League was heated up. ‘Galaxy Times’ also released the latest episode to analyze the overall movements of the competition, which received a lot of attention, breaking the record of highest viewers.
Han Xiao opened the video. This episode was clearly different from the others. The comments were much denser than before, and the length also doubled, showing clear signs of it having a lot of content.
After making the regular opening cold joke, the hosts entered into the main topic.
“The first season of Galaxy Pro League has commenced. Registration has opened for the Qualifiers. Players, are you ready for this festival?”
The comment barrage filled with “always ready” flew past the screen.
“Starting from this episode, we will continuously bring comprehensive competition analysis for everyone,” the male host said. “The content of this episode includes interpretation of the competition mode, competition schedule analysis, and introduction of the various strong teams in the divisions. We also invited the leaders of the four biggest clubs in China as guests in the studio. Okay, let’s first enter a short commercial break. Don’t leave, the wonderful content will soon be back.”
A not at all short commercial started playing for the next five minutes. When even the comments started discussing which baby diapers were better, the hosts finally reappeared.
Han Xiao was speechless. No wonder this episode is so long…
“Welcome back. So, the Pro League is divided into 13 divisions, corresponding to the 13 novice planets, selecting the strongest teams of the various planets. And the clubs from some strong Esports countries have already selected their bases, which means that they selected their division in advance…”
The duo introduced the situation of the various divisions and what were the strong countries. Every strong team they mentioned, a barrage of slogan comments of that team would fly pass. Every strong team had fans all over the world.
When talking about the Planet Aquamarine division, the reaction was the most intense. It was the China version of ‘Galaxy Times’ after all.
“… Planet Aquamarine is the main division of the China clubs. We have invited the guests to analyze the situations of the Planet Aquamarine division. Let’s give a warm welcome to Li Ge from Temple of God, Second Prince from Dynasty, Hao Tian from Long Sky, and Sun Eggplant from Fried Eggplants with Fish!”
The comments exploded. Everyone knew that these four clubs were enemies, yet they were gathered in one place; it was an extremely rare occasion!
These four were all leaders of the biggest clubs. They had a lot of fans, and they were enemies too, so the comments were filled with arguments in no time.
“Boss Li Ge is so handsome!”
“Temple of God is all trash. Fangirls, back off!”
“Don’t stop me, I want to carry the child of Li Ge!”
“We can’t lose, brothers. Hao Tian, I want to give birth to your child too!”
“Why did Second Mace come out, where’s the boss of Dynasty? I want to see the top player in China!”
“That’s crossing the line, how can you call him Second Mace? Call him Second Son!”
; “Sun Eggplant is the best!”
The four professional god players, all with unique characteristics, appeared in the image. Li Ge had the warm expression on his face as always, being the most handsome of the group. Hao Tian sat beside him, expressionless like a stone.
Second Prince was one of the renowned players of the Dynasty club—arrogant, combing his hair with his head held up high, fully expressing the definition of ‘too big for one’s boots’.
Among the four of them, this guy had the most haters. The rank one god player in China belonged to Dynasty, mysterious and barely participated in any shows. In contrast, Second Prince loved to speak badly of the god player in his own team, not hiding his ambition of wanting to take over at all. However, he regularly got thrashed by the god player in his own team, becoming a laughing stock, yet he never changed. All things aside, he was never a burden in the competition, so most of the haters were just joking.
The last one, Sun Eggplant, was the last member of ‘Three Chariots’ of Fried Eggplants with Fish. He was a middle-aged man wearing sunglasses, looking undisciplined and shaking his crossed legs continuously, one hand behind the chair, sitting like a boss. He even had a toothpick between his lips. If there was not the rule of no smoking in front of cameras, it would definitely not be a toothpick.
Li Ge smiled and said, “Thank you for your invitation. Come to think of it, this is the fourth time I’ve showed up in Galaxy Times.”
“Thanks to everyone for being a guest in Galaxy Times,” the male host said. “Please, our four god-tier players, let’s start with the analysis for the Planet Aquamarine competition situation.
They started the analysis. Li Ge and Second Prince spoke the most, Hao Tian almost didn’t talk, and Sun Eggplant occasionally piped up.
The Planet Aquamarine division was the main venue for China. There was a total of tens of clubs. Other than the four biggest names, there were other large clubs like Thunder Storm, Fanatics, and Nine Gates. There were quite a number of strong pro players. They discussed the topic at length. In their eyes, the four biggest clubs were still the ones that had the most chances to win.
