Chapter 1328: Vanguard Battle, Turn Around and Run
On March 20th, at midnight, the registration for S3 ended on time.
Most teams had submitted their registration applications N days ago, and the latest registered team had completed it during the daytime of the 19th; there was no team that waited until after 11 o'clock in the evening of the 19th to get enough hidden points to register.
At 10:00, all participating players received a system prompt, informing them of the number of teams and matching conditions in the first round of the competition.
There were 26,705 teams that successfully passed the "hidden points" threshold and registered for the competition.
Therefore, in the first round, there will be 26,704 teams competing, of which 13,352 teams will be eliminated, and there will be a team with a bye, which will be lucky enough to advance with the remaining 13,352 teams.
The start time of the game is one day later, that is, at midnight on the 21st; after the first round is over, there will be a day of rest, and at midnight on the 22nd, the official will announce the matching conditions of the next round, and then the second round will start on the 23rd.
Each round thereafter will follow the same rules until the champion is decided.
Putting aside the bye factor, a rough calculation shows that to win the championship... you need to win 15 games in a row within a 30-day period; on the contrary, if you lose any game before winning 15 games, you will be eliminated directly.
From the perspective of the competition system, this kind of knockout match with random matching throughout the whole process does not require any score calculation work, and it is impossible to predict the promotion route in advance, which saves a lot of trouble for the data teams of many studios.
Of course, their intelligence analysis work cannot stop; even if the opponent in the next round is a team composed of unknown casual players, they cannot be careless and have to check... In any case, the total hidden score of the other team is over 500, so it can't be too weak.
…………
On the evening of the 20th, Xu Huaishang's conference room.
The front line of hell is ready to go.
[Please note that the first round of the Peak Hegemony S3 will start in ten minutes (game time)]
At this moment, everyone received a double prompt of voice and dialog box.
Because the time ratio in sleep mode is 1:10, the players in the game world only received this message when the real world time was already 11:59.
One minute after the game time, another system message was refreshed: [Players who serve as captains, please submit the team lineup for this round of competition within the next nine minutes. If the relevant information is not submitted within the specified time, the team lineup will be randomly sorted by the system]
"Hmm..." Feng Bujue listened, groaned, glanced at the teammates present, and said, "Then, I will submit it according to what we agreed before."
He quickly got the confirmation of his teammates, and then submitted the list of players for the first round-
Vanguard battle: [Snow]
Backbone battle: [Wan Tanzhi] [Sad Spirit Laughing Bone]
Commander battle: [Xu Huaishang]
Deputy general battle: [Si Yu Ruoli] [Shi Shang Hua Jian]
General battle: [Crazy Bujue]
Because the Hell Front faced a team composed of unknown casual players in the first round, the strength and characteristics of each member of the opponent were unknown, so Brother Jue used a relatively safe conventional lineup to fight in this battle.
According to Feng Bujue's analysis, there are usually only two types of deployments for casual players' teams. The first is the "conventional balance type", which means that they start from the weakest to the strongest to ensure that each team has stable combat power; the other is the "top-heavy type", which means that the third, second, and first strongest lineups are sent out in the first three games, respectively, to try to end the game with 3:0.
From a tactical perspective, the "top-heavy" deployment is obviously more "stealthy". If the opponent uses a "conventional balance" deployment, it is very likely to be eaten by this "Tian Ji horse racing" type of suppression.
However, this "stealing" tactic is naturally accompanied by corresponding risks; if there is a mistake in any of the first three games, then the "top-heavy" team is basically finished, because the people they arrange in the last two games are the weakest and will definitely not be able to deal with the enemy's strong players responsible for suppressing the formation.
In addition, it is also very likely that two "top-heavy" teams will meet, which will become no different from a duel between two "conventional balance" teams.
In the most extreme case... there may be a third formation method specifically for the "top-heavy" formation, which is to put the strongest formation on your side in the first game, eat up the third strongest formation of the "top-heavy" team, and then play badly in the second and third games, and then use the second and third strongest two formations to kill the opponent's weakest two formations in the fourth and fifth games.
In short, when the strength of the two teams is close, the difference in formation can indeed determine the outcome, and the game in it... not only depends on psychological warfare, but also on wisdom and luck.
Feng Bujue is a cautious person. He put Xu Huaishang in the key position of the "competitor battle" because he had thought it through... Even if there is a one in a billion chance that they met an unknown hidden strong team today, the whole team is first-line masters, and they arranged a "top-heavy" lineup and defeated the Hell Front in the first and second games... that doesn't matter much.
Because, looking at the entire Horror Paradise, the number of people who have a chance to beat Xu Huaishang in a one-on-one duel can be counted on one hand; Brother Jue knows all of those people, and they are not on today's opponent team anyway.
Considering this... even in the worst case scenario, the chance of winning here is still more than 50%.
In fact, for the opponents of the Hell Front, when they saw the first round of matching list, the "worst situation" had already arrived.
Where in the world are there so many hidden strong players? They are just a team with an average hidden score of about 75. A few friends gathered together to participate in a competition. They were originally very enthusiastic. As a result, when they saw their opponent - the champion of the previous session, their mood... their feelings... really fulfilled the saying "dying before the mission is accomplished, always makes heroes cry". If it weren't for the opportunity to fight with the goddess Xu, these people would have probably given up directly.
…………
Ten minutes passed quickly, and at midnight, the system voice of [the game is about to start, please prepare to teleport] sounded.
Then there was a ten-second countdown. When the system finished the countdown, the players disappeared from the conference room.
This can be said to be a major reform implemented in this competition.
In the past, players had to return to their elevator room before teleporting to any script space, but this time, they could teleport collectively in the conference room.
Unfortunately... such a service is not supported during normal scheduling.
[Loading Completed]
[S3, Round 1]
[Venue: Cell Game Venue]
Compared to the previous two competitions, the loading voice this time was much simpler. When the voice fell, Snow was already standing on a "ring".
This is a square ring with a side length of more than 30 meters, made up of many square bricks of one meter square. It looks like a chessboard from above; there is a pillar at each of the four corners of the ring. The shape of the pillar is similar to the Western knight's lance, but it is many times thicker than the real knight's lance.
The surroundings of the ring are basically a wasteland. There are only rolling hills and some weeds in sight, and the sky is blue and white clouds, and the sun is shining.
[You have entered the spectator mode]
After a few seconds, except for the two opponents in this first battle, everyone else heard this prompt.
At this time, the players of the two teams were teleported to two transparent rectangular containers. The two blocks were suspended in the air on both sides of the venue, just in time to see the duel on the ring from a bird's-eye view.
[Note that the viewing space and the battlefield are not in the same phase layer, and players in the battlefield cannot communicate with teammates in the viewing space in any form]
This means that the person who is fighting cannot see, hear, or touch this transparent block, so those in the block do not need to try to help their teammates by shouting or in any other way.
[The game will start in thirty seconds]
Then the system gave the next prompt.
On the ring, Snow and his opponent [Red King] are also ready to fight.
This "30 seconds of preparation time" is naturally useful; during this time, the two players participating in the battle will be separated by a transparent barrier. Whether it is the player himself or any other object, it is definitely not possible to pass through the barrier, but... it is possible to release some "skills" in advance at this time; especially for players like Snow who specialize in equipment and summons, these thirty seconds are precious.
Snow's brain was not slow, and he understood the significance of preparation time in an instant. As soon as the system voice finished, he took out a bunch of materials from his bag and used his [Sandbox Dweller Hammer] and [WJQ-308 Military Shovel] to tinker with them.
Although his summoning skills were also good, his main focus was still on equipment. The only passive skill he was equipped with, [Craftsmanship], had the special effect of "enhancing the various capabilities of equipment-specific creations and speeding up the production of such creations."
In less than half a minute, Snow had made a thing out of a bunch of metals, parts, adhesives, and some strange materials.
[Name: Construction - King of Mountain Road]
[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanent Mastery]
[Skill Category: Equipment]
[Effect: Manufacture a high-performance land-based manned vehicle]
[Consumption: Loss of 5 physical energy points every 10 seconds during the manufacturing process, no less than 10 kilograms of metal, no less than five joint parts, and other parts can be added as needed]
[Learning Condition: Equipment Specialization A]
[Note: I have a friend who runs a car repair shop. Every time he repairs a car for someone, he will have an extra small box of parts that he doesn't know how to put back.
One day, I told him that when the parts accumulate more, you can build a new car.
So he really started to store those parts, until one day, he finally collected enough parts, and then... he was arrested.
So I often say that vehicle modification is risky.
——A low-key old driver. 】
Although this skill looks just average, it has a lot of room for operation and potential when actually used.
Under the premise of satisfying the skill consumption, Snow can make things, such as skateboards, unicycles, and bicycles for smaller ones; cars, sports cars, and trucks for larger ones; tanks, maglev trains, and mobile fortresses for larger ones...
This skill has no cooldown time limit. As long as he is physically able and has enough materials, he can start making things at any time. He can make anything as big as he wants, and he can complete the same thing several times.
At the moment, Snow has made a motorcycle with an exquisite shape in just over 20 seconds.
[Five... Four... Three...]
With five seconds left in the battle, the system voice began to count down, and at this time, Snow had already mounted his motorcycle, facing the opposite direction of his opponent... and started the car.
The opposite ID [Lei Brother] was also confused, thinking: "Is this guy... preparing to escape?"
[Two... One... Fight! ]
With a "Fight", the barrier between the two disappeared, but two seconds before the barrier disappeared, Snow had already ridden away...
It can be said that he fully understood the meaning of the "30-second rule"; why did the system only set up a barrier between the two players, but did not restrict them from going to the area behind them? It's very simple, just to give those players who use "stealth ambush" or "long-range sniping" as their fighting style, and those who want to adopt other roundabout tactics, some time to distance themselves.
Of course, although the "battlefield" is large, it still has margins, and the judgment of "passive game" is also there. If there are no these two restrictions, the side with the upper hand in mobility will "run endlessly towards the sunset", and the game will be endless.
"This..." Looking at Snow's back as he left in a cloud of dust, Red King thought to himself, "I didn't expect that..."
He just stood there, waiting blankly. It wasn't that he didn't want to chase, but he really couldn't catch up.
Red King was a very traditional fighting player with good combat power, but he had a shortcoming... that was his slow speed; you might not be able to catch up with a person, let alone a car.
"Well... he won't be judged as playing passively like this, right?" Looking at the figure standing still on the field, Xiao Tan in the viewing space couldn't help but think.
"If we have to judge, we should judge the one who turned around and ran away, not the one who stood still." Feng Bujue continued.
"That's right." Xiao Ling also said, "It's obviously a disadvantage to chase an opponent who is riding a vehicle on foot. Even if you can catch up, you will consume a lot of your physical energy. Therefore, it is a correct judgment and response for the opponent to wait in place. If this is considered a passive game, it will be unfair."
As they were talking, King Red on the field had already sat down and muttered: "Huh... Then I'll wait here. Anyway, you ran first, you have to come back; if you do nothing, you will be judged as a passive game first..."
His idea is not wrong, but... Snow, who plans to build a missile silo, doesn't seem to need to come back...