Chapter 1 A Look Back

Let us rewind the clock a little and turn our attention to three days prior…

Midnight, August 30th, the “Team Roster Change Application” function for Peak Duel S2 was closed.

At the same moment, the specific start time and rules for the S2 “Preliminary Round Mode” were also released on the Dream Inc. official website.

This night was destined to be sleepless…

Near midnight, a large number of players were already staying up in front of their computers, with forums and web pages open, eagerly awaiting first-hand information.

When the clock struck midnight and the relevant information was released, the forum experienced about three minutes of silence… followed by an unprecedented explosion of activity.

Even though a dedicated discussion area had been prepared, and even though optical computers were participating in the screening and management of posts, in the hour after midnight, the forum was still in a state of near “collapse.”

Clearly, the players were very excited, very enthusiastic, and each had their own unique understanding of the detailed rules that had been announced, and wanted to express it as soon as possible.

However, Brother Jue did not pay attention to this aspect of things that night. He calmly led the Underworld Frontline teammates through two scripts, then logged off and went to sleep.

Because… he had already anticipated what would happen on the forum, so he simply chose to ignore it. Anyway, the announcement was on the official website; it would be time enough to look at it tomorrow. There was no need to join the frenzy.

Therefore, it wasn’t until the next morning, after Feng Bujue returned from his morning exercise and finished breakfast, that he leisurely turned on his computer and read the rules…

…

This Peak Duel S2 competition was divided into three stages: the “Preliminary Round,” the “Semi-Finals,” and the “Finals.” The Preliminary Round was officially named [Gathering of Heroes], and the competition format adopted a “completely random” team battle, with overall rules similar to the practice mode—a 4v4 battle between two five-person teams.

The Preliminary Round would use a point system, with thirty-six games played within a fifty-day period. The point rules were similar to a soccer league: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.

Seeing this, some people would definitely ask, “What is a draw?” Let’s first explain how a “draw” occurs…

Generally speaking, there are three situations that can lead to a draw.

First, if the members of both teams “simultaneously perish” or “die at the same time” within a very short period of time (less than or equal to ten seconds), then regardless of what caused this result, or which team member contributed to this result, the match will be considered a “draw.”

For example: In a certain match, Team A has only one member left, and Team B has three members left; at this time, the member of Team A rushes into the midst of the three members of Team B and self-destructs, resulting in the four of them dying one after another within a short period of time. This result can be considered a draw.

But if, after the explosion, a member of one side… survives for more than ten seconds after all members of the enemy team have been judged as “dead,” then, regardless of whether he is still alive in the eleventh second, his team is considered the “winner.”

Second, if the two teams stay in the script for a very long time, but fail to kill all of the enemy’s people, and get into a stalemate similar to the “three-step loop” in Chinese chess, that is, a situation where “whoever changes their move first will suffer a loss”…

Under the premise of meeting the above conditions, the system will propose a “draw agreement” to the captains of both teams. If both captains agree, the game will end in a draw. But if one party disagrees, then the disagreeing party must actively “change their move” to break the stalemate, otherwise they will be judged as playing passively. Similarly, if both parties disagree, then both parties must “change their move.”

Third, although the probability is extremely low, there is another possibility for a draw… that is, a situation like an atomic bomb. That is, “both players are simultaneously wiped out by a large-scale destructive attack by a third party in the script,” that also counts as a draw.

But to be honest, playing out that kind of situation might be even harder than winning…

…

So… let’s stop talking about draws for now and continue with the competition system.

As a game, if players are made to do something regularly every day within such a long period as fifty days… it will undoubtedly cause psychological pressure and a certain degree of resentment. Therefore, Dream Inc. adopted a strategy similar to the preliminary round of S1, using the rule of “playing enough *n* games within *n* days” to allow players to allocate their time relatively freely.

In the preliminary round of S2, teams that have “not completed the competition” can only play one game in a natural day. Matches that start before midnight and continue into the next day will be considered played on the “previous day.”

Teams that have “completed the competition” by playing all thirty-six games are no longer subject to the above rule. These teams can play as many games as they want in a day, but they will not get points regardless of whether they win or lose. However, if they win, they can get clearance rewards equal to the "Nightmare Difficulty Team Mode".

Dream Inc. added this setting mainly to prevent teams from being unable to complete the competition before the end of the preliminary round period because they "could not find an opponent." For example… some teams are one game short on the last night, and there are not many similar teams in the queuing system at this time, so they wait a long time but cannot get in… To avoid this situation, Dream Inc. uses reward rules to encourage those teams that have "already completed the competition" to continue to stay in the queue and act as opponents for those teams that have "not yet completed the competition."

For the former, this is a surefire win. Winning… can not only get rich rewards, but also prevent a team that may pose a threat to them in the future from getting points; losing… is nothing more than wasting some game time, just treat it as playing a practice match.

For the latter, whether the team they encounter is a completed team or not, they have to fight for victory, so there is no difference.

Of course… even so, there will inevitably be some teams that will not be able to complete the competition within fifty days for various reasons. In response, Dream Inc. has long thought of countermeasures. After the fifty-day period, they will choose a time to give those teams that have already played thirty-five games a chance to play an extra round together. If the number of these teams is odd, then they will send a GM team to make up the number (the actual situation later was even, so the GM team did not appear).

But if you haven't played even thirty-five games in fifty days, then I'm sorry, it seems that your team lacks the ability to complete the competition, and you can't blame others for not being able to enter the semi-finals.

…

Next, let's talk about the ranking method.

After all the matches in the preliminary round are completely over, the system will select the top 256 teams with the most points from the "completed teams" to enter the semi-finals.

If there is a situation where the points are the same, the system will look at the "small points," that is, whose "wins" are more; if even the number of wins is the same, it will calculate the difference between the number of deaths of one's own team and the enemy's team in the effective thirty-six games; and if even this data is the same… the system will calculate the percentage of survival value lost in each game.

In short, the ranking must be reasonable and justified. To avoid being eliminated in the case of a tie, the way is to seriously play every game and do every detail well. Maybe these details accumulated… can allow your team to squeeze out others and advance.

…

Next, let's look at the prizes.

A total of 256 teams pass the preliminary round, but only the top 100 teams can get prizes.

As for the content of the prizes, it has been mentioned in the previous text, namely:

Top 100—Each member of the team can get 1,000,000 game coins and a limited-edition t-shirt.

Top 50—Each member of the team can get two random excellent-grade equipment corresponding to their level, and a forty-eight-hour limited-time experience opportunity for the new version of "Thriller Paradise", "Twilight of the Gods".

Top 10—Team members who are not full level will be immediately promoted to full level, and each member can get a perfect-grade equipment.

It is worth mentioning that the announcement on August 30th specifically pointed out… the prizes for this preliminary round can be "stacked".

That is to say, the top 50 teams, in addition to their own level of prizes, can also get the prizes of the "top 100" level. And the top 10 teams can get all three levels of rewards mentioned above.

This arrangement… will undoubtedly raise the competition in the preliminary round to a level that can be called tragic, and this… is exactly the situation that Dream Inc. wants to see the most.

Game companies want players to go all out in every game, even those teams that re-queue after completing the competition will work hard to suppress the points of other uncompleted teams.

…

Finally, what needs to be said… is the competition time.

According to the news released on August 30th, the [Gathering of Heroes] matching system will be opened at zero o'clock on September 5th and closed at zero o'clock on October 25th. During these fifty natural days, players can join the queue at any time.

Of course, in the first thirty-six days, all teams can only queue for one game per day at most. If you want to play two games in a row, you can consider queuing up close to midnight, so that you will basically reach the next day after playing the first game.

…

Overall, these rules are reasonable and reasonable, and are basically within Feng Bujue's expectations.

In the short term, there is not much to plan. According to Brother Jue's estimation, as long as their Underworld Frontline plays according to the rhythm of the practice mode, entering the semi-finals is a sure thing.

As for the rules of the semi-finals, Dream Inc. has not yet announced them, but judging from the number of teams advancing from the preliminary round, it is not difficult to guess that the semi-finals will adopt an elimination system.

Feng Bujue speculates… If there are no accidents, the semi-finals should be four (to determine the top sixteen) to five (to determine the top eight) rounds. There is also a possibility of three rounds, but thirty-two teams entering the finals seems a bit too many.

And how far Underworld Frontline can go in S2 depends on this semi-final… This is also the main stage for Feng Bujue to exert his analytical and planning skills.

Under the point system, the teams that can stay in the semi-finals are by no means ordinary, so the possibility of strong encounters is extremely high. If the semi-final is really the kind of "one-game elimination system" with no way out, then these rounds of matches… may be more dangerous and difficult than the finals…