Chapter 1 Busy Day

March 21st was undoubtedly a busy day for those working in the gaming industry.

The first round of Pinnacle Showdown S3 featured a staggering 13,352 matches starting simultaneously. Even ignoring the less competitive matches between non-professional teams, there were still almost too many battle reports to keep up with.

Of course, the biggest news story was the peak showdown between [Deities] and [Order].

There were many reportable and noteworthy points in this match, the hottest topic being: who can stop [Devouring Ghost Brigadier]?

While the general public had many different answers to this question, it was clear that… Feng Bujue's name came up the most often.

It was unclear when, but Brother Jue had become a "special solution" that people immediately thought of when faced with various "impossible problems."

How to fold a piece of paper more than seven times? Let Feng Bujue try it.

How to divide a prime number by a natural number other than 1? Let Feng Bujue try it.

How to defeat Devouring Ghost Brigadier? It seems that only Feng Bujue can try.

It can be said that Brother Jue's actions in Thriller Paradise over the past year have now blossomed and borne fruit. Whether this kind of "popularity" is good or bad, it at least shows that he has the makings of a king in the Candidate Games.

…………

March 22nd, midnight.

The S3 second-round match list was released on the official website on time.

As with the first round, the matchups of the seed teams were closely watched.

However, there was no focal battle like [Order] vs. [Deities] in this round. All the strong teams that players could name, as well as those with first-line star players, were kept apart in this second round.

Despite this, the watchability and attention remained high; because… in the first round of the competition, many teams composed of "folk experts" showed very amazing strength, which had already reached the point of threatening those professional strong teams.

Therefore, in the twenty-four hours after the list was announced, whether it was the data analysis team of professional studios or the think tanks of non-professional teams, they were all working intensely to study the first round match videos of their opponents… The real "intelligence war" officially started from this round.

…………

March 23rd, midnight, the second round of S3 began.

A total of 13,353 teams participated in this round, of which 13,352 teams would compete, and the remaining one team would have a bye. In addition to the bye team directly advancing, the remaining teams were still cut in half… After the competition, 6,676 teams would be eliminated.

[Hell Front]’s opponent this time was called [Controversial Alliance], a team composed of seven "former professional players."

In a sense, the two teams could be considered to have a connection, because these "former professional players" were all former members of the Corpse Blade Studio.

Speaking of Corpse Blade, the company had indeed had a lot of problems recently...

A few months ago, the boss of Corpse Blade suddenly "disappeared from the world" one night. A few days later, their studio was visited by various relevant departments. After a short week of "investigation," Corpse Blade was shut down.

Don't look down on this as just a game studio, the breadth of the interest chain behind it was truly eye-opening. During that period, explosive news about Corpse Blade was released almost every day - something about collusion with illegal pharmaceutical groups, collusion with smuggling groups, and some even said they were related to a certain gambling organization in urban legends… Some of this news was true and some was false, and even the people inside were confused.

Long story short, the investigation and disposal of Corpse Blade by various departments was extremely efficient, and the matter was basically completed in two weeks. The online revelations did not last too long. After all, "netizens only have less than a week of memory," and people's attention quickly turned to other fresher hot topics.

After that, many people in Corpse Blade's management completely disappeared from the public eye, and it seemed that they would never have the opportunity to return to the gaming industry.

And those players who came out of Corpse Blade were not having a good time either... Originally, their strength was relatively ordinary, and at most they could be a blue-collar worker in a first-line studio. After Corpse Blade fell, the experience of staying there became a black mark; other studios would not spend extra public relations fees to recruit a few blue-collar players, and it would be better to use newcomers.

As a result, the vast majority of these former Corpse Blade players directly announced their retirement, became "former professional players," and then devoted themselves to the live broadcast industry.

Currently, the [Controversial Alliance] team that [Hell Front] is facing is composed of seven streamers who used to be in Corpse Blade.

Although they are "former professional players" and the characters they use were re-leveled up after Corpse Blade was shut down, it is said that a lean camel is bigger than a horse. The game level and competition experience of these seven people are undoubtedly at a professional level.

In addition, because they crushed their opponents three to zero in the first round of the competition, they did not expose too much information in terms of intelligence, so it can be said that they are a very tricky team.

Once again, long story short...

For the first three games of this round, Brother Jue arranged...

"Vanguard Battle": [Xu Huishang]

"Mid-General Battle": [Si Yu Ruo Li], [Shi Shang Hua Jian].

"Deputy General Battle": [Feng Bujue]

…such a lineup.

In less than fifteen minutes, [Hell Front] quickly swept their opponents with a three-to-zero advantage and successfully advanced to the third round.

By the way… ten minutes of those fifteen minutes were intermission time.

…………

Thus, the second round of the competition ended in a heated but not intense atmosphere.

All the seed teams can be said to have advanced without any surprises or dangers. There were no unexpected upsets, and there were no explosive points like the two strong teams fighting each other in the first round.

However, in the matches of those non-seed teams, several teams of casual players... or rather, some ordinary players with more outstanding performances... have attracted the attention of all walks of life.

After two rounds, it is almost clear which of the hidden "masters" are just one-trick ponies and which are real powerhouses with stable strength.

At dawn on the 24th, the match list for the third round was announced.

Finally, a showdown that can be called a "focal battle" appeared again.

This time, there are two matches worth noting...

The first match, [Heaven and Earth] versus [Mountains and Rivers]… This is a grudge match between two old-fashioned first-line studios.

The second match, [Red Cherry] versus [Gates of Paradise]… The former, after losing their absolute ace player [Xu Huishang], still maintained a sweeping score to advance to the third round, and their new ace player who they are focusing on cultivating is also highly anticipated; the latter is a team composed of casual players. [Gates of Paradise] also advanced all the way with sweeping victories, and the four players who have appeared in the team so far have shown professional-level… or even dominant-level combat power, which has also made them a dark horse with great potential in the eyes of many people.