Chapter 3: New Rules Pt. 1
The Glory Worlds Invitational was the first ever international Glory tournament ever to be held. Although some countries may get together to hold competitions from time to time, they were never held on such a scale. At least until now. This was a worldwide competition and it was being treated as such. The International Esports Association and the Glory game company were working tirelessly to make sure that this first-of-its-kind tournament proceeded without a hitch and this involved, of course, reviewing the rules of the competition.
The rules were one of the most important parts of any competition and in Glory, it affected everything. The technology employed, team playstyle and even the results of the competition can all be affected by the rules of play. It was necessary, therefore, that the rules be examined and adjusted thoroughly prior to the start of the competition. And so, after weeks of deliberation, the tournament's protocol committee alongside the technological department and tournament's organizers put together a list of the rules that would govern the competition and sent these instructions to the various teams.
Upon receipt of these instructions, the teams gathered in their different countries and discussed them to see how the new adjustments will benefit or hinder the team. The Chinese national team, of course, was not exempt from this and was currently holding a meeting in City B.
Conference room A of Team Tiny Herb was completely silent with the exception of a gentle voice reading aloud. This was the voice of Yu Wenzhou, the team captain. He held in his hands a document from which he was reading out from. This was the Competition Instruction Brochure and Yu Wenzhou had just finished reading the first page to his teammates. The page talked about the need for professionalism and proper behaviour during the competition. There was no reaction from any of them except a sort of impatience. They were all pro players; they had heard this several times before.
Yu Wenzhou smiled at the non-reaction and flipped the page, continuing to read.
"The competition shall consist of two parts. The first part will be a group arena match with 6 players competing on each side. The players will be fielded one after the other and only after the previous player has been defeated. The two sides shall compete until the last player stands. The team which this player belongs to shall then be announced as victorious. The points for this part shall be awarded on the basis of the number of opposing players successfully defeated with one point awarded per player.
The second part will be a team match with 6 players competing on each side. Five of the players will be fielded immediately and one player acting as a substitute. The..."
Yu Wenzhou continued reading and there continued to be no response from the players. All this was typical of a playoff match in the Alliance; they knew all these rules by heart but they did not want to interrupt Yu Wenzhou's reading so they didn't miss anything. The silence persisted until the last line of the paragraph was read.
Any player who participates in the group arena is not eligible to participate in the team match.
The following lines went on to explain what would have in the event of injury or illness of a player but no was interested in that now. The silent room was now lively.
Void's Lu Xuan was the first to speak.
"Oh, that's definitely different. I wonder why that is?"
That's what everyone was wondering as well.
Wang Jiexi put forward his hypothesis. "Maybe they are trying to make sure that the presence of one player does not become the deciding factor of the matches."
As the captain of Tiny Herb, a team that heavily depended on his presence in the game to influence the result, he was highly sensitive to this.
"Yes," Xiao Shiqin -the captain of Thunderclap, a team that also heavily depended on his presence- agreed. "That is a reasonable line of thought."
Murmurs of assent could be heard all around the conference room. This seemed like a very reasonable explanation.
"But all the countries that are participating in this tournament are countries with an established Glory presence. So they have players of high calibre. It is difficult to imagine that professional players gathered from around the country will be easily influenced by the presence or absence of one or two players."
When Chu Yunxiu brought this up, the pro players once again began to think. Would they be so easily influenced by one player such that his absence or presence would determine the match?
The answer was no. Almost everybody here was either a captain or vice-captain of their respective teams. Others who weren't also stood at the top of the Chinese Glory Alliance. Such an influence was impossible among this collection of individuals.
"Yes, but not all countries are on the same level," said Zhang Xinjie. "Some countries have a less established Glory presence that others and these countries may have players that far outshine the others in the team and the country may rely on that one or two excellent players for victory. The International Esports Alliance may want to make sure that the eventual winners of the competition is the country with the best overall team and not the country with a few exceptional players."
"Very good analysis. As expected from the Zhang Xinjie," Ye Xiu said, smiling to him. Similar nods and murmurs of approval sounded in the room. It seemed that Zhang Xinjie's theory was well accepted.
"Does it matter?" Huang Shaotian's voice rang out in the room. "It doesn't matter one bit. Group arena, team competition, none of it matters. Win them both, win it all and become the winners. Everyone just needs to do their best and win. Then we come back champions! What more is there?"
For once, everyone agreed with him. It didn't matter. All they needed to do was win. New rules or not.
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