"Ladies and gentlemen, heroes of Crunaboul! I am Maycos! It is my extraordinary honour to have been chosen as announcer for the first federation-wide tournament!"
"For the next nine days we shall see fierce battles between the best of the best and crown the number one player in the entire! Federation!"
Maycos basked in the cheers of hundreds of millions of people. At this moment she had truly reached a level which barely any celebrities had ever reached.
However, she naturally couldn't forget about her duties.
"I can see that everyone is excited. So, let's not talk too much and take a look at the rules. What do you say?"
Of course, what answered Maycos were even more cheers. She smiled sweetly, performing a pirouette on the spot and making a peace sign with her hand.
"Leeet's go!"
Again, the light dimmed, and even the sound magically quieted down. Everyone realized that what followed would be of high importance. Especially the professional players didn't dare to miss anything.
"The rules:"
As Maycos began, golden text formed above her head, concisely displaying the rules.
"The tournament is separated into three different contest, held over nine days. During the first six days all contests will be held simultaneously. This will be the time to figure out the top among you.
Afterwards each day will see the final of one contest. First, the team contest on the seventh day. Followed by the guild contest on the eight day. And the single contest on the ninth day!"
Maycos made a short pause to let everyone digest her words. Most of the top organisations were surprised by this order. Didn't this suggest that the single contest was of the highest importance?
Many guilds were confused as these contradicted older games, where it was always about bigger organisations. After all, how could a single person rival the might of an entire guild?
As people were still trying to make sense of the rules, Maycos continued:
"Now, I am sure you are wondering about the rules for the contests. In fact, there is not much difference between the three kinds so let me explain it by taking the solo contest as an example:
At first you will all be separated into seeded tiers. For the solo contest every five levels will be one tier, while for the other contests the tiers have been decided by C!
The lower tiers will start the tournament. The very first fight will be against a monster of the same level which will test your qualifications. If you lose, you are out immediately.
Should you win, you will continue to the next round. Now you will fight against others of your tier. Winning two out of three fights lets you advance to the next tier.
The same will repeat itself but now you will face the winners of your tier as well as those one tier above you.
Of course, your chances of winning again are slim but don't worry. Should you manage to advance by one tier you will already receive a reward!"
Many low-levelled players' eyes lit up realizing that this system actually gave them a chance. Advancing a single tier would allow them to stand out among their peers and win a price!
"The battles within the tiers will continue until we reach the highest tier with players between levels 40 and 43, the current top players. If you manage to reach this tier and win two out of three fights, you will advanced to the finals held on the ninth day.
The finals will feature a standard elimination format until only a single person remains, crowning the tournament's champion, their name to be forever etched in Crunaboul's history!"
As Maycos was done talking, the music picked up again. Above her head hung the rules woven from golden light. The players either cheered or branded the rules in their minds.
Some guilds immediately discussed strategies.
Liam went over the rules in his head. Thinking about it he and the guild should all be seeded quite highly. It was quite likely that they didn't need to act on the first day.
A few seconds passed before Maycos moved again. She suddenly revealed wings of light. She slowly began to float, swaying like a cute fairy.
"Now that you know the rules, there is nothing left to say. The first round will begin in thirty minutes. Prepare yourselves! I, Maycos, wish all participants GOOD LUCK!"
The star laughed playfully. Suddenly she sped up and disappeared into the sky. The platform only followed a few seconds later.
Music rang through all the arenas as the players broke out in discussion. Some people were confused how to figure out their schedule but they quickly remembered to ask C.
Liam inquired about his next fight, receiving a notification.
[Your upcoming battle:]
[Guild contest tier 2: #8132, Dream Avenue qualification battle.]
[Estimated time: 25:12:04]
[Please remember that the schedule can be adjusted. Please be available at least one hour before and after the estimated time. Failure to appear within 10 minutes of match begin will be considered a forfeit.]
As Liam was reading the notification, his friends were doing the same. Suddenly an indignant shout came from Cyclone:
"What's this, tier 2?! Is C drunk?"
"Right, that has to be joke!", agreed Balm.
The rest of the friends looked unhappy as well. Even Liam didn't understand the evaluation. He and his friends inquired with C. They didn't receive a real explanation but as C listed all the criteria of evaluation, the friends had a guess.
Perhaps their advancement to rank two had screwed them as rank two guilds might be measured by other standards.
Cyclone grumbled but there was nothing she could do. Now the guild was forced to make it through one additional tier. However, Cyclone quickly discovered a ray of light:
"Doesn't this mean we will get an additional reward?"
"This seems to be the case..."
The others weren't very enthusiastic though. Comparing it with the single contest, tier 2 would correspond to levels 35 – 40. How precious could such a reward be?
The discovery dampened their mood somewhat. But as the start of the fighting came nearer, no one could avoid being affected by the excitement.
The friends began to discuss what to watch. Cyclone asked C for a list of all matches and directly jumped from her seat as the names filled her vision, going on towards the horizon.
With her head smoking Cyclone asked C to reduce the list to all matches starting within the next 20 minutes. But this didn't improve anything.
Cyclone shook as she realized the sheer number of players in the game. The United Human Federation boasted about 80 planets the size of earth and many smaller ones. The total population had already surpassed 800 billion. After three months the player count was nearing 100 billion, an absolutely insane number.
Even Cyclone felt somewhat afraid imagining the necessary technology. And yet the players didn't know that the game was completely controlled by C. One could imagine the discussions going on daily between government officials.
Cyclone was confused as she didn't know how to choose from the long list of matches going on simultaneously. In order to facilitate the battles of about 65 billion players who registered for the tournament, C had to provide hundreds of millions of arenas. Most of those would barely have any audience.
Cyclone was at a loss as she asked her friends:
"Any ideas?"
"The way I see it…", answered Silver Blade. "… we can either support our guild members or try to scout for promising talents. The second option might be difficult without a clue but since we are a rank 2 guild, we should have great appeal."
"Not a bad idea."
"Scouting talents sounds like fun."
"I think supporting the guild members is more valuable."
The friends discussed for a bit, each with their own opinion. Eventually Cyclone and Balm convinced everyone to watch at least three fights of their current guild members before they could follow their own ideas.
As the friends waited for the first matches to begin, the curiosity in their hearts grew, looking forward to the begin of the tournament. Eventually only a few seconds were left. The friends communicated with C and switched arenas.
[You are currently in arena #7748310]
[The federation tournament will begin in 00:00:43]
[For any requests - like changing arenas – you can communicate with me.]
As C's voice rang in their heads, the group looked around wearing puzzled looks.
"Isn't this the same arena?", asked Balm.
"Yeah, even the forest below doesn't look different.", agreed Quickstep.
"But it has far less audience stands. This must be a different instance."
"Fascinating…"
The friends marvelled at C's abilities. In the meantime, a few flashes of light transported more players over. Apart from Dream Avenue there were other players who came to watch the match as they were the guild's fans.
The arena slowly expanded as new leaves had to be added serving as audience stands. When the timer reached zero the audience had grown to about 40.000.
It was somewhat unfortunate, however, that many of the fans would pay more attention to Hotpot than to the match.