Chapter 589: Rules, Draw, and Random Fields
At the draw ceremony the next day, Arthur felt an inexplicable sense of hostility from the other players.
He quietly asked his teammates, "Why does it feel like everyone around me has a problem with me?"
Bella rolled her eyes and teased, "Be confident. You can remove the 'like'."
Aaron was more honest and gave a serious answer. "Because everyone hates overachievers who force others to work harder."
"...Do I do that?" Arthur was completely unaware.
"Don't you?" Captain Leo asked faintly.
Bianca flipped her hair. "You're already a star player and a favorite to win. If you work this hard, it makes the rest of us look lazy."
"..."
Arthur was helpless. "But I've always had this schedule?"
Bella muttered, "That's why you've always been the King of Overachievers."
"..."
Probably because her best friend Luna had been completely led astray by Arthur, Arthur felt Bella's recent resentment towards him was particularly strong.
This made him inexplicably miss "Big Sister Loves Shota," who used to be his number one fan. That was Bella's online alias back then, and she was the core leader of his fan club for a while.
Unfortunately, times had changed. Arthur had grown up; he wasn't a shota anymore.
And the younger junior from back then had turned the tables in daily training, becoming the team's devil instructor. Over the past year, he had drilled Bella relentlessly.
Now Arthur's baby face no longer brought Bella healing. Instead, every time she saw it, it reminded her of countless sweaty, exhausting training sessions...
It was terrifying!
Bella once suspected her preferences were being warped by Arthur.
So the former fan became the current frenemy. After countless failed attempts to skip training and being caught for "voluntary" extra practice, Bella finally conquered her preferences!
Now, she could complain about Arthur with a heart as calm as still water.
It was as if she had been worked so hard she lost all worldly desires...
"So, say no to overworking, starting with me!"
The head coach beside her glanced at her sideways. "Your starting spot is gone."
"No, Coach! I was wrong! I was just saying it, don't take it seriously!"
Leo sighed silently.
Too many comedians, it's hard to lead this team...
Fortunately, it was their turn to go on stage. Everyone put away their playful attitudes, their expressions instantly becoming serious.
Face change in one second.
On stage, introduction, then waiting for the organizing committee's speech, and then the draw.
This year's Champions Cup group stage format was different from last year's—this was an old tradition of the Champions Cup; the committee always liked to play tricks in the group stage.
This year, the thirty-two teams would be divided into eight groups, with four teams in each group.
In previous years, it was usually four groups with eight teams each.
And this year, the group stage would be a double round-robin, but it was explicitly stated that there would be no tie-breakers within a match.
This rule meant that draws would be allowed in the group stage.
Finally, wins would be calculated, and the top two teams from each group would advance.
The subsequent knockout stage rules remained unchanged. It was still the traditional double-elimination format, with group winners entering the winner's bracket and runners-up entering the loser's bracket.
As soon as the organizing committee announced this part, a wave of heated discussion erupted in the venue.
Back offstage, Arthur and his teammates were also discussing it.
"Allowing draws in the group stage, combined with the new point differential scoring system for the Captain's Match this year, feels like it adds a lot of variables," Leo said, receiving unanimous agreement.
Presumably, strategic deployment to force a draw would become an important tactic for weaker teams in the group stage.
Then, one wave hadn't settled before another rose.
Before everyone could finish discussing the potential draws in the group stage, the committee dropped another bombshell.
"At the same time, we will be using Random Fields again in this year's group stage."
Now the venue completely boiled over.
"F*ck! Committee, do you think this is cooool?"
"Damn! Feels like the committee has a strong desire to show off this year!"
"Sigh... no wonder. They've been holding it in for eight years, and this year's heat is just right."
From everyone's discussion, it wasn't hard to hear that many people were not appreciative of the organizing committee's excessive desire for expression.
But the organizers' restless hearts were hard to calm!
The knockout stage had to be proper, so they could only let loose in the group stage!
The last time they pulled the Random Field stunt was eight years ago.
Undeniably, this did increase the fun and spectacle of the matches, but most professional players didn't like rules with too much randomness.
Strong teams especially disliked this kind of luck-based mechanism.
Coincidentally, any team that could make it to the Champions Cup wouldn't consider themselves weak.
Comparatively, Starlight and Frost's reaction was smaller than most teams.
A local staff member from the Regal Alliance asked them, "Do you have no reaction? Don't you care about Random Fields at all?"
The staff member clearly remembered that he was responsible for the area where the Kubfu Alliance's league champion and number one seed sat!
Captain Leo's answer shocked the staff member.
"Our players are all participating in the Champions Cup for the first time. Anyway, all rules are new to us, so there's no difference."
This left the staff member bewildered and almost unbelieving for a moment.
"You're the number one seed, and all your players are first-timers in the Champions Cup? No way?"
Leo looked back at the teammates he led.
In one sentence—a bunch of problem children!
Excluding himself, the average age of their team was pitifully young...
"Indeed, all first-timers."
This left the questioning staff member speechless for a long time.
He felt that this year's Champions Cup might really be different from the past, and not just in terms of format!
After the organizing committee introduced the rules, the Alliance Chairman gave a speech, the referees took an oath, and after a series of procedures, it was finally time for the most exciting part of the day—
The Group Draw!
This was what the audience came to see.
Whether they watched the rule announcement live or not didn't matter, and no one wanted to hear the Chairman's speech. Everyone came to see the draw.
After all, this was truly a matter of heaven or hell in a single thought.
Fortunately, this year the group stage was divided into eight groups, which meant the number one seeds from the seven major leagues would definitely not meet in the group stage.
Everyone knew this tacitly.
The first round of the draw assigned the number one seeds from the major leagues and the champion team from the wild card region, one to each group.
Arthur's team was placed in Group C.
And then—
Time to see what teams were in their group.
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