Chapter 74 Death Team?
After a day's vacation, everyone will pack up and check into the organizer's hotel.
Qi Ji and Yuan Zhuo went straight to the lobby of the organizer's hotel to meet up with everyone. They arrived a little early, so they sat on the sofa in the hotel lobby waiting for others.
The entire hotel has been booked by the organizer, and there are quite a few teams that choose to check in today.
People from various teams are coming and going in the lobby, and there are some familiar faces to Qi Ji.
As an evergreen in HOW, there are indeed not many people that Qi Ji can remember, but on the contrary, even those who enter the world competition for the first time will recognize him.
After countless confirmations that the person sitting on the sofa is Qi Ji himself, many enthusiastic foreign players rushed over to take photos with Qi Ji and ask for autographs.
After a while, a long queue in the hotel lobby inexplicably formed. Those who didn't know thought that some big star was holding a book signing event here.
Qi Ji was already used to this situation. Thinking that there might not be such an opportunity in the future, he did not refuse.
He was sitting next to everyone, but everyone ignored him because they liked Qi Ji. Yuan Zhuo didn't feel anything about this. He was just proud and a little jealous of everyone's enthusiasm and admiration for Qi Ji.
Especially if it was just a normal photo or autograph, Yuan Zhuo could still bear it, but some foreigners were so thick-skinned that they actually confessed to Qi Ji in front of him.
As he spoke, he couldn't hold back his excitement and was about to hug him.
Although Yuan Zhuo has spent more time abroad than in China in his 19 years of life, he might appreciate this kind of enthusiastic and cheerful personality and style on weekdays, but now this enthusiasm is directed at his wife, which he absolutely cannot tolerate. With
a quick eye and hand, Yuan Zhuo stood up and pulled Qi Ji behind him, making the foreign fans' surprise attack fail. At the same time, he stared at the foreign fans' eyes and warned them in fluent English.
"NO, he is my boyfriend, please keep your distance."
The news about Qi Ji and Yuan Zhuo's relationship did spread abroad, but because of the existence of that wall, the vast majority of players' versions of the news were still relatively backward, and even some of them thought it was a joke or a scandal even if they had seen it.
Seeing Yuan Zhuo say this, Qi Ji did not object. Instead, he stood quietly behind him, as if tacitly accepting everything.
Everyone looked at them in shock, and discussed it in groups of three or four.
However, foreign countries are generally more tolerant of homosexuals. Basically, after understanding their relationship, everyone gave them a thumbs up in admiration.
What made Qi Ji and Yuan Zhuo even more shocked was that, no one knew who started it, but everyone suddenly applauded around them and blessed them in various languages.
Qi Ji expressed his gratitude for everyone's blessings, but he had never been so shocked in his life.
For the first time, he realized what it meant to want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, and he simply hid behind Yuan Zhuo.
Feeling his head resting on his back, Yuan Zhuo couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, and held Qi Ji's hand even tighter.
However, even Yuan Zhuo, who was as thick-skinned as a city wall when chasing Qi Ji, couldn't resist the situation at hand. Seeing that everyone's blessings were getting more and more intense, as if they were about to have a party, Yuan Zhuo quickly grabbed Qi Ji's hand and wanted to escape the scene. Fortunately,
at this time, the other members of MG, the coaching team and the staff just arrived at the hotel.
After briefly understanding what happened, they couldn't help laughing for a while, and then everyone went to check in together, which saved Qi Ji and Yuan Zhuo and prevented them from continuing to die in society.
After checking in, everyone was going to go back to their rooms to take a rest. After lunch, they would start a training match with other teams in the afternoon.
While everyone in MG was waiting for the elevator, there was a sudden noise at the door.
Everyone subconsciously turned their heads and looked over. It turned out that IEG, the No. 1 team in the European division, and KDG, the No. 1 seed from Korea, arrived at the same time.
As soon as Qi Ji turned his head, his eyes met GodMars and Flower, the soul players from IEG and KDG, who were also the core players of their teams.
The eyes of the three people suddenly came together, forming an invisible spark that crackled and burned in the air, as if to indicate the intensity of this World Championship.
Compared with the past, this world competition is indeed more intense than ever. There are three very strong teams that almost swept their own regions at the same time.
Looking at the history of HOW, this is very rare. Usually, only the top seeds in one or two regions are particularly strong, and everyone knows the popular championship teams every year.
However, since MG came out of nowhere last year, this year Qi Ji left his team where he had been for a full ten years and joined MG. Their performance in the region made everyone feel that MG is not only a short-lived championship team, but HPL, which has been weak for several years, has also risen again.
Therefore, the appearance of three super hot championship teams made the situation of the game confusing, and also made the live broadcast of the group stage draw tonight attract much attention.
After completing the afternoon training, all the MG people gathered together, eating dinner while waiting for the live broadcast of the draw to begin.
The 16 teams entering the world competition this time are from six major regions as in the past. Among them, the Chinese region, the Korean region, the European region and the North American region each have three teams. The Southeast Asian region and the South American region only have two places to participate in the competition because of past performance and fewer teams in the region.
However, the same number does not mean that the strength is also balanced.
In the past nine years of HOW professional competitions, the top three regions have always been fixed in China, Korea and Europe.
It's just that the rankings change every year due to the situation in the region and the results of the world championship.
In recent years, due to the development of the Korean e-sports industry, the overall strength of the Korean region is slightly higher than that of other regions. The strength of the teams that can fight to the top three should not be underestimated. Every team has the possibility of winning the championship. In the past few years, the world championship has even been a situation where Korean teams have repeatedly fought each other.
Therefore, taking this year as an example, the strength of the No. 3 seed in the Korean region may be higher than the No. 2 seed in the Chinese region, and is also much higher than the No. 1 seed teams in other regions except the three major regions.
As for the European region, if it were in the past, the No. 2 in the European region would have the potential to compete with the No. 3 seed in the Korean region.
But this year, their situation is very special. During the transfer period last year, the core players of the No. 2 seed were poached by the No. 1 seed IEG, which greatly improved their strength. While aiming for this year's championship, the No. 2 seed team's strength also plummeted.
As for the three teams in the Chinese division this year, although the MG team won the long-lost championship trophy for HPL last year, HPL inevitably declined after not winning the championship for 6 years. This year, except for MG, the strength of the other two teams is difficult to judge, and we need to wait until the game starts before we can draw a conclusion.
In order to make the world game more exciting and interesting, the world game system is very different from the league game, and the first round is the group stage.
16 teams from six regions around the world will be divided into four different groups. Each group will play two rounds of BO1 matches with other teams in the group (one round decides the winner). The winning team will get 2 points, and the losing team will not get any points. After the two rounds of matches, the top two teams in the group will qualify and enter the knockout stage, and the bottom two will be eliminated.
If there is a tie for second place, the two teams with the same points will need to play an extra BO1 match, and the winning team will get a ticket to the knockout stage.
In order to prevent the audience from seeing repeated matches too early, the first and second place teams in the same group will not be in the same half in the knockout stage.
At the same time, based on past results, the top seed teams in China, Korea, Europe, and America will avoid grouping to avoid a large number of strong teams being squeezed into a small group, which will lead to early elimination and make the game less interesting.
If you interview a player about the game format they fear the most or dislike the most, most of them will say BO1.
Because in BO3 and BO5, even if the game is not in good condition, or there are mistakes, or other unexpected situations, there are still the remaining games to save.
But in BO1, if you lose, you lose, and there is no chance of recovery. Therefore, BO1 has become the game format with the most variables in major e-sports competitions.
But there was no other way. Both the audience and the organizers wanted this kind of excitement, and from the beginning they wanted to use this exciting competition system to bring everyone into the game and attract more audiences.
Just when Yuan Zhuo took advantage of Qi Ji's inattention to feed him the peeled shrimp, the live broadcast of the group stage draw on TV officially began. Everyone stared at the TV screen with bated breath to see which group MG would be drawn into.
But MG was not drawn in the first round. The number one seed KDG of the Korean team was divided into the first group, ADG of the Chinese division was divided into the second group, the number three seed team TG of the American division was divided into the third group, and the number one seed IEG of the European division came to the fourth group.
The first round of draws made everyone less nervous, but when the second round of draws began, many teams began to get nervous. After all, if you are lucky and enter a group with weaker overall strength, the probability of qualifying will be higher. There is no way, in competitive games, luck is always a part of strength.
Next, because of the avoidance principle of the No. 1 seed in the four major regions, MG can only go to the second or third group. Everyone is praying that it is best to go to the third group, so that they can avoid meeting ADG in their own region in advance. Secondly, the third group has already drawn a No. 3 seed. If the luck is not too bad, the strength of this group may be relatively weak.
Of course, a strong team does not care which group they are in, but the variables of BO1 are too large, and everyone wants to be more stable, which is also within common sense.
What is worrying is that after the second round of draws, MG still has not been drawn.
The current grouping situation is:
Group 1: KDG (No. 1 seed in the Korean Division), BQ (No. 3 seed in the Chinese Division)
Group 2: ADG (No. 2 seed in the Chinese Division), JAU (No. 2 seed in the European Division)
Group 3: FBG (No. 3 seed in the North American Division), USG (No. 2 seed in the Korean Division)
Group 4: IEG (No. 1 seed in the European Division), HOT (No. 2 seed in the Brazilian Division)
The suspense continues. Everyone immediately put down their tableware, stopped eating, and watched the TV with frowns. Miraculously, the highly watched MG has not been drawn, and the same is true for the No. 1 seed in North America.
After the third round, the No. 1 seed from the South American region was added to the second group. What is worth noting is that the No. 3 seed from the Korean region was assigned to the third group, which means that this group now has two Korean teams.
If MG is "unfortunately" drawn to the third group, then this group will be a veritable group of death, and a strong team will go home early.
Although no one spoke, everyone was praying silently in their hearts, no group three, no group three, no group three!
However, Qi Ji's luck in drawing lots has never been very good. Although there was a 50% chance, MG was still drawn to the third group in the fourth round of the draw. The third group with three strong teams became a veritable group of death!
So far, the draw for the S10 World Championship group stage has been completed, and the groups are as follows.
Group 1: KDG (No. 1 seed in the European Division), BQ (No. 3 seed in the Chinese Division), MAO (No. 3 seed in the European Division), CAS (No. 1 seed in the Southeast Asian Division)
Group 2: ADG (No. 2 seed in the Chinese Division), JAU (No. 2 seed in the European Division), DTY (No. 1 seed in the South American Division), LQ (No. 1 seed in the North American Division)
Group 3: FBG (No. 3 seed in the North American Division), USG (No. 2 seed in the Korean Division), RV (No. 3 seed in the Korean Division), MG (No. 1 seed in the Chinese Division)
Group 4: IEG (No. 1 seed in the European Division), HOT (No. 2 seed in the South American Division), LTB (No. 3 seed in the European Division), UTT (No. 2 seed in the Southeast Asian Division)
Faced with this grouping, everyone in MG wailed.
"Ah, piggy, our luck is so bad, we actually fell into the death group."
Holding Zhu Yu, Cheng Xiaowa buried his face in his arms in pain.
It's not that Cheng Xiaowa has no confidence, but there are too many variables in BO1. Except for MG's killing all the way last year, basically all the upsets in previous competitions have exploded in the group stage.
But this is the world championship, it will be a big deal from the beginning, bringing the players and spectators into a tense and exciting competition.
In this regard, Yuan Zhuo felt a little pressure in his heart, but overall it was okay, and he was not as panicked as Cheng Xiaowa and others. He turned his head and looked at Qi Ji, whose expression had not changed at all, wanting to hear his thoughts.
He didn't need to speak, Qi Ji, who had already had a tacit understanding with him, said lightly.
"Death squad? No, they are the ones who should be worried."