I intentionally made it a paid chapter, please forgive me.
Logically, the outline of the national competition should not be written here.
However, given that this book has never received a recommendation from Qidian, it only has about 1,400 favorites so far, and most of these favorites are still waiting for the book to mature. Currently, there are only about 20 new chapters available for paid subscription each day.
So today I'd like to discuss the outline of the national competition with the 20 or so readers who have been following the series every day.
Readers who missed this chapter can only say they were simply out of luck.
To add to that, I never considered my book to be rubbish.
Without any featured placements, 830,000 words garnered 1,400 favorites, with an average of 76 subscriptions per chapter and a peak of 251 subscriptions per chapter. This subscription-to-collection ratio is truly remarkable.
Of course, it cannot be denied that some readers have criticized my character Sakuragi Hanamichi, saying that I have tainted youth, wasted passion, and other unpleasant things.
All of these comments appeared in the first 200,000 words of the free chapters, and I deleted them all.
Books are meant for people who enjoy reading them. Even the most famous books will have critics, while even the most obscure books will have people who quietly subscribe to them every day.
Okay, after all that rambling at the beginning, readers who are still willing to pay to read this chapter must be true fans. Now let's talk about the national competition.
Let's start with the match between Sannoh and Shohoku. After much consideration, I still think it would be more appropriate to schedule this match as the final.
After all, Sannoh is a three-time national champion. Whether it's Meihou, Daiei, or Aiwa, the goal of these strong teams is actually to defeat Sannoh.
Therefore, I plan to avoid the match between Shohoku and Sannoh and instead schedule Sannoh for the finals.
Then, the top four teams from last year's national competition received a bye in the first round. According to the original story, this bye was awarded to the top team from the county where the top four teams were located.
For example, Aiwa Academy was in the top four last year, but Meihou defeated Aiwa Academy this year to win first place in Aichi Prefecture. As a result, Meihou got the qualification to have a bye in the first round, while Aiwa Academy lost this qualification.
Therefore, since Hainan team was among the top four in the country last year, and Shohoku team is the first in Kanagawa Prefecture this year, Shohoku team will have a bye in the first round.
So here's the problem.
Did the Shohoku team follow the order of the Hainan team's matches in the original work?
If we follow the original story, then Shohoku's first-round opponent should be Mamiyashi. It doesn't matter who they play in the second and third rounds, because they're all weak teams.
As for the fourth round, which is the semifinals, according to the original work, Shohoku will most likely play against Sannoh in the semifinals. The other semifinal will probably be Meihou playing against another team. Of course, it is also possible that Daiei will defeat Meihou, and Daiei will play against another team in the semifinals.
Oh, and one more thing: the national tournament uses an elimination format. Since there are 59 teams participating, it's simple and straightforward—if you lose, you go home.
I estimate that after the semifinals, the two teams that didn't make it to the finals might play a match to compete for third and fourth place, which is similar to the World Cup. Then the two teams in the finals will play each other.
However, if the Shohoku team follows the Hainan team's path to the finals, it just doesn't feel right. After all, from my perspective, I wrote this book to recall the plot and my youth, and then to create a second work based on my memories to make up for the regrets in my heart.
For example, in the game between Shohoku and Hainan, I still let Shohoku lose to Hainan because I wanted Mitsui to take the blame. I believed that the loss was due to Mitsui's mistake, not some nonsense about Sakuragi passing the ball to Takasago Kazuma!
This leads to the subsequent storyline where Mitsui quits smoking, shaves his head, and works hard to improve his physical fitness.
In the final game against Ryonan, Mitsui was deliberately arranged to shoot a three-pointer as a buzzer-beater to redeem himself.
These were all planned out when the outline was first written.
Of course, some readers believe that Shohoku's best option would be to directly defeat Hainan, and some readers even lost some readers because Shohoku lost to Hainan. I won't argue with readers who think this way; let it be.
Continuing with the national competition, here's my general idea.
Shohoku had a bye in the first round, but they were still in the same group as Toyotama, meaning Shohoku replaced Sannoh in the competition.
Toyotama won their first match before facing Shohoku.
Shohoku defeated Toyotama.
Next, Shohoku will play a match against a certain team, and this match can be summed up in two words: a stomp on a weak team.
With two consecutive wins, Shohoku successfully entered the national top eight, which boosted the team's confidence.
Shohoku's third match was against Aiwa Academy.
Shohoku defeated Aiwa Academy and advanced to the semifinals.
The semi-finals here are not like the round-robin tournament in Kanagawa, but rather a knockout tournament like the World Cup.
The teams that made it to the semifinals are: Shohoku, Sannoh, Ryonan, and Meihou (or Daiei).
The plan is for Shohoku to play Meihou (or Daiei) in the semifinals, and Ryonan to play Sannoh.
Shohoku and Sannoh emerged victorious, and both teams qualified for the finals.
Then Ryonan and Meihou (or Daiei) will have a match to compete for third or fourth place.
In the end, Shohoku defeated Sannoh and won the national championship!
This is my initial idea.
Just to clarify, even if I were to write according to this outline, I would only dare to guarantee that I would write about the Sannoh match as a complete game; the others would likely be just briefly mentioned and glossed over.
The above is the preliminary outline for the national competition. Feel free to leave comments and discuss.
Of course, I know that some readers prefer to read silently and never comment. If they don't comment, I assume that these readers agree with the outline.
Finally, we are collecting player names here to fill the rosters of the three teams: Aiwa, Meihou, and Daiei. The general format can be: name + team.
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