Chapter 302 – Rookie Challenge Competition
The audience had their spirits excited by the opening. The fireworks that were going on outside, the commentator’s commentary, and the highlight reel from the past year felt somewhat lacking comparatively. The audience still hoped that it would continue. Even if the opening repeated itself, they still felt that it would at least be more exciting than the current program.
Amazing! Beautiful!
This was the impression that the audience received from the opening. But for professionals like Ye Xiu, the stunning opening was no more than just that. What he wanted to know was whether those characters’ movements had been planned beforehand or whether they were being controlled at the scene.
If it was the latter, then this opening would be the mark of a new era. Utilizing projection technology to display Glory’s matches —- if that concept had truly became a reality, then the audience would be able to see projections of the map, as well as the characters. The scene from the matches could then be shown to the audience. At that moment, not only the audience, but also the players themselves would feel as if it were real.
The scene! This was what it meant to be at the scene!
While the audience was entranced by the opening, Ye Xiu had quickly thought about all of this. Such a change would affect the business more. With the development of the business, more attention would naturally come. This would then, in turn, attract more people to Glory’s eSports scene and increase the competitiveness of it. It would indirectly push the game forward.
The use of this technology would become an important milestone in Glory. Even though Ye Xiu couldn’t be certain, using it in the opening of the All-Star Competition was already an indicator. Or perhaps the Alliance was doing it to test the technology. The All-Star Competition wasn’t an official match, but it would attract a lot of attention. There wasn’t a more suitable place to publicly test it out.
Would they still continue to test the new technology? Ye Xiu couldn’t be more familiar with the All-Star Competition’s layout. On the first day, after the opening, the first event would be the Rookie Challenge Competition.
The participants for the Rookie Challenge Competition didn’t need to be chosen. As long as you hadn’t been a pro for at two full years, you had the qualifications to sign up. Afterwards, you would then be allowed to freely choose from non-rookie players and 1v1 them. The two parties usually wouldn’t use their own accounts, but rather they would use two equally strong characters provided by the host to fight. This was clearly done to take care of the rookies. If they had used their own accounts, then the majority of the rookies wouldn’t compare to the veterans’ characters. As a result, by equalizing the characters the two parties used, they would both fight on equal grounds.
Since the rookies signed up on their own, their information wouldn’t be announced to the public. As a result, every year during the All-Stars Weekend, guessing which rookies would participate was a huge part of the fun for the audience. The rookies’ popularity definitely wouldn’t be able to compare to the Gods’, but for Glory fans, as long as they were on the host’s team, any of the team members would attract a huge amount of attention to them. Even more so, there were a few rookies whose names were quite renowned.
This time’s Rookie Challenge Competition had quite a few rookies the fans were looking forward to, so everyone was filled with anticipation towards this Challenge Competition.
At this moment, the host, who was only heard but not seen, finally announced the first participant in the Rookie Challenge Competition: Team Thunderclap, Dai Yanqi.
When the name was announced, the applause from the audience wasn’t too crazy, but it wasn’t too quiet either. Dai Yanqi wasn’t considered outstanding by any means among the rookies. If something had to be said about Dai Yanqi, then it’d have to be that she was a female player. For female players, fans always harbored a different type of anticipation and attention. That was why, when compared to the others at the same skill level, they received a bit more attention.
The age of the rookies usually weren’t very high. Dai Yanqi was only 17 years old. However, she was quite outgoing and wasn’t afraid of going up on stage. As she walked on stage and became the focal point, she waved her hands to everyone and then announced in a loud voice who she would challenge: Chu Yunxiu.
“Sister Chu has always been an idol for us girls. I respect her a lot. I’m using this opportunity to challenge Sister Chu and I hope i’ll be able to receive her instruction.” Dai Yanqi’s issue of challenge had been filled with reverence. She clearly wanted this battle to be a chance for her to greet her respected senior. Whether she lost or not wasn’t important. The audience clearly wasn’t too excited about this match and only gave her an applause as a sign of courtesy. And at this moment, Chu Yunxiu entered the stage from the players’ seats.
Players who had been called could not refuse the challenge, even if they had fought consecutively. And in the history of the event, the most tragic participant was Ye Xiu. At his very first All-Stars Competition, he was the rookies’ most respected player, as well as their opponent whom they most wanted to try and beat. That year, all seven rookies who had participated in the Rookie Competition had chosen Ye Qiu. The final participant that went up no longer had a good reason to fight him and just simply said “Same”. Ye Xiu had also created a record for “The Player to be Called Out the Most in the Rookie Challenge Competition”. Whether it was in a single competition or the total times overall, he was the champion…….
Chu Yunxiu was also someone who had seen the stage before. After going up on stage, she naturally said a few warm words to her junior. The two then chose their classes, took the character accounts provided by the host and headed to the competition stage.
The two walked in opposite directions. As they walked farther and farther from each other, the audience finally noticed that in this year’s All-Star Competition, the competition stage wasn’t set in the middle, but rather on opposite corners of the stadium.
The audience felt a bit uncertain because of this, but Ye Xiu had noticed something.
As the two walked to the competition stage, the display screen above the stage began to show the match interface. The entire stadium’s lights dimmed. As the match was being set up, the empty space in the middle of the stadium began to glow. Not long after, along with the audience’s shouts of astonishment, the map chosen by Dai Yanqi appeared in front of everyone’s eyes.
When the match began, the two characters emerged onto the two ends of the map. The audience had finally realized what was going to happen.
In order to fit the entire map onto the stage, the projection couldn’t be shown at a 1:1 scale; it had to be shown on a different scale. The two characters would naturally be affected and their characters were smaller than the ones in the opening scene.
Because of this, some of the details couldn’t be seen clearly. The surrounding display screens played like they had in the past. However, at this moment, everyone’s attention fell on the unclear projection.
“This this…….. Is too amazing!!” Chen Guo said, stunned. Her reaction was the same as the audience’s.
The conjecture Ye Xiu had made earlier had been verified and he understood that this was a new age for Glory. However, it looked like the scaling seemed to be a big issue. The scaling was too small and couldn’t be seen clearly. It didn’t seem likely like it could replace the display screens, though this issue would most definitely be solved sooner or later.
While the audience was still astonished by this, Chu Yunxiu and Dai Yanqi had already met. They hadn’t chosen to do any sort of special movement and simply met with each other in the middle of the stage in the fastest way. Afterwards, the two politely asked whether the other side was ready in the chat box and they began to fight.
By looking at both the display screens and the projection, they discovered that the projection synchronized perfectly. No one cared at this moment who would win or lose. They had been completely captivated by the new competition display. As they watched the two characters go back and forth, everyone had already forgotten their names.
In the end, the match ended without too much suspense. Chu Yunxiu easily beat Dai Yanqi. The two then, once again, politely gave their respects and the match ended.
The applause afterwards and the quality of the match was quite an illusion. Even Chu Yunxiu and Dai Yanqi themselves knew quite well that the majority of the applause wasn’t towards them, but rather it was towards the new technology that allowed them to feel a new experience.
The projection disappeared and the stadium lit up once again. The fans continued to discuss the new display, while the host announced the second rookie to come up on stage: Team Tiny Herb’s Gao Yingjie.
The applause was deafening!
This applause this time was the real deal. Gao Yingjie’s recognition as a genius, whether or not it had been pushed forward by Tiny Herb, had always been well known in the Glory scene. He had already been designated as the player who would inherit Vaccaria and, up until now, he hadn’t appeared in an official match. Just how good was this genius? Glory’s fans had been curious about this since long ago and now they finally had the chance to see it.
Gao Yingjie also walked around the stadium in a circle and said a few words. But compared to the girl Dai Yanqi, he was much more modest. With his head lowered, and both his hands and feet stiff, he walked onto the stage. He quickly raised his head, waved them around, and said a simple, “Hi everyone. My name is Gao Yinjie.” His voice went from loud to soft. His last three words were said so quietly that he himself might not have been able to hear them.
At the seats for the pro players, Tiny Herb’s members were quietly shaking their heads. If Gao Yingjie had decided this on his own, then he definitely wouldn’t have signed up for the match. The reason that he had signed up was because Wang Jiexi had acted in place of him and signed him up. This child truly needed some discipline.
“The player who I want to challenge is our Tiny Herb team captain, Wang Jiexi.” Gao Yingjie’s voice was as soft as ever. However, at least Wang Jiexi’s name had been said. The reason for his challenge was even softer than the noise made by a mosquito. The host once again reminded him to speak a bit louder through his earpiece, but it proved to be no use.
Helpless, and not waiting for the child to finish, Wang Jiexi came up on stage to rescue him. The God was naturally able to control the stage and, after quickly saying a few simple words, the two players sat at their respective seats amidst the audience’s applause.
The lights dimmed and the projection once again appeared after the map was chosen. Both players chose the Witch class and their characters appeared at opposite ends of the map.
