Chapter 1271
But the harder they tried, the more artificial it felt.
The Elyndorian team knew exactly what was going on. The massive public backlash from yesterday had terrified the Severian officials, forcing them into full damage control mode.
At 9:00 AM.
Phase One: Points-Based Elimination officially kicked off.
The most critical pre-game event was the Randomized Pairing Protocol.
Since yesterday’s blatant discrimination had caused such an international uproar. The hosts went out of their way to demonstrate their transparency and integrity. They provided an exhaustively detailed breakdown of the matchmaking algorithm.
The system was a unified network platform, fully audited and approved by The Organizing Committee.
Every competitor was required to log into the tournament portal via their authenticated devices.
Under the scrutiny of live global broadcasts and independent adjudicators, the system would generate the pairings in real-time.
Once the trigger was pulled, the algorithm would assign each competitor their opponent for round one.
The entire process.
Would be projected onto the massive holographic display dominating the tech center’s main arena.
Broadcasted in pristine high-definition to billions of viewers worldwide.
On paper, it was a completely foolproof, incorruptible method.
Yet, the moment the final brackets populated the screen, the Elyndor delegation’s expressions darkened.
The vast majority of the Elyndorian students had been paired directly against the absolute powerhouses of the tournament.
Competitors from the United Realmon States, Caldoria, Dovaria, and Severia p>
Elyndor had somehow drawn nearly eighty percent of the top-seeded international prodigies.
Lydia Brooks stared at the board, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Well, isn’t that a convenient coincidence p>
Vanessa Vance scowled. “There’s
way this is random. Severia has to
be out of their minds to pull
like this on live television.
“The Severian officials don’t have the guts for that,” Serena said, her eyes narrowing as she surveyed the VIP gallery.
Indeed, the tournament directors staring at the results looked positively sick to their stomachs.
They were clearly just as shocked by the catastrophic matchups Elyndor had drawn.
Yes, they despised Elyndor and desperately wanted to see them crushed after yesterday’s humiliation.
But with brackets this obviously skewed, the global public would immediately accuse Severia of rigging the system again!
Everyone would assume the hosts had deliberately sabotaged the Elyndor team.
But for once, they were completely innocent!
None of them had tampered with the algorithm this time!
Serena’s gaze swept over the Severian competitors.
Standing proudly in the front row was Phelps Prescott.
He was staring up at the rolling roster, a wildly arrogant, vindictive sneer plastered across his face.
Caleb Sommers noticed her line
sight. Pushing up his glasses, he murmured, “Captain, are you
vels
saying the Prescotts rigolet
draw?” t
Serena gave a slight nod.
the
The Elyndorian team looked grim. thought the tournament fired all the
Prescottsmet
MS
“They did use the Prescotts as scapegoats to appease the public outrage over the opening ceremony,” Serena explained.
“But the Randomized Pairing Protocol was developed by one of the Prescott family’s tech subsidiaries over a month ago p>
So while the base code might appear clean to an auditor.
Leaving a backdoor for the Prescotts to manipulate the outcome would have been child’s play.