The heads of the knight branches in each state will not go to Zhenjing to watch the game. These bosses will be nothing once they enter the capital, and they will not be able to participate in the players' games, so they will only send a close confidant as a representative.
The most critical point is that the leaders of these state knight guilds are not locals. The interests involved in the national competition have nothing to do with them, and they are happy to sit on the sidelines.
The real stakeholders of the Knights Competition have long been wrestling in Zhenjing City. Meetings large and small within the Knights Association are constantly being held, and interests are exchanged or compromised every day.
Teng Yan, who plays a small role as county president, is not qualified to participate. Only the third elder of the Senate can play chess. The Jiang family has a lot of bargaining chips this year and will never let Ding Kui win in this game.
Suffer a loss.
On the eve of the draw for the national group stage, the Shaodian Kingdom Magician Association suddenly announced an explosive news. They organized a group of young magicians and wanted to have an exchange with the players who had reached the finals of the Knight Competition.
Magicians would always come to join in the fun of the Knights Competition. This happened occasionally in history, usually when a group of magician geniuses emerged at that time.
The number of magicians is far less than the number of knights, so it is difficult to hold national competitions every four years, but the magicians always want to train young magicians through similar competitions.
In recent years, many talented magicians have appeared in various parts of the Shaodian Kingdom. This made President Zhe Taixuan very happy. He decided to select a group of them around the age of eighteen to compete with the best young knights in the country.
.
Zhe Taixuan directly approached Shaodian Shi and asked for a competition. Shaodian Shi was not worried about being ruined by the magician. He was also very happy that someone would help him test the quality of these knights. The two seventh-level masters decided the matter like this.
Come down.
As soon as the top said something, the bottom was about to lose their legs. The competition system for the final stage of the Knights Competition was already set and was about to be changed. This time, more people from the Magician Association were involved in the competition system change. The previous compromise plan of all parties was suddenly overturned.
, causing this Cavaliers Competition to be full of uncertainties.
On October 6, the draw for the group stage was held hastily in the Cavaliers General Assembly Hall.
The method is very simple. Ten gold medals are placed upside down on a round table, and the players step forward to choose based on their state competition rankings.
In the first round, the first place candidates from all state competitions will advance, in the second round, the second place candidates from all state competitions will advance, and so on, with Ding Kui being placed in the final round.
Because the gold medals from one to ten are placed on the round table in no order, and each player can only get one. Who gets which number depends entirely on luck, at least on the surface it seems that way.
After the first round was drawn, the top ten seeded players were determined into groups.
As expected, Shao Dianfei from Zhuwang Prefecture got the No. 1 gold medal;
Yao Sheng from Hailin State drew the second gold medal;
Kong Ren from Nanzhao Prefecture drew gold medal No. 3;
Long Tan from Zhongwangzhou drew gold medal No. 4;
Bai Zhen from Hexi Prefecture drew gold medal No. 5;
Mu Ran from Haishan Prefecture drew gold medal No. 6;
Xuanyuan from Linhai Prefecture drew gold medal No. 7;
Lu Zhi of Shanyuan Prefecture drew gold medal No. 8;
Li Fan from Xihaizhou drew gold medal No. 9;
Yang Yuanzhou's Long Shuang drew gold medal No. 10.
The national competition is the national competition, which is much more generous than the state competition and the county competition. The gold medals drawn by the players can be taken away. You can take it home as a souvenir or sell it as you wish. This gold medal is made of pure gold.
The Knights Association has prepared a hundred gold medals. Each player has one. They cannot sell it before the end of the group stage. They must use the gold medal to compete at the corresponding venue.
When it was Ding Kui's turn to draw lots, a staff member whispered behind him: "Grab the gold medal that is farthest from you."
This is too straightforward. The cheating techniques are so unsophisticated. What if I can’t grab it?
Ding Kui was shocked. Of course, he felt that no one would use such low-end means to trick him. It would not be a bad thing to grab the gold medal that was farthest from him. Most people would take the gold medal that was closer and more convenient. No one competed with Ding Kui.
Kui went to grab the farthest piece, and he successfully got the farthest gold medal.
"It's No. 3 again, what a coincidence." Ding Kui looked at the gold medal in his hand. The numbers on it were so familiar to him. He was in Group 3 during the county competition, and he was also Group 3 during the state competition.
In the end, when it came to the national competition, he was still in the third group.
The results of the lottery were similar to what Ding Kui had expected. Three pairs from Zhongwangzhou were assigned to the same group. The first place Long Tan and the third place Yang Zhan were awarded the gold medal No. 4; the fourth place Gongsun Qi and Ding Kui were in the same group.
Group; Xun Le, who placed sixth, and Zhong Yi, who placed ninth, drew gold medal No. 10 together.
This grouping is very unfavorable to Zhongwangzhou. The meeting between Long Tan and Yang Zhan can be said to have squeezed out the possibility of first place in the group; in the eyes of Zhongwangzhou people, the strongest after the three favorites are Ding Kui and Gongsun.
Pray, both of them have been assigned to the third group, and internal friction is inevitable; Xun Le and Zhong Yi are strong contenders for the top 50. They are in a group with Long Shuang, the favorite to win, and the strong Yang Mian. At least one of them will lose.
Ranked in the bottom fifty.
Apart from Zhongwangzhou, Nanzhou is the state that is most dissatisfied with the draw.
Kong Ren, a direct descendant of the Kong family, worked hard and moved from Zhenjing City to Wenguo County to participate in the competition. He finally won the first place in Nanzhao Prefecture and won a precious seed player seat. As a result, Ding Kui, who had the ability to compete with him, came into the group.
and Gongsun Qi.
The Kong family of Duke Wen is ranked high among the top ten dukes, but their fighting qi skills are relatively weak, and their ranking may only be slightly higher than the Fan family of Xingguo Gong and the Bao family of Lu Guo Gong.
As a direct descendant of Kong Ren, he could compete with Gongsun Qi from the collateral line, and the chance of winning was still high. However, before the game, it was reported that Ding Kui and Jiang Cao, who were ranked tenth in Zhongwangzhou, were equally powerful. Regardless of whether the news was accurate or not,
Kong Ren felt very threatened.
At the beginning of the founding of the Shaodian Kingdom, the ancestors of the ten major dukes were all leading generals, with at least one legion in their hands. After the founding of the country, wars decreased, the number of armies began to decrease, and some of the dukes were transferred to civilian positions in the Government Affairs Council.
The Kong family, the Bao family, the Yao family and the Fan family were slightly less powerful in terms of knights due to skill issues. The focus of the family turned to the Government Affairs Council, and the inheritance of fighting spirit was only open to direct descendants and talented collateral elites. Over time, the strength of these four families
There is a distance between the disciples and the other six families, and this gap is most obvious in the knight competition.
Neither the Bao family nor the Fan family made it to the national competition in this knight competition. The direct descendants were missing, and the lack of talent among the collateral descendants was also an important reason.
Although many parties are dissatisfied, the players have drawn lots and their groupings have been determined. If you want to get good results, you can only rely on the individual strength of the players.
Teng Yan and Lei Ge were waiting anxiously at the Protector's Mansion. With the presence of the old god Lu Ji, they felt much calmer.
"You, the master, don't seem to care at all." Lei Ge said this, but he actually wanted to find comfort in Lu Ji. Every time Ding Kui won a game, he helped Black Earth City create history. He hoped to draw a better lottery than Ding Kui.
.
"The Baron has confidence in his disciples. We don't know Ding Kui as well as him, so we can only worry here." Teng Yan maintained enough respect for Lu Ji. After fighting once, he knew very well what Lu Ji was.
How powerful is the commander of Shuizhai?
The water fort in the "Golden Waterway" is the number one water fort in the kingdom. The combat effectiveness of the troops stationed there is much stronger than the division led by Fuji Yan. Lu Ji has not lost a single victory during his tenure as the commander-in-chief, and his leadership ability is among the best in the kingdom.
"No matter which group Ding Kui is assigned to, it won't be as difficult as the state finals. I'm not worried about him facing players from Zhongwangzhou. What's the point of worrying about him facing players from other states now?" Lu Ji saw.
It is relatively clear that the overall level of Zhongwangzhou is higher than that of other states. In the group stage, they will at most encounter one or two difficult opponents.
At this time, Ding Kui happened to return home. When he saw the elders in the living room, he quickly stepped forward to salute one by one, and at Teng Yan's urging, he introduced the situation of the draw.
"This luck is just average. Not to mention Kong Ren's strength, Gongsun Qi is said to have been practicing hard at home after losing to the three favorites. He did nothing but eat and sleep every day. I won't let him suddenly be promoted to Shieldbreaker Knight.
I find it strange." Lei Ge was obviously collecting information about the players.
"Kong Ren was originally in the capital, but transferred to Wenguo County four years ago. He made careful preparations for this knight competition. His ability to sweep Nanzhaozhou is evident. The only good thing is that there is no news that he has advanced.
News about the Shield-Breaking Knight." Teng Yan added Kong Ren's information.
"There is no mediocre person who can become the first in the state competition. There is no news that anyone has been promoted to the Shield Breaker Knight. It is actually the same if he changes to another group. No, the Magician Guild will send someone to communicate with us. The first in the group will qualify.
I still don’t know what kind of situation I will encounter.
Let’s take it one game at a time. If I can win, I will never give up. If I can’t win, let it be. Just try your best.” Ding Kui did not set a hard goal for himself. The top three in each group have a chance to enter the finals.
He doesn't necessarily have to fight for first place.
"This time you use 'Yueshang' to play in the group stage. There is no need to preserve your strength. Competitions with similar strengths are based on the foundation. The foundation is the accumulation of long-term training. There is no way to improve in a short period of time." Lu Ji said.
His style is more stable and he doesn't like to make surprise attacks. It is recommended that Ding Kui use a safe plan to deal with the group stage.
"Does the Kong family have any famous swords?" Ding Kui asked.
"Yes," Teng Yan replied affirmatively, "the name of the sword is 'Zhenggang', but it has not appeared for many years, and using the famous sword to participate in knight competitions violates the family rules of the Kong family, so it is unlikely that Kong Ren will use it."
"I can probably understand that the name of the sword can reflect the nature of the sword. If it is used as a communication game, it cannot exert the power of 'Zhenggang'." Ding Kui has been using "Yue Shang" for a while, and he is the one who knows the name best.
Sword man.
"Well, the training volume will be halved for these two days, and the combat training will be stopped. You can calm down and think carefully, think more about your shortcomings, and write me a review." Lu Ji is worthy of being a famous teacher. He guided
The method is very targeted.
Ding Kui must first improve himself and not consider the problems of his opponents, which can reduce the pressure from the unknown.