A New World, an immersive game experience

Today marked the start of the tournament. Of course, it wasn't the finals yet, far from it. It was the preliminaries.

The top 1000 ranked individuals for the individual fights, the top 1000 parties, and the top 200 guilds, were all to duke it out. To reach the top in their category, these teams had already fought plenty of matches. But, unlike those, these would be far more stressful.

Each win would award them points. The individual matches were simple, each victory awarded you one point, and a loss cost you one in turn. Draws resulted in no change of points and would be called if a fight dragged on for over 10 minutes.

For parties, the same rules applied. However, points were accounted for according to the number of surviving members. Thus the total amount claimable was eight, since parties were limited to eight in the tournament. Though many of the teams had more members in standby, only eight could compete at a time.

The time limit was also increased from 10 to 30 minutes.

For guild matches, things were more complicated. This was a new category, and the style of fighting wasn't a deathmatch. It was Capture the Fort.

As dull as this might sound, capturing a fort was no easy feat. To do so, you needed to claim a crown which would spawn alongside each guild inside a small castle. Luckily, the crown had an indicator, so it couldn't be hidden. Though it could be carried to buy time—

though only inside the castle.

members could stay inside the castle.

Of course, if both guilds attempted this, the match would never Defendable by a dozen or so members, the others could all focus on defense. Or, if the guild preferred defensive play, all one hundred members could stay inside the castle.

Of course, if both guilds attempted this, the match would never end. To this end, a time limit of 1 hour was set. This would be increased to two once the preliminaries were completed. When the top 16 had been decided.

The point rewarded for guilds was rather simple. A complete victory, meaning a captured flag, would award the winning guild 10 points. And the losing guild would lose ten.

If the time limit was reached, the victory would go to the guild with more surviving members. A simple percentage was used, and that also determined the points lost and gained. A draw was only possible if both guilds had exactly the same amount of members left alive.

Any guild that couldn't field a total of 100 members would start at a disadvantage. Not only would they be outnumbered, but their member count would be counted as if they had already lost players. Thus, only large guilds could effectively participate in the tournament.

This was also why the guild section had far fewer teams signing up. It is a rather difficult thing to get a hundred members ready to fight, agree on a time to do so, and be competent in their battles.

Naturally, guild Phoenix was one of the favored guilds for the tournament. With their completion of an Epic-Ranked dungeon, no one could question their strength.

The fact that Eldrian was joining in the tournament only cemented this feeling. They had claimed their rank in the top 200 without him. With him now joining, their victory seemed all but assured.

Everyone still recalled his match against one of the admins. They had also seen the videos of him fighting, and no one could confidently say they could match him. Not even as a group vs one.

Above everything, Eldrian could fly. This one ability would be devastating to any guild they faced. From the sky, he could see everything they did. Map functions were naturally locked in the tournament, so scouting was important. Yet, not only could he act as a scout, he could always attack from the sky. 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝘯𝑒𝑡

Heck, if he tried, he could probably destroy the castle of the guild they were against. No one knew how strong the castles were. It had been proven they could withstand attacks from cannons—bringing magical warfare equipment was allowed.

This knowledge made players question if Eldrian could actually destroy the castles. But, even if he couldn't, he could certainly kill everyone in it if he tried. They'd seen him wield deadly AOE spells before—and if he amplified a cannon or something...

The simple fact was that there were only seven players who had currently reached Tier 6. Eldrian had been the first, and he was obviously the strongest by miles.

Almost all the others were participating in the individual matches, too. Thus Eldrian's presence in the guild category put his guild at an even larger advantage. It was almost enough to be called unfair. But everyone who played ANW understood that power didn't come without effort.

Talent certainly played a part, but Eldrian obviously had to have worked extremely hard to become as strong as he was.

"Well then, good luck," Eldrian said.

Like Phoenix, this team had grown and they had signed up for the guild tournament instead of the one for parties.

This stunned all the viewers who were watching Phoenix's match against the guild Dragons. During the first tournament two years ago, they had faced off against one another in the quarter-finals. Like Phoenix, this team had grown and they had signed up for the guild tournament instead of the one for parties.

The reason was obvious, the rewards for the guild tournament were simply too good to ignore. It had to be. After all, it was meant to be the motivating factor for a hundred players.

"Thanks!" The others replied. Again, leaving the viewers stunned. They had been certain that Phoenix would rely on their strongest member to claim as many points as possible.

Sure, it was unlikely that the guild would ever lose fully with Eldrian holding down the fort. But that didn't mean they would always win. If their opponents bought time and whittled down their numbers, they could claim victory by survivors.

Yet, despite this, Phoenix's members didn't hide in their fort. They didn't even abandon the defense to Eldrian alone. They left about twenty members to ensure no one could capture their castle.

Their actions left the viewers with question marks on their heads, and indeed, the chat was filled with questions on their strategy. If they performed poorly, they might even not make the final cut.

Everyone assumed that Eldrian would step in should his guild be heading for that. Still, this inaction left them stunned.

However, their stunned state only increased as the battle commenced.

—

"Right, we better not make a bad showing." Elizabeth said, and everyone nodded. They were well aware that, while many of them were talented and strong, they were outshone by Eldrian.

Most people attributed their guild's growth and strenght to Eldrian. As insane as it might seem to assume one person could define a guild's strength, they weren't entirely wrong.

Eldrian was simply too strong compared to even the elite of the playerbase. Compared to the average player, it was like comparing a goblin to an Orc Warlord. Elite players could at most be a Goblin Knight or an Orc Warrior. Still a far cry from a warlord.

Due to this knowledge, and the rumors surrounding their guild, everyone participating in the battle burned with an intense desire to prove themselves. To show the world that they were capable, that they didn't succeed only because of Eldrian.

"Let us start with a bang," Ilmadia said, a cute smile playing on her elven lips as she took out a mana crystal. Loading it with power, Ilmadia added a temporary rune to stabilize the crystal and handed it to Judith.

"Their castle is only two kilometers away, you can throw it that far, Right?

Judith nodded and threw the small crystal with all her might, while Ilmadia focused on keeping her control on the temporary runes she had added. Their existence being necessary for the crystal to survive the flight.

"Nova Missile is a go!" Judith shouted, starting her sortie as she did. Following behind her were ten players.

Unlike Judith in her bikini armor, they were all decked out in plate armor. Though not the thick kind that Therdul wore. Their plate armor was thin, light, and mobile. Made of Mithril. And their speed showed this clearly. Though they still fell behind their fearless barbarian leader.

A few seconds later, a distant explosion rocked the ground.