Chapter 168: New Rules

“After this, will our school’s Chinese Department really be given the top spot in the university rankings?” someone asked excitedly.

“All right, we’ll talk about this another time.” It wasn’t appropriate to talk about things that hadn’t happened yet, especially in front of outsiders. “In any case, we will come first this time.”

“The seniors put in so much effort to organize all the questions, you guys must perform well.” Senior Lin was even more ostentatious than Senior Zhang. “Tsinghua University has won first place for the past few years. You can’t break the streak this year.”

“Don’t worry.” Everyone on the Tsinghua team chimed in. No one seemed to even consider Beijing University like a real contender.

They had even added a child to their team. Did the Beijing University team even have any hope?

At this time, the staff members came to notify the Tsinghua team to start preparing for their entrance.

Not long after this, they heard the host announce, “Let us invite the defending champions, the team from Tsinghua University!”

Before the Tsinghua University team even made their entrance, a thunderous applause echoed through the stadium.

The members of the Tsinghua team grinned. Their faces were overflowing with unquenchable pride as they stepped forward.

Ying Siyuan yelled at the top of her voice, “We are going to win!”

A member of the Tsinghua team turned to Senior Lin. “This year, the Beijing team must be under quite a lot of pressure. Has this affected their sense of rationality?”

The Beijing team heard this.

Mr. Lao’s face got darker and darker.

However, the team members standing behind him didn’t seem to take those words to heart.

They had learned this from Tan Mo.

A wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Go ahead and underestimate us.

In a moment, we shall bring you to tears.

Ying Siyuan asked everyone innocently, “I am telling the truth. Why won’t they believe me?”

“Because they are dumb.” Tan Mo smiled an innocent smile.

Everyone: “…”

They could no longer look at Tan Mo in the same way.

They had discovered that this little girl was actually quite naughty.

Another two or three minutes went by. Then they heard the host announce, “Let us welcome Beijing University, the team that came in second last year.”

Shen Hongshan thought that was ridiculous. “They didn’t need to announce that we came in second.”

He had his suspicions that the host had intentionally phrased it this way.

Mr. Lao solemnly led everyone onto the stage.

The students from Tsinghua University were still being quite polite.

The stands in the stadium were filled with people. The majority of the audience were from Tsinghua University, while the minority were students from Beijing University.

The remaining four universities were not situated in B City. Hence, none of their students had made their way here.

They were all viewing the event through the school’s online live-streaming platforms.

At the stadium, Tsinghua students made up the majority. However, they still clapped for the other teams out of politeness.

Once the remaining four teams had made their entrances, they lined up according to the results of the previous year’s competition.

“The rules of the competition this year are slightly different from the previous years,” the host announced. “In previous years, the contestants could be switched out every round. The representative sent forward could be chosen by the team.”

The team from Shuang University was standing next to the Beijing team.

They heard the team leader speak to his team members. “If that’s the case, it’ll be a bit more flexible. We haven’t really encountered all-around competitors before.”

Since there was so much that needed to be studied, everyone would certainly put more emphasis on certain topics.

Even if they wanted to study everything, they would not be capable of achieving it.

There really wasn’t enough time.

So most of them would most certainly focus on one topic.

“Hence, we will gauge the general direction in which the competition is heading and choose the most appropriate representative based on their level of expertise,” the team leader from Shuang University explained. “This way, even if we encounter an opponent who is an expert in the topic at hand, our own team member will also have a chance of winning.”

The moment the Shuang University team leader said this, they heard the host say, “This year, the competition format will be changed to a knock-out style.

“That means that every team will send out one member. During the round, the contestant with the highest points will progress to the next round, while the other teams will have to swap out. Every round will continue in this manner. Once a team has no more players left, and once the team has no more representatives to swap for the next round, they will be eliminated. They will not be able to earn points the following round,” the host explained.

Everyone, including the contestants, guests, and audience, gasped.

“This competition format is quite cruel.”

“Indeed. This time, there will definitely be at least one team member who needs to compete in a round that they have no expertise in.”

“Why? If they lose in the first round, they can just swap to a member that they know will probably have an advantage in the next round.”

“But what if they win the first round? The winning contestant would have to progress to the second round. But if the second round is based on a topic that they are not familiar with, then their loss would be certain. Naturally, they would be able to swap with another player who has better chances in the third round. If that contestant wins again, they might encounter another unfamiliar topic in the fourth round. That’s why I said that at least one player would have to play in a round that they are not familiar with. We might not even be able to defend well.”

“Eh? The host mentioned that there was a chance one of our teams might not have enough players to progress to the next round. But even if we lost every round, there would still be enough members to compete.”

Not long later, they heard the host’s announcement, “Next, I’ll explain the second change we’ve made. The previous competitions always consisted of ten rounds. Although the rules did not stipulate that a new contestant needed to appear every round, every team would usually choose to send out different representatives.

“But this year, due to the change in the competition format, we especially added another a round. There will now be 11 rounds instead of ten.” The host continued, “If a team loses every round, then they will no longer have any players to play in the final round.

The host grinned slightly. “The probability of this happening is actually quite high.”

After all, only one person could win every round.

Everyone finally understood.

“Who decided on this competition format?” The competition format had not changed for five consecutive years. Yet, such a huge change had been instituted this year.

“May I invite all the contestants to their seating areas. All six teams will have ten minutes to choose their first representative. However, the remaining contestants will no longer be given time to decide their representatives in the subsequent rounds,” the host reminded them. “All the teachers will have to decide which student to send up before the next round commences.

“Additionally, since we’ve allotted ten minutes for everyone to decide their representative, we will not be announcing the topic for the first round. Once the representatives gather on stage, we will display the overarching theme of the first round. However, since we would not be giving everyone time to choose their representatives for the subsequent rounds, we would announce the theme in advance. The selection of team members can be done accordingly.

“This year’s competition should be quite fun.” On the stage, there were some students who weren’t bothered by this. They were quite happy to observe the reactions of the other students.

All the teachers-in-charge led the students of their respective teams toward the competitors’ seating.

The competitors’ seating arrangements were located quite close to one another.

It would be quite easy to communicate and interact with one another if they had wanted to.

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