MMORPG: Martial Gamer

Chapter 1842 1842: Challenge from Professional Experts

As per tradition, the first thing each major team does upon entering the venue is to introduce themselves, starting with their background, followed by their qualifications, and then their achievements.

Everyone present is from a top-tier team, each boasting a remarkable record. Honestly, if they were mediocre, I could fill a chapter with that, but to avoid getting my legs broken by the esteemed readers, I'll skip this lengthy introduction.

Once the team introductions were completed, the nine qualifying teams took their seats.

The competition rules remained unchanged.

To ensure fairness, the tournament adopted a random selection system, where the system would randomly choose two teams to compete.

However, each team had one right to challenge, allowing them to challenge any team they wished.

After the nine major teams were seated, the host announced that the competition was officially underway.

At the same time, the lights in the venue dimmed, and two beams of light descended from above, landing on the positions of the various teams.

"Wait!"

Just as the light beams were about to begin the random selection, a voice suddenly rang out in the venue.

Everyone turned to look, and as the lights shifted to the source of the voice, they saw Wade with one hand pressing the challenge button and the other pointing at Wang Yu and the others, declaring, "Our Free Team challenges! We challenge the Crowd of Misfits Team."

"Wow…"

As soon as Wade finished speaking, a chorus of boos erupted in the venue.

It is well known that the Crowd of Misfits Team was the only team among the nine qualifiers to advance as an amateur team.

Amateur teams, as the name suggests, are just playing for fun, and their professionalism is naturally far inferior to that of professional teams.

Such a "weak team" is undeniably the softest target among the nine teams.

All the teams present are renowned experts in the industry; as experts, they naturally have their dignity. It is a basic principle of experts not to bully the weak.

If they were randomly matched against an amateur team, that would be unavoidable—just a stroke of luck in today's match.

However, challenging an amateur team while relying on their status as a professional team is somewhat contemptible.

What does it mean to challenge? A challenge comes from confidence in one's own strength, to fight against a stronger opponent.

If the opponent is far weaker, what kind of challenge is that? It's called bullying! Only those lacking confidence in their own strength would use the weak as stepping stones.

Such behavior of bullying the weak is looked down upon even by ordinary players, and to see it happen in a top-tier professional competition is truly shocking.

The professional experts from the other qualifying teams couldn't help but chuckle at the situation.

"Free Team really never ceases to amaze; actually challenging an amateur team, that's the funniest thing I've seen this year."

"I really don't know what that stupid donkey Wade is thinking…"

The members of the Pantheon saw Wade indeed stepping out to challenge the Crowd of Misfits Team, and they were quite exasperated: "What a brainless guy."

"He's not brainless", Loki, the instigator, sneered. "If you didn't know that Pugilist was strong, would you have challenged in this situation?"

"This…"

Upon hearing Loki's words, Uranus and the others fell silent.

Bullying the weak is human nature; people only act like gentlemen out of face-saving, of course, in Western culture, the term gentleman should be replaced with knight. After all, who wouldn't want an easy path to the next round? They just lacked a sufficient reason to convince themselves.

The Free Team members aren't completely foolish; they certainly wouldn't just be used as pawns. The reason they stepped up to challenge the Crowd of Misfits Team was entirely because they were egged on, giving them a reason to go along with the plan, and in the end, the responsibility could be entirely placed on the Pantheon.

Wade said they were strong, so we challenged them… It's likely Wade has prepared dozens of such excuses.

Otherwise, wouldn't directly challenging the Pantheon better showcase their strength?

Never assume others are fools, because when you do, you become the fool.

"See? I told you!"

The challenge from the Free Team was expected.

As the party involved, the Crowd of Misfits Team had prepared themselves mentally for the challenge yesterday. So when Wade named them as his target, they were not surprised at all; it was entirely within expectations.

Wade's provocation yesterday was clearly a prelude to today's challenge against the Crowd of Misfits Team.

…

After the boos subsided, everyone's gaze fell on the Crowd of Misfits Team.

The host then asked, "I wonder if the Crowd of Misfits Team will accept the challenge?"

According to the competition rules, the challenged party has the right to refuse the challenge, but the vast majority of teams would not do so.

This is a world-class competition, with billions of players watching from around the globe. Wouldn't refusing a challenge invite ridicule from the world?

However, the Crowd of Misfits Team need not care about such things, as their original positioning is as a weak amateur team. In this situation, even refusing to accept a challenge is understandable; after all, no one wants to be a stepping stone for others, and who knows, they might end up getting a free pass this round.

"Nonsense! Of course, we accept the challenge!"

Just when everyone thought the Crowd of Misfits Team would refuse the Free Team's challenge, Wang Yu immediately clicked to accept without hesitation.

"Wow!"

Seeing this scene, the venue erupted once again.

The eSports industry has been developing for several decades, and it's already unprecedented for amateur players to be challenged by top professional experts, and even more so for amateur players to accept such a challenge.

In just a short time, two historic achievements have been made.

Everyone had seen the Crowd of Misfits Team's previous matches, and the audience had always held them in disdain.

It wasn't because of their strength, but because their competitive tactics were somewhat off-putting.

It's hard to imagine that such a group of trash could participate in a world-class professional league. If they hadn't seen with their own eyes how they defeated their opponents, they might have thought this group advanced through connections with the game company.

With such a team, their reputation is easy to imagine.

However, after Wang Yu decisively accepted the challenge from the Free Team, the audience's view of the Crowd of Misfits Team suddenly shifted.

The greatness of an athlete is not determined by victory or defeat, but by their actions.

Knowing full well that their opponent is a top professional expert yet still daring to accept the challenge, this spirit of facing difficulties and never giving up embodies the ideals of sportsmanship.

They may be defeated, but they refuse to back down.

In this way, the previous actions of the Crowd of Misfits Team were seemingly forgiven by the audience.

In contrast, the Free Team, which took the initiative to challenge amateur players while claiming to be professional experts, appeared even more insignificant.