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The commotion surrounding Excellent Era was still going on, but Excellent Era was big, not nearly as easy to take over as Team Everlasting. Even disregarding everything else, just the God-level account, Battle God One Autumn Leaf, was probably more valuable than all of Team Everlasting’s assets put together. Plus, Excellent Era had been a part of the Alliance for years, so they had their own training grounds.Their own stadium that had been built over the years of the Alliance’s rapid development. Excellent Era was massive. There was nothing that you could just buy on a whim. Public opinion and the support of the fans had reawakened its inner value. This might have elicited interest, but it also made a purchase harder. Considering this inner value, Excellent Era’s worth was even greater.

However, what was good for buyers was that Excellent Era’s boss, Tao Xuan, had been pushed to a point where he had to sell Excellent Era. Team Excellent Era had the chance continue continue to grow and create profit in anyone’s hands except his, for that would turn it into a sinking ship with the loss of fan support.

With the path clear, how the future transactions concerning Excellent Era would go was up to the buyer and seller to negotiate. From popular opinion, most believed that Excellent Era wouldn’t be completely bought out as a whole. After all, Excellent Era had a lot to it. Such a large investment would require several years of good business, and that was only if Excellent Era could swiftly return to the Pro Alliance and compete as a viable champion team.

However, there would always be risks in competition. If Excellent Era had another bad year and couldn’t get back to the Alliance, then that would really be something to weep about. Therefore, popular opinion said that Excellent Era would most likely sell some of its basic hardware to decrease its overall value and risk. That way, someone would be willing to take it on.

How far negotiations had gone so far, no one knew, and the playoffs for the ninth season of the Pro Alliance was fast approaching.

After testing things out at the Challenger League, the Alliance eventually decided that the playoffs for the Pro Alliance would be conducted using the headcount rules of the offline Challenger League tournament matches. Additionally, after asking obtaining the opinions of multiple parties, the scoring method was set as a point for every opponent killed. Whoever had more points would be the victor.

Apart from that, another large change was made to the rules. The new playoffs wouldn’t be decided through the sum of the points of each team for two rounds of matches. Instead, the Alliance would use the overall victory of each individual round to make a judgement. The victor would be decided best two of three. That meant it had changed from needing to fight two rounds to possibly three.

Without a doubt, this was a change for the better from both competition and economic viewpoints, and the reason this change could be made was because of the use of the new rules.

The old rules split a round into three parts, individual competition, group arena, team competition. Under the situation where the team competition took up the majority of the points, the overall victory could be decided by two parts and the group arena would lose its purpose. However, if the points of the team competition were lowered, the victory could be decided with just the individual competition and group arena, and there might not be a reason to hold the team competition.

The Alliance didn’t want any of these situation to happen, and the new rules would prevent any of the aforementioned situations from occurring. And if the headcounts of the two sides were tied at the end, then that could be dealt with through overtime, so it wasn’t a problem. With that, the two best of three rules would be implemented.

Then, amidst the enthusiastic promotion by the Alliance, the playoffs came closer and closer, once again taking center stage in the Glory circle. The members of the eight teams that had made it to the playoffs all appeared onstage, raising support for their teams. Now that they had gotten here, any team had the reason to anticipate getting that trophy sitting at the pinnacle.

However, when being interviewed, all eight teams had been asked questions regarding Happy. Even if those questions had been asked long ago, the media didn’t rest. For someone who didn’t understand the backstory to this, they would probably think that Happy was a hidden bBoss in the playoffs or something upon reading these interviews. Otherwise, why else would every interview for every team mention the name Happy?

”What are your opinions on Ye Xiu’s return?” In the interview with Tyranny, all the reporters were willing to ask Han Wenqing this question.

”I eagerly await to meet him on the stage.” As a long-time rival, Han Wenqing’s welcome to Ye Xiu was still with his fists.

”As another player who retired and returned, is there anything you would like to say to Ye Xiu?” Zhang Jiale was also a focus in the interview.

”He accomplished something I had thought impossible. For that, I truly admire him,” Zhang Jiale replied.

”What are your thoughts on Ye Xiu’s return?” In the interview with Blue Rain, the same question appeared.

”The skill level of the entire Alliance will rise a stage,” Blue Rain’s captain Yu Wenzhou expressed.

”Don’t you think that without Excellent Era, it would be more of a loss?” A reporter asked.

”Hey, don’t worry too much about that. Does Excellent Era’s skill level not rely on their players? With their situation, there’s little chance their players would stay. I think they’ll find an opportunity to transfer and we’ll definitely see them in the Alliance again. How about we guess where they’ll go? For example, Sun Xiang, I think…”

”Next question.” The press officer from Blue Rain cut Huang Shaotian off stoically. He had gotten used to doing this because of how many times he had to in the past. Huang Shaotian’s feelings? What was that? Never heard of it.

”Hm...….” In the Samsara interview, Zhou Zekai gave a ”hm” before falling into a lengthy silence when faced with the question of Ye Xiu’s return.

It wasn’t until the atmosphere of the place had gone a little strange that he abruptly spoke up and added two words, ”very difficult.”

”You mean to say, that it’ll be very difficult to deal with Ye Xiu?”

”Yes.” Zhou Zekai nodded.

Ok, this was Zhou Zekai. Being able to get this sort of response was already good enough. If they wanted to know more opinions, it’d be better to just go and find their vice-captain Jiang Botao.

The eight teams all had different responses. The media had gotten what they wanted. However, in truth, these eight teams definitely wouldn’t put their focus on Ye Xiu, who they would only see next season. The fight for the season nine championships was about to start and the first match was the gossip-filled match between Tyranny and Hundred Blossoms. The first round would be held on Hundred Blossom’s turf and the tension was obvious. Even today, there were many Hundred Blossoms players who couldn’t accept Zhang Jiale’s decision to join Tyranny after returning.

When Zhang Jiale appeared, thunderous booing instantly flooded the stadium.

Zhang Jiale was emotionless. This wasn’t the first time he had gotten this sort of reception. During the regular season, he had already received such treatment in this stadium, the very stadium that he had fought in for years, the stadium he was oh so familiar with.

Now that it had come to the playoffs, Zhang Jiale was facing a similar situation to Ye Xiu and had to fight to the death with his original team.

What was he feeling? Zhang Jiale had been asked such a question in the pre-match interview. He didn’t answer because he didn’t know what he was feeling. He had once thought he could deal with this calmly, but now that it came to it, he found that it wasn’t so simple.

Amidst the boos, Zhang Jiale silently walked towards the preparations room.

”Go die!” A bellow rang out from the spectator stands and they saw a group of enraged Hundred Blossom fans throw filled drink bottles down. This life and death elimination match had scattered their rationality.

It was good that they were rather far away and the closest weren’t very accurate. Zhang Jiale hurriedly dodged this attack. The security guards had already split into two teams, one team went to stop these fans and the other rushed over to protect Zhang Jiale from further harm.

The troublemaker fans had been sent out of the stadium. No matter what, this sort of act would be condemned heavily.

Zhang Jiale quietly watched the fans being escorted out and some still had their heads turned to curse at him. Zhang Jiale sighed, before realizing that someone next to him was staring at him.

Zhang Jiale turned his head to look and paused for a moment before squeezing out a strained smile. ”Little Le…”

Little Le was one of the security guards at Hundred Blossoms, and had been one when Zhang Jiale was still there. At the same time, he was also a loyal fan of Hundred Blossoms and the entire team was very familiar with him.

”Welcome back,” Little Le said, walking closer, but his face was unsmiling.

Zhang Jiale wasn’t sure how to react for a moment, about to say something when Little Le suddenly sent him a punch.

The stadium was rather chaotic right now and no one expected that even security guards would do something so irrational. Little Le was quickly restrained by his fellows. He didn’t struggle at all, just gazed at Zhang Jiale without a hint of a smile.

”Let him go…”

Zhang Jiale could still feel bile coming up from the punch, but managed to squeeze out the sentence.

The guards knew the severity of what Little Le had done, but if Zhang Jiale wasn’t going to press, then there was room to maneuver. They all rather obviously favored Little Le and hurriedly let him go upon hearing Zhang Jiale’s words, but kept him back to prevent him from acting rashly again.

”To be a champion, I will win!” Zhang Jiale threw these six words down before turning and leaving. None of Tyranny had clearly seen the chaos that had erupted just now, only seeing the security grabbing another person, guessing that something must have happened. However, Zhang Jiale simply shook his head and didn’t say much more. Everyone knew that this match was very difficult for Zhang Jiale and didn’t pry.

”Don’t worry, I’m fine.” After sitting in his spot for a long while, Zhang Jiale suddenly spoke up. Though his teammates didn’t ask, he could still feel the worry they had for him. The team was a whole. He needed to use his attitude to disperse their worries and get everyone focused on the match.

”We must win.” After taking a deep breath, Zhang Jiale stood amidst the boos.

In the public announcement just now, the players for each side had been announced. The first to go up for Tyranny was Zhang Jiale.

After several minutes, when he walked down from the stage, Team Tyranny had already gained two points. Zhang Jiale had successfully accomplished a one versus two in the group arena, only falling against the third person.

For the championship, I have to be strong and keep winning!

With this in mind, Zhang Jiale returned to Tyranny’s bench amidst the boos with his head high and back straight.

The first day of the playoffs saw Team Tyranny winning their away game against Team Hundred Blossoms, 11 to 7. The MVP that day was the Team Tyranny player, Zhang Jiale. Account: Spitfire, Hundred Dazzling Blossoms.