Fixtures Ceremony Pt. 3

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fixtures Ceremony of the Glory Worlds Invitational." The sound of applause rose from every corner of the hall. The evening was beginning.

"Tonight, we launch the first ceremony of this great, first-of-its-kind tournament. We have a distinguished panel of guests to address us and of course, to kick off the revealing of the fixtures. To set the ball rolling, please welcome the Chairman of the Glory game company, Lucas Eklund."

Applause ran out loud. Everyone here knew who Lucas Eklund was. He was the one who created the game that they loved so much and as such, the applause was great.

Lucas Eklund was nervous as he walked onto the stage. The lights, the applause, the audience. All of it was intense. He reached the microphone and cleared his throat. He would speak in his native language, Swedish, but he was not worried whether the audience would understand him or not. Translators were working behind the stage to ensure live translations of the speech were provided simultaneously to the audience through earpieces. And so he began to speak.

He started with the difficulties he and his team experienced as they tried to launch Glory into the Esports world. This was a well-known story. He had told it several times before. But with tonight being the launch of Glory's greatest stage and the biggest Esports tournament in the world, the story was of special importance.

If Glory had failed, they wouldn't be here. If Glory had failed, most of them wouldn't have met each other. If Glory had failed, their lives would have taken a completely different path. No teams, no clubs, no Gods, no fans.

Su Mucheng listened to the talk and felt moved. If Glory had failed, maybe Su Muqiu would still be alive. Maybe Ye Xiu would have gone back to his family. It would mean different things to all the different people present in the hall today if Glory had failed. To her, it would be the most bittersweet experience of her life.

But Glory hadn't failed. That���s why they could sit here in the darkened hall; each with their team and their hopes. The fact that Glory hadn't failed was mainly due to the man standing in front of them. Yes, their passion, their dedication to the game helped it grow. But the game wouldn't exist at all without Lucas Eklund.

And that was why after Lucas Eklund finished his speech, he received a resounding round of applause.

The second person to take the stage was the Chairman of the International Esports Association. Unlike the Glory game chairman who spoke with emotion and feeling, he spoke curtly and coolly. No one had anything against him but they all felt his speech was too strict for the event. Once he finished speaking, the audience gave him a moderate applause. They were happy to see him go. What a stuffy man.

The next person according to the program that would take the stage was the Chairman of the Switzerland Pro Alliance. This was a man who was unknown to most of the people present. He was simply the chairman of one of the many national Pro Alliances. But he was getting a loud applause, louder than that of the previous and more well-known guest.

It wasn't because the audience had gained some love for this unknown guest. It was simply because of what his presence symbolized. The revealing of fixtures.

The Switzerland Pro Alliance Chairman smiled as he took his place behind the podium. He knew very well the reason why the audience was giving him such a rousing welcome. It didn't bother him in the slightest. It was an honour for his country to be able to host this grand competition. It was an honour for him to serve as the Chairman at this particular time in history.

And it was definitely an honour for him to be the one that would reveal the fixtures for the ceremony.

Without wasting time, he introduced himself and spoke a little about how privileged he and his country were to host the Worlds Invitational.

The chairman ended his speech with: "Once again, on behalf of my country and the Switzerland Pro Alliance, I say thank you and welcome."

Waiting politely for the applause to end, he continued, "Now, let us move on to the reason we are gathered here tonight. The fixtures."

Behind him, on the large onstage screen, a tournament style bracket appeared. The bracket had two blocks. The left block was labelled 1 vs 16, 9 vs 8, 4 vs 13 and 12 vs 5. The right side was labelled 2 vs 15, 10 vs 7, 3 vs 14 and 11 vs 6.

The players looked at the screen and nodded. Nothing usual there. It was exactly as they expected it to be. What mattered to them was the seeding. The list of countries in the tiny leaflet the Chairman held.

"Seed number 16," came the Chairman's voice, "The United Kingdom!"

The words "United Kingdom" automatically filled the no. 16 space on the left block of the bracket with applause from the crowd. The first upset had taken place. The official rankings had the United Kingdom at no. 15. They had fallen a rank. They had not done enough to hold on to their spot and now they were at the bottom where Italy previously was.

Smiles could be seen on the faces of the Italian players. They had moved up in the rankings. They didn't know yet how many ranks they had moved up but it was something to be happy about.

The applause and cheers died down and the Chairman moved his mouth to the mic again. "Seed number 15, Italy!"

No surprises there. It was hard to move up more than one rank in such a short period of time. Still the audience applauded and the Italians smiled as their country's name was filled in the right block.

"Seed number 14, The United States of America!" No change. Same as the ranking. Polite applause rang out as the country was put in the right block to face the number 3 seed.

"Seed number 13, Australia!" No change in the ranking. The Australians were put in the left block to face the number 4 seed.

"Seed number 12, Japan!" Still no change. They were to face the number 5 seed in the left block.

"Seed number 11, Russia!" Still no change. The audience was beginning to wonder if there would be any other upset. Russia would face the still not announced sixth seed in the right block.

"Seed number 10, Germany!" Now, this was what they wanted to see. Upsets. Germany had dropped to the tenth rank. Cheers rang out in the hall, the loudest coming from the corner where the South Koreans were. They previously occupied the tenth rank but the fact that Germany had been announced for tenth showed that they had moved up.

The crowd clapped longer this time around. The chairman waited for the applause to die down before he continued. They were slowly entering the higher ranks.

"Seed number 9, South Korea!" Typical. The Koreans would face the eight seed, that is, whoever was announced next. They waited with bated breath, alongside the audience for the next country to be announced.

"Seed number 8, Sweden!" The Koreans would face the Swedes. This was the first match up that was known. Sweden vs South Korea in the left block. T

he applause after this announcement was low and controlled but the intensity in the room had reached an all-time high. All the further announcements, including this one, would set the fixtures in stone.

All in attendance today and those who watched the ceremony live at home, in internet cafes and bars watched with rapt attention. The fates of their countries was being decided.

The Chairman leaned into the mic again. "Seed number 7, Norway!" Another match up decided. Norway vs Germany. The Norwegians nodded their acknowledgement. It was a tough match up, to face the country only two ranks below them. But the Germans had more to be worried about. The Norwegians were number 7 for a reason.

"Seed number 6, Switzerlaaand!" The Chairman's enthusiasm was obvious. This was his country, after all. Thousands for people around the country cheered with him at the news. To be the sixth ranked country in such a tournament was not a fluke. Switzerland was a threat to anyone they would play and the ones feeling most threatened at the moment were the Russians. The probability that they would return home after their first match was high and that was depressing.

Slowly, the spots were being filled. Only five countries remained. The top five countries.

The tension was thick. How would they be arranged? How would they play their first match? Everyone wanted to find out. The Chinese team definitely wanted to find out if they had moved up a rank or not.

Surprisingly, the country that was the tensest and most interested in finding out the fifth seed, was not China or even Canada, who were currently ranked 4th. It was the Japanese.

As the 12th seed, they would face whoever was announced next and now, they would prefer to take on Canada instead of China. The truth was the higher the rank, the lesser the skill difference between the ranks. Therefore, in reality, the top three or even the top five of any competition could be at the same skill level. In such a situation, different things such as the age and experience of the players would be used to decide the final ranking.

The Japanese had no idea what was used to decide the final seeding. All they knew was that they didn't want to face China. Specifically, Ye Xiu.

Lord Grim was just too tyrannical. They could face any other team. Just not one that Ye Xiu was in. He was arguably the best player here and the skill of his teammates was nothing to scoff at. And so they waited, holding the breaths, for the next announcement.

"Seed number 5, Canada!" Canada, Canada, Canada. It was Japan vs Canada. They would face Canada. Canada was a very strong team but it was not China and that was the most important thing now. They looked to where the Chinese team were sitting to see their reactions. They should be celebrating the move up.

Who expected that in that very moment, most of the Chinese players looked as if they had just swallowed bitter melons.

The Japanese players did not know that the Chinese players something were dealing with extreme taunting. Ye Xiu was, of course, reminding them about his prediction that his presence would raise the entire team's ranking. How far was the ranking raised? The Chairman answered that question a few seconds later.

"Seed number 4, China!"