Like in previous years, the number of spectators at the provincial elimination rounds tended to dwindle as the competition progressed.
It wasn't that the matches were not exciting, but rather that there were basically two groups of people who were interested in high school competitions.
One was the parents of the contestants, and the other was parents who wanted to learn more about high schools for their children who were still in junior high.
By the later stages of the elimination round, the number of contestants had sharply decreased, and parents who were scouting schools for their children had already learned what they needed to know in the earlier rounds and naturally would not waste time coming to watch.
How could there be so few people coming to watch such an important competition?