FOG [e-sport]

Chapter 34

While Zhou Huo was relaying messages, he was also reporting work in the group.

[Manager·Zhou]: [I would like to remind everyone that the relegation tournament is about to start. Although it is not our game, but barring any incidents, the teams that are defeated tomorrow may be matched up against us in the qualifiers. You should watch the game tomorrow so that you’ll be familiar with the opponent’s situation. ]

There are only twelve teams in the FOG professional league in China. Last year, those twelve teams were Saint, NSN, Bison, ICA, Yizhan, Ten Thousand Mountains, YT, DDF, FS, Warframe, MO, and Windflash.

Each season starts with the regular season. During the regular season, the twelve teams adopt a double-loop best-of-3 system, and each team accumulates points in pairs. After the regular season, according to the points ranking, the top eight teams will enter the playoffs. Subsequently, those who couldn’t enter the playoffs, the four teams ranked at the bottom will play in the relegation matches.

These four teams were also the last four teams in last year’s ranking: FS, Warframe, MO and Windflash.

The four teams compete in a round-robin game, and the two teams with the most defeats are directly relegated. This means that the two teams are officially kicked out of the FOG professional league team in the Chinese division and relegated to the secondary league.

There are then only ten professional league teams left, so two seats have opened up. At this time, the highlight is coming. It is the one time in the year when the doors to the FOG league open up.

The qualifiers for two precious professional league teams will then officially start.This is the only chance for the secondary league teams to advance to the first league every year.

After the end of the relegation tournament, all the officially registered and league-recognized secondary league teams plus the two teams that were relegated will play a round-robin tournament. The two teams with the highest points would be promoted to first league. After filling up the twelve seats, all the remaining teams are officially classified as the second-level league teams for the year. If these teams want to enter the first league, they will have to wait for the next year’s qualifiers.

This system is a bit cruel, but it’s very important for the entire league.

According to regulations, there are only to be twelve teams in the league. Each quota is very precious. But teams and clubs can be bought, which opens them to the risk of capital being used to intervene in the league.

The e-sports industry has developed rapidly in recent years, moving step-by-step from its niche market to center stage. It has changed from being disliked to being faintly fashionable. It has also attracted the interest of capitalists. Among them are countless people who don’t understand sh*t, taking a club and treating it like a plaything. They would spend huge sums of money to buy a professional league team, occupying valuable quota, fooling around, making a mess of things and instating a bunch of trash to serve as players.

The relegation system is a good way to put an end to this kind of possibility.

Capital can buy one or two of the twelve teams but at most they’d only be able to play one regular season. At the end of the regular season, other professional teams will use their strength to clean up the league together and boot this dishonest and unscrupulous team out the door.

The base price for a team that occupies one of the spots in the first league is eight digits. There’s no cap on the first five digits of that. Given the huge amount of money involved, after they’ve managed to play only one bland regular season, no matter how rich the fool, they would think twice about doing it again.