At eight o'clock the next morning, the T2 Diamond Match officially began.
The first order of business was a speech from the organizer's representative, an official from the Sakura Country Table Tennis Association.
The moment the man appeared, Wang Chao found him familiar. When the team interpreter translated his name, Wang Chao suddenly understood.
It was Yoshikawa Dai Moku, the father of Yoshikawa Hiroshi, formerly the top singles player at Osmanthus Fragrance Club.
When Yoshikawa Hiroshi had invited Wang Chao to play in Sakura Country, he had mentioned that his father, Yoshikawa Dai Moku, was the executive vice president of the Sakura Country Table Tennis Association, mainly responsible for foreign affairs.
Now it seemed that as an international event, the T2 Diamond Match also fell under foreign affairs and was probably Yoshikawa Dai Moku's responsibility.
Only then did Wang Chao understand why Yoshikawa Hiroshi had been qualified to receive the host nation's recommended slot.
Yoshikawa Dai Moku began introducing T2's bizarre format.
First, the standard tables used in this competition had no center line, because there would be no doubles events.
It had no practical significance and was innovation for innovation's sake.
Second, there were no barriers around the courts, supposedly to ensure an unobstructed view and a sense of space.
This was equally meaningless, because whether barriers were installed or not, the distance between the first row of seats and the table remained the same.
Then came the meaningful part.
For the first time, the tournament had installed a high-speed image capture device called "Eagle Eye," allowing video replays whenever players and referees disputed serves or edge balls.
When it came to technological innovation and keeping up with the times, Sakura Country had done quite well. The International Table Tennis Federation highly praised Eagle Eye and was considering adding