China Team advanced to the top 16 as the first-place team in their group.
The second-place team in the group was Team America. They lost one game and won two, earning five points.
They also advanced to the Round of 16.
The biggest casualties were Australia and Argentina.
These two teams ranked second and third in the world, yet both were eliminated in the group stage.
It was completely unexpected for all the fans.
They had thought that although Group C was the group of death, the gap in strength among the four teams—aside from Team America, the strongest—wouldn't be that large.
China Team was supposed to be the weakest of the remaining three.
Although Wang Yi was far stronger than the rest of China Team's players, there was only one Wang Yi. Pang Bo had some talent too, but he'd hardly played in any major international tournaments, and he was still so young—only seventeen.
A team like that might not get crushed by the other three, but winning wouldn't be easy either.
But aside from their close game against Team America, China Team won the other two with ease.
At that moment, the Australian and Argentine fans were all as miserable as if they'd swallowed a dead fly.
In any other group, their teams would have been guaranteed first place.
Yet they hadn't even managed to advance from Group C.
How could they not feel bitter?
According to the tournament rules, the knockout stage was up next.
The matchups in the knockout stage worked like this:
The first-place team in Group A faced the second-place team in Group B.
The second-place team in Group A faced the first-place team in Group B.
And so on.
China Team had finished first in Group C, so they would face the second-place