But that did not mean the students of the other academies lacked strength; it was largely due to their differing strategies for handling this qualifying round.
The Final Fifteen Minutes (5k)
Based on the point rules for this qualifying round, strong competitors not only did not reject challenges from weaker ones, but actively welcomed them.
Therefore, if contestants had come solely to gain experience, they could challenge any powerful opponent during the qualifying round.
For nearly all Magisters still in the process of growing, this was an extremely valuable opportunity.
They had no need to push for the preliminaries just to challenge the strong; they could obtain what they wanted in the qualifiers alone.
If they were too fixated on preserving their points, they would instead miss this rare chance to duel powerful opponents.
After all, they basically had no chance of breaking into the top sixteen. Even if they entered the preliminaries, it would be meaningless.
Thus, academies that did not place much value on the so-called "top hundred" honor would not put unnecessary pressure on their students because of it.
In fact, aside from Holy Rite Academy, the other academies that had participated in the Academy Championship had not imposed any requirements on their students.
Some academies even encouraged their students to make more moves during the qualifiers and not care about gains or losses in points.
Saint Marian Academy was one of them.
However, after the students of Saint Marian Academy won the Academy Championship, they had indeed gained more from it. Their strength had improved more as well, so they performed better in these World Cup qualifiers. Thus, even without deliberately protecting their points, several of them had made it into the top 128.
Just five minutes later, Sophia emerged from the inner room.
Dark took