On September 22, the qualifiers for the Witch Alliance Championship were finally announced, with the groups assigned according to convention.
This time, there were six groups playing round robins, with the top three advancing. That was one more slot than the open qualifiers, but it was actually crueler. After all, witch clubs that could make it through the open qualifiers were, at minimum, remarkably consistent at crushing weaker opponents. Some teams could score against strong teams yet still drop games against weak ones, and thus failed to make the qualifiers in the first place—after all, there had only been two slots.
The qualifiers were different. With six teams in each group, there were practically no bottom-feeder teams—or rather, for the vast majority of clubs, no other club was bottom-feeder tier.
Rainy Night Club, lounge.
Miss Jiang Han wore her uniform, her feet encased in black hollow-patterned pantyhose swaying lightly. Holding up a newspaper with both hands, she read in a low voice while offering her suggestions to Histeria, who was checking her homework beside her.
"In commemoration of the great witch Dinesha taking office, twenty-three newspapers and publishing houses have now released the personal biography Dinesha, From Humble Beginnings to Legend, as well as <Learning from Dinesha's Spirit: Britain's Last Heroic Witch>, a collection and analysis of her quotations... What the hell? They've already started licking boots?"
"Competition is fierce at the 95–96 Cat Golf Grand Championship. Yesterday, Cat Yeta delivered a flawless performance, leading second-place Cat Tarian by only 1.35 points in total score. Meanwhile, third-place Cat Ruier is close behind, just 0.65 points behind Cat Tarian and merely one good stroke behind Cat Yeta... I need to buy the replay, or the cats at home will get mad!"
"Good news: Witch Gold pounds are trending upward again