Youth Martial Tournament

Biodata

Background

The Youth Martial Tournament is a biennial Southeast Region competition intended to assess young martial artists' ability to confront ferocious beasts and respond to border crises, rather than their skill in arena duels 25 30.

Participants earn entry qualifications through accumulated merit points. The qualification holder must personally confirm its use after their organization submits the roster 17 22. The tournament was intended to test the general standard of young martial artists, but cities had increasingly replaced qualified entrants with selected elites; this practice was later targeted for stricter reform 53 62.

Regional Significance

• The Southeast Region comprises three provinces and sixty-two cities, with each city generally sending twelve or thirteen participants; only a city's top ten individual results count toward its contribution score 24.
• Rankings affect development support for the following two years, including the possibility of economic inspections and investment 24 62.
• The depicted tournament drew more than six hundred martial artists and received extensive media attention due to real-time public score rankings 51 53.
• Lingshan City's tenth-place finish earned it an Economic Inspection Team visit; Li Yuan's first-place result was credited with raising the city from a projected twenty-first place 61.

Format and Rules

Competition Area

The tournament has no fixed venue. A town-sized border area is cleared, ferocious beasts are allowed to enter for one to two months, and the border is sealed before contestants are deployed 48.

• Contestants enter separately via helicopters assigned to different landing points, minimizing mutual assistance 53.
• The depicted competition lasts three days and four nights 53.
• Participants may withdraw by activating a signal transmitter in a life-threatening emergency 53.
• Contestants are prohibited from carrying mobile phones or other communication devices 55.

Scoring

Final rankings are determined by the quantity and quality of ferocious beasts slain 48.

• Contestants submit both ears of a slain beast as proof through a Smart Storage Box, which records the corresponding points 53.
• A real-time leaderboard is released publicly after more than seventy percent of contestants have scored 53.
• Points from only the top ten contestants of each city contribute to that city's result 24.

Anti-Collusion Measures

This year's rules expressly prohibit teaming up, assisting other contestants, and coordinated point-pooling 50 53.

• Smart Storage Boxes preserve traces of a contestant's sweat on submitted evidence; evidence containing multiple contestants' sweat can establish point-pooling 59.
• Chief referee Yan Ge publicly confirmed that Li Yuan had not interacted with any other contestant during the tournament and that his first-place result was legitimate 59.
• Following the tournament, Yan Ge stated that future events would be stricter and that substitute qualifications might be banned, requiring participants to earn their own merit points 62.

Depicted Tournament

Qualification Dispute

Li Yuan spent three years earning the merit points for his qualification, but Lingshan No.1 High School initially chose Jin Fan as its representative instead 1. Principal Yin argued that Jin Fan was more likely to achieve a high ranking, while Li Yuan insisted that the qualification belonged to the person who had earned it 1 2.

A sparring match was held to decide the representative. Li Yuan defeated Gu Yu, who was competing on Jin Fan's behalf, then personally confirmed the use of his merit points and secured the tournament place 21 22.

Tournament Outcome

Li Yuan entered as one of Lingshan City's twelve contestants and competed independently in the border wilderness 48 53. He accumulated points by hunting ferocious beasts, including C-grade targets, and remained near the top of the leaderboard throughout the final stages 53 55 58.

Li Yuan ultimately won first place. He received an A-grade long blade at the awards ceremony, while Lingshan City finished tenth overall 61 62.

Notable Participants and Officials

Rewards

• Every participant was expected to receive B-grade Nutrient Fluid during the opportunity, a major incentive for martial artists seeking advancement 1 25.
• The champion's listed rewards included ten bottles of A-grade Nutrient Fluid and top-grade protective inner armor 15.
• Li Yuan received an A-grade long blade as the first-place prize 62.
• First place within each affiliation line could also earn eligibility for the Lanwu Trial 67.