Early the next morning, everyone returned to the Championship Tournament venue.
Qian Wendao continued hosting from the presidium, looking full of energy. "Welcome back to the First Intercollegiate Sequence Championship, where you will continue defending your alma mater's honor. I trust that after a night's rest, you can face today's battles with renewed vigor."
"Today's matches will feature the top universities that made it into the final thirty-two, and they are sure to be even more exciting than yesterday's. Even if you cannot watch the matches themselves, the public scoreboards will give you an idea of how fierce the fighting is."
"All right, without further ado, let us begin the elimination round to narrow thirty-two teams down to sixteen!"
"The rules for the second elimination round are essentially the same as the first. However, there is one small adjustment."
Another rule change?
All the competing students immediately pricked up their ears and listened carefully to Qian Wendao's explanation.
"After a match between students from two universities ends, the loser will be eliminated, while the winner will continue fighting another student from the opposing university. Under the previous rules, the damage points sustained by the winner in each match did not carry over to the next. For example, if Student Zhang from University A defeated Student Li from University B by a score of 9-7, Student Zhang would remain in the arena, but his match against Student Zhao, the next contestant from University B, would still begin at 0-0."
"However, as the elimination rounds progress, the participating universities grow stronger. We hope to make battles between powerful competitors more closely resemble real combat. For example, if the score is 9-8, the first side to reach nine points wins, but having conceded eight points, they should also be near death. There is