The selection matches began on the evening of the sixth week of the semester, running from 9:00 p.m. to midnight every night. They lasted for six matches and concluded completely in the early hours of friday morning.
Each match was scored by five judges randomly selected from the Hunting Committee. The maximum score was one hundred, and the minimum was zero. After dropping the highest and lowest scores, the remaining three were averaged to determine that night's score.
The scores from all six matches were added together to produce a hunting team's final selection score. In theory, the highest possible score was six hundred, and in theory, fighting through all eighteen match hours was enough to earn full marks.
But theory and reality always diverged to some extent.
For example, judges from Jiuyou habitually gave lower scores to hunting teams from Alpha Castle, even if the team standing in the hunting grounds was the Alpha Academy Team and their opponents were a pack of Zoogs;
Likewise, judges from Alpha Castle would deliberately search for minor flaws in Jiuyou Hunting Team matches—such as untidy hunting attire, improper entrance procedures, overly cruel spells, or even a hunter swearing in the hunting grounds and causing adverse effects that offended public decency—and then deduct points bit by bit over those flaws.
In short, rules were dead, but people were alive.
Relatively speaking, the You Zui Hunting Team's luck had been fairly decent. Of the six matches, they encountered Alpha Academy judges only twice.
The first time was during the fourth match, when three Alpha-born judges appeared on the judging platform.
But as the saying went, when misfortune reaches its extreme, good fortune comes. Before that match, Zheng Qing drew the Hounds of Tindalos. They had met the best possible opponents beneath the worst possible