Player Voting Overview

The three-day preliminary round boosted Baisha County's tourism revenue far above previous years.

Nearly 8,000 contestants needed accommodation and meals, and on top of that, it was National Day—none of that came cheap.

Even Liang Xing, who had secured one of the 64 spots in the preliminaries, felt a twinge of sympathy, while a bunch of contestants who hadn't even passed the prelims were having a blast playing with their commemorative badges.

Those who failed to advance didn't even get a participation prize; a special GD Racing badge was handed out as a consolation, and that was that.

This special GD Racing badge, also called the Commemorative Badge, used the projection feature that would later be implemented in the new toys.

Just lay the badge flat, and under sunlight, you could see the contestant's GD Racing car vividly racing above it.

When registering, contestants had to submit three-view images of their cars, and the commemorative badge was made based on each entrant's number and their vehicle.

That's why so many people deeply regretted bringing some half-baked basic model to the competition!

Still, everyone agreed with the Toy Factory's arrangement—this was truly the most meaningful badge possible.

After the three-day preliminaries ended, the GD Racing Tournament took a day off.

Liang Xing had originally planned to follow the preliminary rules with random matchups, but over these three days, the Good Conscience Community had been buzzing with heated discussions about the champion.

Many people argued that seed players should be selected to ensure the finals were exciting enough and the semifinals had enough appeal.

Liang Xing saw these posts too, and the discussion was indeed very lively.

Since that was the case, why not give the people what they wanted?

The original purpose of hosting the racing tournament wasn't to make money, and Liang Xing certainly wanted to see the best races possible!

As the manufacturer, his understanding of GD Racing far surpassed that of the Parallel World natives, so he couldn't bring himself to personally step in and crush weaker opponents.

But from his childhood memories, racing was only truly fun when there was a real competition!

Since Liang Xing was too embarrassed to go on the field and bully others himself, all he could do was watch.

That rest day was actually the solution Liang Xing finally came up with.

For the 64 semifinalists, the audience could vote for 8 of them.

Thanks to the Parallel World's real-name internet system, setting up this vote was a breeze for Liang Xing.

Free voting, one vote per account.

The official website displayed the contestants' vote counts in real time, and voting closed at 10 PM sharp.

Liang Xing would separate the 8 contestants with the highest votes in the semifinals—these were the so-called seed players.

Eight players per match, exactly 8 matches, and exactly 8 seed players.

Unsurprisingly, the highest vote-getter was Qi Tian.

Although he hadn't taken first place in the first stage of the preliminaries, once he switched to sand tires in the second stage, he easily secured first and advanced to the semifinals.

Thanks to A Lie's promotion, the little guy had become obsessed with GD Racing and stopped being a troublemaker, naturally earning everyone's approval.

Even though many people were hiding their true strength and believed they wouldn't lose easily, they had to admit that the kid was undeniably in the top tier of this circle.

The Wind God's use of wind gave it straight-line speed that left many far behind.

Besides, since everyone was hiding their strength, who knew if Qi Tian was holding back too?

The second-highest vote-getter was Zhou Chi, who had surpassed Qi Tian in the first stage. His unconventional racing style had shocked many first-time viewers.

Anyone slightly familiar with the competition knew that not needing to swap to sand tires in the official race would save a lot of time.

So Zhou Chi was also a top contender for the championship, with many believing he could restore some pride for the adults.

—With so many adults in the competition, losing to a kid would be a disgrace, wouldn't it?

The third-highest vote-getter was A Lie.

Streamers naturally had a big advantage in voting, especially since A Lie was a comedy streamer with a solid moral compass.

Although he was famous for losing to an elementary schooler, anyone who actually watched the matches knew he wasn't weak.

The Anti-Collision Mode hadn't been shown in previous races either, and considering the many curves on this track, A Lie's competitiveness was no less than the two ahead of him.

The fourth-highest vote-getter was a girl named Luo Dani. She was quite good-looking, and her car was a cute pink.

Her car had no obvious weaknesses—decent on straights and curves alike—and she was especially good at handling other cars' attempts to sabotage her.

In the second stage of the preliminaries, someone tried to ram her car. Without a word, Luo Dani's car suddenly accelerated.

The opponent crashed into her rear wing guide wheel; Luo Dani's car wobbled slightly before stabilizing, while the other car flipped over.

Hitting other cars was a valid tactic, sure, but failing to pull it off was just awkward.

The fifth-highest vote-getter was A Lie's opponent from the first stage, Wang Bowen, who specialized in curves.

In truth, specialized drivers didn't fare well in long-distance races.

After all, he wasn't like A Lie, who directly knocked others out of the race—though that wasn't really A Lie's intention either.

But relying solely on curves to pull ahead, if he couldn't hold his advantage on other terrain, he still wouldn't secure the final victory.

So far, everyone had only experienced a small section of the track; the full course wouldn't be run until the semifinals.

Given Wang Bowen's displayed strength, it didn't seem enough to support a championship bid.

The sixth and seventh highest votes were a pair of brothers; the elder was called Liu Wen, and the younger, Liu Wu.

Compared to the show-off team, these two brothers had far superior coordination!

It wasn't about adjusting speed to accommodate each other, but rather completing acceleration through mutual achievement.

In the first phase of their preliminary round, their combined straight-line speed clearly exceeded the second phase when they ran solo.

But solo running also had no obvious flaws; they would even actively approach other cars, inexplicably achieving some of the effects of joint driving.

Until the opponent's battery was nearly drained, they would abandon them and advance with ease.

The eighth highest votes went to Qian Lai, known as the eternal runner-up.

He was a rich second-generation, and his car was quite special—it liked to tail behind others.

By borrowing the wind from the car ahead, his car excelled at conserving battery.

In the second phase of the preliminary round, relying on this trick, while the car ahead ran out of power, he remained as if nothing had happened and easily overtook them.

These were the eight Seed Players selected by voting, and also the eight that everyone saw as most likely to advance to the finals.

On October fifth, the semifinals officially began.

There were only four races today, each lasting two hours.

This was the true time for the full track!

Of course, players who could make it to the finals likely wouldn't need to run the full two hours.

But without a doubt, this was also the first time Parallel World drivers truly experienced the standard track of GD Racers.

It was likewise a dual test for both the drivers and the GD Racers themselves.

"Son! Go for it!"

Qi Ren had actually participated in the competition too, but his luck wasn't great—he was eliminated in the first phase of the preliminary round.

"Hmph! Star Uncle! I'll soon be able to win the championship with my own skill! If I win, will you play with me?"

GD Racers had indeed changed Qi Tian a lot, but it was also because of GD Racers that Liang Xing hadn't played around with Qi Tian in a long time.

"Alright~ Once you win, Star Uncle will play with you."

"It's a promise!"

"It's a promise!"

The little guy pinky-swore with Liang Xing, then headed to the track satisfied.