Reincarnation of the Strongest Healer

Chapter 1606: Esports Tournament Part 33

Half an hour went by, and the player count in the battle royale had shrunk to 30.

Despite the dwindling number of players remaining, the battle didn’t get boring. In fact, the excitement and intensity increased.

After all, the remaining players were all reputed and skillful enough to survive for so long. Everyone knew battle royale would always thin out the weaklings in the early phase.

Of course, there were some exceptions regarding one’s luck. But usually, the experienced ones would survive till the end.

"Hmm, I noticed just now. But why are some of the players listed as anonymous?" Carmen raised an eyebrow. She understood that some of the players might wish to keep their real identity hidden.

However, she didn’t quite get the anonymous username as a replacement on top of that.

They were going to be revealed anyway once they advanced to the next stage.

"The esports tournament is the biggest event at the moment. So there should be more excitement and engagement with the audience." Xu Feng explained and revealed the concept behind the anonymity.

By enabling anonymous users, the audience gets to engage with each other to take an educated guess as to who they were.

It also helped benefit the players a lot by allowing them to keep their identity a secret until the very end.

Moreover, it protected their reputation in case they ranked terribly.

Let’s use this as an example.

A high ranker that almost everyone knew would anticipate or expect them to get a good placement. But what if their luck was terrible and they ended up being eliminated early on?

Wouldn’t that have ruined their reputation and incurred doubtful judgment regarding their skills?

Hence, anonymity was optional for those who weren’t confident in placing high to avoid this kind of potential embarrassment.

"Hmm, should we also go anonymous too?" Carmen inquired.

"Think about it. They all know me and you. It’ll be safer if we keep to ourselves."

Had Xu Feng not understood she wasn’t the type to hide herself, then he might have agreed.

Maybe in the initial phase when she went somewhere else to start fresh, she might have hidden herself. But the truth was that she only kept a low profile and wasn’t exactly hiding.

"Just go with our name exposed." He suggested otherwise.

"Tsk, you’re going by a different alias though." She clicked her tongue and hissed softly.

Sure enough, Xu Feng was rendered speechless at the jab.

Thankfully, the awkward silence was dispelled rather quickly when Wei Xing suddenly raised his voice.

"It’s the final 20 participants!" Wei Xing exclaimed.

To simplify, every participant currently remaining in the battle royale had successfully advanced to the next round.

Hence, Wei Xing announced to the audience that they were all qualified participants.

"Wooo, the top 20 and Warlord Echo are still the most dazzling!"

"I wouldn’t say it like that! Have you noticed that anonymous user 420? He’s also been killing with ease."

"Hmph, those who hide their names definitely lack the confidence and proud demeanor like Warlord Echo!"

Not all of the audience appreciated players hiding their real names in such a big event.

In their eyes, they perceived such an action as cowardly and sly.

After all, the audience wasn’t foolish enough not to understand the concept behind anonymity.

Some players would indeed require anonymity to advance, but the audience didn’t care. Just because they understood didn’t mean they were accepting of such behavior.

Either reveal yourself or don’t bother participating.

Yes, that was the mindset of the majority.

They purchased the ticket to attend the live event and wished to see everything in transparency.

"I agree with you. Aside from Warlord Echo, there are only 15 other people who go bare and do not hide in anonymity."

"The 4 anonymous players are definitely cowards in general. Hiding behind the anonymous username and not daring to show themselves."

As the conversation continued, the audience’s clamor for transparency intensified.

"What is wrong with them?" Carmen raised an eyebrow. She found the audience to be a bit extreme in asking for transparency. It wasn’t like the players themselves were hiring smurfs to play on their account.

The term "smurf" was commonly used by the gaming community to refer to a higher-ranked or skillful player who took over an inferior account and played on it to boost their rankings.

It was heavily frowned upon by all gamers in the industry because of its unscrupulous and underhanded means.

"Someone is pushing the motion." Xu Feng narrowed his eyes and commented.

Although cheating was definitely impossible, the leakage of information in advance was still possible.

Nothing was ironclad.

The world government was a behemoth.

But even then, those under them were ultimately humans.

And humans have desires.

What did that mean?

It meant that the employees under the world government had desires, and money was one of the top things that enabled their desires to be achievable.

"Why would someone push this kind of motion?" Carmen was confused. The battle royale was randomized each time.

Many participants had gathered, but they never knew when they were going to go up. After all, the organizers themselves wouldn’t know either until the last minute.

In other words, there was literally no way to prepare themselves if they wanted to take advantage of this information.

"You’re probably not thinking far ahead." He mused when he saw her confusion.

"They want their name to be exposed as a way to give them an idea of their skill set. With that information, they could evaluate whether they were worth the money to poach."

"Eh, but the high rankers clearly refused to be affiliated." She pursed her lips.

"Who said anything about the high rankers?" Xu Feng nearly laughed aloud at her thought process.

"There are more talented people in existence who rarely have any exposure, Carmen. These are the people whom the big guilds and leagues want to recruit. Not only are they going to be cheaper than the high rankers, but they could also take advantage of their rookie status to earn a big profit."