The World Championship was scheduled to start on the first weekend in November. Although that date was still two months away and no one wanted to interrupt their vacations, Team ZGDX knew that practice was paramount for them to prevail as world champions. Rui, Ming, Little Fatty, and Lao Mao were taking their summer break at their parents' homes. Unfortunately, Lao K didn't feel comfortable doing the same. Since his family neither appreciated nor respected him, he had accompanied Lao Mao to his home as his "brother".
They team reinstituted its rigorous 16-hour per day training schedule. To continue vacationing at their respective homes, they used virtual group rooms to practice. It wasn't as exciting as practicing side-by-side, but the results were acceptable. Two months later, they felt as ready as possible to face the challenges ahead.
As the date to Worlds drew nearer, teams, fans and the sports media refamiliarized themselves with the Tournament's operating parameters by reviewing the guidelines on the OPL's official website.
Dear players and enthusiasts,
The Onmyoji Players League is honored to present the 5th annual World Championships. The OPL World Championship is an invite only, single elimination tournament in which 32 teams compete over a 3-weekend period, in 6 rounds for OPL supremacy. This year's competition will be held in Seoul, Korea.
The OPL Invititation Selection Committee is responsible for determining which teams receive invites. Due to OPL's nascent emergence as a sport, not every country has the same level of participation. To avoid over representation by any single country, the rules for selection vary from country to country and region to region. China, Japan and Korea have the highest participation. Only the top 3 teams from their National Tournaments will be selected. From the remainder of East and Southeast Asia, 9 teams will be selected. From the Americas, 6 teams will be selected while the remaining 8 slots are reserved for teams from Europe.
The official invitations will be announced on Selection Day, one week before the competition starts in November. We wish all participants the best of luck and may the best Shikigami and strategies win!
In China, Korea and Japan, Selection Day was almost like a national holiday. Dozens of teams and and tens of thousands of fans attended to watch the Committee announce its final selections.
In China, Selection Day was being held in the OPL Arena in Shenzen. The three top teams from China - ZGDX, YQCB and CK - were seated in the front rows. The other Chinese national teams were seated behind them. The selection was being simulcasted in all participating regions. Since it was already known which teams will represent China, Japan and Korea, everyone was focused on learning about which teams will represent the other areas.
Team Hollzenbruch from Germany was announced first. They are the current European champions and last year's runner-up at the World Championship. Team Ovcha Kupel from Bulgaria was also announced. They are considered equally as dangerous since they nearly beat the Germans at this year's European Championship.
Eventually, the names of all 32 teams filled the screen. Now it was time for the Selection Committee to identify which teams would be sorted into either the A or B bracket, and what the match schedule will be.
ZGDX, dressed smartly in their red and white uniforms, leaned intently forward. This was one of the most important parts of Selection Day.
Committee Member 1, stationed in Shenzen, stood center stage as he announced, "The following teams will be in Bracket A: Team TAT, Team ZGDX, Team Holllzenbruch, Team Ovcha Kupel, the Japanese National Champions – Team Moritmoto, Team…"
"What the hell?" exclaimed Lao Mao. "Our bracket contains all of the strongest teams in the world?!"
"The assignments into brackets are supposed to be random," added Ming-sha worriedly. "What are the odds in having the top 4 teams in the world in the same bracket?"
"Can we complain about the bracket assignations?" demanded Rui. This could not possibly be fair, he thought.
Cheng-ge said nothing. As dire as this news was, the match assignments were even more important. At last, those assignments were presented on screen.
In Round 1, ZGDX would face Team Hollzenbruch. If they, somehow, made it through that round then they would face the winner of the Ovcha Kupel match. If they were lucky enough to survive that test, then they would face the winner of the Team TAT matches in Round 3. It was the hardest match schedule anyone had ever seen in OPL World Champsionship history.
Everyone in the Shenzen arena was discussing the 'random' assignments anxiously, but it was as clear as a mountain stream to Lu Si Cheng; someone was intentionally trying to ensure that ZGDX would not make it into the final round of this year's Championship.
"They're afraid of us," said Lu Si Cheng.
"It's absolute bullshit!" replied Lao Mao angrily. Little Fatty and Lao K rapidly affirmed his statement. Yao said nothing. This was all still really new to her, so she wasn't sure how to react.
Even more dispiriting than ZGDX's match play opponents was the fact that TAT, Ovcha Kupel, and Morimoto all faced relatively poor opponents from the Americas and Europe in their rounds.
Lu Si Cheng and Ming-sha remained silent as they exchanged looks. They knew that their strategy would have to shift to handle this unexpected schedule. They knew that the difficulty of this schedule might be insurmountable.
Committee Member 2, stationed in Duesseldorf, announced the members of Bracket B. The other 2 Chinese teams and the other 2 Korean teams had been assigned to it. With the exception of the 2 Korean teams, the matches were to be played against teams with considerably less skill than those in Bracket A. Hierophant stared compassionately at his old friend. ZGDX's path to the Championship was nearly hopeless.
The Committee wrapped up Selection Day with the typical best of luck wishes and declarations that this year's tournament was going to be the most exciting.
As expected, throngs of reporters were waiting outside the Shenzen OPL arena to interview all teams. Multiple reporters screamed out an identical question when they saw ZGDX, "What are your thoughts about your assigned bracket and match plays?"
Little Fatty, Rui, Ming, Lao Mao and Lao K all had tense, angry looks on their faces. Lu Si Cheng wore his standard inscrutable expression as he answered the question. "When we win the Championship, no one can say that it was handed to us." Then he and the rest of the team walked away and boarded their team's coach bus.
Daylight hours were becoming shorter, so it was nearly dark as the bus pulled away from the stadium and travelled towards the ZGBX base. Tong Yao and Lu Si Cheng were seated together and holding hands. In the dying light, it was difficult for her to see her love, but she could feel the tenseness in his body, and she could trace the pain on his face. He had really wanted to win this year. Instinctively, she raised his cool hand to her warm lips and kissed it. The kiss revived him. "We can still win," she said softly, confidently. He smiled and nodded once before looking away.
The next day the betting parlors and websites weighed in with their opinions, and it wasn't pretty. The odds were 5000:to:1 that ZGDX would win the Championship, and the Selection Committee had ranked them in the bottom third of all competing teams.