Tournament (2)

"We will start with a group stage were you will be allocated to one of the ten groups. You will then fight against each other person in your group two times, and the best two from each group will get into the knockout stage.

You will then fight until only one person remains."

These style of tournament didn't come as a surprise to any of the participants, since they had already be informed about it before. This time it was just a formality. Of course some thought that it would be unfair, since luck would play a roll to in how far one would come, but as one elder once said, "Luck is also a part of ones strength."

After he explained the rules, they proceeded with the group drawing.

Ivan got into group four, while Miss. Tang got into group two, which made him quite happy. Because of that it would be easier to reach ne knockout stage. After all with Miss. Tang in ones group, one place would have already been taken.

The tournament began with the newcomer tournament and for the group stage, one fight from each group would happen at the same time.

In group four the first fight was between a young man and a young woman. Both of them summoned their pets at the start of the fight which were exactly the same. They were the simple vampire bats from the dungeon.

Then the young man pulled out a bow, to support it's pet, by using his arrows to disturb the others attacks. The woman on the other hand had a completely different approach as she pulled out a staff and cast support skills on her pet, while only defending herself.

Ivan watched their fight attentively since it was his first time seeing others fight each other and he was sure that he would be able to learn a lot.

After fighting for more than fifteen minutes, the woman's pet finally managed to slay the man's pet, before pouncing on the man. Which soon ended the fight with the woman winning.

The fights of the other groups had mostly ended earlier, except for one, where two man were hitting each other with their bare fists, while their pets just stood aside and watched them. Anyone who saw this fight found it hilarious.

On the platform of the second group, the second fight just ended and it was time for Miss. Tang to enter the stage. While Ivan was anticipating the fight, since he was really curious about her strength, her opponent forfeited before he even entered the stage.

Judging by the sights of the participants around him he wasn't the only one who had anticipated the first fight of her.

For the next fights there was nothing that he was especially interested in, so he just watched in a relaxed manner.

Finally it was his time to fight and his opponent was someone he hadn't seen before, which came as no surprise. After both of them ascended on the platform the referee asked them to greet each other before starting the fight.

As soon as the signal sounded, Ivan called out Vlada, who was nearly double the size of the opponents pet, even though she hadn't even taken her biggest form.

His opponent wasn't even able to pull out his weapon, when Vlada was already upon him. His pet could do nothing to stop her, since the difference in strength was simply to much.

In the blink of an eye the fight had ended with Ivan's victory. But he was unable to feel any happiness about it, since it felt to easy as he didn't even had to take action.

After that he continued to win his fights with only Vlada taking action. At the same time in group two Miss. Tang too was winning each fight, but her opponents always surrendered, before the fight even started. Besides the two of them there were others, that dominated their groups.

In group nine one man was winning each fight easily with his supreme swordsmanship, while in group eight a woman got rid of her opponents with, a simple but overpowered fireball.

Besides these there were others who were undefeated, but had to work more for their victories. What surprised him a bit, was that the woman from the first fight too hadn't lost a fight except the one against himself.

Finally all the group stage fights had ended and the 20 persons to enter the knockout stage had been determined.

Now it was time for the drawing of the positions. From each group the first place would draw his position, while the second position would get the one on the other side of the bracket. As such two members of the same group would only be able to meet again in the finals.

The drawing would go in the same order as the group number. Starting with group one and ending with group ten. This time the drawing would be done on stage, so the spectators could see the reactions of the ones drawing their slots.

Above the arena there were four screens that were oriented in each direction. Before these screens had displayed the rankings in the groups, but now they displayed the empty bracket with ten slots on each side.

Then the head referee entered the central stage.

"Welcome everyone to this years tournament. As it is customary the group stage of the newcomer tournament has already been finished and we will now begin with the main tournament."

It had come at a surprise for Ivan when he had first come to know that the group stage for the newcomers didn't count as a real part of the tournament. It was more of a precursor.

"Now let's welcome all the participant on the stage for the drawing.", with these words the referee invited all the newcomers, which had won the group stage onto the stage.