: Inside Story Revealed at the Grand Finals?

The four walked towards the event venue.

The hotel lobby had set up a simple backdrop with a poster of Operation Delta Force printed on it.

There were already quite a few fans waiting there, and they cheered when they saw them coming.

"Ye Tian! Ye Tian!"

"Qingchuan! Shrimp!"

"Who is that Mai Xiaowen? She's so pretty!"

"Maybe it's an official cosplayer."

The four stood in front of the backdrop, and fans gathered around to take pictures.

People handed over notebooks asking for autographs, and Ye Tian signed them one by one. Qingchuan and Xiaren were also signing, their hands aching from signing.

"Teacher Ye Tian, ​​can we take a picture together?" a girl asked.

Ye Tian nodded, and the girl quickly stood next to him and took a selfie with her phone.

The event ended after about ten minutes of filming.

The four of them squeezed out of the crowd and found a place to rest.

"I'm exhausted," Shrimp said, shaking his hands. "More tiring than playing games all day."

Qingchuan rubbed his wrist, "My hand cramped up from signing autographs."

Su Linglan laughed from the side, "There are only a few of you, while celebrities spend hours signing autographs."

"Those are celebrities, we're just gamers," Shrimp said.

Ye Tian stood up. "Let's go eat. What do you two want to eat?"

"Hot pot!" Shrimp raised his hand.

"Okay, hot pot," Ye Tian said.

The four of them found a hot pot restaurant and booked a private room. After ordering, Xia Ren stared at Su Linglan for a while and said, "Sister-in-law, you're so beautiful."

Su Linglan smiled. "Thank you."

"How did Ye Shen manage to win you over?" Qingchuan asked curiously.

Ye Tian picked up a piece of meat, "Eat your food."

Su Linglan's pretty face immediately turned red. "What do you mean by pursuing him? We're childhood sweethearts~ But I'll confess to him during the finals~"

Xia Ren and Qing Chuan exchanged a glance, both looking shocked.

"Ye Shen is so lucky!" Shrimp said.

"I'm so envious!! When your sister-in-law confesses her feelings, won't Ye Shen give her a red envelope?" Qingchuan chimed in.

Ye Tian pretended to be serious and said, "I'll definitely do it next time~"

"Tch~"

The two of them immediately looked disgusted.

The food was served, and the four of them ate and chatted.

As he ate, Xiaren sighed, "I really envy Ye Shen. He's so good at games and has such a beautiful girlfriend. When will we ever get to find someone?"

Qingchuan sighed, "That's right, after the match, I'm still all alone when I get back."

Su Linglan said with a smile, "Don't be envious. Winning the Red Cup means success in your career, and you can also find a girlfriend you like."

Upon hearing this, Xia Ren quickly picked up his glass and said, "Sister-in-law is right. Here, let's toast to sister-in-law."

Qingchuan also picked up his cup, saying, "I'll listen to my sister-in-law!"

Su Linglan smiled and took a sip of her drink.

Ye Tian watched from the side without saying a word, but the corners of his mouth were turned up.

After dinner, the four of them went back to their rooms to rest. Tomorrow is the final, so they need to be well-rested.

The next morning at eight o'clock, Ye Tian was woken up by his phone alarm. After washing up, he went downstairs for breakfast. Qingchuan and Xiaren were already in the restaurant, waving at him as soon as they saw him.

"Ye Shen, over here."

Ye Tian carried the plate over and sat down to eat.

"Are you nervous?" Shrimp asked.

"What's there to be nervous about?" Ye Tian said.

"Yeah, what haven't you seen?" Shrimp took a bite of the bun.

After breakfast, the official bus was already waiting at the hotel entrance.

The six teams that advanced to the finals boarded the bus one after another. The bus was bustling with activity, with some people chatting and others resting with their eyes closed.

Su Linglan didn't come along; she said she would watch from the audience.

The bus drove for twenty minutes before stopping in front of a stadium. Ye got off the bus and looked up.

The venue is huge, with giant posters hanging on the exterior walls. They feature gameplay footage of Delta Force and photos of the players from the six teams.

A long queue had already formed at the entrance, with fans holding up support signs and waiting to enter.

Ye Tian and his group entered through the contestant entrance.

Inside, it's even more outrageous; the entire venue has been transformed into an e-sports competition venue.

In the center is a huge LED screen, with secondary screens hanging on all four sides.

There are six battle rooms on the stage, each with soundproof glass and three computers inside.

The auditorium has two levels, with two thousand seats on the first level and three thousand seats on the second level.

It's not open to the public yet, but I can already imagine how crowded it will be later.

GG signs are everywhere – keyboards, mice, monitors, drinks, cars… logos of all kinds of brands fill every GG sign.

"Holy crap, this is impressive," Shrimp muttered.

Qingchuan was also stunned. "They're much bigger than when we were playing in the qualifiers."

Ye Tian didn't say anything and walked towards the battle room.

The players from all six teams were familiarizing themselves with the venue and testing the equipment. Ye Tian found his own battle room, went in, sat down, and touched the keyboard and mouse; the feel was alright.

At that moment, the large screen lit up.

The three people at the commentary booth were already in place.

Haotian, Bai Ze, and Lin Shu are the three giants of Delta, accounting for half of Delta's traffic, and they are also the commentators for this final.

Haotian held up the microphone to test his voice: "Hello, hello everyone, this is Haotian."

Bai Ze laughed from the side, "Alright, alright, it hasn't even started yet."

Lin Shu looked at the camera and said, "Today's competition is going to be exciting. All six teams are top teams in their respective groups."

"That's right," Haotian said. "Especially the Xia Qingtian team in Group A, led by Ye Tian, ​​they swept through the qualifiers. I was impressed by their shot in the last decoding brick yesterday."

Bai Ze nodded, "Indeed, Ye Tian's shooting skills and awareness are both excellent. However, the finals are different; the pressure is much greater. Let's see if he can withstand it."

Lin Shu said, "I'm actually looking forward to them playing against Su Ling, the top team in Group B. Su Ling has a few tough guys on their side too."

The three chatted as the director announced in his earpiece that they were ready to begin.

In the backstage rest area, the captains of the six teams were called together.

A man from the organizers arrived; he was in his forties, wore glasses, and introduced himself as Chen Hao, the operations manager for Delta Force.

"Captains, thank you for your hard work," Chen Hao said with a smile. "Everyone knows the rules for today's finals, but I have a small adjustment I need to explain to you."

The team leaders looked at each other.

Chen Hao continued, "To ensure the excitement of the match, we will do some optimization on the Mandel bricks in the first four games."

"Optimization?" someone asked.

"Yes." Chen Hao nodded. "Simply put, in the first four rounds, if any team has already decoded a brick, then in the next three rounds, the system will arrange for them to be further away from the bricks, preventing them from getting bricks consecutively. This will make the match more intense and more exciting."

One of the team leaders frowned: "Isn't this part of the script?"

Chen Hao waved his hand, "It's not a script, just an algorithm adjustment. As you all know, there are many sponsors for this finals, and there are time limits. If a team wins in three games, they won't be able to play the last two, and it will be difficult to explain to the sponsors."

The team leaders remained silent.

Chen Hao looked at them and said, "Don't worry, the fifth round onwards will be completely random, allowing everyone to play freely. And this adjustment applies to all teams the same way, so it's fair."

Ye Tian stood to the side, thinking to himself: Can a competition really have a script?

But then again, it makes sense. In these kinds of commercial competitions, sponsors pay money, so they definitely need to guarantee exposure time. If they really dominated the entire competition and the first three games were over, what would they stream for the last two?