The Prince of Tennis: The Quincy of Rikkai University.

Chapter 90: The National Conference Opens, First Day of Battle
On August 17, the National Conference opened.

This year's national conference will still be held in the Kansai region.

In fact, according to convention, this year's national conference should have been held in the Kanto region. Perhaps no one would have thought that last year it would be the Rikkai University Affiliated Junior High School in Kanto that swept all the way to win the national conference championship.

However, the organizers of the conference have already drafted a compensation plan. No matter which region wins this year's championship, next year's event will be held in Kanto.

The people from Rikkai University had already set off for the venue in Kansai the day before, and had arrived at the competition venue before the opening ceremony on the morning of the 17th.

I met the representatives of those schools a few days ago, and this time they brought their teams into the venue one after another, waiting for the opening ceremony to end before starting the first round of competition today.

"Sanada, what are our arrangements after the opening ceremony?" Yuuki Maya asked casually while looking around in the team.

The reason why he asked this question was because today's first day of competition had nothing to do with Rikkai University or the other seven seeded teams.

Logically speaking, they only need to return to the hotel to rest after reporting on today's opening ceremony.

But now that I'm here, I can't just go back so easily.

"Nothing is planned. Liu said he will go to watch some school games and update his intelligence and data on the spot."

"As for the others, they should all have their own plans."

Genichirō Sanada actually didn't have too many plans for today. He planned to watch the game for a while and then find an unused court to do some warm-up exercises to keep his touch.

"Is that so? Then I'll act alone from now on." Yuuki Maya nodded slightly.

"Hey, Yuuki, which school's match are you going to watch later? Kirihara and I will go with you."

Marui Bunta came over at some point, and behind him, Kirihara Akaya had a confused expression on his face.

This was also Kirihara Akari's first time attending a national convention, so he was a little confused about what to do next and could only choose to follow Marui Bunta, with whom he had a good relationship.

"No problem, let's go together." Yuuki Maya replied with a smile.

"You guys go ahead. I'll go back to the hotel and sleep. I'll take care of lunch myself."

Maori Jusaburo seemed to have no interest in watching the games of other schools. Even though it was still daytime, he was already yawning.

"Oh, I remember that Senior Mori is from Kansai. Don't you need to reminisce with your old friends after returning here?" Kirihara Akaya asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's there to talk about with those guys? Besides, we've already met them when we went back on vacation. There's no need to go through the trouble again."

Maori Jusaburo looked as if he was in trouble. After all, when the summer vacation just started, he returned to his hometown in Kansai and met his former companions.

Half an hour later, the opening ceremony ended and, led by the staff, the teams that were required to compete today headed to their respective venues.

The teams that did not need to compete today also dispersed.

After the opening ceremony, Hyotei and his group immediately boarded a luxurious private bus and left the venue directly.

Hisaburo Mori also left the team, said goodbye to the others, and left on foot.

"Let's go too and take a look at the B area stadium first." Yuuki Maya said to Marui and Kirihara.

The two nodded in understanding, and then they followed Maya Yuuki on both sides, one on the left and one on the right, and moved towards the direction of the B area court together.

Genichirō Sanada watched the three people leave, and after a moment's hesitation, he looked at a sign pointing to Area D. After a long while, as if he had made a decision, Genichirō Sanada picked up his tennis bag and walked alone to the direction indicated by the sign.

As for Niou and the others, they also followed Yanagi Renji.

……

Although the competition on the first day was not that fierce, after all, they were all teams in the finals, so their level was naturally guaranteed.

Many matches on the first day were not decided until the fifth round, with many scores ending in 3 to 2.

The same is true for Kanto's two top four schools, Rokkaku Junior High School and Seigaku.

In the first round, Rokkaku Junior High School met the representative of Hokkaido, Tsubakigawa Academy.

It is also a regular participant in the national conference, with a strength similar to that of Liujiao Middle School. The two sides fought until the fifth game to decide the winner. Liujiao Middle School finally scored a crucial point in the singles and successfully advanced to the next round.

As for the battle situation of Qingxue, it is not much better than that of Rokkakuchu.

The situation was slightly similar to the first round of the Kanto Tournament. In the first three rounds, Seigaku maintained a lead with two wins and one loss, but lost without any suspense in the subsequent doubles match, allowing the opponent to tie the game 2-2.

In the end, it was Kunimitsu Tezuka who made the final move, winning the singles match with a score of 6-1 and advancing to the next round without any trouble.

However, Qingxue, who won the game, was not happy about advancing, because just the first round of the game made them feel more pressure than in the Kanto Conference.

You know, the overall strength of Qingxue has increased rapidly in the past month, and it is much stronger than during the Kanto Conference.

But now, their opponent is just a weak team that has never made it to the top 16 in the national conference, and they are forced to give their all.

And Seigaku's next opponent is this year's Kansai champion and last year's national top four team, Shitenhoji.

This dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Qingxue students who had originally hoped to make a difference at the national conference.

It also made them realize how cruel the competition in the national conference is. Without absolute strength, the ranking you get depends entirely on the attitude of the strong teams.

The first day of competition is over.

All of a sudden, only 24 teams were left out of the 16 teams, and some of the eliminated teams might have just entered the game and were already preparing to go home.

However, these schools don’t need to be too sad, because after the second day of competition, eight more teams will be eliminated.

The match between Hyotei Academy, which had a bye in the first round, and Shizile Middle School, which also had a bye in the first round, was the focus of the second day's competition.

Due to schedule reasons, this match was held in the morning, and Rikkai University's match today was in the afternoon, so Yuuki Maya and others were able to come and watch.

The second round of matches will also be played in full for 5 games, because even if you are a school with a bye, the first game you play is also the first round according to the regulations, so you have to play a full five games.

It's just that it's hard for the unseeded teams that won the first round. Compared to the seeded teams that are well-rested and only need to win one BO5, those unseeded teams need to win two BO5s to successfully advance to the quarterfinals.

However, this match is one of the few in which both teams did not play on the first day. Both sides have rested for a day, and it is foreseeable that it will be an exciting match.

In fact, the competition order of the second year's national conference was double-double-odd-odd-odd, but considering that most people have the stereotype that it is odd-double-odd-double-odd, I simply followed the third year's competition system.

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(End of this chapter)