Go: Is the portable old man the nine-time champion?

Chapter 142 An Opponent That Shouldn't Exist

"Let me see, let me see, I'm in the first group! The other people in the first group are... Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"
It's in the bag! It's all in the bag! This round is completely won!

Upon seeing the names of the other participants in the first group of qualifiers, Miao Jun immediately jumped up in excitement.

Because none of the names he knew were among them, and the remaining players were mostly fringe players, Miao Jun felt that he could finally enjoy the privilege of winning without lifting a finger!

"I'm in the same group as Xu Liudan."

After seeing her own name, Shi Yuhan noticed many other names with scores of six or more not far away.

However, he didn't care much, because he was just there to make up the numbers. Even without Duoduo, the other people in his group would be enough to eliminate him.

"My group's distribution is normal, it all depends on luck."

Everyone found their group, but Yi Zheng had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find his name.

"I'm truly speechless at being assigned to 30 groups..."

Yi Zheng also felt a little helpless. If his eyesight were even slightly worse, he would have to flip through the pages all over again.

"Let me see who my opponents are in this group. It seems like there aren't many... So, my opponent in the first round is... Shen Junmin?"

Yi Zheng paused for a moment when he read the name, then unconsciously asked, "Are there any other Go players in Silla named Shin Jun-min?"

Miao Jun glanced at the rank marked below the name and shook his head: "It's possible... but there should only be one rank like that 9th dan below."

"I……"

Yi Zheng originally wanted to curse out loud, but he held back because there were other people present.

"No way! How could he be in the preliminaries? Even if Silla Go rises again, it wouldn't be enough to get him into the preliminaries, would it?"

Yi Zheng was really getting desperate. He could accept encountering this guy in the main tournament, but how could he run into someone like this in the first round of the qualifiers?
"Who is this guy?"

Seeing that he couldn't squeeze into the crowd, Old Ke asked a question from above while hanging upside down. Besides the top players in various countries, his focus was mainly on the Chinese players.

I think I've seen this name in some article before, but I can't remember exactly.

"The second-best Go player in Silla!"

Yi Zheng practically forced out those words through gritted teeth.

Lee Jun-hyuk, the top Go player in Silla, directly entered the seeded players as the runner-up of the previous tournament, without even taking up Silla's own seeded spot.

Although Silla has fewer seeded players than China, they still have four or five. As Silla's second-place player, surely you shouldn't be unable to get a seeded player domestically?
Is this right!
Yi Zheng didn't know what to say. Encountering such an opponent in the qualifiers was like being blocked in the newbie village by the Four Heavenly Kings. He was truly speechless.

"Not only Shin Junmin, but also Won Seong-hyeong, the fourth-ranked 9-dan player in Silla, is on the roster for this qualifying tournament."

Jianghu scrolled up with his mouse and discovered that there were other top Silla players participating in this qualifier.

Miao Jun was equally speechless: "What the hell! Doesn't Silla have enough spots for them? Why are they competing with others for qualifying spots?" The seeded spots allocated to each country are meant to make it easier for top players from each country to participate directly, while the remaining qualifying spots are for newcomers and some weaker players to compete for.

This time, Silla unexpectedly did the opposite, allocating seeded spots to players who might be eliminated in the qualifiers, and then putting players who should have directly entered the main tournament into the qualifiers to compete for spots.

"I'm really impressed... I really can come up with such an idea."

Hearing this, Duoduo couldn't help but shake his head. In any case, Yi Zheng was probably in danger in the first round of the qualifiers. He was facing the second-best player in Silla, and the probability of winning was too small.

Even though Yi Zheng recently defeated Miao Jun, it's the same, because the Three Musketeers' ranking is only around the top 100 in the entire world.

Although Shin Junmin is far behind Lee Junhyuk, who is the number one player in Silla, his world ranking is still in the top 30, and sometimes he can even reach the top 20.

The gap is just too big; there's simply no hope.

"Now, only half of the 100% is true."

Hearing the discussion, Old Ke couldn't help but shake his head; there really was no way to cure it now.

Unless the opponent happens to move in a Mi Dao shape with Yi Zheng, he will be wiped out in the opening move, losing a quarter of the board.

Under normal circumstances, even if Yi Zheng gets a big advantage at the start, winning later won't be so easy.

Everyone couldn't help but comfort Yi Zheng, saying that this was not a fault of the team, and that it was no longer a hellish group, but a problem with the matchmaking mechanism.

But Yi Zheng clearly didn't think that way. He was getting angrier the more he thought about it, and he felt more cheated the more he thought about backing down. "Do you think you can definitely make it through the preliminaries? Well, I'm going to take a piece of your flesh."

Meanwhile, Shin Junmin, who was lying in the hotel, also received the news that the competition list had been announced.

Yuan Shengyin, who shared a room with him, smiled when he saw his group list and said, "My group is not surprising. The only strong opponent is a Chinese 7-dan. I have at least an 80% chance of winning."

Your group is much more comfortable; there's no one strong in that group. If we switched, we'd be even more certain. Your first-round opponent is a first dan.

"This first-level expert is no simple matter; I've heard of him before."

Shin Junmin lay on the bed, looking at the names on the list, and said with a smile, "You remember Da Li's apprentice, right? He lost to this guy you see here at last year's Qinglong Cup, and he still grumbles about it all the time."

"He hasn't even reached 2-dan after a year of professional qualification? Kim Jae-ho is almost 3-dan by now, isn't he?"

"Don't be fooled by this guy's rank. He won the Best Newcomer Award in this year's Go League Division B. He's quite good. If he had been lucky, he would have had a chance to enter the main tournament."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Shengyin couldn't help but sit up in bed: "Are China's new generation of Go players really that impressive? Someone who just became a professional last year can win the Best Newcomer award in the second division league?"
It's a pity that if our Silla territory could still be as glorious as it was in ancient times, we wouldn't be worrying about the current talent shortage.

Because of the fact that no one from Silla made it through the qualifiers the year before last, Shin Junmin and Won Sung-hyeong voluntarily gave up their seeded spots this year and instead participated in the qualifiers.

"It's a pity that they had to be eliminated in the qualifiers because they ran into us. Slaughtering geniuses can be quite satisfying sometimes."

Thinking of this, Shen Junmin couldn't help but lick his lips. No matter how much potential you have or how high your future achievements are, you can only obediently admit defeat to yourself now.

(End of this chapter)