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

Chapter 164 Striving to be a Pioneer [Double Monthly Tickets! Requesting Monthly Tickets!]

"I'm exhausted. This time of year is supposed to be the off-season for the league, but we have to do group training to prepare for the tournament."

Miao Jun is currently stretching in the first class of the plane. After training at the Chinese Chess Academy, the Asian team is flying to Europe today to participate in the first stage of the Asia-America-Europe Challenge.

All the Asian team members are training at the Chinese Chess Academy, including the two from Japan and South Korea.

The veterans' group didn't organize any intensive training sessions. Several elderly people said they could just practice on their own, as they were too old to handle such strenuous training.

Furthermore, many elderly people are no longer as enthusiastic about their achievements as they were when they were younger; they are more interested in using the competition as an opportunity to get together and boast.

Duoduo also stretched his body slightly: "Now we're going to Europe for the first stage of the competition, and everyone has to attend the opening ceremony."

Actually, we didn't need so many people to go. If it weren't for the opening ceremony, two people or even just one person would have been enough.

The Asia-Europe-America Challenge is divided into three stages, which are held in rotation on the three continents, and the stages will also rotate every year.

The first phase this year will be held in Europe, the second phase in the Americas, and the third phase in Asia.

Under this tournament format, a maximum of fourteen matches will be played, with only four matches in the first stage.

So theoretically, as long as the vanguard team in the first round wins four consecutive games, they can directly pass the first stage. If the team has a bye and starts from the second game, they only need three consecutive games to end the first stage.

For the Chinese team, three or four consecutive wins are practically commonplace.

So if it weren't for the requirement for everyone to be present at the opening ceremony, sending just two people would basically solve all the problems.

Yi Zheng also took the lead in this competition.

Actually, the coaching staff wanted to reconsider who should be the striker.

Because the vanguard needs to be able to create momentum in one go, but cannot play their trump card directly, there are many things to consider.

Theoretically speaking, the five participants seem to be of similar strength, so it doesn't matter who is the vanguard or the commander.

However, none of the three musketeers volunteered to be the vanguard. Many of them secretly wanted to be the commander, because the commander seemed to represent the strongest, so they were the last resort.

Finally, Yi Zheng volunteered to be the first to go, and the coaching staff decided that Yi Zheng would go first since no one else volunteered.

Because this competition does not have a fixed number of players, the lineup can be adjusted at any time, and you can put in whoever you want when it's your turn.

Old Ke strongly recommended that Yi Zheng not be the commander-in-chief, but rather the vanguard.

If you win as the commander-in-chief, people will think it's only natural, since as the commander-in-chief, you should be the one to turn the tide. But if you lose, all the blame will fall on you. Of course, if you're really famous, sometimes even if you lose as the vanguard, you'll still be the one to blame.

Yi Zheng volunteered to be the vanguard not for this reason; he simply wanted to play a few more games of chess, nothing more.

Of course, Yi Zheng also thought that if he could achieve a ten-game winning streak and sweep through the competition, the achievement of ending the game with a ten-game winning streak would be unprecedented and unparalleled.

Not necessarily, but the later entrant can only manage a draw at best.

Thinking about this, Yi Zheng felt incredibly happy and content. Shouldn't the chess academy award him the title of "Hero of the Tournament"?
But isn't it a bit too early? After all, if I participate in the unlimited age group and repeat the event, there won't be any awards left to give out.

Yi Zheng was fantasizing about completing the entire competition all by himself, but the others were afraid that Yi Zheng would feel pressured, so they comforted him instead.

Miao Jun: "A Zheng doesn't need to feel too much pressure. You can easily get three or four consecutive wins."

Although it was meant to be comforting, it did sound a bit like Versailles.

For other countries, it would be good if the vanguard could win two matches. In this kind of tournament, if everyone's strength is even, it's a matter of one side taking turns winning a match, and then the final battle is fought until the captain is defeated.

However, in China, the Vanguard team basically starts with three consecutive wins, which shows that China has a strong foundation.

"Three or four consecutive wins are not enough. I will just win the game in one go, and you can just sit back and collect your prize money."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng smiled and said something, and the people around him also laughed happily, saying that this was for the best.

Yi Zheng won MVP, we're all just sitting back and getting carried.

After all, people are quite happy to receive the championship prize money without even lifting a finger, although the chances aren't particularly high.

Even the coaching staff felt that Yi Zheng was very confident when they heard this, but it would be too difficult to actually achieve that.

Not to mention that all the participants in this competition are the strongest players in their age group, Europe has finally seen an epic boost since the entire continent is participating.

It can only be said that the strength in Europe is indeed evenly distributed. Even in this year's junior group, each of the five countries, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia, has one spot.

This means that all the players who were originally considered the team's main players in previous years have become ordinary participants. In a sense, they were indeed wronged in previous competitions.

Team America was the most upset this time. Actually, the other four players weren't particularly strong, but Ethan at the end really made everyone feel bad.

Even excluding the last defending champion, Ethan, Yi Zheng has a 90% win rate against the other two teams' nine players, so 0.9 to the power of 9 would only amount to about 0.38.

Not to mention that it's impossible for Yi Zheng to have a 90% win rate against everyone; that's too difficult. Even a small mishap could end his winning streak.

Moreover, this was Yi Zheng's first time participating in this kind of ring competition, and he had no competition experience. The physical test in this kind of competition is also something that people should pay attention to.

Because there are no breaks in the arena matches, and the matches in each stage end all at once, if you keep winning, you have to keep playing.

Therefore, deciding when to expend physical energy and when to conserve it requires careful and scientific allocation of resources.

If you can't allocate your energy properly, you'll easily be worn down by your opponent in the end.

Many teams have a skill gap between their front-line players and the opposing team. Sometimes, knowing they can't defeat their opponents, they'll think about how to exhaust their opponents to prepare for the next player's turn.

Therefore, the coaching staff optimistically estimates that if Yi Zheng can perform normally for three or four consecutive wins, that would be good enough. Perfectly fulfilling the mission of the vanguard is everyone's expectation for Yi Zheng.

PS: There will be two more updates tonight.

(End of this chapter)