"Hehehe... " the host forced a smile as he face the overflowing emotions from the audience. He was speechless and could only laugh.

With the incitement of one tourist, it became a rally of an entire crowd.

The wild chant of "FIRST BATTLE" echoed even to the outside of the gymnasium.

The host took a deep breath and his feet moved to slowly stepped backward. He then subtly faced the organizers backstage. Those were the staff who made the battle arrangements for the round.

"Ahhh, the audience side wants to see the Chronos squad fight first! Do we change the battle arrangement?" the host reported. He moved his microphone away from his mouth and eyed the organizers. He was still obliged to make an effort to yell his words, otherwise, he won't be heard!

"Do you think we are deaf? We can hear it. But it's not good! We won't be changing the arrangements so that we can gain more," the organizer gave the host a disapproving look. He could feel that the host wanted to give in to the demand of the audience, yet, they must maintain their arrangement for their business to gain more.

"Gain more?" the host furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes, senior, you may not know but the tournament is a win-win situation. This was all-around beneficial to everyone present at the event. I will explain to you later. Just announce the start of this round now." another organizer cast a sympathetic look towards the host. He could sense that the man, despite being part of the tournament staff, was not aware of how they get their profits.

"Okay, okay." the host agreed and quickly stepped forward. He secretly took a deep breath and paused paused for a while.

A generous grin appeared on his lips while he was adjusting his uniform. Then his hands shot forward and waved to signal for the audience to calm their emotions before he opened his mouth . After several seconds, the man finally started to speak...

"Hahaha, I know that you are eager to see the Chronos squad play first. I also want to watch their match right now! But this has been decided. This is the arrangement of this second elimination round."

After the announcement was done, the audience looked unhappy. They thought that the host would placed the Chronos on the first battle. However their hopes were crushed by his announcement.

"AWWW!!!" the sigh of disappointment quickly followed from the audience rows.

"It's not bad. At least we try." the tourist who first incited the shouting calmly took his seat.

"Organizers would never allow the host to change the battle arrangement. That is within my expectation." the man beside him stated. These two seemed to have a tacit understanding of how to organize an event as well.

"Yes, I see. Not bad! These organizers are capable." the tourist responded while slightly clapping his hands.

On the stage, the host started to call the names of the players and their squads. Ten participants quickly went to the center of the gymnasium to start the match.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the second elimination round begins! In the first battle, Heavenly Noob Squad vs Shadow Slayer Squad!" the two commentators finally took over the game.

The host quickly joined the organizers after the commentators spoke. They were not so familiar but they had been acquainted during the preparation of the event.

"Why is it that the Chronos squad is the last to play? The audience looked unhappy," the host immediately told the people in front of him.

"Hmmn, Right now they are the crucial part of this tournament. It is called saving the best for last." the host saw the wicked smile from the organizer's face.

"You may not know this, senior, but we are also monitoring the social media status of our event. And we discovered that this group, even though their squad has no history in gaming community, they managed to be the rank 1 trending topic up until now! For the last hours, they are dominating the top trending of the discussions online!" one of the organizers eyed the host excitedly.

"Really? Is it about the ranking?" the host mumbled while in deep thought. Rankings was indeed important for them.

"Not just the ranking. You see, in this business, everyone would somehow get their piece of an award. For the player, they would get a chance to win. By winning, they will get not only the cash prize but also the prestige to be the very first champion in their district competition. This was the ultimate goal that most players had for today's event." the organizer started.

"Yes, that is actually obvious." the host responded.

"On our side as the organizers of the tournament, we would also take a relative share of their profit from the sales in the tickets and their online views. The sponsorship where we flashed the brands of a different company on the large screen also paid us a reasonable amount of money."

The host nodded his head in agreement and replied, "Naturally, that is our means to profit in this event. But what is the connection of these things to the battle arrangement?"

"There is a big connection. The tournament as a whole is also an advertising strategy for the game. The more audiences it would reach, the more likely the people would play the game. It relies on the level of publicity this tournament would get for it to gain new users of its game. so, we must try our best to gain viewers in every possible angle." the organizer gazed at the host with deep understanding.

"Ohhh, so the Chronos squad must be placed at the last battle so that the viewers would increase?" the host clarified. They were using the Chronos squad as the leverage to gain more customers!

"You are right. This is why we cannot follow what our audiences are asking. I'm sure some of the audience are aware of these details. Who knows? Someone might just be sabotaging our way to profit more from the event? After all, we have rivals in this business!" the organizer explained.

It is to say that the arrangement of placing the Chronos squad in the last battle would gave an overall great impact on the companies backing the tournament. It may look simple but it was an elaborate plan that was carefully thought by these organizers.

However, those who were not conscious of how the back end of the event worked would also not mind giving in to what is being demanded.

The host was completely not aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the arrangement of the battles for the upcoming round. But with the explanation from the two organizers, he finally saw the meaning of their battle arrangements.

Remembering the disapproving look of the organizer earlier, the host could only scratch his head as he felt embarrassed by his lack of knowledge.

"We just opened an online betting pool for this round also. The squad should be like a finale. Online betting is increasing and the longer the time we could drag their anticipated match, the amount we could profit from it would likely be tripled." another organizer stepped up and showed at the host the site where the poll recorded the bets.

"Okay! Hehe" The host made a quick bow as recognition dawned upon him. The organizers were not simple! Just like the participants of the game, they were calculating every decisions they make for the entire tournament to be successful!