The time for the award ceremony was now the talk of the community. There were many rumors about who would be getting the 3rd place award for their efforts. For many people, the first and second place were already long decided. It wasn’t even close, first place should have gone to Zheng He and his Vesper faction while second place should go to Madam Zheng and her Forever Pirates faction.

Third place was still debatable, but many were guessing it would be going to go to the Combined Dragon faction. In the room where the announcements were going to be made, Li Guang could once again be seen walking up toward the stage just waiting for the right moment to make the announcement. Li Guang had done the same for the Aerial tournament winners and he would do the same for the naval, land, and final ceremonies.

(LG) “Well, what a surprising turn of events that this naval tournament has taken, am I right? I don’t think many of us were expecting the Vesper faction to pull out such a terrifying weapon. Not to mention, only my faction, the Sun Alliance, has been in possession of this type of weapon in the past, could it be that the Vesper faction has also gotten such a blueprint?” Li Guang spoke to the crowd.

The room of more than 10,000 strategists burst into continuous and deafening discussions. Li Guang waited for a few minutes for the noise to die down, but once he saw that it wasn’t working, he did a little gesture with his hands that signaled to the others that he had more to say. Such an obvious signal from someone as influential as Li Guang was enough to shut all of those there who were being noisy before.

(LG) “I’m not sure who that mysterious lady was that aided the Vesper faction was, but if someone like that is in the Chinese Community, I wouldn’t be as worried about our future naval situation as I am now.”

Once again, the room erupted in large fits of screaming and talking about what their current situation was like for their naval strategists. The precarious situation that the Chinese community was in was not a great one. Though they had quite a few naval geniuses, many of the other communities could beat them relatively easily numerically and qualitatively speaking. They were just lacking so much in these terms, it was a miracle that they were as highly ranked as they were right now. It was all due to their impressive land strategists that they were able to be rank 3 amongst all of the different communities. Li Guang signaled for them all to be silent again and the masses complied.

(LG) “Now, the reason that you are all here is to no doubt hear what the jury of the Sun Alliance elders has put the top factions. In all honesty, I could already guess what the first, second, and third places were going to be, as I’m sure many of you could guess without me telling you at all.”

Many voices started to talk amongst themselves but were hushed without Li Guang having to do anything, so he continued his talk.

(LG) “First place, no doubt, goes to the Vesper faction and Zheng He. Winning the entire tournament usually warrants getting first place in that particular category and this time did not disappoint.”

There wasn’t really a reaction from the audience as this was the expected outcome.

(LG) “Moving on, the second-place award goes to the Forever Pirates faction for being the second last faction to stay in the tournament. Again, really no surprise there. Now I’m sure some of you are wondering who the third-place award going to go to. Any guesses?”

Many screamed who they thought would be getting third place, some of them rooting for their own faction, others for some lesser-known factions.”

“The Commie faction!”

“It’s gotta be the River Snake faction!”

“Bro, no way. It has to be the Bright Burn gang.”

“You are all wrong, it’s my Devil Dolphin group! We won third place last year and we will get it this year as well.”

There would be many more guesses until someone actually guessed it right and Li Guang reacted.

(LG) “Yes actually! It is the Combined Dragon faction that has won third place. Seeing as they are a new group that has only entered into this tournament once before, they sure are capable if the jury of elders think that they deserve third-place. Even more so considering the Devil Dolphin were the likeliest to get the third place going into the tournament.”

Everybody turned around to discuss with those close to them about the revelation that had taken place when Li Guang had said the third-place winner. Rumors were being made on the spot and getting out of control. Even after half an hour, the crowd did not die down their excitement for the news that they had received and they just kept on talking about what accomplishments that the Combined Dragon faction had in this tournament.

Li Guang eventually had to give the signal for everyone to calm down, they would be able to talk once he finished what he needed to get out to the populace. He was a busy man after all, not to mention, he was the face of the greatest faction of the Chinese faction, the Sun Alliance.

(LG) “Well, that seemed to be more of a surprise than I had originally thought. However, that pretty much concludes what I have to say here. Vesper faction, Forever Pirates, and Combined Dragons, you three will be awarded your rightful prizes as soon as the land tournament ends. You should all be proud of what you have achieved and we hope all of you manage to keep growing stronger many times than you are right now. As a last note, the Bair fighters that dominated the aerial part of the tournament should be participating. It should be really interesting.”