Team Larkinson easily passed the first round of the fighting phase. Though Ves and Ketis were both pleased with this straightforward win, they did not beco too overconfident.
Nurous other chs in the tournant showed great strength as well. Ves couldn't say whether the Heart of Victor could defeat them 100 percent of the ti.
"It's a pity that those two kids have to bow their heads in defeat so quickly." He muttered as he threw a gaze in the direction of the Journeyn he defeated.
The ch designers of Team Youngbuck probably deserved to advance from the first round. Mr. Dardan and Mr. Peese had managed to design a considerably more advanced ch than other Journeyn. The integration of the power systems and the complete design of a functional plasma sword out of limited materials and components was nothing less than genius!
If the criteria for winning Wild Brawl Bowl was solely based on the sophistication of a ch design, Team Youngbuck would have definitely taken first place!
The problem for the centrist ch designers was that their ch still needed to prove its chops by defeating opposing chs. The fact that their Rayvin entered the arena with great fanfare only to suffer a humiliating defeat signaled that their approach was flawed!
Their defeat was especially egregious considering that the swordsman ch was piloted by Giles Harnacher, the best swordsman ch pilot available in the tournant!
As the shock of the abrupt defeat began to fade among the public, plenty of people began to discuss the odd progression of the final match in the first round.
[Team Youngbuck is made up of talented, young ch designers, but they have made the sa mistake that everyone from the galactic center has made.]
[And what is that, sir?]
[Mr. Dardan and Mr. Peese have overengineered their ch design.] The old and wise voice stated. [Their augnted heads are filled with advanced theories and thodologies and they have always been trained to make the best use of them. That's fine in a normal work environnt, but the Wild Brawl Bowl is different. As its na suggests, it is all about wild fighting. Sohow, the the and conditions of this ch design tournant have eluded their clever heads. Instead of working to use the relatively low-tech materials and ch component designs as intended, Team Youngbuck stretched these resources in order to design a vast array of advanced parts and systems.]
[The efforts of Dardan and Peese paid off, though. Their Zemonon Gamma is truly powerful according to its spec sheets. Their upfront power ranked close to the top in the first few minutes. Their only fault is to get matched against the tournant favorites right away.]
[I don't rate the Rayvin as highly as you. There is a considerable chance it would have lost even if it fought against another ch. The reason for that is the sa reason why the Heart of Victor managed to overco this plasma swordsman ch with relative ease. Their fault tolerances are too far apart.]
[Fault tolerance?]
[There are in fact more reasons behind the Rayvin's loss, but this is the principal reason. Did you count how many plasma sword strikes the Heart of Victor withstood? Even with the clever maneuvering of Mr. Kepper, it is still difficult to keep a ch fully functional when hit with such a sustained barrage of attacks. Yet the ch pilot had absolute faith in his ch! This is not a coincidence, but the result of Team Larkinson's great attention towards the integrity and fault tolerance of their machine. The Heart of Victor isn't as high-tech as the Rayvin, but their structural integrity is so far apart that the latter is practically a house of cards! High-tech cards, but that made little difference!]
The explanation of the expert comntator finally illuminated one of the subtle brilliances of the Heart of Victor.
On the surface, it was just a fairly basic swordsman ch that was ard with a chainsword.
What few layn understood was that there was a lot of strength beneath its exterior. The internal architecture was solid and robust. It could incur a lot of damage and still keep going. Both its redundancy and compartntalization factors ranked among the top of all of the competition chs!
The comntator let out an admiring sound. [This is a design approach that harkens back to third-class ch design. Many people here in Vulit probably looks down on lesser chs, but they have their own advantages. Nothing can make ch designers more efficient than if they are forced to work with limited resources. It should be no surprise that the Heart of Victor embodies this design approach so well considering that Patriarch Ves Larkinson and Swordmaster Ketis Larkinson were originally third-class ch designers.]
[From a strategic perspective, Team Larkinson managed to make the most gains from this victory. Sure, the Heart of Victor does not look good at the mont, but all of this is surface damage that can easily be repaired before the next round comnces. What is more important is that the Heart of Victor and Mr. Kepper has refrained from showing their true strength. This will leave the other fifteen competitors who have managed to advance to the second round in the dark. Whoever is unlucky enough to get matched against the Larkinsons will not be able to make a lot of preparations.]
Ves nodded when he heard the comntary. In competitions like these, it was important to take the bigger picture into account. Team Larkinson had a good shot at winning the championship, but that didn't an that the other ch designer teams were pushovers.
He fought through enough battles to know that information was power. The more he understood an enemy, the more he could prepare counters for the next battle.
The sa concept applied here. With four more rounds to go, the Heart of Victor should ideally save the best for last. Though Ves had instructed Lyain Kepper to go all-out if the opposition was strong enough, he hoped that mont wouldn't co too soon.
Now that the first round had fully concluded, a short break ensued before the Wild Brawl Bowl comnced its second round.
Only half of the sixteen competition chs in contention would be able to proceed from that point.
Entering into the top 8 already guaranteed the survivors a worthwhile payoff. No one would be unhappy if they lost after that point, though everyone hoped to climb higher and attain more carrier vessels.
When Ves and Ketis headed to the backstage area, they quickly worked to supervise the rapid repair process of the Heart of Victor.
Since hardly any of the internals incurred damage in the previous match, Team Larkinson did not have to put much effort in bringing the ch back to peak condition. The automated repair processes could perform most of the monotonous work themselves.
What interested the Larkinson ch designers more was to discuss the previous fight and prepare for the next one with their ch pilot.
"Did I do well?" Lyain Kepper earnestly asked Ketis.
"You did well enough. You made the right choice to hide the full extent of your improved swordsmanship. It must have been hard to restrain yourself."
"Not really." Lyain grinned and shook his head. "I'm eager to show off my improvents, but it's much better to do that in the last round rather than the first round."
"That's a good mindset, but rember that winning is our ultimate goal." Ves cautioned. "Be careful not to get too clever for your own good. Listen to your ch and your instincts. Both will guide you in the right direction."
After a brief but fruitful discussion, the second round of the fighting phase quickly comnced. Every ch designer had to get back to the spectator platform where they were no longer able to instruct and advise their ch pilots.
Though only half of the design teams were still in contention, the Journeyn who had lost the first round were still around.
The two ch designers of Team Youngbuck took the initiative to approach the team that defeated them in the first round.
"Good fight." Gerxer Dardan said as he shook hands with Ves.
"Likewise." Ves replied in a friendly tone. "I would have preferred to fight against you in a later round."
"I know, but this is the way that single elimination brackets work. Luck is also a factor in determining how far you can go, although strength is the greatest guarantee for advancent."
While the two got to know each other better, Olivander Peese had already starting to exchange with Ketis. Both of them were avid about swordmaking and happily shared their own insights about the topic.
Nothing needed to be said about Ketis' qualifications. Her basics and depth of comprehension was extrely solid, but Olivander Peese surprisingly introduced her to a lot of new material.
Though Olivander's foundation was not as deep, he was a talented centrist ch designer who mastered a plentiful amount of high technology. Developing a plasma sword was actually one of his more basic applications!
As the matches of the second round took place, Team Larkinson and Team Youngbuck continued to grow closer to each other. They even exchanged comm contact information so that they could get in touch more often.
Of course, Dardan and Peese were not that interested in Ves. Their fields of expertise diverged too far from each other. Though they were able to teach a lot new insights to each other, their lack of shared understanding ant that most of what they said wasn't useful to the recipient.
It was like a physicist trying to teach quantum chanics to a pianist. It was absurd to think that the latter would easily pick up the advanced knowledge without knowing any science!
Ketis was Team Youngbuck's true goal. Though her engineering foundation was not as good as that of Ves, her expertise in swordsmanship and swordsman ch turned her into an authority in these fields!
Since Team Youngbuck no longer took part in the Wild Brawl Bowl, the two centrist Journeyn were no longer competitors. Ketis did not feel the need to hold back as much as she began to point out the issues that Dardan and Peese needed to work on in order to design a more effective swordsman ch.
For their part, the two impressed Journeyn happily reciprocated the lessons they received by passing on a bit of the advanced knowledge they possessed.
Ves looked enviously at the trio of sword maniacs. They had already erected a jamr field around their little group in order to keep their discussion private. There was no reason to share their valuable insights to others without receiving anything relevant in return.
"I wish there were more ch designers like around here." He quietly muttered.
It would have been nice if he was able to exchange or collaborate with other ch designers whose specialties resembled his own. He knew it was unlikely that those ch designers existed.
Even if there were a handful of ch designers out there who specialized in so aspect of life, the chance of bumping into them was miniscule! Human space was just too enormous and the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was already filled with trillions of humans!
He knew that the only realistic way to surround himself with ch designers who shared the sa interests as him was to raise them himself. He could steer students like Maikel Larkinson into a related specialty, but his best option was to raise the right ch designers from the people he could trust the most, his direct family!
"I need more kids." He quietly said.
As Ves wondered about how long he needed to wait until Gloriana was ready to have her second child, the matches of the second round slowly concluded.
It was finally ti for Team Larkinson to show off their work once again!
[The final match of the second round will pit a humanoid ch against a bestial ch! Will Team Larkinson be able to fend off the tentacles of Team Caper? Let's find out!]
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