Chapter 794: Chapter 453: Gentleman’s Agreement

The halftime break is only a short half-hour, during which time the staff will adjust the camera positions somewhat, and newly designate the competition fishing spots.

All preparations on this side are completed, and a new round of referee reminders sounded through the loudspeaker.

Break time is over, would the anglers entering the quarter-finals please proceed with the next round of drawing lots for grouping! In five minutes, the matches for the two groups of anglers will begin simultaneously. Best of luck to everyone for excellent performance and achieving great results!

Upon hearing the call, Zhang Yang and Meng Fan both took out their phones and logged into the lot-drawing mini program. Han Mocheng also habitually took out his phone, but when he logged into his account and realized he wasn’t eligible for drawing lots, he remembered, dammit, he had been eliminated and stopped at the top 16, so now he could only watch as a spectator.

Zhang Yang logged into the lot-drawing page, casually tapped, and soon a numbered label popped up.

A02

Angler number 02 from Group A.

"Xiao Fan, which group are you in?" Zhang Yang looked up and asked.

Once reaching the quarter-finals, the competition fishing spot doesn’t really matter much, but grouping is quite important.

"Group B, B03!" Meng Fan responded without hesitation.

"Good, good, at least we’re not in the same group. Let’s both work hard, hope to see you in the semi-finals!"

Zhang Yang also clenched his fist: "See you in the semi-finals, let’s go!!!"

With the lot drawing complete, the organization of the anglers’ entrance began quickly, Zhang Yang and Meng Fan each carrying their fishing gear, one behind the other, entered the competition venue.

In the quarter-finals, because there are fewer participants, the adjustment of fishing spots is more comfortably done. Two groups, eight fishing spots, all set by the staff on the better drifting-observable south bank, after all, the afternoon sunlight won’t backlight, making it more convenient for the photographers responsible for filming.

Although it’s the round of eight into four, the rules remain the same as the round of sixteen into eight. It’s just that originally there were four groups, now it’s down to two groups.

Each group has four people, based on the drawn number, face off in pairs pk, a total of three matches, each is split into two segments, each segment is 15 minutes.

From the moment of entering the venue, Zhang Yang’s eyes kept scanning the other anglers, after locating his number two fishing spot, he put down his tackle box without rushing to organize equipment, yet continued to look around.

Even though Zhang Yang is confident in his skills, he instinctively hopes for an opponent with relatively lower skill level, after all, who doesn’t want a bit of luck?

This time, however, luck wasn’t as good as before. After a glance around, Zhang Yang quickly identified the opponents in his group.

Number one Wang Chao, number two Zhang Yang, number three Zhao Heyi, number four Qian Xuewei.

According to the normal double-elimination grouping pk battle rule, Zhang Yang would face off with Wang Chao in the first match.

Number four, Qian Xuewei, is considered a relatively lower-level soft target, whereas Wang Chao and Zhao Heyi are both high-level anglers in Hua’s Competition Team.

Well, if it’s not a boon, it’s doom; if doom comes, it can’t be avoided! Zhang Yang’s heart sank, and he simply chose not to dwell on the grouping and pk issue.

As for Wang Chao, when he saw Zhang Yang as the neighbor number two angler, he was slightly taken aback.

This is currently the toughest dark horse angler in the quarter-finals, looking at the technical statistics during the break earlier, Wang Chao also feels a bit daunted by Zhang Yang’s extremely high double tail rate.

"Hello, Teacher Wang Chao!" Zhang Yang put down his tackle box and proactively greeted Wang Chao, speaking with well-managed expressions, full of goodwill and smiling.

"Hello, hello, my luck seems a bit off! Grouped with you in the first match! The pressure is somewhat high if I lose!" Wang Chao is also rather amiable and nodded towards Zhang Yang.

"Be friends off the stage, compare skills on the stage, no need for extra flowery words, let’s trust our abilities, what do you say?" Zhang Yang continued to ask.

Listening to Zhang Yang, Wang Chao was slightly taken aback.

This phrase isn’t randomly spoken; rather, it’s akin to a gentleman’s agreement.

What does that mean? It means we adhere to gentlemanly angling, a straightforward and fair competition, avoiding those cunning tricks and tactics. Once agreed upon, tactics like chatting to distract attention or sabotaging the spot wouldn’t be used by default.

Of course, the normal angling methods allowed by the rules can still be used, just both sides maintain mutual understanding against unsavory tactics.

"No problem! As for skills, our Hua Clan may not be extraordinarily remarkable, but in terms of virtue, wherever we go, we won’t dishonor the old master!" Wang Chao agreed without hesitation.

"Great! It’s decided then!" Zhang Yang nodded continuously, expressing agreement with Wang Chao’s latter words.

With a few words, the match returned to the essence of competition, Zhang Yang relaxed quite a lot, and based on his usual fish assessment, began preparing the bait, then adjusting floatation and setting the bottom, completing all the pre-match preparations.

The ten minutes of preparation time flew by, a whistle sounded, and the competition began!

Zhang Yang cast his bait group with his wrist flicking, two reasonably large bait clusters, into the spot straight ahead.

Simultaneously with the start of the stage matches, the live broadcast commentary by Sun Yi and Yu Wensheng in the official live room also commenced.

"Greetings to all anglers in front of TVs and live stream screens, this is the ftT Quancheng Station regional competition round of 8 into 4, sponsored by Hua’s Fishing Tackle, organized by Happy Fishing. I’m your good friend Sun Yi, and next to me is our special guest Teacher Yu Wensheng!"