Glory Professional Alliance

The Glory Professional Alliance is a competitive gaming alliance for the game Glory. The Alliance is composed of 20 teams. The headquarters of the Alliance is in City B, and the current chairperson of the Alliance is Feng Xianjun, who was appointed during Season 4 after Jin Chengyi stepped down.

## Format

### **Regular Season**

The competition is split into three parts: Individual Challenge, Group Challenge, and Team Challenge. Teams can win a maximum of 10 points per match. Of the 20 teams, only 8 teams advance to play in the Championships in an elimination bracket. The two lowest ranked teams are relegated, and they have a chance to come back to the league through the Revival Tournament. The next season, the team that survived the Challengers League is entered into the League. Another team that meets certain requirements and is approved by the League is also added to the League.

**Individual Challenge**: Three players from each team face off in a 1-on-1 situation in the order they are seated. Each victory in this competition is worth 1 point, so a team can win 3 points for this competition.

In the early days of the Alliance, the rules for the Individual Challenge were different. Matches had a five-minute time limit. At the end of five minutes, if there was no winner, the player with the higher health wins. This led to players who gained a significant health advantage to start playing passive, making the match boring and awkward for fans and commentators. The rules were changed afterwards.

**Group Challenge**: Three different players from each team are put into a similar situation as the Individual Challenge, but the player that dies is replaced with another player from their team that comes after them. The winner of this stage is based on which team is the last standing. When one team's members are all defeated, the remaining team is awarded 2 points.

**Team Challenge**: This stage is a 5-on-5 battle with a sixth substitute player on each team. Unlike the previous stages, this stage relies on the cooperation of the team as a whole. When a single player dies, the sixth player is able to come on the field, but they must come from the exchange area. The substitute player's health, equipment, and mana during this time are in a cooldown state. The team left standing wins 5 points from this round.

**Championship**: The eight highest ranked teams from the regular season advance to the knock-out stage of the season. Here, players compete to become the champions.

### **Playoffs**

The competition is split into two parts: Group Challenge and Team Challenge. Teams can win a maximum of 11 points per match. The team ranked first in regular season plays against the one placed eighth, the second against the seventh, the third against the sixth, and the fourth against the fifth.

Teams play one home match and one away match, and the team ranked higher plays the away game first. The home team gets to choose the maps to use during the game, which will remain unknown to the guest team until the fight starts. The points in the two games will not be aggregated, and if each team wins one of the two games, an extra game will be played at the stadium of the home team of the second leg. However, in this case, the maps will be chosen randomly by the Alliance, instead of the home team.

**Group Challenge**: Five different players from each team are put into a similar situation as the Individual Challenge of the regular season, but the player that dies is replaced with the player that comes after them. The winners of this stage are based on which is the last team standing. When all the members of one team are dead, the remaining team is awarded 5 points. The other team wins points equivalent to the number players they defeated in the round.

**Team Challenge**: This stage is a 5-on-5 battle with a substitute player on each team. Unlike the previous stages, this stage relies on the cooperation of the team as a whole. When a single player dies, the substitute player is able to come on the field, but they must come from the exchange area. The substitute player's health, equipment, and mana during this time are in a cooldown state. The substitute is also able to come on the field if a player has not yet died, although they still must come from the exchange area. When all the members of one team are dead, the remaining team is awarded 6 points. The other team wins points equivalent to the number players they defeated in the round.

Before Season 9, the rules were different. There used to be one home game and one away game, and points were accumulated. The first team to obtain 10 points won. But in the finals of Season 8, Samsara had already received 7.5 points in their home game. So, in their away game, they used their three strongest players during the Individual Challenge. Because of this, they won and never competed in the Team Challenge portion. Since the audience, sponsors, and broadcasters were not satisfied by the results, the rules were changed the next season. With this, it is possible to have only three games if one team wins and another loses because all points are canceled after the game.

### **Challengers League**

The Challengers League is a stage for ex-pro teams and upcoming teams to fight for a chance to enter the Pro League. Usually, teams that were relegated from the previous season's Pro League would win the Challengers League and re-enter the Pro League, earning the tournament the nickname of 'Revival Tournament'. However, that was the case until Happy defeated Excellent Era in the Challengers League finals. One difference between the Pro League and Challengers League is that players could use potions once during the Challengers League.

#### Online Stage

To participate, teams must have enough members and pay a participation fee. The first part of the tournament is played online in a knockout style, also known as a single-elimination bracket. This means one loss results in instant elimination. Teams are able to adjust players in the online stage of the competition. Each team would play each other on their home stage and the winner is decided based on the total number of points obtained. A coin flip is used to decide which team would play their home game first. When 20 teams are left, there would be a 3-month break before the competition moves to the offline stage. During this time, the team can adjust players before the start of the offline stage.

#### Offline Stage

The 20 teams would be split into groups to ensure that the best teams are left. The draw for the groups would be held in City B, at the Alliance headquarters. The 20 teams would be split into 4 groups of 5 and the top 2 teams from each group would enter the playoffs. The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket. The last team standing is then brought into the League at the start of the season. Matches are held in City B, at the Cadillac Arena. All group stage and playoffs matches are held in best-of-1, with the maps chose by the Alliance.

In Season 9, a new rule was created for the playoffs. The rules were the same as the Pro League playoffs as of Season 10 (5v5 for Group Challenge and 5v5 + 1 substitute for Team Challenge). However, the point calculation was different. The total points gained was derived from the number of players left standing after wiping out the enemy team in both stages. There is a time limit in the Team Challenge. At the end of the time limit, if both teams had the same points after the two stages, the match will proceed to overtime.

## Rules

Yellow Card: It can be issued to a player as a warning for breaking the rules. A second yellow card issued would result in a red card and is usually issued more quickly than the first.

Red Card: It is issued to a player when they receive 2 yellow cards, or when they commit a huge foul. Players who receive a red card are disqualified from the current match, banned for the next match, and the ban can be extended.

Map selection: The home team selects the map for the day. Each team can only pick the same map twice for the entire season. This means that each team would have to play at least 10 different maps for the season, as there are 19 home games. To prevent teams from using the same home maps for the next season, each team can only use up to half of the maps they have chosen when playing in the following season.

## Season 1

Champion: Excellent Era

Runner-up: Royal Style

## Season 2

Champion: Excellent Era

Runner-up: Tyranny

Relegated: Jade Dynasty

## Season 3

Champion: Excellent Era

Runner-up: Hundred Blossoms

## Season 4

Champion: Tyranny

Runner-up: Excellent Era

Relegated: Jade Dynasty

## Season 5

Champion: Tiny Herb

Runner-up: Hundred Blossoms

## Season 6

Champion: Blue Rain

Runner-up: Tiny Herb

Relegated: Jade Dynasty, Duskfire

## Season 7

Champion: Tiny Herb

Runner-up: Hundred Blossoms

Relegated: Everlasting, Time

## Season 8

Champion: Samsara

Runner-up: Blue Rain

Semi-Finalists: Tiny Herb, Misty Rain

Quarter-Finalists: Tyranny, Void, Thunderclap, 301 Degrees

Relegated: Excellent Era, Mysterious Fantasy

## Season 9

Champion: Samsara

Runner-up: Tyranny

Semi-Finalists: Wind Howl, Tiny Herb

Quarter-Finalists: Blue Rain, Hundred Blossoms, Void, Misty Rain

Relegated: Time, Clear Splendor

## Season 10

Champion: Happy

Runner-up: Samsara

Semi-Finalist: Tiny Herb, Tyranny

Quarter-Finalists: Blue Rain, Thunderclap, 301 Degrees, Hundred Blossoms

Relegated: Bright Green, Seaside

## Past and Current Teams

301 Degrees

Blue Rain

Bright Green

Clear Splendor

Conquering Clouds

Duskfire

Excellent Era

Everlasting

Happy

Heavenly Sword

Hundred Blossoms

Jade Dynasty

Lightly

Miracle

Misty Rain

Mysterious Fantasy

Parade

Radiant

Royal Style

Samsara

Seaside

Thunderclap

Time

Tiny Herb

Tyranny

Void

Wind Howl

Wind Sweep

## Famed Accounts

Battle Mage - One Autumn Leaf - Battle God

Elementalist - Windy Rain - The First Elementalist

Witch - Vaccaria - Magician/The First Witch

Summoner - Concealed Light

Sharpshooter - Cloud Piercer - Great Gunner

Launcher - Dancing Rain - The First Launcher

Spitfire - Dazzling Hundred Blossoms - The First Spitfire

Mechanic - Life Extinguisher - The First Mechanic

Blade Master - Troubling Rain - Sword Saint

Ghostblade - Crying Devil - The First Phantom Demon

Berserker - Blossoming Chaos - The First Berserker

Spellblade - Empty Waves - The First Spellblade

Warlock - Swoksaar - The First Warlock

Assassin - Scene Killer - The First Assassin

Ninja - Dark Forest - The First Ninja

Thief - Doubtful Demon - The First Thief

Striker - Desert Dust - King of Fighting

Brawler - Demon Subduer - First Brawler

Qi Master - Boundless Sea - Dirty Qi Master/The First Qi Master

Grappler - Chaotic Cloudy Mountain - The First Grappler

Knight - Angelica - The First Knight

Cleric - Immovable Rock - The First Cleric

Exorcist - Peaceful Hermit - The First Exorcist

Paladin - Wind Guard - The First Paladin

## Grand Finals

*Expand for players and accounts that have played in the Grand Finals before*

## Trivia

* Each big club has a training camp, where the best players found in the game train in hopes of becoming a pro player of that team.
* Each club has a technical team to work on Silver Equipment.
	+ Due to this, each club has multiple pieces of the same Silver Equipment. This is to allow the club to conduct research without needing to use the player's account and disrupting their training sessions.
* Clubs have ownership of its players' accounts.
* Pro players have an exclusive QQ chat group.
	+ The owner of the chat never appears and players that debuted in Season 1 serve as moderators of the chat.
* Pro players typically sign a contract that lasts 3 years.
* Until Season 4, the Glory Professional Alliance had 16 teams. From then on, 20 teams became the standard.
* Excellent Era has the record of achieving the most points per match (9.2 points per match in Season 2 for a total of 276 points).
	+ Samsara is behind them with 8.4 points per match (for a total of 319 points) during Season 10.
* In the Season 9 Challengers League, a whopping 14218 teams participated, an increase of over 1000 from the Season 8 variant.
* During Season 9, the release of the 11th Server was accompanied by the increase in level cap to 75. Due to this, matches were paused for 1 week to allow teams to level up their accounts and get accustomed to the new skills.
* One of the opening matches would be the defending champion going up against one of the two new teams.
* In Season 8 and 9, a character had an average of 5.23 pieces of Silver Equipment.
* Players are able to call 'gg' in order to forfeit the portion of the match. This is usually used during an unwinnable situation, such as being in a 1v5 situation in the Team Challenge.
* Players have to attend a mandatory press conference after every match. Players that fail to do so is fined by the Alliance.
	+ The team that lost will first attend the press conference, followed by the team that won. If both teams drew, the away team will attend first, followed by the home team.
* Smoking is banned in the stadiums. In the early days of the Pro League, smoking was allowed.
* The use of voice chat was banned after Blue Rain kept utilizing it to trash talk the opponents. Players can only type in the chat channel to communicate with teammates.
	+ Ironically, after Matchday 12 on Season 10, the Alliance began considering bringing back the use of voice chat, after Yu Wenzhou could not type fast enough in the chat channel which led to his team losing the Team Challenge to Thunderclap.
* Ye Xiu and One Autumn Leaf has the most number of appearances in a Grand Finals (5).
	+ Ye Xiu has won the most number of Championships (4).

## References

2. ↑ Chapter 311
3. ↑ Chapter 91
4. ↑ Chapter 840
5. ↑ Chapter 802
6. ↑ Chapter 801
7. ↑ Chapter 520
8. ↑ Chapter 980
9. ↑ Chapter 1051
10. ↑ Chapter 1152
11. ↑ Chapter 642
12. ↑ Chapter 620
13. ↑ King's Avatar wikipedia
14. ↑ Chapter 803
15. ↑ Chapter 958
16. ↑ Chapter 826
17. ↑ Chapter 1213
18. ↑ Chapter 1217