Work Text:
Season Nine Match Dates
The regular season dates are derived from explicitly stated dates in the novel (namely: Sept 7 and June 7 as the dates of the first and final matches, and Dec 14th as the first game after the lv 75 update), the knowledge that All-Stars is on the first weekend of January, and counting the number of matches there are in a season. I am truly astounded that those anchor dates lined up perfectly on this calendar without any finagling or tearing-of-hair.
The only thing that may be odd about this schedule is that there needs to be a match during the Spring Festival. However, the GPA’s schedule may result in Spring Festival matches even without external events (e.g., the lv75 update) interfering with their planned schedule (ch 407 shows it happening in s8), so I guess that's fine in BB's mind!
Regular Season
Sept 7: Match 1
Sept 14: Match 2
Sept 21: Match 3
Sept 28: Match 4
Oct 5: Match 5
Oct 12: Match 6
Oct 19: Match 7
Oct 26: Match 8
Nov 2: Match 9
Nov 9: Match 10
Nov 16: Match 11
Nov 23: Match 12
Nov 30: Match 13
Dec 3: Level 75 Update
Dec 7: no match, update week
Dec 14: Match 14
Dec 21: Match 15
Dec 28: Match 16
(Calendar year change! It’s 2025 now)
Weekend of Jan 4: All-Stars
Jan 11: Match 17
Jan 18: Match 18
[Jan 23: Spring Festival starts]
Jan 25: Match 19
[Jan 29: Spring Festival ends]
[Halfway point of the season]
Feb 1: Match 20
Feb 8: Match 21
Feb 15: Match 22
Feb 22: Match 23
Mar 1: Match 24
Mar 8: Match 25
Mar 15: Match 26
Mar 22: Match 27
Mar 29: Match 28
April 5: Match 29
April 12: Match 30
April 19: Match 31
April 26: Match 32
May 3: Match 33
May 10: Match 34
May 17: Match 35
May 24: Match 36
May 31: Match 37
June 7: Match 38
Playoffs Teams: Regular Season Standings
1. Tyranny
2. Samsara
3. Wind Howl
4. Tiny Herb
5. Blue Rain
6. Misty Rain
7. Void
8. Hundred Blossoms
Playoffs Match Dates
Unlike the Regular Season, the Playoffs dates were not smooth and easy to figure out. BB’s stated schedule requires too much time!
As a result, I’ve made this work out so that the playoffs do end in June (as ch1080 requires). This requires that matches occur every 2-3 days instead of every 3-4 days (like ch1077 states), because having the season end before the transfer period begins felt very important. Besides, the squished feeling is appropriate for a season championship won partially on Tyranny's exhaustion from playing so frequently.
The matches are winners are canonical; the listed dates are not. The order of victories is also from the novel, though I don't have those chapters listed. The given dates are the result of me screaming at calendars and BB; I think he needed another week in June to make his schedule work. (Or for the regular season to have ended before June began!)
If you have other ideas about how the Playoffs dates fit into canon, I’d love to hear your suggestions! And, again, these dates are not canonical! Take them with a grain of salt!
Quarterfinals:
1 Tyranny vs 8 HB: 3 matches [10th T, 13th HB, 15th T]
2 Samsara vs 7 Void: 2 matches [11th S, 14th S]
3 Wind Howl vs 6 Misty Rain: 2 matches [11th WH, 14th WH]
4 Tiny Herb vs 5 Blue Rain: 3 matches [10th BR, 13th TH, 15th TH]
Semifinals:
2 Samsara vs 3 Wind Howl: 2 matches [18th S, 21th S]
1 Tyranny vs 4 Tiny Herb: 3 matches [17th TH, 20th T, 22nd T]
Finals:
1 Tyranny vs 2 Samsara: 3 matches [24th T, 27th S, 30th S]
Champions: Samsara
(Fun fact: Except for the Finals themselves, the higher seeded team always wins in the end.)
The Timeline
June
- After s8 Quarterfinals (mid-June): Xiao Shiqin announces he’s leaving Thunderclap (641)
- After s8 Finals (late June): Tao Xuan confirms Xiao Shiqin will come to EE (694)
- June 28: Liu Hao and He Ming learn they’re being traded to Thunderclap (713)
July
- July 1: Summer Transfer Window Begins (694)
- July 1: Xiao Shiqin arrives at Excellent Era. Liu Hao and He Ming depart EE for Thunderclap. (713-717)
- Lin Jingyan transfers to Tyranny (July 3?) (751)
- Tang Hao transfers to Wind Howl (July 4?) (752)
- Zhang Jiale transfers to Tyranny (Dazzling Hundred Blossoms is transferred on “the fourth day of the third week,” and ZJL confirms his intentions that night. July 20th?) (758)
- Yu Feng transfers to Hundred Blossoms (on “the final day of [the third week].” July 22nd?) (760)
- Deng Fusheng retires from Tiny Herb at the beginning of the fourth week (July 24th?) (761). Xu Bin doesn’t transfer in as his replacement immediately, but it’s hard to tell when he does transfer! It has to be before mid-August, but I couldn’t find any specific date.
- New players: Lu Hanwen (second week of July) (754), Gai Caijie, Qin Muyun, Zhang Qi
August
- Aug 1: Challenger League Registration begins [762]
- Aug 2/3: Mo Fan starts getting killed by other pros (ZXJ, LJY, etc.) to help YX, and this wears Mo Fan down into agreeing to try joining Happy (764) (he should arrive at Happy in the early morning of August 3rd)
- Aug 5: Luo Ji arrives at Happy Internet Cafe in the morning (766) and An Wenyi arrives in the evening (768), so Happy has their first all-team in-person dinner
- Around Aug 15: Pro players stop hanging around in-game helping kill bosses because teams are beginning to prepare for the regular season (771)
- Third week: Guo Yang transfers from EE to Wind Howl (771)
- Third week: Happy registers for Challenger League (771-2)
- August 18-31: Happy Internet Cafe is free as a promotional event for the team (777)
- Guild Excellent Dynasty says they won’t try and challenge Happy because Ye Qiu is Lord Grim (784), and the GPA informs everyone that Lord Grim is registered to Ye Xiu (785)
- Aug 29: Zhang Jiale officially joins Tyranny, one year after his retirement.
- EE’s training camp (including Qiu Fei) challenges Happy (789-799) (799: Qiu Fei punches Chen Yehui in the face)
September
- Sept 1: Summer Transfer Window ends; Challenger League registration ends (801)
- Sept 6: First Challenger League online match (802)
- Sept 7: GPA Season 9 begins (803)
- Sept 20: Happy faces Everlasting (match begins: chapter 809)
- Sept 22 or so: Happy’s victory over Everlasting is mentioned in the papers (chapters 825, 830, 844)
October
- Nothing specific
- Chapters 854-855 mention that there’s news articles discussing the teams and eye-catching players. (Dual Witches, Lu Hanwen, Wind Howl, Tyranny, Hundred Blossoms, and Heavenly Swords.)
November
- Nov 18: Announcement of Level 75 Update (855)
- Nov 18: Announcement that the GPA will delay matches by a week after the update (so there’s no match on Dec 7th) to allow the pros to level and adjust to the new update. (855, 857)
December
- Dec 3: Level 75 Update (857)
- Dec 3: Pro players begin showing up in game (877)
- Dec 3: Pro players chat excitedly about the update (883)
- Dec 3: One-year anniversary of Ye Xiu’s retirement (885)
- Dec 14: First pro matches at level 75. Nobody uses the new skills, but they do use level 75 Orange equipment (silver equipment generally stays, but level 70 Orange equipment is traded out). (888)
- Dec 15-20: Happy rules the Level 75 dungeon records (888-889)
- Dec 22/23 (probably): Excellent Era challenges Happy for the dungeon records. Xiao Shiqin uncovers how Liu Hao’s obsessive grudge against Ye Xiu resulted in Excellent Era performing worse than they should have in the GPA, since Liu Hao was in-game grudge-fighting instead. (892)
- Dec 25-27: Christmas Stocking in-game event. Introduction of the Shu Twins. (895-918)
- Late Dec: Level 75 Orange equipment provides a buff to weaker pro teams, as they allow more even competition with Level 70 Silver equipment. (919)
January
- Jan 1: All-Stars voting closes. All-Stars are announced in a promo video. (920)
- Jan 3-5: All-Stars (921)
- Jan 3: Sun Zheping meets and joins Hundred Swords and Happy (931-932)
- Jan 18: Drawing lots for Challenger League offline group placements (939)
- Jan 22: Lunar New Year’s Eve (940)
- Jan 23-29: Spring Festival
- January (all): Wild boss hunting for materials
February
- Feb 1: The first Level 75 Silver Equipment appears in the Pro League; Cloud Piercer’s Shattered Frost. (941)
- Feb 8: More Level 75 Equipment debuts: Cloud Piercer’s Right Hand Revolver, Wildfire; Vaccaria’s Stardust Extermination; Troubling Rain’s Ice Rain; and Desert Dust’s Flame Fist [the MMU reaches lv65 at this time]. (941)
- Mid February: Other Silver Equipment upgrades quickly follow. (941)
- February (all): Wild Boss Hunting! Chapter 942 calls out Feb 16 as an exemplar, saying that Misty Rain fights Forest Guardian Vich and Wind Howl fights Sword Master Kyou.
- Feb 22: Tian Sen is almost late to a home game because he’s fighting Ye Xiu and Happy for a wild boss (944)
- Feb 28: Esports Home puts out an issue showing the number of mistakes pro players made that month and comparing it to previous months. (955)
March
- First week of March: The GPA’s February briefing shows that the pros made a starting number of mistakes, and that those mistakes were mostly made by top teams. (954)
- First week of March: Feng Xianjun (GPA Chairman) calls a meeting of top-tier captains to figure out why they’re making so many mistakes. (955)
- First week of March: Pro players helping their teams boss-hunt send players to go deal with Happy, which delights Happy and makes the pro players’ lives easier. (957)
- March 30: GPA stats reveal that Radiant, Conquering Clouds, Parade, and Heavenly Swords are all doing better than expected, knocking down Thunderclap to 12th place. (957)
April
- April 1: The GPA notifies Challenger League teams that they must check-in at the competition venue on the 19/20th. (958)
- April 19/20: Challenger League teams arrive and check in to City B. (959)
- April 21: Ye Xiu’s name reveal is published in Esports Home (964)
- April 23: Challenger League Offline tournament begins [Happy sits out this match] (965)
- April 25: Team Happy has their first offline match [vs Team Ten Steps One Kill] (966)
- April 28: Esports Home reports on Excellent Era’s dominance of the Challenger’s League (967)
- April 29: Third round [Happy vs Team Trader] (967)
May
- May 2: Fourth round [Happy vs Team Cloud Viewing Pavillion] (969)
- May 6: Fifth round; final match of group stage [Happy vs Mysterious Fantasy] (971)
- [Explanation of the new competition format being tested in the knockout/playoffs phase of the challengers finals (980)]
- May 9: Esports Home publishes Chang Xian’s article about Happy (981)
- May 10: Discussion of the GPA team rankings as of the 34th round of the season (981)
- May 16: Challenger League Quarterfinals. They aren’t exciting. (981)
- May 23: Challenger League Semi-Finals [Happy vs Jade Destiny] (983-996)
- May 25: The media begins attempting to interview Happy/Ye Xiu about being in the Challenger League Finals (997)
- May 26: Esports Home publishes poll results showing that 91% of respondents expect Excellent Era to beat Happy. The GPA decides to move the Finals to Liulisong Sports Arena [a bigger venue]. (997)
- May 30: Challenger League Finals (the match is chapters 1000-1052)
- May 30: Happy skips their post-match interview because they forgot about it (1054)
- May 31-June 1: The media learns about how Ye Xiu left Excellent Era and started working at Happy Internet Cafe (1054-1055)
June
- June 1-6: Excellent Era refuses to talk to the media about Ye Xiu and their loss (1055)
- June 7: Excellent Era announces that they’re up for sale (1055)
- June 7: Final match of GPA s9 regular season. Listing of the top 8 teams, some discussion of lower-placed teams. (1057-1058)
- June 9: Press conference for teams entering the GPA in s10. Ye Xiu gives a speech about how Excellent Era is in the hearts of its fans. “I’m back!” headlines. (1058-1061)
- Early June: New rules for GPA s9 Playoffs are announced (1062)
- Mid June: GPA s9 quarterfinals (1063)
- Mid June: Ye Xiu and Xiao Shiqin talk about Excellent Era’s sale and Xiao Shiqin’s (lack of) plans for what comes next (1065)
- Mid/Late June: Happy gets sponsorships and GPA s9 Semifinals (1071)
- Late June: GPA s9 Finals [Samsara vs Tyranny] (1075-1079)
July
- July 1: Summer Transfer Window Begins. The Golden Generation renews their contracts for the second time. (1080)
- Early transfers, in order: Sun Xiang and OAL to Samsara (1080), Liu Hao and Absent Sun to Wind Howl (1082), Xiao Shiqin and Life Extinguisher to Thunderclap (1082), He Ming to Miracle (1082)
- Early July: Xia Zhongtian buys Excellent Era; he and Qiu Fei announce their plans to go through the Challenger’s League next year (1083)
- July: Summertime In-Game Boss Fights Begin (1084)