DNN2

"Good morning, everyone, welcome to a pretty chilly day here at the Winter Palace. You're watching DNN Sport 2, I'm Sam Tinbru, with me as always is Bob Anmo, and for the next eight hours we'll be bringing you all the action from Friday practice ahead of what we already know will be the closest championship decider in years, right Bob?"

"You're the one who's done the maths, not me, Sam, but even I can't argue with that assessment. Five riders with at least a mathematical chance at the title, the top four separated by only five points, even the teams title isn't completely settled just yet."

"Yes, defending champion Feran Andoal comes here trailing five-time former champion Lucia Aelschu by only a single point after winning in absolute domination two weeks ago in Cao Wei. Then there are the two brilliant young rookies, Nikita Coro and Phoebe Tenryuu, level on eighty-seven, four points behind Feran, and Arden Markwe back on eighty-three."

"I don't want to dismiss Arden, Emperor knows he deserves a run at this as much as any of them, but it's hard to see this as his year."

"Indeed, he'd need to win the race with Lucia and Feran out of the points and Niki and Phoebe off the podium."

"Small chance of that. Anyway, I know you want to hit me with all the juicy stuff, go on."

"Well, it's pretty simple for Feran and Lucia; win the race, or come second, or in Lucia's case third as well, and they're champion. There's more complex maths further down, but it's easier to look at it from the rookies' sides. Ready?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Go on, get it over with."

"Okay, the key thing here is tie-breaks. In the event that two riders are tied on points, whichever has the most wins takes the place; if they're tied on wins too, then second places and so on. Phoebe, Lucia and Feran all have four wins, Niki three, but Phoebe has three second places to Lucia's one and Feran's two. So Phoebe effectively holds all the tie-breakers that Niki doesn't. With me so far?"

"You haven't even started on the points yet."

"Yes, well, I'm getting there. Phoebe and Niki have eighty-seven points, Feran ninety-one, Lucia ninety-two. Because of the tie-breakers, Phoebe can finish level with Feran or Lucia and still beat them, so she needs to outscore Lucia by five and Feran by four. Niki needs to beat them outright, so outscoring Lucia by six and Feran by five. So for example, if Niki takes second, ze needs Feran sixth and Lucia seventh, and Phoebe behind zir."

"Unlikely."

"Yes. And, of course, if Niki wins, that would put zir on four wins with everyone else, and ze does have a tie-breaker on second places, just to make it even more complicated. Then ze would just need Phoebe second, Feran third and Lucia fourth."

"You're losing me already, Sam. Can we keep it simpler? What happens if you assume those four will take the top four places, in some order or other?"

"Oh, that cuts out all the most interesting bits!"

"That's the idea."

"Haha, alright. It does make it a bit simpler, and I agree it's pretty likely. Basically if Lucia or Feran wins, they're champion. If one of the rookies wins, they need the other rookie between them and Lucia and Feran, with Lucia off the podium."

"See? That wasn't so bad, now, was it. You should see the chart he's got up in our production office, folks, we'd be here all day if he tried to talk through all of it."

"Now be fair, that covers the whole field, not just the championship leaders."

"You had to poach a whole second whiteboard. There's barely room to move in there right now."

"Well, don't worry, we won't need it much longer. Let's move on."