Starting in class C: not completely defective.

Arc 10 chapter 1: even selection exam explanation

"There's one other important piece of the puzzle here, aside from deciding upon the events. And this is the fact that you are going to need a 'commander' to manage this many people. Please keep in mind that this commander will not be able to participate in events directly.

"A commander...?"

So that's why there were only thirty-eight student card up on the board, huh?

"It's an important job, and one that requires adaptability. You can interpret this position as a supporting role—someone who assists with all the events and provides lifelines when necessary. They can, for example, substitute for another student, or solve a difficult problem. This isn't limited to sports, either. Even in events like Go and Shogi, the commander will be allowed to intervene," said Sakagami.

That meant this wasn't simply a showdown between students based on their fundamental skills. The commanders played a role too, huh?

"You must also decide how your commander will get 'involved.' Ah, yes. Say, for example, if we went with Rock Paper Scissors...you could come up with rules such as 'the commander may volunteer to step in and participate once, when they wish,' or 'the commander can substitute for another student who is about to play.' Determine the methods your commander can step in," she explained.

It sounded like the commander's involvement was generally accepted as long as it was fair. If we have the commander the ability to swap out players in events like baseball and soccer, it would essentially be assigning them the role of coach. Although there were seven events, it was likely that the commander's involvement was going to be a major part of consideration.

"Commanders will be granted private points individually in the case that they help secure a victory. But they'll also be held responsible for defeat. That's right. If their class is defeated, the commander will be expelled," explained Sakagami.

So, someone was going to be forcefully expelled this time around, too.

"In this special exam, having a commander is absolutely essential. If the commander is not present, the test will not be allowed to proceed. If you have trouble trying to come to a decision on your own through discussion, come talk to me. I will appoint someone appropriate for the role."

And we had to nominate someone, just like before. I could see Ryuuen turn back to look at me, grinning, as if saying "I hope you're ready to do some hard work." What a pain.

"How will our opponents be decided?" Asked Ryuuen, turning back towards the front.

"The students who have taken on the role of commander will all gather together in the multi-purpose room after class today. We'll hold a lottery for those students to be able to choose their opponent. You'll have to discuss among yourselves in advance about which class you'd choose if you win the lottery."

It sounded like the winner of the lottery would get to select the class they wanted to go up against, leaving the two remaining classes to be automatically matched up with one another.

The best result in my mind would be for us to go against class C. Honami and I could collaborate, and make sure our results were fairly even.

"Then, we obviously gotta go with class D, right? Our chances of winning against them will be higher."

Well there's that idea out the window. Obviously everyone will want to go up against the 'defective' class.

"It's certainly true that going up against students currently languishing in class D might increase your chances of winning, due to their overall inferiority. However, it's not necessarily an advantage to fight against a lower-level class," said Sakagami.

In other words, if that were true, then the three other classes would inevitably pick class D. Now that I had fought against Horikita, I knew that class D would be a formidable opponent.

"Chemistry matters in this exam. It's very important that you take each class's distinctive characteristics into account."

We didn't necessarily need to despair, even if we were competing agains class B or class C. If we chose events favourable to our class, we'd have a good chance of winning. But the unavoidable truth was that the higher the level of the class, the tougher of an opponent they'd be. Despite what Sakagami had said, not a single person in class cracked a smile.

Ryuuen's imagination was running wild, too. He was wondering if we could crush a class in all 7 events as we were now.

"It seems what I said wasn't much of a comfort. In that case, let's look at some harsh truths. If you're defeated, and class D wins...you will probably fall to class B, depending on class B's results."

Sakagami picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the current class point totals.

Class points as of March 1st

Class 1-A: 1546
Class 1-B: 1362
Class 1-C: 0672
Class 1-D: 0347

There was a clear difference between class B and class C. The only way to move up in the class rankings would be through a special exam.

"As for how these events will affect your class points...you'll see an increase or decrease of thirty points per event. So if you win all seven events, that means you get two hundred and ten points. If you win five and lose two, you'll get ninety points. The points come from the opposing class's total. In addition, the school will award you another one hundred points as a reward for overall victory," explained Sakagami.

Which meant we could earn a maximum of three hundred and ten points. The fact that we could snatch class points from our opponents through winning these events was another major upside. We could increase our own points whilst decreasing the points of classes below us. Depending on the matchup and the results, we could take an overwhelming lead in the class competition, or get knocked down to class B, or even back to class C if it got really bad.

"In the event that the opposing class lacks the sufficient number of class points, the school will temporarily make up the differences but require the class to eventually reimburse them for those points. This means a class may appear to have zero points on the surface, but will actually have a negative class point total," explained Sakagami.

So it was possible for class points to drop below zero, albeit in an invisible manner. At any rate, since every class had over two hundred and ten points at present, that didn't seem like something we needed to worry about.

3053 words
Long chapter, again pretty much straight from the LN.
Not much else to say really
Hope you're all doing well and I hope you enjoyed