Gun Gale Online: Squad Jam Tournament, Explained

Tournament arcs have been the staple of shounen anime series for decades. But what if the tournament is not one of the story arcs of the series? What if the tournament is the focus of the entire series? This is the premise of both seasons of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online.

This premise might seem dull at first, but as it turns out, they manage to execute it flawlessly. It may be a giant tournament that spans across the entire season, but there are no boring moments at all. Every episode is super exciting to watch. With that in mind, let’s dive deeper into this tournament. From how it began, to the rules, to the winners, this is all you need to know about the Squad Jam tournament in Gun Gale Online.

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The Origin of the Squad Jam Tournament

From Bullet of Bullets to Squad Jam

Before Squad Jam became so popular, Gun Gale Online actually had another tournament. One that involves players from all around the globe. This tournament is called the Bullet of Bullets (BoB). This is the one that Kirito and Sinon participated in during the Phantom Bullet Arc of the main Sword Art Online series. BoB is a single-player tournament, but as we’ve seen in the Phantom Bullet Arc, Kirito and Sinon teamed up for a while to decimate the other players until they eventually engaged in a 1v1 duel.

As it happened, a renowned Japanese mystery novelist saw Kirito and Sinon’s performance as a team and he liked it very much. In fact, he wanted to see more of it. So he sent a proposal to ZASKAR, the company behind Gun Gale Online, about creating a special team-based battle royale tournament. He was even willing to be the sole sponsor of this brand-new tournament. Zaskar agreed to do it, but only for their Japanese Server. And so, the Squad Jam was born.

The Rules

Now that we’ve talked about how the Squad Jam Tournament came to be, it’s time to talk about the rules. Apart from a special rule introduced in SJ3, all three Squad Jam Tournament works under the same guidelines. Here are the basic rules of the Squad Jam.

A Battle Royale

Similar to BoB, Squad Jam is a battle royale tournament. This means every team begins at the same time and they are free to choose who they want to eliminate. They can engage in a one-on-one battle, or they can work together to defeat a stronger team. They can employ whatever tactics they fancy, but the most important thing to remember is the last team standing will be the winner of the whole tournament.

Preliminaries

In the first Squad Jam, every team that registered before the deadline has the right to compete in the battle royale. Due to the popularity of the first Squad Jam, however, the number of teams who wished to participate increased significantly. So from SJ 2 onwards, a preliminary is held a day before the main tournament in order to weed out the participants. That being said, the top 5 teams from the previous tournaments are guaranteed a spot in the final roster without having to go through the preliminaries.

A Team Battle

Each team must have a minimum of 2 members and a maximum of 6 members. The team also needs to specify the chain of command when they register. That way, if the leader is eliminated, the next in command takes over, allowing the team to stay in the competition. Furthermore, every member of the same team can communicate with each other, but they can’t talk to dead members. Last but not least, only the leader has the right to resign midway through the tournament, which automatically eliminates the entire team from the competition.

Starting Point

When the tournament starts, every team will be transported to random positions on the map. Each team is at least 1km away from each other. Since the map usually consists of different terrains and areas—such as dense forests, windy deserts, and abandoned building complexes, just to name a few—each team has to adjust their strategy to make better use of their environment.

Guns and Vehicles

Every player can use whatever weapons they want. Machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, knives, photon swords, anything goes. They can use these weapons wherever they want, whenever they want, however they want. Furthermore, there are numerous vehicles littered throughout the map, and the players are free to use it however they want. From traversing the map to strapping bombs to the vehicle as a trap for the enemies, anything goes.

Friendly Fire and Dead Players

Squad Jam allows friendly fire. You might think who in their right mind will attack their own teammates? Well, the third Squad Jam is the prove that this friendly fire rule can be handy and scary, depending on who you are rooting for. We’ll talk more about this in a second. Anyway, the bodies of the players who fall in the tournament remain on the battlefield, with a “Dead” tag on their bodies, while the real players themselves are transported to the lounge area. For 10 minutes, these bodies become immortal objects and can’t be destroyed, just like trees or buildings.

The Sattelite Scan

Every 10 minutes, there will be a satellite scan that sweeps across the entire map of the tournament. This scan will reveal the location of every team that is still alive and well. Every player can see the result of this scan through their portable scan terminal, which allows them to adjust their strategy accordingly. Interestingly enough, the scan only reveals the location of the team leader. This means a leader can purposely stay behind in order to fool the enemies while the rest of the team prepares an ambush.

SJ3 Special Rules

For the third Squad Jam, a special rule is introduced at the final phase of the tournament. One member from each remaining team will be chosen as a traitor. These traitors will be grouped into a new team. Considering this new team of traitors has information on every remaining team in the field, they are certainly in an advantageous position. These traitors can choose to stay as traitors and kill their original team or double-cross the new team for the sake of their original team. This is where the friendly fire mechanic comes into play.

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The Winners

Now it’s time to talk about the winners. Every Squad Jam Tournament thus far has been brutal and wildly entertaining. And while it’s true that every player can form a team and compete in this tournament, the same teams basically dominate the Squad Jams. These teams are LPFM, SHINC, MMTM, ZEMAL, and T-S. So who are the winners among them?

Winner of the First Squad Jam

The winner of the first Squad Jam is Team LM, which consists of a team leader named “LLENN”, and a strategist/sniper named “M”. The final confrontation is between LM and SHINC. Thanks to LLENN’s unbelievable speed and agility and M’s solid strategy and sniping ability, LM manages to survive SHINC’s ambush.

M does experience a mental breakdown mid-battle which forces LLENN to eliminate half of SHINC’s squad by herself, but M eventually recovers and fights together with LLENN again. As a result, LM beat SHINC fair and squire to become the winner of the first Squad Jam Tournament. This is the tournament that solidifies LLENN’s reputation as the pink devil.

Winner of the Second Squad Jam

The winner of the second Squad Jam is Team T-S. This a highly controversial result because although T-S is indeed the last team standing, they are pretty much nowhere throughout the entire tournament. The one who stands out the most, on the other hand, is Team LF, which consists of LLENN as the team leader, and a grenadier named “FUKAZIROH”.

The true final confrontation is between LF and PM4, a team consisting of “Pitohui”, “M”, and four other contracted players. From a three-way battle to a one-sided massacre, there are so many shocking things that happen leading up to the fight between Llenn and Pito. Unfortunately for Llenn, the moment she manages to kill Pito, T-S comes and kills Llenn and Fuka, thus claiming the victory.

Winner of the Third Squad Jam

The winner of the third Squad Jam is Team BTRY, the traitors’ team that we talked about earlier. This is by far the most complicated and exciting Squad Jam thus far. There are so many surprising moments happening throughout the tournament. Not only that, but the organizers have also implemented so many great ideas into this one, such as the aforementioned traitors and the fact that the map will gradually be swallowed by the ever-rising tide, which forces the teams to race against time.

The final confrontation is between Pitohui of Team LPFM and LLENN of Team BTRY. Pito and her cunning tactics against Llenn and her relentless attacks. This is by far the most ferocious battle in the history of the Squad Jam tournament. Llenn eventually beat Pito and became the champion of the third Squad Jam.

And there you have it. These are all you need to know about the backbone of the Gun Gale Online series, the Squad Jam Tournament. It’s actually pretty impressive how the showrunners manage to keep things fresh and interesting even though we see the same characters compete in the same tournament for the third time. Needless to say, we are highly looking forward to a new season of GGO, and the new Squad Jam.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

Release Date

April 8, 2018

Based On

Light Novel

Creator

Keiichi Sigsawa

Number of Episodes

24

MyAnimeList Score

7.01 (Season 1)

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