White Pavilion Opens Dual Banner Less Than a Month After Launch — Tencent Leaks It Early, Retracts in Record Speed, Players Call It a Shameless Cash Grab

White Pavilion (白荆回廊) hasn't even been out for a month, and Tencent is already reaching for players' wallets with both hands. On January 26, eagle-eyed netizens spotted what appeared to be an official Tencent channel prematurely leaking the January 30 banner schedule — a dual banner featuring both Baili Tusu and Hongyu dropping simultaneously. Players immediately screenshotted everything, and the post was scrubbed at lightspeed.

The dual-banner bombshell sent the community into full meltdown mode. Some players tried to run defense, claiming it could be 'one 5-star and one 6-star character, with one being limited and one standard.' But that theory got shut down fast — others pointed out that the Cen Ying (岑樱) UP banner didn't mention dual pools, so why would this one? Someone even dug up official announcements showing the Longqing standard banner was scheduled for February 22, making the 'limited + standard' theory impossible. One player quipped, 'You might as well say it's one character banner and one imprint (烙痕) banner — at least that would be funny.'

A commenter in reply #6 nailed it: 'Dual banners dropping on the same day, and the current UP period hasn't even ended yet — imagine if there's a third one.' Reply #14 went scorched earth, slamming the developers for being completely silent on the upcoming major event despite it launching in just four days: 'Not even a CNY event preview? Just letting the community test the waters for you?' They sarcastically expressed wanting to see 'double limited 6-star banners + double imprint banners for New Year — go all in!'

Many players directed their anger straight at the game's operations team. Reply #7 quipped, 'Guess they think they have too many players,' while reply #8 fired back with an even spicier take: 'It's not that they have too many players — it's that they realized they have too few, so they're trying to milk whoever's still here before they leave.' Others lamented that recent gacha games seem to have activated 'Made in Heaven' (a JoJo reference) — their lifecycles are accelerating at an absurd pace. Reply #11 bluntly stated the game probably hasn't even recouped its marketing costs, hence the desperation to squeeze players dry.

It's worth noting this isn't White Pavilion's first operations disaster. The Cen Ying banner fiasco — where the devs were vague about banner details, testing players' tolerance — was still fresh in everyone's memory. 'The wound from getting pushed back on the Cen Ying banner isn't even healed, and you're already pouring salt on it?' one player lamented. Meanwhile, suspicious signs of community management (社管, a term for paid or official shills who pose as regular players to control narratives) emerged — reply #19 pointed out, 'Just like they said on the White Pavilion board, 100 free pulls — I'm starting to suspect 80% of these commenters are shills using the 100-pull giveaway as cover.'

As of now, there's been no official response regarding the dual-banner leak. From the Cen Ying controversy to the dual-banner firestorm, White Pavilion's operations team seems to be speedrunning the road to ruin. Burning through player trust in less than a month after launch — this might just earn a spot in the gacha industry hall of shame.