Chapter 155
Anyway.
‘Coach, huh...’
Seo-jun fell into thought.
In fact, it wasn’t that he hadn’t considered asking Lee Dong-su.
Even a coach wouldn’t be directly involved in the competition—they’d just help with practice. After the six-day scrim period ended, there’d be a stretch of free time. That time was meant for analyzing the opponents’ strength seen in scrims and for building synergy. It was no exaggeration to say that team chemistry was essentially forged then. Some teams even held training camps.
‘Thanks for bringing it up first.’
Seo-jun smiled faintly.
However.
“If I need your help, I’ll let you know.”
There was no need to ask just yet.
“Yes. Huh? Oh, well, sure. No matter how good your physical specs are, you know you can’t match my game knowledge, right?”
It would certainly be helpful. His understanding of 5v5 team games would be far deeper than the average user’s. With the overall skill level so high, pros were practically masters in theory.
“Of course I know.”
“Why are you admitting it so readily?”
Lee Dong-su whipped his head around with a suspicious look. Seo-jun was someone who teased others like an uncle tormenting his nephew, wasn’t he?
“I don’t need to know stuff like theory, so I never learned it. What’s so hard about admitting that?”
“What?”
“Originally, brains are for people whose bodies are lacking, right?”
“...”
As expected, there was a catch. After taking yet another hit today, Dong-su fiddled with the glove he’d taken off earlier. Should he challenge him today, for the first time in a while? He was gradually getting a feel for sparring. Just one punch. If only he could land one right on that pretty-boy brother’s face!
Then, suddenly recalling one fact, Dong-su asked again.
“Then just how bad is your body, hyung?”
“Why?”
“You’re at Korea University.”
Where would someone with the brains to get into the nation’s top university come from?
“Hmm, heh heh. Your body must have been pretty lacking during your school days, right? You weren’t some bread shuttle, were you?”
Of course not, but he might as well say it. That’s what Dong-su was thinking as he opened his mouth, but from behind him, Tae-woo coughed loudly. What was that? That hyung had said he was just checking the patch notes again before sleeping, only to be dragged here by Seo-jun hyung. Was he just sleepy?
“Ah. Bread shuttle?”
Cough, cough.
Seo-jun smiled bitterly, and Tae-woo’s cough grew rougher.
“I did eat a lot of bread back in school. Me.”
Dong-su felt confusion. What? Was it true? Could it be that because of bullying, he had rallied his spirits and did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10km run every day until he became strong?
‘If so, I better watch out for hair loss.’
As Dong-su was having this typical high-schooler thought, a large hand reached from behind and settled on his shoulder.
“Dong-su.”
It was the Manager.
“Yes?”
“No.”
“What is it?”
“That nettle was the same back then, too.”
The Manager recalled a secret he had never really told anyone. The son of a friend who had come to learn modern martial arts had immediately stepped onto the ring. Confident to the point of being cocky yet endearing, and as usual, the Manager had tried to seize the psychological advantage. But at some point, his vision had gone dark. That’s right. That damned nettle brat had been a finished product from the start.
“Ah-ha? But what’s a nettle?”
“You don’t need to know.”
* * *
4:05 PM.
Seo-jun entered Ha Yun-ho’s lobby.
“You’re here! Our team ace!”
The meeting time had been 4:20, but everyone except Seo-jun was already there.
Seo-jun felt a question then.
“Wait, it’s 4:05. What about Baramgeom?”
“He went straight to a capsule room near his office!”
“Ah.”
“Well, as you all know, there’s pretty much a capsule room on every block in Seoul.”
It wasn’t quite that much, but there were indeed a lot. But Seoul?
Seo-jun wasn’t one to miss a slip of the tongue. The reason the meeting time was 4:20 was to account for Baramgeom’s getting off work. If his office was in Seoul and he got off at 4:20, it naturally meant he lived in Seoul too.
‘So he’s not living in the provinces after all.’
Baramgeom didn’t even know he’d made a mistake, and Seo-jun filed the information away in his mind.
“Well then, let’s first discuss the matter of positions.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think of me and Rumi going bottom?”
Their most-played roles were ADC and support. However, sending those two to the bottom lane meant basically giving up on the bottom side.
“I talked with Rumi yesterday, and we’re confident we can hold out! Haha. We’ve both gotten pretty damn good at just surviving.”
Considering that in lower tiers, merely not dying much and holding out counts as pulling your weight, and pulling your weight often earns you the title of carry or even MVP for that game.
“Well, funneling all the weakness onto one side of the bottom lane and blowing things up from the top might not be a bad setup. But if by any chance among the three of you, someone is relatively better at ADC or support than other roles, then prioritizing that person would be the best option.”
He shrugged and asked for the trio’s opinions.
And.
“...”
“...”
Alpaca and Baramgeom wore expressions that looked somewhat apologetic. If this were being streamed, viewers would have had a field day teasing them.
“Yes, understood. Haha, that’s fine. What about you, Seo-jun?”
“As for me, I think I could go anywhere, but I’ve only played mid.”
“I know that. It’s not like you’ve played the game a lot, Seo-jun.”
Seo-jun had spoken including his past experience, but regardless, his opinion was conveyed.
“Then for now, it seems right for Seo-jun to go mid. We should concentrate strength in the role he’s best at.”
Hmm.
‘I think I could manage other lanes just fine, though?’
Seo-jun was confident. So much so that if Baramgeom or Alpaca proved completely incapable in another lane, it might be better for him to go to that other lane and let one of them go mid. Yun-ho would surely know that too.
‘Is he planning to check that today?’
Then Yun-ho continued.
“And above all, if we establish a system where Seo-jun goes mid, and the other two increase their proficiency in their positions, we gain a tremendous advantage. Because although it’s not well known, I’m comfortable enough at top that it’s practically my secondary role.”
Ah. He could see what he was getting at. The team members’ eyes widened.
“If Seo-jun needs to go top, we can just swap with top. If he needs to go jungle, we can swap with jungle. Since both would have been mid laners. And if AD? Then whoever went top goes mid, and I take top.”
In other words.
“You’re saying we can use Seo-jun flexibly? Adapting to the situation?”
Just as Alpaca said.
“Exactly. That is, provided the other two adapt to those positions to some degree. Wouldn’t this practically be an invincible strategy?”
He’d found a way to turn the crisis into an opportunity. The premise was absurdly that Seo-jun had to be good in all lanes, but the team members didn’t have a single shred of doubt about that point.
“This could certainly be our unique invincible strategy.”
“What do you think, Seo-jun?”
“Sounds good.”
“Then let’s check it out today. We’ll run some 5-man games. I’ve invited fellow streamers as opponents.”
As expected. Even if he seemed a bit reckless at the auction, his thoroughness in preparation was unmatched.
“So, who wants to play top?”
Yun-ho’s voice was refreshing, as if everything was falling into place smoothly.
* * *
“Good work, everyone.”
“Thank you all for participating in today’s friendly scrims!”
After the practice games ended, they gathered in the lobby. And Yun-ho, who was beside Seo-jun, sighed and muttered to himself.
“Seriously, what do we do?”
His voice was full of anguish.
- lololol as expected
- Just send Baramgeom top and give mid to Kael lolol
- Still, Baramgeom was a Challenger/Grandmaster a few years ago, why is his jungling so bad?
- That’s why he got placed in B lol. You think the ops team is blind?
- But Baramgeom not playing mid but someone else looks like he’s not even B-tier? lolol
- Rearrange the positions again.
He seemed to be agonizing, and the content of that agony was likely this.
‘Should I just ditch the Seo-jun mid system and send one of them mid?’
In truth, that was the thought that filled the heads of the other four besides Seo-jun simultaneously.
‘Hmm.’
They had played a total of three friendly matches today. The result was 2 wins, 1 loss. And maybe because they lost the third match.
- lololol broadcast host, let’s settle that karma tomorrow
- You’re even losing one here, what’re you gonna do in the tournament lolol
- Ah, you’re saying you didn’t play seriously today?
- Team game, so it really can’t be helped lolololol
The discipline in chat had grown lax.
“It seems.”
Seo-jun quietly watched the chat and spoke. Education was needed for a moment.
“How about we end the broadcast now? Bye-bye.”
- ???
- Crazy host, don’t end it… we were wrong.
- All you bastards who teased him, aren’t you gonna bow your heads?
- I didn’t do it! I said I didn’t!
- Aaaargh! Ending stream just because of teasing?!
“Bye-bye.”
“It’s about time to end. Bye-bye.”
“Bye, guys.”
One by one, the streams ended. Seo-jun felt the slightest bit sorry for the viewers in the other rooms, but he shook it off quickly. It was about time anyway. They shouldn’t be revealing their strategies.
“By the way, Yun-ho, you said the enemy jungler today was Platinum, right? Were they C-tier maybe?”
Baramgeom asked, and Yun-ho calmly brought him back to reality.
“No, D-tier. Low Platinum.”
“Gah.”
Both Baramgeom and Alpaca swallowed a groan simultaneously. A demon of doubt had visited them. It was inevitable. Baramgeom and Alpaca had been completely wrecked by the enemy jungler in today’s games, and that jungler was D-tier. They’d improve if they learned, and they hadn’t really played jungle, but still—they had been toyed with by a D-tier.
“It seemed like Alpaca, who jungled the first and last games, did a little better.”
Gah.
With Rumi’s words, a second dagger flew straight into Baramgeom’s chest.
“So, what should we do?”
Yun-ho asked for Seo-jun’s opinion. It wasn’t because Seo-jun was A-tier.
“You said it’s best to place people in the positions they can perform best in, regardless of lane carry potential, right?”
“Looking at the strong teams from past tournaments, that does seem to be the case.”
“I think we need to observe a bit more for now.”
Seo-jun judged that the mid system, which allowed him to flexibly go to any lane, was indeed useful.
“You know tomorrow is the scrim, right?”
What Yun-ho was getting at was this. They said the outcome didn’t matter, but still, if they lost.
“Are you worried about karma?”
“Yes.”
Their team needed practice right now. And if they practiced during tomorrow’s scrim, the likelihood of losing was high. The scrim result itself didn’t mean much, but right away, there was the karma Seo-jun had accumulated that was the problem.
“So what? It’s a scrim. We lost today too.”
“The reaction will be a bit different between today and tomorrow.”
Seo-jun recalled the chats teasing him earlier and spoke.
“Well, even so, it’s fine.”
If they lost and he froze the chat, wouldn’t people donate just to tease him? If that’s the case, then it was a chance to rake in donations? With no idea Seo-jun was thinking this, the teammates burned with resolve to do their best, scrim or not.
“Alright.”
“Then for now, Baramgeom takes top.”
“Everyone, fighting for tomorrow!”
The next day. Seo-jun’s team opponent was decided. It was the team of Goblin, whose jungler was A-tier.