NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36
“Everyone, charge forward!”
The blonde-haired girl shouted while waving the flag.
Her spirited voice was enough to boost the morale of her allies, and the soldiers rushed out in droves at the command of the younger leader.
Among them were also heroes with superhuman strength, aligned with the soldiers.
In an instant, the enemy formation crumbled under their relentless onslaught, precisely targeting the gaps.
In this case, one could say the commander’s order was effective.
Of course, Riri, who had picked Theodora, didn’t have such capability. She merely cast her skill at my request to unleash her ultimate at the right moment.
But that alone was tremendous progress and a sufficient achievement.
To begin with, in this tournament, the lowest tier—unseen bronze-tier players—would earn praise simply for using their ultimate skills properly.
It’s like a child who couldn’t walk at all suddenly starting to toddle, drawing applause from those around.
And just now, Riri’s play was akin to that child unexpectedly standing on their own and hopping around.
“Wow, that ultimate was insane! Did you really just break through that?”
“Riri, you did so well!”
“Hehe….”
It was natural for the team members to shower her with accolades. After all, they had been worried about Riri, who had initially seemed to lag behind.
In the midst of all this, something astonishing happened. During the last practice session, she had been gloomy due to her lackluster performance and had rushed off, claiming she would train individually.
And now, without warning, she had successfully transitioned to a supporter role today.
Already three consecutive wins. All the games they won had a significant contribution from Riri. It was no longer just a casual game; they needed to recruit serious contenders for scrims among the viewers.
While her team members continued to praise her, Riri smiled awkwardly but proudly.
Hakchu curiously asked her, “But why did you suddenly change roles? You used to play as an ADC.”
“Oh, it’s because my teacher recommended it.”
“Your teacher?”
“Yes, my teacher. I mean, Kayak.”
There was a new depth of trust in Riri’s voice as she calmly spoke.
“Kayak is your teacher…? Ah, you two went together back then.”
“After watching me play a few rounds, she told me that being a supporter would suit me much better. Since then, I followed Kayak’s advice and played a few rounds, and the results indeed improved.”
“I just saw that the Supporter role would be much better,” she said. After that, listening to Kayak, I played a few rounds, and indeed, the results were better.”
“Ah…”
Indeed, I had just witnessed Riri’s gameplay, the games she cultivated right before my eyes.
Honestly, I couldn’t even remember the previous ADC, but now, this felt so much more impactful and troublesome from the enemy’s perspective.
Anyway, after Riri’s switch to Support, people’s attention turned elsewhere.
“No way, Kayak! You can do that too?”
“What do you mean?”
“Finding heroes that suit each person and switching positions, that’s something professional coaches do. Isn’t that what the Pro Team management does?”
LimeTack’s words sounded somewhat like banter, but the team members were beginning to catch onto how remarkable it really was.
Especially for Han Kang, who was positioned in the high tier and had connections with pro teams, he knew just how absurd this was.
Of course, there’s a world of difference between the pro scene and general games or events. Riri’s rank was currently a measly bronze, nowhere near the pros.
However, just because Riri was coaching didn’t mean anyone could just jump in and do it.
‘You think results come immediately just because you coach a bit?’
Han Kang, who had experienced many event matches and participated in the first Abyss Streamer Championship before this tournament, knew better.
Even with coaches ranked Challenger 300 and international second-tier pro team coaches, and even those with Asian Games championship experience, not everyone was able to achieve results.
In fact, many of them struggled with teaching. Unlike coaching professionals, the people they had to coach were amateurs, many of whom didn’t even know the heroes’ skills in the Abyss.
There were even situations where those who were brought in had no understanding of the players.
It was a feeling of, “Why can’t they do this?” Someone even said it felt like their knowledge was being shattered.
Those were not easy memories. Because of that, this time, we didn’t bother to bring someone in for the coaching role. The team’s first practice went somewhat smoothly without Riri.
Still, that didn’t mean there was no reason not to get training from someone whose abilities had already been proven.
“Kayak, can I have you look at me later?”
“Me too! I actually have a joker card prepared!”
“I actually have a Joker card prepared, but—.”
“No way, Teacher, you’re too busy teaching just me.”
Countless requests for lessons are heading towards Kayak.
Han Kang quietly watched the scene, then smiled slyly.
He thought it might actually be worth aiming for victory in this tournament.
*
“This team has so many builds….”
Meanwhile, it wasn’t just Kayak’s team that was fully prepared for the upcoming tournament.
Among the four teams, one of them was coached unofficially by Han Sang-soo, who grimaced while scrolling the mouse wheel in the team that Nicang belonged to.
He had taken on the coaching and analysis role because he was the team leader, Yu Hye’s, acquaintance, but there really wasn’t much to coach.
With not much time left until the tournament, it was tight for teaching anything at all.
In such a short period, teaching amateurs to expand their hero pool or new builds was absurd.
It would be much more effective to set up scrim schedules and analyze the opposing team instead. At least, that’s what Sang-soo thought.
And so now, he was in the process of analyzing another team.
“What the hell, what is this again?”
It was impossible not to curse.
What on earth is this team that keeps coming up with such bizarre builds?
The number of builds and heroes on the list of things to be cautious about surpassed even double that of the other teams’ practice broadcasts.
Sang-soo shook his head in disbelief at the weirdness.
“What’s up this time?”
“I don’t even know the name. Calliope is going in with a mace to smash the enemy’s marksman alongside the front line—.”
“Oh, Mace Callio. That’s Kayak’s team. They’re pretty tough. They might actually lose if things go wrong?”
Yun-seong, a former pro-gamer called by Yu Hye along with Sang-soo, immediately added more words.
Might actually lose? That wasn’t exactly comforting for Sang-soo.
This tournament was being held on a considerable scale, sponsored by Eonix. If they just won, a hefty slice of the pie would surely fall into the hands of him, the unofficial coach.
To make that happen, they first needed to know more about the team they were currently analyzing.
“Riri? This person’s tier is Bronze. There’s no way a Bronze would come up with a build like this. Did someone in the team create it for them?”
“It seems the God of Camilla made it.”
“The God of Camilla?”
“God of Ra?”
“Speaking of Kayak, that team over there. I heard they optimized an existing build a bit.”
“Isn’t that person Camilla’s one-trick? They even designed a Kali build?”
I was already familiar with the name Kayak. As a veteran user who had been playing Abyss for a while, there was no way I wouldn’t know that nickname.
However, it was the first time I learned that they also had build-making skills.
“…This is basically a gamble build.”
This was the conclusion reached by Sang Soo, who was deep into analyzing build and gameplay videos.
A gamble build. Lacking fundamentals and wholly risky. While it had clear pros and cons, it wasn’t impossible to deal with, but Sang Soo’s face was falling apart.
“It’ll be hard for the players to adapt on the fly like this. Unless Yu Hye quickly gives orders, at least.”
“If the builds are this varied, even Yu Hye will have a hard time guessing. Unless you make everyone memorize all these builds….”
It’s not impossible to counter, but—
Sang Soo’s conclusion was that it would definitely be tough for amateurs.
In an event match where over half the participants are low-tier players with poor game understanding, this kind of gamble build was nothing short of a disaster. It had the impact of a tactical nuke!
“All these builds, Kayak made them?”
“That’s what I saw on the broadcast yesterday. Everyone got a build handed to them like they were Santa Claus or something.”
Sang Soo shuddered at Kayak’s ruthlessness and meticulousness.
Not only did they come up with these surprise builds, but they also revealed them on a broadcast.
This meant there were probably several hidden builds that they hadn’t shown.
It’s a common rule in tournaments: reveal your strategies during practice broadcasts and save the real tactics for the actual games.
“I feel hopeless, utterly hopeless.”
Just the gamble builds revealed on the broadcast were already overwhelming. As Sang Soo clutched his head, he tried to think of the possibilities and countermeasures.
There was just too much to do, and even if he did it all, he wasn’t confident that victory was assured.
Sang Soo’s sigh of despair filled the silent Discord channel.