Season 5: Chapter 167. Platform War (3)

Meanwhile, the Knight Order was also watching the match in their waiting room. No, actually, they were staring blankly at their coach more than the match because she was dissecting the enemy's strategic structure right on the spot.

"Moving as one unit while firing signal flares."

No, a simple analysis wasn't even the right description. It was more like filleting the flesh from the bone.

"There's a head and a body-tail formation following behind. They’re funneling all the resources to the head team, leveling them up as fast as possible to deliberately create complete overbalance..."

She drew a picture on the map. It was a massive fish.

"This amounts to the strategy of raising one team and having that team hunt down the rest. Grow the head first, the head takes out enemies, giving time to the rest to grow safely and slowly."

It was playing out exactly as she said. Team Underwater was sweeping up kills and monsters, rapidly growing.

— ?

— ??

— What

— What

— Exactly as she said?

— Wow

— Who is this Best Yi Sun-Shin???

The unexpectedly brilliant strategy flustered Sweet Radish. "D-doesn't this mean there's nothing we can do against it?"

"But there are weaknesses too."

Sa-Rang immediately identified the weaknesses.

"In Survival mode, depending on the timing window, certain upper-tier monsters don't appear. Even if the head grows oversized, there's a limit. You have to climb up in steps. The all-in growth can't be done extremely quickly. There will be plenty of openings in the early phase..."

Weaknesses of the strategy she'd just seen poured out. Even with that strategy currently winning, she could see how to counter it.

Sweet Radish stared at her with eyes wider than he'd probably ever opened in his life, wide enough that his viewers would notice.

'Wh-what is this? What am I watching?'

Sweet Radish thought that this person was completely insane. She was on a different level from any LIL player he'd ever known.

"Right. That's why they forced the raw combat where numbers mattered and pushed in aggressively..."

She muttered to herself for a while, listing weaknesses, then immediately found solutions.

"To counter this, Cheese needs to kill three of the four first-gate Turtles. Wait at the staircase and kick away the ladder. Suppressing it early is key. If they do that, there's probably a Plan B prepared..."

She could even predict the opponent's Plan B in case they countered the solution, but couldn't confirm it that far. It ended at Plan A.

"It's over."

The game was already over, at least in her eyes.

— ?

— ??

— It's still in full swing?

— Already??

***

A moment later, what she'd said became reality.

"Oh~! PizzaPub from Cheese is also out!" the caster said.

Orange King screeched, "AHHHHHHH! This means! Cheese!? All of them are out!? CHEESE IS IN A CRISISSSSS!"

Every Cheese team had been eliminated within just ten minutes of the game starting.

"In just ten minutes!? The Abyss Shark hasn't even appeared yet!"

"Exactly! They were completely overwhelmed by the opposing strategy!"

— What

— Wow

— I see

— Wow

— What?

— What is this lmaooo

— Is this insane?? lmaooo

— Wow so this is Paprika's level

Things could go extremely badly in Survival mode, but this was still a very shocking result. It all happened in only ten minutes and was too short to even call it a game.

Orange King almost felt embarrassed and shouted for nothing. "Now even games are Shorts now!"

It had essentially been the length of a YouTube Short.

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooo fr

— Is that right

— What is this LOL

Of course, the five Paprika teams were still on the field. They needed to determine the rankings among themselves, but everyone understood that didn't matter much.

"How did this happen!? Analyst, please explain."

The caster decided it wasn't worth doing heavy commentary on Paprika's internal matchups. They were better off getting an explanation. This was the right call.

"Hmm... so..."

Even the analyst who always found answers with optimal data was at a loss for words. He apparently hadn't expected such an extreme result and strategy.

"The fight becoming 25 vs 25 seems to have been a major variable."

"Oh, that was the issue then?"

"Yes. In a five person team format, even killing one as fast as possible has five people attacking. Here, theoretically, twenty-five players can attack at once. The time to die could be tens of times faster."

Theoretically, that was correct.

"Oh... s-so, this extreme result is the consequence of everyone teaming up? Cheese teamed up too, though?"

The analyst's answer was only half of it.

Orange King cut in. "What the analyst said is the reason why the game ended quickly. A 25 vs 25 can be intensely contested, but it can get this extreme when it ends fast."

"Oh yes. I see. Does Orange King have a take?"

"What I noted was that the two sides teamed up differently."

"Oh, how so?"

"Cheese cooperated with each other, but each team ultimately survived independently. Paprika's lower-ranked teams funneled information and resources toward the higher-ranked teams."

"Oh, that was the big thing...?"

"Uh... yes. Well..."

The caster felt the explanation was somewhat lacking. Actually, the analyst and Orange King’s explanation felt the same.

"Honestly speaking, we've never seen a mess like this ourselves. We'd need to replay it and look at the analysis desk..."

— Honest confession lmaooo

— Wow lol

— Orange King doesn't know either

— 25 vs 25 is just too shocking lmaooo

— lmaooooo what

— The commentators don't know either lmaooo

— Honestly how would you even comment on this??

Naturally, they couldn't grasp it immediately. Nobody had ever seen these strategies or rules. They were used to commentating on professional tournaments, so deviating too far from the standard meant it would take time to interpret. They hadn’t been given much time either.

Ding ding ding!

First place was determined in no time at all, and the game ended.

[1st Place: Underwater]

Round 1 ended quickly with Underwater taking first. The game took approximately twenty-one minutes. This was absurdly fast, considering the average Survival mode game time was thirty-seven minutes.

— Paprika is disgusting

— Wow...

— Well this is something lmaooo

— What is this;

— Ha

— Complete domination fr lmaooo

— Let's keep going like this!!

— Does this mean only Underwater keeps getting first? I'm rooting for Team Rocket...

— This is genuinely Platform War level lmaooo

— The main round will be the real thing

After the game ended, the commentary desk wrapped up with their respective closing words.

"Well, anyway! That was quite a dominant first match. Please don't forget that Cheese sent lower-tier forces to Group A. We don't know what will come out in Group B next."

The caster wrapped it up safely, making people anticipate the next match.

"Yes, correct. After seeing this match, Cheese may take different measures. Of course, changing something suddenly when you've already practiced is extremely difficult! Well, you don't know until you try!"

Orange King predicted that Cheese was at a slight disadvantage.

The analyst felt it was actually worse.

"I... hmm... the strength gap between the two sides... hmm... could be somewhat large. Getting completely eliminated isn't a simple thing to brush off for Cheese. I suppose we have to put our hope in the fact that Cheese's Group B has their aces... but Paprika's understanding of the 25-person rule seems incredibly high."

His expression looked quite serious.

— What

— There really must be a big gap...

— This person can't say empty words...

— Shut up Red Glasses!

When he stated the reality too nakedly, the caster smoothed it over.

"Now, regardless! You never know until the game is played! Today's much anticipated Round 1 Group A match in the Platform War has finished. We'll now be going to Round 1 Group B shortly! This is only Round 1. See you in a moment!"

Whoosh.

The broadcast screen returned to the analysis desk led by announcer Yoo Hayeon.

Orange King slowly reviewed the match again, talking through his own analysis. "In other words, growing this first-place team and having them cover the last-place team... Something like that kind of feels..."

He talked a lot, but it didn't land much with the viewers.

— What's he saying lmaooo

— Broke down when it went outside standard rules

— What does that mean!

— Seems like he's trying to shield Cheese's bad performance and it's not working lmaooo

Meanwhile, the viewers in the stadium were given another opportunity to choose.

Ding.

[Match Betting]

They'd done this right at the start. Now, choices were being offered again.

==== ====

1. Paprika

2. Cheese

==== ====

[After each match, you may change the team you predict will win today.]

[Would you like to change?]

The viewers gathered in the stadium were flustered.

"Wow... this is brutal."

"Oh, I chose as a fan at first, but..."

"What do I do about this?"

Almond's fans all looked at one person with the biggest head and the brightest glow.

[RubySword]

"Why... is everyone looking at me...?" RubySword went red.

"RubySword, you're not switching, right?"

"There's no way Princess Ruby would."

"Right, right."

RubySword looked at them in disbelief and turned the question back. "No, why would I switch? You're asking me because you're the one who wants to switch, right?"

Everyone winced and looked away again.

Someone from Almond’s stand cried out, "King~! You can't beat us! Come at me~!"

It was KingdomParrot.

"This is why newcomers are weak! Anyone who watched from Kingdom would never say this nonsense! Almond hasn't even played a single match! How dare you change the team you're cheering for!? Hm!?"

He started firmly disciplining the fans.

"W-well, that's true."

"KingdomParrot is right."

"Damn... right. I've gone weak."

Almond's fans gradually recovered.

Ding.

[Paprika]

One person chose Paprika, and their outfit turned red.

Everyone who had turned yellow looked at that person.

[EggPlant]

It was EggPlant.

"Oh no, I didn't press this. It was my younger sibling..."

"How does your younger sibling get inside your capsule!?"

"Well, that's..." EggPlant's face turned as red as his outfit color.

'Damn. The color changed the moment I pressed it?'

He'd pressed it and intended to move seats, but was completely exposed.

'I have no points...'

Fandom feelings were one thing, and a match was another. EggPlant believed that to be the case.

The messages they were typing in Almond's stream appeared above their heads.

— Traitor EggPlant lmaooo

— EggPlant traitor

— EggPlant is rooting for Paprika lmaooo

— Paprika and eggplant are both tasteless lol

***

"Hm? EggPlant betrayed me, you say...?" Almond briefly looked at the chat and couldn't figure out what this meant. "How?"

— lmaooooo fr

— What does that mean

— What??

— lmaooooo

— What can you even do, EggPlant~

— lmaooooo what exactly would you do??

From his and the general viewers' perspective, who had no audience tickets, they couldn't understand what kind of betrayal EggPlant could even commit. EggPlant wasn't even playing in the match, so Almond just let it go.

[Group B Entry]

The player entry signal had appeared.

"Phew..."

Black Tea stood up and extended a hand. "Let's do our team fighting word."

"Yeah."

The Knight Order extended their hands forward.

"Servant squad! Servant squad!"

Sweet Potato took the lead.

"Servant-Servant! Maid-Maid!"

The rest called back, and together they shouted, "Servant squad Knight Order FIGHTING!!"

Flash!

Their vision burned white, and the space shifted.