Chapter 209. The First Match (2)
"I think the noise from the crowd will affect the yers quite a bit."
As an ex-pro, OrangeKing was worried about the All-Dive system affecting the yers.
"It would be fine if it just added pressure or boosted morale, but what if it also revealed hidden enemies..."
The other caster waved, "That won''t happen. yers won''t be able to hear the crowd from where they are. Even if the crowd does shout that loud, yers won''t know who they''re talking to. Besides, there are five yers separated into their respectivenes!"
"Ah... I guess so. But... it''s still a bit iffy. I heard back in the days that yers could look at the chat, so maybe it''s okay. I hear they''re also implementing this into the pro scene?"
"Police isn’t just going to sit idly!"
"?"
"This is This World, right? Just like games with a spoiler-free filtering system, these matches have a live filter as well!"
"Ah. Any words that may affect the game automatically get filtered out!?"
"Yes, that''s right! If by some chance a message was delivered, there''s a log of it. They can easily verify and punish whoever ordingly if needed."
"Wow, This World is improving by the day..." OrangeKing suddenly stopped mid-sentence whileplimenting This World. His tone changed and he suddenly shouted, "What''s going on?! Is this a spectator bug?"
Kang!
Swift had been fighting well, but now his shy dey on the ground.
"W-What''s going on?!"
"Something hit it!"
"Did the de fall after being hit by something?"
They didn’t know the answer. shy de was at a disadvantage against Storm Ninja in closebat.
"A-Anyways, Almond!! He continues to sh at incredible speeds!!!"
"Wow! It''s like he''s showing them that this is the maximum shing speed of a ninja!"
"This yer can sh like this once his mind is set!"
"Will Swift survive!?"
"He''s slowed down and out of swift mode..."
Almond jumped ahead of shy de and finished him off with his sword. Shocked by the ordeal, Tomato died without being able to fight back.
[First Blood!]
"Ah!! It''s the tournament''s first kill! It''s already happened!"
"The y just now was insane!"
"I can''t believe it even after seeing it with my own eyes!"
"The de normally wouldn''t fall like that just from being hit. Very interesting."
"We''ll have to see the rey to be sure, but Almond probably hit the de handle at a perfect forty-five degree angle, no?"
"Ah, exactly forty-five degrees?"
"I''m just saying."
The chat also went wild while the casters talked excitedly.
— Wow...
— What just happened!?
— Is this real?
— Why did shy de''s de fall?
— Raina''s decision with no regrets: Almond.
— Damn...
— That was insane!
— Yeah! This is LIL!
— Things are heating up!
— The man JeonJaPa followed.
"The rey is ready! Let''s take a look!"
The rey began as the caster finished talking. It started slowly from when Swift threw his de toward the turret.
"Oh, it''s the shuriken, right?"
"He did throw a shuriken!"
Almond''s shuriken quickly flew from behind.
Taaa...
The shuriken perfectly struck the de''s handle. Its edges hooked on, kept spinning, and knocked the de down.
... Kang!
The de lost its momentum and fell.
"Huh? This..."
OrangeKing and the analyst looked at each other in surprise.
"Why was the shuriken spinning backward?"
"Did he throw it counter-clockwise on purpose!?"
"That''s why even though it was weird, it just fell like that!"
"That''s right. It was weird because if a projectile hits the flying de, it could make the de fly even further andnd further away..."
"Wow... if this was intentional, it''s really impressive."
"Thank goodness the Fearless Deer didn''t notice. If they saw it, they''d be terrified!"
"That''s right! After seeing that, it''s hard to imagine beating them!"
As the casters said, it was a super y that was enough to scare off yers. The chat sped up while agreeing with them.
— That''s no mortal.
— The best of the nuts...
— ??? Humans are finished. Now is the rise of the nuts.
— Wow...
— Poor Tomato...
— ??? We''re not the same diamond rank.
"Anyway... first blood in the middlene has got to hurt."
"Even without seeing the rey, I bet he’s lost his will now."
First blood signified the first kill of the game. It also gave a bonus of 100 gold on top of the kill reward. The bonus gold was valuable, but that wasn’t the true value of first blood.
"Yes, the rest of the game bes a drag if first bloodes from the most worrisomene."
"It ys a big part in their motivation."
"First blood is always like that."
Tomato died at Level 1 despite telling his team that he felt confident. He was even ying as his most yed champion against a yer who had only yed Storm Ninja once. This affected not only Tomato, but their entire team''s mentality.
''He died to the counter matchup in the end.''
''I thought it was his most yed...''
''He said he was confident...''
Of course, the teammates kept their thoughts to themselves.
“Hey, it''s okay. It''s a counter matchup anyway.”
Instead, they gave him words offort. However, Tomato knew best as their main attacker.
''Sigh. It''s fucked.''
Everything was now screwed up.
“I''m sorry. I''ll y it safe from now on.”
There was still next time. Next time...
He needed to cling onto that hope and survive. He''d lose it if he sighed too deeply.
***
Almond thought to himself, ''It''s all about momentum.''
[StrawberryShooter has killed an enemy!]
The bottom line soon followed after Almond''s kill. Then another one came back to back.
[StrawberryShooter Double Kill!]
It was a double kill while everyone was around Level 2-3, which was catastrophic for the opposing team.
“Kya! Perfect!”
“Silver can''t do anything against a Master~~!”
“The only Master-silver is Almond!”
“Nice~!”
Their voice chat was in high spirits. Almond gave a lightpliment and returned to focusing on his middlene.
''That''s a load off.''
He felt lighter as the momentum fueled him.
''Let’s try going for another kill.''
He cleaned up the minions as slowly as possible and moved up to the enemy line. He wanted to keep the enemypletely away from the minions.
''If I keep this up, the enemy’s jungler wille.''
There was a high chance the enemy jungler woulde for him since Almond was ying aggressively far up in thene. shy de was an important champion for their team, so they would want to help him out at least once. Almond had to make a decision.
''Should I just back off or...''
He wondered if he should back off or go for shy de regardless of the situation.
***
The casters let out a deep sigh.
"Ah...! Even the bottomne got a double kill..."
"It''s much too apparent now that they’ve lost in champ select, right?"
"Yes, Tako''s champ selectionpletely overwhelmed them. They tried to trick the enemy, but were countered instead."
"Right now, the bottom rank difference is huge. The champions they picked don''t y well in thete game. Whereas for Almond, he''s ying against another Diamond yer with a tier 4 champion. It''s a perfect counter."
"Yes, that''s how he was able to take first blood!"
The viewers seemed to agree with the casters.
— King! Ta! Ko!
— Tako''s hair disappeared because he was thinking too hard!
— Takoyaki''s banning phase sure was impressive.
— Hey! Hey! Tako without hair is legendary!
— TakoyaKING.
— Fearless Deer, they''re way too into their character.
Strategy in LIL significantly affected gamey. The banning phase greatly impacted both teams. For teams close to the professional level, almost 50% of the game''s oue was determined during the champion selection phase. The champion selection phase was especially noticeable for this game thanks to Tako. The analysts were talking about the big part that Tako yed, but the attention was now shifting toward the middlene.
"Wait a second. Almond''s making a pretty brutal move!"
"He seems almost overconfident!"
Almond casually walked around deep in enemy territory just outside the turret range. Tomato needed to kill all the minions near Almond, which meant he''d have to enter into Almond''s reach for the gold and experience.
"If that’s the case... that means there''s already a huge difference between them, right?"
"That''s right. There''s nothing he can do right now in a one-on-one situation. Not only was it hard for Tomato to level up in the first ce, but he has been killed once already."
Almond was making a highly risky y. yers normally hid behind minions to stay safe, but he was in front instead.
"He''s basically in front of the minions and defending them. This is only possible because of their difference in strength."
"Ah, let’s see... Almond has killed 40 more minionspared to Tomato!?"
"Every wave has 20 minions, which means Tomato wasn''t able to get a single minion for two waves. Things are looking bleak."
[Tomato]
[Minions: 37]
[LazySoldier]
[Minions: 81]
In professional matches, a 20-minion difference was detrimental. The difference was double that right now.
The crowd started booing.
— Boo...
— Hey! y properly!
— Is shy de really your main champion?
The casters tried to ignore the crowd as much as possible and continued.
"... Ah, even watching is difficult. This is the same thing as dying twice."
"There''s even a level difference. This is huge. I think I briefly saw that it was a two-level difference... Almond is already Level 5 and almost at Level 6."
"Can shy de even hit Level 6?"
Almond set up camp in the supply room and defended it, preventing the enemy from gaining any resources.
"The jungler is getting ready to join in."
"That''s right. Fearless Deer is centered around raising the middlene. They need to start focusing there to do well!"
"But... I think Almond knows this. He''s slowly backing off."
"That''s alright! Centa is very quick!"
Centa was short for Centaur. The full name of this champion was Frenzy Centaur - Chester, one of the main champions needed for their team centered around charging in.
Clippity! Clop!
There was a saying. Once Centa was in sight, it was already toote. Storm Ninja was initially faster, but Centa’s speed was unmatched once he got going. He was like a sports car.
Dududududu!
"He’s really quick!? How will Almond answer!?"
"If shy de gets a kill here, it could turn the tides! The game is going very well for Almond, but it could end like that! The minion difference can be ovee!"
"Almond needs to throw a smokescreen and run away! Why is he suddenly stopping?"
"Just when you started talking! Almond used his smokescreen!"
Poof!
Chiiiik!
Smoke covered the surroundings, and the casters grew confused.
"Huh?!"
"We can''t see anything either!?"
"Isn''t this a bug? Or is this intentional?"
Even the casters weren''t aware of what was happening inside the smoke.
"Anyway, Centa is charging in!"
Swoosh!
Centa charged into the smoke.
"Swift is following and helping! It''s a 1 vs. 2 situation!"
Swift threw his de into the smoke as well.
"They''re trying to kill him!"
The three disappeared into the smoke. The casters were speechless because they couldn''t see anything. They stared at the screen and waited for the oue.
After a moment…
[LazySoldier has eliminated an enemy!]
"Wow...!? Their side was the one to die!?"
"Instead of fleeing, Almond chose to fight and took one with him!"
The casters were surprised to see Almond unexpectedly getting a kill. However, taking one with him meant they fully expected him to die shortly afterward.
"Ah, it seems like Almond managed to take one down before dying!"
They were wrong.
[LazySoldier Double Kill!]
"Huuuuh?!"
"W... What''s going on?"
Almond didn''t end up dying. Instead, he sent the other two to death''s door.