Chapter 239. Hidden Card (1)
Chapter 239. Hidden Card (1)
"Game~~~ Over!!"
"GG~~~~!"
Bang...!
Even louder cheers filled the stadium after the enemy's nexus exploded.
— Wooooooah!
— Wowwwww!
— Almond! Almond! Almond!
Cheers for Almond, the MVP of the match, echoed one after another.
"Ah, Almond. He deserves it with such insane aim and judgment! This player is just insane!" OrangeKing wildly shook his head as if he had gone mad.
— Almond! Almond!
— Oppa!
— Wave your hand!
— Nut! Nut! Nut!
"What are all these slogans they’re saying? What does nut mean?" the caster asked OrangeKing.
An immediate response followed, "It means nut. As in nuts like walnuts, almonds, and peanuts..."
"You really know, don't you?"
"Ah... haha. Anyway, this game really showed who the Prince of ADC was—"
— Woooooah!
Even louder cheers drowned out OrangeKing's words.
"What? The game isn't over yet?"
"There! Almond is waving to the crowd! And he's taking off his sunglasses!"
OrangeKing seemed dumbfounded and briefly went silent.
"... As I always say, I never got this kind of cheering when I got a penta kill back in the day."
"As I always say! You and Almond have many differences!"
— LOL, that's the reality...
— OrangeKing is handsome too!
— My OrangeKing! Don't be sad!
— 'You have many differences' LOL LOL!
OrangeKing cleared his throat and returned to talking about the game’s result.
"Anyway... Balloon Stars! What a comeback win, right?"
"Yes. An unbelievable turnaround victory. It’s rare and fun to see in professional games."
"Yes! It was a series of unbelievable decisions with amazing precision, which eventually resulted in a miracle!"
The caster nodded while looking worried for the next game.
"Ah, but is Solo Is Back okay? Losing the first game like this will really drain them."
The afterglow of the first set was so strong that they tried to shift the crowd's attention to the second set.
OrangeKing also checked the data and agreed.
"Right. Solo Is Back almost won, but they lost. Balloon Stars even wore the Pool Party skins just to troll ForeverAlone! Then Solo Is Back's tryhard attitude got beat by Balloon Star's casual play! It must be so frustrating for them!"
"I hope ForeverAlone doesn't think that way. He needs to protect his mentality for the next game! Just forget everything and prepare for the next one, as if it's your first game!"
"That's right. Winning in this tournament still means winning three times!"
The casters shared their thoughts, and the crowd's cheers shifted.
— Gum! Gum! Gum!
Viewers who first cheered for Almond were now cheering for Bubblegum.
"Uh...? Is someone cheering for Bubblegum?"
"Yes! He performed incredibly well in this game!"
"True. He sparked the miracle in that last fight!"
The cheers increased, and the entire Balloon Stars audience section shouted for Gum.
— Gum! Gum! Gum!
— Guuuuuuum! Guuuuum!
Bubblegum was so taken aback that he couldn't even wave back. Instead, he stood there for a long time and simply watched the crowd. That was good enough for his fans.
— Good job, Gum!
— I don't ever regret wearing my Gum sticker! Arghhhhh!
***
After the ceremony, the players all moved to the waiting room. The casters received the damage graphs, which were soon displayed on the big screen.
— Wow...
— Crazy...
— Damn.
The crowd roared.
"Wow, only two players stand out, right?"
[ForeverAlone]
[67,000]
[LazySoldier]
[71,000]
"The damage numbers are incredibly high since it was a fierce match."
"Exactly, 40,000-50,000 damage usually easily tops the charts in solo queue. This is something else."
"Especially for Almond, whose team was losing for most of the match. This kind of damage is incredible."
Moreover, the damage taken stats showed that Bubblegum’s numbers were also overwhelmingly high. An explanation followed that it was due to him taking a lot of hits in the laning phase, which made everyone laugh.
"Ah, of course, they played well. The final battle made up for their earlier mistakes."
The caster showed support for Bubblegum, and OrangeKing nodded as well.
"Absolutely. Thanks to Bubblegum’s performance in the final battle, his earlier mistakes were... Ah, I just considered it as if he was playing a practice match and getting ready for the final battle."
— Lolol
— A troll's practice game
— He fixed the table he flipped, lol.
"Oh, we now have the replay of that final battle ready."
"Shall we watch it together? The match was too fast-paced to see everything earlier."
They showed the replay and the scenes quickly passed in more detail, especially the moments just before the crucial battle. It was evident how Balloon Stars planned this pivotal fight now.
"Ah-ha, Almond takes his position right there as Bubblegum clears the blue vision totem, doesn't he?"
"Ohh, he’s been in that position for a while now. Does that mean this battle was well-planned from the very beginning?"
The most important part was Almond's sniping position. There couldn't have been a more perfect spot. Almond wasn’t there by coincidence. It was planned from the beginning.
Bubblegum passing by and clearing the blue vision totem wasn’t a stroke of luck, but a planned team play.
"Ah, good job, Bubblegum. By clearing the blue vision totem so naturally, the enemy team started the fight without even seeing Almond."
"That's right. This is how the snowball starts."
The subsequent moments replayed starting when Bubblegum’s Iron Ball rolled behind the opponent's territory and signaled the start of the final battle.
— This scene is legendary
— The start of a legend
— It's still mind-blowing even after watching it again.
"There, it started from here."
"Bubblegum's initiating move was art!"
Initiating referred to starting a battle in the game. The tank usually assumed this starting role in LIL battles.
Tanking was an important skill. One’s timing had to be exactly right to disrupt the enemy while benefiting the allied team. Depending on how one initiated, the battle's outcome could completely change.
The screen zoomed in once again on the art of the final battle.
"Wow! Truly an art form!"
"Who would’ve thought that Bubblegum did this? If you hid the username, one could easily mistake him for player Popcorn!"
The casters compared Bubblegum's play to the top pro Popcorn, but the viewers disagreed.
— ??? You just crossed a line...
— What?
— Huh? What did you say?
— OrangeKing, why are you talking about Popcorn?
"And note that Almond hasn't activated his ultimate skill. He's waiting for the perfect moment."
— True.
— So calm, lol.
— If it was me, I'd have shot anyone but ForeverAlone, lol.
"Bubblegum's ultimate skill struck four enemies. Only then did Almond activate his!"
"Yes, he waited for the perfect angle. Starting from here!"
The scene replayed when Almond sniped each enemy. It was filmed from different angles, so it looked like a scene from a movie.
"One! Two! Three! Four! Quadra kill!"
"The last kill was taken by Bubblegum!"
"Clips are going around calling it a pendra kill already!'"
— LOL.
— My Bubblegum…!
— Oh... snap.
— Pendra...
***
Back in the waiting room, Bubblegum ran over to apologize to Almond as soon as they saw each other.
"A... Almond, I'm sorry for stealing the penta kill."
"It's totally fine."
This was already the third time Bubblegum apologized.
Almond scratched his head. His unexpected silence after the pendra kill made it seem like he was angry at Bubblegum, but he wasn't mad. He just ran out of things to say.
"You're in trouble now, Bubblegum. He's really petty in this game. Didn't you see how he said 'Chikicha!' every time he killed ForeverAlone? Even in the end, he must have said it when he killed ForeverAlone, right?"
"Nah, I don't think he's that serious~."
"No, he did for sure."
"Almond, did you say it?!"
Bubblegum asked Miho, who winked at Amond.
She wanted him to play along with the lie and tease Bubblegum, but Almond looked uncomfortable.
"...?"
Silence briefly hung in the air. Amond quickly averted his eyes.
'Did he really do it?'
'He actually said that?'
The puzzled Miho and Bubblegum looked at each other.
"Hmm," Almond awkwardly cleared his throat and walked away.
He missed his sunglasses from the Pool Party skin. Thankfully, the embarrassment didn't last long.
"Okay, okay. The playoffs are given a separate strategy time, but the breaks between each set are still short. I'll quickly give some feedback!"
Tako came to give them feedback. He looked a bit urgent because they had a lot to discuss for this game.
It was exciting for the audience to watch how the game completely turned around, but it wasn't a good game from a player's perspective. That meant their team made a big mistake. Tako could only pinpoint those big mistakes because they ran out of time.
"Bubblegum didn't obtain any vision wards right here. That was quite a big..."
"This clearly shows that Miho isn't comfortable as a supporter, right? When you went in here, you could've looked for a vision ward..."
"Almond, the final battle could've been a little easier if you went down this way with me. You have to look around all the time in the mid lane…"
Tako hadn’t even finished giving them feedback when the portal opened.
[The second set will soon begin.]
[Players, please go through the portal.]
***
Meanwhile, it was dead silent in Solo Is Back's waiting room.
ForeverAlone quietly sat with his head down, and the rest of the team blankly stared into space. They didn't know where to start with the feedback.
'This can't go on.'
ForeverAlone sensed that nothing good would happen if they continued playing with this mood.
"Hehe," he forced out a laugh.
The team members looked at ForeverAlone as if he had gone crazy, but he didn't stop.
"Hehehehe... Interesting."
After chuckling for a while, he swept back his hair, and his eyes sparkled.
'I think he’s really gone crazy.'
'Has he lost it because he lost so badly?'
Soju and Maekju whispered to each other.
Unperturbed, ForeverAlone spread out his arms and announced, "Brothers!"
"I'm your sister though," RiceWine corrected him.
ForeverAlone promptly amended, "Brothers and sisters. I think it's time to bring that out."
"Did you turn on the stream?" Maekju asked after looking at ForeverAlone for a while.
"No."
"Then what's with this character?"
Maekju and Soju burst into laughter. The rest of the team soon followed.
“Hahahahaha!”
ForeverAlone slightly smiled.
"I’m not doing any weird concepts right now. You know what that is, right? You guys know what I'm talking about?"
"We were going to use it against SweetRadish."
"We don't have a choice given the situation. If we lose two rounds and then use it, we'll be cornered."
The other team members looked at each other and nodded.
"...Okay. Let's go with that."
Everyone agreed and decided to bring out their hidden card.