Season 3: Chapter 84: Okay, Again (1)
After the game ended and a meeting took up more than half the day, Hui-Chul finally got out of the capsule with a hiss.
"Phew."
He had used the capsule in their team base during the competition, so it was the think tank team waiting for him and not his wife.
"Wow!"
"Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!"
They all waited for Hui-Chul to emerge, waving placards like fans.
"Ha. What is this…?"
They hadn’t cheered this much even after his first victory. Today, it seemed like everyone on the think tank felt incredibly excited. This victory was evidently more valuable to the think tank.
"To end it in the first era! We never thought it was possible!"
"Does this mean we can do something similar next time?"
"Of course!"
They had won without using the planned strategy. The tower harassment was actually a setup to advance simultaneously to the third era, but that alone won them the game.
"It was just the players fighting well. Nothing more."
"No, bro! Making such a decision on the spot is remarkable!"
The think tank team was right. In such big games, great plays were usually based on prepared strategies.
Big games like national competitions put a lot of pressure on players. Controlling all the variables that happened during such a tense situation was very difficult. However, Cookie took the risk and trusted the players' abilities to end it in the first era.
It was no surprise that they highly praised him for successfully pulling off such a big decision on the biggest stage.
"Look, bro. The foreign press is also making a fuss and praising us."
Sharp Sphere, who was quite savvy with overseas information, pushed a tablet forward.
Civil Empire was extremely popular in the West with game articles usually in English.
This article was posted on a foreign gaming website called 7chans.
[Spain got schooled by Cookie, the Commander of South Korea]
The article wasn't an exaggeration. Indeed, Cookie and the think tank had anticipated everything from Spain, including their scouting strategies.
Cookie's strategy was always one step ahead of Spain's and he played them like a fiddle.
Cookie smiled casually and enjoyed reading it.
"Ha... Yeah. This is nice to see."
As a commander, it certainly could be considered one of the greatest honors. Reading such praises seemed to embarrass him and he looked away.
"Ah. And there's also an article about Almond!"
"Almond?"
"Yes!"
Hui-Chul turned his head back, seemingly interested in the article about Almond.
[Hot Rookie Spotlight: Almond]
This was part of a series that 7chans published during the national competition season, selecting the season's top rookie. Among them, they chose Korea's Almond.
"This is..."
Hui-Chul was already well-regarded as a commander and known as Cookie. It wasn't strange for him to be featured in articles, but it was significant for Almond since this rookie series typically only wrote about real newcomers.
"This automatically puts him in the running for Rookie of the Year."
Hui-Chul chuckled while reading the article.
"That's right. It's been a while since a Korean player was featured here..."
Winning was usually a prerequisite for getting noticed at all. It had been a long time since such a series featured a Korean player.
Moreover, this game wasn't very popular in Korea and the number of new players had decreased.
"Anyway, it's good news that the English-speaking world is paying attention to our team. It means we did well, but..."
Hui-Chul had a concern.
"It will make us easier to analyze."
With articles about the rookie spotlight on Almond and Hui-Chul schooling Spain, other teams would start paying attention to them. The strong teams from other groups, which had not considered Korea a serious adversary, would now be on high alert.
So far, Korea's victories had partly been due to the opponents' complacency. While the attention was welcomed, it wasn't entirely good news.
"That's right. It seems Italy... won't be taking us lightly in the game," Chi-Seung added with some nervousness.
'Italy is already the toughest opponent in this group.'
In a way, meeting Italy last was unfortunate. They would know if Korea had something prepared and would have prepared too.
'If I know Anto, he will definitely be ready.'
Italy wouldn't be like the other two teams. They would be thoroughly prepared.
"I've been thinking the same, so..."
Hui-Chul gathered the think tank team and posed a question.
"We might need to calculate the chances of making it to the main competition."
"Probabilities?!"
Everyone in the think tank asked in surprise.
After all, the group stage consisted of two rounds. Calculating the probabilities at a point when the first round hadn't even ended seemed a bit premature. Moreover, calculating probabilities at this stage was challenging due to the multitude of possible outcomes.
"Assuming Italy wins all their other matches, we need to consider under what scenarios we would advance."
"…!"
Chi-Seung felt surprised.
'It's surprisingly realistic.'
Humans, after all, tend to lose sight of their position when intoxicated by a string of victories. However, Hui-Chul had returned to his cold, calculating strategist self as soon as he emerged from the capsule.
"If you've seen Italy’s games, you'd know it's hard to imagine them not making it to the main competition."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Italy was strong. From their civilization faction to their players and commanders, they were a team without weaknesses just as they had been in the past.
"In the end, there's only one spot left for advancing. Let's find out the probabilities for that spot. The scenarios where we lose twice to Italy and the scenario where we lose once."
"Yes."
The think tank immediately began calculating.
Some would say they were counting their chickens before they hatched, but the Korean team always pursued unconventional gameplay and considered these elements essential. The same tricks wouldn’t work more than once. They had to hide as much as possible while advancing.
After all, they still had to play more games after the main competition.
Hui-Chul was already looking beyond that.
'We can make it...'
Chi Seung, Water Dumpling, and everyone in the think tank believed the same. Whether they beat Italy or not, Korea would cross the threshold into the main competition.
They spent the day fueled by this enthusiasm.
***
The next day at Civil Empire’s Korean branch, an employee named Elysia sat brimming with passion. She was quietly watching something. It was an interview.
“You showed us an amazing ceremony at the end, didn't you? Can you tell us what it meant?”
It was the interview with Almond uploaded separately on his channel. This video had been posted immediately without an embargo since it didn’t feature any gameplay. The broadcasting rights for the national competitions only applied to gameplay videos, so there was nothing to complain about.
Elysia wasn't asking to pick a fight. She was questioning whether they could do something similar.
[Almond Interview Reveals Bank Number!? Reporter's Eyes Pop]
[Views: 1,408,000]
The video uploaded last evening had crossed 1.4 million views by the morning.
Elysia looked at that number and muttered with a serious expression, "Boss, shouldn't we be doing more?"
An interview video had more views than a broadcast video, which was shameful for them!
Meanwhile, the boss proudly patted his ample belly and raised his nose.
"Eh? Aren’t we already doing that? Elysia, we’re preparing new user events and spreading them all over the community. Haven’t you seen how we've completely dominated LIL Pro? Hmm. Hmm."
"No, not that kind of hidden advertising!"
At the mention of hidden advertisements, the boss felt startled.
"Ah, what? Hidden advertising? Everyone does it! Everyone!"
"What if we made videos about the players?"
"Players?"
The boss's ears twitched. He seemed intrigued.
"No matter how interesting the games are, the fun is halved if people don't know about the players. Look now! Almond's interview has more views than our full version upload of the national competition."
"Ah... right... still, when it comes to global views..."
"Global views mean what to us!"
"Hmm..."
This was the Korean branch where Korean views were most important. A place that was established to make Civil Empire popular in Korea.
The manager continued listening.
"I’m not suggesting we post the interview together. What are you proposing?"
"Right. Even if we do an interview, it's just splitting the views anyway."
"Exactly."
Simply claiming rights to Almond’s interview would be stealing a slice of the opponent's pie. They were in a position to grow the pie, but stealing from the opponent meant the total size remained the same.
Elysia had an idea.
"What do you think about this?"
She presented a video about the LIL World Cup. Specifically, a video by a team participating in the LIL World Cup.
"A team documentary?"
A documentary video made by adding a narrative to scenes of team members training and receiving feedback. Surprisingly, it was very popular. That team gained many new fans from the video.
"So, you're suggesting we apply this team documentary to our national competition team?"
"Yes!"
"You know we have two hundred players. The team in this game only has five main players."
"Ah..."
Elysia became disheartened.
However, the manager decided to consider it.
"But it doesn't seem like a completely absurd idea."
It seemed possible. Even if they didn’t highlight all two hundred players, there seemed to be a way.
"Maybe just film the brains of the operation like the command staff or scenes of the think tank team pondering... It's okay if only a few players appear. Just the ones who are highlighted in matches."
"Oh...! Right? I think this is a good idea!"
Elysia brought up various sports team documentaries she enjoyed watching and started discussing various ideas.
Meanwhile, the view count difference between Almond's interview and the full version upload continued to widen.
***
Ji-Ah woke up late. She checked the video views and her eyes widened.
"Why are the views like this?"
[Almond Interview Reveals Bank Number!? Reporter's Eyes Pop]
[Views: 1.76 million]
Not only in Korea, but the international views were also very high.
"We might even reach three million."
A video had never reached three million views in a day before. Perhaps this bizarre interview could do it.
"This month's revenue might just be covered."
Due to frequent uploads for the Civil Empire national competition, she had been ready to give up on this month's revenue. However, the interview received such a good response.
"This keeps making people hopeful~"
Ji-Ah was having happy thoughts.
Beep.
A text arrived on her phone.
[Shilhae Card]
[Hello, customer. Notice of delinquency due to account freeze...]
Ji-Ah tilted her head.
"...?"
She looked at the monitor again. The views on Almond's video were soaring high. Then, she looked at her phone again.
"A freeze? Delinquency?"
She received a notification that her card payment was overdue. Moreover, it was overdue because her account was frozen. These two pieces of information didn't match in her mind at all.
"What—?"
Suddenly, she stood up abruptly as if something struck her.
"Could it be?"
She quickly dressed and headed to the nearest bank. It didn't seem like something to be resolved over the phone.