Chapter 155

By the way.

‘A coach…’

Seo-jun fell into thought.

Actually, he hadn’t completely dismissed the idea of asking Lee Dong-soo for help.

When he said coach, he didn’t mean directly interfering with the competition itself, but just helping with practice.

After the 6-day scrimmage period ends, they’ll have some free time.

It’s a period given to analyze the opponents’ strength seen in scrimmages and coordinate their teamwork.

In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that teamwork is completely formed during that time. There were even teams that went on training camps, he’d heard.

‘Thanks for bringing it up first.’

Seo-jun smiled slightly.

However.

“I’ll let you know if I need your help.”

There was no need to ask for a favor already.

“Sure. Huh? Oh, whatever. You know that no matter how good your physicals are, when it comes to game knowledge, you can’t match me, right?”

He would definitely be a huge help.

He’d have a much deeper understanding of 5v5 team games than other regular users.

Since everything had been so standardized, professionals were called masters in theory.

“Of course I know that well.”

“Why are you admitting it so readily?”

Lee Dong-soo turned his head sharply with suspicious eyes.

Seo-jun was the type to tease others like an uncle picking on his nephew, wasn’t he?

“I don’t need to learn theory and stuff since I don’t need it. What’s so hard about admitting that?”

“Huh?”

“Originally, brains are something only people with insufficient bodies use.”

“……”

Right, he knew there had to be some meaning behind it.

Lee Dong-soo, who had taken yet another hit as usual today, touched the gloves he’d taken off earlier.

Should he try challenging him again after such a long time today?

He was gradually getting a feel for sparring, and just one hit.

If he could just land one hit on that parasitic older brother-looking face!

Then Lee Dong-soo suddenly remembered something and asked back.

“Then how bad was your body?”

“Why?”

“You go to Korea University.”

Where else would that brain that got him into Korea’s top university come from!

“Hmm, hehe. You must have been really lacking physically during your school days, huh? You weren’t a bread shuttle, were you?”

Of course not. But he could at least ask.

Lee Dong-soo thought so as he opened his mouth, but Tae-woo coughed from behind.

What’s up?

That guy said he just got dragged here by Seo-jun after checking the patch notes again before going to sleep, but is he sleepy?

“Ah. Bread shuttle?”

Cough, cough.

Seo-jun grinned bitterly and Tae-woo’s coughing got more intense.

“I did eat a lot of bread during my school days. Me.”

Lee Dong-soo felt confused.

What? Is it true?

Could it be that this guy got bullied and had an awakening, doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10km running every day until he became strong!

‘Then I should be careful about going bald.’

While Lee Dong-soo was having these common high schooler thoughts, a large hand approached from behind and settled on his shoulder.

“Dong-soo.”

It was the gym owner.

“Yes?”

“No.”

“What?”

“That stinging nettle was the same way back then too.”

The gym owner recalled a secret he’d never properly told anyone.

The friend’s son who came asking to be taught modern martial arts immediately climbed into the ring.

He’d tried to establish dominance as always because his overconfident attitude seemed quite cocky and endearing.

However, at some point his vision had gone dark.

That’s right. That damn stinging nettle bastard had been complete from the very beginning.

“Aha? But what’s a stinging nettle?”

“You don’t need to know.”

* * *

4:05.

Seo-jun entered Ha Yoon-ho’s lobby.

“You’re here! Our team’s ace!”

The meeting time was until 4:20, but everyone except Seo-jun was already there.

That’s when Seo-jun felt puzzled.

“Wait, it’s 4:05, but how is Windstorm Sword-nim here?”

“I went straight to a capsule room near my company!”

“Ah.”

“Well, as you all know, there’s basically a capsule room on every block in Seoul.”

There aren’t quite that many, but there really are a lot. But Seoul?

Seo-jun wasn’t going to miss that slip of the tongue.

The meeting time was 4:20 to accommodate Windstorm Sword’s work schedule.

But if his company was in Seoul and his quitting time was 4:20, then naturally his residence would also be in Seoul.

‘So he wasn’t living in the countryside after all.’

Windstorm Sword didn’t even know he’d made a mistake, and Seo-jun filed the information away in his head.

“Well then, let’s discuss the position issue first.”

“Yes.”

“What do you think about Rumi and me going bottom?”

Their main lanes were ADC and support, respectively.

However, if those two went bottom, it would mean completely giving up on the bottom lane.

“I talked with Rumi yesterday and we’re confident we can hold our ground! Haha. Both of us are masters at just surviving.”

Originally, low-tier laners could fulfill their role just by not dying much and surviving, and if they fulfilled their role, they’d even get called the carry or MVP of that game.

“Well, putting all the weaknesses in one bottom lane and having the top explode might not be a bad structure. But if any of you three can play ADC or support better than your other lanes, it would be best to accommodate that person.”

He shrugged his shoulders as he asked for the three’s opinions.

And.

“……”

“……”

Alpaca and Windstorm Sword made apologetic expressions.

If this had been during a broadcast, the viewers would have had a field day teasing them.

“Yes, understood. Haha, it’s fine. What about you, Seo-jun-nim?”

“I feel like I could go anywhere, but I’ve only played mid so far.”

“I know that. Seo-jun-nim hasn’t played the game much.”

Seo-jun was talking about including his past experience, but the message got across anyway.

“Then it seems right for Seo-jun-nim to go mid first. We should put our strength where we’re strongest.”

Hmm.

‘I think I could do fine in other lanes too?’

Seo-jun was confident.

Given that confidence, if Windstorm Sword or Alpaca performed too poorly in other lanes, it might be better for him to go to a different lane and have one of them go mid instead.

Ha Yoon-ho naturally knew this too.

‘Is he trying to check that today?’

Then Ha Yoon-ho continued.

“And most importantly, if we establish a system based on Seo-jun-nim going mid, and the other two members become proficient in their positions, we’ll have a tremendous advantage. Because while it’s not well known, I’m familiar with top at a sub-position level.”

Ah.

He thought he knew what he was trying to say.

The team members’ eyes widened.

“If Seo-jun-nim needs to go top, we just swap with top. If he needs to go jungle, we swap with jungle. Since both were mid players. And ADC? Then whoever went top goes mid and I go top.”

In other words.

“We can use Seo-jun-nim freely? According to the situation?”

As Alpaca said.

“That’s right. Of course, this only becomes an advantage if the other two members adapt somewhat to their positions. But isn’t this practically an invincible strategy?”

He found a way to turn crisis into opportunity.

The premise was absurdly that Seo-jun had to perform well in all lanes, but the team members truly didn’t doubt that point one bit.

“This could definitely become our unique invincible strategy.”

“What do you think, Seo-jun-nim?”

“Sounds good.”

“Then let’s check it out today. We’ll play 5-man games. I’ve recruited some fellow streamers.”

As expected.

Even if he went a bit overboard at the auction, his preparation was thorough.

“So who’s going top?”

Ha Yoon-ho’s voice sounded refreshed, as if everything was falling into place.

* * *

“Good work, everyone.”

“Thank you all for participating in today’s friendly matches!”

After the practice games ended, they gathered in the lobby.

And Ha Yoon-ho, who was beside Seo-jun, sighed and muttered to himself.

“What should I really do?”

His anguish was evident.

-Lmao as expected

-Just send Windstorm Sword top and give him Kael lmao

-Still, Windstorm Sword was a challenger a few years ago, he was Grandmaster, why is he so bad at jungle

-He got this bad, that’s why he was assigned to B lol the management isn’t blind

-But Windstorm Sword outside of mid Kael doesn’t even seem B-tier? Lmao

-Reorganize positions

He seemed to be pondering, and the content of his pondering would be this.

‘Should I just abandon the Seo-jun mid system and send one of them mid?’

That was actually the thought simultaneously filling the minds of the four people excluding Seo-jun.

‘Hmm.’

They had played a total of three friendly matches today.

The result was 2 wins and 1 loss.

But they lost the third game.

-Lmao streamer, you owe us karma payback tomorrow

-Lost one game here but what are you going to do in the main tournament lol

-Ah, you said you weren’t going tryhard today?

-Team games really can’t be helped LOL

The chat was getting unruly.

“Anyway.”

Seo-jun quietly watched the chat and spoke. It seemed like some education was needed.

“Let’s turn off the broadcast now, bye bye you guys.”

-???

-Crazy streamer, don’t turn it off… we were wrong

-Why aren’t you headbutting the trolls?

-I didn’t do it! I didn’t do anything!

-Ahhhh! Getting teased means broadcast execution!

“Bye~.”

“It’s about time to turn it off anyway. See ya.”

“Bye everyone.”

The broadcasts ended one by one.

Seo-jun felt a tiny bit sorry for the viewers in the other channels, but he quickly shook it off.

It was about time to turn them off anyway. They couldn’t expose strategy.

“But Yoon-ho-nim, you said today’s opponent jungle was platinum? Was it C-tier?”

Windstorm Sword asked, and Ha Yoon-ho calmly faced reality.

“No, D-tier. Lower platinum.”

“Ugh.”

Windstorm Sword and Alpaca simultaneously swallowed hard.

Doubt had crept in.

It couldn’t be helped.

Windstorm Sword and Alpaca had been completely destroyed by the enemy jungler today, but that jungler was D-tier.

They’d improve a lot with practice, but no matter how inexperienced they were, they’d still been toyed with by a D-tier opponent.

“At least Alpaca-nim seemed better when he was jungling in the first and last games.”

Ugh.

Rumi’s words delivered a double blow to Windstorm Sword.

“So what should we do?”

Ha Yoon-ho asked for Seo-jun’s opinion.

Seo-jun wasn’t asked because he was A-tier.

“You said the strongest teams place members in positions where they can perform best regardless of lane carry potential, right?”

“Looking at past tournament strong teams, that seems to be the case.”

“I think we need to observe a bit more for now.”

Seo-jun judged that the mid system where he could flexibly go to any lane was definitely useful.

“You know tomorrow is the scrim, right?”

Ha Yoon-ho was saying this.

Win or lose didn’t matter, but still, if they lost.

“Are you worried about karma?”

“Yes.”

Their team needed practice right now.

And if they practiced in tomorrow’s practice game, there was a high chance they’d lose.

The result of the practice game itself didn’t have much meaning, but there was the karma that Seo-jun had built up.

“What does it matter? It’s a scrim. We lost today too.”

“Today and tomorrow will have somewhat different reactions.”

Seo-jun recalled the chat that had been teasing him earlier and said.

“Well, it’s still fine.”

If they lost and the chat froze up as a result.

Wouldn’t they donate money to tease Seo-jun?

Then wouldn’t that be profit?

While the team members didn’t know Seo-jun was thinking this, they resolved to do their best even if it was just scrimmage.

“Alright.”

“Then Windstorm Sword-nim will go top for now.”

“Everyone fighting tomorrow!”

The next day.

Seo-jun’s team’s opponent was decided.

It was Goblin’s team with an A-tier jungler.