Chapter 49 : Finals

On the 7th day of the representative selection, the semifinals to determine the teams advancing to the finals began.

Naturally, my team, Curry Breaker, won against the last team in Group 2 and advanced to the finals. Now, the only match left for today was the match between Curry’s team, Unbeatable, and the Ceremony team.

After our match, I entered the official Twitch channel.

I hadn’t been watching the tournament matches up until now.

The reason was simple.

The tournament matches were really boring.

But I had to watch this one. Actually, I was compelled to watch.

If Unbeatable lost this match, my goal of sniping in the finals would fail.

I had sniped Curry once during a scrim, but I knew myself well.

There was no way I would be satisfied with just one scrim snipe. I wasn’t satisfied even now. That’s why I hoped even more for Unbeatable to win against Ceremony and make it to the finals.

Not just any tournament snipe, but a finals snipe.

I hadn’t felt any tension during the tournament period.

But thinking about sniping in the finals just now made me excited.

Ah, I hope tomorrow comes quickly.

What kind of expression am I making right now?

I couldn’t check since I didn’t have a mirror.

But I was definitely smiling.

It was the first time in my life I felt this tense.

So I watched the match between the two teams, hoping for tomorrow to come a little faster.

The representative selection over the past week had sparked a lot of controversy.

The tournament balance is off. The match format is terrible.

Such controversies kept coming up, but they soon subsided.

After all, the representative selection was literally the process of selecting the ‘representative’ of the platform.

It was only natural that the best team would become the representative.

From the beginning, arguing about the balance in the representative selection was just proving one’s ignorance.

Even in the community that started the controversy, such debates stopped appearing.

Instead, the empty space left by these debates was filled with predictions about today’s finals winner.

Title: Unbeatable will win. Curry’s form is no joke right now.

Content: Curry is playing insanely well, as if he has awakened. He doesn’t lose even to Challenger tops.

Title: Who would have thought Curry would get a solo kill in the semifinals?

Content: I’m investing in Curry’s coin. Let’s ride the wave!

Title: Those who praise Unbeatable haven’t seen the scrims?

Content: Your rising star Curry was 1/10/5 in the scrims.

[Comments]

qwerasdf1234 Blown away~

Stop the fact abuse, exiles!

Hook collector: Yeah, the Curry back then and now are different people~

rnseofldk: Another blind fan going crazy

qudajrdma: Just ignore him

Many community users argued about today’s match.

Didn’t you watch the last scrim? Curry Breaker will surely win and be selected as the representative. No, scrims and tournaments are different. Unbeatable, who has grown during this time, will win.

Such arguments continued endlessly, with each side insisting they were right. Soon, the speed of new posts in the community slowed. Finally, the official Twitch channel opened, and the last match of the representative selection began.

Wandering Swordsman was deep in thought before the finals.

After tasting a crushing defeat in the scrim, Wandering Swordsman trained so hard it was as if he was pouring his soul into it.

Having only focused on Yasuo, Wandering Swordsman practiced and studied other champions solely to defeat Barcode in the finals.

The passion Wandering Swordsman had when he first picked Yasuo was now poured into forging a weapon to take down Barcode.

Wandering Swordsman, who overcame the limitation of being able to handle only a few champions, grew once again. It was common sense in LoL that each person had champions they played well and others they didn’t. Wandering Swordsman broke free from this common sense of LoL and showed incredible performance throughout the tournament.

And finally, he reached the finals.

“Wandering Swordsman.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s give them a hard hit.”

At Curry’s calm words, Wandering Swordsman quietly smiled and replied softly.

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

That was the last time Wandering Swordsman smiled.

Had his skills grown once again?

Wandering Swordsman could guess Barcode’s level to some extent.

Although he felt discouraged several times watching Team Curry Breaker’s matches, he didn’t show it outwardly.

Wandering Swordsman no longer aimed to defeat Barcode.

In hindsight, it was an overly ambitious goal he couldn’t achieve. So, Wandering Swordsman put down the heavy goal he had carried on his back.

Emerging from his deep thoughts, Wandering Swordsman followed Curry to the official voice channel.

The finals of the representative selection to determine the platform’s representative.

Most streamers must have set their sights on the finals.

But my purpose in participating in the tournament was to snipe the annoying Curry.

I couldn’t even remember why he annoyed me so much.

In any case, I was on the brink of achieving my goal, and my condition was at its peak.

I had practiced a specific champion for this final match.

Even before the game started, I was already excited and looking forward to it.

Unlike me, my teammates were silent, probably due to nervousness.

After entering the private room, we quietly waited for the game to start.

The silence in the call lasted for a while.

“Are you really going to play that champion?”

The one who broke the silence was Jericho with his question.

“Yes.”

“Ha, sometimes I find Barcode quite scary. I feel sorry for Curry.”

“You don’t have to compliment me.”

Maybe because I was feeling good before the long-awaited moment,

I couldn’t stop smiling during the conversation.

“Poor Curry…”

Jericho felt sorry for Curry.

The other team members stifled their laughter.

Unintentionally, the tense atmosphere in the call relaxed.

Shortly after, the finals of the representative selection began.

The finals began.

After the greetings from the host, caster, and commentator,

The official channel screen switched to the waiting room, and the ban-pick phase began.

Was the impact of the first match of the representative selection too strong?

In the subsequent matches, the only champion from Barcode’s most played list that got banned was Yone.

Knowing that it was pointless to counter Barcode, who played almost every champion at a high level,

Most teams that played against Team Curry Breaker only banned Yone.

As a result, Barcode’s Yone had a 100% ban rate.

That record remained unbroken in the finals.

“Ah, as expected, they banned Barcode’s Yone first.”

“Barcode’s Yone is famous. I wanted to see it once, but it’s not happening.”

Team Unbeatable banned Yone and then banned Jericho’s most-played jungle champions, just like in the scrim.

In team play, the synergy between mid and jungle is crucial, and it was the best decision they could make in a situation where countering mid was meaningless.

On the other hand, Team Curry Breaker targeted the enemy team’s ace, Lars.

The ban-pick process flowed the same as during the scrim, and the picks were similar too.

However, the champions picked by the mid laners of both teams were significantly different from the last scrim.

Wandering Swordsman, who picked Zed in the scrim, chose Pantheon.

In response to Wandering Swordsman’s Pantheon pick, Barcode picked Lissandra.

Barcode’s Lissandra pick was unexpected, and

Why pick Lissandra in response to Pantheon?

Many couldn’t understand Barcode’s choice, including the commentators.

“Mid Lissandra. It’s been picked a few times in tournaments and studied.”

“Maybe it’s to chase down Pantheon’s roams,” one commentator cautiously suggested.

The commentators tried to justify Barcode’s choice, but it was meaningless. Essentially, Lissandra was a lower-tier champion compared to Pantheon.

Amidst many concerns, the game started.

Team Curry Breaker was on the purple side, and Team Unbeatable was on the blue side.

The early phase passed as both teams moved to their positions and checked for invades.

The subsequent laning phase proceeded smoothly without any incidents.

Barcode’s usual aggressive playstyle was strangely passive in the finals.

Winning with Lissandra against Pantheon was undoubtedly challenging.

However, fans who became fans of Barcode through this tournament felt disappointed as Barcode had previously managed such difficult tasks multiple times.

The game proceeded without any significant events, and both mids reached level 6.

From the point they reached level 6, the game’s dynamics began to change rapidly.

“One of Lissandra’s strengths is her excellent wave-clearing ability…”

“While Pantheon returned to base, Lissandra cleared the wave and is heading to the top lane!”

“Seeing Lillia nearby, it looks like they’re calling for a dive!”

Indeed, the observer’s minimap showed numerous pings on Curry’s Irelian.

Upon reaching the top lane, Lissandra used her ultimate, momentarily darkening the Rift.

From the enemy’s perspective, only the area close by was visible, but the observer’s screen vividly captured the brutal scene of Irelian being dived.

[First Blood!]

“He resisted until the end, but finally! Barcode’s Lissandra secured the first kill!”

Lissandra’s first blood shattered the monotonous atmosphere in the Rift.

How will Barcode manage the game with Lissandra?

Viewers watched the tournament with such anticipation.

“Oh, this is a bit…”

“Curry’s Irelian collapses again. Truly relentless. Barcode’s Lissandra!”

Lissandra’s ultimate was used solely on Irelian.

Regardless of strategy, and even in situations where it would be fatal, Barcode targeted only Curry.

The commentator, who had been maintaining a high energy level, even said, “This is a bit much…”

That’s how much Barcode’s Lissandra hunted Curry’s Irelian exclusively.

Irelian coming down for a dragon fight?

• Darkness descends!

The Rift was momentarily shrouded in darkness, and Irelian was found as a cold corpse.

Irelian heading bot after the first tower was destroyed?

• Left all alone…

With an appropriate ultimate line, Irelian couldn’t even put up a proper resistance and met his end.

It was hard to tell if this was the finals of a tournament or a psycho user’s fun game.

Some viewers were appalled by Barcode’s cruelty, while others were thrilled by Barcode’s performance.

The commentators were already at a loss for words at the sight of Barcode relentlessly killing Curry.

This was no longer a match or a competition.

It was akin to broadcasting Barcode’s bullying of Curry.

While Barcode’s Lissandra incurred losses by overextending to kill Irelian,

She didn’t make severe mistakes that could lead to a game-turning situation.

In the end, Curry recorded an even worse [1/13/3] than in the scrim.

After 35 minutes, the match naturally resulted in Team Curry Breaker’s victory.

The victorious team’s interview followed naturally.

During the interview, the only person smiling was Barcode.

And thus, the long and winding representative selection came to an end.