Chapter 36: Master of One-Shot Builds

“Everyone, charge!”

The blonde-haired girl waved the flag and shouted.

Her spirited voice was enough to boost the morale of her allies, and the soldiers charged forward at the command of the young commander.

Among them were heroes with superhuman strength, different from the regular soldiers.

In no time, the relentless and well-timed attack exploited the enemy’s weaknesses, causing their formation to collapse.

The commander’s orders had proven effective in this case.

Of course, Lily, who had chosen Theodora, didn’t have the skills to strategize to that level.

She had simply activated her ultimate skill when I’d asked her to do so.

But that alone was a significant improvement, a sufficient achievement.

In this tournament, the lowest tier, the unremarkable bronze players, could earn praise simply by using their ultimate skill effectively.

It’s like when a child who used to crawl suddenly starts to toddle — everyone around claps in encouragement.

And just now, Lily’s play was comparable to a crawling child suddenly standing up and jumping around.

“Wow, that ult was perfect! She just went right through them?”

“Lily, that was amazing!”

“Hehe…”

It was only natural that the team showered her with praise and compliments.

They had been concerned about Lily’s lagging performance, so this was a pleasant surprise.

During the last practice session, she had gotten frustrated with her lackluster gameplay and announced she’d go off for solo training.

Out of nowhere, she decided to switch to support, and now she was succeeding at it, too.

Three wins in a row.

In each of the winning games, Lily’s contributions were substantial.

It seemed it was time to find a scrim partner from the viewers rather than just play regular games.

As the praise from the team continued, Lily smiled, looking both shy and proud.

Curious, Hakchu asked her,

“But why the sudden switch to support? You used to play ADC.”

“Oh, it was recommended by my mentor.”

“Mentor?”

“Yes, my mentor… Kayak.”

Lily’s voice was calm, yet filled with a newfound sense of trust.

“Kayak is your mentor? Oh, that’s right, you two went together that one time.”

“He watched a few of my games and suggested I’d do better as a support. And after trying a few games based on his advice, I saw much better results.”

“Oh….”

It made sense.

I had just witnessed Lily’s gameplay and the victories she contributed to.

To be honest, she seemed far more impactful and difficult for the enemy to handle as a support than she ever had as an ADC.

With Lily’s switch to support, people’s interest shifted elsewhere.

“Wait, Kayak, can you do that kind of thing?”

“Do what?”

“Find the right hero for people and suggest they change roles — stuff like that. Don’t only professional coaches or team trainers do that?”

Raime’s comment sounded like a joke, but the team members could see that this was actually quite remarkable.

Especially for Han River, who was in a high tier and had connections with pro team staff, he knew how absurdly impressive it was.

Of course, the professional scene and these casual games, or even exhibition matches, are worlds apart.

Currently, Lily’s rank was still in bronze, nowhere near the level of the pros.

But that didn’t mean just anyone could coach her successfully.

“Does coaching lead to immediate results?”

Han River, who had participated in many exhibition matches, including the first Abyss Streamer Tournament, had seen all sorts of players.

They’d had coaches ranging from rank 300 Challengers to overseas second-team coaches and even an Asian Games champion, but not all of them had managed to show results.

If anything, they’d had trouble teaching amateurs, many of whom didn’t even know the skills of the heroes in Abyss.

They’d sometimes even misunderstood their players, baffled that they didn’t understand the basics.

It was like watching their common knowledge get torn apart.

Han River remembered those rocky days, which was why they hadn’t brought in a coach for this tournament.

Besides, apart from Lily, the team’s first practice had gone relatively smoothly.

That said, there was no reason to turn down training from someone who had already proven his skill.

“Kayak, can you give me a look later?”

“Me too, please! I’ve got a wild card I’m saving —”

“No way! The teacher is busy enough just teaching me!”

A flood of requests for coaching came Kayak’s way.

Han River watched the scene and smiled to himself.

This team might actually have a chance at winning this tournament.

“This team has so many builds…”

Meanwhile, Kayak’s wasn’t the only team preparing intensely.

One of the four tournament teams, which included Nikan, had their unofficial coach, Han Sangsu, scrolling through his notes with a frown.

He had been brought in to help with coaching and analysis as a favor to the team leader, Yoo Hye, but there wasn’t much to coach.

With the tournament just around the corner, there wasn’t enough time to teach anything new.

In such a short time, teaching amateurs to broaden their hero pool or learn new builds was absurd.

It was far more effective to set up scrim schedules and analyze the opponent, or so Sangsu thought.

So here he was, analyzing the other teams.

“What the hell is this?”

Sangsu couldn’t help but swear.

What was it with this team and these bizarre builds?

While reviewing the training broadcasts of the other teams, the list of builds and heroes to watch out for had already doubled.

Overwhelmed by the weirdness, Sangsu shook his head.

“What now? What did you find?”

“I don’t even know what to call this. Calliope with a mace, charging with the front line to smash the enemy ADC’s head —”

“Oh, mace Calliope. That’s Kayak’s team. They’re a tough bunch. We might lose if we’re not careful.”

Yoon Seong, a former pro gamer brought in by Yoo Hye, immediately chimed in.

Top of Form

“It could happen,” was not a comforting thought for Sang-soo.

This tournament, sponsored by IONIX and held on a considerable scale, could yield significant rewards for him if they managed to win.

To achieve that, he needed to gain a more thorough understanding of the team he was currently analyzing.

“Riri? This person’s tier is Bronze. There’s no way a Bronze player created a build like this. Who made it for the team?”

“It was made by the God of Camilla.”

“The God of Camilla?”

“You know, Kayak from that team. It was an existing build, but he optimized it a bit.”

“Isn’t that guy a one-trick with Camilla? He even made a build for Kali?”

Sang-soo was already familiar with Kayak’s name.

He was a longtime Abyss player, so he couldn’t be unaware of that nickname.

However, he was hearing for the first time that Kayak had build-making capabilities as well.

“…this is almost a ‘one-shot’ build.”

That was Sang-soo’s conclusion as he reviewed the build and gameplay videos.

A ‘one-shot’ build lacks a fundamental foundation and is highly risky.

Due to its high risk, the pros and cons are clear.

Thus, it wasn’t impossible to deal with, but Sang-soo’s expression soured.

“It’s going to be tough for the players to adapt to this on the fly. Unless Yu-hye quickly gives orders…”

“If there are this many diverse builds, even Yu-hye will struggle to make deductions.

Unless you force them to memorize all these builds…”

It wasn’t impossible to counter them, but Sang-soo concluded that it would be difficult for amateurs.

In an event where low-tier players, who often lack understanding of the game, make up more than half of the participants, such ‘one-shot’ builds were akin to a disaster.

It was almost like possessing a tactical nuke in terms of impact!

“All these builds were made by Kayak?”

“That’s what I saw in the broadcast yesterday.

He gives everyone a different build, like he’s Santa Claus or something…”

Sang-soo shuddered at Kayak’s malice and meticulousness.

It was one thing to create surprise builds, but to reveal them on a broadcast was another.

This suggested that there were several more builds that were carefully hidden from view.

During the practice broadcast, they revealed strategies under the pretense of smoke screens, using their real strategies in the actual game, which had become a common rule in tournaments like this.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed.”

Even the ‘one-shot’ builds that had been revealed in the broadcast were quite significant.

As he began to calculate the possible outcomes and develop countermeasures, Sang-soo buried his head in his hands.

There was so much to do, and even if he completed it all, he still didn’t have confidence in securing a victory.

Sang-soo’s despairing sigh filled the quiet voice chat room.