Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 207

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 1 Episode 207
70. The Tournament Begins (2)
A message appeared on the screen in the waiting room where I stood.
[Participants, please enter through the portal.]
*Gulp.*
I heard several of my teammates swallow hard.
The waiting room was that quiet.
There was nothing left to prepare, and nothing worth saying.
Just before stepping into the portal.
That’s when Taco finally spoke up.
“I believe everyone’s mentally prepared.”
Everyone nodded silently in agreement.
“You all turned off the chat, right?”
According to the rules, chat is invisible during the actual tournament.
This prevents viewers from leaking information about the opponents.
One might think the absence of chat would feel empty.
But the moment I stepped through the portal, I realized something.
That wasn’t the case at all.
[Entering the arena.]
[Sponsored by…]
The screen dimmed briefly as sponsor logos appeared in sequence.
Then, the moment it brightened again.
“Roooooaaarrr…!”
“Roooaaarrr!”
A thunderous roar struck my eardrums.
“!”
My footsteps faltered for a moment.
‘This much?’
Though virtual, the roar that greeted us upon entering the arena was overwhelming enough to shake any participant.
Spectators in colorful, distinctive costumes waved glowing batons.
Some batons stretched upward like magical staffs, drawing all eyes.
But what truly captured my attention was the right side of the arena.
People wearing almond-shaped hats were shouting at the top of their lungs.
-Almond! Almond! Almond!
-Almond yeah!
-Roooaaarrr! Almond!
It was like seeing the Almond chants from chat come to life in person.
A surreal—no, hyperreal sensation ran down my spine.
“…Wow.”
I couldn’t help but gasp in awe.
Countless fans who existed only in chat windows and online communities were now manifesting before me in tangible form.
Though it was virtual reality, people who supported me had willingly purchased tickets and were cheering my name from the stands.
It was difficult to imagine experiencing a more overwhelming emotion than this.
“Almond, wave your hand for us.”
Balloon Gum stepped forward first, bouncing excitedly as he waved his hand.
Sanghyeon didn’t make as much of a fuss as Balloon Gum, but he slowly waved his hand as well.
-Waaaaaaah!
-Almond! Almond! Almond!
Another thunderous roar erupted from the crowd.
But there was a voice that drowned it all out.
[The~~~Balloon Stars! Are entering~~~~!]
It was caster Kim Sang-hun shouting from above the arena.
Every time he swung his arms dramatically, his flamboyant outfit sparkled.
[Wow, they’re incredibly popular!?]
Kim Sang-hun gestured toward the section where Almond’s fans were seated as he spoke.
The camera quickly panned to show that crowd.
People wearing Almond hats and screaming at the top of their lungs came into view.
The viewers laughed.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Crazy nuts gang
-Rabid fans
When did they ever get something like that right? ㅋㅋㅋ
Almonds are so popular lol
-Can humans catch rabies!?
And for good reason—the almond-shaped hats were absolutely ridiculous.
But this wasn’t something to laugh at.
[Wow! Foolish Deer! They’ve got real character!]
Hahaha, those crazy bastards
Those crazy bastards lol
He’s gone crazy lol
-And they’re ranked 5th in power rankings. Real skill.
The Foolish Deer team appeared in full centaur cosplay.
Neeeeiiiigh!
They lined up and performed a taunting gesture toward the Balloon Stars team.
Taco frowned.
“They’re trying to get in our heads.”
He realized they weren’t wearing those costumes just to make the crowd laugh.
“They’re trying to make us feel foolish if we lose to them. Ignore it. Just act like they don’t exist.”
The teammates followed Taco’s advice and acted normally, each taking their positions.
[The players have taken their positions!]
Whoosh!
Flashing lights began switching on one by one, and the pick-ban interface immediately appeared.
[Select a divine avatar to ban.]
The bans were starting.
The broadcast was beginning as well.
The caster opened the commentary.
[Now we’re beginning the ban-pick phase! Since this is the opening match, the strategy that emerges here could very well influence the entire tournament itself!?]
King Gul, sitting beside caster Kim Sang-hun, picked up the thread.
[Exactly. In any tournament, the meta shifts at least once during its run, right? And that remains true even in lower-tier competitions like this!]
[Ah… Lower-tier, you say!?]
[Ha ha. That’s just how it is….]
.
.
.
While the caster and analyst continued their banter, the bans had already concluded.
[Ban List – Balloon Stars]
[Rampaging Ppokjujok – Paul]
[Supernova – Sollia]
[Steadfast Wings – Valkyrie]
Balloon Stars’ bans were primarily designed to shut down the enemy’s charging combinations.
Ppokjujok Paul summons a motorcycle when using his ultimate ability and rides it across the battlefield, while Sollia uses powerful heat as propulsion to fly rapidly across the arena.
Valkyrie can descend to any allied position she desires from anywhere, making her the tank that synergizes best with charging combinations.
‘This should be enough….’
Taco believed they had successfully blocked the most troublesome aspects of the enemy’s composition.
Charging combinations were still possible, but none would be as formidable as those built around those three avatars.
‘The real problem is their bans.’
Taco frowned and pulled up the opponent’s ban list.
[Ban List – Foolish Gazelle]
[Cold-Blooded Arcane Archer – Reina]
[Succubus – Citri]
[Iron Ball – Rett]
Reina and Succubus were reasonable bans, nothing surprising there.
But there was one ban that stood out as peculiar.
“Huh!? Why me specifically?”
Balloon Gum’s main avatar. Iron Ball.
A tank avatar that transforms into an iron sphere whenever desired and rolls around to disrupt opponents.
And it had been banned.
Iron Ball wasn’t particularly well-regarded in terms of performance aside from Balloon Gum’s high proficiency with it, nor was it considered a threatening pick.
“Wow. Balloon Gum’s trash talk really got to them, didn’t it!?”
“You said I’d be humiliated if I lost to you? Come on! If you ban my character and still win, that won’t be humiliating at all!!”
Balloon Gum was pointing and shouting at the opposing team.
[Selection]
[Centaurs – Chester]
The enemy’s first pick had been revealed.
“Ah.”
Taco nodded as if he understood something.
“It looks like they’re building a top lane dive composition?”
“Don’t tell me… they’re planning to keep killing me the whole game?”
“That’s highly likely. Dive compositions make tower dives easy anyway…”
“Ugh…”
Balloon Gum’s face went pale with dread upon hearing that.
The thought of dying repeatedly throughout the entire game made his mind go blank. He could already picture what kind of chat messages would flood in.
“Anyway, let’s continue with picks. Let’s start with support.”
The picks proceeded one after another.
The enemy picked exactly as Taco had predicted.
“Let’s go Jungler as Beast. What do you think?”
“I’m fine with it.”
The picks progressed like a predetermined sequence.
Something felt off.
‘They never used this top lane strategy even once during practice matches.’
It was strange.
Foolish Gazelle had only practiced killing the ADC during practice matches.
After practicing that so deliberately, they suddenly target the top lane in the actual match?
Could that even work? They weren’t even a professional team.
Taco quickly corrected his order.
“Wait!”
“?”
“Let’s change the Jungler to Poison Dart Bunny instead. Not Beast. Poison Dart Bunny. Jackie.”
“Sure~”
Taco chose Poison Dart Bunny, which had lower efficiency but higher versatility, to preserve his final option…
[Flash Blade – Swift]
The opponent picked Swift as their mid laner. It was Tomato’s most-played champion.
‘That’s reasonable.’
Was it just his imagination? Taco scratched his head and tried to select the next pick.
At that moment.
He sensed something was amiss.
“Got it. The next pick is Storm Ninja.”
Suddenly?
All his teammates looked at him.

* * *
As the picks were being finalized one by one.
The casters initially didn’t notice what was different.
“Ah, it looks like Balloon Stars is going with the Poison Dart Bunny jungle again? They seemed to deliberate briefly with Beast, but wouldn’t Beast have been better for the composition?”
“I agree. More than that, what options does Miho have left? Solia and Succubus are both banned.”
Then.
[Storm Ninja – Haruky]
Storm Ninja appeared as the mid laner.
The casters were momentarily at a loss for words.
“Does Miho play Ninja?”
“Hmm….”
The Analyst, who had been flipping through the screen, shook his head.
“No, she doesn’t.”
That’s when King Gul interjected.
“Ah! This isn’t Miho—it’s Almond going mid lane. We saw this about a week ago. It became quite the hot topic back then with that shop pick.”
“Is that so?! A secondary position!”
“Yes! Picking Poison Dart Bunny was also with the intention of Strawberry playing ADC in the bottom lane!”
“This is unexpected. Against an opponent who came prepared with a strategy to counter Balloon Gum, they’re moving Almond to mid lane—what are they trying to accomplish?”
“I’m not sure….”
King Gul didn’t understand that either.
But the Storm Ninja pick itself was quite strong even just looking at the mid lane matchup alone.
“The enemy mid laner has Flash Sword, and if Storm Ninja comes out, it’s literally hell, you know? At least before level 6!”
“Ah, the picks are all finished while we were talking!”
Boom!
With a grand drum sound, all the participants’ bodies vanished somewhere.
[ALL DIVE SYSTEM OPERATED]
Crack-boom!
With the sound of lightning striking, a massive battlefield unfolded in the stadium.
-Wooooooooooo!
-Whoa, what is this!?
-This is insane!
The spectators gasped at the incredible sense of presence.
The spectators could cheer while looking down at the field with their own eyes, not through a screen.
The caster shouted the line he’d been asked to deliver by the production company.
“This is the viewing method of the All Dive System being applied starting this season! The battlefield unfolds inside the arena, and the participants can see the spectators too! Just like soccer!”
“Wow! The advancement in technology is terrifying!”
“Now, the first match of the NTR tournament. Balloon Stars versus Foolish Deer! Foolish Deer versus Balloon Stars! Let’s see what happens!”

* * *
Almond couldn’t make sense of the sudden position change.
‘What’s this? It can’t just be because Storm Ninja counters Swift….’
Did they really structure their entire ban and pick around a single mid lane matchup?
“They locked in the Disarm Blade.”
Taco added his thoughts as if reading Almond’s mind.
“Huh?”
“It’s not about destroying top lane—they’re building up the Disarm Blade to execute a combo that kills the ADC.”
Almond paused to think for a moment.
“Isn’t that just because the Disarm Blade is Tomato’s number one pick?”
“True, but even so, Swift doesn’t fit a top lane destruction combo at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because you need mid to roam up to top and dive together for it to work as a top lane strategy. That won’t happen. Swift is useless before level six.”
“Ah….”
Swift can only use two Disarm Blades once reaching level six. That’s when the real Disarm Blade plays become possible.
“See, they’re just building up the Disarm Blade. They’ll ban Balloon Gum’s main champion to cripple top lane, focus on protecting mid, and then later dive the ADC together with a well-scaled Disarm Blade.”
Swift has a disarm skill.
It temporarily removes the enemy’s weapons—devastating for ADCs.
The lane phase goes smoothly, then later they render the ADC completely helpless… that’s the combo they’re going for.
“Wait, is that why they banned Reina?”
“Exactly. Out of all those ADCs, they banned only Reina. Just Reina alone.”
Since Reina was your signature pick, banning just her wouldn’t seem particularly suspicious.
That’s why their true intention remained hidden.
‘That’s chilling.’
When you think about it, Reina is a hard counter to dive combos. Especially your Reina.
Whether four or five enemies dive in, your Reina can vanish from sight in an instant.
‘They banned her because of the ADC-killing combo.’
Banning the enemy’s main champion while picking their own, all while hiding their strategy.
It’s an impressive psychological play—multiple layers of deception in one move.
“And remember what they’ve been practicing non-stop during scrims?”
“Killing the ADC….”
“Right. They’re just continuing what they’ve been drilling.”
They even constructed a composition that lets them execute the tactic they’ve practiced the most.
Now all the pieces fit together.
Tap.
Taco placed his hand on Almond’s shoulder.
“Since they’ve built a pick focused on scaling the Disarm Blade, they’ll pour everything into defending mid.”
“That makes sense.”
“Your job is to break through that defense.”
Right. If the enemy brings a Disarm Blade scaling strategy, then conversely, if you just kill the Disarm Blade before it scales, the game is over.
That’s why Taco prioritized mid-lane matchups above all else when constructing the ban-pick strategy.
[Welcome to the battlefield!]
A brilliant light erupted before my eyes, and the roar of the crowd washed over me.
-Woooooooooo!!!
-Gaaaahhh!
-Almond! Almond! Almond!
The crowd?
Yes. The spectators were visible even within the game itself.
It was a completely different sensation from my usual streaming sessions.
This was a system being implemented on a trial basis starting this season, apparently.
Perhaps because of that, even my teammates—seasoned broadcasters in their own right—looked visibly tense.
“Damn….”
“Seriously. W-what do I do? This is actually making me nervous?!”
Almond was no exception to the pressure.
There was no human being who could remain unshaken in such circumstances.
‘It’s fine. My body remembers.’
Nervousness didn’t matter. A parched throat didn’t matter.
My hands would wield the blade, not my mind. My feet would evade the enemy’s attacks, not my thoughts.
‘Break through.’
I repeated Taco’s words to myself and stepped toward the mid lane.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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