Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 240

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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 240
83. Hidden Card (2)
Balloon Stars vs. Soloizebaek’s playoff match.
Lose here and you’re eliminated, heading home in this tournament-style competition.
Both teams had achieved tremendous growth through the preliminary rounds, so this matchup garnered considerable attention.
Though only the first set had been played, the related content had already dominated the entire BigPro forums.
And the post occupying the very top was:
[Almond shooting with his hand pulled out.gif]
The scene of Almond eliminating Mosol.
Despite being overwhelmed by the Beast, he pulled out just his hand and fired.
-Did you practice this? I tried it but why doesn’t it work?
└Talking like practice makes you handsome lol
└I watch Almond’s stream every day so I know. He doesn’t practice this lol he just does it
└Some are born to do it. You’re not one of them
└That’s harsh lol
Next, Mosol’s psychological warfare compilation was also popular.
[Mosol’s chiki-cha mind games lol.mp4]
-So cute
-Mosol’s the best lol
-Total social butterfly lol
-His stream wasn’t that popular before. He’s gonna get a boost from this right? lol
└Already gained 2k followers, nearly doubled
Please, if you’re Korean, watch the Mosolcast broadcast ㅠㅠ
└…Why?
-Is Mosol finally getting a girlfriend?
Following that, Almond’s chiki-cha series was also gaining traction.
[Almond’s chiki-cha pettiness]
The scene where Almond first caught Mosol and muttered under his breath.
-Insane lol
So cute ㅠㅠ
-There’s more of this right?
└Posting more
Almond didn’t end his pettiness after just one instance, and because of that, the post became a series.
[Chiki-cha Pettiness-2]
[Chiki-cha Pettiness-3]
-Does he turn this on as a macro every time he kills Mosol?
-Lol this is insane
-I thought Almond was cool. So he just didn’t like Walnut!?
└Seems like he only holds grudges in-game
└His competitive spirit is seriously off the charts…
└Please refrain from disparaging Walnut. That’s a crime too.
└Almond’s cool. It’s just his Walnut that’s hot.
It’s so funny how you can’t even remember what people did normally, but now you’re all worked up about this ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
So they were saying “chiki-chaka” even when killing Mosol in front of the Almond Sanctuary lol
At this point, isn’t it clear that Chiki-cha is saying this because she actually likes it? ㅋㅋㅋ
Next in popularity were posts related to Balloon Gum.
[Gum Who Regained His Memory]
[Gum Who Lost His Memory Again]
[Gum Who Regained His Memory Once More]
[Gum Whose Memory Vanished Again]
[Does Gum Even Eat This?! Gum Who Swallows Anything]
Isn’t there something wrong with Hema if it’s this messed up?
lol lol lol lol lol lol
-Please go to the hospital, man…
Who’s gonna cure me of not being able to do reels lol
Just make sure you remember it properly, man haha
└If he goes to the hospital and gets all his memories back, it’ll be a disaster though…
What’s the last one? ㅋㅋㅋ Is it regression to infancy?
That thing about stealing Penta was seriously legendary lol
└I feel like Almond’s gonna mutter “penta ta…” while sleeping.
Who asked Gum-hyung in the chat to show them an unfamiliar ceiling lol that’s so funny lol
-Ahh, this is the taste! Gum never ends no matter how much you chew! Because he’s gum!
Haha, grit your teeth all you want! I’m just chewing gum! Oh my!
Next, there was surprisingly quite a lot of praise for Takoyaki’s pick.
[Honestly, Takoyaki’s deception ban pick carried. Hit that upvote.]
-Real talk, the deception ban pick was seriously fire. It’s rare to see even King Gul get fooled. Though I think it’s because it’s a Nantro match so they were just joking around.
He’s a real bastard.
Genius octopus, wow
The prophet octopus is crazy/amazing.
-Hope of the humanities, Takoyaki!
└Did Takoyaki graduate from humanities?
└No, he’s an engineering student.
└Then why…
A door isn’t a door, you know lol lol lol lol lol
└Humanities major… still searching for hope
And amid the heated interest, Game 2 began.
Shortly after the ban-pick phase started.
The Lil Pro forums were immediately flooded with discussions about the new picks.
[Wow, what is that?]
[That still works?]
“That crazy thing is something people used to do way back in the day lol”
Kiya latte tactics crazy
A noob like that wouldn’t know tactics like that lol
[I’m seeing this for the first time too… What the heck is that?ㅋㅋ]

* * *
Before the ban-pick phase began.
As always, the Caster spoke first.
“Now, in this best-of-five series at 3-1, Balloon Stars has secured one victory and established a favorable position.”
[Balloon Stars] [1]
[Soloizebaek] [0]
Following the Caster’s words, a hologram appeared before all the spectators, displaying Balloon Stars’ single victory.
“Analyst! How do you think this ban-pick phase will unfold?”
The Analyst adjusted his red glasses and straightened his posture.
“Well, first of all, I think they’ll continue to keep in mind that Almond will likely play mid lane.”
“Do you think Almond will go mid again?”
“There’s no reason for him not to.”
“Why is that?”
“Looking at the results from the first set, Almond wasn’t pushed back at all against Mosol in the mid lane.”
“That’s right. In fact, there were moments where he was winning!”
“That’s because Almond has good matchup compatibility with Mosol.”
“Really? Is it like human compatibility? Between the popular kid and Mosol…?”
A deep-rooted tradition passed down from the classroom… lol
Now even the caster is gone ㅠ
-Mathematicians decided to call it the class representative dynamic!
-Is there a four-character idiom for the class representative dynamic?
“No, that’s not quite it.”
“Ah… I see.”
The Caster looked somewhat disappointed.
“It’s because of the Avatar types that Mosol prefers. Given that Almond brings a ranged-type Avatar he’s highly skilled with to mid lane, he naturally has good matchup compatibility with Mosol.”
“Huh? Why is that?”
“The biggest counter to ranged-type Avatars is assassin-type Avatars, but Mosol surprisingly doesn’t play assassin-type Avatars.”
“What? Ah… Looking at the data, that’s really true?!”
“Yes. Mosol is a player who likes to see the game broadly and on a large scale, roaming around and controlling the entire map. From that perspective, even if he brings a ranged Avatar to mid lane, it doesn’t lead to particularly dangerous situations.”
“Ah… So there was this matchup issue?”
“Also… this is something outside the game itself. Taco wants to keep Almond fixed in the mid lane. He’s even considering the upcoming confrontation with Danmuji, right? He won’t want to miss the opportunity to grow against a midlaner like Mosol.”
“Ah. So basically, Mosol is just experience?”
I’m so lonely ㅠㅠ
-Mosol’s becoming a minion
“What experience does Mosolyi have? ㅡㅡ The caster is crossing the line.”
-The way they’re hunting down the Caster is insane lol
“That’s just how Takoyaki sees it.”
Red Glasses laughed nervously and weathered the crisis.
“Ah, I suppose Takoyaki could see it that way. I’ve heard people calling Takoyaki the prophetic octopus, the genius octopus lately? Do you two agree?”
-Insane lol
-Prophetic octopus lol
-They forgot the yaki part, it’s just octopus all day lol
King Gul chimed in as if he’d been waiting for this.
“Haha! That’s fair, right? If you asked people to pick the best bans and picks from this tournament, I’d say Taco’s picks would definitely be in the top 5! He’s constantly predicting the opponent’s intentions and countering them! He truly deserves the title of prophetic octopus!”
The Caster nodded in agreement.
“That’s right! He counters well! But… this time, Mosol could get the final counter pick, you see?”
“Ah~! That’s true! So now it’s Mosol’s turn to counter?”
Due to the pick order based on team positions, Soloizebaek gets the final pick this time.
That means they can examine all five of the enemy’s avatars before choosing their last one.
In other words, they can guarantee picking an avatar with good matchups.
“I’m sure they’ll give the final pick to Mosol, their ace. Plus, Mosol plays an incredible variety of avatars. Even the prophetic octopus will have a lot to consider this time.”
“That’s right! The moment you said that, the bans are underway! Let’s see! Will the prophetic octopus’s power be real? Or will Mosol’s counter pick be stronger!”

* * *
The screen showed the players conducting the bans and picks instead of the casters.
Both sides exchanged heated words back and forth.
The moment it started, certain avatars were banned.
Solia from Mosol and Reina from Almond were banned.
Since Reina being banned was a familiar sight by now, Takoyaki discussed the next ban without flinching.
“I think the next ban will probably be Sana. We’ll ban Nogari and Clown…”
But then.
Thud!
At the sound of the ban being confirmed, Takoyaki’s eyes went wide.
[Soloizebaek Ban #2]
[Ironball – Dino]
“…?”
Balloon Gum’s Ironball had been banned.
‘They banned Ironball?’
It was an unexpected ban. No one had paid much attention to it until now, so he hadn’t thought to consider it.
In fact, he’d been ignoring it because it didn’t really matter either way…
But now that it was actually banned, it felt like a massive hole had opened up in the top lane.
This happens often during ban and pick phases. That moment when you realize, only after it’s banned, that it shouldn’t have been banned.
“Wait… you’re banning me?”
“Wow. Looks like your brother did well.”
The other teammates didn’t seem particularly surprised.
Almond seemed almost pleased that his avatar had been banned.
‘This is… problematic.’
Among the branching possibilities spreading from Takoyaki’s mind, one entire section was painted red, flashing a warning.
Still, Takoyaki forced himself to appear composed. He couldn’t afford to dampen the team’s morale now.
“Heh. Interesting. We’ll stick to our plan—ban Clown. Ban Valkyrie!”
Though he issued the next ban without hesitation, he felt it in the back of his mind too.
This was nothing more than reciting a prepared checklist.
It wasn’t true ban-pick strategy.
It wasn’t a real real-time mind game—just solitaire played against myself.
This was what they called a “wall ban-pick.”
Ban-picks made while staring at a wall, so to speak. Bans that only considered our strategy while ignoring the enemy’s.
The results were almost always catastrophic.
This wall ban-pick was how the league’s first-place team could lose to the last-place team.
‘I need to get my thoughts in order. First…’
Takoyaki desperately tried to reorganize his scrambling mind, but the next pick only plunged him deeper into confusion.
[Dragon Tamer – Jeremiah]
Dragon Tamer Jeremiah.
An avatar played in the mid lane.
And it came out as their second pick.
That made no sense.
‘What? Why… why did they pick mid first?’
Mosol could have picked mid last, after seeing everything.
He could have countered after reviewing all the picks, but instead he locked in a mid avatar early.
‘Could it be that Dragon Tamer isn’t mid?’
Could Dragon Tamer be played in a different role?
There were people who played Dragon Tamer in the jungle. Efficiency? Obviously garbage.
Mid Dragon Tamer was tier 2, but jungle Dragon Tamer was classified as tier 4.
Tier 4 picks earned you curses from your own team the moment you selected them.
Only a handful of specialists could pull them off.
‘There was nothing like that in the data.’
Nogari’s data showed no record of him ever playing it, specialist or not.
There was no way Nogari, with no data on it, could play something only specialists could handle.
‘So what is it? Why pick mid first? What are they after?’
Then, a top lane ban flashed through Takoyaki’s mind.
‘Ah…’
Come to think of it, they had banned our top laner’s most-played champion.
‘Are they targeting top?’
If they ban Balloon Gum’s signature Iron Ball and give Makgeolli a counter pick on top lane…
An already weak top lane would have an even bigger hole torn through it.
‘That can’t happen…’
A single gap overwhelms four aces. That’s this game.
Especially Balloon Gum—if it’s not an Iron Ball, his mental often crumbles.
The enemy’s aim is sharp. Takoyaki needs to prepare something too.
‘I’ll squeeze out a pick that can hold top lane somehow. And the jungler….’
Let me try to extract a pick that can cover the top lane.
But then, a sudden thought crosses my mind.
‘No, wait. What if they’re over-committing to counter my mid lane?’
We brought the Flash Sword card with us.
They might have something not in the data. What if it’s a Dragon Tamer jungler?
What if Nogari even took coaching from a Dragon Tamer jungler master?
‘A clean ban to destroy top lane… or a reckless ban to beat mid lane and push forward….’
Either cleanly pound the weak side into oblivion, or strain to suppress the strong side.
Both are viable strategies.
‘So that’s why.’
The ominous feeling I had the moment Iron Ball was banned—it was because of this. The number of possible thoughts multiplies. I’m falling behind in the mind game.
But there’s no helping it. Whether I fall behind or not, that’s what a ban pick is—you carry it forward either way.
Takoyaki wracked my brain with all my might.
‘Is there something that can cover both?’
I dug through every outdated meta from my old pro days.
There had to be an answer in my mental archive.
I just hadn’t discovered it yet.
“Hyung…? We need to pick.”
It was finally Almond’s turn to pick his champion.
“Wait….”
Time flows on.
[9 seconds]
Nine seconds remaining.
[8 seconds]
Another second passed with no new thoughts.
Takoyaki decided to think for just 2 more seconds. Just 2 seconds.
[6 seconds]
Finally, 2 seconds had passed.
“Almond.”
Then, Takoyaki placed a hand on Almond’s shoulder and spoke.
It felt like I was relying on this guy every time, but there was no choice.
“You’re going to have to do it.”
“…Do what?”
“Jungler.”
“???”

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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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