Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 255

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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 255
90. A Single Pick (1)
Almond three-banned.
Could this simple, crude strategy actually be the correct answer?
Godanbaek swept sets three and four as if their losses in sets one and two had never happened.
[Godanbaek 2 : Balloon Stars 2]
In an instant, the score became 2-2.

* * *
“Wheee~~~!”
“Wow, Godanbaek securing back-to-back wins with the Almond three-ban! This really isn’t easy!”
King Gul nodded his head.
“Looking at just sets one and two, a 3-0 sweep seemed possible. But this is truly a matter of fine margins. When Jeon-ja-pa’s picks go wrong, he really throws hard, you know!”
Hahaha, that’s right.
-when jeon-ja-pa throws it’s legit fastball speed
-honestly the team power gap seems too big. the only line they’re competing on is mid.
“The divine spirits that Almond handles in mid still seem insufficient to overwhelm Danmuji’s play.”
That was the analyst’s assessment.
“Yes. Ran performed incredibly well in mid. But since this isn’t originally a mid pick, it’s not working out!”
“And in the next match, they even banned away Ran!”
“Moreover, as the top lane gets targeted more and more blatantly, the highway keeps getting broken through!”
“Regardless, now it’s 2-2! We’re facing the final match!”
Now the situation between Balloon Stars and Godanbaek had become 2-2.
The broadcast team had an additional rule they needed to explain. One they’d mentioned before.
“So. Now the final round awaits, right? Let’s go over that rule one more time.”
“Ah. Set five proceeds with blind picks! You can’t ban anything! And you don’t know what the opponent will choose!”
“Right! What happens if you both pick the same divine spirit?”
“You just do a mirror match! That’s also incredibly fun!”
“Sets three and four had Godanbaek having fun with the Almond three-ban. But what will they do this time? They can’t ban!”
“Who knows… Maybe they’ll build a counter-pick combination against Blink Blade? Or they could go for a Blink Blade versus Blink Blade mirror match pride battle!”
“Alright! Until we start, nobody knows! Let’s take a break and move to set five!”

* * *
Balloon Stars’ waiting room.
Five teammates were scattered throughout the space.
None of them could exchange a single word.
They were simply too exhausted to speak.
The feeling of losing sets 3 and 4 consecutively after winning sets 1 and 2 was nothing short of devastating.
The score was tied 2-2, but momentum-wise, Godanbaek held a significant advantage.
Moreover, the quality of play had been poor.
In set 3, we were overwhelmed and lost decisively, and in set 4, we squandered a comeback opportunity mid-match through a critical mistake.
Most of all, the skill gap had become glaringly apparent.
As a result, Balloon Stars was mentally exhausted.
“Hmm….”
Miho seemed to think she needed to say something, so she hummed uncertainly, gauging the mood.
“Um, is there any way we could still win? We’re doing blind pick now.”
Blind pick.
This was the last hope for set 5. Honestly, if we follow standard bans and picks, there’s simply no way forward.
Bans and picks ultimately relate to the breadth of avatars a player can handle.
When there’s a skill gap between players, the disparity naturally widens in the banning phase as well.
“If it’s blind pick, we can pick Blink Blade again, right!?”
Miho brought up Blink Blade trying to lift the atmosphere, but only awkward silence returned.
After a long pause, Taco stood up from his seat.
“If we pick Blink Blade, I’ll show you the odds of us winning.”
He suddenly began drawing in the air.
It was a diagram expressing the number of possible scenarios.
To summarize, it was this:
“Assuming the opponent doesn’t pick Storm Ninja, and assuming they don’t construct a counter combination beyond that, we could win.”
We win if the opponent doesn’t prepare counters.
“Of course, Almond’s condition will be the most important factor….”
Taco’s gaze turned toward Almond.
He sat in a chair in the corner, lost in thought since earlier.
He was still fighting Danmuji in his mind.
Set 3 had been relatively even, but set 4 was a complete defeat.
I realized that mid-lane Ran was a pick that only worked against players with poor macro play.
The frustration was palpable.
In a corner of my mind, the impure thought of ‘why do I have to go this far?’ kept repeating endlessly.
Distracting thoughts are a sign of defeat.
And yet I clearly knew that….
“Almond.”
Tap.
Taco came before him and gripped his shoulder.
“?”
Only then did Almond notice he was being called and look up.
“Stop overthinking. I’ll decide the picks anyway. Leave the strategy to me. Just maintain your condition.”
Almond nodded.
“…Yes.”
‘He seems a bit off.’
It wasn’t just Almond.
My teammates’ eyes lacked their usual spark. Almond was relatively better off than the rest.
“What’s with these looks?”
Clap. Clap.
Taco drew attention with the sound of applause and stood before the whiteboard.
“Alright. I’ve organized my thoughts too. Let’s give some feedback. The final match is coming up!”
The atmosphere remained unchanged.
Taco knew what this was.
It was a phenomenon you encountered when preparing for minor tournaments.
When your mind gets pushed to its limits, a certain psychology begins in these smaller competitions.
Taco understood it.
“I know what you’re all thinking.”
He looked at each teammate one by one as he spoke.
“This is a Nanteu match. It’s just streamers and clowns putting on a show. Do we really need to struggle this hard to win? That’s what you’re thinking, right?”
My teammates’ eyes wavered.
As if caught in their own thoughts.
“I’m not immune to these thoughts either. But…”
Bang.
He tapped the whiteboard and raised his voice.
“First. Even if this is a show to the viewers, it’s not a show to us clowns. A circus is only a circus to those watching. To those performing, it’s war. You could die doing it. That’s what makes it a circus.”
It’s true that Nanteu matches are consumed as light content. But if the performers themselves treat it lightly, then Nanteu matches won’t even be consumed lightly.
So it’s about fulfilling the clown’s role, our duty.
“Second. Pros, or rather trainees, sometimes say this about small tournaments. This tournament doesn’t matter. Let’s take it easy. I’ll just go win Worlds later. After losing Worlds, I’ll just go win Worlds next year. You know what’s common about these kids?”
“…”
“Worlds? They never even make it. Worlds? They can’t even reach playoffs, let alone finals. The truly skilled ones give their all even in neighborhood Capsule Room tournaments. That’s where the pieces start fitting together one by one.”
Of course, these people weren’t pros. But it didn’t matter. Taco wasn’t talking about professional life right now.
“I think you all know this story. Don’t let your exhausted body fill your head with strange thoughts. We…”
This was his philosophy on life.
Bang!
He struck the whiteboard and shouted.
“Don’t you want to experience winning just once in your life!? Even if it’s a Nanteu match! Isn’t it worth something? Huh?”
My teammates’ eyes changed slightly.
The weak thoughts that had been comforting themselves—that getting this far was already an achievement—were erased.
“Don’t you want to verify whether it has value or not!?”
“I want to check it out!”
Miho was the first to raise her hand and shout.
She had been waiting for any opportunity to shift the mood since earlier.
Led by her, words like “Yeah! Let’s do it!” began to circulate once more, brimming with fighting spirit.
Among them, Almond was repeating what Taco had said earlier.
‘Don’t you want to win the championship…? Even if it’s just a non-tournament match.’
Even if this stage was a non-tournament match, which some might consider an inferior tier of competition, he was asking—didn’t they want to win it?
Ten years ago.
Though it was merely a domestic championship, a small tournament, the thrill it had given me was considerable.
Everyone had said the Olympics were the real deal, that the championship didn’t matter.
But looking back, for me that tournament was no less ‘real’ than anything else.
It was fuel that still made my heart race. Even now, ten years later, it was remarkably efficient fuel that continued to be used.
That’s right.
The size of the stage didn’t matter when it came to making my heart pound.
What anyone else thought didn’t matter.
If I wanted to win, if I wanted to claim the championship, and if I achieved it, that was enough. No, it was more than enough.
“Now, are you ready to hear my foolproof strategy?”
Everyone nodded in unison.
Apparently satisfied with their expressions this time, Taco grinned and began drawing something on the whiteboard again.
“I just thought of this because of Miho earlier. But thinking about it, from their perspective it’s like this.”
The diagram was complex, but the point was this.
If Blink Blade doesn’t encounter a counter, they lose.
“That’s probably the premise of their pick. After getting hit that hard in sets 1 and 2, would they really want to face Blink Blade without a counter?”
Heads shook involuntarily.
No way. This is the final match.
“They’ll definitely prepare a Blink Blade counter, right? Being able to figure out this one thing in a blind pick is a massive advantage.”
That was certainly true.
If they boldly excluded the Blink Blade counter pick….
Realistically, that couldn’t happen.
“If this were a pro match… they could adjust picks like jungle or ADC to create counters. But since they’re not pros, they can’t handle Hwashin that broadly. So from their perspective, there seem to be two options.”
Screech.
He drew lines marking the two scenarios.
[Blink Blade] [Storm Ninja]
These two.
“If they pick Blink Blade, it becomes a mirror match or they face a different pick, right? But they’ll probably think we won’t pick Storm Ninja. So it’ll be a relatively safe pick.”
Next, Taco’s finger pointed to Storm Ninja.
“If they pick Storm Ninja and encounter Blink Blade, that’s perfect for us. Even if they don’t, this pick can be applied smoothly. I can’t say it’s completely ideal, but since it’s Danmuji’s most-played pick anyway, there’s nothing bad about it.”
Following this logic, the enemy mid’s pickable champions narrow down to exactly two.
“And here’s one more thing. We can know for certain exactly one more pick they’ll take.”
[Valkyrie]
Taco drew a line through the text above.
“It’s an Avatar that gets banned every time because its performance is OP—the stats are fundamentally too high and the balance is broken. We don’t have anyone who can use it anyway, so we’ve kept banning it.”
Almond was already familiar with this Avatar.
The one that flies through the sky and rains down blade storms. It’s definitely a pain to deal with.
“This one has to come out. It’s a great Avatar for countering Blink Blade. If it gets caught in the wide-area taunt, Blink Blade can’t do anything. Plus, it was even in Dotorimuk’s most-played list.”
With that, the possibilities for both lanes narrowed down.
“So we lock this in as a fixed value… and then we figure out Almond’s pick.”
Whoosh.
Taco began listing all the possible picks Almond could make.
But there was only one that satisfied all the conditions.

* * *
The moment it became certain that five games would be played.
On Reelprof, another war between the two fanbases was breaking out.
[Just~ a secret weapon one-trick lol]
[Can’t do anything once Blink Blade is banned]
[Without Almond, Balloon Stars just gets stomped]
Generally, those supporting Godanbaek condemned Balloon Stars as a team that couldn’t do anything without Almond.
[Taking 5 games with a cowardly 3-ban]
[We weren’t wrong!]
[Does Danmuji have no pride?]
The Balloon Stars side condemned the 3-ban as a cowardly tactic.
But it was Balloon Stars who had given up sets 3 and 4 consecutively.
Given Reelprof’s nature where whichever team won most recently is considered the strongest, public opinion favored Godanbaek.
-Isn’t the problem that they can’t do anything with a 3-ban?
└For real lol, they couldn’t even handle Storm Ninja.
└Might as well use Melly… but they haven’t even pulled out Melly once
└Honryeongsa is just for bullying… would Danmuji even get hit by such a slow projectile?
-Mid Ran really won’t work… Danmuji was shutting it down so skillfully.
└Right… it wasn’t even originally a mid Avatar…
└If you pull out a weird mid pick in front of a skilled player like Danmuji, you just get completely destroyed. Almond should have practiced a standard mid.
└That’s why he used Blink Blade. What else can you practice in a few days lol
While the argument was raging like this.
The commentator shouted on the live broadcast.
“Alright! We’re entering the ban-pick phase—no wait, the blind-pick phase!”
Whoosh.
The screen switched in an instant.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Picks began without a moment’s hesitation.
“Wow~! As expected, blind-pick is always exciting, right?!”
“Exactly! No mind games here! We’re just pulling out the best combination we’ve prepared! That’s what this is!”
Boom…!
And when Balloon Stars’ final pick was confirmed.
-Uooooooooooo!
Cheers erupted from the audience.
The woman who had settled behind Almond removed her blue hood, letting her golden hair flow freely.
〔Long time no see?〕
A smile bloomed on her crimson lips as she offered her greeting.

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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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