Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 210

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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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Episode 210

The semifinals had begun.
Seo Jun moved to the team’s Lobby to match the pace.

[Let’s get started!]

The caster was delivering the famous catchphrase, while the teammates were displaying confidence.
“Hello.”
“Since we already beat them once, let’s take it easy out there!”
“We’ve got two wins under our belt anyway!”
“But everyone’s voice is shaking pretty badly, you know.”
“Yun-ho, please just pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Aside from Ha Yun-ho, it seemed there wasn’t a single teammate who actually felt at ease.
Or maybe they were just working that hard at self-hypnosis.
“Hello.”
Seo Jun greeted them and took his seat.
The first match was Bangmangyi versus Han Pun-man.
Accordingly, Arin called out the players for an interview.
Seo Jun watched this unfold while asking Rumi, who sat beside him.
“Who do you think will win?”
“Probably Han Pun-man?”
“Why?”
“Because then you’d come instead of that jerk.”
To the Bottom Lane?

-Support’s ADC talking trash
-Don’t trash-talk Rumi.
-Guys, throw stones only if you’d rather see Seo Jun go Mid instead of going to the Bottom Lane with Ha Yun-ho

“That was a pretty selfish answer, wasn’t it?”
“Well, even aside from that, Han Pun-man won before, but Bangmangyi lost.”
“True enough.”
Spoon had always planned for the late game as he did now.
There’s no ADC that’s strong early. The advantage of an ADC is devastating sustained damage, and giving them that from the start creates balance issues.
Dokkaebi was trying to prevent exactly that.
And Dokkaebi’s position, the Jungle, was the most efficient position to shut that down.
He moved fluidly, and whenever an opening presented itself, he immediately ganked.
Chasing after Dokkaebi’s movements, Han Pun-man’s Jungler couldn’t execute any macro plays and was just dragged around.
“It looks like Bangmangyi will take this one.”
Seo Jun told Rumi it was unfortunate.
“Yeah, shame.”

-Nice!
-Powerful!
-Why did these guys lose to Pado then
-That just shows anything can happen in the league
-I don’t know, but maybe Group A was just garbage after all?
-That’s slander

By the time Spoon had finally come online, they’d already lost all the objective buffs to Dokkaebi and had surrendered a lot of tower pressure.
“Can they flip this around?”
Alpaca sought Seo Jun and Wind Sword’s opinion.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“It’s just a feeling.”
Seo Jun said it confidently.

-A feeling lol
-Nice! The analysts are scrambling for reasons, and this guy just says “feeling”!
-Now Spoon’s delightful comeback begins!
-Why comeback, it’s a counterattack lol

The viewers scoffed at the word “feeling.” He’d said it for that exact reason, after all.
Sometimes you’ve got to give them something to laugh at.
“I’ll be right about this one, you’ll see?”
“Really?”
“It’s just something you see at a glance.”
If you’re trying to be funny about it, anyway.
A moment later.

[Finish!]

The notification appeared: Bangmangyi had eliminated all of Han Pun-man.
“Told you?”

-What’s going on?
-?
-Spoon came online and cried lol
-The finish notification just went up
-But the game isn’t over yet if they survive and defend

It meant the game wasn’t actually over.
So Seo Jun stood up and stretched his arms.
“That’s it for us, folks. Teammates, move around a bit.”

-??
-5 seconds later the enemies respawn, there’s still time to defend! Game’s not over!
-Is it a feeling again?
-Oh? Tae-yang’s also talking like something’s about to end?
-?
-Oh, Keril just finished. Says something

The result came in.
The revived Han Pun-man teammates couldn’t defend the Nexus after all.
“Didn’t I tell you? Everyone. Aren’t we maintaining discipline here?”
Seo Jun said it playfully.
Today the chat seemed unusually hostile.

-For real, why don’t you trust him
-But Chief, I’ve been watching since the beginning and I didn’t trust you either
-Wouldn’t trust you anyway lol
-Plenty of the people chatting aren’t even newbies either
-Soon as he does something, everyone starts critiquing lol

‘Ah. This is how it always was, huh?’
Having grasped the truth, Seo Jun decided to prepare for the next match instead.
“The finals will be Bangmangyi.”
Alpaca added to Seo Jun’s words.
“If we win.”
“Come on. Let’s get ready for the League.”
“But Seo Jun, aren’t you doing a pre-game interview?”
“Nothing was scheduled beforehand. It won’t happen.”
Then the person to call would be Keril.
“Let’s see what he has to say.”
After a little time passed, the talk about the first match ended.
They replayed the highlights—which parts went well overall and the best moments of the teamfight.

[All right! Now for the second match: Wealth Gap versus Jipaljikkon, a rivalry of old friends!]
[Ah. Friends are truly enemies. They’re even obstructing each other’s journey toward one hundred million capsules.]
[Commentator Bang Ju? Which team will end up obstructing which?]
[I’m not entirely sure about that.]
[Which is why we need to hear from each team member too.]
[So who did you bring?]
[It’s Keril, the Ace of Jipaljikkon!]

-Wow
-Looks like the Chief didn’t want to call him since he’d probably just talk about money again
-lol
-Last time after Hwang So’s victory interview: “Saved myself ten million won. End.”
-Crazy bastard

[All right! So Keril! Are you fully prepared?]

Keril’s face appeared on the broadcast via video chat in the center of the screen.

[Yes. I’m fully prepared.]
[Oho! You’re showing strong confidence! Then, what do you predict about the opposing Ace, Seo Jun, which lane he’ll come to? In the Group Stage he was Mid, but we saw him not staying in Mid.]

-Not staying? What does that even mean
-Crazy guy lol the guy was obviously banned
-Oh please
-Don’t talk nonsense lol

[Well, I think he’ll come to Mid.]
[Why? Won’t he go ADC?]
[Setting aside anything else, with a guy like that, if there’s an opportunity to give Tae-woo from our team a hard time, there’s no way he wouldn’t take it.]
[Aha! That’s extremely reasonable. Got it!]

-Chief! They’re saying you have a nasty personality!
-Should we take him down?
-What’s to take down lol
-So will he go Mid?
-Would he give that away?
-Seems like he’ll go ADC

[So here’s the next question. Who will win?]

Arin smiled wickedly.
It was basically a question asking him to provoke.
Of course, Keril didn’t take the bait and answered boringly.
Chat was now saying they should have interviewed Seo Jun instead.

[Our team will win.]
[Haha! Got it. Shall we head to the Ban Pick phase?]

“Let’s go.”

* * *

The Ban Pick phase had begun.
The position where they’d be dumping resources in this Ban Pick was the ADC.
B-Tier ADC, Namu.
A-Rank Support, Keril.
Though Spoon from Han Pun-man might have higher carry potential as an ADC in his own right, the carry potential of this Bottom Lane was overwhelmingly superior.
So Seo Jun could have gone Bottom, but he didn’t make that choice.
It wasn’t because Tae-woo was actually in the opposing Mid.
“Should we ban?”
They hadn’t devised a strategy, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t decided what to ban either—it meant they’d flexibly respond based on what they saw. Ha Yun-ho banned the heroes he thought were most troublesome, one after another.
It was exactly as they’d discussed beforehand. There were no surprises.
Meanwhile, Seo Jun watched the enemy’s hero bans, and something felt off.
‘Eric banned first.’
Second, they banned Wind Sword’s top pick.
For some reason, it felt like the third ban would help Top the same way.
Why?
“Aren’t they banning third?”
Since he hadn’t muted, the viewers heard Seo Jun’s mutter and laughed.

-Tae-woo, what are you thinking!
-He must be confident he can hold
-Probably doesn’t care since he can play anything new and still do well anyway
-How dare he? <– His tone was exactly like this lol

"So what will you do? Decide based on what they pick?"
Hmm.
Seo Jun fell into thought.
He put himself in the opponent's shoes.
Even if they did a third ban, they'd carry with a completely new hero anyway, so was it saying just go with what you were doing?
Since at least that would be something they had prepared for?
Like Hwang So leaving Kael open, they weren't narrowing their options.
Were they planning to counter-pick after seeing?
Helping Top made sense.
The opposing Top was E-Rank.
'If I go Bottom, that'd be an E-Rank matchup all over again.'
Instead, he'd stick to Mid, control from there, and target Top where Support had the least influence.
The bans were complete and they started picking.
Seo Jun waited.
"Yes, I'll pick fifth."
A single decisive match.
What the opponent was going for.
Map Control?
Or early-game snowball?
Jungle?
Whatever it was.
'I won't fall for it.'
"Seo Jun, it's your turn now. What are we picking?"
"The opponent didn't finish picking Mid either."
"Were they trying to see what Tae-woo picks first?"
"No."

-So what are you picking
-Something you've done before?

Power versus strategy?
"I should fight with my head this time too. Going Card Sorcerer Jack."

-A real macro hero
-Is he going to win with macro?
-Hmm… this seems rough
-For real, you can't ignore experience
-This guy's smart, but does he understand the game?
-AOS doesn't allow breaking through unconventional routes like a puzzle game
-He might have the game sense, but he's still a Newbie right?

A Newbie whose Mechanical Skill was so good he could overwhelm even with bizarre plays.
But this pick of his was.

He had a hard Crowd Control ability that completely stripped the opponent of agency.
And his ultimate was a Global Ultimate covering the entire map.
What did choosing this mean?
After entering the game, Seo Jun ignored Tae-woo's excited cry from right in front of him.
"You're looking out for me!"
Instead of picking a brutal hero like Kael that would just beat people up in the early game, he'd picked a ranged mage that grew steadily with measured harass!
"What are you saying?"
That wasn't it.
"Right, that can't be it. So is this the right call with Jack?"
He'd faced Wealth Gap in a practice game before. Back then, Tae-woo had deliberately played loosely—or more precisely, he hadn't deliberately held on like Lain would.
Seo Jun had noticed that.
Keril must have anticipated a future matchup and given Tae-woo those instructions.
"Jack's workable."
"What is?"
"Not dying."
"Is that so?"
Seo Jun looked at him with a playful gaze.
Tae-woo flinched.
Every time he made a face like that, he always ended up suffering at Seo Jun's hands later on.
"This time will be different. For real, with Jack, couldn't I even solo kill you?"
"That wouldn't happen."
"Yeah, that wouldn't happen."
Seo Jun was grateful that Tae-woo agreed quickly.
In any case, Seo Jun was going for a macro-based victory.
But just as Seo Jun was evaluated as pro-level in Mechanical Skill, Keril was evaluated as pro-level in game sense.
Of course, not all of Keril's teammates were professionals, but the same went for Seo Jun.

-A Newbie, they're saying?

-Only played trash builds
-But do you guys know?
-What
-People who only play the worst heroes, we call those Skilled Players. There's no way they'd pick the worst one so consistently without understanding all the game's principles.
-Whoa ddd
-Chills ddd
-That's bullshit lol

People thought Seo Jun's pick this time would be a blunder.

But.
Seo Jun was a mid-level Newbie. He had ample experience.
The opponent probably knew this to some degree thanks to Tae-woo.
'But they won't know the exact details.'
Seo Jun wore that familiar smile.

* * *

Presently, after a little time had passed.

[Alpaca? Red Buff.]

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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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