Chapter 209. The First Match (2)

"I think the noise from the crowd will affect the players quite a bit."

As an ex-pro, OrangeKing was worried about the All-Dive system affecting the players.

"It would be fine if it just added pressure or boosted morale, but what if it also revealed hidden enemies..."

The other caster waved, "That won't happen. Players won't be able to hear the crowd from where they are. Even if the crowd does shout that loud, players won't know who they're talking to. Besides, there are five players separated into their respective lanes!"

"Ah... I guess so. But... it's still a bit iffy. I heard back in the days that players could look at the chat, so maybe it's okay. I hear they're also implementing this into the pro scene?"

"Police isn’t just going to sit idly!"

"?"

"This is This World, right? Just like games with a spoiler-free filtering system, these matches have a live filter as well!"

"Ah. Any words that may affect the game automatically get filtered out!?"

"Yes, that's right! If by some chance a message was delivered, there's a log of it. They can easily verify and punish whoever accordingly if needed."

"Wow, This World is improving by the day..." OrangeKing suddenly stopped mid-sentence while complimenting This World. His tone changed and he suddenly shouted, "What's going on?! Is this a spectator bug?"

Kang!

Swift had been fighting well, but now his flashy blade lay on the ground.

"W-What's going on?!"

"Something hit it!"

"Did the blade fall after being hit by something?"

They didn’t know the answer. Flashy Blade was at a disadvantage against Storm Ninja in close combat.

"A-Anyways, Almond!! He continues to slash at incredible speeds!!!"

"Wow! It's like he's showing them that this is the maximum slashing speed of a ninja!"

"This player can slash like this once his mind is set!"

"Will Swift survive!?"

"He's slowed down and out of swift mode..."

Almond jumped ahead of Flashy Blade and finished him off with his sword. Shocked by the ordeal, Tomato died without being able to fight back.

[First Blood!]

"Ah!! It's the tournament's first kill! It's already happened!"

"The play just now was insane!"

"I can't believe it even after seeing it with my own eyes!"

"The blade normally wouldn't fall like that just from being hit. Very interesting."

"We'll have to see the replay to be sure, but Almond probably hit the blade handle at a perfect forty-five degree angle, no?"

"Ah, exactly forty-five degrees?"

"I'm just saying."

The chat also went wild while the casters talked excitedly.

— Wow...

— What just happened!?

— Is this real?

— Why did Flashy Blade's blade fall?

— Raina's decision with no regrets: Almond.

— Damn...

— That was insane!

— Yeah! This is LIL!

— Things are heating up!

— The man JeonJaPa followed.

"The replay is ready! Let's take a look!"

The replay began as the caster finished talking. It started slowly from when Swift threw his blade toward the turret.

"Oh, it's the shuriken, right?"

"He did throw a shuriken!"

Almond's shuriken quickly flew from behind.

Taaa...

The shuriken perfectly struck the blade's handle. Its edges hooked on, kept spinning, and knocked the blade down.historical

... Kang!

The blade lost its momentum and fell.

"Huh? This..."

OrangeKing and the analyst looked at each other in surprise.

"Why was the shuriken spinning backward?"

"Did he throw it counter-clockwise on purpose!?"

"That's why even though it was weird, it just fell like that!"

"That's right. It was weird because if a projectile hits the flying blade, it could make the blade fly even further and land further away..."

"Wow... if this was intentional, it's really impressive."

"Thank goodness the Fearless Deer didn't notice. If they saw it, they'd be terrified!"

"That's right! After seeing that, it's hard to imagine beating them!"

As the casters said, it was a super play that was enough to scare off players. The chat sped up while agreeing with them.

— That's no mortal.

— The best of the nuts...

— ??? Humans are finished. Now is the rise of the nuts.

— Wow...

— Poor Tomato...

— ??? We're not the same diamond rank.

"Anyway... first blood in the middle lane has got to hurt."

"Even without seeing the replay, I bet he’s lost his will now."

First blood signified the first kill of the game. It also gave a bonus of 100 gold on top of the kill reward. The bonus gold was valuable, but that wasn’t the true value of first blood.

"Yes, the rest of the game becomes a drag if first blood comes from the most worrisome lane."

"It plays a big part in their motivation."

"First blood is always like that."

Tomato died at Level 1 despite telling his team that he felt confident. He was even playing as his most played champion against a player who had only played Storm Ninja once. This affected not only Tomato, but their entire team's mentality.

'He died to the counter matchup in the end.'

'I thought it was his most played...'

'He said he was confident...'

Of course, the teammates kept their thoughts to themselves.

“Hey, it's okay. It's a counter matchup anyway.”

Instead, they gave him words of comfort. However, Tomato knew best as their main attacker.

'Sigh. It's fucked.'

Everything was now screwed up.

“I'm sorry. I'll play it safe from now on.”

There was still next time. Next time...

He needed to cling onto that hope and survive. He'd lose it if he sighed too deeply.

***

Almond thought to himself, 'It's all about momentum.'

[StrawberryShooter has killed an enemy!]

The bottom line soon followed after Almond's kill. Then another one came back to back.

[StrawberryShooter Double Kill!]

It was a double kill while everyone was around Level 2-3, which was catastrophic for the opposing team.

“Kya! Perfect!”

“Silver can't do anything against a Master~~!”

“The only Master-silver is Almond!”

“Nice~!”

Their voice chat was in high spirits. Almond gave a light compliment and returned to focusing on his middle lane.

'That's a load off.'

He felt lighter as the momentum fueled him.

'Let’s try going for another kill.'

He cleaned up the minions as slowly as possible and moved up to the enemy line. He wanted to keep the enemy completely away from the minions.

'If I keep this up, the enemy’s jungler will come.'

There was a high chance the enemy jungler would come for him since Almond was playing aggressively far up in the lane. Flashy Blade was an important champion for their team, so they would want to help him out at least once. Almond had to make a decision.

'Should I just back off or...'

He wondered if he should back off or go for Flashy Blade regardless of the situation.

***

The casters let out a deep sigh.

"Ah...! Even the bottom lane got a double kill..."

"It's much too apparent now that they’ve lost in champ select, right?"

"Yes, Tako's champ selection completely overwhelmed them. They tried to trick the enemy, but were countered instead."

"Right now, the bottom rank difference is huge. The champions they picked don't play well in the late game. Whereas for Almond, he's playing against another Diamond player with a tier 4 champion. It's a perfect counter."

"Yes, that's how he was able to take first blood!"

The viewers seemed to agree with the casters.

— King! Ta! Ko!

— Tako's hair disappeared because he was thinking too hard!

— Takoyaki's banning phase sure was impressive.

— Hey! Hey! Tako without hair is legendary!

— TakoyaKING.

— Fearless Deer, they're way too into their character.

Strategy in LIL significantly affected gameplay. The banning phase greatly impacted both teams. For teams close to the professional level, almost 50% of the game's outcome was determined during the champion selection phase. The champion selection phase was especially noticeable for this game thanks to Tako. The analysts were talking about the big part that Tako played, but the attention was now shifting toward the middle lane.

"Wait a second. Almond's making a pretty brutal move!"

"He seems almost overconfident!"

Almond casually walked around deep in enemy territory just outside the turret range. Tomato needed to kill all the minions near Almond, which meant he'd have to enter into Almond's reach for the gold and experience.

"If that’s the case... that means there's already a huge difference between them, right?"

"That's right. There's nothing he can do right now in a one-on-one situation. Not only was it hard for Tomato to level up in the first place, but he has been killed once already."

Almond was making a highly risky play. Players normally hid behind minions to stay safe, but he was in front instead.

"He's basically in front of the minions and defending them. This is only possible because of their difference in strength."

"Ah, let’s see... Almond has killed 40 more minions compared to Tomato!?"

"Every wave has 20 minions, which means Tomato wasn't able to get a single minion for two waves. Things are looking bleak."

[Tomato]

[Minions: 37]

[LazySoldier]

[Minions: 81]

In professional matches, a 20-minion difference was detrimental. The difference was double that right now.

The crowd started booing.

— Boo...

— Hey! Play properly!

— Is Flashy Blade really your main champion?

The casters tried to ignore the crowd as much as possible and continued.

"... Ah, even watching is difficult. This is the same thing as dying twice."

"There's even a level difference. This is huge. I think I briefly saw that it was a two-level difference... Almond is already Level 5 and almost at Level 6."

"Can Flashy Blade even hit Level 6?"

Almond set up camp in the supply room and defended it, preventing the enemy from gaining any resources.

"The jungler is getting ready to join in."

"That's right. Fearless Deer is centered around raising the middle lane. They need to start focusing there to do well!"

"But... I think Almond knows this. He's slowly backing off."

"That's alright! Centa is very quick!"

Centa was short for Centaur. The full name of this champion was Frenzy Centaur - Chester, one of the main champions needed for their team centered around charging in.

Clippity! Clop!

There was a saying. Once Centa was in sight, it was already too late. Storm Ninja was initially faster, but Centa’s speed was unmatched once he got going. He was like a sports car.

Dududududu!

"He’s really quick!? How will Almond answer!?"

"If Flashy Blade gets a kill here, it could turn the tides! The game is going very well for Almond, but it could end like that! The minion difference can be overcome!"

"Almond needs to throw a smokescreen and run away! Why is he suddenly stopping?"

"Just when you started talking! Almond used his smokescreen!"

Poof!

Chiiiik!

Smoke covered the surroundings, and the casters grew confused.

"Huh?!"

"We can't see anything either!?"

"Isn't this a bug? Or is this intentional?"

Even the casters weren't aware of what was happening inside the smoke.

"Anyway, Centa is charging in!"

Swoosh!

Centa charged into the smoke.

"Swift is following and helping! It's a 1 vs. 2 situation!"

Swift threw his blade into the smoke as well.

"They're trying to kill him!"

The three disappeared into the smoke. The casters were speechless because they couldn't see anything. They stared at the screen and waited for the outcome.

After a moment..

[LazySoldier has eliminated an enemy!]

"Wow...!? Their side was the one to die!?"

"Instead of fleeing, Almond chose to fight and took one with him!"

The casters were surprised to see Almond unexpectedly getting a kill. However, taking one with him meant they fully expected him to die shortly afterward.

"Ah, it seems like Almond managed to take one down before dying!"

They were wrong.

[LazySoldier Double Kill!]

"Huuuuh?!"

"W... What's going on?"

Almond didn't end up dying. Instead, he sent the other two to death's door.