Season 5: Chapter 181. Variable (2)
This split into Group A and Group B was optimal for streamers. Rest time was naturally secured, which meant securing income collection time. This rest time became reaction content that viewers loved. They cheered while watching the other group's match.
"Go in! Go in! GO INNNNN!"
"YEAAAAAAAAAA!"
"This is it! This is it!"
They also gave backseat commentary in between.
"Ahhhh! Not that!"
"Don’t go there!"
"Nonsense! Nonsense~!"
The Knights was the same. They were doing reaction content while watching the Group A match. Among them, the most distinctive approach was Almond's. He was neither cheering nor giving backseat advice.
"Oh, this dispatch strategy. That's mine, right?"
He was bragging.
"Oh, they're using the PizzaPub Split Strategy here. That's also mine, right?"
Almond started taking credit for every strategy Group A was using.
"Hitting the Turtle first. I invented that too..."
— Ridiculous lmaooo
— The Turtle thing is just standard Almond...
— lmaooooooooooo
— Just say LIL is yours too
— There's a story that Almond invented survival mode... I like this story.
— Oh Almond watching content is also great lmaooo
This was a curious thing.
'People seem to enjoy what Ju-Hyeok told me to say.'
Following what Ju-Hyeok told him to do worked well. People liked it and gave lots of donations.
— lmaooooo claiming everything is his
— Says he's the original creator of LIL too~
— Kingdom belongs to Almond though, right? lol
— lmaooooo the only thing that's yours here is Raina, Almond...
'Oh. He's doing well.'
Ju-Hyeok was watching Almond's stream and smiling with satisfaction.
'This is reaction content.'
Reacting was full of big words with nothing to it. It was just literally showing reactions to something. The subject could be sports, some community humor post, or controversial social topics. What mattered was the streamer or creator watching and reacting to it for the viewers. It sounded too simple, which was why people sometimes said this about reaction content.
— Why would anyone watch this?
— How does this have 2 million views?
— lmaooo just straight-up mooching
— Is this content?
— at least clap your feet lol
Those aggressive words weren’t wrong. Even Ju-Hyeok had once spent a long time puzzling over why this content was popular. His conclusion was this.
"You need a friend to watch it with."
Because streamers were their friends. If game content was like watching a skilled friend from behind, reaction content was different. They were talking about a topic both could relate to.
'Hey, did you see this? Did you watch that drama yesterday?'
Back in one’s school days, when a good drama was on, didn't friends always talk about it the next day?
'Wow. Did you see that home run yesterday? Felt like a movie.'
When an exciting sports match happened, didn't friends talk about it too?
'Did you see the football manager? Connection nepotism, right?'
Or when something infuriating happened, friends would also talk about it. This was one of humanity's most basic instincts: seeking something to share and sharing with others. Growing up, the only such people around to share with were loved ones or family. At school, dozens of such people could be found.
People shared everything and formed countless connections. Perhaps that was why young students could laugh at a leaf rolling by.
'Because there's always someone there with you.'
There were friends to laugh and talk with without a care in the world. When they grew up, they each went their own way. This was an unavoidable reality. Everyone accepted that reality.
'Everyone still misses it.'
Sometimes, they miss it. The gap in their hearts was filled with streamers and creators.
'In the end...'
Through this, Ju-Hyeok also came to understand the path of streamers. Whether it was being good at games, being funny, or cutting to the heart of things to give satisfaction... All those things were good.
'But being a friend is the best.'
Ultimately, the essence was friendship. A skilled friend, a funny friend, or a brutally honest friend.. The time talking with that kind of friend was why reactions mattered and why donations exploded.
Ding!
Ding!
[Yeah! donated 10,000 won!]
[OmuriceToday has donated 5,000 won.]
[ILoveMondays has donated 30,000 won!]
[EggPlant has donated 1,000 won]
Children who grew up and became adults willingly paid money, watching the shadows of those friends who'd left for their own lives.
— lmaooooooo
— That's not a Split Strategy;
— To him, dispatching is also a Split Strategy
— LOL
— EggPlant is back?? Hahaha
Because they couldn't be with their friends like back then. Because they couldn't return to that feeling.
Watching this, Ju-Hyeok thought,
'If we also end up going different ways... will we drift apart?'
Like so many of Ju-Hyeok's friends, probably. Even so, the time spent together would be remembered forever. Within Ju-Hyeok's life, this had become a solid bedrock for him. That was his hope.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
'Whatever else might be uncertain...'
Donation notifications were ringing right now, piling up in his account, and firmly supporting his life. That, at least, looked certain.
Ehehe.
The Platform Showdown is great~. It’s several times better than the In-House Tournament~!"
Anyway, Ju-Hyeok was pleased with the Platform Showdown's structure. It was truly content made for streamers through and through.
While Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were smiling, Tortilla's expression gradually grew darker as Paprika’s head coach.
'Oh no...'
Group A's situation was very bad. Fortunately, they’d avoided Underwater getting encircled and wiped, but all the Turtles had been lost.
“Underwater! Escaped! Oh... but they lost every Turtle!?”
“Right! They were too relaxed! Funneling everything to Underwater was greedy!”
“Cheese is completely punishing them! Paprika is having all their Turtles stolen!”
“One remaining! Just one... OHHH!? The shadow positioning is genuinely artistic!”
All the Red Turtles had been taken. The shadow hadn't cooperated either, and Paprika had been too relaxed. According to the commentators, that was the case. Among Paprika's coaches, some said similar things.
"Oh, this damn..."
"That's not right! What is that!? Why leave Underwater alone!?"
"This was being too greedy..."
"But they really put everything on the line for that. What's going on?"
Paprika made a mistake and had bad luck, but Tortilla couldn't think that way. Luck, mistakes, and fate... Beyond this domain, someone's cold eyes were visible.
"They know."
"What?"
A chill went down his spine.
"They know our weakness."
There hadn’t been a moment of hesitation in their movements. Group A wouldn't have practiced the walkie-talkie strategy at all. It didn't matter. Those players were overflowing with conviction. They knew what the core was. Someone had clearly communicated exactly that to them.
"Hm? Wh-what weakness? Cutting the ladder from the Turtle first is just standard, right?" A coach said something naive.
"You don't know the blind spot of a strategy that grows the head? The head team grows faster than the monsters can grow."
The monsters in Survival mode only grew more powerful as time passed. No matter how many early monsters were hunted, experience had a ceiling. This system was originally designed to prevent one team from running away.
The only exception here was epic monsters like the Red Turtle and Abyss Shark, which was why Paprika absolutely had to eat epic monsters to advance. Only then could the head become oversized and crush all the remaining Cheese teams alone.
"No, I know that. Then, you just feed them the Turtle, right? But this was a mistake... The other teams should have escorted them... They all scattered for their own experience..."
"That was induced."
"What!?"
"Not a single team dropped in our territory. They only started moving when the Turtle appeared. Until then, they were all openly farming monsters like they didn't care."
Openly farming was a play style of going all-in on growth without considering that the opponent would attack. At this point, if the opponent came in with a sudden ambush, they could easily collapse. At the professional level, openly farming was done at moments when one genuinely couldn't be attacked. It wasn't as simple as it sounded.
"From the start, they already knew that we don't do much before the Turtle appears."
"H-how? In the match before, they got wiped in raw combat!"
Coach Udon was enraged and came running over. Rocket Gang's coach hated Cheese the most in this room.
"Shouldn't you prepare for the early game!? What are these guys? Isn't there a spy!?
AHHHHHHH!
He was extremely agitated.
— lmaooooooooo
— Calm down LOL
— Spy!
— But no rule says spies aren't allowed, right?? lmaooo
— lmaooooooooo
— At war alone
"No. The raw combat in Round 1 was us thinking the opponent would be weak in 25-person cooperation and pushing with numbers."
"Right... but that was the only reason we knew..."
"That was visible to the opponent too."
"Our thinking is being fully read. This time, they know we'll want to hold back early."
Udon went silent.
Tortilla shouted in exasperation, "Being read means that they know what principle we move by and what our priorities are! They’re not being fooled by each phenomenon. The formula we're using has been grasped! It's like being hacked!"
It was rare for him to shout under normal circumstances.
— What the
— Wow lmaooo
— Read to that extent?
— Wow
— What is this
— How did they do it?
Then, Tortilla said something shocking. "The enemy's core was never the walkie-talkies in the first place."
Everyone who thought they'd been beaten by the walkie-talkie strategy could only be surprised.
"What to do with those walkie-talkies was the core. We've all been fixated on the wrong thing. The enemy knows exactly what they're doing."
The walkie-talkies themselves had no attack power. It was just communication equipment. What they provided was the ability to elevate organizational capability to accomplish goals faster. If those goals were wrong, the walkie-talkies would be useless.
"Damn..."
Bang!
Numerous players were taken out in front of their eyes.
'My mistake.'
Because of a commander's mistake, soldiers were dying.
Beeeeeeeeep!
The match was over, and the result was shocking.
"First place goes to none other than... Cheese's Margherita!"
First place went to Cheese. They didn’t just manage to disrupt the game but also dominated it.
"An upset has occurred! A MAJOR upset!!"
Cheese's Group A had perfectly fulfilled its role as a variable.
— Done.
— Completely done??
— What???
— Wow
— Paprika can't get 5 teams to the main round now, right?
— Wow... what is this??
— Meanwhile, Underwater was Paprika’s hope lmaooo... Got wrecked like that early and still placed 2nd lmaooo
— This feels like coaching played a big role too?
— lmaooooooooooooo
— Paprika fans out~!

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