[TS] The Return of The Gamer - Chapter 250

"Ughhhh…."

It was about 2 hours after Kim Jae-min was kidnapped by Kim Ji-hoon that he returned with a staggering gait.

2 hours.

If you think about it normally, it's not that long, but Kim Jae-min himself probably thinks differently.

"I'm gonna die…."

"Don't be such a baby. And the couch is going to get sweaty, so go wash up and change your clothes. Actually, why didn't you wash up at the gym in the first place?"

"I can't move…."

"Ugh, come on."

"I'm going to wash it tomorrow anyway."

"You're not going to wash it either."

"That's right."

Is this guy serious?

'Ugh….'

The team members basically clean the dorm voluntarily, but we call a company to do a big cleaning once a week, coinciding with our individual practice time.

After all, the guys in the company are no more tidy than that, and how can we ask our precious players to do things like cleaning?

"Ah!"

"What, again?"

"Noona... I feel strange in my arm."

"It's always like that."

It's more of a problem if you're fine after being dragged by Kim Ji-hoon. It was a sign of a major abnormality in the physical senses.

"What if I can't play in the next game? What if my arm is broken?"

"It's 5 days until the next game anyway. And seeing you being such a baby, you still seem to have the strength to speak. How about Ji-hoon?"

Kim Jae-min shook his head, as if he had decided to stop whining at last.

"He told me to go up now. He said he has to exercise on his own."

I guess it's as expected.

Kim Ji-hoon was a monster.

Even if you couldn't say today's game was difficult, he manages himself steadily even on the day he plays a professional game…….

If he has that much stamina, he will be able to hold up even in a best-of-five game, where all professional gamers struggle.

'We should really put exercise into the team's program, shouldn't we?'

One of the calculations made when Kim Ji-hoon was recruited was this point.

But... the thing about game freaks: they never move if they don't have to, which applied so well to our team.

'I'm the one who's too lazy to move in the first place.'

Of course, that doesn't mean I've ever felt any physical inadequacy.

Maybe it's because I lived a life with no stamina to begin with, but after my body became like this, I didn't lack stamina except on special days.

'……If I go to a place like Red Cup later, the schedule will be tight, and I wonder if I can hold up?'

I felt a need for a jungle reserve player, but there was a sense that a new recruitment was premature, as the existing five members couldn't be said to have perfect synergy.

'I'll think about it later.'

If things go wrong, I can go into the game with all sorts of drugs on me.

"But, Noona, aren't you going home? Isn't it time to leave work?"

"I was about to go."

I was going to do a few solo queue games, but I ended up spending so much time looking through the PBE server patch notes that it was already this late.

I thought it would be better to postpone the solo queue until after the patch tomorrow.

"Then I'll go."

"Yes, be careful."

As I left the practice room, Baek Seong-an said.

"Going?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Get a good rest today."

"Bye, Noona."

In the team members' farewell, I got on the elevator.

*

Finally, patch day arrived.

I was debating whether to turn on my computer first thing in the morning or go to the practice room, but I decided on a direction.

I thought that it was impossible to skip going to the practice room since it was still in the season.

"Are you going to work?"

"Yeah."

"Breakfast?"

"I'm fine."

Ignoring my mother's urging to eat breakfast, I got into Secretary Jang's car.

"Are you going right away?"

"Yes."

It was a one-horse race to the dorm.

"Oh, Yujin's here. Why didn't you just take a day off?"

Baek Seong-an was diligently in the practice room as always, even though it was early in the morning.

"No, today's the day."

"I thought so."

Baek Seong-an grinned.

That's because today was one of the days that every Legend of League user looked forward to.

Legend of League patch day.

A large-scale patch always makes people excited.

Of course, there were times when I secretly hoped that the day wouldn't come when my most used champion would get nerfed in a patch, but the days of being tied to the champion pool were long gone.

"How is it? Have you tried it?"

"Not yet. But Viktok and Yone are definitely on the rise. I took a quick look, and it looks good."

"Really?"

One of the champions representing the blade and one of the champions representing the shield…….

It feels strange.

"Oh, Noona's here?"

"What's going on? You woke up early."

"...I woke up because I was in pain."

Kim Jae-min exaggeratedly shrunk his body.

Well, after all that chaos yesterday, it would be more strange if he didn't have muscle pain.

"You should have moved around a bit more usually."

"...I think I only saw you eat something every day, too."

"Khmm."

I grabbed a bag of non-sticky crackers and a bag of jelly from the snack shelf and went straight to my seat.

I had no intention of wasting my time with breakfast on such an important day.

"Noona's here?"

The passionate Seo Yeon-woo was already sitting in his seat, diligently studying the latest patch.

"Hasn't the server opened yet?"

"No. I think it will open soon."

"How about top? Is anything likely to change?"

"I think Viktok and Yone look good."

"Really?"

Baek Seong-an, and everyone else, the meta champions of this patch that they were paying attention to seemed to be Viktok and Yone.

"Anything else?"

"Oh, the runes are interesting. Frozen and Haste are changing...Have you seen the First Strike rune?"

"Oh, that."

Once, there was a rune called Kleptomancy in the Inspiration category.

Of course, it disappeared with the patch, but the Kleptomancy rune was loved so much that it was used not only by champions that are used in a standard way, such as Ezreal and Gangplank.

A rune that benefits the more you trade damage.

If you're lucky, you can start with more than a hundred won in money.

Above all, the Kleptomancy rune was fun.

Not only can you make the opponent feel bad by bringing it with a champion that doesn't suit it, but the more you trade damage, the more you benefit, making the opponent feel like they are at a disadvantage.

It naturally forces the opponent to trade damage passively.

'That's why.'

Of course, it wasn't easy to balance Kleptomancy in terms of balance, so it eventually met its end after several patches.

Many Legend of League users expressed their regret, but it was impossible to hold onto the rune that had already disappeared.

That Kleptomancy rune has come back in a slightly different form this time, under the name First Strike.

Of course, it's not exactly the same rune as Kleptomancy, but the effect is similar.

If you hit first, you make money.

In addition to that, unlike the Kleptomancy rune, which lost its strength in the late game in the full build war, the First Strike rune has its own damage addition effect, so it doesn't lose its strength in the late game.

In many ways, it was a rune worthy of being called the protagonist of this patch.

'If you only look at it from here, champions like Ezreal and Gangplank, who used the Kleptomancy rune, seem to have their tiers rise...But it's not a rune that can be seen so simply.'

The reason was simple.

Unlike the Kleptomancy rune, the First Strike rune's activation condition isn't that difficult.

It's called First Strike, but even if the opponent hits first, the rune effect triggers if you hit the opponent within 0.25 seconds.

'It might be okay for poke champions like Jhin to use it.'

The existence of runes like First Strike not only raises the tier of certain champions, but also shakes up the damage trade mechanism between champions.

The line-up match-up between champions that was fixed before might change due to the existence of a specific rune.

'Then, how can we utilize it in the jungle?'

I heard a rumor that champions like Kayn become faster to transform if they take the First Strike rune...For now, whatever it is, I'll have to try it myself.

"Oh, Noona, I think the patch is over now. You can connect."

"Really?"

I hurriedly launched the Legend of League client, and at the same time as I received the patch, I turned on the patch log.

First of all, the most noticeable change was the newly added object bounty and the new dragon.

'Anyway, the champion tier is likely to change continuously depending on the additional patches later.'

In other words, what we need to focus on now is not the changes to each individual champion, but the major patches that change the direction of play.

Items, runes, new dragons.

And the newly added object bounty system.

'In addition…the significant changes in the jungle are runes, the new dragon map effects, and the changes in the Rift Herald.'

The Rift Herald changes may seem insignificant at first glance, but in fact, it's a huge patch that can change the number of champions that can come out in the jungle.

So much so that at one point, extreme champions like Camil dominated the jungle as OP depending on the value and timing of the Rift Herald's appearance.

'Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't extreme, but the Camil jungle itself was so good back then.'

As a result, it has now been severely nerfed in terms of jungling and is only used as a laner.

As someone who once loved the Camil jungle very much, it was quite a shame.

'Then, let's see.'

Which jungle champion will be active in this meta.