[TS] The Return of The Gamer - Chapter 471

The regular season was all over, and the playoffs officially began.

Naturally, as the first-place team in the regular season, we advanced directly to the finals, giving us a considerable amount of time to prepare.

The playoff format for this spring season was that the first-place team in the regular season advanced directly to the finals, while the 4th and 5th place teams would play a wild card match, with the winner advancing. Then, the winner would play against the 3rd place team, and the winner of that match would play against the 2nd place team, and the winner of that match would finally advance to the finals.

In other words, to summarize this...

Wild Card Match: MAX (4th) vs. BOQ (5th)

Playoff Round 1: SCV (3rd) vs. [Wild Card Match Winner]

Playoff Round 2: SY (2nd) vs. [Round 1 Winner]

Finals: OLZ (1st) vs. [Round 2 Winner]

The matches would be played in this manner.

From our team's perspective, we could comfortably watch the other teams' matches and observe who advanced, but frankly, I wasn't entirely at ease.

As the previous examples showed, teams that had advanced by "breaking through" the competition often performed better than teams that had advanced directly to the finals.

That wasn't the only problem.

"...How should we prepare?"

Now that the playoffs had started, most of the teams that didn't make it would be going on a long vacation.

In other words, only the teams that had advanced to the playoffs were preparing for matches at this time.

As a new team with a shallow network of relationships, it was bound to be a difficult time for us.

Of course, there were teams that we had helped with practice until now, so it didn't seem impossible to find a practice opponent...

"What do we do now?"

Baek Seong-an, the team's spiritual pillar, answered my question.

"Usually, in situations like this, we practice with teams that are in the playoffs, or sometimes we practice with overseas teams. Occasionally, if there's a team aiming for the next season, they might help us out too."

"But it's a bit awkward to practice intensely with a team that could be our opponent. There's also the possibility of strategic leaks."

"That's true... but there's nothing we can do about it. The opponent is in the same situation."

"That's true."

Baek Seong-an added with a light laugh.

"Still, it's good that we advanced directly to the finals. We can also look at the strategies other teams are using while watching their matches in advance."

"That's true."

Regardless of what we say, advancing directly to the finals is a huge merit.

It's more than enough compensation for being the first-place team in the regular season.

Of course, there were many discussions about this format, and it seemed like there might be changes from the next season.

If our team had a long history and a solid foundation, we wouldn't have to worry much in this situation.

However, our team was just starting from scratch, and this was, of course, our first time advancing to the playoffs.

"Just wait a moment."

Baek Seong-an said so and seemed to be contacting people here and there, and soon returned with a bright face.

"Oh, MYE said they'll help us out. I guess it was a bit of a shock for them to be eliminated from the playoffs this time."

"Oh. That makes sense."

MYE is a team that has hardly missed the playoffs before.

But this time, they were pushed out by BOQ and failed to advance to the playoffs, so it seemed like they were quite shocked as a team.

So, they decided to help our team out, and they seemed to have given up their vacation with the determination to prepare for the next season.

Even though they were helping our team, it was a practice session that MYE could also gain a lot from.

"Well, it seems like we should stick to the same direction for our practice... but we should still prepare for the opponent's predicted joker picks and the picks we can counter them with."

"I think so too."

Usually, when a team makes it to the finals, they often use joker picks that they rarely used during the regular season to win.

The pick like Malzahar that SCV showed against SY before was such an example.

Naturally, we also needed to prepare accordingly.

"Then, we have a scrim scheduled for today, so let's go right away."

"Yes."

The scrim with MYE began.

* * *

All the teams that made it to the LCKR had something special about them.

Among them, teams like MYE, who consistently stayed at the top, hid the potential to beat the top teams at any time.

That's why we couldn't be careless in our practice.

In fact, during the regular season, we also lost a set against MYE.

"Well, let's go with the standard approach for the first game."

This scrim was basically for our team, but it was also for MYE.

So, we decided to take it seriously at first rather than making demands.

[Victory]

The result was a victory.

But it wasn't an easy victory.

There were several moments where our team almost lost, but we clenched our teeth and secured the victory.

After the game, Baek Seong-an said,

"I think either SY or SCV will make it to the finals, but personally, I think SY has a higher chance. So, it would be better to practice by playing against the picks that SY mainly uses."

"MYE will do that for us?"

"We'll have to ask them. They know it's practice for the finals anyway, so they'll do it. But we'll have to let MYE use the picks they want later."

"We can't help it. We help each other out."

As Baek Seong-an said, MYE mainly served as our practice opponent, focusing on the picks that SY often used.

Furthermore, they also provided surprise picks according to our requests in between.

"We're getting a lot of help."

"We have to pay them back later."

Finals preparations continued.

* * *

Several days passed while we were devoted to preparing for the finals.

According to the current playoff rules, the first-place team in the regular season advances directly to the finals.

In other words, the team advancing directly to the finals can wait serenely for the other teams to advance.

But that wasn't always a good thing.

The period from the end of the regular season to the finals is almost nine days.

Furthermore, since our team finished the matches relatively early, we had almost two weeks left.

It was by no means a short amount of time.

It would be great if we could maintain our tension during this time as we did during the season, but as is the nature of human beings, we tend to become a little lax as time goes on.

This was especially true for a team like ours, which didn't have much experience.

"I'm going to head in for today. I'm not playing well."

"Already?"

"All the guys on our team are not human. I really can't do this anymore."

Kim Jae-min, who had lost several solo rank games in a row, shook his head, looking fed up, and headed to his room.

"I'll go in now too."

Seo Yeon-woo also went into his room not long after.

When the regular season had just ended, our team members couldn't even sleep properly because of the fact that we were advancing directly to the finals.

They were so tense for so long, and it was noticeable that the team members were getting tired one by one.

Not only Seo Yeon-woo and Kim Jae-min, but even veteran Baek Seong-an's hair was noticeably falling out due to stress.

"...Should I go to the hospital?"

Baek Seong-an, despite being a pro gamer, wasn't that old yet to lose his hair.

But the fact that his hair was falling out meant that the stress was extreme.

"Where are you going?"

"Going to sleep."

"Already? Didn't you work out today?"

"I'm going to rest today."

"Uh... rest? You?"

Even Kim Ji-hoon, who was usually expressionless, showed a completely different side from usual.

Kim Jae-min, Seo Yeon-woo, Baek Seong-an, and Kim Ji-hoon.

And even I.

Our entire team was severely pressured by the upcoming finals.

"Ugh..."

I've been feeling a bit sick to my stomach these days, and I don't feel like I'm digesting well either.

Especially since I heard some words from Rainbow recently that bothered me, all sorts of thoughts flooded my mind when I wasn't playing the game.

'Why did I say those useless things.'

If this was a high-level psychological warfare against the opponent we might meet in the finals, Rainbow was a formidable expert.

It wasn't for nothing that he won championships like eating and breathing.

And then a few more days passed...

Finally, the Wild Card match began.

It was the perfect time to boost the morale of our team members, who had been losing energy recently.

"...Do I have to watch it?"

"Yes. It's mandatory. You have to see how the other teams are doing."

"Ugh."

Kim Jae-min grumbled, but he couldn't disobey the owner's order.

Being a pro gamer doesn't mean you have to watch the other teams' matches, but we couldn't practice properly in the current situation anyway.

The Wild Card match between MAX and BOQ.

Most experts' opinions favored MAX to win, but I had a feeling that BOQ would show something this time.