Chapter 148: A Slightly Changed Game Tournament Atmosphere

Although the preliminary tournament had “preliminary” in its name, it was a proper tournament schedule with players, spectators, commentary, and events all fully prepared.

“We now begin the First Bomb Commando National Tournament!”

Delmongu, who had now completely become Meta Soft’s dedicated game tournament host, flapped his distinctive pink ears and announced the opening with rather passionate gestures.

Then flames and multicolored paper shot into the air, a large rolled-up banner unfurled, and the tournament name Delmongu had just announced appeared. Thousands of people filling the spectator seats burst into cheers.

With every tournament, the number of spectators increased, and now it had reached its peak. The event management team had even needed to rent one of Ranchert’s top-tier stadiums.

Looking at the stands, which were so full they were almost crowded, Ras thought that before long, they might have to start forming lines. Revent Stadium was one of the largest venues even in Ranchert. If a crowd came that even this place could not accommodate, there was nothing they could do.

They could not stack people on top of one another like in a game, after all.

Or maybe charging an admission fee is one method?

For now, it was still a situation where they were asking spectators to please come, and there probably were not many people who would pay to watch matches. But if it became professionalized like other sports and the level of play rose, it seemed like something worth considering.

Ras thought about various things while drinking Xail straight from the bottle.

In any case, after holding tournaments several times, the operations team had grown accustomed to it, and since there was already a basic level of public response, there was no need to worry about whether it would succeed. It was truly nice to be able to enjoy the opening ceremony comfortably. In the early days, he had been quite nervous every time a tournament was held.

“I wanted to participate this time too, but they wouldn’t let me. They said, ‘If you compete as a player, who’s going to host?’”

The audience responded to Delmongu’s joke with laughter. In this way, he skillfully controlled the crowd and proceeded with the event.

Perhaps because Ras now had some leisure, unlike before when he only watched the audience’s reaction no matter what happened onstage, he could now smile faintly at Delmongu’s antics.

Not long after, the proceedings were handed over to the commentators, and the first match began.

“Players Julio and Kazarin of 1P and 2P are entering!”

“Waaaah!!!”

This match had a very different atmosphere from before. The commentators were slightly startled for a moment by the unexpected cheers from the audience. However, they had not done commentary only once or twice, and they had their own ability since they had become commentators, so they soon continued the flow with plausible remarks.

“Oh. The two players are quite popular, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are. Come to think of it, these are names that have been mentioned a lot on Spirit Space as championship candidates!”

Previously, even when the names of players were announced, they were not professional players and had no real recognition, so the audience merely clapped a little or stared blankly.

But now, with Spirit Space as a space for information sharing, information exchange had become quite active, and several players had gained a degree of name recognition. It was still hard to call it a fandom, but there were now people who liked them enough to cheer in the excited atmosphere of a festival.

In any case, it did not feel bad.

First, the atmosphere of the tournament itself seemed to heat up further. The players, who had been tense and shrinking after coming to such a large event and receiving the attention of such a huge crowd, looked bewildered at first when they received cheers, but their complexions soon improved a little.

And some players with a bit of showmanship even waved back in response.

“Then let the match begin!”

The content of the match was good too. Unlike before, when people improved by playing alone in arcades or at most reading strategies in Gamers, players now read countless guides and strategies posted on Spirit Space and trained with people in clubs who were more serious about improving their skills. Naturally, there was a difference in level.

First, there was almost no hesitation at the start while players thought about how to begin. They had already prepared their strategies in their heads.

“Oh! Player Julio immediately throws a two-stage bomb trap!”

“Ah, he dodges that immediately!”

And strategies always came with countermeasures. Since players practiced avoiding attacks just as much as launching them, the fights had a smooth feeling, like a martial arts demonstration where every exchange fit perfectly together.

Of course, this was a game with quite a few variables, so not everything could match the strategies they had prepared. But since these players had basic sense and a large amount of practice, their improvisation was more than enough to draw admiration from the audience and commentators.

“Waaaah!!!”

Just now, everyone had thought the Weasel was certainly going to be trapped between bombs and die. But perhaps he had accurately measured and predicted the bomb range, because he threw his own bomb one timing earlier, kicked it away, then dodged both his own and his opponent’s bombs twice by just one square before escaping through the opening.

The audience went wild from the first match at this super play.

“Wow! I’m truly speechless at that one.”

The counterattack that followed was also excellent. Before anyone knew it, the Wild Boar, the Weasel’s ally, had approached behind the opposing side and placed a bomb.

Naturally, the Red Bird tried to avoid it, but the Weasel in front of him had no intention of letting him escape. He predicted the exit path and placed a bomb there.

Fortunately, the Red Bird’s ally, the Woodpecker, extinguished the fire. But the two were now trapped between nine o’clock and twelve o’clock, limiting the routes they could move through. It was not yet enough to say they had lost, but they had entered a position where they had no choice but to fall behind in the mind game.

“Damn it. What do we do?”

Julio had an especially frightening face even among Orcs. He distorted his already rugged face even further as he asked his teammate for an opinion.

Kazarin was just a thin human who was somewhat tall, but he was already used to Julio’s expression and focused on the game, so he only bit his lip. He desperately avoided the enemy’s offensive while thinking, then soon opened his mouth again.

“Let’s use that. The TOT Bomb.”

(Translator’s Note: TOT — Short for “Time on Target,” a military artillery technique in which shells fired from different guns, distances, or angles are timed to land on the target simultaneously.)

“Huh? That... Yeah. Let’s do it.”

It was a fairly difficult technique, so Julio hesitated for a moment. Even for them, who were considered skilled players, the success rate was not even half, so they had almost never used it in actual matches. But if things continued as they were, they would clearly be pushed back and lose.

Kazarin watched for the right moment, and when Julio moved upward, he immediately began following him.

Then, when the opposing Weasel followed them into a narrow alley, Julio gave the signal, and they immediately began throwing bombs.

The term TOT Bomb came from the military term TOT, a bombardment technique in which multiple shells fired at different times and angles landed at the same time.

In this game, it referred to using the slight delay created by dropping a bomb and then kicking it, compared to simply dropping and exploding it, to make two bombs explode at nearly the same time.

Not only that, since two players used it together in coordination, a total of four bombs blocked all directions, making it a kind of sure-kill technique that could definitely catch the opponent.

However, it was difficult for two people to match their timing, and to use a 0.2-second delay, they could not kick the bombs far and had to kick them toward the wall immediately in front of them. On top of that, they had to avoid being caught by the bombs they hurriedly placed. There were far too many things to be careful about.

Of course, there was a trick to avoiding team kills by adjusting distance with an ally, but even when these two practiced it, about thirty percent of attempts ended in self-destruction.

“Oh!! They placed four bombs all at once!”

“Ah! Is this that one? TOT!”

But whether due to luck or skill, the two pulled it off beautifully and instantly caught the Weasel.

“Waaaah!!!”

This technique was not only difficult, but also flashy, with four bombs exploding at once and blasting the enemy to death in spectacular fashion, so the audience cheered loudly.

However, because it had a high self-destruction rate, the players had to concentrate excessively to avoid it. As a result, they fumbled for a moment after killing the enemy. But the other side also seemed too shocked by being hit with the technique to respond immediately, so they were not caught off guard.

With that, the match became two against one.

Of course, the remaining opponent tried to save his ally somehow. But Julio and Kazarin, despite fumbling a bit, somehow blocked his approach. In the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meantime, the Weasel turned into charcoal.

At this point, the game was already as good as over.

Well, that Weasel guy was pretty quick, but the Wild Boar was nothing special.

Julio felt relieved as he recalled the super play the Weasel had shown earlier. Of course, that did not mean he could let his guard down. In this game, one wrong move ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could explode and kill you.

A few minutes later, the Wild Boar could not withstand the fierce attacks of the two and fell. The first victory of the Bomb Commando tournament went to Julio and Kazarin’s team.

“Wow. They really are good.”

Since Xiao and Uzkaran’s turn was still far off, they were watching from one side of the waiting room where the large stadium screen was visible.

Uzkaran admired the match after watching it. He had already been deeply impressed by the prosperous appearance of the Republic of Smite, and since Bomb Commando itself was a game from this country, he had expected the players’ skills to be formidable. But he had not expected that technique to appear from the very first match.

“Well, we can do that much too.”

But Xiao did not shrink back. Or rather, in truth, his heart felt a little heavier, but after seeing the stadium yesterday, he had resolved that he would definitely win the championship, so he forced himself to act strong.

“That’s true, but we fail about once every ten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tries...”

“...Well, I’m sure those people don’t always succeed either.”

It was almost a stubborn answer, but in fact, it was close to the truth. Still, this could not be helped. There was no way for the two of them to know that those players had attempted a technique with less than a fifty percent success rate in such a match and barely succeeded.

“Waaah!!! Kale!!! Kale!!”

In any case, the tournament continued. Xiao flinched at the audience’s passionate shouts. Then, seeing an Elf waving his hand in response to those cheers, he felt a slight culture shock.

Although it was only some of the audience, seeing spectators loudly chant a gamer’s name was not something he had imagined, even though he had endlessly pictured the tournament in his head while vowing to win.

He had thought that what he could gain from victory was prize money and the personal satisfaction of being the best.

But after seeing that scene, he added people’s cheers and popularity to that imagination.

Even one of the players received that kind of response. Just thinking about what kind of reaction would come if he won the championship seemed enough to give him chills.

In any case, this tournament had an even better atmosphere because spectators could relate to and cheer for players from their region, their clubs, or simply players they had become fans of after reading posts on Spirit Space.

The players also felt psychologically more stable and could perform ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠properly, because rather than simply having countless spectators stare at them, they felt as if they had people on their side.

“How is that even possible?!”

“That’s why they’re called masters, isn’t it?”

As the commentators shouted, the players’ performances were astonishing. Even though there were no professional players yet, they displayed a clear difference from ordinary people. Once the tool known as Spirit Space appeared, the skills of the masters became more refined, and the gap began to grow even wider than in previous competitions.