I Really Can't Stand This Game

After snatching the next two rounds in a row, Yeonggun’s stream had almost no one speaking properly anymore.

“...No way.”

Even Yeonggun himself was at a loss for words right from the start. He had thought that once Mazia swallowed the bitter pill and realized her playstyle didn’t suit Combative at all, she would either get serious or at least show one decent crack play. He never imagined she would blow the entire round apart. This wasn’t a crack. This was a crevasse.

Throughout the second round, Mazia had racked up three kills each time. But calling them “three kills” didn’t do it justice. Every single one had been achieved completely solo, without any help from her teammates. Their value was on an entirely different level from ordinary kills.

The chat? They seemed to have completely forgotten how they had mocked Mazia earlier and were now busy tearing into the coach.

If he said he wasn’t upset, it would be a lie, but it was also true that Yeonggun hadn’t placed much expectation on Mazia. After all, Combative and Battle Coliseum were simply too different. Even Mazia herself had been aware of that. She had personally said she practiced the Smoker class with its smoke special ability because she wanted to help the team.

‘If you’re this good with smoke, why didn’t you say something from the beginning…’

But this was the result of Yeonggun, a former pro, failing to understand Mazia’s mindset. Winning by creating fissures across the entire game with a single crack play was something a person who treated standardized pro play and snowballing as absolute truth would find extremely difficult to accept.

Moreover, Yeonggun hadn’t even known who Mazia was until right before they became teammates. He had missed the year-end party where her name had come up the most because of a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠family event, so how could he have known? If Do-hee had been the coach instead, things would have been different. She would have immediately understood Mazia’s tendency to ride along and analyzed, “She wants to contribute to the team but can’t give up smoke, so she plays Smoker. For now, let’s just let her do whatever she wants.”

“This is insane. Can a person really change this much just because you gave them one smoke grenade?”

“Ah. Right. Including the shotgun. Still… Wow.”

Still, there was a reason Yeonggun was the coach. Even as mockery poured in from the chat, he was only looking at the path to victory for his team. After all, he had taken on the role of coach for this tournament because he wanted to win with Serena.

‘The first two rounds were easy enough to take, but this won’t be enough.’

In the early game pistol rounds, Mazia had clearly demonstrated that she could create a massive crack in the match using smoke plus the mini barrel. However, they couldn’t use the same strategy every time. Since it had already been shown in scrims, every team would start preparing for it. Where would Mazia try it next? What if it gets countered? How should we change our positioning? Just the fact that these thoughts were now burned into the opponents’ minds had an effect, but they needed an even stronger shock to truly break the enemy’s head.

In other words, Mazia’s crack play couldn’t stop here.

‘If we can just carry this momentum into the next rounds…’

From the third round onward, where at least one person would have their main weapon regardless of previous round results, even Mazia with her smoke could be taken down by ordinary sustained fire aimed at head level. But that common perception was also an opportunity. If Mazia could show something even in this situation, the weakest team that had been treated like a placebo with a 0-22 record could suddenly instill anxiety in every other team.

‘Let’s go. Show us more…!’

In the meantime, the third round began. Mazia immediately used the money she had saved to buy a good assault rifle.

The viewers’ confusion was exactly Yeonggun’s confusion. Why an AR? And it wasn’t even the gun Mazia usually used. It was the assault rifle that was always present whenever Bajubi, who was in charge of entry, threw a flashbang and rushed in, often popping off.

And the reason was soon revealed. She bought a gun for the zero-kill Bajubi and handed it to her.

[Bajubi, you were really good with this when you used it before. Please use this.]

[……? ……but. ……………!]

[It’s fine. The mini barrel is enough for me.]

Did the opponents not know that from now on everyone would be bringing out their main weapons in earnest? But seeing that she wanted Bajubi and Kamik, the two entry players, to get geared up first suggested otherwise.

Serena seemed to share the same question and asked Mazia.

[Um… Jia, are you not going to go full aggro this time?]

[I need to rest sometimes too.]

Mazia’s surprisingly reasonable answer made Yeonggun, who was watching, tilt his head. It was probably because he had now come to understand Mazia to some extent.

“...What? That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

Wasn’t she the kind of person who would die if she couldn’t go full aggro? The main reason their team had been dropping like flies was Mazia’s reckless charges. For her to suddenly hold back? The intention behind Mazia’s unusual behavior was soon revealed directly from her own mouth.

[I’ll follow Serena’s calls this round. Play as if we have six smokes.]

[Ah, yes!]

Yeonggun could only cover his mouth. Mazia was voluntarily asking for team play. And not just any team play, but the very offensive breaching strategy they had been practicing.

They had lost twenty-two times over three days of scrims. Restrictions had kept piling onto Mazia, and the coaching had grown increasingly demanding. It had all been to break and destroy Mazia’s FPS ego. Yet it had seemed like she would never abandon Battle Coliseum’s formula.

‘…She figured it out.’

While Yeonggun had been struggling with this player he had never encountered before and couldn’t let go of the perfect picture from his pro days, Mazia had found a way to adapt to Combative while maintaining her ego. And she had found the method that best suited the team all on her own.

She was a Battle Coliseum player after all, so she couldn’t completely melt into Combative. But she would turn even that into something beneficial for the team… That was what she had just declared through her conversation with Serena.

And so a new strategy was born. Take the first two rounds with aggressive plays, then rest in the third. To the old Mazia, this kind of strategy would have been unthinkable. It might look like arrogance, as if to say “I’ve had enough fun, so I’ll play properly for once,” but that wasn’t it. It was clear psychological warfare.

What state would the opponents be in right now? They would be on edge, not knowing where Mazia would suddenly pop out from. Naturally, a tunnel effect would occur. They would focus entirely on catching the one person who suddenly appears and fail to consider the team pushing in all at once. They would be unable to execute Combative’s most basic defensive strategy of falling back while preserving numbers when the enemy pushes.

If they tried to stop five people rushing in and got two cut off? That round was as good as lost.

And just as expected.

[Two flashes on the left, pushing on three. One, two, three!]

Following Serena’s call, the team pushed in together. Two enemies desperately tried to fight back and immediately went down. As mentioned, if they didn’t make mistakes, this team played quite well. Even Mazia calmly moved according to Serena’s orders.

Of course, the moment it became 5 vs 3 and Yeonggun’s team gained the advantage, Mazia moved again. Why would she stay still while they were hunting rabbits? She immediately circled around the mid connector to cut off enemies coming to defend B.

Pshhh. Smoke grenades went off in succession, followed by a string of victory notifications.

Even if Mazia had traded kills and died, it would have been a gain. Perhaps because the enemies were already on the back foot, they couldn’t respond properly. Even if those players were the 1st and 2nd tiers of the Construction Is Doomed team, players known for being good with guns.

Mazia’s kill score: 9 kills, 0 deaths, 2 assists.

As the torrent of criticism poured in, even Yeonggun realized something. Even though he had been one of the shining players in his active days, he had never been a good coach.

‘Suppressing her wasn’t the answer.’

People aren’t machines. How could they only do exactly as told? In the end, a coach needs to adapt to each individual in order to lead the entire team. Instead of believing his way was unconditionally correct, he had to create strategies that fit the team members.

Through today’s events, he had learned at least one thing for sure.

After that, Mazia equipped the long-barreled triple-barrel shotgun ‘Dragon-B’ that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had been dying to use and began to fly around for real. She wasn’t ignoring Serena’s calls. But she wasn’t avoiding aggressive plays either. It was as if she already had in her head what Serena would do. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would organically push, stop, push, stop, repeating the cycle. And her shots? Whenever she closed the distance with smoke, the Dragon-B would spit fire and take at least two people with it. She was truly an optimized, rampaging, peerless destruction tank.

And Mazia’s performance brought about an unexpected side effect. The teammates’ confidence, which had plummeted from repeated losses, began to recover little by little, and everyone started pulling their own weight.

[Keugaemang! Turret support on A long!]

[On my way!]

[Bajubi, can you see mid connector?]

[I can’t see…!]

[They’re coming from my side—no, A short! I’m falling back, smoke support please!]

[Coming!]

The problems that hadn’t been fixed no matter how much Yeonggun pointed them out were cleanly resolved. Once Mazia took away the pressure of having to lead the team, Serena regained her energy. Her calls and orders became clean, which naturally caused Kamik’s deaths, which had been happening left and right, to drop sharply. Even Keugaemang, who had been causing confusion with too many briefings, seemed impressed by his niece’s performance and was now trying so hard he even covered his mouth with his hand. And Bajubi finally began speaking in a normal voice.

As a result, Yeonggun’s team:

They finally put an end to the twenty-two-game losing streak that had seemed like it would never stop.

Starting with Serena’s emotional cry, the team members cheered loudly.

[We wonnnnn!!!]

[……We won!!]

[We won…!]

[Aigoo!! Well done, well done, my nieces and nephews!! You did so well!!]

Only one person, Mazia, muttered in a voice that didn’t sound all that refreshed.

[Tsk.]

Since it would be bad to ruin the mood while everyone was celebrating, Yeonggun immediately pulled Mazia into a separate voice chat. Even though he wanted to praise her for doing so well and that she had been incredible, he knew that hyping her up too much might affect her performance in the upcoming matches, so he gave her restrained praise.

“You did amazingly, but… why do you sound like that? I was genuinely shocked.”

[That’s true, but… I’m annoyed.]

“About what?”

After finally securing a win following a twenty-two-game losing streak, Mazia was still full of complaints.

[I really, really hate this game.]

* * *

(I really hate this game.clip)

She already got scolded on the official broadcast before, so what’s with her lately? She’s like a horse that broke its reins lol

What if this completely cuts off all Combative advertising? Not that we’ve gotten any ads yet lol. This is absolutely not saying that Battle Pack Games is discriminating against Parallel.

In reality, the very next day, Mazia was called in by Momo the moment she arrived at work.

“Teacher. While I wasn’t paying attention, you really caused quite the accident, didn’t you?”

But Mazia wasn’t without anything to say either.

“The fact that you’re only bringing this up now, four days later, shows there’s definitely a problem with the CEO’s industry insight…”

“Hey. You’re getting scolded right now…”

Mazia smiled awkwardly and lowered her gaze.

“I know. I’m reflecting too. But what can I do when Combative is seriously such a frustrating game?”

“It’s true that it doesn’t suit your personality. Still, please restrain yourself from now on, okay? People aren’t saying much this time so we’ll let it slide.”

“Hehe.”

“That aside, the promotional effect was definitely there.”

“Huh?”

Cheon Do-hee showed her the view count trends of the content uploaded to the official channel over the past few days. The moment Mazia had sworn during the auction, the live viewer count had hit fifty thousand. And yesterday, when she had grumbled to Coach Yeonggun about how hard Combative was, it had hit thirty thousand again. Had it only increased live viewers? Absolutely not. Her antics had even made it onto the VTubers’ “scandal” list. As a non-debuted VTuber company employee’s scandals spread across every community, it naturally helped promote the official channel.

“Just endure for one more week. Until the tournament ends. You’re doing well.”

And in the end, the only person who could control Mazia right before she exploded was Cheon Do-hee.

“Then please buy me beef for dinner tonight.”

“I already gave you a bonus. Can’t you treat me once with your own money?”

“Then it becomes a VTuber personally meeting a fan who called her out for a private meal. And beef on top of that? That’s dangerous.”

“What are you even saying? It’s fine if I buy it?”

“Of course. It’s the boss buying her employee dinner for working hard.”

“……?”

“I just donate money normally. Buy merch and subscribe. That’s the correct way. So give me the beef.”

“I’m actually going to lose my mind.”

After that, Mazia ate the beef that Do-hee bought her, regained her energy—though her small appetite meant she couldn’t even finish two portions—and somehow managed to get through the rest of the scrim schedule. The results of the seven-day scrim that ran from the Friday of the auction until the following Thursday?

12 wins and 24 losses. Although it was only a 33% win rate, after Mazia found her own method, the team showed clear synergy. After the 22-game losing streak, they only lost two more games while winning twelve, which was a huge achievement. Even those two losses had come against the Pandral team, who were closest to winning the tournament, so the atmosphere of the event began to shift dramatically.

Everyone had thought Yeonggun’s team would finish in 4th place. But looking at the latter half of the scrims, people were starting to say that the grand finals would be between Pandral and Yeonggun’s team.

And that prediction was proven true on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Friday with the shocking round-robin results.

Everyone watching was left speechless at the unbelievable drama of the last-place scrim team earning a direct ticket to the finals. It had come down to a single round difference. If Yeonggun’s team had lost even one more round, or if Pandral had won just one more, the rankings would have flipped.

But the miracle didn’t end there.

[No way, the Pandral team is out of the finals just like that?!]

In the semifinals between 2nd and 3rd place held the very next day, the Pandral team, who had been considered the overwhelming favorites, suffered another bitter defeat. The Construction Is Doomed team, who had been on the verge of collapse after getting crushed by the awakened signal flare player, instead used it as a blessing in disguise to pull themselves together and stubbornly held on. After an incredible number of overtime rounds, they wrote a dramatic story with a loss-win-win record: 13:15, 18:16, 25:23.

[Who could have predicted this? That the top team of the scrims would collapse like this!!]

[In the end, mental issues held them back. The longer the matches went, the more their constant scrim wins became poison! On the other hand, even though Construction Is Doomed finished 3rd in the round robin, they regrouped and made it all the way to the finals. This is truly an astonishing result, and we have an unprecedented finals matchup!!]

And so, the two teams that had finished 4th and 3rd in scrims met again in the finals—an unprecedented situation. Viewership skyrocketed.

When Sunday arrived, the official channel alone had eighty thousand viewers. When combined with all the relay broadcasts, the total exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand, breaking last year’s record of two hundred thousand and rewriting the history of Combative viewership.

[Hello everyone!! This is the Mat-at Daehoe Combative Division, sponsored by Pazizik and hosted by Battle Pack Games!]

[We will now begin the first match of the grand finals—————!!]