Academy League's Loser (5)
The casters were going wild with excitement. At the same time, the streaming chat exploded.
The viewership was tiny, but every single one of them was electrified. The strategy Shining Star had pulled off went beyond innovative—it was downright revolutionary.
The clip of Cha Yuna deliberately diving into the Rosy Pit to die, baiting Team Brilliant with her death message, then ambushing them from the hill above spread like wildfire through the Eternal Combat community—even while the match was still ongoing.
Neither the Shining Star players in the thick of it nor Kang Yuseong, who had designed and suggested the play, had any idea just how massive the ripple effects would be.
Nice!
I clenched my fist and cheered silently. The Rosy Pit bait strategy had worked to perfection.
I'd been inwardly worried they might not get it— we'd never even synced it up in practice games—but it was all for nothing.
Thanks to Ha-young grasping the core of the strategy, she gave crystal-clear orders in-game, and the others followed her lead flawlessly, executing the play I'd drawn up to the letter.
They underestimated us rookies and went with that level-1 Rosie strat. How's it feel getting hit with something even crazier?
A bait play that only the one and only Trentmaster among all past champions could pull off.
Deliberately suiciding on Rosie to trigger the death message, then devouring the enemy team that took the bait from up on the hill. It was an utterly absurd strategy I'd fallen victim to back in my pro days.
In the first round of my fourth TIC main event winners' bracket, the European powerhouse Rattlesnake Esports unveiled it. Even by timeline, it wouldn't appear until four years from now—a legendary bait play.
With hundreds of thousands watching the TIC main event, my team BlackWings became the sacrificial lamb to that all-time great bait, and we failed to lift the TIC trophy that year.
In other words, the strategy our girls just unleashed on Team Brilliant was straight out of future Europe's superteam Rattlesnake.
Even BlackWings, one of the world's strongest teams at the time, got completely duped by it. In this earlier era, no academy team could possibly see it coming.
The Team Brilliant players, crawling out of their spawn pool, looked utterly dumbfounded, like they had no clue what had just hit them.
They were shell-shocked by this advanced tactic from a future European squad.
Honestly, it was almost a waste to use it on an academy league stage. It was the kind of unpredictable play that could crumble even top-tier teams the first time they faced it.
But for me, who'd weathered every tactic and strat from the future, I still had plenty more up my sleeve.
Meanwhile, over at Team Brilliant's spectator bench.
"How... how is this even possible..."
Director Lee Han muttered in a daze.
When Cha Yuna's death message popped up, he'd been dead certain Shining Star had lost their minds.
But when the empty Rosy Pit came into view, something felt off. And when Shining Star appeared on their own hill? That's when he realized things had gone seriously south.
Finally spotting Cha Yuna teleporting in—he flat-out denied reality.
This couldn't happen.
The Eternal Combat league had been around for years, but he'd never heard of a strategy like this. It was beyond prediction.
This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment idea. Only then did Director Lee Han truly feel the bone-deep gap—who the real newbies were.
"Hehe, so comfy. They even played along perfectly on the roam. Their mentality's shattered."
"Still, don't get cocky. We lost set 1, so no assuming it'll be easy. Seon-ah, don't cross the river—fall back!"
The match after that went incredibly smoothly. With such a massive early lead, we held the high ground the whole time. The biggest worry—Seon-ah's potential throws—was under Ha-young's tight control.
I'd half-feared Sera might go on a revenge rampage from the last set, chasing them endlessly, but against my worries, she was playing normally.
Thanks to Eunjae warding the enemy jungle spots, Team Brilliant gradually lost ground. Eventually, they switched lanes, leaning on the Tinkerer's defensive prowess to straight-up turtle up.
This was the final hurdle.
The Tinkerer specialized in lockdown defense with heat-seeking missiles that auto-tracked enemy champions from extreme range and marching suicide-bot columns that relentlessly patrolled wide areas.
Plus, its ultimate, Mechanical Reset, let it refresh those skills' cooldowns indefinitely as long as it had mana, repelling incoming foes.
Games with a Tinkerer often dragged on forever, and sieging its base was a nightmare.
Countless amateurs and academy players had choked trying to break a Tinkerer defense—that was Team Brilliant's win condition, built around their star pick.
As expected, once the game turned heavily against them, Team Brilliant went full turtle behind Oh Sujin's Tinkerer.
True to her most-played status, Sujin cleared waves and chased us off with suicide-bot columns and heat-seekers. But she didn't stop at pure defense—she'd teleport-boot onto her own minions, blast our waves with bots, then Mechanical Reset to cooldown, fountain for mana, reset again, and shove another lane.
An extreme Tinkerer rotation we'd never seen in scrims.
Unable to pierce the defense, time dragged on, and Brilliant—including Sujin—started itemizing up, closing the gap bit by bit.
Kids, think! Remember what I said! Calm down and recall my words!
The enemy pulling their star pick in set 2, getting baited by the Rosie strat, then turtling with Tinkerer—all in my calculations.
I'd even predicted they might struggle against extreme Tinkerer defense.
That's why I'd prepped them with the counter for exactly this scenario.
Now was the moment for the players to figure it out.
"Ugh, this is so annoying. Keeps popping up here, shoving lanes, then dipping."
"Just focus-fire one spot and break through?"
"And get caught in layers of suicide bots and wiped? No thanks."
"Blade Armor."
Surprisingly, it was Sera who dropped the answer.
"Huh?"
"Coach said it before the match. If it drags 'cause of Tinkerer, everyone go Blade Armor."
"Hmm, but Blade Armor's stats suck."
"Ahh! I get it! Why Coach said Blade Armor! Everyone, buy one as soon as you can afford it!"
"Why though?"
"Blade Armor has an active! Damage reflection!"
Ha-young, grasping my intent, explained to the team. As they listened, their lips curled up, soon grinning like kids who'd discovered the funniest prank ever.
Even I, tuned into team voice, flashed a satisfied smile. Yeah, pros need to puzzle out intent on their own.
I'd spoon-fed them most of it, but left the final dot for their communication and growth. Worst case, if they lost? A team that couldn't grasp why five Blade Armors after I handed them the answer wasn't worth the dirt.
I knew my girls were better than that, so I gave them room to think—and they nailed it quick.
Meanwhile, Brilliant—having successfully stalled—had handed the game to Oh Sujin, teleport-booting her three-lane control.
"Sis, they're heading top."
"No worries. Lay down the carpet, they can't come."
To her teammate's call, Sujin—mid-bottom wave clear—Mechanical Reset to refresh skills and items, then teleport-boot back to base.
Filling mana at the fountain, she zipped to her top inhibitor tower and carpeted the approach with suicide-bot columns. Reset, layer more. Repeat a few times, and the hill path was stacked thick.
Enemy minion waves would melt on contact, buying time to shove other lanes.
Lucky they can't handle Tinkerer.
She hadn't shown this in scrims, but Sujin's true prowess was this Tinkerer mastery. Thinking Shining Star couldn't crack it, she Reset again to manage another lane.
But then—Shining Star's full squad charged straight into the stacked suicide-bot carpet. No minions.
"What the—?"
"Diving? But their minions are dead—what're they doing?"
Sujin realized first.
All five Shining Star players decked out in mismatched Blade Armor. They activated the active—sharp thorns erupting from the armor.
Blade Armor's active: For a brief moment, 100% of damage you take gets reflected back to the attacker. Mutual destruction.
With actives blazing, Shining Star danced through the bot layers, stomping them—one even started twerking on top. Their HP plummeted, naturally.
But...
"Uh..."
Sujin, who'd laid those bots. The damage to Shining Star reflected right back—identical amounts. Five actives on five players? That was five times her own stacked skill damage.
In under 0.5 seconds, full-HP Sujin dropped to zero. Dead before she could speak.
"Wha—?"
"What the hell?!"
"Sujin unnie?!"
"Those crazy bitches... they're using reflect damage?!"
With Sujin's death, Brilliant finally clocked the intent—and freaked.
Why buy ill-fitting Blade Armor and tap-dance on suicide bots? Reflection ignores location. Perfect non-contact kill on a turtled base Tinkerer. Theoretically possible, but trash stats meant no one tried.
Shining Star did it. Sujin died in base in half a second.
With Brilliant's entire defense gone, nothing stopped Shining Star.
Bolstered by Lee Ha-young's Holy Knight support, they stormed the base. Nexus shattered soon after.
Set 2 over. Set score: 1:1 tie.