93. ACK Jeanne d'Arc
93. ACK Jeanne d'Arc
***
Three minutes before eight,
at 7:57 p.m., Serin changed the stream title.
[Watching ACK Together (Cheering for G1)]
She had agreed to do a scrim with them, and if she hadn't received a two-million-won donation, that might have been one thing—but as things stood, cheering for G1 while watching was the right call.
"Then I'll get to watching the match now."
She opened the tweetie site and brought up the official ACK channel on screen.
Worried that the seemingly endless donations would get in the way even while watching the match, she blocked donations entirely, and for the donations she had already received, she set them to `Donation Display: OFF` so they wouldn't show up on stream.
She planned to play the donations she had already received after the match ended or during a break in the middle.
[There's about a ten-minute gap after the match, so you can turn donations back on then]
[Yeah, you should focus on the match. Donations would be distracting]
[Can you all stop with the fandom fights for real lol]
[TSJ and G1 have way more fans than everyone else, so it's unavoidable lol]
[G1's winning this one lol]
As she looked at the screen, the ACK opening began right on cue.
—【ACK 2031】—
A logo embroidered in gold gleamed brilliantly, then shattered and vanished like light scattering faintly away.
The screen that followed was like a film.
A night of pitch black, where no light existed, and within it, a massive castle.
The screen, which had been showing a castle so beautiful it evoked a medieval fortress, suddenly seemed to be sucked inward.
In an instant, the viewpoint zoomed in and pierced straight through the castle's highest point—a massive stained-glass window made of ornate patterns.
Crash!
The enormous glass shattered in a single blow, its fragments scattering brilliantly.
Then, as if staged, moonlight began to seep through the broken stained glass, dimly illuminating the interior.
And with that, the scene was revealed.
A backdrop of countless rusted weapons driven into a pitch-black marble floor.
The moonlight filtering through the broken stained glass spread slowly, as if expanding its reach, illuminating the interior and making the rusted weapons gleam eerily, as though breathing life into them.
And so, in the deep darkness, a single ray of moonlight seeped in, and at the far end of the interior where the darkness had lifted.
There, revealed gradually by the soft moonlight, stood a woman who was breathtakingly beautiful at first glance.
Her jet-black hair, black as pitch, cascaded radiantly down to her waist, and her pure-white armor, faintly reflecting the moonlight, stood in contrast to the deep darkness, giving off an almost sacred aura.
Looking at that woman, Serin was certain.
The user named Jeanne d'Arc she had met a few days ago was the same person as the woman now appearing in the opening.
The interior, now fully bathed in moonlight, began to show the countless weapons driven into the marble floor from multiple angles, all centered around Jeanne d'Arc.
Jeanne d'Arc, in the form of a beautiful female knight, appeared to be fully armed without a single gap—yet for some reason, her pure-white hands held nothing at all.
Then Jeanne d'Arc slowly raised her utterly white hands, and at their tips, a massive pure-white banner materialized in dazzling light and settled into her grasp.
"De par le roy du ciel"
At the same moment, golden letters of unknown meaning were elegantly embroidered across the screen, and as Jeanne d'Arc raised the pure-white banner high, her entire body was suffused with white light, brilliantly illuminating the space within.
Immediately after, a heavy, majestic score swelled, and the rusted weapons embedded in the pitch-black marble rose into the air one by one.
Thunk!
Thud!
Thud-thud-thud—!
Characters of various races—elves, humans, dwarves—materialized in bursts of light, and each one grabbed a weapon floating in the air nearby.
Shing!
Nearly all of the characters aimed their weapons at Jeanne d'Arc simultaneously.
Watching them, Jeanne d'Arc smiled coldly.
Facing the countless figures aiming at her, she was utterly composed.
She smiled radiantly, as if carrying the arrogance that she could take on every last one of them.
Slowly turning her head, she swept her gaze over all those who had appeared with the light.
A gesture so natural, as if a being above were looking down upon those below.
Jeanne d'Arc's radiant figure lit the space with such an otherworldly brilliance that it felt almost sacred.
In an instant, the massive pure-white banner blazed with light and transformed into an ornate longsword.
Jeanne d'Arc slowly raised the ornate longsword and aimed it back at those who had aimed their weapons at her.
With that striking image of Jeanne d'Arc, the screen gradually darkened, and the ACK logo appeared once more as the opening came to an end.
[Jeanne d'Arc... is insane, seriously]
[No but still, is it real that Jeanne d'Arc alone takes up nearly half the opening?]
[For real, all the other players look like extras lol]
[No but she's the only one who modeled her character on her actual face, so she's the only one who doesn't look out of place lol]
[The summer opening itself has saintess-concept Jeanne d'Arc as the protagonist, so what do you expect lol]
[The quality of this opening is crazy every time I watch it. No, honestly, Eunha's visuals are insane]
[That expression Jeanne d'Arc makes at the end drives me crazy every single time...]
[There are people who didn't know ACK and became Jeanne d'Arc fans after watching this opening]
[This is why TSJ is TSJ. "Team Solo Jeanne d'Arc" isn't a saying for nothing lol]
[Jeanne d'Arc really does 1v5 every match]
[The opening actually matches Jeanne d'Arc's real situation, funnily enough lol]
[If you hate that opening so much, just win the league five times in a row and prove it lol]
While looking at the chat, she spoke without thinking.
"The opening... is really cool. I thought I was watching a movie."
Honestly, maybe because she hadn't expected anything from a tournament opening, the one she happened to see was quite watchable.
Soon after, banner logos from various sponsors decorated the screen, and the voices of what appeared to be the casters and commentators came through as the screen showed them.
—Hello, viewers! Welcome to the second round of the 2031 ACK Summer! I'm caster Seong Junhyeong, joined by commentators Han Sanghyeok and Ju Minhui!
—Many teams are now racing toward the finish, yet so much remains undecided! The heat is only intensifying, isn't it!?
—Yes, indeed. What's more, this is the year of the first international competition, so results carry even greater weight than in other years. That's why, from what we hear, the teams' schedules leave them with no time to rest.
—And today! With the regular season heading toward its end, G1, riding a six-match win streak and surging with momentum, faces BS, who must keep pushing forward to secure the final playoff ticket. Let's break down both teams' strength!
With the caster's lively remarks, the screen changed.
The screen soon displayed various text about each team's players, information, and strategies.
-G1, boasting overwhelming destructive power centered on greatsword user Kang Hyeok! Can they claim victory today and extend their win streak to seven!
-BS, with the standout performance of 'Baekya,' the undisputed top-tier ace among archer-type classes—what will be the fate of the final playoff ticket?
Along with text that seemed to lay out both teams' current situations, each player was introduced one by one.
After that, an introduction to the map where the match would take place followed.
It was extremely similar to the 'Colosseum' where she had run ranked matchmaking earlier, but its defining feature, if it could be called one, was its staggeringly vast size.
A match unfolding in a Colosseum rivaling a massive domed stadium.
Then came an explanation of the match format. Sets 1 and 2 were introduced as standard 3:3 team matches.
If the winner wasn't decided by the end of those and the result stood at 1:1, leading to a third set, each team would select three players for a Gauntlet Match of 1:1 duels.
—Comparing the two teams' strength, one would predict a one-sided advantage for G1 with their current momentum, but in professional competition, there's no such thing as an absolute, is there?
—Yes, that's right. BS is a team with plenty of hidden strength, so if they can drag it to the Gauntlet Match, they could certainly aim for a reversal centered on their ace, Baekya. Baekya's performance in 1:1 is terrifying in and of itself, isn't it?
While watching the ongoing commentary and caster's explanations, I suddenly realized I was live.
Feeling like I'd been silent for too long, I spoke up.
"So the team called G1 is favored over BS in terms of strength?"
[Right now the ACK League has a ten-team system with two powerhouses and eight mid-tier teams, and G1 is one of the two powerhouses]
[Basically, the two powerhouses TSJ and G1 rarely lose to any team other than each other]
[BS is around fifth? A mid-tier team, but they've lost to G1 almost every time so far]
[G1 will probably win comfortably]
[It rarely even goes to a third set, and Baekya and Kang Hyeok are basically a hard counter matchup, and Kang Hyeok has won every time]
[Because when Kang Hyeok pushes through the center and breaks their formation, ranged classes can't do anything.]
Looking at the chat reactions, I saw that the overwhelming majority seemed to predict a dominant G1 victory.
And among them, most of the talk was about each team's ace, Kang Hyeok and Baekya.
Even so, I found it curious that the chat said Kang Hyeok, a greatsword user, beat Baekya, an Archer-class player, almost like a hard counter.
'A greatsword would normally be at a disadvantage against a ranged class...'
I couldn't quite imagine how a greatsword user could beat a ranged class at a hard-counter level. With similar skill, the matchup usually tilted so heavily that the ranged player could toy with the melee player.
Still, I thought maybe the team-match setting made it possible.
I had absolutely no experience with team matches. Even after living for years in the world of Black Ark, I'd almost always wandered alone, so I had virtually no memories of coordinating with anyone.
Along with the pros' skill, I found myself genuinely curious about what team matches felt like.
—Now then, we'll move on to the player selection phase.
The screen changed with the caster's announcement.
Against a clean UI backdrop, the pick space was divided into two sides: G1 and BS.
The 'picks' that followed proceeded in a truly unusual manner.
【Selecting and Revealing Players】
It was the 'player selection phase' for the 3:3 team match.
"Viewers, player selection? So you don't know which players will be competing?"
[Rin, is this really your first time watching ACK?]
[Yeah, before the player selection, nobody knows which players will come out for any set]
[From melee-ranged matchups to even within the same melee or ranged categories, the matchups interlock intricately, so the player selection completely changes things]
[They pick players sequentially by side, then choose counter picks or strategic picks based on that and play the match]
[Because of this system, weaker teams sometimes beat stronger teams, but G1 is a strong team, so...]
[G1's player pool balance is really good. The fact that they're a powerhouse even with their captain Kang Hyeok on greatsword is honestly lol]
[Blue reveals one player first, then Red picks two, then Blue picks two, then Red picks one—they go in that order]
"...That's interesting."
Watching the chat, I let out an involuntary exclamation of admiration.
Considering the countless weapon types and the many classes that existed in Another World, achieving perfect balance was certainly close to impossible.
So they looked at a player and picked a matching player to align the matchup.
Or they adjusted their strategy based on the opposing player.
As those points clicked for me in an instant, I found the rules fascinating.
'They acknowledge that perfect balance can't be achieved, and instead substitute balance through the players themselves...'
Strategy depending on player selection, and variables depending on each individual player's skill.
Then the screen changed as G1, having chosen the blue side, revealed their first player.
—Blue side G1's pick is Kang Hyeok! They select Kang Hyeok as their first player.