When the Platform Showdown first started, the crowd had been desperate from Cheese's perspective. Eighty percent of the crowd had bet on Paprika's victory and were red.
After Round 1's two matches and Round 2's first match, the current situation was quite different. The ratio of red and yellow had become similar. Countless people had watched the walkie-talkie strategy and started predicting Cheese's victory.
The volume of cheering had also changed.
Cheese had been the underdog desperately screaming at first while Paprika was overwhelmed with sheer numbers. Now, even with equal numbers, Paprika's cheering had become far more desperate.
"PAPRIIIIKAAA! One! Two! Three!"
"PAPRIKAAAAAA! FIIIIIIIGHTING!!"
Not just Paprika viewers who'd connected to the stadium, but even the chat was the same.
— Come on...
— Let's win! Please!
— Show us something!
— Let's just use walkie-talkies too ??
— Please...
Even the Cheese crowd could feel that their attitude had changed. The Paprika cheering section had brought out not just simple fighting chants but various lights, neon signs, and even cheerleading. All items had been purchased with money. They were truly mobilizing all their capital.
"Wow... they're full of venom."
"Because they think it'll really be over if they lose in game skills."
"Getting beaten by the Treevy Cheese they used to look down on is infuriating."
Almond's fans, in particular, could feel the change more keenly. Why?
"When did EggPlant turn yellow?"
EggPlant had returned to Cheese with tears in his eyes. He, too, had realized the situation was at best fifty-fifty. For him, if the situation was fifty-fifty, there was no reason to cheer for Paprika. He was originally a Cheese viewer, after all.
"What, we don't take traitors back~! Go back!"
"Boooooo! Go back!"
Everyone teased EggPlant half-jokingly.
"Oh no! I'm not a Cheese fan! I'm just a fan of Almond!"
EggPlant tried what excuse he could think of, but it didn't fly with long-time Almond fans.
"Don't lie! We can't accept you!"
"If you're really an Almond fan! Prove it!"
People pushed even harder.
"Wh-what am I supposed to prove it with!?"
Some things worked out by being pushed, and some things didn't. How would he prove that he was a real fan?
RubySword pointed somewhere. "Go over there."
EggPlant was puzzled. "Wh-what is that?"
"It's a cheerleader stage item I purchased. Nobody's using it because it's embarrassing."
The cheerleader stage was a space set up in front of the stands where cheerleaders could stand. Dancing there would enlarge one’s body so the entire audience could see.
"Go and dance, EggPlant. Prove your loyalty..."
Click.
RubySword pulled out her megaphone. "Prove it. Before this cheering pool begins."
Hearing the explanation, EggPlant's face went bright red.
'Dance...?'
He'd never danced in his life. The sum total of his dancing was a few times, reluctantly copying things from the internet when extroverted friends forced him.
"Even if not your heart, at least sacrifice your backside! EggPlant!"
"Get out there! Get out there and dance!"
"Are you going to let RubySword's sacrifice be in vain!?"
Countless people pressured him.
'RubySword only sacrificed MONEY!?'
EggPlant himself had to go out there. If he had no money, he had to pay with his body. This was the harsh reality.
'Right... w-well, can't be helped.'
EggPlant stepped onto the cheerleader stage. As the music changed, he started dancing awkwardly.
Wiggle, wiggle.
— lmaooooooooooooooooo
— LOOL
— Omg
— What is this lmaooo
— lmaooooo
RubySword, satisfied that her item was fulfilling its role, called out, "Cheese! One! Two! Three!"
Following her lead, everyone cheered together.
"Cheese FIIIIIIGHTING!!"
EggPlant squirmed and kept on dancing.
— lmaooooo what is that dance
— Who forced him?
— I dance when I'm sad...
— Hey~ EggPlant is dancing~
— His proportions LOL
— Every day I’m shuffling!
— What are you doing lmaooo
— Why does it look like he's crying?
***
"Now! Players are starting to drop! Let’s see if Paprika chose the walkie-talkie strategy this time! That'll be the key!"
From Paprika's airship, players began dropping one by one.
"So far, it's a normal drop?"
One, two, three... four, five... It ended at five.
"Hm...?"
"Hm? No additional members for Paprika?"
All three commentators were surprised. The analyst, who'd been arguing about the walkie-talkie strategy's blind spots, was comparatively less surprised.
"They didn't use it!?"
"No walkie-talkie!"
— Walkie-talkie LOL
— Hm?
— Again?
— Just saying walkie-talkie now lmaooo
— Wouldn't be right?
— What?
— Haven't been hit enough yet...
Paprika's Group B split into the same five-person groups as before.
"Oh. I see. Paprika seems to be pushing through with conviction."
"Hmm. This is unexpected?"
Even the analyst, who'd been negative about walkie-talkies, adjusted his red glasses.
"Hm? Analyst? Didn't you say earlier that the walkie-talkie strategy requires one team to sacrifice, and that would ultimately cause problems later?"
"Oh, yes, in restaurant terms..."
"Cheese! Cheese is dropping the same way! Even the team composition is the same!?" OrangeKing immediately cut in, sensing the analyst was about to go on at length.
— lmaooooooooooo
— Restaurant cut~!
— LOL just say it faster
— lmaooooo
"Cheese is pushing through the same way. Well, they completely crushed them earlier, so there's no particular reason to change anything! Just watching one game is the play!"
Just as the caster said, Cheese had no reason to rashly make changes here. Change was for the losing side to make. This seemed like a fairly simple truth, but it wasn't easy to follow because the winning team wanted to win just once more and quickly drive in the nail. Sometimes, truly bizarre strategies came out of that.
'They're experienced...'
OrangeKing realized it anew. A composure could be felt in Cheese's strategy.
'This means they're accumulating data.'
Saying they'd watch one game was easy to say, but it absolutely wasn’t easy under even a little competitive pressure.
'Especially for Can't Can't Can't, if things go wrong, they might not even make the main round, right?'
Can't Can't Can't had to sacrifice. They weren’t safe in the rankings. One slip and they would be immediately eliminated. Going by this strategy, their best possible rank every round was fifth. And yet, they continued following the plan. They probably wanted clean data without variables.
"Now, how do you see it? OrangeKing? Cheese fully maintained the same strategy."
"Yes. This is... basically wanting to see how the opponent comes out first. That's it. Considerable composure is visible in Cheese. Meanwhile, Paprika...!"
"Yes. Paprika! Is a bit different?"
"Yes."
Paprika still didn’t choose the walkie-talkie strategy.
"The drops... that is, their landing points have completely changed!?"
"Before, it was like they wanted to draw a demilitarized line. They'd cut the map exactly in half and only occupy one side, right? Now, they're scattered enough to call it almost random!"
"Oh? That's true!?"
The caster was surprised and rechecked the map.
"Oh... but doesn't this make communication even harder!?"
"This... so Paprika seems to be completely eliminating communication and leaving it to individual capability."
OrangeKing tried his best to infer.
'Feels a bit odd.'
It was hard to dispel the sense of incongruity.
— fr?
— Chad approach
— Pushing through with sheer size?
— Against the Knights' size?
"Well... it's not without merit."
Still, this strategy had advantages.
"The opponent is moving on the premise that Paprika will cooperate. If Paprika gains experience rapidly through completely individual activity, there's a slight routing loss early on for them."
Just as he said, Cheese was thinking Paprika's teams would gather like in the previous match.
"Oh... r-right!? Cheese now has a slight routing loss!"
"On top of that, Cheese's Can't Can't Can't team can't level up!"
"Right!"
"But if Paprika can manage even leveling across all five teams... As long as they can make up for no communication! It’s still unknown! For one thing, Paprika's players have a good base!"
In gaming, size referred to the fundamental capability and growth speed of a player's character when there were no variables. In Siege Mode, it was the ability to secure CS[1] in lane. In Survival, it was hunting speed.
"The hunting speed gap is already widening!"
"Oh... no combat is occurring? Paprika has the advantage here?"
Paprika, perhaps because they had spread out, was playing a focused and purely safe-hunting strategy as much as possible.
"Right. The early Survival mode map is extremely wide. Better to avoid early combat! The opponent can't keep hunting indefinitely!"
In Round 1, both sides had come prepared for 25-person combat. Both were confident in the same timing, and both thought they'd win. They had collided at full force, and the loser was completely annihilated. That wouldn’t happen this time.
"Paprika has abandoned growing the head! And seems to have committed to not giving early combat variables!"
Paprika overtly avoided encounters. This made inducing early combat difficult.
"Cheese can hold on and chase if they want! But following them like this stretches the hunting speed too thin... It gets awkward, right?"
"Right! They’re just giving up and hunting!"
It looked like combat would break out, but it never ignited. The embers would die down. Then, something remarkable happened.
"No, but why is the hunting speed gap this large!?"
Paprika's hunting speed was too fast. They didn’t just reach level two but also rapidly headed toward level three.
Meanwhile, Cheese's Knights had only just reached level two.
— ??
— What?
— What?
— Is this possible??
The analyst also tilted his head as if something was off.
"Even granting some time was wasted, it shouldn't widen this much."
Fortunately, there were no restaurant metaphors this time. He didn't have the bandwidth because he'd discovered something too shocking. His eyes had ballooned to the size of baseballs.
"W-wait." He rose halfway out of his seat. "Paprika, why are only four of the five players leveling up?"
At these words, the commentary desk's expressions stiffened. They all checked the minimap and player roster.
OrangeKing reacted first.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!?" he screamed like someone who'd touched a live wire.
— What the LOL
— What is this lmaooooo
— lmaooo just noticed now
— ??? What?
— What?
"Paprika has a walkie-talkie!!"
The commentary desk had missed this.
— What?
— What???
— Wow lmaooo
— I see
— What?
1. Short for Creep Score, which is the number of minions and monsters a player has killed. ☜