Season 5: Chapter 59: Nationalist Popcorn (3) |
Popcorn greeted Almond. "Long time no see."
Almond tilted his head. ‘Huh?’
He genuinely couldn't recall Popcorn.
‘Who is this again?’
— Almond just doesn't know him lmao
— He's gone. Just gone.
— lmaooo
— Well everything's been so chaotic, who could blame him lmao
— Popcorn is getting embarrassed lmao
[Popcorn → Bubblegum]
"Popcorn?!"
"Ahaha… you remember me!"
Knowing what kind of person Almond was, Popcorn seemed genuinely grateful just to be recognized.
"I didn't think I'd end up in the same queue as…"
Whoosh!
Almond's dagger came flying in immediately.
"Oh my!"
Clang!
The Gigant Machine next to Popcorn deflected the blade.
"Ahem. The master is speaking. How dare you?"
When his strike missed, Almond called the blade back with his skill.
— lmaooo
— What is this energy lmao
— lmaooooo
"Master, allow me to handle this."
"Stay put."
"Yes."
Popcorn looked back at Almond. "You're in a hurry."
He laughed lightly. Looking at Almond's teammates, being in a hurry made complete sense. Popcorn had watched Civil Empire, so he knew who BornToB was. Wasn't that the Bubblegum of Civil Empire? And the actual Bubblegum was also there.
‘Well, I almost feel bad winning.’
Popcorn scratched his head.
‘Should I throw the game?’
He glanced over at Almond. With this team composition, a proper match couldn’t possibly happen. Just throwing the game actually seemed more entertaining.
Popcorn had always been the same way in matches. He was the kind of player who would give away unimportant things and take what actually mattered with a calculating cunningness. Winning in scrimmages only gave away their strategy. However, the corner of Popcorn's mouth dropped when his eyes met Almond's.
That feeling vanished completely. Almond's eyes looked far too genuine.
‘He actually wants to go for it?’
Viewers assumed it was all about the mission. Almond just wanted to place higher than Lemon. That was what they thought, but Popcorn didn't need that many reasons. The problem was simpler than it looked.
In the world of competitors, they communicated in their own language. Both of them lived in that world. The moment their eyes met, all negotiations had ended.
‘He wants a real fight.’
Sparks flew.
[Flash]
Almond instantly appeared at Popcorn's flank.
Grrrr!
[Wolf Form]
From human form, Popcorn shifted directly into a wolf and bolted to the side.
Tap tap tap tap!
Popcorn reversed course and closed in toward Almond's team formation. His tank held Almond in check while their carries trained their sights on Almond.
"Almond threw himself in!"
"Kill him!"
It looked like Almond had committed recklessly, but he hadn't.
‘He's going back.’
‘It's a fake.’
Popcorn made the call. "It's a fake! Poke into their formation!"
The team all shifted their targeting at once.
[Flash]
As expected, Almond had only briefly drawn their attention before returning to his own formation.
‘The dagger is still out there. I can read it all.’
Boom!
Popcorn's ranged carries unleashed a barrage. Almond was in danger of taking the hit.
LetMeTank called out, "BornToB!"
Crash!
BornToB's shield materialized and intercepted the projectiles.
"Taaank~!"
— A natural tank
— BornToB tank
Given the champion compositions on both sides, LetMeTank pushing forward was the favorable play.
‘Good. I have a chance if I can get in.’
LetMeTank sprinted forward and scattered her nails.
Whoooosh!
Nails blanketed the enemy Gigant Machine.
Grrr!
Popcorn, in wolf form, cut in and slammed into LetMeTank.
Thud!
"Ugh!" LetMeTank stumbled back momentarily.
[Bomb Drop]
"Die!"
Bombs rained down on Popcorn.
[Hawk Form]
Whoosh!
Popcorn immediately flew up.
— What
— Whoa
— Insane
— He's so quick
— Popcorn Druid is actually busted lmao
His objective had been to stop LetMeTank from the start.
‘Whether the Paladin can close in or not will be the deciding factor.’
He accurately read the situation. The Hammer Paladin had no movement ability among tanks, but LetMeTank could set up an incredibly favorable field for her teammates if she got in. Preventing that approach was Popcorn's key play. He'd only knocked LetMeTank down and ascended without pressing for more.
Flash!
A gleaming shape appeared from the sky.
Whoooosh!
Someone spiraled down.
It was Almond. Their eyes met.
‘What. Did he predict this?’
How could Almond appear there without having thrown the blade ahead of time?
‘I need to dodge.’
In hawk form, Popcorn tried to change direction.
‘Not fast enough.’
Redirecting wasn't easy at takeoff. Taking a hit in hawk form multiplied the damage. He felt the danger.
Flash!
Right then, a red light fired from a distance.
“I shall fulfill the contract sealed in blood.”
Popcorn's ADC was Ran, who activated his ultimate skill.
Crash!
It shot toward Almond as cover fire to protect Popcorn, but Almond had already disappeared.
Flash!
— Three centimeter Flash
— Whoa?!
He reappeared right beside Popcorn, even closer than before.
‘The remaining Flash was for me?’
The blade, carrying rotational momentum, came slashing in with trailing blue energy.
Whooooosh!
[Blade Energy]
[Spinning Slash]
The blue arc reflected in Popcorn's wide eyes. He still hadn't managed a proper wingbeat as a hawk. Direction changes weren't easy. He pondered whether to drop back down, transform, or take the hit and counter. It was hard to say what the right move was. The enemy's attack, paired with two consecutive Flashes, had been executed with absolute certainty.
‘This is…’
Popcorn couldn't believe it. No matter how he looked at this, it was that.
‘This guy knows.’
He knew Popcorn's Druid. This wasn't a strategy that came out of nowhere.
‘How?’
***
A woman in a wheelchair said to herself, "They're going without me. Just leaving me out."
After hearing those words, Sang-Hyeon understood that the four players Paprika had prepared were JeonJaPa's old teammates. Except for their ADC, they had all retired from professional play and planned to become streamers, coaches, or team directors.
Before that transition, they would enter the competition as a special event to reignite their public profiles. Paprika had ambitiously prepared this surprise project. From that point on, Sang-Hyeon spent more time at his computer or lying in bed searching on his phone.
[Cosmic Best Plays]
"What are you doing? Just staring."
"Ah, nothing. Just hungover…"
Ju-Hyeok found it odd that Sang-Hyeon was just lying motionless in bed, looking at his phone. He wasn't normally talkative, but was usually active as a former athlete. Just lying there like that seemed off.
‘How much did he drink?’
Sang-Hyeon turned away and searched for something else. He opened multiple videos and absorbed them.
[Banana Jungle Route Analysis]
Banana's jungle was the axis around which the team's center held alongside mid.
[North American Finals Cosmic Quadra Kill]
Cosmic's teamfight ability often put a period at the end of a fight.
[Popcorn Signature Champion Druid Analysis]
Popcorn, the top laner, could force those teamfights open and sometimes close them himself. He stood out the most by far.
‘This champion existed?’
Druid hadn't been a heavily used pick during the tournament. LIL went through constant patches. Strong and weak champions kept changing. As player analysis and counterstrategies evolved, the meta shifted with them.
The meta, simply put, was the dominant trend at any given moment. It could be a playstyle, a combat approach, or a ban-pick pattern. A meta ultimately achieved one thing.
‘A path to victory.’
Every plan aimed at winning. When a majority of teams began recognizing the same approach, it became meta. Druid wasn't the favored meta back then, but time had passed. The Hammer Warrior became the Hammer Paladin. Patches had stacked up. And this wasn't Siege mode, it was Survival. A mode where the pilot's mastery of their champion mattered far more.
‘The odds of Druid appearing…’
While searching, Almond found that Druid's current ratings weren't low at all.
— Specialists can absolutely make it work
— In the hands of a specialist, it's broken lmao
— Isn't this just a badly designed champion lmao
— Bronze picks it and it's a morphing bug. Challenger picks it and it's suddenly a transformer lmao
Sang-Hyeon took notes on his phone while watching.
‘From wolf… when things get dangerous, into bird…’
The Popcorn in the video transformed into a wolf and pressed the attack. He often dove deep into enemy territory with his reckless style.
[Hawk Form]
Whoosh!
Transforming into a hawk opened a brief invincibility window, which Popcorn exploited to shed aggro. That wasn't all. His aerial control was exceptional as he dodged every ranged attack in hawk form. Here, Sang-Hyeon noticed something.
‘The projectiles come from so far away. He's reading them by sight and dodging.’
Hawk form dramatically improved not just his speed, but also his vision. Popcorn was leveraging that wider field of view. Only ranged attacks could intercept his flight, but he slipped through all of them.
‘Is this champion allowed to be this good?’
Even from Sang-Hyeon's perspective, the hawk form was too easy to use without any risks. Why had a champion capable of this not appeared before? The answer was in the hawk form itself as Sang-Hyeon read the trait description carefully.
‘All damage received is doubled? Critical hit chance against the user is also doubled?’
Hawk form could easily escape enemies, but the situation would turn catastrophic if a hit landed. If a carry landed a critical blow, more than half the champion’s health bar could be instantly wiped.
‘But Popcorn dodges everything.’
He read the shots visually and slipped through the barrage. This was where the gap between him and other pilots widened. There were also differences in wolf form, bear form, and turtle form.
‘It's a strength and simultaneously a weakness.’
Hawk form seemed to be the weak point. Sang-Hyeon rewound the video again.
The Popcorn in the video tackled an enemy in wolf form, then launched straight up into a hawk.
‘I see it.’
After rewinding it several times, a pattern started becoming visible.
***
Popcorn used hawk form and rose into the air.
‘Now.’
Despite Popcorn’s perfect mastery and a hair-thin gap, Almond threw his dagger into that gap and flashed.
[Flash]
Almond's shadow fell over the ascending Popcorn. Ran's long-range artillery flew in to support Popcorn. Ran's shots carried knockback, which devastated airborne targets. They headed directly for Almond.
[Flash]
Anticipating it, Almond slipped sideways and flashed to the blade he'd quietly left behind.
Boom…!
Ran's shot detonated in empty air. Almond was beneath the hawk now. He twisted his body and drew his blade energy out.
[Spinning Slash]
[Blade Energy]
‘Damn.’
Popcorn's eyes went wide. He tried to beat his wings.
Flap flap!
The hawk's direction shifted slightly.
‘It's not going to reach…’
Almond knew he had the momentum.
‘It’ll reach!’
Slaaaash!