NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 3
Teamfight Arena was a game strikingly similar to Magical Fight.
First off, both games used the same quartet view perspective and 2.5D graphics.
The gameplay involved looking down on the battlefield from a fixed position, maneuvering your character, the player’s avatar, to fight battles.
Unlike RTS games that demand extreme multi-tasking—where you manage numerous units—Teamfight Arena was limited to controlling a single champion. At most, some champions had a few summoned monsters added to the mix.
Neutral monsters existed throughout the battlefield, and hunting them rewarded money and experience points (EP).
Of course, defeating the enemy team also granted money and EP.
Every level-up granted boosts to various ability scores, skills to allocate, and the option to buy items with money.
While there were some differences if you delved into the mechanics, the basic scheme of using skills with the keyboard and movement/targeting with the mouse was quite similar.
Skills were registered to the QWER keys, just like Magical Fight, with the ultimate skill tied to R.
The condition for victory was engaging in a 5-on-5 team battle and achieving 50 kills.
There was no round-based system. Upon death, a player would resurrect after a wait time at a random location.
The higher the level, the longer the resurrection duration, though the revival locations were set points rather than completely random.
The base mechanics were nearly identical; it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Teamfight Arena was outright created using Magical Fight as a textbook.
That similarity might have been precisely what allowed it to absorb the entire player base and drive Magical Fight out of the market.
Continuing to play Teamfight Arena, I realized something.
It was so suffocating!
Magical Fight had numerous types of consumable items.
To be precise, only consumable items existed.
The art of appropriately using those various effect-based consumable items was genuinely a lot of fun.
But in Teamfight Arena, everything was just equipment.
There were no directly usable items; merely ones where possessing them boosted your abilities or granted special effects.
The only consumables left were potions and wards—vision stones.
Even among equipment, those with usable effects were rare, making the game feel far too simplistic due to the lack of the item consumption and replenishment concept.
Especially, the absence of what I adored most in Magical Fight, the “spellbook” system, was unbearable. It felt like I was going mad!
The spellbook system.
It was the alpha and omega of Magical Fight, a special and distinctive system.
Every character gained 5 points for every level-up. These points could be distributed into various abilities:
Strength, agility, mana, attack power, defense, HP recovery, and mana recovery.
Skipping over the minutiae, simply put, investing these points made your character stronger.
However, these points could also be used to activate “spellbooks.”
Using points in the spellbook would inevitably lower your character’s ultimate stats.
But, in the moment, activating a spellbook could give you immense advantages in battle.
Essentially, it was a system that forced you to choose between the present or the future, and demanded precise judgment.
It was also physically demanding because you had to juggle so many things at once.
Does that explanation not quite give you a clear picture?
Let me break it down simply for you.
The exact specifications of the spellbooks are as follows:
2-Spellbook: Consumes 2 points, instantly resets the cooldown of all items and skills.
3-Spellbook: Consumes 1 point, fully restores all HP.
4-Spellbook: Consumes 1 point, fully restores all mana.
5-Spellbook: Consumes 2 points, resurrects you immediately at the point of death, with 50% HP and 30% mana.
6-Spellbook: Consumes 1 point, teleports you instantly to any designated location on the map.
Using these powerful spellbooks continuously would break the game, so they come with a 30-second cooldown and a 12-use limit every 10 minutes.
Does that not already give you a headache?
And you noticed I overlooked the 1-spellbook, didn’t you?
Keen observation!
The much-anticipated ability of the 1-spellbook is: Consumes 2 points, reduces all spellbook costs to 1 point for 20 seconds and removes their cooldown.
In other words, you can spam all spellbooks continuously!
Within the 12-use limitation every 10 minutes, that is.
But, here’s the interesting part.
The 12-use limit every 10 minutes—if combat starts at the 19th minute and 45th second, and you distribute it well, you could theoretically use the spellbook 24 times!
If only I could pull it off!
Of course, entering battle with that many points invested in spellbooks at the expense of ability scores carries an enormous risk.
But it could also make for some epic and wildly impressive moments.
That’s the boundless charm of Magical Fight the more you delve into it!
But Teamfight Arena has none of that.
Instead of the versatile spellbook system, you are only allowed to choose two simple spells at the start of the game.
And they cannot be changed during the game. Isn’t that a bit rough?
Recovery, Ignition, Blink—whatever.
These provide minor HP recovery, deal some damage, or allow a very brief teleport.
All these effects could be achieved easily as consumable items in Magical Fight.
In Teamfight Arena, these abilities had cooldown times ranging from as short as 90 seconds to as long as 300 seconds, far longer than what the combination of the 1 and 2 spellbooks allowed, which enabled their continuous use for 20 seconds.
This means the burst damage an individual could output was severely restricted.
It felt so cramped.
As an analogy, it was like being taken off a racing car in a grand prix and dumped into a cart!
Would it still be fun to switch from F1 League to a rickshaw battle?
And here’s the kicker—Magical Fight was driven out by this piece of junk of a game.
What exactly is this “general appeal”?
Sigh.
I get it.
I understand.
I know all too well that a game that’s insanely hard to learn doesn’t stand a chance in terms of popularity.
But did it really have to disappear completely?
Huh?
And the thing that really pisses me off!
You can’t start ranked games in Teamfight Arena immediately. You need to grind all the way to level 30!
Why?
Why am I stuck in this newbie zone all day?
Certainly, I’m a newbie too, but I’m an expert, a legend in other games!
Why can’t I start ranked games right away? Huh?
Looking it up online, apparently, you need to play over 133 games to reach level 30 in Teamfight Arena.
This is torture!
Aaaah!
And so, I sent a private message to the guy who dragged me into this atrocious game.
[Sol]
[Seriously, until when do I need to level grind in this junk game?]
[Sol]
[Searching online says it takes over 133 games to hit level 30. Is that right???]
[Sol]
[Let me play ranked games already! Killing noobs is so boring!]
This guy.
Ignoring my message during the game?
Sure, he might be in the middle of an important battle, so I’ll let it slide.
Gamers understand such things, right?
“Ah, damn it! I just wanna quit this garbage game!”
Still, I can’t help but be mad.
If only Magical Fight hadn’t gone under! It’s infuriating!
‘But hey… what tier is this guy in, anyway?’
I’ve heard that Teamfight Arena has a tier system which allows you to conveniently gauge someone’s skill level.
I was curious to find out what tier my sole rival, Victory, was in.
Since I’d already added him as a friend, I checked his account information from the friend list.
[ Challenger 2706 ]
This sounds pretty strong, doesn’t it?
But how strong exactly?
Checking the game ranking page…
[1. Victory – Challenger 2706
2. TP Wild – Challenger 2541
3. KFT Yanghak – Challenger 2490
4. Lucky Noob – Challenger 2486
5. MAR Adios – Challenger 2483]
This guy is number one in the Korean server!
Of course.
This is exactly what I’d expect from my rival.
“Hmph.”
I want to beat him quickly.
I want to crush him, pin him down.
I want to make it abundantly clear who’s better!
The gamer’s blood is boiling!
I can’t stop laughing.
Just imagining that…
Still, it’s incredibly frustrating right now!
Somebody help me get out of this newbie zone!
Victory, Wooseung Jeon, was streaming live.
An official personal stream run by the team.
Isn’t it true that the more you appear on the monitor, the more your recognition and intimacy levels grow?
This, the era’s greatest pro-gamer with global popularity, is currently live-streaming.
And he’s currently pulling in an impressive 52,000 viewers.
Then, an unexpected private message arrived on Victory’s account.
[Sol]
[Hey, till when do I have to grind levels in this garbage game?]
[Sol]
[Search online says it takes over 133 games to hit level 30. Is that even true???]
[Sol]
[Let me play ranked games already! Killing noobs is so boring!]
Honestly, it’s troublesome.
Receiving private messages during a stream.
Those close to Victory know he’s a pro-gamer and are careful about sending messages, but…
So Ah has no idea. She doesn’t know Victory is a pro-gamer!
‘You’re a newbie too, buddy.’
Glancing at the private message content, Victory gave a slight chuckle.
‘During the broadcast, I should respond…’
Victory had conflicting thoughts.
On one hand, he should probably block any strange private messages, but on the other, he still wanted to keep the fact that he’s a pro-gamer a secret and play a bit of a prank.
[Who is this? A friend?]
[Maybe a girlfriend??]
[Even I’m kind of bored now lol]
Victory gave light-hearted responses to the chat questions.
“Just some friend. Another guy.”
Victory made his decision.
Instead of revealing that he’s streaming, he would quietly ignore the messages.
Just in case, they suddenly sent a controversial private message out of nowhere.
However, a bit later, another private message came.
[Sol]
[Hey, you’re ranked first? ]
[Sol]
[Getting ready to take you down lol]
[Sol]
[Get your throat ready]
That’s right.
That’s exactly what makes you, you.
Victory couldn’t help but laugh.
[Victory fans are swooning, how touching]
[Victory keeps smirking]
With his good looks, Victory has no shortage of female fans,
And the chat window was flooded with women thrilled by his smile!
Who could this be?
[Who’s saying they’re going to take down the rank 1 player?]
[From the tone, not a noob]
[Might be another one-night wonder]
The male viewers were curious who this “Sol” was.
Do they have the skill to back up their bold declaration?
That’s what they wanted to know.
[Author: Anonymous] [Title: Who is this “Sol” that’s whispering Victory?]
[His current win-streak is 30 games. Is this true?
Pros receive super accounts to start at level 30, who could this person be?]
They were extremely curious about who Sol was.
So much so that they spent the whole day talking about it on the community forums.