NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 458
Defeats can foster growth in people.
However, some defeats can leave deep scars.
What kind of defeat have we just experienced?
We’ll find out starting now.
“Everyone, gather around. This doesn’t seem like a problem we can solve quickly.”
Baek Seong-an called us to the front of the screen.
“I thought the lane swap meta might come when the patch hit… but it arrived sooner than I expected. This is my mistake.”
“No, well, we’ve seen the patch notes too.”
“Still, I should have paid a bit more attention. I apologize for that. But…”
Baek Seong-an’s gaze shifted to Kim Jae-min.
“Jae-min, you need to listen when orders are given. Things get messy when you hesitate, and then we all get pulled into a bad game.”
“No, at that time—”
“Kim Jae-min. No excuses.”
Under the scrutiny of Baek Seong-an, Kim Jae-min sheepishly withdrew.
“…I’m sorry.”
Even though Kim Jae-min could be quite the jokester, he wasn’t the kind to push back when the older guys got mad.
‘Hmm.’
To be honest, I couldn’t say Baek Seong-an’s feedback method was right.
It felt less like rational persuasion and more like just being overpowered by authority.
This was far from a proper feedback approach.
But hadn’t our team been using rational persuasion feedback methods on Kim Jae-min until now?
In fact, to the point of excess, we had respected his opinions.
However, a black-haired beast doesn’t know gratitude; sometimes, the atmosphere needs to be tamed like this.
“Okay, take a look here. The bottom return messed things up a bit more, but the biggest issue is that our team isn’t adapting to the lane swap meta.”
Baek Seong-an concluded.
“We need some serious research and practice on the lane swap meta.”
Usually, this would be the time when we’d have a coaching staff to help us out, but there was none of that for our team, so we had to do it ourselves.
“First, let’s analyze the lane swap used by our opponents. I know a few lane swaps, but I’m not sure if they’re still relevant now.”
“Ah, right.”
The serious study and feedback began.
As feedback exchanged hands, Kim Jae-min raised a question.
“By the way, do you think this lane swap meta will last long?”
A fundamental concern.
Legends of League is known for its frequent patches.
The patch directions aren’t always right.
But they keep moving towards what they believe is the right way.
So, if the meta shifts in a direction the game developers didn’t intend, they’re also famous for making quick patches.
In a nutshell, even if we master the lane swap meta, if the patch changes by then, it would all be for nothing.
“So, are we not going to do anything?”
“Hmm… It’s not that. I just thought it might be better to spend that time on something else…”
“Kim Jae-min. We’re pros. Are we not going to practice just because a patch is coming?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Just be more careful with your words going forward. I know you speak lightly, but honestly, I worry that one day you’ll cause a real disaster.”
“…Yes.”
Kim Jae-min rarely bowed his head so low.
Today, it was also likely that Kim Jae-min’s state was poor due to the aftermath of the defeat.
Emotional turmoil often leads to mistakes.
“Come to the gym after this.”
Kim Ji-hoon gently placed his hand on Kim Jae-min’s shoulder, making Kim Jae-min flinch like he was about to have a seizure.
*
SY Practice Room.
After finishing solo queue, Ryu Jin-hyuk was taking a breather when he noticed Yoo Sang-hyun creeping up.
“What? Why?”
Ryu Jin-hyuk felt an odd sense of unease whenever Yoo Sang-hyun approached with that sneaky smile.
“Hyung, did you hear the rumor?”
“What rumor?”
“I heard OLZ has been struggling with scrims lately. They didn’t look good when they played against us either.”
“Hmm… Really?”
Ryu Jin-hyuk’s expression turned peculiar.
Information like scrim results is incredibly important for the team, but due to the nature of Legends of League, players from different teams can be friendly with each other, so news about scrim results often spreads informally.
Moreover, when you face a team directly, you can usually sense whether they have been performing well or not in scrims.
“It seems they’re having trouble adapting to this patch’s meta.”
There is such a meta.
A meta where the skill gap between laners becomes less significant.
When tanks match up in the top lane, or when mages match up in mid, you can see clear representations of this, but the new meta that arrived this time wasn’t just about champions.
The lane swap meta is one of those representative metas.
No matter how strong a team’s top and bot laners might be, a single lane swap can completely negate their advantages.
Additionally, even if you have a strong pick for the laning phase in the ban/pick phase, it can be nullified by a lane swap, making the value of picks extremely crucial in this meta.
“What do you think?”
“What about it?”
“Do you think OLZ is going to mess up this season?”
“…Don’t use that expression.”
“What’s the harm when it’s just us?”
“I’m saying it because it’s just us.”
Yoo Sang-hyun shot him a glare.
“Anyway, what do you think will happen?”
“I don’t want to answer that.”
This was sincere.
“Come on.”
If left alone, Yoo Sang-hyun would likely cling to him all day, so Ryu Jin-hyuk sighed deeply and said.
“They’ll do well. They’re OLZ, after all.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh, I think it’s going to be difficult. Maybe next season, but this season seems tough if things stay like this.”
It was indeed the case that SY was also having a hard time adapting to the newly arrived lane swap meta.
However, SY had the best coaching staff in the country, and most importantly, Ryu Jin-hyuk, who had already faced many battles.
They might stutter a bit, but soon enough, SY would be executing near-perfect strategies in the lane swap meta.
But what about OLZ?
From what they had seen in scrims, OLZ didn’t even seem to have a decent answer for the lane swap meta, let alone a good one.
No matter how strong OLZ’s individual players were and even if they had a jungler praised as top-tier, what does that matter if the team’s overall strategy can’t keep up with the meta?
Eventually, the team would crumble.
“Well, I think they’ll do well.”
“Ugh, you hardcore outlaw, man.”
“…What?”
Ryu Jin-hyuk was taken aback by Yoo Sang-hyun’s words, which he hadn’t expected, but Yoo Sang-hyun was unfazed.
“Anyway, we’ll see.”
The match against OLZ was approaching.
Whether OLZ could overcome the challenges ahead would be revealed then.
*
The lane swap meta is by no means an easy one.
Because of that, studying the lane swap meta is also no simple task.
The lane swap meta itself is an old meta, making its countermeasures outdated. Moreover, there are clear differences between the lane swaps of the past and those of today.
Ultimately, what we could do was to experience scrims ourselves and absorb the lane swap meta tactics used by other teams.
“To adapt to the lane swap meta, it’s not enough to just know the countermeasures. We also need to know how to leverage this lane swap for our advantage.”
Baek Seong-an was right.
Until now, the lane swap meta mainly worked against us, but on the flip side, it meant we could also pull the lane swap card when we had a disadvantage in top or bot lane matchups.
However, the lane swap isn’t simply about switching lanes; the follow-up operations, related to dragons and objectives, were also critical. Therefore, we had to learn about it through scrims by putting our heads together and figuring it out.
As if to prove that the meta had changed, more teams started executing lane swaps against us in scrims.
“Ah, not another lane swap!”
Once again, Kim Jae-min, who had significantly contributed to raising our team’s scrim losses with his backdoor plays, shouted in frustration.
“Stop yelling and just come here already.”
“Ugh.”
At Baek Seong-an’s gesture, Kim Jae-min slouched over to the feedback gathering.
At first, we also struggled to respond properly to lane swaps, but gradually we became accustomed to them.
We still weren’t able to leverage them fully as our weapon, but at least we wouldn’t be completely shaken by an opponent’s lane swap.
Naturally, the direction of our ban/pick phase also changed significantly.
“For top AD carries, it might be fine to pick them freely since their late-game value is decent, but for bot lane, it seems unnecessary to force a lane-centric bot composition. If the opponent lane swaps, it’s all moot anyway.”
In many ways, the new lane swap meta was shaking our team up.
And…
Amidst that instability, the date of our match against SY drew near.