CH 225

BTOG 225 – TEAMING

May 23, 2022

{teaming = more or less called grieving in English gamer terms}

===*

A note:

It has been a long time since I posted.

It has been the busiest summer of my life.

I really apologize for keeping you waiting.

Today is the day of the comic update.

And the second volume of the comics will be released on 10/15.

Please kindly take a look at it.

===*

“I don’t think it’s necessary for Nana to have such detailed information about shooting game terms, so I’ll explain it briefly.”

Said Suu-chan as she started explaining about [teaming].

[Teaming], as the word literally means, is the act of forming a team.

However, it does not refer to a team formed by the game system but rather to a pseudo-team formed by colluding with players who were originally supposed to be enemies.

For example, in a Battle Royale-style solo queue, it is common knowledge that everyone is an enemy except you, but because you are using the same characters and weapons, you may feel a sense of familiarity and end up playing together even though you are enemies.

Especially if it was an unpopular character, such an act could create a sense of solidarity, which can be fun.

Even though I’m not a dedicated ‘Battle Royale’ player, but I too, felt happy if I saw someone using a blunt weapon in WLO, so I kind of understand their feeling.

This kind of thing is basically called ‘familiarity’, and it is a trivial thing that no one would hate. If anything, it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of competitive gaming, and some people even actively aim for it.

The problem is that when teaming is not just for the fun of it, but if it was planned and done deliberately for a certain purpose, that’s when you crossed the line, from there it will be viewed as [cheating].

In the first place, it is not limited to Zero Wars, but most competitive games have ranked matches where players compete for rankings.

If you win a match or achieve a certain level of success, you receive points, and the higher the points, the higher your ranking. And the aim of the players competing for the highest rank is to prove their strength in the game.

Suu-chan once maintained the 1st rank in Zero Wars VR for 12 consecutive seasons, meaning she has proven herself as the most powerful person in the ranking match for a very long time.

And here is how [Teaming] usually works.

First, you need two players who are close to each other in ranking or many more.

One of them is the person who wants to improve their ranking. The rest are the [booster].

The [booster] players will share information such as starting positions, character information, strategies, and sign and start matching up for the match at exactly the same time.

This type of game is usually designed to throw people who start matching at about the same time into a match together, so there is a good chance that they will join the same match.

Next, they will join together as per the initial strategy and continue to take advantage of their number against other players that are not in their pseudo-teams to increase the winning percentage of those who want to climb their rank.

Of course, it is not always possible to succeed in every game, but even one success every few games is enough to raise the ranking.

Since the current case uses VR equipment, which could be difficult to use with other tools, it becomes necessary to share the strategy in advance. In order to prevent aggressive behavior, most competitive games do not allow chatting or calling when they are inside the game, so it is necessary to share information before entering the virtual space.

During the actual battle, though, the top players know what they want to do by watching their allies’ movements, and that’s also why it necessary to conduct strategy meetings until they join forces.

This behavior is worse in console and PC games, where it is possible to use external communication tools while playing.

The management from the game side has tried to take some countermeasures, but it was almost useless since they can’t prevent the variety of ways people use to communicate.

“The main reason why people view [Teaming] as cheating is because of the issue of fairness. It may be hard to believe when I say this, but basically, the more players you have in a shooter game, the harsher the game becomes. Just by teaming up, the odds of winning will go up dramatically.”

“I see.”

“I’m sure you can understand that this is something that is basically frowned upon. It is absolutely not something that should be approved by any means, but we are not here to discuss the pros and cons of teaming.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

Suu-chan said, putting a lot of emphasis on the ‘absolutely’ part.

I am not sure what to expect, but I am sure that if I were to get caught in it, it would spell a lot of trouble for us.

I’m sure they’ll be punished severely if it is exposed. It is practically an act that demolishes somebody’s hard work. I think it should be appropriate to impose a heavy penalty on them.

“So, what kind of cheating will happen in the final round?”

Putting aside for the moment what makes teaming happen and what kind of preparation I had done, I asked what I was particularly curious about.

I asked her what she thought was going to happen.

“Well, specifically, the team that accepts the teaming will not use the [Ritu].”

“ooo… eh? That’s it?”

“That’s all.”

Seeing Suu-chan nodding her head as if it were a matter of course, I couldn’t help but tilt my head.

The first time I saw her, I was surprised at how simple it was for her to go to all the trouble of telling me that she was going to be cheating.

“What character do you think I’m good at?”

“I’ve only seen you use Ritu all this time, so I guess it’s Ritu.”

“No, it’s not. I’m still a Zero Wars VR player. Basically, I can use all the characters in Zero Wars VR with the same skill level. That is why I am not good at any one character.”

“In short, Suu is good at everything, just like Nana is good at everything in sports. It could be said that there is no sport she is bad at.”

“Hold up, I can’t play a sport I don’t know the rules of…”

“Fine, whatever you say.”

“I got ignored!?”

The excuse I put out quickly bypassed and snickered away by Rin-chan.

“Suu-chan have been using Ritu ever since I started practicing with her. And I’ve seen many videos of Suu-chan using Ritu, and haven’t you been using Ritu for the past few months?”

“Yes, ever since I’ve won 12 seasons ranked match in a row, I’ve been using only her. So that impression in itself is not wrong, and in fact, I have been using Ritu for a long time to create that impression.”

As far as I know, the only time Suu has used a character other than Ritu was in a video many months ago, and in her recent videos, there were no scenes where she used another character at all.

It seemed that my impression was correct, and Suu-chan agreed with it.

“I said I could handle all the characters with the same level of skill, but that only means I can bring out 100% of each character. A character with a higher value of ability, like Ritu or Meteora, is bound to have a higher winning percentage when their ability is used at the highest efficiency. You can easily see the difference in character power when you see a notice that about 70% of the teams in the qualifiers have Ritu in their lineups, and about half of them have Meteora as well, right?”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

Ritu is a simply strong character, her ability to buff and make herself tanky is too valuable.

And Meteora is an AA-specialized attacker character who, as his name suggests, calls down meteors from the heavens with instant-death power. {tln: that’s illegal}

Both are strong characters, called as strongest two in Zero Wars VR, and are naturally very popular. If you compared their popularity to my sniper character, Rufa, I would say that there is a whole world of difference.

After all, Rufa is a sniper character, and there are other characters that are almost as good as her in sniping without tied to being sniper. Sad to say, but strong characters are popular for obvious reasons.

“Without a doubt, I am at my strongest when I am using Ritu. And as you can see from my results in the last few months, I have been using only Ritu all those time. So naturally, other teams think I will only use Ritu. That’s why, if the other teams don’t use Ritu, they can quickly spot me.”

“Oh, I see. If all the teams don’t use Ritu, then the only Ritu left would be Suu-chan’s. That’s why they will use it to gank us, right?”

“Correct. If you just happen to pull Ritu out of the team composition for one game, it will be hard to point out as [teaming]. It’s a sneaky move, but I think it’s an interesting strategy that combines both self-defense and pragmatism.”

“Anyway, they will try to crush Suu-chan, won’t they? It is true that it is difficult to beat a group of top players on our own.”

In Zero Wars VR, it is not possible to have more than one character on a team. So, if all teams except our team did not use the character Ritu, they would easily identify our team.

Of course, this is almost a double-edged sword. As Suu says, Ritu is simply a very powerful character, and removing her from the team would be tantamount to weakening the team itself.

Even so, if that means they could drop Suu-chan early, it’s worth it. That’s why they are able to go with this strategy.

“By the way, I think that about seven out of eleven teams would be in favor of teaming up. As for the rest of the teams, the percentage of teams using Ritu will decrease after the main tournament, regardless of teaming.”

“What do you mean? If you don’t participate in teaming, wouldn’t it be better to have Ritu in the team?”

“All the teams want to kill me, so they will target any Ritu in the field. That means regardless of whether it’s me or not, they will definitely target anyone who is using Ritu. That’s why they think they won’t get caught even if they are [Teaming].”

“I see, so people will be hesitant to use Ritu because they know they will be ganked. That’s actually funny. Suu-chan is such scary existence.”

“It’s more fun for me. Whatever the strategy, it makes my heart dance just to be challenged… Well, I’ll just stomp them all out.”

“Oh, that’s sound reassuring.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Rin-chan, who was saying it so nonchalantly as if she were talking about someone else’s problem.

It may not be an exaggeration to say that she is lonely because she is a strong person, but this is the composure of a champion. Su-chan’s confidence was expressed in her calmness as she looked happy without being bothered even though she was being targeted by various people.

“As you can probably guess from my explanation so far, the key to our strategy for the final round is…”

“We won’t use Ritu either, right?”

“Yep!”

If your opponent is going to counteract this by not using a specific character, you just don’t have to use that one either.

Even if there was no teaming and this hand backfired, that would be fine. Still, Suu’s eyes told me that [it will be me who wins in the end].

“Fufufu, with that out of the way, now we should do this for the fina—”

And Suu-chan began to talk about her strategy for the final round with a very good mood and an evil smile on her face.

===*

I don’t want to make it too heavy, and Nana and the others are not sensitive to such things, so it was a loose topic.

There are many different ways to call or do cheating, such as teaming, smurfing, boosting, and so on. Depending on the game, it may or may not be considered cheating.

But really, you shouldn’t do it. A little bit of cheating can ruin your credibility, your friendships, and everything else.

Tln:

I continue to be a slave in my own home lol.

anyway, it’s my mistake for not posting, this was supposed to be up a few days ago, but I forgot.

so here’s a bit batch release