Chapter 154
CHAPTER 154
Patch.
A term referring to any modification made to software, ranging from small bug fixes and balance adjustments to large-scale updates.
And patch notes are released at 6 a.m. on the day the patch goes live.
Simply put, they're a guide explaining what has changed.
Normally, unless a major game mode or large event is being introduced, patch notes pass by like flowing water.
Only a small minority check them regularly.
Team coaches who are highly sensitive to game balance changes.
And content creators who make posts and videos about those changes.
However, this patch had one additional participant.
It all started with a post uploaded late at night after the official broadcast ended the previous day.
[So what are they going to do about Kale?]
No matter how I look at it, knowing the next pattern is way too broken.
Think about it.
It takes two seconds to stack three weak-point hits.
His invincibility skill is basically just a two-second cooldown lol.
Kale's skills had been designed around the time required to successfully strike weak points.
The higher the player's skill level, the greater the performance they could draw out.
To explain the standards again:
Around twenty seconds was considered decent.
Though "decent" only applied among players who already had a minimum level of mastery.
In other words, it was decent compared to the overall player base, but among experienced Kale players, it was rock bottom.
The average completion time was fifteen to twenty seconds.
Ten to fifteen seconds represented Kale's practical peak performance.
At least against opponents of equal skill.
The absolute ceiling was eight seconds, but that only happened when a Challenger player got extremely lucky or was fighting a Bronze player.
-Oh right. There was that.
-People keep talking about Kale. Will they really patch him?
-I mean, ten seconds already gets full value out of Kale. Two seconds definitely crossed the line lol.
-Five times faster!
-No but seriously, HOW did he even do it? lol.
Surprisingly, the people discussing this topic weren't Kale mains.
The Kale mains were instead posting things like:
[Please don't let there be anything about Kale in the patch.]
Please please please please please.
The reason was simple.
If Kale was mentioned in the patch notes and his pattern mechanics changed—
-We want to learn it and abuse it too!
-Don't patch Kale! Don't touch him! Just let it slide!
-Developers, only Seo Jun can abuse this anyway, so leave it alone!
-Who cares if only one guy can use it? That's exactly why it should be fixed.
-I want to use Judgment Blade super fast someday too.
-Abandon your hopeless dreams, Kale mains.
Either way, they wouldn't get to enjoy the exploit themselves.
Of course, public opinion generally leaned toward fixing it, but a variety of opinions appeared.
[Guys, think about it. Is that two-second timing really going to stay two seconds?]
Look at the opponents that streamer fought when he played Kale.
They were Bronze and Unranked players.
That's why he got such absurd results.
Against opponents of similar skill, even if he knows where the next weak point appears, it won't be easy.
Sure, it'll still be strong.
But is it nerf-worthy?
-Lol, there aren't any players at Seo Jun's skill level though.
-Are you Nima Cultists serious right now? You're starting to resemble your streamer.
-I apologize on their behalf. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
-That's a fair point.
-Still, shouldn't knowing the pattern be impossible?
-It does seem unfair.
[Calling it unfair is just disrespecting skill.]
Nerfing a hero because one player is exceptionally skilled seems wrong.
The company has some pride, doesn't it?
Whether that argument was valid sparked another debate.
And whenever discussions like this happen, examples from the past inevitably appear.
[Hasn't something like this happened before? A targeted nerf because one player was too good?]
There was no precedent.
Well, maybe there had been.
But as far as anyone could remember, a game company had never nerfed a hero because of a single player.
-Nobody even knows whether they'll do it this time. Stop jumping to conclusions.
-They've nerfed overpowered strategies used by only a few players before. But never because of just one person.
-What about Baram Sword? Didn't he learn it?
-He regressed immediately lol. Said he wanted lessons again. Oh wait, they're on the same team now?
-Haha, he's definitely going to beg Seo Jun during the tournament. He's a true Kale addict.
[What about Epic then? That thing looks busted too.]
-Don't touch Epic... If Epic gets nerfed, I'm quitting. (Attached: proof of 1,000 Epic games played)
-Wait, you're Master rank? LOL.
-You're probably the only person contributing Epic data in high elo lol. Nobody else plays him.
Thus, discussions about this topic and about Leos continued throughout the night.
Then came 6 a.m. the next morning.
Now only the truly dedicated players remained awake.
Posts immediately began flooding in.
[Kale actually got patched LOL. They nerfed him after all. Doesn't seem like it'll matter for other players though.]
[Nothing about the pattern officially. They just added a cooldown. Blessing of Radiance now has a 7-second cooldown.]
[What was the dev team thinking?]
[As long as Epic survived, I'm happy.]
[Check the pattern too. It might've changed.]
[Seriously, there are controversies everywhere lately lol. It's hilarious from an outsider's perspective.]
-Truly one of a kind.
-The GOAT.
-The fans should hurry up and apologize lol.
-Once again, we're sorry for causing conflict. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
[Senior.]
[Senior.]
[Did you see this? (Link)]
[People seem pretty negative.]
[You really didn't change the pattern, right?]
It was 6 a.m., the moment when dawn was ending and morning was arriving.
Most ordinary office workers who started work at nine would still be asleep unless they were unusually diligent.
And the message that rang out during that sleeping hour woke up The League's balance team leader.
Balance patches were generally handled by headquarters with tournaments as the primary reference point.
However, Korean solo queue also served as an important benchmark.
More importantly, the regional team leaders met regularly, making the distinction largely meaningless.
Thus, it was obvious that the Korean team leader had been deeply involved in Kale's balance patch.
[Senior, everyone's asking what this awkward seven-second cooldown is supposed to mean.]
[They're saying the company isn't supposed to act like this.]
[And everyone's curious about the pattern too! Shouldn't you explain it?]
The notifications kept coming.
The team leader cursed as he woke up.
After waiting for his eyes to focus, he finally read the messages.
“Ugh, this little punk...”
It was a close junior from another department.
[Do you have a death wish?]
[Sorry! Anyway, have a great day today!]
To be fair, the guy had stayed up reading reactions the previous night because the team leader had asked him to let him know if public sentiment turned bad.
He just hadn't expected him to make such a huge fuss.
“Haa...”
The team leader slowly checked the community reactions.
For people working on patches, data was always the most important thing.
Public opinion came second.
After all, public opinion was also a form of data—a collection of player experiences.
It ranked lower because it wasn't always correct, but it still mattered.
“As expected. This should be fine.”
Everyone seemed to agree that a nerf was necessary.
They hadn't touched the performance of other players.
However, two unresolved questions remained.
What was the point of seven seconds?
And:
Did they change the pattern? If not, why not?
“The seven seconds?”
It was simply a compromise value reached after discussion.
Their conclusion had been that even eight seconds was still achievable for ordinary players.
The cooldown existed as a safeguard to prevent anyone who discovered the pattern from becoming absurdly overpowered.
At seven seconds, Kale's ceiling was still higher than originally intended, but they judged that level acceptable.
“And the pattern...”
In truth, on the very first day Seo Jun played Kale, the emergency meeting had initially focused on changing the pattern.
The idea was to modify the generation formula just enough that veteran players wouldn't completely lose their instincts.
Many team leaders agreed it was the best solution.
It would minimize damage to existing players while preventing anyone who understood the formula from becoming overwhelmingly powerful.
It was logical.
And completely feasible.
Adjusting the formula would be somewhat troublesome, but hardly impossible.
Most importantly, there was precedent.
The problem was...
The thing that happened during that precedent.
Seven years ago.
One Kale player's data had looked so strange that the team leader at the time ordered an investigation.
Back then, Kale wasn't centered around rapidly attacking weak points.
Weak-point patterns, bonus damage, and special effects existed, but burst speed wasn't the focus.
[Kale is supposed to be a sustained damage dealer, so why is his burst damage so high?!]
[I'll investigate immediately!]
Even so, quickly exploiting weak points still generated excellent performance.
Which was why the player stood out.
[Holy shit... he's reading the patterns?]
[There has to be a leak!]
[Do you really think so?]
[If I find out who leaked it, I'll kill them!]
The developers immediately modified the formula.
It accomplished nothing.
[He's reading them again! Again!]
[Damn it. Remove Assistant Manager Kim from the next update process.]
They began eliminating team members one by one to find the supposed leaker.
[He's predicting them again!]
[Could this guy be exploiting a bug?]
[No. We will find the leaker.]
Sometimes they made tiny adjustments.
[He killed a few enemies, grinned, and started predicting the pattern again! He's definitely laughing at us!]
[Is he actually bugged?]
Sometimes they completely overhauled everything.
[This time he didn't start predicting until after the first match! Accuracy: 100%!]
[Why do you sound excited?]
[No, but seriously... even if you knew the formula, is prediction actually possible?]
[I have no idea.]
[Team Leader?]
[There must be some trick! I'll settle this with him one way or another!]
After several more changes...
[DAMN IT! WHO IS LEAKING IT?!]
[This time you were the only person who touched it, Team Leader.]
[...Was it me?]
In the end, the team leader panicked and rolled everything back to the original values.
Fortunately, it wasn't overwhelmingly overpowered.
And since only that one player could even perceive the changes, many of the adjustments had been deployed as silent patches.
The team leader ended up writing an apology report.
And the player disappeared.
Eventually, everyone forgot that player existed.
Then Kale received a rework.
And now that player has come back?
The team leader couldn't see user information.
But he was certain.
Damn it.
In the end, there was only one reason they hadn't touched the pattern.
Because changing it wouldn't accomplish anything.
He sincerely prayed that no more heroes would require such bizarre treatment in the future.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
After finishing his morning workout, Lee Dong-su climbed out of the ring, removed his gloves, and sat beside Seo Jun.
“About what?”
“Kale. What if they secretly patched the pattern formula or something? Wouldn't that be completely unfair? That's basically a targeted attack on you! Why are you so calm about this?”
“Is it? Whatever.”
“Huh? Sure, adding a cooldown makes sense for balance reasons, but if they messed with the pattern, you should sue them or something! Kale's whole identity is that skilled players can do it faster. You can't punish someone for being too good at it!”
Seo Jun waved his hand dismissively, then suddenly became curious.
“Hmm. Does that company have a high employee turnover rate?”
“Probably not? Surface is the major shareholder, so it's basically a subsidiary. The benefits are good and the treatment's good too... Wait, why are you asking?”
“Then they probably didn't touch it.”
After meeting Baram Sword, Seo Jun had become certain of one thing.
Someone who knew him was definitely still working there.
Not that it mattered.
He'd only quietly played the game.
Still, he had shared some unusual experiences with the developers in the past.
The nerf itself was fair.
He hadn't failed to anticipate it.
And more importantly—
What would changing the pattern accomplish?
Back then, every time I entered the game, the pattern changed. Solving it was half the fun.
He simply hoped the excellent developer who had provided such entertaining mini-games hadn't quit.
“Seriously? You're not even upset? That's basically one guaranteed ban card gone!”
“Not upset. By the way, what have you been up to lately?”
As soon as Seo Jun changed the subject, Dong-su brightened.
“Oh? Hehehe. So you've finally decided to ask?”
What?
Seo Jun looked at him as though staring at a strange creature.
“As expected, you need my help, right? Thanks to you, my grades have improved tremendously lately, and I've got plenty of free time, so... yes! I shall personally coach you! Lee Dong-su of Free Fall! Considering our relationship—”
“No. That's not it. You just seem weirdly free these days, so I was wondering.”
“...”
“You bragged two days ago about finishing a forty-thousand-piece puzzle. I was just wondering when exactly you practice.”