The recent regular season of the KPL Spring Split is in full swing, and Yinuo from the AG Super Play Club has contributed several waves of extreme operations, which is very enjoyable for old viewers like me. However, as an e-sports observer, I am more concerned about the decision-making logic of players under high pressure - such as when to change resources and how to predict the opponent's position. This kind of thinking of "leaving room for the next step" is actually similar to a game I recently played, "Block Explosion Puzzle".
On the surface, this game is about block elimination, but once you play it, you will find that it is a hard-core layout game. The 9x9 chessboard seems spacious, but the 18 randomly generated block shapes and the fact that you can rotate freely make every choice feel like a "small team battle." You have to predict the situation three or five steps ahead: leave a long shape to prepare for clearing, or fill in the corners first to avoid being blocked? This choice is the same as the jungler's decision in KPL to "control the dragon first or capture the man first". It tests dynamic planning and sensitivity to risks.
I found that many novice players tend to make a mistake, which is to rush to eliminate them when they see that they can be eliminated. As a result, the board is cut into several isolated areas, and the Z-shaped or L-shaped blocks that come later cannot be inserted at all. This is somewhat similar to some teams rushing in to replace their troops in the early stage, only to lose the rhythm of their troops. Real masters will deliberately reserve some "flexible space", such as deliberately leaving a column empty for long bars, or using irregular blocks to fill in key rows first - this is just like the tactic in the AG Super Play Tournament of "letting Yi Nuo eat up the economy and other positions to take up the space". The core is to allow key resources to have a place to land.
The combo bonus mechanism in the game is also very interesting. Continuous elimination can trigger the score multiplier, but the price is that you will be forced to consume the blocks originally used for layout. This is like a wave of zero-for-five team battles in the game - it's cool to win, but if you waste a wave of troops because of the victory in the team battle, the opponent will seize the defensive gap. So whether you want to be greedy for combos or not depends on whether your "lineup" (current board structure) allows it. This kind of balance has more competitive depth than a simple "feeling of coolness".
If I have to find fault, I think "Block Explosion Puzzle" currently lacks a real e-sports benchmarking environment. Although the level mode is very challenging to shrink from 9x9 all the way to 5x5, the free mode is only a single player after all. If you can join a real-time battle like in "Tetris 99" - two people share a chessboard and "send" junk blocks to each other to interfere with the opponent, then the level of tactical gaming will be closer to that of a professional game. After all, the charm of KPL is that you not only have to manage your own lane, but you also have to keep an eye on the actions of the five opponents.
In fact, from the perspective of version updates, if the game can add new block shapes or adjust the elimination rules (such as changing to vertical elimination or diagonal elimination), then it may really evolve from a "puzzle game" to a "lightweight e-sports project." At present, the mobile game e-sports market is dominated by MOBA and FPS. Hard-core puzzle games like this with "space planning" as the core gameplay have the opportunity to differentiate and break through. At least when I'm watching the game, I can play a few games while waiting for the rankings to load, and my brain can be warmed up.
Finally, if you are also the kind of audience who likes to review "what would have happened if we changed positions at that time" after the game, you might as well try "Block Explosion Puzzle". Every time it is "blocked" and "cleared", you will experience what it means to "lose the whole game if you are not careful" - this feeling is really similar to the last team battle in the KPL playoffs.