Chapter 173
[Ah lol, which stream are you guys watching starting today?]
Before the broadcast started, these kinds of messages were being posted.
But after Rain's team suddenly revealed a pro player.
[??]
[Oh lmao, no need to only watch Wealth Gap?]
[Did Taker show up?]
[This makes it even more confusing. Lee Dong-soo or Taker?]
At this unexpected development, people were initially flustered, but naturally they cheered.
There were some who had expected something like this.
But then again, pro players aren't exactly idle viewers, so what were the odds they'd appear in a tournament?
Even if it's the off-season.
That's what everyone thought.
But here they are.
[I believed in you, Rain!]
[Let's repay with one crazy thing a day, guys]
[When is that 'one crazy thing a day' even from lmao, and it's totally unrelated lol]
[Anyway, Rain ㄱㄱㄱㄱㄱ. They say there's no personal connection. Ah, where should we watch? lol]
[Uh? Guys, look at Kim Tae-woo's stream title. They said, 'If you're petty, bring a pro player,' and they really brought one?]
[What's Goblin now?]
Those who were praising Rain read the title of another streamer who was opening a new stream and were flustered once again.
As mentioned earlier, only a very few had expected other players to show up.
But no one had ever expected that three more teams would appear.
Really.
[Crazy? lmaooooo]
[How did you all hold back from saying this?]
[Nah lol, looking at Tae-woo and Goblin, they both seem super flustered? The funny thing is they both turned on their streams early because they were flustered lmaoooooo]
[Even Taker on Rain's stream right now is totally flustered lmaoooooo]
[This is a historic development ㄷㄷ]
Four pro players ended up joining the streamer tournament.
For the viewers, it's practically a festival.
But.
On top of that.
[Wave team appeared too!]
[Uh-oh, it's Mental bro's stream]
[Baek Do-yul? The champion?]
[??? That's almost at the level of Shin Ha-yeon showing up lmaoooo]
[What? Crazy lmao, no, is this happening? No...]
[Why are such noble people coming to this humble place!]
When last year's winner, the current champion, appeared, the already heated reaction exploded.
Even though it was only 6 o'clock and the peak viewership hadn't rushed in yet.
The chat windows of each stream exploded.
The message boards where people post while watching streams also exploded.
Even Seo-jun's chat window, where the stream wasn't even on, started filling up quickly.
-Streamer, open the door quickly!
-Come on! I said come on!
-Viewers, we need to turn it on now to gather!
-Now, starting now, streamers kill each other
-We'll be waiting here......
-You're watching, right? Just know that we're waiting......
-Why are these bastards so sentimental lmao
-Loyalty!
And.
Seo-jun looked at them and sighed.
He sighed internally, worried that if his teammates saw this, they might misunderstand and become flustered or anxious, but the size of that sigh was by no means small.
'Why are you waiting there.'
Guys, we posted an announcement saying only Ha Yoon-ho would start streaming first.
When streamers do a combined broadcast, usually either the one representative streamer turns on the stream, or all participants turn on their streams.
The former is when one side is overwhelmingly larger, and also when the content requires both streamers to appear on one screen.
So most of the time, all participants turn on their streams.
But what happens when a subtle competition arises in terms of viewer numbers?
'We funnel them.'
At exactly 6 o'clock.
At the time they announced, only Ha Yoon-ho turns on his stream first. Because he's the team leader, but more importantly, he just has the most existing viewers.
Then, Wealth Gap's viewers will first flock to Ha Yoon-ho's stream.
They had given prior notice, and since the viewers are familiar with this culture, the viewers from each stream end up mixing in Ha Yoon-ho's channel.
'Because it doesn't really matter during the opening.'
Later, when the game starts and people get curious about different perspectives, they naturally come to watch other streams simultaneously when they turn on.
Though some viewers find it a bit bothersome and just return to their original spots, this funneling method was a way to make the viewer numbers look good.
'All the other teams are doing it too.'
That's why Seo-jun sighed.
Well, they'll find their way here on their own.
Anyway.
"Dong-soo, I told you not to worry, okay?"
He didn't know what he was worried about.
Surely, he had handled games where much more attention was focused, where a single mistake brought all sorts of criticism and insults.
Seo-jun had no idea that Lee Dong-soo was worried about him.
"No, hyung... Ugh. It's nothing."
"Okay."
"Lee Dong-soo! Then should we just turned on our stream as we discussed? There are only a few minutes left, and we don't need to turn it on early just because others did."
Ha Yoon-ho asked while fiddling with the settings, and Lee Dong-soo nodded.
"Then let's take it easy and head to the training yard. I'll go and send the invitations."
They received Ha Yoon-ho's invitation and entered the training yard.
With a few minutes to spare, Seo-jun opened Travel and the community again.
'Which teams were left?'
Wave, Goblin, Bull, Kale.
Spoon, huh,
Just as he was about to search, Pillbug started streaming.
Pillbug was the team leader of Hanipman, which had Spoon, and the streamer with the most viewers.
[Pillbug has started streaming.]
[???]
Pfft.
Rumi, next to him, burst out.
She was apparently watching just like Seo-jun.
[Lololol, are you flustered, Pillbug?]
[Are you the only one without a pro? lol]
Too bad.
Who could have predicted this picture would emerge.
[If you agree Pillbug is the worst team leader in history, give a recommendation lol]
[For real, everyone else is going out and personally bringing in players, what's he doing?]
[So funny lol]
[But guys, actually Jin Seo-jun <-- this guy kicked off this huge deal, are you still not going to support him?]
What's this now.
Seo-jun clicked on a post that had recently received 30 recommendations.
[But guys, actually Jin Seo-jun <-- this guy kicked off this huge deal, are you still not going to support him?]
==
I'm from the streamer team, and I think at this point, all viewers should just be grateful.
If our streamer hadn't brought Lee Dong-soo, you guys wouldn't have been able to watch this in the first place.
If you agree, everyone go to Ha Yoon-ho's stream in two minutes and boost the viewer count. Let's save some face.
==
-It's true.
-This villain bastard just enriches the tournament lol, his very existence is legendary.
-But no chance! Mental hyung's stream on, right now.
└For real lol, how can you beat the champion.
└Baek Do-yul is on another level even among the pros that came out lol.
└But he's a bit ill-mannered, so I'm not sure how the stream will go.
└What do you mean ill-mannered? He's overflowing with confidence. So come to Mental hyung's stream.
└You viewer bastards don't know gratitude? (poster)
└Yeah, if you're salty, your streamer should have brought Shin Ha-yeon lol.
└For real lol.
└Even if you watch Mental's stream, just boost our viewer count first (poster)
└Too lazy.
Clearly, the player named Baek Do-yul is drawing a lot of aggro.
The reactions are the best, too.
Practically speaking, other issues were buried.
"Dong-soo, who is Baek Do-yul? The champion?"
Seo-jun figured he needed to know a bit, so he asked Lee Dong-soo.
"Ah! Hyung! I'll quickly explain...!"
Then, just as Lee Dong-soo's face lit up as if he'd found a clue to the problem he'd been pondering,
"It's 6 o'clock! Everyone, the broadcast is starting!"
Ha Yoon-ho turned on the stream.
[Ha Yoon-ho has started streaming.]
[A room with a pro player lol]
In that moment, everyone's faces stiffened.
...
Now there's only one stream without a pro player, and if they leave up the title they'd written beforehand...
'When you were fiddling with stuff earlier, weren't you supposed to change the title?'
* * *
[Ha Yoon-ho is live.]
[We've brought Lee Dong-soo!]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Instantly changing the title
-In my opinion, the only reason they turned on their stream on time was laziness lol, look at them not changing the title
-This is the composure of a strong team lol
-Crane team fans, assemble!
The streaming began.
And in an instant, 100,000 people flocked to Ha Yoon-ho's stream.
They were the core viewers of their team.
After about an hour, they'd scatter to their respective streams, and with the latecomers arriving, it would probably hit around 150,000.
Other streams had gathered similar numbers too.
'The tournament itself is just too huge.'
It was just a simple practice, and they'd only just started, but each team's stream was drawing numbers as high as when users gathered in the host's room during a battle for Cooperation.
"Twitch! A bit late with the greetings, huh? I got a message for a sec."
-What message, you changed the title lol
-Yoon-ho, snap out of it lol
-Look at the team members' eyes lol
Currently, Ha Yoon-ho was closest to the camera in front, and they were positioned behind him as if they were doing a combined broadcast in a real room.
"Hahaha. What are you talking about? Anyway, everyone, do you know where this is?"
-Obviously it's the training yard.
-To get beaten up by AI?
-It's atmospheric, nice lol
"Yes! It's the training yard. Today, we gathered here to receive teachings from a very special guest. A noble person... Hmm. Yes. Everyone, you'd like to see too, right?"
-Honestly, I want to see, but I already saw them on another stream lol.
-Made eye contact with Baek Do-yul.
-Even if it gets boring, I'll keep your stream on. Even if I'm watching Baek Do-yul.
-lolol
"It's Lee Dong-soo!"
"Wow!"
Everyone clapped in a show of cheering.
"Hello. I'm Lee Dong-soo, the top laner for TX."
-ㅉㅉㅉ
-ㅉㅉ
-Wow, this is actually happening (watching Mental's stream)
-No, what a noble person! (watching Baek Do-yul)
-Still, Lee Dong-soo is second place, but damn lol, so mean, this dirty world that only remembers first place!
'Was this what he was worried about?'
Seo-jun noticed that Lee Dong-soo had grown gloomy when he confirmed the name Baek Do-yul.
'It's definitely a shame when attention drops.'
Basically, streamers are more likely to survive if they're attention seekers, and you could say it's a job chosen by attention seekers.
Since Lee Dong-soo was interested enough in streaming to willingly join the tournament, he might be seen as an attention seeker too.
So he probably recognized that attention would be stolen by Baek Do-yul and started worrying.
Seo-jun's sharp, insightful eyes flashed.
It was wrong.
Regardless, Ha Yoon-ho and Lee Dong-soo continued with the broadcast.
"Coach! Can you tell us why we gathered here?"
"As a player, this training yard's stages are actually designed at a remarkably high level. So first, I want to use it to check your basic skills in battles using cold weapons."
"Yes, coach!"
"Then first..."
While they filled the broadcast with chatter, Seo-jun checked Mental's viewer count.
[Viewers - 210,000]
Twice as many. He's also currently the undisputed number one.
Partly because Mental is a big corporation, but he had a strong intuition that the biggest reason was the player Baek Do-yul.
And Seo-jun didn't like that fact.
Even though a pride fight over viewer numbers is meaningless and unimportant.
Maybe because he's a streamer too?
However, they didn't have content prepared that could move 100,000 people.
Even if they prepared, whether they could actually draw them in was uncertain.
So it was only natural there was nothing they could do right now.
They could only do what they'd normally do.
No matter how rapidly he'd grown, there was no special method for boosting a stream or anything like that.
Regrettable, but truly unavoidable.
'They told me there was nothing to do in the training yard and to do whatever, right?'
Then.
"Shall I warm up a bit and take on the 10th level after a long time?"
Without much thought, Seo-jun summoned the level 10 AI through the interface.
A cluster of light gathered in front of Seo-jun.
They soon transformed into human form.
And seeing this, Lee Dong-soo shouted.
"Ah, hyung!"
Why?
What is it?