Chapter 193
[Jin Seojun has started the broadcast.]
[Practice over. No one here bet on the other team, right?]
5:30 PM.
Thirty minutes before the group stage begins.
“T-Ha.”
Seojun turned on his stream.
-Seo-ha
-Seo-ha
-S-H
-T-Ha
-Streamer’s the latest one here!
-Hurry up and join, ningens
“Yeah, yeah. Time to join in. Why was I late, you ask?”
They only had to be there before six, but most gathered at five and started chatting away.
But Seojun was thirty minutes late.
In short, he was tardy.
-Skipping out, tsk tsk
-Is it because you have a lot of viewers now?
-Let’s get back to your roots!
-As I keep saying, this guy should never go back to his roots, guys
-He might not even stream the finals lol
“Oh, come on. It doesn’t matter if I show up now. Even if I came early, wouldn’t you all just bother me more?”
-Sho shiver
-Your streaming attitude is seriously lacking
-This is all because you’re being spoiled
-When did viewers ever spoil you lol
-When did we ever bother you!
Viewers bothered him every day, after all. Of course, he streamed because he enjoyed that.
“Weren't you all getting ready to spam the chat about how I’d stop the other team, and if I lose it’s because they didn’t practice enough?”
Seojun smiled faintly and pressed his viewers.
-That’s right
-Lolol definitely some bastard has copy-paste ready
-How do you even resist giving advice lol
-Some guys must’ve gone all in and lost their minds
-They bet everything on the other team and just ramble about their own hopes, lol, wanting the streamer to lose
-Or voodoo magic lol
While reading the chat, another unfamiliar word appeared.
“So, what’s this voodoo magic you keep talking about?”
He had a rough idea, but it didn’t seem like they were using it in that sense.
The chat was a hive mind with a high probability of wrong answers, but when it came to internet memes, they only gave the correct ones, so Seojun carefully scrutinized the responses.
“Ah. You’re saying it means deliberately praying for the opposite of what you want? Reverse fluttering? What’s ‘expectation control’ then?”
Reverse fluttering.
Roughly the opposite of fluttering—deliberately disparaging oneself.
If you flutter, you’re bound to lose, but if you reverse-flutter, you’re bound to win, or so they say.
Expectation control was similarly in the same vein as reverse fluttering.
High expectations lead to poor outcomes, so they deliberately lowered their expectations.
-Ah lol no matter if the streamer is here, Wealth Gap can’t win the championship, they'll at best come in second (while betting all their memories on Wealth Gap)
-Ah... let’s just win the group stage! (while pouring all their assets on Wealth Gap)
The chat even kindly provided examples for comprehension.
In fact, comments like that were pouring in not just from Seojun’s team, but from all users cheering for each team.
Seojun thought he’d made the right call turning on the stream a bit late.
“Ah... Yes.”
He didn’t say anything more.
-You’re pulling all kinds of crap now?
-Lolol
-Now. Let’s go, voodoo magic
Seojun simply moved to Alpaca’s lobby, where his team members were.
That was because the team members had said they didn’t want Ha Yunho’s lobby anymore.
Incidentally, the biggest reason he was late was something else entirely.
A message from Lee Dongsu that had arrived at five was exactly that reason.
It wasn’t words of encouragement or strategy, of course.
‘It might come up on today’s broadcast, but I’ll just watch for now.’
Bwaaah!
The alpaca’s cry rang out.
Awesome.
Alpaca’s alpaca.
“Looks like the team leader’s here.”
The team members, who had been sitting together on a pile of hay, stood up.
“Hang on. Baramgeom? I’m the team leader.”
“Oh, really? Since when?”
“From the start!”
“Okay, okay. I see! Anyway, the team leader’s here too, so we’re all together now!”
-Baramgeom, this guy isn’t listening at all!! Lololol
-Honestly, a Bronze rank as team leader? That was kind of off
-For real lol
Like professional streamers, they read and responded to the chats on their own streams.
Or they joined in on the chatter going on alongside.
As time passed and six o’clock arrived, a certain number of viewers simultaneously left everyone’s rooms.
Along with an alert popping up.
“It’s starting.”
“Ah. I’m nervous.”
“The past ten days. It really... really was...”
-Really really what, Lumi lol
-For real, am I the only one dying of curiosity about what went on?
-For real lol
-These bastards won’t talk!
-What on earth did the streamer do...
“What do you mean, what did I do? We trained hard, I said.”
Saying that, Seojun clicked the alert.
‘Why won’t they believe me.’
The team members also raised their hands.
[TravelOfficial has started the broadcast.]
[Group Stage!]
After about three minutes of commercial time.
The broadcast began.
* * *
[Twitch hi!]
Arin greeted. The commentators sitting next to her followed suit.
It was exactly the same as before.
[Finally, not practice matches but the main event! Today! Begins! I’ve been itching to meddle for the past 10 days. How was it for everyone else?]
[I was happy to rest. Hahaha.]
[Yes. That goes for Commentator Bangju, then. How about you, Commentator Penguin? Now that 10 days have passed, are you still cheering for Wealth Gap, I mean, for Player Seojun? If you were to bet on the winning team in Nyangche?]
Even through his clothes and while seated, muscles impossible to hide shifted.
The rugged gym rat was former pro Penguin.
[Betting... Hmm... I’ll just decline.]
That muscle man looked like he was experiencing PTSD.
He shot a resentful glance to the side, saying, I’d been happy having forgotten, so why are you dredging up the memories from the start?
Arin brushed it off lightly.
[Hahaha. Many viewers are feeling sorry for him right now. Understood. Commentator Taeyang?]
[I enjoyed watching it a lot.]
[Got it! It sure was fun! Yes!]
The essence of Riose was, after all, a tournament of streamers.
The important word here wasn’t the tournament but the streamers.
People didn’t simply want to see who was strong or who won.
Which streamer had done what kind of taunt, which one had practiced in a special way during streams, which ones had an old rivalry.
Who among them won, and how—that was the essence of Riose.
In other words, viewers had just as much fun over the past 10 days as they did during the main tournament.
That’s how it was.
A combined stream, a large-scale event for streamers, that is.
[Yes. Especially on the first day, with pro players appearing from everyone—no, from five teams except one—I was so surprised I wanted to commentate right then and there.]
[Hmm. Commentator Bangju, it seems like you would’ve attracted a lot of attention even if you’d turned on your own stream right away?]
[But I couldn’t do that. I tend to watch multiple streams at once, and if I started my own stream, that gets a bit difficult, doesn’t it.]
[Ah. You completely went into viewer mode. Then, on the first day, which stream did you watch the most?]
[Isn’t that obvious?]
[Indeed. It is obvious. Anyway, we’ve compiled some community posts by date! I think it’d be nice to talk while looking at them. What do you think?]
[I like it.]
The screen transitioned along with Bangju’s words.
[Ahaha. It starts with a post asking, ‘I came back from overtime work, so where was the fun?’ It’s similar to what we were just talking about, and obviously we can only pick one team, right?]
“Which one is that?”
Seojun kept an expression that said he genuinely didn’t know.
-You lol
-Surely you haven’t forgotten what you did?
-At least on Day 1, it’s a landslide victory!
[I agree. Our Player Seojun, who showcased a hellish blabbermo— no, aggro— no, skill when those precious active pros came, truly is the pride of Travel, isn’t he? Hurry up and say yes!]
“I can’t agree. There are so many amazing people in Travel.”
Seojun feigned humility.
-Shut up and sign off!
-F***ing hell, skill, personality, everything’s straight from hell lolololol
-He’s slyly saying there are many amazing people, trying not to admit his own hell-sent personality
-But, if that bastard becomes the face of Travel, would that really be a good thing?
-Who knows? lolol But it’d probably be hella fun lolololololololololol
-Real talk lololololol
[Now, it seems we don’t need much explanation for Day 2. Ah. On this day, a post from Player Taker recounting the tale of fighting an AI the day before drew the most attention.]
[Yes. It seems the biggest topic was his detailed explanation of how he felt when he died and what Player Seojun did.]
[Day 3!]
[Oh? Posts went up saying the pros on each team had prepared ways to stop Player Seojun to some extent. Arin Caster. By what criteria did you pick these?! Why is everything related to Player Seojun?]
[Haha. I just selected appropriately from the most posted-about topics. In fact, on Day 3, the pros all mentioned strategies against Player Seojun as if they’d planned it together, you know?]
Saying that, Arin flipped through the slides on the screen.
Seeing the many more posts that appeared as the slides advanced, Bangju realized that his comments had been scripted in advance.
Generally, the opinions of the pros in the posts were centered on the league being a team game.
There were also comments saying not to worry, that even if Baek Doyul or Shin Hayeon joined that team, they could all be countered.
They didn’t reveal detailed methods, but the fact that pros from other groups also almost always mentioned Seojun first held special meaning.
[It seems like the third day was when the pro coaches had all examined not just their own assigned teams, but also the opposing teams, right?]
[Yes. In any case, looking at their actions, the player who becomes the most notable is indeed Player Seojun. Still, from the next day onward, we see more fun posts!]
Secret stories shared by the pros, all sorts of fascinating tips you could feel right away.
Funny incidents during practice.
Which pro would cause the most controversy if they became a streamer, etc.
Looking through various posts, they shared the events of the past 10 days with the viewers.
[Oh? To wrap up, a post titled ‘The Carrot of Wealth Gap’ has come up. What do you think, Commentator Bangju?]
[Ah... It’s truly a pity.]
-Lololololololol
-I got chills when I saw that
-For real lol
[Why is it a pity?]
[Unlike other teams, everyone now knows that Wealth Gap meets even in real life to exercise. But!]
[Yes.]
[If it was really just exercise, there’s no way that many carrots would appear. 876 times. That’s how many times a carrot appeared on their streams over ten days. This post is asking them to reveal the truth, how much they’ve dangled the carrot, and just what on earth is going on!]
-Lolololololololol
-For real, hurry and tell us! How many times do we have to say it!
-Just what happened that the team members can’t even talk properly, and all they do is dangle the carrot, shudder
-Info. Lumi is still swinging it hard behind them right now
-At this point, aren’t they just doing it cuz it’s fun? Or because they like carrots?
[According to Player Seojun himself, they only did weight training and posture correction. Could it be true?]
[The truth is unknown. But if their team members’ skills really improved just from that? Wouldn’t that be truly magical.]
[Yes, like magic.]
[Caster. That’s why I think, if that’s the case, we should call Player Seojun this.]
[What?]
[Dumbledoré, the posture correction teacher.]
-Lololololol
-Dumbledoré, crazy lolol
-Posture correction teacher, what a load of shit lolololol
[Hahaha. Well then. We’ve wrapped up like that. While thanking the players who trained hard over the past 10 days! Now, before we truly begin...!]
Clap!
Arin clapped her hands and refreshed the atmosphere.
[...There’s one more piece of good news!]
-Oh what’s this?
-Good news?
-????
[Professional players have been diligently participating as coaches in our Riose, right? And while that’s been going on, various opinions also came from the teams. Are we just going to end it here? Isn’t it a bit of a shame? Etc., etc..]
No.
Seojun knew.
[As they kept talking, a decision was finally reached. That’s the good news I’m about to deliver! Right...!]
It wasn’t that various opinions came from the teams. It was an opinion that came from one team, from one and only one player.
[The team that wins this Riose! Will be merged with the team of the coach who led that victory, and get the chance to face off at the Korean pro league opening ceremony, in an event match!]