Chapter 173

CHAPTER 173

[LOL which stream are you guys watching starting today?]

Posts like this had been appearing before the broadcasts began.

But after Rain's team suddenly revealed a professional player—

[??]

[Oh lol, guess we don't have to watch only Poverty Gap.]

[Taker showed up?]

[Now it's a harder choice. Dongsu or Taker?]

People were initially stunned by the unexpected development.

Naturally, though, they celebrated it.

There had been viewers who hoped something like this might happen.

But professional players weren't jobless viewers with endless free time.

What were the chances they'd actually participate in a streamer tournament?

Even during the offseason.

That's what everyone thought.

Yet here they were.

[Rain, I always believed in you!]

[Let's repay him with one daily donation, boys.]

[When was that "one daily donation" ever a thing? LOL. And it's completely unrelated lol.]

[Anyway, Rain is insane. He says they weren't even personally acquainted. Ahh, which stream do I watch? LOL.]

[Wait. Guys. Look at Kim Taewoo's stream title. He says people told him to bring a pro player if he was jealous, so he actually brought one.]

[And what's Dokkaebi doing?]

The people praising Rain suddenly found themselves shocked all over again after reading the titles of the newly opened streams.

As mentioned before, only a small minority had expected additional pro players.

Nobody had expected three more teams to reveal them.

Seriously—

[HOLY SHIT LOLLLLLL]

[How did they all keep this secret for so long?]

[LOL Looking at Taewoo, he seems genuinely shocked. Dokkaebi too lololol. What's hilarious is that both of them got surprised and started their streams early.]

[Even Taker looked completely shocked on Rain's stream LOL.]

[This is an all-time development.]

Four professional players had entered a streamer tournament.

For viewers, it was practically a festival.

And then—

[Wave Team is live too!]

[Ahem. This is Mental Hyung's stream.]

[Baek Doyul? The champion?]

[??? That's basically on the level of Shin Hayeon showing up.]

[No way LOL. Seriously? Is this actually happening?]

[Why are such distinguished people visiting this humble place?!]

When last year's champion—the current world champion—appeared, the already-heated reaction exploded.

Even though it was only six o'clock, before peak viewing hours—

Every chatroom exploded.

The community boards filled with posts from people watching the streams exploded.

Even Seojun's channel, which hadn't gone live yet, started scrolling rapidly.

• Streamer, open the stream already!
• Hurry up! Get in here!
• If you start now, you'll still get viewers!
• Alright, streamers, begin killing each other now.
• We'll be waiting here...
• Just know we're waiting for you.
• Why are these idiots being so sentimental? LOL.
• Loyalty!

...

And—

Seojun sighed.

Not out loud.

Only in his mind.

If his teammates saw his reaction, they might misunderstand and become nervous.

Still, the sigh wasn't small.

'Why are they waiting there?'

Guys.

The announcement clearly said only Ha Yoonho would stream first.

When streamers collaborate, there are usually only two options:

Either only the representative streamer broadcasts,

Or everyone broadcasts.

The first option generally happens when one streamer is overwhelmingly larger than everyone else, or when the content requires multiple streamers appearing on the same screen.

Which was why most collaborations involved everyone streaming.

But what if there was an underlying competition for viewers?

'You funnel them.'

Exactly 6:00 PM.

At the scheduled time, only Ha Yoonho would start streaming.

He was the team captain, but more importantly, he already had the largest audience.

As a result, Poverty Gap's viewers would naturally gather in Yoonho's stream first.

The announcement had already told them this, and viewers were familiar with the culture.

So audiences from various channels mixed together in Yoonho's stream.

'The opening doesn't matter much anyway.'

Later, once the games started and viewers became curious about different perspectives, everyone else would start streaming.

People would naturally spread out and watch multiple streams.

Sure, some viewers would be too lazy to switch around and simply stay where they were.

But overall, this method tended to maximize viewership.

'The other teams are all doing the same thing.'

That was why Seojun sighed.

Well.

They'd find their way over eventually.

More importantly—

"Dongsu, seriously. Stop worrying."

He genuinely didn't understand what Dongsu was worried about.

Professional players constantly dealt with more attention than this.

One mistake and they got flooded with criticism and insults.

Surely Dongsu was used to that.

Seojun never even imagined that Dongsu was actually worried about him.

"No, hyung... sigh. Never mind."

"Okay."

"Dongsu-nim! Then should we just go live the way we planned? There are only a few minutes left anyway. No reason to start early just because everyone else is."

Ha Yoonho asked while adjusting his settings.

Dongsu nodded.

"Then let's head to the training grounds nice and slowly. I'll go send the invitations."

They accepted Yoonho's invitation and entered the training area.

With a few spare minutes left, Seojun reopened Trable and the community boards.

'Which team hasn't revealed theirs yet?'

Wave.

Dokkaebi.

Bull.

Kale.

Spoon's team.

Just as he was about to search—

Pillbug started streaming.

Pillbug was the captain of Only One Bite, Spoon's team, and the streamer with the largest audience.

[Pillbug has started streaming.]

[???]

Pfft.

Lumi burst out laughing beside him.

Apparently he'd been watching too.

[LOL Pillbug, are you panicking?]

[Is he the only one without a pro player? LOL.]

Poor guy.

Who could've predicted a situation like this?

[Worst team captain in history. Upvote if you agree LOL.]

[Seriously. Everyone else personally went out and recruited pro players. What exactly were you doing?]

[This is hilarious LOL.]

Then another post caught Seojun's attention.

[Guys, honestly, this whole thing is actually because of Jin Seojun. He launched an absolutely massive snowball. Are people still not going to support him?]

What is this now?

Seojun clicked on the post that had just reached thirty recommendations.

[Guys, honestly, this whole thing is actually because of Jin Seojun. He launched an absolutely massive snowball. Are people still not going to support him?]

I'm one of the Streamer Council members, and honestly, at this point all viewers should be grateful.

If Streamer hadn't brought Lee Dongsu, none of you would've gotten to see any of this in the first place.

If you agree, go into Ha Yoonho's stream in two minutes and boost the viewer count a little.

Let us keep some dignity.

==

So that was the post.

• He's right though.
• This villain bastard is literally making the tournament better just by existing LOL. The guy's existence is legendary.
• But we can't ignore Mental either! Mental hyung stream ON.

ㄴ How am I supposed to ignore the world champion?

ㄴ Among all the pros that appeared, Baek Doyul is on a completely different level LOL.

ㄴ But isn't he kind of arrogant? Wonder how he'll be on stream.

ㄴ What do you mean arrogant? That's confidence. Anyway, come watch Mental's stream.

ㄴ You viewers don't understand gratitude, do you? (Post Author)

• Then your streamer should've brought Shin Hayeon LOL.
• Fine, I'll at least boost this stream's viewer count first. (Post Author)

ㄴ Too much effort.

Most of the attention was clearly being drawn toward Baek Doyul.

The reactions were overwhelmingly focused on him.

Honestly, it was enough to bury all the other news.

"Dongsu, who's Baek Doyul? The champion?"

Seojun felt like he needed to know.

The moment he asked, Dongsu's face brightened as if he'd suddenly found the answer to a difficult problem.

"Ah! Hyung! Let me quickly explain—"

Then—

"Six o'clock! Everyone, we're starting the stream!"

Ha Yoonho went live.

[Ha Yoonho has started streaming.]

[The stream with a pro player LOL]

Every face instantly froze.

Because...

There was now only one team left without a professional player.

And if they kept the title they had written before all this happened...

'Wait. When he was fiddling with the settings earlier, wasn't he supposed to be changing the stream title?'

***

[Ha Yoonho is live.]

[We brought Lee Dongsu!]

• Immediate title change LOL.
• I swear the only reason these guys started exactly on time is because they're lazy. Look, they forgot to change the title LOL.
• This is what confidence from a strong team looks like.
• Crane broth enjoyers, assemble!

The stream began.

And Ha Yoonho's viewer count instantly climbed to one hundred thousand.

Those were their core viewers.

After about an hour, viewers would spread out among the individual streams, while latecomers would start arriving.

It would probably hit one hundred fifty thousand eventually.

The other teams were showing similar numbers.

'This tournament is way bigger than I thought.'

This was only practice.

The tournament had barely begun.

Yet every team's stream was pulling numbers comparable to what the leaders' streams used to attract during wartime events in United for Cooperation.

"Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late greeting. I got a message right before starting."

• What message? You were changing the title LOL.
• Yoonho, get it together LOL.
• Look at the team members' faces LOL.

Yoonho sat closest to the camera.

The others stood behind him as if they were all streaming together from the same room.

"Hahaha. What are you talking about? Anyway, everyone, can you guess where we are?"

• Obviously a training ground.
• Going to get beaten up by AIs?
• Nice atmosphere.

"That's right! We're in the training grounds. Today we've gathered here to receive instruction from a very special guest. A truly distinguished guest. And... well... you all want to see him already, don't you?"

• Honestly I do, but I already saw him on another stream LOL.
• I made eye contact with Baek Doyul.
• Even if your stream becomes boring, I'll leave it open. I'll just watch Baek Doyul.
• LOL.

"It's Player Lee Dongsu!"

"Wow!"

Everyone applauded.

"Hello. I'm Lee Dongsu, top laner for TX."

• WOW.
• This guy really showed up? (while watching Mental's stream)
• Such a distinguished guest! (while watching Baek Doyul)
• Hey, Dongsu is still ranked second LOL. What a cruel world. Only first place gets remembered.

'Was this what he was worried about?'

Seojun remembered Dongsu's expression darkening the moment Baek Doyul's name appeared.

'I guess losing attention would be disappointing.'

At their core, streamers were attention-seekers.

The profession itself attracted those kinds of people.

And Dongsu had willingly joined the tournament because he was interested in streaming.

Wasn't that basically proof?

So Seojun concluded that Dongsu must've been worried because he foresaw all the attention shifting to Baek Doyul.

Seojun's sharp eyes gleamed.

It was completely wrong.

Meanwhile, Yoonho and Dongsu continued hosting.

"Coach! Could you tell us why we're gathered here today?"

"Speaking from a player's perspective, this training ground system is surprisingly well designed. So first, I'd like to use it to evaluate everyone's fundamental combat skills with cold weapons."

"Yes, Coach!"

"Then first..."

As they chatted and filled airtime, Seojun checked Mental's viewer count.

[Viewer Count: 210,000]

Double theirs.

And currently the undisputed number one.

Part of it was because Mental was already a huge streamer.

But Seojun had a strong feeling the biggest reason was Baek Doyul.

And he didn't like that.

Not because viewer count competitions mattered.

They didn't.

But perhaps because he was a streamer himself...

Still, they hadn't prepared content capable of moving one hundred thousand viewers.

Even if they had, there was no guarantee it would've worked.

There wasn't much they could do.

All they could do was continue as planned.

Even with his rapid growth, Seojun didn't possess some secret formula for making streams explode.

It was unfortunate.

But unavoidable.

'Didn't they tell me to just do whatever I wanted in the training grounds?'

In that case—

"Maybe I'll warm up by fighting the Level 10 AI."

Without thinking much about it, Seojun opened the interface and summoned the Level 10 AI.

A cluster of light appeared before him.

Then the light slowly transformed into the shape of a person.

And the moment Dongsu saw it—

"HYUNG!"

He shouted.

Why?

What now?