Chapter 154
ACK's pro games were entering their break, and Win-It-Back, held between the Spring and Summer seasons, had already drawn the attention of countless people.
Especially in WoA's case, the game had been embroiled in controversy because of the match-fixing scandal, so some disillusioned viewers were actually paying even more attention to a game hosted by streamers themselves.
Even though it wasn't an official match and was merely a live roster-reveal broadcast, 100,000 people had already logged into the official Letterbox channel and were waiting, each pouring their feelings into the chat window.
And most of them didn't know how to wait quietly.
[Win-It-Back Roster Reveal in 10 Minutesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ][42]
I already know roughly who's appearing, but if you're still excited, upvoteㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Comments]
-Are we getting the most legendary Win-It-Back ever?
└ Please let there be no controversies.
└ Last season was pretty smooth.
-We've received a tip that an invasive species has snuck in?
└ Gasp...! 14...!
└ Lmaoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ The scheme to leech off NoName's foreign viewers is so obvious that it's just funny nowㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ So this is a setup where the platform sticks a straw into the streamer instead? Is that right?
-They've been slowly revealing almost everyone on their broadcasts, but one person is still unknown to the very end. Who is it?
└ This is the defeat of Twisy's million-follower Conan...
└ Seeing NoName participate, maybe it's another rookie nobody?
└ How is NoName a nobody when they hit 30,000 viewers?
└ Rookie (eight months into streaming on Twisy) nobody (peak viewership: 34,000)
└ None of that is rightㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ 34,000 for real? Why did so many people watch a personal WoA broadcast?
└ Honestly, it's understandable. They blew up suddenly after three or four broadcasts.
An event game that generated countless controversies every season.
The controversies from last season hadn't blown up on an especially small scale either, but people had largely agreed that they were issues worth overlooking.
[The changes to this Win-It-Back are pretty meaningful][89]
(Major Changes.jpg)
Looks like they reflected the feedback pretty well? WoA especially had a lot of changes.
[Comments]
-It was a great choice to use 50,000-combat-power accounts instead of the 100,000-combat-power accounts pros use.
└ That was a god-tier patch, honestly. Gold and Silver players using endgame characters seemed unable to control their own power.
└ For realㅋㅋㅋㅋ Where are all those people who insisted this was a demand the game company couldn't fulfill? Common sense says it just means scaling down the numbers on your character proportionally. How hard could that beㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-At 50,000, healers are going to be complete garbage.
└ Isn't this basically a NoName-targeted patch?
└ Are healers really that disadvantaged?
└ They're only broken in Master and above, where everyone has around 80,000 combat power. At 50,000, they're just trashㅇㅇ
└ If the cap is 50,000, healers won't get their signature late-game carries.
-Wouldn't the no-healer meta benefit from a 50,000 cap?
└ ㄴㄴ One tank and one healer are mandatory.
└ What a shame.
-This is going to be so boring. At least watching the late-game burst damage was fun. What a shame.
└ If you enjoy mindlessly spamming skills, just go play Autumn Story.
└ 50,000 is just right. Honestly, I didn't like watching them ignore walls and fly around.
└ For realㅋㅋㅋㅋ You'd expect them to fight when they met in a narrow passage, but they just ran along the walls and escaped.
└ Just imagining it makes my heart feel so cramped.
Since it was a tournament between amateurs, they weren't given pro accounts that let them freely pick and choose every trait, but a tool was provided to equalize the combat power of the characters each streamer owned for the sake of fairness.
Everyone had been fighting with 100,000 combat power until now, and despite criticism that the games might become somewhat dull, the organizers had announced in advance that this tournament would uniformly apply a 50,000-combat-power limit.
I hopped onto the queen-size bed and shoved Adela to the side.
“Eek!”
“Quit playing around and come over here to moderate the chat.”
“This is animal abuse! Under Article 8, Paragraph 2 of the Animal Protection Act, I'm going to—”
Bonk-
I lightly bonked the disobedient cat on the head and handed her manager privileges.
I couldn't log into the game, but I could use a Twisy guest account, so this was something I could do.
-Why is Adela so damn infuriating?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-She really doesn't listen.
-(Adela): Sis is a stupid idiot! You're too short, so I can't see a thing!
-?
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-?
-Just kick her out of the house, NoName!
-Don't sass the landlord, you damn cat.
-(Adela): If you guys keep being mean to me, I'll ban. all. of. you?
“I told you to moderate, not threaten people!”
Bonk-
Ignoring Adela as she clutched her head and collapsed, I watched the broadcast. Since this was my first time participating in a tournament like this, I didn't know exactly how everything worked.
I had only started this unplanned broadcast after receiving a text saying that there would be a broadcast like this today and that it would be nice if we watched it together.
-Waiting waiting waiting waiting, it's starting
-Wow, 10 seconds!
-10
-10
-9
-9
-Let's go, let's go~
-9
Together, we counted down to the beat of the bouncy electronic music.
In time with the beat, Adela's tail, while she lay facedown on the bed, swayed gently from side to side.
“I wish I could enter a tournament like this too!”
Apparently more interested than I expected, she looked at me with sparkling eyes.
“You want to try playing games too?”
“Yeah. Honestly, watching games isn't very fun, and playing them seems like it would be much more fun.”
“I'll ask the game company about it later.”
I meant asking whether they could make a separate account for Adela. There would probably be countless complicated discussions in the process, but whether the answer was positive or negative, we wouldn't know until we asked.
If an AI entered a game tournament as a streamer, wouldn't that be a first in history?
[2051 SEASON 2 Win-It-Back Tournament / Fall Tournament]
[Let’s Start!]
[Legacy of Legends - Win-It-Back]
The roster was revealed in the order of LoL, WoA, and Resonance for Win-It-Back, followed by the LoL, WoA, and Resonance participants in the Fall Tournament.
The roster-introduction video played three-second highlights of each streamer, and it was nearly ten minutes long in total.
I heard that only the roster introduction would combine all the games, while the showcases afterward would be held separately on the three game channels.
[31th: Kariri – Assassin]
-Kariri?
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is this right?
-An identity I never could've imagined ㄴㅇㄱ
-Kariri's appearing in Win-It-Back.
-You concept freak, seriouslyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They entered with that trash character—is this person insane?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Assassin = a hodgepodge character lumped under Assassin because it doesn't even have a specialized class name.
└ For realㅋㅋ
-Getting placed on Kariri's team is hellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Kariri's amazing for hiding this until the very end.
-The GOAT of bridging the underground and mainstream.
-Isn't it GOA?
-Did they really submit that as a highlight?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“It'll be your turn soon, sis!”
The first highlights were from the WoA side. Since I had been assigned the very last slot among the 36 participants, my highlight was five seconds long instead of three.
[NoName – Priest]
The video I provided to Letterbox was my tenth duel with Mr. Kim Young-gwang.
In the middle of the tense battle, I made the dangerous choice to put my body in the path of his heavy attack,
and struck his wrist away before the massive greatsword could cleave me in two, deciding the outcome of the game.
“How did you think to take another step forward here? I really don't get it.”
Adela tapped the screen with her finger, raising the question.
“He attacked because he was certain I'd retreat here. But I could have moved forward at any moment, or stayed still. You have to punish that kind of baseless play that rules out an option.”
“But how does that work? When you see a movement like that, don't you instinctively flinch?”
“No.”
“Come on. How can that be? Sis, look at me. If I go, hyap!”
Whoosh-
Adela's two fingers, slicing through the air, stopped right in front of my eyes.
Adela's expression immediately crumpled.
“Wow, you're seriously heartless. You don't even close your eyes here?”
“Want to get hit?”
“Aah, sorry! My tail! Don't grab my taaaail!”
-What are they doingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-They're both so cuteㅋㅋ
-They're barely paying attention to the videoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Once NoName's part is over, we've seen it all anyway.
-They'll be on again later.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Adela's asking for a beating.
Another three minutes passed, and this time the streamers participating in the LoL Fall Tournament were revealed one after another.
The Fall Tournament, a tournament for high-elo streamers, had all its teams decided in advance, so the team names were shown as well.
[Call Me Jeobangboot]
[Fedor / Mirstin / Miroking / NoName / Hyebam]
With Pyo Minjun in top, Imir in the jungle, and me and Yusia paired in bot, the final piece of the Fall Tournament lineup fell into place when Miroking, the Mirocell one-trick, joined the team.
-Isn't Miroking's name value a bit low? Isn't he at the bottom of Grandmaster these days?
└ That's because Mirocell's tier dropped, so he plays mid instead of top now.
└ He's still number one in the Mirocell specialist rankings and a bona fide Challenger, but team games are different.
As they say, speak of the devil, and a call came from Miroking right then.
[Incoming – Miroking]
[Ah, hello, NoName?]
“Yes, I can hear you.”
[Oh, are you streaming? Yeah, anyway. Thank you so much for including a Master scrub like me. Yes.]
“Just get to the point.”
[I'm being sincere! Everyone wants to be on the same team as you. I really think abandoning top and practicing mid was the best decision I've made lately. Awesome!]
-He ran away from top and still won't stop talking!
-Kick Miroking out and put Adela in instead, even now.
-Four Challengers and one Grandmaster ㄷㄷㄷ This is truly an all-time great Fall Tournament team.
-Looking at the roster, even pros taking a break have crawled out this time, so it won't be easy.
└ Honestly, I think anyone who participated in a pro match within the last year should be excluded.
└ Then there won't be enough talent to participate in the Fall Tournament.
[I was also shocked all over again that you're only fourteen. Do you remember that Top Asteria game?]
“I remember. You said I was ill-mannered and were going to teach me manners.”
[Wow, you remembered every bit of that? I really should've taught you manners properly then! Just kidding. I look forward to working with you, our little captain.]
“...Just do your share. I'll carry you from bot.”
-Kya
-As expected of the OG Asteria master, NoName!
-Kya
-All the Asterias these days are fakes.
└ If you saw NoName's video back then, you could never be satisfied with today's playersㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Pog pog pog
-NoName and Hyebam in bot? That's fucking terrifying.
-Worlds-level firepower in the Fall Tournament...?
└ Why is this real?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Ah, if you want to win lane against these guys, bring at least a Peysauce–Sauron duoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Against these guys, you definitely have to play top-side.
└ But Fedor is Challenger rank 150 right now too. His form has improved like crazy.
-When did Hyebam reach 1,000 Challenger points?
[It's honestly embarrassing. Their viewers are probably giving me grief for being Grandmaster too, right? It's obvious without even looking. I'll definitely hit Challenger before scrims, for real. Mirocell is Tier 4 anyway, so nobody bans it right now.]
“Wouldn't it make more sense to practice a different champion instead of Mirocell then?”
[This is all I know how to play, haha. Or should I practice mid Nunu? It's Tier 1 again these days.]
-Nunuㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The weakest champion in team gamesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-There are tons of good mid champions!
-Seriously, Nocturne, Graves, Lillia, and Kled—how easy are they?
-There's Karma and Morgana too.
[It's an honor to play with you. You're so cute, NoName! Well, I'll let you go!]
He said only what he wanted and hung up, making me seriously suspect that he had been given some kind of mission.
Meanwhile, Adela was wiggling her butt as she watched the chat, and since she seemed to find it so amusing, I lightly smacked her thigh.
Smack-
“Why'd you hit me! I wasn't doing anything just now!”
“Just because. You were cute.”
“Hmph. You're cuter.”
“Huh...?”
I hadn't expected her to go that far.