Chapter 206. Start of The Tournament (1)
It was finally the day of the tournament.
"Huff. Puff."
Sang-Hyeon was jogging as usual to keep his routine.
“Repeat to make it a habit.”
He unusually kept thinking of what his coach would say to him today.
“It's the best way to clear a person's head.”
After some training, archery was all a mental battle. Because of this, the coach constantly talked to them about their mentalities.
“If you're a person, it's a given to be nervous in front of large tournaments. From now on, you can't rely on your head, but only on muscle memory.”
That was the thing he remembered most.
“Don't try to beat that nervous feeling. Make yourself good enough to win even when you're nervous.”
Every time he repeated it to himself, it made sense. Sang-Hyeon nodded as if his coach was in front of him.
Thump. Thump.
His heart started beating. He wasn't sure if his heart was pounding because of his jog or the excitement from the tournament. However, one thing was clear.
'Now that I think about it, this is the first tournament after that.'
This was the first official tournament he was participating in after the Olympic tryout tournament ten years ago. This was a shocker to him as he realized that.
'I was really far away from that lifestyle.'
His stamina was much lower than back then. He had never lost the mentality of a professional archer, but had his body deteriorated to the average man?
'What can you do?'
It was inevitable. Just focusing on surviving in this society was already an overwhelming life. After joining Ahsung, he faced a whole new world of culture, work processes, and competition. He had to keep up without a moment's rest. Living day by day, he found satisfaction in simply being able to breathe when he woke up each morning.
Listing it out like this could make those times seem painful, but one thing was for sure. Sang-Hyeon didn't regret that period of his life or the choices he made.
At that time, it was the best decision for him. Although he had the option to restart as an archery coach, without any hesitation, he chose to become a regular office worker. Rather than leaving the trail of a fallen genius in that industry, he preferred joining Ahsung where he could meet new people and gain various experiences for a fresh start.
He wanted to erase the image of Yu Sang-Hyeon, the promising archer, from people's memories. Eventually, things worked out as he desired. Now, after many years had passed, he stood at the threshold of another tournament.
'It seems like I have to pull out old memories that I tried erasing in the past.'
It sounded like he was complaining, but his mouth was smiling. Yu Sang-Hyeon suited this image much more.
***
Ju-Hyeok woke up after Sang-Hyeon left for his jog.
"Phew..."
After lighting a cigarette from the front porch, he started scrolling on his phone.
[LIL Pro]
He was taking a look at LIL Pro's posts. It was a given as a manager, but no particular posts caught his eye. Regardless, what was the reason for him continuing to refresh and scroll?
'Why am I more nervous?'
It was because he felt uneasy. That was why he kept refreshing and looking for a post that would predict the future for him. However, there were no such posts. His uneasiness just continued to grow.
"Sigh. God damn."
'Yu Sang-Hyeon's the one participating in the tournament, not me. I'm being ridiculous. The in-house is no big deal...'
He told himself in his head, but this was Sang-Hyeon's first tournament as a streamer and Ju-Hyeok's first time in a tournament like this. The only competitions he had ever been in were math olympiads or, as an adult, small-time competitions...
It was his first time involved in a large-scale sports tournament like this. The number in the audience was staggering as well.
'200,000 people are going to watch this? This?'
He found out from Wikipedia that the in-house tournament had an average of 200,000 viewers. It resulted from internet streaming rising in popularity five to six years ago.
However, 200,000 wasn't an impressive figure anymore. The once sub-culture of internet streaming defeated major broadcasts, resulting in some personal channels averaging 100,000 to 200,000 views. 200,000 views shouldn't scare him.
'Are we still a little frog in the pond? Actually, are we still a tadpole?'
They were doing well, considering how new they were, but other than that, they had a long way to go. The higher they went, the bigger the gap was. They were comfortable and doing well, but it didn't satisfy Ju-Hyeok.
'I need to be more prosperous than Father.'
He wanted to enter the major scene because his closest goal was still too far away.
'If I enter the major scene, we'll have a lot more opportunities.'
As internet streaming became mainstream, it split into two paths. The major scene and the minor.
Minor scenes referred to one-person streams. Major channels were similar to old TV channels where many producers and staff were part of the stream.
The difference between major and minor streams was determined by views, but that wasn't entirely always the case. Major streams were labeled as such because of their influence, image, and the standards they set for themselves. For example, famous celebrities, especially actors and models, were uncomfortable with one-on-one interviews, so they would often appear only on major streams.
Commercials and ads that appeared on major streams were on a larger scale as well because major streams only accepted high-quality ones.
“Phew.”
Ju-Hyeok imagined Sang-Hyeon being in major streams as he puffed the cigarette smoke.
'He's got the image for it too... Whatever, he'll eventually get there.'
While he continued to scroll blankly, a certain post caught his eye.
"Wow, what a feisty thing to say."
It was a clip from Sang-Hyeon's stream. Ju-Hyeok watched it live too, but seeing it as a clip was interesting.
“I'll talk about my personal life after my victory interview.”
The scene showed what Almond said when he'd talk about his personal life after his victory. It was hard to imagine this interview was from the same guy who only started playing the game a month ago.
— It’s a challenger level taunt.
— His trash talking mmr is 3000
— So cool! ><
— Is this fake? Did he really say that?
— I feel like if it's Almond, he really did.
└ He needs to beat BlackTea first.
└ Did he even beat WhiteChicken?
└ L You guys just hate him so much. WhiteChicken, maybe not, but he definitely beat BlackTea.
As bold as Sang-Hyeon's words were, so were the comments. And this didn't end with Sang-Hyeon.
“He's saying he doesn't want to open up about his personal life, right? I'll defend his privacy.”
There was more attention as SweetRadish responded to Almond's words.
— Wow.
— Did the trash talking begin?
— So fun!
— This is what makes these tournaments so fun!
— Hell yeah!
— A gold tier talking back to a challenger?
— Wow. I thought SweetRadish would just ignore it. He must be worried about Almond a little.
Almond was just talking like his usual self, but because SweetRaidsh responded, it looked like they were trash talking each other.
"Huh?"
Ju-Hyeok brought his phone closer to his face after discovering something.
"It's become sort of a trend."
After seeing what BlackTea had to say, he could tell this was becoming a trend.
“Almond, you know I've never used my main champion in the tournament, right? Almond, I've finished analyzing you. Get ready to die!”
“Get ready to die!” Lemon popped out in front of the camera and shouted as well.
It seemed like the two of them stuck around together in person too.
This video made Ju-Hyeok laugh rather than be angry. The comments thought the same as well.
— LOL, so cute.
— Shaking their small fists is so cute.
— Not threatening at all...
— Get ready to die!
— Wow, I'm really excited for this tournament.
— Everyone's so heated!
"This has some good reactions!"
Ju-Hyeok quickly sent a message to Ji-Ah.
***
After a while…
[The small pea shot up by the nut. In-house tournament trash talking. #Shorts.]
A video with the following title popped up. In this 30-second video, SweetRadish and BlackTea's clips were in it as well. In half a day, the views on the video went well over 200,000. Streamers, who were sensitive to YouTube views, weren't planning to let go of this opportunity. Not only did BlackTea and SweetRadish trash talk, but other streamers started trash talking their competitors too.
“Miho noona. I'm not holding back this time because you're a girl,” ForeverAlone, the 20 year old Challenger mid-laner who struggled against Miho's succubus, said with determination.
“I don't think you'll be able to do anything if I wear my pool party skin,” Miho retaliated where it hurt.
— POOL PARTY?!
— Fact: ForeverAlone's losing condition
— This plan... I like it.
— I think that's a great plan, Miho. How did you think of that...
— Fact” If Miho wears a pool party skin, OrangeKing won't be able to cast either.
After hearing this, ForeverAlone whined and wanted to ban skins for the tournament. It really seemed like he would lose.
Bubblegum also added, “You know you're done if I beat you guys, right? Get ready.”
There was confidence behind his voice since he had nothing to lose.
— LOL, freaking Bubblegum.
— Losing to Bubblegum really is crazy~
— Bubblegum is nothing~
— A man with nothing to lose…
Other than the streamers Ju-Hyeok knew, plenty of other streamers added to the trash talking. It became a sort of challenge.
#Trashtalking #Tournament
These hashtags started popping up all over YouTube. Since the audience loved seeing the players’ emotions and them having fun with it, the hashtags instantly gained popularity. However, some people were too into it.
Ju-Hyeok frowned as he was scrolling.
"Oh..."
Some insults crossed the line and criticized streamers for no reason. People were typing as if they were on the team themselves. It was part of the tournament, but didn't bode well.
"I guess there's a reason it's called an in-house tournament.'
It was called an in-house tournament because chaos was inevitable with in-house battles. Ju-Hyeok thought he had gotten used to the internet community, but LIL Pro during tournament season was something else.
"Anyway, lots of attention for us."
Ju-Hyeok giggled as he clicked his mouse. Now, all Sang-Hyeon had to do was blow up.
'If he does well this time, we'll go up a lot.'
Technically, weren't all 200,000 people just a potential audience for Almond? If this worked out, it would be good for their stream. Almond's viewers had doubled during his practice sessions to 20,000 viewers.
'It'll be fun.'
***
Ten minutes before the tournament began, it was 5:50 P.M.
The virtual audience created by Treevy was noisy. These people weren't simply AI, but actual people participating in their own capsules through This World. There were also many people just on their mobile phones or computers chatting away.
— Ah, only if I wasn't working overtime, I'd be there right now.
— I'm so jealous...
— Damn, there are a lot of people. Are they all AI?
Just then…
Crackle!
A large hologram appeared, followed by a loud noise. It was caster Kim Sang-Hoon.
"You've waited a looooooong time!!"
His loud voice echoed throughout the stadium.
"Woahhhhh!"
The audience shouted, raising their hands as if they made a promise.
"Treevy audience and LIL summoners!"
The audience’s roar almost swallowed up the caster's voice.
"The in-house tournament is finally~~~ starting!"
He aggressively raised his hand.
“Wowwwww!”
The audience was so loud that they cranked up the audio output to the max.
Bling!
The day's first match popped up on a large screen in the stadium.
[Match - 1]
[Balloon Stars vs. Fearless Deer]
And the view counts as well.
[Current Viewers: 220k]
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