After finishing the first content, I moved on to the second.
Before starting the second content, I changed the room’s title.
The title was ‘Going Back to Basics’
And for me, ‘basics’ meant this game.
The loading screen of the game called League of Legends appeared.
[Wow, it’s been forever lol]
[Ugh… Room host, we’ve gotten more discerning lately…]
[Watching Gold-tier gameplay… we’ve been watching Challenger streamers lately, so…]
[If the gameplay isn’t satisfactory… we might flame you…?]
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
The Challenger streamer the viewers are talking about is obvious.
They must be talking about Vine.
“But just mindlessly playing ranked games for going back to basics wouldn’t be fun, right?”
The viewers might find it fun, but I wouldn’t.
Besides, both my YouTube and streaming were growing steadily again, so I wanted to maintain this growth momentum by creating more interesting content. So this time, I decided to use my connections.
I opened Discord and contacted someone.
Since I had already given him a heads up, he answered almost immediately before the call tone could ring more than a few times.
“Vine?”
“Ah, Daeju-nim!”
[???]
[Why is oppa showing up here?]
[Whatever it is, it’s going to be juicy]
[I can already see this becoming YouTube content lol]
Vine, who answered the call, responded cheerfully.
Recently, he seemed to be managing his stress well and appeared bright.
He didn’t seem to have any resistance to streaming either.
“Today’s content is ‘Learning League from a Challenger.'”
Actually, playing League was partly because of going back to basics, but recently, interest in League had already been high due to the League World Championship, and it had gotten even higher. Even on my board, League-addicts were slowly crawling out, occasionally asking if I had any thoughts about playing League again.
Of course, since I hadn’t played for a long time, I wanted to play again, and above all, I had Vine, a Challenger-tier player acquaintance who could become an excellent League mentor.
That’s just how streaming goes.
His skill was definitely real.
[Shouldn’t we pay him tutoring fees?]
[For real, he’s a Challenger…]
[With how many viewers Daeju has, if anything, Vine should be paying for the collab]
[Stop fighting over useless things, anyone want to write Daeju x Vine 19+ fanfic]
ㄴ [Has been forcibly removed]
[lol getting kicked without a single curse word is also a talent]
“First, what’s your main position?”
“Uh… I’m an ADC, but I can also play top”
I deliberately mentioned top lane, which was Vine’s most preferred lane.
He’d probably be amazing at ADC too, but since I’ve already stirred things up by mentioning he’s Challenger, it seemed better to learn his main lane to properly show off a Challenger’s prowess.
After our discussion, we decided to go with top lane, and the game was found.
“Do you have a preferred top champion?”
“Hmm… for top, maybe a tank?”
“Then since they’re all AD, let’s go with Rock Man… wait, why are they all AD?”
[They’re getting dizzy looking at Gold-tier champion select]
[Hey Challenger… this isn’t your cozy greenhouse where you pampered folks belong…]
[A tier like rough waves… that’s what it is…]
[Those idiot Gold players just picked terribly, why you acting all high and mighty?]
[Fact-bombing is also assault, you b*tch, I’m suing]
Since I decided to take on a learning attitude today, I naturally picked The Rock God.
Both Rock God and Rock Man were nicknames for Malphite. Being such an old champion, people called him by his nicknames more often than not.
The enemy laner was Jax.
The matchup should be in our favor.
The only reason I wasn’t certain was simply because I was ignorant about top lane matchups.
“Is Malphite good these days? Does he appear in Challenger?”
“He’s not particularly good”
“Huh? Then why…”
“He’s really easy.”
“Ah…”
[lol telling the clumsy Gold player to just play Rock Man lol]
[Still, Vine’s being considerate of Daeju’s fingers because he’s a Daeju-dan ㅠㅠ So sweet]
[Isn’t this just a roundabout insult?]
I felt a bit hurt in my pride and tried to defend myself.
Well, it was more self-advocacy than an excuse.
“But ADC players have good fingers though…”
The reason I specifically said this was because if I claimed my fingers were good, the chat would spam question marks, but if I brought up ADC players, other ADC players would come to defend me.
It was a chat-flow management technique I’d naturally learned through my streaming experience.
I wanted to show this rookie streamer who dared to look down on me the terror of my chat.
He should experience this too.
Surprised by my words, Vine desperately said,
“No, no, ADC fingers are good! I just thought Daeju-nim was too much of a noob for difficult champions”
“Hgh…”
“Ah! I’m sorry, that was a bit harsh, wasn’t it? I’ve been saying things like this a lot on stream lately…”
The double or triple hit left me breathless.
With a choking voice, I forced myself to say it was okay.
It can’t be sincere.
He must have said something harsh without realizing it because he has been doing that kind of streaming…
That’s what I wanted to believe.
Getting criticized for being bad at games always hurt my pride, but when those words came from a Challenger, I couldn’t say anything back.
[lol he wasn’t insulting ADC players, he was insulting YOUR fingers]
[Tried to subtly manipulate public opinion and got hit hard? How ugly]
[Master’s got a sharp tongue]
[Can’t stop this chemistry between a master famous for their sharp tongue and a disciple famous for taking abuse well]
The lane phase started, and surprisingly, Vine didn’t give much feedback.
He just told me to hit Q every now and then using the rune called Manaflow Band, which increases maximum mana when you hit skills after a certain time.
“You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“You’ll win anyway once you go back and buy one item”
“Hmm…”
Somehow, my contrarian spirit was starting to activate.
As soon as the enemy tried to come forward to eat a cannon minion, I threw my skills at them and attempted a trade.
The start was good. The enemy, whose health had been lowered by consistent poke, was even surprised enough by my sudden damage to back off.
The problem was that my W skill, which enhances auto attacks, was completely dodged by the enemy Jax’s dodge skill, and then I got stunned and took a serious beating.
To put it bluntly, I got my ass handed to me.
“F*cking b*tch.♥”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, no, I was just reacting to a donation on my stream but forgot to mute my mic! Sorry!!”
“Ah… can’t help donation reactions…”
[His timing is uncanny lol]
[Was that on purpose?]
[But watching both streams, the donation really came at the perfect timing lol It was a 30,000 won donation so he couldn’t ignore it]
I was shocked by the harsh curse with the nasal voice, but thankfully it wasn’t directed at me.
The timing was too perfect so my heart was already hurt, but I understand. It’s that kind of streaming concept… It was a 30,000 won donation…
I understood it logically, but that didn’t make the shock go away.
So after that, I followed his advice and bought items.
Two defensive items, slowly becoming a nightmare existence for the all-AD enemy team.
Even the enemy top laner who used to beat me up now couldn’t win – whether they were hitting the turret, eating minions, or even fighting when their skills were on cooldown.
I could win overwhelmingly.
“Is this… my power…?”
[What bs about ‘my power’ lol]
[It’s Vine’s power]
[He just told you the item build and when to fight, but something is different]
[Fighting when you should fight, going back when you should go back, sounds easy but it’s really not lol]
[Isn’t this boosting-level?]
“Phew… Gold is nothing”
“Wow, congratulations”
[Fact) It really is a nothing tier]
[A Challenger congratulating someone for beating Gold. This is a reverse world]
[He has to flatter the boss with lots of viewers]
[Prediction: with Vine’s current growth rate, he’ll have the same viewer count as Daeju in about a month]
Finally, we won the game smoothly, even winning the team fight.
And then, casually but with sincere feelings, I carefully asked Vine.
“Um… if I start an MCN company, would you join…?”
Although he started streaming because of my encouragement, that didn’t guarantee he’d join my company if I started one, so I asked.
Vine suddenly laughed asking what I was talking about, then.
“Of course! You’re already my CEO!”
“Right? You’ll come?”
“Of course~!”
With my mind much more at ease, I continued to completely destroy enemy top laners in Gold under Vine’s guidance.
High-level coaching was different, very different.
[Alert alert for Gold top laners!]
[Daeju who put down the spoon and picked up the spatula… just who is he…][1]
[It’s like playing soccer in high school but the opponent’s coach is a national team player]
[lol even the losing opponents will probably brag about it, like ‘Let me tell you about the time I lost to Daeju who was getting coached by a Challenger’]
After finishing the games and saying goodbye to Vine, I left one announcement.
“Tomorrow’s stream might be about recruiting talent for the MCN company in advance.”
Previously, I had created a separate board for recruiting streamers.
Many people had accumulated there, and I had collected those who I was looking for and those who stood out.
And among them… I saw an acquaintance.
“So come watch tomorrow’s stream too”
[No Vine tomorrow? I wanted to see Vine acting territorial with his new juniors at first but then trembling in fear when they turn out to be scary]
[You’re kind of scary when you describe situations so specifically;;]
[Conversely, I want to see Daeju using his CEO position to threaten streamers and vent his anger from getting cursed at by viewers]
ㄴ [Has been forcibly removed]
[He kick people for insulting him like a ghost]
“No, I didn’t ban them. That was the editor who banned them”
After making the excuse, I realized they deserved the ban, so why did I make an excuse?
* * *
(End of Chapter)
T/N:
- The spoon/spatula metaphor refers to changing roles/positions
