Chapter 193

CHAPTER 193

[Jin Seojun has started streaming.]

[Practice is over. Nobody made the dumb mistake of betting on another team, right?]

5:30 PM.

Thirty minutes before the start of the group stage.

“Tra-ha.”

Seojun turned on his stream.

• Seo-ha
• Seo-ha
• You're here
• Tra-ha
• The streamer was the latest one!
• Hurry up and join, human.

“Yeah, yeah. I should join soon. Why am I late, you ask?”

Technically, arriving any time before 6 PM was fine, but most people had been gathering and chatting since 5.

Seojun, however, was thirty minutes late.

Simply put, he was the tardy one.

• Look at him acting important.
• So this is what happens when you get popular?
• Go back to your roots!
• I keep saying this, but this bastard absolutely should not go back to his roots.
• He might not even stream the finals if he does.

“Ah, come on. It doesn't matter if I show up now. If I came early, all you guys would do is bother me anyway.”

• LOL
• His streaming attitude is terrible.
• This is what happens when everyone spoils him.
• When have viewers ever spoiled you? LOL
• When have we ever bothered you?!

Didn't viewers bother him all the time?

Though, to be fair, that was exactly why he enjoyed streaming.

“You weren't all getting ready to spam chat asking how we'd beat the opposing teams and saying we'd lost because we didn't practice enough?”

Seojun smiled faintly as he interrogated the viewers.

• He's got a point.
• Someone definitely has a copy-paste ready.
• Seriously, how do people resist giving advice? LOL
• Some people probably went insane after going all-in.
• Some probably bet on the opposing team and are just expressing their wishes. LOL. Hoping the streamer loses.
• Or voodoo magic LOL.

While reading chat, another unfamiliar term appeared.

“So what's this voodoo magic thing?”

He roughly understood the original meaning, but that clearly wasn't how it was being used here.

Chat's collective intelligence often produced wrong answers, but when it came to internet slang, they were surprisingly accurate.

So Seojun carefully read the explanations flooding in.

“Ah. So it's intentionally wishing for the opposite of what you want? Reverse jinxing? Then what's expectation control?”

Reverse jinxing.

It seemed to be the opposite of getting ahead of yourself.

Instead of confidently expecting success, you deliberately talked yourself down.

Apparently, boasting beforehand guaranteed failure, while reverse jinxing guaranteed victory.

Or something like that.

Expectation control followed a similar logic.

If you expected too much, the result would be disappointing, so you intentionally lowered your expectations.

• Ah LOL. Even with the streamer, Income Gap probably can't win the whole thing. Runner-up at best. (After betting all his memories on Income Gap)
• Ah... Let's just survive the group stage! (After dumping his entire fortune on Income Gap)

The chat even provided examples to help him understand.

And in reality, comments exactly like those were appearing from fans supporting not only Seojun's team but every team in the tournament.

Seojun once again concluded that starting his stream a little late had been the correct decision.

“Wonderful... really.”

He chose not to elaborate.

• What's with that reaction?
• Alright. Time for some voodoo magic.

Seojun simply moved to the lobby where his teammates were gathered.

Specifically, Alpaca's lobby.

The team had collectively decided they no longer wanted to use Ha Yoonho's lobby.

Incidentally, there was another reason he had been late.

Lee Dongsu's visit at 5 PM was the biggest one.

Naturally, it hadn't been about encouragement or strategy.

That'll probably come up during the broadcast today. I'll just watch and see.

“Bwaaaah!”

The cry of an alpaca echoed through the lobby.

Daebak.

Alpaca's alpaca.

“Looks like the team leader's here.”

The teammates, who had been sitting together around a pile of hay, stood up.

“Wait a second, Mr. Wind Sword. I'm the team leader.”

“Oh, really? Since when?”

“Since the beginning!”

“Right, right. I see! Anyway, now that the team leader is here, everyone's present!”

• This guy wasn't listening at all! LOL
• Honestly, having a Bronze player as team leader did feel weird.

As professional streamers, they each read and responded to the chat on their own broadcasts.

They joined conversations happening beside them and chatted casually.

Time passed.

When the clock struck 6 PM, every stream simultaneously lost a noticeable number of viewers.

At the same time, alerts began appearing.

“It's starting.”

“Ah, I'm nervous.”

“These last ten days... they really... really were something...”

• Really what, Lumi? LOL
• Am I the only one dying to know what actually happened during those ten days?

“They won't tell us!”

• These bastards refuse to explain!
• What exactly did the streamer do...?

“What do you mean what did I do? I told you, we trained hard.”

As he said that, Seojun clicked on the alert.

Why won't they believe me?

His teammates raised their hands as well.

[Travel Official has started streaming.]

[Group Stage!]

After about three minutes of advertisements—

The broadcast began.

“Tra-ha!”

Arin greeted the viewers.

The commentators sitting beside her followed suit.

It was the same familiar lineup as before.

[At last, not practice matches but the actual tournament begins today! During these past ten days I've been dying to butt in and comment on everything. How about the rest of you?]

[It was nice getting a break. Hahaha.]

[I see. That's how you felt, Commentator Bangju. How about you, Commentator Penggwon? Even after ten days, are you still supporting Income Gap—no, Seojun? If you had to bet your championship pick?]

Even through his clothes, even while sitting down, the man's muscles were impossible to hide.

The rugged gym addict was former pro player Penggwon.

[A bet...? Hmm... I'll politely decline.]

The muscular man looked as though his PTSD had returned.

He had finally managed to forget about it, yet they were dragging up those memories from the very start.

He shot Arin a resentful glance.

Arin smoothly moved on.

[Hahaha. A lot of viewers seem disappointed. Understood. Commentator Taeyang?]

[I enjoyed watching it.]

[Got it! It definitely was entertaining!]

The essence of Rio was, in the end, a streamer tournament.

And the important word there wasn't tournament.

It was streamers.

People didn't simply want to know who was stronger or who would win.

The streamer who made bold provocations.

The streamer who trained in unusual ways on stream.

The streamers who had been rivals for years.

The real appeal of Fool Rio was seeing how those people won—or lost.

In other words, viewers had enjoyed the past ten days just as much as the main event itself.

That was how these things always worked.

Large streamer collaborations and major events.

[Especially on the first day, every team except one suddenly brought in professional players. That really surprised me. I immediately wanted to start commentating.]

[Hmm. I feel like you would've drawn plenty of attention if you'd started your own stream right away, Commentator Bangju.]

[But I couldn't do that. I'm the type who watches multiple streams at once. If I'm streaming myself, that becomes difficult.]

[Ah, you've fully become a viewer. Then which stream did you watch the most on the first day?]

[Isn't that obvious?]

[Right, it is obvious. Speaking of which, we've gathered some community posts sorted by date. Why don't we go through them and talk about what happened?]

[Sounds good.]

As Bangju agreed, the screen changed.

[Hahaha. The first post is from someone who got off work late and asked which team was the most entertaining. It's basically the topic we were just discussing. Naturally, there's only one team we can pick, right?]

“Which team would that be?”

Seojun maintained a genuinely confused expression.

• You. LOL
• Don't tell me you've forgotten what you did.
• First day was a complete landslide.

[I agree. We had these esteemed active pros show up, and then our Seojun displayed hellish leadership—no, baiting—no, skill. He's truly Travel's greatest asset, isn't he? Say yes already!]

“I disagree. There are a lot of amazing people on Travel.”

Seojun responded modestly.

• Shut up and sign the document!
• Skill, personality—everything about him came straight from hell LOL.
• He's casually acknowledging there are amazing people on Travel so he doesn't have to admit his hellish personality.
• But would it really be a good thing if this guy became Travel's representative?
• Who knows LOL. It'd definitely be hilarious though.

[Alright, no further explanation needed. Day Two! Ah, the most popular topic that day was Taker's story about fighting an AI the previous day.]

[Yes. His detailed explanation of what it felt like when he died and what Seojun actually did became a major topic.]

[Day Three!]

[Oh? Here's a post saying the pros from each team had prepared ways to deal with Seojun. Arin, what kind of selection criteria is this? Why is everything related to Seojun?]

[Haha. We simply picked representative topics from the most discussed posts. In fact, on Day Three, the professional players all seemed to mention strategies against Seojun almost as if they'd coordinated beforehand.]

Arin flipped to the next slide.

The numerous additional posts that appeared made it obvious Bangju had intentionally set up that comment.

Most of the pros' opinions revolved around one idea:

League was a team game.

There were also comments saying that even if players like Baek Doyul or Shin Hayeon joined that team, they could still be countered, so people shouldn't worry.

Though none of them revealed their specific methods, the fact that pros from entirely different groups all brought up Seojun first was significant in itself.

[The third day seems to have been when the pro coaches had finished examining not only their own teams but all the opposing teams as well.]

[Yes. Looking at everyone's actions, Seojun was naturally the player who demanded the most attention. Still, starting from the following day, we got a lot of entertaining posts too.]

Stories from the pros.

Interesting tricks and tips viewers could immediately understand.

Funny incidents that occurred during practice.

Questions like which pro player would cause the first major controversy if they ever became a streamer.

As they reviewed post after post, they shared the highlights of the past ten days with the audience.

Then—

[Oh? The final post is about Income Gap's carrots. Commentator Bangju, what are your thoughts?]

[Ah... it's truly unfortunate.]

• That post gave me chills.

[Why unfortunate?]

[By now everyone knows that unlike the other teams, Income Gap actually met up in real life to exercise together. However!]

[Yes?]

[If they were really only exercising, there wouldn't have been so many carrots! Eight hundred and seventy-six times—that's how many times carrots appeared on stream during those ten days. This post is demanding the truth. Exactly how many carrots have been waved around, and what in the world has actually been happening behind the scenes?]

• Seriously, just tell us already! How many times do we have to ask?!
• What happened to make the team members stop explaining and just wave carrots around?!
• Fun fact: Lumi is apparently still waving one around in the background.
• At this point aren't they just doing it because it's funny? Or maybe they genuinely love carrots?

[According to Seojun himself, all they did was work out and correct posture. Do you believe that?]

[The truth is unknown. But if that's really all they did, and the team members somehow improved from it? That would be quite magical, wouldn't it?]

[That's true. It would be magical.]

[Caster, in that case, I think we should start calling Seojun something else.]

[And what would that be?]

[Professor Dumbbellore, the posture correction teacher.]

• Dumbbellore LOL!
• Posture correction teacher, hahaha!

[Hahahaha! Alright, and that concludes our recap. Thank you to all the players who worked so hard over the past ten days! Before we officially begin...!]

Clap!

Arin clapped her hands, shifting the atmosphere.

[...we have one more piece of good news!]

• Oh?
• What's the good news?
• Another announcement?

[The professional players worked hard as coaches during this Rio event, right? While that was happening, various discussions were taking place within their organizations. Questions like: "Are we really ending things here?" and "Wouldn't it be a waste?" and so on.]

No.

Seojun knew the truth.

[And after all those discussions, a decision has finally been made! This is the good news we're announcing right now! Namely...!]

It hadn't been multiple organizations discussing it.

It had come from a single organization.

And from a single player.

[The team that wins this Rio tournament! Together with the coach who leads them to victory, they will receive the opportunity to mix rosters and face off in an exhibition match at the opening event of the Korean Professional League season!]