Chapter 9
Ding “Why is Koga being so weird, LOL!”
Smirk “Kain’s in the chat, LMFAO!”
Gasp “Princess and Queen, whoa!”
Confused noises “Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me?”
Laughs “Nayun ‘Queen’ kept her promise, haha!”
Realization “‘Queen’ didn’t even target anyone.”
Facepalm “Dude, the princess totally targeted you!”
Chuckles “Is there really any difference between a princess and a queen? Oh man, LOL!”
Rolling on the floor laughing “The camera’s shaking so much, it’s hilarious!”
Concerned “Did Curry just die?”
Frustrated “I even called for the target to stop, and yet, this is too much!”
Confused silence The princess, Nayun, as bold as ever.
Curry, witnessing such audacity, clutched his neck and collapsed.
Viewers everywhere were thoroughly enjoying the absurdity of it all.
Scream “Ughhh!”
The anguished cries of Curry echoed off-camera.
The chat was once again a sea of laughter, and the power level was off the charts.
At this point, the chat was moving so fast it was barely visible.
Even the server couldn’t handle this level of traffic, and buffering started to kick in.
As the broadcast teetered on the brink of collapse, the downed Curry quickly got back on his feet.
Follow Mode Activate (90 days)
Sigh “Phew…”
Breath of relief “Whoa!”
Desperate “Stop spamming-!!”
Relieved “Finally can breathe a bit.”
Confused “90 days of follow chat?”
On fire “Bringing in the viewers!”
“Only real ones are left here.”
Setting the follow-only mode brought some stability back to the shaky broadcast.
No more buffering, and the resolution returned to its original quality.
Having dodged the disaster, Curry checked the current viewer count.
[Current Viewers: 24,830]
Surprised “Over 20,000?”
Curry’s average viewers usually hovered around 5,000.
Sometimes collabing with other streamers would bump it up to around 10,000.
But never had he seen such an increase like this before.
Curious “Did a specific community site pin a location?”
Though he couldn’t understand the sudden spike, it wasn’t what mattered most right now.
Determined “This is an opportunity!”
For Curry, who hadn’t seen growth for a while, this moment was a blessing in disguise.
A golden chance to boost his stagnant broadcast.
After overcoming the crisis, Curry settled back into his seat.
Confirming everything was stable, he relaxed and shifted his focus.
Dramatic announcement “It’s time to ban champions!”
[Remaining Time: 2 Seconds]
Panicking “Uh, uh!”
Seeing just how little time was left, Curry urgently moved his hands.
Failing to ban during the ban phase leads to a dodge, and dodging during a promotion match results in a loss.
Having already racked up two losses in his promotion, Curry could not afford to dodge.
Desperately, he managed to ban any champion just in time.
Thankfully, he didn’t dodge, but the issue was that the banned champion was one of his mains – ‘Aatrox.’
Laughing “LOL Hahaha!”
Giggling “Wait, why would you ban that?”
Amazed “Is there a streamer out there who willingly shoots themselves in the foot?”
Sympathetic “Just accept defeat if you lose this one!”
Delirious “How crazy is this, right?”
Frustrated “Damn…”
The realization that he had just cut off one of his limbs hit Curry hard.
To make things worse, his other mains, Renekton and Kamal, got banned too.
All three champions, the go-to picks favored by reckless players, were off the table.
Disbelief “So many targets!”
Shocked “Even if that’s true, banning someone for targeting is too much.”
Laughing “How can you ban four top champs in one go? LOL!”
The ‘Malphite’ he occasionally played was banned too.
And the ‘Sett’ he had recently taken a liking to was also gone.
Of the champions he could still play, there were Raz, Tryndamere, and Garen – all underdogs.
“Those ban-targeting guys are the worst!”
“Usually, those who target ban end up using stream sniping as well!”
“Guess this match is gonna be full map obscurement!”
While he shouldn’t jump to conclusions,
Seeing the open targeting bans naturally led to some reasonable suspicion.
Wanting to voice his frustrations but holding back for the sake of the broadcast, Curry had no choice but to pick Garen.
As he locked in Garen, the allied jungler picked ‘Udyr.’
Surprised “Garen and Udyr?”
Concerned “Curry, oh no…”
Chuckling “There is some romance in this match-up!”
Giggling “The scents of the turtle players are strong!”
Breaking news “Udyr: Life of 800 games!”
Confused “There’s no way someone plays 800 games as Udyr…”
Hilarious “Oh wait, here he is, LOL!”
Udyr was notorious, alongside Skarner, as one of the three pillars of “crab junglers.”
Having received a recent buff, he briefly soared to ‘Right Udyr’, but was quickly clipped by the ‘intent’ of Goliath.
Once again buried in what’s aptly named “the coffin,” it was bad news for Curry to see his allied jungler’s pick.
As the enemy’s selection began,
They picked Lucian and Vayne.
“Well, looks like Lucian’s going top.”
“Even Vayne is daunting, right?”
“That scent of the trembling turtle players is off the charts!”
Honestly “If I saw Garen and Udyr together, I’d definitely bring out an AD champion.”
Frustrated “What, did someone just bring a ranged champ to top?”
{A donation of 10,000 Won was made.}
Concerned “Enduring through the entire game vs Dodging and taking a dive?”
“Ah, thank you for the donation.”
Impressed “Whoa!”
Joking “Wow! What balance are we talking about here?”
“Neither option isn’t good for Curry!”
Curious “Well, how about giving us a good option?”*
“Guess I could just endure throughout the game and lose!”
Wowed “Oh…”
Curious “Are you a genius?”*
Impressed “Are you perhaps a Harvard student?”*
“A reincarnation of Solomon, whoa!”
“At least IQ 6974!”
With every pick, Curry felt more anxious, but
Viewers were just enjoying the show, chattering away.
At least the bot lane picked decent champs, but the unsettling feeling remained.
Frustrated “If only it wasn’t for those targeting bans…”*
Curry was generally a forgiving streamer when it came to stream sniping.
As a starter for League of Legends, he felt stream sniping was an inevitable fate.
But when openly faced with targeted bans and counter-picks, it was impossible not to feel dizzy.
His only hope remained, that someone might dodge.
He thought about asking Princess Nayun for a single dodge but remembered the earlier chat and held back.
His last slim hope was Nayun Princess.
Hoping that this tightrope-walking target bans her, he could only wait.
*
Hmm…
I narrowed my eyes while examining the enemy composition.
Top Lucian, Jungle Lilyan, Mid Yasuo, ADC Vayne, Support Alistar.
The team was inevitably stacked against us with champions.
Grinning “How arrogant…”
I didn’t like it.
Those idiots openly targeted bans and counter-pick, irritating me that they were stream snipers too.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at how they were behaving in front of 5,000 viewers.
As the viewer count soared with Curry, seeing them act like that as if they were clever felt amusing.
Most of all, the fact that they’d waste a ban card on Curry instead of me, knowing I was on the same team as Curry felt downright insulting.
I recognized that the act of targeting others isn’t right.
But simply knowing that targeting someone is wrong doesn’t justify behaviors like stream sniping and open targeting.
Honestly, what happened if other stream snipers crossed the line was beyond my concern.
I’m not some secret leader of a collective to enforce my rules on every individual who chooses to snipe.
But as someone who was here to enjoy an enticing game with Curry, those nuisances were merely obstacles.
It felt like playing with my favorite toy while others took it without permission.
While feeling that disgusting sensation from before, I slowly moved my mouse.
The last pick for Curry’s team was Princess Nayun, who picked ‘Yone’ against the enemy Mid Yasuo.
The game had officially begun.
======
[Blue Team]
TOP Garen
JG Udyr
MID Yone
AD Samara
SUP Nautilus
VS
[Purple Team]
TOP Lucian
JG Lilyan
MID Yasuo
AD Vayne
SUP Alistar
======
The loading screen quickly finished.
With the familiar voice of the announcer, I purchased my starting items.
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): Hey there!
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): Why is Garen’s winrate 31% but you don’t dodge?
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): Garen Master promo match, 1 win 2 losses, LOL!
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): If that were me, I’d already smash the keyboard!
As the game started, Yasuo began spamming in the all chat.
Though one might consider this a common occurrence when encountering someone with no sense in the depths of Solo Queue,
Yasuo was also the one who banned Curry’s main, Kamal.
[All] GetRektManna( Lucian): Who picks Garen dancing?
[All] GetRektManna( Lucian): Sorry, but this is gonna sting.
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): For real, like no brain here.
[All] DWR Benapi (Lilyan): Our ADC is carried, always wins!
No matter how hideous the depths of Solo Queue were,
It was rare to see players spamming before minions even spawned.
I didn’t have concrete proof, but…
…Well, it didn’t feel like much of a leap to think that they were openly declaring, “I’m a stream sniper~”
No matter how infamous League of Legends was dubbed the disease game, such an overt act was quite rare in this realm.
Shifting my gaze to the broadcast window, I saw Curry enter the options to disable all chat.
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): Quickly discuss in team chat, get on with it!
[All] Electric Breath Type 1 (Yasuo): If I were on the same team as Garen, I would have already called him noob!
[All] GetRektManna (Lucian): Too much winning~
[All] DWR Benapi (Lilyan): If you see a top Garen, just stomp him hard!
As soon as Curry disabled the all chat, Yasuo started typing furiously.
I was absolutely exhausted by Yasuo’s antics, exposing the shallowness of snipers.
[Minions have spawned.]
As Yasuo kept babbling,
I made the decision to mute Yasuo and his emotional reactions.
I also muted all the other snipers being ridiculous.
In fact, I disabled all chat completely, just like Curry did.
“… Sigh…”
Though I managed to silence them, the scenes I had already witnessed remained in my mind.
Remembering those previous moments sent a wave of disgust flooding over me.
I wiped off the smile on my face and concentrated more than ever.
Before long, minions reached the lane, and the intense lane phase began.
*
In the official story of League of Legends, Yone is depicted as Yasuo’s brother.
Due to users referring to Yasuo as “the science kid,” Yone was nicknamed “the arts kid” before his release.
In fact, when Yone was released, he displayed some astoundingly poor statistics.
However, there was a single player boasting an overwhelming record with Yone.
A total record of 50 matches—50 wins, 0 losses, with a 100% win rate.
Not common to the mid-lower tiers or the Diamond tier,
But specifically a player fluctuating between the Master and Grandmaster tiers.
Eventually, this master of Yone achieved Challenger but didn’t play thereafter.
Many players wondered why this mysterious Yone master had vanished from the game…
…and now.
First Blood!
We’re in a massacre!
I’m going wild!
Unstoppable, we can’t stop him!
Yasuo, the brainless sniper from the Diamond tier,
And the notorious duo in the Grandmaster tier infamous for their stream sniping,
Not to mention, those bent on drawing aggro through sniping and open targeting bans,
All faced a monumental wall.
A towering wall that they couldn’t even dare to look at.
Champion of the battlefield!
The announcer’s voice resounded in the Rift.
In just 10 minutes into the game, it all unfolded.