You're Better Suited as a Supporter
"You're better suited as a supporter than an ADC."
"Y-you want me to quit...?"
"Quit."
To gamers, that single word carried a crushing weight of shame. It was only three syllables, yet the unspoken premise that always trailed after it was because you suck.
Ririyang was only Bronze, but she had loved games since she was little and still poured her heart into Abyss every day. Of course she carried a gamer's pride. The moment she heard Kayack's words, the shock hit her hard.
Was I really that bad...?
That was the only conclusion she could reach. The thought came naturally, and without realizing it her face crumpled into a teary pout.
Her tension had dipped before, but this was the first time in ages her expression itself had turned so openly miserable. The cam caught every bit of it and streamed it straight out.
Viewers watching both Kayack's and Ririyang's broadcasts through Twich's multi-stream feature immediately relayed the news through the chat.
A woman's tears had always been a powerful conversational weapon, so the sudden swing of public opinion against Kayack was hardly surprising. On top of that, the tournament was big enough to attract plenty of hangers-on—people who spent all day lurking in communities and nursing baseless hostility toward Kayack. Now they aimed their arrows at her.
In truth Ririyang hadn't shed a single tear. She had only worn a briefly pitiful, sad expression. But that detail barely mattered to anyone.
If not for the large contingent of loyal viewers still in Kayack's room, and the fact that she was a woman just like Ririyang, the chat would have erupted into full chaos.
"Hmm..."
Even so, Kayack remained completely unfazed. She watched the chat rocket upward with zero reaction, merely smacking her lips lightly. Meanwhile Ririyang, still wearing that teary face, quickly sized up the situation and started reining in her own viewers.
"I didn't cry, what crying... Why are there suddenly so many people. Don't leave weird chats—"
"Ririyang."
"Y-yes..."
Gulp.
The instant Kayack called her name, Ririyang tensed up like a mouse before a cat and swallowed hard.
Kayack roughly gauged her state from the trembling voice. She found the girl's nervousness a little puzzling, yet she pressed on with what she had intended to say.
"Just so you know in advance, I've been watching you for a while, Ririyang—even before I turned on the stream today."
"M-me?"
"Yes."
As Ririyang's ear tips flushed red with flustered surprise at the sudden declaration—
"I've been rewatching your VODs and VTube clips over and over. And there's one thing I've been thinking to myself the whole time."
"Yes..."
Ah, it's about the game. Ririyang snapped out of her pointless fantasy and returned to reality, nodding with a slightly dejected face.
"After watching your play just now, I'm completely sure. What I'm saying isn't some snap judgment based only on this one game or today's results."
Kayack continued in her distinctive soft voice.
"Haven doesn't suit you, Ririyang. More precisely, the ADC position itself doesn't really fit you."
Hearing it again still stung. It felt like every hour she had poured into the role was being denied.
Even so she swallowed the rising sorrow and asked,
"Then... what should I do...?"
"Ririyang."
Kayack spoke with a conviction she had never shown before, as if making sure every word landed clearly.
"You need to play support."
Support. In other words, the enabler.
Like most AOS games, support's standing in Abyss wasn't exactly glorious. Heroes specialized in assisting others—heroes whose entire reason for existing was to help the rest of the team.
Those heroes were fundamentally boring. So why would anyone bother playing them?
Because they suck. Because their fingers aren't good enough for damage dealers or even tanks, so they might as well play support.
That was the average player's mindset.
I had expected reactions like these, but they were still vicious.
"Am I... am I really that bad...?"
Ririyang shared the same common perception as most players. The moment I recommended support, she immediately assumed it meant she was a deficient, pathetic player.
And in a way, she was right.
"Yes."
"Uuuu..."
Uuuu, huh. So there really are people who make sounds like that out loud.
I added one more line to the suddenly deflated Ririyang.
"When it comes to ADC only, yes."
As an ADC, Ririyang was exactly Bronze-level. A player perfectly suited to her current tier.
But.
"From what I can see, you have talent for support."
If my eyes weren't lying, Ririyang was the kind of talent who would soar even higher after switching to support. Her rank would probably jump quite a bit. If she just played properly, Bronze-Silver-Gold was the line she could escape.
At that, Ririyang's reaction began to change.
"R-really...? Really? You're not just saying that to make me feel better...?"
"Yes. You can ignore the chat. They're all worse than me anyway."
To sum it up in one line:
Ririyang, you're better suited as a supporter than an ADC.
"Hehe."
Ririyang let out a silly little laugh, her mood clearly lifting. Hearing that sound, I let out a soft pfft of my own before diving into the real topic.
"Aren't you curious why I'm recommending support to you?"
"Ah, I am...!"
"Could you take a look at my stream for a moment?"
Ririyang agreed, and I immediately pulled out what I had prepared.
Clips of Ririyang's play with timestamps deliberately marked.
"Is this... me?"
"I picked a few from your VODs and VTube. The ones I didn't bring are basically the same context."
Ririyang and the viewers' attention locked completely onto me. Curious, skeptical gazes. I presented the evidence that would back up my claim.
"Here—why did you take Lenox's ultimate instead of Casia's?"
"Uh... because Casia is more important than me?"
"Okay. Next scene. Why did you give the credit to Nox here?"
"Uh, Nox said he was short on gold for his core item..."
"Weren't you close to your own core too?"
"Hehe, I'm fine..."
I pointed out a few more scenes after that, asking for her reasoning each time. The answers that came back were always the same flavor: because it seemed better that way, because they're better than me, because teammates are precious, and so on.
An absolutely, perfectly excellent supporter's mindset was flowing naturally from her mouth.
It was a type of person you almost never saw in Abyss these days. Even the highest-tier supports didn't play with this kind of heart.
"You understand now, right?"
In any case, I had laid out every reason I believed support suited her better.
At her core, Ririyang possessed a natural gift for putting her teammates first, assisting them, and syncing her breath with theirs.
"What... natural gift is a bit much..."
Ririyang trailed off bashfully, but I shook my head firmly.
"This is a player's disposition. People who don't have it can never do it even if they die trying."
In other words, aptitude.
Those born with a damage dealer's aptitude come into the world as the main character and never learn how to sacrifice. And in truth they shouldn't. If a carry refuses to take resources, keeps giving everything away, and throws their life away for teammates, it would be stranger if that game didn't end in a loss.
"So my aptitude is on the support side. That's why I keep losing even when I play ADC."
"Pretty much."
After I showed her own replays and explained everything, Ririyang looked thoroughly convinced. If anything she seemed more motivated than before. She no longer trailed off, and she even started asking questions about what I was saying.
Convincing Ririyang to switch to support was one thing, but the mocking chats still refused to stop. It was definitely because of that perception.
The idea that support was easier than other roles, that its importance and influence were lacking.
When in reality that's completely wrong.
There is no unimportant position in Abyss. Every role matters, and if even one fails to do its job, you simply cannot win. The game was designed that way from the start—a fact that had held true since the earliest days after launch.
I didn't know why people clung to those ideas, but those hardened perceptions...
Those prejudices needed to be smashed.
"Ririyang."
"Yes?"
And so the next thing I did was a little impulsive.
"Aren't you curious how to carry as a support?"