Even Stream Sniping Requires Skill

A dark corner of a room.

In a roughly six-pyeong studio apartment where even the single window was sealed behind blackout curtains, a man sat fuming in front of dual monitors.

"Look at this person."

On the left monitor, a stream was playing. The female streamer who had suddenly blown up recently: Ari.

"Is she seriously trying to beat me right now? How bold."

His other screen showed the game lobby. Nickname: sniper14.

He was a scumbag who had lately made a habit of stream sniping female streamers' matches, engaging in bang-peul whenever he could. The reason he kept doing this even past the age of fifty boiled down to one thing: he wanted to feel the effect his actions had on young women. A pervert who got off on the anger and rage building up in girls he could never even speak to in real life, all because of him.

"Th-this fucking... how dare she try to beat me?"

He was furious. It was the first time a streamer who was supposed to be raging and despairing had come out so confidently instead. And then the line that flowed out of the stream:

"I'll wreck you completely. You stream-sniping piece of shit."

Bang!

The man slammed the desk.

"Dare to wreck me? You're fucking dead for real."

And so he entered the game. The full team matchup was as follows:

Top: Irelia vs Kennen

Jungle: Nocturne vs Sylas

Mid: Twisted Fate vs Zed

ADC: Kai'Sa vs Sivir

Support: Rakan vs Zyra

The sniper's team was mostly squishy, but that barely mattered. He had real-time map hack streaming across his right monitor, after all. No need to worry about ganks during laning phase. On top of that, he was Zed—long known as Twisted Fate's counter. A matchup he simply could not lose.

"This bitch, I'll wreck you. I'll savor the sight of you seething with rage when the game blows up... heh heh."

And so laning phase began. From the stream, streamer Ari's voice floated out.

"You don't need to cover the minimap? It's fine. I can win without covering it against that."

Trembling. The hand gripping the mouse began to shake.

"What... what is she relying on to act like that!"

An enraged Zed's W+E+Q combo. In an instant Twisted Fate's health looked ready to get shredded... or so it seemed. Astonishingly, every single skill shot grazed right past Twisted Fate without landing a single hit.

"...What?"

Immediately after came Twisted Fate's basic attacks. A brilliantly shining gold card slammed into Zed's forehead. A three-pronged card stack pierced through his body along with more autos. Before he knew it, Zed's health had dropped below 60%.

"Th-this... this is impossible."

Unbelievable movement. On the stream screen he was watching, the chat was on fire.

The man could barely stand it. But there was nothing he could do. He still hadn't learned his ultimate, and against a ranged champion like Twisted Fate he had no real answer. All he could do was keep getting autoed down by Ari without rest.

"You... you're dead at level six, Ari."

He muttered to himself and hit the recall button, hoping to patch up his shredded health. That choice turned out to be the worst possible one. Zed's spells were Ignite and Flash, but Twisted Fate had Flash and Teleport. Matching Zed's recall, Fate used Teleport to quickly catch the wave and then vanished into the fog of war.

Every time it happened the man watched the stream and tried to warn his teammates, but—

Rage flooded the man's face. He had clearly heard that Zed was Twisted Fate's counter—so why was he getting crushed like this? Without even understanding the reason, he desperately tried to catch the wave. After all that struggle he finally hit level six. Time for the counterattack.

"You... you're fucking dead for real!"

Right then the enemy Fate was shoving the mid tower while he was gone. This was the chance. The chance to appear out of the darkness and assassinate her. But on the stream screen—

"Alright, Zed should be around here by now, right? So I'm backing out early. Why? Because where else is that bastard gonna go right now?"

He hit a wall. It felt like she had map hack on even more than he did.

"If I just back out here it's a free Flash, right? That's what a high-elo player does."

Ari's voice kept flowing from the stream. At the same time Twisted Fate's head turned toward the bottom side of the map. Ari spoke again.

"If I skip the free double kill it's a waste, right?"

"Ah... no! Bot, get out!"

But already the eye icon was appearing above the champions' ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heads.

Twisted Fate arrived at bot lane in an instant and gutted the bot duo.

"Tasty bot double kill, heading back to mid now?"

The man sank into helplessness—the kind that matched every humiliation he had ever suffered in his life.

"...It's not over yet, you fucker!"

Zed sprinted straight for top. If the enemy mid had gotten a lead bot, he at least had to do something top. Sylas happened to be walking with him.

"This is it. Let's go!"

A roam loaded with the man's desperate hope. But—

"Irelia, Zed's coming, just back off a little."

Irelia started retreating as if she had seen Ari's back ping. Still, the distance was close enough for Zed to arrive.

"Just take one kill!"

But the man, too excited, failed to notice. On Ari's stream screen, Twisted Fate was casting Teleport.

"Perfect, Teleport just came back clean. Lucky."

"Ah, fuck—"

Twisted Fate strolled casually out of the brush. A gold card flew straight into Zed's forehead. Stunned, Zed's vision went dark.

Embrace the darkness...

Watching another champion flying toward his body, the man spat out one word.

"Fuck..."

"Everyone, don't be too hard on him."

While he was focused on all-chat, Ari's voice came through the stream.

"Even with stream sniping that's all he can do. Imagine if he hadn't been stream sniping. Just treat him like a pitiful guy and move on."

That single line shattered the man's pride. He no longer even felt like playing. In the teamfight phase that followed he accomplished nothing. His entire team was squishy. Just Nocturne and Irelia walking forward was enough to force them back, and every time Twisted Fate's cards flew in with ghostly accuracy their ADC started dying.

"Yep. Clean 4-1 placement."

The nexus exploded and the game ended. The man had lost all will.

"............I-I need someone else at least."

To recover from getting dismantled this thoroughly he needed to find someone else to snipe somehow, but—

He couldn't even do that. The man's mental state completely collapsed.

A roaring chat window. Comments worshipping me mixed with occasional disappointment that the roulette hadn't spun. And then—

"Aaaaaaah! That scared me!"

I nearly flipped over at a sound louder than anything I'd ever heard on stream before.

"O-one hundred forty thousand won? Wasn't it fifty thousand before the game started?"

"...Holy crap. Thank you, everyone."

Tears welled up in my eyes. 140,000 won. If I scraped and saved, that was nearly a whole month's worth of meals. I still couldn't believe I'd earned that from a single game.

"Viewer count? Why... huh."

Almost three times the number from when I first turned the cam on. I was overwhelmed with emotion.

"Thank you, everyone. Truly."

With dopamine flooding my brain I wanted to play another game, but starting next week I had part-time work to show up for, and it would be better to set a proper streaming schedule.

"Everyone, today was just a test stream."

The chat slowed for a moment.

"Starting next week I'll stream for real. Every day from 9 p.m. until dawn!"

"See you on the Shashark Ari channel. Bye for now~"

Inside the room after the stream went dark, silence filled the basement studio—but my heart was anything but quiet. An indescribable high was flooding through me.

"...Living like this might actually be fun."

I'm in trouble. I've discovered the joy of streaming.