Too Much Money to Keep My Principles
It was far too much money to hold onto my principles.
From the very start, the chat was a dizzying scramble of messages racing up the screen. And the number of viewers currently in the room?
The fifteen or sixteen people who'd shown up for the first stream had somehow ballooned past five times that number.
"…Is this real? Eighty-two viewers?"
It seemed to be real. The chat was flying at a speed that didn't even compare to before. Back when the boosting suspicions first hit, it had been fast, sure — but at least you could still read it.
"Ah, hello, I'm Ari."
"Ah, the cam's not on. Because of last time."
Why were these people so obsessed with the webcam? Weren't they here for the gameplay?
"Hold on — did you guys come to look at my face? Or did you come because you wanted to watch me play?"
As I said it, I put the computer screen up on the broadcast. League of Heroes was already open and waiting.
The reaction was ice cold. Why come to a LoH stream and then demand I show my face?
One viewer's username and message caught my eye, and I read it out.
"See? Right there — 'MidLaneCoachUmjun' says he wants to watch LoH."
Ah. Maybe I wasn't supposed to do that.
"—is what I almost said~. Anyway, starting LoH now, okay?"
I hit the matchmaking button, but the chat was still vicious.
As time ticked by, the viewer count started dropping. Still — was that so bad? I was trying to build a following as a gaming streamer. And even without the cam, these sixty viewers were sticking around. Meaning these people had come purely to watch my skill.
I owed it to them to deliver.
"Alright, everyone still here — allow me to show you some royal mid-lane difference."
I did my best to ignore the chat splitting cleanly down the middle and hit accept on the match.
Champion select loaded in. Now — in a situation like this, which champion would quiet down a chat that had completely fallen apart?
There was only one answer. The flashiest, most mechanically demanding champion possible.
The Unforgiven Swordsman — Yasuo.
"Going Yasuo this game, everyone."
"I just like characters that take mechanical skill. Plain characters are boring."
I was responding to chat at a reasonable pace when our top laner saw my pick and swapped to Malphite — the classic combo where each ultimate created perfect synergy.
"Yo, Malphite hyung's got insane game sense. Guess I've gotta carry again."
Charm has increased.
I did my best to ignore the status window floating in front of my eyes as the game began.
The final champion matchups:
Top: Malphite vs. K'Sante
Jungle: Wukong vs. Jarvan IV
Mid: Yasuo vs. Syndra
Bot: Ashe vs. Yurara
Support: Soraka vs. Leona
Our team comp was simple. The only real damage dealers were me and the ADC. Top, jungle, and support were all launch pads for airborne CC. Meaning the whole game came down to one thing.
If I played well, we won.
At first I focused hard on farming CS. Even a neutral laning phase was fine — Syndra's late-game scaling couldn't keep up with mine anyway.
But then… wouldn't that make for a boring stream?
"You guys didn't come here to watch this kind of snoozefest laning, right?"
"Just watch."
The enemy Syndra played it annoyingly well — poking with Q every time I went for CS, weaving in auto-attacks without rest.
"Okay, the poke's actually pretty good."
"Still with the boosting accusations. Disgusting."
The moment I hit level three, I dashed in on a minion with E. Two reasons for the call: the heavy poke had left Syndra's orb behind me, which meant she couldn't use E or W to peel — and when she frantically turned to run, the move speed from riding the minion was faster.
A bold Ignite first, then auto-Q-auto-auto for the attack-speed reset. Half her health vanished in an instant. I confirmed the Flash backward, then backed off myself.
"Alright, Flash is down. Looking for the kill angle next time."
Both of us sitting at half health. In that state, having Flash still up put me at a massive advantage. Syndra crept back out to farm CS. I casually cleared minions with Q, charging a tornado as if it were the most natural thing in the world — then:
Flash + E + Q.
No warning whatsoever. I closed the gap with Flash, knocked her airborne, and kept auto-attacking. Then came the sound of victory.
"That was me being good. Yasuo's bottom of tier three, what are you talking about."
A full festival of forced glazing and forced hate poured through the chat. I ignored all of it and kept playing.
The laning phase was easy after that. Enemy Syndra was too scared to leave her tower, which meant I was free to roam other lanes — two kills bot, one assist top, then another kill in the enemy jungle. Malphite and Soraka were basically a kill vending machine: drop the ultimates, collect free kills.
Further fighting was pointless, but a real war had broken out in the enemy team's all-chat.
K'Sante: Can Syndra just leave at this point?
Yurara: Syndra your mom is a ******* ****.
Syndra: Reporting Yurara, good luck
Yurara: Report this, your mom's a **
Ssulshi: Everyone just shut the hell up this is exhausting
Yurara: You're also dogshit **
"If they're gonna fight, why do it in all-chat instead of among themselves."
"I'll turn it off starting next game. Finishing this one first."
Every lane I touched exploded, and the game never even made it to the teamfight phase.
Placement 3/5 — Platinum 2
"Whew… three games into placements and I'm Plat 2. Think I can hit Emerald?"
Chat was feeling good. Even I had to admit the play had been solid enough to turn the burning public opinion around. At this rate, the viewer count should have recovered some, right?
"…But why is the viewer count going down? Didn't I play well?"
"W-well, you guys are watching though, right?"
The pure skill-based stream I'd dreamed of was in pieces. At this rate, when was I ever going to hit ten thousand followers?
Then an unfamiliar TTS voice poured out of the speakers.
"Do donations work here? Oh they do?"
"…A donation? Is this actual money?"
Holy crap. It was only nine hundred won, but it was the first time I'd ever made money from streaming. I delivered a thank-you the way I'd heard other streamers do it.
"Ah… thank you for the donation, God of All. I didn't even know donations worked here?"
The words had barely left my mouth when a new donation rolled in.
"You really not turning the cam on? That's the fastest way to pull viewers in"
"Thank you for the donation. Yeah, this is a LoH skill stream."
The viewer who'd clearly not listened to a word I said sent another one.
"Cam on"
"Thank you for the donation. But you think five thousand won is enough to break my principles? I'm never turning it on, so please stop donating."
However—
"Cam on"
"Ugh… I appreciate the donations, but can you stop? I'm really not turning it on."
"Cam on. I'll keep going until you do."
"AAAAAH! Fine! I'll turn it on! Happy?!"
Why on earth was someone throwing a hundred thousand won at me over one webcam? Gratitude mixed with a crushing sense of pressure as I uncovered the camera I'd kept hidden and switched it on.
And in that same moment, one fact hit me.
I was currently wearing an extremely, extremely, extremely feminine outfit.
"No, everyone, that's not—"
…No.
I did not put this on for you people.