Chatroom Inferno and Aranggaiger's Ban
The brief moment of fluster in the chat window passed, leaving just the three of us in the voice chat room amid awkward laughter. Lee Seong-gyu spoke up.
"Haha, well, things just kinda turned out this way. I usually do occasional interviews with solo queue artisans like that, you know."
"Am I the artisan? I haven't really mained anything in particular."
I knew exactly why the atmosphere had gotten like this and why Lee Seong-gyu was forcing that awkward laugh. It was because I'm a woman. Otherwise, what reason would there be to interview someone at this Master level? I'm not even an alt account addict. This was clearly just him venting his frustration from that mess Tsukaan had caused earlier.
"Well, since you're a woman..., there's just something about it, right? It's not easy for women to hit Master in the first place, and there aren't many who do. No, not like misogyny or anything stupid. That's not what I mean."
"I know. Misogyny? Women just suck at games to begin with."
"Pardon...?"
"I-Is that so? But you hit Master yourself."
"If I'd done well, I'd be in Challenger. Master's just unevolved humanity, right, Tsukaan?"
"Pardon? Uh... h-ha, that was me misspeaking a bi-bit, um, sorry!"
"Eh, whatever. I'm not that mad."
Master really was kinda like unevolved humanity. I didn't think of it quite that harshly myself, but it wasn't wrong.
"Anyway, I'm gonna head out now?"
"Huh?"
"Ah, I'll ban these guys first. It's not because the chat upset you, right?"
"No reason to interview me anyway. What do I get out of it?"
Why stick around here when there's no payoff?
"We give stuff! Appearance fee... a chicken gift icon as a present, and we split YouTube revenue too."
"The guy who just refunded 450,000 won needs that?"
"Fair point..."
The chat going up in flames was pretty entertaining. Sure, there were some upsetting comments mixed in, but it wasn't my stream, and even though they targeted me, the manager was banning anything that crossed the line, so it wasn't that bad.
But that didn't mean I was doing the interview.
"Well, see ya everyone."
I left my final goodbye and exited the voice chat room, then closed Lee Seong-gyu's stream right after.
"Ah, much better now."
A lot had happened, but it all wrapped up fine. Time to end my own stream too. I hadn't played that long, but the trial dragged on time-wise, and mostly, I was beat.
But then,
"What the hell is this."
Viewer count was weird.
"240 people?"
"You all came from Lee Seong-gyu sunbae's stream?"
"Ah, um. This is embarrassing."
It really was. Subs had already hit over 100. Is this why everyone flocks to big corps? My pro days had fewer viewers than this, but back then, viewer and sub counts were just numbers to me anyway.
I got a bit tense. All these people gathered to watch me. I'd dealt with it in my pro days, but I'm a different person now.
In the end, I scrapped the idea of ending the stream. Shutting down with this crowd would be a loss no matter how you sliced it. I wasn't desperate to grow it, but I wasn't about to sabotage it either.
"...So, queue up?"
But I wasn't gonna play nice and give the viewers what they wanted. They probably hoped for an intro or some chit-chat, but no way, not happening.
Predictably, chat soured.
Hm, I was originally a LoE oldhead dude.
"I'll let this slide this time, but next one's a real ban."
...Huh? Donate? Oh right, that existed. But blocked?
"Donate's something you turn on separately?"
Whoa, never imagined. Pros had managers handling setup, so I never knew. Quick Google on enabling donations, followed the steps, and opened it up.
I wasn't desperate for cash, but it didn't hurt to have it.
The moment donations unlocked, the glorious first one rolled in.
And she snagged the glorious first ban too.
"Banning you."
This bitch changed her nick when? Made her easy to spot at least.
"I told you it wasn't me."
What to do with this bitch?
"Aranggaiger, ah, too annoying to say. Arang, you're perma-banned from my stream, so don't come back."
Immediately, in-game chat popped up with Aranggaiger—no, Arang's whining.
Obviously, no plans to unban right away. We could chat in-game anytime, and keeping her around would hurt more than help the stream. Not a real perma, I'd lift it later, but not today.
"Trolls purged, queuing now."
Chat's filthy. Ignored it, hit queue, then tossed a gripy question at viewers.
"Is personal stream chat always this bad?"
My old streams weren't like this. Though I was a guy then.
"Stretch? Why?"
Sigh, seriously.
"Questions during queue. Anything you're curious about?"
Full intro was embarrassing, and my old identity made it iffy, but this much was fine.
Ignored the back one.
"21."
"This ain't a community. Cut the weird drips."
Yeah, like chat said, establish order from the start. Must be LoE Gallery, or LoE Stream Gallery. Similar vibes, whatever.
With so many from communities, chat levels were cringey even to me. I'd let mild stuff slide, but the weird crap? No.
Chat reaction wasn't bad, luckily. Normal folks agreed. I let this round slide mercifully. Arang was executed as an example for her track record; I'm more merciful than you think.
If I weren't, I'd have wrecked Seong Yujin first for sneaking phone games during Eld Cup..., uh, no, oof.
Weird thoughts popping up. The nick origin question maybe.
"Origin? Nothing special. There's this fuzzy dice made of fur, all soft and fluffy? Named it after that. PudgeDice."
Luckily, queue popped.
I deliberately ignored the last question and switched topics.
"Ah, queue's in."
Perfect timing with Arang's failed snipe troll whisper; buried the last question nicely.
"Ignoring that, hm, first pick. Revolutionaire it is."
Banned Engineer, locked Revolutionaire. Enemy took Gladiator, so mid melee vs melee—not support pick fight—for the first time in ages.
A true blade clash after who-knows-how-long, with viewers surging; time to show my skills proper.
And 30 minutes later,
"...Ending stream."
I got utterly smashed by the enemy and closed out the day's broadcast.
"Seon-il hyung, whatcha doing? Solo queue?"
"Ah, Ji-cheol. Just ranking up a new account."
"Whoa, Proud leveling an alt? Time for some account-buying drama?"
"Drama? Nah. But it's kinda weird."
"What?"
"Enemy mid feels familiar."