Today Was That Day
Today was that day.
What day? The day Yuseung's team, E Revolution Gaming, pulled off a record-breaking two-game win streak. Yeah, the day they hit 5 wins and 13 losses.
Just a little while ago, E Revolution Gaming had barely scraped together 3 wins and 12 losses, then predictably blew their last game of the week, dropping to 3-13. At that rate, playoffs were a given—no, promotion/relegation was locked in, and losing even one more match basically meant disbanding the team.
Even I couldn't bring myself to tease Yuseung in a situation like that.
I didn't lose. If it bugged him that much, he should've won.
Of course, Yuseung wasn't one to take it lying down, so he fired right back at me like it was nothing. Which left me giving as good as I got, verbally speaking.
That was our chat from two days ago. Hey, it was our own special brand of encouragement.
I didn't want them to drop to relegation, but Yuseung had been showing top-tier 2nd division jungler form anyway. By season's end, transferring to another team wouldn't be hard. Hell, he could just cut his contract and jump to a new squad next season.
The team might be in crisis mode, but for Yuseung personally, it'd just be a brief setback.
A setback I was honestly a little jealous of, even.
Anyway, yesterday E Revolution Gaming barely eked out a win against a team a weight class above them. And today's opponent? A top-tier squad already locked in for playoffs.
Everyone figured they'd get dragged straight to relegation without a fight. But today, E Revolution Gaming pulled off a historic jungle carry win, escaping with a miraculous two-game streak.
It was ugly as hell. 2v1 odds, but a win's a win.
Mid didn't show much impact even in victory, but they at least earned their keep. Jungler Jesus—Yuseung—put on an absurd performance, dragging the game to victory.
Top and bot played like they were assaulting the bus driver, but they finally buckled in by the end.
In the end, E Revolution Gaming hit 5-13 and snagged 8th place, safely staying in 2nd division.
But nobody watching that game would be optimistic about their future. All five wins only happened because of Yuseung—without him, they wouldn't have even been on the board.
Nobody thought Yuseung would stick around in a team like that much longer, and even the solid mid laner didn't seem likely to stay.
Could they even run this lineup into summer?
"1st division needs broadcast rights to air, and they don't hand those out to lowly streamers like me."
Not that I'd bother broadcasting even if they did.
Today's stream timing lined up perfectly with E Revolution's match, so I cast it on a whim, and the reaction was...
"Still, it was the season finale, so I had to tune in."
I hadn't even bothered with yesterday's game. If they'd lost that one, I probably would've skipped today too. But since they won yesterday, watching today was just good manners.
"Glad they avoided relegation at least."
After that day, we got a huge influx of viewers. Subscribers shot up almost to four digits, and peak live viewers broke three.
Usually a sudden viewer spike means the chat gets diluted and messy, but mine was already a mud pit from the start. So the influx actually made the chat cleaner by comparison—a weird phenomenon.
Didn't mean the originals vanished, though. They still turned it toxic whenever they got the chance.
Man, these guys latch onto anything guy-related and go off. Would they even do this if they knew my face?
Not that it mattered—I was a guy originally, but pointless since I had no plans to out myself right now.
God, hearing them ship me with that Yuseung prick was nauseating. Blech.
Anyway, couldn't exactly announce we were friends, so I pulled out my prepared response.
"I root for E Revolution because of their Eld Cup runner-up miracle run—been a Jesus fan since he was on that roster."
'Women can't game'
My past life rearing its head again—I just played dumb. I always dodged Dice-related questions on purpose. If it kept up, viewers might catch on, but luckily no one had yet.
"Anyway, they won, so let's close it out and hit solo queue?"
"Why watch that guy's interview? Save it for when they go undefeated into 1st division. Otherwise, he gets spoiled."
"Cut the bullshit already."
Thinking about it, I never even dated as a guy and now this. Yeah, technically a virgin.
Muttering nonsense, I minimized the stream and fired up the LoE client. A backlog of chat greeted me. My friends list still had just two names, so most of it was predictably from Aranggaiger.
Mostly stuff like that. Not worth engaging, but if I ignored her, she'd spam the forums again.
My public image had improved a ton, but Aranggaiger was still public enemy #1 on the LoE boards. I'd threatened her to stop, and she had... mostly. But now she was clinging to me instead, which was its own headache.
What could I do? We were friends now—couldn't just ditch her.
Chat was split down the middle. Since Arang toned down her forum trolling, sentiment wasn't that bad. Her antics were cute compared to real shitposters anyway, and she was a known Master top-lane psycho with a unique vibe—people talked about her.
Whatever. We were both hovering Master right now—no reason not to. Grandmaster was peeking over the horizon anyway; soon I wouldn't duo even if I wanted to. Might as well indulge her now...
Huh?
What?
Grandmaster peeking?
"...When did my points climb this high?"
Challenger's top 300, Grandmaster top 1,000.
Current Grandmaster cutoff was around 800 points. One more win and I'd break 500.
Just recently I was bouncing around early Master, like 100 points. Now suddenly pushing 400+.
What's Crisu's score now?
After I logged off that day, she couldn't hit Grandmaster and quit. School called, no helping it.
Next day, she streamed straight after school for a six-hour grind and barely scraped Grandmaster. Checking now: 817 points, just holding the cutoff.
Nearly 300 points ahead of me. Huge gap on paper, and in reality... but it was in sight.
Solo queue duos were massive advantages. Communicating with one person in a no-comm environment? Win rate skyrockets.
So racking up over 100 points duoing Crisu? Obvious.
After that, pure solo queue. Did a bit with Arang whining, but her flashy death fiestas handed us a 3-game loss streak—net loss there.
Basically, I solo-climbed ~300 points.
...I hadn't been oblivious. Games were feeling heavier. I knew I was drifting from early Master pace.
But I wasn't obsessing over points, and the stream boom ate my focus. Only now did it hit me.
What it meant was clear.
My skill... was growing again.
Should've clocked it duoing Crisu and Arang—both way higher rated. Duos match to the higher score. Holding my own there?
Sure, orders covered my gaps. I took counterpicks with priority concessions for even lanes. But I wasn't the sole reason we lost once.
...A lingering regret poked its head from the corner of my mind.
But Arang's chat rush and viewer spam snapped me out of it.
Right—it's over. I gave up long ago. Skill up or not, 500 points meant nothing. Even hitting Grandmaster? Pro? No way.
Grandmaster was the bare minimum for pros, but they weren't stuck there because they couldn't Challenger. Active 1st-string pros almost always hit it—they just didn't care, experimented, or scrimmed instead.
To go pro on pure Grandmaster skill? You needed something solo queue couldn't measure.
I shoved the resurfacing regret back into the corner and accepted Arang's invite.
"Do exactly what I say today."
Yeah, pro my ass.
Couldn't even win dragging this death-dino around.
A bit later,
Arang went 0-6 and spectacularly sank. Game somehow got carried bot-side to a win.
Wondering how to humanize her, I just left the party. No way I'd duo after that. She whined, but no meant no.
Anyway, hit 500 points like that, then solo queued solo.
By stream end, my score had ticked up a bit more.