Offline Game (1)
Everyone, let's start packing up our gear and heading out.
The coach's words made the teammates next to me start putting keyboards and mice into their bags.
I had just arrived, so I was standing there.
Today's opponent is AN. They beat us in Spring too, and no major member changes, so don't get complacent and think about getting 3 points.
"Yes."
Today is the 4th day since the start of the CK Summer Season.
Since we played our debut online, today's second match is automatically offline.
Have you been to the CK arena, Seoha?
"I haven't been there."
It's only about 150 seats anyway, much smaller than the VLL finals. So don't get tense and play.
The coach thought I was tense and kept talking.
150 seats is too small.
Compared to LoL Park's 500 seats where I played or Sangam Arena's 600 for the VLL finals, it's tiny.
To me who had experienced the Worlds finals, even without an audience, 150 seats at the CK arena was fine.
Don't worry.
I smiled appropriately and the coach said he believed in me.
Then shall we go?
Following the coach and teammates, I headed to the garage on the first floor.
A black van wrapped with the ARK logo. The manager was in the driver's seat, and the coach in the passenger seat.
I waited for the teammates to get in and got in last.
Three of them in the back seat, and next to me was the team's captain, Kim Dojin.
Just as I was about to do image training like usual, Kim Dojin spoke to me.
"Um, you're still going to school... right?"
"I'm still going to school."
The other ARK teammates except me are all high school students, and all of them dropped out of school to challenge for pro.
Of course, it was inconvenient to go to school, but what could I do?
In Korea, they recommend compulsory education up to middle school, and my parents told me to get my middle school diploma.
But...
He's a year older than me, why is he using honorifics?
Talk casually. I'm older than you, oppa.
"Eh, eh? Really...?"
"Yes, I'm comfortable doing it with honorifics."
Kim Dojin was a bit surprised, then immediately started using casual speech with "I got it."
...
...It was closer than I thought.
It only took about 5 minutes by car from ARK's office to the CK arena.
It was a distance that could be walked, but it seemed they were using the car for the players' stamina.
Again, don't drop your stuff and make the manager suffer. Did you pack everything?
I got out of the car and moved to the 2nd floor where the arena is.
The facility itself was okay thanks to remodeling, but the scale was surprisingly small.
Since we have 2 games, let's go to the waiting room.
I used the passage only for staff to the waiting room.
It's small here too.
Just a few chairs to sit on and one large screen showing the game.
Of course, for Challenger League 2nd division, this was quite good.
In US or European leagues, 2nd division is all online except finals.
Who was the 1st game against?
KE and GW, right?
Seems like a mid-tier fight.
KE and GW weren't strong teams but solid mid-tier teams in Challenger League.
They're going to 3 sets, who do you think will win?
"I think KE."
"I think GW will win."
Kim Dojin's question, the bot duo gave different answers.
They were friends since before becoming pro gamers, but in game they were a good duo, but in reality they always argued like this.
"No, right now it's ADC carry meta, but KE's Racer is much better."
"Even if it's carry meta, Garak is Garak, but his upper body is too lacking. Last season he lost all because of upper body difference."
"Yeah, no matter how much upper body you build, if you hit 75% crit, it's all gone~"
"Go Garak, 10,000 won?"
"Okay, no more arguing later."
***
"My 10,000..."
The bet went back to Jin Yuseong winning as ADC.
Since both teams lacked decisiveness in the Challenger League, the game dragged into the endgame, and eventually it ended with ADC ending.
So, don't bet money lightly.
Let's go out and prepare too.
Usually in esports, after the game there's analysis desk content, but in 2nd division, it's just picking out some important scenes with commentary.
For that reason, we packed the bags with keyboards and mice and headed to the arena.
More people than I thought.
I thought the audience seats for the previous 1st game were half empty, so the 2nd game would be similar.
But the current audience seats were completely full.
Even people wearing ARK uniforms, exactly my marked ones, were seen here and there.
Even though seats were few, it was nice to see it was completely full.
Is smaller better for audience immersion?
The arena facility had one huge screen hanging above, and the audience seats were closer than LoL Park.
Something, it might be good from the viewing perspective.
Frankly, in esports, they watch the game on the scoreboard, but if you can hear the player calls well, the on-site feel might come nicely.
Thinking such random thoughts, I set up the equipment one by one.
The one I used in my previous life... when was it released?
Our team didn't have sponsored gaming gear, so we bought similar products from the previous life and used them.
The original product hadn't been released yet.
I laid the mousepad on the table and put the keyboard and mouse on top.
Since both products were wireless, I plugged in the USB receiver and finished setting up.
The headset, I have to use the one given by CK.
In esports, when saying personal equipment, it means keyboard, mouse, mousepad.
Then you could ask about headset, but most people used the product given by the organizer.
The reason for doing so much is to prevent inferring the opponent's situation and strategy from ear pressure, audience cheers or reactions.
For example.
If the team you're cheering for goes to a place where they can't see, and the opponent is hiding?
Then you shout, if a sudden audience cheer bursts out, the team walking in dark vision can't help but feel something is wrong.
Even if this seems nothing, in professional leagues where victory is decided by one choice, it was a serious problem.
The sound goes through the soundproof booth.
You can't block the audience's cheers by saying you can't.
To solve it, even if you install soundproof booths, if hundreds or thousands shout, the booth will ring and information will reach the players.
What was introduced to solve that was high-performance noise-canceling headsets.
Just shoot noise directly into the ears.
If you don't turn up the game sound and mic sound, it's pink noise that drowns everything out.
I think it's the cause of most rookie players struggling with high tones, players who can't adapt to the stage.
Pro people get agitated even if the setting is a little different.
Playing such noise in their ears all game, normal people are the odd ones out.
Of course, since I was in the odd group, I didn't feel much discomfort except for some situations.
Let's talk about one of those few.
...When will it be solved?
There was a time when a pause (match interruption) was called like now.
"No, isn't it Logitech spawn for the opponent team? What caused the pause?"
Jin Yuseong's words pierced through the crackling noise.
Yes. Even when the pause is called, players have to wear headsets, and during that time, the noise keeps coming out.
"Maybe the keyboard program crashed and settings were reset?"
Logitech's keyboards and mice commonly used by many pros allow custom settings through dedicated programs.
But on the desktops in the arena, for security reasons, the dedicated program wasn't installed, and they played with settings stored in advance on the device.
So, when settings are reset like now, there's the hassle of pausing and resetting again.
Log is the league spawn in the first place.
Why not install the setting program?
I understood that it was always the case, Riot Korea doing loco behavior.
...When will it start?
I understood because I had experienced this bug several times, but it was boring.
Perhaps because of that, the noise that I wouldn't have been bothered by originally started to irritate me.
It will take 10 minutes to finish setting this.
"After it's done, we'll eat dinner, right?"
"Have to eat."
"Today we really have to eat kimchi jjigae."
I turned my head and looked at the opposing team on the opposite side.
"It seems like they're setting hard with the referee, but I don't know when they'll finish."
In frustration, I sighed once and put my face on the table.
While resting with my chin on the desk like that.
"What is it?"
"Suddenly it seems like people are cheering."
"Seems like they're saying something with commentary."
"If it's important, the referee will tell us."
There was an unusual reaction around.
"But that main camera... seems strangely focused on me?"
It must be my imagination.