Best of Three
"Nobody recognized me."
"There's a lot of lurkers, and not many people chatting. That's probably why."
"Yeah. I got a little full of myself just because I've streamed a few times. That's embarrassing."
"Hehe. Jiyoung, you're so cute that anyone who's seen even one of your streams would never miss you. It's just that nobody watching this one has seen yours before."
Mina had a point, but I figured I could stand to be a little more humble.
The matchmaking game wrapped up, and Siyeon paused for a moment.
"Wait — they did recognize me?"
"Usually in small streams, the regulars get close with the streamer. So the viewers were probably being considerate."
"I thought they didn't recognize me. Now I'm kind of proud."
Among Animal Kingdom players, Mina seemed to be more famous than I was. Then again, a Gold player with a 100% win rate who'd steamrolled Platinum as well was bound to become a hot topic.
Siyeon's current rank was Diamond — the highest tier — and she was matchmaking with the gorilla. She had so many gorilla screenshots floating around that people joked she was trying to pick one up, though the character's kit was actually quite solid.
"She's really good."
"Yeah? How do you think she'd do against you?"
"Hmm. I wouldn't know until we actually fought."
"But why does she have so few viewers? Are Arena streams not popular?"
"It's hard to talk with viewers through chat alone, and streaming success takes more than just game skill."
Siyeon's viewer count was pitifully low compared to how well she played. If I had her skill, I would've been running Arena streams myself every now and then. Maybe a cam and a mic really did make that much of a difference? I'd been using both from my very first stream, so the idea of talking to viewers through chat alone looked pretty inconvenient.
"Mina, want to run Arena against Siyeon?"
"If that's what you want, I'll do it."
I was curious how a match between Mina and Siyeon would go. A single game wouldn't be enough to compare them properly, so a best of three felt about right.
Siyeon created the room, and Mina logged into the game and joined. Siyeon was good enough that I genuinely couldn't predict who would win. Of course, I was hoping it would be Mina.
"Mina, can you pull up Siyeon's profile?"
"Sure. One sec."
Siyeon must have been just as curious about Mina's win rate, because she pulled up Mina's profile as well.
Mina's win rate in Platinum was still over 90%. Siyeon was a Diamond ranker, and hers was over 65%.
The ladder started at Unranked with zero points: Bronze at 100, Silver at 300, Gold at 600, Platinum at 1,000, Diamond at 1,500, and Master from 2,000 onward. Up through Gold, a win against the same tier netted you 10 points, a draw was zero, and a loss cost you somewhere between 5 and 8. From Platinum on, a win was still 10, but a loss dropped you 7 to 9. From Diamond on, a win was 10 and a loss was 8 to 10. There weren't any players above Diamond yet, so nobody knew how the higher tiers would work, but the guess was that from Master onward a loss would cost you 9 to 11.
Siyeon was sitting at around 1,950 points. Above her, there was one person at 1,960.
"Rank 2 with a 65% win rate is actually insane."
"I think I could get there too, honestly."
"I don't play that often. I queued a bit when you weren't around, though."
"So you're not going to play anymore? We'll always be together anyway."
"Now that you mention it. If you want me to, I'll play every now and then. Hehe."
"I like watching you play, so I'd love it if you did it more often."
I'd never actually tried Arena myself — I wasn't good enough — but watching Mina win was its own kind of vicarious thrill. Watching someone talented play was entertaining all by itself. That, I figured, was why internet streaming had taken off the way it had. Doing it myself, though, was just frustrating, and I didn't particularly want to. I had a feeling there were plenty of people like me: no interest in playing, but happy to sit back and watch someone else do it.
Mina hit the ready button, Siyeon hit start, and the match I'd been waiting for finally began.
A tense first game.
Before the countdown finished, they kept a bit of distance. The moment it hit three, two, one — start — they began closing the gap, little by little.
The gorilla had a throw attack. On a phone, throwing horizontally or vertically was easy enough, but throwing on a diagonal was hard. Diamond rankers predicted how far an opponent would move and threw accordingly — diagonals included — so those attacks actually landed more often than you'd think. Mina, on the lion, slipped the throw like it was nothing. Siyeon, deciding a poke wouldn't connect in this situation, didn't throw at all.
You could block a ranged attack with guard, but burning a skill just to stop a projectile wasn't a good trade.
In a fight between players this good, you poked with short-cooldown skills and looked for the right moment to land something heavy. The key among those was the area skill — it ignored counters and was rock-solid besides. So the usual game plan was either to bait the opponent into using theirs first, or to throw yours out and go on the attack.
Mina charged in. Siyeon used her guard skill like she'd been waiting for it. Mina must have seen that coming, because she went for a grab. Whiff a grab into empty air and you were wide open for a full combo in return — but against a guarding opponent, a grab was perfect. A grabbed opponent went down, and just like a counter state, they got invincibility while they were getting up. Mina immediately stepped off the spot.
A support item spawned, but neither of them could afford to go for it. You were completely exposed while picking one up — an easy target. So they sat there, feeling each other out, neither willing to commit to the run.
Siyeon threw a ranged attack along the path she expected Mina to take. Mina answered with an uppercut — a jump attack — and slipped it. The uppercut was an offensive move, but it also jumped higher than a normal jump, which made it a way to dodge projectiles. A regular jump could do the same, but the timing was tighter. Siyeon must have predicted the dodge, because she immediately followed with a dash skill, and this time Mina got hit.
While we were watching the match, the viewer count had climbed a lot. Word must have gotten out that Mina and Siyeon were running an Arena set. It looked like Siyeon's own viewers had posted about it in the community, and people had started flooding in.
Siyeon was too locked in on the Arena match to notice that her viewer count had exploded. She managed to land two more hits on Mina — and still lost.
It was only afterward that she realized how many people had come in, and she typed into chat right away.
The viewer count blew past 200 in no time, and it kept climbing. The Arena set with Mina became the moment an unknown streamer exploded overnight.
Mina lost the second game. She won the third.
Either way, I was glad Siyeon's stream had taken off because of the set — and I was glad Mina had taken it 2–1.