Carrying the Stream

The second Overwatch finished loading, I queued straight into ranked.

"I came by earlier and already got my settings locked in and my hands warmed up, so don't worry~"

The second I started a ranked game, worried messages flooded the chat — and Seoyeon fielded every one of them without missing a beat, like she'd seen the questions coming from a mile away. Was this what veteran streamer instincts looked like?

"Perfect timing, too. If we win this one, I rank up to Gold. A player of Gosu's caliber can handle that, right?"

"Probably? As long as nothing crazy happens, we should climb just fine."

The instant the word "toto" hit the chat, Seoyeon's hands flew across the keyboard and mouse and a prediction bet popped open. Viewers piled their points onto whichever outcome they liked, and it brought back the last time she and I had duo'd — when the bet had been whether I could even manage three wins as a healer.

Back then, the votes had stacked heavily on me winning just a single game. This time, the money was riding on me taking the W.

"Hmmm...? You guys are so mean. When it's me playing, you all pile onto the losing side..."

"Thanks for the support, everyone! Time to carry~"

Having people actually cheering for me feels pretty good, huh? Alright. Time to go all out.

Chat exploded all over again at that. I'd figured I'd get a decent reaction the moment I showed up on stream — Seoyeon and I had talked about it at Starbucks — but the response was so much bigger than I'd expected that I was the one getting flustered.

A ranked match popped while I was still processing that, and I locked in McCree without hesitation.

"Oh, going McCree?"

"The whole point of this stream is to prove I can actually play. When that's the goal, you pick a character that shows off your aim."

McCree — a hitscan whose shots hurt one clean click at a time — was the perfect pick to show I wasn't running hacks. The match loaded in.

King's Row this time. We started on defense, so I pushed up for a second and lobbed a magnetic grenade on a pre-timed arc. I'd already done the math on when to throw it so it would catch the enemy team the instant they spilled out of spawn, and there was no way it was going to miss. Sure enough, it connected, and I started the round with a chunk of ultimate charge the rest of my team didn't have.

Chat was full of people acting like they'd just seen a magic trick. It really wasn't that fancy of a tech, though. Maybe it just looked impressive if you were used ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to watching a Bronze streamer like Seoyeon?

Once I confirmed the nade had landed, I fell back and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠set up. Looking at their comp... Pharah-Mercy dive? A classic on King's Row. They'd even brought Zarya to throw a bubble on Pharah. The rest was Soldier and Ana. Not a bad composition.

At Master and above, anyway.

At Silver, people generally understood how the abilities worked. The gap was more about the little physical differences — and the fact that they still hadn't quite figured out how to actually press an attack.

There was nothing to gain from taking that comp in a straight-up brawl. Better to give Pharah as few clean firing angles as possible while she hovered around.

Luckily my team actually listened and eased back, and the enemy pushed straight onto the point.

Alright... Mercy first.

She was the annoying one — glued to Pharah, pumping out a damage boost, and ready to start healing the second Pharah's health dipped. Mercy had to go. I tracked her carefully, eased my crosshair onto her, and squeezed off shot after shot.

The crisp crack of a headshot rang out, and I deleted the Mercy floating around in midair before she could even react. A Mercy in any decent lobby would have peeled the second things got dangerous — but this was Silver, and her reactions were just slow enough.

The instant I drew first blood, my teammates got excited and surged forward, and I swung my aim onto the now-solo Pharah and put her down too.

Then that bright, satisfying Team Kill sting hit my ears.

Chat was losing its mind. And honestly, watching them react like that had my own mood climbing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right along with theirs.

The enemy team, wiped in seconds, regrouped and tried to rush us as a five — but Pharah and Mercy kept getting picked out of the air by my shots, and the push died on the spot.

My team liked the confidence.

Ult timing was coming back around. What to do with it? McCree's High Noon was the kind of ultimate that looked incredible in a Play of the Game if you chained a multi-kill — but most teams weren't just going to stand there and eat the whole thing. Maybe back when Overwatch first launched. These days everyone knew how to play around it, so you were better off treating it as a tool to delete one or two DPS or supports rather than greed for the full wipe.

More people died lining up the "perfect" High Noon than actually got the multi-kill they were hunting.

But I was on stream, and this was Silver. A little greed wouldn't kill me... right? I waited for the moment the enemy team got shoved back and started stacking up in their spawn, then slipped around behind them.

We were winning comfortably on defense. Peeling off alone to flank and getting collapsed on would have been the textbook definition of trolling. But manufacturing a clip for the stream wasn't the worst idea in the world, was it?

I hid, waited until the enemy was fully committed to the standoff with my team and nobody was watching their back — then stepped out and popped it.

McCree's voice rolled out, and I watched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the red circles tighten over their heads with my heart in my throat. If the Ana on their team so much as tossed a sleep dart my way and interrupted the ult, the whole gamble was dead. But the goddess of victory, apparently in the mood for a good show, decided to take my side.

I deleted their entire DPS and support line in a single breath, then sprinted forward and cleaned up the leftover Zarya with my team.

"No way... that actually worked?"

"Knowing when to take the angle is a skill too."

Seoyeon was so stunned by the play that I couldn't help smiling.

Chat was almost entirely people losing their minds over the ult. The enemy swapped comps again and again, trying to find something that could break a Pharah-Mercy poke that clearly wasn't working — and they never even got a proper foot on the point before the timer ran out.

"Whoa, if we just cap this it's over, right?"

"Pretty much. What should I play on attack... Seoyeon, I'll go whatever you want. Pick something."

Was it Seoyeon? The chat? Something had me in an incredibly good mood without me even noticing.

"Whatever I want? You already think you've won. Fine then... go Bastion."

"Bastion? That works."

I locked Bastion exactly as requested. Just swap to sentry mode and melt them, right?

The second I picked Bastion, my team built a whole comp around me. The result was so one-sided it was almost boring — we wiped them off the map, capped the point in under two minutes, and took the win.

"So? That's one game down."

I asked the chat with a Gold promotion and a very satisfying victory sitting pretty on my screen.

With the camera clearly showing it was my own hands on the keyboard, nobody was going to keep pushing the hack angle.

And there it was — the one question I'd been waiting for.

The dono wasn't wrong. I still hadn't clearly proven I wasn't some booster logged into someone else's account.

"I figured someone would say that. I can't exactly dox Gosu's personal information, so I haven't been able to settle that point cleanly, but... think about it, you guys. How easy do you think it is to find a guy with this kind of skill and hire him as a booster? And if I knew he was boosting, why would I stick my neck out and defend him?"

Seoyeon was right — in this world, finding a guy who could play at my level was apparently genuinely difficult. Recruit someone like that just to sit him in front of a camera and claim he wasn't boosting? It'd be easier to just take the YouTube video down.

"Ah, about that... you're not going to believe this, but I practiced as hard as I could in the training range, and then at some point it was like I just... had an awakening? That's the only way I can explain it."

Honestly, there was no way to explain that part. I'd woken up in this body from another world, and the previous me had spent every game throwing his brains out. How exactly was I supposed to put that into words?

"Alright then — let's keep going~"

I queued ranked after ranked and the stream rolled on. Seoyeon and I tossed banter back and forth in the downtime, close enough to a Just Chatting segment, and before I knew it three hours had gone by.

"Alright, everyone~ that's going to do it for today's stream~"

"I genuinely want to go longer too, but... Gosu has stuff tomorrow. I can't just keep a guy here until all hours, you know?"

"She's right. I'm a college student, so I've got a morning lecture I have to get to."

The second the words "college student" left Minho's mouth, chat detonated all over again.

"No, we are not dating! I swear..."

Honestly, hearing myself deny it out loud left a little sour taste in my mouth. Not that I had a choice.

"Mmm... I just took a fifty-dollar dono, so it feels kinda wrong to just hard-close... Gosu, would you come back on stream again sometime?"

"Swallowing a donation and running would be pretty rude. Of course I'll come back. The viewers seem to like it, too."

"You heard him, right? I'll bring Gosu back on, so we're wrapping for today, okay?"

I even promised chat I'd have Minho on again before I finally hit the end stream button.

"You did great today, Minho. Seriously, thank you for helping me cook content."

"Don't mention it. I had fun too. So I just show up again next time?"

"Mmm... better than just calling you on for no reason, we should lock in an actual bit. Like, you tutoring me in Overwatch. That kind of concept."

Minho said that sounded fun, and with a smile he promised he'd come back on my stream.

I walked him out even though he insisted he could get home on his own, and I made sure to send him half of everything the donations had exploded into tonight. Even after splitting it, what I had left was still way more than I usually made streaming alone.

This is a way better deal than I thought. And I just naturally locked in another reason to see Minho?

Already looking forward to the next time we streamed together, I headed home.