Risk and Reward
A professional gamer's day starts a little later than most people's.
It's because their wake-up time is a bit delayed.
Of course, there are players who wake up early with the disciplined habit of a diligent routine.
But gamers' peak time is usually the late-night hours just before midnight.
Naturally, professional gamers are most active in solo ranked matches and personal streams during those hours.
As a result, most gamers, compared to ordinary people, sleep only about four or five hours a night.
In the worst case, they keep playing solo ranked until four or five in the morning and even do the mobile game's daily quests that reset at five o'clock...
This is just a personal hobby, so let's move on.
Naturally, the official schedule of professional gamers also follows that average lifestyle.
Usually, they eat breakfast during what everyone calls lunchtime.
From around one in the afternoon, they scrim with other professional gamer teams or amateur teams.
Or they handle some other official commitments.
Some might call it laziness, but...
The times when official tournaments are held are usually set after regular office workers have finished work.
There's even an analysis that they've optimized their lifestyle to match that.
If the match drags on, League of Champions tournaments can go until midnight.
If they follow such a highly disciplined lifestyle—sleeping at ten in the evening and waking at six in the morning—then by the evening when games are in full swing, at nine o'clock, the sleepiness will just come on naturally.
It's almost like a kind of professional consciousness.
Anyway, so.
Jinseok woke up late again today and headed straight to the gym in the same clothes he'd been wearing.
Joker had said so, hadn't he?
Especially since so many professional gamers spend most of their time sitting in front of computers, they really need to train hard.
The team had set up a gym as a welfare benefit for the pro players.
Why not use it, right?
Of course, it's not just for the player team—it's also open to staff from Hanwha Life—but at this time of morning, there was no one else around anyway.
The only visitors would probably be from the marketing department, coming to film the HLG pro team.
But unexpectedly, there was already someone in the gym ahead of Jinseok.
Coach Taekhyun, the one who had come to the pop-up store event at the department store last time and offered to follow him as his own manager.
He was walking on the treadmill instead of running, so maybe he wasn't waiting for anyone to appear.
"Oh, Coach. You're here early."
"Exactly. Only you players who work out here. I've never seen the others around."
And from what the coach was saying, that someone had to be Jinseok.
According to the coach, the others were all League of Champions addicts who would squeeze in one more game during their workout time.
Of course, Jinseok himself was sincere about League of Champions.
He just listened a little more carefully to Joker's words—Joker, the undisputed world No. 1 who had been shattering unprecedented records in global League of Champions tournaments for ten straight years.
eSports requires strong mental strength and endurance, and because you have to maintain the same posture for long hours while exerting extremely high concentration, having healthy physical abilities to support that is essential.
If the gods say so, you have no choice but to obey.
So, when Jinseok lectured his teammates, they reluctantly followed the three-minute stretching routine he told them to do from YouTube.
He slipped in a little excuse to avoid doing it himself and, in return, gave Coach Taekhyun a light nudge.
"Well, everyone does stretching. It's my first time seeing you at the gym, Coach."
"Hmm, hmm. Anyway. That girl you beat last time at the pop-up store—how was she?"
That brought up old painful memories for Taekhyun.
But Jinseok wasn't shallow enough to be wounded by such things.
Losing to a pro gamer and having your pride hurt is only natural.
What's important is that you never let yourself get hit by that kind of play again.
"It was brutal. I don't know about the operation or stuff like that, but he came out of nowhere to solo-kill me. He really was good. I'd played against Jax a lot, but he reacted mechanically to everything like he was following a built-in AI. The spacing felt almost like playing against a highly refined AI."
Jinseok had coolly admitted it.
But apparently, what Taekhyun was talking about wasn't that.
"Ah, playing-wise, of course he's good, so Jinseok caught him. I showed that to him too and got a business card. He even broke through Grandmaster tier today. Honestly, I might have been a little disappointed if he'd contacted me right after, but he kept playing anyway. Maybe he's scraping by on his own skill. I actually like that kind of spirit."
"Oh. Sounds like a guy who really takes the game seriously. So you're saying he fits our team well? Well, we'd have to check the chemistry first. Honestly, we're still in the second-tier league. If he's really good, we can just recruit him and adjust the timing."
"No, not that. As a woman."
But his second guess had been wrong.
Taekhyun came straight to the point.
Naturally, Jinseok looked back at him with a sincere expression.
"No, Coach. In college or at work, they say if your relationship goes wrong, the whole atmosphere falls apart. Why would a pro team be different? You can't let any feelings develop."
"Yeah, it's good that you're this thoughtful, Jinseok. Really, it is. But what about the others? A girl joins the team, and will they really accept her into the team without any mixed feelings? That's the issue. That's why I pulled you aside and asked specifically."
"..."
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate.
Taekhyun hadn't been probing Jinseok out of any ill intent.
But this time, it was Jinseok's turn to get serious.
It had been Coach Taekhyun who had first handed Noel a business card and said he wanted to give her a test if she reached Grandmaster tier.
Now that Noel had actually reached that tier, his mind hadn't changed.
Jinseok had wondered why he was asking such a question, so he asked the coach again.
"Well, even if it's said that gender doesn't matter in game skill, the game board is mostly male-only, so other players might not be interested either. Honestly, that guy was really good-looking. Ah, of course, just by looking at him he looked underage, so there's no way I'd touch him. Other people might have their own thoughts. It's a bit worrying. If you're worried about that, why not just not hand over the business card in the first place? If you called him for the test and he failed, wouldn't he just waste his time for nothing?"
"Exactly. Originally, I was thinking of recruiting a regular player who was just skilled and using him as a face card. Make him an honorary pro gamer, send him out only for event matches. A pretty woman who actually plays League of Champions is pretty unique, right? But when I checked his record and personal broadcast, I saw potential. So I was thinking, maybe we should add her to our roster."
"Hmm..."
In summary, it seemed like he had been thinking of nurturing her like that girl from the pop-up store—as a kind of game entertainer.
Even though it had nothing to do with wanting to be recognized as a pro gamer, because he knew he had been called there precisely because he was handsome.
Jinseok already knew the reality Taekhyun was describing.
Sports need fans, and pro players need them to exist.
To expand that fan base, there was nothing more effective than something that draws attention.
And beauty draws people's interest no matter the field.
Even if she didn't look like a glamorous idol, that girl from the pop-up store had been a beauty of a different kind.
It had a bit of a decadent vibe, and combined with her leg disability, it had stirred up pity.
But if she received proper management and adjusted her condition, that disability could even become a topic.
But it was too skilled for that kind of direction.
Because of that, Jinseok had seriously considered it.
After all, hadn't a pro player already suffered witch hunts for a careless remark?
It was because a woman was recruited to the team.
The reason Jinseok had given was the same, but the public opinion had gone even further, mentioning female players from other FPS games.
The moment something like that gets involved, the team and the front office suffer extreme headaches.
Was Noel worth taking on with that kind of risk?
Jinseok hadn't been sure.
If she had truly overwhelming skill, they would have shouted that she'd have to be recruited no matter her pride.
A female Joker appears? No, does gender even matter?
Just facing her and giving her half a chance would win.
But was Noel at that level?
Of course, when a female gamer joins the team, there would be a huge stir.
And no one knows how the teammates' atmosphere would change.
If these gamers who only know games end up breaking ties because of one girl...
Was she a player skilled enough to accept that risk?
"I don't know. We have to see if she passes the test first. Show her play video to the others and ask if it's okay."
Jinseok hadn't been sure.
He thought his own sense of judgment wasn't developed enough yet to evaluate someone he'd only faced in a line-up once.
So he left the decision to his teammates.
If all five of the others besides himself approved, then he could reconsider the risk later.
"Hmm, no, it's not necessary. If she was truly a gem, you would have felt the wall. It's not that level, right?"
"Well, not exactly a wall... just really good."
"That'll do. In the test, she'll show the wall of a pro, and then we'll recruit her as an honorary pro gamer and use her for promotions. Since this is a collaboration with the League of Champions headquarters, and it has nothing to do with our team's record, they might even be more enthusiastic."
But Taekhyun's weighing of the risk and reward had been a little different.
Jinseok had thought maybe they should just keep watching a bit longer.
But the nuance Taekhyun already had his decision made.
Jinseok wondered if he had accidentally shattered the dream of one promising pro player with his idle words.
But soon he brushed that thought away.
If she was truly a monster, she would naturally break through to Challenger on her own.