Scrim (3)
"Public scrim?"
"For real?"
"We're going on broadcast again?"
Seona, Yuna, and Eunjae—the three who loved the attention—lit up at the news of the public scrim.
"Why a public scrim, though...? Do pro teams normally make scrims public?"
"I don't wanna."
Ha-young and Sera, the more introverted ones, looked reluctant.
"You three. This isn't something to be thrilled about. They didn't just request a scrim—they specifically asked for it to be public. What do you think their reason is?"
"Celebrity syndrome?"
"Attention whores!"
"They've got money to burn?"
"Ha-young."
After the trio's nonsense, I turned to our team captain Ha-young, who at least seemed to have some brains.
"The top team in the academy league specifically calling us out... is it to crack down on discipline?"
"Ha-young's got it. Here's a drumstick as a reward."
I handed her my chicken drumstick, and she snatched it right up.
"Not fair! Drumsticks only for Ha-young!"
"Discriminatory coach, step down!"
"Resign!"
"But why would they care about our discipline?"
Sera's question.
It was a fair point. We hadn't done anything to piss off Team Brilliant.
But after my call with Manager Kim, I'd dug deeper into Brilliant, so I knew the reason right away.
I pulled up Team Brilliant's official social accounts on my phone and showed the players.
Followers barely scraping 400-500.
Even with Eternal Combat's huge global player base, in a small market like Korea—and at academy league level—that was reality. Visibility and fan numbers were pathetically low.
With so few fans, their team socials had barely any posts or photos. Maybe one or two a week, sporadically.
"Why are you showing us their SNS?"
"For comparison. Now check ours."
I switched to our team's social media.
1,200 followers, with several photos posted daily. Staff-shot and edited pics, fleshed out with simple tweaks by the front office and uploaded every day.
Mixed in were promo shots of our players, posed on team request like magazine covers.
"Pfft, look at Sera's awkward face!"
"Whoa, Ha-young looks stunning all dolled up. Put on some makeup more often!"
"Seona, you bitch, you wore that tight outfit on purpose, didn't you?"
The players chattered, critiquing each other's pics. I set the phone on the table and asked Seona and Eunjae, who were most hooked.
"What do you get from this?"
"That my body's goddess-level?"
"That my hips are bigger than Seona's!"
"I should've known better than to ask you two. Ha-young."
"We've got way more popularity."
I handed Ha-young another drumstick, which she eagerly took.
"Ha-young nailed it. See? Our socials are way more active, and our popularity matches. And we haven't even played an official match yet—purely off looks, we've built that fanbase."
"Heh heh heh. With a girl like me, 1,200 is nothing. I'm offended it's only that many."
"If I just shake my ass in a dance vid once, we'll hit 5,000 by tomorrow!"
"Exactly. That's why Brilliant requested a public scrim."
"Jealousy?"
Sera hit the nail on the head.
"Yeah, jealousy. They've been holding the academy gatekeeper title for ages, scraping by with 400-500 fans, and now some no-name ragtag team rolls in, racks up fans with pretty faces and SNS hustle. Pisses them off."
"Hmph, then they should be prettier."
"Seona, confidence in your looks is great, but this isn't the time to brag. Imagine we do this public scrim with Brilliant and get utterly wrecked like trash. What happens then?"
"Brainless bimbos trying to go pro on looks alone. Everyone calls us worthless pros. I'd trash us too."
Yuna muttered, getting it, then turned to her four juniors.
"Hey, you lot. We have to win this. Lose, and we're total idiots."
"Obviously we're scrimming to win, but... do we really become total losers if we lose?"
Ha-young surprisingly missed the point here.
"Nah. Back when I was a trainee, I heard this stuff all the time. Singers or dancers mess up on broadcast? Boom—'slept with the PD for the contract?' 'Pillow service?' 'How many guys you fuck?' That shit floods in."
"No way they'd go that far..."
"They will. Especially off-season like now. Nothing to watch, so they devour drama like this. Even male pros get flooded with hate DMs.
'You made my fave lose, retire, kill yourself.' Imagine for girls like us, especially with looks drawing eyes. You'd get hate and harassment beyond anything you've ever seen."
Hate comments and DM terrorism on players was a chronic plague from old PC game days to now.
Division 1 teams even hired psychologists for mental care.
"Ugh, why? Don't they have lives? Losses happen in games."
"Don't expect sanity from so-called fans. Could be bored assholes needing bite toys, or jealous pigs drooling over your looks.
Point is, front office already accepted this scrim. Win's break-even; loss is a nightmare risk. Brilliant targeted us knowing that."
"I hate those bastards. Wanna crush 'em."
Sera rarely showed emotion, but she was pissed. Her even saying "crush 'em" meant Brilliant had gotten under our skin good.
"Right? Thinking about it pisses me off. They're dead set on screwing us."
"Screw their intent. We're heading to Division 1 anyway, yeah? Let's set the hierarchy straight. I can't stand losing."
"I wanna win too. Their motive's so sleazy. Coach said he wouldn't have accepted if they asked."
"Me too. Feels like they're out to make us look like morons. Gonna pay 'em back."
All the players were fired up for the Brilliant scrim. Yuna, the most competitive, shot up from the table and glared at me.
"Coach! I'm too pissed—I gotta practice, even solo!"
"Me too!"
"Me three!"
"Yuna, calm down. You all too. You stuffed yourselves on chicken and fruit. Jump in capsules now, it'll wreck your body and form. Especially you, Yuna—you drank. We're doing team dinner tonight anyway, so relax and enjoy. If you really wanna practice, wait till after, when your stomachs settle."
I stood up.
"Where you going, Coach?"
"Work. Here's the company card—pay when done. Keep the receipt. Yuna, you're in charge."
"Sure~"
Leaving the girls at the pub, I headed straight back to the practice room and dove into analyzing Brilliant's past season games.
They earned the "gatekeeper" nickname fair and square—their moves were pretty organized.
Leagues ahead of other academy teams in map usage and strategy, great control and judgment... or so the old reviews said.
To me? Pathetic. Compared to my old team BlackWings, we could've 15-minute perfected them. Gaps everywhere, obvious at a glance.
I opened a spreadsheet, logging their movements, paths, and weaknesses in detail.
After tearing apart five games, I reached a conclusion.
We can win this handily.
[XX Card Approval] Team Shining Star 04/11 23:54
(Amount) 396,000 KRW at Bu-eo-ra Hops
"......?"
###
"Ughhh... I'm gonna die..."
"Urp—blegh!"
"Hurk, heuk... Kang Yuseong... you damn coach. Spent a ton on dinner and now this? It's company money anyway..."
"Huff... Seona unnie. Huff... Coach wants you in the meeting room. Like, now."
Shin Sera relayed Yuseong's summons to Kim Seona.
"Huff... huff... Me alone?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck... Tortures us then calls me in to chew me out more? Or finally gonna extend his black tentacles to this weakened girl and toy with her body..."
"What the hell. Shut your nonsense and go already, I'm dying here. Or I'll hit you."
"You always threaten to hit me. Hmph, fine, I'm going."
Seona dragged her wobbly legs to the meeting room.
"You called for me, Coach?"
"Sit."
"Sat."
"Remember the Brilliant footage I showed you yesterday?"
"Yeah."
"Who bugged you the most? Tell me."
Why ask this? Seona tilted her head but answered.
"Their mid. What was her name?"
"Oh Sujin."
"Right, Oh Sujin! The rest sucked hard, but she was decent. Not as good as me, though. Heh heh heh."
"Nah, you're worse than Oh Sujin right now."
Seona bristled, raising her voice.
"What? Why am I worse than Oh Sujin?! Coaches can't trash players like that! I'm disappointed!"
"One question, then. Can you dodge ganks like she does?"
"Well... that's..."
Seona trailed off. She knew she got ganked too easily.
"Your skills are about even. Hell, your control and reaction speed have the edge. But you die to ganks way too simply. Over 50 days, and that habit's still there.
Go into scrim like this, Brilliant hits mid 100/100 times. Oh Sujin snowballs, we lose."
"...So what do I do?"
"Obviously fix dying mindlessly overextending center line. But habits don't vanish overnight. You're specializing Shadow Assassin skills now, right?"
"Yeah."
"Progress at Beginner 70% or so?"
"Yes."
Seona spat curt answers, pissed at Yuseong downplaying her.
"Drop Shadow Assassin for this scrim."
Seona jumped at the drastic prescription.
"What? I've been grinding only Shadow Assassin to death, and you say drop it?! Even if I feed ganks, that's too much! Killing a player's champ?!"
"Nightcrawler for this scrim. Guarantees the win."
"...Huh?"
"I'll explain. Sit here."
Yuseong's explanation dragged on for over 20 minutes.
Finally, Seona realized he wasn't trashing her.
And with it, certainty hit.
The scrim's winner would be her—and her team.