The Beginning of Competition
This Pokdong guy got a 3-day ban for roasting other streamers, trash-talking, and cussing people out on stream — and they're letting him on the server? Making him a squad leader, even?
1. Elect an initial 12 squad leaders. Each leader must recruit at least 3 members in-game to form a squad.
2. Each squad receives a representative flag and a respawn block. Members may only respawn at their own respawn block.
3. For 5 days, players may not attack or kill each other (houses and structures may still be attacked).
4. For 5 days, each squad's chests may be locked and protected.
5. Free farming and building permitted. Insufficient building blocks may be exchanged for mineral blocks at the neutral shop.
6. Neutral shop inventory rotates every 4 hours (6 times per day). Rare items available at low probability.
7. From midnight on Day 6, all chest locks are disabled for two days. Killing and attacking become fully allowed.
8. On the evening of Day 7 at 8 PM, the squad holding the most flags wins. (However, if any squad collects every flag before Day 7, they win immediately.)
Day one of the Poko Server launch.
Negative opinions were plentiful, but the buzz itself was undeniable. When Pocotin and Decrescendo's firepower combined, the result was nothing short of amazing. Posts about the Poko Server had completely overrun the popular boards on FM Community. The old-timers who'd come back from the StarCraft boards were uncomfortable — some even pushed back — but the united force of the virtual streamer fans turned out to be more formidable than expected.
Knowing this powerful fandom is going to scatter into nothing makes me genuinely sad.
Maybe, before the regression, Decrescendo had been the only key that could have rewritten the history of Pangea TV's virtual scene. Compared to the big-agency streamers, their raw viewer numbers might have fallen short — but the loyalty and immersion of each individual fan was so high that "one person worth a hundred" felt like the right description, and their activity levels were outstanding. The frequency of their viral spread across communities nearly matched the big agencies, and their fan cafes were so active that fan art and fan videos poured in as tributes around the clock.
At the time, it genuinely felt like there was almost no alternative. Freeca had seriously locked its doors and gone hunting for overseas audiences, the Rena Universe was tearing itself apart with internal conflict, and Pocotin was on a downward slide from one misstep after another. Only Decrescendo had been climbing steadily upward — in viewer counts, Candy donations, community recognition, all of it. And if you factored in the popularity the Decrescendo members would later gain from Rena World…
Hypotheticals are meaningless in history. Stick to reality.
It was just a lingering regret, that was all. I closed the community tab and was about to go live when, with impeccable timing, someone called.
"Ah…"
I'd had a feeling. Of course it was Rena-ttang. Did this woman not have any other friends? I answered with a short sigh.
"Seo-a, hi. Have you eaten?"
"Yeah. I just had something light a bit ago — I was about to start streaming."
"Oh, really? Okay. So, I've been thinking — wouldn't it be better to take on some additional people for the server?"
"……"
There was a reason Rena-ttang had called first thing in the morning. The Poko Server had opened yesterday, related posts had flooded the communities, and her stomach was twisting with jealousy. They were both Minecraft servers, and she'd been completely crushed in terms of buzz. Rena-ttang was never one to just sit and take it. She'd clearly stewed over it all day yesterday and come up with this countermeasure.
"This time I'm going to accept applications from face-cam streamers too. That should raise interest in the server even more, right? What do you think?"
"Ah, well… I think that's a good idea."
"Right? Originally I planned it as a virtual-streamer-only server, but face-cam streamers are the mainstream on Pangea TV. Trying to grow Rena World's scale, I just didn't have a choice."
This exact flow had happened before the regression, too. Three days after the Poko Server opened, Rena World took in new residents. Several face-cam streamers with serious name recognition joined and the server became a hot topic overnight. In particular, Mist — a former LoL pro gamer who'd also made a huge name for himself in China — openly showed his love for Minecraft and joined the server, and that was what let Rena World completely overtake the Poko Server.
Satisfied with that momentum, Rena-ttang later put out additional recruitment notices and even announced a backdoor route called the Taesan Track — a special privilege allowing partner streamers of sufficient broadcast scale to enter Rena World at any time, regardless of open recruitment. Riding that privilege, heavyweight partner streamers like Dananyang, Rim-ani, and Kim Hak-do came knocking one after another, and Rena World — breaking fifty thousand concurrent viewers — planted itself firmly at the center of the conversation. It was no longer just a virtual streamer interest. It had become content that spanned all of Pangea TV.
"And I've got something else planned. I talked it over with the operators, and they said it's totally doable. You know the Poko Server, right? It's getting a lot of attention as a war server right now."
"It is. They're pushing that title as hard and provocatively as they can."
"So I figured, why don't we bring in some of that energy too? Not full-time war on a healing server, of course — just one day a week, for a few hours, we set a date and create a war-server atmosphere. We're calling it Purge Day. Murder, looting, and destruction all get a free pass."
"Whoa, that's actually pretty fresh."
"Right? That's what I thought too."
She was already so intoxicated with her own idea that she completely failed to notice how soulless my reaction was. Purge Day had definitely existed in the past before the regression, too. It drew a bit of early popularity, but the destruction got treated as too sensitive for broadcast content, so it eventually disappeared and was replaced by the Arena. Still, there was no question it had given Rena World's early boom a brief but real boost.
Looking at stuff like this, Rena-ttang really is excellent on the planning side. If she'd just managed her mental state and watched her mouth, her antis never would have multiplied the way they did.
Thinking about where Rena-ttang had ended up before the regression left a bitter taste. What was the point of working this hard to run a server? In the end, all that remained were the haters.
"I'd like to start this week if possible. Since it's the first time, maybe just a short one or two hours?"
"That length should be fine. Drag it out too long and the viewers get bored."
"Right? I like how well you and I are on the same page, Seo-a. This week we'll keep it light since it's the first one, but later I want to put up serious prize money. That way both the streamers and the viewers will get more invested, right?"
She started excitedly rattling off idea after idea. Running it starting this week was obviously about keeping the Poko Server in check. Saturday would be Day 6 of the Poko Server — the day the combat ban lifted. Her method of countering a rival was genuinely sharp. She'd stayed quiet until now, then stacked two events back-to-back right as the Poko Server entered its real operational window. Was this the political instinct of someone who'd survived the entertainment industry — a wilderness far harsher than streaming?
I filed another mental note: stay careful around Rena-ttang.
"Alright, you said you were about to go live, right? Have a good stream today."
"Yes! Get some rest. And try not to worry so much."
"Yeah, yeah. Got it."
The call finally ended. The moment I let out a short breath, I opened a notepad and jotted down everything I'd learned today, then cross-checked it against my pre-regression memories.
Additional residents. And Purge Day. Both had actually happened — but there was no guarantee the incoming members would be identical. The butterfly effect from the Wooga-dol audition alone had already left Na-ro-si, who'd wielded considerable influence in Rena World, completely absent.
But one thing is certain… there's no more room to coast.
The moment Mist entered Rena World, the first company would be born: Bad Potato Company. The appearance of companies would drive the small-time virtual streamers — desperate for any trickle-down — into a frenzy of effort, and from that point on the atmosphere inside the server would change completely.
The end of the era when you could leisurely monopolize resources like this. The true beginning of cutthroat competition.