92. Fandom Wars
92. Fandom Wars
***
After about two hours of Another World Arena play, Serin was at Platinum 1, 100 points. That meant she had climbed to the score just before her Diamond Promotion Series.
"I'll stop Another World here for today, and I'll continue the Diamond Promotion Series on tomorrow's stream."
Today's Another World Arena record was undefeated, but as the chat atmosphere grew chaotic, even my own emotions got shaken up.
In the end, it was like the mood had already been ruined. I couldn't fully enjoy Another World, and once chat started flooding with talk about the G1 pro players, I completely lost any desire to run the Diamond Promotion Series.
So I pushed a major event like the Promotion Series off to next time.
—Disconnecting.
————————
Slither.
"...Hah."
As she climbed out of the capsule and straightened up, Serin let out a sigh deep enough to sink into the ground.
She couldn't help the viewers' chat about G1 today, but she figured she'd have to manage it from now on.
Slither.
She gathered up the white hair that kept falling across her vision, lifted it high, and tied it back with a band, trying to settle her restless mood.
After the massive donation of two million won came in, no further donations from G1 players followed.
Maybe it really was like one chat said—that they'd gone off to prepare for their match. I was starting to resent the players for no good reason around then.
'...Why am I holding a grudge against the players?'
The players had clearly donated to my stream out of goodwill, and I found myself ridiculous for pushing back just because of the results of those donations.
A streamer who receives a huge donation and still feels bad—other streamers wouldn't understand if they heard about it.
But today was the first time since I started streaming that I'd felt what it meant for the stream's atmosphere to go murky, so it hit me even harder.
Maybe because this was the first time chat had gotten this messy since I started streaming, even receiving a huge donation didn't feel all that good.
Thinking I should drink some coffee and calm myself down a bit, I opened my mouth.
"Just a moment, I'll go get some coffee."
After saying that into the mic, I headed out to the living room.
Clack.
Drip.
As I poured coffee from the coffee maker, I found myself wondering just how amazing this team was that my viewers were so full of talk about G1.
I remembered looking them up once after receiving the scrim offer, but nothing really stuck with me.
I'd replied to the scrim offer with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, so I hadn't paid much attention.
I picked up my phone, went to a well-known website, and searched for "G1."
At the very top, a G1-related wiki site appeared.
*
————
Team Name: G1.
Founded: January 13, 2029.
League: ACK.
......
Coaches: Han Siwoo, Han Jinhui.
Captain: Kang Hyeok.
— Major League History.
2029 ACK Spring Runner-up.
2029 ACK Summer Runner-up.
2030 ACK Spring Runner-up.
2030 ACK Summer Runner-up.
2031 ACK Spring Runner-up.
— Records Held.
Most ACK Runner-up Finishes: 5.
5 Consecutive Playoff Appearances.
5 Consecutive Finals Appearances.
-A team that set the monumental record of "5 Straight Runner-up Finishes," unprecedented in esports history.
————
*
"Wow... how do you get that many runner-up finishes?"
Looking at the info on G1, I couldn't help but laugh.
Only ever finishing runner-up was still a great result in its own way, but if I were a G1 player, I'd probably feel pretty conflicted.
Drip.
Drip.
I checked the coffee maker, now dripping one drop at a time, picked up my cup, and headed back to my room.
Coffee in one hand, phone in the other.
I thought about looking at more info, but then decided it would be better to just look into the ACK pro teams together with the viewers before the 8 o'clock match.
The scrim date was still a ways off, but it would only be polite to know about the players beforehand as a bit of pre-scrim research.
Clunk.
After stepping into my room, I set the coffee cup down on the desk and kicked the door shut with my foot.
BANG!
"Ah."
The door slammed louder than expected, and I let out a dazed little sound.
[?????]
[What was that sound?]
[Did Rin come back?]
[No but why did something suddenly explode lololol]
[Rin looks seriously pissed]
[She did look annoyed during the arena since she could see chat turning into a mess]
[There are seriously too many people spamming G1 stuff]
[These guys are seriously going way overboard lol I thought I'd walked into a G1 player's personal stream, not Rin's]
I sat down, watching the chat that had been crawling along suddenly shoot up because of the noise.
"Ah, sorry about that sound. It was too loud, right?"
I apologized quietly and pulled up a search site over the stream screen.
"The G1 match is at 8. So until then, I'll take some time to look into the ACK pro teams. Honestly, I don't know anything about pro teams."
The time was 6:20 p.m. There was still over an hour and a half until the match.
......
After that, until just before 8, I spent time talking with viewers about the ACK teams, searching websites, and learning about various teams.
And what I felt was that there were far more people who were "serious" about pro teams than I'd thought.
Put nicely, they were passionate fans. Put badly, they were people so deep into it you could call it over-immersion.
There were so many fans following ACK that the popularity of the ACK Pro League was palpable in a very direct way.
And there were just as many people who got deeply invested in team results and players, cheering them on.
For example...
—Ding!
『eoujan donated 50,000 won!』
《Yeah TSJ is winning anyway lololol no but G1, do you even have a single career championship lololol? If G1 were actually good, they'd have won at least once lolol》
—Ding!
『thisyearisdifferent donated 100,000 won!』
《G1 is on a 6-match win streak in the league right now so who knows, honestly if you agree upvote lolololol》
—Ding!
『soisthereajeannedarc donated 50,000 won!』
《What's the point of TSJ without Jeanne d'Arc? lolol Actually after Jeanne d'Arc announced a break, G1 beat TSJ like dogs, right? lolololololol》
—Ding!
『soareyoufirst donated 50,000 won!』
《So is G1 even first in the league right now? No, right? TSJ is still holding first place, right? Fitting for the team with the legendary 5 straight runner-up finishes, they can just take runner-up in this year's Summer League too and set the historic record of 6 straight runner-up finishes lol》
—Ding!
『BSrealfan donated 50,000 won!』
《I'm a fan of BS, G1's opponent today. Rin, depending on your donation, would you consider cheering for BS? If BS wins today, they make playoffs, so it's a really important match.》
—Ding!
『paladinfan donated 50,000 won!』
《Are there no Knights of Charlemagne fans in this room...? Even if their Summer League results were a disaster, I feel so bad for each and every player》
I was busy just trying to keep up with the flood of donations.
"Thank you to everyone donating. But I think the atmosphere is getting too overheated right now. Disparaging other teams is, as I said before, a ban. Donations are no exception. I'll let the donations that have come in so far slide since I didn't say anything beforehand. But from now on, please don't disparage other teams or make comments putting teams down."
The stream title was "Learning About ACK Teams." An incredibly simple title.
But the viewers kept increasing at a bizarre rate.
I wasn't even playing Arena World—I was in "Just Chatting," poking around websites with viewers and only talking about teams—and before I knew it, the viewer count had passed 20,000.
On top of that, donations were even backing up.
Considering the minimum donation amount was 50,000 won, I'd thought that was impossible. But it was actually happening.
Since the minimum donation amount was high, each donation stayed on screen for about 30 seconds, but even so, the fact that donations kept coming without stopping and filling the screen was amazing in itself.
Even I, as numb and indifferent to money as I am, was getting dazed by the barrage of donations.
[Wow... insane, how much is Rin making today?]
[fr the whales are fighting and only Rin is making money lololol]
[She made a scrim date with G1 so her fandom is huge lololol]
[Is it normal for me to get existential while working part-time and watching Rin's stream?]
[I'm getting existential too fuck...]
[Rin saying she's not a fan of any team yet probably poured fuel on the fandom war too lolol]
[lolololol I've never seen donations explode like this even for a female streamer]
[Isn't Rin a female streamer?]
[No cam, how is she a female streamer lolololol]
[The fandom war is insane for real lolololololol]
Chat was also reacting to every donation, and people cheering for specific teams—the "fandoms"—were holding heated debates, so the whole thing was more overheated than ever.
And with donations continuing for over an hour now, I wondered just how much I'd made if you added it all up.
That curiosity immediately turned into action.
I quietly fiddled with the streamer settings window and checked the total amount of donations received today.
My mouth fell open without me realizing.
〔August 7 Donation Earnings: 10,550,000 won〕
And even as I was checking the amount, another alert rang.
The total donation amount went up by another 50,000 won.
—Ding!
『greatswordbest donated 50,000 won!』
《No but does TSJ even have a pro who uses a greatsword? You guys don't have the romance of someone like Kang Hyeok, you're just a boring team that only plays for results lolol》
"Everyone, this... is a donation from 10 minutes ago. It's coming up now because donations are backed up, so please don't react too sensitively. And pro players can prioritize results."
Wondering if that was a slightly risky thing to say, I added a few words to try to smooth things over.
[?????]
[Is Rin defending TSJ right now?]
[Rin knows how to read teams lololol]
[TSJ is the standard for pros. What's wrong with pros playing to win?]
[It's boring because the other team is low-level lolol when they play top teams it's hella fun]
[She's scrimming with G1, so what's this? Is she cheering for TSJ?]
[Kinda disappointed in Rin;]
Chat suddenly split into two extremes.
Looking at chat, it was chaos again. Watching it, I couldn't help but feel dumbfounded.
I'd added those words to try to keep a reasonable balance, but the reactions still split like this, so I had no idea whose tune I was supposed to dance to.
The two fandoms with especially strong reactions: TSJ and G1.
In practice, those two teams' fandoms were also making the most donations.
—Ding!
『ohsoisthereajeannedarc donated 50,000 won!』
《G1's level lolol so has Kang Hyeok ever beaten Jeanne d'Arc even once in a popularity vote or league career? He's never beaten our Eunha, right?? The romance is Eunha like Jeanne d'Arc, and Kang Hyeok is just a brainless greatsword spammer lolololol 》
One of those fandoms was the TSJ fandom whose donation was coming up now, and the other massive fandom was G1.
Then one word I'd been seeing far too often caught my eye.
—Jeanne d'Arc.
"...I think 'greatsword spammer' is too harsh an expression. Both Jeanne d'Arc and Kang Hyeok are players with outstanding star quality."
Even as I spoke like I was mediating, I felt strange.
—Jeanne d'Arc.
She was the person who had donated a million won at a time to my stream, and who had modestly said she didn't need any reaction, just asking me to add her as a friend in Another World.
Personally, I'd thought of her as a rich saintess.
'That person... was famous?'
More decisive than anything else was that Another World had no system for duplicate nicknames.
So there was no way it could be an impersonation.