Streamer Curry

Streamer Curry.

He was a popular League of Legends streamer with a total of five hundred thousand subscribers.

A YouTuber who had blown up thanks to his signature comebacks and deranged high tension.

With a constant flood of new viewers, Streamer Curry's popularity only climbed higher by the day. But a rise in fame was never purely a good thing.

These festering little shits…

Streamer Curry—Park Kwon-tae—stared blankly at the game loading screen.

A full year had already passed since he'd switched platforms. And yet the "malignant pus" still clung to his broadcast.

The so-called underworld: Norang City.

The Park Kwon-tae of the past had betrayed the place that was practically his hometown and left for a new streaming platform—Teu-ichi.

Thanks to that, his channel had grown at breakneck speed. But maybe it had grown a little too fast, because the old pus he still hadn't scraped away remained.

Case in point: the three names sitting on this loading screen.

Two of them already had toxic nicknames, but the real piece of work ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was someone else entirely.

NayeonQueen.

Back when Park Kwon-tae wasn't Streamer Curry but "PD Kwon-tae Park," streaming on Norang City, NayeonQueen had appeared out of nowhere and started stream sniping him every single time he queued up.

Stream sniping? It's not like it succeeds that often anyway, right?

Plenty of people would think that. But this bastard NayeonQueen was nothing like your average sniper.

NayeonQueen. NayeonPrincess. NayeonGongdu.

Three separate accounts, all sniping at the same time.

He'd only found that out thanks to a tip from one of his viewers. Three IDs with similar nicknames, all parked in high Diamond—the same tier he played in. More importantly, those three accounts had never started a game in the same time slot.

In other words: three computers, three accounts of roughly the same rank, jacking up the odds of landing a snipe.

If other snipers were fake lunatics, NayeonQueen was the real deal.

Been quiet for a while, and now…

When PD Kwon-tae Park became Streamer Curry, NayeonQueen stopped showing up and gradually faded from memory. But now—on this once-in-a-blue-moon chance of getting matched with Showdown, fresh off Worlds—that goddamn malignant pus, that vile stream sniper, had sniped him again.

And there were other snipers in the lobby too.

Just playing a game with Showdown was already guaranteed YouTube content. Right now, wasn't Showdown the hottest name in all of esports? A video with a million views easy was sitting right in front of him.

Park Kwon-tae decided to throw that million-view clip away.

His twenty LP mattered more than a million views.

Biting back tears, he dragged his mouse over to the X.

Click.

The dodge confirmation message popped up on screen. The moment the game-start timer hit one second—

"You son of a biiiiiiiiitch!!!"

Park Kwon-tae screamed and clicked.

"It started? Don't talk bullshit!!!"

At a viewer's words, Park Kwon-tae slammed the reconnect button—and the second he got back in, what filled the screen was none other than… the game loading screen.

"Ah, fuck."

The chat was already a chaotic pit of pure ecstasy. Park Kwon-tae forced himself to look away from it and ran positive thinking on loop.

This could actually be good.

Showdown. Actual Showdown.

A million views minimum… what's a good clickbait title for the video?

He took the game somewhat seriously—but Park Kwon-tae was a proper YouTuber too. He'd tried to dodge, failed to dodge, so now he had to enjoy the situation.

Positive mindset.

That was the secret to how Curry kept his high tension going for so long.

The game began.

I quickly bought the standard starter for an AP champ—Doran's Ring and two potions—plus an Oracle Lens, then slammed pings so my teammates would know the path I planned to roll my snowball down.

My teammates moved according to my pings. I left the fountain a beat late and rolled a snowball at the midpoint.

The result:

The enemy Zed had tried to check the invade and gotten wrecked by my snowball like a traffic accident.

"Whoa, starting the game with a free kill. Also, isn't the enemy Zed even more legendary for falling for this shit?"

Had he already forgotten who got him that first blood? It was a little—just a tiny bit—annoying.

So I asked Curry, for old times' sake. Happy about the first blood?

No answer came back. The mean little thing inside me started to stir.

"What the hell is this crazy bitch on about now…"

Curry cursed on stream while hammering his keyboard. I wasn't stream sniping his audio, but I could hear the sound, so I could roughly figure out what he was doing.

Curry gave me a truly excellent answer to my question. The mean little thing that had been wriggling vanished, and satisfaction filled the empty space it left behind.

I glanced at Curry's stream, which I had open on my phone, and the chat made the whole thing feel even more electric.

"I wanna drop a double F-bomb on this asshole too, but if I get reported this time it's a thirty-day ban."

"Fuck, look at them running their mouths because it's not their account on the line."

Done checking the reactions, I headed upriver and spun the Oracle Lens I'd bought ahead of time. The bush just below river center, where the scuttle crab spawns, was a favorite ward spot for the enemy mid or jungle.

Knew it.

I found the ward in the bush and cleared it immediately. Then I dropped back down to mid tier-two and stood waiting beside the tower.

I timed my snowball to the advancing minion wave. Grazed a melee minion once, then cleaned up the three caster minions behind it in one go.

Truly overwhelming wave-clear. Classic Nunu—fastest level-one push in the game.

And Zed? Not the slowest, but still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the slower side when it came to shoving a wave.

I finished the remaining melee minions with autos and leveled up. Hitting two, I took E, immediately pathing downward and slipping leisurely out of the enemy's vision.

This forces their bot lane to play scared.

Our bot lane was Garen and Brand. Theirs was Caitlyn and Morgana. Naturally, the side with long-range Caitlyn and heavy CC Morgana would take the early shove.

But the second I path bot and vanish from vision, their bot has no choice but to respect it.

If this were Iron-Bronze-Silver-Gold, the play would never work. But this was Diamond. High Diamond—the top 0.1%—so my little scheme was bound to land.

Still outside their vision, I swung my path upward. Taking advantage of the fact that scuttle hadn't spawned yet, I used the river movement-speed rune, rolled a snowball hard toward top, and slammed pings like crazy.

A roam at a completely unexpected timing. Nunu's extreme pathing left both top-lane addicts—ally and enemy—scrambling in panic.

Camille, who'd taken W at level one for poke, freaked out and burned Flash in a hurry. Panicked enough that she Flashed in a straight line backward—I chased right on her heels and forced the snowball to connect.

Aatrox perfectly followed up on the airborne Camille with a Q-Flash combo. In that window I landed E for the slow, then another root. Aatrox knocked the rooted Camille up again with his second Q. And as Camille dropped to a sliver of health, Aatrox finished it with his third Q…

…and that was that.

A truly chaos-tier CC chain. Perfect teamwork between the two of us.

"Geeeeenius! What even are you, Nunu!"

The stream and chat were on the verge of exploding—seriously overheating. Watching that reaction, my body started trembling for some reason. A feeling thick with rapture and joy ran through me like a jolt.

I asked Curry one more time.

"Whiiine! Waaaaah! Hah-hah-hah!"

Twice over, Curry gave me a thoroughly satisfying answer.