Chapter 127 - Chapter 127

Chapter 127

【Read only at hivetoons.org】

The grades of the LiOS participants were as follows.

A.

Those who possessed skills on the level of Challenger to Grandmaster could receive this grade, making them the undisputed leaders of each team.

If the team leader participating in the auction played the role of leader outside of the game, this role inside the game was the responsibility of the participants who received Grade A.

If they did not listen to the calls of those with the highest understanding and best skills, whose directions would they listen to?

Of course, it was not strictly set, so they could just leave it to whoever was good at shotcalling.

B.

Streamers with skills ranging from Master to high Diamond received this grade.

If they met a lower-tier participant in a lane, they could grow immensely.

If that happened, it was a grade with the potential to become an ace comparable to Grade A.

Usually, they chose carefully from Grade A to B, ensuring that their primary positions never overlapped.

C.

Streamers from low Diamond to high Platinum received this grade.

It was just the level of being good by ordinary standards.

If they could hold out against a Grade A or B player, that alone was more than pulling their own weight and could be considered a carry.

D.

Streamers from low Platinum to Gold received this grade.

Although it was a lower tier, since it was still an average skill level, they tended not to become highly popular picks nor avoided ones.

E.

Bronze to Silver.

A grade where simply not dying and playing safely made one a popular pick.

Hugging the turret tightly and avoiding fights by not going outside.

That was their goal.

Occasionally, they were lucky enough to have a lane match between two Grade E players.

In those cases, they could go outside the turret and fight.

Even if one of them grew immensely, it wouldn't be enough to change the game, so the other laners left their fight entirely alone.

Even over-invested viewers did not really curse when Grade E players were laning; they only teased them.

In this way, LiOS featured one person per grade for each team, making a total of 30 players across 6 teams.

Also, the number of participants in each grade varied depending on the team leaders.

This meant that if all the pre-recruited team leaders were Grade A, then Challengers and Grandmasters among the applicants would automatically be unable to participate.

Of course, the operations team existed to prevent such situations.

“First of all, it's confirmed that all the team leaders have replied, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

The man and the woman answered at the same time.

The team leader of the operations team, who was the general manager of LiOS, stopped the two who had been debating until just a moment ago.

“Then that leaves only this streamer. We didn't recruit anyone else besides the team leaders.”

“That is correct.”

They always recruited the six team leaders in advance.

Partly because the number of people to draft from each grade changed depending on the team leader,

and above all, because the team leader was the leader of the team, they had no choice but to select streamers with long careers.

If they didn't ask in advance and tried to pick a team leader from the applicants later, they could run into serious trouble.

The man spoke.

“Well, we agreed not to recruit anyone other than the team leaders unless there was an exception. Assistant Manager Lee, isn't that right?”

Indeed, for this tournament as well, Seo-jun was the only one recruited besides the team leaders.

“That was only 'unless there's an exception.' Assistant Manager Kim, why don't you answer? If that streamer had applied, would you not have accepted him?”

And the woman called Assistant Manager Lee, Lee Yeong-ju, shot back.

“If he had applied, we would have accepted him, of course, but did we absolutely have to bring him in? This is different.”

“I hope you don't forget that our purpose is to run the tournament. Not just running it without trouble, but making it a hit.”

“I agree. However, isn't running it without trouble the most important thing? It will be a hit anyway.”

“…….”

It was not a wrong statement.

“So?”

“Let's say we assign Seo-jun to Grade A. What if Seo-jun does poorly? What if, because of that, a team gets eliminated starting from the group stage? Who will they blame?”

Naturally, they would blame them.

If he had a tier from playing other ranked games, it would without a doubt be the responsibility of the streamer who performed poorly.

However, Seo-jun was unranked.

If they assigned Seo-jun to Grade A but he failed to play like a Grade A user, the team that drafted Seo-jun would end up playing without a Grade A player.

Because of them, the operations team.

This kind of situation had to be prevented.

Assistant Manager Kim Ju-hwan thought so.

However, Lee Yeong-ju also had something to say.

“Then what if we assign him to Grade B, and he performs better than the users who received Grade A? That will also cause an uproar, you know?”

What if they assigned Seo-jun to Grade B, but he performed on par with or better than Grade A?

The team that drafted Seo-jun would end up having two Grade A players.

A team with two Grade A players would win the championship barring any major anomalies, wouldn't they?

What if that happened?

Assistant Manager Lee spoke.

“Rather, this side is more reasonable. If we do as I say and it turns out wrong, we'll only face resentment from the fans of the one team we affected. But if we do as Assistant Manager Kim says? We'll face resentment from the fans of the other five teams that lost while playing against a team with two Grade A players. Can you handle that?”

“Hmm...”

The team leader of the operations team chimed in.

“I think Assistant Manager Lee has a point there.”

“Right?”

“Even so, wouldn't it do more harm to assign him to Grade A just because it might result in less criticism if we're wrong?”

“That's true.”

“Ultimately, what we need to know is how well he plays The League...”

It was uncertain.

Though Assistant Manager Lee had absolute certainty.

“Just looking at it, I'm telling you he is at least Grandmaster level. Right now, he's beating a Kael master one-on-one.”

“I'll say it again, Wind Sword's Kael is on a Master level. And a one-on-one without minions cannot be considered his true skill.”

“You all must have seen For Chivalry!”

Assistant Manager Lee raised her voice slightly, as if frustrated that they were agonizing over something so obvious.

And the team leader and Assistant Manager Kim.

“I haven't played For Chivalry, so I don't know much about it, haha.”

“It is a peculiar game, indeed.”

only showed such reactions.

Assistant Manager Kim spoke.

“I also admit that his physical ability and skill in wielding a sword are good enough to put him in Grade A.”

“I agree as well.”

“However, there aren't many good heroes that use swords to begin with. And to suppress others purely with physical ability, Challengers in The League play the game with too much depth. Gaming skill isn't just about physical mechanics. Rather, the higher the tier, the more important this aspect becomes.”

Assistant Manager Kim tapped his head with his hand.

There was another problem as well.

It was that Kael was the only hero Seo-jun had played so far.

If Kael got nerfed, or the patterns changed, or if he got banned, would Seo-jun's skill still be at a Challenger level?

More proof was needed.

“We don't have time. Time to watch other things.”

“Exactly. To prove it, he has to climb to Challenger in ranked games, but by then, the season will be over, the tournament will be over, and the year will have ended.”

“If he were of moderate skill, we could just put him in C or D.”

“If that were the case, it wouldn't matter whether he turned out to be a jackpot pick or a bust.”

A person with random skill at a lower tier was another element of fun in every tournament.

However, the tiers of Grade A and B were too crucial in deciding victory or defeat, so gambling elements could not be involved.

In the end, the fact that Seo-jun was too good compared to their expectations was the reason they were debating like this.

The original plan was B.

Around high Diamond to Master.

But looking at his play, they felt that things would go wrong at this rate.

“Is there no way to check? Ultimately, if he faces a Challenger in a laning phase, I think we'll get a feel for it.”

“Hmm. Should we request a friendly match?”

“Pardon?”

“You know that Showcase we used to have.”

The Showcase.

It referred to a friendly match held in the past before the start of the tournament, serving as an initiation ceremony of sorts to see the various sides of the participants.

Although it had disappeared as it became unnecessary due to the scrimmage period and since it had turned into a festival-like event enjoyed by everyone, including streamers who were not participants,

“You want to do that? Again? Hmm...”

“No, I'm not saying we should host it. Streamers gathering together to play games is a very natural and frequent occurrence.”

The two assistant managers instantly understood what the team leader was saying.

Let's ask another streamer to create an opportunity to check!

“Who are you going to ask?”

“There is someone perfect for the current situation. Since he is an MCN president—no, just by nature, he is someone who loves hanging out with streamers.”

He was also a team leader for this tournament.

“Ah!”

***

“Ah...”

Having been completely thrashed by Seo-jun, Wind Sword sat down on the floor as if exhausted.

The stream was finally over.

The moment of being overwhelmed one-on-one by pure physical mechanics was finally over.

“Seriously, you are so good.”

Actually, that much was fine.

It did not matter even if the fact that he lacked skill was revealed. Not being as good as Seo-jun did not lower his absolute standing.

The problem was.

“You could have stopped hitting me... Seriously...”

Though, how painful could it be to get hit in virtual reality?

He felt phantom pain.

Really.

It was the first time he had experienced this.

“I just let you accumulate real combat experience.”

“Is that so...”

Anyway, from Wind Sword's perspective, today was fruitful.

Seo-jun personally engraved the sensation onto his body,

and through real combat experience.

Real combat experience.

Real combat.

Damn it.

His head hurt.

In any case, it was now Wind Sword's turn to ask what he was curious about.

This was the biggest reason they did the collab stream.

In fact, he could be considered Seo-jun's number one viewer.

“Seo-jun.”

“Yes?”

“Why haven't you played for a while?”

If he had that level of skill in the past, it could only be called talent.

But why on earth did he disappear!

He had been so curious while looking for the videos.

But Seo-jun's answer was incredibly simple.

“Entrance exams.”

“Ah... ha!”

He understood.

“Then, was this pattern the same back then too?”

Wind Sword asked other questions in succession.

“Ah, the pattern? It did change once.”

“Pardon?”

“Back then, while I was playing, the pattern suddenly changed, as if they were trying to target me.”

“And then?”

“I adapted after just one match and played normally, and the next day it went back to how it was before.”

If the viewers had heard this conversation, the chat would have been flooded with lol's.

Wind Sword asked various things after laughing heartily at the developer's sorrow.

About swords too.

About streaming too.

Even though Wind Sword was his streaming senior, their scales differed by tenfold.

“Lastly, um, this is a cautious question, but why did you ask me not to mention your past? When I was curious in the past and posted your video in the community, no one recognized you. If I post it now, everyone would know it's you, but that means in the end, no one knows what you looked like seven years ago.”

“It's simple. Someone told me to hide my power.”

“Pardon?”

“I've been casted for LiOS. They told me to hide my power because I shouldn't be bought for too many points in the auction.”

“Ah. I see...”

Then what was today's broadcast?

You call that hiding your power?

Seo-jun was truly a fascinating streamer.

None of his words made sense, yet he had the power to make them fit.

It was probably his stream concept.

“By the way, Wind Sword.”

“Yes?”

“Where do you live?”

Fearing the chilling sensation that suddenly ran up his spine, Wind Sword ended up telling a lie.

“Ah, I live in the countryside! The countryside!”

“Ah, that's a shame. I have two good gym memberships left over.”

Phew.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he resolved to exit quickly.

“Seo-jun. Well then, thank you for today. I hope to see you next time.”

“Thanks for your hard work.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

After emerging from the capsule, he pondered for a moment and then submitted his application to participate in LiOS.

Since he had to work at his job, his schedule would probably be tight for a while if he got accepted, but

somehow, he felt it would be fun.

***

At the same time.

In the room next to Seo-jun's, Tae-woo finished his game and was chatting in front of his computer.

“Yes, I am indeed one of the team leaders this time. Hehe. This time, I will definitely win!”

Tae-woo had been eliminated early last time.

“The team leader is a landmine? No, what... Don't worry about the auction. It's just that I have no interest in studying, but I am actually quite smart. This time, I plan to build a completely broken team... Huh? Wait a minute.”

Tae-woo tilted his head at a message that suddenly arrived.

'President?'

Don't tell me.

He isn't asking me to play a horror game, is he?