Chapter 30 : Preparation Period

Three days have passed since I started streaming in earnest.

I was so engrossed in streaming over the past three days that I couldn’t even snipe Curry due to exhaustion.

But now, I was starting to feel the limits.

What limits, you ask?

[Streamer Barcode, guarantee the freedom of the cam!]

[Streamer Barcode, guarantee the freedom of the cam!]

[Streamer Barcode, guarantee the freedom of the cam!]

“Sigh…”

At some point, these one-line chats started appearing continuously.

If only a few people occasionally posted such chats, I wouldn’t have cared.

But surprisingly, nearly half of the over 10,000 viewers seemed to be spamming that chat.

The chat room’s intensity was so high that other chats were barely visible.

Of course, I strongly warned that anyone chatting about the cam would be banned. But these damn viewers banded together and continued spamming as if protesting. Seeing the chat room’s unity grow stronger over time made my head throb.

I just wanted to stream enough to meet the participation requirements.

Ignoring it should be enough, right? But it bothered me.

Even if I didn’t want to care, my eyes naturally drifted to the chat room, and I couldn’t control it.

After quickly finishing the game I was playing, I displayed the chat room on the broadcast screen.

I thought showing them how much they were troubling me would dampen the riot’s momentum.

[Streamer Barcode, acknowledge the freedom of the cam!]

[Streamer Barcode, acknowledge the freedom of the cam!]

[Streamer Barcode, acknowledge the freedom of the cam!]

Instead of calming the riot, it only fueled the fire.

At that moment, I felt the urge to quit streaming altogether, regardless of the platform battle.

Every time, the annoying image of Curry’s face filled my mind, making my hands tremble.

Eventually, last night, the official announcement confirmed that Ronin Swordsman was chosen as the mid-laner for Curry’s team. I was dumbfounded.

Even more surprising was the lineup of Curry’s team members, all of whom were notable.

Former professional gamers whose names were well-known.

Famous amateurs with skills comparable to current pros.

What made me even angrier was that all the people Curry recruited were newcomers who hadn’t been streaming for long. I thought Curry chose Ronin Swordsman over me because of the 50-hour streaming requirement. But it turned out that wasn’t the reason.

No matter how I looked at it, I was a better mid-laner than Ronin Swordsman.

Why did Curry choose him over me?

We had a collab, yet he recruited Ronin Swordsman.

After thinking about it several times, there was only one answer.

Curry avoided me because of the previous collab.

Just looking at his reaction to the 100,000 won donation three days ago made it clear.

He applied for the collab first, used me up, and then discarded me like this? I wanted to make Curry regret choosing Ronin Swordsman over me. To do that, I needed to raise the value of ‘Barcode.’

I wanted to snipe Curry in the tournament.

And watch Barcode continue to rise.

I wanted to see Curry regret his past decisions.

That was the reason I continued streaming despite the chaotic chat room and my ultimate goal.

To break Curry, who abandoned me.

That was my only thought from the beginning.

‘To do that first…’

I needed to quell this annoying riot.

What the viewers wanted was my face.

I could have easily solved this problem by adjusting the camera angle.

But giving in to their demands would only lead to more trouble later.

I didn’t want to be swayed by viewers who were protesting on their own.

I got up from my chair and went to the closet, taking out the ‘props’ I had prepared for such occasions.

After putting on the props, I returned to my seat, brought my face close to the microphone, and spoke.

“I’ll do as you wish.”

[Really?]

[Really?]

[Finally!!]

[Ah… Is this what independence feels like?]

[This is like Liberation Day]

[Heung…]

The heated atmosphere in the chat room cooled down instantly with my face-cam declaration.

As the riotous chats disappeared, I slowly raised the camera angle.

[I’m going crazy, I’m losing my mind]

[Streamer!!!! Raise it quickly!!!]

[FBI OPEN UP!!!]

[Do you want to see me go crazy?]

As the camera angle slowly rose, the viewers’ reactions were intense.

The urgency in the chats was palpable.

I wondered how they would react when the camera was fully raised.

I quickly raised the camera to the angle where my face would appear.

[Oh wow…]

[Goddess… huh?]

[What’s going on…]

[The camera is up, but…]

[This isn’t what we wanted, sir]

[This is ridiculous]

“I’ve raised the camera as you wished.”

I checked my appearance on the broadcast screen.

I was wearing an oversized hoodie and a hat.

I also had sunglasses and a black mask covering my face.

With my long hair hidden under the hat, I looked like a criminal.

Satisfied that my appearance was completely hidden, I smiled.

Of course, the viewers couldn’t see my smile.

Maintaining my unseen, sly smile, I spoke quietly.

“I’ve done as you wished, so no more mentions of the ‘cam.’ I’ll ban everyone who does.”

After my declaration, the chat room turned into chaos.

Registering ‘cam’ and ‘face’ as banned words reduced the intensity a bit.

[Are you declaring war?]

[This is basically a declaration of war from the streamer]

[Do you want to taste the spam art?]

[Do I have to bring out the forbidden dog art…]

[Behave yourself, streamer]

“Sigh…”

Even after granting the freedom of the cam as requested, this was the response.

“Even after fulfilling your request, you keep this up, so I have no choice.”

I muttered as I turned off the camera.

[???]

[Wait a minute]

[Guys, I told you to take it easy]

[Sorry… Sorry… Sorry…]

[These guys don’t know boundaries]

[They can’t read the room lol]

[Pathetic, just pathetic]

[If you crave face-cam so much, go to another platform lol]

When I turned off the camera, the viewers started tearing each other apart.

It was better than spamming, but leaving it like this wasn’t a great option either.

“Don’t fight. I’ll do the face-cam you want in the last game.”

[Oh…]

[Really?]

[Thank you]

[Barcode is too kind, seriously…]

[So kind, are you an angel?]

[You look like an angel]

[But you were a devil during the collab with Curry lol]

[An angel normally, a devil in collabs lol]

[A Lucifer-level twist in charm]

Declaring that I would do a face-cam in the last game finally ended the long riot.

Honestly, it didn’t matter much to me whether I did a face-cam or not, but the reason I hadn’t done it was simple.

Doing it this way seemed more fun than just doing it.

The ever-changing atmosphere in the chat room was entertaining and satisfying.

With the angry viewers calmed, I continued streaming.

Who are the most famous streamers known for their LoL streams on Twitch?

If someone asked this question, nine out of ten would pick Curry and Jericho.

Curry is a high-energy streamer with smooth talking skills and a distinct character, known for his “Top Syndrome” and “Rascal” personas.

Jericho, a former pro, focuses on pure skill streaming but occasionally charms viewers with his rough humor.

Their streaming styles are different, leading to distinct fanbases.

If you want to enjoy the game LoL, you watch Jericho’s stream. If you want to enjoy the fun a streamer brings, you watch Curry’s stream.

This saying highlights the clear difference in their streaming styles.

In terms of pure skill in LoL, Jericho outshines Curry.

But in terms of streaming abilities, Curry outshines Jericho.

The comparison is unfair since Jericho is a former pro, but Curry is still a top 0.1% master.

As time passed, Curry’s stream, driven by his charm, thrived.

Jericho, however, maintained the status quo without significant growth.

This was expected.

Watching the same LoL game, it’s more enjoyable if the streamer is entertaining.

It’s like choosing a friendly restaurant over an unfriendly one, even if they serve the same dish.

Because they were often compared, Jericho always felt a rivalry with Curry.

Jericho always walked in Curry’s shadow, leading to a sense of rivalry.

For Jericho, the upcoming platform battle was an opportunity.

He saw it as a chance to finally be in the spotlight instead of Curry.

“Damn… What should I do?”

Jericho cursed upon hearing that the streamer who was supposed to be the mid-laner for his team got injured.

They were close, like brothers, and thinking about how his brother-like friend got hurt by a speeding motorcycle while riding a bicycle still made him angry.

“Stupid motorcycle jerk…”

His beloved friend’s injury was bad enough, but the more serious problem was the lack of a mid-laner.

For Jericho, who aimed to rise by winning the platform battle, the news of his fellow streamer’s injury was devastating.

Jericho canceled all the scrims (team matches) scheduled for the next day and fell into deep thought.

His brother-like friend, streamer Ain, wouldn’t recover within a month.

So, Jericho needed a new streamer, but this was no easy task.

The prominent and famous streamers were already in teams.

The platform battle was such a hot topic that many had already started scrimming.

Jericho sought a streamer who wasn’t just Diamond 1 or Master but a top-tier mid-laner.

Was there any streamer meeting these conditions still without a team?

Every other lane had derogatory nicknames, but the mid-lane was simply known as “Royalty” in LoL, highlighting its importance.

Putting a Diamond 1 or Master player in the mid-lane was akin to declaring they were giving up on winning.

Jericho searched for a replacement for Ain for a while.

He even looked through streams with single-digit viewers.

But no streamer met his criteria.

“Grr…”

He lowered his standards and searched for Grandmaster mid-laners.

But even Grandmaster mid-laners were already in teams.

Should he lower his standards further and recruit a Master mid-laner?

If he did that, winning would be almost impossible.

But wouldn’t it be better than failing to qualify at all?

Lost in such thoughts, Jericho sorted the LoL channel’s viewers again.

He accidentally sorted them by highest viewers instead of lowest.

He usually ignored high-viewer streamers since they were all in teams.

But an unusually high-viewer stream caught his eye.

The title was simply “SoloQ.”

The nickname was just the ID ‘zxcv1234.’

Jericho knew the person behind this stream.

The mysterious Yone master who started streaming through a bet with Ronin Swordsman.

A streamer named “Barcode,” who gained sudden fame after a collab with Curry.

He’d heard that Barcode’s face was revealed in an accident recently, boosting his popularity even more.

‘Who would have thought there’d be this many viewers?’

Having tens of thousands of viewers during the day?

He assumed such a streamer would be in a team.