Chapter 32: Offline Match (1)

“Alright everyone, grab your gear and let’s get going.”

At the coach’s words, the team members next to me started packing their keyboards and mice into their bags.

I had just arrived, so I stood there.

“Today’s opponent is AN. We won against them all throughout the Spring season, and they haven’t changed their roster, so don’t let your guard down and focus on getting the win.”

“”Yes.””

It’s the 4th day since the CK Summer season began.

Since my debut match was online, today’s second match was automatically offline.

“Seo-ha, have you ever been to the CK arena?”

“I haven’t been there.”

“Even if it’s an arena, it only has about 150 seats, so it’s much smaller than the VLL finals. So don’t be nervous and just play.”

The coach kept talking to me, maybe because he thought I was nervous.

‘150 seats is too small.’

The CK arena was much smaller than the 500 seats of the LoL Park where I used to play, or the 600 seats of the Sangam Arena where the VLL finals were held.

Moreover, having experienced the World Championship finals, the 150 seats of the CK arena felt like there was no audience at all.

“Don’t worry.”

I said with a smile, and the coach said he believed in me.

“Then shall we go?”

I followed the coach and team members to the garage on the first floor.

A black van wrapped with the ARK logo. Manager Seo was in the driver’s seat, and the coach was in the passenger seat.

I waited for all the team members to get on before I got on last.

Three people sat in the back, and next to me was the team’s captain, Kim Do-jin.

I sat down and was about to start my usual image training when Kim Do-jin spoke to me.

“Um, are you still going to school…?”

“I’m still going.”

Excluding me, all of Ark’s team members were high school students, and all of them had dropped out of school to pursue their pro careers.

Of course, it was a bit uncomfortable to go to school, but what could I do?

In Korea, middle school is compulsory education, and my parents told me to at least get a middle school diploma.

‘But…’

He’s clearly a year older than me, so why is he using honorifics?

“You can speak informally. You’re older than me.”

“Oh, uh, should I…?”

“Yes, I’m using honorifics because it’s comfortable for me.”

When I said that, Kim Do-jin seemed a little flustered, but soon he said okay and started speaking informally.

‘…It was closer than I thought.’

It took only about 5 minutes by car from Ark’s headquarters to the CK arena.

It was close enough to walk, but it seemed they drove to conserve the players’ stamina.

“Also, don’t drop your stuff and make Manager Seo’s life difficult. Did you get everything?”

We got out of the car and headed to the 2nd floor where the arena was.

The facility itself was decent due to remodeling, but the smaller-than-expected scale caught my eye.

“We’re the 2nd match, so let’s go to the waiting room.”

We used the staff-only hallway to get to the waiting room.

‘It’s small here too.’

A few chairs to sit and rest on and a large screen showing the match, that was it.

Of course, for a 2nd division, this was quite a decent facility.

In the US or European leagues, the 2nd division is all online except for the finals.

“Who was the first match between?”

“I think it was KE and GW?”

“A mid-table fight?”

KE and GW, neither were strong teams, but they were the mid-table gatekeepers of the 2nd division.

“It’s going to the 3rd set, who do you think will win?”

“I’d say KE.”

“I think GW will win.”

The bot duo gave different answers to Kim Do-jin’s question.

They were friends even before becoming pro gamers, and they were so in sync in-game, but in reality, they were always like this.

“It’s clearly an ADC carry meta now, and KE’s Racer is much better.”

“No matter how much of a carry meta it is, trash is trash, their top side is too weak. They lost every game last season because of the top side difference.”

“Yeah, no matter how fed the top side is, if you get to 75% crit, they’ll all get one-shot~”

“Alright trash, 10,000 won bet?”

“Okay, no backing out later.”

“My 10,000 won…”

The bet ended in the ADC Jin Yu-seong’s favor.

Since both teams lacked decisiveness, being 2nd division teams, the game dragged on to the late game, and it eventually ended with the ADC carrying.

That’s why you shouldn’t make money bets so carelessly.

“Let’s get ready to go out.”

Usually, in esports, there’s a content called the analyst desk after the match, but in the 2nd division, the casters just pick out a few key moments.

For that reason, we grabbed our bags containing our keyboards and mice and headed to the arena.

‘There are more people than I thought.’

The audience seats for the first match were about half empty, so I thought the second match would be similar.

But now the audience seats were completely full.

There were even people wearing Ark uniforms, specifically uniforms with my name on them.

Even though there weren’t many seats, it was definitely nice to see it full.

‘Is it more immersive for the audience when it’s smaller?’

The arena had one giant screen hanging above, and the audience seats were closer than in the LCK arena.

I thought it might be better from the viewer’s perspective.

Honestly, in esports, you watch the game on the big screen, so if you can hear the player calls well, wouldn’t it feel more immersive?

While I was having such random thoughts, I set up my equipment one by one.

‘When was the one I used in my past life released…’

Our team didn’t have a sponsored gaming gear, so I bought and was using a similar product to the one I used in my past life.

The product I used to use hadn’t been released yet.

I laid out the long mousepad on the table and placed the keyboard and mouse on top.

Both products were wireless, so I plugged in the USB receivers and finished the setup.

‘I have to use the headset provided by CK.’

In esports, personal equipment refers to the keyboard, mouse, and mousepad.

Then you might ask, what about the headset, but most of the time, you have to use the headset provided by the organizers.

The reason for this is to prevent ‘ear-mapping’ – using the cheers or reactions of the audience to infer the opponent’s situation and strategy.

‘For example.’

Let’s say the team you’re rooting for is walking into an area without vision, and the opponent is hiding there.

Then you would scream. If there’s a sudden loud cheer from the audience, the team walking into the dark area would inevitably feel that something is off.

This may seem trivial, but in the pro league where a single choice can determine the outcome, it’s a serious problem.

‘Even the soundproof booths can’t block out the cheers.’

It’s not like you can stop the audience from cheering.

Even if you install soundproof booths to solve this, if hundreds or thousands of people shout, the booth will vibrate, and the players will get the information.

To solve this, high-performance noise-canceling headsets were introduced.

They basically blast noise directly into your ears.

If you don’t turn up the game sound and mic sound, all the sounds are drowned out by the pink noise.

I think this is probably the reason why most rookies struggle and why there are players who can’t adapt to the stage.

‘Pro players freak out if even the slightest setting is different.’

And you’re going to blast this noise into their ears throughout the entire game, it’s more surprising that some of them are fine.

Of course, I was one of those who were fine, so I didn’t feel much discomfort except for a few situations.

One of those few situations being.

‘…When will this be resolved.’

When there was a pause (game interruption) like now.

“Isn’t the opposing team sponsored by log? What’s causing the pause?”

Jin Yu-seong’s words pierced through the crackling noise.

That’s right. Even during a pause, the players had to wear the headsets, and the noise continued during that time.

“Probably a keyboard program conflict that reset the settings.”

Generally, many pros use keyboards and mice from log, which allow for custom settings through a dedicated program.

However, for security reasons, the dedicated program was not installed on the desktops in the arena, and players had to play with the settings saved on their devices in advance.

Because of this, when settings were reset like now, there was the hassle of pausing and resetting them.

‘Log is the league sponsor in the first place.’

Why don’t they just install the setting program?

It was understandable since it was the usual behavior of Riot Korea being Riot Korea.

‘…When will it start.’

I understood because I had experienced this bug many times, but boring was boring.

Perhaps because of that, the noise that I wouldn’t have cared about normally started to bother me.

“It’ll probably take 10 minutes for them to finish setting that up.”

“Are we all going to eat dinner after this?”

“Of course.”

“We really need to eat kimchi stew today.”

I turned my head and looked at the opposing team on the other side.

It looked like they were working hard with the referee to set something up, but I didn’t know when it would end.

Frustrated, I sighed and buried my face on the table.

I was resting with my chin on the desk when.

“What is it?”

“People are suddenly cheering.”

“I think the casters are saying something.”

“If it’s important, the referee will tell us.”

There was a strange reaction from the surroundings.

But that main camera…does it feel like it’s strangely focused on me?

‘It must be my imagination.’