Streamer Crazy About Slaughter - Chapter 109

Three minutes before 8 o’clock,

7:57 PM. Serin changed the stream title.

[Watching with ACK (Cheering for G1)]

Since she had agreed to do a stream and it would have been one thing if she hadn’t received a sponsorship of 2 million won, in this situation it made sense to cheer for G1 while watching.

“Then let’s watch the match now.”

She opened the Twitter site and displayed ACK’s official channel on the screen.

The ongoing donations seemed like they would be a distraction even while watching the match, so she completely blocked donations, and the ones she had already received were turned off from being displayed in the broadcast by setting it to ‘donation display: OFF’.

She planned to play the donations she had already received during the breaks after the match or in between.

[There’s a 10-minute gap after the match, so I can play the donations then.]

[Yeah, I should concentrate on the match. The donations will be quite distracting.]

[Let’s stop fighting among fandoms for a bit, seriously, lol.]

[TSJ and G1 have overwhelmingly more fans, so it can’t be helped, lol.]

[G1 is definitely going to win, lol.]

Looking at the screen, the ACK opening has just begun.

ㅡ【ACK 2031】ㅡ

The logo adorned with golden light shone brilliantly before gradually shattering like light scattering in the distance.

What appeared next was like a single movie.

A massive castle in a night devoid of light, like pitch darkness.

The screen, shining with the beautiful exterior of a castle reminiscent of the medieval era, suddenly seemed to draw viewers in.

In an instant, the perspective zoomed in to the very top of the castle, piercing through a massive stained glass made of luxurious patterns.

Crash!

The huge glass shattered at once, and the shards scattered beautifully.

And as if directed, the moonlight began to dimly illuminate the inside from the point where the stained glass broke.

Then the revealed scene.

A background where numerous rusty weapons were embedded in the pitch-black marble floor.

The moonlight seeping through the broken stained glass slowly spread its area, illuminating the interior as if breathing life into the rusty weapons, shining ominously.

In that dense darkness, a beam of moonlight seeped in, illuminating the end of the formerly dark interior.

At that end, a woman gradually revealed by the soft moonlight looked extraordinarily beautiful at first glance.

With pitch-black hair flowing brilliantly down to her waist and dressed in pure white armor reflecting the moonlight softly, her appearance contrasted with the thick darkness, giving off an almost sacred impression.

Seeing that woman, Serin was convinced.

The user named Joan of Arc, whom she had met a few days ago, was the same person appearing in the opening.

Now, in the fully moonlit interior space, countless weapons embedded in the marble floor began to be illuminated from various perspectives, focusing on Joan of Arc.

Though she looked completely equipped, the beautiful Lady Knight did not hold anything in her pure white hands for some reason.

Then slowly raising her flawless white hands, Joan of Arc, at the end of which a massive pure white flag appeared, radiating dazzling light, settled into her hands.

“De par le roy du ciel”

At that moment, a beautiful golden letter with an unintelligible meaning embroidered on the screen appeared, and as Joan of Arc raised the pure white flag high, her entire being was bathed in white light, brilliantly illuminating the interior.

Immediately afterwards, a heavy and grand background music flowed, and the rusted weapons embedded in the dark marble rose one by one into the air.

Thud!

Snap!

Thwap!

Elves, humans, dwarfs, and many other characters emerged amid the light, each picking up the weapons floating nearby.

Clang!

Almost every character aimed their weapons at Joan of Arc simultaneously.

Looking at this, Joan of Arc smiled coldly.

She had a relaxed demeanor while gazing at the countless figures pointing weapons at her.

Her bright smile seemed to hold a haughty air as if she could take on them all.

She slowly turned her head, scanning through all those who appeared like light.

It was a natural act, as if the being above was watching those below.

Thus, the brilliantly shining figure of Joan of Arc lit up the space to the point that it felt sacred.

In an instant, the massive pure white flag began to shine brilliantly and transformed into a magnificent longsword.

Joan of Arc slowly raised the splendid longsword, aiming it back at those who had targeted her with their weapons.

With her impressive figure marking the end, the screen gradually darkened and ended the opening as it displayed ACK’s unique logo once more.

[Joan of Arc… that’s insane.]

[But seriously, does she really occupy almost half of the opening alone?]

[It really makes the other players look like mere supporting characters, lol.]

[But the only character resembling herself is Joan of Arc, so she stands out alone, lol.]

[The summer opening itself focuses on the saintly concept of Joan of Arc as the protagonist, lol.]

[This opening is amazing every time I watch it, no, it’s just Eunha’s beauty that’s incredible.]

[That expression from Joan of Arc at the end is truly mind-blowing every time…]

[Even people who don’t know ACK became fans of Joan of Arc after seeing this opening.]

[This is why TSJ is TSJ; it’s not for nothing that the team has the solo Joan of Arc, lol.]

[It’s true, every time Joan of Arc competes, there’s a 1:5 match, right?]

[The opening coincidentally aligns with Joan of Arc’s actual situation, lol.]

[If you find that opening so annoying, you should just prove it by winning the league five times in a row, lol.]

As she glanced at the chat window, she unintentionally spoke.

“The opening… is really cool. I felt like I was watching a movie.”

Honestly, since she wasn’t expecting much from the tournament opening, the unexpectedly visually appealing opening was quite something.

Soon after, various sponsor banner logos decorated the screen, and she could hear the voices of people who seemed to be commentators and casters, and the screen showed the casters and commentators.

“Hello, viewers! Welcome to the second round of the 2031 ACK Summer! I’m your caster, Seong Jun-hyung, along with commentators Han Sang-hyuk and Ju Min-hee!”

“Now, many teams are racing toward the end, yet so much is still undecided! The heat is only increasing!”

“Yes, that’s right. Moreover, this year marks the first international competition, so the importance of performance has been drawn more than ever. From what I’ve heard, each team’s schedules seem to be quite tight.”

“And today! The G1, who are on a six-game winning streak, and BS, who must strive for the last playoff spot, will clash! Let’s discuss the strengths of these two teams!”

With the airy comments of the caster, the screen changed.

The screen soon displayed various phrases regarding each team’s players and strategies.

– G1 boasts overwhelming destructive power, centered around Kang Hyuk, who wields a great sword! Can they continue their momentum with a victory for a seventh straight win?

– BS, definitely showcasing the ace ‘White Night’ from the archer class, how will the fate of the last playoff ticket unfold?

Along with phrases indicating the current situation of the two teams, each player was introduced one by one.

Afterwards, an introduction followed regarding the map where the match would take place.

Although it resembled the ‘Colosseum’ where rank matches had been held early on, the significant feature was its massive size.

The match unfolding in a coliseum comparable to an enormous dome.

There followed an explanation about the match format: the first and second sets would be a standard 3:3 team match.

If the outcome were undecided and resulted in a 1:1 result leading to the third set, each team would select three players to engage in 1:1 duels in a showdown match.

“When comparing the strengths of the two teams, it seems likely that G1 has an overwhelming advantage given their current momentum; however, in professional matches, nothing is definite, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. BS is definitely a team with hidden potential, and as long as they can reach the showdown match, they can aim for a reversal centered around their ace player, White Night. Isn’t the performance of White Night in a 1:1 setting truly formidable?”

While watching the ongoing explanations from the caster and commentators, she suddenly realized that the broadcast was live.

Feeling as if she hadn’t spoken much, she decided to speak up.

“It seems that G1 is strategically at an advantage compared to BS?”

[Now the ACK league is structured with 10 teams, where G1 and TSJ are the two dominating teams, so yes.]

[Effectively, G1 or TSJ generally don’t lose to teams other than the top two.]

[BS is ranked 5th? They’re a solid mid-tier team, but they’ve mostly lost to G1 up to now.]

[G1 will likely win comfortably, right?]

[They don’t often make it to the third set, and both White Night and Kang Hyuk are nearly that exceptional at their level, with Kang Hyuk often winning.]

[If Kang Hyuk pushes from the center, the ranged classes will have a hard time responding.]

Looking at the chat reactions, most seemed to predict G1’s overwhelming advantage.

Among their conversations, mentions of the two ace players, ‘Kang Hyuk’ and ‘White Night’, were most frequent.

What amazed her was the chat about how Kang Hyuk, a great sword user, could defeat White Night, an archer class player, seemingly at a human level.

She found it remarkable to think about how someone wielding a great sword could defeat an archer class player.

It generally seemed that a great sword would struggle against ranged classes…

However, she thought that maybe the context of a team match could make that possible.

Having never experienced team battles herself, even after several years living in the Black Ark world, she had hardly any memories of coordinating with others.

Along with professional skills, she felt a vague curiosity about how team battles would feel.

“Alright, we’ll now move on to the player selection phase.”

With the caster’s call, the screen changed.

In a neat UI background, the pick space was divided into G1 and BS.

The selection of players took place in quite a unique manner.

【Selecting and revealing players】

It was time for ‘player selection’ for the 3:3 team match.

“Viewers, player selection? So we won’t know which players will participate until the selection is complete?”

[Is Lin really seeing ACK for the first time?]

[Yeah, no one knows which players will play in any set until the selection proceeds.]

[From the matchups between melee and ranged, even within the same melee or ranged classes, synergy will intricately interlink, so it diverges depending on the selection.]

[They sequentially pick players according to their factions, choosing custom picks or strategy picks for the match.]

[Sometimes weaker teams can beat stronger ones due to this system, but G1 is a strong team…]

[G1 really has a well-balanced player pool. The fact that their captain, Kang Hyuk, is a great sword wielder yet they are a robust team is impressive, lol.]

[The blue side shows one player first, then the red side picks two, then again blue picks two, red one, and so on in sequence.]

“…That’s fascinating.”

Looking at the chat window, she couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

Considering the many types of weapons and classes in Another World, achieving perfect balance was certainly close to impossible.

Thus, they select players based on what they see and match up their strengths accordingly.

Alternatively, they adjust their strategies according to their opponent’s players.

Understanding those aspects momentarily made the rules feel too interesting.

‘Accepting that one cannot achieve complete balance instead relies on the players for balance…’

The strategy of player utilization and the variables from each player’s individual skill.

And as G1, which had chosen the blue side, prepared to reveal its first player, the screen changed.

“The pick for blue side G1 is Kang Hyuk! Kang Hyuk is chosen as the first player.”