Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 1250
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 5 Episode 135
42. Platform Showdown Preliminaries (2)
The Platform Showdown was drawing closer to reality with each passing day.
[Something big is coming]
[Man, I’m hyped]
[Seeing Scrim makes me fired up lol Paprika’s gonna win]
The Platform Showdown was nothing short of a festival for streamers across the nation.
Cheese Village had been a closing ceremony exclusive to former Tribby members.
But the Platform Showdown was truly comparable to a ‘World Cup’ event.
The frequency of occurrence was similar too.
Since two massive companies had to join hands, it wasn’t an annual affair—it was a big event that could happen only occasionally.
Moreover, since all viewers from both platforms essentially gathered in one place, there was a risk of losing viewers to the other side.
Because of this, those involved in the Platform Showdown couldn’t help but be on high alert.
The same went for Cheese’s employees.
“Paprika’s completely centralized control, right? They really committed to it.”
“I heard they even practice Scrim with 25-person cooperation.”
“What!? Are they insane!? What is this, communism?”
One employee was genuinely fired up.
He was from Tribby Korea.
“Come on. They wouldn’t actually do that, would they?”
Another employee spoke casually.
“No, I’m serious. Some team said it. They did it in closed Scrims and even showed it on broadcast. They said teaming isn’t forbidden anyway.”
“Well… it’s true that teaming isn’t forbidden…”
At this, Manager Kim, who came from Tribby Korea, chimed in irritably.
“And they still have the audacity!”
Manager Kim came from Tribby and still held considerable affection for those from Tribby, so in the office he was even called ‘Tr Manager’.
He harbored significant animosity toward Paprika.
“Sigh. But still, that’s a bit…”
“He’s Tr Manager, you know. Tr Manager.”
“Calm down, Tr Manager.”
The employees collectively shook their heads and sipped their coffee.
At that moment, a man who appeared to be around forty entered the break room terrace.
It was Park Gwajang.
“Everyone. But here’s the thing?”
He spoke as if to reverse the situation and picked up his coffee.
“Tr Manager’s right. Paprika is completely obsessed with winning the game.”
The manager who had been speaking casually tried to counter.
“Manager Park. But isn’t winning the game not really the important part? We need to showcase each team’s individuality and give them elements to immerse themselves in so the viewers react well.”
It was a good point.
It was called a tournament, but it was really large-scale content.
They’re planning strategies focused solely on victory, without any consideration for entertainment value.
Of course, Tr Daeri will keep saying “They’re more than capable of that!”
But even if they sacrifice everything for victory alone, wouldn’t it still end up being boring?
Then what’s the point?
But the Manager shakes his head.
“That’s what you say because you don’t understand sports.”
“Sports…?”
“That’s right. This is ultimately a sport. Teams that make the game entertaining? Sure, they get popularity. But the teams that truly gain fans are always the ones that win championships.”
“Huh? Aren’t there popular teams that always finish last?”
“That’s only because those last-place teams’ fans are too loud. They’re good at complaining. That’s all it is. In absolute numbers, the reality is cold.”
While everyone who had been chattering excitedly just moments before fell silent, only Tr Daeri opens his mouth.
“That’s right… Those memories… I don’t even want to recall them.”
Crunch.
He crumples the paper cup tightly in his grip, his hand trembling.
‘Why is he like that?’
‘He’s really serious about this job.’
‘It’s scary… Tribby Korea… how much did they brainwash him?’
Everyone thought his trauma was unusual.
But for him, it was a perfectly natural reaction.
“Back then, we lost a massive number of viewers, and Paprika, who was dying because of it, came back to life and thrived. Our company was told we were throwing away our own money to feed viewers to them… we even heard it compared to a bailout….”
“That much? People really switched over?”
Everyone wore confused expressions.
Surely people wouldn’t abandon their favorite streamer, they thought.
“Some people watch streams because they like the streamer, but there are actually a huge number of people who watch streams purely for the entertainment value of the broadcast itself. Those are the light users.”
Those so-called “fan bases” were often actually a noisy minority.
If fan bases were those who supported without great reason, light users were not.
“Those people had been watching our Tribby streamers because they thought they played games well, wanting to learn and watch, and they ended up settling in as regular viewers.”
They genuinely believed their favorite streamers played games well, and they learned from them, admired them.
It was natural to think that way since they were generally better than themselves. (*Balloon Gum was an exceptional market.)
“But then they found out that wasn’t true… their world collapsed.”
“Huh, I see.”
Tsk.
Everyone clicked their tongues.
They could understand how it must have felt back then.
They thought our guy was the best.
But when they faced off against Paprika, he was nothing of the sort.
Park Gwajang laughs heartily and offers consolation.
“But actually, getting beaten back then was a good thing!”
“?”
Everyone looks at him wondering what he means.
“No, everyone knows by now, don’t they? That our brother isn’t actually the best at what he does.”
“….”
The employees exchange nervous glances.
“Huh? What’s wrong? Am I wrong?”
Park Gwajang taps his round belly, as if daring someone to refute him.
Tr Daeri raises his hand. More precisely, he raises the phone in his hand.
“Well, that’s… there’s actually one person who doesn’t fit that narrative at all right now.”
“Who?”
* * *
1st Place) Cheese is a famous Almond-holding nation
While Rilpro is Rilpro, the central community for streamer events like platform competitions is undoubtedly ‘Streamer Garden’.
Rilpro’s stance is that streamers are worse at games than professionals and are just loud, so why watch tournaments at all.
But Streamer Garden takes this platform competition very seriously.
It’s like those manga audiences who go wild over high school baseball.
They were already predicting which team would win and engaging in preliminary skirmishes for the platform competition.
[Paprika will dominate, right?]
[In terms of power, Paprika dominates lol lol]
[Unless five Balloon Gums show up on the hidden team, Paprika kills everyone for real]
[Paprika’s internal scrim will just produce the champion lol]
While the general consensus was that Paprika would win, Cheese’s hope still rested on Almond’s existence.
[There’s no guarantee Paprika wins]
[Cheese has a new skilled streamer too]
[He’s not the old Tribby anymore!]
And so, this was the kind of post that eventually reached 1st place in trending topics.
1st Place) Cheese is a famous Almond-holding nation
All Cheese faction players united to make just one post reach 1st place.
As a result, the comment section was bound to be heated.
-That’s not the rogue warrior from back then
-Even if Almond is there…
-Does Almond play solo?
└Looking at the inter-platform match, he kinda does play solo
Hahaha, cheese mold shakes, my wishful thinking is burning bright ^^
lol so cute
└Sorry, but could you call him “Foolish Youth” instead?
-Nut Clan is shameless lol
-Here come the Nut Clan showing off again
-What’s an idiot gonna do? lol
-Info) It’s the Foolish Youth
.
.
.
The general consensus was that Almond wasn’t the same player as during the Nant match.
Most importantly, the Nant match was an internal civil war between Tribby’s own people, and the fact that Almond had never faced off against Paprika was significant.
5th Place) Almond only massacred when Tribby was around lol
==== ====
When he goes up against Paprika, he just gets stomped
fr
==== ====
-Real talk lol
-Real talk lol
-Yeah
I can’t provide a meaningful translation for “-ㅇㅇ” as it’s not a standard Korean word or phrase. The “ㅇ” characters are Korean consonants/vowels that don’t form a recognizable word in this context. It may be an abbreviation, placeholder, or informal notation that requires additional context to translate accurately.
-True
-Yeah~
-He even won the international championship lol, talents are just different
└You’re talking about Ril but why bring up Civil M lol
Over there, they only shoot bows.
└He’s talented for sure but Paprika’s team has an overall level that’s just too high
-Ah if it was a siege match lol, I think he’d get completely destroyed in lane against Kalchi lol
└Real
└The Nut Clan needs some proper education, shame
└At least try to kill them in the survival match, come on
└└Kekekekeke
└└Has the Nut Clan gotten a lot of younger kids lately, so cute
└└Kekekekekekekekekekekekekeke
└└Lolololol
* * *
“Puhahahaha!”
Meanwhile, in Paprika’s DisWorld Scream channel.
The Coaches gathered there laughed resoundingly.
During their conversation, the topic of Streamer Garden’s reaction came up.
“So Almond has a nation. Aren’t they just adorable?”
A small man in a pressed cap pulled up a community screenshot and laughed.
[Udong]
He was Coach Udong, who boasted three PSL championships—what could be called Paprika’s equivalent of a Nant War victory.
With such credentials, his words naturally carried weight.
So the other Coaches readily agreed and displayed their confidence.
“Almond isn’t even a former pro. Looking at how much fuss they’re making, I think they’ve forgotten what Paprika’s personality is like.”
“What~? Nant War champion? Attention!”
Kekeke.
The Coaches all laughed boisterously again.
Since the Coaches here were all Streamers themselves, this scene was being broadcast as well, so many Viewers laughed along.
-Kekekekekekekekekeke
-Kekekekeke
-Reallykkk
-Just cutekkk
-Attention~!
-Forgot their personality lolol
-My heart’s already racing thinking about crushing those mold guys
-Ugh… I need to loosen my watch
In truth, if it were Cheese or Tribby, such remarks would often be restrained.
But the moment it took on the form of sports, Paprika’s Viewers completely changed.
It was one of this place’s unique cultures.
The Streamers here preferred to express confidence and engage in trash talk.
They believed sports became more thrilling and entertaining that way.
Of course, a significant portion of why they were laughing was “memories of the past.”
“Back then we really beat Tribby’s guys so badly they cried. Sigh, I miss those days… the age of romance~”
The Coaches with decent experience here all carried memories of the last inter-platform tournament.
Tribby’s performance back then had been utterly pathetic.
Tribby generally had many Streamers who enjoyed games, while Paprika valued skill and had many Viewers who wandered from place to place following trends rather than loyal fans.
Though this tendency had somewhat faded due to the influence of Streamers who recently came from Tribby, the culture of respecting and valuing skilled players remained firm.
“Is this your first broadcast? How are you holding up?”
So even Udong, who had considerable say here, struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to him, someone competing in this tournament for the first time.
Why?
Because he was the Coach of the Kalchi team, which was called the strongest team in this Paprika tournament, and his individual career was also quite impressive.
[Tottia]
Though he was only a second-tier player, Tottia had even served as a professional coach.
“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”
“You seemed tense.”
“Oh, it’s not because of the broadcast.”
“…Then what?”
“It’s just that the opponent won’t be as easy as I thought.”
“?”
Splash!
Like a bucket of cold water, Tottia’s remark made everyone who had been chattering cheerfully turn to look at him.
“Do you have some secret information? Why… do you think that?”
“Secret information… No. It’s not that… but there’s someone who seems to have a lot of secrets….”
As a professional coach, Tottia had undergone extensive training to advance to the first division and break free from prejudice.
Games couldn’t be evaluated simply by rank and stats, and neither could players.
So Tottia couldn’t help but pay close attention to that person he’d faced directly.
“Their coach is formidable as well.”
“Huh? Ah. That woman from the Knight Order? The one who played Civil M?”
“Yes.”
“Haha. You worry too much. It’s just one simulator match you lost.”
Udong laughed in disbelief.
Wasn’t Tottia being overly modest?
Or had a former professional coach become discouraged after losing to an unknown player in a simulator?
“Come on, let’s stop talking and start practice? Like we discussed last time, let’s run a 25 versus 25 match too. We’ll alternate. Okay?”
“Okay~!”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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