eSports Not Streaming — Chapter 22

Passing the Tryout

Anything goes as long as you’ve killed ZUM!

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RTK’s tryout was rushed in at the very last minute, by the time Yun Yun received the invite to join the custom game and made it to the waiting screen for the match, he was the second to last player to arrive.

And on the opposite team, he saw a familiar ID.

RTKZUM, was his opponent.

Yun Yun had never been an opponent of ZUM before, but this Ana who was skilled in Widowmaker, is definitely the hardest player to deal with in the list of red names.

“They’re here.” Jiang Sen’s voice came from the YY voice channel, the last player that joined this custom game, was RTK’s Toke, that Genji.

“Originally, we wanted to arrange for all trying out players in a team battling against each other, but because those that specialise in support and tanks were lesser in numbers, so for this match, your opponents will be RTK’s pro-gamers.” Manager Jiang Sen’s voice came from the voice channel for the tryouts in YY, “Everyone can just pick your most skilled heroes, you’ll have a lot of chances, work together, we will look closely at everyone. If we didn’t see clearly, we’ll arrange for more maps.”

The custom game’s spectating list was filled with people from RTK, just like the inspectors at an exam hall, waiting to watch their performance.

“Right, so the first round, Ilios. Begin.”

In the instant the hero selection screen appeared, his teammates locked into their representing hero’s icons, Ana, Reinhardt, Genji, Yun Yun immediately picked McCree, and the remaining two teammates, filled in and picked Zarya and Lucio.

In the time while preparing for the game, his teammates didn’t make any nonsensical small talk, because they were all in the YY voice channel provided by Jiang Sen, anything they said would be clearly transmitted over to the RTK entertainment company.

This was a tryout. Yun Yun felt a little nervous, he even lifted his right hand from the mouse and gripped it tightly into a fist, his whole body sat straight upright in front of the computer, he was usually able to keep this stance for a few hours.

In the aircraft while waiting for the game to begin, Yun Yun’s McCree moved around endlessly, he aimed at the things inside the aircraft, randomly opening fire.

The revolver rang out with a series of “peng peng peng” that reverberated in his headset, he even began aiming at the teammates around him, doing his best to get into the rhythm for his optimum state.

When he picked Hanzo for the ranked matches today, he would get a strong sense of premonition with every arrow let loose from his hands: it will hit its mark, and the enemy will die. Everything was within his realm of control, he rarely made an error of judgement.

But for the tryouts, this meant bad news.

Yun Yun clearly understood what it meant when his gaming sense for Hanzo was good, nearly always at the same time—if he doesn’t practice as McCree for up to half an hour, he wouldn’t be able to return to his peak performance.

Half an hour. After Yun Yun received the notification, he went straight to the practice range, and got in about ten minutes of practice.

Right now he wasn’t able to clearly determine how well he could display his abilities based on his current state, he could only wait for the team battle, and find his rhythm for McCree.

“Attack!”

Yun Yun followed along with the system announcement, and smoothly rolled out of the air craft.

His allied Lucio activated a speed boost, they regrouped at the first domed building outside of the tower, Reinhardt’s shield effectively blocked off the fire from the opposing team, but a mech hero that brought with him a vibrant light, pierced into the group from above their heads.

Toke’s Genji!

This was a well practiced professional player, after he landed he immediately activated his deflect, a trick that works to attract everyone’s attention onto him and then deflect all their blows back onto the attackers.

Especially those of McCree’s.

Yun Yun’s sights had been locked onto the enemy’s body from beginning to end, he did not have time to spare for this impulsive taunt.

His every shot effectively brushed past the opposite Reinhardt’s red shield, but ZUM seemed to be doing it on purpose, the moment he saw him open fire, he would hide securely behind the shield, successfully avoiding his attacks.

The moment Toke’s deflect skill ended, he resolutely looked for Lucio’s silhouette, with Ana’s support, he was prepared to eliminate this support that wasn’t really all that skilled.

Yun Yun only needed to lightly flick his screen, the flashbang that left his hands rooted Genji to the ground accurately, and he shouted, “Kill Genji!”

Just as Genji was about to become the first sacrifice of the game, a biotic bomb went off at Toke’s feet.

At least four of his teammates were inhibited from healing because of the bomb due to the fact that they were all gathered close together, just earlier, you still couldn’t tell which side the tides of battle were leaning towards, and now it had turned for the worse in an instant, the opponents in red had been pressuring them backwards steadily, Yun Yun could only retreat quickly, and eliminate the Tracer at critical health.

The moment the first blood occurred in the game, big changes would happen on the battlefields, in the instant the inhibition lost effect, the teammates health were recovered by their Ana, their position on the disadvantage had been overcome perfectly, and both sides returned to the scene before where they stood on even grounds.

But, Yun Yun didn’t have a good feeling about this.

This temporarily formed team, was no different from being matched up with random passing by players in ranked games, the YY channel that was supposed to be free for them to communicate, however only echoed with his voice alone, occasionally he would hear cries of help like “Genji is killing me”, and he would immediately protect the Ana next to him reflexively, but then realise that this cry of help came from a Lucio that was a distance away from them.

His teammates didn’t know how to accurately report the enemy locations and lure the opponents into a trap, their positions and formations were scattered and difficult to look at for the practiced eye, from the beginning, it was destined that they wouldn’t be able to win over the other team.

ZUM was an Ana with the strongest sense of team work he’s ever seen, the support that Toke was fed with was forever accurate with timely precision.

Yun Yun didn’t know their manager’s observer’s perspective, and didn’t know what his teammates were thinking, the quiet voice channel of their team in his frequent rate of reports, became noisy and messy, as if a whole group of people were snatching for a chance to show their face, it rang chaotically with everyone’s voice.

Eventually, he chose to shut his mouth.

Reports of critical health but no one assisting, when they’re pushing the front lines Lucio decided to flank and fell from the group, these meaningless messages appeared in their voice chat, and didn’t have the effect of what should have come from communicating.

This was Yun Yun’s most familiar mode of ranked games, only, it’s been moved into a tryout session.

Not only that, it was really noisy too.

“Just now you should have dealt with Genji first!” The YY channel rang out with a Master Strategist’s voice, “The opposite side only has Genji that’s actually worth something.”

No, it’s because of ZUM, that Toke’s Genji could be so domineering.

The perfectly deployed biotic bomb, the high accuracy of sleep darts, as well as the healing support given to Toke at critical health, if they don’t kill off ZUM first, they would definitely never be able to win against the opponents.

In the second map, he resolutely took up Hanzo.

The teammates who were still evaluating plans and battle tactics for the match, suddenly grew quiet.

Yun Yun felt the atmosphere suddenly grow quiet, he could even almost imagine the expressions of these teammates of his participating in the tryouts.

“You’re picking him just to fool around, right.” His teammate quietly said.

Displaying his skills and whatnot, Yun Yun doesn’t care anymore, he just really wanted to laugh at all this, he destroyed the decorations inside the aircraft with his arrows as he liked, and replied, “En, just fooling around.”

The basketball that was rolling on the floor had been shot into flying all over the place, he looked like he just picked Hanzo to pass the time in the short time frame between instances, the trajectories left over from his arrows that was repeatedly aimed at the ball, and a relaxed smile on his face.

He doesn’t care anymore, kill ZUM first, then talk.

The pressure on him from the tryouts suddenly dissipated into smoke, Yun Yun didn’t want to compare himself with his teammates anymore, a team that didn’t cooperate naturally wouldn’t be able to coordinate an attack.

If the ZUM that had been shaved down to low health by McCree couldn’t be taken care of by his teammates, then he’ll change to a hero that will definitely take the kill.

When the Hanzo in the team walked out of the aircraft without a word, everyone felt that his spirits must have been broken from taking a beating from the other side.

The battle situation truly wasn’t good just now, especially for the McCree that was played by this Hanzo, not only did he not manage to kill Ana, he was even madly targeted by Genji, up until the round was over, he basically didn’t make any eye-catching plays at all.

In control maps, everyone would engage in the first round of fire at the checkpoint, when both teams made it into the checkpoint under Lucio’s speed boosting, the first elimination immediately happened.

Hanzo eliminated Ana!

It was just like Ana had went up to receive the arrow to her head willingly, no one could say for sure what had happened!

“ZUM eliminated.”

Yun Yun looked at this notification with satisfaction, he easily climbed up onto the spherical roofs of the buildings, spectating the intense battlefield on the ground. His goal was simple, to compensate for all the times he let go of ZUM in the last round.

Very quickly, he heard the sound of Genji’s shurikens, having lost Ana’s effective support, this Toke still madly infiltrated deep into the enemy base, using his shurikens to harass the back-liners.

However, the Genji that didn’t have his teammates support, Toke, was similar to a traveler going thousands of miles to send them free points, even if it were a team scattered into dust, they could still easily focus fire onto Genji to take him out.

Because he didn’t have ZUM.

The threat that Ana posed towards the tides of the battle was heavier than the Genji who wielded a lone sword, Yun Yun decided, first kill ZUM, then kill Toke, break up the flawless cooperation between these two, then the opposite side’s main forces can be easily dismantled.

“You’ve worked hard.” Jiang Sen gave a simple conclusion to this round of tryouts, “Everyone’s displays weren’t bad, so after this we will analyse everyone’s recordings, and decide who to keep after this tryout. Please wait for the notice patiently, we will respond within three working days.”

With this formal speech, he drew the tryouts for today to a full stop.

Then Yun Yun exit out of the YY voice channels, and immediately received a private message.

RTKJiangsen: Yingren, the standard of your Hanzo is a little better than your McCree, you main Hanzo?

Yingren: I play both Hanzo and McCree, today I didn’t practice as McCree to get a sense of him well, so my play was a little weaker than usual.

RTKJiangsen: En, I understand.

Even though Yun Yun wanted to tell the other in detail, about the fact that he originally came from playing FPS games, as long as he played up to an hour of McCree, he could definitely play as McCree better than Hanzo.

His McCree in ranked games, could solo-kill the opposing Lucio and Pharah, his skills in breaking the enemy’s shield and providing cover fire for teammates, were still not bad, other than the fact that he can’t kill Ana in the event of being targeted by Genji, he should be at the standards that a top 50 ranked McCree in the national server should be.

The only thing that doesn’t look good for him is, a nano-boosted Genji who brought along an Ana and then unsheathed his sword, would basically always eliminate him.

However, Hanzo kills Genji more.

Toke really was a very impulsive player, his Genji would often rush into the fray alone, displaying the demeanor of a person who was used to his teammates support, but his teammates, none of them were like ZUM who could keep up to his rhythm.

Yun Yun reflected on his performance, and weighed the plays made between both heroes, just as he was contemplating on whether or not he should explain things to Jiang Sen, he saw ZUM’s icon flash.

ZUM: I just went to listen in on things from the manager, he said you were the most brilliant player in the tryout!

ZUM: Brilliant!

Yingren: But I still have to wait for the notice-ah.

ZUM: Wait for what notice, there’s no damage position hero better than you! As long as Jiang Sen isn’t stupid, he’ll definitely keep you.

Reality proves that Jiang Sen really wasn’t stupid.

“We’ve temporarily decided you’ve passed the tryouts, but as for the position within the team, we still have to discuss, if possible, you can first make preparations, we’re an offline team after all, you need to come over to the headquarters.” Jiang Sen laid it out like that, and the news he brought with him was of confirmation.

RTK agreed to accept Yun Yun into their team.

This was undoubtedly a positive update, Yun Yun was so happy he really wanted to scream.

He speedily opened up his group chat, and realised that the chat history that scrolled past had a lot of new faces among them.

EvenThinkingIsHard: Where did streamer go QAQ, why is there no more news?

LoveAutumn: My heartaches for my Kang-baby who still isn’t accepted as a good friend.

OneMoon: No need to panic! Something came up for Yingren, I’m guessing he’s gone offline. Once he goes online he’ll definitely add Big Boss Kang Ming!

Kang Ming?

The Yun Yun who had gone stupid with joy suddenly remembered that a friend request flashed past in the notifications, he immediately started up his gaming client and clicked on ‘accept’, but then realised that Kang Ming had already gone offline.

Yingren: My bad, the pro-gaming team notified me of the tryouts, so I closed the stream at the last minute.

FlyB: Did you pass?

Yingren: I passed! In these two days I need to prepare to go to RTK’s headquarters QAQ

The group chat was instantly spammed full of congratulations.

The old viewers, with OneMoon taking the lead, began spamming red envelopes to celebrate, the chat was filled with well wishes and cheers on joining RTK.

Jiji: Stream stream stream stream stream stream!

The passionate cheers brought with it a chorus of agreements, everyone asked for Yun Yun to begin streaming right now, to compensate for the rushed stream ending from before.

Yun Yun reopened the stream, and ShimadaGenji’s team request instantly popped out.

[Team] ShimadaGenji: Congrats! When will you go to the headquarters?

“Maybe tomorrow I’ll pack my things, the sooner the better.” Yun Yun couldn’t keep in his excitement in his voice, he could once again walk onto the e-sports arena with his teammates, taking one step closer to his most respected idol.

“I’ve finally become a professional gamer again, my goal is to become opponents against the idol I admire the most!”

[Team] ShimadaGenji: And who’s that?

“Hey hey,” Yun Yun laughed dumbly, he buried this simple dream of his into his heart, and clicked into ranked games.

Not telling? Kang Ming felt that Yingren appeared even more ditzy now, this kind of condition of him being an idol’s avid fanboy, he didn’t know which big Hanzo god did he look up to.

Playing professionally… Kang Ming may like the fighting spirit of professional gamers who refused to give up, but unfortunately he didn’t like their average working hours, it was full of hardships and tiring as hell, and then it wasn’t even guaranteed then that you could play out good results.

Far too many talented young adults have fallen on this road, each pro-gaming team’s victory represented another team’s defeat.

Did they not work hard enough? No.

On the competitive arena of Overwatch, sometimes, defeat happens simply because your luck was too bad.

[Team] ShimadaGenji: If you play pro then we won’t get to watch streams anymore >.<

“Aiya, don’t try to act cute!” Yingren said into his mic, “A big northeastern man doing aegyo is not even the least bit cute! Why aren’t you talking?”

[Team] ShimadaGenji: Mic’s broken, I’m preparing to buy a new one 0.0

Kang Ming had given irrelevant answers to Yingren’s question mark, and when he turned his head over, he could see a group of familiar IDs in the comment barrage.

Even though the hype brought from his action of inspecting Yingren’s channel from his stream earlier had dissipated cleanly, but those Shimada brothers fans, and the troublemaking “Hanzo is the best” fans, still had a deep impression of Yingren.

“I finally found the Hanzo that shot Kang-babe’s face full of arrows now~ XD” “Quietly asking if anyone here ships GenZo -w-“, the comments that played cute in his comments on a daily basis, having switched over to a different stream, were still the same fearless comments.

Hmph. Kang Ming thought, in my stream you’d all have been muted!

“Go go go!“^[1] The Yingren tonight was oddly excited, but ShimadaGenji didn’t say a single word, good thing the wordless cooperation that came with the training from their two-man car games, didn’t need words to communicate, once Hanzo’s arrow left his hand, Kang Ming goes in front, and there was a nice and easy kill done beautifully.

Ai. Kang Ming feels like the little bit of joy he has has been robbed, the training for professional gaming teams were exactly like clocking in at an office, four to five hours a day would be considered a light workout to them.

He has to go back to his daily routine of streaming at night now.

The ranked games became relaxed and happy, the strength of the enemy team wasn’t even worth a mention, the phone that Kang Ming left on the table began vibrating without warning. He glanced at it, and displayed on it was Zhang Ye’s name.

After Kang Ming accepted the call with an easy move of his hand and set it to loudspeaker, he could hear Zhang Ye’s voice.

He said, “Lingdong, I need money.”

– Read this at wuliaotranslations.wordpress.com –

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Translator’s notes:
Kang Ming sulking… poor thing…

(Footnotes updated… but I had left it for so long that I don’t remember what needed notes… my apologies.)

Footnotes:
1. Yun Yun said this in English. 🙂

Translated by: Yasu
Published: 2021/2/15

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yasu