“Hello, I’ve come to pick up the invitation…”
Normally, the team booths opened an hour before the games began.
Right now, it was two hours before, and a few front office staff were setting up the booths.
“Huh? Is that really Para?”
As I approached and started speaking, an employee wearing an rg uniform recognized me.
“Coach said he wouldn’t be able to come today.”
“Oh no! I heard you helped our team’s scrim a lot.”
“rg did the scrim with us. Other LCK teams don’t even bother scheduling scrims with us.”
“Hey, we’ll be playing together next year at the LoL Park. Here’s the ticket, and this is the uniform.”
The employee handed me rg’s uniform.
It’s usually common to receive team merchandise like this when coming to pick up an invitation.
“Is it okay for me to wear this?”
As a current professional player, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for me to wear another team’s uniform, but I took it and put it aside regardless.
“Did your friend come with you?”
“Yep!”
The employee, noticing Choi Eunseo standing beside me, spoke in surprise.
“Isn’t this the uniform that was released last year through a charity auction? It’s a really rare item, but you seem to have it?”
“It’s my hobby to collect uniforms!”
Indeed, the uniform Choi Eunseo was wearing belonged to rg from last year, and it wasn’t the commercial version but the players’ issued one.
“If the booth opens, there might be a crowd. Your friend can take some goodies.”
Because she was wearing the uniform, the employee handed Choi Eunseo several goods except for another uniform. Normally, one would spin a roulette to get one of these items, but Choi Eunseo received a small shopping bag filled with all of the team’s merch.
“Please cheer loudly for us today!”
“Of course!”
After exchanging pleasantries with the staff, we headed out of the stadium.
“We have about two hours left. Do you want to grab some food?”
“Sure!”
Leaving the Jonggak Tower where LoL Park was located, we walked for about ten minutes to our destination.
“What’s this place?”
“It’s temple food, right? It’s famous among vegans.”
It was a shop that sold temple food, or vegan food, mostly centered around vegetables.
“Welcome! Do you have a reservation?”
“I booked under Yoon Seohwa.”
“Let me check…this way, please.”
Since we had made a reservation beforehand, we went straight in without any wait.
After sitting down, I stretched my hand to Choi Eunseo.
“What’s up?”
“Give me some rice. You’re always carrying something, aren’t you?”
There was another reason for booking this place.
Because the prices here were rather high for vegan food, the service quality was known to be decent.
“Someone here even shared their chicken breast.”
In my previous life, I was close friends with a pro player who stuck to veganism. We had collectively come here once, and while the stickler for vegans ate chicken breast for his protein, one of the staff members kindly offered to microwave it when they noticed him chewing on plain chicken breast.
Given his condition, asking for a different kind of food here wasn’t much of a problem.
“I already checked by phone.”
So Choi Eunseo handed the instant rice she had brought to the employee.
By the way, Hansan Foods?
As far as I knew, Hansan was a cutting-edge IT company that fueled Korean pride. Did they also make food?
I learned something new today.
“Why does it feel so natural?”
While setting up the spoons and chopsticks before the food arrived, Choi Eunseo said something unusual.
“What?”
“Should I say proficient? You’re doing things a mannered man would, effortlessly.”
Those likely appeared to be skills that I had naturally acquired from leading gaming friends who had zero survival skills in my previous life.
After a few more minutes of casual chat, the staff started bringing out the food one by one.
“Where should we serve the rice you requested earlier?”
“Right here! Thank you.”
Since I had already asked them to exclude fish and soybean dishes, the food served was a perfect vegetable-only meal. Nonetheless, considering its hefty price, it tasted quite delightful.
“So, who do you think will win today?”
“I think rg will.”
“Why do you think that?”
Today’s match was rg vs wq, a fourth-seed duel. rg had qualified through the last bus of the qualifiers and had won their previous match. Meanwhile, wq had squandered the chance to secure the third seed. rg had the momentum.
“Also, rg has a good matchup advantage.”
Even though rg had fewer overall points, they held the upper hand in the head-to-head matchup. Considering these reasons, rg’s victory seemed like a solid favorite.
*
[We have reached the grand finale of the LCK Qualifiers, leaving just one spot to be claimed and setting the stage for an intense clash.]
The VIP seat was located at the very back, offering an unobstructed view of the entire stadium.
Since becoming a woman, I didn’t come here often, but even as a spectator not a player, I could feel the adrenaline rush.
As if understanding my excitement,
[And today, we have a special guest visiting our LoL Park.]
My seat was displayed on the giant screen, and the audience erupted in exclamations.
[This is the player who has caused a sensation in ck. Para of ark.]
[Probably the hottest rookie these days. As soon as the age limit was lifted, they appeared in ck, and immediately reached the top of the regular season.]
[Not just any top but…]
[Yes, an undefeated season with no losses, and not only that, this player clinched the MVP of the season.]
“That’s not a player, is it? I was trying to get their number.”
“With this face, they’re playing professionally?”
“This is amazing.”
Two men sitting near me whispered, and my heightened hearing as a woman picked up useless information.
“Aww, I was trying to get their number.”
“Even if you asked, you probably wouldn’t have gotten it, right?”
[And next week, the promotion matches will be held here, won’t they?]
[Will we have coverage on that day as well?]
[I’d like a break, so I hope not.]
[Didn’t you recently move house? I believe you should save some energy for your honeymoon.]
[HaHa, that’s why I’m doing commentary on VCT, right?]
The audience laughed at the banter between commentators.
Is it true that a tier-1 commentator must always have their mic on, even when not talking about the game?
I reflected on my former self from another life who had thought about getting into commentary if I didn’t make it as a pro.
‘However…’
My face was still on the huge screen.
How much longer will this go on?
[There’s another reason Para is famous.]
[The so-called “Smile Challenge” craze—anyone using social media must have seen at least once, right?]
I understood what they were saying, but doing it would attract too much attention, so I held back.
[Your friend sitting beside you is doing the challenge, so don’t you think you should comply?]
Choi Eunseo poked my back a few times and started doing the hand motions of the challenge herself.
It was hard to ignore her doing it alone beside me, so in the end, I reluctantly joined Choi Eunseo in making the heart shape twice with our hands.
“Wow, the audience’s roar is probably the loudest I’ve heard?”
“Unbelievable, it’s louder than when an epic play occurs.”
‘This, too, will be turned into a GIF to be shared online.’
In my previous life, searching my name on the internet would bring up half insults.
However, in this life, searching my name brings up face pictures as the norm.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
[Now, let’s meet the players preparing for the match.]
The match was about to start; coinciding with the commentator’s words, the arena was bathed in red light.
“No matter how far we’ve come to the fourth seed decider, they were third in the regular season! Here’s wq!”
“A team whose jungler’s ability to open games around the bottom side ranks top class, not only in LCK but worldwide!”
The players dressed in red uniforms emerged in the center and greeted the audience.
Next up,
“The demon of the qualifiers, and they remain unchanged this season! rg!”
“Three consecutive seasons qualifying for worlds from the fourth seed. Their ambition to achieve the same this season is clear!”
The arena turned blue as rg’s players entered.
The rg players also walked to the center, greeted the audience, then headed to their positions.
“Let’s see the ban-pick phase, shall we?”
“Perhaps the champion to watch today is Aphelios.”
“I agree. The pride and primary champion of both teams’ ADCs. Plus, they don’t have many ban cards to spare for Aphelios, so what sort of ban-pick…”
“Hey? They passed on Aphelios and picked Yune?”
“Normally, if a tier champion is left unpicked, you counter it with the same line’s champion. But they locked down Yune with the first pick?”
“Although Yune was a good pick this season, many times the tanky champions couldn’t break through…”
‘This ban-pick seems familiar…’
Passing Aphelios to the opponent while picking Yune.
In the top lane, a champion that slightly loses but works as a counter-tank.
In the bottom lane, a hypercarry ADC with a reasonable tier.
‘Our team?’
It didn’t take long to realize that this was the same ban-pick our team had used during scrims with rg.
