Chapter 4

The largest community related to Korea’s gaming scene is the Teamfight Arena Gallery.

Without the need for login or registration, the anonymity ensured, and with a concentration of young men, some of whom transform into legends only on the internet, this community had a ferocity unmatched by other gaming communities.

The recent hot topic causing a firestorm was a mysterious private message received by Victory, a prominent broadcaster.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Teamfight Arena Gallery (Teama Gallery) was obsessed with Victory.

Typically, posts on this type of gaming gallery followed predictable patterns:

“Our teammates’ parents are alive or dead; it’s only me who has no team luck. The champion I use is terrible, give it a buff; the one enemies use is an outright scam, nerf it.”

Amid the tens of thousands of diary-like posts that went up daily, the ones that truly caught people’s attention were about professional scenes.

Heroic worship.

Professional gamers who crush millions of players to reach the top, earning wealth and fame—these were the idols of young men!

Inspired by the pros!

Of course, only a handful, after being filtered and filtered again, could truly become professional gamers. And even among them, only a few could shine.

Victory. Jeon Wooseung.

Victor in every tournament he has joined, practically the current reigning world champion, a living Teamfight Arena legend.

Naturally, posts about such a figure commanded unparalleled popularity and attention.

To the point where jokes about the gallery being unable to sustain itself without Victory didn’t seem far-fetched.

[Author: Anonymous] [Title: Who is the guy whispering to Victory?]

[On checking the record site, is it true about a 30-win streak?

Pros all start with super accounts at level 30—so who is this person?]

[Views: 1340]

[Comments (46)]

-[Is a 30-win streak among low-level players impressive? haha]

-[Anonymous: It’s pretty impressive.]

-[Low-level players do that if they hit someone that fights properly.]

-[Who is ‘someone that fights properly’? Examples, please.]

-[Why no answer??? Give examples!]

-[Who gets excited about a mere low-level 30-win streak? haha]

-[Does that mean you can do it then?]

-[With a bit of luck, yeah.]

-[You’re talking nonsense without checking. Enemies aren’t even enemies. It’s your allies who become enemies.]

-[Your allies are enemies? Isn’t that normal for Teama?]

-[A delusion thinking oneself is different.]

-[Still, who made that 30-win streak?]

-[Why won’t anyone answer???]

-[Could it be a 5-man squad run?]

-[Nicknames of teammates vary in every match. Some overlap, but it feels like coincidence.]

-[Wow, then it might be a true high-level player.]

-[High-level player? Haha. It’s just someone boosting their alt (secondary account).]

-[But judging from his play, doesn’t seem like an alt.]

-[A main account making a 30-win streak?! Insanity haha.]

-[If your brain isn’t full of noodles, think logically: Newbie or alt?]

-[Everything’s answered in the title: it’s not pros, but a high-level player.]

-[Then, who’s this high-level player?]

-[Not me.]

-[Ugh…]

-[Seriously, why stir up such pointless debates? Do they have nothing else to do?]

-[Maybe Victory’s friend? At this point, it’s not Teama Gallery but ‘Victory Fan Gallery’!]

-[Yeah, you’re right.]

-[You again?]

-[Without Victory, what else could they talk about in this fan community?]

-[Welcome to the official domestic Victory Forum!]

—

[Author: Anonymous] [Title: Reaction GIF when Victory Gets a Whisper]

[An image file attached showing Victory smiling after receiving a private message.

Is this person really not a girlfriend?

Could a man whisper and cause this kind of elated smile?]

[Thought-provoking post]

[Views: 38,519]

[Comments (522)]

-[What’s with the sweet smile? Haha, this is a no-doubt girlfriend.]

-[How does a woman achieve 30 wins?]

-[Is that sexism?]

-[Women simply don’t appear in this game’s environment. Ever seen a woman in Challenger Tier?]

-[To begin with, is there even a woman who plays this game?]

-[They do, but most are stuck in low tiers. Haha.]

-[If we saw their chat and behavior, we’d argue that it proves women don’t play.]

-[The problem is you’re stuck in low tiers yourself. Haha.]

-[Nevertheless, Victory’s friend seems male.]

-[What?]

-[Does that mean Victory smiled this way after receiving a whisper from a man?]

-[Gaaay, gaaay!…]

-[Victory is so cute, what do I doooooooo?]

-[Sexual orientation: please leave the gallery!]

-[Why are you mad? It could be a gay person too, you know!]

-[Haha, lol.]

Although there were murmurs of a potential girlfriend, no one took it too seriously.

Women don’t play Teamfight Arena—that’s common knowledge within Teama Gallery.

Even if it weren’t the case, no one could imagine the record-breaker of a 30-win streak as female. Even opinions questioning whether “chat behavior suggests a newbie” quickly got buried under the more common belief: “This is probably just someone boosting their alt.”

—

[Author: Anonymous] [Title: Breaking: The Legend achieves a 31st consecutive win!]

[Now it’s intriguing—how far will this go?]

[Views: 946]

[Comments (35)]

-[Why so hyped over low-level slaughters? 31 or 100 wins—doesn’t interest me, stop the commentary.]

-[Queer individuals sure are worked up, huh?]

-[A common trait of people who are always mad: their lives have fallen apart.]

-[Ha ha ha ha ha ha.]

-[Common trait #2: they have no jobs.]

-[That’s why there’s no hype now, it’s off-season for tournaments, no juicy gossip.]

-[That’s right.]

-[This one seems to be the same, life is ruined, no job = angry.]

-[Oh… Ohh…]

It was the first month of the year, January. With all the competitions done and major player re-signings wrapping up, all that was left to look forward to were the next tournaments.

It was a time filled with anticipation for how newly structured teams would fare—but not everyone could indulge in wishful thinking for teams yet to compete.

Thus, the focus shifted to the world beyond pro gamers.

Simply put, the gallery users were bored.

Bored enough to latch onto trivial topics.

—

*

“Is it just because I’ve been slaughtering newbies too often?”

[99+ Friend Requests]

So Ah looked at the stack of over 99 friend requests that had piled up while she was gaming. She didn’t exactly remember befriending that many people while gaming.

“Are these people just looking to insult me? Trying to channel their frustration into a conversation?”

She deduced these were users venting frustration from their gaming experience. Without further thought, So Ah ignored all friend requests. In Teamfight Arena, private messages could only be sent to those on your friends list. She hadn’t realized yet that she had become the center of attention.

Her misconceptions didn’t stop there.

“Really, how much longer am I going to have to play with rookies?”

Based on her knowledge, only rookies—those who hadn’t hit Level 30—were grouped with others in the lower levels. Of course, this applied when players maintained the standard win rate of around 50%.

The infamous matching system of Teamfight Arena was designed to converge every player’s win rate towards 50%. When a user suffered consecutive losses, the system matched them with stronger teammates and weaker opponents. The reverse occurred during a winning streak, where teammates were worse-off and opponents were formidable.

This system that enforced a 50% win rate often seemed rather unreasonable to those on the side of high win streaks.

“Am I supposed to win with this team? That team? This is ridiculous.”

The reason why so many argued in the gallery that achieving a 30-win streak in the low levels was easy, yet none could provide examples, lay here. It was genuinely tough. So hard that most didn’t even realize how someone was pulling it off.

This was just people pushing back against someone they thought didn’t deserve the accolades.

Regardless, this matching system largely contributed to Teamfight Arena’s mass appeal.

Would a game where you lose repeatedly ever stay interesting?

The fact that new users didn’t quit after suffering 30 consecutive losses owed much to this system. After all, playing more and more games would eventually bring any player’s win rate close to 50%, regardless of how things initially turned out.

Back to So Ah’s situation…

Someone in her position, having such a devastating winning streak, would naturally begin facing stronger opponents. Eventually, the system could no longer match her against rookies since there weren’t any other players at the same level who had a higher or similar win rate.

Thus, she was matched against ranked players at Level 30 and above. Just moments ago, she had annihilated an enemy team composed entirely of Level 30+, three of them in the Diamond Tier and one in Platinum.

Yet to her, these weren’t much stronger than the rookies she had just been destroying.

“Man, when the hell is my max level reaching! Shitty game!”

Still operating under the misconception that she was stuck among rookies.

[Author: Half-Banana] [Title: Seeking Master+ Tiers to Stop the Legend]

[Only accepting players with normal game win rates over 60%, proof required. Let’s go!]

At the same moment, a player aiming to take down So Ah was gathering a team in the Teamfight Arena Gallery.

“Big deal, just another rookie killer.”

A person annoyed by the excessive attention garnered by a legend who hadn’t even made the top 0.1% of players.

“If we broadcast the moment we end this legendary streak, won’t viewership skyrocket?”

A streamer desperate to gain more attention.

“What makes you think you’re special, claiming to know Victory, my senior? Victory probably doesn’t even know who I am!”

A gay gamer upset by feeling like Victory had been taken away from him.

In short, five Masters gathered, each with their own motives.

Five ultra-high-level players representing the top 0.1% of users assembling to take down the legend!

The story is about to begin.

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