Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 106, Section 103: World-Class Popularity (Second Update, Please Vote)

Compared to the group of men around her, her petite figure even seemed out of place on stage.

Her round and delicate face, her height of 1.52 meters, the team uniform that looked a little too big on her, and her youthful appearance that couldn't be hidden no matter what.

Judging by her appearance alone, it's hard to imagine that this short-limbed little girl was just crying while brutally beating her opponent in the competition.

Despite this incongruous image standing on the stage, no one would object to her position in the center of the stage.

At least for today, she is the undisputed Position Zero.

The male host, who looked somewhat plump and had a rather pleasing appearance, couldn't wait to start asking questions of this contestant.

"Mr. Shimamura, you are actually a relatively young player, and this is the first stage of your first season in the professional league. At such a young age, you have delivered such an amazing performance, winning the LCP championship and qualifying for the World Championship. How do you feel about this?"

It's a problem with the formula.

But this formula, which was somewhat frustrating, stirred up memories for Shimamura Yuna.

She used to watch the games as a spectator, either in the audience or on her phone.

Whenever I see those amazing athletes being asked by the host, "How do you feel?" or "What are your thoughts?" after winning a championship, I feel...
Back then, she would often fantasize about what she would say if she were on that stage one day.

She had even prepared her lines in advance, just waiting for the day she could actually stand on the stage and say them out loud.

As a result, in his previous life, he never managed to say those lines he had edited countless times in his mind until his sudden death.

All my fantasies, in the end, were buried in the abyss like a joke.

However, in the blink of an eye, I found myself standing on a stage that I never dared to dream of before.

Those questions I'd always fantasized about but never actually asked myself were now being asked to me today.

But at that moment, she felt she couldn't say anything.

My mind is a mess.
She felt happy, but not as happy as she had imagined.

I wanted to celebrate, but I just couldn't quite muster the energy.

In the end, she still felt that it wasn't time to celebrate yet; there wasn't the atmosphere that made her feel that everything had come to an end and that it was time to give an acceptance speech.

In the end, all I could say was, "I feel like it's not real. But at the same time, I feel like this is my destiny, a development that I should naturally follow."

The host responded with a slightly exaggerated tone: "Oh~ that's a natural development, very impressive!"

Shimamura Yuna's answer was rather uninteresting, but he still tried his best to liven up the atmosphere, which is probably what is called professionalism.

After asking several formulaic and uninteresting questions, the host finally asked a slightly more interesting one.

"Actually, you are not only attracting attention as a very strong rookie player, but at the same time, you are also the first female professional player in the history of League of Legends to make it to the World Championship. Whether you feel it strongly or not, you are making history, there is no doubt about it."

"As a figure who has made history, people will naturally be curious about your female identity, and everyone will pay attention to you because of this. Do you have any special thoughts on this? Do you think there are any differences between female professional players and male players?"

This question was exactly what Shimamura Yuna had expected. She had already anticipated that someone would care about her status as a female contestant.

She had already prepared what she considered a respectable answer for this.

Yuna Shimamura replied with a serious expression, "It's quite obvious that as a female professional player, I have more opportunities when I have the same skill level as men. If I weren't a girl, I guess the CFO probably wouldn't have chosen me as a starting player in the first place, and they probably wouldn't have even noticed me."

"From the perspective of becoming a professional player, I am very fortunate to have the advantage of attention as a woman. However, at the same time, I will strive to prove that the popularity of female players is not my only value. Skill is my true core selling point."

The host chimed in, "So you've already proven your ability. You won the LCP championship and delivered a very impressive individual performance, right?"

Shimamura Yuna shook her head seriously: "It's still far from over. This is just the beginning."

The host asked, "So you mean you have even higher expectations for your performance in the upcoming FS World Championship?"

Yuna Shimamura replied, "Of course. Although many people may not be optimistic about us and think that our LCP teams are weaker than teams from other regions."

"But I enjoy this attitude of being a challenger."

At this point, she deliberately struck a cool pose for the camera: "I enjoy this feeling of the underdog overthrowing the superior."

This concludes the interview.

As always, any attempt by Yuna Shimamura to appear cool in front of the camera doesn't actually look very cool.

Especially this time, her eyes were red and there were faint tear stains on her face.

As a result, she looked even more pitiful than usual.

However, this photo of her trying to look cool was still screenshotted and posted on the official account of the League of Legends esports website.

The official caption for this image is: "The birth of a legend."

Yuna Shimamura's victory was almost a foregone conclusion and sparked a great deal of discussion online.

The popularity in Asia goes without saying; that's a well-worn topic.

To put it bluntly, with BLG losing to T1 last year, apart from the rebuilt IG, there really isn't much worth watching in the LPL right now.

What LPL? What BLG? What TES?

Since we can't win anyway, it doesn't matter who wins the championship.

IG? It's just a team that relies on hype and cheap hype.

Right now, there is no doubt that LPL's popularity is at its lowest point since S8.

If the LPL representative team gets second place in the Pioneer Tournament this year, people probably won't be happy.

For LPL viewers, not winning the championship is a failure, and second place is also an unacceptable result.

Even if they win the championship, they won't be happy.

Because FS is just a newly established tournament with low prestige, winning it wouldn't be very prestigious, and you might even be mocked as the champion of an exhibition match.

After all, if you were so good, why didn't you beat T1 in last year's finals?
If the probability of being disappointed while watching a game is far greater than the probability of being happy, then the game is naturally not worth watching.

But watching Shimamura Yuna's matches is different.

Forget about achieving any specific results, as long as she performs well and can hold her own against the top laners from China and Korea, everyone will be extremely satisfied and happy.

Compared to watching LPL teams, which are obviously hopeless teams composed of a bunch of old people, playing against each other and fighting for spots.

Compared to that, watching Shimamura's matches almost always brings joy. Everyone genuinely feels it's better to just watch pretty girls compete.

In this situation, a very subtle situation has arisen: everyone is discussing LCP and CFO, but almost no one is discussing the glory of LPL.

What kind of results do you think Shimamura can achieve at the World Championships?

I feel like I can't beat either the LPL or LCK teams. There are only 5 teams in this Pioneer Tournament; just trying not to finish last is good enough.

They've already made it to the World Championship; every step they take is a victory. There's nothing more to ask for. As fans, we can only offer our best wishes.

[I think it's best not to have too high expectations. Shimamura's mental health seems quite serious; she cries even when she wins a match, and she can't even bear to think about losing. No matter how it goes, I will encourage her.]

[It's unclear who from the LPL will be playing in the Pioneer Tournament, but it seems unlikely that CFO can beat either BLG or TES.]

Even if we can't win, so what? As long as we play with style, that's enough. It's still better than watching these old LPL teams. This year, CFO is my favorite team.

Regardless of the forums discussing the event, the comments about the CFO and Yuna Shimamura are overwhelmingly supportive and encouraging.

Yuna Shimamura speaks Chinese and is friendly to Chinese audiences, which has earned her a large number of fans in Chinese-speaking regions.

Since LPL can't be relied upon, everyone has naturally switched to CFO without much pain, making CFO, with Yuna Shimamura as their main team.

However, as mentioned before.

Yuna Shimamura was already a well-known figure in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam—Asian regions where League of Legends is popular.

Qualifying for the World Championship this time will only make her stay on the trending topics list more consistently. In reality, her popularity is already nearing its peak, and there's not much room for further growth.

What remains is to achieve better results to increase her online recognition and convert her fame into actual popularity.

However, the situation is completely different in Europe and America.

Previously, although Shimamura Yuna had some recognition among veteran esports players in Europe and America, it was really limited.

If you're not the kind of person who spends all day online, you're unlikely to know Yuna Shimamura.

However, as soon as Shimamura Yuna secured her place in the Vanguard Tournament, Riot Games' propaganda machine immediately went into overdrive, launching its god-making project at 100% power.

They bought up all sorts of trending topics and press releases.

The official event account also started aggressively reposting clips of Yuna Shimamura's matches, her interviews, and her photos.

Yuna Shimamura's own temperament and image played a significant role in this process.

The photo of him with tears streaming down his face during an interview, yet still striking a pose, captioned "The birth of a legend" by Riot Games, went viral on the internet.

Many foreigners who happen to see this photo become very curious.

Who is this tiny girl?
Why was she dressed like an e-sports team uniform and standing in the middle of what looked like a stage while being interviewed?
Common sense led many foreigners to realize that this was a scene of receiving an award at an e-sports competition.

But it was also common sense that made the foreigners realize that such a small and cute girl shouldn't be standing here.

Not to mention, the girl seems to be crying.

This contradictory perspective made the image quite popular, and it quickly went viral on the internet.

"Japanese e-sports girl" has become a trending topic on Twitter.

How can I describe how widely this image has gone viral?
Let's just put it that way.

This picture has already been exported and then re-imported to Japan.

Actually, the popularity of League of Legends esports in Japan isn't very high.

This has led to the strange phenomenon that although Shimamura Yuna is very popular and well-known in many parts of Asia, she is relatively unknown in her hometown.

But now, her fame has spread back to Japan in a slightly different way.

On this day, Akari Kujo was studying in the library, preparing for her final exams. She was engrossed in reading.

Suddenly, she heard her close, sexy friend shout, "Wow! Kujo! Something terrible has happened!"

Akari Kujo looked up and scolded her, "Kawakami, please be quiet in the library!"

The girl called "Hot Girl from Kawakami" quickly covered her mouth and nodded.

Then, she jogged over to Akari Kujo, handed her the phone, and whispered, "No, this...this is your friend, right?"

Akari Kujo took the phone and looked at it, then froze.

The phone displayed a news article from a Japanese media outlet.

The news headline read: "What kind of person is Yuna Shimamura, the Japanese e-sports girl who is popular all over the world and shines in the world's most popular e-sports events?"

Then I looked at the news content, and it turned out to be quite simple.

The news began by reporting that Yuna Shimamura had won the LCP championship and qualified for the World Championship, which sparked heated discussions around the world.

Then, perhaps worried that Japanese readers who don't follow League of Legends wouldn't understand the prestige of this tournament, they spent a large portion of the text introducing the popularity of League of Legends esports, basically just constantly touting how many people watch the competition and how much money it makes each year.
Of course, hyping up League of Legends matches is not the goal; the goal is to elevate Shimamura Yuna's image by doing so.

The general idea is to make everyone understand how valuable and prestigious Yuna Shimamura's current global popularity is.

Next is some personal information about Shimamura Yuna that can be found online.

In short, it's a very formulaic news article that praises one's own people for bringing glory to the country on the world stage.

At first glance, it doesn't seem special.

but.
The problem is that the media outlet reporting this news in Japan has a slightly official media presence.

And as everyone knows.

When someone is featured in this kind of media, it most likely means that person has become quite famous.

After all, these kinds of media outlets always follow the latest online trends and make a mess of things.

Yes, that's the situation right now.

After showing the news to Akari Kujo, the girl known as Kawakami looked at her incredulously and said, "Do you know that your friend is all over Twitter right now? She's more popular than you ever imagined!"

"Now when I randomly open Twitter, all I see are photos of your friends."

(End of this chapter)