Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 155, Section 152: The Championship Interview!

"After all, that's impossible, right? With our skills, with our skills as Japanese players, it's impossible to reach the top of the world like in inspirational anime, isn't it?"

"But now, at this very moment! The spotlight is shining so brightly!"

The Japanese commentator was extremely excited.

Golden rain, cheers, spotlights, and all the viewers, both online and offline, gathered out of anticipation, emotion, and joy.

The stage, the trophy, and the champion.

All of this constitutes the best moment for the stage.

There may be no more harmonious or captivating scene in the world.

At this moment, Shimamura Yuna, along with all her teammates, became an element of the scene, an inseparable element of the scene.

After that, the host presented Shimamura Yuna with the FMVP award for the Pioneer Tournament finals.

He added, "Your individual performance in this competition was outstanding. You almost completely crushed the Zeus player who had just won the S-series championship last year and had won two titles. You made this world-renowned top laner pale in comparison and appear lackluster."

"What would you like to say about this? What would you like to say to Zeus, or what would you like to say to the fans?"

Shimamura Yuna took the microphone and smiled slightly: "There's not much to say. I just happened to be at my best and brought out my best self. My victory over Zeus was largely due to chance. He's a very strong opponent. If it were another best-of-five series, I might not be able to maintain that level."

Yuna Shimamura was telling the truth.

Whether in training matches or previous games, she and Zeus actually seemed to be somewhat different.

The laning phase is where the difference between the two is smallest; in other areas, the difference is much greater.

However, in the finals, the laning phase became where the biggest gap between her and Zeus lay.

The gap was so large that Zeus couldn't utilize his strengths in other areas and was completely crushed in the laning phase.

If she had to do it again, she felt she couldn't replicate her performance from this competition.

This is all true.

But in the moment of winning the championship, these words just sound like modesty.

The live stream chat on the English channel was almost entirely filled with comments like "Humble Goat" and "God's humility."

Then, as people kept scrolling, some started posting things like "Cute Goat".

It's quite rare to find someone in the League of Legends esports scene who can be described as cute.

The atmosphere in the live stream was filled with a fervent love and care for female professional players.

This may be the reason why things are valued for their scarcity.

Not to mention, this female contestant had tears still on her face.

At the very end, the host asked Shimamura Yuna a formulaic, but very important, question.

"For many people, your victory is unbelievable and unimaginable. So, how do you feel about this championship? As the world's first female professional League of Legends player to win a championship, do you feel anything special?"

At this moment, after a moment of silence, Shimamura Yuna said something that seemed to show a lack of emotional intelligence to the League of Legends officials.

"To be honest, this championship is important, but it's important to me and to the CFO."

"Hanwha's players may be disappointed after losing this match, but even if they win, they may not be as happy as we are, because for them, or for a strong region like LCK, this kind of match doesn't have enough value to make them happy."

"We were an underdog team, and I was an underdog player. So even this championship is incredibly precious to us. The most suitable player got the most suitable championship. From this perspective, I think this competition really might be what they call destiny."

Upon hearing this, the official host's face visibly became slightly embarrassed.

From Shimamura Yuna's perspective, she didn't think that much when she said that.

She genuinely felt that the Vanguard Tournament wasn't very prestigious and that it wasn't a particularly impressive competition.

"Giving a championship with no real value to LCK or LPL is nothing, but if it were me, I'd be overjoyed."

She genuinely thought so, and that's what she said.

It can only be said that their emotional intelligence is a little low.

The viewers in the live chat laughed when they heard this.

[Shimamura-san is amazing!]

Oh my god, how could you say something like that?

[Shimamura is absolutely right. Giving this championship to LPL or LCK wouldn't have mattered, but giving it to CFO is a huge achievement. A good championship deserves a good person.]

[This is unbelievable. Is Shimamura basically saying that nobody cares about Riot's matches except for the World Championship?]

[Shimamura-san just likes to speak the truth]

When Longshen saw this during his live stream, he couldn't hold back his tears.

He laughed and said, "Shimamura-san, it doesn't feel right for you to say that. I'm telling you, the staff at Riot Games probably won't look good."

"Well, it should be fine. Riot is probably having a good time right now. What was supposed to be a lukewarm tournament has turned into something more exciting than last year's World Championship."

"Shimamura-san is right, Shimamura-san is right, she's not just talking nonsense."

Actually, the issue of Riot's overemphasis on the World Championship, leading to a distorted discussion environment for the tournament, has been discussed to death in the community.

There's a general understanding now that the focus is solely on the S-series, which is a concept that's easier for viewers outside the gaming community to grasp.

The various competition formats within the industry are often difficult for viewers outside the circle to understand. Long-time viewers know best which championship is more prestigious and which is more convincing.

However, for many viewers outside the circle, this naturally adds another layer of comprehension barrier.

What kind of competition is this? What about its prestige? This will hinder the dissemination of the event.

The concept of "only S-rank" is very simple and straightforward.

All the competitions are unimportant at the end of the year. Success or failure depends on this one battle. Winning the S-series means all the winners take all. The rest are just stray dogs on the roadside that no one cares about. Their shelf life is only for that short moment when they win the championship.

This kind of argument is actually more exciting and more appealing to the audience.

It also helped League of Legends competitions to quickly gain wider popularity in their early years.

However, this "S-series-only" mentality has gradually begun to backfire on League of Legends competitions in the last two years, generating many negative effects.

Riot Games is also aware of this problem, which is why they have been trying to improve the status of MSI and other similar international tournaments.

This includes adding a new Pioneer Tournament and expanding MSI to two teams.

But now that we're at the end of the game's lifespan, it really doesn't mean much anymore.

Viewers have become accustomed to the "S-series only" mentality.

Even if you expand MSI to four teams, the same as Worlds, people still won't accept it.

Because the World Championship is the World Championship; it is irreplaceable and unique.

Therefore, what Shimamura Yuna is saying now is absolutely right.

This is a championship without real value. Whether it's won by LCK or LPL, neither side would be very happy or care much.

However, for the CFO, winning this championship is just the right thing to do.

For Riot Games, letting Yuna Shimamura win this championship is probably the most suitable choice in terms of popularity and marketing. However,
Although this is something that everyone in the world knows.

But if you say it directly, if you just say it like that, then it doesn't feel right.

I just felt that way.
That's a bit low in emotional intelligence.

But for Shimamura Yuna, she didn't care about these things.

She is a world champion.

She is the main character today.

She was the center of everyone's attention, a brand new radiance.

She said whatever she wanted, and even if her fists were unhappy, they could only smile apologetically at her.

After saying this, Shimamura Yuna added, "This competition is a very solid and important step for me. But this is not the end. To use a famous saying, this is not even the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning."

"I will go even further."

"It's more than that."

With that, the interviews on the main stage officially came to an end.

The CFO and his team raised their trophies and made a glorious exit amidst fireworks and cheers.

World Champion
As Shimamura Yuna said, for Riot Games, having Shimamura Yuna win the championship would be the best script for this tournament.

In another timeline unknown to her, HLE won the championship without any pressure.

Ultimately, this championship is of no significance other than serving as a small-scale counterattack against T1 fans.

Nobody cares, nobody is concerned.

After all, for Zeus, who has already won two S-series championships, this competition is hardly a heavyweight event.

The match itself generated only so-so buzz, and the subsequent buzz was also quite poor.

From the perspective of event organization, the Pioneer Tournament can be considered a failure.

The only success was that, by sheer coincidence, TES's transformation into a spinning top actually revived the struggling LPL, giving it a boost in popularity.

Nobody likes watching matches from a low-quality league.

But the spinning top competition section has its own set of memes.

On the contrary, it would be truly remarkable if Shimamura Yuna won the championship.

The finals were broadcast simultaneously on foreign websites, breaking the MSI record. It trended on Twitter in multiple regions and within China.

After the match ended, the number of captains on Bilibili surpassed 15000, and there is a high probability that it will increase further.

This increase may not be particularly large, but it will most likely eventually stop at a number close to 20000.

This is an unprecedented and terrifying number in the history of esports.

Keep in mind that even the cheapest, automatically renewing monthly subscription for captains can still earn a few dozen yuan for a streamer.

20000 items worth tens of dollars each—that's truly an unimaginable number.

Not to mention, after Shimamura Yuna's live stream ended yesterday, there were already ten governors on the show.

The admirals lost so many that it was impossible to tell.

A governor would receive ten thousand.

One admiral earns 1000.

There are also various red SCs and countless blue and yellow SCs.
All these miscellaneous gifts must add up to around a million.

All I can say is that many players may work hard for a year, but they may not earn as much as Shimamura Yuna did in just one day of her live stream last night.

Compared to many other professional players, Yuna Shimamura, as a girl and a Vtuber, has a significant advantage in "how to monetize her fans into money".

If Shimamura Yuna were still awake and saw this data, she would probably be very happy.

Although she has given up live streaming to compete, she is not indifferent to money.

Before she went pro, she was determined to "become a professional player who can earn a lot of money".

Not for himself, but for his sister.

Her sister has always had a hard time because of her.

One of her major motivations for playing professionally was to earn a lot of money, enough to achieve financial freedom so that her sister wouldn't have to do a job she didn't like every day.

When she was a live streamer, she could earn some money, but she wasn't confident that she could support her sister for life without having to work.

But now, she is very confident.

Let's not even talk about the signing fee.

The money she earned from gifts and the extra time she paid for watching Bilibili were enough for her sister to never have to work again.

Money itself is not important.

But it's important that money can change my sister's life.

Unfortunately, Shimamura Yuna completely lost her energy after the interview on the main stage.

After stepping down from the stage, he immediately fell into a deep sleep and did not participate in any subsequent activities or post-match group interviews.

She was taken directly back to the hotel and taken care of by Akari Kujo.

Although Shimamura Yuna fell asleep, the subsequent media storm showed no signs of abating.

As Shimamura Yuna said, "This achievement is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end; it is merely the end of the beginning."

The same applies to public opinion.

Yuna Shimamura's popularity had already been steadily growing before this, thanks to her multiple advantages: the world's first female VTuber, the pride of Japan, a wildcard comeback winner, and a VTuber who speaks Chinese.
She was already very popular.

However, this apparent high level of interest has not yet been fully realized.

Now, winning this pioneering tournament is like lighting a fuse, igniting the long-simmering gunpowder.

Various discussions have emerged online.

For example, someone, just to stir things up, posted the captain and gift data from Shimamura Yuna's live stream during the finals to a forum for Vtuber discussions that usually feature captain data, asking, "Will anyone ever be able to surpass these captain data?"

The comments below were all the same: "I surrender, this is really incomparable" and "I'm a suit dog, I kneel down."

Someone commented below: "Although this person debuted as a costume actor, they've already surpassed all other costume actors worldwide. For many Vocaloid viewers, this is unimaginable, isn't it?"

[I remember people in the forum looked down on this guy back then, thinking he was just another ordinary Ravage who was only riding on Dragon God's popularity. And now?]

[Now Ryujin has to ride on Shimamura-san's coattails. He's been dutifully showing respect in the livestream every day but doesn't dare to criticize her. It makes me want to laugh.]

[The Dragon God is truly afraid to visit Shimamura, for fear that Shimamura might jump out.]

(End of this chapter)