[LJI 11 SC 3] What's A Vacation?
SpodderMan tapped the push-to-talk button.
"Up there in Dome, did you hear that?"
A deep electronically-altered voice responded over team chat.
"Yeah, suppressed SV-98, sounded like he's picking off people down slope. We got five minutes left, wanna take him?"
Another button tap. "Y'all know I've wanted one of those, fuck yeah! Plenty of time."
Tap. "Sure, I'll flush him out with nade. Ready?"
"Ready."
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The flash-bang grenade hit a perfect arc, right up and over thru a small broken window, and a second later the loud explosion and flash of light went off inside the dome shaped building above them. Immediately after Russian swearing they've heard a thousand times before echoed out.
"Shit, it's just a computer Scav. But loot's loot. Should be easy."
The door onto the walkway above them opened up and the computer controlled player stumbled out. Shots rang out and the Scav fell over dead, Spodder nearly jumping out of his skin. 4U2Die4 shouted and breaks up some thru the voice changer. Spodder looked over to see Four peek over the edge of the slope.
"We got three sweaties in full kit moving up, and three minutes left. Time to bail?"
"Yeah, let's hit exfil."
They quickly back out to the evacuation point and watch the timer count down, and a second before it hits zero they both throw grenades high towards the players running up their way and shoot them the bird.
"GG Spod, shame about the rifle. Maybe next time."
"Yeah, time to bail for now. Catch ya later tonight!"
"Later!"
SpodderMan closed up Tarkov and flipped over to his chatting screen, cam big at the top and channel chat scrolling past down the right side. It was barely visible as it flew past with people typing GG and random floods of emoticons.
"Alright! Great raid, and tanks for all the support from everyone with the follows and subs! Almost the top of the hour so don't forget to stretch and hydrate and walk around a bit! In a couple minutes is the big event of the night, our interview with IGGN magazine."
Just then a shrill ringing started and his screen flashed red.
"Shit they're early, here we go! I'm muting notifications and text to speech cause I love you guys but you're all dicks and I don't trust ya's."
He hit a few keys and below his webcam another cam view popped up.
"Here we are with the infamous SpodderMan, one of the top FPS gamers making the league rounds and one of our favorites here in the IGGN offices! How you doing tonight?"
"I'm doing great Kent, thanks for the interview, it's an honor."
"The honor's all ours. So, you've been on the pro circuit for about two years now, streaming for five. What's it's been like with such a rapid rise to stardom in the FPS community?"
"It's amazing, a dream come true. Sure, there's a lot of work involved, constant training, juggling social media. But here I am!"
"Indeed, here you are. In the top ten in three different leagues, and rumored to be one of the top earners in the esports world. But, that hasn't come without a bit of controversy, has it?"
Spodder grinned and shook his head.
"No, people love to stir up shit."
Kent nodded and leaned into the camera a bit.
"So let's look into some of those. The past year there's been a lot of accusations of cheating, using aim bots and other hacks. How do you feel about that."
A shrug and a smile as Spodder leaned back into his chair.
"Haters gonna hate. To a sufficiently uneducated savage technology looks like magic, and to a sufficiently untalented potato high skill looks like cheating. Seriously, I've won the last five tournaments I've played in, on machines they provided because they didn't want to risk there being any cheat programs. I play constantly, train in my downtime, and under constant watch I've performed time and again."
"Of course, the skill stands on it's own, I just wanted to get your side of things."
"But of course."
"So, that does lead into the most recent controversy."
Spodder raised an eyebrow.
"Which is?"
"How you're such a bad role model to upcoming gamers?"
Spodder's face tightened and he narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not following you, this is new to me."
"Well, like you said. You play constantly, and when you're not playing you're training. You haven't missed a streaming day in three years, and haven't taken a single vacation day off. That can't be healthy for you, and young gamers look up to you and are gonna follow your example."
"So a question for you first. You're a popular journalist, how many hours a week do you work?"
Kent shrugged.
"The usual forty hours plus a little extra here and there for lunch breaks."
"And your commute each day?"
"Probably twenty minutes each way."
"And when you leave the office you don't do any story digging or research or watch the news?"
Kent chuckled and spread his hands to his sides.
"You got me on that one, I do a couple hours each night trying to get the jump on good stories."
Spodder nodded then gestured around him.
"I'm right here in my 'office'. No commute. I stream six hours a day on average in two separate streams with a couple hours break in the middle. I have a bot set up in chat to remind everyone to take a break and stretch and move and stay hydrated, which I do as well."
"Sure, but you work every single day."
"Do I? I do over a dozen tournaments a year all over the world, along with attending three conventions. I do stream every day from there, but it's me interacting with some of my best friends, seeing cities I never would have visited five years ago, having fun. And seriously, what is a vacation? When you're doing what you love every day, are you ever not on vacation? I hope young gamers follow me, abandon their cubes and doing what they hate so they can live doing what they love, whether it's gaming or creating or doing anything!"
Kent slowly nodded along as Spodder talked.
"Excellent response. Excellent advice. An excellent interview. Thank you for this interview. Everyone, the amazing SpodderMan."
"Thank you Kent for this opportunity!"
Kent's cam window closed, and Spodder expanded his to fill the screen.
"Alright everyone, I think that was pretty awesome! But for now, it's time to go. Don't forget to hit that follow button if you want to get notified of when my streams start, check out the YouTube channel, and I'll catch you on tomorrow!"
He hit the button to start his outro video and cut out the mic and camera, and while it ran in the background he hurried around the room packing up cables and his portable gaming rig. As his outro ended and he shut down his main gaming rig someone pounded on the door, then in strode a short blue-haired woman with a huge backpack slung over her shoulder.
"Come on loser, we're gonna be late! You agreed to help set the network crap up before the party kicks off, and I want you rested so our partner's match is on point. Losers have to buy the beer this weekend."
"Shit, I'm on it! The beer tastes better when someone else buys it. I'm still mad we got screwed out of that gun."
"I checked around, we killed one of those fuckers with the grenades on the way out!"
They both had a good laugh as he scooped up his gear bag and they headed out for the night.
"Up there in Dome, did you hear that?"
A deep electronically-altered voice responded over team chat.
"Yeah, suppressed SV-98, sounded like he's picking off people down slope. We got five minutes left, wanna take him?"
Another button tap. "Y'all know I've wanted one of those, fuck yeah! Plenty of time."
Tap. "Sure, I'll flush him out with nade. Ready?"
"Ready."
"Bang, bang, bang!"
The flash-bang grenade hit a perfect arc, right up and over thru a small broken window, and a second later the loud explosion and flash of light went off inside the dome shaped building above them. Immediately after Russian swearing they've heard a thousand times before echoed out.
"Shit, it's just a computer Scav. But loot's loot. Should be easy."
The door onto the walkway above them opened up and the computer controlled player stumbled out. Shots rang out and the Scav fell over dead, Spodder nearly jumping out of his skin. 4U2Die4 shouted and breaks up some thru the voice changer. Spodder looked over to see Four peek over the edge of the slope.
"We got three sweaties in full kit moving up, and three minutes left. Time to bail?"
"Yeah, let's hit exfil."
They quickly back out to the evacuation point and watch the timer count down, and a second before it hits zero they both throw grenades high towards the players running up their way and shoot them the bird.
"GG Spod, shame about the rifle. Maybe next time."
"Yeah, time to bail for now. Catch ya later tonight!"
"Later!"
SpodderMan closed up Tarkov and flipped over to his chatting screen, cam big at the top and channel chat scrolling past down the right side. It was barely visible as it flew past with people typing GG and random floods of emoticons.
"Alright! Great raid, and tanks for all the support from everyone with the follows and subs! Almost the top of the hour so don't forget to stretch and hydrate and walk around a bit! In a couple minutes is the big event of the night, our interview with IGGN magazine."
Just then a shrill ringing started and his screen flashed red.
"Shit they're early, here we go! I'm muting notifications and text to speech cause I love you guys but you're all dicks and I don't trust ya's."
He hit a few keys and below his webcam another cam view popped up.
"Here we are with the infamous SpodderMan, one of the top FPS gamers making the league rounds and one of our favorites here in the IGGN offices! How you doing tonight?"
"I'm doing great Kent, thanks for the interview, it's an honor."
"The honor's all ours. So, you've been on the pro circuit for about two years now, streaming for five. What's it's been like with such a rapid rise to stardom in the FPS community?"
"It's amazing, a dream come true. Sure, there's a lot of work involved, constant training, juggling social media. But here I am!"
"Indeed, here you are. In the top ten in three different leagues, and rumored to be one of the top earners in the esports world. But, that hasn't come without a bit of controversy, has it?"
Spodder grinned and shook his head.
"No, people love to stir up shit."
Kent nodded and leaned into the camera a bit.
"So let's look into some of those. The past year there's been a lot of accusations of cheating, using aim bots and other hacks. How do you feel about that."
A shrug and a smile as Spodder leaned back into his chair.
"Haters gonna hate. To a sufficiently uneducated savage technology looks like magic, and to a sufficiently untalented potato high skill looks like cheating. Seriously, I've won the last five tournaments I've played in, on machines they provided because they didn't want to risk there being any cheat programs. I play constantly, train in my downtime, and under constant watch I've performed time and again."
"Of course, the skill stands on it's own, I just wanted to get your side of things."
"But of course."
"So, that does lead into the most recent controversy."
Spodder raised an eyebrow.
"Which is?"
"How you're such a bad role model to upcoming gamers?"
Spodder's face tightened and he narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not following you, this is new to me."
"Well, like you said. You play constantly, and when you're not playing you're training. You haven't missed a streaming day in three years, and haven't taken a single vacation day off. That can't be healthy for you, and young gamers look up to you and are gonna follow your example."
"So a question for you first. You're a popular journalist, how many hours a week do you work?"
Kent shrugged.
"The usual forty hours plus a little extra here and there for lunch breaks."
"And your commute each day?"
"Probably twenty minutes each way."
"And when you leave the office you don't do any story digging or research or watch the news?"
Kent chuckled and spread his hands to his sides.
"You got me on that one, I do a couple hours each night trying to get the jump on good stories."
Spodder nodded then gestured around him.
"I'm right here in my 'office'. No commute. I stream six hours a day on average in two separate streams with a couple hours break in the middle. I have a bot set up in chat to remind everyone to take a break and stretch and move and stay hydrated, which I do as well."
"Sure, but you work every single day."
"Do I? I do over a dozen tournaments a year all over the world, along with attending three conventions. I do stream every day from there, but it's me interacting with some of my best friends, seeing cities I never would have visited five years ago, having fun. And seriously, what is a vacation? When you're doing what you love every day, are you ever not on vacation? I hope young gamers follow me, abandon their cubes and doing what they hate so they can live doing what they love, whether it's gaming or creating or doing anything!"
Kent slowly nodded along as Spodder talked.
"Excellent response. Excellent advice. An excellent interview. Thank you for this interview. Everyone, the amazing SpodderMan."
"Thank you Kent for this opportunity!"
Kent's cam window closed, and Spodder expanded his to fill the screen.
"Alright everyone, I think that was pretty awesome! But for now, it's time to go. Don't forget to hit that follow button if you want to get notified of when my streams start, check out the YouTube channel, and I'll catch you on tomorrow!"
He hit the button to start his outro video and cut out the mic and camera, and while it ran in the background he hurried around the room packing up cables and his portable gaming rig. As his outro ended and he shut down his main gaming rig someone pounded on the door, then in strode a short blue-haired woman with a huge backpack slung over her shoulder.
"Come on loser, we're gonna be late! You agreed to help set the network crap up before the party kicks off, and I want you rested so our partner's match is on point. Losers have to buy the beer this weekend."
"Shit, I'm on it! The beer tastes better when someone else buys it. I'm still mad we got screwed out of that gun."
"I checked around, we killed one of those fuckers with the grenades on the way out!"
They both had a good laugh as he scooped up his gear bag and they headed out for the night.