20. The 1st World Championship (2)
[The event is 2-person team speed hunting.]
[The preliminaries will be held over two days.]
Information about the tournament began to be released.
Most of it did not stray far from the format many users had expected, but—
[Special rules will be introduced starting from the main bracket]
[Defeat a limited number of “Guardians” faster than your opponent to secure a large amount of gold and purchase better buffs. Then, defeat the monster faster than your opponent to claim victory!]
[Be careful, as debuff obstacles will appear during the match!]
[Raid monster patterns and Awakening skills added]
[An official update is scheduled for one month before the tournament.]
Starting from the main bracket, the match format changed.
That part drew the interest of many users.
-Did anyone see the tournament notice? They say special rules are being introduced for the main bracket. Looks like they added MOBA elements?
└If it works the way those rules say, then they’re adding a new map too. Does it start with both sides competing for buffs on the same map, then split off into separate event maps?
└Debuff obstacles, added patterns, Awakening skills… they really went all out ;;;
└I wish the update would come sooner. I want to try it too.
In effect, it was a situation where major new content was being added. Even apart from the tournament itself, expectations for the update were growing.
One month before the tournament.
[Monster Eater: The large-scale update that was previously announced goes live!]
The update began.
The users could not hide their excitement.
-The update is so big there’ll probably be extra maintenance, but… I’ll give them a pass just this once. Just do it properly without bugs!
└From now until the update is finished, I’m holding my breath and waiting. Hup!
Surprisingly, the update ended at the exact time they had announced.
As soon as countless people logged into the game, they accessed the content prepared for the Championship main bracket.
[Land of Heroes]
It was the arrival of content that would bring a new wind to Monster Eater Online.
The users enjoy playing, and the development team fixes bugs.
It was the natural formula of the early days of an update.
I thought we had tested it enough, but still…
Nothing in the world is perfect.
It was one of those maxims that became even more tangible when making and servicing games.
No matter how carefully you look things over, as long as you’re human, mistakes happen.
Feedback came pouring in.
To deal with it, both Crying Soft and Nexple Plus were operating at full capacity.
On top of that, since it was a simultaneous worldwide update, simply compiling the bug reports pouring in from each country was no easy task.
By the time he clocked in and worked in a frantic rush all day, it was already time to leave work!
By temperament, Taeyeon could not force overtime on his employees, so after sending them home, he would stay behind and continue working.
Those efforts were clearly having an effect.
-This is more fun than I expected. It has a competitive element, and I like it even more because it depends more on teamwork and control than gear specs.
└What I like most is how actively the devs are accepting user feedback.
└Yeah, most bugs get fixed the very next day after they’re reported.
└It’d be so nice if every game were operated like this…….
As the content received praise, the number of streamers playing Monster Eater also increased rapidly. They analyzed the game, shared various strategies, enjoyed matches, and communicated with viewers.
This was far more effective than spending big money on marketing. There were even more people signing up and paying for subscriptions just to try playing this Land of Heroes content.
Takizawa Satoshi spoke excitedly.
-“The response to Land of Heroes is incredible. I think we need to assign more dedicated personnel and put even more force behind its development.”
“We should. This is going to become Monster Eater’s bread and butter.”
This was not something to be satisfied with as it was—they had to keep improving it and develop it into even richer content.
Class balance is especially important. From now on, when launching new characters, we’ll have to balance them with Land of Heroes content particularly in mind.
It was already hard enough now, but if this tournament became a hit, it would become even harder going forward.
There would only be more and more things to keep in mind during the development process.
In a way, I’m basically opening the gates of hell and then slipping out.
The best kind of testing is when the development team mixes in with the users and plays the game together.
That’s both the advantage and the disadvantage of being a game developer.
Because you can play a game you like until you’re sick of it.
The problem was that, quite often, people really did get sick of it. In fact, most developers may approach it at first because they like it, but later, they get so tired of it that they often stop playing except for testing purposes.
There were even many cases where they became outright fed up with the game itself.
There were cases like that among my old colleagues too.
So far, there did not seem to be anyone like that among the Nexple Plus staff.
“Let’s make a lunch bet!”
“I think it’d be fun if we held something like an in-house tournament with prize money… what do you think, PD-nim?”
If anything, they were offering ideas enthusiastically.
That was thanks to Taeyeon having set the basic hiring condition for employees as being passionate former Monster Eater players from the start. There were many who thought it was the best welfare imaginable in itself: getting involved in developing a game they loved, and also getting to play it to their heart’s content under the excuse of testing.
“An in-house tournament, huh. Then how about we hold a little event with ten million won in prize money—the 1st Yoo Taeyeon Cup?”
“Oooooh!”
“Ten million won in prize money?!”
“That sounds great!”
Ten million won was not a small amount, but if it was for boosting staff morale, it was money he could invest without hesitation.
…He probably had no idea that the boomerang he threw so lightly would come back this big.
(10,000,000 won = 6,741.59 as of 3/9/26)
“Uh, I heard there’s going to be a Monster tournament. Can we participate too?”
“PD-nim. You’re not only taking care of the Nexple Plus studio, right? You’ll take care of the employees developing Pantheon too, right?”
“Come on, there’s no way he’d only look after the Pantheon and Monster Eater employees. He’ll definitely take care of the Project D employees too. Hahaha!”
“…….”
Somehow, word had leaked, and the staff of the studios under Taeyeon’s management began actively asking about signing up.
And even—
“I heard you’re holding an in-house Monster Eater tournament with ten million won in prize money? Can I participate too?”
“Director Son Youngsang plays Monster Eater too?”
He was Nexple’s head of development and one of the key people who had scouted Taeyeon.
At Nexple, his position was second only to one!
“What’s with that reaction? I’m a well-known game junkie too!”
“Ah, I-I see…”
“Anyway, you’re not planning to take care of only Nexple Plus employees, are you? I heard the Pantheon and Project D development teams are planning to participate too.”
“…Nothing has been decided yet.”
“Really? Then decide it and let me participate too!”
“No, this was planned as an event to boost the morale of Nexple Plus employees…….”
“If everyone’s interested and wants to participate, but you say you’re only taking care of Nexple Plus, can you handle the drop in morale at the other studios?”
“….”
“I’ll support it as a company event altogether, so let’s do the 1st Yoo Taeyeon Cup Monster Eater Tournament properly.”
His ears perked up.
“When you say you’ll support it as a company event… does that mean you’ll support the prize money?”
“Just the prize money? I mean food, venue, tournament time… I’m saying I’ll take care of all of it.”
“Can you really do that?”
Director Son Youngsang shot back with a dumbfounded expression.
“Listen to this guy. Do you not know who I am?”
It had been a stupid question.
To ask if something like that was possible in front of Nexple’s number two……
“Understood. Then I’ll go ahead and make it an official Nexple event.”
“That’s what you should’ve done from the start.”
[Yoo Taeyeon Cup, the 1st Monster Eater Nexple Championship, to Be Held!]
And so the tournament that had been meant to boost morale grew completely out of control.
Wait, our company had this many Monster Eater players?
Since they had not really imposed any Hunter Rank restriction, there were even many people saying they would make accounts and try playing for this opportunity.
No, this won’t do. It’s too much to handle alone.
So he asked for help.
“Planning Team Lead. Please help me prepare for the tournament!”
At last, the in-house Monster Eater tournament began!
On the day itself, countless company employees gathered at the company PC bang1.
Even though it was a large PC bang, it filled completely, and there still was not enough room, to the point that they had to divide the tournament into separate rounds.
“I even did special training for today.”
“I’m definitely taking first place.”
“I’m not greedy—I’m just aiming for third.”
Director Son Youngsang supported the tournament, and the scale of the prizes jumped dramatically.
First place: 10 million won in prize money, the latest graphics card, and one week of paid vacation.
Second place: 5 million won in prize money and three days of paid vacation.
Third place: 3 million won in prize money and one day of paid vacation.
For an in-house tournament decided so suddenly, the prizes were rather generous.
It was more than enough to set even the employees who had only intended to treat participation itself as meaningful completely on fire.
The tournament was more heated than expected.
The twelve finalists selected through the fierce preliminaries were all considerably skilled. Their level of play was so good that simply watching them was entertaining enough.
The Monster Eater operations team staff who had been put in as commentators were also outstanding.
As he calmly observed the lively atmosphere that everyone was enjoying, Taeyeon thought to himself,
This is just about perfect as a rehearsal for the main tournament.
In addition, he was able to think of things that absolutely needed to be fixed, or things that might be good to add.
From Taeyeon’s perspective, thankfully, the ones who seized the glory of victory were a male employee pair from the concept art team.
“We’d like to share the glory of this victory with our Art Team!”
“It was really fun. I hope there will be opportunities like this often in the future!”
Second and third place were each taken by employees from other studios, but he did not find that particularly disappointing.
The tournament was fun, and Nexple Plus employees took first place, so they preserved their pride.
What mattered was that the tournament had been fun.
Whatever else may be true, both the people watching and the people playing should enjoy a game tournament.
A few days later, Taeyeon gathered the employees and said,
“While watching the tournament, I made a full list of what would be good to fix and improve. I organized it by separating out what would be good to newly add and what urgently needs to be corrected. Naturally, these are things that were agreed upon with PD Takizawa Satoshi.”
Exclamations broke out.
While everyone had simply been enjoying the tournament, Taeyeon had been moving ahead with all sorts of work behind the scenes on his own.
After finishing the presentation, Taeyeon said,
“The newly added content will be included in a large-scale update after the World Championship ends. As for the items that urgently need fixing, each team will need to finish that work by this week.”
With their leader taking the lead and running ahead, there was not a single employee who failed to follow.
On top of that, this time too, he did not merely distribute the work he had organized and leave it at that—he personally took on a considerable portion of it as well, regardless of section.
“I can’t exactly sit back doing nothing just because I’m the PD. I’ll take this much and finish the work, so I’m counting on all of you for the rest.”
And so, time passed yet again.
And at last—
[Monster Eater Online: The 1st World Championship Opens!]
Countless Monster Eater users from all over the world came pouring into Busan BEXCO.
- A PC Bang is a type of internet cafe found primarily in South Korea, focused on providing high-performance gaming setups with affordable hourly rates. It is a social space where people can play video games together. ↩︎
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