Apex Predator.
Among its various modes, the solo division stood out as an anomaly.
To understand why, one must first acknowledge the common thread shared by Dark Zone and most other PvP formats: team gas.
Team gas were the cornerstone of the PvP systems offered by Dark Zone, and this was also the reason why Apex Predator—often abbreviated as AP—was considered an outlier.
As always, the whole is not rely the sum of its parts.
A team ga is not just about multiple individuals playing simultaneously; it’s about coordinated communication, enabling the team to achieve results beyond what any single player could accomplish.
This is precisely why the role of a coach exists in this domain: to identify and address the gaps in team play that individual players might overlook, ensuring that the different pieces—be they five, four, or six players—fit perfectly into the puzzle that is victory.
However, AP soloing was different.
While tactics certainly existed, there was no guarantee they would work. To put it more freely, everything that happened after landing was often a matter of improvisation, and this was at least half true.
The vast array of objects and terrain spread across several square kiloters created more variables than any other PvP could offer. In other words, the tapestry of victory was woven solely by the player’s own skills.
It was to the extent that coaches, players, and viewers alike agreed that winning in AP solo wasn't sothing that could be achieved through practice and tactics alone.
While tactics beca just as important as physical skill at the highest levels, this inevitably ant that physical prowess was still the primary determinant of success.
Therefore, unlike the other PvP professionals who specialized in team play, those who focused on AP soloing were not just players but also their own coaches, and—assuming they were part of the main roster—they held significant individual influence.
Moreover, due to the nature of solo play, the dynamics of free agency were quite different from those in other FA markets, where players often stayed with a team for long periods, making team movents rigid.
In AP soloing, a player could freely move during the FA period, express their opinions on trainee selection within their club, and their input was relatively likely to be accepted.
Thus, the culture that erged in the AP soloing area was a kind of "pickup season" that coincided with the scrim period.
Aspiring professionals could participate in scrims outside of trainee recruitnt periods, catching the attention of enforcers, managent, or professionals, while clubs could easily acquire promising trainees without much effort.
It was an attractive system for everyone involved, and almost all clubs and professionals had grown accustod to this thod.
Dice, who had been active in SSM for the three years since the inception of professionals in Apex Predator, was no exception.
Or rather, she had been.
"Um, Yujin? Maybe you could think about it just a little more... Our SSM facilities are really great! They're right next to Yongsan, so you could easily get here with just one bus ride..."
"Hmm..."
"You can keep streaming if you want! Or even work as a rcenary or sothing like that. Oh, I want to go back! This is too weird...!"
Yujin.
It seed she wasn’t particularly interested in becoming a professional gar.
Dice wanted to cry.
[General] Yujin, you bastard, start your stream now!!!!
You’re not scared of people like , who sit in bed all day playing Dark Zone and watching streams? Start the stream now, I’ll punish you with donations, just please start the stream!!!
I can’t live without Apex streams anymore!!!
[Comnts] [Newest First]
Loser, lol.
Is this the state of basent-dwelling losers who hang out on forums...? ㄴ [Author] I’m getting a job soon. ㄴ Man, these working and student losers really lack empathy. Absolute worst. ㄴ Maybe it’s because you’re a dumbass?
I’m not a loser, but I agree it’s annoying Yujin isn’t streaming.
She’s in a scrim, idiots. Can’t you read the announcents? ㄴ [Author] We can’t watch it, dumbass. ㄴ Severe case of Yujin addiction here.
Lol, she’s gonna get wrecked in the scrim. I hated how she got cocky after barely reaching Tier 2, but finally, she’ll get put in her place. ㄴ People who say this are usually stuck between Bronze and Silver. ㄴ Whatever, dumbasses, as if you’d believe us even if we told you our rank. ㄴ Just reveal your in-ga nickna, you loser. ㄴ She reached Tier 2 in hardcore mode in just ten days. That’s Guinness World Record-worthy. Disgusting to see you trying to downplay it.
[General] Am I the only one curious about Yujin’s scrim?
I know Apex scrims are super intense, but after what she’s shown so far, I can’t imagine her losing.
With how well she’s been playing, she should get a recruitnt offer soon, right?
[Comnts] [Newest First]
She’d be doing well if she perford even at 30% of her usual level. There are Grandmaster and Challenger pros in there.
Scrim looks like a walk in the park to you?
[Top Comnt] Honestly, there’s no reason she’d struggle in a scrim. Based on her videos, she wasn’t having a hard ti in Tier 2 either, so she could easily break into the top 500. ㄴ [Follow-up Reply] My in-ga nickna is 'SquareCheesePatty#9-13-215-1'. Defended dal of Honor in both last season and this season. If curious, DM in-ga for verification. ㄴ Damn, a real man revealing his in-ga nickna, lol. ㄴ With a win rate like that, you’re top-tier. ㄴ Ever participated in a scrim? ㄴ [Top Comnt] I’ve participated in all kinds of tournants and am currently a trainee. Not revealing my organization, though.
.
.
.
ㄴ [Top Comnt] If I had been in the sa scrim room as Yujin, I’d have so stories to share, but unfortunately, that’s never happened. However, I’ve heard from one of my dormmates that she got five wildcards. ㄴ WTF, lol. ㄴ No way. ㄴ Insane… insane… insane… insane… insane…. ㄴ What the hell did you do, you crazy Yujin!!!!!!!!!!!! ㄴ If you’re a trainee, you must’ve seen Yujin’s scrim footage. Share so stories. ㄴ Hold on, this is going to be a long one, so I’ll make a separate post.
[General] Current 3rd division trainee here, sharing so Yujin-related stories.
I got lucky last year and got picked up by a pro, so I’m a trainee with a professional team. Of course, I asked my ntor if I could share these stories, and they gave permission, so here it goes.
Surprisingly, the scrim rooms aren’t super exclusive. That ans pros from other teams can participate in Xi’s scrims, and vice versa.
They don’t reveal any hidden tactics, and it’s more like a practice match room where anyone Tier 2 and above can join, separate from the team’s internal practice gas.
There are actually a lot of scrim rooms, so I didn’t get to be in the sa room as Yujin, but a few of my dormmates participated in her matches.
So, so of these stories might be unverified, but I just checked the scrim scores, so I can cross-check a lot of the ga-related stuff.
Yujin apparently joined through a Xi-hosted scrim, so if you’re curious about her records, they’ll likely be posted on the official team site tomorrow.
Below are the stories I’ve heard and so of the questions I got. I’ll mark them T for True, F for False, and ? for unverified.
Today’s Xi-hosted scrim lasted 13 hours and 37 minutes in-ga, with 23 total sessions. In other words, they played 23 matches, and Yujin placed first in 14 of them (F).
I counted it myself, and it’s actually 15 matches… Is this person even human? I couldn’t believe my eyes, no joke.
After the scrim, all the pros there sent pickup requests, and about a third of them were wildcards (?).
Not confird, but based on the gaplay, I think it’s possible. If I were a pro, I’d definitely use a wildcard here.
Is Yujin a total noob in scrims?
Earlier, before I checked the scores, I thought she’d do okay, but after checking, that’s just nonsense. From what my dormmates said, she’s basically obliterated everyone, regardless of who they were.
Did she get 11 kills in the first match at the research complex and take down a Juggernaut? (T)
Confird true. I still don’t understand how, but apparently, she threw an EMP grenade and then mowed them down with a Barrett.
I have no idea who this person is—maybe so high-level Awakened One is playing this ga.
I’ll post more stories if I hear anything new.
[Comnts] [Newest First]
Holy shit, she’s a total maniac, lol.
Did she really fire a Barrett in rapid succession? That’s not what that gun is supposed to do.
But if Yujin is a high-level Awakened One, wouldn’t that an she’s playing for real and not using an avatar? ㄴ Oh…. ㄴ Sounds rude, but I got hard. ㄴ ??????? Was I secretly drawing NSFW art?????????????? ㄴ It’s possible! ㄴ No way, how is this real, lol. ㄴ All those scumbags who sexually harassed VR avatars are going to jail, lol. ㄴ Holy shit, I’m trembling. I once asked her for her avatar’s three sizes…. ㄴ You’re insane, lol. ㄴ It’s like asking a strear for their asurents via donation, lol. ㄴ Everyone, hands off your keyboards, lol.
.
.
.
SSM Entertainnt, Team Dormitory.
As gaming platforms transitioned from PCs to VR, the common sounds of clicking keyboards and mice faded into history, leaving only silence and darkness enveloping the hallways.
Only one room had its lights on.
The light emanated from a hologram floating above a phone screen, displaying a video that required the viewer to choose their POV in real ti rather than a pre-edited highlight reel.
It was Yujin’s stream.
Golden eyes sparkled beneath delicate eyelids as the viewer gazed at the screen, her lips parting to express emotions close to awe.
Dice, a first-league professional gar at SSM Entertainnt.
She was one of the few won among Dark Zone’s professional gars—more accurately, she was a Korean who had moved to Korea with her foreign parents, but in reality, she was more Korean than foreign despite her Western appearance.
Paradoxically, the existence of in-ga visual adjustnts blurred the lines of gender in the professional gaming realm, leading esports to beco increasingly ritocratic—a trend that seed unstoppable.
Dice was a pri example of soone who had quickly adapted to these changing tis.
While the team took asures to prevent gender-related issues by restricting the release of personal information, aning her identity remained undisclosed in the real world, this wasn’t unique to her.
Avatars made it easy to separate reality from the virtual world, and many players, regardless of gender, preferred to keep their personal lives private.
But back to the matter at hand.
Dice was currently engrossed in watching a recording of Yujin’s stream and the scrim gaplay from earlier that day, losing track of ti.
Connections between people often ford through chance encounters, and for Dice, that connection had been made through her own catastrophic defeat.
The more intense the first encounter, the longer it lingered in one’s mory.
Moreover, this wasn’t just a one-ti eting—today, Yujin seed to have felt sothing similar, as she chose Dice amidst the many wildcards and selection cursors directed at her.
Of course, the outco of that first eting… was less than promising. On the surface, Yujin didn’t seem particularly interested in the world of professional gaming.
It was only natural; those who already possessed most of the benefits a team could offer were the hardest to recruit.
However, Dice’s intuition whispered softly.
…This can’t be the end.
Perhaps, this was the beginning of sothing grand.
With that thought, Dice found herself drifting aimlessly through the deepening night.
Reviews
All reviews (0)