To the viewers of the official stream, the opening of this match was actually quite boring.
It was a normal start with no invasions or level-one team fights. One side simply cleared their jungle methodically before invading, used a combo of skills, and stole a few jungle camps—what was so interesting about that?
Those few jungle camps wouldn’t create much of an economic gap when added together. On the economic panel, it might only amount to a difference of one or two hundred gold.
Moreover, the official commentators also felt this wasn’t important. After all, anything within a 1,000 gold difference was still considered even, and the economic gap would need to reach around 3,000 to be considered a significant disadvantage.
For this opening, the official commentators believed it wouldn’t affect the win rate or direction of the match at all.
But the two professional players at Rabbit Tail Streaming didn’t see it that way.
From the beginning, they had already foreseen the few seconds’ subtle difference in jungle clearing speed between the two junglers, predicted this invasion, and pointed out a series of chain reactions that would follow.
After the jungler was forced to recall due to being heavily damaged, his team’s top laner no longer dared to push the lane as aggressively as before, and the slight advantage gained during the laning phase completely disappeared. Although neither team ganked top lane, the laning situation there had already changed.
The jungler who gained an advantage not only led in economy after consuming the opponent’s jungle camps but, more importantly, led in experience. Afterward, he headed straight to the bottom area to continue looking for opportunities to gank and invade.
Since the opponent’s upper jungle area had no more camps, the enemy jungler would have to farm in the bottom area to make up for lost development or try to gank. If he forcefully ganked top lane, the risk would be too high—even if successful, it might not be worth it. He might kill someone but wouldn’t be able to clear jungle camps, and the opposing jungler might clear his bottom jungle again, resulting in a massive loss.
In this situation, the advantaged jungler had complete control of the initiative and could roughly guess the opponent’s current actions. Combined with the skill gap between the two junglers, a small early disadvantage was quickly snowballed!
Viewers of the official commentary didn’t know these things. They would only see the results: this jungler was caught in the jungle and heavily damaged; after recalling and trying to gank bottom lane, he was counter-ambushed, and bottom lane collapsed…
But they wouldn’t understand the deeper reasons behind this, all stemming from those few seconds of slower jungle clearing in the early game.
Once this weakness was exploited by the opponent, it became a cascade of errors. The various “low IQ” behaviors that viewers observed later weren’t because the player was actually that bad, but because his action routes had been anticipated. Between two bad options, he was forced to choose the relatively less bad one, but this still couldn’t salvage the situation and continued to make him appear incompetent.
Viewers watching the unofficial stream commentary on Rabbit Tail Streaming were amazed to discover that the match was so engaging!
Previously, many people watched matches just for the excitement. After a match ended, the only truly memorable moments were a few brilliant plays or the two or three team fights that decided the outcome. But these contents were ultimately easily replaceable and would be completely forgotten after a few hours.
However, the commentators at Rabbit Tail Streaming didn’t focus their commentary on team fights. Although they were also very passionate when commenting on team fights, they spent more time analyzing the various setups and preparations both sides made before the team fights—how the stronger side was trying to expand their advantage and how the weaker side was looking for opportunities to break the stalemate.
The official commentators mostly narrated plainly, describing what was happening in the match and putting all emphasis on the key team fights.
But Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentary was completely different. Most of the time, they were digging into deeper content through the current match situation, analyzing both sides’ tactical arrangements and motivations, and providing in-depth explanations about ward placements and the intentions behind both sides’ actions. The passionate team fight commentary was merely the icing on the cake.
Various “666” (meaning “awesome” in Chinese internet slang) comments floated by as Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentary opened the viewers’ eyes.
“Detailed, so detailed!”
“There’s so much nuance even in placing and clearing wards?”
“One ward’s experience allowed both top and mid lanes to reach level 2 first and secure lane advantage? So precise!”
“They even predicted the opponent’s jungle invasion—is this a spoiler-type commentary?”
“As expected of professional players, their game understanding is truly on another level!”
“I was wondering why some professional players seemed to be sleepwalking and appeared in strange places. The official commentators always said they got lost or made mistakes due to pressure, but now it seems they weren’t lost at all—it was part of the tactical arrangement, just caught and countered by the opponent!”
“This is what professional competition is about! Any tiny mistake gets exploited and quickly magnified. Sometimes you haven’t made any major errors, but you still can’t win!”
“Rabbit Tail Streaming is indeed Mr. Pei’s streaming platform—truly professional! Goodbye to the official commentators. From now on, I’ll only watch matches on Rabbit Tail Streaming!”
“The official commentators are all at platinum or diamond level. How could they understand the matches? They just repeat what’s happening on screen. Some players do get crushed, but that’s due to tactical targeting and is a team issue—it can’t be simply attributed to being ‘bad’ or making ‘mistakes’!”
“I’ve been watching matches all wrong before. If you only focus on kills and team fights, what’s the point? This early-game tactical chess match, calculating resources down to a single ward or jungle camp, exploiting a few seconds’ time difference to create thousands in economic advantage—this is the true charm of esports!”
The comments in the streaming room scrolled frantically. Clearly, many viewers’ understanding of the game had been completely overturned.
Previously, many viewers had a misconception that matches were just high-end five-stack ranked games, just with stronger individual skills and better team coordination.
But after listening to these two professional players analyze the details of the match, they realized it was a completely different matter!
In competitions, the gap between top-tier professional teams and ordinary professional teams was even greater than the gap between diamond and gold in ranked play.
And these deep, detailed tactical chess games were the most exciting part of the matches.
Before, they thought the official commentators were doing a good job, but now compared with Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentators, the difference was obvious!
Many people not only sent small gifts but also posted on various forums, promoting Rabbit Tail Streaming’s unofficial commentary.
“Everyone, go watch ICL on Rabbit Tail Streaming! Two professional players are commentating, and they completely outclass the official commentators in game understanding!”
“It’s amazing—the two commentators seem like they’re directing the players’ actions on the field.”
“These details are probably only visible to professional team coaches and analysts. We’re so lucky to see this!”
Soon, Rabbit Tail Streaming’s unofficial commentary spread throughout the entire IOI player community!
Previously, when discussing matches, people would look for scapegoats, identify who made the most mistakes, who had the worst stats, then check who was MVP and who had standout moments—basically, discussion topics that remained superficial.
But after this match ended, everyone was discussing jungle clearing speeds, vision placement, tactical choices, and more.
After the match ended, the official commentators gave the MVP to the top laner because, looking at the data, the top laner had the most impressive stats and performed well in team fights.
But Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentators gave the MVP to the jungler. This was because the top laner had made a small mistake during the laning phase that made his lane difficult, and it was the jungler’s invasion that greatly relieved the top lane pressure. Later, through one gank and one counter-ambush, he fed the top laner, allowing him to take over the game in the late phase.
Moreover, this jungler performed well in both early-game tempo control and mid-game team fights. Although his stats didn’t look great, the few times he died were sacrifices to save teammates, deaths that had significant value.
So, after comprehensive consideration, Rabbit Tail Streaming still awarded the MVP to the jungler.
Without the groundwork laid during the commentary, this MVP choice might have seemed strange, considering the jungler’s unimpressive KDA and lack of particularly brilliant plays.
But viewers who had watched the entire commentary had no objections to this MVP selection. In fact, giving the MVP to the top laner seemed highly inappropriate!
After the MVP was announced, various dissenting voices appeared in the official live broadcast rooms of the ICL League across all streaming platforms.
“The MVP should go to the jungler—those who know, know.”
“The official commentators aren’t good enough. I recommend everyone watch Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentary.”
“Watching the official commentary really misses so many details, reducing much of the enjoyment. Those who truly understand the game are all watching Rabbit Tail Streaming, right?”
The platform’s super administrators wanted to control this but couldn’t because there were too many people making these comments!
Even if they blocked certain keywords, there were countless ways to express “Rabbit Tail Streaming” in the comment section.
So, out of curiosity, many people clicked into Rabbit Tail Streaming’s ICL League live broadcast room, and after watching for a few minutes, they couldn’t go back!
From pre-match tactical predictions to ban-pick analysis, to in-game tactical arrangements and players’ on-the-spot adaptations… the official commentators and the two professional players invited by Rabbit Tail Streaming were simply not on the same level. The gap was glaringly obvious!
…
Meanwhile, at Dragon Yu Group.
Zhao Xuming had just finished a phone call with Zhu Yan, learning about the situation with Rabbit Tail Streaming’s unofficial commentary.
The vice presidents of these streaming platforms were anxious again.
Although the delay was gone, Rabbit Tail Streaming was still stealing their viewers!
All major streaming platforms had their own water armies spontaneously promoting them, but viewers who went to Rabbit Tail Streaming basically wouldn’t come back. With the heat gradually declining, who could withstand this?
Zhao Xuming was also speechless.
He had thought this matter was over, that all platforms would broadcast the ICL League and each enjoy their own popularity. He could focus his main energy on other aspects of work.
But now there was another twist!
No matter how the ICL League developed, there would always be a winner, and that winner always seemed to be Mr. Pei!
Initially, Mr. Pei spent heavily to buy the exclusive broadcasting rights for the ICL League, bringing a huge wave of popularity to Rabbit Tail Streaming and incidentally establishing the impression among all viewers that “all data on Rabbit Tail Streaming is authentic.”
After absorbing enough popularity, Mr. Pei distributed the broadcasting rights for the ICL League, ultimately getting the broadcasting rights without spending a penny and even making a huge profit.
Although the thirty-second delay only lasted for a short time, it also left viewers with the inherent impression that “Rabbit Tail Streaming is faster,” taking away a batch of viewers from other platforms.
Now, just when everyone had finally returned to the same starting line, the unofficial commentary was hugely successful, continuing to steal users from other platforms!
Of course, Zhao Xuming also clearly understood that this wasn’t Mr. Pei’s fault.
Mr. Pei’s side just wanted to do a proper job with the unofficial commentary. They just didn’t expect the official commentators to be so inadequate, crumbling at the slightest touch.
In the end, it was these official commentators who were too incompetent!
With such good resources and generous salaries, basically not facing much outside competition, yet their game understanding was still completely outclassed!
Although it might be unfair to compare those platinum and diamond tier commentators with current professional players in terms of game understanding, viewers didn’t care about that.
Viewers wanted to see professional analysis. If you don’t have it, sorry, we’ll go watch someone else.
The more Zhao Xuming thought about it, the angrier he became. Spending so much money on official commentators, only to end up inferior to Rabbit Tail Streaming’s hastily assembled unofficial stream—this was outrageous!