...the other day and it wasn't a great experience. Mostly because I watched the stream recording after.
At the time, my RS rating was at an all-time high in the mid 600s. How had I managed to climb the ratings? Mostly gained through quick wins when I'd scrapped a run or two early and that sends some people running. I don't get a lot of wins the full 9-inning way. I do get a lot of losses that way though. I try not to quit early and have only done so a few times.
So I was rated too high for my comfort zone really, but I want to play online. Mostly because it's often fun, even when I'm losing, because it's a lot better than playing the CPU, but also because it's the only way to get cards prestiged. I have left a starter in a bit too long sometimes simply because it was going to rack up prestige innings and hopefully Ks.
I got matched up against someone whose team name was Twitch TV. I immediately realised there was a good chance this was going to be a streamed match. My partner was sitting with me and looked up the streamers name, and sure enough, there was my match on a slight delay. I thought about putting in a friendly quit request before the first pitch was thrown, but then I decided to go ahead and play anyway. I was suddenly nervous knowing the match was being live-streamed and it really showed. I threw to the wrong base a few times and generally didn't play my best. However, I managed to keep him off the score sheet for the first few innings. I only had one hit myself early on.
Just to comment about the hit I had... it's not unusual for me to have only one hit in the first few innings. I'm really struggling with hitting. I had given up using zone back in January (I bought the game in December) and was still using directional the other day when this match came up. Since this match, I spent all day yesterday using zone (with mixed results) and I'm going to try to improve my hitting.
My partner was watching the stream while I played, and because the stream was on a slight delay it was a bit hard to follow, but I did hear the streamer comment on how low my batting averages are. This didn't bother me too much as I'm more aware of the low batting averages than anyone, but I guess it started to sink in as the game went on that I was being picked apart for the benefit of someone's live streaming audience. I wouldn't realise until later that this wasn't for education but was certainly for entertainment. I suppose that would be sitting better for me if it hadn't been somewhat mean-spirited. More on that in a sec.
So I ended up losing. Scoreless first few innings but then he broke out. Ended up getting mercy-ruled in probably the sixth inning, sorry I can't remember.
Immediately after I watched the playback of the stream. The written comments to the side of the screen were fairly unpleasant. One of the viewers said my team was "garbage" and that they hoped I would lose 22-7. Jeezus I wish, 7 runs would be amazing. I re-heard the comment by the streamer about my batting averages. The streamer said he regretted giving up the one hit I'd had to that point as he felt I was a good candidate for a no-hitter. He made fun of / disparaged my choice of pinch hitter (Tony Gwynn)... honestly I was just desperate to get my second hit of the game and figured he could probably crank out a single (he did, followed by Tatis Jr getting a third hit and then that was my offensive output done). Streamer said how much he was looking forward to mercy-ruling me.
Positive comments he made were that he was pleased I was actually hitting slightly better than expected with Pudge and that he said it sucked for me that I hit into a double play after getting those two hits in a row. He also complimented a pitch or two.
So generally I felt a little off. His viewers were clearly delighting in the fact that he could beat me so easily. Interesting to see from the stream recording that he was initially matched up with a tougher foe and he made a friendly quit offer to that person (accepted) which then led to him being matched up with me. Obviously I was unaware until later, but the streamer said (after seeing my win-loss record) that he would not consider accepting a friendly quit request from me, even though he'd done one himself against a tough foe moments earlier. I had been thinking about it when I'd realised it was going to be a twich live stream match, but if I'd gone with my gut instinct and tried to FQ before first pitch, he was saying he would have denied it. Obvs this would have helped his WS push but honestly I think it's bad form to deny FQ before first pitch. Anyway I didn't ask but assume he would have stuck to his guns if I had.
So yeah, now I'm trying to figure out zone hitting again and losing lots of matches, so my rating is in the basement again so fingers crossed I won't be bumping into this guy anytime soon.
I also still haven't managed to prestige a hitter (all pitchers so far) but I'm close with Griffey so maybe I won't play as much online once I get some of these cards I've been working for. I don't know. It's mostly fun online but this was a bad experience.