Saotome Berry Reaches Gold Rank in Apex, Her First Shooter

NIJISANJI — Saotome Berry of Nijisanji’s 20Speciale reached Gold rank in Apex ranked play on Sunday, the first target she had set for herself in the game. The promotion came at the end of a close final round in which she had to rely on her teammates, and she thanked them on the spot before celebrating.

Berry opened the stream by saying she had planned to play Splatoon, but with the ranked period nearly over and a Splatoon tournament period about to begin, she chose Apex. She had said she might not reach Gold this season, and she told viewers she was treating the climb like a club competition.

“First of all, I’m glad I was able to reach Gold, the first goal I had set.” — Saotome Berry, after the promotion

Before the promotion, she spent the night practicing habits she wanted to build: placing pings on enemies, healing in safer spots, and using portals to attack rather than only to escape. Just before the winning match ended, she said she was close to Gold and wanted to bring something useful home from the game. After the promotion, she said she wished she had shown it to the person who coached her the day before, and she planned to post a screenshot of the promotion screen on X.

She said she had never played an FPS before starting ranked this season, and that Gold was a first for her in a genre she found unlike the card games she knew. She played several more matches, then spent more than 40 minutes in the practice range testing weapons she had not used, saying she wanted to learn what each one does now that she had reached Gold.

Viewers filled chat with congratulations for the rest of the stream, which drew 27 Super Chats. Berry read them aloud at the end, and learned during the reading that ranks reset to Bronze when the season ends. She named Platinum as the next goal, said she will focus on Splatoon during the tournament period, and gave her schedule for the coming days, pointing viewers to X for changes.