Igarashi Rika’s Chiru-Bota Team Spends Six Hours on Day One of Overwatch Scrims

NIJISANJI — Igarashi Rika and four fellow Nijisanji streamers spent about six hours on Friday night on the first day of scrims, or practice matches, for their Overwatch team, Chiru-Bota, ahead of the Nijisanji tournament tagged #にじEX_OW. Honma Himawari, Morinaka Kazaki, Itsuki Sakyo and Koyanagi Rou joined Rika on the team, each streaming from their own channel. Near the end of the night, Rika told viewers that Chiru-Bota and Team 1 had both gone unbeaten on the day.

The session opened with some nervous laughter. One participant said their heart had been racing since waking, and teammates told them to breathe and settle. The group then walked the maps in a custom game, a practice the team called an *osanpo*, or stroll, talking through where each role should stand and how to keep sight lines open.

“The team works so hard and guides me through so much that I’m somehow getting by, so I’m truly grateful, and I want to make sure I don’t hold them back.” — Igarashi Rika, after the scrims

Matches began about an hour and a half in, on Ilios, against an opposing team, and continued on King’s Row and other maps. Between rounds the team went over callouts, when to spend ultimates and when to fall back toward healing. At one break a participant said the callouts were probably the team’s best yet, and chat had already been filling with cheers of “nice” for the same thing. After the King’s Row match, teammates said Koyanagi Rou had carried the round.

The team said it was deliberately keeping some of its tournament setups out of view, and one participant worried that the day’s wins would invite counter-strategies. Late in the night the group returned to Ilios to rehearse a lineup it plans to hold back.

In her closing remarks Rika said she was not satisfied with how the night had gone, that the final callouts had not registered with her and that she wanted to concentrate harder, and that she felt anxious about not improving as fast as her teammates. She credited the team with getting her through. The team plays Team 1 for five matches in the next day’s scrims. Viewers sent 21 Super Chats and Stickers across the five streams.