The Finals grind is real for one top-ranked player who fell asleep live on stream: "Lock in bro, wake the f*** up"

A player from The Finals cuts another on a rooftop, revealing heaps of coins
(Image credit: Embark Studios)

One of the top-ranked The Finals players in the world is so committed to the grind that they fell asleep while trying to hold onto the top spot, forcing their friends to try to wake them up.

On December 19, FPS pro Kyle 'KJewls' Julian claimed the top spot on The Finals global Leagues leaderboard. With 94,400 fame points, he sat just above a trio of chinese players less than 1,000 points behind him, forcing him into a desperate race to stay ahead of the rest of the pack if he wanted to keep his #1 rank.

Just a few days later, as Julian battled for the spot, the grind went on so long that he fell asleep at his desk while on stream. A clip from the broadcast, which you can see below, shows the streamer dead to the world, curled up in his chair with his headphones still on.

Those headphones were part of an attempt from Julian's friends to get him back in the race. On stream, you can hear them calling the streamer's name, and phoning him to try and wake him up. You'd think that someone yelling in your ears to "lock in, bro," might rouse you from your slumber, but Julian's grind had clearly taken its toll for that day.

Julian has remained in contention for a while. Currently, however, it's a malfunctioning PC, rather than a lack of sleep, that seems to be hindering his climb. He also repeatedly suggests cheaters are causing major issues in his games. Developer Embark Studios has taken action to attempt to ban cheaters from its game (unfortunately hitting a few legitimate players in its efforts), but has drawn the line at region-locking the game, suggesting that cheaters can be found in every competitive region, and aren't linked to Asian servers as many players have claimed.

The Finals devs weren't even going to make a shooter at first, but what else are you gonna do with a team full of Battlefield veterans?

Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.