GrandMaster Gaming fell to pieces after the first round. Humiliated and demoralized, GM couldn't put any momentum together before it was too late. Defcon Zero steamrolled the remaining six rounds to take the best of thirteen series. Lucas allowed himself to take a backseat roll for the rest of the game. He shouldn’t have done the first round alone. None of his teammates approved of the action, especially Flash, but they all knew that their coach would reprimand them if they tried to stop Lucas from doing what he wanted. Lucas could see the anger in their eyes, even in the digital world. Though a part of him was still glad he chose to. If this proved to be his last victory, Lucas wanted to savor the feeling of overcoming unfavorable odds for that win.

The digital space around him faded and left a dark cushioned room in its place. The jagged black soundproof foam along the walls and ceiling muffled the sounds of Lucas pulling off his sensor gloves and stepping off the omnidirectional treadmill. The female attendant stood as Lucas approached with his equipment and flashed him another bright smile.  Lucas felt his face burn bright red immediately.

“Congratulations Silence,” She beamed and accepted the equipment from him, “That was an amazing first round.”

She bit her lower lip and looked down briefly.

“Look,” the attendant spoke a bit quieter, “I know they say you don’t do the whole autograph thing but...”

She set the gloves and helmet down on her chair and pulled out a pen, “Could you maybe make an exception? I won’t tell a soul.”

Lucas swallowed hard and shook his head.

“Sorry.” He whispered quietly. “They need me outside.”

Lucas quickly opened the door and was hit with a wave of mind numbing cheers. The whole stadium seemed to be shaking as the players exited their sound proof game blocks.

“... as dominant as ever.” The announcer had to shout in order to be heard over the roaring crowd. “The clock struck twelve bringing GrandMaster Gaming’s Cinderella story to a heartbreaking conclusion.”

The roaring crowd fed off the announcer’s energy and redoubled their deafening cheers.

“But to no surprise to anyone, Defcon Zero Gaming is returning to the Focal Point world championship finals to compete for their third straight title.”

Lucas’ block, as his team’s captain, was the closest to center stage. In the name of good sportsmanship, each team, winners and losers, would line up behind their captain and meet the other team center stage to shake hands. Lucas looked down the line just as his teammates exited their blocks. Flash had a picture perfect smile on his face as cameras continued to flash in the background, though his eyes contained very little joy.

“Really Lucas?” He asked through clenched teeth upon taking position right behind him, “You didn’t have to try so hard against GM. If coach didn’t support your little ‘solo’ adventures I would have killed you myself just for suggesting it.”

Lucas turned towards center stage and chose not to respond. He didn’t look at the rest of his teammates as they lined up behind Flash. He didn’t need to, Lucas knew their eyes would reflect similar opinions to Flash’s. GM approached from the other side and Lucas met them in the middle. The crowd of sixty thousand onlookers grew louder as both teams shook hands. Signs and posters were everywhere as fans competed to show their devotion to their favorite teams. More cameras than Lucas could count snapped constant photos of every step he took, every handshake, every blink of his eyes. It was almost enough to make Lucas sick.

GM was not happy with their performance. Lucas could tell from the way Blasty, the team captain, crushed Lucas’ hand in his own when they shook. It was the first time that his franchise had reached the semi finals and they were knocked out without winning a single round.

“I hate you man.” Blasty loosened his grip a little and sighed. “You’re too insane to compete with us mortals.”

The corners of Lucas’ mouth lifted. “Good game.”

Blasty snorted. “Yeah.”

The two teams finished their hand shakes and GM left the stage to a respectable cheer from the crowd. Defcon Zero stayed on stage for a minute longer to give a bow to their supporters, but soon followed GM off the stage. After descending the dark backstage staircase, Flash pushed his way past Lucas and strode angrily back to the locker room. Lucas slowed, just as happy to let everyone else pass.

From further down the hall, two new teams appeared. They split to either side to allow Defcon to pass through the middle. The team to Lucas’ right was Davern United. A fifth seed team from the UK. Their jerseys were a cool mixture of purple and blue. Davern United’s players began to nudge one another and point towards Lucas. Avoiding eye contact, Lucas turned to the team on his left. Phoenix Esports, in their bright red and orange colors, stood at rigid attention. Unlike their opponents, there was no pointing nor hushed talking between the players. All eyes were directly ahead, all except one pair. The last player of Phoenix Esports had her eyes locked onto Lucas’ face. She was gorgeous. She looked so out of place in the midst of the professional gamers all around her. Half Korean, half English, the star of Phoenix Esports could easily retire from Focal Point and be working as a full time model the next day. Long raven black hair was tied up behind her head to leave her heart shaped face fully exposed.  Lucas stopped short and met her gaze. Her deep blue eyes contained no warmth, no spark of friendliness within. There was only fierce determination and loathing in those eyes.

“Teams Phoenix and Davern, if you could keep it moving towards the main stage your game is about to be announced.” An event employee called out, freeing Lucas from the eyes that had locked him in place.

Without a second glance at Phoenix Esports, Lucas rushed down the hallway to his team’s locker room. He could almost feel her lingering gaze on the back of his head as he made his escape.

Being the last one inside, Lucas closed the locker room door behind him and slumped his back against it. Trevor, or Ghost as he goes by in game, sat in the far right corner of the room with his head down. Plague, Grigs, and Singularity were all seated behind Alan’s gaming chair and had yet to even acknowledge Lucas’ presence. Flash stood off to the left and seemed busy brooding. The new analyst, who Lucas had already forgotten the name of, stood near Flash and was busy with a tablet in his hands. Alan had brought up the replay of their match against GrandMaster Gaming on the large television in the room and was marking various points throughout the seven rounds.

“Brilliant work out there Lucas. Honestly, next level plays,” Alan called over his shoulder, attention still fixed on the screen.

The analyst nodded his agreement but no one else in the room moved.

“Overall it was a great day.” Alan pressed a button on his remote and brought up the first of his many marked time entries on the replay.

“But I do have several issues with certain plays we made today.” Alan turned to face his team. “So let's skip the stuff we already know went well and talk about what went wrong.”

Alan pressed play and began to drone on about sloppy plays each of the players made at different points in the match. Lucas allowed himself to relax and sat down behind everyone else. One of the things he admired most about Alan was his quest for perfection. No matter how well they played, Alan would always find their weakest point and work on it until it became a strength.

After a good twenty minutes of breaking down the most minute details, Alan checked his watch.

“Oh.” He cursed softly to himself before he punched a series of buttons on his remote. “I took a bit longer than I meant to.”

The replay was replaced by the live broadcast of the other semi-final match being played.

“Why do we even have to watch?” Flash groaned, “Everybody knows Phoenix is going to be in the finals. Davern United has no chance.”

“Then watch Phoenix closely.” Alan barked back. “We’ll need every advantage we can to overcome that team.”

Lucas tuned out the banter as the match played out on screen. Due to Alan’s gusto, the first round was already underway. The main cameras were following a player from Phoenix Esports, PHX Ares.

“Did you see her in the hallway?” Griggs nudged Plague’s leg, “She’s hot. Way hotter than I expected.”

“Ashten Sung.” Plague let loose a low whistle. “AKA Ares, the god of war.”

“Goddess, Wyatt, goddess. How many of your records has she broken, Lucas?” Flash called from the side, “Seven out of twelve?”

Lucas shrugged. He didn’t keep track of the records the announcers like to claim he’s set, but he knew that Ares had closed the distance on all of them. On screen, the announcers were calling attention to something about her kit.

“Can you turn it up, coach?” Arno asked respectively.

“... has to be some sort of statement Jared,” The announcer’s voice could finally be heard as Alan turned up the screen, “I’m telling you it’s exactly the same.”

“I’d definitely agree with you there.” Jared, the other announcer replied. “What do you think it means?”

“She has to know that everyone has compared them, side by side, all season long.” The first voice responded. “To me, this seems like Ares telling Silence, ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’. Because this is too much. She’s using an MP7 with one thirty round magazine and looks to be soloing round one.”

Lucas’ stomach did an uncomfortable twist. He checked the bottom corner of the screen to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough, all of Phoenix’s players were still in spawn, except one.

“Well, well, well.” Alan stated softly while shooting Lucas a look out of the corner of his eye. “This oughta be good.”

JTNestman

I try to edit before posting, but I am by no means perfect in spelling or grammar. If you see anything I missed or an obvious mistake feel free to let me know and I'll try to get it fixed. As always thank you for reading.