"Here we are," Nick announced cheerfully, opening the door to the team's gaming room.

Overwhlemed by a smell of... I wasn't sure what exactly it was, but it definitely killed something inside of me.
While my nose was rotting from this stench, and tears flooded my eyes, I took a look at everything and everyone in front of me.

The first person I noticed was a slightly overweight boy, hunched over to a monitor.
His eyes were focused on the screen as he was in the middle of a game.
Even though it was quit far away, I was pretty sure he was playing Camille – so I concluded it must've been the top-laner.

I could tell from the way his screen moved as he centered the camera on his champion, using her most iconic ability 'Hookshot' to make her fly across the rift.
Many people might disagree and say that she's far more known for her Q-ability, 'Precision Protocol,' but I think her mobility makes much more of her unique character.

Then, in the center of the room, stood a big, lanky boy with black hair and sharp brown eyes.
He was engaged in a lively debate with another boy, whose small stature contrasted with his assertive personality.

I immediately gave them nick names in my head, to be able to differentiate between them, since I didn't have any names yet. So for now they were 'the big one', 'the small one' and...
I had to think carefully not to make my words sound inapropriate, even though it was just in my head; 'the width one'?

I felt bad for connecting their names to their looks, but it helped me to keep them apart from each other.
My autism might have something to do with it, although it's not that I couldn't recognize faces.
It was more that I hated the unknown – so these names would do for now.

“Well if you're running in like an ape, what am I gonna do about it?!”, 'the small one' asked – no, it was more like he made a statement.

“Huh?!”, 'the big one' pretended not being able to see him, as he was... too small. “What did you say? Hello?”

As suddenly Nick cleared his throat, making them sort of realize that it would be better to stop the non-sense for now.
But the damage was already dealt – this had been far away from a good first impression.

"Alright team, we have a new member," Nick declared in a bright mood, trying to overshadow the darkness of their heated argument.
"Noah, meet the squad!” His voice changed to the likes of an e-sports announcer, as he would scream out the names of each player entering the big stage.

“Axer, on the top lane!”, he waved his hand with a presenting gesture towards the 'width one', who was still focused on his game and didn't react to Nick what so ever.
For me, that already made him much more sympathetic than the other two.

“Omul in the Jungle!”, Nick whirled around and pointed at the almost 2-meter-tall boy who had already turned away from us at that point.

“Aaaaand... Veezer, our support and team captain!"

'The small one' waved at me and tried a grin on his face, but it rather scared me.
In the meantime 'the big one' had already gone back to his computer to play another round of solo-Queue I assumed, as their duo-game seemed to not have gone very well.

"Okay, let's get you set up," Nick said, giving me an appraising look.

He was probably wondering about my opinion on his 'squad' so far.
However, as he had mentioned earlier, 'I'm not the type of person that's spilling any information that shouldn't be said.' and since my first impression of the roster was rather bad, I preferred not to speak.

He then led me to the last unoccupied computer, which were all set up in a line next to each other.
I got the one right in the middle of the 5, as I was the mid-laner of the team.

However, the other players didn't sit in the 'correct' order, which would've been the top-laner as first, and support as last in row – so maybe it was just coincidence.

"We've got a scrim scheduled soon to break the ice.”

As those words crossed my mind, my face scrunched up in incredible confusion.

Scrims?! We're gonna play scrims today?

Immediately I glansed at my phone.

It's 18:35, when are we gonna play?!

I need some fucking me-time. NOW!

Everything inside of me hated this – resisted against the idea of even having to talk to anyone anymore.
But instead of communicating my needs, I just nodded quietly.

This is gonna be horrible...

“Just relax, play your game, and don't mind Janosch's banter too much. It's all in good spirit."

By the look of my eyebrows raising up in question, he realized the cause of my confusion.
“Oh, right! Janosch's our support. Forgot that I had only given you their nicknames.”

I nodded with a forced smile and hoped that he wouldn't recognize how the exhaustion of travelling had already drained my energy level close to zero.

If real life was a Pokémon game, I'd be constantly hearing the deafening alarm that started when falling low on HP.
Sadly I was playing on hard mode; no potions allowed.

Although being completely dead inside, I was still somehow looking forward to playing with my new team for the first time.
Well, it wasn't actually my new team since I was just a substitute for this tournament and even if they wanted to hire me
afterwards, I wouldn't be interested in playing in 3rd division anyway, which was where they're going to play next split.

As heartless as it sounds, this tournament was just the means of the purpose for me in gathering all the spotlight of Germany's league scene on top of me.
The first and maybe last chance ever in my life to get a chance to impress some of the higher level teams and make the jump from an amateur to an aspiring pro.

As I settled into my designated gaming seat, the 'broad-shouldered top-laner', as I decided to call him from now on, since it sounded much nicer than what I'd initially named him, was about to finish his game.

With insane calmness he just went straight for a backdoor on the nexus, while 3 enemies were chasing after him. Landing 2 full rotations of Camille Q's before his HP would have gone to zero, he barely made it in time – what a nice play.

Joyfully, he mumbled some words of triumphant while shaking his fists in excitement.
He finally seemed to notice my presence, as he turned away from the screen, wiping his hands on his pants.

His blonde hair complemented his soft blue eyes, and a friendly smile adorned his face.
There was an air of reliability about him that eased my nerves.
He looked every bit the amiable teammate, and I couldn't help but appreciate the way he carried himself – a strong contrast to the more volatile personalities in the room.

"Hey, I'm Marius,” he said, extending a hand. “You're Noah, right?"

“Y-yes.”, I stuttered, hesitating for a moment, not entirely comfortable with physical contact and evaluating if I should just return the handshake anyway.

When I was meeting Nick earlier, it hadn't been such a problem since both of us didn't mind not shaking hands, as we were in the middle of a crowded airport.
I had also placed both my hands behind my back and pretended that otherwise I wouldn't be able to carry the heavy luggage.

But this was a different situation.

We're both sitting in front of each other – nothing happening around us, except for the banter of our teammates.

Sweat started dripping from my forehead, making me startle.

Hopefully, he would assume it's because of the heat and not because of him.

An uncomfortable silence, filled with awkwardness, settled around us as we looked into each other's eyes