Chapter 36
The Tournament
CHARLOTTE
“Mom? Dad?” I said in shock. Then I ran over to them, pulling them into a hug.
“What are you guys doing here? I thought you couldn’t get off work.”
“Oh, sweetie, we could never miss your first tournament,” Mom told me, hugging me.
“You’re Charlotte’s father?” TJ’s mom asked.
“Yes, how do you know my daughter?” Dad replied, still confused.
“These are my parents,” TJ said, walking up beside me.
“Okay, but who are you?” Dad asked, making me giggle.
“Dad, this is Tony.” Dad’s eyes widened in shock, but I continued.
“And also my boyfriend, TJ.”
“I thought you and TJ broke up,” Mom said.
“Yeah, that was all a misunderstanding,” I replied.
“Boyfriend?” Dad said, still in shock.
“Remember, Daddy, you like Tony, so it’s okay for him to be my boyfriend,” I said quickly.
“I do like Tony. He’s been your best friend for years. But how is Tony also your boyfriend? You literally just met,” Dad said.
“Tony, or TJ, is Tracy’s twin brother. Neither one of us knew who the other was until this week, but I was already dating TJ before we realized.
How do you know his mom, though?”
“We work together at the hospital,” Dad replied.
Oh, that was right; TJ had told me years ago that his mother was a nurse.
“Okay, Tony, I’ll let you date my daughter. But just remember, I know the best ways to hurt a body, and my wife can make sure I don’t go to jail.
So be very, very careful,” Dad said, making TJ gulp and his parents laugh.
Once the introductions were completed for the second time, the adults and kids separated again to our own little areas.
I could hear my mom talking excitedly to the other parents. I knew they had all talked before since she went over our contracts with them, but they had never met in person. I was just enjoying being with all of my friends at the same time.
We sat and talked for about twenty more minutes before an announcement came on that the competition was about to begin.
Immediately, adrenaline flooded my body.
One of the TVs in the room changed to show the television broadcast version, which would air interviews, commentary, and live action. Two screens covered the live stream of the arena, and the last one now showed a populated bracket. We now saw which team we would be playing first, but it was an unranked team, so we didn’t know much about them.
It was game time.
Tracy and Jay went to join our parents so that we could focus on preparations for the first match. Watching the other matches would help me develop strategies.
I thought I would be overwhelmed with nerves, but all I felt was excitement.
The competition was single-elimination and had two hundred forty teams in it, broken into eight rounds, with a maximum of twenty matches going on at one time.
This meant the first round would take at least two hours, given that there were forty teams playing at a time, with the second round taking about an hour.
The third round would take roughly forty minutes, and each round after would be closer to twenty minutes, since the team count would be low enough that all teams in the round could compete at once.
Finally, it was time for our first match, and a worker for the tournament walked in and asked us to follow him.
We were led down the hall and out into the arena, where we each took our seats in front of our computers, with our headsets on, ready to begin.
This game was won either by reaching a certain kill count or by having the highest count when the twenty-minute timer ended. This meant a match could take at most twenty minutes but could be much quicker if one team
was significantly better.
That was the case for our first match.
I told the team that we needed to hide our true skills during the first matches so that the better teams couldn’t prepare. We were expecting to let the matches hit the twenty-minute timer since we weren’t going to use our full skills, but apparently that didn’t matter.
Even with all of us just rushing in and not playing our normal roles, we still greatly outmatched the opposing team. We easily hit the kill count in about five minutes, ending the match before it had even begun.
Before our match, the quickest game had been eighteen minutes.
Whoops, that was one way to draw attention to ourselves.
Luckily, the commentary just seemed to attribute it to the other team not being very good. I felt bad for them, however. They were good—just not good enough.
Having finished our match for round one, we went back to the room to watch the other matches. We were pretty quick, so we got to watch many of the other teams that were competing at the same time as us. Next, we watched the remaining teams from round one, and then it was time for round two.
Once again, our plan was to avoid using our full strength and strategies, but once again, we must have been paired against a weaker team. We finished this match in seven minutes and went to watch the others. By now, people were paying more attention to our team. A lot of the broadcast commentary on the TV was focusing on us.
Rounds three, four, and five went about the same way as the first two.
We were consistently the first team finished with the match and still not using our full strength.
The other teams were beginning to see why we were ranked fifth, even without ever having attended a tournament. This meant that more attention would be on us. It was important that we kept our full strength hidden so we could pull it out when we really needed it—not allowing the teams time to prepare.
With only three rounds remaining and eight teams left, the competition was beginning to heat up.
The sixth round was the first time we faced a team that could actually give us a run for our money.
We were still playing our cards close to our chests, not revealing our full potential. They were a talented bunch, managing to knock out Nep and Plut early in the game. I decided it was time to switch gears and instructed the guys to fight more defensively—still keeping our ace moves under wraps.
This strategy allowed Jup and me to cover Nep and Plut while they took down the opposition. After a grueling fourteen-minute battle, Jup landed the final blow, ending the match in our favor.
“Wow, that was a nail-biter,” Tracy commented as we retreated to the green room.
“Nah, it was a piece of cake,” Nep boasted.
“Nep, don’t be cocky. They were good, and you know it,” Jup retorted.
“Yeah, but we were still holding back,” Nep said.
“Why would you do that?” Tracy asked, puzzled.
“Because we trust our strategist, and she told us to hold back,” Jup explained, planting a kiss on my head.
“We don’t want to reveal our strategies to the other teams before the final match,” I said nonchalantly.
“Besides, we’re up against the second-ranked team next, and if we win, we’ll likely face the top team—The Sun Stones.”
“Are you worried about beating them?” Tracy inquired.
“TJ and I both agreed that the second-ranked team seems stronger. They just lack a good strategist. Imagine a team of Nep and Plut clones. They have the skills to get where they are but no strategy. The top team, on the other hand, has a solid strategy, but their skills aren’t as impressive,” I explained.
“Ah, I see. Well, good luck,” Tracy said, leaving us to strategize.
Finally, the other matches concluded, and it was time for the seventh round—the semi-finals.
We entered the arena and took our seats, sizing up the second-ranked team for the first time in person. We knew this was going to be a tough fight.
Our plan was to play our usual game—I would snipe, Jup would sneak around, and Nep and Plut would charge forward. I figured there wouldn’t be
enough time for the final team to analyze our strategy after this round, so there was no need to hold back anymore.
“Guys, remember, they’re skilled and they never miss. The key is to stay out of sight,” I cautioned Plut and Nep.
As soon as the game started, I quickly climbed a tall building and pulled out my sniper rifle to keep an eye on the other team. I knew from previous games that they didn’t have a sniper, but I scanned the other buildings quickly, just in case. As expected, I was alone up here.
“No snipers in sight. Nep, two of them are circling the red building on your left. I don’t think they know you’re there. Plut, one’s heading your way, and the other is targeting Jup,” I relayed to the guys.
“I see the one coming my way. I’ll stay hidden and take him out once he passes,” Jup confirmed.
“Plut, I have a clear shot at the one near you. Do you see him, or should I take the shot?”
“I don’t see him yet. Take the shot if you can,” Plut replied.
I took aim and pulled the trigger, eliminating the first player just seconds before Jup took out the second. Knowing they wouldn’t respawn for a few seconds, I switched my focus to Nep’s side and prepared to shoot.
“Nep, I’ll take the one in green. You handle the one in blue,” I
instructed.
“Got it.”
“On my mark. Three, two, one.”
We both fired simultaneously, taking down both players. By now, the first two should have respawned, so I scanned the area, trying to locate them. The guys knew to change their positions after taking out a player, as the enemy would likely target the last place they were spotted.
“Damn, Plut, two of them are closing in on you fast. I can take out one, but the other is using cars and other obstacles for cover. I can’t get a clear
shot,” I warned.
“I’m on my way to help,” Nep announced.
I took the shot, eliminating the player I could see, then quickly switched my focus to Nep. Just in time, I spotted an enemy sneaking up on him.
“Nep, watch out!” I shouted, pulling the trigger and taking out the enemy—but not quickly enough.
“Damn! Sorry, guys,” Nep apologized as he waited for his character to respawn.
“No worries, man,” Plut reassured him, taking out the player I couldn’t reach.
We continued the game, with Nep getting killed four times and Jup and Plut each dying three times. That brought our total death count to ten.
The advantage of being a sniper was that you rarely got killed unless the other team also had a sniper. I was a pretty good one, constantly moving between buildings so that I was never in the same sniping spot twice. This meant I hadn’t died yet in this round.
The match timer was at eighteen minutes when I pulled the trigger and took out the final player, ending the match. At the end, I had a kill count of nine, TJ had eight, Pluto had seven, and Neptune had six. We had done it.
We were heading to the finals.
As predicted, the final match was against The Sun Stones. They had some of the best strategies I’d ever seen.
I could only hope that mine were better.
We entered the arena to a deafening cheer from the crowd. We had been the underdogs and were definitely a fan-favorite team, partly because of me being the only female player. It made for an interesting dynamic.
“Ah, Charlotte, what a pleasant surprise to see you here,” Carter greeted me.
“Good luck,” I replied shyly, before taking my seat on our side of the arena and putting on my headset to block out the noise and communicate with the team.
“Remember, guys, they’re great at strategy, so I’ll be watching for that to unravel it—but their skills aren’t as good. In a head-to-head match, we have better aim, speed, agility—everything. Nep and Plut, this is where you guys shine. Good luck. Also, I know they usually have a sniper, so I’ll have to move around a lot more than usual. I won’t be able to watch out for you as much. Watch your backs,” I instructed the guys.
“Got it,” they replied as the match started.
As usual, I quickly scaled the nearest building and started looking for their players. I spotted a player on their team climbing a building across the way and shot him before he could get into position, bringing our kill count to one.
“Damn, girl, that’s the fastest kill we’ve had in the entire tournament,”
Nep exclaimed.
“Focus now, celebrate later,” I told him sternly.
“I see one guy heading toward each of you.”
“Not toward me,” Jup said, having just killed his with a headshot.
“Or me,” Nep replied, taking his out with a grenade.
“Or… Damn it,” Plut said.
“Sorry, guys.”
“It’s okay, just focus more, man,” Jup advised as Plut waited to respawn.
A few minutes later, Jup warned me that someone was climbing the building I was on, but he didn’t have a sniper rifle to take him out.
I moved away from my position to hide behind some boxes. Once the opponent was on top of the building, I snuck up behind him and used the butt of my gun to melee him. I then returned to the edge of the building to check on my teammates.
Suddenly, my character dropped to the ground.
“Damn, two of them must have climbed up here. Somebody just took me out,” I warned the others.
“I’m closest. I’ll get him,” Jup said, quickly climbing the building and taking out their player.
We continued playing, trading kills and deaths. The top team was ranked number one for a reason.
About nineteen minutes in, Nep took a shot and ended the game.
We had won the round with twenty-three deaths and thirty kills. It was by far the closest match we’d ever played—but we still won by knockout instead of timeout, and it wasn’t even that close.
I had known we were good, but this was beyond my expectations.
When we returned to our green room, our families were overjoyed, jumping up and down and showering us with praise. Our manager and sponsor arrived soon after to offer their congratulations.
Finally, it was time for the awards ceremony, where the top three teams would receive their medals.
We had just entered the waiting area when Carter approached me.
“That was amazing, Charlotte. You’re the strategist for their team, right?
You’re incredible!” he gushed.
“Um, thank you,” I replied shyly.
“I agree, you were really good. I mean, your entire team was, but the strategies you guys used were something else,” the captain of The Sun Stones said.
“Thanks,” I said again.
They were then called onto the podium as the second-place team. After that, we were called as the first-place team. We walked out, and the crowd went wild. Everyone showered us with so much love and support—it was truly amazing.
It had been a long road of training and strategizing, but we were here at last, at our first live tournament.
And we were officially the top-ranked team.
