Rising From the Ashes

 

Hey gamers! Thanks for coming to this blog (and big apologies for the delay in getting to posting it)– this is going to be a little different to my normal content, as I want to practice my narrative writing and universe creating ability (outside of purely fanfic which is what some of you may know me for). So today I'm testing out my narrative writing, a few author’s notes – this is likely very rough, I haven’t universe built on this scale in a while, and I’m creating a whole new video game within this, as I wanted to go all out if I was going to do this. I also have no idea if I will do a part two or more to this (kind of depends on what everyone makes of it) so please let me know what you think of it! Also there may be huge inaccuracies in how recruitment works for esports teams (I’ve done my best to research) but having no prior knowledge in that area of esports, I'm basing this on research only.

 

Life is a journey, it’s not supposed to happen to you, it’s meant to be something you take a hold of with both hands, tug towards you and make your own. Whether you believe in something up above the clouds or have no spirituality whatsoever, humans are inherently taught that there should be something guiding them towards their destiny. So instead of calling this a journey, let’s called it a villain arc, where time after time, knock back after knock down, I chose to rise from where I had been knocked down to, like one glorious rising phoenix, burning up everything that had fought to destroy it. And my villain arc began after one too many narcissist misogynists in solo queue pushed the sexism button far too many times.

“go back to the kitchen”

“ew a girl, aight gg go next, we lose this because of her”

“did you get lost on your brother’s pc?”

“make me a sandwich”

Somehow, I doubted he wanted the response of ‘want me to make you a sub?’ that was lingering on the very tip of my tongue. Not PG-13 but then again, neither was misogynism and I was definitely used to that by now.

The lobby for Dynazone; a five player first person shooter game, played as a battle arena style game online, was frequently the location of sexist (amongst other xenophobic remarks) and what made this knowledge even more annoying was the fact the game was good. It was more than good, once you understood the mechanics, the roles, the various titlists you could play – and the arenas (better known as zones which equated to maps) that you operated them within – it was a very enjoyable game. Naturally, there were the *special* individuals – everything forbid your lobby was entirely them –  who felt the need to backseat and be wholly unpleasant in any remote way possible; but nonetheless, it was a good game and the perfect distraction from the mounting stress of a university degree that I was growing to hate. So where does my villain arc enter, you may be wondering. Well let me assure you, it wasn’t at the moment the green and gold victory banner graced my screen, adding to my ranked points, but doing nothing to promote me up the already stacked European leader-board. It also wasn’t at the moment that I queued back up, for what I anticipated to be another back-seating berating match.

In fact, I didn’t notice the beginnings, not truly anyway. It started with a comment on a week old Twitter post showing my latest rank promotion – to two below the level pro players in the biggest leagues internationally operated at – it was some weird message that seemed about as believable as the sugar daddy/mommy scams on other platforms. Having seen plenty of similar messages on my streamer friends’ pages, I ignored it, and went about my life. For a few days at least, nothing happened and I was assured that I had been correct in assuming it to be some sort of scam message hoping to catch out young people who may have been susceptible. I was so assured that the whole matter completely slipped from my mind, and I went about my university life, dragging myself from lecture to seminar to tutorial and back again. By the time I had slid into my seat at the final lecture of the week, the whole idea of someone commenting on my old Twitter posts asking about my esports experience, was already a distant memory, and instead I was consumed by note-taking and the almost impossible task of trying to take note of every point the professor made.

“Kass, your phone is going insane,” my classmate nudged me under the lecture theatre desk, their leg colliding with my ankle, peeling my eyes away from my laptop screen for five seconds, I slid my phone off the desk and placed it on my jean clad thigh. Opening the lock screen, my breath stuck in my throat for a moment. Awaiting me was Twitter notification after Twitter notification, multiple comments and what appeared to be several separate DMs from a group of people all affiliated together. “what the heck,” I mumbled, scrolling through them as surreptitiously as possible, deciding I would deal with it all late, I switched the phone onto do not disturb and returned it to the spot on the desk before turning my attention back to the lecture. But my attention was straying – not that it had ever been particularly engaged in the topic to begin with – and my fingers were practically itching to see just why my notifications were going crazy. No sooner had the lecturer finished the last slide of the PowerPoint, I was shoving my laptop back into my tote bag and scrolling through each notification as I waited on each step of the lecture theatre for people from every aisle to leave – sitting at the back did have one major disadvantage of always being one of the last to leave.

Each notification, comment and even the DMs followed a similar pattern, with each account commenting all being affiliated to the same esports company – but not a company that I had ever heard of. Dynazone as an esport was still relatively new, the tournaments for the game had only begun several years prior and while it was gaining traction – especially overseas – the European region tournaments weren’t operating on the same number of teams as the Asian regions. So while the Asian regions typically had ten or more teams, the European regions only had eight teams maximum competing and as such the EU teams had to complete double – if not triple – round robins to get the same level of practice as the Asian teams. As I followed the person in front of me, down the steps, stopping seconds after as more people left the lecture theatre incredibly slowly, I swiped onto the company page that all the accounts were affiliated to. Koala Gaming’s Twitter page had a professional but fun edge to it, with an obvious sense of community built into every post, along with some light flame and comedic effect. Nothing out of the ordinary for an esports team. But even so, all the messages and everything in between, were out of the ordinary. I had heard of people being scouted for teams like that, but never had anticipated it working out quite how it seemed to be.

Having finally managed to make it out the lecture theatre, with my eyes still roaming each of the messages, I began the long walk back towards my dorm room which was off campus accommodation. My feet pounded the pavement as my mind swirled, the traditional European winter was yet to set in fully, so instead of pouring rain and flurries of battered snowflakes, there was a howling wind that practically blew my earphones out as I made my way back to my dorm. No sooner was I inside, and thankfully near a working heater, a reminder on my phone chimed, the European Dynazone practice showcases – which were essentially showing off latest players and testing out new zones and titlists with an audience – were set to begin within twenty minutes. Scrambling to turn on my monitor and connect my laptop, I set about making a post lecture snack of a bowl of ‘light’ fire noodles while the loading screen for the stream loaded up. Truthfully, I had missed large chunks of change to the European scene, and hadn’t yet caught up on just who the new teams to the region were. I settled into my gamer chair at my desk, tucking my knees up to my chest, as my phone lay abandoned next to the monitor, still flashing every once in a while with reminders of the unopened/not yet replied to messages. Flipping the phone to be face down, I cradled the bowl of noodles to my chest as the waiting screen loaded into the arena where the host and two analysts were sat at the desk, chatting casually about what could be expected from the afternoon into evening show.

The ultimate goal of any European pro player was to make it to the European Dynazone Championship (EDC), the highest level of European competition and the equivalent of the LEC in League of Legends or EMEA in Valorant. Most of the teams that played in the pre-season practice showcases were members of the EDC and were always scouting talent for their rosters – even if it wasn’t necessarily for their main roster. I stayed fixed in front of the monitor, nibbling on ramen noodles at intervals while the practice matches were completed one by one until only the last match was left. Having just put down the empty bowl, and instead picked up my phone, I nearly dropped the phone again as it was announced that the match was between Koala Gaming (shortened to KOA.GG in match) against Crazy Cats. The irony of the two team names up against each other wasn’t missed, but it still took me a moment to recover from the now all too obvious realisation that Koala Gaming were trying to scout me for one of their rosters, and it was that realisation that began my villain arc.

Having settled in to watch the match, I watched the entirety of the best of one, and listened intently to the casters before reaching for my phone to begin the task of answering the pile up of messages from the Koala Gaming representatives. Scouring through who was best placed to reply to first, I set about answering each message inquiring about my availability to join a competitive co-ed esports team for Dynazone. The messages were practically copy paste but it wasn’t the worst thing out there, I simply replied to each saying hello, I'm interested (admonishing the fact about my university studies for the moment) and asking what was required before crawling under the thick fluffy blanket on my bed for a ten minute (or hour long) scroll on TikTok. My phone was silent on notifications for all five minutes before it erupted into action once more as the Koala Gaming rep began sending one message after another containing copious amounts of information that I could barely skim read before the next one appeared. So there it was, the beginnings of my villain arc, the end of being good and doing what everyone but me wanted.

…

Several weeks later found me stood outside the glamorous and architectural masterpiece that was the Koala Gaming Headquarters; huge panels of glass made up the ground level foyer of the building. Ahead of the building itself was a large drive with beautiful gardens comprised of mustard yellow and sky blue flowers, as well as a living wall and a low sign on the driveway declaring you had entered the Koala Gaming estate. Just in case anyone was unsure from the pure aesthetic alone, the company was clearly doing well, in every aspect of its existence. Though this probably could have been established by the expensive sports car that was abandoned (parked would have been an overstatement) in front of the stairs that led from the driveway up to the foyer of the building. So there was a lot of money being invested in their headquarters, I thought wryly to myself as I crossed the drive to walk up the polished stone steps and through the automatic doors that led inside the building. Everything about the building screamed ultra modern, polished to an inch of its life, and nothing but the finest materials, glass lifts lined one side of the reception, with a huge swooping staircase that was carpeted in thick red and had a shining golden handrail. While a large reception counter was in the centre of the room, with Koala Gaming carved into the counter itself, which was made of shining wood with small fluorescent LEDs from the ceiling pointing down onto it, and the other side of the room was comprised of an on brand coffee shop, a series of work booths and tables, and corridors which I could only assume would lead towards office. The floor was unsurprisingly also highly polished; a highly polished grey and cream two tone effect of marble, that made a satisfying noise when walked on in heels I imagined. Looking towards the lifts, I noted the list of floors far exceeded four floors, and from outside it was unclear just how many floors were actually present in the building – though if I was to take a guess, it was probably around six or so.

I was no expert in interior decoration, nor had I been inside many esports headquarters, but to call this headquarters luxurious felt like a massive understatement, similar to calling Harrods a small local 7-11 or Buckingham Palace a quaint cottage. Impressive did not quite do the building justice, and I felt incredibly underdressed in the simple oversized sweatpants and on brand ‘streamer’ hoodie that I had opted to wear. Nervously pushing up my glasses, I glanced around the reception area once more, noting a surprising lack of people; the few that were walking around were oblivious to my staring and were dressed in either all black or teamwear. “Miss Ortiz?” at the call of my name I spun around, my tote bag swinging in the wind with me, as I turned to face a tall well groomed woman with a warm smile who had approached me. “yes, hi,” to say I was awkward would have been an understatement, but she seemed unphased and smiled brightly at me, “it’s lovely to meet you, my name is Karina Alberone, I'm one of the talent agents here, we are thrilled you decided to come and look around and to consider our offer of joining one of our rosters,” I nodded awkwardly, fixing my features into a nervous smile. “it’s a pleasure to meet you too,” I began, taking a slow breath and recovering from my awkwardness, convincing myself silently that I could handle this conversation. I had done presentations in front of whole lecture halls and the professor had proceeded to rip my work to shreds, I could get through this. This was at least something I knew about and didn’t need to refer to flashcards to get through. “I'm honoured Koala Gaming took an interest in me for one of the rosters,” she smiled pleasantly, “we are always on the look out for strong talent Miss Ortiz, and we would be blind to not see someone like yourself as the very definition of promising talent,” a light blush tinted my cheeks as I glanced down nervously at my sneakers, the praise flustering me.

“that’s very kind of you to say,” I murmured, offering a small smile, still blushing under such high praise and recognition. “of course, shall we begin the tour? We can discuss any questions you may have about joining our organisation after the tour or throughout if there is something you are particularly interested in,” I nodded, still in awe of everything I was witnessing. She smiled again, beginning to walk in the direction of the coffee shop and corridor which I had assumed led to senior managements’ offices. Hurrying to keep up with her, my brain whirred as I attempted to keep pace and take in everything I was seeing, after all, the opportunity to be in such a beautiful headquarters may never be open to me again. “these are the offices of the support team here, namely if you need help sorting paperwork, balancing media appearances with practice and appointments with the various coaches, and so on, if you join us, you’d become very familiar with the friendly faces that exist down this corridor. Don’t let some of our players tease you into believing this is the corridor of doom, I promise you it isn’t.” I silently thought of my own university, where the corridor of doom was very much a thing and it lived up to its name in every way. This couldn’t have been further from the case at Koala Gaming, the corridor was light, bright and airy, and there were hand painted murals of the person behind each door, on the walls separating the offices, as well as jerseys with the name of each person, framed and mounted onto the office door itself.

No words could quite convey what I was seeing, but Karina had clearly had this reaction many times before as she smiled knowingly, before leading me back from the corridor and into the main foyer, “this coffee shop is company designed, the menu changes every six months but provides nutritious food, and don’t worry, it provides plenty of caffeine too,” she added smiling as we moved towards the line of glass elevators and swooping staircase. “our headquarters has seven floors, including the basement below us, though that is more of a car park and dedicated team pick up and drop off point for before and after matches,” Karina gestured towards a sign mounted onto the wall in clean grey slate that listed each floor and what was on it. Unsurprisingly the top floor was the CEO and senior management offices, which I presumed was also home to most of the trophies won from across the esports that the organisation was participating within. “a whole floor for food court and gym?” I questioned as Karina pressed the call bell for one of the lifts, “yep, we take physical health outside of mechanics incredibly important,” she replied, ushering me into the glass lift, that carried through the gold highlights that were presented in the foyer. “all PCs are kept in specific training areas of the headquarters, the same for practice rooms, those are all located in a similar part of the building to keep them together, there are also designated relaxation areas, as well as areas for media preparation and content creation but those aren’t the key focus for today.” My mind was just about ready to implode with information, everything about the whole of the building was pristine, perfect, polished, everything that I was not as a gamer. I liked to meme as much as anyone else, I was prone to inting, I liked supportive communities and homely touches, none of which looked like they fit in any way with the image of Koala Gaming’s headquarters.

“our players do not live here of course, there are gaming houses for each team in each game, and they all live under the same roof,” I nodded again awestruck once more as we stepped out onto the first floor from the foyer. “this is not Dynazone’s floor, though I'm sure you’ll love what you see there, this is The Grail, are you familiar with it?” I nodded, “it’s a good game, I started on it before I began playing Dynazone,” she nodded satisfied with my answer, “yes it is a very good game, well onto the next floor, which will be Dynazone,”

...

end of part 1