Chương 154: B3 Chapter 10 - Group Favorites Part One

"They won't be mad, right?" Anna asked from her seat in the dimmed seats of CFG Bank Arena. Group A's matches were about to begin—the whole tournament's first matches. She spoke quietly, not wanting the people next to her hear.

"Your dad might get mad, I guess," Patrick said, not reassuring her at all.

"You did kind of skip school." She clutched her jeans, trying not to regret coming here. This type of stunt was so out of character for her. Mom and Dad would both be mad. USA Masters was starting on a Tuesday, with school and work taking everyone's attention. When she asked if they could go, Mom said that they could only go watch the finals over the weekend, if Aiden made it there. The tickets for the finals were already sold out by then. Mom and Dad missed their chance.

Patrick, though, had grabbed two full tickets for the entire tournament. Anna asked Dad if she could go. He had mumbled a vague answer that definitely leaned toward a no, because there would be no adult watching over her. So Anna had left them a note to say that Aiden agreed to watch out for her, and that she'd be home by Sunday. She also left her graded midterms with the note to show that every one of them was still an A.

Social Studies had been a B+, and she'd had to ask for an extra credit or a re-do on the test. Her teacher luckily allowed that to be raised to an A as well after she reviewed her mistakes. Her grades alone didn't seem to convince them, as Mom and Dad had called her a million times. They really weren't happy about this. Hopefully they weren't driving here now to pick her up. She checked her phone and saw she'd gotten a message from Aiden as well. He wrote, " Wait, did you skip school to come watch?

xD" She responded, " Sorry, I told them you'd take care of me. Please play along…"" I didn't expect you to lie to Dad like that haha. Anyway, I told them you're staying in the same hotel and I'd make sure you don't do anything dumb. Call me if you need something."

"His match is about to start…" Anna said.

"I shouldn't be bothering him."

"He should be fine," Patrick said.

"I'd be shocked if he gets knocked out today."

"Did you make bets already?"

"Yeah. The tickets will be free from Group A. We'll have to see how the brackets form." He shifted his posture, eyes on the stage. Anna sipped her drink, hiding low on her seat. Patrick's career was another thing Dad really didn't like. Dad called it "day trading on video games", saying that even if some bets worked here and there, Patrick was bound to lose it all at some point.

Nevermind the fact that Patrick had done this for three years straight, starting illegally when underage, and he'd made six figures from two of those with only a few tournaments where he lost money.

"So who'll win?" Anna asked. He grinned.

"Not telling you. It won't be fun if you know the results, will it?" She gave him a side-eye. As if she wasn't stressed out enough already. They waited for a little bit, with cinematics playing loudly on the jumbotron. Sipping soda wasn't helping with restlessness in the slightest. The trip was slowly turning from exhilarating to terrifying.

That was when the stage was finally lit, revealing Royal Rebecca in a beautiful white and gold dress—the same woman that had commentated New York's one versus one tournament, as well as a man in a suit.

"Welcome, everyone to the USA International Masters!" She lifted her hand and gave a wide smile, as the crowd cheered. Anna cheered along, still filled with butterflies.

"I am Royal Rebecca, here with Tasteful to cast yet another beautiful Wonderwind tournament—what might just be the final USA Masters hosted in Wonderwind one! How is everyone feeling today?" A round of cheers followed. More cinematics showed on the jumbotron with loud bass, showcasing some old clips from the players: VeilShot, the ranger player that most people hated, Eirael, a frost mage, who Patrick said was really good, and also a short clip of Aiden and Veyra.

"I'm so glad to see so many of you here today on a Tuesday evening!" Rebecca continued.

"This is the most packed audience for a group stage I've ever seen outside of Worlds itself. Tasteful, could you walk us through the contestants and tell me, why is everyone so excited for tonight's matches?" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Excellent question, Rebecca," the man in a blue suit said with a much calmer tone.

"This year's line-up is certainly one of the best we've ever had, with top players flying to the country from all over the world, with new and aspiring players eager to build their careers and compete against the best. Dragrath himself is fighting later today in Group B, with Zenith Protocol and Eon Covenant clashing tomorrow in Group F. And of course, you can't forget Team Solo Mage—" The audience cheered, making him pause.

"—who is making their second official tournament appearance in our very first group today, still fighting as a duo!" Nobody had asked for applause, but the crowd had waited long enough. Someone shouted, "Veyra let's gooo!" near Anna. When that finally calmed, Rebecca continued.

"A hundred and fifty players have qualified with thirty-two teams, sixteen of whom will advance onto the playoffs! It's time to introduce our first contestants, the teams of Group A. Warmaxx, Einvigi, Nova Imperium, and Solo Mage!"

"A very interesting, and unexpected line-up," Tasteful said.

"Einvigi and Nova Imperium are far from tournament players, with both being known more as PvE content creation experts, yet both fought through the qualifiers with excellent results. Warmaxx and Solo Mage, of course, qualified straight from the top one hundred leaderboard, with Warmaxx being the seasoned veterans, the clear favorites to take down Group A." Royal Rebecca grinned at that.

"Two of these teams will be eliminated today, and I certainly know who I'll be rooting for. But enough waiting around, let's get started with our first battle of the day—the match you've all come early to witness—give it up for Solo Mage versus Warmaxx!" That drew the loudest cheers so far, and Anna nervously lifted the little little cheer sign she'd made. Not a full banner like she'd made for Worlds; she hadn't had time for that. The idea to come here was impulsive in the first place.

The sign just had some quick scribbles. Music began playing again, along with smoke, as the two teams walked in simultaneously. Anna spotted Aiden behind Veyra's chair, taking her up to the stage. A ramp had been put in place to accommodate her. They didn't move to the game pods yet. Instead, they stood on the stage in a little interview area, both teams facing the opposite team. Anna swallowed, seeing Aiden faced against the group of gigantic men.

Warmaxx definitely lived up to their name with all of their members, except one, being practically body builders and bald men.

"Our first interview of the tournament! How exciting. Who should I start with?" Rebecca looked around, until her eyes drew to Aiden and Veyra.

"Assassin A! It has now been six months since your last arrival at a tournament. Your fans have all been waiting, and you're finally here! How are you feeling?" The jumbotron showed a closeup of Aiden as he shrugged with his stupid grin.

"Eh," he said.

"Pretty good. I was originally going to wait until Worlds for another appearance, but Veyra called me one night to ask me if I wanted to join this thing with her, so of course I told her, 'hell yeah, let's go.'" Veyra hid her face with her hand, as if embarrassed, which only made Aiden grin more. This idiot. Rebecca laughed at it.

"There are so many questions I want to ask of you two, but there's one particular… peculiarity about your team that everyone has been talking about. That is, you're still fighting as a duo?"

"Yeah, honestly, we tried to ask a few friends, but they decided to join an enemy team instead, so I guess we'll meet in the finals. It'll also be more fun to defeat VeilShot as a duo." Veyra shrunk back even more with the arena erupting to applause.

"Wow," Rebecca said.

"That's one confident answer. What about you, Veyra? Have you two really arrived here to win? What do you think are your chances to defeat a seasoned team such as Warmaxx?" Her face was red, and she couldn't hide it.

"We'll, uh… try our best."

"Should be an easy top three," Aiden added, receiving glares from Warmaxx, while Veyra grew even redder. The commentators held in their laughter. Warmaxx's frowns seemed to need addressing, as they moved to interviewing Lapadin, their leader. The enemy guild's responses were quite normal, crediting their success to hard work and thanking all their fans, until the final question.

"What do you have to say against your opponent's claim of an easy top three?" Rebecca asked. Lapadin snorted, shaking his head.

"They've shown disrespect like that to many guilds, including us, from the very first day we met in the Wilderness. They can speak like that all they want, but I think today we'll see whether they're sore losers." An " Ohhhh," came from the audience.

"I wish each one of you luck," Rebecca said.

"Let the first match of Group A begin!" With that, the players finally moved to their game pods. Aiden lifted Veyra to the pod, gave her a little kiss, and logged in himself. The commentators positioned themselves behind their table.

"That's bold words if I've ever heard some from both teams," Tasteful said.

"Although, I do think that Warmaxx holds an edge, and not only because Solo Mage is fighting two versus five."

"So Tasteful, you think Warmaxx with Lapadin would stand on even ground against Solo Mage in a two versus two?" Rebecca asked.

"I couldn't tell you, but what I can tell you is that Lapadin has looked really strong lately. He finished eighth in the one versus one tournament at Worlds, which was the highest position out of all paladins. His armor is truly starting to resemble GodWall's unbreakable shield. This man has thrown more enhancement stones to his gear than I think any player ever has. Compared to that, Assassin and Veyra have always shown up to tournaments underleveled, relying on synergies and good matchups to perform.

Merami has also been spotted wearing the Emerald Aurora, meaning that Veyra has decided to sell the one mythic item their team used to have."

"That was half a year ago, however," Rebecca said.

"Their new gearsets will now be revealed for the first time as both teams load into the arena!"