Monday morning, I got my email from the Bergen County academies guy. He was psyched to play against us. I mean, he sent it Friday, but I didn't check email on non work days. It messed with my flow. It was a chilly day and so I needed to check it. It was actually going to be school time.

We went over some of the finer details. Since this was our week off from the regular League schedule, we were trying to accommodate the academies. Anything really to get the academy kids to work with us.

It sounded like they had some really school skilled people and I was going to see if I could get them at least for a semester. I might not have the clout of a 4-year college, but I had accelerated classes over the summer that they could take. And if I got my way? Ryan Reynolds would buy me the franchise that I deserved.

After yoga, I headed into my first classes. Reflecting on how much had changed since the beginning of the semester, I got out my planner.

I now had stuff all day, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays were filling up as well.

What else had changed?'

First, I got in the patch which I hadn't even found the guy yet to thank him or throttle him. I felt like it was going to become more of a throttling. Based off of all the weird shit that happened to me, he had to have known.

That had so thoroughly changed the trajectory of my semester that I was still dealing with it.

But here is the thing about the patch.

I wanted it. Somebody else had this kind of problem. Was it a problem? At a shop interface that let me buy things that may or may not affect the real world in some way. Yeah I was able to kind of tell people what to do and the strategy sense when we were playing but outside of that, I kind of had to talk to them when I'm on. It was like sometimes I would be able to issue a mental command that they would just follow. More so now that I had those rounds taken care of. Before that, I just had to have a vague sense of it and try to push them in a direction.

Second, the fallout of me taking on Fall II classes had fucked up my lazy Mondays.

In class, the students were about the same. I was feeling a little bit ready as I announced that our midterm was going to be very soon. To no one's surprise, they had to check the syllabus.

It's a good idea too. If you don't keep on top of your midterms when you're in college, I told the class at the end. It won't be difficult but it will be something you have to come by and attend.

But the dean give me the option of giving a class virtually. This is one of those classes where you meet for a certain amount of time online and they do the stuff and they submit it online. I didn't have a problem with that. During code would we all had to do our best with what we had.

There was always time for more classes. What I did that evening was look at the accounts of the academy's players. I knew Esther was going to phone up on them and Raquel and Murph were also going to look. They would then put in the group chat their thoughts.

I know that because I had several messages about their star mid laner who was apparently a big shot. I wasn't able to see that person, but just by watching and play through some clips that he had edited, edited and upload to his YouTube channel, I could see that he knew his stuff both in video editing and in actual playing the game. Video editing itself is a skill. Being able to play itself is a skill. Finding someone that can do both? That would be ideal. I asked a group chat if anyone was going to be able to replicate such a skill for our social media and I was greeted with some blanks. I sighed.

Going to have to figure out a way to teach them how to make their own videos and how to make it look appealing. I'll tell you one thing, the game looks great on a good computer. It looked good on a bad computer. But I didn't have the skills to go do all that video editing. I was going to have to outsource this or skill up myself.

Realizing that I had to become my own hero, I spent an hour or two learning how to edit video clips. I couldn't say that I was any good but I was getting there.

I realized that I didn't have a social media that I could stream off of, so I reluctantly made one. I was considering using my in-game handle, but I was also thinking that the professor of esports might be a good title. I didn't know. I texted my group chat and they agree that I should call my channel the esports professor.

So there it was setting up a YouTube channel and a twitch stream to feed into that.

I wondered if anyone's going to follow me. I got my first five followers when I told the group that I was going to make something. But I still had no idea what it had to do for video. So in the absence of anything, I figured out a way to record one of my games and then I would figure out a way to upload it either in full or in edited form.

It was hard for me to stop that and I had to kind of tear myself away when I realized that bedtime was getting close.

Game I played, I didn't really do much. We won after a long stalemate, but there wasn't much for me to put there. I couldn't get the software to stream correct . So I kind of let it hang there and let it be for the time. I knew that. It would be great if I could get that done, but it was really likely for me to actually do something like that.

All things considered, it wasn't a bad way to spend my Monday night. Amir was on a date with Leigh and Stacy was AWOL. I didn't see her pop up and follow me on my streaming stuff, but after that; I let it go.

---

I asked the group chat in the morning What I should post to my channel and they said that it might be good for me to post a video about working with the current meta or how to get a supporter and bot Lane combo to work really well. I mean, I had worked with Murph and Raquel extensively, so I knew their play styles and I knew what worked for them, so I might talk about that. But I didn't want to give away everything.

Already said that I should make a course on it and that was Murph and I liked where he was going with it but I didn't have that much material to work with. After all, who was going to listen to the word of a gamer manager who had just started her career? I was going to have to spend some time building up my following.

I didn't spend about 2 hours in the study hall computer lab where I looked for the mysterious benefactor. I don't know what happened with him, whether he was some sort of devil that had just come down for one day or if he had decided that after spending a week, that he really didn't want to go to Bergen anymore. Maybe he wanted to go to UCNJ. He could have gone and offered the patch software to Jalil and seen how he did and I'm going to be playing against. I didn't actually know

It made sense to me that if I got one patch, then perhaps somebody else had gotten it. Would that be true? It beat me. It was hard enough for me to think about.

I was sitting in the lunchroom looking at all the welcome to October things. Sure, I might be down for spooky season, and I definitely had a pumpkin spice ready to go, but it felt like summer. The damn weather was all over the place.

I just needed some time to adjust the fact that I was going to have to find another sliding outfit for this Halloween. I didn't even have anything set up yet. I had to dust off some out cosplay stuff. Probably.

It has been ages since I'd done anything but I had reputation to live up to and it might give me some more followers on my socials. See that was the other thing. If I was going to have to build up sort of following as a manager, I was going to have to actually make something. Not everyone's going to follow you just because you got something to say.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

There has to be some substance to what you were saying too. Or was it the other way around?

I thought about it as I checked the news. There was always something going on. Comic Con was in two weekends which felt ultra fast. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that the hype was in fact, real. I was getting more and more excited to see what was going on and hopefully get into some of these interesting fan things that I have been putting off about the game. I knew that there was going to be hella DOTA merch.

I just needed to get my hands on it.

I wanted to get like five of the avatars figurines. It wasn't my entire life, but it was a big part of it. And I wanted to show it off. You know all those people that tell you not to stay with somebody that would not accept your stuffed animals? It would be the same thing with my DOTA merch. There wasn't any sort of shortage of men that played the game, but I didn't wanted somebody that wouldn't have a problem with it. I wanted my home to be a bit more of a gaming hot spot.

Murphy and Racquel were eating together again. I waved and then stopped by for a minute to chat.

"How was your weekend, professor?" she said.

"Good! Hello team."

It didn't escape my notice that they were sitting across from each other.

They used to sit next to each other every time. So this was a little bit of a change. I wanted to say something but again was my place to say something or really anything.

"We have been practicing Professor," he said. "I think I got my game down pat."

That morning after weeks of trying to figure out what the heck the fifth stat point was, I was finally ready to invest what had to be the biggest expenditure of my mind.

I bought Basic Profile 2.

After all that? It was farming.

Murph was getting great at farming. And not only that, he was getting pretty close to twelve in that stat. When it started, he was at two. All of the training with Rachel and playing had increased his score by ten points.

I don't think all of us guys together were that high. But the amount of training that we put into him had raised his amount significantly. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't yet got a view of my own scores.

That was a pipe dream.

As it did the thing it did, the pad showed me there there for me scores and then in built next two stores. It said something about whatever, since that one would be where I specified meal.

It was going to be a good day but then Murph pulled me aside to the talk. He was alone in the

This one ought to be fun.

"What's on your mind, Murph?"

"Well I tell you, Professor," he said. "Midterms are coming up. I don't feel ready."

"No one ever feels ready," I said. "But you have been studying your stuff, right?"

"I guess. It never feels like it's enough. This definitely isn't high school."

"You're going to have to put out more here," I said. "Otherwise you can't play on my team, no matter how good you are."

He cracked open a book. "I hear you loud and clear."

I kept moving to my class. They were non plussed about getting a quiz that morning. It wasn't that difficult. And it gave me some time to go through some of those patch notes that had just dropped Sunday night. I hadn't been paying attention to the people that followed that and I probably should. But I didn't want them to be invading my personal time. When I was done for the day? I was done.

I reviewed the email from the Bergen academy's guy. They were going to be coming to us. It made sense. They were only a short drive down Route 4 anyway but they wanted to go off site. I supported anybody who wanted to leave their normal accommodations and for a bit of a ride. It got boring being in the same place day after day.

Going to go see my team play was a good way to get out of the funk I had apparently been in. It was just another day with an unexpected twist for me.

What's next for the team? Well, we had four more regular games after our march with the academies. We skipped Halloween week thankfully and then the regular season all ended well before Thanksgiving. We were going to be busy Bulldogs.

The damn dogs themselves were texting the group chat. Apparently one of the star players from the academy has a big social media following but they never put their face up. So it was a known entity, and we knew it was a girl but other than that, all we had to go on was how well she could tell her story.

And she did it well. After class I went through her YouTube channel and she had more rizz than a 90s R&B hit. Not only that she could tell a story with her works. With an Alias of BSlayer, she was a top ranked talent who could easily make it to tier one play. I got so engrossed watching one of her videos that I almost jumped when the second class started walking in.

I excused myself to use the first floor ladies room and saw Racquel reading on her own where Murph had been. I waved to her and she gave me the upwards nod.

It was weird that she was at exactly the same table he was at an hour and a half later but that was one of the more common places that they met. We didn't have our weekly meeting of the full club until Wednesday at noon so maybe it was just their customary thing to sit there. Either way It was a bit odd to see them as if they had replace each other. Or maybe they hadn't even seen each other and this is just their shared point.

My second class ground. About the quiz. I thought I took a brief lunch, checked my emails and then prepared for the accelerated class.

At the end of the day, I was ready to switch to literally any other thing. Don't get me wrong, I was good at what I did but sometimes you just need to switch gears. My Monday night became a other game night with Amir and Stacey.

Before Stacey even arrived I was giving Amir the questions that I needed answered.

"So what's different about Leigh?" I said. "Besides the fact that she is going to marry one of us."

"You can't say stuff like that," he sputtered. "I almost spat out my drink."

Casual drinks and hanging out was the name of the game. Stacey and Amir had gotten Mister Meant to the negotiating table. "All of took was us explaining how much they would both lose with a long drawn out lawsuit. Once they got that through their skulls it was so much easier."

"So a man will do what is in his self interest when there is money on the line? Classic."

I leaned out over the balcony. There wasn't much to see, but we could see Van Neste square at least. The chill had abated and I could be comfortable and fashionable. Or was it the drink? I didn't know.

"He certainly sees green. He's one of those guys who is like 'I don't see black or white, only green.' If you know what I mean."

I held up a glass. "He is closer to being homeless than a billionaire but he thinks he is about to make it rich."

"That's all of America right now," he said. "With the big orange guy."

"Fuck 'em, I say." I gestured out to the square and the dozens of people walking about on this fine evening.

"Yeah." He looked a bit defeated. I probably needed to switch topics.

Amir sat back. "Stacy's probably still working the divorce paperwork. She had more to do because he settled on the wage thing immediately. Jersey doesn't fuck around with not paying people."

"That makes sense. Leigh is on her way?"

It was that time of the year when you started to think about how much salt you had to have to work and how was slowly decreasing. In about a month, it would be a daylight savings time again or whatever happened. I always hated that. I personally would opt out of it if I could just get on my own schedule but rules are rules. The college had a big sway over what I did with my time.

With that the thought of being in a place that would be warm felt right to me. An extended trip away was exactly what I would need. I would be able to focus on me.

"So who get the academy in the divorce?"

Amir frowned. "He isn't selling it. He refinanced some separate property he owned to get the value out of that for her."

I couldn't imagine doing that. He probably had two houses and was refinancing this vacation house in order to keep his business going. It made sense if he believed in the business. I believe in that kind of business but I didn't see his actual books. In order for me to actually invested in that type of business I would have to see the books. His wife had seen the books and she had said that he needed to give her the money. That meant that books are probably bad or that she wanted to force him to sell it. That would bake him not have a choice to use the business and you'd have to do something else for herself. It wasn't like he could go back up and rebuild the place from the ground up the very next day. If he sold it there are probably contracts that extended out all the subscribers.

Having an idea of who this man was, he probably locked people into a one-year one contract. It made sense, like a mar and having them sign on for 3 months and one at a time. So you had a better idea of what was happening and who was coming and when.

Stacy still wasn't there when Lee arrived. I didn't want to feel like a third wheel so I stayed on the balcony while they said they had Lowe's. A short while after, she came and joined me. She had wine.

"Hey, Kelly. Somehow I beat Stacey here," she said.

I smiled. She had her hair in braids and I was damn jealous. She looked great.

"Don't let me be the first to tell you this, but you look stunning, girl," I said. "Poor Stacey is missing out."

"I mean, she is getting paid," Leigh said. "Girls gotta eat and shit. Amir just told me she's done now."

"Good, because I am ready for Mister Mean to pay for dinner."

Leigh giggled.

Amir returned with a charcuterie board that had to have been pre staged somewhere I hadn't seen.

Leigh let out a squeal. I forgot I wasn't the only one here that got excited by these kinds of things.

"Amir is the best," she said. "This is exactly what I needed."

"We have a tradition here where once a case is settled or done, that we celebrate. Especially a big case that had taken most of two weeks to settle," Amir said, raising his wineglass. "To old friends and new and-"

A knock on the door stopped his toast. He quickly filled another glass, opened the door and handed Stacey hers. She smiled and accepted it gracefully.