The team fights began. They were quickly thereafter and unfortunately that was where we lost our edge. We had our small advantage going in of getting their psychology all up in their Grill.
We had the meta problem of none of these guys understanding that they should just ignore the rage that they felt building up inside of them.
That was really their issue. The thing I was most concerned with was getting us to the team fights and then making it past the team fights. With little advantages, no one could really snowball until people started dying. Also I needed Esther to not rage out. It's hard to imagine a one hundred pound Korean girl raging out, but picture a berserker...but cuter.
It took about fifteen minutes of that first game till we got a kill.
Luckily enough, it wasn't us and we began a slow methodical tit for tat game. It wasn't until both of the brothers decided to go on the same lane and work that angled that we were had to engage them. I swapped our strategy to offense.
They knew what they were doing, it just took them forever to figure out that we were actually using a meta strategy on them.
That tit for tat where we took one and they took another began with us ahead one tower.
Once we were all on the same page, my guys were really into it. They'd seen the Newark team play. They knew what they were up against and they had taken them to a stale mate. That had to weigh heavily on the enemy. If nothing else, an unexpected loss where you thought you were going to have a crushing Victory is not something that makes you feel confident.
In fact, I was feeling kind of sad for these guys as the match went on to minute 20 and we were up three kills. They just didn't know what they didn't know. They might be able to regroup in the second game but for this one?
They would pay for every single foot of terrain.
It felt good. It ended with us winning but it was close. It went on almost thirty minutes. It was about the most even you could imagine a match.
By then I could tell that they were all going to have some sort of yelling session. That's cool. That was what the brakes were for. My guys would have the other kind of yelling session.
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Esther had two books in her hand. I regarded both.
"SSS Ranked Divorce Lawyer Regressor" looked like a standard Manhwa. I really wanted to borrow it. But the other one? It gave me all kinds of pause.
"My New Life as a Divorced High School Student: A Reverse Isekai Story" looked interesting but I was thinking that I might read the first part. It hit hard.
I opened the first page. 'I never wanted to be the divorced guy but... Here I am rebuilding my life as I approach my 18th birthday... Maybe a broken heart can heal between third period English and calculus.'
It was hard to put down.
"This is amazing, Esther. I want to flip through this right now."
Unfortunately I didn't have the time for that. I shoveled those away for later. Should have gotten more and more interesting things for me to check out and I really wanted to check them out. I really did this just wasn't the right time. Maybe during the weekend, I would head down to the bookstore and get something new.
"They're in stock today," she said. "I saw them in the one place on route four I go to next to the academies."
I had to look at my watch and check to see what time it was. At best, we will be done at 8 PM and then heading back to the school and I would let everyone go at around 8:30. We allotted two hours for the matches and then it would only push three hours if our breaks were long and we did a third game. We had won the first game of the match series.
It wasn't a sure thing at all. In fact, I was pretty sure we're about to lose two once they figured out how to counter our meta strategy. This would give me time to work on my guys in between here and the finals.
I was resolved out in my push match too as well as match 3 despite winning match one. That's okay. I could live with that. But to so thoroughly demoralize them ahead of finals when they had a stellar record going, that was going to hit them right in the pride.
People don't really want to be happy.
What they want is to be satisfied.
They want pride in something right. They wanted to wear that satisfaction like a coat.
I was just going to peel away one layer of pride. I would leave them exposed to our next attack. It was just going to be a bit of a sun exposure to them. Next time? They would burn.
The team circled around me. My newest book was clearly open. A flicker of nervousness passed over me. The only thing that I felt was the determination that we would see this through.
That didn't play out in game two. You see what had happened was they were people too. They modified their strategy every minute. I didn't even catch that until minute five, when I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
Then we got steamrolled and snowballed. Our morale took a hit harder than everyone's match stats. Our heirloom win has gone vintage in less than twenty five minutes as the EWR team got to the team fights and took the advantage.
The guys were fading at the beginning of match three.
For the first round, I set the strategy to farming to see if this would do anything. My guys were doing well at the farming but when I Saw Essex change their strategy to attack, I immediately moved to defense. I felt like a wave of fatigue was washing over them.
If this was a morning game played before anything really happened I could see it being the main event. As this was a evening game played after everyone had already gone to class and done stuff all day, I realized that this might not be the awful time to play. It would have been had. We all not had to travel. But we had a drive to get here. There had to be a way that we could play them in person and get that same feeling but also not have everyone be super fatigued by just going out to play.
Maybe the organization itself will be able to help me with that. Oh well see that's the problem with sport s in college. We were not in the business of esports. We were in the business of teaching students. It was one of those things that was spelled out in our charter and our legal basis for existing.
There was a bit more back and forth there in that third game. The competition was fierce but it was tired. They had figured out that it's easier to latch onto ester and work directly against her than anything else they could do.
They were good players and they played a good game. My other problem was that the enemy got a chance to say something about the game you were playing and what they did say was that two people with a AC over 100 could more than block one person with a similar strength.
It wasn't enough just to have a high defense. You have to also have a high attack and mechanics. Yes, defensive mechanics would stall them but I was going to have to work on raising all these stats and then all the ability potentials so that they weren't the threshold where they could actually do something against these guys.
Is it unfair that they had two players above the cap that I thought existed? No. I was just going to figure out how to get from where we were to where they were. At. Best I could get Raquel and Murph up about 10 points a week if we could keep raising their caps.
Was that entirely feasible? I didn't know
Would I like to see it happen? Yes.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Was going to take everything that we had? Also. Yes.
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In the team van on the way back to our meeting point at the college, there was a buzz. Everyone was excited because apparently this had been the first time this season that Essex had lost a game. They didn't win the match set. My guys were doing their best but they still lost two games out of three.
Essex County had lost a match.
Honestly, it felt like we were taken out a big company with lots of support and structural elements and they kept it in the lead. Was it a vertical integration or a takeover? Or just one of those things where we figured out how to get people to switch from their Monopoly to using a competitor? Either way, it felt great
Ester led the discussion. "So guys we're all pretty good but you know what? After that performance, all you should be celebrating."
I swear that I don't condone underage drinking, but I could have sworn that Raquel and Murph were drinking something. I was pretty sure that it was fizzy pop. Probably diet fizzy pop but they made it seem like they were actually drinking beer.
"I'll drink to that," Murph said, slinging back root beer. He pretended to be drunk.
"Yeah Professor, now that midterms are done," Raquel said. "It's going to be smooth sailing until finals."
"And then where are we going?" Esther yelled.
"To Atlantic City!" The whole team yelled.
"I think that someone else is going to have to drive if we do that," I said.
"Come on professor. It's only an hour and a half from here," Racquel said.
"I already booked my rooms," I said. The finals for this sport, as well as several other electronic sports for the state we're going on at a convention center the weekend of December seventh.
"That's the spirit!" Racquel said.
Ester who was sitting right behind me smiled broadly. It was good to see that in the rearview mirror.
Anyone with a half of rain could tell that Raquel was leaning into Murph like she meant it. Of course that was in the back row. They were leaning really hard into the cosplay of not dating.
"Hey did anyone tell Rachel how he did?" Esther said
"That's a good idea. Can you tell her?" I said.
"Think she's going to be disappointed in us?"
I don't think so. I mean we talked about it. This is probably the best scenario to get. That's where we need to be. If Essex is this good chances are they're going to win the finals unless we can get a lot better before the end.
There was a small but imperceptible bump in the road as I got onto the highway.
'I think we could do it," Esther said. "Then we can go pro."
I swear to you that I saw two Root beers come out and clink at that.
"I'll drink to that," Murph said pretending to slurp.
"If you guys want to go pro, that's a whole different discussion. We got to find a franchise that'll accept you. And you got to finish your studies too right?" I said. "Ester, your mom and dad are going to be really weird if you don't go to medical school."
"Just because I got a huge brain, it doesn't mean that I need to go to medical school," she said. "If I was a ten out of ten would I would that mean that I would have to go on only fans or something?"
'Boo, don't do it," Raquel said.
"She makes a good point," I said. "About this. Do you want to be the person on only fans who is not making any money? That's got to be pretty depressing?"
"Professor," Esther said trailing off. "That is a great idea for a novel."
'You've got to be kidding me," I said, switching into the center lane. "You're going to write a novel about someone who doesn't do well in only fans?"
"I mean it's relevant to today, isn't it?" Esther said. "Or it could be a regression fantasy. It could be about capitalism today and how you have to make money to live and ..."
I can see Raquel poke her eyes over the back of ester's seat.
"I was reborn as a SSS class only fans model sounds like a great title," Raquel said.
"Oh that would be a cool manga too. Wouldn't it?" Murph said. "Would that be a hentai?"
"Both of those are wrong." Esther said.
"It would clearly be a manhua."
"Isn't that just saying manga but from Korea?" Murph said.
"I mean in some way yes, but Korean storytelling is slightly different than Japanese storytelling or all this Western art," Esther gritted her teeth loud enough for me to see in the rearview mirror. She probably had a thirty minute explainer locked and loaded to go.
I needed to not laugh. The absurdity of the situation that my students were talking about the intricacies of different Yuri novels and how few actual lesbians they were really struck a chord.
"So were you telling me is that they're not actually lesbians this whole time?" I said.
"Not in Japan," Esther said. "They're always like it's a phase and they're a lesbian. They're not like fully actually lesbian."
"That feels like they just eras ing a part of their sexuality," I said.
"No right," Raquel said from the way back. "Like who are you as a sexual being when men are not involved? Like there has to be a you without them."
"If you guys are about to talk about self-love, I would ask you to make sure you know that we have boys in this van," I said.
Either they were so interested in what was going on or they were sleeping. Or they all thought that this was hilarious. It was Too bad Stacy wasn't here. This was the kind of discussion we got into when she talked about her time with her therapist
I don't think I'm the best person to give advice about relationships. I definitely not the kind of person you want to come to those conclusions about either. Love Is love and if you weren't a part of the Bergen County Academies esports professional faculty then I probably had no interest in you whatsoever
"Hey Professor, did you ever follow up with that Mr. Johnston?" Esther said.
"You're going to go from a conversation about self-love and Yuri into asking me about Mr. Johnson and our future plans for a date?"
"I thought he was going to go see Miss Stacy?"
"She might have blown things," I said.
Chances were that he was incredibly dense and just doing his own thing and in his own Zone. Because he hadn't texted her in 2 or 3 days. I would go out on a limb and say that he might have been a party to a missing person's report or something. You don't just disappear from a girl like Stacy's life that quick.
"I wish you knew it was going on with him but Stacy hasn't been able to set anything up with him yet," I said. "Not that it's any of my business or yours."
"Well if he's responding maybe you should talk to him," Esther said. "You have his work email right?"
"Thank you so much for that."
I had totally forgotten that I had his work email. I should just email him and see what he said and hope this was all big of my second standing between him and Stacy. Just a nice friendly little chat about students and maybe going there for career day and talking about running a small business After high School and how difficult it is and I get to have investment Capital in some cases
"I think I'm going to email him," I said.
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Two bottles of wine in and I was on my third formatting of an email that I wanted to seem demure but also unintentionally funny. I going over the line several times and I was so glad that I didn't have work in the morning.
Stacy had apparently finally got a text from him and it sounded like his cell phone had got running over as a prank. He even took the time to send her a video of it being ran over and she forwarded that to me. It wasn't malicious That he was avoiding her. It was more of a him having to wait in the store to get the newest iPhone and her not realizing that some high school students are a different kind of stupid than college students.
Different as in Minecraft versus jackass. Have a thought out of the pocket and then having a crush in the parking lot and then a convenience student. Just watching the phone. Get crushed when you taping it all.
Honestly, if someone rolled over my phone, I would be seeing red. I would not be so maganimous.
"Here's the thing," Stacy said on the phone. "Apparently once way back when, he was working at Englewood before he got to the Oregon County economies and one of his middle school students stole his iPod. He had this whole thing about how he would have just given it to somebody who asked but they didn't ask. They just took it so he doesn't care about that."
"That's actually kind of refreshing," I said. "That's a good way to look at things."
"He was telling me that he feels like he avoided something and like the phone took a loss that he would have had. I told him that I would have liked him to take me out. We're going to go out for dinner tomorrow night."
"That's good," I said , thinking the opposite. "If that works, you can go on a double date with Amir and Lee."
There was a silence on the line for a little bit.
"As was foretold," she said quietly.
"Don't you dare bring in weird prophecies into this thing. There's no way that you could have known that you'd have a double date."
"It's part of the prophecy," Stacy said giggling.
"Sure it is," I said. "When's the wedding?"
"Oh, get this this by the way. He was divorced. I know I didn't expect it either. Oh goodness."
Her musings were rudely interrupted by my group chat blowing up my phone.
When I saw it, I immediately told Stacy I would have to call her back.
I dialed a phone number.
It rang once and then I heard Rachel's voice.
"Are you for real right now?" I said.
"This is about as real as it gets. It's the night for Halloween but that's not a game night that you guys play. You guys have love Halloween anyway cuz it's Thursday."
"5,000 for the team though? That's crazy."
Rachel had texted a flyer for an open invite tournament. It was of course the weekend before Comic-Con which meant that my plans had changed from sitting around in my underwear all weekend to putting on That dreaded implement of the working class, pants.
"Entry fee is $100 per team? This is ridiculous," I said.
"I just need to know if you're in," Rachel said.
"Oh you know I'm in," I said. "I'm good for the money unless you want me to pay them directly."
"No I need you as my jungle," she said.
"Girl, are you sure that's what you want? I can do a mean bottom Lane or top Lane. I can even be supportive? Girl. I can be your sports bra. You'll be the bottom lane with me as your support."
I could only hear her laughing in the background for about a minute.
"Okay Professor, you're in. Also you know I signed up for a class, right?" She said.
"That's amazing," I said. "What did you take?"
"Next semester I asked for this marketing class?" She said. "They told me it was a class run by a professor who had a foul mouth and is generally a bad temper. But that's only a rumor, right? No actual Professor would be like that, right?"
"I know of no such professors," I said looking at my schedule for last spring which had a marketing class led by me. There was nobody else leading a marketing class. I had those on lockdown.
Yep nobody at all could possibly be giving that class to her.