Tuesday was more of the same. Add/drop week wasn’t over and there was always a final shuffle. Students realizing that they were going to have to go to class at some point in time if they wanted to graduate were frantically checking rate my professor. It was going to be a silly day.
I introduced some new marketing elements, went over my story about the tattoo artist and word of mouth, but dreamed of finding the guy who had given me the patch notes.
He wasn’t there when I minded the computer lab in between classes.
My mind went back to Marketing. I had the same classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, all three were three credit courses that required attendance. Honestly, I only used attendance if they didn't do their work as a discriminator between grades. That and if they didn't do their part in a business project. But that was my thing. If you couldn't work on a simple project, then maybe you needed a come to class moment.
I barely had the time to check the add drops to see if anyone had left my classes. That could wait. I had priorities.
From what I had I began to take notes on what could make each of the stats better, starting with mechanics. The fact that he started from baseline and improved so much was a good sign. It meant that I would be able to do that again.
It meant that probably he was learning was teamwork or something. Maybe he was learning something ridiculous like some of those meaningless business talks like synergies or how to effectively talk to somebody. Maybe he was opening up, not matter how weird that sounded.
In my spare time I wrote down ways that I thought they could improve. Their communication. At the top of the list was being on the same page and getting more practice in. Getting more practice running the game as a team would help them develop individually as players and they would help the team develop. I wondered if there was a team stat that I could access.
Maybe the system would offer me something.
I was not going to hold my breath though. I would take any advantage. I felt so much more invested now in the Bulldogs now that I can see their stats and maybe this first battle against another team might be a good way to showcase this. Heck, I might be able to get some notariety out of this.
I always wish that I had time to develop a social media following, but it just never seemed like the right time. Word of mouth marketing was better. I didn't have endless time to be on stream and look presentable. I mean I did but that didn't mean that I was going to do that.
If I was going to be catching up with my friends, then it would be weird for me to also be streaming. I wasn't turning my gaming sessions into the DOTA equivalent of critical role as much as I wanted. Was it going to have to be a big presence in order to win this? I didn't know.
I also wasn't sure what the fourth main attribute could be. It had to be something important. Those other two were clearly in a different column and that meant that they were something else entirely.
Or did it? I wasn't sure. I'd gotten 200 points from watching matches that weekend.
What was it to me? If I could guess what it was. Was it teamwork? Maybe that was covered by mechanics. Offense and defense were their own things and I can see where each one will be important.
After seeing several profiles, I had an idea of where the stats could go.
If their combined total was their CA or current ability, then there was some way for me to figure out what that stat was. I was guessing it was related to something about a support role. I couldn't be exactly sure until I tested out some things but the fact that Murph was better at it gave me an idea.
I had also checked my friends stats as well, and unsurprisingly, they were good.
Stacey
AP 70 CA 27
12 Offense
5 Defense
4 Mechanics
4 Reflex
4 Redacted
X Redacted
X Redacted
TOP
PREF: Jungle
I couldn't exactly quiz her about what I saw. I was surprised to see her preference jungler but we had swapped back and forth several times.
Stacey was pretty good about telling me her mind. In some arenas though she let me lead. DOTA? Yeah.
Yoga? Hell no. She was the leader there.
We had gone through several studios to try and find the yoga instructor that meshed with her personality. And if that wasn't enough she had to make sure that nobody else in the class had ever been on the opposite side of an acrimonious divorce proceeding. It had taken a hell of a long time. But in the land where everyone and their mother was a lawyer or a doctor it helped to have a plan. Hence why we figured out some time last year that it was cheaper for the three of us to pool our money to pay a private teacher. It would have almost been cheaper to just become yoga teachers ourselves but we were busy girl bossing. I texted the group chat about our next session.
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Kelly: Is yoga goddess Jill still good with Wednesdays?
Stacey: She is! I confirmed we are good to go. Are you still feeling like you did last week?
Kelly: I think I'm good now. I'm looking forward to it.
Stacey: Excellent. I expect nothing from the best from the Professor.
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It was good to know that that was still going on. I was spending a lot of time in the chair playing and I needed to stretch. Unconsciously, I stretched in the computer lab. If this was going to be a silly day, I would be a silly goose.
I turned back on one of my podcasts and zoned out. They were talking about the predicted winners and it was just going as expected. The commentary about the team battle strategies and committing versus not committing felt poignant and I took some notes.
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Three was my maximum and I was glad when they were done. I gave the big project details to the Marketing class and I assumed that I would be getting a lot of emails that week.
I couldn't really zone out in class, but more and more I found myself explaining the history of e-sports and how it related to marketing.
"You see the free to play model wasn't a thing that you saw here in the West. Due to rampant piracy in the East, it was far more common," I said. "This meant that the league guys had to pitch publishers with an all new game idea based on a system."
"Isn't this a terrible idea?" One of the students said.
"Yes, but they believed in their product," I said. "With the advantage of being first as well as having an idea of what they were doing, Riot games decided that it was in their best interest to do that."
I was thinking that I would get back to their level. A lot of kids had grown up in this generation or already gamers or had grown up watching Let's plays or twitch streams. They really was familiar with many games online. Many of them wanted to be influencers when they were younger and I felt that. It was like they were trying to get away without working. And yeah your girl can understand that. But somebody has to be the plumber.
Plumbers still make money.
We had a good debate there about how this was a lighting in a bottle moment. Most people aren't going to experience that kind of business. Then I had to bring it back down to earth. Most people weren't going to open a business either.
Half of all small businesses fail within the first year. Half! It feels high. After five years, it's even more. So I walked through why a side hustle might be a distraction. If they were starting from zero, like I was with my new team then that had a lot to learn.
I actually needed to learn about Bob, who was a new guy on the Bulldogs, but not in any or my classes. If he was going to keep showing up to our games at least. I didn't even have a final lineup. They let me play some of the games, but really I wasn't supposed to at this level. I could manage, which was also fun but I wanted the option to do both.
Our first game was set for Thursday the twelfth. After that we would double down on our schedule and see if we could fill out the Bulldogs lineup a bit more. Maybe having an A team and a B team might help.
I got a text from Amir.
Amir: Kelly! I got a deposition today, but I wanted to talk to you about Jill.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Kelly: If you’re going to really tell me that you had a one-night stand with our hand-picked yoga teacher, I will probably scream. Tell me you didn’t.
Amir: No, no, no. It’s nothing like that.
Kelly: What is it like, then?
Amir: You know how we found her at how flow Yoga?
Kelly: I have your mother on speed dial.
Amir: Chill, chill. It’s not her.
Kelly: Explain yourself.
I stared at my phone for a few minutes as the little thinking bubble populated. I kept glaring. It didn’t do me any good to glare at my phone. I had to physically unclench my jaw and looked around to make sure no one else was watching me rage at my friend.
No one was. I had been in the computer lab countless hours and the familiar place reminded me I was at work.
A student appeared at my desk.
“Excuse me, but the printer seems to be jammed,” she said.
“Let me see what I can do,” I said, finding the work study student in the back.
I saw a name above them. Of course, the kid studying I.T. would be a gamer. He had an AC of twenty and a PA of 40, so no slouch compared to the amount of people I’d seen with AC of 1 and PA of 1.
I made a mental note to ask him if he wanted to play a game.
My phone buzzed.
Amir: Gotta go! Deposition time!
Kelly: Yeah, we’ll talk later.
It was a total cop out. I would hold him to this later. The guy was going give me heart attack. That was a kind way of putting it.
With all that soon to be settled the very next day, I would be stable until Fall session two kicked in. That would add one more class to my Mondays and Wednesdays but that was alright. The rest of the week, I looked all over the TEC building for the patch guy. He never turned up despite me even heading into the departments offices to check the other computer labs on the way.
It was kind of infuriating that I couldn't find him. I would get him next time I saw him, rest assured. This patch had changed way too much.
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Wednesday saw me sitting again at Yoga with Amir and Stacey who had decided that this was exactly the time to have a staring match. As we went through the motions, I could feel the concentrated combination of their energy trying to make me feel some sort of way.
"I was not having that," I said afterwards. Our usual thing was to get a slow breakfast together on Wednesday. Neither one had court that day so they could put their work off.
Amir and Stacey both gave me the look. If they weren't going to talk about it then I was going to
One thing that everyone tells you about owning your own business or being a solo entrepreneur is that you go from having one boss to many. The thing that they don't tell you is that eventually you can set up systems so that you don't have to have that many bosses.
They set up their own schedule. Of course the college controlled my schedule, but I needed the healthcare y'all. Shits expensive.
"Are you both going to glare at me on this wonderful fall day?" I said, over my pancakes. The Pancake diner, of course was great. The fluffy cakes were always on point.
"Kelly, it's like ninety degrees out. This is the least fall it's been in ages," Stacey said.
It was true. If I hadn't been sweating from yoga, I would have been sweating just from being outside.
"I just need us to be okay. I know it's cuffing season and all," I said. "But could we not let Amir's conquests change anything."
Amir snorted.
"I am not doing a conquest," he said. "I don't even know what's going on."
"What's going on is Jill's sister in law," Stacey said.
I didn't even know that Jill was married. I mean I should have, she was a great instructor. It had just never come up.
"What's going on is nothing. It might become something," Amir said.
"Amir. Don't blow up our spot. Stacey? Give him a chance. I need him in our game tonight."
Stacey took a deep sip of her coffee. She smiled before putting it down on the booth table.
"You're really on recently," she said.
"I'm on a hot streak. I think this season is going to be good for me."
She smiled. After an utterly unforgivable amount of pretend angst glaring as we waited for the check, we left. We were all adults. We could pretend to be petty as much as we wanted.
That night, Amir increased whatever stay he had hidden by one and all he was doing was playing bottom row. I had no idea what changed between this game and the previous one. I didn't want to ask him to check his stats for a game form last week. I went this see if the game saved any details like that for me but it wasn't to be. Whatever that fifth stat was, it feed into AC.
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Thursday, I woke up giddy. The pre season was going to go to the twenty seventh of September. I that would give me about three weeks to whip this team into shape. The regular season started on the thirtieth and then ran to November fifteenth. Then the finals would happen and maybe the Bulldogs would do well.
Honestly I didn't know how things would shake out, but our first big opponent was going to be Hudson County and after that, I was going to set my eyes on Essex.
The first round of every game is really getting to know the opponent through a draft. One by one there was a countdown timer where his team gets the opportunity to ban opposing players characters. With five on each side, each player has a chance to ban one of the players favorites.
So our first objective was to ban some of the characters that they were going to use. In top Lane right now the metal was very strong for a hulking brute named Nico. Nico is a tank.
In game the lore is that he was a librarian who got fed up with all the rules and just of one day decided that this was it and he had it and I kind of like that idea. He looks like a buff librarian. He attacks with a sword and he has a couple of standard attacks. His ultimate is a skill shot which you kinda have to learn.
Based on the recent patch notes, he was hot. However, Aria wanted to play him. So if he banned Nico? Neither side would get to play that character. He had about 15 seconds to decide who to ban. Now understanding this he could be in any character in the game. Not every character suit over every role as well as other characters are, but you can build them if you really wanted to. Right now I started you was game the meta a little bit.
One of the things that I hope I would get to unlock was people's avatar preference.
If I knew their preferred character and their preferred lane that I could give them an idea of what to block. Banning a character from the outset meant that their tactics were going to change a little bit. Now usually what James will do is they will figure out what the other players like to play and if they main a certain character then they will ban that one. I had another idea. They were about a three or four hot top Lane characters right now. Rather than banning a bunch of different characters that were good in The Meta. I would just have them banned just about every standard top or mid laner.
Once they lock in their first one, the enemy was fine. Based on what they picked, my guys would whittle down the options. After each round our each team gets to ban five characters, then my team would pick their characters, one by one.
Starting from top to mid to bottom, we would each pick one at a time. Getting the ability to choose the first banned character was an advantage.
For this advantage, the team that didn't get to choose the first ban got to choose the last pick of character.
They had a perfect idea of what their team was playing against one by one. Each of the players would pick a character down the line until each team had picked off all five characters. Then everyone would be locked in and it would be game on. We had talked through the strategy a couple times and although this was going to be a a best of three match, I wanted to give them a chance to really dial in every aspect of the game. They would get the matchmaking part right. And then we would work on what my South Korean friends called the turn-based strategy overview of the game.
The first part of the game is the early farming, where you sent out a team to go through and kill some of the mobs that are spawned around the map. Then you kind of sit back and you get as many minions as you can. On either side of the board, the bases where the hero starts spawn minions. Those minions go down the lanes and then they fight each other in the center.
Once the lineup was all set, all my guys had to do was go into the first turn.
The objective of the first turn was not to lose any unnecessary deaths. We had to make those early game kills very difficult. They had to cost the enemy something. I wasn't going to give something up for free.
If our enemy killed one of our guys, it was going to cost one of theirs. The more we killed, the more gold we got. The more gold we got, the more we could get better equipment. Creating that deficit from the start helped lead to a strong end game.
For the first five minutes Bob jungled around. He kept threatening the lanes, but I could see that the Rockies weren't taking the bait.
I wasn't able to see the Rockies jungler except for a few times when he popped up to threaten the guy in the mid lane. He was late to the arrive. I almost had to sub in for him last minute, but he showed up.
Max was a solid guy, studying early childhood education. Thankfully he was a freshman that had gone to high school with Murph so the one had dragged the other in. As this was pre-season, this would only count in a tie breaker.
When the NCAA decided not to oversee e-sports they made a huge mistake. When the eSports equivalent Cissa took over they had to decide between 3 and 5 matches for a set. Seeing as how each game was 20-30 minutes, we could get 2-3 in the time it took to play a soccer match. Seeing as how none of my players had soccer skills, this was probably a better use of their time.
That was how when Max began to push I had to nudge him to put on the breaks.
"You need the support," I said. "They're trying to draw you into a trap."
Sure enough, as soon as he got to their first tower, three of the Rockies jumped him. He was able to get away because I had prompted him too. He used one of his skills to shift out of the way.
"Thanks," he said.
Once everyone had got to that level six or seven, it was time to start looking for openings. I propped over to see what Raquel was doing. She and Murph were dominating the bottom Lane. They had nearly gotten to the point where the first Tower on the enemy side was down. Their own tower, by contrast had not been hit. They won a good position. This meant that they go try for one of the special mobs.
Two special mobs spawn in this game. One is a dragon and the other one, we call the porcupine or pork. It's not one, but it's got quills. There is a stream that leads from the bottom right corner where the lanes converge to the top left corner.
This is the quick was to shift lanes without going through the jungle that exists in between the lanes and that stream.
Both of the special mobs were along a side of the river. They didn't spawn right away. When the game started. It was expected that teams would take them as each one gave a little bit of a boon. Having the porcupine Boon meant that you had more defense and you healed faster. Killing the dragon made you get more gold for a little while as well as make you stronger and more defensive.
Each one would give you a bit of a nudge, not enough to make you win out right, but enough to make it easier to win. In the early game, it would take four or five Heroes working together to kill the porcupine.
I wanted them to do it by themselves.
The dragon didn't spawn until around the 12-minute mark. This was also well into the second phase of the game. If you marked the game by turns the way that I was trying to play into my strategy, the second turn was when there was lawn mower roaming around and trying to get these objectives done.
Now these weren't necessary to win, but they do give you an advantage.
Everyone was looking for a little bit of an advantage when you were up against a opponent of about the same strength.
Murph and Raquel headed to meet Bob at the Porcupine. This meant that the battle line was open and if the Rockies already paying attention then they would see that they were gone. Feeding. One of the special mobs would give them an achievement which would be broadcasted to everyone.
Not every kill was broadcast. Not every Bob kill as well was broadcast.
The porcupine and the dragon were both broadcast, like first blood. They even had a cool way of saying it but that got very old after hearing it many times. As the three of them hit again and again, it became very apparent to me that the minions in each of the three lanes were not interacting with any enemy avatars. And my gut. I knew that we were probably too late but I had to urge them to move. In my mind, I was thinking that I wanted them to go. I was surprised when the three of them started moving out. It was like something unspoken had gone between the four of us and I had to try to command them do something and they had just done it. I was they actually did it, than the fact that the enemy came off short.
My Bulldogs led them on a merry chase through the jungle, wasting their time and then whittling down down to half health. When the first chasing enemy was at half, Murph hit him with a stun. This gave Raquel that chance she needed to get her first kill of the game. Their chasers disbursed, not wanting to lose even more of their advantage.
It took everything in me to not do the happy dance.