After doing further research on the ranking system I took some mental notes of a few things. Each rank contents divisions, excluding the highest rank Zeta. Copper, Iron, and Silver all have 3 divisions. The divisions are just numbers placed next to the rank in order to differentiate them as they have not yet implemented rank icons for each division. The rest of the ranks have 5 divisions, excluding Zeta of course. Upon reaching Zeta the divisions are removed and replaced with your ranking on the global rankings. Right now Zeta has ten-thousand players. Seems relatively small for a rank with such a skill gap and a game with millions of players but maybe it is because the game is still new. I checked the time. 11:00 PM, guess I should probably go to bed for now. With that, my first day of Zero had come to an end.
Waking up I realized that I have work today so I go through my usual schedule of getting ready. Change in to my work clothes, brush my teeth and what not. I usually skip messing with my hair because who cares, I am not the protagonist of some romance story, just your typical no-life FPS gamer that happened to luckily land a job. I work in a small family owned business. All we do really is build furniture and sell it. It is rather bland and feels like a waste of time occasionally, but it can be rewarding seeing customers enjoying what we build. If I’m not able to get a job elsewhere then I guess managing a business like this wouldn’t be too bad. I don’t have too much on the schedule for today, just the usual chairs and a new table design the boss was working on yesterday. “Hey Michael, got a minute?” That’s my boss’s usual line every morning. I respond after finishing up my first chair, “Yeah, what is it?”
“Just want to make sure you’re ready for that table design, it’s a tough one but it’ll look good if you do it right.” Why ask if you think I’m not ready? Well, shit, might as well. I began reorganizing my tools, “Yeah I got it, can’t be too hard right?”
“That’s the spirit! Just make sure the measurements are perfect, some people may complain if they’re even slightly off. You know how customers are sometimes.” I indeed did know how they are. We have had our fair share of stinkers as I call them. The stinkers will come in and act all high and mighty, like they know everything that goes in to this job. It can be an easy job, but it does become time consuming, especially with this new design I have to work on. The design consists of a massive number of very precise measurements. This is why boss man wants me to make sure it’s right I guess. For tables I usually work on the legs first, the legs generally have the most complex designs if any at all. Hmm, standard height, carved design at the top of the legs. I have my work cut out for me today.
It took most of the day getting the legs to an acceptable degree but now I understand how to make them for next time. I’m sure I will need to build more than one of those. The table top is the simple part of the job. Just a giant slab of wood sanded smooth and attached to the legs. I spent the rest of the day finishing the table and getting it ready to be stained or painted. We mostly do painted work now, but we get a good amount of older customers that still want stained furniture. Stained wood looks the best in my opinion, though my desk is just your standard white paint. Well, time to go home for the day. I wonder if Zero already has an esports scene.
I begin my usual walk home when I decide to grab a coffee on the way back. My favorite cafe just happens to be next door so I usually end up there for a few minutes after work. “Yo! Neo! Long time no see man.” I was startled by the voice just casually shouting in a quiet cafe. I turn to see who shouted at me, it was my former teammate from my FPS days. He went by Intermediate. We were on the same team for at least three years before I stepped down from the team. I greet him in response before walking up to order my usual coffee, “Hey man.”
“I saw you’ve been playing Zero too. You looking to compete again? Though I’m not sure how we’ll be since it’s virtual reality and not just your typical FPS game.”
“I’m not sure, it would be nice though. I played one ranked game played against some high rank guys. Not sure if that is a good thing or not.”
“Oh yeah I saw your match history because I got curious, yeah one of the guys on the other team plays for Aimer Legion. They won last week’s major. Wasn’t even close. You easily stomped him at that, the carry on your team isn’t a pro player but if you could get him on a team then I think you’d already have a full roster at your hands ya know? I could just be rambling out my ass but man the match replay says otherwise. You do need to learn to grab the shock rifle, rocket launcher, and the other weapons. The sniper shots were insane though man, I could never hit those.”
“They were just lucky shots, I’m not a god. I was lucky to make it in FPS games, I feel like VR-FPS competition would be pushing my luck. Plus I’m not even ranked and I don’t know any of the teams in the league.”
“To each their own I guess.” He shrugs while making a pouting face.
“Alright fine, but if you hold back whatever team I’m on then I’m getting them to remove you. You were good at normal FPS games but don’t think skill magically transfers between mediums.”
“I knew you’d agree. I’ll contact the new team that paid the franchise fee. They’re pretty big, remember Arctic?” Wait? Arctic? The Arctic? The team that stomped us every match? The team that always managed to find players leagues ahead of everyone else?
“I’m listening… but isn’t a bit too convenient to immediately be able to go to Arctic?”
Intermediate slaps my back and laughs, “Man you really need to chill out. I’m their academy coach remember? You forget everything quicker than a goldfish. I got ya covered, I’ll put in a good word and in the meantime you just need to grind the game. Simple enough.” Still confused by the situation I sigh and respond, “Got it.” And with that my strange journey to the cafe is finally over. When did he ever live in this area? Small world.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I finally made it home after nearly finishing my coffee, it’s always hard not to drink it. I always get a standard black dark roast. Most people have trouble drinking it but it is what I’ve become accustomed to. I go to my office and boot up my computer. Time to research the esports scene. I spent a few hours scrolling through articles on the league website for Zero. It is very professionally put together anyone can tell a lot of time was put in to making it perfect. The rules for each match are separate from your usual ranked game. League matches are played in a best of three scenario. First team to win two games wins the match. League semi-finals are best of five and League grand-finals are best of seven. Matches can last a while huh? Feels more like a game of mental fortitude than a game of skill. On that note I decide to watch the most recent grand final while looking at the list of teams in the league. Currently in the league the teams are Arctic, Aimer Legion, CounterPlay Gaming, EZAF, Haptic Gaming, Xeon East, Xeon West, Godly, Rebels, Proton, Z Gaming, and Mortality. That makes an official professional league with a twelve team roster, though the validity of the roster can be brought in to question when the only requirement I have heard of is a lump sum of money.
The most recent finals ended up coming to Xeon East and Arctic. I had a slight bias towards Arctic winning going in to it but you never know especially with Zero being a new game for them to enter. Xeon East consists of four Asian players and Arctic is a team of Americans. The only Asian team in the league is being put against a mainstay in America in an American arena. The map picks for the series were King of The Hill on Arpeggio, Team Elimination on Zeta Foundation, Nuke on Arpeggio, Carrier on Ark, Team Elimination on Live Fire, King of The Hill on Live Fire, and the tie breaker is Nuke on Zeta Foundation. Not a very diverse map pool, but one that I’m sure every team has practiced for hundreds if not thousands of matches already. This map pool should produce some very competitive rounds. I skip to the beginning of the first game. “Alright it is on! Xeon East against Arctic, the two best teams in the league here for the second major in Zero’s history. Today we will learn who comes out on top as Arctic already making a move against Xeon East here with the first hill capture of the day.” A wonderful and hyped up intro from the first announcer of the broadcast. “Yeah you said it Ian, this is going to be rough for Xeon here, this first hill is the always rough because both teams are trying to feel each other out and see what’s going to be different from the last time these guys played but Xeon is anticipating a late p-two take here and they want to be first on it. Their defense was strong all of last month’s major so I think they’re ready to take the giants of Arctic. I am Alex and with me is Ian here for the second Zero major. If you’re just now tuning in then sit back and get ready for a close set of maps here.” Both teams were playing really conservative, they were not going for any crazy plays or sitting in any special spots. All of Arctic was just within grenade distance of the hill. This is shows a lack of knowledge of positioning, one good grenade through would destroy at least three player’s shields leaving Xeon with a shot at the hill. That’s exactly what happened. “Oh! A wonderful nade throw from Matta on Xeon, they have three player’s shields down and now they’re going to be making a move on the hill. I thought they would play for p-two but now they’re making a last second move on p-one. This could be the play to show that Xeon East isn’t here to just look good, they’re here for the finals win.” Alex shot calls with scary levels of accuracy. Ian complements his shot call, “Matta takes out two on Arctic! That nade setting up Zeno to grab the last two. That’s two double kills for Xeon East and an uncontested hill for the next ten seconds! These guys are playing some of the best Zero we’ve ever seen and I’m ready for the games we have next in the pool.” That aggressive play left Xeon East with an easy one to zero lead against Arctic. Arctic still having yet to get a single kill in this game. Watching Arctic after the second hill spawn felt like watching a deer in headlights. They were just clueless to Xeon East’s positioning and rotates as the hill would be captured. Map one ended up going to Xeon East with a four to zero score at the end. I never really payed any attention to the player’s names during the match I was just observing their styles of play.
Xeon East has Matta who plays as their entry frag and main play maker, Zeno who is essentially Matta’s right hand man. Then they have their support being Akua and Yamori as the main objective defender essentially. Yamori sits on hill while the rest of the team is either lurking or defending the hill using a level of positioning I’ve never seen before. Arctic consists of Frosty a relatively young gun in the scene, very little competitive experience across any game, Gunman put simply he is the gun man of the team always tries to go for the weapon spawns to help set up a play for his team, qSnIpE who is known for his sniper plays and skill as a support player, and finally we have Cycle who is known for his skill across both FPS and VR-FPS games. Wait Cycle? As in my former teammate? Maybe it’ll be easier to get on Arctic than I thought. Not that this broadcast is making them look great at the moment.
Moving on to map two, Team Elimination on Zeta Foundation. Zeta Foundation has probably the most complex layout to learn, lots of corridors and holes to hide in. Perfect for a Team Elimination or Nuke pick. I could see a lot of one versus three plays being possible with this map pick. Opening up the match Xeon East makes a really good move on the middle of the map taking out Cycle and qSnIpE in an instant. It’s really not looking good for these guys here. This match was really beginning to turn in to more of a complete annihilation than a highly competitive grand finals match. Xeon was just on a completely different level. I wonder if their west roster was the same, probably knowing how this is ending up but then again they’d be in the finals most likely. Xeon East at the beginning of matches loves to go full blitzkrieg style, super aggressive and it seems to give them complete control of the map. Once they have control of the main sections of the map, they change the pace of the match to whatever fits their current situation. With Xeon being stacked in middle at the moment it would be best to start slowing the match down a bit to allow Arctic to move in and have to contend against a world class defense. Though that strategy could be countered with another highly aggressive team play, it would not exactly work as Xeon East is completely capable of isolating players and leaving them in what feels like a constant two on one with nowhere to run once they lose their shield. It would take a miracle here if Arctic want to come back from a deficit like this.
I continued watching for the next hour, watching Xeon take map… after map… there was no hope. I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. This is what Intermediate hyped up? Well I guess you could say his team lives up to his name. The final map of the series was an interesting one, it really just felt like Xeon already knew it was beyond over. Everyone on Xeon was just goofing around. I was pissed after seeing how cocky they were towards the end. Arctic may be a joke, but the professional scene as a whole is not. Guess I’ll be grinding in the morning. It would be very impromptu, but I texted my boss and let him know I wouldn’t be working for a while if this works out. My boss knew of my competitive FPS career but now I’m trying to leave my current job with him for a video game rather me going through every business in my area just trying to get any job I can. He was surprisingly okay with it, maybe that is because he knows I’ll work even harder if this so called second “career” of mine fails.
I messaged Intermediate with the following, “Going to grind Zero, if you need match replays then you’ll know where to go.” Now I just wait for a response while playing the game I guess. I open up Zero, put on my virtual reality headset and hop in to some ranked games. The first two weren’t very desirable, very close matches. I would blame it on my teammates as usual, but this is a completely different medium than moving a mouse around so I can’t be to harsh on some of the newer guys. I guess virtual reality won’t get rid of bad matchmaking. The average skill of both matches was within the high Diamond rank and low Zeta ranks. Still surprised this is where the matchmaking system is putting me. Maybe they’ve developed a more efficient system for match placements. I’ll have to look in to this later. I play another two games. Those two games were much easier, mainly just high Diamond ranked players. I had many close calls with grenades, as well as many times where I died to double grenades in a tight corridor or on an obvious corner. My positioning has improved, analyzing Xeon East really seemed to help in the end. I’m not sure if just watching matches is going to help but I’ll go ahead and leave the last placement game for tomorrow. It’d be a miracle to magically end up in Zeta but if anything I’m sure I could be Diamond 5 without any complaints on my end. I turn off my computer and head to bed for the night. I have a full day of Zero ahead of me, better attempt to be healthy at the least.