“You’re the one who’s going to need prayers!” Reina barked back like he could hear her. “The nerve of that man!”
“They don’t highlight their specialties in the introductions,” Naomi said, “Which means that we have to figure out how to fight them on the field.”
“I’m all for surprises,” I said with a smirk. “He’s just trying to be intimidating, Reina. Don’t let him get to you.”
“Oh boy! Those teams better watch out! Team Hawk is out for blood!” Molly said enthusiastically.
“They’re just trying to get into our heads,” I said as the crowd roared once again. “If they were that good, they wouldn’t need to resort to mind games.”
“Yes, but they did win against some pretty good teams,” Reina said as she continued to read the bottom of the screen, where their win to loss ratio was in blinding white: Tournament Wins: 5. Tournament Losses: 1. Second Place Count: 1.
“They’re obviously doing something right,” Naomi said.
“Maybe they’re just lucky,” Reina said with envy in her voice.
“It’s not about luck; it’s about strategy,” Naomi replied. “And they obviously have a good one.”
“Well, we’ll see how their strategy works against ours,” I said. “We’re not going to let them intimidate us.”
Molly continued to introduce the next team, Felix’s, Team Seal. He didn’t get a mic, but he and his team did get to pose for the big screen. After his team was the last team in this group, our team. Team Owl. The crowd wasn’t as stale as I expected it to be, my team getting shouts from the audience, some even cheering my name. Or my alias, Airplane Angel. It felt good being recognized, and as I fanned my hands in the air, the crowd got louder and louder.
“Oh, looks like Team Owl has some cred on their backs!” Molly chimed. “They are going to need it to compete with Team Hawk!” Molly then shifted gears, leaning close to her microphone where she started pacing along her platform. “Buuut, you know… some say Team Hawk has grown complacent. That they’ve lost their edge after their five consecutive wins. I hear talk about them not taking that loss lightly,” Molly said, getting the crowd revved up for more. “I’m interested to see if those rumors hold any weight.”
I smiled, watching Molly try to create some drama. The camera panned to Bram, who had a subtle irritation in his eyes. While they were our biggest competitors, and a win against them would be a huge blow to their image, I didn’t feel so threatened. I was confident in my team.
After Molly introduced group one teams, she went on to explain the rules. But before she went on with the rules, she gave a brief overview of how we hunters got here….
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Participation in the games was on a first come first serve basis. Also, if you participated last season, you couldn’t participate in the next. This rotation allowed fairness, where hunters could get their chance to win big prizes. To qualify, you had to be actively hunting, which meant that those lazy or retired hunters out there couldn’t participate. Another requirement was having a specific amount of sponsors. Our team had plenty, thanks to Naomi. The same went with Felix, Ash, and Gun, where Gun’s numbers carried his team. They checked sponsor numbers a few hours before the games, as well as contract activity. Anyone who didn’t qualify would be booted, and anyone on the waiting list would be considered replacements.
Now, for the rules.
The earliest group in the day, group one, went first. The other three groups would go right after, with intermissions in between. Once their games were finished, the top two teams of each group would compete the next day. So as long as we placed in the top two, we were guaranteed to compete the next day.
In Round two, things got a lot harder. Instead of four groups, there were two groups, and the two teams of each group advanced to round three the next day. After round three, there was the last and final round of the Hunter Games, where four teams were pinned against each other for the title of champions. With every round, there were winnings. Every time you ranked first or second in a round, you got 700 FP or 300 FP points per teammate respectively, as well as $40k and $20k per teammate respectively. The tournament winners got 1,400 FP and $80k a pop. So theoretically, if you ranked 1st in every round and won the tournament, you were looking at $200k off of one season! And that wasn’t considering the sponsor bank!
I was getting chills just hearing her talk about all of that money…
The name of the game was Territory Dominion. The objective of Hunter Games, besides the few times they did sponsor event roulettes, was getting our golden dragon egg from point A to point B. The egg wasn’t light weight, and it also wasn’t small. So it was safe to say that it wasn’t made out of real gold, but we were to protect it like it was. It was about 12 inches wide and 16 or so inches tall, but it weighed about fifteen pounds. It was also very durable, and for good reason. I’d seen round plays where that egg had been scorched fifteen times over, kicked around like a soccer ball, and tossed off of a nearby five-story building. And it barely had a scratch on it. This special egg had two locations in the beginning of every round, and after a team claimed the egg, the designated drop off points, or nests, would appear.
Once the egg was dropped off in the nest, it was time to defend. For an entire 60 seconds, we needed to make sure the egg stayed ours. If another team dropped in our nest and claimed our egg, then we were screwed. A team had about 5 seconds to claim an egg by keeping their hand on it. The signature changed, while the 60 second countdown continued. After the 60 seconds was up, another rotation on the map would happen.
The rules might sound pretty straight forward, but it could get real crazy out here. Between our metas and stage events happening at the worst times, we also had to consider items that other teams had that could help them secure the crown. So after Molly explained the rules and the horn sounded off to start the first round, I turned to Naomi and Reina to start planning ahead.
“Let the games begin!” Molly shouted, and just as suddenly, her voice was swapped out with two commentators up in the cloud booth.
The Hunter Game was about to start…
-Total Immersion Process-
Preparing Hunter Game Systematics in 5...4…3…2…1…