Readjusting his headset before the next match, he leans back as cheers and jokes stream through the speakers. A smile tugs at his lips as his friends recounted their favorite moments from the last game, discussing who did best, and who still has things they need to improve on. He doesn’t usually engage in the post game chat, mostly because there’s not much room for him to talk with everyone yelling over each other, but he does enjoy listening to them bicker back and forth. He stretches his arms over his head, trying to release all the adrenaline and pent up energy from the last game. It had been close towards the end, and he’d had to make some risky decisions in order to win it for his team, but that was his forte. He worked best under pressure.
“Grave that kill at the end was insane man!” Scorp’s voice rings through his headphones, cutting off whoever had been talking before. Instead of using Zach, his real name, his team used his in game name, Gravedigger.
“It was all luck,” Playboy counters, “they just happened to be right in front of him. I’d like to see him do the same thing again.”
Playboy always teases, but he knows it’s all in good fun. She just doesn’t want him to get a big head.
“I guess you’ll just have to watch me do it again this round.” He said as the game’s ‘match starting’ screen came up. The group had recently gotten very into X-Charge, and they had been trying to move up in the rankings. The goal of the game is to retrieve an item from the other team's base, and get it back to the drop off zone. You can choose a wide range of characters, and have to work with your teammates to eliminate the other team. The group likes it for different reasons. Playboy likes playing the stealthy characters, and infiltrating the enemy base. Scorpion likes playing the heavy damage characters because he’s simple minded and it makes him feel useful. Ryder likes all the different maps. Marissa liked that the healer characters weren’t trash. Grey was just happy to play whatever his friends liked playing. And Zach liked the strategy side of everything. He likes that he has to think of everyone’s location and next move at once, and that there are hundreds of different ways he could win. And he likes being able to direct his team.
As the game started, the group started to discuss potential characters and strategies for the next match.
“Why don’t we go 3 dps, 2 healers, and Playboy can do her stealth shit.” Ryder suggests.
“But then we won’t have any heavy damage dealers. We should have a tank.” Playboy counters. Ryder and Playboy usually end up bickering for the majority of the pre match time, and nothing I say or do will stop that. It’s easier to let them discuss it on their own first, and I can make my suggestion right before it starts.
“What if we do 1 tank, and the rest of us sneak in?”
“Scorp that is the dumbest idea you’ve had yet.”
“Well that just means they won’t expect it.” I can practically hear Marissa’s eyes roll through the headset. Zach watches as the seconds slowly tick down, waiting until they hit 45 before speaking up.
“Why don’t we do 2 dps, 1 tank, 2 stealth, and 1 healer. Grey and I can play dps while Scorp goes tank, and the 3 of us will focus on drawing attention and distracting the opposing team. Grey can hang by our base with Marissa who can play a healer, while Playboy and Ryder sneak around the right side and enter through the back. Once they get there, Grey will take my place in mid, while I go and protect whoever grabbed the item. Marissa, make sure to pick a long range healer, and everyone else can choose whoever. Just make sure you can do your job.” He realized that the team had been silent through the whole plan. It was rare for anyone to get more than two sentences out before they were interrupted by a joke or comment. But it seemed like everyone was very focused for this match.
“Sounds like a plan boss.” Scorp says, breaking the silence. “We’ll let you make the calls this round.”
They always let Zach make the calls, but nobody really comments on it. The rest of the crew quickly select their characters, just as the last few seconds ticked down. He ran his cursor over the potential options, trying to decide what would be most beneficial to his team for this play, and decided on Sapphire, a character who revolves around speed and dealing damage in quick bursts. Most players had difficulty with her, because she forces them to think incredibly fast, and is basically useless if you can’t time things correctly. But that’s what Zach is best at.
The map loads up, and everybody rushes into the battlefield. Zach and Scorp go in guns blazing, attempting to make as much noise as possible. Grey follows them for a bit, but stays close to the base, in order to stop anyone who may get too close to their healer. Playboy and Ryder wait a few seconds before quietly heading down the right path. The group can only hope that they don’t run into anyone on their way, because the whole plan would fall apart in a matter of seconds.
“Ok, we’ve started moving down the path, we’re taking as many back paths as we can. No one so far.” Playboy calls.
“We’re heading down mid, there’s noise up ahead and I’m guessing around 3 people.” Scorp responds. We’ve made our way just past mid when we finally run into someone. The sound of bullets hitting metal is a dead giveaway, and the two boys slide behind a nearby wall.
“I think there’s another behind that northeast wall too.” Scorp says. Zach doesn’t know how he knows, but he trusts him.
“I’ve got it.” He peeks past the wall, firing a quick round into the enemy's head, then uses one of Sapphire's skills to jump the wall, only using one shot to kill the other.
“Fuck yeah, Grave! 2 down everyone.” Scorp informs the team. The game doesn’t tell you how many enemies are alive, so the team has to relay all information to each other. “How’s everyone else doing?”
“We’re all clear here still.”
“Same, nobodies come close to th-” Grey suddenly gets cut off.
“You good Grey?” Playboy asks.
“Nah I just died”
Well there goes the perfect plan. Zach grits his teeth and leans into his keyboard. He’s gonna have to switch some things around.
“It’s ok G, I avenged you.”
“Thanks Marissa.”
So it’s 5v3 right now, which still has Zach’s team in favor. All they have to do is grab the item, and safely get back to the drop off.
“We’re almost to the enemy base.” Playboy says, “should be in in about 20 seconds.”
Zach and Scorp continue to push forward, only a bit behind our stealth team. Scorp has been quieter than usual, and Zach knows he’s itching for more gunfire. He doesn’t like not being useful, so Zach will have to make sure he gets a kill before the end of this match, or he’ll be pissy the rest of the night.
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“There’s two near the base, can one of you guys take care of them?”
“Yeah, Scorp’s got it. We’ll let you know when it’s clear.” Zach shoots back.
“Oh hell yeah, I got this boss.” Zach doesn’t know why Scorp always calls him ‘boss’, but he’s not too upset about it. He watches as Scorp’s previously white character turns a fiery red and pulls out a large club. “Let me get some action.”
His character barreled through the last street, and entered the enemy base. Zach wasn’t too worried about following behind him, although he knew how rash he could be, he trusted him to get the job done. He just approached slowly as he watched Scorp disappear into the building. The enemy base looked similar to a parking garage, and we knew the item would be somewhere on the top level. Playboy chose a character similar to Sapphire, and was planning on scaling the side of the building, while Ryder would run up the stairs on the back. If he gets caught, it would just make it easier for Playboy, because it’s just drawing attention from what she’s doing.
“One down! Two to go!” Scorp yells. Zach flinches at the sudden noise but continues to head towards the base. “Does anyone have eyes on them?”
“Nothing by me.” Playboy answers.
“Yeah the base is still clear.”
“Oh shit!” Ryder yelps. “I just got sniped. I’m sorry guys, I didn’t even see him.”
Ok that’s fine, we can still do this with the other-
“I just got shot too! What the hell is this? How did he even see me?”
Damn, Playboy and Ryder are both down. That was fast too.
“Was it the same guy?” Zach asks
“It had to have been,” Marissa chimes in, “because someones shooting at me over by our base too. Grave can you get back over here?”
“Yeah I’m heading there now.”
Zach quickly turned around, heading back to his team's base. It would take about 45-60 seconds to get back, and he didn’t know if Marissa would be able to hold them off for that long.
“What’s it look like Marissa? And how is it going over there Scorp?”
“Haven’t seen anything so far, boss. Tried to pinpoint where Playboy and Ryder got shot from but he was long gone.”
“I’m being held down by gunfire on my side. But I can hold him a bit longer.”
“Ok what side is he on? I’ll sneak around that way. And Ryder, just grab the item and run.”
“They’re east, behind the high wall.” He moves over into the right lane, wondering how they managed to get there without any of them noticing. But he slows to a creeping pace when he nears the base, finally hearing the sounds of gunfire. He peeks past a wall, and fires a few quick shots, leaving the enemy dead.
“Wait Marissa did you die?” Playboy yells.
“Yes, right before Grave killed him.”
Well fuck. Everythings going to shit. But it’s still 2v1. He starts to head back to the enemy base, hoping he could get there before Scorp gets popped.
“What’s it looking like over there Scorp.”
“I’m near the item, I have no clue where the other guy is.” He mutters, barely loud enough for Zach to hear. “I’ll grab it and go.”
“Sounds good. I’m heading back your way now.”
He quickly makes his way toward Scorp, moving fast, but being sure to check every corner and spot the lone survivor could be. Sapphire has a ‘wind slice’ ability that he’s keeping in lock. It’s helpful for when he doesn’t have time to actually aim, because it has a wider range, and sweeps across a large area.
“Fuck! I just got downed.”
“Damn it Scorp, you had one job.” Ryder says.
“You died too!”
So now Zach is alone again. He doesn’t know if Scorp managed to grab the item or not, but either way, if you die with it in your possession, it just respawns back in the enemy base. He just has to focus on eliminating the final player, not getting the item. They’re probably still close to the base, just waiting for Zach to pop up somewhere.
‘Item has been taken by enemy’ flashes across the top of his screen.
Shit.
Instead of going back towards his base, he alters his pathing slightly towards the drop off zone, which is close to the middle of the map. Now he has to keep them from getting inside. The rest of his team is yelling encouragement and egging him on, but he tunes it out. They’re basically useless at this point.
The drop off zone is illuminated by a large blue circle. You have to be inside it with the item for 5 seconds, which doesn’t seem like a long time, until you’re surrounded by gunfire and other abilities. That’s why the stealth strat is so useful. It’s hard to know who has the item, therefore it’s hard to stop them before they’re already in the circle.
Zach hops onto a box, hiding behind a wall facing the zone. They’re most likely expecting Zach to try and stop them at his base, and will probably come from that direction. He primarily aims that way, but switches to check other corners, just in case they choose to use their head. Unfortunately, nobody on the team knows what character they chose, so Zach doesn’t know what to expect.
Suddenly, Zach’s character is launched into the air by a grenade. It launches him over the wall, and as soon as he lands he uses Sapphire’s ability to double jump himself to safety behind a wall on the opposite side.
A message pops up in the chat.
Zephyr: ‘you really thought you could hide?’
The grenade wasn’t enough to kill him, but it definitely knocked his health down. But, if this guy knew where he was, why wouldn’t he just shoot him when he knew Zach wasn’t looking? There’s only one real answer: he’s trying to look cool. He’d rather play a flashy match than guarantee he wins the game. It’s the exact opposite of Zach. Zach will always get the game done as fast as possible, no matter how boring that may make it.
He sprints out from behind the wall, firing a few shots at Zephyr before slipping behind a stack of boxes. While hiding, he charges up Sapphire’s speed skill. It allows him to move much faster, but it takes a few seconds to charge. Luckily, the few shots he fired had pushed Zephyr out of the zone, and he had retreated behind a wall, giving Zach just enough time. He once again uses his double jump to throw himself over the boxes and Zephyr’s wall, then throws out his wind slice, in order to end the game quickly.
In return, instead of running away, Zephyr runs toward Zach, effectively evading the wind slice. Zach quickly switches back to his gun before landing, and fires a few shots, but because of the speed and surprise, only one lands. As soon as he hits the ground, he’s hit in the back by a bullet. But he swiftly spins, and fires another round as he seeks cover. They’re both probably similar in health, and it’s hard to see who has the upper hand.
Zephyr chose Grenadine, a character whose main weapon was explosives. He has grenades, high resistance to damage, and landmines. Since Zach hasn’t seen any land mines yet, he can only assume that either he hasn’t placed any, or no ones set them off yet. So he’ll have to tread carefully. You can tell where they are because the ground is slightly raised, but you’ll miss them if you move too fast.
Zach watches as Zephyr sprints towards him. He quickly reloads and fires a round, hitting a few shots. Zephyr swiftly pulls out a grenade, pulling the pin as he continues his advance. Then, when he’s only a few steps ahead of Zach, he drops it. He takes a few steps past, then jumps.
The grenade’s explosion throws Zephyr through the air and over the wall. Zach’s character was just barely fast enough to escape the majority of the damage, by jumping just behind Zephyr. Zach grabs him in midair, spinning them so that his back was towards the ground, and uses him as a crash pad. Zach pulls out his knife, and plunges it into his chest.
‘You Won’ flashes through the center of his screen as Zephyr’s character disintegrates beneath him. Then, in the midst of his team’s cheers, a message pops into the chat.
Zephyr: ‘Gravedigger, add me’
His name. He didn’t know why he wanted him to add him, but he wasn’t planning on heeding his request. He takes off his headphones and stretches out his hands and fingers. His computer screen returned to the ‘match start’ screen, and he let it sit idly as he tried to get his heart rate to return to a normal level. He took a deep breath before placing the headset back on his head.
He was immediately met by Ryder’s screams. “That was so sick! How did you even manage to do that Grave?”
“Yeah, do you still think it was just luck now, playboy?” Scorp says.
“Ok fine. That time was pretty impressive”
Damn, a compliment from playboy. You don’t see that very often. The only one she treats with any kindness is Marissa, and Zach just assumes it’s a girl thing.
“That guy was really good, are you gonna add him back? We should totally play with him.” Scorp says.
“It’s a 6 person game Scorp, we’d have to drop someone,” Grey informs him.
“Oh shit yeah,” he mutters. “But you could still add him! There’s other stuff we can play!”
It’s times like this where Zach remembers how young Scorp is. He’s a sophomore in high school, and turned 15 a few months ago. He was 4 years younger than Zach, and the youngest kid in the group. He was also the loudest. His in game name is Scorpion, but everyone just called him Scorp because it was easier.
“He seemed too cocky. He probably just wanted to add me so he could ask for a rematch. And I don’t want to hang out with people who are that cocky.”
“Why do you keep Scorp around then?” Marissa says, trying to get a rise out of Scorp. And she succeeded.
Zach turned down his volume as yelling and jeers streamed through his headphones, not feeling the need to interject. He’d just let them fight it out before the next game.