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I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

New? Start here!
“Welcome, one and all, to the one-hundred-ninety-seventh annual Proving Grounds! As our queen’s Minister of Public Affairs, I am incredibly proud to present my sixth year organizing this prestigious event. This tournament goes back…”
Eve tuned the posh man out, turning left to ask Preston across the empty seat between them, “When’s the fighting start?”
The healer shrugged. “Whenever he’s done with his speech. Not sure why we need all the pomp for day one.”
Eve had to agree. From her vantage high up in the coliseum seating, the overwhelmingly empty bleachers spoke to the unimportance of the early rounds, at least as far as spectators were concerned.
There was a smattering of viewers, predominantly friends and family of the competitors, scattered about the stands, as well as a few higher level individuals that Eve assumed represented the less-successful mercenary groups, but she wouldn’t be impressing much of anyone that day. Hells, the Dragonwrought probably wouldn’t show up until the finals.
A few bookies wandered the sparse crowds, offering bets on the first fight of the day, but few accepted. They hadn’t even seen the fighters yet.
The long-winded speech continued, “As we wind up for the first bout, I’d like to again thank her holiness Archbishop Callandria for her pivotal role today and throughout the tournament.” A gray-haired woman in priestess robes of gold-lined white and a fancy hat stood and nodded. Eve didn’t need to Appraise her to know her class or that her level would only show as question marks.
The minister spoke on. “Without her Cheat Death, we couldn’t hope to present to you all the spectacle that has become so core to Pyrindel’s…”
Where’s Wes? Art’s sending drowned out the emcee’s prattling.
Preston patted the hatchling—who unlike Reginald could pass as vaguely human with a loose-fitting cloak and hood—on the head. “He’s down there.” The Caretaker pointed at one of the dark archways leading into the bowels of the coliseum. “He’ll come out when it’s his turn to fight.”
The buzz of chatter around the arena faded as the announcer finished his speech. “And without further ado, I’d like to welcome out our first competitors! From Pyrindel, a level fifty-six Geomancer, Peter Shind!”
Two people on the far side of the coliseum that Eve could only take to be the man’s parents broke out into cheers and applause while the aforementioned Geomancer stepped out onto the sand.
“From Barrowsted, a level fifty-two Sword Dancer, Priya Estellian!”
Eve had never heard of Barrowsted, and apparently neither had any of the other spectators, as not a single person cheered for the leather clad Sword Dancer. Even so, the stands became a flurry of activity as audience members clambered to place their bets before the fighting started. Unfortunately for Eve, none of the bookies were near enough for her to make her pick.
“Contestants! You may begin!”
Peter got a spell off before Priya could even take a step. With a wave of his hand, a dozen fist-sized stones broke away from the arena floor, rising to the air.
Priya dashed forward.
Peter fired. All at once the stone projectiles shot through the air, homing in on the changing swordswoman.
She sidestepped them all.
The Geomancer was ready though, and another barrage soon followed, each rock’s path curving differently to obscure their destination.
Priya drew her first sword. With a flash of enchanted steel and a cascade of sparks, she swung, knocking the stones away.
Eve watched wide-eyed as the shrapnel flew through the air, her mind not even computing its path until Preston leapt to his feet. In a display of reaction that put her to shame, the Caretaker threw up a barrier of golden light, his Ayla’s Ward ready to intercept the wayward projectile.
It never did.
The air before them shimmered and the stone crumbled as it struck an invisible barricade. Preston lowered his ward. He blushed. “Right,” he sheepishly muttered, “arena’s enchanted for that.”
Eve reached across Wes’s empty seat to patronizingly pat him on the back. “It’s alright. At least you did something. I was about to just sit and watch that rock kill me.”
A flash of golden light pulled Eve’s attention back to the fight just in time to watch Peter Shind collapse to the ground. Priya stood over him, one sword bloodied and another still in its sheath.
“Victor: Priya Estellian!”
“She looks strong.” Eve watched as a pair of healers rushed out to stabilize the fallen Geomancer. Cheat Death might’ve kept his head attached to his shoulders, but it sure as hells didn’t stop the bleeding.
“They’re all strong,” Preston replied. “It’s a tournament for tier 4s and high-rarity tier 3s.”
For his part, Art was too busy furiously clapping his taloned hands as the Sword Dancer took a bow and vacated the arena. Who’s next?
Next, as it turned out, were two plate-wearing juggernauts that spent the better part of an hour bashing their shields against each other until one finally ran out of Stamina. Eve paid the dull exchange little heed, though she did make a note of the victor’s name just in case he managed something more impressive in the later rounds. The party did need a new tank, after all.
Not even Art offered much in the way of applause as the second bout ended, though that changed promptly as the emcee announced a certain Disciple of the Devouring Flame from Nowherested. While the hatchling and Preston cheered in support of their friend, Eve looked over the archer he found himself up against.
“How much you wanna bet that Wes takes an arrow to the face?”
Preston shrugged. “Five silver?”
“Done.” Eve shook his hand.
“Contestants! You may begin!”
The archer nocked an arrow.
Wes erupted in flames. The mage himself became a living inferno as he activated Forged in Flames. He stepped forward. Around him the sand itself caught fire, the blaze creeping outward first in inches, then in feet.
With his second spell, Wes expanded the firestorm around him, spreading the cloak into a massive wall. With her sharp eyes, Eve could just make out his silhouette moving within the flames. As the first arrow flew wide, it became clear that Wes’s opponent couldn’t.
Eve had to admit it was a wise strategy. His Flame Jet couldn’t out-speed a well-aimed Huntsman’s Arrow, so it made sense to hide his position and let the inexorable blaze do its work.
And work it did.
The archer fired shot after shot as he desperately backpedalled from the spreading flames, slowly running out of places to run. Eve watched with a grin as one random arrow flew but inches from Wes’s shoulder, but the Disciple fought on.
It wasn’t until Eve herself felt the heat of the blaze kiss her skin that she noticed the tournament official frantically waving both arms at the emcee.
“Halt!” The air boomed with the minister’s shout. “Competitors, lay down your arms!” The archer dropped his bow.
The fire spread on, carefully climbing the walls of the coliseum. “I said halt!”
All at once the flames vanished, revealing Wes where he stood in the arena’s center. “Did I win?”
“Contestant Wesley Rollund is hereby disqualified for, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this, burning the wards.”
“I’m what?” Wes outburst.
In his customary nasally tone, the emcee explained. “Forces beyond our ability to protect the crowd are disallowed in all tournament matches. How a tier 3 came into possession of such is another question. Yern Binne is the victor by default.”
The crowd gaped. Art applauded. Eve dug out five silver from her pocket, paying Preston his winnings.
“Thank you, thank you,” the Caretaker accepted the coins. “Better luck next time.”
“That’s okay,” Eve said, “I can always shoot him myself if I get the urge.”
Only once the enchanters finished repairing Wes’s damage and the next bout was underway did the fire mage emerge into the stands, climbing his way up the stone steps to take his seat between Eve and Preston. “Well, it’s not quite the crushing win I was hoping for, but I’m sure it’ll impress the mercenary companies.”
“You mean all three of them that actually showed up today?” Eve needled him. “I’m sure the bottom-feeders were very impressed.”
Wes shrugged. “Word’ll get around. It’s not often they disqualify someone for being too powerful.”
“Maybe next time you should attack your opponent instead of the wards,” Eve snapped back.
“Speaking of,” Preston interrupted as the bout in front of them ended with a brutal ice bolt to the chest, “aren’t you up soon?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Eve pushed herself to her feet. “It’s not like I have much prep to do.” She gestured over herself, emphasizing that she already wore her armor.
“You should still get down there,” Wes said. “Those tunnels are a damned maze.”
“Alright, damn,” Eve replied, turning to leave the stands. “It’s not like I’m gonna get lost.”
Eve got lost.
After losing some twenty minutes running back and forth down the twisting passages beneath the arena, the Defiant found herself standing in the same archway as her opponent, a brooding berserker-type with more muscles than charisma.
“Whoops, wrong entrance,” she said, “guess I got turned around.”
He grunted at her.
Just as Eve moved to again start searching for her entrance, the emcee’s voice echoed in from outside. “First we have… hmmm… a level fifty-one Emissary from New Burendia, Evelia Greene!”
“Shit—um—sorry,” Eve muttered, running past the dark figure and out into the arena. Her face flushed red as she dashed across the sands to take her place on the opposite side.
“She’ll be facing one of our tournament favorites, a level sixty-three Hewer of Bones from the Salfdir Clan, Roric Ironarm!”
Eve got her first look at her opponent as he stepped into the sunlit arena. He stood six and a half feet tall and what must’ve been nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle. Eve could tell because from the waist up, every inch of that muscle was exposed to the open air. In each hand he carried a single-edged axe, both of which showed the marks of countless battles fought and won.
He’s perfect. High level tournament favorite or otherwise, Eve couldn’t have asked for a better matchup. Her griffin-bone club outranged his one-handed axes, and she doubted a Hewer of Bones had any good ways to stop her Defiant Charge. She readied her weapon.
“Contestants! You may begin!”
Eve Jetted forward, activating Charge and Mana Rush at the same moment. I may as well end this quick, she thought to herself.
Roric did the same, dashing forth to meet her head on. He pulled back his axes for a brutal two-handed strike.
But Eve’s club was longer, and she made the first attack.
Her heart raced as the griffin-bone swung through the air, her muscles only holding up to their own immense Strength thanks to the Constitution bonus from Defiant Charge. It was exhilarating. Even here, without the direct threat of a painful death, adrenaline pumped through Eve’s veins.
Her attack flew true, the flared tip of the huge bone shooting towards Roric’s head at an unfathomable speed.
Until it wasn’t.
The blow stopped short, striking an impenetrable barricade of golden light. The rebound sent Eve’s club flying from her grasp. For a moment she froze, staring forward in abject terror before she realized her opponent was just as shocked as she was.
It wasn’t the announcer’s posh voice which broke the silence, but the wizened one of a particular Archbishop. “She wins,” the elderly priestess’s words echoed across the arena. “Evelia Greene is the victor.”
“Ramtshit!” Roric bellowed. “That wasn’t Cheat Death.”
“Cheat Death wouldn’t have saved you. Not against that.”
“That’s ramtshit!” The berserker repeated. “Let me fight!”
The Archbishop didn’t reply, simply turning to whisper something into the ear of one of her aides. Said aide carried the message on to the announcer.
With wide eyes and barely noticeable quiver to his tone, the minister addressed the crowd. “Archbishop Callandria has been kind enough to bestow a Divine Intervention to halt an attack that would’ve overcome even Cheat Death. Evelia Greene is the victor.”
Roric raged. “You didn’t even let me fight! I demand a rematch.”
“Roric Ironarm,” the announcer continued, “is eliminated.”
From there, the over-muscled brawler engaged in a shouting match with the tournament organizer. Eve, meanwhile, took the opportunity to collect her club from where it’d fallen and vacate the arena. Berserkers had a penchant for getting angry, after all, and easy as her win had come, she’d prefer not to fight him again without the protection of Cheat Death.
She re-navigated the maze of tunnels with a sly grin. Sure, she had a pissed-off Hewer of Bones to worry about, but Eve couldn’t have asked for a more decisive victory. An Emissary beating a tournament favorite so bad the Archbishop herself had to intervene made for two hells of a story. If her goal was to impress the mercenary companies, this was a damned good first step.
And she still had an entire tournament left.
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Hi all,
I thought I would share my profits for Matched Betting Extra Place Horse Racing for Jan 21. January 2021 has turned into my best month of Matched Betting since I started way back in Summer 2018. This months profits are roughly £4,707. A life changing figure for many and a great figure seeing this is achievable on top of a full time job. Matched Betting is the only decent side hustle I have actually found, compared to doing hundreds of boring online surveys...yuck! (Unless you are a good business person / have 5 lodgers / lots of family money etc.) To see some of my other Matched Betting profits you visit my site: https://cashontheside.co.uk/
I will be investing some of my profits this month in ETF/Shares and putting into house improvements like a new drive way. In addition with Cheltenham horse festival coming up in March, I will be increasing my bank to cover liabilities.
The bulk of my profits came from Extra Place racing, large underlayed winners and BOG (best offer garuntee). Variance was certainly on my side this month and I must have had at least 10 large winners which won upwards of £1600 pounds per bet. As I underlay my bets I made more profit than If I had fully layed of the bets. About 5% of these profits came from low risk casino. After you have completed all welcome offers...in Matched Betting. Ep's become a gold mine...and I truly recommend them to anyone.
Some more of my bets this month illustrating underlayed bets and ep:
https://cashonthesidecouk.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/winnings4.jpg
https://cashonthesidecouk.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/winnings.jpg
https://cashonthesidecouk.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/another-winner.jpg
​
Images of one of my bets illustrative of Best offer guarantee: https://cashonthesidecouk.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/136707133_10159536662702922_8507610622687908137_o-1.jpg?w=544
For those who are starting out on their Match Betting journey in 2021 these sort of figures are achievable to you once you have experience….unfortunately this will not come overnight! I do put a lot of time into it..between 2-5 hours a day, 7 days a week sometimes. For the average person you could earn at least £500 a month.
To learn more about Match Betting please visit my article Boost Your Income with Matched Betting. Alternatively you can start an Odds Monkey free trial where they will teach you step by step and give you the calculators you need: odds monkey trial https://www.oddsmonkey.com/affiliates/affiliate.php?id=64754(affiliate) or www.oddsmonkey.com. (non affiliate)
To those with a little more experience who want to learn about Matched Betting Extra Places you can visit my guide here Extra Place Match Betting tips here or I have copied and pasted it all below.
For those with Matched Betting Experience - my guide and tips to Extra Places:
What is Extra Place Matched Betting?
Extra Places can be a very lucrative technique to learn. Extra Places are available for us to do pretty much every day, increasing the appeal. Extra Place Offers are available to all customers. This means that even if you get gubbed with a bookmaker, in most cases, you can still make money with them by Matched Betting on their Extra Place Offers.
Extra Places are considered an advanced reload offer, as they not risk-free. However once you have gained some experience on more basic horse racing offers, you can start to take advantage of the lucrative profits available. It may sound complicated but as soon as it ‘clicks’, it becomes simple. Essentially we are taking advantage of the bookies and exchanges paying out if the horse you have backed comes a certain ‘place’ in a race e.g. 4th.
Extra Places combined with additional offers such as BOG (Best Offer Guarantee) can mean additional profits. For example, you back a horse at odds of 15 and then the starting odds move up to 23. If that horse wins you win an extra x8 on your bet. You can see some real life scenarios I found of Extra Place combined with BOG below. Depending on the size of the underlay, profits below would range up to £3,000+

What is a ‘place’ in horse racing?

Quite simply a ‘place’ is the position the horse finishes a race in. For example if a horse wins a race it comes 1st, if a horse comes 2nd its 2nd. In some races with a large number of horses some bookies will pay out if a horse finishes the race in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th position. Horse Racing festivals such as Cheltenham or Ascot are particularly well known for this.

What is an ‘Extra Place’ in horse racing?

Now we’ve understood what a place is in horse racing you may have probably already guessed what an ‘extra place’ is going to be! An ‘extra place’ is where the bookies add one (or more) additional places to their standard place classification on a particular race. For example they may offer to ‘pay 7 places on a race’ instead of the standard 3 places. The ‘extra place’ in this instance cover 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.
What are my Extra Place top tips?

1. Some of my biggest profits have come from big underlayed winners and BOG. I typically underlay most of my bets by about 20% sometimes more. If you are starting out I would underlay on the place only by about 10% to play it safe until you learn more.
2. Don’t bet on more places than a bookmaker is offering. E.g. If the bookmaker is offering 4 places don’t bet on more than that.
3. Whilst your learning, take horses on implied odds of at least 12 or more on a match of 80%+.
4. Look to keep qualifying losses down. E.g. for £100 profit, £5 ql.
5. Please note, the best odds are typically found between 10 minutes up and to race time. You have to be quick on your ‘toes’…learn to walk before you run etc. Start out on easy horse racing officers before doing extra places.
6. You will need a bank of at least £1000+ for your exchanges, ideally more. The more you have the more of the field you can cover. You can do EP with several hundred in your exchange but you won’t be able to make bigger profits.
7. Be consistent, don’t take risks, don’t chase your losses and learn from matched betting extra place forums.
8. Keep the Odds Monkey up throughout the day...and check for good matches.
9. Use Bookies Boosts to increase your odds and matches.
10. Do not give in to your fear of missing out on offers…Tomorrow is another day.
11. Have at least a dual monitoscreen setup. It is important to be able to see exchange, books and calcs.

How do I find Extra Places offers?
I use the the Odds Monkey Extra Place Matcher to find the best opportunities for profit. The Matcher is explained in the below video.
https://youtu.be/oOKAdiSJidg
I am also a regular visitor of the active Odds Monkey community forums. You can sign up for an Odds Monkey free trial today here today https://www.oddsmonkey.com/affiliates/affiliate.php?id=64754 www.oddsmonkey.com (non affiliate). Odds Monkey provide you with the all guides, calculators etc. I have been a member for over 2.4 years now.
Feel free to get in touch or ask below if any questions.

Chapter 1.
AN: Special fangz (get it, coz Im goffik) 2 my gf (ew not in that way) andrew 4 helpin me wif da story and spelling. U rok! Snoo ur da luv of my deprzzing life u rok 2! A2C ROX!
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Hi my name is Camrige Communiy College Crimson Harvird Stagliano and I have long crismon red hair (that’s how I got my name) with black streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Carly (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to tom stagliano but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hrivird in New England where I’m in the second year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Hrivord. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.
“Hey Camrige!!” shouted a voice. I looked up. It was…. MIT!
“What’s up MIT?” I asked.
“Nothing.” he said shyly.
But then, I heard my friends call me and I had to go away.
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AN: IS it good? PLZ tell me fangz!
Chapter 2.
AN: Fangz 2 snoo 4 helpin me wif da chapta! BTW preps stop flaming ma story ok! A2C 4 Lyfe!
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The next day I woke up in my bedroom. It was snowing and raining again. I opened the door of my coffin and drank some blood from a bottle I had. My coffin was crimson velvit and inside it was hot pink velvet with black lace on the ends. I got out of my coffin and took of my giant A2C t-shirt which I used for pajamas. Instead, I put on a crimson leather dress, a pentagram necklace, combat boots and black fishnets on. I put on four pairs of earrings in my pierced ears, and put my hair in a kind of messy bun.
My friend, Cornell (AN: Andrew dis is u!) woke up then and grinned at me. he flipped his long waist-length cromsin black hair with pink streaks and opened his forest-green eyes. he put on his eccentric galzay t-shirt with a black mini, fishnets and pointy high-heeled boots. We put on our makeup (black lipstick white foundation and black eyeliner.)
“OMFG, I saw you talking to MIT yesterday!” he said excitedly.
“Yeah? So?” I said, blushing.
“Do you like MIT?” he asked as we went out of the Pforzheimer common room and into the Lucnh Room
“No I so fucking don’t!” I shouted.
“Yeah right!” he exclaimed. Just then, MIT walked up to me.
“Hi.” he said.
“Hi.” I replied flirtily.
“Guess what.” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, wsb are having a concert in Hogsmeade.” he told me.
“Oh. My. Fucking. God!” I screamed. I love wsb. They are my favorite subreddit, besides A2C.
“Well…. do you want to go with me?” he asked.
I gasped.
Chapter 3.
AN: STOP FLAMMING DA STORY PREPZ OK! odderwize fangs 2 da goffik ppl 4 da good reveiws! FANGS AGEN ANDREW! oh yeah, BTW I don’t own dis or da lyrics 4 WSB. GAMESTOP!
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On the night of the concert I put on my black lace-up boots with high heels. Underneath them were ripped red fishnets. Then I put on a black leather minidress with all this corset stuff on the back and front. I put on matching fishnet on my arms. I straightened my hair and made it look all spiky. I felt a little depressed then, so I cried. I read a depressing book and I listened to some WSB. I painted my nails black and put on TONS of black eyeliner. Then I put on some black lipstick. I didn’t put on foundation because I was pale anyway. I drank some human blood so I was ready to go to the concert. I looked so good plus the tears made my mascara ran so I was extra depresseding.
I went outside. MIT was waiting there in front of his flying car. He was wearing a midlyinterstingn t-shirt (they would play at the show too), baggy black skater pants, black nail polish and a little eyeliner (AN: A lot fo kewl boiz wer it ok!).
“Hi MIT!” I said in a depressed voice.
“Hi Cambrige.” he said back. We walked into his flying black Mercedes-Benz (the license plate said 666) and flew to the place with the concert. On the way we listened excitedly to Wall Street Bets and Marilyn Manson. We both smoked cigarettes and drugs. When we got there, we both hopped out of the car. We went to the mosh pit at the front of the stage and jumped up and down as we listened to Wall Street Bets.
“You come in cold, you're covered in blood
They're all so happy you've arrived
The doctor cuts your cord, hands you to your mom
She sets you free into this life.” sang carly (I don’t own da lyrics 2 dat song).
“Joel is so fucking hot.” I said to MIT, pointing to him as he sung, filling the club with his amazing voice.
Suddenly MIT looked sad.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as we moshed to the music. Then I caught on.
“Hey, it’s ok I don’t like him better than YOU!” I said.
“Really?” asked MIT sensitively and he put his arm around me all protective.
“Really.” I said. “Besides I don’t even know carlie and she’s going out with Hilary fucking Duff. I fucking hate that little bitch.” I said disgustedly, thinking of her ugly blonde face.
The night went on really well, and I had a great time. So did MIT. After the concert, we drank some beer and asked powerdeath and carly for their autographs and photos with them. We got WSB concert tees. MIT and I crawled back into the Mercedes-Benz, but MIT didn’t go back into Harvard, instead he drove the car into……………………… the Old Yard!
Chapter 4.
AN: I sed stup flaming ok Cambrige’s name is CABRIEG nut mary su OK! MIT IS SOO IN LUV wif her dat he is acting defrent! dey nu eechodder b4 ok!
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“MIT!” I shouted. “What the fuck do you think you are doing?”
MIT didn’t answer but he stopped the flying car and he walked out of it. I walked out of it too, curiously.
“What the fucking hell?” I asked angrily.
“Cambrige?” he asked.
“What?” I snapped.
MIT leaned in extra-close and I looked into his gothic red eyes (he was wearing color contacts) which revealed so much depressing sorrow and evilness and then suddenly I didn’t feel mad anymore.
And then…………… suddenly just as I MIT kissed me passionately. MIT climbed on top of me and we started to make out keenly against a tree. He took of my top and I took of his clothes. I even took of my bra. Then he put his thingie into my you-know-what and we did it for the first time.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! ” I screamed. I was beginning to get an orgiansm. We started to kiss everywhere and my pale body became all warm. And then….
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUKERS!”
It was…………………………………………………….Paraguayancow!
Chapter 5.
AN: STOP flaming! if u flam it menz ur a prep or a posr! Da only reson Paraguayancow swor is coz he had a hedache ok an on tup of dat he wuz mad at dem 4 having sexx! PS im nut updating umtil I get five good revoiws!
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Paraguayancow made and MIT and I follow him. He kept shouting at us angrily.
“You ludacris fools!” he shouted.
I started to cry tears of blood down my pallid face. MIT comforted me. When we went back to the castle Paraguayancow took us to Professor Ipretendidonotsee and Professor admissionsmom who were both looking very angry.
“They were having sexual intercourse in the Forbidden Forest!” he yelled in a furious voice.
“Why did you do such a thing, you mediocre dunces?” asked Professor admissionsmom.
“How dare you?” demanded Professor Ipretendidonotsee.
And then MIT shrieked. “BECAUSE I LOVE HER!”
Everyone was quiet. ParaguayanCow and Professor admissionsmom still looked mad but Professor Ipretendidonotsee said. “Fine. Very well. You may go up to your rooms.”
MIT and I went upstairs while the teachers glared at us.
“Are you okay, Cambrige?” MIT asked me gently.
“Yeah I guess.” I lied. I went to the girl’s dorm and brushed my teeth and my hair and changed into a low-cut black floor-length dress with red lace all around it and black high heels. When I came out….
MIT was standing in front of the bathroom, and he started to sing ‘invest in GME’ by Wall Street Bets. I was so flattered, even though he wasn’t supposed to be there. We hugged and kissed. After that, we said goodnight and he reluctantly went back into his room.
Chapter 6.
AN: shjt up prepz ok! PS I wnot update ubtil u give me goood revows!
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The next day I woke up in my coffin. I put on a black miniskirt that was all ripped around the end and a matching top with red skulls all over it and high heeled boots that were black. I put on two pairs of skull earrings, and two crosses in my ears. I spray-painted my hair with purple.
In the lunch room, I ate some Count Chocula cereal with blood instead of milk, and a glass of red blood. Suddenly someone bumped into me. All the blood spilled over my top but it made me look more goffick.
“Bastard!” I shouted angrily. I regretted saying it when I looked up cause I was looking into the pale white face of a gothic boy with spiky black hair with red streaks in it. He was wearing so much eyeliner that I was going down his face and he was wearing black lipstick. He didn’t have glasses anymore and now he was wearing red contact lenses just like MIT’s and there was no scar on his forhead anymore. He had a manly stubble on his chin. He had a sexy English accent. He looked exactly like daddy staglino. He was so sexy that my body went all hot when I saw him kind of like an erection only I’m a girl so I didn’t get one you sicko.
“I’m so sorry.” he said in a shy voice.
“That’s all right. What’s your name?” I questioned.
“My name’s Princeton University, although most people call me Prince these days.” he grumbled.
“Why?” I exclaimed.
“Because I love the taste of human blood.” he giggled.
“Well, I am a vampire.” I confessed.
“Really?” he whimpered.
“Yeah.” I roared.
We sat down to talk for a while. Then MIT came up behind me and told me he had a surprise for me so I went away with him.
Chapter 7. Bring me 2 life
AN: wel ok u guyz im only writting dis cuz I got 5 god reviuws. n BTW I wont rite da nxt chapter til I git TIN god vons! STO FLAMING OR ILL REPORT U! Cabrgie isn’t a Marie Sue ok she isn’t perfect SHES A SATANITS! n she has problemz shes depressed 4 godz sake!
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MIT and I held our pale white hands with black nail polish as we went upstairs. I was wearing red Satanist sings on my nails in red nail polish (AN: c doez dat sound lik a Maru Sue 2 u?). I waved to Prince. Dark misery was in his depressed eyes. I guess he was jealous of me that I was going out with MIT. Anyway, I went upstairs excitedly with MIT. We went into his room and locked the door. Then…………
We started frenching passively and we took off each others clothes enthusiastically. He felt me up before I took of my top. Then I took off my black leather bra and he took off his pants. We went on the bed and started making out naked and then he put his boy’s thingy in mine and we HAD SEX. (c is dat stupid?)
“Oh MIT, MIT!” I screamed while getting an organism when all of a sudden I saw a tattoo I had never seen before on MIT’s arm. It was a black heart with an arrow through it. On it in bloody gothic writing were the words………… Prince!
I was so angry.
“You bastard!” I shouted angrily, jumping out of the bed.
“No! No! But you don’t understand!” MIT pleaded. But I knew too much.
“No, you fucking idiot!” I shouted. “You probably have AIDs anyway!”
I put on my clothes all huffily and then stomped out. MIT ran out even though he was naked. He had a really big you-know-what but I was too mad to care. I stomped out and did so until I was in Prince’s classroom where he was having a lesson with Professor Ipretendidonotsee and some other people.
“PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” I yelled.
Chapter 8.
AN: stop flassing ok! if u do den u r a prep!
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Everyone in the class stared at me and then MIT came into the room even though he was niked and started begging me to take him back.
“Cambrige, it’s not what you think!” MIT screamed sadly.
My friend B’loody Mary Smith smiled at me understatedly. She flipped her long waste-length gothic black hair and opened her crimson eyes like blood that she was wearing contact lenses on. She had pale white skin that she was wearing white makeup on. Boston College was kidnapped when she was born. Her real parents are vampires and one of them is a witch but John Hopkins killed her mother and her father committed suicide because he was depressed about it. She still has nightmares about it and she is very haunted and depressed. It also turns out her real last name is Smith and not College. (Since she has converted to Satanism she is in Pforzheimer now not Conant Hall )
“What is it that you desire, you ridiculous dimwit!” Ipretendidonotsee demeaned angrily in his cold voice but I ignored him.
“Prince, I can’t believe you cheated on me with MIT!” I shouted at him.
Everyone gasped.
I don’t know why Cambrige was so mad at me. I had went out with Prince (I’m bi and so is Cambrige) for a while but then he broke my heart. He dumped me because he liked Britney, a stupid preppy fucker. We were just good friends now. He had gone through horrible problems, and now he was gothic. (Haha, like I would hang out with a prep.)
“But I’m not going out with MIT anymore!” said Prince.
“Yeah fucking right! Fuck off, you bastard!” I screamed. I ran out of the room and into the Forbidden Forest where I had lost my virility to MIT and then I started to bust into tears.
Chapter 9.
AN: stop flaming ok! I dntn red all da boox! dis is frum da movie ok so itz nut my folt if Paraguy cow swers! besuizds I SED HE HAD A HEDACHE! and da reson snap dosent lik Princeton now is coz hes christian and Prince is a satanist! A2C ROX!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX666XXXXXXXXXXX
I was so mad and sad. I couldn’t believe MIT for cheating on me. I began to cry against the tree where I did it with MIT.
Then all of a suddenly, an horrible man with red eyes and no nose and everything started flying towards me on a broomstick! He didn’t have a nose (basically like John Hopkinst ) and he was wearing all black but it was obvious he wasn’t gothic. It was…… John Hopkins!
“No!” I shouted in a scared voice but then John Hopkins shouted “Imperius!” and I couldn’t run away.
“Crookshanks!” I shouted at him. John Hopkins fell of his broom and started to scream. I felt bad for him even though I’m a sadist so I stopped.
“Cambrige.” he yelled. “Thou must kill Prince!”
I thought about Prince and his sexah eyes and his gothic black hair and how his face looks just like tom stalgo. I remembered that MIT had said I didn’t understand, so I thought, what if MIT went out with Prince before I went out with him and they broke up?
“No, John Hopkins!” I shouted back.
John Hopkins gave me a gun. “No! Please!” I begged.
“Thou must!” he yelled. “If thou does not, then I shall kill thy beloved MIT!”
“How did you know?” I asked in a surprised way.
John Hopkins got a dude-ur-so-dumb look on his face. “I hath telekinesis.” he answered cruelly. “And if you doth not kill Prince, then thou know what will happen to MIT!” he shouted. Then he flew away angrily on his broomstick.
I was so scared and mad I didn’t know what to do. Suddenly MIT came into the woods.
“MIT!” I said. “Hi!”
“Hi.” he said back but his face was all sad. He was wearing white foundation and messy eyeliner kind of like a pentagram (geddit) between himand tom stagliano.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No.” he answered.
“I’m sorry I got all mad at you but I thought you cheated on me.” I expelled.
“That’s okay.” he said all depressed and we went back into Harvard together making out.

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      The crowd mostly erupted in cheers for the human. There were some quiet sections, most notably among the eldrin who likely had reason to not want their pet soldiers to appear weak, but the human section of the crowd seemed to have lost all reason. They started a rhythmic chant that was loud enough that Maeve was forced to wait before she could move on to other announcements; her lips pursed in annoyance when they kept it up despite her gesturing for silence.
      Thump thump. “PE-TER!” Thump thump. “PE-TER!”
      For his part, Peter just looked embarrassed at the attention he was getting from his fellow humans. Draevin saw him glance his way for just a second and he and Tenna gave him an excited wave. He responded with a brief wave of his own before walking over to commiserate with the werebeast he’d just defeated.
      “He won!” Tenna shouted, hopping out of her seat and clapping with enthusiasm.
      Sylnya wrapped Tenna in a hug and jumped up and down with her. “He won! He actually won!”
      “You seem surprised for someone that bet on him, Sylnya. I’m just impressed he managed to do it without using up his spell scroll,” Draevin told her while clapping along. By the time the cheering died down Peter had walked off stage. When he showed up to their booth he had Grrbraa in tow.
      “So I was thinking this booth could do with some extra security,” Peter announced first thing. “As long as we’re all going to be watching the matches anyways, we might as well do it together.”
      “I think that’s a great idea,” Draevin agreed. Thoughts of Caelnaste arranging another attack had been occupying a worrisome corner of Draevin’s mind. Having a friendly beast with such keen senses nearby offered a measure of relief. It would certainly make her scheming more difficult.
      “Well I for one would love to get to know Grrbraa a little better,” Tenna said.
      Grrbraa spoke in his deep rumbling voice. “My mothers told me I should…” He hesitated and looked down at the ground. “…get to know some other people. They told me Peter and his friends were good.” He looked up and added more confidently, “I am very good at extra security. I can bark at master-Caelnaste if you want.” Draevin noticed his tail wag back and forth at the last part of his speech.
      “We will be having a brief intermission at this time,” Maeve announced to the crowd. Down on the field a team of workers were digging up and replacing a large section of dirt around where Peter had stood. The judges were no doubt furious that Peter had managed to eke out some small advantage from the otherwise carefully-neutral field when he absorbed some of the mana left over from Anise’s blood. They’d make sure that didn’t happen again.
      “I know there might be a bit of a line,” Draevin announced, “but I’d feel a lot more comfortable with a full mana pool. I’m going to use The Pot real quick.”
      “I’ll go with you,” Peter said automatically. “Grrbraa and I’s match drained me.”
      “I will go as well,” Grrbraa said, “for extra security.”
      “Much appreciated,” Draevin told him.
      “I guess I’ll go too,” Tenna said. “If everyone else is going.”
      Sylnya let out a dramatic sigh. “Well I’m not going to sit here by myself. Did I mention I almost killed Caelnaste yesterday? I expect she’s got some plan for me if I don’t stick with the group.”
      Peter led the way as he was already closest to the exit. Much of the crowd was making their way out of their seats in search of food and goblins were slipping between them in search of opportunities. When the few of the creatures they came across saw Grrbraa though they scattered. Draevin decided that was a nice perk of having him around.
      “So why did you call Caelnaste ‘master-Caelnaste?’” Tenna asked Grrbraa while they walked. “You know she’s a bad guy, don’t you?”
      “Yes,” Grrbraa answered, “the title of master is not a compliment.”
      “Think of it like calling you the d-word,” Peter chimed in.
      That made a certain amount of sense to Draevin. Werebeasts weren’t generally treated well by their masters. Caldenia didn’t use werebeasts, but even if they did at least they had laws in place to protect their slaves from the harsh conditions of Eldesia’s chattel slaves.
      When the group of them turned the corner to enter the tunnel that led outside the arena Peter literally bumped into the dark-skinned human Draevin had met this morning. He was chatting in the entryway with Alex and the two of them had little burning paper sticks they were sucking on to inhale the smoke. They seemed to be inhaling the smoke on purpose. The very concept was disturbing to Draevin. He thought that with their short lives humans would be more careful with them, but it seemed just the opposite.
      “Oh, hey there guys,” Alex greeted them with a half-lidded expression on his face. He let out a small cough. “Rashad here was just showing me canada.”
      “Canne’ka,” Rashad corrected.
      Alex shrugged and offered out his burning stick to the group at large. “It’s a Kreet thing,” he explained, “anyone want to try it?”
      “Canne’ka is an expensive luxury in Kreet,” Rashad said with a smile. “It’s enjoyed in only the finest ch-charnel hOUsesssss!” before he could finish what he was saying, both he and Alex broke out into unexplainable laughter.
      “Finest!” Alex added, slapping Rashad’s back before once again losing his ability to speak.
      “You’re right!” Rashad said. “It’s a strange word indeed!”
      Draevin and his friends looked between each other, but none of them seemed to know what was going on, though Tenna looked to be smiling sympathetically. “Was that supposed to be a joke?” Draevin asked.
      Rashad finally stood and took a few deep breaths. “Canne’ka iss a common weed in the desssertss of Kreet,” he explained. He’d let a bit of his kreetish accent slip in, elongating a few of his S’s. Now that Draevin knew to look for it, he could even notice a drooping of Rashad’s dark eyelids as well.
      Alex took a quick puff on his paper tube; just enough to brighten the cherry on the end and offered it forth again. “It’s good fun,” he said, “are there really no takers?”
      Peter was the closest. He held up the flat of his hand to block the proffered stick. “No thanks,” he said, “I’ve got to keep my head clear to watch all the fighting going on.”
      Alex pulled the stick back from him. “Your loss.” He took a drag. “How about you, Drae?” he asked. Smoke escaped his mouth as he talked.
      “I prefer to live a long and healthy life.”
      “Suit yourself,” Alex replied. He turned his head to let out the rest of the smoke in his lungs.
      While his head was turned, Tenna reached forward and snatched the burning paper tube from Alex’s fingers, which only caused the human to laugh pleasantly in surprise. “I’ll try it,” she said. “What do you call this thing?”
      “We call that a joint,” Rashad said.
      “Tenna!” Draevin scolded. “You still have a match today!”
      She stopped with the joint halfway to her mouth. “It wears off quick,” Alex reassured her. “When’s your match?”
      She shrugged. “At least an hour… if I decide to go through with it that is,” she said, and took a drag. The cherry at the end of the joint lit up for only a second before she broke out into a coughing fit. Alex and Rashad seemed to think something about her coughing was uproariously funny and immediately dropped to their knees cackling so loud they quite literally couldn’t keep their feet.
      The spectacle of it didn’t make much sense. “Come on guys,” Draevin said, “it’s not that funny.”
      “Everything’s funny on Canne’ka!” Rashad said. He stood up and offered his own joint to Draevin. “Come on, elf. Live a little.”
      Draevin took a step back. “I already said no,” he repeated firmly.
      “Don’t be such a senesha!” He turned to Sylnya instead. “How about you, dryad?”
      “Call me Sylnya,” she answered, “and I’m afraid I’ll have to pass. I’ve tried it before and it doesn’t work on us. Different biology.”
      “Shame,” Alex said.
      “So I’m told.”
      Draevin spoke up in the brief gap in conversation. “I think we need to get moving to The Pot if we want to get back before the intermission.”
      “Look at this coward!” Rashad said. “He won’t even touch me!” He took a step towards Draevin and reached out a hand, waggling it around as he did so. When he’d gotten sort of close he jabbed his hand at Draevin, but found that he was ready for the move. Draevin jumped back and snapped his wand out of his holster defensively. He pushed just enough mana to the tip to get it condensing mist. He didn’t have a huge supply of mana available but it was more than enough to deal with a shadowman. “Boo!” Rashad said and then laughed loudly like it was all a joke. This time not even Alex joined in.
      “Come on, Rashad,” Peter chastised. “You know he doesn’t want to touch you.”
      Grrbraa leaned in and growled menacingly at the shadowman, but before things escalated any further, Alex intervened. He grabbed Rashad, who was still shaking with laughter, by the shoulder. “He’s just high,” he offered. “No need to take offense.”
      “Sure,” Draevin agreed, but he didn’t holster his wand. “Maybe we should just go.”
      Alex smiled. “Sorry about this. You’re all welcome to come by the camp tonight for dinner.”
      Draevin trudged off for The Pot without waiting to see if anyone would follow. All this time with Peter had let him forget why he’d normally avoided spending time with humans.
      Tenna was the first to catch up. “I don’t think he meant anything by it,” she explained. “Besides, he has a point about your not wanting to touch him.”
      “I didn’t see you shaking hands,” Draevin commented dryly.
      “I would!” she objected. “I just… don’t know him that well yet.”
      “Well I strongly advise you to reconsider. I’ve had friends die from merely touching a shadowman. It isn’t some silly superstition.”
      “Oh?” someone else asked behind them. It was Peter’s voice. “When was that?” Grrbraa lagged behind him, keeping his ears perked for imagined danger.
      Sylnya leaned in and said something in Peter’s ear.
      “It was only…” Draevin stopped and did the mental math on how long ago it’d been since he fought for Caldenia in the Tak’heem aggression. He was surprised when the math told him a much larger number than he’d been expecting. “It was when I was young,” he finished, not wanting to admit to the specific date.
      “So centuries ago?” Tenna asked. She laughed a bit too loud at her own joke. Draevin kept his face carefully flat, not wanting to let on that she was actually correct even though she’d clearly thrown out a number she thought was ridiculously large.
      “How long ago isn’t important,” Draevin said.
      “You do know there are dark-skinned humans that aren’t shadowmen, don’t you?” Peter asked.
      “There are? But the shadowmen—”
      “The shadowmen are only one tribe of humans that live down in Kreet,” Peter explained, “but all humans from that land have dark skin. It’s just from all the sun they get down there.”
      “So Rashad isn’t a shadowman?” Draevin hadn’t realized that was possible. Perhaps he’d been overly protective of his personal space around the man.
      “Well no,” Peter admitted, “Rashad is, but that doesn’t mean you have to paint all dark skinned-humans with the same brush.”
      “I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Draevin said with a hint of sarcasm touching his voice.
      Tenna giggled. “Oh, funny joke Peter! Paint them. Wish a brush!”
      The group made it to the back of the line for The Pot and Draevin was pleased to see it was relatively short. He’d hoped that would be the case. The later into the tournament it got, the fewer wizards needed its mana.
      “You know, I liked you more before I learned how rude you can be,” Tenna told Draevin out of nowhere.
      “Sorry?” Draevin wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to that.
      She let out a huff of breath. Her eyelids had started to droop just a bit. “Hey Peter,” she said. “Do you want to see my impression of Draevin having dinner?”
      Peter looked up from the notepad he’d been jotting in with a crooked smile. “I think I can guess,” he said.
      Tenna held both hands before her face like she was eating and proceeded to rapidly shake them back and forth in an imitation of shoveling food into her mouth. She opened wide and let her tongue hang out and made a disgusting racket of slurping. “Splch grch kth gyo,” she sounded.
      Draevin smacked one of her wrists gently. “Hey!”
      She broke down laughing and this time Peter decided to join in, Canne’ka or not. With all the joking they’d reached the front of the line.
      “Are you here to use The Pot or is this a social outing?” Perseus asked in annoyance. The Guild elf narrowed his eyes at them.
      Tenna pointed to the guild badge on his chest. “Tell me Perseus,” she asked, “do they take your sense of humor from you when they issue you that thing?”
      Perseus scowled and placed his hands on his hips. “If you’re not here to use The Pot I’m going to have to ask you to—”
      “Relax,” Draevin told him, stepping forward, “I’ll go first.”
      The rest of the group cycled through quick enough with Grrbraa going last. “We should really get back,” Peter said when they’d all gathered back together. “I’ve got to face the winner of the next match in round three.”
      Sylnya gave Peter a playful shove. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “I won’t try to kill you.”
      An idea occurred to Draevin now that they were headed back to the arena, but he’d need to get separated from Tenna to pull it off. The group took off down the hill and Draevin announced, “I should go with Sylnya to the start of her match.”
      “You should?” Sylnya asked.
      “Yeah. I think her and I can handle anything that comes up just fine. Why don’t the rest of you head back to the booth together and I’ll return after I drop her off.”
      “That would have you walking back alone,” Peter pointed out. “I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’re Caelnaste’s primary target.”
      “I think I can handle a short walk in a public space,” he insisted.
      When the group got close to the massive stone walls that encompassed the perimeter of the arena they could hear the noisy chatter that filled in the space between matches. They made their way inside before getting to a fork. “This is where I break off,” Sylnya said. “Draevin, are you coming?”
      “Yup.” He waved to Peter, Grrbraa and Tenna. “See you all in a bit,” he promised.
      As soon as the two groups separated Sylnya turned to Draevin. “Okay, you going to tell me what’s going on now?”
      “What do you mean? What makes you say that?”
      “I’ve known you for decades,” Sylnya insisted. “I know when you’re planning something.”
      “Okay fine,” Draevin admitted. “I won’t say anything about your visit to the betting cages if you don’t mention my visit to Unit-17.”
      “Unit-17? The trunstown bot? You want to talk to it?”
      “That’s the plan.”
      “That’s a stupid fucking plan.”
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The results are in for Match 4. The winner is…
Rushen walked out across the training ground after the four hours had concluded, a beaming smile on his face as she walked up to the four trainers. “Looks like I made some real good choices on you guys, huh? Really put these guys through the ringer!”
The various trainees stood around chatting with each other about their different experiences throughout the day before forming an orderly line once their leader came into view. Many were exhausted, yet at the same time, there was a certain sense of camaraderie there, high spirits… They felt ready to take on the world, yet they were starting to think they may not necessarily need to think of everyone as a potential enemy either.
Fira tilted her head back before taking a few steps forward. “Look, Rushen, compliments don’t keep the lights on or teeth perfect. You gonna pay us or not?”
Rushen took a quick step back and pulled out several light blue envelopes and handed them to both the pairs. “Figured you two would want yours in cash… Don’t lemme hear you spent it on nothing shady, alright?”
Fira almost smiled as she felt what must have been a decent stack of crisp bills. A smirk would do. “That’s satisfactory, yeah.” Byte, then, gave her an expectant look, only to be handed an even-looking cut. “Alright, fine.”
Cab and Inch, meanwhile, simply thanked Rushen for theirs, receiving it through checks as normal people tended to prefer receiving large payments for services.
After payment had been dispersed Rushen took a step back and looked over the paris. “Listen, the boss is impressed with both of you, but she specifically requested that two of you come to speak with her in her office…”
Right… The bonus, huh? The four guest instructors stood, then, tensely… So it was only one team getting it, huh?
“Sauvignon, Nine, c’mon.” Rushen jerked his thumb. “Allday’s a busy woman. Best not to make her wait.”
The Black Hill Estate, with a score of 76 to Graveyard Shift’s 69!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Black Hill Estate	18-12	Nine votes split 5.5-3.5.
Quality	Tie	24-24	Reasoning
JoJolity	Black Hill Estate	24-23	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10

“Fira, Byte, you two can go home now… Keep an eye on Elephant Bones. Good eats there. Think between that and what you could do with that gym next door, you’d be better off going legit.”
Byte took an instinctive step forward in protest. “What the hell do you mean? How’s a regimen like theirs gonna get a meeting with the big boss?”
Rushen shrugged and turned away before speaking. “Not my call. You two did good work, though… Really. Remember that when you’re countin’ out your bills there.”
Byte sighed, then, turning to Fira, who shrugged. “Let’s get something to eat, I guess… That’s something to do. What’s even open right now?”
Rushen saw the quartet off in their separate ways with a sigh, folding his arms. Today was a good day… Now, I only hope tomorrow’s as good. The day these recruits and I take down a whole crime ring is fast approaching, and even beyond that… Ugo ain’t just gonna go quietly. I am damn sure he’s gonna start something with that Neighborhood Watch he helped fold into us in Aurelio, and with Oxbow breathing down our necks until we can get peace worked out West of there, I can’t do a thing but hope they don’t act before it’s safe to disband them.
Within the next fifteen minutes Cab and Inch were in an elevator going to the top floor of one of the most imposing buildings in the city: ODIN HQ. As they rose Cab turned to Inch, his brow furrowed. “How much do we even know about this Miss. Allday anyways? You don’t see her around much, just hear her talked about in the news, politicians and protesters and the like… I only really see anything concrete in the form of projects she slaps that name of hers on.”
Inch thought for a moment and spoke. “It… It is a paradox to me, yes. Strange that someone so invested in this city is at once so elusive from it.” She turned to the ticing floor tracker at the top of the elevator steadily going up. “In any case this is a good opportunity. I doubt that people like us get many chances to meet with her, let alone requested by her.”
With that the elevator door slowly opened revealing a large, open office space with a multitude of white boards and empty parfait cups scattered across the space. “Nine, Sauvignon… Correct? It is a pleasure to meet you.” Sitting in the middle at a large, glass desk sat a white-haired woman with as welcoming of a smile as she could muster at the time. The effort of goodwill seemed earnest, but big smiles seemed uncomfortable and foreign on her face.
“My name is Arazu Allday… Though, I suppose you didn’t need to be told that. Ergh, I’m not good at niceties…” She shook her head, quiet and frowning a moment, before looking up with a sterner sort of warmth. “I wanted to thank you personally for your approach to aiding Mr. Smith in instruction. Sure, the combat lessons were good and fine, but the wise know that is far from the only thing this new generation of VALKYRIE needed to learn.”
“I’ll cut to the chase. You’ve done a great thing for us as a company, developing a regimen specifically to take the toxicity of Ugo McBaise and the ‘wisdom’ that he descended from out of those recruits' heads. I think now, they’re on a better track. With all that out of the way though, before we talk more, would either of you like a refreshment? As you can tell, sweetness does not come easy to me, but… Perhaps a parfait would substitute for that.”
There’s still a few hours left yet, as of posting this, to vote and make your voices heard in a bitter 2v2 Battle in a Stairwell.
Scenario:
Sound’s Garden Eastern Strip - Fox’s Penthouse Apartment
“Alright, Toby, you’re doing great! You’re recovering faster than any client I’ve ever had, even… You’ll be running marathons by Summertime like this!”
Toby Fox, the elusive shadow boss of the Entertainment District’s underworld, managed to step away from the bars that his physical therapist had set up for him, limping slightly, yet at the same time, confident in his progress. He had been shot months ago, twice in places where a few centimeters off could have paralyzed him for life, or even killed him, yet he’d managed to be up on his feet, if weakly, before the year had even ended. It would’ve gone a lot faster had he felt safe patronizing the Devil Blue, but… No. Peres Straviat was friendly with No, and with the University Board. Healing up the hard way, out of the public eye, had to do.
He rested his feet in the sand garden he’d made into a workout space, curling his toes against the grains and drinking from a water bottle as the therapist smiled at him. She had a very affable, can-do attitude about her, and he was certain this motivating presence had helped him along as well.
“A fresh start, then… That’s what this is. Tigran and I, we’re clearing our heads of all that nonsense about expansion, and getting back to the roots of what made our enterprise lasting… Intimate, guerilla shows of Stand Users coerced into beating one another senseless!”
“That’s the spirit, Mr. Fox! Oh, Tigran will be delighted to hear you’re in high spirits again! I bet that-”
She paused, then, going silent, before removing a pistol from her tracksuit. “…I just heard something. Someone’s outside. Sounds like a few people… I hear the distinctive shakes of body armor.”
“A raid? How didn’t you notice sooner, with those ears of yours? If… If the sounds were drowned out, then…” He shook his head, the sand around him beginning to swirl into a sort of vortex. “No matter. If it’s VALKYRIE or the police or something finally come for us, then all we need to do is let them tear themselves to pieces against my own defenses! We’ll get away…”
“Well said!” The therapist agreed. “We’ll just walk briskly out! You can handle that on that leg of yours, right?”
“Of course…” Fox smirked, hearing the door beginning to be banged up against and walking closer, his personal sandstorm still meters around, waiting just to its side before concluding. “Alright… Let our guests in.”
But an utterly blind charge into Fox’s attack, the sort of violent and overwhelming rushdown strategies that VALKYRIE had been notorious for before, which Fox himself was basically immune to with even seconds of preparation time, didn’t come. Rather, then, a more careful approach was taken, the enemy Stand Users kiting his range, blocking fire from the therapist’s pistol, and even actively taking time to deprive him of the sand that had been at his feet, cut him off form gathering any more from his little rock garden. Soon enough, he’d needed to make a sort of cone to fend the lot of them off as he backed towards a fire escape, finding his apartment pushed into and himself more and more outnumbered.
As soon as he leapt out of the now-opened window into the escape, bracing himself for some pain on his leg and needing to rapidly climb down anyway, he instead found himself flying far, far back, sonic energies blasting him into a wall adorned with an intricately-woven quilt of a funny white dog, knocking it loose and seeing it land overtop him.
Toby Fox’s mind was racing. These… These couldn’t be VALKYRIE. They were too careful… They fought like anybody cared if they lived or died, and the only property that had been damaged at all was in his own apartment. Some special forces team doing a false flag thing? But why? That was a sonic blast just now, a sound-based strike to his very core, by a helmeted member of the unit who stepped in and approached him fearlessly, something holstered at their side. Could… Could it have been that..?
“Fox, you’re under arrest.”
At the undoubtedly masculine voice which had come from his latest attacker, despite his situation, several guns trained on him as two strong-looking guys pulled him away from any particulate, cuffed him and the physical therapist, was relief that the worst thing he was imagining hadn’t come to pass.
As Rushen Smith pulled his helmet off and took a breath, he spoke into a communicator attached to his ear, putting his finger up to it as he adjusted the sunglasses he had of course decided to wear under full body armor. “Team A reporting in. We got ‘em… Looks like we caught him in the middle of PT. No casualties, but the physical therapist pulled a gun on us too… We’re booking her too.”
“So it’s all gone smoothly, then? Excellent! Our other teams are reporting similarly… Only one who’s slipped away is Golden Boy.”
“Keep lookin’. Man going around in as much gold as that guy can’t stay hidden for long. Over and out.”
“To be honest…” Fox couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief, breathily, wobbling on his uneasy legs. It made him happy, again, to overhear that Tigran (nobody else could be ‘Golden Boy,’ right?) “If I was going to go down, I was expecting something a little more… Climactic.”
“Yeah, well, this is it. You’re going downtown.”
The Woods at Aurelio - An Abandoned Police Station, Slightly Earlier
“Bull shit!”
Uh oh. Ugo was in a bad mood, and Rob was out shopping. Anthony ‘Ani’ Oakey, sitting in the former small-town jail cell which had been renovated into a damn serviceable emergency living space, sat up, realizing that nobody else was around at all. He’d have to bear the brunt of this guy ranting, huh?
The two of them had outright faked their deaths to get closer to the famously unhinged head of VALKYRIE… They had to, in order to make this mission work without Byron painting a target on the collective backs of all of their friends, or worse, them thinking they’d lived on to betray them. They had seen the man for what he was, not just some aggressive meathead who only knew how to rush forward, but something far more dangerous.
He was a schemer who had quietly been polishing off plans to, if need be, potentially ruin any number of people in the city. From known enemies of his like Conqueror Worm, Ernie Ford, Byron Oxbow, to even ostensible allies like Arazu Allday, Chairman Ray, Cairo Satori, and several different Board Members. If it wasn’t for the fact that he just lacked the tactical flexibility to pull anything off, he might have accomplished more, but even then, as equipped as he was, hungry as he was to bring about his idea of order, there was no way to call him anything but dangerous.
Not days later, they’d learned their new boss was fired, and lost with that any semblance of accountability he’d had. The neighborhood watch still liked him second only to their founder, and recognizing the danger to themselves that would come with refusal, and many of his long time supporters within VALKYRIE quit and joined up with him upon his firing. The sole remaining police officer in the small town took a hefty payment for an early retirement making sure he was the law of the land. Ugo took up this new base of operations, smaller though it was than his old office, and kept working like nothing was changed.
“No higher-ups, no stockholders, no need for\ paperwork piling up in my way, yeah? So basically, I’ve got more space, really.” He’d said with a cold smirk. “Don’t worry about things on my end… I’ve had money stored away in case something like this happened. I’ll land on my feet. You two are the ones who need to remember your place… And our contract stands. You are loyal to me. Not Allday and not anyone she tries to say is in charge of VALKYRIE. Honoring their orders over mine is treason, and you can ask my old second in command how that goes.
“This is a good thing in disguise. Being lead of Allday’s VALKYRIE was a good teacher, but Allday is weak, as is that excuse for a replacement she found for me. This means that we have the opportunity to be the prime law for hire in this decrepit city. You should be grateful I took you on at this turning point. The only regret I have is that all my work in tracking down and taking down the scum of the entertainment District. It had been my white whale for years, and now that glory is going to some undeserving fed” For the first time Ani caught something deeper in Ugo something seething and angry that festerd under his controlled facade.
“I…” Ani had to choose his words carefully, feeling drained of much of his enthusiasm by the hard situation he’d placed himself into. Ugo had genuinely seemed pleased with the fact that VALKYRIE was going to lead a raid on the leadership of the Entertainment District’s illegal fighting rings, excited that he’d be in charge of coordinating a massive raid that would make the company look good. “I can see why that would be frustrating… Yeah. Especially when it was Mr. Jones’ intel that helped put it all together, and…”
“I’ll take care of that bald fuck later. ‘Deal with the devil’ my ass… For now, we need to ‘prioritize.’ When your enemy has the ball, do you run in front of them and wait? No. You ‘Tackle’ them. You don’t let them gain a single yard!”
Ani rubbed his eyes, sitting upright as he realized. “What… What did you do, Ugo? Uh, sir.” He froze up a bit at the glaring eye upon him, only to say. “Sorry if I sound fresh, just… You woke me up.”
“Lucky I’m in a good mood, kid… I’ll tell you what I did. I ‘tackled,’ and opened up a ‘hole’ in their ‘defense’ because of it. That golden narcissist second-in-command, Tigran Sins… I got his number, tipped him off right before they were gonna get his penthouse.” He waggled a finger. “But I made sure it was too late for him to tell his boss shit.”
“What?” Ani tilted his head. “I don’t follow… Tell me how that’s brilliant.”
“The guy’ll fly off the handle for anything that puts his Toby in danger. Probably, because this was my plan they wrote over, he’s gonna get caught, and when he does, they’re gonna drive him over a particular ‘bridge’ to head downtown for processing.” As Ugo was speaking, he had begun to demonstrate with pieces of scrap paper that had been lying around, indicating with arrows, dots, and the like. He wasn’t the best artist.
“So what’s gonna happen is, no doubt, he’s gonna put the best hitman of all the scum in this city up there, and he’s gonna just open fire and take a ton of those weaklings down. Fox and his associates will be freed, and then, when it’s all good and disastrous…” He scribbled and scribbled aggressively, then, on either side of the poorly doodled ‘bridge,’ with a small grin. “Me and Rob and everyone else will pour in from the East and West and save the day after those screw-ups! We’ll mop them up and make their ‘new start’ a reminder that they never should have cut me away.”
“You and Rob?” Ani was trying to process all of that, that much hanging over him. “Do you… Not want me involved?”
“You’ll be in, er, what’s the word…” Ugo scratched his head a moment with the pencil, it clearly on the tip of his tongue. The tip snapped against his jawline, and he concluded. “Support! Coordination! That’s the word… I’m not gonna put you right in the line of fire. Can you imagine how that’ll taint the PR? They’ll say I have child soldiers or something… And c’mon. People need to know we have standards.”
Rob showed up soon after, and Ugo followed him into the base’s small kitchen to talk the plan over with him in between bouts of grilling, leaving Ani, frankly, mortified.
This… This guy is fucking crazy! Is he that petty that he’s going to let so many people die just to say I-told-you-so? And not just new VALKYRIE people, or that Rushen Smith guy… No doubt at all, innocent bystanders are gonna get hurt too.
Ani dragged his hands along his forehead, rolling around in his bed and quivering with thoughts rushing through his head.
This is too much… This is way too much! I can’t just… I can’t just let this happen, right? And Rob, Rob needs to know that this is unacceptable too. Maybe we can slip away ahead of time, and… He shook his head. No. I can afford to be anywhere and out of his sight, and make a case for it being part of my role, but Rob… If he breaks formation, Ugo is going to know, and then we’ll both be… I need to leave him out of this. I have to stop this insanity myself, somehow!
He looked towards the sound of the adults talking, then, filled with an uncertainty. He’d said that one of the deadliest assassins in this city would probably be involved in this…
He knew he had to act, but he couldn’t do this alone. He would need to find help some other way.
Barrier Bridge ,early afternoon
Early in the morning, Seido had gotten the call about a job holding down this bridge, that a certain transport vessel was going to be crossing sometime in the afternoon. Said transport vessel carried his rescue target, Fox. Despite all the misgivings he had for the Underground leader, he paid well, and was respectful enough of Seido’s autonomy (for the most part). Plus, due to the nature of this job, its pay is based on success, so he’s going to take this seriously.
So as to not attract too much attention, he looked around for an appropriate vantage point with his phone camera, appearing to merely be taking a picture of the sights, and after finding a suitable location, he walks up to his spot and resumes feigning his tourist act. Finally set up, Seido took a moment to think to himself.
With enough luck, this’ll be an in-and-out job... but the way things have been going lately, I somehow doubt that it’ll be that easy. It feels as if Fox’s expansion has led to more and more interlopers, and of course I’m left to clean up the mess. Though it does sometimes get boring to do the same quiet job ad nauseum, it can also be a little tiresome to have interruptions and obstacles.
While nodding to himself on his preferences of job difficulty, almost on cue, he spotted a young kid, being approached by a different, stranger looking man, and after what looked to be a brief exposition by the kid, the pair both began looking around. It wasn’t hard for him to realize that this meant that the two would be the expected “unexpected company” he would be dealing with today.
Barrier Bridge, moments earlier
His bike skidding to a halt by the side of the road, Kamen Rider Volt took a look around him. Foot traffic on the bridge was as expected, people occasionally walking by and gazing over the rivers, and many cars driving by as people went on their daily commute. Business as usual for Los Fortuna, it seemed. However… he was called here for a reason. ‘Ani Oakey’, a kid whom he’d met in the past, had contacted him, telling him to come here for some important reason related to the shady underground of Los Fortuna’s entertainment district. Still, he couldn’t see the kid anywhere in the crowd around him…
“Volt! Over here!” The hushed voice of the kid came from behind him, and Volt turned around to see him, just barely noticing him from the various passersby on the bridge. Underneath the suit, Max let out a small smile seeing the familiar face.
“Ah, here you are! So, Ani, what did you call me here for? The ED’s underground… what information did you gather, and why exactly?” Volt knew the kid was somewhat of a troublemaker, but he couldn’t have caught onto such information had he not gone quite a bit beyond the realm of what a normal kid could do.
“Um...” Ani said, thinking for a bit. “Well… I’m currently helpin’ out some, uh... people who caught onto this, an’ I thought you’d help out, so… well, I guess I should tell you what I need help with, yeah?”
Volt listened to the kid as he explained the full extent to the situation with growing concern. Ani was probably a stand user, but Volt would have to prod further about what he was doing later, since it almost certainly wasn’t good for him. Still, if this bridge was to be used to transport the ED underground’s ringleader… Volt took a few looks around the bridge, thinking… It was likely that someone from their end would be stationed-
“Volt! Look out!” With all of the strength that the 13 year old kid could muster, Ani tackled Volt, pushing him back just as the sound of a gunshot rang through the air, almost hitting the kid.
The bridge went dead silent for a moment. Volt looked at Ani in shock, but he knew better than anyone that he had to act now. “Thanks for the save, Ani - now, come and get on the bike, now!” As the passersby erupted into screams, Volt shouted at Ani, the two of them rushing towards Volt’s ride. From the angle of the shot, the sniper was on top of the bridge - Volt would have to get there as quickly as possible, and drop Ani off along the way before he could.
Moments later
“No way!” Ani shouted emphatically, in response to Volt’s pleas, as the two of them rode on the back of Volt’s bike, trying to make it past the panicking crowds. “Look, you’re in serious danger here, and I need to protect you! Ani, even if you’re a stand user, this is serious!” Volt needed to get a spot where he could safely let Ani get off before heading for the sniper, but…
“I am serious! Look, without my ants keepin’ watch and warnin’ me, that man’d have shot you! I can help, an’ I will help!” Volt looked at Ani for a bit, before sighing and relenting. Time was running out, and the longer they bickered, the more they were in danger. Besides, if Ani was to try and handle it himself after Max left him behind, the sniper would certainly attack him too, no..?
“I can’t convince you otherwise, can I..?” Both of them knew the answer. “Fine. But I’m not letting you do anything too reckless.” Ani nodded in response.
The rest of the trip was certainly not easy - the sniper they’d been up against had kept on attacking them, and as Ani said, his ants certainly did help the two of them, letting them keep watch of all direction and keep better track of the area around them. Furthermore, as they got closer and closer, the sniper began using his stand -
“-Woah!” Volt shouted out, swerving his bike just in time before a flaming bullet flew past him and Ani, just barely managing to stay upright. Whatever stand the sniper had, he had access to a wide variety of bullets in his arsenal, enough so that neither Volt nor Ani were able to properly prepare for what he sent out. Still, they were getting closer - it wasn’t ideal, but riding a bike on the bridge’s arches was a surprisingly effective way of closing the distance, despite how reckless and dangerous it was!
Still, they were getting closer, enough that they could just barely see the sniper in the distance. “Volt! He’s aimin’ at us!” Ani shouted out. That made sense, since he was a sniper and they were trying to get to him and beat him up, but they still probably needed to do something about it.
“Gotcha! Hang on!” Volt shouted out, leaning forwards and pressing on the pedal even harder, the bike speeding up, and making for one hell of a bumpy ride. At the very least this’d make it harder to shoot them, and he could probably create some light to-
BANG!
Another gunshot rang through the air, the bullet flying towards Ani and Volt… and missing entirely, hitting the ground underneath them. They’d managed to evade quite a few bullets before, but the sniper certainly wasn’t an amateur, and had never missed this much… something was up. Soon, they’d realize what exactly it was - Volt’s bike rapidly slowed down, pulled back by some invisible force at a speed so sudden that both of them were tossed off from the bike.
Shit! Looking back for a moment, Volt could see the bike being tossed back, skidding across the surface of the arch. More importantly, he could see Ani right above him, the light kid practically flying in an arc. He had to do something before he got hurt!
Volt flipped around, arms outstretched, catching Ani just as the two hit the ground, and the sound of scraping metal filled the air. Still, he’d done his job and protected Ani - were it not for him, who knew what’d happen to the kid. Ugh… he should’ve been more insistent on not taking him!
Whatever… he couldn’t change what had happened. Ani was here, and they’d have to fight this sniper.
“Volt...” Ani got out of his grasp, getting up off the ground. Volt followed suit. “It’s lookin’ like we’ll have to go the rest of the way on foot, yeah?” Volt looked back, and the bike wasn’t there anymore - it had likely fallen off of the arch, then.
“Yeah… seems like it.”
The Kamen Rider and the kid looked at the sniper far off in the distance. He’d put a wrench in their plans with whatever that bullet of his was, but they could definitely still get to him. They just had to put in a little bit more effort, and then they’d get to him and stop the ED Underground’s plans for good.
OPEN THE GAME!
Location: On top of Barrier Bridge, a steel arch bridge in the Entertainment District. Here are two reference images for the general architecture. An overhead view and a side view
The bridge itself is extremely long, but the area for the match will be more limited to a 160 by 80 meter area visualized here. This area is a top down view, the bridge and water is hundreds of meters below you in the purple and blue tiles respectively. Each tile is 5 by 5 meters.
The teal rectangles are the arches, and the “X”s are the girders supporting the two sides of the arch. The girders are around 2 meters wide and 2 meters tall. The arches have metal stairs that run down the middle of the arches, represented here by the lines. There are guardrails on the sides of the staircases as well. The underside of the arch is also supported by steel pillars every 20 or so meters and matches up roughly with the side view image.
The arrows denote the direction of the slope of the arch, with the area between the arrows being the highest and center point of the arch.
The players are denoted by the yellow and grey circles and the boss is shown with the purple circle. Where the players are standing is just about halfway to the center of the arch while the boss is at the peak/center of the arch.
Due to food crumbs being left out every so often, there are three nests of ants that have made their homes between the metal plates of the arch. For this match they are effectively 1000s of them in each colony. These colony locations are denoted by the purple 6 pointed stars.
Goal: RETIRE your opponents!
Additional Information:
For the purposes of the match, the lower arches (visible on the side view) and the bridge below are not part of the map. Essentially if you are not on the girders, the arches, or otherwise fall off them and cannot or will not make it back up, that will count as a ring out.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Underground Rat Exodus	Anthony ‘Ani’ Oakey and Kamen Rider Volt	"See that? That's Morioh's energy! It's all mine! My power!" This entire structure is made of metal, with both of your abilities you should be able to make good use out of it. Use the metal arch and support structures in varied and effective ways!
Path of Four	Seido Shuto	“Someone's going to have to take one of the last four slices” Four is the path your life has set out for you so embrace it as much as you can. Make as many references to the number “4” in your actions and movements in meaningful ways!

Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!

I’m a member of a local top war clan. I’ve been there since the beginning of 2020, when CW1 was still in charge.
It was rough, everything below second was a nightmare there, even when we finished second. We got, at the time, people watching our battles, discussing our misplays, training before matches, etc. After a loss, everyone would be pissed, because this and that. At the time, we had to take care of our 10 and 20 games win rate. We had to deliver. We felt the stress of the battle. Don’t get me wrong this was a good feeling. That looked like a competition – I mean, collection day sucked, but the war day… men, that was something.
We could see who didn’t battled, who was on a bad run, we could watch replays, we could share some tips. We could evaluate a member by war win rate. We could measure.
The CW2 begun, and we won every week, until last season. Last season (I’ve published a post about it) we finished second against a great clan. It’s ok, it happens. This season we are facing only two other clans (a three-way river race). We finished second last week and an hour ago we finished first. It should be alright, but the thing is, it isn’t.
I’ve become a Co-Leader and developed a script that checks for every member battle log. I know who did the four daily battles, even who takes advance of the little gap between the beginning of the war and the deck reset time on Mondays. I know almost everything and I share everything I know with the clan. It should be alright, but it isn’t. The thing is, this is stressful in a bad way, this isn’t a competition anymore. We are not competing between ourselves anymore, we are not sharing tips and watching each other games anymore. We don’t have the way; we don’t have the time. Mondays are typically okay. Only a few misses the battles and we are able to replace those misses with alternative accounts, but the Tuesdays… I mean, the Tuesdays sucks. We need to believe that everyone will be available on a Tuesday morning (on my time zone), on a long queue that doesn’t guarantee that you will be able to play all your four games in the next ten minutes – what about the school, the jobs, etc.? This isn’t a competition anymore, it’s just, literally a race. You don’t need to have 50 good players at your clan, you need 50 whatever players that are available on the right time.
We won and I’ve finished today with the most fame on the clan. That doesn’t mean anything to me like the other measure on CW1. This is not a good measure. I don’t feel better than anyone.
I’m tired and I bet every other Co-Leader is also tired to keep asking and asking for members to do battles ASAP, do make a little more extra effort for the clan – not for the game, but for the clan. And I’m tired of that. I should be worried about playing, helping here and there, but I find myself online and not playing, only trying to help on management. This sucks. I’m leaving this clan because I need a vacation from this. And believe me, I like war more than any other game type, but I’m just tired.

^{Preface: I'm a 4'th year medical student with a passion for self-improvement and optimization. This includes my IRL skills as well as my gaming. How to improve faster, how to be more efficient with my time, how to reach new heights, feel and play better; these are the things that interest me and I try to find ways to do it through science. Some of you may have seen my previous posts on} Meditation ^and Flow^{. You might have also noticed that I post on multiple competitive gaming subreddits. I do this because these are games I personally enjoy, have coached and/or have competed in and also because these tips and tricks are not title dependent. Everyone can benefit and even apply it for things IRL. I want to keep learning so please hit me with your own discoveries, tips and tricks. I'm genuinely pleasantly surprised with the responses and the chance to meet like minded individuals! This post is particularly dense and took a lot of time to research. I'll try to make it as concise as I can.}
Practice makes perfect! You can do anything just practice, practice, practice!
We've all heard this but I'm here to add complexity to the statement in the hopes that it actually makes your climb much easier. Spending more time playing does not mean you are making a good use of it. Research shows a chess grandmaster has anywhere between 1,000 to 14,000 hours dedicated to his game. Let's put this in perspective: 1,000 hrs = 41 days; 14,000 hrs = 1 year 218 days.
You could say some people are just born geniuses but research also shows that the top 1% actually practices LESS than their peers.
Also, for those of slightly advanced age (like myself at 28) frustrated with 13 year old's styling on us, this paper might help you feel better.

The Science of Accelerated Learning

A little biology (for nerds like me)

• Mastering a skill requires learning. Learning is an incredibly complex process. It incorporates sensory, motor, memory, and cognitive processes. Learning can be seen even at the cellular level.
• Our brain is made up of neurons and when we “learn” something neurons undergo synaptic changes, create new pathways, and increase myelination. Neurons work like electric cables where signals travel along and when we learn something new connections are made and existing ones become stronger and more efficient.
• A stimulus causes a synapse to be sensitized and with enough input strength it can undergo changes through synaptic plasticity. This process requires genes to be activated and release proteins that alter synapse function through Long Term Potentiation. This encoding and learning take up to 3 hours. After six hours memories become cemented and impervious to processes that affect synaptic consolidation.
  • A stimulus should preferably be repeated, emotional, relevant, extreme and novel for it be properly received and encoded

http://www.ccnss.org/ccn_2011/materials/pdf/bhalla/nrn2963.pdf
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00400/full#h3
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02396/full
Components

• Purposeful Practice
• Mind
• Body

I will only address purposeful practice here. Mind and Body are crucial. This includes things like mindset, motivation, exercise, nutrition, etc. There is a reason why Esport teams invest in physical trainers, nutritionists and psychologists. I will leave this for other posts.
TL;DR
Have clear and measurable goals. Break down the game to it's most important components. Find your OPT. Structure your practice. Be a one trick pony. Observe a master. Use Imagery. Incorporate variability and contextual interference. Always make it slightly more difficult. Practice in a realistic setting. Add risk. Use mornings and evenings. Intensity followed by rest for maximal learning. Repeat at increasing intervals. Measure and monitor your progress. Get feedback.

Purposeful Practice

1. Structure

• Goal
  • Have a long, mid, and short-term goal. Use SMART goals (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound).
    • Having a goal and reaching milestones increases dopamine release which acts as a buffer against increasing levels of norepinephrine (stress). Norepinephrine is needed for attention but levels that are too high actually activate the “Give up” response.
  • Have a goal for the immediate practice session. What will you focus on today? Use information from "Break Down" (read below).
  • Use social accountability. Tell a friend your goals (the measurement, the time/date, etc) so he can keep you accountable. Social accountability is a powerful motivator. We are naturally inclined to follow through with what we say.
• Break Down
  • What are the most important components you need to master (aim, mechanics, game sense, movement)? Use the Pareto Principle (20% of the components give 80% of the results). For example, these guys show how you can play a vast majority of songs from just learning 4 chords (just a fun example but it shows what I mean).
  • Then break that one down into even smaller parts. For example Aim could be broken down into flicks and tracking. Even those could be broken down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, 180, with/without movement, etc.
    • I'll add in this guide by Aimer7. It's worth checking out.
• OPT
  • Optimal Play Time - We can sustain complete focus for a limited time. Practicing beyond that time is basically a time waster that could be better utilized for other activities. Remember that rest is CRUCIAL for encoding your learning into memory.
  • Take out your phone, but it on stopwatch, set it aside out of view and hit start when you start gaming/practicing.
  • Play as Tryhard and focused as you can.
  • When you feel your performance dipping, your reaction time slowing, headache, fogginess, exhaustion, or increased distractibility then hit stop on the stopwatch and see how long that was.
  • It's usually anywhere between an hour and 30 minutes to 3 hours.
  • My personal OPT is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
  • Use that time to structure your sessions.
• One Trick Pony
  • Play just one or two characters. There is a reason one-tricks climb much faster.
  • This allows for rapid progression from mechanics to game sense. If you played different characters all the time then each time you would have to focus on learning different mechanics. What you want is to reach a level where you can autopilot the mechanics which allows your brain space to think of other issues like game sense. Things like game sense translate to any game, situation, or character. So acquiring these "higher level" skills early will actually accelerate your learning on other characters because then you just need to learn mechanics.
  • Imagine there are 100 levels to mastery. As you progress you need to focus on one level at a time. When you jump up a level it's because the previous level has become so easy to you that you can autopilot it. So for example if you're at level 75, it means you can autopilot all the previous 74 levels without putting much thought to it which allows your brain space to think about level 75. Let's say the first 50 levels are all mechanical. If you switch between characters a lot it means you have to re-do those first 50 levels for each one before attempting to go above.
    • Yes, autopilot is a very misunderstood thing. I will make a separate post on this.
• Observe and Imagine
  • Observe the goal you are working for. Look up the #1 player at whatever it is you're practicing. Look at his movements and how he does it.
    • Our brain has mirror neurons which allow us to better imitate and learn through observation.
    • Use YouTube, twitch, whatever.
    • DONT start just watching a ton of videos as many of us do. Look at your specific goal, and look at an example of just that thing. Just enough information so you can self-evaluate your own actions and practice and correct yourself. More videos and guides do not equal faster learning. Watch one, and implement.
    • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44624168_Observational_practice_benefits_are_limited_to_perceptual_improvements_in_the_acquisition_of_a_novel_coordination_skill#:~:text=during%20observational%20practice%20the%20observer,the%20acquisition%20of%20motor%20skills.
  • Imagery. Simply imagining yourself doing the desired action works almost as well as actually practicing it. Our brain cannot distinguish between physically doing it and mentally. Brain scans show the same pathways to executing the action light up. The key is to imagine it VIVIDLY. Feel your muscles, your reaction, heart rate, etc. A benefit is that you can use this technique almost anywhere (not while driving duh).
  • This paper shows that doing all three, observation, practice, and imagery, was more effective than any one together. It also showed Practice + Imagery was better than Practice + Observation (in the case you had to choose).
• Practice Variability and Contextual Interference (Interleaving)
  • Contextual Interference. Imagine a baseball player. In one practice he gets pitched 10 fastballs, then 10 breaking balls, then 10 change ups. This is blocking. This is how most of us are taught to study as well. In another practice he gets pitched 30 times as well but the 3 types of pitches are thrown at random. Studies show that even though immediate performance decreases (you will feel like you suck), long term performance and learning increases.
    • "Task switching enhances learning due to constant reconstruction of the motor plan or elaborate processing of the motor plan. The forgetting-reconstruction hypothesis claims that high contextual interference causes the performer to constantly forget task-specific information between practice trials, therein necessitating the (re)construction of an action plan for every trial (Lee and Magill, 1983, 1985). Consequently, the performer is thought to become more adept in developing action plans, which subsequently facilitates greater skill retention (e.g., Kim et al., 2015). The elaboration hypothesis proposed a similar account; however, rather than ‘forgetting’ information between trials during higher contextual interference practice, proponents argue that the performer engages in more elaborate processing to represent the motor skill in long-term memory (e.g., Shea and Morgan, 1979; Shea and Zimny, 1983, 1988)".
    • "According to the Challenge-Point framework (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004), learning is heightened when contextual interference is matched to the performer’s skill level for a given task. A practical example of this is the Win-Shift-Lose-Stay methodology (Simon et al., 2008). This concept suggests that contextual interference should only increase when the performer experiences success".
    • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5888302_Neural_Substrates_of_Contextual_Interference_during_Motor_Learning_Support_a_Model_of_Active_Preparation
    • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00936/ful
  • Practice Variability. Not only can you randomize the learning objectives but you can also increase the variability. For example if you are practicing your aim with strafing you could change the speed of character movement very slightly. It has to be small enough that it's barely noticeable. This forces your nervous system to make micro adjustments on a motor level which increases adaptability and sensory/motor connections.
    • "Practice variability consists of practicing variations of an action. While contextual interference addresses the natural interference that exists between two or more tasks that are practiced within the same context. Three aspects of practice can be varied – the physical contexts, movements that comprise the action (skill variations), and the situation in which the skill occurs. Using the long jump as an example, you can vary the runway surface (physical context), the angle of takeoff (skill variations), and whether the jump will be the last or the first of a series of jumps (situation)".
    • Note: I've thought about the variability of changing sensitivity very slightly in different scenarios. I know this goes against the standard of practice of using one setting to get muscle memory. As the research leads me to believe, even elite level coaches and players are not aware of the benefits. It seems to be a balance. For example take 3 slightly different settings into practice. One includes your primary sensitivity, one slightly slower and one slightly faster. Practicing all will increase skill acquisition in the long run. In your games you will primarily use your regular setting. All in all the actual time dedicated to the different settings is very minimal and will not disrupt muscle memory, the opposite. This is not unlike how you feel like an aim god when you warm up on a higher sense then come down to a lower one. Your muscles are more attuned to finer corrections. I would love to see specific examples you guys come up with.
    • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5832267/
    • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255970629_Practice_Variability_and_Training_Design_Strategies_of_Elite_Horizontal_Jump_Coaches
• Increasing Difficulty
  • As you progress increase the difficulty. Not too much that it causes anxiety and stress but enough to challenge you.
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72139-8
  • This also promotes going into Flow State for even greater learning and performance.
• Setting
  • Practice how it will actually be like. The setting, the difficulty of actually pulling it off in high pressure. I coached a top player who choked in live tournaments due to the noise from the audience. We would put audience noise from YouTube videos to play in the background of his practice sessions and slowly increase the volume as he got more used to it.
    • Specificity of learning hypothesis. The specificity of learning hypothesis suggests that learning is most effective when practice sessions include environment and conditions which closely resemble those required during performance of the task — replicating the target skill level and context for performance.
• Risk
  • Even though top performers work less than their slightly lower elite counterparts, one thing that they did do more of was attending events, competitions, or challenges.
  • Signing up for high pressure scenarios will motivate you and keep you on track progressing.
  • Sign up for tournaments, 1v1 competitions, or even just set a date to challenge a friend.
  • Use loss aversion. We humans hate to lose more than we love to win. Put some risk to it. Bet a small amount of money, or do something embarrassing if you lose. Small enough to motivate you to win/accomplish but also not so big that it stresses you out.
  • https://www.stickk.com/ This website is an example of it's practical use.
  • Tim Ferriss is also a proponent of adding risk.

2. Timing

• Mornings/Evenings
  • Mornings are generally the best time to learn anything.
  • Brain waves are more stable and relaxed.
  • You have decreased cognitive load.
    • Teenagers tend to wake up later in the day around 8-10am. This is normal and physiologic.
    • Do not fall into the trap of thinking "I'm a night owl". Yes, chronotypes exist but a lot of us tell ourselves this simply because we are used to it due to societal schedules and our own inability to stop gaming until 3am. I thought I was this too but now I wake up at 4am and it's the best thing ever no lie. You don't have to be as extreme but maybe just try out a little earlier.
  • The best thing to do is practice in the morning for the time your OPT allows then rest/do something else for at least 3 hours (while your brain encodes the information) then have another practice session.
  • Example
    • 9am - 12 Practice
    • 12 - 3pm Workout, Lunch, Chillax
    • 3 - 6pm Practice #2
    • 6 - 9pm Dinner, Relax
• Intense practice, short rest
  • Practice your objective really hard and focused for 10-30 minutes. Then take a break for 10 minutes. The break CANNOT be looking up YouTube, playing other modes, etc. It has to be a real break to let the brain reset. The best breaks are to just walk around, listen to music (do not scroll on your phone), do some exercise, or just lie down/meditate.
    • CREB-Based Spaced Learning (cAMP response element binding protein) is learning structure that maximizes information encoding. Studies show that intense learning repeated 3 times with an interval (non-stimulus or break) of 10 minutes showed increased LTP and LTM.
    • Spaced retrieval improves and solidifies information. There is a difference between spaced encoding (CREB) and spaced retrieval. Encoding and retrieval happen in different parts of the brain. Encoding is in the posterior temporal lobe and retrieval in the anterior temporal lobe.
    • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00400/full#h3
    • Remember this is scheduled during your practice and OPT. You are hyper focused and the break should be relaxing. Do not consume YouTube, scroll through social media, etc. Those activities are still pouring information into your brain. Again, simply sit down, do some short exercises, meditate or do breath work. This works, I do it regularly.
• Spaced Repetition.
  • Once you have practiced something sufficiently you can practice it with increasing time intervals. For example, you have mastered the fundamentals of aiming and are now focusing on practicing movement. Don’t stop practicing aiming altogether. Simply practice it with increasing time intervals. Practice it today. Then 24 hours later. Then 72 hours later. Then 1 week later. Then 2 weeks later. Etc. This counteracts the human forgetting curve.
    • https://www.gwern.net/Spaced-repetition#motor-skills

3. Feedback

• Progress Monitoring
  • This is even more important than actually having a goal. You need to see yourself making mistakes, and getting better. Not only does this accelerate behavior and action correction but it also keeps you highly motivated.
    • https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000025.pdf
    • Tip: Keep a scratchpad next to you. While playing notice when you have questions, or dilemmas about the next action. Write it down as soon as you can with the time.
    • After the game go back to the replay and look at your questions and search for answers.
    • Immediate feedback > Delayed feedback > No feedback
• Measure
  • Remember that your goal is SMART and the M stands for measurable. Video games are great for feedback because they usually have stat trackers. Use these and periodically write down or annotate the date and the stat to see if you're progressing.
• Ask
  • Coaches are great for instant feedback but most of us can't afford one. Simply, come to this subreddit and ask for input. Simple.

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I believe this to be a pretty good summary of most Purposeful Practice techniques. As stated I will make a post on Mind and Body to completely close out the Accelerated Learning topic. Please let me know what you thought and honestly congratulations if you actually read the whole thing. It shows you're an actual Tryhard and I'm sure this will help you become OP.