by Alexis Nedd
Showing my face at the tournament is dangerous, but Byunki promised he’d never leak my real gamertag or name to anyone, not even press who wanted to cover Fury. He made everyone else promise too. The rest of the team uses some form of their real name in their competition titles—JOON, YUNG, VANE, RIKK—but I came up with something that had nothing to do with Emilia Romero. KNOX. Like Fort Knox, where no one gets inside and everything important is under guard.
I need my guards here now. Why aren’t they here yet? Is it really hot in here, or is it just me? Why don’t they put these green rooms on the ground level so we can have a window to open? I bet this is a fire hazard. Oh my god, I’m sitting on a polyester couch in a fire hazard.
No you’re not, I think. You’re panicking. It’s different. This is something you can control.
Under normal circumstances, meeting the most impressive GLO player in the game who also is giving you the chance of a lifetime at the expense of his own reputation would not be a thing that calms me down, but the sudden sound of Byunki’s voice outside the door snaps me out of my budding panic spiral.
“Are you sure this is right?” He sounds different without the distortion of voice chat, but I’d recognize his tone anywhere. Even when Byunki asks a question, it’s phrased like a military order. “This room is too far from the stage. Do you know who I am? Who this team is?”
I can’t hear what the arena aide tells him next, but it doesn’t make him sound any happier.
“It’s fine, man,” says another voice I recognize. Ivan, the other Fury DPS. I stepped in as his new partner on damage after Byunki kicked a guy he’d been playing with for years off the team. I thought he might be salty about it, but honestly Ivan’s been nicer to me than anyone else on the team. It totally tracks that he’d be trying to smooth this situation over. He’s known Byunki the longest out of all of us.
I instinctively stand up when Byunki and Ivan finally enter. Byunki gives me a quick up-and-down look and nods. Ivan, sweet Ivan, is generous enough to smile.
“Emilia!” Ivan says, and walks over to give me a hug.
“KNOX,” Byunki corrects. “She’s our little secret, remember?”
“Right. Duh!” Ivan peels off a leather jacket and tosses it over the back of the couch. He strikes me as the kind of person who could be comfortable anywhere. He looks good in our Fury jersey (competition name: VANE), like one of the quidditch world cup players from Harry Potter. Dark hair, massive eyebrows. Yeah, Ivan’s our Krum. “I forgot you’re, like, super paranoid.”
“I’m not—” I try to defend myself even though I know he’s just teasing me. Byunki cuts me off before I can.
“She’s got reasons,” he says brusquely. He’s out of his jacket now too and looks authoritative in Fury red as well. Byunki’s smaller than I thought he would be. His usually black hair is blond on top, a change from his streaming look that I’m sure he intends to debut onstage today, and the new look suits him well. He looks severe, deadly even. And short. Napoleon by way of South Korea.
“I do,” I answer in agreement with Byunki. “I’m down for this as long as no one knows anything about me.”
“No, I like it,” Ivan answers. “It’s mysterious. It’ll play well, right, B?”
Byunki doesn’t answer.
The door to the green room swings open again to reveal the last two members of Team Fury. Han-Jun and Erik are our healers. They’re a dream team that came up in GLO together and can team heal like actual combat medics.
“Your lifelines have arrived,” Han-Jun announces before falling in to hug Ivan and salute Byunki.
“Hey, it’s the new Arjun!” Erik points to me. I don’t know much about Fury’s old DPS. Ivan told me Byunki waited less than a week to replace him with me this summer. Am I the new Arjun? I’d rather be the first Emilia. “Can I call you Knoxy?”
Knoxy? Thanks, I hate it.
“Maybe!” I answer with a smile anyway. These guys are legends, and I’m starting at the bottom. I have to earn my way up to having an opinion on my nickname.
“Everyone’s here. That’s good. Shut up,” Byunki barks. Han-Jun and Erik haven’t even taken off their jackets yet, but he gestures for them to sit down. I glance over at Ivan to see if that’s a normal way to start our first team meeting. He rolls his eyes and moves over to give me a place on the couch next to him. Okay, so this is normal. That’s cool. Just wanted to know. Byunki takes his place at the whiteboard and rips open the marker box to start scribbling on the board.
“We’re up against a low seed in round one. Team Vulcan. They’re morons. That means Wizzard expects us to win. If this competition was online, I’d tell us to sandbag to keep some of our big moves under wraps for Round Two, but we’re not doing that. We are going big. There’s no point in keeping our profile low anymore. This is going online. Could mean sponsorships, could mean global attention.”
I mean, yes, but also please keep my profile low. I’m here to win, not to plot a sponcon pivot.
Byunki writes a series of GLO character names on the board and draws a question mark next to the list. “The meta jacked a lot of rosters up, so we can’t count on knowing which characters Vulcan will play.” I genuinely can’t tell if this is a motivational speech or marching orders. Thrilled to find out, though. The panic I was feeling before is transmuting into excitement. I’m really here! In a green room with the rest of Team Fury! Ivan just passed me a little plastic beanbag, and I don’t know what that’s about, but I’m excited about that too!
“They won’t have a Pharaoh,” Ivan says. He seems to be the only one with enough authority to interrupt Byunki. “Their whole team is a bunch of PVE streamers who play popular characters. They didn’t make time to get good on him.”
Vulcan was one of the teams I had to study going into the first round, so it might not be terrible if I drop some knowledge on our pregame chat.
“They’re good on cooldowns,” I say with all the courage I can muster. It strikes me that I don’t have to feel brave. I’m right, and that’s better than being brave. “But their cooperation is garbage. Everyone on Vulcan plays like the spotlight is only on them. I’ve never seen them pull off a sophisticated combo, so we should pick out a few of our best to scare them straight out the gate. If they see us doing something they can’t do, they’ll get insecure. You know, because they’re streamers.”
Han-Jun and Erik turn to look at me like I’m a toy they forgot made noise. Ivan, however, is smirking.
“She’s right,” Ivan says. He reaches into my lap to pull out the plastic beanbag he gave me and smacks it between his palms with a loud popping noise. “It’s a hand warmer. You have to break it first. Keeps the fingers limber? You’re doing great.”
“Speaking as a streamer,” Byunki begins. My eyes go wide. Did I just totally insult him? He has to know I wasn’t calling him insecure. He’s the most secure person I think I’ve ever encountered. He’s a shield of a person, a tank in every sense of the word. “KNOX is right. Let’s do that parachute move to give her a look at the map to see if she can spot the payload first. We’d need Pharaoh, which we have, and one of the healers would have to play Jenkins. Erik, you wanna play Jenkins?”
Erik looks as surprised as I do that Byunki agreed with me. He stammers when he lets Byunki know that he’s good to play as Jenkins this round.
“Dope. I’m playing Klio, obviously, fire tank has the best loadout. Ivan, you’re on Morrigan. Han-Jun, you’re Glace. I need that ice protection.”
“On it,” Han-Jun replies. Now that Ivan’s popped my hand warmer, it does feel pretty good on my fingers. I sneak a peek over at how he’s using it to do some hand stretches and start copying his movements. An arena staff member knocks on our green room door to let us know we’re playing next. Byunki starts talking faster.
“We’re aiming for a checkmate, so taking down their tank is the name of the game. I have a feeling they’re going to play Lucafont in the tank position. His health is high, but we can whittle
it down. He’s a ghost and Pharaoh is magic, so he’ll be weak to KNOX.” He turns to address me directly, which feels very cool now that I’m sure he’s not mad. “You’re on debuffs. If one of their healers tries to boost team health, focus on Lucafont and strip his armor. Charge up your Special Attack, but only use Pharaoh’s Shatter on my signal, got it? Don’t aim early, don’t aim late.”
“Got it.” That’s me! I’m on debuffs! I’m here and I’m helping!
“VANE: damage, Bend Time, damage,” he continues. “JOON stays with me, and I need RIKK moving fast around the map to heal the rest of you. Use Shadow Step and poof if you see a red dot.”
“Fury, you’re up!” The people running the tournament are really on top of the timing here. Wizzard’s reputation rides on this competition going well. No mistakes allowed.
Byunki was only kind of whining about our green room being far from the stage. We’re down a long, awkward ramp that leads up to the backstage holding area, which my field hockey–trained calves can handle but sets Erik and Han-Jun complaining.
“One more thing,” Byunki notes when we’re lined up. “We’re changing our order walking out. Wizzard already knows. Usually the DPS would follow the healers, but I’m going out after Ivan.”
That doesn’t make any sense. This is the first time I’m competing as Ivan’s new partner; why wouldn’t we walk out together? Byunki sees the confusion on my face and pats my shoulder.
“Trust me,” he says. I guess I do?
The announcers call Vulcan out first—all five of their players get a decent amount of applause from people who know them from Twitch. After that, it’s our turn, starting with Han-Jun and Erik. The crowd recognizes them and cheers, but they get louder when Ivan follows them out onto the stage. Ivan was the better DPS of the two who played for Fury before they recruited me, and I had hoped that walking out alongside him would lend me a little goodwill. Without Ivan by my side, I’m walking out a total stranger.
When Byunki appears, the cheers stop for a half second before resuming—they’re exactly as surprised as he wanted them to be.
I’m either going to ride the wave of enthusiasm the audience has for Byunki or be a crushing disappointment, so I give him a few more seconds to soak up his welcome before walking out from the side of the stage. The walk from the wings to my PC setup can’t be more than a few yards, but my vision tunnels and makes it seem like I have to make my way across the entire arena in a matter of seconds.
Byunki and I briefly bounced around the idea that I would play in a mask as a gimmicky way to hide my identity, but I’m glad we didn’t go with that. Stepping out onstage and being about to see everyone in the audience wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if my peripherals were shielded. Even though no one knows who I am, the feeling that I’m about to be cheered by a crowd of strangers who want to see me play GLO is a huge rush—finally, I can show people that I belong here, that I’m good at this game and can keep up with Fury on my own merit. I take a deep breath. This is it. No going back now.
The stage lights hit me, and I think for a moment that I’ve gone deaf. There’s no sound, just light and the rest of my team waiting for me to move. Why can’t I hear? Penny told me about all the ways she’s had stage fright over the years, and she never mentioned not being able to hear.
Wait, no, my ears are fine. It’s the arena that’s silent. I can’t stop myself from shading my eyes and staring out at them, a crowd of thousands all holding their cell phones in front of their faces to record my entrance. I look away from them and toward the back of the stage, where my just-revealed Fury portrait is lit up in massive LED perfection and my new, four-letter competition name written right below it.
#4. KNOX. DPS.
CHAPTER SIX
Team Unity, Saturday
MUDD: where’d you guys go? fury is about to play
JHoops: i lost everyone i’m in the players box
BobTheeQ: I’m backstage, S and P were hungry and we have another hour so I told them to fuel up.
MUDD: didn’t pack enough pocky eh
BobTheeQ: I got a screen back here, Fury’s rolling out.
JHoops: JOON and RIKK are out.
MUDD: I’m way in the back, is that VANE?
BobTheeQ: Yup VANE. The new DPS should be out next. I couldn’t get anything on him. Really curious to see who they got after Fury kicked Arjun out. Arjun and Ivan were legendary together.
BobTheeQ: Wait no that’s Byunki.
[Languagebot: language.]
JHoops: did you seriously add his name to languagebot
BobTheeQ: I forgot I did but I did lol.
JHoops: cmon cmon show us the new guy
MUDD: WHAAAA
BobTheeQ: Didn’t expect that!
MUDD: what the hell is a KNOX
BobTheeQ: I never thought Fury would play with a girl, anyone heard of her?
BobTheeQ: Anyone?
JHoops: i have
MUDD: you played with her?
JHoops: not GLO
BobTheeQ: You know her???
JHoops: kinda
JHoops: guys KNOX is KOD
MUDD: no
ElementalP: KNOX IS KOD??? Sorry I’m backreading.
shineedancer: oh my god???
ElementalP: Jake where are you we’re coming over we have fries
ElementalP: I got Ki we’re on our way to the box
JHoops: i’m leaving the box i need a minute
BobTheeQ: Do you want to come backstage? You want to talk?
MUDD: I got to the box he’s not here. Q is he with you?
BobTheeQ: He’s not here. Jake is MIA.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Emilia, Saturday
BYUNKI WANTED ME to be a surprise, but I wasn’t prepared to stun everyone into silence. Other teams have girls. One other team, I think. They have two. It’s not that weird for me to be here, is it? Is it because it’s Fury?
I hear a couple of girls start it. I can’t tell exactly where they are in the arena, maybe up in the players’ box, but their chant punches through the quiet that’s frozen me to my spot on the stage. “KNOX. KNOX. KNOX. KNOX.”
Yeah, wow. I don’t have anything to say as the chant catches on. Compared to the silence before, this is louder than anything I’ve ever heard in my life. I feel my feet vibrating as the stage shakes; they’re stomping and yelling—in a good way!—and chanting my name. They’re shouting for KNOX, and that means they’re shouting for me.
What happens now? I smile and wave, I guess? Moving my arm makes moving my legs easier, and I can finally start walking again. Behind me is my own face blown up to the size of a brownstone, and I’m seized with a cheesy impulse to point to it like “Yo, would you look at that? That’s a lady up there!” and when I do the crowd amps up to absolutely wild sonic proportions. By the time I get to my seat, I’m beaming, and Ivan is here to clap me on the shoulder. We are the New New. Fury DPS: ready to rock.
Byunki gives the signal, and we lift our headphones up to our ears—in an instant, the roar of the crowd is gone and replaced with the hum of noise cancellation and team chatter.
“Back in, focus, we have a countdown”—that’s Byunki calling us in. The screens around the arenas light up with a digital clock ticking down to the start of the match. On the other side of the stage, Team Vulcan, I’m happy to say, looks shook. Who’s trending now, Twitchbois?
Each time a number clicks away, I can feel myself sliding further into the place in my mind I go whenever I log into GLO. I’m hyperaware of my fingers tracing over the ball of my gaming mouse, feeling it roll in a beautifully familiar way. The monitor zooms in to fill my line of sight, locking out the glow of cell phones and the bright arena screens. The headphones help, but the way I drop into the world onscreen is something I’ve always been able to do with games. There are just the buttons, my eyes, my hands, and the instantaneous connections firing between them all. The clock hits zero. Showtime.
We land on the Frye Island map, a tropi
cal location that’s meant to look like a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, if Hawaii were populated by space warriors and alien wizards. I know this map like the back of my hand and feel good about being able to pilot Pharaoh around it.
Byunki gives us our first orders. “Luca tank. KNOX is up.”
YES, the other team went with Lucafont. I can’t see where he is, and since we’re both trying to capture a wandering payload, I’ll need a better look to see where he might be going.
Pharaoh isn’t the most mobile character, but he piggybacks well with other people’s abilities. I whistle for Erik, and he obliges, using his healer Jenkins’s cannon to send me up and over the map. Pan down, two-second aerial view before I land. Lucafont spotted on the Celestial Beach.
“Beach, coming east,” I report.
I let Pharaoh deploy his parachute beyond their Lucafont and cast a three-second fog that keeps me from his line of sight. I get two hits in—not enough to fill my meter but enough to claim first blood of the match, which starts Fury’s Special Attack counter before Vulcan’s. The team that hits first always gets a boost, and the more damage we deal, the faster we earn more points toward deploying our best abilities. Now the rest of the game can start.
I dip out from the beach and start darting around the map according to Byunki’s instructions, counting down the milliseconds until I can pop my stealth fog ability and hack away at Vulcan’s other members. I mistime it once and take a few shots, but Erik is doing a great job keeping Ivan and me alive. Byunki clicks his tongue into the mic, telling us his Klio tank has the payload in sight.
Both Fury and Vulcan race to the center of the map, a weird, little island made of crystals surrounded by a doughnut- shaped lake. Han-Jun uses some of his Special Attack bar to generate a heal/harm barrier, which tops up our health but will damage anyone from Vulcan who tries to cross it—like this guy is right now.