Fluorescence Worlds Tournament: Finals

The first people to go public with the cheating scandal are Stratos. Within two hours of Rebekah receiving the call, their leader uploads a video, denying what happened.

“They’re saying we cheated! That’s bullshit! It’s not our fault they had some kind of buggy setup. WE had problems too. Or didn’t you notice when Mike took a few seconds to respond on Bot in the second game?”

Rebekah laughs. “Oh, you mean when you were screaming instructions so loud I could hear you on our side of the hall through my damn headphones? He was probably stunned!”

“And how the hell would we control HexDrive’s computers anyway? We were right there in the hall!”

“That’s a good question, actually,” says Rebekah. “How DID they do it?”

“No idea,” you say. “But remember, Kailani was there. And she saw the rubber banding immediately on her phone. She also said she’d had to talk to a man about a hack when we got back from dinner. I think she was monitoring something.”

Rebekah took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. “Lag spikes. That explains everything. Why things seemed slow. Why some of the hitboxes didn’t seem to register right. Even why we thought Trent backed off. They couldn’t have done that while playing though unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless Kailani was being literal about seeing a man about a hack. If they somehow got someone on the inside who could rig the computers… I mean they are sponsored by International Gaming Machines, but… wow. How long have they been doing this?”

You sit and listen while she processes what happened. It still looked like Stratos played well, though you’re hardly the best judge of that, but if you’re right they probably wouldn’t need to cheat at Regionals. At Nationals, though…

“You guys should be the American Champions,” you say.

She nods, slowly, grimacing at the realization. Stratos might be stripped of the title, but the money and prestige were gone.

The announcement from the tournament organizers is a lot more restrained. They state that Stratos has been found to be cheating and will now be banned from further participation in the Worlds tournament. Further sanctions are being considered and an investigation of past events will determine if they are stripped of prior titles. The Fluorescence team apologize to players and fans for the impact of this cheating and while they cannot replay the games that have already been completed, HexDrive will take Stratos’s place in the final and money awarded for earlier rounds will be split between teams unfairly eliminated. It’s not the most satisfying statement, but it’s hard to see how they could realistically do any better.

HexDrive spend the morning in an emergency strategy session, trying to prepare to meet the number one seed in the entire world. You can only hope that Rebekah can rally them after the shock events of the last day.

You take a seat in the tournament hall a few minutes before it’s time for the finals to begin. The commentators are already in full flow. The venue’s screens have been showing them for two hours. The finals are best of five, raising the required wins from two in the semis to three now.

The crowd are buzzing, and not just because it’s the finals. Around you people talk about the way Stratos got eliminated. Some condemn the organizers for letting it happen. Some claim it’s impossible, just like their leader said on the video. Then there are those split between declaring that HexDrive don’t deserve to be in the final, and those hoping for them to win to avenge all those who were cheated out of progression. You ignore them. In the end, it doesn’t matter what anyone says, it matters what happens in the games.

Your phone buzzes in your pocket. You take it out and find a message from Kailani.

“Hey, Phantom, sorry to ghost you. I’m on my way to Japan for an anti-trafficking forum. I see we took Stratos down though. I didn’t know Megaboy was in College Spread.”

You’re not sure who she means, but figure that if he was part of the sting on Stratos he must be some kind of hacker. You send back a message thanking her and add that you hope the forum achieves something.

A moment later, the game is on.

The first game is rough. Myeongnyang attack on all lines. Their Support lays traps that pin Luca on Bot-line, while their Jungle switches between the other two lanes with excellent timing. They’re fast, efficient and deadly. In a surprisingly quick game, they overwhelm HexDrive and take the first point. If they’d looked good yesterday, they seem keen to prove why they’re the Worlds champions today.

The next game is harder for the champions. Rebekah controls her team well, calling out counters, judging attacks. It’s a tough fight, but ultimately Myeongnyang come out victorious. With just one more win needed it’s looking like a whitewash.

In game three, HexDrive finally start looking like they’ve got a real sense of how their opponents play. Myeongnyang come out hard, but they’re countered. First across the top, with Trent’s attack and support from Maya stopping them dead. Devon hits bottom hard, while Luca’s traps counter their opponent nicely. Rebekah’s bogged down in center but the bottom play lets them break through. The tide turns eventually, and HexDrive get their first point on the board.

Game four is the hardest fought of the entire tournament. It runs over an hour and a half long, cagey counterplay being the center point of the entire run. The commentators are virtually screaming their play calls, their excitement indicating just how rare a game like this is. HexDrive fight for every pixel, Myeongnyang’s team increasingly start to lose their cool. And eventually, a center line push breaks the deadlock, and pulls both teams level.

Your stomach rumbles. At this point you should be going for dinner, but literally nobody is leaving their seats until the final game is over.

Rebekah starts the decider by pushing hard on center line. She calls the plays for the other two lines to be held, and for a while it looks like it’s working. She’s nearly into Myeongnyang’s back when their jungle and center stop her. After that, it begins to fall apart. Towers are taken down on HexDrive’s top. The bottom line locks tight. Even Rebekah starts to struggle. HexDrive are good. Myeongnyang are better. In the end it shows.

The crowd go wild as the South Koreans claim victory for the second time in a row. Trent takes off his headset and drops it in frustration. Rebekah shakes her head, still staring at her screen. It’s over, and it wasn’t to be. Not this year at least.

The teams are given a moment to recover before the organizers take the center stage and call the teams one by one to celebrate achievements. Hexdrive, as runners-up, go first. They look tired, but honestly, excited at having come so far. The prize of $500,000 doesn’t exactly hurt either.

Then it’s Myeongnyang’s turn. The audience is on their feet cheering as the champions take the stage. One by one their members are called out by name and position. Their leader takes the check for $1,000,000 and the trophy, raising it high in celebration.

He gives the team and the crowd a moment to enjoy the victory before handing the trophy off and grabbing the mic. He turns towards HexDrive and begins to say something in Korean. It takes a moment for the translation to be shown on screen, but when it does you see it’s praise. And intense praise at that. Apparently they’ve tried to find old footage of HexDrive, but because they never made it past the Regionals games before, it’s been difficult. He says this shows just how big a threat they will be next year and rounds out by saying he’s looking forward to facing them in the finals again. To say Rebekah and the team enjoy the praise would be an understatement.

And so the tournament ends. Not as champions, perhaps, but as a team on the rise with friends and contacts in the game.