1 Tournament Planning

Sparks flew as the clang of clashing metal sounded through the plains. Slashing wildly, the samurai's sword hacked through empty air as the shadow slid backwards, his arm blades whirling around in dizzying patterns as he advanced, taking advantage of the samurai's missed strike.

Retracting his sword, the samurai was forced on the defensive, retreating first one step, then another as the shadowy ninja continued to attack, sending all sorts of complex strikes at the harried samurai who responded by raising his sword, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Jumping up, the shadows armblade descended in a thrusting strike towards the samurai. To the shadows surprise however, instead of looking panicked, the samurai grinned.

As the shadows armblade approached, the samurai ducked down, dashing forward like a rushing wind, his sword passing directly through the shadow.

With a cry of pain, the shadow abandoned his attack, a row of blades flashing out from his center and catching the samurai by surprise as the shadow turned, a vicious glint in his eyes as he raised his arm blades to continue the attack.

Wiping the corner of his mouth, the samurai smirked, "Looks like that one got you."

The shadow said nothing, merely raising its blades and dashing towards him once more. This time the samurai was prepared, raising his sword, he thrust it forward, forcing the shadow to bring up its blades in a blocking position.

Adjusting the angle of the sword, the samurai thrust his blade past the shadows defenses, perforating the dark mist that surrounded his body. As his blade struck the shadow, the samurai grinned, feeling a solid sensation on the tip of his sword as he retracted it and blocked the shadows followup swings.

"Looks like my theory was right. You're not actually a shadow are you? Just a man surrounding himself in darkness. Pathetic," the samurai spat, raising his blade in an offensive stance as he prepared to attack.

Saying nothing, the shadow simply pointed at him, raising his blade and bringing it up to his throat, miming the action of slicing his neck.

"There's no cure for fools," the samurai said with a soft sigh, dashing forward to meet the shadowy figure.

Unlike the last time, the shadow did not simply approach the samurai, swinging his blades. Instead, he stayed at range, pulling shurikens from a shadow on his back and hurling them towards the samurai.

With precise movements, the samurai swung his sword, creating small eddies of air that carried the shurikens upwards, flying harmlessly into the sky.

"Hmph. That all you got? Scurry back to your shadows, ninja," the samurai said dismissively, summoning a few more gusts of wind to blow away the followup shurikens.

Glowering at him, the shadow ninja raised his hands, his fingers dancing at a speed faster than the eye could follow before seeming to split in two. No not seeming, the samurai realized a beat later as the shadow split into two, one shadow appearing behind him while the original remained standing in front of him.

With a malevolent smile, the shadow in front began advance, twirling a pair of oversized shurikens in his hands as he approached the samurai.

"No more running eh? That's alright. I guess the only path forward is through you," said the samurai, raising his blade as he dashed towards the shadow.

Wielding his katana with an almost unparalleled degree of proficiency, the samurai met the shadow, exchanging blows at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, more than ten blows had been exchanged, the shadow switching back and forth between the shadow in front and behind in order to repeatedly lock blades with the samurai, each fighter doing his best to cut past their foes defenses and score a solid hit.

Blood dripped from numerous wounds on the samurai's body, but he remained standing, his sword still firmly grasped in his hands. The shadow wasn't much better off, with chunks of shadow energy missing from his once whole form.

Advancing towards the samurai, the ninja halted as the samurai raised his katana high. Holding his katana beside his head like a javelin, with the point ready to launch at the shadow, the samurai was giving off a fearsome aura.

As the shadow watched, fierce winds began to billow off of his body, rising to wrap around his sword and giving him a terrifying appearance, as if he was a wind god descending upon the earth.

"It's time to end this shadow. There is only death… Mine, or yours!" The samurai roared, dashing forward to slice at the shadow.

Dodging the blade, the shadow suddenly saw an enormous blade of wind rising towards him from below. Frantically forming seals with his hands, the shadow disappeared, the tornado ripping through the air he had occupied seconds before.

Looking around for his opponent, the samurai watched as three new shadows blinked into existence, each one dashing towards him with blades held high. Raising his blade he attempted to parry, but a three against one fight with such a skilled opponent was beyond what the samurai was capable of dealing with.

Looking through dimming eyes, the samurai watched as the shadows coalesced back into a single form, which gave him a thumbs down as it walked away, back the way he'd come.

With an unwilling sigh, the samurai attempted to move, only for blood to burst out in an enormous spurt. As he fell the samurai sighed once more.

"Damn it Ryan. Why is their Shadow Assassin 9/0?" Eric demanded, yelling at his teammate through the headset as he watched the screen turn grey, signifying his death.

"Cause you just fed him a kill dumbass," Jun's voice echoed back.

Eric sighed, "Alright. Then why was he 8/0?"

"Uhhh. Sorry, Gio fed him a kill and double buffs at level three. Not much I could do," Ryan replied.

Eric groaned, "I almost had him too. He was down to a hundred hp by the end there."

"Yeah I think this game's over," Jun admitted as the Shadow Assassin reappeared, this time in the bot lane where he killed Jun's Toxic Archer almost instantly.

"Surrender?" Rob asked, throwing a surrender vote up for the team to vote on.

Unwillingly, Eric moused over and clicked yes as he watched the Shadow Assassin chase down Rob's Robot Vanguard, slicing the poor support bot to pieces.

Just before the final blow could land, the screen panned over to their base, which exploded in a flash of blue, as the red defeat screen filled his vision. Clicking the continue button, Eric was taken back to the main page.

"Another game?" Ryan asked.

"Sure," Eric replied, mousing over to the 'Play Again' button.

Just as he was about to press the button, a notification flashed in the corner of his screen,

Fogs: Yo Eric. The tournament's been confirmed. Get the rest of the guys to join the chat channel.

Seeing the notification Eric grinned, "Change of plans guys. Join the Strife chat. Mark has an announcement that should be interesting."

Mousing away from the Legends client, Eric opened the Strife chat, joining the groups private chat room.

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Kyp has joined the room.

Sweet_Temptation has joined the room.

Nelo has joined the room.

OMGio has joined the room.

Boreik has joined the room.

Fogs has joined the room.

Shinvincible has joined the room.

<Kyp> So. Tournament next Sat-Sun at Murphy's.

<Boreik> LoL?

<Kyp> Not a laughing matter Griffin. Grand prize is 5k.

<Boreik> -.-

<Shinvincible> This better not be paid in Rampage cards like the last tournament

<Fogs> nah this is legit. I'm the one who found it. Everyone good to come?

<Sweet_Temptation> Sick

<Nelo> ^

<Kyp> ^

<OMGio> I can make next Sat.

<Shinvincible> Same

<Boreik> I can probably make it?

<Nelo> I've got work, but I'll just call in sick lol

<Sweet_Temptation> XD

<Kyp> lol Ryan. Are they ever gonna fire you?

<Nelo> Then they'd need to actually bother hiring and training a new supervisor. They're too cheap to do that rofl

<Fogs> Just as long as you can come. Are we gonna split into two teams for this one?

<Kyp> Might as well. There's eight of us if you don't include any of the randoms we use sometimes.

Knight has joined the room.

<Fogs> Hey Nick. We're just talking about a tournament at Murphy's next weekend. 5k grand prize.

<Knight> Cool. What game and when?

<Fogs> LoL. Saturday. Starts at 9am. If we make it to the playoffs then the second day is on Sunday, same time and place.

<Knight> Yeah I can make it.

<Fogs> Wicked. Okay so we'll divide into two teams. How are we doing this?

<Shinvincible> If we want to win I think we need to have an A and B team.

<Kyp> How do we decide who's on which team? Rank?

<Shinvincible> Well obviously Eric is on the B team.

<Boreik> Lol

<Kyp> Go fuck yourself Jun.

<Fogs> He's got the right idea. I think rank is probably the best way to divide it then.

<Sweet_Temptation> So you, me, Eric, Jun, and Nick on team A. Then Ryan, Gio, Griffin, and two others on team B?

<Fogs> Seems about right yeah. That's one of each position for Team A. And if Gio goes top then you guys are good on team B as well.

<Nelo> Looks like we're gonna have to carry some scrubs you guys.

<Boreik> Ugh

<OMGio> lmao

<OMGio> How do you want to find extras? I'm fine playing top, but we still need a botlane duo.

<Kyp> Just ask Connor, Todd, or any of the other guys we play with. Actually on second thoughts don't ask Todd.

<Nelo> Yeah no lol. I'll ask Connor for sure. Maybe I'll try Freddie or Verun.

<Kyp> Leif might be free as well if you want me to ask him. Not sure if him and his friends would want to enter on their own or not though.

<Nelo> Yeah he's probably one of the better guys. I'll shoot Connor and Raj some DMs in a bit.

<Sweet_Temptation> We got a plan?

<Knight> Smash each lane individually? Get hard and go hard? Wheel celly snipe?

<Shinvincible> The second one.

<Boreik> ....

<Kyp> You guys are the reason I don't stream. I just wanted you all to know that.

<Fogs> No one cares Eric.

<Kyp> T.T

<Sweet_Temptation> We can just use our normal tactics for ranked 5s. Maybe come up with a cheese tactic or two.

<Shinvincible> I've got a few that I've been wanting to try.

<Sweet_Temptation> lol you catch the Korean matches earlier today.

<Shinvincible> ofc that stealth bot gank at level 2 was amazing. I definitely need to try that.

<Fogs> Alright. We'll try and practice some ranked 5's in our teams for the next week. I could really use 1k guys, so let's take this seriously. Not naming names, but that's aimed at Nick, Eric, and Jun specifically.

<Knight> lol called out

<Kyp> I feel betrayed

<Shinvincible> I'm always serious. I have no idea what you're smoking.

<Fogs> Quality stuff. Which is why I need the money. You guys wanna hop on Legends of Lore? We can start practicing right away.

<Nelo> You guys go ahead, I'll DM Connor and Raj.

<Fogs> k

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