7 Tournament Start!

"May I have your attention please. The tournament will be starting in five minutes. May I have your attention please everyone."

A voice rang out over the loudspeakers, hushing the crowd as everyone looked expectantly towards a booth at the front desk where a tall bearded man with a sweater that read, 'Staff' was talking into a headset as he looked at the crowds of people.

"Thank you. Greetings Legends players! I'm Saltbeard, and today we have an absolutely insane tournament ready to fire! More than a hundred different teams have already registered and there's still time for a few remaining teams who have paid the entrance fee but not registered to come up here and finish their registration.'

This line set off a muffled muttering among the gathered players, as people began to animatedly discuss whether or not their team had been registered or not. Eric watched in amusement as more than one person perked up, and began to quietly sneak towards the front desk.

Waiting for the hubbub to die down, Saltbeard continued, "Now the tournament is going to be run over the course of the next two days. Today we're going to be getting most of the tournament out of the way, while the quarterfinals and onwards will be played tomorrow by the eight teams who qualify from todays matches. The tournament today will be a single match, double elimination style bracket. Teams have been seeded based on the overall rank of all their members, with the highest ranked team being seed number one, and the lowest being seed number 133," Saltbeard announced, his voice carrying over the heads of the gathered players.

"The top eight teams from the tournament today will be seeded into the playoff rounds tomorrow where they will fight in a best of three match to advance. The winner will take home a five thousand dollar grand prize, courtesy of Murphy's! All teams that make it to the playoff stage will receive a cash prize as well, prizing can be seen on this chart next to me," said Saltbeard, waving an arm towards a large poster on the wall next to his casting booth.

"Now then! The tournament will officially begin in three minutes! Your stations and the first round pairings will be broadcast on the large holoscreen in the center of the room once the tournament officially begins, so please hurry and register if you haven't already. Remember, the entrance fee is non-refundable!" Saltbeard said with a wink, getting a ripple of laughter among the gathered players and causing a few more people to sprint out from the crowd towards the front desk.

"You guys ready?" Jun asked with a grin.

"You know it man. It's time to crush some scrubs," Nick responded, returning the grin and putting his hand in the middle of the group.

"By the way, what's our team name?" Nick asked, turning to Mark with his hand still outstretched.

"Riptide."

"All right! Team Riptide get your hands in here. Riptide on three!" Nick yelled, his voice full of enthusiasm as he looked at his teammates.

"Do we have to?" Eric asked.

"Sounds lame," echoed Jun, rolling his eyes as he agreed with Eric.

"Pussies," Rob laughed, putting his hand on top of Nick's.

With a slight amount of hesitation, Mark followed, putting his hand in as well. Nick looked expectantly towards Eric, who was clearly wavering, and Jun, who had crossed his arms with a slight smirk.

"What's our team name?" Gio asked, turning to Ryan while this was going on.

"The Dreamy Creamy Memey Teamy," Ryan replied with a huge shit eating grin.

Griffin's face dropped and he quickly shouldered his way into Eric's team circle.

"It's not too late to switch teams right? Go Riptide!" Griffin said with a deadpan expression, throwing his hand on top of Mark's, as Ryan broke out into a fit of giggles.

Hurriedly, Eric and Jun threw their hands on top of Mark, Rob, and Nick's, as Ryan and Raj hauled a whimpering Griffin back into their own group.

"Nice name!" said Raj, giving Ryan a thumbs up.

"Thanks. I got the idea from the name Jun used at the last tournament."

"What name was that?" Alfredo asked curiously.

This caused the rest of the group to burst out into a fit of laughter. Getting himself together, Mark looked over at Alfredo.

"You really don't wanna know."

"Awww come on. Tell us," Raj implored, looking at his still laughing friends.

Eric shook his head, "No you really do not want to know. There are still some people around here who use it as a nickname for Jun though. So you might find out sooner or later," he said with a grin, flashing a mocking smile at Jun who just shook his head.

"That was a mistake," he admitted with a pained look on his face which caused Nick and Ryan to dissolve back into helpless laughter.

As Raj continued to press for the name that Jun had used, the lights dimmed once more as Saltbeard's voice emerged from the speakers.

"Players! The tournament has officially begun! Please check your teams seating arrangements on the holoscreen and get set up. The first round will begin in approximately five minutes. Captains, custom rooms have been prepared by Murphy's for the tournament. Join the room with your teams name on it to begin the first match once all ten players are gathered. If after five minutes one team has not joined the room then that team will be assigned a match loss. Good luck to everyone and may the best team win!"

With that, Saltbeard went quiet. After a momentary pause, everyone in the room simultaneously craned their head upwards to where a holoscreen had just flashed into existence in the middle of the air in front of the entrance, where it was visible to all three floors.

Scanning the enormous screen, Eric quickly found Riptide on the list, along with their seats.

"We're on the second floor. Section A, seats eleven through fifteen. First game is against The Ragenades," said Eric, pointing out their position on the holoscreen.

Ryan nodded, "It looks like we're also on the second floor. Section B, seats one to five though. Our first game is against the Wavespiders? I think it says the Wavespiders."

"Alright, let's hurry upstairs and get set up. The sooner we get set up the less chance we have of not being able to set up our gear," Mark directed, leading the team upstairs towards their seats.

As gamers, the setup inside Murphy's was probably the greatest thing any of them had even seen. Huge softbacked reclining chairs, each with what seemed like a dozen different knobs and levers to adjust every conceivable aspect sat in front of large wodden desks. A holoscreen divider between each desk gave players privacy and allowed them to hide their monitor from screen peekers.

The monitor itself was enormous, more than thirty inches across and outfitted with the latest technological advancements such as holoscreen texturing and an 8k resolution.

Sitting down in front of one of the stations, Eric wiggled the mouse, causing the monitor to flare to life, revealing the client for Legends of Lore.

Typing in his login info, Eric quickly navigated to the custom tournament mode. Keying in the code for Murphy's, a list of room names popped up in front of him. Scrolling down the list he found the room for their team, (8)RiptideVS(93)Ragenades.

Joining the room, Eric was assigned the captain position for Riptide. Opening his friends list, he rapidly shot out invites to Mark, Nick, and Rob who had all come online. After a brief a moment, Jun appeared and Eric quickly sent an invite to him as well.

As Mark joined the room, Eric tossed the captain role over to him, reverting his role to that of an ordinary member.

As the rest of the team joined, Eric grabbed his mouse and keyboard from his satchel and began to set them up, unplugging the mouse and keyboard provided by Murphy's and tossing them in a little cupboard above the monitor.

Satisfied with his peripherals, he opened the Strife client, logging into his account and entering their regular call, clicking back over to the Legends client as he waited for his team to finish with their own setups.

As his team began to join the call, the Ragenades team finally joined the room. Failing to recognize any of the names, Eric quickly shot a message to Mark as they both began to look up the accounts and match history of their opponents.

Fogs has joined the room

<Kyp> Looks like a bunch of gold players. Their captain is platinum ranked and mains Poisoner top.

<Fogs> Yeah these guys kind of suck. We can use them to practice the 1-3-1 or the fast push bot if you guys want.

Knight has joined the room

<Knight> Let's try the fast push. If we end it quickly we can watch some of the matches on the holoscreen.

Sweet_Temptation has joined the room

Shinvincible has joined the room

<Sweet_Temptation> Sure. lol their botlane are both Gold V.

<Shinvincible> I'm gonna play a lane bully. I'm thinking Magic Gunner.

<Fogs> Sounds good. Want me to ban their disengage supports then?

<Kyp> Yeah. Ban those and poisoner and I think we're good. No need to ban specifically for these guys.

<Sweet_Temptation> ^

<Knight> If we're doing fast push I'll go Berserker. Ban Monk maybe? He can mess up my jungle pretty hard.

<Fogs> Sure.

"Players! The first round has begun! Please begin your matches now!" Saltbeard's voice echoed through the room.

With that announcement, Mark and the opposing teams captain both hit ready, and the client spun, morphing into the pick and ban screen as the tournament officially began.