Chapter 2.2

-Lenna's PoV-

I have always watched Liz's streams. When she plays PVP she sometimes explains the rules to her new viewers that are not all too familiar with team PVP. From what I can summarize from all the times I watched her, the basics of team PVP is that there are 3 main objective points on the map.

The top Orb

The middle Orb

The bottom Orb

The main objective of a team match is to capture three of the Orbs. There are three winning conditions.

First is when a team captures ALL THREE of the capture Orbs, specifically the TOP, MID, and BOT orbs.

The team to capture all three of them instantly wins regardless of the player's status.

The second is when a team is wiped out. If your team managed to kill all of the enemy players, you win the game. Conversely, if your team gets wiped out, you of course lose the game.

The third is when the time runs out. After 50 mins, the team with the most captured objectives wins the match. If your team, for example, captured 2 Orbs, and the other team has only 1 you win the game after the time runs out. If, however, in a very rare case both have one orb each or no orbs at all, the game ends in a draw.

That's only the basics of what I know. There are a whole lot of specifics I don't understand for now though. While I was pondering, Raynold's sudden voice caught my attention

"Didn't expect a 1v1 ranker to be in June's team" Raynold said while looking at the tv screen for viewers of matches in the VR cafe

"A ranker?" I asked

"Chu Xiaolong, ign: NambaWan. he is ranked 921 in the in the global 1v1 matches leaderboard."

"That bad!? I remember that Liz is only ranked 970 though, does that mean he's better than Liz?"

I heard from her stream that she is ranked 970. Even those who don't play CoA like me know that it is an amazing achievement.

"Yes, Liz is ranked 970 in team ranked match in the last season but that doesn't mean she's weaker than Chu. There's a big difference between team and 1v1 matches. Teamplay, coordination, synergy, and strategy are crucial in team matches while raw technical skill and reading your opponent are needed for 1v1 battles. So, I wouldn't be so sure that the enemy has the advantage."

I also think that way. Liz always says in her stream that she mostly plays team matches because she enjoys it so much more compared to 1v1. But whenever her viewers convinced her to play 1v1 ranked matches via donation or persuasion, I haven't seen her lose a single time.

"It's quite hard to believe though that Liz can play on even ground with male players." I mused.

"Hmm, I think it's not that out of the norm. There has been a debate going on that female players have the advantage vs male players in CoA."

"Ohh Really?" That got me interested.

"You see, female players have the advantage over males in terms of flexibility and balance due to their innate body type and lower center of gravity making them more proficient in dodging. Considering the importance of dodging in PVP matches, it's a huge advantage. While males do have the advantage of strength and robustness in the real life, It doesn't apply to VR games like CoA because all you have to do is to increase your stats and get good gear to offset the advantage. It might actually even be a demerit since the larger you are, the easier it is for you to take a hit." he explained.

"But if that's true, why is the pro scene still dominated by male players?"

"In my opinion, it is more of a mindset kind of thing. Men are generally more competitive than women. There are always exceptions though, have you heard of Yuusha 'the Untouchable'?"

"Hmmm, I think I heard of her. Liz always says she's her inspiration in playing CoA."

If I recall correctly, she was the ace of Team Paragon, the first-ever team to win the Andartha Cup tournament.

"Liz and most female players started playing CoA because of her apparently. The publicity team of CoA advertised the highlights of their final matches to promote the game to the female player base, which is a brilliant move on their part. One could argue that she had a big impact on the drastic increase of the CoA player base throughout the years. Some of her diehard fans even argue that she is the greatest player of all time. Considering her iconic 1v3 at the very first Andartha cup finals I wouldn't be too surprised people think that way." he enthusiastically added.

"But, she's not in the pro scene now, right?" I inquired

"She suddenly quit playing, no one knows why even her former teammates have no idea. the CoA community doesn't even know what she looks like since the first Andartha cup was an online tournament, not the Lan event with a huge venue with all the publicity that we see today."

Huh, that's too bad, I would've loved to root for her if she was playing in the pro league.

"So.....who do you think will win?" I asked Raynold

"Hard to tell. It will basically go down on who will have more impact in the match, Liz or Chu."

As Raynold was entertaining my questions, one of the many tv screens situated at the top of the ceiling counted down. It was showing the team of Liz vs the team of June about to start their match.

"Ohh oh, it's starting!"

the players are transported to the rear end of the map.

June's team was at the topmost right side of the map while Liz's team was transported to the leftmost bottom side.