The Match (1)

Walking out of his room whilst stretching his arms, Zayden made his way over to the kitchen's counter. Moments later, he took out an empty cup from there and then poured himself a glass of water.

Taking a sip from the cup, he let out a tired breath as he turned towards the clock above on the kitchen's wall, [6:55 PM]. 'Hmm, if I remember correctly... Today's the match with Vain Blood and Ten Swords, I should go and take a look at it.'

Quickly walking over towards the living area of his home, he sat down on the couch which faced a 100-inch television. Soon after, he scurried over towards the controller on the coffee table and turned it on.

Zayden and his sister, Jisa, lived in a penthouse within Nagoya. With the money he earned from in-game previously as the first place in the unified rankings, he was well-off. Although he lived in a penthouse, it was a rather small one which was just suitable for the two to live in.

"What channel was the match held at again? Was it at ESW?" he muttered whilst going through the channels. For the longest time, he had rarely seen live matches of his guild or any other guilds. He had only seen post-match recordings, thus it was a change for him. "...ah! There we go."

Successfully finding the right channel, he turned to watch it. The channel showed two commentators sitting in front of a desk as they chatted along. Behind them was a timer for when the match will start.

"So, Vick! You excited about today's match?" One of the commentator by the name of Charles asked.

"Of course, of course! Since yesterday's sudden events, things took a turn for Vain Blood huh? First place player, Shinto, suddenly gone out of the rankings and is nowhere to be seen!" Vick replied. "Due to that... I wonder if he'll appear in this match?"

"I wonder that too. Rumours have it that Shinto's no longer in the guild. But the team leader, Kaisus never gave out an official statement."

"Right, right. Will he give one today seeing as he'll appear live?"

"Who knows? We can only see what happens after this match," Charles said as he turned to look in front of the camera. "Ahem, anyway! Welcome to all of you viewers tuning in for E-sports Spirits War! How are things going for you guys? Found any good items or quests lately?" Charles chuckled. "The match shall start soon!"

The screen soon switched out as it revealed the player-roster from both teams.

The team that Vain Blood sent out consisted of Kaisus, Revelen, Hikari, Ensia, Wenzhou, Rienla and Bunnix.

"So they're going with this player line-up huh?" he said whilst analyzing the team. "I wonder what team composition they will choose during the draft pick... Since Ten Swords is more burst and damage heavy, it'll only be right if they went for a sustaining one to counter."

With the absence of Shinto, they couldn't do much to shut down their carry, which was Tristan.

In Crystality, the game mode works differently from the usual type of MOBAs. The main difference would be, instead of pre-existing champions in-game, the players would use their own character to fight in the battle.

Due to them being able to use their own character, the way of balancing, equipment builds and the like are very different from how it is in the MMORPG. In the game, all existing abilities from players would be balanced to match the more-fast paced battles in 5v5. Cooldowns, damage and costs of the ability are all adjusted.

To allow for diverse playstyles for players to choose from, they are only able to choose a maximum of five abilities. From there, the system will adjust the player's passives accordingly.

Often times, from the five abilities they've chosen, their roles in battle would then be decided. Thus, players could play different roles, such as being a carry, a roamer, jungler, support and the like. But not all players have the ability to play diversely, for example, Shinto. His skills were mainly damage and burst. Thus he was more suitable to play a carry or a jungler role than anyone else. If he wanted to, he could also play the role of a debuffer, however, that was a waste.

"I wonder if they'll go for a three sustain two burst comp?" he thought to himself. "Though depending on the bans on the roles that the enemy team picks... They'll have to adjust."

In place of character bans like in a typical MOBA, for Draft Picks, the ban would instead be based on the sub-role of the main role that players can play. Banning a sub-role would then restrict certain abilities from being usable and thus teams would need to adjust. Per team, they can only ban up to 2 sub-roles from two different main roles. Once the ban is in place, the role can no longer be banned from.

"That's an interesting line up for both teams huh?" Vick said whilst looking at the team roster. "Both teams don't have their top burst characters with them!"

"Hmm... This is most definitely interesting. With the lack of Shinto and Tristan, I wonder what will the ban be instead?"

"We will see when the match starts!"

After the commentary from the two, the match soon began after. The ban from Vain Blood was [Carry - Close Combat Burst Skill] whilst the ban from Ten Swords was [Support - AOE Heal].

There are three sub-roles in each role and thus, in total there were 15 possible bans.

"My! Vain Blood went for a strong ban on the burst skills for close combatants! Are they going for a mage carry with Ensia or a range carry Bunnix as a core?" Charles said.

"It could be! Oh? Vain Blood sent out Ensia as their first pick!" Vick said.

The team composition continued on until it reached towards the end where the five-man team was decided. During the process, after the third pick from Vain Blood's team which was Revelen, the next ban from them was [Jungler - Close Combat Sustain] whilst the enemy banned [Roam - Coverage/Shields]

When it comes to players that have already been chosen in the team, the later bans won't affect their skillsets but only the players that come after. Thus, the first pick was always important.

In the end, for Vain Blood's side, the team consisted of Ensia, Revelen, Wenzhou, Kaisus, and Hikari.

Seeing the end of the composition, Zayden raised his brow. "Huh? They sent out Hikari instead of Rienla? The spot for buffs and debuffs were opened though... Why did they go with this?"

Since the ban for AOE Heals on the support side was picked Hikari could only go with her single target healings skills or crowd control damage ones. Her class didn't have as many buffs and debuff skills. Such a ban impacted majorly on her when the team needed more sustain.

"Hmm... she went for a three damage, one heal and one debuff skillset..." When a player was chosen in the team, the five skills that they have picked would then reveal the sub-roles and its name to everyone. From there, enemies can be wary of what such abilities do. However, they can only know the effects and the type of skills that was chosen, the system didn't allow for anyone to view the details or description of skills. "I wonder where this will go?"

While thinking to himself, the timer of the match soon reached zero. Moments later, the battle began.