Systems Presentations

After nearly a week of work, The King of Monsters Team finished all fourteen of their systems.

Today, all of the freshman system presentations are assessed by a panel of judges.

This year's panel included a G8 Game Production Representative, Vindilbaum Fritz, Student Systems Project Coordinator for the Academy, Dr. Kramer Young, and a guest celebrity judge active in the systems community, Kong Kirkus.

The celebrity judge, Kong Kirkus, is the Project Leader of Team Heavensoar. Team Heavensoar has been producing high-dollar systems for about eight years.

They are extremely popular and setting new trends in the system design market.

Each member of the team graduated from the System Makers Academy. Their project leader, Kong Kirkus, a.k.a. FaceslapperQ, is renowned for his out-of-the-box thinking.

He was happy to come back to his Academy as the "local boy makes good." All three judges greeted President Gardner with great respect.

The process for the presentations is for each team to present a system project created with their new teammates. Creating elements or even the majority of the system is permitted.

However, each team member must be able to clearly demonstrate their contribution to the project. This was difficult because most team members were meeting one another for the first time.

Some of the smarter students found each other through the freshman student network before coming to school.

They established teams and implemented system design concepts before coming to the school.

The judging rubric focuses on primary system components such as Training, beast taming, Soul Mastery, medicine, programming, and so forth.

The system evaluation is based on its overall integration and market feasibility.

Grades and rankings are given to the Project Team and the individual members of the team.

Everyone is judged both together with their team and individually based on their contributions to the project.

The team members most heavily scrutinized were the Project Leader and the Project Manager.

All of the judgings were in front of the Project Team. The judges give their compliments and criticisms on the spot. The presentation is primarily a learning opportunity for the students.

It acted as their first experience of professional criticism. The students were able to gauge how well their work compared to industry standards.

The other bonus was it often gave the teams and their members a direction for improvement and focus. It also served as a networking opportunity.

President Gardner arranged the order the teams appeared before the panel. He saved his Granddaughter's Project Team, the Monster Kings, for last.

It was a long day for the panel, and they were finished, mentally. Overall, they were very impressed with the talents of the freshman class this year. There were undoubtedly some amazing systems presented today.

Impressive, considering the creators are fifteen years old. Each of the judges even made notes on students they wanted to keep their eyes on in the future.

There were many times when the freshman system presentation marked the beginning of a mentorship and long-term recruitment process.

Kong Kirkus remembered his days as a student and his good fortune of winning a mentorship from Kong Fang.

Kong Fang was a famous beta-tester turned industry professional. He went from a nobody to an ascender based on the Fantasy Gamer System. He was recruited to join the Project Development department for G8.

It was Kong Fang's mentorship that made Kong Kirkus's rise to superstardom possible. He hoped to pay this favor forward.

Although there were some brilliant students with bright futures, none of them struck a chord with him.

According to the schedule, there were fourteen presentations left. Perhaps, one of the teams presenting the last several systems would have a diamond in the rough.

As Kong Kirkus scanned the list of the fourteen different systems up for evaluation, he was shocked when he discovered all fourteen remaining systems were produced by the same team, The Monster Kings Project Team!

He wasn't the only person to finally notice. The other two judges uttered gasps of surprise.

"President Gardner, what is this? Did you let a bunch of kids just throw a bunch of half-thought-out systems to us at the end of the day?

To be blunt, I'm tired, and I don't want to sit through fourteen trashy system presentations!" Vindilbaum Fritz said in an exasperated and weary tone.

"My dear Vindilbaum, I'm sure you know me better than this. Would I ever waste your precious time? Come now, we're bringing the children in, don't show them that face.

I think you'll be delighted with these last presentations," President Gardner said with a smile.

The judges were all curious. It was true, President Gardner may enjoy drama and theatrics, but he never wasted anyone's time.

The seven members of the Monster Kings Project Team were lead into the room and took their seats before a large viewing panel.

The judges were to the right of the panel and looked slightly right while watching it. President Gardner walked to the back of the room and prepared to dim the lights.

Before they began the presentations, each member of the team introduced themselves and announced their specialty.

When Rem introduced himself, the judges were eyeing him suspiciously.

"Tell me, Rem, did you design and program all fourteen of these systems?" Dr. Young asked.

"Yes."

"How were you able to conceptualize fourteen systems much less complete them in under a week?" Vindilbaum Fritz asked.

"Oh, I designed these systems over the last year. Everyone else used the week to finish the systems," Rem said casually.

"Finished them, I don't understand," Kong Kirkus said.

"Sir, perhaps I can clarify matters for you. My name is Primm Rose, and I am the Project Manager for our fourteen systems."

"I see; please do explain, miss Rose," Dr. Young said.

"You see, our Project Leader, Rem Meag, is both a genius and insufferably arrogant and stubborn," Primm said with a giggle.

Rem looked at her with surprise and then shook his head.

"I'm not arrogant and stubborn. I'm just a genius with high standards," he responded.

"I understand your point, miss Rose, please continue," Dr. Young said with a laugh.

"Our leader doesn't think he needs anyone to help him create systems. He believes he alone is sufficient. Curiously, however, he had never successfully launched a system before.

These fourteen systems were created by Project Leader Meag, but they were never successfully activated.

Appreciating Leader Meag's potential and believing in my abilities and the abilities of our teammates, I proposed a challenge to Leader Meag.

We would finish all fourteen of his systems and make them ready for a successful launch.

If we demonstrated our capabilities, then we would agree to work with us wholeheartedly from now on," Primm said all of this with a pleasant laugh and a twinkle in her eye.

"Ha Ha, excuse me, but I've never heard anything so preposterous as this before!" Kong Kirkus was too amused. The team was forcing themselves on this extremely arrogant boy.

The question was, did he have the ability to be so arrogant, and if so, did they have the ability to force him to recognize them?

The judges were eager to find out.