Gratitude

"Hahahahah, you are really interesting, even in a grand final I do not see this much anxiety!" Flare announced. "Listen I was taking it seriously okay? Maybe too seriously." Joseph explained, desperately trying to change the topic. "I have seen enough of your skills, you are free to go." Oliver felt that his behavior today was rather unsettling, and wanted to just let him go. "I still have to attend a match right? With her." Joseph asked while pointing at Ellie. "It is not necessary now, I have judged your skills already." Joseph showed a disapproving look at Oliver and took a moment before constructing his response : "We promised to be involved in her test or whatever it is, I can't go back on what I agreed to do." Oliver did not believe it, Joseph was taking responsibility and upholding a promise? Was this the same man that could not even answer a guest at his main gate?

Ellie thought that Joseph was acting very cute right now, and promptly added : "Yes, lets do it now then!". Flare upon hearing that remembered what he was here for. He began to panic slightly and told Oliver : "We came here with 6 players including I, if we include everyone here we are still short of one." Oliver dismayed at the situation presented to him, today was an off day for most of the employees here, the ones remaining are those that have work and are extremely busy currently. "Can the receptionist play?" Flare asked innocently. "No she is horrendous at the game , trust me." Oliver stated with confidence.

"Do we need a tank?" Joseph chimed in. "Anyone will do, just that they have to come here." Oliver answered. Joseph immediately took out his phone and called the only one he knew, Danny. "Hello? Is this Joseph calling me?" "Yeah its me who else?" "Wow, I got a call from you?" "Shut up and come down to the Full Force Headquarters near our area, you know where it is right?" "Why? For what?" "For a game against an e-sport team.". "OMG are you serious? Okay I'm coming now". Their conversation went too well, almost as if it is scripted. Oliver at the side listening in was secretly hoping that his friend is a normal player and not full of issues like Joseph.

Flare declared that he will be apart of Ellie's team and will face off against his academy players. These players were initially here for their full body scans, since they were here already, they might as well take part in this test. The female employee from earlier came over and told Oliver that she needed to take her leave due to some urgent matters, she instructed Oliver to test Ellie for her. Oliver was completely unenthusiastic about the whole situation, first he had to deal with Joseph and now he had to potentially deal with another troublesome player. He took out his phone and called Sarah, "Yo, later if you see a weird kid please direct him to level four."

Sure enough, minutes later Danny flew out of the lift door, he bounced around energetically while walking over to the test room. "Wow! These PCs look so good! Is that the latest OPX GPU?" Danny remarked as he entered the room. "Great! All of you are here now , let me tell everyone what your all here for." Oliver announced as he stood in front of everyone. Danny caught a glance of the players here and saw the Winger Rangers Logo on their jacket, he immediately went up to Joseph and was curious as to what is happening. "Why are you here?" Danny asked Joseph. "Listen to Oliver first, he will explain everything." Joseph requested of Danny.

Oliver gave a quick briefing of the whole situation, explaining that they will play a game to test Ellie's positional sense and even stated that her positioning has caused more than 1,000 reports of potential wall hacking. The academy players who were initially bored were now intrigued by her skills and wanted to test her as well.

The players split themselves up into Team A and Team B .

Team A - Ellie (Sentinel) , Joseph (Secondary DPS), Oliver (Main DPS), Flare (Support), Danny (Tank)

Team B - Academy players

Flare chose not to take the DPS role and let Oliver take over instead, it was only a show match after all. Flare logged onto his account and quickly created a Support character. Danny was ecstatic and hyped, playing against the Winged Rangers players would be an exciting experience despite them being academy players. "I'm so excited! The Winger Rangers have such an aggressive playstyle, their dominant approach to the game overwhelmed many teams and Flare, who has been hyped up as the next 'Garo' just debuted with them a month ago!" Danny introducing the Winged Rangers. Flare overheard his speech and went off : "Hahahaha, I like you already! You are Danny correct?". "Flare, your an exceptional DPS player with incredible aim just that you lack the coordination between your teammates." Danny blurted out, flexing his knowledge on the pro scene. "Ah, who cares about those details man, forget it lets just start." Flare went back to changing his settings while looking slightly hurt from that comment. Danny who was oblivious to his words unintentionally mouthed out an analysis of Flare, his analysis of Flare was very common in online forums and Danny was an active lurker in those forums. His egoistic nature led to tactical problems especially if he gets taunted into a 1v1.

Ellie informed the team that she and Joseph will be spawning near the halfway line. Every map is split into half, with each team occupying each half, at the start of each round you can choose your spawn location. Many teams would obviously choose to spawn together, maintaining close proximity to one another. This would change however, when teams began to rely on players who are skilled in movement techniques to go ahead and spawn near the halfway line, which was closer to the enemy's half and scout out their locations for them. "I will take full control of your actions, please follow my orders." Ellie demanded. "Sure, we are here to test you after all!" Oliver agreed to it and made the rest of the team do so. The map they chose was "Payload", a map filled with abandoned buildings set in a post-apocalyptic world. Ellie extended her arms out and gripped Joseph's shoulder, "I just need your aim to be decent okay? I will show them how I play the game."

"You can't just exploit the server to get what you want, do you rely that much on luck?" Joseph questioned Ellie suddenly. He recalled the conversation she had with the female employee about peeker's advantage. "This is definitely not your first FPS game Joseph, you could probably be one of those guys on the other team." Ellie replied. "One of them? They do not know what I know, let me know when to swing out Ellie, I think I have gotten a little used to the game." Joseph answered back nonchalantly. "Just don't choke like you did on that test, don't put up a calm pretense right now, hiding your fears away or whatever it is."

"I have a way to stay calm, I read it in a book for desperate people."