Val stepped into the glass booth, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Behind him, several dozen people crowded the tables in the center of Elle’s basement, staring at a large projector screen positioned against the back wall. The projector would be displaying the spectator mode of Avalon – a mode where the viewers could control what area of the map to look at or a specific player’s point of view. Elle sat at a computer near the projector, controlling which view the audience could see.

Taking one last backwards glance at the audience, Val pulled on his headset and entered his credentials into the game. Navigating to the tournament server, he connected to the voice channel of Team 8.

“This is Val,” said Val. “Anyone here?”

“How do you put this thing on?” Sydney’s voice said, audio faint.

“It’s getting caught in your hair,” said Blaze. “Take it off for a moment -”

“Get back to your own booth!” a referee roared.

“I’ll be over soon!” said Blaze. After a brief pause, he spoke again. “Do you know why?”

“GET BACK TO YOUR BOOTH!”

“It’s ‘cuz I’m fast!” Blaze hollered, voice fading into the distance.

“Hello?” said Sydney, seemingly having gotten her headset on properly. “…is this damn thing on?”

“Yeah I can hear you,” said Val. “Anyone else here?”

“DJ here,” said DJ.

There was a click as someone else joined the comms.

“Who joined?” DJ asked.

“I’m not first?” Blaze asked. “That’s strange…this game must be a bit messed up.”

“Willow?” asked DJ. “You here?”

“…here,” said a hoarse whisper.

“Okay, we’ve got everyone,” said DJ. “…what do we do now?”

There was a moment of silence.

“Plug your character card in,” said Val. “After the Equipment Phase, there will be a confirm button. Once we’ve all confirmed, the game will start.”

“Wow!” said Blaze. “You seem to know a lot about this! You play in tournaments before?”

“…nah,” Val replied. “It…it just makes sense.”

“You’re lying, buddy,” said Blaze. “But I don’t care. Just ‘cuz you’ve played in tournaments before doesn’t mean you’re faster than me.”

Val let the conversation drop to take the time to plug in the character card of Lancaster the Knight into the headset. Heading into the equipment screen, Val chose his standard setup – Dragonbone Longsword, Steel Armor, and several Health Potions.

“What do I buy?” Sydney asked. “Should I buy a sword? A shield?”

“Buy a Healer’s Amulet and a bunch of Mana Potions,” said DJ. “Besides that, just look for items that reduce the cooldown on your healing spell or improve your mana regeneration.”

“…Blaze?” Sydney asked.

“Just listen to the nerd,” said Blaze. “He probably spends all his time playing this game anyways.”

A couple minutes later, all of the players had confirmed their equipment setup. On screen, a countdown to the game began – a large white number on a pitch-black screen.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this countdown, thought Val, watching the numbers decrement. The last time I saw it, I hoped I’d never see it again…I didn’t think I’d be back so soon.

The timer dropped down to 0, and game one began.