"Dude, what are you going into lobby with that trash for?"

Ryan snapped back into attention, noticing his friend Gil looking with disapproval at his Sploosh-o-Matic. Dude had just popped out of nowhere as he was walking through the plaza, his mind preparing for a grueling day of ranked battle.

"What do you mean?" Ryan muttered as he shuffled towards Inkopolis Tower, tucking his weapon to the side.

"I tell you man, use the Tentatek. That's what all the A's are playing with now. It's so good!"

Right. The A players. What did it matter what they were playing if he'd never get there himself? He looked down at his rank badge, frowning as it clearly read back to him: B 54. Almost entirely average. He was still trying out weapons to find what fit his playstyle, and didn't want to choose something just to be good.

Gil just shrugged when Ryan didn't answer. "Anyway, see ya later dude. Maybe you'll make it up to my rank today and we can play together!"

Ryan shook off the fake encouragement and followed his friend into the lobby, knowing full well they'd be going in different directions. Gil would follow the train up to the A lobbies, and he'd stay in the crowded and unpredictable B lobbies. Never to get better. He'd gotten up to B+ 80 one time, but went on an epic losing streak to B- 70. He'd went home that day in angry huff, sore and frustrated, holding back the tears from his eyes.

And yet, he was back again trying to rank up, just like a sea snail addict. All of his friends were in the A lobbies, and he didn't want to stop trying until he proved to everyone he was just as good.

For all inklings at his age of 16, your rank was everything. And since he had never broken into the A's, he was essentially second class at school. But this weekend would be the time he'd finally do it. He would try out short range weapons to compensate for his bad aim and hopefully be a playmaker.

Ryan pulled out his phone to start playing some squid jump as he waited to be put into a game. He could see a few other names pop up on the lobby board, letting him know he'd been matched up, but he'd still have some time to think about the upcoming challenge. Tower Control, Arowana Mall and Blackbelly Skatepark. As a Sploosh, he should be covering ground, riding the tower, placing mines. Now if only his team would cooperate...

DING!

The sound to let him know a full 8 players had joined. Ryan put away his phone and stepped into the designated spawn area. Green this time... he changed his tentacle colors and swam through the pipes to get to the starting spawn. Three other inklings swam up next to him, but he couldn't see their weapons until it was time to start.

The countdown timer began, and the four of them popped up. They found themselves in Blackbelly Skatepark. His teammates were a Blaster, a Tentatek Splattershot, and an Eliter 3K. This would be interesting... The timer finally reached zero, and it was time to start!

Ryan took main path along with the Tentatek, trying to clear a way for his teammates to get to the tower, The Eliter took the left path to the sniper spot, and the Blaster took the right flank. He strained his eyes to try and see what weapons the other team had. Hopefully they were all Aerosprays and this would be an easy match...

He was almost to the tower. He began inking up the sides to swim to the top when he suddenly felt instantly sluggish, almost unable to move. He'd been hit by a disruptor! He grunted a bit and pulled back, attempting to swim to safety. He couldn't stay hidden like this, but hopefully his team would cover him.

Splat!

Of course not. Ryan sighed as he saw who'd splatted him - a Blaster from the other team, hopping around and causing chaos for his Eliter teammate. He checked the team status and saw only two of his teammates alive, while all four enemies were alive.

They took the tower!

Yeah, might as well give up on this game.

A moment later he respawned and rushed the right flank to try and defend. The friendly Blaster was able to get an easy kill from someone just sitting still on the tower, but she continued to sit still and just spam the jump indicator.

"Move around while you're doing that. You're an easy charger target," Ryan told his teammate. She turned to glare at him as her Blaster easily splatted the poor squid who was only jumping to his doom. Ryan frowned, but couldn't waste time trying to explain himself. A second later, she exploded in a ball of purple ink. Told you. He cursed and went to the back of the tower, noting the distinct lines of an enemy Eliter.

As he climbed to the top to hide, he wondered what was with all the Eliters today. Must be because Mall was in the rotation. It was probably why he also saw several inkzookas for counterplay.

He swam up the sides of the tower, quickly covering a patch to hide in. He positioned himself behind the pole to hide from the Eliter's threatening gaze. Where was his team? The Blaster was dead, the tentatek was scouting ahead to try and defend and clear a path, good, but where was their charger? He peeked his eyes out of the ink to see the friendly splatterhot successfully splat the Eliter, and he sighed with relief, knowing the path ahead would be clear. He set a beakon on the tower and wanted to get off to set up a base with other beakons, but his teammates weren't around to support him…

Splat!

What in the….

The enemy blaster got him again! He growled as he dissolved in the purple ink and headed back to the spawn point. That same girl kept splatting him. She had all top-tier gear and looked super fresh, too. What was she doing down here in purgatory ranks?

The rest of the match played out as a tight tug of war, neither team able to break the 60 mark. One team would take the tower, but both teams were in too good of position to allow their defense broken. A few times that same Blaster player would manage to splat him and the Tentatek, their main offense, but she would only get splatted by his friendly charger. Ryan would try and flank to put up beakons, but the enemy charger and blaster kept him back and he couldn't make much headway.

The stalemate kept on, and the other team was a mere second ahead with 40 seconds left in the match. Ryan knew they'd have to make a push now, or they'd lose. Now was the time to be aggressive. They'd have to take the charger out, the tentatek almost had his inkzooka, but maybe he could flank. He tried the right flank to get into the small corridor leading to the charger spot. The charger was perched on the ledge and scoped, so he'd be able to approach from the side. If only -

SPLAT.

Okay, this was seriously getting old. Where was his team? Could no one else get any kills at all? He couldn't do anything like this, acting alone...

Ryan huffed as he watched the clock count down and saw his team play passively. They were behind, and didn't have enough time to form a comeback. He could try, but the map was covered in purple and no specials were active.

The inevitable winner was announced by Judd, and Ryan sighed. It had been a close game and it always hurt to lose those. He'd gotten some good plays in but he'd been shut down more than he'd like. He frowned as he dropped down to B 44.

His splat-to-splatted ratio was 8-11, which was respectable for tower control. He scanned the scoreboard and his jaw dropped as he saw the enemy blaster's total: 22-14. She had been all over the place and wreaking havoc on his team, but he'd never seen such a ratio in tower control, where everyone was splatted so much.

Since it was such a close match, he'd stay in the lobby. The skill level was evenly distributed and perhaps he could get on a team willing to work together. He headed back to the spawn point and swam back to the lobby waiting area, and paid attention to the names that stayed posted. The chargers both left, but he wanted to see if the enemy Blaster girl stayed. Name after name appeared, and he finally saw her: Tori. She was easily the best he'd played against in a while, and hoped she was teamed with him. The only way to get better was to play with others better than himself.

DING! Eight players were found, and it was time to start another game. Ryan hopped into the pipes and grinned as he saw Tori pop out out of ink beside him. He'd try and set up beakons for her to jump to as she wrecked the other team, and he'd make sure the ground was painted to make sure his team had mobility.

Ryan stayed focused on his role, and felt like his back was covered since Tori was roaming and punishing those that overextended. They also had a Luna Blaster and 96 Gal Deco to make a good team composition. Tori rushed the point and pushed ahead, ,and managed to get a triple before dying. The Luna Blaster got on the tower, and the 96 swam beside her to provide long range support. Ryan flanked to set up beakons and tried to make sure the ground was covered, but they managed to ride the tower all the way up to the goal without losing the tower once.

Yes! Exuberant, Ryan high-fived his teammates, loving when things came together. He'd normally leave the lobby if things were this imbalanced, but instead couldn't wait to play another game and swam back to the lobby as quickly as he could. He ended up staying in the lobby for the rest of the afternoon as the matchmaking seemed on point today. Ryan was steadily climbing and flirted with B+ a few times, but lost every time he got to 90 points or greater. Still, he found himself smiling and enjoying ranked battles for the first time in a week.

Finally, the map rotation switched and everyone was forced out of the lobby to do a few moments maintenance. Ryan exited Inkopolis Tower and squinted into the bright lights of the plaza, searching out one Inkling in particular. He just had to talk to Tori, as she had stayed and played with him for so many hours. They'd won nearly every game they'd played together.

He spied her leaning against the tower, observing the crowd and absent-mindedly tapping her weapon against the wall. Ryan took a deep breath and walked up, hoping she'd noticed he'd stayed in the lobby with her.

"Hey Tori," Ryan approached. "We had some epic games, huh?"

She looked up and gave him a smile. "'Sup? And yeah we did! Ryan, huh?"

"Yep. You're so boss with the Blaster, you were tearing it up out there."

"Heh, thanks. I wanted to get some more practice in with it. Not my best weapon but I wanna master it. You were doin' okay with the Sploosh, but somethin' tells me it's not your main."

Ryan shook his head, his cap flopping to the side. "Not at all. Just trying other things out. I like the longer range weapons better but I can't aim, so I thought I'd try a different playstyle."

"You did get to some tricky spots and were always where you needed to be. You did blindside me a few times." She played with her Blaster's trigger. "But, you need to work on your mindgames at close quarters. I could read you."

"I noticed. You were shooting where I was going before I even got there. How are you only in the B ranks?"

Tori folded her bottom lip. "Ranks don't really mean much. I know I'm better than my rank so I don't pay attention to it."

"But… how can you not care about your rank?" Ryan frowned once again at his medal. The B 90 struggle was real.

"If anyone calls me out on it, I just tell them to 1v1 me. That shuts them up."

Ryan tilted his head in thought. He figured a team needed a lone wolf, but perhaps Tori kept getting matched with others who wanted that playstyle. He noticed she always charged in unafraid and had been splatted a few times out of her recklessness.

"You know, I noticed you can be a bit careless out there."

She laughed. "I get that a lot. I'm not afraid to splat or be splatted. I wanna make things happen if nothing else."

"Say um…. are you on a team or anything?" He gauged her reaction while playing with his hoodie's zipper. "I've been wanting to put one together but have kinda been focusing on myself. But I'd like to practice with you and get better. I know I may need seem very good but I feel I know the meta better than most."

"I don't know if joining a team is really my thing… but I'd be down to practice sometime. I can give ya some pointers. You seem sharp and manage to look fresh even with the best abilities on your gear."

"Heh, thanks…." Ryan was pretty proud of his setup.

"But not tonight. I need to get some grub and my parents are probably waiting for me." She rolled her light blue eyes and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment but quickly came back. "Anyways, I'm a check the map rotations tomorrow and I'll let you know."

"Cool, uh… lemme give you my number and you can text me."

Tori pulled out her phone and they exchanged numbers. After parting ways for the night, Ryan smiled as he walked home, not even caring about his mediocre B medal, and ignoring his rumbling stomach and instead looking forward to practicing with Tori tomorrow. Maybe this would be the start of his new team.