The next day was full of excitement, as the tryouts for Mock Combat were today. Mock Combat involves two teams of 3 at a time, battling in a combat zone using simulation ammo that gave the same effect on a tank as taking a real round but with no deadly consequences. Ramming was dealt with by using pressure plates put on contestants front, flanks, and rear. Those plates calculated force and "Damaged" the tanks accordingly. There were 3 teams fighting to represent the USA in the games. The first teams called themselves the Smoking Guns and was comprised of T69M as their scout, T28 P (prototype) as their sniper, and T32 as their brawler. The second team, who represented the USA last year, went by the Wolfpack and was comprised of T54E1M as their scout/speed fighter, T25 AT as their sniper, and T32's brother T34 as their brawler. The third team, after persuasion from T20, was comprised of the three medium brothers. They couldn't think of a name, so their father gave them the one he used when he was representing the USA along with T1H and M10 Wolverine, The Untouchables. Grizz saw that as weak and opted for The Crushers, Pershing suggested the Purple Cobras, but they ended up using J.P.s suggestion of Triple Threat. They couldn't decide on roles, but they knew they would use J.P.s speed, Pershing's strength, and Grizz's combat skills.
As everyone thought the Wolfpack would win, they had the Smoking Guns and Triple Threat fight to determine who advanced to the championship against Wolfpack. The SPGs set up a fake town battlefield the night before, and the teams were pumped to fight. As they were loading simulation shells into the tanks, T20 gave his sons a talk on strategy in their pre-game hangar. "This is the strategy I used to win the MC game twenty years ago, right after Grizz and J.P. we're born. We started from our point and spread out. T1H and Wolverine both moved right and I went left to cover..." Grizz cut him off, "Dad, we aren't going to remember that, we are just going to work together and play our strengths and weaknesses. Don't worry; we'll beat the Smoking Guns..." "But you sure won't beat Wolfpack by winging it, I'm so proud of you boys and I put you in this year because I thought you were ready, but I didn't think you could beat Wolfpack without strategy." "Thanks dad" J.P. replied " but I'm with Grizz, we need to learn from experience what to do, you didn't represent USA the first time you tried right?" Then M4A3E2 came inside the room. "OK boys let's make a deal, if you win, you get away with this backtalk. If you lose, you do our chores for a month." "Deal!" All three said in unison. "OK then it's settled, were holding you three to your word." And the parents of Triple Threat left the room. "We'd better get there before we're late" Grizz suggested. Then they drove away from the hangar, and out to the battlefield.
When they got to their starting point, the looked over to the hill on their right and saw the whole amerimedium family overlooking the battlefield. Sherman waved his turret at the three and they couldn't help but say "aww". On the hill to their left were the other three families. Apparently they thought their family members would win. "Ok guys, I need you to call a target and take him out of the fight." J.P. talked first "I've got T69M, I'm almost as fast and he has paper for armor even though he has a magazine-fed gun." "I've got T28P, even though he's got a helluva gun, I can throw him around like a pebble." Pershing added. Grizz nodded and felt a pang of fear knowing that he would be possibly brawling with a bigger, stronger tank, even though Grizz had a better gun. The SPG named Priest called out over a loudspeaker " You all know the rules, no malicious play or foul language, no cheating, when you've been knocked out you must leave the area immediately of suffer a disqualification. Good luck. START!" Grizz grunted to his brothers "Let the games begin."