Shifting back to Nile's point of view for another video game section.


"Yeah I'm cool, just some club stuff," Lee replied.

Nile guessed Lee didn't feel comfortable enough to share personal issues. He let the subject drop.

"Alright. I wanted to know if you'd be willing to talk about game design more; if you're not too busy."

Lee's face brightened from the distraught expression of a few moments ago. "Dude I love talking about game design. It's kind of why I'm the president of this club."

Nile put his plan into action. He and Lee spent the better part of Wednesday evening discussing the design of GRR. All of the executive positions for the club were filled, but they held elections at the end of each term. A strong relationship with the president meant good advocacy during voting.

Now, he set his sights on securing a spot on the new GRR team. Schools were only allowed one team for MOBAs released within the past year. The North American gaming schools made this decision to prevent larger schools from entering more teams into tournaments. This meant only elite players comprised the competitive scene for new games. Nile needed to practice if he wanted a fighting chance at tryouts. MOBAcademy's coaches proved they were the best by taking teams to finals for years in a row. The school brought in a new coach for the GRR team.

The gaming rooms stayed open late to allow teams to practice outside of class. Architecture at MOBAcademy reflected the school's core mantra: quality over quantity. Three rows of brushed steel desks lined the gaming rooms' concrete floors. Exterior walls were all glass. Their design reduced distractions and kept the focus on gaming. MOBA practice occupied the first two rooms Nile passed; two teams of five shouting commands at each other and a spectator view of the match projected at the front of the room.

He continued down the dim corridor of Elixir Commons Hall. The linoleum floors fluoresced with the light coming in from the courtyard. Nile walked into the third gaming room in the hall and found an open station.

The machinery was serious: dual-screen, bleeding-edge hardware, and a puck. A player makes hand gestures over the puck and those trigger macros in the game. Latency is nonexistent, allowing players to react faster. Using the puck would take some training to feel comfortable. At home, Nile practiced with a keyboard and mouse he took from his old high school.

He sat down at the open station and swiped his ID card over the puck to boot up the computer and load his profile. He took a deep breath to prepare for his first game as a student at MOBAcademy.

Time between booting and queuing up in a solo ranked lobby was four seconds. The ID card stored all of his game credentials.

Nile fumbled through the gesture commands on his right monitor while the next match loaded on his left. Extending certain fingers simulated pressing activated ability keys. The puck could replace the mouse by tapping on the left or right hemisphere to click and rotating to scroll.

Matchmaking finished and started a new session. Nile was near the bottom in selecting his goliath after both teams finished picking bans for the round. RUMBLE P4CK sat unpicked for the first three players.

Nile made it clear in the chat which goliath he wanted to play. Everyone told him to wait, as usual. In lower ranks, players picked whichever goliath they preferred without any regard to other teammates or picks by opponents. Being on a team would make selection easier if it was established beforehand. He sat waiting for the opposing team to make their picks.

His goliath remained open when Nile's turn came around. The final enemy player countered his pick.

Few people chose counters for RUMBLE P4CK, which was part of why Nile chose to play the goliath. Around eighty percent of players preferred to play range with heavy defensive abilities. This guy picked DIZZI, a goliath with snaring abilities and a self-destruct ultimate.

The match started.

Nile bought an upgrade for his melee damage and a nanobot repair pack to restore his shields in lane; the GRR equivalent of a health potion. The puck made buying in the shop easier, but navigating on the minimap required correcting a few mistakes. He took the top lane solo. Nile preferred playing top because RUMBLE P4CK had a favorable matchup in most cases.

DIZZI was his opponent in the lane. He threw down a few traps around minion fights to keep a tight perimeter for Nile. This guy knew what to expect from a RUMBLE P4CK player. Going in for enemy minion kills meant risking an early engagement with DIZZI and a potential ambush by the jungler.

If Nile wanted a spot on varsity, he needed to learn how to beat counter players. The match evolved from playing against DIZZI to playing against himself. Keeping DIZZI guessing could earn him an advantage. Counter players studied the play styles of the goliath they were countering and developed a strategy around the popular builds.

Nile spent his first few minutes of farming thinking up a build DIZZI would never expect. RUMBLE P4CK players purchased items to increase melee damage and speed. He wanted to play off of his goliaths strengths and exploit his opponent's weaknesses. Nile planned to focus on defense and evasion. Avoiding traps meant DIZZI would rely on his other weaker abilities.

One of his teammates came for an ambush at the six minute mark. DIZZI had focused on setting traps to keep Nile blocked from advancing. This left an opening for other players to attack using the alleys between skyscrapers connecting each lane.

The window for ambush would last for a few seconds. Nile pinged his teammate to attack and triggered one of the traps to bait DIZZI.

His opponent took the bait and moved in, flash cannon charging, to stun RUMBLE P4CK. The flash cannon took three seconds to charge and stunned in a cone in front of DIZZI. He would be vulnerable to rifle fire if the ability went off.

Nile clenched his fists. He gave his goliath the command to retreat behind their tower, but the trap slowed him to a crawl. All of his abilities were online if he needed to use one.

His teammate charged out of the fog from the skyscrapers. The goliath's plasma rifle transitioned from blue to green as it drained the health of allied minions. DIZZI noticed the ambush and turned to stun Nile's teammate.

Nile tensed. Giving DIZZI an early kill meant fighting later in the game would be near impossible. He executed the gesture for "Best Fist Forward", but fired it backwards. RUMBLE P4CK moved further from his teammate.

"Dammit," Nile said.

He fumbled with the puck in an effort to stop DIZZI, but it was too late.

The flash cannon fired before the plasma rifle discharged. DIZZI unleashed a volley of shredder hooks to make short work of his teammate's shields.

In his attempt to join the ambush, Nile triggered another trap. He slammed his palm down on the puck.

DIZZI secured the kill on his teammate and moved to finish Nile's helpless goliath. All of his skills were on cooldown, but he had a wave of minions behind him.

Nile issued another command to retreat. He took a deep breath and waited for his goliath to move behind the tower. The kill meant DIZZI had a substantial amount more gold than him.

RUMBLE P4CK made it to the tower. DIZZI focused on hitting the tower shields with his minions while Nile recalled for an evacuation back to base.

"Great work noob."

His teammates tore him apart in the game chat. It looked like they would lose their top turret and a powered up DIZZI meant RUMBLE P4CK would be worthless. They complained about the matchmaking algorithms throwing a pathetic player onto their team.

"First time RUMBLE P4CK?"

Nile seethed while his goliath dashed back to defend the tower.

He wondered how the varsity team players treated each other. In the official tournament videos online they communicated commands and celebrated victories, but what were they like in practices? Plus, the GRR team was brand new. He worried his reactions might get him kicked off of the team, and then dismissed from the school. If he made it onto the team at all.

"I can't blow this," he said. The other kid a few rows up looked back over his shoulder.

Nile saw his opportunity to turn the game around at the nineteen minute mark. His team was ready to surrender once it hit twenty. They were down two towers and four kills. Nile planned to destroy three opposing goliaths and one of their towers. Maybe then his team would reconsider.

DIZZI pushed the last tower in the top lane. Three other opponents headed down the middle and the last was missing.

Nile pinged his team to take care of DIZZI. He charged into the middle lane and activated "Best Fist Forward". The ability connected and he followed up with RUMBLE P4CK's ultimate. One down, two to go.

His opponents reacted with their own ultimates. The first launched waves of radiation causing area of effect damage. The second called in an airstrike with a three second impact countdown.

Nile activated "Fists of Fury" to increase his attack and movement speed. In less than a second he decided to keep pressing forward. The airstrike radius was positioned behind him making an escape deadlier than engagement.

The radiation goliath went down after a few punches and narrow miss from the airstrike. Nile's shields were low, but he continued the charge.

His opponent turned on his jet boosters and started a retreat. There was a long stretch until he would reach the safety of his tower.

Nile pursued, hoping he would catch up once the jets wore off. Another charge and increase to his movement narrowed the gap enough to land a few punches and secure a third kill.

"DEVASTATION!"

At the twenty minute mark his team voted to continue playing. They handled DIZZI and the other two lanes while Nile focused on pushing through the middle. The comeback impressed his teammates who praised him in the chat.

Nile solidified their victory after a grueling hour of gameplay.

He pushed back from the table and stared at the ceiling. The GRR coach gained his notoriety in matches just like those. Of course MOBAs weren't his genre of choice. Brian D. was a premiere FPS player at Video Game High School and enjoyed a short professional career after graduating. Nile read about his transition to coaching and shaky record.

Dean Calhoun took a big chance when she asked Brian to coach the GRR team.