Genshin Impact came out at the worst possible time...


It's a late morning over at the Ravia waterfront and for the well-dressed octoling man who always wore shades and a puffy afro, the refreshing sight of sparkling blue water down below and the extravagant white architecture glistening in the sun made his morning even better. Walking with an extra hop in his step and his hands in his pockets with his collar loosened a bit, the octoling man felt as free as the wind blowing in his face-A happy man thanks to a burdensome weight lifted off his shoulders yesterday. A risky gamble made that paid off following Squid Academy's stunning victory over the Bluerings that went down the wire and solidified itself as an instant classic, the octoling man retained his job and was deemed a genius for placing such trust in a team and going to such lengths. Currently walking down the waterfront and capturing the atmosphere of the bliss morning sea swishing about calmly paired with an ocean breeze, he was on his way to a restaurant honoring an invitation that was sent by one of his colleagues on the committee, he was told it would be a mini celebration of sorts for him retaining his job and for the success of the group stage overall. Looking at his big watch on his left wrist, he was anxious to visit the students and express his thanks to them, aware that part of the reason for them making it this far was because of that motivation and pressure placed on him, he wanted to see them in person and express and apologies for the entire situation; Those kids left a big impression on him, and what was at first a leap of faith had evolved into something stronger now that he's seen for himself what they can do when the spotlight is on them.

Arriving at the designated spot a few minutes later, he stepped inside the fancy establishment and was immediately greeted by a friendly server who asked for his name as confirmation after being told prior to expect someone of his description. Following her afterwards, they weave through the restaurant and pass by many of the dining patrons feasting on meals that looked as expensive as the refined interior they sat in. Brought to a halt at the foot of a large entryway, the server holds up her hand and guides him inside telling him that the others are waiting for him in the room. A huge lounge reserved for special occasions and larger parties, the octoling man steps in to see a spacious room-brown and beige walls with a cream colored carpet so fluffy and bright it looked like clouds of whipped cream and to his right are several colleagues sitting at a glossy marble table in fancy brown suede seats. Greeting his fellow committee members with a nod while the server stepped away for a moment, he gets told by one of them to leave his shoes at the door per the customs of the establishment to wear no shoes in these types of rooms and following their instructions he does so without a word and rests them in the corner where the rest of the shoes were neatly filed. Taking a step on the soft white carpet, he immediately pauses and savors the comfort under his toes and heels.

"Feels good don't it? Talk about top of the line quality!" one of his colleagues said sounding like a salesman; the octoling man ignores him though with his attention captured by the breathtaking view of the waterfront instead, from its dominant blue sea mixing with the white of the buildings and other structures, he found the sight pleasing of the eyes with its contrast to the color scale in the room.

Taking a seat with the rest of the committee members, they all express their fondness in seeing him at the table. "You certainly kept us waiting!" an inkling man with a burly build spoke up with a laugh.

"How are you feeling after that close call yesterday? I was almost sure you'd lose your job but boy did those runts from Squid Academy prove me wrong!" an inkling man with a fresh haircut said.

"I didn't think they were capable of pulling off the feat that they did, but it makes sense when they hail from the same borders as teams like Kalebrough, Special Forces, Beacon Hills, Yermozani, and Squidops. All those teams performed well, so it shouldn't be a surprise."

"Still, to knock off four teams in a row with three of them being ranked within the top 25 while they themselves were unranked...this is a historic run we might be witnessing. Have anything to say?" a colleague wearing glasses with a refined manner looked toward the octoling man.

The octoling man with the shades and puffy afro simply looked at the menu in front of him and ignored them, remembering all the talk they had for him leading up to this moment-now that he got the last laugh, they wanted to play a different tune that doesn't humiliate them, and he wasn't going to give them the light of day. His reaction far from interesting and more anticlimactic than anything, the committee members signal for the server to take everyone's orders now that everyone was gathered together-most of them requesting specialty beverages and appetizers to start off with plenty of jokes getting made about being hungry after all the waiting. With the luncheon officially underway, the committee members began their discussion on Nationals and the opening topic is the pulse of the tournament. A stage full of wonders, none of them knew where to begin with the group stage containing so many stories heading into the round of 64. From the emergence of surprise contenders and storylines to the dominance shown from favorites and everything in between, they all decided to recap the final results of every group and go from there. Five teams ended the stage undefeated and all five of them were prime contenders to win it all in the end, these five teams? Defending champions and Group A winners Rukovna, last year's runner-ups and champions from the year prior Group C winners Hugh-Napri, the winners of Group F Toka, Group G winners Skolar, and Group O winners Kalebrough. Coming as no shocker since all the teams ranked within the top 10, what was interesting was whether they could keep up the run in the knockout stage or suffer their first loss in the most unfortunate fashion-sudden elimination. The remaining winners of the groups were as followed: Vulerby won Group B edging out the Wobblegongs on tie-breaker, the Monarchs easily clinched Group D, Knights won out Group E, Blazers clinched Group H, Sun Pharaohs won Group I outdoing Gideon-Strawsburg on the tie, Bottlenoses win out Group J, Special Forces survived as the winners of Group K over the Joyriders and Honnokai Vocational, Lumberjacks won Group L on tie-breaker against Belray Beach, Fins won Group M, Beacon Hills won Group N on tie-breaker with the Serpents, and Yermozani secured Group P. Now that the tournament entered its second phase with the start of the knockout rounds, the importance of scheduling was priority as teams needed to use their time wisely before each round. Similar to the group stage, matches will be done in double headers at multiple venues to maintain a sustainable pace with one rotation of matches taking place one day and the following day serving as the rotation for the next wave of matches-splitting the 32 games into 16 games for the couple days, and would continue in such fashion all the way until the semis where the games will take place on the same day. With each round, teams earn an extra day in between matches. So round of 64 will have a day of rest between that round and the round of 32, and in between that round and the round of 16, there will be a couple days of prep and rest for the teams. So by finals time, teams will have five days to prepare.

"Hm. Looks like the round of 64 has some interesting matches in store…" A broad shouldered man muttered while reading through the unofficial schedule; "Sixth ranked Bluerings will meet the twentieth ranked Wobblegongs-that might be the match of the round since it'll be the only match between ranked teams. But there are also some interesting battles here-twelfth ranked Blazers playing Squidops? That team used to be one of Inkopolis' shining teams until Kalebrough and Yermozani showed up. And then there is also the one that I'm interested in with fourth ranked Vulerby playing Squid Academy."

Several of the committee members were in agreement, "Vulerby is the hometown favorite for Ravia since they are the premier Squirabian team carrying the hopes as the de-facto host team. Even the sultan has acknowledged them as his favorites to win it all, quite the expectations to live up to."

"But don't count out my Squid Academy." the octoling man said, with a poker face behind his shades, not a hint of emotion in his tone; the others looked at him with surprise.

"Y-you can't be serious…" one of them mumbled.

"Drop the act man. You won the bet, no need to keep it up anymore. You don't seriously expect-"

"It isn't an act." the octoling man said firmly. "Watch their previous games and you will find the answer."

"It's hard to bet against them after all these matches..." A man wearing a vest interejects; "Squid Academy has played against five ranked teams and have a positive record and are running a four game win streak. They won't be an easy opponent for Vulerby and match up well against them with that stacked roster of quality. Vulerby are a great team but they are led by Romaine with the rest of the players simply complimenting him. Squid Academy is built with several specialists and leaders that will prove troublesome for Romaine if he doesn't prepare for them properly."

"Fair assessment-sure, but I think Romaine and Vulerby will be wary of Squid Academy and their giant slayer reputation and do everything to stop them before they catch fire again. At least that's what I believe."

"About the round of 32…" a man wearing a blazer steps in to change the flow of the discussion; "Several ranked battles can occur should things play out how we think. A potential matchup of twenty-second ranked Polaris facing twelfth ranked Blazers, fifth ranked Skolar facing sixth ranked Bluerings, third ranked Crystal Coast and eleventh ranked Bottlenoses, seventh ranked Kalebrough playing twenty-first ranked Nimaroshi First, and so on. If things play well, the round of 32 should be loaded with exciting matches."

Whistling in amazement at the blockbuster matchups awaiting them in the round beyond, all of them were glad that this year's drawing proved successful. The group of death and the emergence of Squid Academy into a legitimate dark horse threat, five undefeated teams heading into the knockouts, and all the remaining ranked teams in excellent form, the storylines headlining the progression of the tournament stoked their excitement further when they contemplated what the round of 64 and 32 would become should things pan out as they foresaw. No doubt the overwhelming favorite to win the tournament were the defending champions Rukovna and the runner-ups Hugh-Napri who many believed would compete in a trilogy and settle once and for all who dominates the competition, but they weren't the only top teams people had their eyes on as many wondered if this would be the year Siot could take Crystal Coast to the finals and bring them the title in his final year. Could Romaine capitalize on the home field advantage and bring the title to Vulerby and the rest of Squirabia? What about twin threats in Carmichael and Miralem leading Skolar? Would C.C. and the Bluerings bounce back and prove to everyone that they weren't just hype? What about the premier Inkopolis teams in Kalebrough and the Special Forces? Kalebrough made a name for themselves behind the impact of the Moreno siblings with Kippy rising to new heights as the rookie phenom who captured everyone's hearts on the biggest stage. Special Forces also looked great with Jin Ika returning to form with a new sense of refinery to his game, no longer the arrogant player who got away with mistakes by simply overpowering opponents-now he looked much smarter on the turf, a huge positive for his team. Also proving to catch the eye of the masses with their dynamic play and chemistry were the duo from Toka in Kazuma and Shunpei, who looked just as mighty as their fellow ranked counterparts. In addition to the favorites to win the tournament, there were plenty of predictions about teams pulling off monumental upsets and making surprisingly deep runs in this tournament with the climate for this particular tournament already hinting that it won't be like any of the previous. While Squid Academy became an overnight sensation with their awe inspiring performance in the group stage, teams like Dango, Honnokai Vocational, and the Sun Pharaohs were also teams on everyone's radar for a shocking deep run in the tournament. Continuing the discussion as the food arrived, they went onto deciding the times and venues for each match to make it official before the end of the luncheon since the teams only had a few days off to rest before matches resumed. For the first rotation of games, all matches would be played in double header fashion starting with the morning block games at 7 am and 10 am start times, then proceeding to the noontime and afternoon games at 12 pm and 3 pm start times, and finally concluding with games at 6 pm and 9 pm start times. The following day of games would be under the same type of schedule and with each following round, the start times would adjust as well.

An hour and several plates later, the topic of discussion transitioned from the teams of the tournament and onto one final task that needed to be completed soon. It was tradition at every National tournament for there to be a special guest musical act to perform at the finals for the pre-game ceremony and for the intermission break that took place when one of the teams won at least two rounds and the musical act that the committee invited for this year were someone who were in heavy demand. Ever since making a powerful collaboration and taking the music scene by storm, securing their appearance for the finals was a must for the committee, and after surprisingly getting an immediate response from them, they were anxious about hearing whether they even arrived in the country yet since they had to make all the preparations ahead of time to put on an extravagant show.

"Any word from them yet? Their flight left at midnight..." one committee member looked at his watch for the time.

Another scrolls through their phone, "They should've landed by now. Their manager responded before takeoff that they would notify as soon as they landed and got situated with their lodging."

"My daughters are huge fans of theirs-I should get their autographs."

"Hm. With them here it'll be easier to coordinate everything for the concert."

"Well, we'll have to continue that when we meet them later in the week I suppose."

"Does that mean I can make an exit now?" the octoling man said wiping his face; "I've got some urgent matters to attend to, so if this will be all for now, I'd like to make my departure."

"Very well, we'll be seeing you then."

"Likewise." he responds, excusing himself from the table promptly.

Over at the airport where the sounds of propellers roaring and wheels kissing the tarmac are prevalent, in the terminal hurrying for the exit in excitement pulling her suitcase away from her group of security was an inkling wearing darkened shades to conceal her identity-if she was discovered here of all places she might never leave the place. Doing their best to keep up with her was her partner in crime who also outpaced security. Dressed in contrasting outfits with one wearing a buttoned down black trench coat with some matching punk boots and a black beret, they finally caught up to the girl sporting a sleeveless white collared shirt with a black skirt and matching thigh length socks with white sneakers and a pair of silky pink ribbons to tie up her twin tails that brought out her teal hair's brightness even more.

"You have way too much energy for someone who just got off a flight that long." Leor gasps for air after finally stopping Mika.

"Sorry about that!" she claps her hands together.

"No you're not!" an exasperated Leor responds grappling the air before her; "Sometimes I wanna just wring your neck for all the trouble you give me!" Leor shouts in an irritable motioning how she'd choke Mika, who knew how to suck the anger away from her friend by joking that she shouldn't threaten her with such a good time.

"But you're correct, I'm not sorry one bit!"

"Please don't admit that." Leor facepalmed.

"Amazing how we're back so soon." her eyes glimmer taking in the vast sight of the skyscrapers outside the windows

"Well, the pay is good and there's no way you would pass up the opportunity to see her again, right?"

Mika flashes a warm smile thinking about Sally and the others, "Yeah…"

"Anyways, wait for the others. What's the point of having security if we're not going to utilize it!?"

"S-sorry about that too…"

Serving as the special guests for the finals, Hatsunika Mika and Leor have arrived in Ravia. With a chance to enjoy the city for a bit before they begin their rehearsals, the duo are much like the many teams who are treasuring the next few days that'll be a chance to rest and unwind before the next round.