2
NeoTokyo
"What is happiness? The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome." Friedrich Nietzsche
He walked up the flight of stairs, entered his room and dropped onto his bed. As he lay there, the grease that had accumulated on his hands and face and clothes were slipping onto his sheets. The red numbers on his desk changed from 5:39 to 5:52 to 6:18. For every number that changed, the room grew darker and darker, and the sounds outside softer and softer. At least it was finally Friday.
He took off his heavy, stained uniform and worked his way downstairs. He heard recorded laughter coming from the television, and then saw two blue-lit bodies sitting on the couch staring at the screen, empty bottles scattered across the floor, a sweating bottle tightly clasped in their hands. They took no note as he entered the bathroom.
The warm water dropped down on him, tapping against his skull, cleansing away the grime that had gathered that day, and slowly the filth trickled down. He kept the water on until it aged his fingertips.
He dried himself off and stood in the tub thinking many thoughts and pondering many ideas until he spontaneously sprang back into active consciousness.
Leaving the bathroom he headed towards the kitchen in the dark, making as little noise as possible. The refrigerator hummed loudly as he got nearer. Yellow light poured onto the walls behind him, but of course there was nothing there: two bottles of beer, a gallon of milk half empty, and a stick of butter half gone. Working his way back toward the stairs, a small creature ran into him.
He's home! the thing would yell, passing by at such impeccable timing. He would push it against the wall just in time so its cries would be ignored. Go pick up some food! one parent would say. And do something productive today instead of just sitting in front of your computer all night long! would say the other. And bring those last two beers over before you go! Their empty gazes were glued to the television screen as they went bottoms up.
Of course.
Of course, of course, of course!
The cool air slapped his face as he walked down the street. He took out a cigarette and held it between his lips for five, six, seven street tiles. His hand brought up the lighter and lit the cigarette. His lungs came to life and became jubilant, reunited with an old companion. He walked on, hands in pockets, sucking on the sweet, indulging stick, walking past the Chinese restaurant a few tiles before turning back.
What up? a familiar face in the dark would ask, holding out a fist.
A shrug, their fists bumped.
Yeah, life sucks on my end too, as they smoked outside the restaurant.
Sesame chicken! the short Chinese man behind the counter would yell. A'ight, I'll catch ya later, bro, he got his food and disappeared into the night.
Ha'f a chicken wih pok fied wice an' chicken wih broccoli an' wie wice! He inhaled deeply and threw away what remained. Fo'teen fity! the tiny man would say. An' wememba…smoking ba' fo' you! Nomo' smoking! same as he had told the friend.
He hesitated at the doorway of his home, placed the bag inside and walked back to the nearest bodega. He withdrew all of the funds on the card that he got from work that day, paying twelve dollars for fees in the process in addition to the ATM's $2.75 fee. Returning home, he checked his pockets to recall where he had left his cash and where he had left the now empty card.
What took you? We're starving! And where are those beers!?
He took out one of the styrofoam containers and dropped the bag on the table. Back in his room, the only light he could see were the red numbers on the desk: 7:43. He flicked the light switch and saw his room exactly as he had left it that morning: his garbage and papers exactly where they were, his boxes and books left untouched, his bed unmade, now with grease. Posters of his favorite games and musicians and animes and teams were mounted onto his walls. If only there was more wall than posters.
He sat down in his chair, put on his headset, and turned on his computer. He took out the blue card and laid it above his mouse. His monitors brightened, he typed his password, and his background came into focus. He opened up his browser and clicked a bookmark to Pandora, immediately his preferred music began to play.
He clicked another bookmark, instantly the page loaded. Twitch's featured stream was a speed runner. A blue man ran towards the right shooting peas out of his arm, he jumped and climbed ladders, a quick menu, the blue man turned gray and he would shoot out a white boomerang. A timer would show whether or not this was a new record and by how many seconds or milliseconds better or worse it was compared to the world record and the player's best record.
Below the featured content was a list of other games being streamed, all sorted by live viewers. First on the list was his game of choice: League of Legends.
No Sinik, no Inertia, no Crescendo, no Equinox, no Eumoda – players who consistently drew in tens of thousands of viewers. The current top streamer had around seven thousand viewers. Espada, Team Ampersand's mid laner, was a very strong player. Well known for his humorous and risky antics in game, Espada was a favored streamer for many excitable people.
He dashed toward a half-health Orianna with Spirit Rush, he dropped the Ignite, landed the Charm, dashed further forward to dodge the Command: Attack, Fox-Fires locked onto the low health target, he tossed out the orb, and dashed back toward safety, tanking two, three, four turret shots in the process. A blind monk emerged from the darkness. He waited for the precise moment to Flash away from the Sonic Wave. A webcam recorded his reactions throughout the course of the game and between his games while rap music played in the background.
"I Ignited her at the beginning because I knew I could get the kill even without starting off with Charm. If I didn't juke the Ult with another dash I would've definitely died, though. At the same time I knew I couldn't tank the turret for too long. If an enemy stays in the lane with that amount of health when she knows my abilities and summoner spells up, the jungler was clearly nearby. If I played that better I could've saved Flash, though. He could have probably dived me and he would have been fine, but didn't know where my jungler was, so he probably didn't want to go too ham."
On discussion forums he could see many topics: statistics for this patch, YouTube clips of stupid or funny or creative things that people have done or have had happen to them, artwork of their favorite characters. The more active topics made their way to the top of the page: rumors of certain teams acquiring new players, rumors of new teams on the horizon, threads dedicated to an amazing play a Korean player just did a few hours ago. Jokes and praise and ridicule and criticism and toxicity from all over the world found its way onto the internet as communities trash talked, argued, and poked fun at everyone.
Since nothing was happening he decided to stream. He began his broadcast and all his social media pages instantaneously announced that he had gone live. In a matter of minutes three hundred viewers were drawn in.
"Hello," he said lazily into his headset's microphone as he waved lazily at his webcam. "I'm eating right now, so I'll just answer questions for a while before I get into a game." Twitch chat filled up with comments and questions and faces typed in by his viewers.
"Chinese food. Chicken with broccoli. The place near here is pretty good I guess, but I mean, I haven't really tasted much of the cooking from a lot of other different Chinese restaurants. I'm sure they're mostly the same." He skimmed past the stupid questions and silly comments until he found something worth answering.
"Mmm, I'm not too sure about all that talk about replacing Dendra. I mean, you have to consider the vastly different playstyles of the teams competing that season and this upcoming season. I think it's extremely stupid to not take teams in general into consideration. Every player has his strengths and weaknesses. You can look at numbers all you want, but ultimately you need the context of how the games played out and how the team played as a unit before criticizing a single player for poor performance or praising another for immaculate performance."
He chewed with a closed mouth and lifted his microphone away as he continued reading questions.
"M'drinking water. Not much of a fan of soda all the time. Maybe once a week I'll drink some soda or something."
"Where do I live? Check the FAQ below."
"Uh, yes, I do have a fortune cookie… 'Learn Chinese, Spring.' Choon, teean. Choontyan. Help, I can't pronounce. 'It is very possible that you will achieve greatness in your lifetime.' Well, isn't that comforting news?" he asked his viewers as he tossed the paper into the air.
"Am I gay? Really? You assholes. I'm just gonna add that to the FAQ this time around."
"Alright, I'll start playing in a bit, let me get some more water while I log on. I'm gonna play some ads for a minute or so. Thanks to those of you not using Ad-Block, keep being awesome."
He went downstairs careful to place his feet as close to the edges of the steps as possible. Moving as quietly and as unnoticeable as a slithering solid snake, he refilled his cup and took a few sips on the way back. The loud television competed with the loud smacking of lips and the loud chewing of food while blue light bounced off the monitor.
The eyes of the mouths were fixed on the screen, which displayed a pair of lovers kissing under a chestnut tree. The channel would then resume the broadcast: a pundit would be angered about jobs being taken by non-Americans, and talk about an incompetent politician in the East whose country had a poor understanding and execution of democracy. He also spoke of a senator who, earlier that week, had stated that the only way anyone could fail and be poor in this country was if they were lazy and didn't do their fair share of work. Anyone can make it in this country, he had said, and ultimately nothing stood in the way other than sheer determination.
Melting back into the cover of darkness, he made his way upstairs, again taking gentle, precise steps. Back in his room, the younger brother was clicking around with the mouse.
"Get out," he sighed as he pushed the kid out, locking the door, and "Oh hi," as he rested his hands back on his mouse and keyboard.
A tab with the name DeusRex blinked orange in the game's window.
(20:29) DeusRex: yo lets duo
NeoTokyo: lol, why?
DeusRex: u and me close
(20:30) NeoTokyo: Sounds legit, inivite me
"So it looks like Rex wants to chill for a bit. I know you guys like our crazy-stupid teamwork and shenanigans."
(20:32) DeusRex: get on raidcall
"You wanna dick around or play to win, Toke?" a laid back voice asked from his headset.
"I'm down for whatever, man," he responded holding his left Shift key.
"A'right then, we dickin' around. Time to make some YouTube worthy plays."
They got into the matchmaking queue and waited for the system to find suitable teammates and opponents of the same or similar skill level. Music poured into his ears as he played a typing game to ensure his fingers remained quick and precise. With only a few mistakes made, he scored 151 words per minute with a typing accuracy of 93.4%. He moved on to another game to test his accuracy and reflexes with his mouse: a rhythm game where he had to keep up with the beat and melody of the music. The more difficult songs were the faster ones he preferred.
A match was found and some familiar names showed up on their team.
amp Toxiform: tokyo ban LB pls
DeusRex: Let me jungle, I got this shit
"Try'n leave Lee open."
Aleor: phyros u mind if I mid? D: i wanna practice ahri
Royale Phyros: :/
Royale Phyros: :/
Royale Phyros: sure go ahead
amp Toxiform: don't worry ill support u phy
"I think they heard you, Rex,"
"The scumbags. They did show Lee and Renekton early…guess I'll go a bit tanky so we can dive the shit out of 'em. Kinda just wanna rush double Sunfires and proxy or push all game."
Teams and champions locked in. They quickly loaded into the game, browsing social media while the slow loaders caught up to 100%.
[00:02] NeoTokyo (Shen) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!
[00:03] DeusRex (Maokai) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!
[00:03] Royale Phyros (Ashe) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!
[00:06] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): tokyo, prepare urs
[00:08] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): lol
[00:10] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): I've taped it closed
[00:13] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): you think
[00:13] Aleor (Ahri) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!
[00:15] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): i can't
[00:15] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): break through tape?
[00:16] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Scrying Orb (Trinket)!
[00:16] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Stealth Ward!
"You should gank him early. Teach him who needs the tape,"
[00:18] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): it's duct tape, super durable
[00:19] [All] Aleor (Ahri): lol
[00:19] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lol
"That's Daze's smurf, right? It's like you guys are made for each otha. You should change the answer to your new FAQ question, you two flirt like you're married."
"You should be marriage counselor—who helps online couples get the most out of cybering."
"Ehh…" a ping dropped in the fog of war at the bottom right quadrant of the minimap, "Come to their Blue. Might need taunt."
[01:20] amp Toxiform (Janna): q or e?
[01:24] DeusRex (Maokai): Q if they show up
[01:25] DeusRex (Maokai): otherwise e
"I'm going to bail if they show up with more than two people. You're gonna get us killed just for Blue. I has a feel."
"Nah, man, they're either going our Blue or their Red. Sim won't consider the Tree invade."
"Wanna bet?"
"…nah, nevermind."
[01:47] amp Toxiform (Janna): doesn'tl ook like their comgin
"I'm headin' top,"
[02:03] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): where u hiding, tokyeo?
"Let me get four before I go up,"
"Lee's probably here. Also he has no wards."
"Ah, I see 'im. Comin', comin', come to tri—tri, tri, tri. Let me block the next Q."
"He has no Ignite."
[06:26] [All] SimJim (Lee Sin): y u so fat tree? : |
"You goin' back?"
"Yeah, gonna wait a few seconds for a pink."
[07:03] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): sorry
[07:05] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): i drank my milk
[07:06] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): and ate my vegtables
[07:07] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): growing up
[07:53] [All] RefleX (Zyra): But I heard milk makes you shrink
[07:58] [All] SimJim (Lee Sin): I'm pretty sure that's just you
[08:21] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lmao
[08:23] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Sight Ward!
[08:24] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): and i thought iwas a troll
[08:30] [All] RefleX (Zyra): qq
"Haven't seen top in a while. Not sure if he's in our jungle or what."
[10:32] NeoTokyo (Shen) signals to be careful
[10:32] DeusRex (Maokai) signals to be careful
"None of my camps were cleared. I swear I'm going to walk into them doing Dragon. Or…not. The fuck? Where are they?"
[11:12] ButTrauma has drawn first blood!
[11:14] ButTrauma has slain amp Toxiform for a double kill!
[11:18] ButTrauma has slain DeusRex for a triple kill!
[11:18] ButTrauma is on a killing spree!
"Well, top's almost dead."
[11:20] amp Toxiform (Janna): wtf
[11:22] amp Toxiform (Janna): is renek doing down here
[11:52] NeoTokyo (Shen): We pinged.
[12:23] DeusRex (Maokai): drag ~18:00
[13:02] ButTrauma is on a rampage!
[13:03] amp Toxiform (Janna): zzz
[13:05] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lol
[13:06] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): no hawkshot?
[13:10] [All] Royale Phyros (Ashe): i need dmg : (
[13:32] Royale Phyros (Ashe): welp I'm sure this game's over
[13:35] Royale Phyros (Ashe): sunfires all around
[14:57] amp Toxiform (Janna): should just wait at blue
[14:59] amp Toxiform (Janna): with sunfires
[15:00] amp Toxiform (Janna): and jump them
Full Sunfire Cape teams, they would find, were ineffective against good Syndra players. But many laughs were had and the collective viewers of NeoToyko's stream and DeusRex's stream approved of the laid back game.
"Invite me for another, dude," he told DeusRex. As they waited for the matchmaking system to find suitable players again, he opened up Thunderbird to check his emails, ones sent to his personal address, ones sent to the email for his gaming handle, and the school email he used to talk with old classmates who knew nothing about video games.
A typical list of emails cluttered his Unread folder: sales for computer parts, new books and eBooks added to a particular site's collection, announcements of his favorite streamers going live, and other such automated notifications. He glanced over subject titles and senders before clicking Mark As Read.
One particular email stood out: "Confidential – Team Final Frontier Gaming" sent by a Simon Penn. Final Frontier Gaming was a website he joined some years ago and still frequented from time to time. He shared his knowledge of the game, his thoughts on the competitive scene, and it was where many of his viewers came from.
Confidential – Team Final Frontier Gaming
Fri, Oct 7, 2016, 14:00 (7 hours ago)
Simon Penn
to me
NeoTokyo,
It is with great pleasure that I write this email to you. As you can no doubt tell by the subject, we are finally looking to form a team to compete in the upcoming North American Series and you are one of our priorities.
This is an initial proposition to ask if you are interested in playing for and representing Final Frontier Gaming. As one of our priority players I will share the list of other priority players we are looking to acquire:
Crescendo – Support – Captain
NeoTokyo – Top
DeusRex – Jungle
Marlwolf – Mid
Zodiac – Marksman
I believe I have made a pretty good job choosing roles, but I will be willing to talk to you guys about moving around if the need arises. On the occasion that Marlwolf is unwilling or unable to swap teams, we will instead opt for WildCat.
Because this is going to be a newly formed team and we will be going into this cold, we have set aside a budget to pay for a player's travel, as well as a salary for at least three months. As you know Riot guarantees a stable salary for teams that qualify into the LCS, so making it there will be tougher than simply being on FFG.
Feel free to reply with any questions you may have or talk to me on Skype (contact information available at FFG's contact page). Please respond with an official answer by the end of next week and we can discuss things in more depth.
Furthermore, please try to keep this under wraps for the time being until we can make an official announcement. Try not to show things off on stream (like the subject title for this email) and try not to talk about or hint towards this on social media. I cannot stress enough how important this is to us.
Thanks, and game on.
Sincerely,
Simon "ShellShock" Penn
Founder, Final Frontier Gaming
"Fuckin' Tokyo! You fucker! Why din't you accept the match?"
"Shit. Fuck! Did you…uh…d'you get an email from…Shellsh—Shelly?"
"Oh, from Penny? Yeah, I got it. Thought you already saw that shit. So that's why you didn't accept? Anyway, yeah, I'm down for that thing he said."
He scanned the email again, read it over one more time, two more times, three more times, highlighted the email address to make sure there was no sleazy kerning. He navigated to Final Frontier Gaming's contact page to see if they matched. He copied the From field and the email from the contact page, pasted both onto Notepad, and they matched. It was ShellShock.
He took off his headset, placed it on his desk. He reclined all the way back on his chair, leaned his head against his chair and let out a long sigh. His computer quietly hummed at him, had been ever since he turned it on but only now had he noticed.
Twitch chat filled with comments and faces:
GatJ8: he's gone full retard thanks obaam
Afhir: think he's ahveing an allergive reaction to rex
Oafy92: dam hes so srs right now : | : | : |
"Sorry guys, just gimmie a few minutes," he told the headset on the desk.
Reply.
How soon would the team get together? Is there a gaming house, or are we just doing this online for the time being? Would I have to bring my own machine if there's a gaming house or will computers be provided for us? Are there any existing sponsorships or partnerships between FFG and other companies? When would we first be paid? Myriad questions, myriad typos, myriad twitchy fingers.
He read over his questions two times, three times, four times, looking for typos, looking to see if his grammar and spelling were correct, looking to see if there was anything else he wanted to ask. He hovered over Send ten, eleven, twelve seconds.
Send.
He put his headset back on and held Shift, "Alright, let's go."
"Cool." DeusRex has invited you to a game.
When teammates and opponents were found they accepted the match. And the next one, and the next, and the next, and they played into the wee hours of morning. They shared links of videos they found funny, articles the other may be interested in. They played Scrolls, Binding of Isaac, Rouge Legacy, Spelunky, and Hotline Miami between the lengthy queues—they played anything that would keep the mind awake and the fingers active. They celebrated their victories and learned something, anything, from their defeats, and time continued forever onward, 2:13, 3:43, 4:48.
"I don't know about you, dude, but I'm tired as fuck. Thinking of calling it a night."
"It ain't even five yet. Don't be a lil' bitch."
"Fuck that, man, I've got a lot of stuff to consider in the coming week."
"Yeah, I guess. Viewers gonna be pissed at you for not doing SubWars, though."
"Fuck 'em. No! Just kidding, I love you guys. Like my own flesh and blood. We'll just…do one tomorrow or later this week."
"A'ight, you heard him guys. So just check the Twitters and the Facebooks at some point later this week."
"Oh I heard that yawn, don't try to hide it. And you said it wasn't even five."
"Well I might as well get up early tomorrow, as wel—"
"Yeah okay, man, whatever. Anyway, if anyone's tuned into my stream, thanks for watching. Sorry for not doing our weekly SubWars tonight but we'll make it up to you. Maybe I'll be on tomorrow, otherwise check later in the week for fun games and stuff. Bye," he waved and yawned at his webcam.
