Logging off Strife, Eric headed to bed, brushing his teeth and going through his bedtime ritual at lightning speed. As he climbed into bed, a thought struck him and he hauled himself back out of bed, away from the warm covers and soft pillow.
Remembering Mark's words, Eric grabbed his mouse and keyboard, carefully wrapping the cables to prevent damage as he stowed them in his satchel. Padding softly downstairs, he grabbed a few cookies and a can of iced tea, which he brought back upstairs and stored in the front compartment of his bag.
Racking his brain, Eric tried to think of anything else he needed to do before he woke up tomorrow, his alarm clock currently read 12:06, only a few minutes past midnight.
'It's still fairly early, maybe I'll browse riddit for a few minutes, catch up on the gaming news,' Eric thought to himself, grabbing his phone and settling down in bed.
An hour later, Eric finally tore himself away from his phone, setting an alarm for 8:15 and plugging it into the charger several meters away from his bed. If he wanted to turn off the alarm, he would either have to wait it out and get shot by his parents for waking them up at such an ungodly hour, or haul himself out of bed and hopefully force himself awake.
Settling down, Eric tossed and turned, finally entering an uneasy sleep where his dreams were filled with feeding teammates and terrible misplays.
After what seemed like only a few minutes, the blaring sound of his phone alarm entered his ears, causing him to open his bleary eyes, the world swimming as the colours of his room slowly came into focus.
Grabbing his glasses from the bedside table, Eric jumped out of bed, disabling the alarm and standing there for a moment as he waited for the groggy feeling to subside. As he stood there, his phone buzzed, announcing the presence of a new text message.
Opening the message, Eric saw that it was from Mark.
Mark 8:16
Yo Eric. Griffin and I are on our way. Be ready by 8:35 or you're paying for gas.
Sending Mark a quick reply to let him know that he was up, Eric stretched, yawning widely as he padded slowly over to the bathroom, flipping on the shower and allowing the hot stream of water to jolt him awake.
After a quick and unsatisfying five minute shower, Eric stepped out, wrapping himself in a towel as he brushed his teeth, the toothbrush moving in and out of his pearly whites, occasionally a bristle would get caught in his braces, forcing him to gently pry it free. With an annoyed look Eric spat the rest of the toothpaste in the sink and grabbed a glass of water.
'We've got virtual reality and quantum computers, but the best way to fix teeth is still a bunch or razorwire literally bolted to the enamel,' he thought with a sigh.
Finishing with his morning routine, Eric grabbed his bag and dashed downstairs. Checking the time, he saw that he still had six minutes, just enough time for a bowl of cereal he reasoned, grabbing a bowl and busying himself with pouring the cereal.
As the last spoonful of cereal disappeared into his mouth, ruining the effort he'd gone through of brushing his teeth only minutes before, a vibration from his pocket announced that Mark and Griffin had arrived. Peering out the window, Eric's hypothesis was confirmed as he spotted Griffin's beat up Volckswagon Golf sitting on the road in front of his house.
Throwing his empty bowl in the dishwasher, Eric grabbed his coat and bag, hurriedly struggling into his coat as he rushed out the door, activating the keyless lock before making a mad dash through the snowy driveway to the car.
Tearing open the door, Eric jumped in the backseat, moving a bag off of the seat and tossing both it and his satchel on the seat beside him where another bag lay, a stray cord emerging from the mouth of the backpack.
"Glad you could make it Eric, I was worried I'd have to go and beat on your door like last time," Mark joked from the front seat as Griffin put the car in gear, doing a U-turn to get out of the dead-end where Eric's house was located.
"Eh I couldn't miss this. I even set like six alarms," Eric replied with a grin, giving Mark a fist bump as the car accelerated, Griffin driving cautiously on the icy roads.
"God I hate driving out here, the roads suck," Griffin commented. Eric rolled his eyes, "Like your place is any better? At least these roads are paved," he said, only half-heartedly attempting to defend his home.
"Yeah but at least I'm used to those roads."
"You're just annoyed because you haven't mapped out all the potholes here Griffin," Mark interjected which got a laugh from the boys. The laugh turned to groans of pain as the car hit an enormous pothole that was partially hidden by the drifting snow, bouncing the inhabitants of the car, and slamming their heads straight into the ceiling.
"You better not have done that on purpose Griffin," said Mark, wincing as he cradled his head where it had left a tiny dent in the roof.
"Nope. Fairly sure that hurt me and the car more than you anyways," Griffin responded, a similar look of pain visible on his face.
It was true, at six foot three, Griffin was noticeably taller than Mark's five foot eight. Even with preparation, he'd probably been the hit the hardest of the three, Eric thought as he tenderly massaged the back of his skull.
"Yeah the roads around here are pretty bad, make sure you don't kill us before we get to Murphy's Griffin. I've got plans for that money that I can't implement if I'm dead," Eric joked, attempting to soften the mood slightly. This brought on another round of laughter as the three began to talk about how much it sucked having to wake up so early, and other mundane morning topics.
"Looks like the others are on their way as well. Jun's just dropping his sister off first," said Mark, checking his watch for any missed calls.
"Man I want one of those so bad," said Eric, pointing to Mark's watch as Mark turned to look back at him in confusion.
"Yeah not sure why you're still using a normal phone. These aren't that expensive anymore," Mark replied, tapping his watch, "Even Gio has one and he doesn't even have a part time job."
"I just don't have the money right now. I'm still saving up for a new PC at the moment. But that's one of the things I'd like to buy if we win," Eric explained.
"Do you really think we can win?" Griffin asked suddenly, turning the topic at last to the matter at hand as he concentrated on the road, craning his head to peer past the windshield wipers as they knocked away the oncoming snow.
"I've got no idea. I heard that some pretty good teams are coming out today," Mark replied, "I know that Connor was already signed up with some guys he knows from the club at school. And the team that beat us last time is going to be there for sure as well. I saw them when I was paying our sign up fee."
"Yeah Leif and his friends will be there as well apparently. Not sure if he's left the house yet, but Ryan told me that he said no when he asked. I wanna say it's going to be him, Jared, Andrew, Felicia, and Xander," Eric added.
"Are any of the amateur teams coming out? Or do they have games today?" Griffin asked, coming to a stop as they reached the main road.
"I think a few of them are, five grand's a decent amount of money, even for an amateur team," said Mark, watching as cars flashed by in front of them. Seeing a gap, Griffin hit the gas, turning onto the main road and accelerating to avoid getting crushed by an oncoming truck.
"Mooseheads? Nova Five? Atlantic Carries?" Eric asked, rattling off the names of some of the more well known local teams.
"I know that the Atlantic Carries are going to be there for sure. Not sure about N-five or the Moose," Mark replied.
"Mmmmh. As long as N5 doesn't come we've got a good chance actually. The Atlantic Carries are beatable now that Twizzler's gone pro. Of course there's still a bunch of strong teams that could show up. But our chances aren't nil," Eric analyzed.
Mark nodded, "That's what I'm thinking. Our lanes are pretty strong. I'd prefer it if you could play a few more meta picks. Of if Nick would flex to mid so that you can jungle. But overall our bot is pretty strong and I'm confident I won't lose up top in this meta."
"Yeah Jun and Rob have been duoing together for like a year and a half now. They're pretty good together," Eric acknowledged, "By the way. How do you think you guys are going to fare Griffin?"
"Not well," Griffin said with a sigh, "We divided the teams based on rank. But Gio is bad at top since we can't hide him in the jungle like we normally do. And I can't really lane all that well. Ryan's doing fairly well mid, but he likes to go really aggressive and that gets him killed a lot. As you've exploited a few times now," he said accusingly.
Eric whistled innocently, "He's got good mechanics. He just needs to not always go ham. It's really easy to bait him when I know you're not around. Or when Nick and I have a stronger 2v2 than you guys do."
"Yeah. Either way I don't see us doing so well. Raj and Alfredo are doing okay bot. They play together pretty often apparently so they've got synergy. It's just that they don't really win lane. They're kind of like you Eric in that they play more not to lose lane, except without your focus on counterattacking or baiting for your jungler," Griffin explained.
Mark nodded, "Makes sense. Yeah I don't expect you guys to win. But there are prizes for runner ups, so if you don't get unlucky with your matchups you can still go pretty far. Plus anything can happen in best of one matches. So you guys could make the playoff portion pretty easily if things go your way."
"We've practiced quite a few cheese picks and comps just for that," said Griffin, flashing Eric a smirk in the rearview mirror.
Eric groaned in response, "I don't suppose that those picks involved weird stuff like full tank waveclear mids, or doing a four man gank at level two on the mid lane?" he asked, a look of annoyance flashing in his eyes.
"Maybe. Do you know how damn hard it was to convince Ryan not to play a carry mid? He only went along with it because Jun agreed to record your reaction in Strife."
"Ugh that bastard. Betraying me like that," Eric muttered, looking out the window with a small smile on his face.
"Anyways. We stand a fair chance. We just have to make sure we play well and execute our strategies properly," said Mark as Griffin turned into a small parking lot. Parking the car, the trio grabbed their bags and got out, where they were greeted by the sight of the tournament venue.
Murphy's was a large three story building, a former bowling alley, Murphy's had been converted into a massive arcade and internet cafe. On the front was a large neon sign, emblazoned with the name of the establishment which shone even through the blowing snow.
Hunching their shoulders, the group ran for the entrance, doing their best not to slip and fall in the parking lot as they dashed for the door.