Gray, Yurika, Geoff, and Caleb spawned inside the map. Each of them had the exact same mech with the exact same weapons.
"Man, this sucks!" Yurika complained.
"While I do agree it is boring, it is still the best way to determine actual skill by giving everyone the same weapons and mechs." Caleb said analytically.
"What if I suck with this weapon though?" Geoff asked honestly.
"It's the easiest weapon to use… how can you suck at it?" Gray asked Geoff.
"I don't but… I like automatic weapons, or at least burst fire!" Geoff complained.
"Yeah yeah, I get it, they picked a weapon that is boring, easy to use, and have it perform well in almost any role so that even if we had another weapon choice, we probably wouldn't pick it. When nobody signs up for the next tournament, they'll hopefully figure it out by then." Gray said bluntly.
"Next tournament? This might be the first and the last depending upon the outcome of the war." Caleb remarked.
"Fair point… well, the war starts in 2 weeks, for now, focus on the tournament!"
Gray took a quick look at the map and saw it was just a simple flat map with a lot of unnatural barriers in generic shapes spaced out evenly. Each side was symmetrical leading to both sides having the same advantages and disadvantages as the other.
"Wow, this… I love it and hate it… it pleases the obsessive-compulsive side of me, but it also makes matches very boring, so I hate it." Gray said to himself.
Gray noticed the timer was only for 15 minutes, so they planned to make these matches short and sweet. "Quantity over quality it looks like." Gray thought.
"Form up, we're going to make this fast so we have more time to rest between matches since all four of us are in every single match!" Gray commanded.
Without anywhere to really hide except for the obvious barriers, sneak attacks were not exactly something this map allowed. Only about a minute after forming up, both teams had visually spotted each other. The DMR truly was a boring weapon as it eliminated the need for any advanced strategy but instead tested the individual skill of the player when it was in everyone's hands.
Gray and Geoff quickly realized how mediocre they were with weapons since the DMR required one to be accurate instead of making up for it with a spread of bullets. Caleb was very accurate with his, but he required a little more time to shoot. Luckily for all of three of them, Yurika still proved to be a juggernaut as she was not only very accurate but her rate of fire and target acquisition was ridiculous as well.
"Note to self, buy Yurika... everything she wants after this tournament." Gray thought to himself.
The first 4v4 match was uneventful as Yurika carried the 3 of them through it. Gray and Geoff found it better to take a square formation and soak up all the shots while Caleb and Yurika would disable the enemy team with as few shots as possible by aiming for the engines in the abdominal area of the mechs.
"If I ever get to help design a mech, I'd put the engine in a better protected area." Gray thought to himself. He wasn't sure what it would take to design a mech, but with 3D printing, it wouldn't be hard to fabricate any parts... if he had a mech-capable 3D printer and the tons of resources required to create one.
After the first match, they had about 10 minutes to rest before the 8 versus 8 matches began. Paul, Stacia, Xyra, and Jono joined them in the pregame lobby to chat.
"How'd the first match go?" Paul asked.
"So boring! Everything went as expected, no strategy, just aiming and shooting from any distance!" Yurika shouted. She seemed genuinely angry at this type of match.
"It'll be okay, Yurika, we only have to do this for this dumb tournament." Gray said, trying to calm Yurika.
"Yeah yeah, just remember I like variety." Yurika said playfully then winked at Gray.
"Ok, that's enough rom-com from you two, so I'm guessing the 8 versus 8 matches are going to be the same except with a larger map?" Geoff said after having enough of watching Gray and Yurika.
"I hope not, but I have a feeling it will be." Gray said slightly depressed.
__________
The AI Nadia materialized in front of Drake Walters, the PR executive for Alterra Corporation that hasn't had a mention in so long it feels like he is a new character.
"Sir, the tournament's popularity started off strong, but it seems interest has quickly waned after just the first round." Nadia reported to Drake.
"We expected this since a lot of people will leave once they are eliminated, are you saying the decline is even greater than that?"
"Yes, we've had a few teams even quit before their turn starts."
Drake furrowed his brows then said, "What do the forums say?"
Nadia seemed to look off into the distance for a few seconds then turned her attention back to Drake, "Sir, the general consensus is that it is boring and only caters to the professionals"
"I'm assuming that is your paraphrased response?"
"Obviously! The average responses were full of expletives, poor grammar, and various insults at somebody's mother."
"That's fairly normal... reasons why it is boring though?"
"Mostly the lack of weapon variety, the balanced and artificial maps are also considered boring, and finally just straight up team death match is boring to some."
"The last two are for time constraints... damned military shouldn't have waited until 2 weeks before the war to have this. Call Lieutenant Felicia Stone, I want to run this by the military as fast as possible!"
"Yes sir." Nadia put her hand to her ear as if she was now waiting on something. A few seconds later, Nadia looked up and said, "Lieutenant Stone is online, sir"
"Drake! Good to talk to you again. I hope you can make this brief as we're quite busy right now trying to manage this tournament and preparing for a war." Felicia said in her usual friendly manner that belied her tired expression on her face.
"I'll keep it short, the tournament is starting to flop, even after just one round. Biggest complaint is the weapons, they're boring."
Felicia rolled her eyes and said, "That's what I tried telling the big wigs, but they wanted to keep it fair, balanced, and professional. Still, they love charts, give me a chart or something I can show them that indicate the tournament will flop even more if something doesn't change."
Drake looked at Nadia and she merely said, "Done... and sent"
Felicia looked to the side and nodded in satisfaction, "Solution that you think they would agree upon?"
"Aside from scrapping the tournament, starting over, and taking players in to consideration, how about change it so that the last 3 rounds they can pick from their own team's selection of weapons and mechs?" Drake said plainly.
"Sounds reasonable, they'll still get their test of skill and the players can still have fun and use any of their teammate's mechs or weapons if they pass said test."
"Exactly, I hope to hear good news soon then!"
Felicia nodded then her image disappeared.
__________
Gray's team faced off uneventfully against a team of only 6 players since it looked like 2 of them had quit before the match even started.
"Wow... that was boring... again..." Gray thought to himself, "I know they want the best soldiers, but they have to remember most of us are not soldiers."
"Good news Gray, check the forums! An announcement from the military regarding the rules of the tournament!" Caleb said happily.
Gray, and everyone else quickly looked at the forums and found a post from the military's official account.
The forum post was brief, but it made Gray and many other players a bit relieved. The only problem was that they should've done it from the start. "Players, we apologize for not taking your desires in to consideration. We admit that this tournament's goal is to find the best candidates for military recruitment and so we wanted to test skill first and foremost. The last 3 rounds will be slightly different. The maps will be replaced with maps that have natural environments, but still symmetrical. The mech and weapon choices will not let you pick anything that you or your teammates have. Once again, we hope this keeps everyone interested and apologize for our lack of foresight."
"Sweet, so like... all of us could use my mech with the Gatling cannon at the same time! That would be amazing to see 8 Gatling cannons mowing down everything in their path!" Yurika said, drooling slightly.
"You're drooling..." Gray said while looking at Yurika's far off expression. "It is good and bad, good because we can use what we're best at in the last 3 rounds, but bad because we have to make it to those rounds and it means a military team could have nothing but rail guns and advanced mechs."
"Can't we use them for the 16 vs 16 since Kelly's team is military?" Stacia asked.
"I forgot about that... now I'm getting really excited!" Gray really was getting excited, the best way to learn about military hardware was to play with it after all!