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Saturday, April 28th, 218
12:45 PM
It was exactly 15 minutes before the second phase of the event, the Physical Exam commenced.
Around this time, apart from some of the examinees coming back from their lunch, one other type of people had just arrived in the area surrounding Z Stadium.
They were the college scouts and representatives!
The people that had come in this time around were wearing a more diverse variations of clothing than the examinees who had arrived in the morning.
From formal suits to casual tracksuits, every representative was sporting different choice of styles.
Some could even be seen wearing their official school staff jacket, symbolizing the college they represented.
These people had all arrived on the location not simply to scout for new bloods, but mainly to gather information regarding their rival schools' new generation of players.
And one such person was Rory Smith.
With slicked back hair and a pair of thick frame glasses, the formally suited man was one of the talent scouts for the top Tier-1 Verdante College Arena Team, the Windrider.
His purpose in coming today was the same as everybody else. That is, to scout.
But his quiet arrival had unfortunately been compromised by the appearance of someone who he least wanted to meet in these sorts of occasions.
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"Mister Smith!"
Rory was just about to walk past the main entrance of the stadium with his straightened back, when he was greeted by an unpleasantly familiar face next to him.
"...Mister Lambert." He acknowledged the other person with a frown.
The man who had called on him was someone with a completely different demeanor from his neat and tidy image.
The guy called Mister Lambert had a sharp and smug face with a naturally curly bed hair on top of his head. He was wearing a normal white T-shirt underneath his black blazer which was paired rather well with his thight-fitting navy jeans.
Just like him, this Mister Lambert was also a representive of another prestigious Tier-1 school within the Zeta City area: The renowned Ravenville University and their Arena Team, the Ravenville Illusions.
Both Verdante College and Ravenville University were two of the top Tier-1 schools of Zeta City, they were well-known even throughout the whole Northern Sector of Olympus.
When two such famous representatives greeted each other in front of the stadium's main entrance, the tension was enough to attract even the rest of the scouts and coaches around who happened to recognize them.
Whispers with meanings in-line with, "The Tier-1 colleges have arrived..." began resounding throughout their surroundings.
*whisper* *whisper*
"An uptight person as usual eh." John Lambert leaned on the doorframe of the main entrance with folded arms as he commented.
"Same with your vulgar mannerism as well." Rory replied with a push on his glasses.
"Oh, come on. Don't be like that. Let's talk together." John brushed off his comeback with a grin like it was nothing and continued to approach him.
"You're blocking the entrance."
"Then we'll walk and talk. Let's go."
"..."
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"So..."
"How many of your Verdante freshmen came today?" The moment they left the gate together, John started asking questions without any restraint towards Rory.
"...Some. You'll see them soon enough."
For Tier-1 colleges like theirs, there's practically no sophomore year student who had not own an Arena Athlete License in their first-string rosters. Which could only mean most of their promising rookies were getting their license during their freshmen year either in April or in June.
Although Rory didn't really want to engage in a conversation with him, John's question was something that could easily be looked through and find the answer for easily. Which was why he hadn't minded himself with answering the bare minimum.
"And what about Ravenville?"
*grin*
"Some. You'll see." John had answered the exact same way, albeit with a more amused look on his face.
He quickly moved on to another topic, "What about fresh bloods? Do you think any of the people you sent invitations to will come to try their hands with the exam?"
"..."
"Well, at least one of them should come. Though I don't know if she'll participate today or in June." Rory replied without showing any expressions.
"Aha, 'she'. Well, of course you guys will try to get your hands on her too."
"Of course."
The two of them nodded in agreement and opened their mouths at the same time,
""Medea Dormer.""
"Heheh."
"Someone like her will fit better playing for the Illusions don't you think?"
"She's not suited for trick plays, her playstyle is aggressive and straightforward. She would do well in taking this into account when picking us. The Windrider can do wonders for her."
"Hah, I don't agree at all." John lightly retorted.
"It doesn't matter either way. Other Tier-1 colleges should have already sent her some invitations as well. The decision now lies with her."
"That's true... What do you think are the chances of her becoming a Starseed?"
Rory once again pushed his glasses up while answering, "I wouldn't know. She did resign from her high school's Arena Team to focus on getting a license."
"Should be interesting to see her growth from last year's high school championship."
*sigh*
"3 new Starseeds have already come up from out of nowhere this past academic year. We'll just need to wait and see if tomorrow, a 4th one will emerge from our Zeta City." John lamented.
Of those 3 spectacular high schoolers, one of them had already made his decision on which college to attend, while the other two were not from the Northern Sector, so the chances of getting them were very slim for both John and Rory.
Compared to them, Medea who had recently moved to Zeta City was pretty much a guarantee in attending one of the colleges here.
"Oh? So Medea Dormer did apply for today's exam?" Rory finally showed a glint in his eyes.
"Yep. I've seen the participants list already." John gave a thumbs-up, jokingly showing his superiority in information gathering,
"Though we probably shouldn't just focus on her. You never know when someone completely different might actually turn up and become the 4th Starseed instead... Haha!"
"Doubtful. The data are there for a reason, if some other promising prospects had shown up, people like us would've been the first ones to hear about it." Rory curtly responded.
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Inside the Z Stadium's inner field.
On one of the frontrow seats of the stadium, both Irvine and the two girls were looking down on the Arena field with anticipations.
They had picked a spot with the closest and clearest view of the exam, as evidenced by the number of college scouts that had come flowing in from the walkway exits in the middle of the staircase seatings.
Different from a normal stadium, the Z Stadium and other similar ones used for Battle Arena had one slight difference in their architecture.
And that was the main playing field in the center of the stadium that was built three stories below the ground level.
It had sort of a similar design to the one in Orthos Gym but larger and with a little bit more depth added to it.
If seen from high above, there's about 50 feet of height difference between the field ground and the floor of the frontmost seats. Creating a rectangular-shaped indentation in the middle of the stadium, otherwise known as 'the pit'.
This was designed to accomodate the landscaping aspect of Battle Arena.
With terrains that changed quickly following each new season of the sport, landscapes with different obstacles and elevations like city ruins and mountain hills were not that uncommon.
The height difference not only provide a better vantage point for the audience to view the match, but it also allowed the players to perform a more dynamic set of movements in the air without needing to mind the safety of the audience in the front row.
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But currently,
"The forest landscape has already been removed." Medea noted.
Under their eyes, there was only a wide range of flat and green grassy field stretching across the large stadium.
"The season had ended after all. After the June exam's over, they'll start to redecorate it with the next season's landscape." Irvine replied while noticing the increasing number of people around him,
"The scouts have already started to gather, let's go. The Physical's about to start."
"Right."
"Thea, you're good here right?" He turned to confirm his sister's condition one last time before leaving.
However,
"Yes I'm fine, I'll be... Watching from here." Althea answered absent-mindedly.
Ever since a while ago, she had been looking intently at the passing scouts and representatives for the past few minutes.
It was like she's in a trance.
"Hey, you alright there?"
"...What? Yes! You should get going if you don't want to be late." She suddenly turned towards Irvine and answered him with a firm tone of voice.
'What's this girl thinking of now...?' Irvine scratched his head in helplessness before gesturing for Medea to leave together with him.
The two of them quickly boarded the lift down underground and walked out onto the field where there were already hundreds of examinees standing in wait for the exam's announcement.
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The format for the Physical Exam was fairly simple.
It consisted of several strength, agility, and stamina tests that the examinees would be required to complete alongside a batch of other people for each of the tests.
Every batch of people would undergo every single test side-by-side of each other until they had finished all of them and left the next group of people to start theirs.
The tests themselves were abundant in variety. But as with everything else, there were a couple that people would look forward to and keep a record of more than others,
They were namely the:
1. 100 meter dash
2. 200 meter dash
3. Standing vertical jump
4. Single rep bench press
5. Full minute dodge
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These 5 tests had more emphasis put on them both in the scorings and the eyes of the scouts.
The 100 meter tested a player's speed while the 200 meter revealed their ability and stamina to maintain that speed.
The jump test would mainly be used to judge the player's explosive leg power while the bench press results would be used to judge their explosive arm strength.
Just these four tests alone would actually have given the judges and scouts plenty to work with regarding a participant's athletic capabilities.
But for Battle Arena, it was not quite enough.
Last but not least was the full-minute dodge test.
The participant would be put in the middle of the firing range of multiple rubber balls. And they would then need to try their best to get hit as little as possible within the given minute.
The more times one got hit during the test, the lower your corresponding score would be.
This test was utilized to measure an athlete's peripheral and dynamic visions alongside their reflexes and reaction time.
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Strength, speed, stamina, agility.
Different positions and players would usually have different strengths and weaknesses in these comprehensive physical tests.
Which was why the scouts would also have their own preferences regarding a player's stats every year.
This was because they were in the position to consider their college team's current roster composition.
The strong and weak points of the team.
They were the ones that needed to put in the efforts to pick up talents that would create the perfect team and fill in those gaps and weaknesses within the next few years.
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Irvine and Medea closed their eyes and waited patiently until the familiar announcement voice resounded through the stadium's speakers.
[Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly begin the Physical Exam phase for the Arena Athlete License. Every examinees please take your positions on the left side of the field!]