- TWO DAYS LATER -
Augusto sat inside of the private VIP room of a StarBucks near his house. The aroma of coffee spread across the entire building, which Augusto savored. Augusto picked up his order, a Caramel Brulée Latte and tasted it, the delicious taste if it. Suddenly, the door of the VIP room opened, and a man who looked around 28 years old entered. He had short, black hair and brown eyes, and his body was slightly thin. Augusto recognized him immediately, he was Cherish, the owner of ClockWork Vendetta.
After retiring from his career, Cherish had immediately created his own E-Sports team, ClockWork Vendetta using all of his money earned as a professional player. Now, many years after ClockWork Vendetta's inception, the team had a smaller fanbase compared to the bigger North American teams like Team Liquid and Team Solo Mid ( TSM ) but their small fanbase was very loyal. Unfortunately, Cherish's wish of making a SCS team for his organization never panned out, as no-one was willing to sell their slot. But now with this opportunity as Team Dignitas and Immortals Gaming were selling their slot, they had a chance.
The way the play-ins worked, teams would have to prove they had the willingness and ability to pay the amount of money needed to buy Dignitas and Immortals' SCS slots. Then, of the teams who showed they had the willingness and ability, the play-in tournament would be held to see which two ( 2 ) teams would be the most competitive. Cherish wanted to use this chance to get a team in the SCS.
Cherish sat down and immediately got to business," Do you want to play professionally?" Cherish asked.
"Of course I want to play professionally." Augusto responded.
"Now is your main chance with this play-in tournament. Plus I have some inside information. Due to the disappointing performance of North America in recent international events. Regular Season games would be moving to BO3. Also players would be forced to play a set amount of Champions Queue games per month or else they would be fined a quarter ( 1/4 ) of their salary. Other things were also done, all with the intention of making North America more competitive internationally. And also the SCS Arena has finished building and can fit up to 67,000 fans. The North American E-Sports branch has invested heavily into this season, so this is perfect for making your debut." Cherish responded.
"How are you so sure I'll be successful?" Augusto hesitantly responded. Although he had a system and knew he would get better and better, he didn't know how Cherish was so assured that he would be so successful.
"You can't be 100% sure obviously. There have been many E-Sports players over the years that were once called geniuses that have disappeared from the limelight due to a variety of reasons. With dreams of becoming the next superstar, yet instead they ruined their future and disappeared into obscurity. Yet I believe you are different. You're dedicated to playing and improving, playing over 14 hours a day ever day for the last two and a half weeks and carrying alot of your games. The way you play and your attitude is special among pro players. You should know that there aren't alot of superstar mid laners in SCS aside from Sheento, Bjergsen and Jensen. With your talent and dedication, passing them should be a breeze if you keep it up." Cherish said, his eyes heated with hope.
Augusto was surprised at this evaluation. Of course he himself knew he had the potential, but he was slightly shocked that Cherish, a former top professional player, also had such an opinion of himself.
Cherish, seeing Augusto's reaction, chuckled and said, " I'm not only here for you, there are a couple of other players with serious potential whom I found that I would like to partner with you to form the team, by the end of the week, the team should be formed."
Augusto nodded and said, " I'll talk about it with my family and get back to you."
With that, Cherish nodded and both of them stood up, shaking each-others hands.
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Time flew quickly and three days passed. During these two days, Augusto didn't stay idle. He had quickly contacted his family, and after a long time convincing his mother, Augusto was finally given the go-ahead to join the team.
With the permission of his parents, the processes moved quickly. Cherish had already rented a building in Los Angeles which would be used as a base for ClockWork Vendetta's team practice and living base until the play-in tournament finished.
Augusto got on a private jet owned by his family and flew to Los Angeles. After arriving, he quickly got into a car prepared by his family and was driven to the ClockWork Vendetta Esports Team base.
After 20 minutes, Augusto arrived at the base and was lead to the training room where he met his four teammates. Four young men with decent looks.
" Hey, I'm James and I'm 18. Cherish scouted me and I'm the Solo Laner for this team. You can call me James or my IGN, Tenacity." Introduced the young man. He had pink, curly hair and was 6'1, with a slightly rough face that didn't match his hair, making him look kind of funny.
" I'm Nick, 18 and the jungler. My IGN is Closer." Said a boy who looked rather short compared to Augusto at 5'5. He had black hair and black eyes and had a rather thin body, but his eyes were very bright and filled with excitement.
"I'm Benjamin or Ben , 17 years old. I peaked at 45th on the NA Champions Queue leaderboard and I'm the Support. I prefer you call me by my IGN, which is Beryl." Beryl looked like a rather average young man. With brown hair and brown eyes, he was 5'8, with a rather average body type, not fat or skinny, not muscular or underweight.
" My name was Lee Jae-Gon and I'm 17. As you can see from my name and how I look, I'm Korean but me and my family travelled to the United States when I was 10 years old. I'm the ADC for this team and I prefer you call me by my username, Proper. I peaked at #14 on the North America Champions Queue leaderboard." Finally was Proper. If Augusto wasn't here, then he would definitely be the most handsome player on the team. He was 6'2 in height and had broad shoulders and great posture. He had black hair and black eyes and had a palish face along with hair that slightly dropped onto his forehead.
Augusto looked at all his teammates, excited and shook their hands. After playing ranked so much for so long, Augusto could recognize all of their IGN's from playing with them and against them in a variety of games. He then introduced himself.
" Hey everyone, my name is Augusto and I turned 17 back in August. I'm the mid laner for this team and I'm currently #7 on the NA Champions Queue leaderboard. My IGN is Rexa. I hope we can work together and be a great team." Augusto said confidently.
"FUCKK! You're that mid who carried on Anhur right? I was the Fenrir on the enemy team in that game." Jumping forward was the jungler, Closer, who hurriedly questioned.
"Haha, I just got fed its fine." Augusto laughed and said, and with that, the team had came together.
"Okay everyone, please calm down and let me talk." said Cherish, drawing the attention of all of the young players towards himself. In two months, the play-in tournament will begin which will probably be the last chance ClockWork Vendetta as an organization will be able to enter the SCS. In these two months, we will have alot of training games that we want to play and also alot of team-building exercises. I hope you five can give me your full effort in this time as we work to qualify to the SCS."
All of the young men excitedly nodded their heads.
" Augusto, we need to sign your contract. Follow me to my office." Cherish said and began walking to his office, to which Augusto hurriedly followed.
After entering the office, Cherish handed Augusto a contract and Augusto hurriedly read through it.
After 30 minutes, Augusto placed the contract down. Reading through it, the contract lasted until a week after the Play-In tournament finals would be held. If Augusto and his teammates won the play-in tournament and successfully made it into the SCS, their salaries would be improved and the contract would have a one year extension. Augusto signed the contract un-hesitantly and shook hands with Cherish, signifying their cooperation.
[ DING! Host has completed the second quest. Does the Host obtain the reward? ] The mechanical voice of the system rang out in Augusto's head, making him slightly confused.
"Wasn't the requirements of the quest to reach #1 in the NA Champions Queue rankings? Why has the quest been completed now?" Augusto asked.
[ Host, the requirements to complete the quest were actually to sign a contract with a league of legends team, allowing you to participate in the play-in tournament. The goal of getting #1 on NA Champions Queue was simply a motivation tool. ] Responded the system.
" Open the rewards!" Augusto said.
[ DING! Congratulations to the host for obtaining God-Level Commanding and In-Game Leader Ability ]
[ DING! Congratulations to the host for obtaining God-Level Laning and Suppression Skill. ]
Augusto was excited and quickly accepted the rewards he obtained. The God-Level Commanding and In-Game Leader Ability was something that couldn't be quantified in attributes. It was something that allowed Augusto's in game leading ability to reach a historic level.
Commanding and In-Game Leading Ability was an important factor of every single team that is consistently easily overlooked by worse teams or by fans, yet any good team would tell you how important it is.
For the audience, they don't even know who is the commander in a team, and sometimes, they can't see the influence of this thing at all. However, in the game, if a team has a top command decision-making master, then, even if there is a gap in strength between the two sides, you can use decisive decision-making and mechanical capabilities to smooth this part of the gap!
Why does North America lose at international events every year? One of the biggest reasons is that the commanding of these North American teams could be said to be very disappointing. From not making plays and slowly losing, to making terrible plays and feeding the enemy players, worst when North American players get behind and simply start making calamitous plays left and right. The Commanding and In-Game Leading Ability would turn Augusto into the best IGL in the world.
Next, the God-Level Laning and Suppression Skill rose Augusto's attribute to 100, making him the most perfect laner. Now, Augusto could combine his mechanical skill with his laning ability to dominate his enemies.
[ DING! Novice Mode Deactivated! The Host will no longer receive Novice Quests giving rewards. The Host will be rewarded when the system deems necessary or when a quest is completed. ] The mechanical voice of the system suddenly rang out, making Augusto sigh, as he knew it would be a long time before a God-Level Skill came again.
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One Week had passed. In this week, Augusto and his teammates had gotten friendly with each-other, performing team building exercises and also due queuing ranked with each-other, learning about each-others playstyles, strengths and weaknesses.
However, on this day, Cherish came forward.
"Today, you will be playing a training game against Evil Geniuses Academy. They are also playing in the Play-in tournament and could easily become your future opponents, so take this seriously." said Cherish, making all of the players nod.
Augusto logged into to his special training account provided by Hi-Riot Games, the developer of Smite, and quickly finds the training room which was already created by the Evil Geniuses Academy Team, entering the password and entering the lobby.
After 5 minutes of everyone entering the lobby and making sure everything was okay on both sides, the training game began.
The First Training Game of Augusto's career!