Page 51 of One More Round

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not sure I like the idea of you two—well, the four of you—gossiping about my sex life,” I stammer.

Ruby is looking at her phone for the first time in an hour and she’s pouting.

“Looks like Link already knows. Seems that Simon shared the news about your great sex before you did!”

Morgan just laughs. I sit there in shock. Ruby shakes her head in disappointment

“Well, clearly, talking about sex was their most important topic of choice.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Simon

I can’t believe in less than 12 hours Team Nomad will host our first Race to Prestige. We won the event last year, ultimately securing us this hosting gig. It’s a huge undertaking and Bernie has been working feverishly for months now with the event coordinator from VisionWave. She really has outdone herself. If she ever needs a job outside of the video game industry, she should consider being an event planner.

The livestream event will happen here in our training room. We will take shifts over the next seven days, all day and night long. We’re working our team account to Prestige, which is the highest accomplishment inCall of Battle. While it’s something that all professional gamers who playCoBaccomplish, it’s tough to do within the first seven days of the newest installment releasing. Last year, we won The Race in only six days. While we didn’t have to go all out last year putting on a show, we did have to plan our strategy in order to win.

While eachCoBinstallment has new features and a new storyline, they are just similar enough that we can play to win and there isn’t much of a learning curve. Each year when the new installment releases, on the first Tuesday of November, it’s always a race to Prestige. The “race” starts at the precise moment the game is released wherever you are in the world. With this charity event, we do the same thing, but raise a lot of money and survive on little sleep and lots of junk food but it’s fun and worth it.

As a team, we work off one account, taking turns to Prestige. We won’t win this year, since we are streaming live for 24/7 but we have a lot of people throughout the industry stopping by to add some fun and mix things up. Thanks to Bernie and Link, we’ve got several big-nameCoBYouTubers and Twitch streamers either stopping by and/or calling in. We’ve also got a few big names from the publisher, and developers coming by. Not only did Bern coordinate the event, but she also organized food and lodging for all these folks. The girl is going to need a vacation when it’s all said and done.

I hop out of the shower, dress and head to our training room for the evening. We don’t have much prep to do, but we are having one more team meeting before we all scatter to prepare individually for the start tonight.

I step into the room and am relieved to see I’m not the last one to arrive. Chuck and Ben aren’t here yet, but they are both usually late. Bernie has pretty much lived in the training room for the last week. Link is helping her with some finishing touches on our gaming area and camera setup.

“Yo.” Dex nods in my direction from the couch, which is normally across the open-layout room but it’s been rearranged for the time being.

“So, we are going for comfortable instead of professional, I see.”

“Yeah, but we’ve left some room to make sure we can wheel in some of the gaming chairs from our new sponsorship with Vertagear. Since there are a few times we will have a lot of people here, we will need seating,” he tells me.

“Makes sense. Aren’t we giving one away?” I ask Bern.

“Yup! And I was thinking that we could up the bids by offering one of our own, signed by the team,” she says from the side of the whole setup, adjusting one of the TVs.

“Oh, good idea, Bern. You could even let the winner pick whose chair they want,” Link suggests.

“Uh … I’m quite partial to mine, thank you,” I add.

“Si. It’s for charity! We got our chairs for free, and whoever gives theirs away will get a brand-new one,” she huffs. She’s got one hand on her hip, glaring at me this time.

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I spilled some nacho cheese on his last week. No one is going to want it. No need to worry about it, Simon,” Link offers casually.

“What the actual fuck?” I stand, walk over to find my chair. Our names have somehow been engraved in the leather at the top of each one and sure enough the douchecanoe got cheese on my $800 gaming chair.

“Sorry, man, I borrowed it last weekend while you were over at Gia’s and the cheese had its way with me and things got a little out of hand.” He shrugs.

“Why didn’t you clean it up?” I ask, standing and going to the kitchen area to find something to clean it with.

“I did. See? I got most of it.”

“But you still left some. Why not clean it all off?” I mutter halfway under the sink, sifting through all the shit that’s been thrown down here.

“I don’t know, man, I really don’t know.” He contemplates this. “But look at it this way: now you should want a new one. And think of the added value when you tell the viewers that they could have your chair that includes cheese from the popular YouTube star, Link Whitt!” Bernie snorts at this, sitting down next to Dex with a plop.

“If Ruby were here, she’d have a heyday with that comment.”

Walking back into the room with a rag and some fabric cleaner, I chuckle, “True story.”

---