The Tale of Xgen, M1sfit and Kobold League Season 2

xgenwars – Quest for the middle lane

Joel "xgenwars" Lincoln stared longingly through the laminated glass door at the back of the chair which was dimly lit by the glow of LED displays. The back of the head of Idont "M1sfit" Knowhisname was visible over the top of the headrest of the Secretlab Gaming Chair, the outline weirdly rounded at the ears by the cups of the HyperX Cloud 9 gaming headset. The air of the London New Meta Gaming Arena hummed and boomed with the sound of battle in Dota 2, interspersed with the commanding voice of M1sfit as he shoutcasted the battle for the ancients. The finals of Sweat Division Season 2 was being played - tension thick in the air as the 10 best players in the UK that weren’t named Ari battled it out for the ultimate prize of 20 quids worth of Greggs vouchers and bragging rights for 3 months. Being a gold-name in the server was also a perk.

None of that mattered to xgenwars; mid division was over. His team 4AAF had been defeated. They had been humiliated by a gang of 5 rats that somehow managed to operate a computer. xgenwars considered it the ultimate humiliation – he didn’t quite understand the logistics of how rats operated a computer, let alone beat them at the complicated game of Dota 2. All he had wanted to do was put on a good display to impress m1sfit. He wanted to pick Axe, buy the blink and land 5 man calls which could become trending clips on youtube shorts. Instead he had been made to play beastmaster two games in a row by his idiotic captain; sometimes xgenwars wished his captain would be sent back to the nick for drafting him beastmaster or viper.
A cheer erupted from downstairs, a huge fight had just turned the tides. The crowd with their complimentary one free pint of beer per person cheered and shouted as some washed 13k player fed a godlike spree.

xgenwars continued to stare at the back of the chair, lost in thought. Maybe he was washed? Maybe he should stick to Path of Exile 2 and Valorant? He realised what he wanted could never be. He was a player in the server, and m1sfit a caster on the ticket. They were separated by 120 seconds of delay mandatory on the Kobold league ticket, no amount of farm or KDA could fix that problem in latency. They were always bound to be separated by 120s of ping.

“Don’t worry champ, we’ll get ‘em next time” William “Amethyst” Gilder said reassuringly to his offlaner, grabbing him round the shoulders and giving him a hug. Amethyst was captain of xgenwars team and to blame for the awful drafts at today’s series. He was the same height as xgenwars, but his hair was streaked with grey from his old age. His nose threatened to blot out the light from the rest of the room.

“We almost had them, almost” Isaac “Rat Lord” said trying to make light of the disaster that was the final series. “William drafted like a fucking amateur” his voice drifting down from a height several feet above xgenwars head. He was a tall fucker, followed by an army of rats that he commanded.

“We have learnt how to lose together. Now all we have to learn is to play together and slay together” Bryn “OG” Dota said, dressed in his full OG ti8 merch set which matching cuddly OG merch monkey. A wholesome man, Bryn always managed to bring a positive slant to any situation. He was the emotional heart of the sunflower that was 4AAF.

“I want mid lane” xgenwars said, finally getting to voice what had been on his mind. He hated the offlane. It felt like a sentence to a slow death - sentenced to slum it out while his p4 left lane to feed kills in other lanes. How was he supposed to get noticed while struggling to survive. He would come back stronger as a midlaner.

xgenwars will return in the middle lane