WGCS World Gamers Championships.

At least I heard that name because Rin-chan once took me to the event.

But the last time I went there, it was purely for fun, so I only knew that it was a huge gaming event.

Well, thats about all you need to know, Nana. It would be too long to explain in detail.

After saying that, Rin-chan took out a tablet from her bag.

I caught it and looked at the screen, which showed the official website of the WGCS.

I take a good look at it, but I still dont understand. Rin-chan then explained it to me.

The WGCS is always held in this format every year, an official world championship of the five games and a special tournament of [All Stars].

Hmmm, so its a combined event of six tournaments?

You can say that.

When I looked at the official website again, I saw that this was indeed the case.

The five games and the All-Stars that Rin-chan mentioned are divided into different banners, so I guess the All-Stars is treated as a separate category rather than the sixth tournament.

First, I opened the banner for the five games, and it showed an overview of each of the five games selected to participate in this years WGCS.

FPS Dead or Valet.

TPS Zero Wars 4.

MOBA Masterpiece.

The fighting game Meteo Ring VS.

And the VR gaming Double Cross: Hazard.

It looked like these five games would be the titles to hold the world championship at WGCS this year.

I only know about Zero Wars 4, and Ive never heard of the others. Wait, I think Rin-chan might have played the old series of Meteo Ring, the fighting game.

Anyway, they all seem to have exploded in popularity over the past few years.

Theyre all nicely divided into different genres.

Nana-sama, its just a coincidence. There were two MOBA titles in the past year, and the year before last, there were two VR gaming titles.

Oh, I see.

I thought it was great that there were no games of the same genre, but if I believed Touka-chans correction, it seems to be a complete coincidence.

FPS is an abbreviation for first-person shooter, a shooting game played from a first-person perspective.

To put it crudely, FPS genre shooting games are the ones where all you see on the screen when you play are guns and your arms.

The main reason for this is that you feel like you are in the characters shoes, making the game more immersive.

The counterpart to this is TPS, the so-called third-person shooter.

This is a shooting game where you control the character from the third point of view, where the entire body of the character you are controlling is reflected on the screen.

Depending on how you control the camera, you can see your characters facial expressions, so its easy to get attached to your character, but it may not be as immersive or realistic as FPS.

Next is MOBA To be honest, I dont know much about it either.

I think the official name is Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and MOBA is the abbreviation.

It seems to be a sub-genre of real-time strategy, and according to Rin-chan, you can simply think it as a strategy game.

This are many games where the structure of victory or defeat itself is simple, you win if you overpower the enemy while defending your own camp, but the pace is extremely fast, and its test your judgment ability.

I view it as a camp-based game. This is the genre that Rin-chan is the best at, and I am the worst at.

Ive studied these three games, so I have a vague understanding of them, but if you dont know anything about games, youll probably get a question mark above your head.

To put it bluntly, gaming and VR gaming are two completely different genres, even though they share the same name.

Or perhaps I should say that the VR genre itself is too different from existing games.

Tapping the controller and moving the body is completely different, and thats why there is almost no overlap between the player bases of these two genres.

By the way, what kind of criteria do they use to select these players?

Last years top five prize pools in WGCS-authorized tournaments, with Masterpiece in first place with a little over 9.5 billion and Zero Wars in fifth with about 9 billion, I think.

Isnt that too close?

The sixth-place game is 8.9 billion. Wow, thats a very close race.

However, the number was only for WCGS-authorized tournaments. Any non-authorized tournaments were not included in the total prize pool.

For example, unofficial online tournaments are held by volunteers. If the game is famous and popular, there is bound to be an unofficial fan-made tournament held via social networking sites.

Dragged by Rin-chan, Ive participated in a few of them myself before.

By the way, the prize pool is not just the prize money for the first place, but the total of all the prize money for the tournament.

If the first-place prize is 500 million, the second-place prize is 300 million, and the third-place prize is 200 million, then the total prize pool is 1 billion.

So, 9.5 billion.

The prize for being the worlds No. 1 prize for Masterpiece was about a billion dollars last year, I think? I dont really remember; Ive won too many tournaments.

A billion in just one year is a dream come true.

Probably because Rin-chan is a rich person from the start, she could say that without an inch of excitement.

In reality, only a handful of gamers will be able to obtain that million dollars honor.

So, whats about the All-Stars?

Thats the WGCS exhibition event.

An exhibition event. At Rins words, I looked down at the tablet again.

I turned the page back to the top page of the official website.

I tapped on the All-Stars banner I had spotted earlier and opened the page to see the overview of the tournament, which also delivered an awesome presentation.

I was a little dizzy from all the details, but I read through it carefully.

Three things caught my attention as I read the overview of the event.

One. The genre of games to be used in the All-Stars is not fixed, and the genre to be used in the next All-Stars will be announced at the end of the WGCS All-Stars Special Tournament.

I guess this means that the genre selected will change every year. Sometimes it will be FPS. Sometimes it will be a fighting game. This much I can understand.

My question is about the other two.

Two, the game titles used in All-Stars are the latest titles that will be released exactly 30 days before the WGCS in global standard time.

Third. For the above reasons, each countrys All-Stars qualifying tournament will be held using a different game selected from the same genre as the game used in the main tournament.

To put it bluntly, I think its a mess.

If you take this explanation as it is, it means that the All-Stars tournament will not use the same games that will be used in the preliminary rounds.

What is this mess?

Well, thats the reaction of most gamers when they see the All-Stars outline for the first time.

But of course

Rin-chans response reassured me that my reaction was correct.

This is the kind of rule where one wrong move could result in disaster.

What if the environment of the game used in the main game is a mess? What if there is a fatal bug? If its not polished enough, it could interfere with the whole management of the tournament.

Well, they will at least sort out the critical bug for this. Thats why they release the software 30 days in advance.

At least thats what they want, isnt it?

Nana, the All-Stars is an exhibition that was different from other championships. This is a crazy competition where even bugs can be used as entertainment.

As if to admonish me, Rin-chan explains.

The uncoordinated environment, the lack of routine, the unexpected bugs. Its a place to select the best gamers who can overcome all of this, who have both luck and ability. In fact, its funny how many bugs are exploited every year.

Its really a crazy tournament, isnt it?

I couldnt help but laugh at Rin-chans amused expression.

It certainly sounds interesting if the rules are anything goes with bugs mixed in with world-class players.

I cant say that everyone is equal, but its definitely a setting where dark horses and giant killings are likely to be born.

But if the use of bugs is a matter of course, the search for bugs will probably start as soon as practice is available.

So, the national qualifying tournament is next weekend.

Thats right, but theres a slight problem.

A problem?

One of the girls weve been recruiting for the VR division quit HEROES for family reasons.

Oh, thats bad.

That was definitely a problem. If Rin-chan scouted her, she must have been very good, and even if she wasnt, it still meant that there were not enough members, so it was still a problem.

Ive given it a lot of thought, and Ive want to use the Touka to fill in the gaps.

Touka-chan?

Fill in the blanks? Rin-nee-chan, say what?

Touka pouted her lips at Rins bold words.

But to be honest, I was surprised.

Touka-chan has always been a girl who can handle anything with ease, and shes even been good at playing games.

However, I had a strong impression that she was only playing because Rin-chan invited her, and I didnt have the impression that she was so into games that she would participate in a tournament like this.

Seeing my reaction, Rin-chan looked convinced and said.

Nana, you might not know this, but Touka has a very high aptitude for full dives.

Full-dive aptitude?

What I meant is that she is good at manipulating avatars in virtual space. You cant quantify it, but to put it bluntly, Touka aptitude is one of the best, even close to Nanas.

Wow, youre really good, arent you, Touka-chan?

Im embarrassed to be praised by both of you.

She said this while blushing.

Hmm? I think I just missed a very important thing ?

Is my full-dive aptitude high?

Yes, your aptitude gauge is broken.

Sadly, the latest technology has failed you.

No way

Thats not a compliment. Thats definitely not a compliment.

You two, dont look at me with that much sadness in your eyes.

Its okay, Nanaka. Its one of your virtues.

Tokis misplaced follow-up, who had been quietly listening to our conversation so far, echoed hollowly in my mind.

====.

Full dive aptitude to the point where the scouter breaks ! {its over 9000!!}

All joking aside, full-dive aptitude is something that grows with time. If you can think of it as an indicator of how many out-of-human moves you can do.