Closing Strife, Eric opened up a browser. Opening Riddit, it seemed that Ryan had been telling the truth. The top posts for the last four hours almost all pertained to Fate. With various clickbaity t.i.tles alluding to the contents.

Pressing on the top post, the page suddenly disappeared, replaced by a system prompt. Eleanor's voice rang out inside his head, "Would you like to watch this video in 3D using the FateGear?"

"Sure," Eric replied, watching with interest as the room disappeared, replaced by a packed crowd on a gra.s.sy lawn. Looking around, Eric saw that the crowd seemed to be comprised entirely of reporters. The blinking red lights of microphones, cameras, and recorders creating an almost concert-like atmosphere. Straining to stand on his tiptoes, Eric was shocked to find himself suddenly flying up above the reporters. Halting his flight roughly three meters in the air, he suddenly realized where he was.

The enormous Hurricane building did nothing to make itself inconspicuous. With ma.s.sive statues of main characters from various Hurricane t.i.tles dotting the lawn in key positions while well groomed and manicured hedges formed the logos of the most popular Hurricane games. Their intricate designs spanning the length of the enormous front lawn. It was at the foot of this lawn, nestled into an alcove near the entrance of the building, that this press conference was being held. At the front of the alcove, a makeshift stage had been set up, beside the enormous statue of Orthas, the most well recognized character from Hurricane's previous MMO, World of Bladecraft.

Standing on the stage was the recognizable figure of Michael Lietke, as well as another man who Eric didn't recognize. The second man appeared confident, standing firm as he surveyed the gathered reporters. His red beard and well groomed appearance gave indication to his importance, clad as he was in a snazzy navy suit with a nice silver tie to round off the look. His sharp appearance stood in stark contrast to Lietke's never changing casual attire. Even today, Lietke was only dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of slacks. As Eric watched, Lietke strode to the front of the stage and motioned for silence.

Quieting down, the reporters held their recording equipment high, ready to catch every moment of the press release. Satisfied with the noise level, Lietke opened his mouth, "I'm glad everyone could make it! Have you all been enjoying Fate?"

The crowd roared, several reporters giving appreciative whoops but still managing to hold their equipment steady. Lietke grinned, "I'm glad to hear it! Now as I'm sure everyone knows, but especially all of you, my esteemed members of the press, is that the Fate World Championships will be happening next year. However!" Lietke paused for dramatic effect, watching the silent ma.s.s of reporters straining to keep their cameras on him.

"However! We at Hurricane have not released any information about the event! Players and your fellow reporters have been asking us incessantly about the details and I'm excited to announce that all your questions shall be put to rest today!"

Pausing for applause, Lietke looked towards the well dressed man to his right.

"Allow me to introduce Nicholas "Redbeard" Kowalczyk! The man in charge of the Fate World Championships!" Pausing once more for applause, Lietke stepped back, allowing Nicholas to take the stage.

"Thank you Michael," said Nicholas, clapping along with the audience as he took the centerstage. Surveying the crowd, Redbeard smiled, "I see everyone is excited to learn about the championship. Now I'm sure you all have questions, but I do ask that you save the questions until after I've explained the tournament format."

Seeing that there were no objections, Redbeard continued, "Now the format for the Fate World Championships will be single elimination. Each region will send a number of representatives determined by population. The regions are North America, South America not including Brazil, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Europe, Korea, j.a.pan, China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Oceania. Prior to the round of sixty four, there will be a round robin group stage which will pit the top seeds of each region against lower seeds from other regions."

As he spoke, an enormous projection appeared behind him, obscuring the statue of Orthas. As the gathered press watched, an enormous trophy appeared in the center of the projection. Slowly spinning as it completed a full rotation, it soared to the right side of the projection, slowly shrinking as it settled at the far end of the projection.

As the trophy settled, lines began to appear on the opposite side of the projection. Sixty four lines slowly being drawn. As they watched, each line paired off with an adjacent line, a new line branching from the paired lines and repeating the process. As the final two lines met, a new line emerged, entering the trophy which glowed as the line struck it.

Turning back to the crowd Redbeard smiled, "Here's a more visual representation of the finals. Are there any questions so far?"

Seeing a reporter in a blue dress raise her hand, Redbeard pointed towards the woman, "You. Yes you in the blue. You have a question?"

"Yes, Clara Lee, ESCN. Some of these regions have significantly different population sizes. You mentioned that each region would have a number of spots available based on their population. Will that be proportional? Will China and India have almost twenty times the number of spots available as Turkey for example?"

"Yes. The number of teams available to each region will be strictly based upon population. As such there will be a rather long group stage beforehand to determine which teams will advance. Top seeds in each region will have easier group stages than other teams from the same region. Players do not need to worry about being disadvantaged due to their region," with these words the projected image exploded into shards of light which came back together to form a large number of cells. Each cell contained four different words, straining his eyes Eric could see that the words were the names of various regions with a number behind each.

Seeing that the image had changed, Redbeard continued, "There will be an incredible 128 groups in the group stage, with each group containing four teams. This means that there will be 512 teams partic.i.p.ating in the world championships. More than enough for each region to have a fair shot at the t.i.tle. Does that answer your question?"

Nodding at his answer, the woman hastily began to scribble down the key points as Redbeard returned to his explanation.

"Now in order to get to the Fate World Championships players will need to form teams of five to eight players. Each round will be a best of three with three different game modes. The first game mode is a tag team battle. Three players from each team will battle in a 1v1 arena style duel. The first team to defeat all three opponents wins. The second game mode is an objective focused game mode. Each team will send five players and attempt to destroy the opposing team's idol. The first team to do so wins.Take note that this is the only game mode with resp.a.w.ns enabled. The final game mode is a straight up 5v5 elimination style deathmatch. Each team will send out five players and attempt to defeat the opposing team. First team to kill all five opponents wins. In addition, separate to the main tournament will be a duelist compet.i.tion. Players are free to enter the duelist compet.i.tion regardless of whether or not they are part of a team that is partic.i.p.ating in the Fate World Championships. Yes?" Redbeard asked, furrowing his brow as he looked at a burly reporter energetically waving his hand in the air.

Lowering his hand, the reporter asked, "Will there be an ingame way to practice for the tournament? Are the formats supported in Fate itself?"

"Of course, players can group up for any of the three compet.i.tion formats in the arenas located in every capital city and some towns," said Redbeard dismissively, "Now if you're done interrupting?"

With a cowed look, the burly reporter backed down, allowing Redbeard to continue, "Now where was I. Ah right, getting to the Fate World Championships," clearing his throat Redbeard looked out over the a.s.sembled reporters.

"Beginning on August 24th, the Kingdom Representative tournaments will determine which teams and players shall represent their kingdom, empire, or collective at the National Qualifiers. These preliminaries will be held from August 24th until December 21st. There will be multiple tournaments which means each Kingdom shall send several teams to the National Qualifiers. Players can only represent a single kingdom at the National Qualifying tournament which means that should a team win a Kingdom Representative tournament, they must represent that Kingdom or else forfeit their place at the National Qualifiers," pausing for breath, Redbeard grabbed a bottle of water from the stool behind him and took a long swig as the image on the projection changed once again. The various groups being replaced by an enormous banner emblazoned with 'August 24th'.

Exhaling in a refreshed way, he smiled and looked at the a.s.sembled reporters, "Any questions?"

"Roger Freeman, e-Sports Daily. Does this mean players can partic.i.p.ate in the representative tournament of any kingdom they wish? Could an American player partic.i.p.ate in the Chinese kingdom representative tournaments?" Searching the crowd, Redbeard found the man who'd posed the question, a bearded reporter with an enormous beer gut.

"Correct, we don't want to prohibit players from entering other regions. There are downsides however, players must have lived in the kingdom for at least two months in game time in order to enter the tournament," Redbeard responded.

"That means that players will need to move to whichever kingdom they want to represent soon if they want to be able to partic.i.p.ate when the first tournaments start?" a different reporter asked.

"Correct. The sooner a player moves the sooner they can get set up in a new kingdom, building reputation with locals and finding quests. However, we don't expect that players originally from that kingdom to react well to foreigners coming in to steal their spots in the tournament," Redbeard elucidated.

"Ah! Is that why players were separated by their location?" asked a slim blonde reporter. Cupping her fist with her hand as the revelation hit her.

"Exactly. We don't want players to be forced to play only with others from their same region. However, we did want to provide players with both a reason to love their starting kingdoms, as well as a reason to see other players as outsiders. We believe this will increase the level of ingame politics and excitement levels for the Fate World Championship to the max," Redbeard responded with a grin.

Winding down, Redbeard fielded a few more questions from reporters on the format and dates of the Fate World Championship before ending the press conference. Tapping the microphone attached to his bluetooth speaker, he smiled out at the crowd, "Are there are any last questions before we wrap up? You, yes you with the pink shirt."

"Karl Matthews, Daily MMOGamer. Will players be prepared to fight for the Kingdom Representative spots? You stated that the first tournaments begin in late August. Is that enough time for players to reach max level and gear up? Or will levels and gear be set during the tournament?"

"An excellent question, what did you say your name was?"

"Karl Matthews, with the Daily MMOGamer."

"Well Karl, leveling in Fate is a little different from traditional MMO's. As I'm sure you've all noticed," there was a round of chittering laughter at this statement. Redbeard smiled, "We expect most of our hardcore players to reach a point where leveling doesn't matter too much by August 24th. The early start date of the first few tournaments is both a reward for those who put the time in to level up and get ahead of the pack, and also an incentive for those who need a carrot to entice them. As for gear, players will bring their own. However, gear is not as impactful in Fate as it is in other MMO's, particularly eastern ones. I won't spoil it for now, but we expect skill to be the biggest separator between teams. Not gear or level. Does that satisfy your question?"

With a thankful nod, Karl retreated, leaving Redbeard to stare at the crowd. The light reflecting off his ginger beard, "Thank you all for being here. Unfortunately our time is up, but I trust that all of you are excited to be off so you can be the first to create articles about the Fate World Championships," said Redbeard with a wink.

With that the reporters were off, scrambling to get out of the grounds as quickly as they could while simultaneously keeping as much of their dignity intact as was possible under the circ.u.mstances. Eric giggled, watching from above. They didn't do a great job at the second part, with reporters banging into each other, yelling at each other, and treating their cameras and recording equipment like they were made of gold, protecting them above all else, even themselves, Eric thought as he watched a reporter trip and go skidding across the gra.s.s, her camera held safely above her head as her white blouse gained a beautiful gra.s.s stain.

Unfortunately, the recording came to an end here, morphing back into that now familiar room with it's huge window, amazing landscape, and incredibly comfortable couch. Lying back on the couch, Eric imagined going to sleep, Eleanor could probably conjure up a blanket if he really wanted one.

Redbeard's words echoed in his mind, "a reward for those who put the time in to level up and get ahead of the pack." With a t.i.tanic struggle he stood up, preparing to open Fate. Raising his hand above his head, he shouted, "Fate Start!"

With a small jolt, the surroundings that had only just materialized began to blur once more, slowly being replaced by the muddy roads of Tonbura Village.