Chapter 88: Road To Grandfinal

We all gathered back in our team room, the energy practically buzzing off the walls.

"Did you see their faces?!" Piercer laughed, leaning against the desk. "They didn’t even stand a chance!"

"Alright, hype’s good, but calm down," I said, leaning against the back of the couch. "This was just the Round of 16 against a low-tier seed. It’s a good warm-up, but don’t slack off now. The real tournament hasn’t even started."

The team settled down, listening up.

"The rest of the Round of 16 wraps up tomorrow," I continued. "Since we’re already qualified for Quarterfinals, we aren’t wasting time heading straight back to the hotel to lounge around. We’re going to use this downtime right here to run training drills, and then we’re diving straight into TitanSkell’s VODs to dissect their playstyle."

"Speaking of TitanSkell..." NightEye chimed in, crossing her arms. "What was up with LownGun? That dickhead seems totally new. I’ve watched their old championship games, and I’ve never seen him play on their main roster before."

"Yeah, he’s a recent pickup," I replied with a faint smirk. "In fact, back when I was scouting talent for Zenith, I actually looked into recruiting him."

Angelo squinted at his screen, scrubbing through a high-definition replay of TitanSkell’s quarterfinal qualifier.

"Sir... you might actually be right about them," Angelo said quietly, waving me over to his desk.

The rest of the squad crowded around his monitor as he played the clip in slow motion. TitanSkell was locked in a tight 2v2 retake. LownGun swung out around a corner, took three completely normal, unassisted shots that missed the target’s head, and then—in a split-second frame—his crosshair micro-snapped directly onto the center skull for the final, fatal bullet before instantly resetting.

"Look right there," Angelo pointed out, stepping through the frames one by one. "They don’t turn it on immediately. They start by shooting normally, reading the target’s movement pattern, and then the auto-aim kicks in to finish the kill. That means there’s a window."

NightEye’s eyes lit up. "Wait... so the exact seconds they take to track and read us naturally before toggling the assist—that’s their vulnerability!"

"Exactly," Angelo nodded. "If we hit them hard during those initial frames before they switch to full precision, they won’t even have time to let the algorithm clean up the shot. We can overwhelm them using the exact same hyena tactics."

"The real question is how," Piercer muttered, crossing her arms as she stared at the screen. "In a full-speed match, how do we force them into that read phase without getting caught in the crossfire?"

Amanda stepped forward, a sharp, confident smirk spreading across her face. "We bait the toggles. We use decoy movement—one player draws their initial spray to waste those setup frames, while a second player angles out from the blind side to force a panic shot before they can auto-lock."

She tapped the screen right where LownGun’s character was positioned. "We corner them, break their timing, and give them zero clean reads. If we force them to fight on pure instinct, TitanSkell falls apart."

The entire room froze.

"Eww, gross, God no! Tell me you didn’t!" NightEye gasped, looking at me in sheer horror.

"If you had brought that toxicity into this room, I would have walked out on the spot," Piercer said, gagging dramatically.

Amanda threw her head back and laughed—a genuine, relaxed laugh that completely wiped away the last remnants of her earlier stress. "Thank God your instincts were better than mine."

"Relax, I passed on him for a reason," I chuckled. "Now pull up TitanSkell’s latest match archives. Let’s find out what LownGun and his team are hiding before Quarterfinals."

"Good," I said, a proud smile crossing my face as I looked around at them. "Honestly, you guys have made insane progress. You’ve earned a reward. Go grab whatever you want to eat on my tab, recharge for a bit, and then we get right back to training."

"Say no more, boss!" Piercer said, already halfway out the door with NightEye and Angelo right on her heels, eagerly discussing what high-end food they were going to order from the arena lounge.

As the room cleared out, I noticed Amanda hadn’t moved an inch from her desk. She was still sitting in her gaming chair, eyes glued to the monitors, replaying TitanSkell’s crosshair adjustments frame by frame.

"Hey, captain," I called out softly, leaning against the edge of her desk. "You not grabbing anything to eat?"

Amanda didn’t look up, her hands hovering over her keyboard as she scrubbed back another five seconds of video. "No, thanks, Ethan. I’m good. I just want to map out these utility lineups while the timing is still fresh in my head."

She was totally locked in, operating on pure determination.

"Alright," I said, not forcing the issue. "Just make sure you don’t burn yourself out before tomorrow."

She gave a small nod, a quiet, focused smirk appearing on her face. "Don’t worry. I’ve never felt clearer."

The Quarterfinals rolled around, and the bracket match-ups were locked in. Zenith was officially set on a collision course with TitanSkell and the rest of the top seeds.

Everything went remarkably smoothly. The team executed the strategy to absolute perfection, dismantling their opponents with crisp trades, relentless hyena pressure, and flawless map control. By the time the final round of the Quarterfinals ended, Zenith had swept their way into the Semifinals.

The arena atmosphere was completely shifting. The crowds that had brushed off Zenith as an unproven, overhyped brand were now roaring every time Amanda made a call or Piercer landed a highlight entry kill. Chants of "ZENITH! ZENITH!" started echoing off the stadium walls.

I stood off to the side, taking in the crowd’s reaction, but my eyes drifted over to TitanSkell’s player booth. They didn’t look impressed in the slightest—in fact, LownGun and his squad looked bitter, their eyes burning with jealousy as they watched the audience fall in love with our team.

Shortly after our match wrapped, TitanSkell took the stage for their own Quarterfinal set. True to form, they pulled off a series of unnaturally precise clutch plays in the closing minutes, securing their own spot in the Semifinals.

As the bracket updated on the giant arena displays, Zenith and TitanSkell were officially placed on opposite sides of the Final Four.

The gap was closing fast. One more series win for each of us, and TitanSkell would have no choice but to face us on the grand stage.