He entered the mall through the food court and made his way down the hall to QQPewPew. He could see from a ways off that most of the screens were running the same match of the same game, which mean that there was a tournament of something playing. He got closer to the store and realized it was Heroes Guard. A team based, field control, character focused, First Person Shooter.
He walked into the store and move around and in between the audience, he stopped at Arthur's desk where Arthur was uncharacteristically watching the match rather than playing on his Gameboy.
Arthur held his fist out and Warren bumped it. "Who's playing?" Warren asked.
"Scrubkings versus Fat Sami" Arthur replied without looking away from the match.
Warren watched the match for a moment. The commentator camera was floating above the center of the arena and Turtle Soup was on a three kill streak effectively blocking the choke point allowing Falsetto to gain much needed distance to the goal.
Arthur pointed to the father and son that Warren had introduced himself to the last time he had been at the store. "You're friends are sitting right there. if you feel like saying hi after this point I'm sure they'd enjoy seeing you." He waved Warren off as Falsetto scored the point for his team and the match field reset to cheers and groans from the audience.
Warren made is way through the crowd over to the chairs where the father and son were sitting, kneeling down behind them as the commentators laid out the current game state. "Hey Frankie" Warren said almost had to shout. Frankie and his father turned around. "Who's winning?" He asked with a smile.
Frankie's eyes got wide and he smiled from ear to ear. "Warren!" he shouted into Warren's face.
"With the rest timer hitting ten seconds, it's looking more and more like this is Fat Sami's game to win unless the Scrubkings can figure out a way to neutralize Turtle Soup who has been playing at the top of his game today John." The first announcers voice oppressively filled the room.
"Don't count Scrubkings out yet Tory, Duster and Burnt Toast are both clutch players that have incredible records coming from behind to win not just matches, but entire tournaments for the Scubkings. These guys didn't make it to worlds on accident."
"Absolutely John, Well ladies and gentlemen the round has reset and we've gotten green lights from both Scrubkings and Fat Sami to begin round four."
The screen flashed from the commentators to the game area again as Warren, Frankie and his dad turned their attention to the match.
After the game had finished the three of them decided to have lunch in the food court before the afternoon matches got started. Frankie was almost coming out of his skin he was so excited. "How did you get started as a pro gamer?" he asked.
His father leaned over a little. "Frankie you don't need to bombard him with questions all the time."
Frankie nodded. "Sorry."
Warren shook his head. "It's fine, I promise." He said with a smile. "I actually got really sick the summer before last and had a long recovery time. I was playing MS a lot because my parents cause it had been a birthday present. The end of that summer there was a pro qualifier tournament and I got notice that my player score was high enough to go. I told my mom that I wanted to at least try and so I basically took over my parents computer and practiced like crazy. My parents took me to the tournament and I came in somewhere in the low twenties out of the almost two hundred that showed up for the event. I even played a match that was streamed online. I made about three hundred for my placement and had my entry into fall qualifiers covered by the company. just like everyone else in the top fifty. I was hooked. Placed 8th at fall qualifiers, my parents wanted their computer back so I used part of my prize money to buy myself a laptop and never looked back." Warren explained.
Frankie nodded. and poked at his hot dog. "So why'd you quit?" He asked nervously.
Warren wiggled the straw in his drink for a second. "Because as much as I love gaming, I had some responsibilities come up that were more important. and unfortunately taking care of those responsibilities mean I had to put my gaming career on pause for a little while." He said sadly.
Frankie nodded again. "But you want to come back?" He asked.
Warren nodded. "Very much so, I hope when I do come back that the game hasn't passed me by yet." He said.
Frankie lit up."You're so good though! can't you keep practicing in your free time?" He almost shouted.
Warren smiled. "We'll see about that." he pointed at Frankie. "What about you? You going to stay a spectator or do you want to be a player?" he asked with a grin.
Frankie blushed and nodded to his dad. "I'm not nearly good enough." He replied.
His dad rustled his hair. "He's good enough to beat the pants off of me in every single game we've ever played. He's said he'd like to try for Heroes Guard when he gets old enough." His dad added.
Frankie looked shocked. "You said only if I kept my grades up, when I actually got to a grade that gave grades." He laughed.
His father nodded. "And that's still true. If trying out for a pro spot is something you want to do and you can balance it with school then I'll do what ever I can to help you son." His father smiled.
Warren finished his soda. smiling at the pair across the table from him. "Thanks for having lunch with me today." He thank them.
Frankie laughed. "You're thanking us!" He said in shock. "My friends at school still won't believe that I've meet you!" He couldn't keep his voice down.
Warren laughed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "How about a picture then?" He said.
Frankie was forcing himself not to vibrate into a different universe in excitement. "DAD, DAD, DAD," He shoved his own phone into his dad's fumbling hands as he jumped out of his chair and scrambled around the table. "take the picture dad!" He laughed as he stood next to Warren and they fist bumped and his father took awkwardly framed photo after awkwardly framed photo.
