New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The other players all appearing next to Astaroth looked at him weirdly, as he clutched his chest. Some even whispered among each other, asking if he was ok.

Astaroth, on his side, was clutching his chest hard, in deep pain.

"Fuck! That bitch landed a clean hit before I teleported away." He grumbled, clutching over his heart.

Astaroth was taking no damage, and his health bar was full. No status ailments were affecting him either.

But the pain from being stabbed in the heart persisted in his body and mind. It took some time before it subsided, and in the meantime, more and more players teleported around him.

When one thousand players appeared on the platform Astaroth was on, a big screen flashed over the platform. Everyone present turned their gazes upwards.

A woman was on the screen, sitting at a long table, as she looked into a camera.

"Welcome to the first Tournament of Heroes, young gamers! Some of you will recognize me, others will not, so I shall present myself." The woman on the screen said.

"My name is Constantine Levesque and I am the chairwoman of Evo-Gaming. I am happy to be the one to preside over the very first Tournament of Heroes, as we make history together." She added.

"Now for those of you, wondering if a businesswoman should preside over a gaming event, I assure you. I was a pro gamer myself, before launching my company, and have the knowledge to be doing this." She continued, crossing her hands on the table in front of her.

She then pressed a small remote near her hand, and the screen split into two parts. The part to the right was now divided into sections of its own.

"I will now explain how the tournament will proceed. Rest easy, if you ever need to have a point re-explained to you, the system shall provide you with the details as many times as needed." Constantine said, smiling softly.

The screen zoomed in on the segment on the right side. It had a title at the top, showing the name Brawlhalla.

"The first part of the tournament will be what we adequately named 'Brawlhalla'. It will be a free-for-all brawl amongst all the participants until only five hundred of you are left." Mrs. Levesque explained.

"You may use all matters of technique to survive and kill your opponents, as long as you make it into the top five hundred. We will assign points for each kill, and we will use these for the next phase." She continued.

"To make this fight less of a mess, we have generated a gigantic map for you to fight on, ensuring you are spread out enough at the beginning." Constantine added.

"There will also be a bonus for whoever can reach the middle of the map and claim it. There will be a pyramid in the center of the map, with a potion placed upon it." She said, clicking on her remote again.

The image on the right switched to a massive Mayan-style pyramid, with something encased at the top. She made a zoom on the screen, showing a bottle of bright red liquid.

"This is a potion of damage increase. It will increase your main attack stat by twenty percent for the rest of the tournament, or until you are disqualified." Mrs. Levesque explained, making many players gasp.

Most of them were damage dealers, and the thought of boosting their attack by twenty percent sent them into a frenzy. This could ensure a better position in the tournament, or better yet, victory itself.

The chairwoman could sense their agitation from across the screen and she smiled in satisfaction. The goal they had with this potion was to force the shyer players into action with good bait.

And this potion was a great bait. Any player's chances would immediately skyrocket with such a boost in power.

After letting the players' minds stir up a bit, she continued her explanation.

"The map will be divided into sections, each with a different climate. There are five zones, each with an ecosystem of its own." She said, tapping her remote again.

The map of the place appeared on the screen, and it was split up into five sectors. From the colors alone, the players knew a bit about what to expect.

One zone was almost entirely white, and seemed elevated, probably a mountain. Another one, next to the first, looked like an abandoned city, covered in green.

On the other side of the snowy peak was a patch of pure green, with a river lazily flowing in it. It looked like a small version of Earth's tropical forests.

On the other side of the forest lay a patch of black ground, dotted with red puddles. To the expert eyes of some, they recognized a volcanic region, covered in pools of magma.

Then between that, and the abandoned urban zone, was a patch of beige, with bumps everywhere. Most players recognized it as a desert, with sands flowing.

Then smack dab in the middle of it all, the pyramid. It took almost as much space as the other five zones, but that was mainly the surrounding grounds.

The actual pyramid was not that big, but it would be visible from almost everywhere on the map, due to one thing. The bright white beacon radiating out of its tip, and disappearing into the sky.

"As you can see from the map, the pyramid is the centerpiece of the grounds you will fight on. You can choose to try your hand at taking the potion, or you can choose to fight in your zones or others, to claim points." The chairwoman said, after letting them digest the map.

"Of course, there will be other factors to take into consideration, but I will not be telling you. After all, who doesn't like a little mystery?" Constantine said, flashing an alluring smile.

Most male players felt their hearts flutter at the sight and thought only one thing.

'What a goddess!'

The chairwoman did not let their imaginations run wild for too long, as she pressed on her remote again. The image swapped from the map to the second segment of the tournament board.

"Our next order of things will be phase number two. We called phase two of this tournament 'The Battle of Strays'." She said, smiling.

The name elicited mixed reactions from the players, as most considered strays to be rabble and wild animals. Constantine moved quickly to break their misconception.

"The name might be a little weird to some of you, but know that it is not without meaning. The battle of strays will be a team battle format, with randomly decided teammates." She explained.

"The points you gather from the first phase will separate all of you into brackets. Five different brackets will be formed, and we will pick the teams from the brackets." She added.

"Each team will have one player from each bracket, making the matching the fairest it could be. Of course, factors of skill and adaptation, more than personal strength, will decide the results of the preceding fights." She continued.

"We will hold the matches until only one hundred players remain. Meaning eighty teams out of one hundred will be eliminated." She finished.

Constantine took a slight pause here, letting all the information sink in before she moved on to explaining phase three.

"There are no special gimmicks or tricks to phase two, so I will explain phase three. Round Robin." She simply said.

"As the name implies, round three is also randomized, but this time in a one-on-one format. All the remaining players will fight five matches, scoring points through victory." She said, as the screen changed again, showing a diagram.

On-screen, the players could read the payout to each match result. A victory would give two points, a draw one, and a defeat zero. It was pretty straightforward.

The matches were timed matches, with a two-minute limit. If both players were still alive at that point, it meant a draw.

This format was well known in the gaming community, so no one dwelled on it for long. The chairwoman included.

She tapped her remote another time, revealing the next phase.

"This phase is the elimination phase. We called it 'Sudden Death'." Mrs. Levesque said, grinning lightly.

"During this phase, players only fight once and are disqualified as soon as they lose. The fights go on until only one player is left." She added, going back to her charming smile.

"As for the last player left at the end, we have something special for him. But I shall only announce it once the winner is decided." Constantine said, finishing her brief slide show.

One player could no longer hold himself in and asked what was burning everyone's mind.

"Excuse me, Ma'am. What are the rewards for the finalists?" He asked, looking at the woman on the screen.

Constantine kept her smile charming as she answered the query.

"Since this is only the first tournament, Evo-Gaming has decided to only give out a prize to the final winner." She said, expecting it to be the end of the question.

But the player was not satisfied. He frowned when the actual answer he wanted didn't come.

"Uh… Excuse me again, Ma'am. But you didn't answer the question. What are the rewards for the finalist?" He asked again, garnering some disapproving looks from the other players.

The chairwoman's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly. She hated being delayed in her schedule, and this event was now running late, because of a simple-minded idiot… Ahem… Participant.

"The rewards were not supposed to be disclosed until the round-robin phase, but since you insist. The winner from this tournament will have a monetary prize of one million dollars, transferred into his account." She said, raising her chin.

To most people, this kind of money was an insane amount and would set them for years! All the players present felt their motivations stoked, as a metaphorical fire, lit in their hearts.

Seeing that no one asked any more questions, Constantine closed this entrance ceremony.

"Now that you all know the proceedings, let us without further ado, move on to phase one. May the best player win!" She exclaimed as fireworks exploded in the sky.

The next moment, a humongous magic formation lit up under the players, teleporting them away. They were brought to the Brawlhalla map and scattered to the four winds.

Astaroth was teleported into the tropical forest, and he immediately felt the humidity. He was extremely excited.

"It finally begins!" He grinned.