Two days had passed since Max met Lily in the park that night.
It was now May 14th.
Not many things have happened since then. Max only sent the footage to his editor, BloodSucker, and he practiced with team OrangeSquash like usual. The favor he asked from Flexy needed to wait until everything was over. Max wasn't rushing either, so it was perfectly fine.
More importantly, when he met Ferin in the private room, he told her that he forgave her, as Lily had already relayed that she had apologized properly.
After practicing for a few games, which they used to test out many new strategies no matter how crazy they were, their teamwork increased, and they could communicate with just a few words now.
The main concern they had now was their enemies. Just as Atlas had said in the beginning, they were too weak.
An idea flashed in Max's mind after he heard that.
"I think we need to invite other professional teams for joint practice. We need to hold a scrim." He proposed to the others.
While there was a joint practice a day before the competition, there was nothing wrong with doing it way before. It also benefited the other teams, as they could train with players on the same level and tried whether their strategy could work in a competition.
Naturally, they would only use a fake strategy and play normally because showing their hidden card in the training would be stupid. But that was not the point.
"Scrim?"
"What is that?"
Both Flexy and Atlas didn't seem to know the term scrim. A practice was practice. There was no other word than that.
Max let out a sigh and decided to explain it to them.
"Scrim, or a scrimmage, is a test match between teams where we will play using the competition rules. If you want the simple term, it's a mock competition where we could play with teams with similar skills. There are many benefits, including assessing enemy teams and finding our weaknesses.
"If I remember correctly, there are 50 teams joining the competition this time. The top 2 teams from each group would then continue to the final. We can invite 9 of those teams to practice with us while simulating that we were in the actual tournament."
None of the people in this private room were stupid. They immediately knew the advantages and disadvantages of this Scrim. For them, the advantages were way more important than the disadvantages, which was allowing enemy teams to understand their level.
This second qualifier would leave only 10 players competing in the final. It was a bit trickier than the qualifier, as the information mentioned the rules and the game would be different from the normal Midnight Heist.
'They will only announce the rule on the day of the final to keep it a secret. That's understandable.'
Max wasn't confident in this tournament. He only had to do his best to make content for his viewers. If he won, then that would be great.
Finally, at the end of the new announcement was the prize list. Max's eyes turned green and reflected the trophy image that he saw. His jaw dropped when he read the winner's reward for the Tier 2 tournament.
1st Place: $50,000 and a month Vacation ticket to White Beach.
2nd Place: $25,000
3rd Place: $10,000
After reading that, he decided on something.
Screw content. He would get that 50 grand reward!
Tier 1 players had a bigger reward because the competition was stricter and had a higher ceiling level. However, Max didn't envy them. No, this reward was enough.
"Sorry, Flexy. I will focus on this first. Do your best to gather people for the Scrim while I make money!" He laughed evilly, ignoring the fact that he was technically outside.
Following that, he closed the screen and contacted BloodSucker. If he wanted more content, couldn't he just ask his editor to split his VoDs into several videos to keep his viewers entertained? Before that, though, he needed to make sure his main content was ready.
[Breeze: Yo, my lovely editor, BloodSucker. How is the editing for that special video going? I believe you're doing great! If you have finished it already, send it to me so I can upload it after NoFeet airs their official ads. Waiting for your answer!]
The answer came immediately.
[BloodSucker: It's not done yet. I just scrapped everything and started again. Wait until tonight.]
"Hah?" Max raised his voice when he read the reply.
That wasn't a good sign.