Champion to Attilius
12 May 2022Kezika
Kezika watched out the window, along with the fellow passengers as the Beluga began entering the atmosphere of Ares, in CD-43 11917. She’d be fighting some of these other passengers later today, not physically but virtually. After some ceremonies and formalities at the convention center of course.Today was the finals of the May 3308 CQC Pro Championship, eligible to those that had won qualifying events, but not yet won the Pro Championship previously. In Kezika’s case she had recently won the Imperial CQC Invitational and was now eligible for this event.
The prize included a cash sum, not of much concern to Kezika, as well as a permit to bring your personal ships through the CD-43 11917 system if you were already a CMDR, which Kezika was. Some of her competitors weren’t officially CMDRs yet, but these events were often used to gain needed piloting credentials towards Pilot’s Federation qualification.
After a few more minutes the Beluga settled down on a pad at the convention center. She followed her fellow passengers out. On the pad a man was splitting the passengers into a group for sponsors, and one for competitors.
Kezika stepped over to the right with the group of 3 other competitors, but was quickly interrupted by the man, “Sponsors are over here ma’am,” as he gestured towards the other group.
“I’m a competitor,” she replied, pulling her competitor badge out from her jacket.
The man made a hasty apology and continued herding together the other sponsors and leading them into the convention center. Admittedly Kezika did look a bit out of place among the competitors that were generally just wearing t-shirts and jeans, while Kezika was in formal Imperial suit with gold trimmings.
Another man came along shortly and led their group in through another door. After a couple of hallways, they were let into a large green room where a dozen competitors were already waiting.
The following hour consisted of a small meet and greeted and then the presentation on the rules, format, match listing, etcetera prior to the actual start of the tournament. Once that was completed the names of the 8 in the first match were called, of which Kezika was one of.
As one of the early matches this one was a team deathmatch with 8 competitors. In this case it was taking place in the Asteria Point map. Kezika stepped out from the greenroom and between the sim-pods onto the stage and made a few waves towards the audience before the emcee led her to her assigned simulator pod.
Above each pod was a large display to allow the audience to see what each competitor is seeing as they play through the match. Kezika sat down in her pod and inserted her badge into the appropriate slot. The pod responded by moving the sticks and seat into Kezika’s pre-set configuration.
After a three-minute testing session to make sure all competitors were comfortable and set to go, the match countdown began. Kezika began the match heading up into one of the T-shaped tunnels in the central enclosure. Generally, on this map someone will go for the weapon powerup in the center and then fly through one of those back into the open. Kezika was banking on them flying through her tunnel and catching them off guard. Sure enough someone came through and arced down the tunnel in front of her, giving her a good few shots on their rear before they could turn around to face her.
They made the turn, but by then they’d already taken too much damage and Kezika took them out without suffering too many hits to herself. Her team finished the match victorious, and Kezika was also the MVP on her team, granting her two points so far, one for the team victory that each person on the team received, and one for being the team MVP in the match.
More matches went by, some were wins, some were losses, which was standard in this tournament format. By the end of the set of team deathmatches, Kezika was tied for the lead with another competitor. Kezika however had played plenty with CQC Champions in her private matches in the past and was fairly confident in her ability to come ahead in the free-for-all deathmatch section of the tournament.
The deathmatch section of the tournament began, starting with 8-person deathmatches, then going down to 6, and finally 4. By rules of the format at certain stages as well the competitor list was trimmed down, and those below certain ranks taken out of competition.
Finally, the last match came. Kezika was leading the tournament at this point and would secure the victory if she didn’t do poorly in this last match. It was still fairly close though, so she’d still have to be on her top game. The final match would normally be a 4-person match, however the 4th person on the rankings mathematically could not win and was disqualified from the final round, leaving just three.
Kezika watched in anticipation as the match select roulette rolled on the screen, it finally landing on Ice Field. Kezika grinned and cheered internally, this was her strongest map, although her other two competitors she’d noticed also did well on this map too.
As the match started Kezika went for the stealth mode powerup first, followed by a shield booster, all the while carefully monitoring her radar. The blips of the others would appear briefly as they flitted between the various asteroids on the way to picking up their own powerups.
Throughout the match, one of the other competitors kept the score tied with her. The match was currently 500 to 500 between her and “DT” when she flew around one of the asteroids to see DT jousting with the other competitor.
Kezika slid her Gu-97 up behind DT’s F63 Condor and began opening fire with her Pulse Lasers. DT continued firing on the other competitor that was flying straight at them, as they only had a few percent of hull left.
DT didn’t damage them quickly enough and they flew past. However, they slammed straight into Kezika by mistake. The impact pitched Kezika’s fighter rapidly upwards as Kezika slammed the stick forward to counter it. For the other competitor though it was the nail in the coffin, finishing off the last of the hull.
Luckily for Kezika, since she was the last one to damage them, she was awarded the kill, with DT getting the assist, moving the match to 600:550. Then in a second stroke of luck, Kezika’s fighter stabilized right as it came back around 180 degrees, and she was able to immediately resume firing on DT, securing the kill just a few seconds later, bringing the match to 700:550.
With one final kill a few moments later as the other pilot came back to try and secure a revenge kill, the match was closed with Kezika as the winner and a score of 800:550. Kezika took a deep breath over the victory, and then stepped out of the simulator pod to the loud cheering of the gathered in-person audience.
After the cheering died down to a reasonable level the emcee spoke, “With that folks, we crown CMDR Kezika as the Spring 3308 CQC Pro Champion! For those with the VIP Pass, the autograph session begins in one hour in the VIP lounge!”