A Go Go Squid story

"Baby, baby just breath, please"

The big game was in a few hours. Afters days of training, hours without seeing the sun outside, the boys were ready to go on a new fight to win this competition. It was not the world championships but it was a good way to keep showing everyone who was watching them that the K and K team was the best one. They were all ready for this big day, their feelings mixed between, excitement and stress. With Han Changyan as a boss, failure had never been an option. Of course, with Tong Nian by his side, he had became more human, as Demo liked to remind him. But when it came to competition he was still hard on them. If he was not a gamer anymore, then he wanted his team to be the best ever, to have no regrets and make himself proud. 

The day started like any other competition day. They had breakfast with the Solo guys, trained, had a meeting with their boss, trained again, ate, trained, and finally went on stage after encouraging each others in a big group hug. Everything was supposed to be easy, the other teams, beside the Solo one, were very young and not as experienced as them. K and K and Solo were basically sure to play the finals against each other, like most of the time. But it didn't happen this way. The K and K semi final ended in a big chaos. The boys were doing fine, focused on their game, not making any mistakes... well that's what they thought. The moment the officials were supposed to announce their victory, a big gong echoed on stage. That gong no one ever wanted to hear. Because that gong meant that the team was disqualified. It was very rare in this kind of competition, to disqualify a team, ever rarer when it came to such a high level of gaming. 

"What just happened? What is this?". Tong Nian had still a lot to learn about all of this universe. But seeing everyone's face around her was enough to understand that it was not good. Not good at all. 

"They are disqualified", Yaya was as shocked as the rest of the team. As a gamer herself, she knew too well what the gong meant. 

"How can they be disqualified? What -"

"It usually means one of the competitor used a cheating trick to win a game", Yaya was trying to explain her friend the situation. She was pointing a small room, at the second floor: "See this? The referees watch the games from this box, and they check if everything is going according to the rules. They are the ones who decide, in the end, to claim the victory for one of the team. Usually, we never hear of them, but today, I don't know what happened..."

Tong Nian knew now was not the time to ask any question to Han Changyan. She could see how angry he was. And she could tell that he was about to explode. He was sometimes harsh on his boys but he trusted them 100 %. He was absolutely sure this was a mistake and that none of them would ever cheat, especially not in such an important competition. 

"Boss !", the boys were all around him, trying to understand the situation, swearing that it was a mistake, that they were supposed to win the game and that it was unfair. The crowd was hysterical. Cheating, in the video games world, was the one unforgivable thing to do. It could ruin a career, ruin a team and force a bankrupt. And now that the K and K team was so popular and famous, their games were streamed all over the world, which meant it only took five minutes for everyone to know about them being disqualified for cheating.

"Cheaters !", "Shame on you!", "You don't deserve all your titles!". People from the crowd were screaming at them, other were trying to defend them, some fights even started between fans and anti-fans. 

"Boss ! We didn't do anything!"

"I know, come with me". Han Changyan, said, leaving the hall in a rush, followed by his team and his wife by his side, blood running through his veins. They were walking so fast it only took them a few minutes to end up in front of the referees little box, in the corridor. The teams were not allowed here, of course, but it didn't stop Han Changyan to loudly bang on the door, swearing that he would break it if they didn't open. One man finally got out to ask Gun to calm down and not make a scene.