“Good afternoon, and welcome to Games Talk on GNN, with Jill Ankerton. Today, I have a very special guest with me, please welcome Leymar the mesmerizing rogue of Team Amarantine.” the popular host on the Gaming News Network greets the camera and sounds of applause reach the viewer. On the set, in front of a screen showing various scenes from Craft of War are two comfortable armchairs, one with the host, the other empty. With the announcement, a male figure started walking in from the side, looking just a tad uncomfortable as he walks over to the now standing host. The two hug for a moment before getting back to their seats.

“Welcome, Leymar, it is so great that you are here.” Jill smiles at her guest, sounding enthusiastic.

“Thank you for having me, Jill, it’s great to be here.” Leymar responds and returns the smile.

For a bit, the two make small-talk and share jokes, mostly about their respective backgrounds, before they need to get to the more serious stuff.

“As our fans undoubtedly know, you are one of the players of Team Amarantine, playing your rogue in a striker-position. Why don’t you tell me about the past season?” Jill starts the real interview, her voice taking on a less jokingly flirty tone.

“The past season, huh? We were still looking for our stride and Acrasia had to fill the biggest shoes a petite person could ever wear.” Leymar explains, sounding a little sad.

“Titania’s departure left a hole, just like the loss of the most experienced team-member would. Back when Chris left the team, it wasn’t as obvious because back then, Titania took over. Not officially as the captain but more a presence in the background, prodding us on. She was never the type to make big, emotional speeches. Hell, there were days that she barely said five unnecessary words but there was always the feeling she was looking over your shoulder, sending a cold chill down your spine.” he continues, a wan smile on your face.

“You make her sound a little scary, was she hard to work with?” Jill asks, feeling that, while it is far from the original direction she’d wanted to take the interview, it would be an interesting twist to hear more about the withdrawn, enigmatic person behind the previous healer.

“Scary? Yes, maybe. I mean, look at her latest project, the character she plays as Morgana, that is quite scary. But back when she was Titania, it was more like a pure perfectionist streak, pushing us to minimize mistakes, to always use one-hundred percent of the options given to us by our class and opponents or, if necessary, to make options for yourself.” he pauses again, shaking his head.

“To be honest, I hated it, those unblinking, emotionless eyes, seeing every tiny mistake, every small fumble, not once letting something go. It didn’t matter if we had a game in the bag, it didn’t matter if it was practice, if it was a mistake, she’d make sure you noticed it and that you knew what you could have done better. I thought it was terrible.” Leymar admits, causing Jill to raise an eyebrow.

“Past-Tense?” she asks, feeling that there was more to it.

“Yes, past-tense. Only after she left, I realised that while she demanded us to give hundred percent, she, herself, somehow managed to give one-hundred-ten percent. There was a reason why the old ascended-classes were more and more pushed to the side-lines and replaced with the newer classes in competitive play. It wasn’t so much the actual power-level and more the sheer difficulty in playing them at a competitive level. The strategists weren’t happy if a player had to play perfectly to get a performance en-par with the other classes and Hailstorm made it obvious that they wouldn’t rework the old classes to keep them relevant.” again a pause and a quick sip from one of the glasses between them.

“But somehow, Titania managed to get more than what was normal out of her character, which allowed her to compete, hell, it allowed her to dominate. In addition, the simple fact that she was the only one using the Harbinger of Light meant that people weren’t as comfortable when it came to playing against her. Playing against the currently played classes quickly became routine, you knew what they did and what they couldn't do.” he explains, his voice getting more animated.

“Didn’t the other teams prepare for her?” Jill asks, to steer his rambling a bit.

“Sure, they did. But if you have some eighty seriously competing teams, each with multiple members on the roster and back-up players, you can’t put that much time into preparing against a single player that you might never face. Or, well, you could but it wouldn’t be worth it, especially if you’d need to prepare against a machine that never makes mistakes.” another shake of his head, this one with a wry smile on his face.

“A machine? I think you need to elaborate on that one.” Jill grins, gently pulling more information from Leymar.

“Not literally, no, she’s a flesh and blood human. A bloody tiny one at that, but that doesn’t matter.” again, a short pause, “You know how the old ascended classes could create some whacky effects if their spells were combined in just the right way but nobody ever fully figured out the mechanics? That there seemed to be a random component to it, which made it unpredictable?” he asks, getting a nod in response.

“I think she figured out how to do it, not that she’d ever confirm something like that but I went back through the footage a while back and I think I found a pattern. Only that it’s an insanely precise pattern, we are talking input-variances below human reaction-times, with a chain of perfect inputs, scaled to the situation ingame. If I hadn’t seen the pattern myself, I’d have said it’s impossible but it is there.” Leymar explains, getting a wide-eyed look from Jill in response.

“That sounds quite interesting and it had to be a quite peculiar trigger, given that nobody seems to have figured it out for the past five years. But let’s get back to our original topic, the past season It seems that the departure of Titania and the introduction of Acrasia had quite the impact on you. You just said a lot about Titania as a team-mate, what can you tell us about Acrasia?” Jill pushes, having a hunch that she might get some major hot-takes if she can keep Leymar talking.

“You like asking the hard questions, don’t you?” Leymar asks in response, before gathering his thoughts for a moment, stapling his fingers together in a nervous gesture.

“Acrasia is a people-person, charismatic and… energetic, for a lack of a better word. The two of them couldn’t be more different in their personal styles but we had almost a decade to get used to Titania and her idiosyncrasies, so the switch was a bit jarring. I’m sure the team will mesh better in the coming season.” Leymar explains, his voice getting a little flat towards the end.

“You think your next season will be better and give Amarantine-fans the performances they are used to? The team’s record during the latter part of last season was a little disappointing for them.” Jill asks, causing Leymar to visibly wince.

“As I said, there were a few growing pains and we needed to mash together again. But for me, this past season was the last of professional Craft of War-Gaming. I have spoken with Amarantine’s management and they have accepted my resignation. While I know that some people will see connections between my departure and all kinds of things, some will link it to last season’s record, some with Titania’s departure, some even with Road to Purgatory, decrying that Craft of War is doomed and will shut down as soon as RtP releases. None of that is true.” Leymar looks up, straight into the camera, before continuing.

“I am leaving for personal reasons. As much as I love to play professionally, I also want a family and that means I need a job that is more secure than professional gamer. It might be a sad fact but I am just not certain that my career is sustainable.” Leymar explains, wiping at his eye for a moment, as if to brush away a tear.

“I am sure there are many fans that will be saddened by your departure but I’m also sure that the team’s fans can understand that, sometimes in life, you need to make a hard choice. Personally, I wish you all the best and hope that you will find what you are looking for, both in your personal life and professionally.” Jill reaches out, taking Leymar’s hand, looking over to the camera. Again, applause is heard.

“For now, we are going to go to advertisement before we are back to talk with Leymar some more, stay tuned.” she says, before the view of the studio is replaced with the GNN-Logo.