A Visitor to the Future - 89 - PowerPoint Nostalgia

Alexandra was dressed in a casual business suit, and stood at the front of the large oval-shaped table, which made the entire room seem like a corporate meeting space. If there'd been a water cooler in one corner, it would have completed the illusion. She gestured to an image of a Proxy projected onto one wall, and I was suddenly nostalgic for PowerPoint, which was never something which I thought would happen.

"Resiliency seems to be a game of strategy, skill, and shrewdness," she explained, assuming a presentational cadence, "Though the temptation exists to immediately focus on the central premise of the sport - the battles between each team's Proxies - that is only one small facet of the entire event."

She snapped her fingers casually, and the image vanished, replaced with nine stylised stick-figures, standing in a neat line.

"There are three distinct roles in each team. Pilots, who are responsible for the actual battles between the teams, Engineers, who are responsible for maintaining the Proxies, and Ambassadors, who are responsible for gathering intelligence and negotiations. These three teams and all comprised of three individuals."

The stick-figures grouped into sets of three, circles appearing around each.

"When the tournament begins, all competitors must remain in the competitor area until the end of the event, or else be disqualified. Going in, we will know nothing about the other competitors - this is where the Ambassadors come in."

The group of stick-figures on the right-hand side of the screen enlarged, and the background around them filled with other figures of a paler shade. The three seemed to move about and mingle with the others.

"It is the role of Ambassadors to represent the team, organize trades, and find out information about the other competing teams. To do this, there are dedicated areas of the arena where the Ambassadors can go and collaborate."

"She means mooch around," said Sasha to the group, smirking.

Alexandra gave a wry grin as a response, "Mooching is a critical part of the process, from what I know. But one of the most important roles that the Ambassadors perform between matches is spectating the battles of other teams. But not all of them! For each bracket of the tournament they can only watch one opposing team each. That will naturally mean we're not aware of each of the competing teams - we will have to bargain with other teams to share intelligence. Mind you, plain lying is completely allowed too, so we'll also have to take the time to try and verify any information we receive."

"This is beginning to sound more like espionage," said Tungsten. I nodded in agreement.

"A good comparison," said Alexandra, "So whoever takes up the Ambassador positions should be fairly good at, or willing to learn how to read other people. I am naturally volunteering myself for the ambassador role. Moving on to the engineers."

The group of Ambassador stick-figures moved out of view, and the circle of three engineer stick-figures began to hit tiny equipment with large hammers, smashing them to pieces.

"That's not very flattering!" exclaimed Blaise.

"But not inaccurate," said Alexandra, unfazed by the comment, "Engineers are responsible for repairing the damage that each Proxy sustains after each battle, or making minor modifications. The equipment available to them is limited - no modern-day fabricators, our Engineers will have to get used to repairing gear the old-fashioned way. In addition, certain classes of modern materials are banned for use - there is an approved list of both tools and equipment you will need to stick to." She reached over to the table and handed out a few lists on paper. Everyone's reactions were somewhat different. Anode excitedly held the paper up to her head, inspecting the contents closely - though I hadn't seen any lenses for eyes - how did she actually see? Blaise seemed indifferent - presumably he'd read the information before. To my delight, Antonia inspected the list briefly, decided it was outside of her area of expertise, and then began to fold the paper into an airplane, like I'd shown her during the Anchor challenge.

"Wow, these are some serious restrictions. No hyperdense alloys even! This is really, really limited!" said Anode, cables writhing a little, "But that means I'll have to get more creative! This is going to be so constrained, I love it!"

"No explosives, either..." said Gatecrash, seeming somewhat dejected, "I could swear I heard the kids talking about explosions..."

"No weapons at all, in fact," said Sarkona, "Seems like it'll be brawl-based only!"

"That's probably a bit misleading," said Blaise, "Because some rounds involve something special. I'm sure the boss will cover that in a tick though."

"Indeed I will," continued Alexandra, "The Engineers are also responsible for any modifications that we want to do to the Proxy base models using those materials. However, please remember that the more complicated the modifications, the more difficult they will be to maintain. A common pitfall for new teams is making a ridiculously complicated design, but then taking damage in the first round that they can't repair in time for the next round."

"What if we can't repair in time for the next round?" asked Anode, "Not that I'm anticipating failure!"

"There are a number of options," said Alexandra, "You can, of course, go into a round with one or more Proxies down. You can also chose to concede a round if you feel that you might need to, to have more time to repair for the next one. This makes the decision to fight or concede quite tactical, and is the reason that the first few rounds are point-based. Remember, the name of the game is Resiliency, it's about being the winning team, not winning every battle."

"Might be a good time to bring up gimmicks, boss," said Blaise.

Alexandra nodded, "Though I loathe the terminology, the spirit of the game seems to have evolved around giving each Proxy a unique 'gimmick' of some sort to use in battles. As the engineering rules point out, these cannot be used as weapons. Think mobility, utility, or defensive measures. There are also prizes given out at the end of the tournament for what the audience perceives to be the best gimmick."

Anode was nodding frantically, head probably swimming with engineering ideas she could put into use.

"Finally, there are the Pilots," said Alexandra, the last three stick figures now standing next to images of three Proxies, "They remotely command the Proxies and try to best the other team in combat. Each round will pit our team's Proxies against the Proxies of the other team. However, that isn't all there is to it. Each round of the tournament has a different set of conditions."

"Like what?" I asked.

"It depends upon the judges - it's generally randomized. In the matches I've watched so far, I've seen Rough Terrain, Deserted Lab and Grenades as options," explained Alexandra, "These can change up the winning conditions for each round significantly. Some conditions may introduce additional objectives, even."

"Ohhhh," said Gatecrash, eyes lighting up, "So the grenades are given for those teams to use in that round? Got it."

"One final note," added Alexandra, "Because this is an amateur tournament, the Pilots are only allowed if they have less that fifty hours of experience piloting Proxies. Unfortunately, that means that Blaise and Sarkona are not allowed to be pilots."

I looked at Sarkona where they sat across the table from me. "Not a problem," they said, "I wanted to give the Ambassador role a shot anyway. Proxies are pretty commonly used on Europa, I wouldn't be surprised if I had a lot more than fifty hours."

"Oh, I know I do!" said Blaise, "I'll be engineering for sure this time around."

"So, with that in mind, we'll need to decide what roles everyone else is going to fill," said Alexandra, "Without further ado, let's step outside, and get hands-on with these Proxies."


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