With Russia losing to Korea back in their pivotal group stage match, the East Asians took immediately the chance to take the hosts as their pick for their quarter-finals matchup.

The 2nd War Robots World Championships is actually composed of three portions: the qualifiers, the group stage and the playoffs, with breaks in between. Now that the group stage has been concluded with Russia getting 2nd seed and choosing Sweden as their opponent in the process, the playoffs have definitely went into a different level.

As he looked at the news on Mech Spectrum, Cossack Notes, Gosugamers and other international esports sites that covered mech games, he saw that only a few analysts had him choosing Sweden for their upcoming match. It seems that many were shocked at the way the whole thing transpired.

Medevdev started by asking, “So, dudes, what are we choosing to run for our lineup?”

“Let’s run a Dash lineup for one of our drops, and then go standard for the rest. That should give us more options,” a seemingly thin and slim Caucasian said.

With a jesting face, Medevdev replied, “Igor, can we see that ‘cheater style’ for once?”

“God damn it, Captain, I told you that I can’t just go on that mode every time. You notice that my hands were not as good as they should be,” retorted the other player.

The inside joke among the ranks of pro War Robots players is that Igor, one of the younger players in Polar Pro, had extremely slow reflexes that sometimes the Russians just lose a map due to that “disability.” For this, the medium-built, lanky Caucasian has been called the “Molasses Guy” on the Wiki Forum by Dredd77 and Golden Sabre, who are known as among the “veteran commentators” on the central War Robots forums.

However, people get surprised when he goes up against people such as the Vampire, the Engineer and the Ancilking as he can display the mechanics that even “God-level” players can’t display at their best. For this, he is also notoriously known as the “Meta-Killer”.

“Jokes aside, why not. Anything else?”

The Russians were sitting outside a cafe inside Fort Bonifacio, which is known as an upscale business center in the heart of the Philippine capital, Manila. Surrounded by a combination of spanky new high-rise buildings and lush greenery, Bonifacio Global City, otherwise known as BGC, is a typical hangout for Manila’s professionals. The Russian team was clearly enjoying the day while at the same time preparing for their match against Sweden tomorrow.

They were sitting in a table, drinking their glasses of tropical fruit juice while eating chocolate mousse cake.

Musa Akrymadov, the vice-captain of the team, asked what they should expect against the Swedes. The Vampire replied:

“Expect their A-game, expect the best meta lineups from them and expect their young players to put out some fast bots. You know how good Swedish youth talent is.”

Musa affirmed, “True. How we wish we have those talents like the Philippines and Sweden has, no?”

“That’s true. So what’s your solution, Musa?”

“We need to hope that we get maps such as Moon, Dead City and Shenzhen into our matchup. Everyone knows we can’t fight that well on Yamantau.”

“How about Canyon?” asked the Vampire.

“Bullshit. You know that Zeus, Trebs and Discotheques will win the entire match for the enemy. Might just as well play a control style on Springfield and try to win through attrition,” said Artour, the other ace player in the team. In comparison to Musa and Nikolai, he is young, yet one of the most consistent players on the Russian side.

A Zeus is an energy weapon placed on a heavy weapons slot that can reach up to 600 units in-game. It is 100% accurate and it bypasses energy shields. Even though it can be blocked by physical shields, the big arc of the weapon allows it to just hit enemy mechs from behind.

Meanwhile, a Trebuchet is a long-range heavy weapon that can be fired from 1100 units. It is considered to be the archetypal sniper rifle in-game, with one salvo capable of destroying a light bot in War Robots.

Finally, a Discotheque, originally known as a Gekko, is a laser beam weapon placed on a light hardpoint. It does damage over time and it can mess with the aim of the player through its colorful light beams.

After a couple of moments of reflection, the erudite captain remarked, “That’s a valid point. Musa, take note of that, we need to be able to do a count system against Sweden.”

“What will they ban?” continued Artour.

“We all know they will ban Power Plant. They won’t want a fast game; after all, everyone knows that we are keeping some special packages for that map,” replied Nikolai.

“Then if we ban Yamantau? They’ll do Moon?”

“Correct. Regardless of how we ban or in which order we do it, we will surely have Dead City and Springfield.”

“Anyways, I think we are ready,” interjected Musa.

The captain remarked, “Yeah we are, yeah.”

Afterwards, they went on to talk about their everyday lives, just relaxing and enjoying the Philippine weather for the day. The sun was shining up in the sky, with a light breeze coming in from the west.

There was no reason for them to move elsewhere.

You can read the next chapter here! As for the previous one, you can always go back!