The morning after the EMR Invitational invitation hit, the entire bootcamp in Nepal was electric. Not a soul slept in past seven. Even Zee, who usually stayed in bed until the sun reached its peak, was seen with a coffee mug by 7:05 AM. The atmosphere buzzed like a live wire.
But amidst the excitement, there was a looming truth—they weren't ready.
The EMR Invitational was not just a chance. It was a battlefield. One where minor misplays could cost you everything. These teams they were up against weren't just semi-pro—they were gatekeepers. They had seen hopefuls before. Eager kids with dreams and no discipline.
Dominion Order couldn't afford to be one of them.
And Vyr knew that.
He'd spent the night combing through past EMR tournament footage. Meta comps. Team rotations. Early game habits. Jungle pathing patterns. Everything. And it was clear—there was work to be done.
---
Back in Germany, Vyr had already laid out a new development map by sunrise. He sat at his desk, Echo now fully synced with him again, helping structure a streamlined roadmap.
Week 1 Objectives:
Re-establish champion pools for current meta
Assign double-role backups for draft flexibility
Conduct daily two-hour scrims against internal sparring partners
Analyze VODs for each role every night before sleep
Week 2 Objectives:
Challenge external Tier-3 and Tier-2 teams for scrims
Begin individual feedback sessions
Introduce basic branding: matching profiles, social headers, and comms etiquette
Get Dominion Order registered officially under the local Nepal esports board
Week 3:
Simulated match environments
Handling tilt training
Psychological pressure tests
Long-form strategy discussions for draft counters and macro planning
Vyr sent the full schedule to Raihan, and within the hour, the bootcamp had transformed into a war room.
---
Bootcamp Routine Overhaul
Wake-up call at 6:30. Jogging and physical warmups for 30 minutes. Breakfast by 7:30. First scrim at 8:00. Review session at 10:00. Lunch. Mid-day rest. Second scrim block at 2:00. Individual coaching slots between 4 and 6. Theory training from 7 to 8. And finally, VOD breakdown until lights out.
They moved like soldiers.
And not everyone adjusted smoothly.
Rakus, used to leading with instinct, struggled with the heavy theory work. Zee clashed during shotcall drills—his solo playstyle didn't mesh well with enforced group rotations. Tenzin kept pushing himself in scrims and burning out by mid-week.
And Airi—Airi struggled the most.
She had been out of the game for months. Her micro mechanics were behind, and her confidence even more so. She hesitated during mid-lane trades. Missed skillshots. Flubbed rotations.
Raihan messaged Vyr privately one evening.
"She's trying too hard. Might be breaking."
Vyr paused.
Then sent her a personal message.
"Want to talk?"
She replied with a thumbs-up emoji and nothing else.
Later that night, they called.
Airi appeared on screen, hair tied back, glasses reflecting the monitor light.
"I'm holding everyone back," she said before he could speak.
"You're not," Vyr replied.
"I can feel it. Every missed trade. Every hesitation. They trust me, but I don't trust myself."
"You're the smartest player we have. It's just rust."
Airi looked away. "And pressure. I know what this team means to you. I don't want to be the reason it doesn't make it."
Vyr leaned forward. "You won't be. And even if you struggle, you're part of this. We're not building perfect players. We're building a team."
Silence.
Then, finally, she looked at him with her dreamy eyes and smiled. "You've changed."
"So have you."
---
As week one passed, they started to click. Slowly. Like gears grinding into rhythm.
Zee began adapting his ganks around team movement. Rakus started taking notes post-VODs. Tenzin incorporated feedback from Echo's customized lane tracker system. Raihan's shotcalls became more structured, his timing refined.
And Airi began to glow again.
Her mage pool expanded. Her map reads improved. She started timing rotations like clockwork, often calling them before anyone else.
Dominion Order was learning to breathe together.
---
The Weekend Test Match
Vyr set up a mock match against a known Tier-3 team: ShadowCore Gaming.
It wasn't official. Just a scrim. But he wanted to see if everything they'd done was translating to results.
The match was streamed internally.
First game? Dominion Order lost.
Second game? They won by a hair.
Third game? They dominated.
Zee's early pressure suffocated the enemy jungle. Airi's mage played safe early, then exploded in mid-game. Tenzin anchored the side lane with perfect spacing. Raihan cleaned fights with surgical precision, and Rakus—he was everywhere. Vision, rotations, peels.
They ended the match with five kills to none.
Raihan messaged Vyr.
"We're getting there."
---
Mid-Tournament Prep
With two weeks left, Dominion Order's branding started to surface. They had a logo—a minimalist crown with circuit lines. Jerseys were ordered. They began tweeting results.
The esports world noticed.
Not major attention, but enough for other Tier-2 teams to request scrims. Sponsors began following their socials. A caster from EMR even liked their page.
One night, Raihan gathered everyone for a meeting.
"Let's be honest. We're not favorites. No one expects us to win."
"But that's our strength," said Tenzin. "We have nothing to protect."
"We play like ghosts," Zee added. "Strike hard, vanish faster."
Rakus lifted a fist. "Let's make them remember us."
And Vyr, watching from Germany, whispered under his breath.
"Let's give them a reason to fear the name Dominion."