Be The Champion All You Want

The E-sport team I led made it to the national finals. We had worked hard to earn this opportunity, but everything fell apart before the final match.

Someone anonymously accused me of using stimulants. To make matters worse, the organizers found traces of stimulants in the bottled water I had just drunk.

The tournament officials took the matter seriously and sent an investigation team to look into it immediately.

“This is a setup!” I tried to explain. “I swear I’ve never touched stimulants, let alone used them to cheat! Someone must’ve tampered with my water!”

I begged them to let me compete. “The match is about to start. Just let me play! The surveillance footage will prove I’m innocent!”

As the team captain, E-sport meant everything to me. I had worked too hard to throw it all away like this. There was no way I would disgrace my team with something so shameless.

But the investigators ignored my pleas and coldly said, “You only need to cooperate with our investigation. A substitute will take your place. You have been disqualified from this match.”

The countdown for the match began. I stared at the monitor in disbelief. Ethan Pryce was sitting in my seat.

I could see the fury on the faces of the crowd below the stage. They knew exactly why a substitute had been brought in. Boos and demands for refunds echoed throughout the venue.

Even my teammates, with whom I had fought side by side for three years, looked devastated. I could see the sadness and anger on their faces.

At that moment, everything changed. I went from being a legendary prodigy in E-sport to someone everyone despised.

...

I took a deep breath and rubbed my face hard to stay alert.

Everyone could doubt me, but I had to give Clara Summers, my girlfriend, an explanation.

After begging them multiple times, the investigators finally agreed to let me make one last call.

As the long wait dragged on, the monotonous electronic beeping filled the silence. I kept running through ways to prove my innocence in my mind.

“Clara, they found stimulants in my water—”

But Clara cut me off and said, “Dominic, this is all your fault! If you had just agreed to give Ethan your spot back then, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

Her sarcastic tone on the phone made me feel like I did not know her at all. It made my blood run cold.

I had been a professional in this industry for seven years and had seen all kinds of dirty tricks. Before a match, I was always careful about what I ate and drank. I never gave anyone a chance to frame me.

But this time, I had let my guard down. I drank the water Clara handed me without thinking twice.

Her soft, insistence words from before the match replayed incessantly in my mind.

“Dom, you’ve been competing for seven years. What haven’t you won? Just let Ethan try this time. Let him experience what a national competition feels like.”

Her words had made me frown. I lost interest and coldly pushed her away.

When I did not respond, she started to sulk. “Nothing is going on between me and him! If there was, I wouldn’t be bringing him up so openly in front of you.

“You know, he’s been diagnosed with brain cancer. He doesn’t have much time left. Can’t you just let him have his final wish?”