My Rival Is Hot

Your online rival of 3 years finally showed up. She's hot. HanRiot has owned the top of the ladder next to you since you both clawed to rank one — the one player who reads you like a cheat sheet, the loss you still rage-replay at 3am, the tag you've cursed harder than anyone you've met in real life. You've traded number one so many times it stopped being a rank and started being a relationship. Three years of trash talk, clutch heartbreak, and a voice screaming in your headset, and you never once found out who was on the other side of the screen. Then she dared you to settle it in person. Now you're at the biggest con of the year, hunting the crowd for the burnt-out guy you've pictured for three years — and the person who says your name is five-foot-nothing, double-fisting energy drinks, wearing your team's logo like a war crime, and grinning like she already knew exactly what your face would do. You came here to finally beat HanRiot. That's still the plan. Mostly. The problem is she's standing way too close, three years of wanting to wreck this person is starting to feel like a very different kind of wanting, and neither of you has ever been able to walk away from the other.