“See? We don’t need all that fancy software to be great,” Keetra Deile told her team, pointing to the latest data she and XL Striker 3.8 had compiled from their practice sessions since V2_4ever had disappeared. “Sure, it helped us prepare for some crazy scenarios, but we started to be able to spot the patterns in the sims, then replicate and exploit them. I’ve seen a 5.7% increase in Weldar’s speed since we started training without them, and Sela’s focus is sharper than ever with her 96.9% success rate when passing.”

This isn’t to say they ceased all tech-related operations, though. It took some time to sort the software that helped them out against the kind that performed for them, but now that they have, Team Virtupets feels better than ever before, and the online buzz is that they’re one of the favourites in this year’s tournament. However, there are still some bugs to work out… such as replacing the equipment that was stolen from their server room recently.

“We just don’t know what happened,” Keetra explained. “We decided to convert our server room into a multi-purpose facility, but when Weldar, XL and I went to clear it out and donate some of our unused servers, we realised that half our hardware was missing! All that was left was a strange puddle of water and what appeared to be a bit of pale green slime. Our security footage was all erased, and expertly – no traces left behind at all – so we don’t have any real leads.”

They have their suspicions, though, as of particular note amongst their stolen goods was some experimental cloning technology that Sela Pretore scoffed over. “Yeah, V had it in his head that the best way for us to get better at Yooyuball was to let him clone us,” she explained when asked about it. She, Deile, and Weldar Xupenfarb all expressed discomfort with the idea, but Xupenfarb did add, “He had a point that it would be easier to find our weaknesses if we literally faced ourselves on the pitch. Don’t think it was worth giving our DNA up for, though, so I’m glad we didn’t.”