As was traditional, at the start of the fourth week of the League Finals, a grand ball was held for all of the Operators. A gala black-tie event, it was the hottest ticket of the seasons; models, politicians and moguls all showed up, all hoping to rub shoulders with those brave folks who put their nerves and their Bots on the line for the purposes of entertainment.

And those Operators? Well, it was an opportunity for them to size each other up and psych each other out.

This year, chiiika cornered Brendan over by the shrimp buffet. “You know they only call you the ‘bad boy’ of BlogsBot because you’re bad, right? Like, literally not very good,” she hissed. “How dare you,” he snarled back. “We’ll settle this tomorrow; Arena Hall C, no configurations.” “You’re on,” replied chiiika, biting the head off of a shrimp before walking away.

Meanwhile, lendunistus was warily stalking Raven1207 around a colossal ice sculpture of SingularByte holding Hard Hat. “You shouldn’t put all those feathers on CrowBot,” sneered lendunistus; “I heard that they’re installing flame traps at positions 6 and 3 in Arena Hall F, and you wouldn’t want to get burned.” Sadly, by the time Raven’s translator has relayed this to the visiting Operator and a retort had been formed, lendistus was already deep in conversation with the Ambassador from some Continental nation and the moment had passed…