Public Doubt

The first thing Northline Pulse got after qualifying was not praise. It was a larger, louder version of the same doubt. The official post-match analysis show put their name on a gray background beside bigger teams and more impressive numbers. The hosts were polite enough, but the conclusion was cold: “Their ceiling is still in question. In Zero Build, consistency does not automatically mean elite.” The chat was less polite. “They got lucky.” “Wait until real LAN pressure hits, and the controller kid folds.” “How far can the meme boy actually go?” Chase sat in the practice room staring at the screen, saying nothing. In the corner, the replay of his earlier mistake still existed online, but now it had company: the 1v2 clutch from the final game.