Player vs. Player #1: Ultimate Gaming Showdown

Player vs. Player #1: Ultimate Gaming Showdown

In this action-packed illustrated series, four kid gamers meet at a virtual tournament and battle for the ultimate grand prize. Perfect for young fans of Ready Player One and Mr. Lemoncello's Library. Sixty-four teams. One mysterious grand prize. Four gamers determined to win it all.   Welcome to Affinity , the hottest battle royale video game in the world! Gamers can be anything they want to be in Affinity ’s high-tech, magical universe—and test their skills in fierce PvP combat. So when Hurricane Games announces an epic tournament with killer prizes, four kids form a team that feels unstoppable . . . but also maybe doomed from the start?   Josh is the tank . . . when his parents let him game. Hannah is the melee fighter . . . but she can only play at the public library. Larkin is the healer . . . as long as her family’s not around. Wheatley is the ranger . . . with a secret that might wreck the whole team.   As solo gamers, they’re good. Really good. But the tournament is a whole new level of competition, and it'll take all four of them to bring it home. Can they step up their game in time for the final match? "Brightly funny, deeply relatable, and full of digital heart . . . . My gamer heart is full and ready for more. Now, where do I sign up to play Affinity myself?!" —Sean Easley, author of the internationally bestselling The Hotel Between series "Fast-paced and brilliant . . . near-impossible to put down." —Diane Magras, award-winning author of the Mad Wolf's Daughter series "[An] ode to virtual gaming and real friendships. . . . A highly readable blend of gaming action and real-world problems." —Kirkus Reviews "A thrill ride . . . a great selection for reluctant readers and dedicated gamers." —Booklist "[A] fast-paced, escapist adventure." —Publishers Weekly M.K. England (they/them) grew up on the Space Coast of Florida watching shuttle launches from the backyard. These days, they call rural Virginia home, where there are many more cows but a tragic lack of rockets. In between marathon writing sessions, M.K. can be found drowning in fandom, rolling critical hits at the gaming table, digging in the garden, or feeding their video game addiction. They probably love Star Wars more than you do. M.K. is the author of The Disasters , Spellhacker , The One True Me & You , and other forthcoming novels. Follow them at www.mkengland.com. 1 JOSH   I know it’s my job to get punched in the face repeatedly, but this? This is the worst. All the color bleeds out of the screen as my character drops his shield and falls to his knees with an exaggerated groan. For the third time in less than a minute. Just in case I missed what happened, I’m helpfully reminded in big red letters: ELIMINATED by Viperzz!   The game spins the camera around so I can see from every angle as Viperzz jumps repeatedly on my fallen avatar’s face. I designed it to look similar to my own, since the game had enough character options for me to get pretty close to “skinny Chinese kid with glasses.” Regretting that decision now. Two of my own teammates charge onto the screen and join in the stomping of my too-real-looking face before finally attacking our enemy like they’re supposed to. Somehow, in between slinging arrows of electricity at the other team and trying not to die, my so-called teammates still manage to type out some trash talk.   [Team Chat] StryderX: Get good, you DELIGHTFUL UNICORN OF SUNSHINE OohShinee: Try staying alive for more than ten seconds, SUPER NINJA   I roll my eyes and hit the F12 key to take a screenshot. DELIGHTFUL UNICORN OF SUNSHINE is a pretty good one. Within a week of getting this game, I downloaded a mod that turns common insults and whining into something much more fun, and I haven’t turned it off since. Things slip through the filter once in a while, but at least it makes match chat only mildly annoying instead of a vast ocean of school-lunch vomit that makes me sad for the whole human species. And sometimes the filter’s random positivity makes for some really funny screenshots. I still have the shot of the time some random guy’s string of insults ended up telling me I was a FLUFFY PIRATE CHEETAH OF JOY who could go CELEBRATE myself like a PRO ASTRONAUT. There’s no filter in the world that makes voice chat tolerable, though. Forget that. My two “teammates” run off just as my respawn timer counts down to zero. I appear back at my team’s starting point at full health, ready to try again. Whoo. I shake out my hands and resettle them on the WASD keys and mouse. I really do try not to let it get to me. Those other two are sticking together for a reason. They’re probably friends who play together after school, just like I’m doing . . . but by myself. Because we had to move for my mom’s job yet again, for the third time since I started middle school. Maybe I’d be like them if I had someone to play with, too. Then they charge headfirst together into a giant, obvious net of stun traps set