In recent times, Talinz fighting has become one of the most
popular sports on the planet. Channels are devoted to the depiction of the
sport, to the point that even college and amateur leagues can be televised and
attended by thousands. A thriving amateur fighters market, driven by solid
product placement on more famous fighter’s vehicles, and the subtle economics
of technical specifications, has made the sport as accessible as it is likely
to ever be, with smart tech-heads poring over magazines of new modules whilst
sturdy athletes itch for their next match. The perfect pilot would be both, of
course, but often support and pit teams build around an ace pilot.
Every now and then, an enterprising soul will consider
forming a Talinz baseball, basketball or football league, but for the most part
these only catch on as relatively niche sports. For now, it seems like more
traditional games have kept their niche safe, even though they have been taken
down a peg or two as Talinz has conquered the airwaves.
The Talinz tournament season lasts from June through to the
following April. The Baku treaty was signed in May, and in respect and
remembrance the season is often put on hold accordingly. This gives the sports
channels a chance to diversify into other sports, air highlights reels, speculation
programs and the odd rare documentary on the war itself and the growth of
Talinz. Over the May hiatus, behind the scenes, new pilots are recruited; team affiliations
change and deals are bound and broken. More money changes hands in that 31 day
period than at any other point during the season. Once the transfer window
closes on the 31st, teams are locked for the remainder of the
season. Some have also suggested that the amount of backroom deals between
sponsors and apparent rival companies and pilots during that month leads to an
overdose of work for police departments too; sometimes it even reaches the
headlines.
The major tournaments that make up the season provide ample
business for any globe-trotting major team. The general arrangement of the
global sport is fairly hierarchical. Amateur teams are run in unattached local
leagues, or affiliated leagues. Local leagues tend to be more casual, and run
at any time, but teams in affiliated leagues tend to be vying for the notice of
a scout, or the rare grand prize of a promotion and sponsorship deal. Above
that, countries tend to run professional leagues, sometimes with multiple tiers
within them depending on the popularity of the sport. Here, teams often
represent a town or portion of a city, though some unaffiliated or oddly
affiliated teams do exist. Promotion between leagues often relies on being in
the top two or three teams of the preceding season, and elevation is highly
prized. It means more exposure, better sponsorship, more money and a prospect
at becoming the best in the country.
The best players in the country might get to represent it in
the continentals. The six grand continental cups are the second-highest prizes
in the Talinz world, and the finals have an audience of millions in the stadium
and at home. The sporting associations of companies will sometimes attempt to
make conglomerate teams from the best pilots in the league, but often these ‘supergroups’
don’t do nearly so well as a well-oiled team built on sturdy teamwork that has
strived from the bottom together.
Winners of the continental cups from the preceding season
are then invited to the Grand Prix. A winner’s circuit. Each team takes part in
only one match a month, only 6 teams. Competitors travel across the planet,
taking part in odd, custom designed arenas, with increasingly bizarre gimmicks,
as countries spend incredible amounts of money in a heady mix of one-upmanship
and tourist baiting. These arenas are often used in the following seasons in
lesser cups, or so their absurd costs are excused by project managers. Some
complain that qualification is easier for some teams than others: indeed, by
their very nature some continents have more countries and thereby more
competitors in their continental cups. Others claim that this makes the less
competitive continents greener, and ripe for the picking by more experienced
pilots. Considering the high performance and success rates of African and Asian
pilots in the Grand Prix, this theory seems to have a nugget of truth in it.
At the end of it? The
grand prize. An ability to be considered the world champion. Often pilots will
work for years, grinding from the bottom to achieve the honour. But a quicker
route to success is available. Teams will sometimes bring in new blood, and
some of the older teams now contain none of their original line up, without any
loss of position. Alternatively, retiring teams in some countries might be
given the right to pass their mantle to a team of their choice in a lower
league. Sometimes this is done as a practical joke, and teams obviously out of
their depth are promoted up three leagues, only to fall back to a position at
which they are stable, often to the irate protests of the supporters of the old
team, whose name they still carry.
It is this combination of mobility and interchangeability that
has allowed the fighting, much like the robots themselves, to become so
popular. A team could rise from zero to hero in the space of just a few years,
and a soul could really make a name, if they were willing to
take part…