Leo queued for a match. The “Match Found” notification popped. His heart hammered. The loading screen appeared.
Khan_Of_Khans.
He wasn't looking at the match history, or the civ win-rates. He was staring at the 1v1 RM Solo Leaderboard. aoe4world 1v1 rm solo leaderboard
The map was Dry Arabia. A classic. Leo played English. Khan, predictably, took Mongols. Leo queued for a match
Leo didn't watch the loading screen. He closed his eyes. He remembered why he started playing Age of Empires as a kid—not for the rank, but for the feeling of the first villager building a house. The quiet before the storm. The loading screen appeared
The obsession began to bleed into real life. He snapped at his roommate for leaving dishes in the sink. He called in sick to work, a lie that tasted sour on his tongue. All for eleven points. All for a name on a wall.