Hogwarts Summer Camp 2021 Chess Combat (Match 1) Closed

Playing as iNPC Milosh Rehnquist

Summer was upon Hogwarts and what better way to spend it then hexing strangers? Last summer Milosh had joined an activity called Chess Combat, and low and behold it was back this year. With a few new skills to show off and some hard training at home, he felt ready to face the wrath of a few Hogwarts students. It seemed himself and the other foreign schools banded together to make teams to go against the.. Slytherin house, they had some fancy name what the Violent Vipers? Eh what could a few snakes do?

Like usual, the boy wore a simple coat overtop a t-shirt and black jeans. With his hands stuffed in his pockets he lead the team like the queen he is onto the make-shift board of sorts. He'd nod his head in confidence to each of his team members as they took places along side him, leaving him the spot in the middle. He shivered at the horrible luck his team had last time, but this time would be different. The boy had done it once before, knew the chaos, the good spells and bad spells, the placement of certain people. Now it was all down to determining the other team's moves ahead of their own. Milo narrowed his eyes, sizing up their competition before his usual lopsided grin appeared on his face. No fret, no one looked particularly scary, well they also weren't hurling spells at him yet. On the count, he drew out his wand and got in a comfortable stance, ready for whatever they threw at him for the first round.

Mentions: All (but too lazy to write it out)
Action: Doing as strategized looking like a boss
Allies: Guest Team

RPing as iNPC Alisa Sokolova.

Alisa had been here before. Hogwarts, Chess Combat Duelling. That time it had been Durmstrang's students against Hogwarts' students, but apparently that wasn't grand enough anymore for the illustrous halls of Europe's oldest wizarding school. No, now it was their best team against the best international students they'd been able to get their hands on - not that Alisa was complaining, not at all. She'd been invited back after all, while her cousins had had to stay home. That alone had been worth the journey.

They'd won the last time. With Mondelez and Preobrazhensky on her team it really hadn't been a surprise. Now, though... of her four teammates two were from other schools, and the other two were in the year below hers. She didn't know either well, would have given a lot of have Maksim on her team again, but nothing in life was handed to you, and right now that meant that Alisa would have to make do with what she had and drag this team to a win by all means necessary.

She wouldn't come back home a loser. She had a reputation now, and she intended to uphold it.

"Let's do this," she whispered to her group in Russian, forgetting for a moment that not all of them would understand her.

Action: Doing as strategized.

English Russian | Open for Interaction

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Mentioning @Violet Carrington, Anastasia P

Interacting with Team Guest

Back at the castle of chaos. Fighting the snakes once again. Honestly, It was a disappointment for Rodion for not to be able to fight that Slytherin hag. The boy grew some fondness towards her despite the catastrophe date back in the blossom ball. Yes, she had that anger issue, and that untamed craziness like a Canadian goose, but she was indeed quite charming to look. Just visually though, since her inside was a rotten watermelon, stinky, revolting, with some maggots here and there. This would be the day where he could demonstrate his mediocre duelling skill. Quidditch was taking all of his interest, both because of the sport and Anastasia Prokovdine. Yes, that beautiful inside and out Anastasia, the koldovstoretz first string seeker. It was sad to see her crying that day when the explosion happened, but perhaps, if he wins this duel, maybe that could put a smile on her face once more. Not that she would care, of course, but a guy can hope, right? He looked at his team mates, giving them a smirk and said, “I’m ready.”

Charmer
Allies : the international team
Action : As Strategized

INTERACTIONS: Guest Team

Jan took a good, long look around him as the announcer began to throw out the introductions for each team and when their name was called, the boy paused for a second before following the rest of his team onto the platform set out for them which resembeled a sort of chessboard except it was catered to their size. Then again, as the boy recalled correctly, that was basically what this game was supposed to be all about. A game of chess except instead of pieces, it would be themselves that would be hopping around the board hurling spells and jinxes at the Hogwarts students and his fingers curled around his wand at the sheer thought. Jan rather prided himself on his wandwork and any chance to display it was a welcome opputurnity for him indeed though he wasn't sure how he felt about moving about a game board like he was some sort of pawn.

Ah, well, a small price to pay. Chess Combat, they called it and he had already derived from the name that this would not be something for the faint of heart. "Ready, let's get this show on the road." The Durmstrang boy announced to his allies eyeing their foes who had lined up on the other side facing them. What was the silly moniker they had chosen for themselves again? Vipers? Frankly, he cared little for what ingenious team names anyone came up with because at the end of the day, it meant nothing if you came out on the losing end. They were here for a singular purpose and that was to show Hogwarts that despite all their glamour, there were others out there that could give them a run for their money. A loss would simply not be acceptable, he could already imagine the look on a certain someone's face when they realized that he had managed to be defeated in such a simplitic game that should have been a walk in the park for him. This required teamwork though and as he gauged his allies, Jan supposed they should be alright as long as they kept their head together. Unity and tactics was what they needed here.

ACTION: Doing as strategized

ALLIES: Guest Team

Credit to Dmitri Jones

Chess Combat. Last year, it had been more of a scrimmage than anything, a fun opportunity to try one's hand at duelling. It was far more important this year. Instead of teams being a random grouping from all the schools, it was the Viridian Vipers, representing Hogwarts, against the foreign schools. That made it more official, gave the match higher stakes. She'd gone undefeated during the season, a streak she wasn't keen to break today, and besides, this was their chance to see how they compared to the foreign schools.

At any rate, this would not be the same fun, light-hearted game. It couldn't be with the heavy atmosphere over the camp the last week. The attack on Koldovstoretz, the fact 17 kids had died, still hadn't really processed for her. Those had been kids, just like her, that had bright futures ahead of them... and they were gone. It was horrifying. But not something to think about, not now when she needed all her focus to duel.

She was happy with her team. Santario, of course, she was plenty familiar working with both as Co-Captains and as partners. Ileen was someone she got extra practice in with sometimes, and both she and Alexander were capable duellists. As for Illowy, she was excited for the chance to finally duel on the same side as her friend. Together, she was confident they had it in them to pull this off. It was impossible to predict how the match would go yet, of course; she had at most seen their competition once in the previous year's Chess Combat. That was the international students' advantage: their skill was unknown. Hogwarts' advantage was that they'd been playing together for a year.

They were the first match of the day, tasked with giving Slytherin the best start possible. Some last-minute strategy was discussed, her hair was pulled out of her face. It wasn't long before they were called onto the field by Dee and Pericles. She was only familiar with two members of the other team: Milosh, the opposing Queen, had been against her previous Chess Combat team, and Karilyna had been their Queen. Well, she'd get to know them all as duellists soon enough.

She took her spot as Bishop in between Alexander and Illowy. While she'd been Rook last year, it wasn't like she had a preference. Karilyna was directly across from her, and though they couldn't direct spells at each other from their current positions, she found the girl intimidating, knowing what she could do. But back to the task at hand. Readying herself, she waited for the call to start. Whatever happened, she would give her best. For herself, her team, her house. For Hogwarts.

Action: Doing as strategized

This was the day of summer she had been waiting for, and the air alive with electricity-charged anticipation. Santario could not and would not allow herself to think about the tragic events that had happened less than a week ago. Entertainment was what people needed to give them a slight reprieve. There was no shame in grief as long as you didn’t lose yourself in it, and if their games could help distract people, including themselves, for even a small superficial moment, then she was happy.

Being the first match of the day meant that they set the bar for expectation, and it was both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. After-all they only had to win two of the three matches to take the whole summer games, but they would not set the bar with a loss. A small smile played on her lips when Dee and Peri took the stage to start the day. The tables had turned as Santario oversaw two of their duels over the past year. Now they were overseeing one of hers. Hopefully, they would be better good luck charms for her than she had been for them.

Before their names were called, San fashioned her hair into a tight braid making sure that it would not get in the way during combat. After all, fumbling a spell because your hair got in your face was just shameful. Dee’s voice rang out, calling them forth, and Santario stood with her team, giving a resolute nod to Bridget when she passed her on her way to the far Rook spot. They had been a team all year and undefeated at that. A loss here today was simply unacceptable. As the guests took their places, she scanned over them, knowing only one. He had danced with her cousin once, and the boy could run his mouth as he had proved only a couple of days ago. This made it more interesting.

Santario looked over her teammates and gave a final nod of encouragement, a glance given to those on the sidelines, a quick search for a face unseen, though she was sure she recognized a few. They had practiced hard all year long and while the team across the field were unknown variables, they didn’t have the cohesion that the vipers would. Taking a deep breath to center herself, Santario turned her eyes forward, and drew her cherrywood wand.

The familiar feel in her hand, crackling in the air, and staring at her opponents. Now all she needed was the signal to begin.

Action| Doing as Strategized

encyclopedia | outfit [minus shoes + phone] • banner credit: Winnie Harper

Five a.m. Karilyna had been awake since five a.m. It sounded like a plainly stupid idea for the morning of a rather… significant duel, and, well, it was, but she couldn't help it. See, the first rays of sunlight had already been peeking in, filtering through the curtains and promising the arrival of day, and simply the knowledge of an upcoming duel had kept her from burrowing back under the covers. Though there was an hour to wait out inside the cabin - she didn’t want to break curfew rules simply for fear of being barred from future summer camps - adrenaline was running high before long, anticipation and excitement putting a grin on her face and sparkle in her eyes. And hey, she really couldn't afford to wake too late; her match, the first one of the day, would be at ten, in a mere five hours.

A quick and uncharacteristically early breakfast, wolfed down with barely any regard to what exactly she was putting in her mouth, was quickly followed by a jog towards a life-sized chess board, though with less squares than a traditional one. It was identical to the one on which she'd played- no, won last year, a victory that had been admittedly incomplete since the opposing queen had remained standing, sadly, but a resounding victory nonetheless.

Milling around with the others, she thought back to last year's match with pride, thinking back to how well she and her teammates had worked together, especially given the fact that they were an agglomeration of students from three different schools, all foreign faces with only a brief meeting to discuss strategy prior to the match's commencement. They'd all done brilliantly, albeit some slightly better than others, and that wasn't to mention the sheer power she'd packed behind her spells or her admittedly impressive accuracy - after all, even she hadn't expected such greatness from herself.

There, too, laid her advantage: although surely it applied to several present, as she registered multiple faces with some semblance of familiarity (they'd likely been at one of the Chess Combat matches the previous year), she had experience with this little game. With ten total players and a much larger host of possibilities with each passing moment than a typical duel, this game was certainly more complicated, with so much to keep track of. It wasn't extremely difficult to acclimate to, as she could attest to, but surely experience would prove at least somewhat beneficial. Hopefully.

Aside from that, the results, the endgame, who would ultimately walk away with a victory and who with a loss, was a complete mystery. Neither side knew well, if at all, the strengths - or weaknesses - of the other, and each team had a unique edge over the other. It would be a challenging duel, to say the least, and Karilyna found herself smiling even more broadly, the tide of excitement rising even further, as she came to this realization. She'd always been one to love a challenge, one to jump in without a second thought and fight in hopes of resurfacing a victor. And so that was exactly what she would do now.

At the call of one of their moderators, Karilyna hopped onto the board with the rest, taking her place beside her queen. She would be a bishop this year, which had admittedly been a decision made to her dismay - she'd done exceptionally well as queen the previous year with scarcely any experience, and was more than eager for a repeat performance this year - but after a few moments of pouting, she'd thrown off her disappointment. There was certainly a part of her wishing to dwell on it, but she couldn't let something so trivial eat away at her concentration. That, after all, was a rookie mistake, and one she wasn't about to fall for. Besides, she didn't need a meatshield, which was pretty much a guarantee for a queen; she could fend for herself. It'd be nice to be able to shoot off spells without a wall in front of her, too.

Anyway, it was just about time to start. "Let's gooo!" she called to her teammates, echoing their words of encouragement with a huge grin to match. As she straightened up to her full height, spinning her wand between her fingers, she eyed her opponents, trying to size them up as best she could. Oh, look, there was Bridget, whom Karilyna shared a cabin with and had duelled with last year. It would be a shame to duel against her this time, but, well, some things couldn't be helped.

There was no doubt this would be a tough team to beat, as they were Hogwarts' best, but she was more than ready for anything. She was fearless, experienced, eager to yeet some Slytherins off this duelling stage - well, if she didn't get yeeted first. Really, she hoped it wouldn’t come down to that; she was here to win, and wouldn't be satisfied with anything short of that.

24 hours left for posts and strategies!
@Santario Martin | @Bridget Collins | @Alexander Varellion | @Ileen Knight | @Illowy Magnard
@Aurora Ranvier | @Edric Banes | @Annie Morgan | @Thora Larkston | @Elena Jangleton

Ileen hadn’t dreamed of being on the winning team the moment she had signed up for dueling. And yet, here she was. A slight smile was given to Pericles and Dee who were in charge of this match and of course to Alexander, her dueling partner.
Even though she tried to hide it, her smile ended up being rather crooked. Trying to fight down the nervosity the young Slytherin gripped her chestnut wand tighter and bit her cheek. Her dark brown eyes quickly gilded over her own team and she felt a relieving steem of confidence. She had reasonable and smart people by her side, people she respected.
When her name was called she stepped on the field and brushed an imaginary strand from her eyes.
Of course, she had tied her hair into a high ponytail to keep potential distractions away from her face. She had rolled up her sleeves and put on her comfortable sneakers.
That way she could duck out of the way as quickly as possible - she assumed that would be necessary. The students from the other school didn't look like they would give up quickly and easily.
Side by side with her dueling co-captain and her trusted partner Alexander, Ileen inhaled deeply and squinted her eyes. She tried to clear her mind and focus. She would not let her team down. May the game begin.

Action: Doing as strategized