The Return of the Nerd Herd

[Alex Anders]

The scene opens to a gentleman in the darkness walking towards a computer in the middle of a room.  He sits down at his chair and swivels the mouse.  A dim light emerges from the screen and reveals the man.  Alex Anders.  He logs into his computer and begins preparation for his, seemingly new, nightly ritual.  He sets up the recording software and loads up Twitch on one of his screens, while the other has him logging in to his League of Legends account.  He presses the button to activate his ring light, mounted precisely between his dual monitor setup, and checks his software to verify the lighting looks good on the webcam.  He knows it always looks the same, but he checks anyway, in the off chance something has gone wrong with his equipment.  He preps his background graphic and places it over the image his webcam displays, hits the GO LIVE button, and starts to focus himself.

He has been out of the limelight since his WWG career abruptly ended.  Thankfully, he had been smart and saved his money, so he is able to do anything he desires, which now includes livestreaming on Twitch on a nightly basis.  Though his star has faded since his wrestling days, he has developed a bit of a following playing games for complete strangers.  His appearance has changed since his last WWG appearance, five years ago.  He has shaved his head bald, grew a goatee, and has focused on buffing up.  Anyone who hasn’t followed the transformation over the five years would think that Anders had become a completely different person.



After five minutes had passed, Anders looked at the clock on his computer.  ‘18:00’ stared back at him from the screen.  ‘Showtime’ Anders thinks, and removes the ‘The Stream Will Begin Momentarily’ graphic.

Alex Anders:

Good morning, good afternoon, and good night to all the wonderful followers of the Nerd Herd and thank you for being a part of my stream tonight.  All of you are in for a fun night, because I will be tackling League of Legends for the first time on stream.  I’ve been playing off and on for the past six or so years, and quite honestly, I’m terrible at it.  But I wanted to give all of you an opportunity to laugh at me, and tonight seems like a great night to do it.

Anders checks his chat as he gets the first game set up.  As he called the crowd the ‘Nerd Herd’ chat was spammed with custom sheep emojis Anders had developed for his Twitch subscribers.  Anyone who donated to him would be able to use this special emoji in chat, and seeing it made Anders smile.  As he continued scrolling down, he saw the typical comments, such as ‘Give me a shoutout’ and ‘Ur a n00b’ and ‘I thought you were playing Magic tonight!’ but he noticed an influx of wrestling comments tonight, particularly ones pertaining to WWG.

As the first draft finished and the loading screen brought the competitors in game, Anders decided to ask the question.

Alex Anders:

You guys seem to be really into the wrestling content tonight.  What has you guys bringing up these distant memories?

It takes about 30 seconds for the delay of his question to be relayed into the crowd, and chat lit up with responses.  ‘Have you not heard the news?’ one commenter asked.  ‘WWG is having a reunion show.’ Another piped in.  Soon, chat was flooded with different WWG memories from Alex Anders’ past.  ‘Does anyone remember when Anders won the Absolute Championship in an amazing match against Nick Savage?’  Anders was able to see that as chat flew past him in different memories.  ‘Anders won the very first match WWG Carnage ever held against Manny Vrakas.’

Anders couldn’t help but laugh when he had seen that comment.

Alex Anders:

Haha!  I actually beat him two weeks in a row.  I wonder what’s happened to him now.  He’s probably some bum on the streets looking for a handout at this point.

As the game was underway, Alex took his champion, Dr. Mundo, into the jungle to farm his way to victory.  He went through his usual jungle clear with no signs of the opposing team’s jungler anywhere in sight.  As he continues to check his mini map in the corner of the screen, he sees that the opposing team is running two top, two bottom, and one mid.

Alex Anders:

Well, I suppose we will be playing a game out of the norm today.  Guess I’ll head up top and see if I can help out the Garen.

As Anders leads his purple, Hulk-like Mundo through the snaking river of Summoner’s Rift, he sees the Garen player has been absolutely pummeled, already with three deaths in the first five minutes.  As Mundo reaches the top, the character proclaims, ‘Mundo goes where he pleases.’  At about this time, Anders notices his computer seems to be running slower than normal.  He checks his pings.  ‘724 ms’ is displayed in the top right for everyone to see.

Alex Anders:

Well, Mundo isn’t going where he pleases with this lag.  Let’s see how it goes though.

Anders has Mundo rush into the 1v2 and even the odds.  It’s to no avail, as both he and the Garen player are destroyed by the enemy team.  This continued through the rest of the game.  Anders’ Mundo went 1/7/0 (one kill, seven deaths, zero assists) as the enemy team blew up the Nexus and a ‘DEFEAT’ screen appeared before all of Twitch.  Anders, who had leaned back in his chair defeated, sat back up and stared at his webcam.

Alex Anders:

Well, now we know for sure that I’m a scrub, and I think it’s time to head over to play some Magic Arena.  As I get the client set up, I have some time for some questions, so pitter patter guys.

After about a minute of lull time, Anders started reading off some of the questions.

Alex Anders:

If I were to be a D&D class, what would I be?  I’d have to say I’d be a wizard.  Super smart, but incredibly squishy.  Especially since I haven’t been in the ring in a hot minute.

Do I miss wrestling?  Honestly, I miss it a little bit.  It was so much fun entertaining thousands of people a night.  I think that’s why I’ve had no problem going to indie shows and commentating or ring announcing or refereeing.  It’s so much fun to be a part of the wrestling universe.

Will I be at the WWG Reunion show?  Well, that’s a tough question.  I haven’t been asked, a card hasn’t been put out, and honestly, I don’t know if I could hang with the wrestlers today.  They’re all so talented, and I haven’t been training, so I’d probably get decimated worse than that League game. Haha.

What if I told you that you had a match? One I…. specifically….. requested?

Anders notices how oddly specific the question is worded and checks out the username.  Regin_Havok is displayed as the username.  Anders shows a sly smile as he reads the name and prepares a response.

Alex Anders:

Well, Regin, if you requested a match with me, I think you should tell me what it is.  I can’t accept a challenge with no idea what I’m getting into.  I’m not stupid enough anymore to wander right into a trap.

Anders stares at chat waiting for this user to type.  There’s a good chance that this is just some troll trying to get a rise out of him.  Though, why would somebody use Regin as his means to troll him. And then, another message from user Regin_Havok popped up.  “This match will be a Loser Leaves Town match.  Career vs. Career.  I do understand if you’d be too scared to accept my challenge.  I’d be scared to fight me too, if I were you.”

With that, Anders shot his head back with confusion.

Alex Anders:

Hey man.  You do realize that I don’t have much of a wrestling career, right?  I’ve been out of the limelight since my last match in WWG.  If you honestly think that pulling me back into the ring one more time just to try and end the non-existent career of Alex Anders, you’re clearly delusional.  For that matter, how do I know you’re really Regin Havok and not just some troll trying to get me worked up over nothing?

There was no response for about three minutes.  Anders thought the interaction was done and was determined to carry on the stream.  Three minutes later, as he was about to start a match on Magic Arena, his phone goes off in his pocket.  ‘Weird,’ Anders thinks.  ‘I always turn off my ringer when I start streaming.  I probably just forgot.’  As he pulls the phone out of his pocket, he notices a very familiar number.

Alex Anders:

Hey guys.  Hold on for just a second.  I need to take this call.

Anders throws up his ‘Will Be Back in A Moment’ graphic and answers the phone.  As he forgot to mute his microphone, Anders’ side of the conversation can be heard from a distance.

Alex Anders:

So… it was you. ………. Is that so? …………. That’s... Very tempting.  Another chance in the limelight could be very appealing. ……………. How do I know that this is something that will actually happen, and not just something to get everyone’s hopes up? ………….. A new… Okay.  I’m in.  I’ll see you August 9th.  Career versus career. ……….. Goodbye, Regin.

Anders rushes back to his computer and sees the chat.  He quickly realized his mistake and hopped back live.

Alex Anders:

Hey everyone!  I think I’m going to need to take off for the night…… and go on a hiatus for a bit….. I need to train for a Reunion show.

With that, Anders shuts down his Twitch stream for the night and begins to strategize for the biggest match of his career.