ChGK in the Prairie

Chapter 27: Life after the ChGK Worlds

So now that Worlds are over, I guess, we visit the National Ukraine War Museum and its immense collection of weapons: so-called Saint Javelins, HIMARS, Neptune R-360s, and so on, so forth. But before I ask Catria to join the team, I must have a talk with her parents about it, I can already tell Stephanie is going to make life on the team unpleasant the way Catria wouldn't, Patricia muses about the implications of Kirill no longer playing. She then texts Catria that night (Bakhmut time): "Do you want to play ChGK regularly? We will need to talk this through before you actually join because it's a long-term commitment"

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The team returns to Kansas and they count themselves lucky that only one domestic media outlet had any interest in how they feel about the whole experience of playing at ChGK Worlds. Better token interest than no interest, I guess... Bohdan sighs at the end of the interview. Already that ChGK is essentially novel to the eyes of the Kansas public, but the population didn't expect a whole lot from us, so us finishing eleventh is very good. Not like in, say, Azerbaijan. I really hope Yakiv can fill our pop culture void left by the departure of Kirill, whom we always referred to as the "sixth player".

But it's only on Friday night that Patricia gets the opportunity to talk in more detail with Catria about what playing for the Kansas State Team entails.

"Before we begin, I wonder what went into the decision to name your daughter" Patricia asks Catria's parents.

"We came here as refugees, and giving her an Arabic name would have been a painful reminder of our old life" Catria's father answers the team captain.

"Now that one of my teammates left the team, we are due to talk about your daughter and ChGK. Thus far, Catria had been a reserve player with whom my teammates generally get along"

"My daughter told me about how you played at ChGK Worlds. Are you sure she is capable of playing at that high a level?" Catria's mother asks her. "After all, ChGK Worlds represents the best in the world"

"Yes. And she played well enough at the Last Chance Marathon to gain a secret admirer who also played at Worlds" Patricia shares her dealings with Al-Azhar.

"Really?" Astonished parents then gasp, not realizing the questions coming up next will give Patricia pause. "What kind of person playing at ChGK Worlds would secretly admire my daughter? And why?"

Maybe the Syrian captain secretly admires Catria out of racial considerations, I mean, she is smart, but not that smart. However, she really is nothing special when compared to other players at Worlds. Catria's parents may not know this but just pulling your weight at Worlds still carries intense intellectual requirements. She might meet them, but I think I might be exaggerating, Patricia then realizes that it might have more to do with her identity than any actual skill she might have.

"You must understand that the world of ChGK is a very white world. Even in Turkey or Israel, the players are very white, too. Catria's secret admirer may then be a person of color. Now we finished eleventh and Syria finished forty-fifth, out of a hundred teams. But to even get to Worlds, we play two nights per week, about three to four hours apiece, and there are two or three in-person tournaments per year, depending on whether we qualify for Worlds"

"That's intense..." Catria sighs. "But, if I have a secret admirer who played at Worlds, I wonder how that admirer even know about me in the first place"

But really, I just wouldn't play at the level at which I did at the Last Chance Marathon if I didn't have the right person to play with. Patricia's brain meshes very well with mine and then my own brain works faster and smarter. When I am with her, I am, or at least I feel like I am smarter than I actually am, Catria muses about what made her perform at a much higher level at the LCM vs the Achievement Junkie Invitational, and it's not just the experience of playing at the AJI.