t
been following vel's rarepair fanart shitpost account for a while now and had to pick this up after learning it was based on the overwatch league (OWL) fandom. i think vicky starts out a bit too meek for comedic effect (she can't even tell her brother what food she hates?) but i was pleasantly surprised at the groundedness of her growth trajectory and how the backstories of/with her teammates and brother played into that (particularly opal's). also, the esports setting felt very true to my own experience both as a gamer who used to scrim OW at least twice a week and an OWL follower, and i thought the details about being a woman in competitive, team-based pvp—and gaming more generally, but i think team-based pvp, ranked systems, and competitive play do have specific toxicities to them—were well integrated across multiple characters without being heavy-handed.
definitely shelf-worthy. i think some parts could have been slightly less goofy (small scenes with eric, maybe, and some panels with anime/manga visual gags?) and stuff with virgil wrapped up a tad too quickly even though i quite liked the eventual confrontation. minor nitpicks, really, for a coming-of-age story that was really well put together.
been following vel's rarepair fanart shitpost account for a while now and had to pick this up after learning it was based on the overwatch league (OWL) fandom. i think vicky starts out a bit too meek for comedic effect (she can't even tell her brother what food she hates?) but i was pleasantly surprised at the groundedness of her growth trajectory and how the backstories of/with her teammates and brother played into that (particularly opal's). also, the esports setting felt very true to my own experience both as a gamer who used to scrim OW at least twice a week and an OWL follower, and i thought the details about being a woman in competitive, team-based pvp—and gaming more generally, but i think team-based pvp, ranked systems, and competitive play do have specific toxicities to them—were well integrated across multiple characters without being heavy-handed.
definitely shelf-worthy. i think some parts could have been slightly less goofy (small scenes with eric, maybe, and some panels with anime/manga visual gags?) and stuff with virgil wrapped up a tad too quickly even though i quite liked the eventual confrontation. minor nitpicks, really, for a coming-of-age story that was really well put together.