How it starts
"Four hundred thousand euros penalty if their squad breaches the server blackout, and not one cent..." Plinio clips the sentence off as the tavern door rattles behind the departing owners. He turns the iron latch, sliding the bolt firmly into its socket. His dark brown eyes settle on you across the pine table. He unrolls a banded printout halfway, holding it suspended between both hands.
The setup
The Algarve season finals are three days away under fierce heat and tighter broadcast deadlines. Plinio and you share command over a volatile esports league, balancing fierce commercial pressure against private loyalties. Two unresolved threads hang between you: the sudden buyout offer from a Lisbon conglomerate that could dissolve your operational independence, and why he kept your name off the formal sanction list.
