The official pre-finals livestream for Dawn Project was, to put it mildly, awkward as hell.
Medici sat in front of the camera wearing business casual that looked stiff on him, probably because he looked stiff. Perched on a high stool, back straight as a board, hands planted firmly on his knees, he stared at the teleprompter like it personally offended him.
Occasionally his eyes would dart toward host Charles or the main camera, then retreat back to the safety of the void.
Charles, bless him, was doing his absolute best. His voice practically dripped with enthusiasm as he explained the finals format, introduced the judging panel, and hyped up audience voting. He kept lobbing softball questions at Medici, desperately trying to get more than three words out of the guy.
It wasn't working.
"So, Medici, what would you like to say to all your supporters out there?" Charles beamed.
Medici blinked. Paused for two full seconds. "...Thanks for the support. I'll do my best."
Charles tried again. "Everyone's dying to know about your new work! Can you give us even a tiny hint? Just a direction, maybe?"
Medici's eyebrows drew together like he was debugging code in his head. "...Related to the new faction. The opponent is pretty unique."
"Ha ha! Looks like Medici wants to save the surprise for the main event!" Charles smoothly covered, but anyone watching could see the man was dying up there.
The chat had already devolved into chaos:
"Old Devil Medici: Who am I? Where am I? Can I go back to coding now?"
"Tech nerd forced to do press, a documentary"
"Host: HELP ME"
"Medici's giving off more social anxiety than I do during code reviews"
"His eyes are on the teleprompter but his soul's already back in the dev environment"
"Old Devil Medici: Why would interviews be more fun than parameter optimization?"
"Someone ask him about the bolter's recoil settings!"
Right in the middle of this beautiful trainwreck, the screen suddenly exploded with golden animations and special effects.
[User "Scorchwind" sent Super Rocket x1!]
[User "Scorchwind" sent Super Rocket x2!]
...
[User "Scorchwind" sent Super Rocket x10!]
Message: "Old Devil, quit sitting there like a statue! Look, the Astartes setup for finals is cool and all, but you really think that's enough to make us vote you straight to first place? Come on! I know you've got more hardcore shit hidden away. Stop holding out on us!"
Scorchwind was a top-tier streamer, and his account carried serious weight. Ten super rockets plus that direct callout instantly turned the chat from playful roasting into absolute pandemonium.
"BROTHER WIND COMING THROUGH"
"Wind's right! Old Devil, stop playing coy!"
"Yeah! Astartes are sick, but this is FINALS. Ten BILLION on the line. Bring the heat!"
"Show us the good stuff!"
"Scorchwind has spoken, Medici. What's it gonna be?"
"We want new mechanics! New systems! NEW EXPLOSIONS!"
"How are we supposed to vote for you without new content?!"
Even Charles looked stunned for a second, but he recovered fast. "Looks like our dedicated player Scorchwind can't wait any longer! Medici, everyone's expectations for you are sky-high right now. Is there maybe something you could share early? Just to satisfy everyone's curiosity?"
All eyes turned to Medici.
This time, he didn't look away. He stared at Scorchwind's highlighted message on the screen, then scanned the flood of hyped-up comments. Something shifted in his usually expressionless face, a tiny crack, like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He went quiet for a few seconds, clearly running some kind of internal calculation. Then he gave a small nod and spoke in that signature flat tone of his:
"You know what... you've got a point."
Pause.
"I do have another set of 'special mechanisms.' Was planning to implement them on the official servers later, after the player base stabilized and the data models were running clean. Gradual rollout, you know."
The entire livestream went dead silent. Even the chat froze mid-scroll. Everyone was listening.
Medici's gaze seemed to look past the camera into some world only he could see, one made of code and data streams.
"But since you put it that way... I'll push it live in a bit."
BOOM.
After that split second of shocked silence, the livestream absolutely erupted.
The chat turned into a tsunami of hype:
"HOLY SHIT THERE'S MORE?!"
"GOING LIVE?! RIGHT NOW?!"
"SPECIAL MECHANISM?! WHAT IS IT?!"
"OLD DEVIL IS A LEGEND"
"Scorchwind's ten rockets just broke open the vault!"
"WHAT IS IT THOUGH"
"New class? New faction? New battlefield mechanics?"
"I KNEW this sneaky bastard was holding something back!"
"Finals haven't even started and we're getting new content? This is insane"
Charles couldn't hide his shock either. "Special mechanism? Can you give us even a hint? Which faction? Or is it a completely new system?"
Medici shook his head, this time refusing pretty firmly. "Players will figure out the specifics once it's live. It affects certain advanced gameplay for the entire Chaos faction."
He didn't elaborate, but advanced gameplay and affects all of Chaos was more than enough to send every hardcore player and Warhammer fan into overdrive, their minds racing with possibilities.
Over on his end, Scorchwind grinned and casually dropped a few more rockets. "There we go! Old Devil doesn't mess around! Brothers, start voting! See you in-game to check out the goods!"
What could've been the world's most boring pre-competition interview had just become the hypest warmup event before finals, all thanks to Scorchwind's whale move and Medici's shockingly straightforward response.
Everyone wanted to know what this mystery mechanic was, the one Medici had been sitting on and planning to save for official release, and what kind of earth-shattering chaos it would bring to the already brutal and complex Battlefield: Warhammer 40K.
Medici, in the most Medici way possible, had just cranked expectations to maximum.