I go for all-court with a left-handed, one-handed backhand and a tactics+finesse+endurance build. I would do tactics+endurance+finesse if I could figure out how, but I can’t.
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What’s the best third to add to an Agility + Strength build?
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Easily endurance. Certain attributes tend to be paired together a lot, and endurance and agility is a common combo.
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So for a tennis n00b — what person’s style could I look up to see what a finesse style looks like? Basically — who’s the IRL Tobin? My MC’s style focuses on finesse and tactics so I was curious what that looks like.
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Roger Federer (aka THE GOAT)!!! <3
I think Allie mentioned thats who Tobins playstyle is based off of. Theres more info on that on her Tumblr if you wanna know more! For Rayyan its Rafael Nadal (the other GOAT) <3
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Thank you!! I’ll definitely check out her tumblr and look up footage. I’ve definitely very much heard of those two, haha.
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Does that mean we as the player should become Djokovic to complete the big three? 
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Lol yeah!! 
though im more of an Andy Murray girlie so… big 4? I dunno which character in the team could be a potential Djokovic tho
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Okay so personally cannon the way I play my MC tells Sam let’s meet at the big competition in 6 weeks(something to motivate Sam and also my MC is tennis before all and will always advocate for a focus on Tennis also realistically I think my MC would feel bad to pull Sam away for their first game just for them not to make their starting 6 because they were distracted). But my last play-through gave me serious Sam feels and suddenly I need to see the Sam stuff next update. But my cannon play-through is probably still going to be the meet up at the tournament hoping against hope Sam doesn’t disappoint my poor MC. But Raayan…… I don’t know what to say. He freaked out we’ve kind of resolved it. He and my MC are still partners because at their core they understand each other and are just as obsessed with tennis as the next. And he’s still my favorite RO but no lies……. He has put his throne on shaky ground. Tobin and Sam are now close seconds. Smh(and if I wasn’t convinced he and my MC could be tennis power couple goals I would tell my MC to walk away calling him toxic all the while).
Question to everyone else what did you pick for Tobbin? I picked not to take it that fear out of fear for being like Felix because I thought that was probably realistic and valid and something I figured he may actually think but I’d like to know how others interacted with RO choices.
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My mc is determined to win the first spot. She said no to partnering with Raayan because there is no trust there even after Raayan’s explanation and apology and they’re also too similar, they will always clash. They play better with Tobin anyway and Tobin was the obvious choice for her.
But I’ve another mc that is still partnered up with Raayan.
I, as a player/reader, like both options for different reasons and so far I only have two mcs, but I may create more to try all styles and technique variations.
My Tobin-mancer is oblivious to Tobin’s responses to their flirting and think nothing will ever happen because Tobin is their captain.
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Love the conversation going on in here!! 
Brief response to @thegreatlorddragon: ABSOLUTELY, you cracked the code! hahaha jk.
I’ll get to the other responses soon too, but just wanted to say that I’ve posted a guide/walkthrough outlining how to get the doubles partner you want (including initial assignments + how to swap) on ko-fi! This is in response to a lot of questions on the forum and on tumblr regarding how to get tobin/rayyan as doubles partners!
If folks like this sort of content (walkthroughs/guides), i might consider adding more in the future e.g. for devil’s dozen, matches etc. Let me know!
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Here’s my evidence as to why exchange student or childhood best friend is the ‘‘real’’ option → Love means nothing to a tennisplayer 
I’ll see myself out.
(Joking aside tho, this is a real fun read)
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G and Sam are my main romances with a side of Tobin or Raayan, because dating your teammates it’s messy but those two are irresistible. I love Sam but they’re away for half of the story 
I miss you every day Sam 
and I’m already heartbroken for G inevitable departure…unless 
I personally like to learn by doing but I had to restart the game god knows how many time to get all the achievements I wanted, so having a guide could definitely be a huge help.
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One brain cell between us 
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Just wanted to let you know that this is my favorite WiP and I adore the way you write friendships and romance. It feels wonderfully human. Thank you for blessing us all with your writing!
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never was much for the romances of this game. I like rayyan, nice to see someone who has actual passion and discipline for something. I also like sam, the hyperactive twink, and replaying the game Ive warmed up to tobin as well-he’s one of the few genuinely authentic people in the cast. but theyre all men so thats a no go. also sams route implies a long distance relationship and FUCK that.
I find g to be annoying more than anything else. everytime I see her Im reminded of the type of person I used to know in uni whod think theyre a lot more interesting than they actually are. the shy flirting options with her are cute but other than that theres not much she can offer.
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Alright let’s do this step by step (organized by the numeral system you have under “Things I’d love to hear.”
1: Bloat, only one example of this here, and its relatively niche. The Deepal match I wasn’t exactly invested in because I could tell from the achievement that you aren’t able to win it, so I just chose whatever option seemed best to roll with my character and moved on.
2: I felt satisfied in more or less every choice, especially when to my incredible surprise the “Do the readings” choice during summer actually had a tangible effect on certain story events.
3: Difficulty level: I know absolutely nothing about tennis and turned off tutorial mode after the tutorial match+character creation creation events and ended up pushing my character to win all her matches (though this may be because the Tactics+Finesse options are relatively easy to spot, so that worked well with my Agi-Junkball build). Having said that, I assume the Emerson match was brought close to what I assume to be its failstate considering how long it lasted for me, so I would posit that the difficulty is pretty fair, and hella fun, especially if you’re playing without stats.
4: Me normally: “Tennis? BORING!” Me when playing this game: “I am Tennis’ greatest warrior.”
But speaking seriously, I found all the characters rather entertaining, however I have only one (incredibly niche so imo its totally fine if you just ignore them) points of suggestion. Firstly, given how Deepal mentioned how Coach Sykorova forced her off the Junkballer technique into something more traditional (admittedly to her own benefit), I expected there to be some sort of conversation from Coach to the Player Character in a similar vein if they go Junkballer, though perhaps leaving such things for after the Team’s first match of the year makes more sense?
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@sertrude ahh this means a lot because I place a lot of importance in characters and relationships in my IFs 
@dividom hahaha your descriptions cracked me up. It also tickles me to know that G reads as an annoying smartass who thinks they’re cool. And agree, fuck long distance.
@Not_A_Smith thank you so so much for this detailed, insightful, and delightful message! And welcome to the community 
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Very interesting to know that you could tell Deepal wasnt winnable through the achievements list. I might not want people to know that beforehand, though I’d be fine with folks just playing casually to their strengths. Can’t have all games be a BATTLE TO THE DEATH, after all.
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That’s great to hear!
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Impressive, and also super awesome to know that the descriptions are clear enough to allow folks to play with tutorial mode off… though I’d be curious to see if this is true for other people / other playstyles. Like you say, tactics and finesse might be obvious.
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another convert! As a way of marketing this game I should totally include this as a metric.
Interesting suggestion!! I’ll see where or whether this fits, thank you for the food for thought! Deepal I guess was feeding lots of loose balls that created opportunities for their opponent to exploit though, so their junk balls were causing more harm than benefit. Either way i think it could be a cool extra convo to have 
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I would say it’s obvious which attributes are usually involved, but not whether each is tested individually or combined
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I think there’s a slight mistake in the code/variables in the scene where you’re asked who you’d prefer to be your doubles partner? The way I normally play, I pick the option to say that I’d prefer to partner with Tobin (whether saying that out loud or keeping it to myself), in part because I specifically don’t want to be partnered up with Rayyan - yet, when I get picked to partner Rayyan and they’re mad about it, there’s no option to get angry back at them (which is definitely the reaction I feel would be most appropriate for my MC)?
However, if in the earlier scene you pick one of the choices that says you either have no preference or would prefer to be partnered with someone other than Tobin, the option to be angry is there (which I feel doesn’t make much sense if you said you had no preference?)?
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