College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 8 Jun '25 [968k words]

  • update #9 (mid-late March 2024): first match (singles) + Sam & Team dinner
  • update #10 (mid-late May 2024): weekend with Sam
  • update #11 (mid-late September 2024): ITA singles
  • update #12 (mid-late December 2024): mixed doubles championships
  • update #13 (mid-late March 2025): UCLA match
  • update #14 (late June-early July 2025): finals + last match of the season
  • update #15 (mid-late September 2025): first match of spring season + injury :o

that’s the timeline scheduled so far.

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Ahh thanks for sharing this :slight_smile: unfortunately im running behind on schedule and am targeting to get iut the merry crisis update by end Mar, which means pishing back the timelines for ct:os to next month. :sweat_smile: so sorry!

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I think most people know that timelines (especially for hobby projects) are usually aspirational rather than exact. Hell, even AAA videogame developers rarely stick to their posted timelines.

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It’s not your fault. I have no idea how you can have a schedule for every update. :hugs:

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I’m speechless. This was an absolute amazing four chapters that I just experienced and even more surprised that only one person wrote CTOS. The dialogue here felt so authentic and natural, even minor characters like the professor and the RA were written to perfection.

Also for someone who has zero Tennis knowledge/experience the story does an amazing job at reeling in the reader and teaching them Tennis.

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I thoroughly agree. College Tennis: Origin Story went on my “must buy” list the moment I finished the demo. Every single NPC has a different personality and interesting character, there’s plenty to do both at college and on the team, plus the explanation and actual tennis play both interested me and made sense to me, a non-player.

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(m!)Tobin is such a classy, platonic ideal of the one partner you can just trust to have your back in every possible scenario, yet also, damnably one of the classically classy kinds of romance. It feels stable yet entirely qualified under windswept romances that you never expect to impress you.
I mean, read the trope, right? If it isn’t windswept qualities of romance, why am I gasping every playthrough thinking all the while I’ll romance Rayyan or Sam or G.

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I think Sam is the best written romance whichever gender/sexuality you choose for MC (my preference is straight Male MC ). Sam path has the most angst I think. G is good for a fling kind of romance. But not something serious ( mainly because G is an exchange student in last year of college while MC is in first year ) also G is flirty and easily romanceable. Sam path on the other hand is like the film romances where best friends who don’t want to cross the line and belief their romance is doomed make it to the end. Sam being far away in another college makes it the most uncertain. I mean someone from Sam’s college could try to date her etc. I personally am looking forward to the next update . Last update on Sam route ended after the kiss, so a big cliffhanger on how Sam will react. Great story till now tbh. @burninglights great work on all the details. You might be taking time to update but the story is great and I am looking forward to the story release even if it takes 3-4 years to come.

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It’s good to know you like Sam’s route so far! – I was thinking of doing them next.
But on G’s, I think looking as it more than a fling makes it most fulfilling. The author had said something along the lines of both G and MC possibly seeing each other as shallow archetypes at the start and then beginning to develop something deeper. Personally, I’m not super into the flirty types, but the anticipation of seeing where this can lead is promise enough for me to let my uptight MC uncharacteristically involve themselves with G ( ˵ •̀ ᴗ •́ ˵)✧

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Ok but show me y’all MC as who

Here’s mine;

“Hugh Dancy” as my MC

With

“Gaspard” as Guillaume is just perfection :sob::sob::sob:

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I think this is very dependent on your preferred trope. All of the romances in CT are very trope dependent (this is not a criticism, they are all done very well).

The slow build of Rayyan leading to an almost adversarial kiss in the locker room is the enemies to lovers trope done to perfection.

Sam’s shy dancing around his feeling while holding a blindingly obvious torch is a perfect representation of the friends to lovers trope.

Tobin’s reluctance to be in a relationship and feelings of shame and regret about his feelings towards you are a perfect example of the reluctant mentor-apprentice trope.

The only one I can’t really fit in to a neat trope (because I don’t think we’ve seen enough of it yet) is Guillaume.

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I don’t know the actual trope name, but I’m pretty sure G is “we’re just fuckbud- oh no, I caught feelings”

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Yeah. I prefer the sam trope because best friend to lover always gets me lol. They’ve done a really good job with the characters even though they are tropes.

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Well yeah I just was speaking about my favorite RO.
Others are great as well unfortunately me being staright doesn’t let me play Tobbin and Rayyan ( I am just not comfortable thats just it , no criticism meant). So between Sam and G , I guess I prefer Sam . MC knowing her since childhood and her being there for her are some things that I like in ROs. According to me G was more like a way to get over Sam ( a bad coping system and G was ready to go along with it). She smiles when she sees MC behaving romantically with Sam. Also she being a senior (meaning she will leave college soon) and an exchange student (may leave the country as well) doesn’t let much time for them to realise they are more than a fling to each other. No criticism meant to anyone or the story. The story is wholesome . It has a bit of everything (Full college experience ) and greatly detailed. This is just my version of the CTOS.
Everybody has a different point of view (for literature and art) and I respect them.

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@anon12679161 Heh, yeah. Somehow life always gets in the way, (and by life I mean by job, sadly—I wish it were fun stuff getting in the way!) Sorry for the delay, folks :slight_smile: I’m just about done with Merry Crisis stuff, so will be getting back into the swing of things and start writing CT:OS veryyy soon!

@tellyg47 Wow, thank you for the comment, I’m so glad to hear that you thought the characters and dialogue felt organic. Also pumped that you enjoyed the tennis segments!

@Songsmith Again, such high praise!! Thank you so much :blush:

@Lee_Lee Wow, yeah! Classically classy definitely sums Tobin up perfectly!

@060_sc, @quarterpasttea, @anon12679161, and @JohnKittz Really agree that each RO definitely appeals to different people depending on the tropes they most enjoy (and hopefully offer some replayability for folks who want to delve into each trope).

Sam’s route is definitely uncertain because of long distance, but it’s also the most ‘familiar’ in the sense that they know each other like the back of their hand. G’s route is uncertain because there’s no fixed / stable end in sight, because of the ‘deadline’ of G’s year abroad. But it’s also so visceral, so present—because G is here, now, and ready to give it all they’ve got for the brief time they share with MC.

As for Rayyan and Tobin, I think they both personify different relationships one can have with their teammates (the former leaning towards competition/rivals-to-friends/lovers and the latter, as mentioned, more towards captain/friend/mentor).

Finally, I’m so happy that folks are discovering routes that they never expected to take, and that it’s rewarding in terms of the gameplay possibilities!

P.S. @JBento

Exactly this. HAHA.

@icyLucy Obsessed with your MC x G! :slight_smile:

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And Addie is “what could have been” :stuck_out_tongue:

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Enemies is a bit of strong word R is just super competitive. Frenemies maybe. As someone who has no plans to romance him with my main mc I will say he has been growing on me the last couple of updates and for my mc he’s good to train with as the competition helps my mc stay focused and push his own limits.

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The man literally throws a tantruming hissy fit because he’s double’d up with you, what you’re going on about? This creature is not anywhere close to being my friend, I barely tolerate his existence.

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Regarding Sam, i wonder if it could be possible for them to meet some character(s) at their university, who could potentially become their (new) love interest. Either for the MC to get insecure about (similar how Sam can get affected by MC acting close with G or other ROs) or as someone the MC could choose to gently nudge/encourage Sam towards, if their relationship with Sam is platonic. Or even if it’s not platonic but they decide it’d be better for all involved.

(i admit, it’s mostly because i derive my entertainment in large part from how many moving parts are in the characters’ relationships, and how much mess i can make out of them)

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Rayyan throws a hissy fit because they’re afraid this pairing will send their entire life plans down the drain, not because they’ve got anything against MC as a person specifically. They even explicitly say as much.

Considering you only know them for something like a month it’s hard to blame them for such panicked reaction or that they don’t put MC first.

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