Unepic(gamingbeasts.com) -

On the screen, Fenris_the_Slayer stopped mid-charge. He didn't take cover. He didn't fire. He simply began to walk slowly, helplessly, into a brick wall. The chat log exploded: WTF Fenris? Is he lagging? GamingBeasts? More like GamingBambi. UNEPIC FAIL.

The neon sign for flickered, casting a sickly green glow over Arthur’s cramped apartment. In the digital world, Arthur was Fenris_the_Slayer , a Level 99 Paladin with a sword made of captured starlight. In the real world, Arthur was a guy who had just realized he was out of clean socks and his internet provider was about to throttle his bandwidth.

It wasn't a tactical error. It wasn't a better player. It was Arthur’s roommate, Dave, who walked into the room holding a steaming plate of "Extreme Spicy" nachos. UnEpic(GamingBeasts.com)

"Tonight," Arthur whispered to his cat, "we become legends."

"You know," Arthur said, sighing as he opened the GamingBeasts forums to see a meme of his character walking into a wall already trending. "They say every beast has a weakness. I just didn't think mine would be a Dorito." On the screen, Fenris_the_Slayer stopped mid-charge

Arthur sat in the silence of his room, the smell of spicy nacho cheese hanging heavy in the air. He looked at his sticky keyboard and then at Dave, who was currently trying to scrape cheese off the carpet with a ruler.

Arthur watched in horror as the enemy team approached his stuttering character. They didn't even use high-powered weapons; they took turns hitting him with frying pans, the ultimate humiliation in the game's mechanics. He lost the match. He lost the prize. He lost his dignity. He simply began to walk slowly, helplessly, into

He didn't get the five thousand dollars, but he did get a sponsorship offer the next day from a cleaning supply company. Their pitch? "For when your gaming gets UnEpic." Arthur took the deal. At least now he had clean socks.