“	Everything I do is a sport!	”
— Eliot

The team has to infiltrate an e-sports tournament to stop a ruthless team owner from mentally and physically abusing his young players.

Client

Jane, Tam's sister

Mark

Kyle Fury

Summary

Jane is worried about her brother, Tam, who’s a part of an Esports team called Samurai Midnight. She’s worried about him as he has a heart condition and anxiety. She hasn’t been able to talk to him for a while and believes the leader of the team, Kyle Fury, is abusing the players.

Back at the base, Breanna reveals that Kyle Fury has been pumping his players with stimulants to enhance their gaming performance. Kyle hasn’t been exposed because he has a hacker working for him who’s been hiding the negative press. The team plans to infiltrate Kyle’s team and steal his laptop as evidence of his crimes. Eliot goes in as the team’s newly hired chef. Eliot quickly finds out the laptop is guarded 24/7 by Kyle’s security guard, Brock.

Breanna pretends to work for a guy that Kyle looks up to, Sean Wolff, offering Kyle an opportunity to get Sean to notice him. She shows Kyle a program she created, a predictive A.I., which will make it so Kyle’s team wins every match. Breanna tells Kyle that he’ll have to install it himself. The Leverage team plans to catch Kyle installing it on the security cameras.

Meanwhile, Eliot begins to bond with the esports members. Eliot talks with Tam and realizes they both have had similar life stories, as they both wanted a chance to get away from the life their parents set out for them. Eliot sends the players off to have fun as he knocks out their security guard with tranquilizers. However, the tranquilizer didn’t knock Brock out, so Eliot couldn’t get the laptop.

The team is unable to catch Fury on camera as he had his hacker wipe the camera feeds.

The tournament proceeds and Fury uses the A.I. to make his team lose, as he had bet against them. Parker breaks into the server truck to take down the A.I., and Hardison texts sending them help. Hardison provides them with a computer program he created as a failsafe, which would deactivate any code they created.

Sophie realizes that Kyle will win if his team wins or loses, so the team will have to forfeit. At the next match, the team raises their hands from the keyboards showing that they are cheating. Harry had recorded Kyle breaking into the servers and shows the video to the crowd. The Leverage team then exposes Kyle for his doping.

The episode ends with Eliot playing a video game with a newfound appreciation.

Guest Cast

• Pierson Fode as Kyle Fury
• Ivan Mok as Tam
• Steve Han as Sang-Min
• James Preston Rogers as Brock
• Si Chen as Jane
• Zach Primo as Dale
• Hawn Tran as Leo
• Sidney Webb as Sean Wolff
• Aldis Hodge as Hardison (off-screen contributions to the con)

Aliases

• Eliot: Cook
• Harry: Barry Wilson- Producer
• Breanna: Dana Keller- Sean Wolff’s scheduler
• Sophie: Janet- Sean Wolff’s business manager

Episode Notes

• The game being played in the episode is called Illumatrons.
• Harry is shown as a fan of video games, this was first hinted at in 'The Double-Edged Sword Job".
• Sophie references Peyton Manning, a famous football player, whom she mistakenly calls Peter Manning.
• Parker says Hardison is always watching through every camera. Sophie confirms that's correct when he texts her a step to try and she comments him watching them is disturbing.
• Kyle Fury’s hacker is only mentioned to be Serbian in the episode.
• The girl shown at the beginning of "The Debutante Job" is present in the crowd of the esports tournament.
• Terminator 2 is referenced throughout the episode, as Parker notes that her and Hardison watched it on their third date. She does an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression at points in the episode. Later Hardison sends her a program called T-1000.
  • At the end when she uses a T-shirt cannon to incapacitate Kyle Fury, Parker is wearing an outfit very similar to that of Sarah Connor in that movie.
• The fight between Eliot and Brock mirrors the fighting that takes place during round two of the tournament.

Trivia

• Tam's handle is River. Presumably, this is a nod to River Tam, a character from Firefly/Serenity.
• Another monkey makes an appearance! The hidden camera Breanna uses to film Kyle Fury accepting her offer to upload her AI gaming assistance program is hidden in the necklace she is wearing- a gold monkey head with diamond eyes and mouth.
• Harry's clothing while playing the producer was inspired by a Leverage: Redemption camera crew member.